(Out of curiosity, do you provide Disclaimer services to anybody else…?)
Nope. You're the only author who employs this particular gag.
(Hey, I did not start out with this in mind.)
All the more reason why it was a great idea. Besides, you need someone to say that you don't own The Legend of Zelda, Changeling.
(...But I'm not even sure it was my idea.)
The problem that came with saying something as general as 'how do you all feel about getting Cursed?' was that the next five to ten minutes of the conversation was spent defining what Dusk meant by 'Cursed' rather than getting to the actual point of the question. This was because several Links in the group had their own definition of what a 'Curse' was as a result of either seeing one or having one be applied to themselves, and the severity of the response was going to depend on the scale that Dusk was referring to.
When it was finally clarified that Dusk was referring to the 'forced into a body that isn't yours' type of Curse, as opposed to the more common 'perpetual night/storm/drought' typically cast on landmasses or the 'slow creeping illness inevitably resulting in death/madness/amnesia' typically cast on authority figures, then the conversation finally moved on a little.
...Before promptly stalling again on the kind of body that one was being forced into, because of course there were different subsets of that too. There followed another discussion of vaguely humanoid versus animalistic versus a straight-up object, and then there was the question of whether or not the victim's intelligence carried over because that was a whole other set of issues if it didn't.
Upon the clarification that, yes it did, the conversation almost got stalled on the source - but by then, Dusk had reached the impressively long end of his patience rope.
He set his shoulders, narrowed his eyes, and actually growled, "It's a slow creeping eternal-half-life-torment curse fueled by Dark magic subverted by Light influence into a change-of-shape curse of the animalistic variety in the subset of intelligence retainment. Any other questions?"
"...Curses can be subverted?" Speck asked meekly.
Dusk's irritation promptly evaporated, because while he was good at pointing his temper at villains and concepts, he was not good at pointing it at his allies. Also, Speck was impossible to be angry with, on the account that he was both endearingly small and endearingly innocent. As the hands-down youngest Link in the group, he had a very wide-eyed way of looking at people that made said people want to snatch him up and hide him from anything that might break his innocence.
It also didn't help that Dusk had big brother instincts a mile wide and they'd locked onto Speck a long time ago.
"I'm living proof," Dusk answered fondly.
"Secondary question," Gen interjected. "I'm assuming you're bringing it up because it's something we should be possibly expecting?"
"Yes," Dusk said.
"Should we be worried about this whole 'originally a creeping eternal-half-life-of-torment Curse' thing?"
"I don't think so," Dusk replied, tilting his head in thought. "After all, you are me, and if I can subvert it…"
"Then we can, because we're you," Gen finished. "I do forget that bit occasionally, we're very diverse for being essentially the same person."
"Mmm," Dusk hummed noncommittally. It would have been more convincing had he not turned to eye Lore at the same moment that Gen did.
"Whatever incident you're thinking of, I confess to it with pride," Lore declared cheerfully.
"...Very diverse," Gen muttered.
Dusk, very quietly, snickered to himself. Then he said, "Obviously I think we'd all prefer to avoid Curses and all the things that follow-"
"Already got one, don't need another, thanks," Sketch called, waving his bracelet around for emphasis.
"-but just in case," Dusk continued, "I thought I should bring it up."
"Do you think Curses stack?" Sketch wondered. "Because now I'm imagining myself as a beetle or something scuttling around on painted walls."
"Ideally we won't get to find out," Wind said. "But can I ask, why a beetle?"
"No one pays attention to the artwork, no one pays attention to the small bugs," Sketch said, shrugging. "I would literally be the fly on the wall."
"...how long have you been sitting on that pun?"
"Literally ever since I learned that transformative Curses were a thing that could apply to people," Sketch grinned. "So, about five minutes ago. I work fast."
Wind politely applauded him.
Dusk, meanwhile, was looking around at the void and the surrounding landscape with a furrowed expression and rather wishing he'd asked Midna if anything new had happened since he'd been gone before sending her in after Shadow. This was because he remembered leaving the void in the Throne Room of his version of Hyrule Castle, and this was not the Throne Room. Rather, this was the hallway outside the Throne Room.
The actual Throne Room didn't seem to exist anymore, because the void appeared to have swallowed it.
"It got bigger, didn't it," Vio observed, catching Dusk's eye. Between all the Links that the group had picked up over time, it was actually only Steam, Realm, and Vio and his immediate siblings that had seen Dusk's home Hyrule beforehand, and remembered how small the void had used to be.
The Throne Room had used to be a thing, after all.
"I'm just… surprised," Dusk murmured. "It's only been a few weeks. How can it already be so big?"
"Progressive-creeping imminent nonexistence Curse?" Vio speculated. In spite of himself, Dusk's mouth twitched into a smile.
"Sounds about right."
"Sounds about depressing," Lore interjected. "I dislike being depressed, I make a point not to do it for more than five minutes a day. It's so unproductive."
"Let me guess, you know exactly what would be productive right now?" Sketch asked.
"Well I should hope so, otherwise I've inserted myself into this conversation for absolutely no reason at all. We should probably ask Midna if she's seen anything odd, since she's been here the whole time."
"You just want an excuse to make her acquaintance," Gen accused.
"Can you blame me? My only exposure up until now has been the stories Dusk's been telling us and now I'm discovering that he's been downplaying her awesomeness. I need an excuse to make her acquaintance!"
Dusk tilted his head, eyes going unfocused in the way that meant he was listening to something nobody else could hear. "I think she and Shadow are still getting to know each other, but it sounds like she'll be done in just a couple minutes. Hey, Midna?"
A pause.
"No, take your time. But when you're done we were hoping to get filled in on recent events?"
Another pause. Dusk abruptly turned a very bright red color.
"I am not."
Lore squinted. "...Yes he is."
"Hmm?" Gen said.
"I'm ninety-eight-point-six-three percent sure that he just got teased about having a crush."
"Ah."
Dusk pinched the bridge of his nose, still flushing quite a bit. "No - Midna - Because we're looking for Zant or Ganondorf or possibly both, that's why."
A shorter pause.
"That's the plan."
The next pause was filled with the discordant sound of Midna emerging from Dusk's soul, made all the louder by the fact that she was dragging Shadow behind her. He looked a bit like he'd just been hit by the Spirit Train, but that was a completely normal expression for people who'd just met Midna for the first time so Dusk wasn't really worried about that.
"Zant," Midna emphasized, getting up into Dusk's face in the way that meant she was disguising her worry with antagonism. "We took care of Zant."
"It didn't stick," Dusk sighed. Midna's eye narrowed.
"Well then we're gonna have to do it again, won't we little wolf?"
"That is still the plan," Dusk affirmed. "Any ideas?"
Midna huffed. "I'd guess that he's trying for the Twilight Realm again? But honestly who knows with him at this point." Then she raised an eyebrow and said, "Now what's this about 'or Ganondorf or possibly both'?
"...You may want to sit down," Dusk told her. "It's a bit of a long story."
"We almost died!" Lore interjected.
Midna responded to this in a completely appropriate fashion by manifesting eighteen strands from her hair and whacking the entire group upside the head in a single motion. "STOP HAVING NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES WITHOUT ME!" she shouted.
"I would rather not have them at all, but the universe rarely respects my wishes in that area," Dusk fired back without missing a beat. "Deal with it."
Midna laughed. "I've missed you, little wolf."
"You missed your free ride and scapegoat," Dusk corrected.
"Same difference, really."
Dusk rolled his eyes at her. Midna cackled and dropped her full weight on his shoulder in retaliation, then perched her elbow on his head. Dusk bore his new cargo with admirable tolerance.
"Now then," Midna said after she'd made herself comfortable. "Tell me what sort of mess you've gotten you and yourselves into this time, hmm?"
"So… it's like Hide And Seek," Zant said slowly. "But also like Tag?"
"No, Zant. This is not like either of those things," Ganondorf said dully.
"Well then what sort of game is it?"
Ganondorf stared blankly into the middle distance, then sighed heavily and surrendered. "You know what? Sure. It's a Hide And Seek Tag game."
Zant lit up. "I love both of those things! Ooh, ooh, is it the stabby kind or the boring kind?"
"...The stabby kind."
"Ooh!" Zant threw his arms into the air and waved them about wildly, which was to make the tassels on his sleeves flap. He liked the noise. "Great is my god, that he may play games!"
"Glory to me," Ganondorf grumbled, because Zant got upset when Ganondorf didn't give himself the proper praise and worship. Then, because he still needed to point Zant in the right direction (even within the framework of a Hide And Seek Tag game), he said, "Don't forget the Special Rules."
Suddenly, Zant was standing normally, his eyes focused intently on Ganondorf and with a wicked smile playing on his mouth. "If our enemies get Tagged, they get Cursed," he recited evenly. Then his voice dropped an entire octave. "And I'm 'It'."
Ganondorf allowed himself a smirk. While it definitely took a significant amount of effort to get Zant in the proper mood for this sort of thing, the payoff was magnificent.
"Ready or not," Zant intoned eerily. He threw out his arms, then slowly brought them up - and at the same time, a haze of Twilight crept from around his feet to roll inexorably over the landscape. "Here I come."
Because Midna had thankfully already gotten the Storytime Crash Course once before, the abbreviated second version took much less time and was mostly comprised of introductions for those Links that she hadn't met yet and a brief synopsis of who they were. Whether or not this had been a good idea was still up for debate, because it had officially introduced Lore to Midna.
"So…" Lore said, giving Midna an up-and-down appraisal. He tilted his head thoughtfully, then nodded sharply and continued with, "Dõo oyu aekõps Raidgõlnõk?"
Midna stared at him for a solid twenty uninterrupted seconds, which Lore patiently waited out with the skill born of many ignored awkward moments. Then she said, "Esy Ay dõo. How dõo oyu?"
"Ho, Ay radeelõn iõt hielõw Ay asõw aignsõv het Radõk Rõdlow aõ efõw raesy abkõc," Lore said. "Hatt reet idõd not antõw ot haecõt em bõtu Ay reow him dõnow in het den!"
Midna stared at him a bit more. Then she snorted out a laugh and said, "Ellõw henõt, Ay hinkõt oyu adõn Ay rae iggon ot egõt agõlno jõstu iefõn. Antõw ot alnõp ranskõp hrigõt in rõfnot fo reeñensov'y aefsõc adõn halgu abeescu hety annocõt raddesõnntu su?"
"Ay hinkõt Ay elov oyu," Lore said seriously, which was apparently hilarious because Midna burst out laughing.
"Maybe buy me a drink first, little mimic," she chortled.
(Meanwhile, Sketch made a huh noise. "I didn't know Lore spoke Lorulian."
"Is that what that is?" Steam said. "All I knew was that it didn't sound like Labrynnian or Holodese."
"I only know it's Lorulian because Ravio spoke it sometimes," Sketch admitted. "And I know the word for 'Lorulian' in Lorulian. It's that, uh, Raidgohlnok one."
"...Midna is Twili," Dusk interjected. "And she told me that her native language is called 'Darkling'? And that's her native language, right there, she ranted in it enough times for me to get the hang of what it sounds like."
"...Well now I'm just confused," Sketch said helplessly.)
Whatever they were speaking, it was obvious that Lore and Midna were already getting along like a house on fire and it had literally been less than a minute. Lore was practically glowing with glee - it was almost possible to see all the new ideas popping into existence around his head
Unfortunately (of fortunately, depending on who was asked), he would never get a chance to put any of those new ideas into practice. This was because of two very concerning reasons.
The first reason was that Midna stopped talking mid-sentence and went completely stiff, staring off into the middle distance. She blinked, once, then took a deep breath and said, "Link? We have a Twilight problem."
The second reason was that Dusk's version of Princess Zelda manifested herself in a whirl of dazzling light, paused just long enough to register that she had company, and then said, "Forgive my breach in decorum, Twilight Hero, but - thank the goddesses for your timing, you need to come with me right now."
"You felt it too?" Midna asked.
Zelda shook her head. "That sort of warning would have been greatly appreciated. I can see it."
"Where?" Midna demanded, which Zelda answered by urging them all out the doors of the Castle and into the Castle Town proper. She tilted her head to the sky and said, "Unfortunately, it is rather hard to miss."
For all intents and purposes, it was the middle of the day. Despite this, the light quality was rapidly falling to a level normally associated with either sunrise or sunset. Billowing over the walls of Hyrule Castle Town was a cloud unlike anything the non-native Links had ever seen before, a mix of orange and black that glowed from within like it was lit with a million haunted candles. It was creeping both up and out at a speed that was just fast and slow enough that the victims could watch it coming, and know there was no escape. Naturally that just made the entire spectacle worse. Dusk watched it move with a grim expression.
"Zant?" he said, in a tone that made it clear that he wasn't actually asking a question.
"Zant," Midna agreed darkly.
"Farore," Dusk cursed, which was a sure sign that he was stressed because he really wasn't the sort of person that normally cursed. "Okay. We need to move."
"How urgently do we need to do that?" Wind asked. "Because I think we've lost Realm, and leaving without him is probably a bad idea."
There was a brief pause.
"...What do you mean, we've lost him?" Sketch echoed. "Didn't we literally just get something for him to fix that?"
"Well, yes," Wind agreed. "But I think that just stops him from getting lost with magic. It does nothing for him getting lost on his own."
"How d'you know?"
"I can see him up on the ledge of the castle tower on our left."
There was another brief pause, where everyone craned their heads up and to the left. Sure enough, Realm was halfway through the motions of clambering out the window of the tower to perch on the outcropping that made up a particularly decorative buttress. He brushed off his clothes, frowned, then looked around confusedly before lighting up when he caught sight of the rest of the group on the ground.
"There you guys are!" he yelled delightedly. "I was worried I'd accidentally popped into a different Castle!"
"...All we did was leave the hall and take a left," Blue said blankly. "How?"
Realm made the face that he always made when he had no idea how to answer. Then he changed the subject by pointing at the oncoming Twilight and calling, "By the way, is that going to be a problem?"
"A very big one, can you please get down here?" Dusk called back up to him.
"Someone toss me a rope!"
"On it," Mask volunteered, already in motion, while Ocarina followed closely behind, shadowing Mask on apparent instinct alone.
"Realm's timing is really not great," Gen observed drily. Dusk let out a heavy sigh of agreement.
The Twilight cloud was looming closer.
"We don't want to get caught in that," Dusk said. "That's the Curse I was talking about earlier, the slow creeping eternal-half-life-torment one? The only one of us who won't be affected is Midna."
"A-hem," Shadow coughed, from where he was still being held semi-captive by Midna's hair. "Remember what I'm made of, moron?"
"And Shadow, apparently," Dusk amended because he had sort of forgotten that Shadow was basically an honorary Twili, what with the dark magic and all. "I'm sort-of immune because I have that Light-influence-subversion thing going for me, but it'll force me into my wolf form and I don't know how long it'll be until I can change back. Ideally it'll do the same thing for you guys, but I think I'd rather not risk it."
"Because if you're wrong, then we have even more Problems," Gen grumbled. "And we really don't need more Problems, so better be safe than sorry, yeah?"
Dusk's murmur of assent was overpowered by the triumphant noises of Realm sliding down the rope and explaining that, wow it's a nice Castle in there but gosh is the layout confusing, why does anyone need four separate kitchens?
"Or possibly," Speck suggested tactfully, "that was the same kitchen that you ended up in four separate times?"
Realm considered that.
"...Okay yeah that does make a bit more sense," he agreed.
"Unbelievable," the Four muttered in bafflement.
Realm just scrunched his face in agreement, before looking out and up over the Castle walls. The Twilight cloud was really getting alarmingly close.
"Should we maybe be doing something about that?"
"Yes," Dusk said, and promptly began herding everyone in the opposite direction. "We're going to evacuate and hope that the previous defining boundaries from the first time this happened will still be in effect."
"Slightly less proactive than I thought it was going to be, but okay," Steam muttered. Dusk just made shoo-ing motions at him.
Unfortunately, they made it all of five steps out of Castle Town and into Hyrule Field proper before everything went to the Dark World. The Twilight cloud, which had been advancing relatively steadily, came to a billowing pause. Somewhat unwisely, the Links also paused to give this new development a collective distrustful stare.
From the murky heart of the Twilight, a pair of glowing yellow eyes stared back at them. There was a low, unhinged chuckle.
"I found you," Zant intoned eerily, looking like every inch of the mad king that he was. Dusk came to the terrifying realization that Zant seemed to be having a moment of unmarred sanity - and while in many ways the sane Zant was often safer to deal with, the insane Zant was at least predictable in his insanity.
Sane Zant was terrifying because Dusk had no idea what he was going to do.
"Tag," Zant breathed reverently, like it was a prayer, and Dusk admittedly had to take a mental step backwards because that was not necessarily something he'd expected the sane Zant to say. "You're 'It'."
He tilted his head sharply to the side, and that was all Dusk saw as the Twilight cloud roiled violently and shot forwards-
"NAYRU'S LOVE!" someone shrieked.
It took several moments of confusion and shouting for the group to realize that they were not, in fact, Cursed. This was because Mask had a great deal of experience in predicting the actions of insane villains (coughMAJORAcough), had recognized the attack for what it was, and had thrown up the best magical shield he knew how to cast in response.
Ocarina had hopped on that bandwagon too, but really he was just lending his magic to his younger-but-older self to power the spell. Nayry's Love was not a very cost-effective protection.
"This is only gonna last for about thirty more seconds or so!" Mask panted. The blue dome of Wisdom's signature spell was stretched over the Links in what was frankly the largest demonstration that most of them had ever seen. The clouds of Twilight pushed up against the outside of the barrier, tendrils curling up and around greedily, and by the way that absolutely nothing could be seen beyond the Curse it was pretty clear that they were on limited time. "Plan?"
"...Brace yourselves," Dusk said resignedly.
"Okay, not gonna lie, I was hoping for something better than that," Blue said bluntly.
"This is probably going to hurt," Dusk continued quickly, shooting an apologetic glance in Blue's direction as he did. "Don't panic, don't fight it, and I'm about eighty percent sure it'll turn out okay. Also, Princess?"
"Yes?" said Zelda, who wasn't necessarily looking thrilled about the whole situation but also seemed resigned to their fate. It probably helped that she was, somehow, just as immune as Midna. Maybe Dusk should look into asking her how she did that one of these days.
"Respectfully requesting a time extension due to unforeseen complications," Dusk said.
"Granted," Zelda sighed.
Any more conversation was cut off as Mask and Ocarina lost their grip on Nayru's Love, and the Twilight came rushing in.
Zant observed his handiwork impassively.
Thick, soup-like fog dispensing his Curse over the entire land of Hyrule? Check.
The Heroes trapped inside the Curse with no way out, absolutely guaranteed to fall victim to it? Check.
Making a dramatic, ominous retreat for no apparent reason, thereby allowing the Heroes to catch their collective breath, adjust to the Curse, regroup, and inevitably formulate a plan to counteract everything Zant had just done to them? Zant hummed a little tune to himself, making sure that it echoed eerily in the Twilight, turned forcefully on one heel so that the tassels on his clothes flared openly with the movement, and then proceeded to glide silently away into the gloom so that he seemed to vanish like a ghost from another world.
Check. He was so good at this.
Now he just needed to report back to his god on a job well done!
It should be noted that Zant's definition of 'a job well done' was very different from Ganondorf's. Ganondorf would have taken advantage of the Curse and subsequent disorientation to finish off the Heroes right then and there. Zant was not Ganondorf. Zant did not do this. Zant did the exact opposite of this.
The worst part of it all, Ganondorf bemoaned to himself, was that Zant would be a terrifyingly efficient villain if he would only apply some common sense. Then again, if Zant possessed common sense, he probably wouldn't have accepted Ganondorf as his god - not to mention he likely wouldn't have even become a villain in the first place.
...Ganondorf felt conflicted.
Farore, calmly, clasped her hands in front of her mouth and took deep, even breaths. She then, very calmly, manifested a thick velvet plush. And then, exceedingly calmly, she buried her face into it and screamed at the top of her lungs.
This went on for several minutes, which she could afford to do because she was outside of reality and could spare the time for stressed screeching. Unfortunately, this wasn't the sort of problem that could be solved by screeching, and so Farore was eventually forced to dissipate the plush and confront the situation.
"I am a terrible patron goddess," she muttered. "Why am I never prepared for these things? I should be better prepared for these things. What was I doing that kept me from being prepared for this thing?"
Din, who'd leapt into a corner like a startled cat when Farore had begun screeching, cleared her throat hesitantly. "I think you were trying to reconcile the freshwater and saltwater Zora species?"
"BECAUSE IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE FOR THEIR PHYSIOLOGY TO SUDDENLY INCORPORATE AMPHIBIANS!" Farore shouted, before catching herself. She pinched the bridge of her nose heavily. "Ignoring the fact that I have no idea how that subspecies got away from me, I have more pressing problems. Speaking of which - Nayru, I'm cashing a favor, give me a Time Break!"
Nayru, who was hiding behind Din in the corner like a skittish cat, extricated herself from her sister and closed her eyes in concentration. The world inside the reality window ground to a halt, showing a still-image as opposed to a live feed. Not that it wasn't still a live feed, but Nayru had just pressed the figurative 'pause' button, so to speak. She had Time as a Sphere Of Influence, she could do that sort of thing.
(For the curious: yes, this was normally something that the Interference Laws disapproved of, but the Three Sisters had already smashed the Interference Laws to splinters, so what was one more Consequence on top of everything else?)
"Thank you," Farore sighed. "Now. I have…" she counted on her fingers for a moment, "sixteen Aspects to inoculate against Dark-Shadow-Twilight magic and the subsequent forms that they'll take, because I am a distractible idiot who didn't plan ahead. If anyone needs me, I'll be plotting and-or panicking, depending on my whim. Check on me if I'm not done within ten reality-seconds."
So saying, Farore manifested paper, pen, and a clipboard and stalked off towards the reality window, where she immediately sat down and began muttering to herself.
It should be noted that ten reality-seconds, when Nayru was executing a Time Break, could last anywhere from twelve hours to four days, which was really incredibly inconsistent but Nayru had Time Senses so as long as she remembered to honor Farore's request it wouldn't be a problem. "Should we… help her?" Din hazarded.
She and Nayru regarded their sister for a moment, who was now scribbling frustratedly on the clipboard and muttering, "No no no, he doesn't resonate with cats at all," and both of them winced.
"Let her get the initial rush out of her system first," Nayru decided. "We can offer our assistance once she stops making the clipboard sprout stress flowers."
Farore's clipboard stopped sprouting stress flowers about two hours in, which was more or less equivalent to about .02 milliseconds of reality-time. Her sisters strategically picked that moment to approach and involve themselves in the process, which was how they could be found in their current positions: spread out on the floor, papers and research strewn everywhere. Din was hanging upside down from a couch that she'd conjured, while Nayru was on her back holding a pair of candidates side-by-side above her head. Farore, meanwhile, was facedown on her stomach, mumbling her stream of thought into the ground because if she didn't muffle it then she broke the concentration of her two helpers and she needed her two helpers.
"...Who's doing the New Hero of Hyrule right now?" Din asked suddenly.
"Me, after I finish with the Hero of the Sky," Nayru replied.
"Have you considered a penguin?"
"A penguin," Nayru echoed, severely doubtful.
"I think he'd fit the aesthetic."
"Dn't weepig hmf rakat?" Farore said to the floor.
"What?"
Farore raised her head and repeated, "Didn't we peg him for a cat?"
"...Oh yeah," Din remembered awkwardly. "What sort of cat was that, again?"
"I don't think we made it that far," Farore muttered, and proceeded to drop her head back down to resume her mumble.
"For the love of Me, please do not make the New Hero a penguin," Nayru put in. "Please do not make any of them a penguin."
"Fine, I was having issues accounting for maneuverability anyways," Din agreed. "Oh, idea - I'm thinking platypuses for the Heroes of Light quartet?"
Nayru blanched, and Farore removed her head from the floor to make exhausted eye contact with her blue sister. 'This is why I'm the one in charge of the lifeforms,' her blank-eyed stare said.
"Let's… write that down with the other ideas and we'll evaluate it once it's their turn," Nayru suggested diplomatically, because Farore was clearly about to have a conniption at the very concept. "But, ah, perhaps explain your thought process behind that? Please?"
Din shrugged. "Dunno, it just seems like it makes sense."
"No," Farore interrupted. "Vetoed, rejected, overruled, quashed, banned, put the kibosh on it. Absolutely not."
Din squinted. "Well then what would your choice be?"
Farore inhaled deeply through her nose, then tossed out, "Foxes," without a slightest bit of hesitation. Her piece said, she planted her face back against the floor and continued her interrupted mumbling.
"...Yeah okay, that's better," Din grumbled. "It's really unfair how good you are at this."
"Smijawb," Farore replied to the floor.
"...What?"
"It's my job," the green goddess repeated, to Din instead of the floor. "Don't worry about it, you know I'd be rubbish at landmasses if we were doing this within your Sphere of Influence."
"True," Din agreed, looking much happier now that she'd been reassured of her relative area of expertise.
There was a rustle of papers as Nayru evidently came to a decision about the candidates she'd been considering, and she rolled herself up to a sitting position in order to reach the communal List. She quickly scribbled Falcon down next to the Hero of Sky's name, small and neat and somewhat squished for room atop the much blockier handwriting of Farore's Mouse next to the Hero of the Minish's entry.
"Nice," Farore approved, before reuniting once again with the floor.
The rest of the List was a haphazard patchwork of Farore's thought process before Din and Nayru had joined the brainstorming. The Hero of Twilight had Wolf scrawled next to his name, as it was already predetermined. The Hero of Wind had Gull and a scribbled-out Fish written next to his. The Hero of Legend had been labeled with Rabbit, as this was also a predetermined result, with a little note of Fix that coloring issue, rabbits are not pink! in the margins. It was not a very official-looking List, but then again it was not a very official brainstorming session either.
After a moment of thought, Nayru wrote down Fox next to the Heroes of Light's names too.
"Nine down, nine to go," she announced. Farore groaned something that sounded like distress - or possibly motivation, it was hard to tell. Regardless it was a very relatable sound, so Din nodded and said, "Same," in a commiserating tone of voice as though agreeing with an unintelligible noise was a perfectly normal thing to do.
"Next up is…" Nayru ran her finger down the List. "Hmm. Do you want the Hero of Time or are you still working on the New Hero?"
"Oh right, I forgot about him," Din muttered. "Uh, New Hero, sorry."
"Keep your brainstorming to felines," Farore reminded tiredly.
"I will, okay? Stop worrying, the platypuses were a one-time mistake."
Farore mumbled something unintelligible, yet vaguely doubtful all the same. Then she said, "Nayru, write down jackal next to the Hero of Time's names for me."
Nayru made a face. "Are you sure? Technically the Hero of Time is also a wolf, what with that third echo version floating around and giving the Hero of Twilight swordplay lessons."
Farore paused. For a solid thirty seconds, she laid motionless on the floor.
Then she groaned and muttered, "I knew I was forgetting something about his lifespan," before heaving herself into a sitting position. "Write down jackal anyways, we need a stopgap measure for the current emergency and I do not have the time to examine whatever mess the Hero of Time got himself into. It's all canid anyways, species swaps are not that difficult to do if it turns out to really need fixing."
"Whatever you say," Nayru agreed, because Farore was clearly stressed and a stressed Farore was a Farore who did not appreciate her decisions being questioned. Undoubtedly the green Goddess would later remember that she hated dealing with species swaps because of all the tiny fiddly details that it involved, but right now Nayru supposed there were bigger headaches to deal with. She dutifully wrote down Jackal - then paused, considered the List, and jotted Deer next to the Heroes of the Four Sword too.
"Herd animals," she explained when she met Farore's questioning glance, and the green Goddess nodded tiredly and made no real attempt to voice displeasure with Nayru's choice - which was basically the same thing as explicit permission, with Farore's current mindset. "Three Heroes left, you can do this Farore."
Farore made a sound not unlike a deflating Octorok. "Trains," she bemoaned. "What was I thinking when I allowed Trains? What sort of animal even associates with Trains?"
"Trains might not be the best factor to choose a form from," Nayru suggested delicately.
"You could always make the Hero of Trains into a rat, those get onto the railcars all the time," Din said. This idea was greeted with the level of scorn that it deserved - which was to say, quite a bit.
"How about no," Farore replied. "My Heroes are not on the same level as pest animals."
"Well you made the Hero of the Minish into a mouse, so I thought-"
"The Hero of the Minish is a mouse because it fits him. Because they are small and clever and get into places that nobody thinks they can and are also absolutely adorable. The Hero of Trains is not a rat, because rats are sly and sneaky and will actively alter their environment for their needs. The Hero of Trains is stubborn and faces his problems head-on rather than twisting circumstances to his benefit and loyal in a way that rats are usually not and it is not a good match."
Din blinked. "So then give him a stubborn animal? I'm not sure I see the bit you're having trouble with."
Farore stared at her. "...You give me headaches sometimes," she said, but then made the complaint completely moot by snatching the pen from Nayru's hand and putting Badger next to the Hero of Trains.
"Yeah, like that," Din said, in what she probably thought was an encouraging tone of voice. "Not so hard once you think about it!"
"Platypuses," Farore said flatly.
"Oh my Me, I admit the platypuses weren't a good idea, let it go."
"Sixteen down!" Nayru interrupted pointedly. "Two left. Din, if you've come up with anything for the New Hero then we can knock it down to one?"
Din made a face, which clearly stated that she still hadn't come up with anything. Farore made a different face, which clearly stated her extreme regret at letting Din handle anything involving lifeforms.
"Just, think about art," she instructed tiredly. "Bright colors, flashy displays, ornate patterns, anything."
"I got it, I got it," Din said, waving her sister off and sinking into a heavy thought process.
"Who's left?" Farore asked Nayru.
"The Hero of Hyrule."
"Ah. Cat."
"That was fast," Nayru said carefully. "You're normally not so… immediately certain?"
Farore gave Nayru a dead stare. "Name me one creature that gets itself into as much trouble as cats do."
Nayru had to concede that point. "True enough. Any specific cat? Otherwise I'm just going to put him down for housecat and call it a session-"
"Absolutely not." Farore seized the pen before Nayru could even think about lowering it to the List. "Heroes. Are. Not. Domestic."
Nayru nodded quickly. Farore set the pen down away from her sister, just to be safe about it.
"Wildcat, then?"
"Don't be ridiculous, wildcats don't actually exist."
"...Ah," said Nayru, who up until that exact moment had genuinely believed wildcats were a real animal. Farore would normally lecture her about how wildcats are a generic grouping of various felines living in the wild and not an actual species, but that wasn't the important bit right now.
"But that's a good body type for this Hero, I'll keep going with it." Farore began spinning off a list of cats to herself in a low mutter, and Nayru decided to leave her to it. Now where was that pen? Farore had put it - ah, Din had it.
...Din had it.
"You made a decision?" Nayru hedged, as Din scribbled something down with a triumphant flourish. The angle of Din's hand and the way Nayru was sitting meant that her view of the List was completely blocked, and Nayru did not find herself reassured by the look on Din's face.
"I made the best decision," Din replied. "Arguably the best Cursed Form on this whole List, if I do say so myself."
And now Nayru was a tiny bit concerned. "That's what you said about the platypuses."
"This is better than the platypuses! Why won't you two let that go!?"
"Because it was platypuses."
Din huffed. "Well if that's how you feel, then I just won't share my genius with you."
And now Nayru was very concerned. "I'm sure that's not necessary, you can tell me," she said, and tried valiantly to crane around her sister to read the List. Din moved to block her.
"Nope! You were rude, and now you have to reap the consequences."
"Din, we are literally playing with the physical form of lesser beings, I really don't think this is the time to indulge in a petty squabble."
Din was unmoved. "It's not petty if I'm right," she declared, and slammed the pen down with a sharp RAP. "Farore, I'm done!"
Farore blinked several times, her thought process visibly derailed by Din's interjection. "...Is it artistic?" she managed.
"Very," Din replied.
"Great," Farore said absently. It was fairly obvious that she was only paying attention with half an ear, and more than likely she'd only just barely registered that she was talking to Din instead of Nayru. Otherwise she probably would have done something like damage control, instead of doing what she actually did.
"Let it be," Farore intoned, and there was a bright flash of green on the other side of the Reality Window. Din grinned triumphantly, Nayru came to the conclusion that both her sisters were idiots sometimes, and Farore…
Farore chose that moment to pass out cold.
"...She's very stressed right now, isn't she," Din observed.
Nayru rather thought that she'd be even more stressed once she woke up and saw what animal Din had ended up choosing for the New Hero. She herself was stressed about it, and she hadn't even seen it, and it wasn't even her Domain.
...Speaking of her Domain though, the Time Break was getting a little brittle. Nayru eyeballed the sleeping form of her green sister; what were the odds of Farore waking up before Nayru had to let go in urgency?
Farore let out a soft snore.
Nayru quietly resolved to just take some notes.
If any Link had possessed the ability to see outside of Time, or to notice when the fabric of reality slowed down around them, or even just to notice when things moved faster than the speed of being perceivable, they would have seen the bright green flash that briefly overwrote the whole of existence.
But because they didn't, the observable shift from Hylian to Cursed Form happened with no glitches beyond a single momentary pause, and nobody was the wiser to the multiple hours their patron goddess had just spent making sure they would all be safe.
Such was the life of under-appreciated deities.
It had been a while since Dusk had done his transformation the Cursed way.
Not that the Curse Stone wasn't also a Curse, because it was, but - well, the intent was just different. The Curse Stone came hand in hand with the knowledge that it was his choice to change - or assuming Midna was doing the changing, that it was with his permission. For all that Midna did like to tease him with his wolf form, she always made sure that he could see it coming, and had on at least one occasion backed off upon realizing that Dusk hadn't been in the mood.
This sort of transformation, on the other hand, was never his decision, and Dusk had always, always hated having his body ripped away from him like that.
Don't panic, don't fight it, he reminded himself as the Twilight cloud lunged for him. It seemed like it was happening in slow motion. If you panic, so will they. Do. Not. Panic.
Because it wasn't just him in the mess, this time, and for some Din-forsaken reason he seemed to be one of the Links that the other Links looked to for guidance, despite the many times he'd protested against it. Also, he was technically the professional part-time Cursed Animal of the group, so really, he had no choice but to set a good example.
Don't fight it, he repeated to himself, and then the Twilight was greedily clutching at his skin and he didn't really have the luxury for any more mental self-encouragement because wow he'd forgotten how much this hurt when it wasn't his decision. Dusk inhaled sharply through his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut as the Curse started to work its way into his body, as his knees began buckling, as he caught himself on his hands and snarled at the invading magic.
Oh wait, crap, he wasn't supposed to be fighting it. Right, no wonder it hurt, old habits died hard. With another hissed breath, Dusk deliberately relaxed himself and held as still as possible while his joints rearranged themselves and his hair turned into fur.
Thankfully, not fighting it meant that the whole ordeal was over quickly, and Dusk shook himself out to unlock his muscles from the position he'd frozen in. Midna flopped onto his back in her usual tactless manner - which was to say, an actually cleverly disguised jolt of physical input to help him connect his brain to his body again, which Dusk had not actually realized she was doing intentionally until well over two months into their partnership and he should really thank her for that at some point - and Shadow assumed a disgruntled position by Dusk's left shoulder, as Midna still had a deathgrip on his torso with her hair and presumably he was trying to avoid being discorporated.
"Having fun?" Shadow needled.
"Not really," Dusk panted. He really did hate having his transformation forced on him.
"Yeah, I don't actually care, I was just hoping to get a rise out of you," Shadow said nonchalantly.
Dusk emitted a noncommittal rumble, then froze as his brain caught up with what had just happened. "You can understand me?"
"Duh?" Shadow replied, in a tone which very clearly questioned Dusk's intelligence. "I'm you, you're me, we've been over this. It's gonna take more than some dark magic - which I'm made of, in case you forgot - to get in the way of that."
"...Huh," Dusk said, grappling with this revelation.
"You can understand him?" Midna asked, unknowingly repeating her partner's words. She leaned forwards and braced her arms on Dusk's shoulders interestedly. "How convenient."
Shadow abruptly looked much more uncomfortable. In a bid to redirect Midna's attention, he scoffed through his nose and pointedly moved his eyes to the rest of the group. Then he blinked, and actually looked at the rest of the group, and said, "Should you be helping with that?"
He then immediately made to look bored, in an attempt to disguise the fact that he'd just done something that involved having empathy of all things, but luckily for him Dusk had fallen for the bait and was already rushing away to help his fellow Links.
Unluckily, Midna had not fallen for the bait and was grinning at him with a level of glee that made Shadow fear for his future sanity.
He needed to get away from this woman.
Meanwhile, Dusk was attempting to do damage control. Some of the other Links had a bit of experience with being forced into a body that wasn't theirs, these being Mask, Ocarina (honorarily, because even if it was still his body the difference between child and adult was jarring when unprepared for it), Sketch, Lore, and the Four and the RGBV quartet to an extent. These Links took the sudden transformation with varying degrees of nonchalance, ranging from completely calm (Lore) to unsettled, but holding it together (the Four). The rest of the Links, these being Gen, Speck, Realm, Wind, and Steam, took the sudden transformation with varying degrees of freaking out, ranging from wide-eyed but dealing with it (Wind) to quite possibly on the verge of panicking (Steam).
In other words, complete and entirely unexpected animalian chaos.
Dusk did not at all feel prepared to deal with this, but since it was his Hyrule and therefore most closely his fault that this had happened, he supposed he needed to take responsibility.
"EVERYBODY CALM DOWN!"
The chaos froze. Dusk finally got a good look at the results of the Curse on his fellow Links and promptly felt a headache coming on.
That was… more body types than he had experience in dealing with.
Gen and Wind were both birds, were both having immense difficulty with their wings, and Dusk already knew that he was going to be of approximately no help in that matter. Speck was a mouse, so at least he was probably used to the view? Mask, Ocarina, the RGBV quartet, and Realm were all quadrupedal carnivores - some sort of canine, foxes, and what looked like a lynx, respectively - which Dusk thankfully knew a thing or two about. He mentally assigned their grouping with a marker of 'easier to give advice for'. The Four seemed to be a type of deer, and they'd already gotten their antlers interlocked with each other. Dusk had no idea how he was going to fix that without opposable thumbs.
Lore was a familiar-looking rabbit, but for some reason he was no longer pink. He was also ecstatic about no longer being pink. But Dusk also wasn't sure that rabbits commonly came in that specific shade of dark ginger red, so who knew if that problem had actually been fixed or if this was just some temporary side-effect. Sketch appeared to be some sort of lizard? An incredibly colorful lizard, who stood out in the dark Twilight like a black wolfos on Snowpeak, but Dusk at least thought it fit his personality better than his own self-suggested beetle.
Somewhere outside of reality, Nayru gave Din a Stare.
"What happened to 'stick to felines'?" she asked flatly.
"I decided this was better," Din said confidently. "Farore told me to be colorful, remember? This lizard changes colors, you can't get any better than that."
"She's going to strangle you," Nayru sighed. "And I might actually help her."
For the first time in the conversation, Din looked appropriately concerned.
Steam looked to be a badger. He also looked to be the worst off, mentally speaking. Dusk promptly put him at the top of the List.
Slightly less important but notable nonetheless was the fact that absolutely nobody but Dusk and Lore seemed to know how to stand on their new legs, hence the chaos. After all it wasn't everyday that a small herd of deer went tumbling head over heels after tripping on their own fetlocks.
"Okay," Dusk said, slightly more calmly. "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your panic?"
There was a series of mumbled numbers.
"Anyone who's at five or lower, hobble over to Lore for walking lessons," Dusk instructed, promptly throwing Lore under the figurative Spirit Train and feeling entirely unapologetic about it. Lore thrived on that sort of thing anyway. "Everyone else is with me for mandatory body dysphoria therapy. And I do mean mandatory."
Faced with Dusk actually pulling out his usually-unused leadership skills - a rare and intimidating event - the Links obediently shuffled into the instructed groupings. Dusk soon found himself surrounded by two birds, a badger, a lynx, a mouse, and four very entangled deer. They all seemed to be a bit stressed. Dusk surveyed his new responsibilities and pegged the most urgent ones with the skill of an experienced elder sibling (because he'd been the oldest of the kids back in Ordon and if he didn't keep an eye on Talo and Malo then oh Farore what sort of nonsense would they get into-) and stepped forwards to herd Steam the badger and Gen the falcon off for a healthy coping session.
"Could everyone else please help the Four untangle themselves while these two and I talk?" Dusk requested. "And then I'll get to everyone else one at a time, okay?"
"Yes please," the Four said plaintively, which really settled that decision nicely.
Dusk carefully helped Steam and Gen walk enough distance away for privacy, with the sounds of, "No, you need to tilt your heads that way - actually no, you in the back left, tilt the other way - no, just you-" following them away. Synchronization was a hard influence to break, Dusk supposed, but since it was also conveniently doubling as a sneaky way to take the other Links' minds off their new bodies while they waited for Dusk to parent them he didn't feel too worried about it.
"Alright," he said, once he deemed their trio to be an acceptable distance away for privacy. "Go ahead and let it out."
Steam promptly collapsed onto his stomach and wheezed in barely-controlled panic. Gen, on the other hand, was still doing an excellent impression of a catatonic invalid. Mildly concerned, Dusk leaned down to peer at his face (More difficult than it sounded, how did one read emotions in birds? The beak didn't move at all.) but then realized that Gen was actually muttering a low level stream of disbelief under his breath. Well, better than not reacting at all.
Seemingly realizing this himself, Gen broke off his muttering and said, "Yeah so regardless of how I'm taking this I think Steam is worse than me. I'll just cope over here, you can catch up with me once you're done."
"Thank you," Dusk said, who had actually just been wondering who to parent first and was now thoroughly relieved to have had the decision made for him.
He turned back to Steam, who had now graduated to mild hyperventilation, and said, "Er... do you want to talk about it now, or is it a better idea to calm you down first?"
Steam's only answer was to inhale faster, which Dusk probably should have expected. Okay then. He stepped forwards and, taking a page out of Midna's book, draped himself over Steam's torso like a living weighted fuzzy blanket.
"Match me," he instructed, and then began to exaggeratedly breathe in a slow and steady rhythm until Steam's own frantic pace fizzled out. Understandably this took a good few minutes.
"...Sorry," Steam managed eventually.
"Don't be ridiculous, you had a perfectly normal response," Dusk told him. "I think the others just have an unhealthily high suspension of disbelief."
"You are not the right person to talk about that," Steam said wryly, referring in no uncertain terms to the many, many times Dusk hadn't realized that something he'd done during his adventure might not be considered normal by other people. Dusk huffed at him.
"In my defense, Midna."
"...Yeah, that's fair."
"And don't distract me, we're talking about you and your problems right now," Dusk continued, scoldingly. "More specifically, is this just related to losing your body or is this a deeper kind of issue?"
Steam was quiet for a minute.
"...I don't think I understand how my Zelda was so strong," he admitted in a whisper. "It's so – I mean, this is so – I've never been anything other than me before."
"It's very jarring the first time it happens," Dusk agreed.
"It felt so invasive."
"That tends to happen with the Twilight, sorry. Did the warning at least help?"
"I mean, yeah, a little. I just... I have no experience with this, at all, and I didn't realize it was gonna be so..." he trailed off and made a full-body shiver in lieu of words, which since Dusk was still blanketing him felt very odd to be pressed up against. "If I didn't have respect for everyone dealing with a transformation Curse before, then I really do now. And, geez, this is technically still my body, isn't it?"
"Just shaped very, very differently," Dusk agreed with a sigh.
"Yeah, I'm gonna need to give my Zelda a hug the next time I see her," Steam decided. "She took losing her body so much better than I am right now."
"Important," Dusk acknowledged, "but now you're just avoiding the issue."
Steam muttered something which sounded vaguely like not a leader don't make me laugh, which Dusk ignored because he wasn't. Then Steam said, "Confronting the issue makes me feel like I can't breathe."
So Dusk replied, "Okay then," and just stopped pushing, opting instead to let Steam confront reality at his own pace.
Steam's own pace turned out to be about twenty minutes, more or less. He was a Hero, after all, and Heroes specialized in adaptation and compartmentalization. Also the fact that he had a remedial system in the form of an Emotional Support Wolf and about sixteen other siblings helped tremendously. He took a deep breath, or as deep a breath as he could get given that Dusk was still on top of him, and then finally took stock of himself.
He was a stout little creature, apparently. Why were his legs so short? Where had all of this muscle come from? Steam wasn't out of shape, especially not compared with ordinary civilians, but he most certainly hadn't had this much body mass as a Hylian. This body felt like it could hunker down to the ground and refuse to be moved on sheer willpower alone.
"...Huh," Steam said.
"Hmm?" Dusk said.
"What am I?"
Dusk took a long inhale through his nose, just to make sure of his earlier assessment. "Badger," he reported with that confirmation.
Steam had no real idea what that was. "Is that… good?"
"Well of course it is, it's you," Dusk told him. "Feel up to learning how to walk yet?"
"I think so."
Dusk lifted himself off of Steam and back onto his own feet, then surveyed the badger appraisingly. The odds of Steam managing to get himself over to the Learning-To-Walk group were… rather small.
"...Would you mind if I carried you?"
"Please," Steam said gratefully.
The actual carrying was a process, because Dusk had no hands and the surrounding Twilight meant that he couldn't transform to have hands. What ended up happening was Dusk, carrying Steam very very carefully with his teeth by the substantial scruff of the badger's neck. It was hilarious to anyone watching and unendingly awkward to the two Links who were actually involved in it. There was an unspoken yet universally understood agreement that they would never speak of this moment ever again. There was also an unspoken yet universally understood agreement that Lore would absolutely ignore the first agreement, and it was really only a matter of time until he brought it up.
But that wasn't the main issue at the moment.
Gen turned out to be relatively self-sufficient with his own panic, after Dusk came back from carrying Steam. Or, rather, he turned out to be highly distractible and had completely forgotten about his own panic in light of the much more important problem of 'how did he fold his wings'.
"No, I'm pretty good with walking," Gen said upon being asked. "Still two feet, the joints are just kinda weird and I need to remember to balance differently, but other than that it's not bad. I just can't - figure out-" He flapped his wings clumsily and somehow whacked both himself and Dusk in the head. "How do I close these?"
Dusk had absolutely no idea, and neither did anyone else, but Wind seemed to have a bit more of a level head and since he had wings too, Dusk paired the two of them together to sort out their own avian-related problems. Apparently, between Gen's experience with his Loftwing and Wind's experience of somehow controlling seagulls through pear-triggered telepathy, they were working something out.
For all the other, non-avian Links, there was the almost universal experience of getting used to having a tail, which was usually coupled with the realization that they had to balance with the tail in order to walk right. This understandably took an hour or two to sort out.
The Four were just having a bad day. Their antlers weren't very big at all, but they naturally stood close enough to each other on automatic instinct that they kept getting stuck on one another. Within the past hour they'd had to be untangled no less than three times, and since nobody had any hands to help it was a bit of a time-consuming task. Eventually Dusk got just a little fed-up with the whole thing and stuck Realm in the middle of the Four's formation, which conveniently doubled as anti-Wandering for Realm (because he still got lost, just not with teleportation) and automatic spacing for the Four. They couldn't get close enough to tangle if there was a lynx in the way, after all. Dusk felt rather proud of himself for that one.
In the midst of it all was Shadow, still held very firmly captive by Midna and trying not to look like he wanted to flee the scene as fast as physically possible (Because he was still very, very bad at social interaction and this was more social interaction than he'd ever wanted); Midna, who was quite frankly having the time of her life (So much chaos! So much more potential chaos! Today was a good day, Zant's reappearance and her partner's reapplied Curse notwithstanding); and Princess Zelda, lending her expertise to the situation with all the grace of the Queen she was (Because the Twilight was also a slow creeping eternal-half-life-torment curse, and sometimes people forgot about that bit in favor of the change-of-shape subset alternative and really, what did people think Zelda had been doing this whole time if not figuring out how to counteract it?)
Apparently, getting rid of the looming sense of we're-all-going-to-die did wonders for any remaining feelings of panic. Who knew?
Under normal circumstances, Farore wouldn't have woken up for at least a few reality-days. She'd all but burnt herself out with the latest emergency and really, under those previously mentioned normal circumstances, she wouldn't be allowed back to her post for at least a reality-week.
These were not normal circumstances.
Farore woke up a grand total of three reality-hours after passing out, with the distinct and unrelenting feeling that something had gone just a little bit sideways. Specifically, with the New Hero of Hyrule. More specifically, with the New Hero of Hyrule's Cursed Form.
She opened up a Reality Window to investigate this feeling.
"WHO MADE THE NEW HERO OF HYRULE INTO A COLLARED LIZARD!?"
Elsewhere outside of Reality, Din was hit with the intense feeling of a target being painted on her back.
"...Why do I suddenly feel like I should run for my life?"
Nayru gave her a flat look. "Maybe because Farore just woke up and saw what you did to her Aspect?"
"No, that was a genius idea. That can't be it."
It should be noted that Din sometimes, occasionally, possibly, did not always have the most accurate grasp of the consequences of her actions.
Nayru threw up her hands in defeated exasperation, and then promptly made a strategic retreat outside of the projected blast zone.
OMAKE
For the interested, the other half of Dusk's mental conversation with Midna went like this:
"Hey, Midna?"
I hope this is important, little wolf. I'm in the middle of putting the fear of me into this wannabe.
"No, take your time. But when you're done we were hoping to get filled in on recent events?"
Oh? Worried about your Princess, are you? You're adorable when you let your crush on her influence your actions.
"I am not."
Yes you are, and the Princess will agree with me-
"No-"
-because I don't know if you've noticed but you are not subtle-
"-Midna-"
-but lucky for you, she thinks it's endearing, why are you protesting so much?
"Because we're looking for Zant or Ganondorf or possibly both, that's why."
...And you want to know the recent events because of them?
"That's the plan."
The full conversation just didn't work very well in the flow of the chapter, so it's at the end in a bonus!
First, the changes. Realm used to be a bobcat, but is now a lynx. Upon comparing the two I liked the size ratio for lynxes better. Sketch used to be an ocelot, but for some reason I've never quite liked that for him. He has since been made into a reptile and I like this much better.
Please do go and look up collared lizards, they are cool-looking dudes. And yes, they can blend into their environment, I know what I'm doing with my lizards thank you very much.
I would apologize for the wait on this one, but I did warn you all it was gonna be a doozy. At some points it was worse than me trying to write Trains, and we all know how much I enjoy writing Trains. Oof.
Additionally, there's been some edits to the Labrynnian language. Previously, there was no cipher or even a set pattern to how the words went, and I kinda just made stuff up based on how I felt about it. There is now an official cipher, and all Labrynnian has been updated accordingly! If you notice any strange letters in the future, that's why.
Changeling
Linguistic Translations
Darkling:
Dõo oyu aekõps Raidgõlnõk? (Do you speak Darkling?)
Esy Ay dõo. How dõo oyu? (Yes I do. How do you?)
Ho, Ay radeelõn iõt hielõw Ay asõw aignsõv het Radõk Rõdlow aõ efõw raesy abkõc. Hatt reet idõd not antõw ot haecõt em bõtu Ay reow him dõnow in het den! (Oh, I learned it while I was saving the Dark World a few years back. That tree did not want to teach me but I wore him down in the end!)
Ellõw henõt, Ay hinkõt oyu adõn Ay rae iggon ot egõt jõstu iefõn. Antõw ot alnõw ranskõp hrigõt in rõfnot fo reeñensov'y aefsõc adõn halgu abeescu hety annocõt raddesõnntu su? (Well then, I think you and I are going to get along just fine. Wanna plan pranks right in front of everyone's faces and laugh because they can't understand us?)
Ay hinkõt Ay elov oyu. (I think I love you.)
First Thanks to YamiKitsune14, Crystal Prower, sceptile3808, miano53, Saberstar, Irokaichio, and Magic Taco for favoriting/following!
Second Thanks to ThrowerofBooks, Sifidude301Carbine, Kurogane Tsubasa, LORDANTAS, SilverDragon-Purity, GoldenGargoyle18, WolfeArisen, Scrubavore, Xtreme11, Talosine, HedwigFan101, Fanamanga1, anemix, zero1991, loverofmxne, Telvara, Fanfic finder, Link2300, MegaBlaze44, TheGenesis, JamesAsmodeus, TidalSong, TheLonelyMaple, SADE 789, , sasuke can say dyke, SaberFan117, etnonexaudis, Kyukyariu, kts2003salo, Five-Two, LilyMoonstone, DatGuy1st, itorre086, DarkwaterCat, Nightfrightpony, borose150, AteneaH, Nimbus Llewelyn, Mimokiku, Drachis917, Enderdragonslayer1, SpeakMyName, SkySage24, Ghoulyana, bankerrtx01, SpellCry, GuardianOfAll, Percifal, L1N64m, Tristien, brandonbenavides030305, Zum1UDontNo, the dimension lord, Galdor123, SpokemonMaster896, or Favoriting/Following!
First Responses
Freefan1412: Wait and seeeee... *grins evilly* / I know! My only problem is justifying it right now…
Dark Pit not Pittoo: Oh, that's alright. But now I get to surprise you because you won't see it coming… / That's true. Thanks for the tip.
Black leaf animations: I have no idea what that means.
BrandonBGamer: Oh. Never thought about it that way... fascinating.
Ruari: I think I just melted. / I have a plan for that, actually.
Guest: See Freefan1412's answer ;)
PsycoFangirl: Well OF COURSE he's a troll. He's Shadow. On the bright side, now I know I nailed his character. And thanks for the correction! / Well, thanks for worrying! I'm perfectly fine, I've just been planning and reconfiguring to curse everybody. I had to come up with cursed forms for all of them! It took FOREVER! But I'm good now. And part of me is celebrating that I have readers who worry about me :D
Skystar901: Does the Zora Mask count? I'm pretty sure it counts.
Thegeniusyoshi: Probably
SkyPirate0614: I don't think he does, actually. According to game content anyways.
miano53: Glad you're enjoying the story.
therichardater: I... don't know what that means. Who's TRG?
SkyPirate06: Yes he is. Thank you for noticing!
DrBananaFace: Because I can. And then I realize what I got myself into and panic.
Sianna Scale: Thank you!
A Reader: The group has an ultimate weapon? How come I don't know about it?!
Guest: Awww... thanks!
Second Responses
Timontytar: GAH! Thank you for pointing that out, I hate it when I misspell things. I'm a disgrace to my English degree, I tell you.
Find me on Tumblr at changeling-rin!
Find the fan-run ask blog on Tumblr at ask-the-dimensional-links!
Now on TV Tropes at Dimensional Links!
I now have a Ko-Fi under ChangelingRin! Support me if you want