vivala | Quest 07 (Open + Closed)

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Quest 07 (Open + Closed)

i. Making new, wolfy friends [Open]
In the wild areas near Elysium, Link’s been exploring. It’s a common activity for him. There’s mushrooms and flowers to pick, game to hunt, monsters to fight…

…Then one day, while he’s up in a tree collecting some bird’s eggs, he spots a wolf. A big wolf. A really, really big wolf. It’s as big as a horse.

And once he makes that mental connection, Link immediately thinks, I could ride that.

Which naturally means Link now has to find out if he can. He pulls out a Sneaky Elixir, and swiftly swallows it - demeaning the sounds of his movements. Silently uses his paraglider to move from tree to tree, getting closer. And then carefully drops down behind the massive, monstrous wolf.

He crouches down. Creeps forward. Slowly, slowly. Until he’s right behind the beast, so close he could reach out and touch its fur.

And then he leaps up onto its back, and grabs on.

The wolf yelps and snarls - but Link’s got a good position, and he doesn’t let it twist back and bite him. He just directs the beast to run, and keeps a good hold.

What do you know, he can ride it!

ii. A retrieval of memories [locked to Shu]
Shu had spoken to the Admiral. They’d tracked down the Imperial Commander who’d been given Link’s Purah Pad.

And then they’d sneaked onto the Commander’s warship and completely trashed his quarters.

Well, Link had trashed his quarters. Shu was a bit too dignified for such wanton destruction, but Link wasn’t. And he didn’t regret it either, since in the process, he’d found the Pad!

Now, their getaway was nearly complete. Here in a small alleyway in Elysium, they were far from the scene of the crime. The Crimson Portal wasn’t far off.

But Link had to pause. He hadn’t had a chance yet, but - he had to see. Were all of his pictures still on the Purah Pad? Were they safe?

He pulls out the Pad, and turns it on. And turns to the photo gallery.

iii. Link has a slide show and he’s gonna make you watch it [semi-closed]
Later, Link thinks of all the new people he’d met. People who’d helped him grow plants from home, or who’d shown interest in things from his home. Shu wasn't the only one who he knew would like to see his pictures.

Before, he hadn't had any way of sharing these images of his home. But…now he could.

So Link tracks those people down. Says, “Hi,” when he finds them. And then shoves the Purah Pad - with a picture from Hyrule that would interest them on the screen - right in their face.

[[ooc: this prompt is for Nephenee, Ilphyll, Donnie, Maomao and Atom - but could be open to others if there's a reason for Link to decide to share]]

iv. Wildcard!
[[if you'd like something not on her, contact me!]]

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Link's chaos gremlin energy was a sight to behold (why did he smash everything that was remotely round-ish large enough to fit a gold coin by throwing it at the ground as hard as he could?), but after Shu's initial surprise, she assists by methodically sweeping everything they've already searched to one side of the room. By the time they find the Purah Pad (which, somewhat surprisingly, was just sitting in a small place of honor on top of the Commander's desk, a fact which they had both managed to overlook), the room is thoroughly destroyed.

They have probably earned the enmity of someone vaguely important, but that is a problem for another day.

As they pause in the alleyway to catch their breaths, Shu glances over Link's shoulder.

"Oh -- it's a camera."

Link's explanation was a little confusing, but she sees now that it is similar to the devices that the Nongye Tianshi use to automate crop production.

"What is that there?"

The picture on the screen is one of his most recent. Taken after the Upheaval, after the Demon Dragon. After Zelda came home.

Link is standing in front of a house. A small cottage, really. Next to him is a young woman, with short blonde hair braided at the crown.

They both look tired. Like they've just come home from a long journey, and haven't yet settled in back at home yet. But they're smiling, and holding each other. It's a happy picture.

Link holds the Purah Pad, and...looks. He doesn't say anything yet. The picture consumes all of his attention.

"Hi... what's this?" For whatever reason, the people in Faerun have never turned magic into capturing images in items. So Ilphyl has to take a moment to figure out why Link is shoving something into their face.

It is, in fact, a selfie. Link is in front of the camera in what loos like climbing gear, his hand on his chin in a contemplative pose.

A hand that looks...rather odd, actually. It's like his right arm had been dyed a deep black, and there were odd metal geometric shapes encircling his arm. Link's arm doesn't look like that at all anymore - although if Ilphyl's ever seen Link Fuse something, they'll have seen brief Ethereal echoes of it.

More important, however, is the fact that on the background behind him are several sticky lizards.

Link does not answer Ilphyl's question; it's clear that he considers the picture itself explanation enough.

Edited 2025-01-19 03:36 (UTC)

At this point, Ilphyl has started to expect that Link doesn't really do explanations unless asked specific questions, and you just need to accept that is how Link is. They do notice the arm; Link might have noticed that one of Ilphyl's arms has an almost metallic-looking tattoo, albeit one less geometric and more like someone had written elven words in silver ink from wrist to shoulder. That tattoo may or may not persist when Ilphyl is in another shape.

"It's a picture of you. And... did you want to show me the lizards?"

That is really touching.

Of course, after the Dongzhi Festival evening she had shared with him, it is impossible not to recognize the scene. Exactly as he had described it. Shu allows him a few moments of silence with his tangible longing.

"...She is very beautiful."

They have similar eyes. Vibrant and luminous as an unclouded day.

Link had noticed the tattoo. Thought it had looked pretty, wondered what it would be like if Link got a tattoo too. But while Ilphyl's might be able to persist in different shapes, whatever had happened to Link's arm clearly hadn't persisted at all.

In response to the question he nods his head rapidly. Yes, he wanted to show Ilphyl the lizards. And something else, too.

Pulling back the Pad briefly, Link taps away at screen. Until he finds what he's looking for, and twists it around for Ilphyl to see again.

Now, the screen shows what looks to be a small encyclopaedic entry on the Sticky Lizard. There's a small picture, and the words: The suction of its toes allows this lizard to easily cling to walls. It could be an asset for a climber on wet surfaces if it were mixed into an elixir..

"That's amazing. It's like a magic book!" At least. "Do you have any other pictures of animals from your world? Especially ones that don't exist here? Plants are good too."

Like, the other sorts of lizards Link brought would also be neat to see, but Ilphyl likes learning about animals and plants. And since animals like horses clearly exist in many worlds, Ilphyl is especially interested in ones that don't exist here, or on Toril.

"I can't read the text, though, so maybe just the pictures for now." Ilphyl is working on reading Imperial, and they don't object to learning Link's language for a good reason, but... well, it is a lot.

Edited 2025-01-19 04:29 (UTC)

Link nods. Yes. Yes, Zelda is beautiful. She always has been.

There's another moment of silence, as he just looks. But then he gathers himself. And realises that now that he does have the Purah Pad, there's something on here that he knows Shu would really like to see.

So he taps at the screen a few times. When he's done, he moves it around to show Shu - and this time, it shows a series of small thumbnails, at the moment showing various Hyrulean animals. The Compendium.

"Oh? I did not know you were interested in ecology."

The animals are fairly similar overall to the ones in Esthere, with the various minor differences that mark them as different from the beasts with which Shu is more familiar.

"That poor burdenbeast..." She murmurs as she spots the clearly overloaded donkey. But, of course, she lingers on the bull and cow. "A magnificent specimen. I have never seen one develop such fine horns. The fields of your world must be bountiful in nutrients to -- "

" -- That horse is dead."

A pause.

"And evil."

Link listens to her observations. Yes, the donkey was a bit overloaded. Not everyone had a Korok-enchanted pack. Yes, the Water Buffalo's horns were big.

And then she spots the Stalhorse.

Link nods to the first question - the horse was dead - but shrugs to the second one. Sure, the Stalkoblins like to ride them and try to kill Link. But he didn't think that made them every.

"I've ridden one," he says. Because of course he has.

Link's about to move away from the entry, and show Ilphyl all of the Compendium - but then they mention that they can't read it. Link pauses.

And then reads out a rough translation of the entry. Maybe Ilphyl can't read it, but he can.

Then he taps at the screen again, and brings up the main page of the Compendium. The screen is filled with small thumbnails, all of which reveal that yes, Link does have other pictures of animals.

Lots of pictures.

"I imagine that would be painful."

Given the prevalence of saddle sores when riding normal horses, she can't imagine bones digging into your thighs and buttocks would be comfortable.

"But why are there undead horses? Do things normally reanimate in your world after death?"

Is this like bomb flowers. Why must this dreadful place continue to pervert the normal state of biology. Exploding and flaming plants she could grow to accept, but she draws the line at skeletons getting up to run around.

Link shrugs. It was fine. He figured out how to do it well enough. And then he got to say he'd ridden a dead horse!

And then he nods, because yes, things do reanimate. "Blood moons bring all monsters back," he says. "But Stalmonsters only come at night."

A few more taps, and Link shows her a different set of creatures in the Compendium - this time, the monsters section. In addition to the Stalhorse, there is the Stalkoblin, Stalmoblin, Stalizifos, and more terrifyingly, the Stalnox.

And a good number of other, more fleshy monsters, if Shu watches closely and takes a look at some of the other thumbnails that Link scrolls by on the way to the Stalmonster entries.

blood what

"Tian ah!"

Shu scrunches up her face.

"What is all of this? Do you mean to say you just have these kinds of things walking around at night? How does anyone go out?"

Well, there were plenty of places that people didn't go out at night in Terra, but that was because Other People Were the Real Monsters. This was more reminiscent of some sort of fantasy story.

"Perhaps your people can invest in cremation."

Link cocks his head to one side. He doesn't quite see the issue.

"Not everywhere," he says. "And it's safer now. The blood moon and monsters were part of the Calamity and the Upheaval."

And both of those forces had now been defeated. Link had seen to that.

Shu doesn't really know what he's talking about, but she can make use of some context clues from previous conversations.

"This is what you needed to save the princess from? But how did such a thing come about?"

[ One day, while out and about Flotsam, Link might start feeling intense... not exactly "killing intent", per se, but an extremely dangerous glare fixed upon him ]

Ilphyl looked through the pictures. They do have one question. "Why is the skeleton horse picture with the other animal pictures?"

They would put that one with other undead, even if it was an undead animal, not an undead person.

Kanna had had to wrap up quite a bit to even come to Elysium-- her face and name are known, after all-- and had felt grateful for a chance to really explore and come to know yet another climate.

Not only that, she felt a bit honored to have come along with Link, whose prowess she'd witnessed during the escape from Vindess.

This, though-- this was on another level. She'd been ready to punch the giant wolf, and didn't quite feel like this was a particularly safe situation, so she grimaced and took off after him. "Oi. OI!"

... Ah, right.

Where there is one wolf... There are others... "... Should've been worried about myself, huh? Okay..."

There was a bit more to it than just saving Zelda. And it wasn't just Link either; Zelda saved herself, too. But it was close enough, so Link nods.

"It's...a cycle," he says, repeating the words the Impa used to explain it to him, all those years ago. "A primal evil from before history."

Which means Link didn't know how it came about. Nobody did, not anymore. They didn't even know if anyone ever did know.

Perhaps it's not an intent to kill, but it's a sensation that reminds Link all too much of the Yiga. He almost half expects to spot a bunch of bananas nearby.

He can't see any bananas, but Link knows better than to disregard the danger. He pulls his shield from his back, as his eyes scan his surroundings. What is the source of the sensation?

Link thinks about it. Shrugs. He doesn't really know the answer to that. He can only give his best guess.

"There's no skeleton section."

Possibly an oversight on Purah's part. Maybe he should suggest it to her. Someday, when he can return home.

The problem with accompanying Link on trips to the wilderness was that - unless you were Zelda - he tended to forget that he was with other people. He tended to wander off. Climb trees. Get distracted by interesting looking plants. And in this case, wander off and start riding wolves.

But then she's yelling after him, and he remembers: he's not out here exploring on his own. Whoops.

He blinks in her direction. The wolf paces, agitated.

"...You want a wolf?" Maybe they could find her one to ride too?

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Quest 07 (Open + Closed)

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iii. Link has a slide show and he’s gonna make you watch it [semi-closed]

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1/2

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Wildcard

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1: Making New, Wolfy Friends

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Re: Wildcard

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