#pilot chapter

Y/N's pov: BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP- I slam my hand on my alarm clock and I yawn as I sit up... Gah, another shitty day in Catharsis... But it feels more like Satan's asshole due to how hot this weather is and how shit the people are. However money ain't going to come in by itself and I would rather eat grass than try to risk being evicted.

Soon I get up out of bed, reaching my closet to pull out my work uniform and I go to my bathroom to take a shower and after having a nice long warm shower I dry off and get dressed before grabbing my stuff and making my way to work. Putting headphones on and playing [favorite song] as I walk to my work, ignoring everything and almost everyone, until I FINALLY get to work. Sighing with relief as I feel the cool air hit my face as I head to my spot at the dinner, putting on my best smile and my happiest attitude in order to do my job, my uniform being too form fitting but whatever, it gets me better tips alright! As I joyfully take orders, chit-chat, and run food back and fourth. I hear the steps of a taller man and the growl of a stomach with a large appetite, I walk over to the taller man and I smile up at him as he smiles at me back with his goofy grin, helping him to his table and I place the silver ware, menu and a glass of water as I discretely check him out. Noting the gelled up ginger hair, the sunglasses, his goatee, the graphic t-shirt with an Alien head on it, his worn out jeans that fit his worn work boots, his gloves that show how strong his hands are and the brown trench coat that hides most of his build, his look and aesthetic making me feel giddy and joyful, somehow making my day better. I smile as I walk back over with a polite smile and I pull out my notebook to get his order "Are you ready to order now sir?" I ask him gently while making eye contact with him. "Hmmm, sure but I don't think you're on the menu huh sweetheart?" he responds, his voice deep, and comforting while holding a flirty and sarcastic tone with it, I flush and chuckle "No sir, I'm not" I say gently in response, getting a chuckle right back "Aw man, then I'll just have cheeseburger and fries..." he orders and I write it down, soon politely grabbing the menu and I walk to the kitchen to give his order to the chef. A few minutes go by and I walk back to his table and I grab his now empty plate and I smile gently "I hope it was good, it looks like you really enjoyed it" I coo out gently as he smiles in response "It was, but it would've been better to have you sitting there all purty lookin'" he flirts and I chuckle before telling him that I'm going to get his check, turning around to the register to grab the check, when I come back I see that he was gone and he left a note. I stand there with a dead pan face before sighing deeply and I grab the note to see the words 'call me for a good date - P. Dude' and a phone number written underneath and I blush softly before tucking it into my pocket and I go back to the register.... Goddamn it I can't believe he did that.... Hey at least he was actually attractive, even though he just stole from the restaurant. After a long long shift, I head back home, once I was back I head to my room to change into something casual and I look at the note he left, soon I sigh and I punch in his number into my phone and I call him, not expecting him to answer only to hear him say "Hello?"

As soon as I hear his voice come in through my phone, I feel my heart race a little bit "U-Uhm, Hi, it's me, [Y/N]... from the Dinner?... I uh... I wasn't expecting you to pick up" I stammer out nervously, before I softly clear my throat "also- you kind of- not paid your check... I uh... I didn't like that very much..." I add on softly before he chuckles, his voice still sending shivers down my spine as I listen to his reasoning "Yeah, I know... But you can't really expect an ugly mug like me to actually pay right?" he says and I dead pan once more... is the fucker dead ass right now?

"yeah, actually... especially since I live off of tips and a shitty paycheck" I say in response, earning a shocked gasp in return "wait- you don't have any other type of income? I thought you were some secret model or something... That makes me wanna say something to your boss" he speaks in a genuine tone of shock. The fact he genuinely thought I was a model of sorts was really flattering "Me? no I ain't no model, mostly because I don't actually fit the standard but, whatever... At least I have some type of income to begin with" chuckling as I rub the back of my neck, still processing that he thought I was a model.

Maybe he ain't too bad after all...

You, coming from our own era, have been acting as the scholar of the Chain for the last couple of years, while hopping from world to world with them. Knowing this, Malon put you to work on the books of the ranch, instead of letting you deal with the cows or the horses, even though you really didn’t have anything specific to do with maths. You thought she was being kind to you, not letting you deal with dirty ranch work, you guessed? She was a sweetheart either way.

You wanted to hang out with Twilight at the same time, so instead of using the little study Malon offered, you took the books and went down to the stables. You continued with your own stuff, while he was taking care of the horses.

There was also this little thing: you were the only one who understood every single one of them, (almost) very clearly, comparatively speaking. Sure they could communicate without you just as well, but due to a bunch of coincidences, you were the closest thing to the “translation magic”, if you can call it that. Maybe it was your Hoshi Sato gene*. Maybe it was the fact that you actually stayed with Link & Zelda in the post-Calamity world, around two years prior meeting the Chain**, maybe a bit of magic was also involved. Hylia works in mysterious ways! Did it almost cost you your brain? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely. 

Some Links, of course, understood each other better than the others, especially when their eras were, linguistically speaking, not that far. Time and Twilight were just fine. Legend and Hyrule were already able to understand each other, even a little bit better than Time and Twilight. Sky was a bit further away and had a “funny way of saying things” (according to the Sailor), almost gibberish, but when you listened and when he spoke slowly enough, you could at least get the gist of what he was trying to say. Wind, Time, and Warriors already knew each other from other “incidents” before the Chain, so they already had a way of communicating. 

These worlds also did not have many invasions and wars by “outsiders”, if you don’t count things like the Triforce War, Imprisoning War, Sealing War, and of course, anything that had to do with Demise, Ganon & co. and their horrible reincarnations. This meant, not a lot of language change.

In the end, what happened was that over the two years you have been together with the group, you helped them understand each other better. They adjusted their accents, and somehow warped the Hylian they speak in a way that the group would understand (and especially you), when the dialogue was still within the group. Of course, the Old Man would speak more “naturally” with Malon and vice versa, and some of the chain would adjust better (e.g. Twilight or Smithy) to the language of the era they are in. After some point, communication was not that much of a problem. You learnt it all in the end. 

Writing? 

Funny enough, Wild, Sky, and Twilight had similar scripts. Time and Wind had more similar writing systems. Wild, Wars, Legend, Time, and Rulie were also better at understanding the scripts of their respective eras. Overall, other than a couple of hiccups, most understood the others’ script to an extent. 

And then there was Wild. Also known as “The Cook” nowadays. The rest of the chain didn’t know you called them the Chain in your mind, and had your little nicknames for them. The nicknames most likely revealed a bit too much, and even though most of the secrets were out nowadays… You knew better than to risk more. You have caused enough damage, you would think sometimes. Even though you just couldn’t resist the urge. 

Anyway… Wild, his case and communication issues… were complicated.

According to the rest of the chain when you guys first met, whatever he was saying (and vice versa) was almost complete gibberish at first. Some terms and special names like “deku,” “korok,” “Hylia,” “Hyrule,” “rupee,” and such were still there, albeit with a different accent, and they helped, but it was not enough. You only found out later that it was kind of… your fault. 

In the end, he was also able to communicate with them just fine. Each Link had their own… language variation and accents, so to say. Some of them did not even have the difference enough to call it a “dialect” comparatively. As you thought, language change is a slow enough process, and with the lack of ‘conflicts’ (for lack of a better word) compared to your world, no wonder they were still somehow able to understand each other. . 

The Goddesses work in mysterious ways indeed.

How did it work for you, though? There was this little secret that… First time around, when you first dropped into Wild's Hyrule, “Hylian” was basically a weird mesh-up of English and Japanese to your ears, after the enchantment from the Great Fairies you have received. It was “so you could slowly understand and grasp and communicate”, you were told. 

Oh boy, it really felt like a genie granting you a wish, but in its own twisted way. You found that out later though. 

Second time around when you first met the rest of Links, though? The first enchantment… kind of messed everything up. Second time around, you actually ended up learning real Hylian. At least, the Hylian that was used as a lingua franca between you guys. 

Of course, some learning skill enchantment was definitely not out of the deal this time as well, thanks to Rulie & Time and their fairy friends, and of course the Smithy. But what a disaster it had been! Well, it wasn’t your fault that the first time the enchantment was made, nobody calculated that you would meet the Links from other eras.

You also naturally know the reason behind why Links in kind of irrelevant eras could decipher each other's texts, even when they didn’t understand the words all the time. Some were based on the Latin alphabet, and some were on Japanese kana. No way you could clearly explain it to them.

“Oh, by the way, you are made by a game company called Nintendo, and this guy is called Miyamoto…”

Yeah, no. That didn’t go well last time. Nobody even understood what you meant. 

That was a battle to fight for another day… Now, you need to focus on the budget of the Lon Lon Ranch. And not be distracted by Twilight’s statue.

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Notes:

Fanciest and most OP translator you will ever know. Star Trek Universe.