Dissonance
He picks up on rhythms easily, almost too easily. Everything has a rhythm, and walking is no different. Breathe in, breathe out; heartbeat steady; well-worn boots crunching softly, so softly, against the grass. His pack shifts with the motion, side to side, in and away. It isn't as resonating as his drum, but he doesn't care. It's steady just the
( Read more... )
There's something else in the air, an odd kind of tension that he senses more than he truly feels. He barely has time to open his eyes before he senses a power that shouldn't be this familiar.
Someone's here.
"You could say I am, I suppose. I don't know where I am," he says, standing up and turning around. He doesn't recognize the man, but the tattoo on his forehead... the man is a warrior, and he can hear the Void.
That explains the familiar power, at least, though the thought brings him little comfort. He should know everyone who can bear blue, and he doesn't know this man at all. And there's something else, something he can't place that nags at him nonetheless.
"Are we near the Canyon?"
((ooc: <3 I was worried the idea might be a little too odd. It'll be fun to see the different ways. :) ))
Reply
He comes a little bit closer, giving a glance around that's mostly for show, then gestures vaguely with his hand. He has his gauntlets off, so the Triforce mark on it burns bright gold just shy of his knuckles. "People here say this is Lake Hylia, if that's any help."
Reply
He scowls slightly when he sees the gold. That's far too bright to be a tattoo, and what is that strange symbol? He gets a faint sense of some kind of power from it, but it's entirely foreign.
"You aren't from the Canyon, are you? Then why do you have a warrior's mark?"
Reply
Then it sinks in; this man doesn't recognize him as the demon god, like others here do, but he recognizes something or another about him, and not in the same way Link recognizes him.
He does recognize him, too, he can tell more clearly the more he looks. The sound of his voice and the tilt of his eyes, the way his mouth moves when he speaks. It's maddening not understanding how.
"Warrior's mark..." he murmurs. "Do you mean these?" He reaches up and traces one of the stripes under his eyes, then the blue design on his forehead. "This isn't really me, I don't know what everything is. It's a mask."
As though that should explain everything. He doubts it will, but a man can hope.
Reply
"I know nothing of those places. I was on my way to the Snowhead Mountains when I found myself here."
A mask? That doesn't seem possible. "The one on your forehead is a warrior's mark, at least among my people. Only those who can face the sword are allowed to bear it." He leaves out the part about blue being the color of the Void; he gets the impression that it wouldn't make sense to this stranger.
"I've never seen a mask that looks and moves like skin."
Reply
He squares his broad shoulders and speaks clearly, almost formal. He can play a proper knight, after all, and has gotten into the habit of doing so when he has something to explain to someone who might turn hostile.
"This mask," he explains, "is magic. Transformative." That's what Zelda called it. "Legend says the Hero of Time brought it back from a realm called Termina, and sealed it away to keep its power from falling into the wrong hands. I'm his successor, so I have a right to use it--and I would show you the difference between what it's turned me into and who I really am, but since I've arrived here I've found myself incapable of taking it off."
Reply
He isn't particularly fazed by the display, though he does note that edge. He'll have to watch his words a bit more.
"I've never seen magic strong enough to transform an entire person." That's stretching the truth a bit; he hasn't seen it, but he's certainly felt it. "If it has been sealed away, then there must be something... dark about it. You should be careful. I've heard that playing with that kind of power is to play with your own destruction."
He smiles at that, amused. It's a warning he's been told himself many times, and he has almost always chosen to disregard it. There's a bit of irony in repeating advice he himself discards.
Reply
"I can 'face the sword,'" he says simply, smirking a little. If he only knew the half of it.
He debates explaining the mask for a moment, but decides there's no reason not to. Apparently there are two other people in possession of the mask here--or one and the actual god, he isn't sure--so it will come out eventually anyway.
"There's a god sealed in this mask. He was locked away by the Goddesses before the realms were split apart--his power was too much to control, maybe almost as great as the Goddesses combined."
Quickly he adds, "I'm all right, though." He shows the Triforce mark. "The Goddesses sealed him up, and the Goddesses' power holds him back."
Mostly, and only for now. He knows this, and it scares him, but living in fear won't help him figure out a way to get the mask off.
Reply
That's certainly quite a story, even if he doesn't know the details. It does strike him as interesting that someone would seek that power out, but perhaps this power of the Goddesses is part of why.
"These Goddesses of yours must be powerful." And this man must be someone fairly important if he can use that power. That strange triangles-in-triangle shape must be connected to them as well; he'll have to remember that.
He debates mentioning his own struggle, eventually deciding to be a little less vague for once. "It must be nice to have more than just empty words for assistance. Some of us are left to succeed or fail on our own."
For the most part, he thinks he's succeeding more than he fails, but he knows he isn't the best judge of that. There are no doubt many who would say by trying to live with it, he's already failed.
Reply
Link's smirk fades a little. To be honest, he doesn't really have the Goddesses' assistance so much as he is the Goddesses' assistance--or he was, until he finally finished Ganondorf once and for all. Now, not so much.
"They're very powerful," he agrees. "But...they actually left quite a while ago. They left this--" He taps his Triforce mark. "--and the other two pieces, and left us to do with it what we could."
He isn't surprised that this man doesn't know about the Triforce, he himself barely did until everything fell apart. Ordonian legends aren't quite the same as Hylian, and the Goddesses have never meant as much to them as his to father race. Not to mention Rusl was very careful to make sure Link never got the entire story growing up, to give him the choice to be a normal person if he wanted to.
...Talk about an exercise in futility. If he'd know who he was, the entire ordeal with Zant and Ganondorf would have been a lot less confusing for everyone.
He gives a quick, subtle shake of his head to try to put his thoughts back on track, and offers the wanderer a smile. "We've done pretty well for ourselves, when it all comes down to it. Most of us."
Reply
These goddesses left their power in the hands of men. "Then it seems your goddesses are either very foolish or very trusting. Such power in the hands of mortals is a dangerous proposition." He looks up at the sky before murmuring almost to himself, "A very dangerous proposition."
No matter. Time flows but one direction, so he must live with what he has been given, for good or ill. That is all anyone can do.
It does him no good to dwell on it. After all, thinking about it too much tends to wake his power up, and it's been quiet lately; he'd rather keep it that way a bit longer.
He smiles back, weakly. "I suppose that depends on what you consider doing pretty well. One person's success might be another's failure."
Reply
"The power is fairly...indiscriminate. So much so that in this case," Link says with a musing expression, "I think you're exactly right about success versus failure." His success, Zelda's success, Midna's success was the failure of Zant and Ganondorf, after all. "I'm just one of three, at least from the world I come from. One of the other two Bearers failed pretty spectacularly a few years back. Thank Faron."
He angles his head just slightly, looking the man over again. "You look like you're doing well enough to me. You're still alive, or you seem to be." He grins. "I could be wrong, it wouldn't be the first time."
Reply
One of three, and one failed. Then, does that mean that the third aided the first? No matter; he hardly sees any reason to pry. If the stranger wants him to know more, he'll share more.
He smiles slightly at that. "To the best of my knowledge, yes, I'm still alive. Though I'm certain there are plenty who would say that merely living makes me a failure." He looks over at the other man. "Oh? Are you saying you make a habit out of speaking with ghosts?"
Reply
He muses on the rest of what the man said for a minute, before giving a shrug that looks very out-of-place in his current shape. "I don't know about voices--" Well, he hadn't until recently. "--but I know the feelings and urges have gotten me into more trouble than I would've liked. Still, you learn to manage it."
He smiles at the stranger again, more comfortable now than unsettled. "I'm Link, by the way. One of them--there are a lot of people here with that name, I've been told. You?"
Reply
"Perhaps voice isn't the right word." He tries to come up with a better one and fails. "It is a voice without sound, a stare with no eyes, a pull that comes from everywhere and yet nowhere..." He shakes his head. "Though somehow I doubt you need me to explain it to you."
"Oh? I've yet to meet any of them." He'll remember that, though; more than one person with the same name is odd to him. "I'm glad to make your acquaintance, Link. I am Lucien."
Reply
Leave a comment