☛ i think i like flowers. ☚ it's a very simple statement ... so little had been known about link, even a hundred years ago ; quiet, dependable, loyal, certainly ... but always a symbol, at his core, never a person. even now, he feels painfully average standing on the open hills of lands that had once been so grand, not yet touched by the rot of the wars fought on them. he'd never had time to stop and look at it all. he does now, and even sharing meaningless parts of himself feels incorrect, like an overstep.
his attentions are spared to the clusters of blue nightshades strewn 'round the two of them, watching their petals drop with the incoming winds. he's picked plenty of them 'long the way, strewn them through the notches of both their armors or packs on the rare occasion he did something other than cook or explore to occupy his mind. sebastian probably doesn't need him to even say as much to know he must like them, when every manner of petal has ended up in his hair just as much as leaves. and yet! and yet ...
he wanders over to pluck some of the blooms free, knowing that soon they were to wilt anyways. it's clear he needs moments like this, 'tween the climbing and fighting. he'll forget who he is again without them. or maybe he's still trying to remember. ☛ if delicate nature can survive the worst the world has thrown at it, then there's hope we can too. ☚ true enough. fair enough. expressing such thoughts feels humiliating intimate, though. ☛ do you have a favorite ... plant? ☚ sebastian doesn't seem like the flowers type. but everyone admires something. -> unprompted inbox call i'm catching up on hi uwu
Indeed, he did not need to say as much. Nature was as intrinsic to Link's being as water was to a Zora. He never seemed his closest to comfortable unless they were out in the most remote wilderness they could find. Where even the odd traveler was unlikely to be seen, therefore disconnecting them from the public and their perceptions and expectations. Where not even monsters were likely to tread.
Out here, he suspected, Link could shed those burdens for at least a little while and lose himself in birdsong and wildflowers. The breeze through the leaves and tall grass, sometimes accompanied by running water, existing as their reminder that some semblances of peace could still be found in the bones of their ravaged kingdom.
Forests really did seem to suit him best, didn't they? Very few things seemed to relax him quite like they did. A blessing, that was.
Sebastian had initially taken the statement with a touch of amusement, though he kept it to himself. Instead, he simply listened with curiosity while watching his partner explore their immediate area (he himself taking the moment to rest upon a stump). Link didn't always vocalize his thoughts, numerous though they undoubtedly were, so he made sure to pay the most rapt attention he could whenever one was shared with him. Talking helped with processing, and Goddess knew Link had more than enough of that to do.
More than he'd ever deserved. More than most anyone else could handle. More than most anyone else could possibly understand.
If moments like these were what helped to keep him going, if a listening ear that wanted nothing of him but the tending to of his well-being made everything that little bit easier to bear, then Sebastian would offer as many as he possibly could.
The observation piqued his interest with a faint hum, eyes taking in their immediate surroundings. The sunlight filtered in through trees full of vibrantly green leaves, the blades of grass swaying at their feet, the chittering of nearby squirrels, a small herd of deer just visible through the mossy trunks if one squinted hard enough...
How must they be to someone like Link, he wondered? Though his memories were scattered and horribly small in number, Sebastian did know that he had some memory of the Calamity. He was personal witness to the catastrophe as it was unfolding in real time, the chaos and carnage and screams and fires and the malice that caused it all in a way they never could have seen coming. To him, to all of them, it might as well have been the end of the world as they knew it.
Somehow, nature itself had been given the chance to survive with Princess Zelda's intervention. Humanity had been given the chance to weather the storm and slowly rebuild once it had passed. All had not been lost. Over 100 years, they had found a way to continue existing through the remnants of what was left behind. Every race, every tribe, had proven their resilience and tenacity just as much as every mushroom and flower and bird and fish had.
They could get through this. They would get through this. They need only look around to remember as much.
His gaze returned with the movement of hands, and here was where Sebastian allowed a bit of that earlier amusement to reappear and shine through. "Would it be terribly predictable of me if I said these very flowers?" A gesture to the patch of Blue Nightshade they'd found. "There's the obvious reason, of course. They're great for stealth augmentation. Same goes with the Silent Shrooms. I'd be a pretty reckless practitioner if I ignored what's right up my alley."
A tilt of his head and a softening of that smile, after. "But, really, I adore how they look at night. That gentle glow they have is both beautiful and comforting. Like they're nature's way of saying that there's always a little bit of light to be found in the darkest places, even now. It survives, like you said. It guides, it soothes. It exudes tranquility."
Brown eyes met blue, warmth deep in their earthy depths. "And, I like that you like them, too." A small, but no less sincere, sentiment. A playful quirk of his lips couldn't help following, though. "They complement that bird's nest of yours very well."
