Quest 03 (Open)

[newmemorywhodis]

i. Vault Library: Over 100 years old and still not too old for picture books

Usually, Link is quite comfortable in libraries. Even if he’s not particularly academic himself, he’s spent more than enough time in them with Zelda. And he does always like a good novel. (Especially Romance. And Mystery. And most especially any book that was both at the same time.)

And yet, in the library he’s…less comfortable. Namely because he can’t actually read any of the books here. But his inability to read Imperial is exactly the problem he’s here to fix.

So now Link is curled up in a big comfy chair, frowning faintly at the picture book held in his hands. On the cover is a cute cartoon flying ship, and the title, A is for Airship.


ii. Vault Academy: Behold the unholy desk-shield

Link had ended up in the Academy’s basic ether training classes the same way he usually found himself in this sort of thing: by wandering around the place, opening doors to see what was behind them, and then shamelessly sticking around when he found himself in the middle of a lecture.

He hadn’t really expected anything to come from the basic Ether training class he found himself gatecrashing. Magic had never really been Link’s forte, after all. Any magical ability he’d possessed had usually come from someone else.

And yet…at the end of the lesson, something clicked. Something familiar, that he’d thought had been gone forever. Almost without thinking, he pulls his shield from his back. Puts it on his right hand, while reaching out with his right towards one of the classroom desks.

His right arm flickers, and it’s like there’s a ghostly shadow of another arm laid over his own. One with clawed nails and odd geometric bands encircling it, and that glows a bright green.

Then Link pulls...and suddenly, the table has shrunk - and attached to Link’s shield.

“Ha!” He cries.


iii. Flotsam deck: Advanced fish murder

Now that Link's mysteriously managed to regain the Fuse ability - and also his stash of shock fruit - there's only one thing to do.

Immediately start using it to really rake in the fish.

He starts on the deck of one of the fishing boats. Looks down into the water. And then when he spots a passing school of fish...draws his bow, pulls a shock fruit out of his back, and then attaches the fruit to the end of his arrow in a flash of green light.

When he lets the arrow loose, the water crackles with electrical energy! ...And a whole bunch of very dead fish start floating to the surface.

Time to jump in and start collecting!


iv. Flotsam kitchen: Pizza party [locked to Donnie]

Link wasn’t picky about foods: he liked all of them, practically in equal measure. But sometimes, he was in the mood for something specific.

Right now, that something was pizza.

Having given most of his Tabantha wheat to Shu, and not having much Hateno cheese in his pack, Link had substituted both for local ingredients. But the star of the show - the Hylian tomatoes - were straight from home.

And now is the moment of truth, when Link opened the oven and revealed his creation. Fresh and steaming hot, he pulls out a delicious Hylian tomato pizza.

Comments

iv

[purplexing]

Donnie had skipped a meal again. Donnie had skipped many meals, in fact, except this fact never really occurs to him until he's left with nothing to do that would otherwise have preoccupied him from that point, or, as is in this case, he finds himself a bit more wobbly on his feet than necessary when navigating the conglomeration of boats.

The scent of something delicious grabs his attention, luring him into the kitchen Link so happens to be baking. To be fair, when he's starving anything might smell delicious, but there's something beautiful about how that freshly prepared pie looks when Link is pulling it out of the oven.

Donnie pokes his head through the window, practically drooling.

"What is that."

[newmemorywhodis]

"Hylian tomato [pizza]!" Link says, as he lays the delicious creation onto a board and starts cutting it into slices. But he has no idea what the Imperial word for 'pizza' would be - or even if they have pizzas - so he just has to fall back on the Hylian word for it.

Then, he looks at Donnie, head titled to one side. Picks up a slice, and holds it out towards him. Does Donnie want to try?

[purplexing]

It's always annoying running into unknown terms, just as annoying as coming across words he can't quite work out when he's practicing reading. But that doesn't matter too much at the moment as whatever it is that Link's made, it looks tasty and smells even better. He licks his lips without quite realizing it.

And then Link holds out a piece. The turtlekin leans further into the window, sniffing at it like some feral thing before he remembers he has hands to take the thing for himself. It's warm, but not uncomfortably so, and the threat of everything starting to slowly drip off of the....what is it? Bread? -has Donnie quickly move to stick it in his mouth.

[newmemorywhodis]

If Link can say so himself: he did a great job with this one.

Delicious Hylian tomatoes. A warm, perfectly crusted bread. And of course, cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. It's the cheese that makes it, really.

But while Donnie enjoys his first bite, Link doesn't hesitate - he grabs a slice for himself too.

[purplexing]

"Mmmmmmf." Everything just seems to work together despite it being so simple in concept. Donnie's already shoveled most of it into his mouth as though he were afraid it'd try to get away from him the moment he stopped chewing. Fresh out of the oven but not too hot, melty cheese and tangy tomatoes.

"Oh where have you been all my life," he says around his last mouthful, looking sadly at his empty hands.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link doesn't smile. But he does brighten just a bit, clearly pleased that Donnie likes it.

At this point, rather than holding out another slice, Link just picks up the whole pizza and holds it out for Donnie to grab from. "You want the recipe?" he says.

[purplexing]

The turtlekin wiggles his fingers ecstatically before grabbing two more slices. Because he has two hands, see.

"Mm? Sure? I...'ve never cooked before, is it difficult?" Sorry, he is not waiting for an answer while he stuffs his face. Famished? Maybe just slightly. But also this is so gooooood. And vaguely familiar somehow.

"Wait, I think Shu mentioned something like this before. It was some sort of food specialty from some place in her world."

[newmemorywhodis]

Link shakes his head. No, it's not hard to make.

"Shu makes [pizzas] too?" Link says, faintly surprised. "They're new, back home."

Since you know, people only just recently figured out how to make cheese again. The culinary history of Hyrule was a bit strange, sometimes.

[purplexing]

"Well, no, I don't think she made them herself, she just knew about it..." At least that's what Donnie attempts to say, but most of it is lost between chewing. Those two slices are as good as gone, his eyes already sliding towards the platter for more.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link's not guarding the plate at all; it's an open feast, as far as Link's concerned. Although he does take a couple more slices for himself, of course.

Can't let Donnie eat all of it.

As for whether Link heard what Donnie said through the chewing...well it's hard to say. Link doesn't respond at all, so maybe he didn't.

[purplexing]

Good call on Link's part, because otherwise Donnie would have probably polished the rest of it off fairly easily. He doesn't seem inclined to say anything more because he's too busy eating, but he didn't figure it was too important, and Link himself had never seemed like much of a conversationalist anyway.

[newmemorywhodis]

No, Link's not much of a conversationalist. He's perfectly happy to just exist in silence, eating pizza with Donnie.

Between the two of them, it doesn't take long for them to dust off the entire thing.