log 🌻 the one left behind

[multidisciplinary]

Who: Zelda and others
Which: Log with open and closed prompts in the comments
Where: Around Reverein- Wild Harvest, Archives, and Wishing Well
What: Zelda wakes from her sleep coma and is big sad about her bf being gone
Warnings: Usual TOTK spoilers, possible themes of self-sacrifice



[ Zelda wakes slowly, opening her eyes to sunlight filtering through the window, playing on the rafters crisscrossing above her head and illuminating a few dust motes drifting in the air. The ceiling of her bedroom in Songerein.

She lets out a slow, defeated sigh and closes her eyes again.

She failed again.

The day Zelda woke to discover Link gone, she laid down in her bed and willed herself to go back to sleep. His departure did not come as a surprise, but that did not make it any easier to bear. He had told her that he would soon return to Hyrule, as if he knew-- no, not just knew, decided to go, as if that conviction was all he needed to break free from the shackles the dream world placed on its residents. It was time for him to return, he said. He was going to bring her home too. Nevermind the permanence of the draconification transformation. Nevermind the obstacle of the Demon King, looming insurmountable over Hyrule. He was going to overcome it all.

He was going to bring her home.

If Link could escape Songerein simply through sleep and conviction, then surely Zelda could as well. Why stay, when staying meant being without him? She only agreed to set duty aside and live for as long as the two of them were together. Link was gone; time for Zelda to fulfill her duty and become the Light Dragon.

And she partially succeeded; the princess managed to slip into a sleep coma of her own volition, where she spent the entirety of a month. But of course, escape still eluded her. Three times, Zelda has tried to wake of her own volition. Once by trying to swallow her secret stone and force the draconification transformation. Once by throwing enough baubles into the wishing well to grant her passage back to Hyrule. And now, by forcing herself to sleep. All three times, Zelda has failed.

Really, she should not be surprised. Leave it to Link to succeed in something like this the moment he puts his mind to it, and for Zelda to struggle and fail repeatedly. Such has always been the way for the two of them, hasn't it?

Zelda continues to lay in bed for awhile, wondering if she should try again, until the bedsores all over her body become too much for her to bear. No, she needs to get up. She needs to do something. If she doesn't find some way to occupy her mind, her thoughts will drift to Link... and whenever they do, it feels like scalding knives driving into her chest.

The pain of being the one left behind. ]

Comments

Open - wild harvest, songerein archives, wishing well, wildcard

[multidisciplinary]

[ Zelda can be found here and there around Reverein, looking significantly more tired and gloomy than she has for months now.

At the Wild Harvest, she is relaxing in the outdoor seating area with a plate holding a few squares of blueberry fudge, while a blue honeybee snoozes in the chair beside her. She will also be inquiring about the help wanted sign. (Anything to keep her busy and keep her mind off losing Link.)

At the Songerein Archives, the princess is hard at work trying to take care of everything that has been needing her attention in the past month. Visitors to the archives will likely find her rushing to and fro with arms full of papers or boxes, or examining a large map and making notes about where it needs to be updated.

If anyone just so happens to be at the Wishing Well, they will find Zelda covered in glitter and looking very cross. She is having a battle of wills with the well over a certain blue hair tie. Yes, the hair tie previously belonged to Link, but now it's hers and she wants it back. She will throw as many baubles as she needs to until she gets it!

If none of the above are appealing, wildcard is always an available option. ]

for Alastor

[multidisciplinary]

[ During her month of slumber, Zelda was plagued with nightmares. Nightmares of Hyrule. Nightmares of the Demon King. Nightmares of the Light Dragon. Nightmares of Link.

But one nightmare was not her own. One nightmare involved a radio tower.

Since waking, many of her nightmares have faded into the back of her mind, their details muddled by the fog of sleep and the princess's unwillingness to look back at them. But the radio tower --or, rather, the remains of the radio tower-- are clear and sharp in her mind. And Alastor, bloodied, making his way across a nostilium-riddled Wasteland. Screaming. Zelda has never heard him scream like that before.

She ponders writing to him in the journals and asking about the nightmare, but such a blunt approach would probably be less than successful. Alastor can be cagey when he wants to be, and a moment of weakness (even if it's only in a dream) is probably one he would rather avoid talking about.

A different approach, then. Something more personal. ]

Alastor, would you be interested in pursuing the little game you challenged me to in February? I find myself with ample free time today.

for Sheik

[multidisciplinary]

[ Night falls. The princess has not been back to her treehouse all day.

And despite the lateness of the hour (and the way her stomach grumbles for the dinner she should have eaten hours ago), she cannot bring herself to go home.

Home is with Link. And Link is no longer in Songerein.

Hours pass and still Zelda does not go to her treehouse. She lingers in restaurants and shops until they close, at the Archives until one of the new librarians orders her to leave and rest, and then outside on the Plaza, staring at the reflection of the starry sky in the fountain.

Goddess, how she does not want to go back to an empty house. The thought of being alone is enough to make those daggers plunge into her heart over and over again. She is already destined for an eternity of solitude as the Light Dragon. Why must she suffer loneliness while she is still Zelda?

It is midnight when Zelda arrives at Sheik's house and knocks on the door. No message was sent through the journals to make sure he would be home when she called. In fact, if he has not visited her treehouse, he may not even be aware that she has awoken from her month long coma. It is not because she does not want to see him. It's because she knows that when she sees him, she will fall to pieces. Because he will know by now that Link (Zelda's Link) is gone, returned to a Hyrule where the princess has sacrificed herself and become an undying dragon. Zelda doesn't want to talk about the Light Dragon right now.

But she also doesn't want to be alone.

Thus, here she stands at Sheik's doorway in the middle of the night. ]