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songerein2023-07-06 01:07 pm
multidisciplinary) wrote in songerein2023-07-06 01:07 pm
Entry tags:
open 🌻 a not so welcome return
Who: Zelda and OPEN
Which: Open log
Where: Around town
What: Zelda returns to Song after disappearing for a canon update two weeks ago.
Warnings: Major Tears of the Kingdom spoilers in the first prompt. (opt out of TOTK spoilers here.) Also minor descriptions of choking and vomiting.
1. choking hazard
This isn't how it was supposed to happen.
They had it all planned out, Zelda and Mineru. They knew everything that needed to be prepared in advance, every task to plan or delegate so that all the necessary tools would be available to Link in the distant future. It was just a matter of getting it all in order before the end. They had only this once chance to get everything right. There would be no going back, no correcting mistakes, once Zelda swallowed her secret stone.
They had tried to plan for contingencies as well. What if Ganondorf broke free too early? What if the Temple of Time were damaged? What if Mineru's spirit faded before she could meet Link?
'What if the Princess is suddenly spirited away to a strange dream world before she could transform?'—was not among those contingencies.
Hidden away in a quiet alleyway not far from the Plaza, Zelda sits on the cobbled stone and tries to take stock of her situation. The Master Sword—more a stump than a sword at this point, its brilliant blade almost entirely corroded away—lays beside her on the ground. The princess's right hand rests protectively over its hilt, ready to grab the blade at a moment's notice, should anyone intrude on her.
'Songerein.' She knows that name. It stirs recognition somewhere deep, deep in the back of Zelda's mind. She had a dream like this once, during the long century she spent sealed away with Calamity Ganon. To think it was not (quite) a dream after all...
But that doesn't matter anymore. The only thing that matters is getting back to Hyrule, protecting the Master Sword, and--
Zelda tries to swallow a lump in her throat.
--giving up her life for the sake of the future.
For the sake of Link.
Her brows furrow. She already tried (and failed) to use her power over time to return herself to the moment before she woke up here in Songerein. But she isn't willing to give up that easily. Zelda absently rubs the stone attached to her choker with her thumb. A mortal might be beholden to the rules of this realm, but what about a dragon? Mineru said that a dragon is unbound from the shackles of time, becoming ageless—deathless—an immortal shell of one's former self. Surely such a being could not be bound by the rules of dreams either. Perhaps the transformation will be enough to wake her and free her from this purgatory so that she can do her duty.
She'll do anything if it's for Link.
Clenching her jaw, Zelda yanks the stone from her choker and cups it in her palms. Such a little thing, and yet it's capable of such great—and terrible—things. It can draw out the greatest strength in anyone, allow them to build a kingdom of prosperity and paradise. But it can also draw out terrible evil, the cruelest of ambitions, the downfall of any goodness in the world. It is capable of allowing someone to live forever—at the cost of everything that they are.
She'll do anything if it's for Link.
Zelda clasps her hands over the stone and presses her forehead against them. "You must find me, Link. I may not know it's you... You may not know it's me... But you must come for me. You must protect everyone."
She raises her hands to her lips and swallows the stone whole.
The lump sticks in the back of her throat. Zelda swallows again and again, trying to push the stone down, but it holds fast. She tilts her chin up and strokes her throat, trying to coax it to relax. Come on, go down. Zelda tries to take a breath in order to swallow again, but only manages to suck in the tiniest hiss of air. The stone won't move.
The edges of her vision start getting dark. Growing frantic, she slaps at her throat with both hands. Please, just go down...
All of the sudden, Zelda lurches forward, falling onto her hands and knees. Against her will, she heaves. Up comes the stone, along with the contents of her stomach, splattering over the cobblestones.
It takes a minute for her to stop retching and catch her breath. When Zelda opens her eyes and spots the stone, her gut clenches up again and she lets out a wrenching sob.
"Why?! Why won't you let me go?"
What a horrible scene to come across, should anyone be so unlucky.
2. about town
It's the next day.
Zelda is still playing over the events of the previous day in her mind—she went to sleep in Hyrule, assured of her plans and ready to enact them. But when she woke, she was in this strange world, Songerein. A dream from long ago, a lifetime past, when the princess held back an ancient evil all by herself for one hundred years. Sometimes she was awake, watching over the land of Hyrule, watching over her knight as he slumbered. Other times, she slept, dreaming strange dreams about people from strange worlds and magic powered by the combination of dreams and emotions.
So it wasn't a dream after all.
Throughout the day, Zelda can be found wandering around town, looking lost and hesitant. She clutches the hilt of the corroded Master Sword with both hands, never once setting it down. She walks streets she used to know by heart, trying to stir memories that have been long dormant.
So lost in her thoughts, Zelda isn't entirely paying attention to where she's going, so it's very likely that she'll bump right into someone.
But even if she doesn't, she might stop you to ask for directions. Do you know the way to the library?—no, it was an archive. There's supposed to be a smithy around here, isn't there? Do you know of a place where they teach music?
Or maybe Zelda will make it to her destination—the smithy, the archives, dreambucks, the Plaza, or any such place. She'll linger outside, hesitant. Does she remember this place? Did she know someone here? Maybe she'll even step inside, milling around with the uncertainty of someone who knows they are looking for something but has forgotten what it is.
3. the wildcard option
Want a different prompt to meet or reunite with Zelda? Plot with me on plurk (![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
knighted), discord (triforce1960) or DM.
Also, feel free to reply in brackets instead of prose if you prefer.
Which: Open log
Where: Around town
What: Zelda returns to Song after disappearing for a canon update two weeks ago.
Warnings: Major Tears of the Kingdom spoilers in the first prompt. (opt out of TOTK spoilers here.) Also minor descriptions of choking and vomiting.
1. choking hazard
This isn't how it was supposed to happen.
They had it all planned out, Zelda and Mineru. They knew everything that needed to be prepared in advance, every task to plan or delegate so that all the necessary tools would be available to Link in the distant future. It was just a matter of getting it all in order before the end. They had only this once chance to get everything right. There would be no going back, no correcting mistakes, once Zelda swallowed her secret stone.
They had tried to plan for contingencies as well. What if Ganondorf broke free too early? What if the Temple of Time were damaged? What if Mineru's spirit faded before she could meet Link?
'What if the Princess is suddenly spirited away to a strange dream world before she could transform?'—was not among those contingencies.
Hidden away in a quiet alleyway not far from the Plaza, Zelda sits on the cobbled stone and tries to take stock of her situation. The Master Sword—more a stump than a sword at this point, its brilliant blade almost entirely corroded away—lays beside her on the ground. The princess's right hand rests protectively over its hilt, ready to grab the blade at a moment's notice, should anyone intrude on her.
'Songerein.' She knows that name. It stirs recognition somewhere deep, deep in the back of Zelda's mind. She had a dream like this once, during the long century she spent sealed away with Calamity Ganon. To think it was not (quite) a dream after all...
But that doesn't matter anymore. The only thing that matters is getting back to Hyrule, protecting the Master Sword, and--
Zelda tries to swallow a lump in her throat.
--giving up her life for the sake of the future.
For the sake of Link.
Her brows furrow. She already tried (and failed) to use her power over time to return herself to the moment before she woke up here in Songerein. But she isn't willing to give up that easily. Zelda absently rubs the stone attached to her choker with her thumb. A mortal might be beholden to the rules of this realm, but what about a dragon? Mineru said that a dragon is unbound from the shackles of time, becoming ageless—deathless—an immortal shell of one's former self. Surely such a being could not be bound by the rules of dreams either. Perhaps the transformation will be enough to wake her and free her from this purgatory so that she can do her duty.
She'll do anything if it's for Link.
Clenching her jaw, Zelda yanks the stone from her choker and cups it in her palms. Such a little thing, and yet it's capable of such great—and terrible—things. It can draw out the greatest strength in anyone, allow them to build a kingdom of prosperity and paradise. But it can also draw out terrible evil, the cruelest of ambitions, the downfall of any goodness in the world. It is capable of allowing someone to live forever—at the cost of everything that they are.
She'll do anything if it's for Link.
Zelda clasps her hands over the stone and presses her forehead against them. "You must find me, Link. I may not know it's you... You may not know it's me... But you must come for me. You must protect everyone."
She raises her hands to her lips and swallows the stone whole.
The lump sticks in the back of her throat. Zelda swallows again and again, trying to push the stone down, but it holds fast. She tilts her chin up and strokes her throat, trying to coax it to relax. Come on, go down. Zelda tries to take a breath in order to swallow again, but only manages to suck in the tiniest hiss of air. The stone won't move.
The edges of her vision start getting dark. Growing frantic, she slaps at her throat with both hands. Please, just go down...
All of the sudden, Zelda lurches forward, falling onto her hands and knees. Against her will, she heaves. Up comes the stone, along with the contents of her stomach, splattering over the cobblestones.
It takes a minute for her to stop retching and catch her breath. When Zelda opens her eyes and spots the stone, her gut clenches up again and she lets out a wrenching sob.
"Why?! Why won't you let me go?"
What a horrible scene to come across, should anyone be so unlucky.
2. about town
It's the next day.
Zelda is still playing over the events of the previous day in her mind—she went to sleep in Hyrule, assured of her plans and ready to enact them. But when she woke, she was in this strange world, Songerein. A dream from long ago, a lifetime past, when the princess held back an ancient evil all by herself for one hundred years. Sometimes she was awake, watching over the land of Hyrule, watching over her knight as he slumbered. Other times, she slept, dreaming strange dreams about people from strange worlds and magic powered by the combination of dreams and emotions.
So it wasn't a dream after all.
Throughout the day, Zelda can be found wandering around town, looking lost and hesitant. She clutches the hilt of the corroded Master Sword with both hands, never once setting it down. She walks streets she used to know by heart, trying to stir memories that have been long dormant.
So lost in her thoughts, Zelda isn't entirely paying attention to where she's going, so it's very likely that she'll bump right into someone.
But even if she doesn't, she might stop you to ask for directions. Do you know the way to the library?—no, it was an archive. There's supposed to be a smithy around here, isn't there? Do you know of a place where they teach music?
Or maybe Zelda will make it to her destination—the smithy, the archives, dreambucks, the Plaza, or any such place. She'll linger outside, hesitant. Does she remember this place? Did she know someone here? Maybe she'll even step inside, milling around with the uncertainty of someone who knows they are looking for something but has forgotten what it is.
3. the wildcard option
Want a different prompt to meet or reunite with Zelda? Plot with me on plurk (
Also, feel free to reply in brackets instead of prose if you prefer.
no subject
[ That's not a very good explanation, is it? Zelda fiddles absently with the hilt of the Master Sword, trying to remember if she ever told Trahearne about the state of her real body the last time she was here, of the years she spent in the seal. She doesn't recall bringing it up anytime they met in the archives, and it certainly wasn't a subject she would've broached on a date. (Even the sheltered girl Zelda used to be had more sense than that.) ]
When I was seventeen, a being of great evil called Calamity Ganon broke free from its ancient prison and attacked my kingdom. In order to halt its destruction, I used my powers to seal it away, along with myself, for one hundred years.
[ Zelda leans back against the bench, letting her hunched shoulders relax. It used to be very difficult to tell this story, but now it no longer weighs on her as heavily. ]
I thought this place was simply a dream I had within the seal. I often slept within the seal—or, at least, I think I did. I was not usually awake, per say. My memories of that time are... fuzzy, to say the least.
[ She looks up at the sky, watching clouds and birds lazily drift overheard. The day is hot, but not oppressively so. ]
Link defeated Ganon and saved me. It has been four years since then.
no subject
She had never told him this, no. He listens patiently, eagerly, as his eyes drift upward to her face. He's always wanted to know a bit more about her, and it seems he's getting his wish.
To be sealed away fighting an evil for one hundred years sounds like a tale from human mythos. ]
...A great burden has been placed upon your shoulders. [ Regardless if the fight is done or not--one cannot walk away from an ordeal so long and arduous unchanged. Dream world intervention or no.
But Link--he knew they knew each other, but it seems they are more deeply entwined than he thought. Ah. For a brief moment, his eyes drop to the ground, but they quickly return to settle on Zelda once again. ]
I assume not all has been well since the victory.
[ Otherwise she'd be...happier? Than this? ]
1/2
Not entirely.
For a long time, everything was wonderful. Hyrule had changed so much since the way I knew it before the Calamity, so I've spent a lot of my time traveling and meeting my new countrymen. We've begun modest reconstruction efforts in central Hyrule and expansions of the communities that have grown up since the Calamity.
I've formed a great many teams to tackle all of the different aspects of rebuilding, but I also got to establish a task force to study Hyrule's most ancient history.
[ Although her expression was morose at first, her usual enthusiasm begins to shine through the more she speaks. The Zonai Survey Team is one of Zelda's favorite projects that she has started, whose leaders she hand picked from among the greatest scholars in the land. ]
2/2
[ Her smile falters. ]
A strange substance began to appear that makes people ill when they are exposed to it. It appeared to be emanating from underneath the castle, so Link and I went to investigate its source.
[ Here she pauses, conflicted on how to continue. When she puts it into words—finding the Demon King's body, suddenly travelling back in time—it sounds too ridiculous to believe.
Zelda casts a wary glance at Trahearne. He's never made her feel like he would doubt her, but...
Better just get it out there. ]
We found some...thing down below the castle. The shriveled husk of a man once known as the Demon King. He woke and attacked us and... I somehow ended up traveling backward in time to the era of Hyrule's founding.
[ If Zelda looks somewhat embarrassed, it's because she knows exactly how absurd that sounds. ]