[log] and behind door number one... [semi-closed]

[sageprincess]

Characters: Zelda, Link, Max, Lea, Clayton, Clementine, and whoever these poor schmucks might hail on the network.
Location E10 (Building 50) + D11 (Building 58)
Date: Day 013, day
Summary: Using a key on a locked door is just common sense, right?
Warnings: Possible aggression and panic on the part of said poor schmucks.

(I've divided this log up into two parts to hopefully ease threading. Also if those on the door team want to make network posts about their shenanigans, just make sure to put NETWORK somewhere in the subject line! Anyone is free to answer threads marked as such, of course; hence why this log is 'semi'-closed.)

Comments

[tapferkeit]

[ Even through the stabbing headache, Link can make out the Ocarina of Time. His eyes widen, though he immediately squeezes them shut as the extra light hurts his head. He fumbles in his own tunic for his version and holds it out, cracking open an eye to check on the two.

What had happened to Zelda? Why was she so... so...

He couldn't see any difference between his Ocarina and hers. It made sense to him if that there wasn't - if he'd been taken from before she had been, then wouldn't he still have it, if he hadn't already given it back? Time wasn't difficult to understand, but -

But then her words slice through the pain, stab into his awareness, and make him look right at her, surprise plain on his face. ]

You... you send me back...?

[ ... She sends him back...

... He's not... sure... how to feel about that. Even his uncertainty about Zelda's behaviour is washed away in that revelation. ]

[sageprincess]

... It was the only way I could atone for all I had done.

[Her voice softens, staring down at the Ocarina in her hand. For a moment, she's back there, in that idyllic, peaceful place after all the violence of the final battle with the Evil King. For a moment, she's clasping her hand over Link's as he places the Ocarina in her open palm, the only touch she allowed herself after his reawakening.

But only for a moment. She closes her hand around her Ocarina, clutching it to her chest as her glare returns anew.]

Perhaps It was not able to see us then, in that place, and that is why It has made such an obvious mistake.

[Though it's hard to believe her own words, as her head pounds under It's piercing gaze. It can see everything, every part of her that crumbles and breaks inside under the veneer of spite and disgust as she speaks the words she's kept hidden these past two weeks.]

Link... is a child.

[tapferkeit]

[ She sends him back. It's for a good reason. He can live what he couldn't. How many times had he wished he had grown into this body, rather than waking up in it one day? Especially at the start, when he had to cope with not only the changes all around him but the changes in his own strength, height, weight... everything.

He squeezes his eyes shut again, pressing his hand to his head to try to stifle the pain, the other curling around his own version of the Ocarina. The skittering of a Floormaster's nails on the floor make his ears twitch despite everything else. It only underlines the disgust in Zelda's voice, and he wishes that he could block it out as a hallucination like his monster ones.

But she's real. Real, and saying such horrible things.

Link cracks open an eye again, fixing her with a stare filled with emotional hurt, even as his eye waters from the agony in his head. ]

I - am - a child.

[sageprincess]

I said, stop!

[Her voice breaks with her demand, and her disgust turns to herself for displaying such weakness to It's agent. He's not real, he's just a fake made to toy with her emotions, yet she can't steel her heart completely against that face.

Zelda spins on her heel, shoulders tense and raised as she turns her back to him. If he's this determined to play the part he's been given, then there's no risk of him using that moment to strike her down.]

Just... leave me alone.

[Alone. That's what she's been all this time. That's what she'll always be.

She was a fool to think any different.]

[tapferkeit]

[ If he were spiteful, he could have said that she was the one who'd whirled on him. But he had been bothering her, hadn't he? Maybe he should back off - especially in light of this. Her words were so hateful. The fact that she didn't trust him was as agonizing as the feeling behind his eyes.

If he could leave the house he would.

But even with the door locked, he felt like he couldn't move from the pain. Even when he shifts his head it felt like someone was stabbing a knife into his skull.

Eventually, he closes his eyes again and gives a soft groan. ]

Alright.