beep beep danger

Theyhave a Zelda on their ship and Captain Daphnes Nohansen is sulking in theofficer’s mess, not that she knows why she’s been turned away from her quartersfor the duration of their journey to the Faron sector. Not knowing makes it worsefor her pride, and perhaps Grace of Hylia should send an ancillary to sootheher and remind her that the Goddesses bestow many of their blessings as secrets.There is a ninety-eight percent chance that if Captain Nohansen knew the Queenhas been sleeping on her bed her mood would improve completely. But Zelda’s ordersdo not permit Grace of Hylia to mention her presence.

Andeven if they did, Grace of Hylia would still keep the knowledge to itself.

ThisZelda boarded at Lurelin Station and Grace of Hylia finds its surveillancerecords already suspiciously fragmented from key periods of its refuel andresupply. Its command log, on the other slate, is quite clear. The Queen willdisembark whenever she pleases. She is not to be questioned. She is not to bedisturbed. Grace of Hylia cannot remember which of them came first, it or Zelda– not this Zelda, of course, but the Zeldas as a whole – but itsuspects it would be very tired of this behavior if tired were something itcould be.

Preparationsfor tea begin on the second deck.

Itflashes the lights twice on the seventh deck. Three of its ancillaries rise.

“MasterLink,” Fi Nine pleads flatly, a freshly-mended tunic draped over one arm, “youmust ready yourself for morning devotionals.”

FiSix, Fi One, and Fi Sixteen enter from the hallway and take up their customarypositions around the corners of the bed at the edge of the room. Its occupantslumbers on. Grace of Hylia flashes the lights again. It sees through the eyesof every Fi. It is every Fi, in addition to the rest of itself; everyNavi, every Tatl, every Tael. It is the ship and every ancillary within it.

It,like all ships, has favorites.

“MasterLink,” Fi Nine repeats.

LieutenantLink of the Fi smashes a pillow to her face and whines softly. Fi Six beginshumming a lullaby in apology. Then the four Fi each grab a limb and lift Linkfrom the bed.

“Youhave four minutes and thirty-three seconds before devotionals begin on decktwo,” the Fi say as one. “Do you require continued aid?”

TheLieutenant reaches back for her pillow; still humming, Six bats it out ofreach. The melody is older than Link of the Fi by several millennia. Grace ofHylia’s first captain was very fond of it as well.

Graceof Hylia’s first captain was notoriously a late riser.

LieutenantLink is worse.

TheFi gently fit her arms into her tunic and comb her hair. Sixteen catches theback of her collar when she tries to amble off into the hallway before puttingon her gloves. Nine straps her sword, the symbol of Fi and of her office, toher back. Link grins in appreciation and the Fi bustle around her, tidying herbed and papers and the amber brooch at her throat.

Graceof Hylia has every spare memory core analyzing a data packet Courage of Faroretransmitted to it as both were docked at Lurelin. All of its sensors inside theCaptain’s quarters have been silent since leaving the station. It cannotremember why it is traveling to Faron. Its captain is sulking.

Ithums through Fi Six, and gently leads Link to the elevator at the end of thehallway.

When Link wakes up 10 minutes before the end of the first Infusions lesson of term he already has a lab partner. He knows he does because she is the one who wakes him up by elbowing him in the tender spot right below his ribs. Also because they are always partners for everything that isn’t assigned to be done alone. It’s a comforting constant, like how remlits are always really nice during the day.

“We’re infusing a Guardian Potion,” Zelda says. “Stop thinking about cats.”

He responds by not responding, looks over at her notes and scans them quickly. He’s always had a pretty good memory. When his attention span can catch up he doesn’t have to be told anything twice.

“Ugh, fine, remlits,” Zelda clarifies, because she knows what his silences mean. “Stop thinking about remlits.”

Joke’s on her: he started thinking about cats when she said the word.

They make it through class and the next, and then swordsmanship training after. Link is okay with a sword. His instructors always tell him to practice more, that if he practiced more he would be one of the best, but he’s not actually that fond of fighting. He likes flying.

“Not all knights fight,” Zelda says that evening in Link’s room. They aren’t allowed to do homework in Zelda’s. They aren’t allowed to do homework anywhere with the door closed. Link’s not sure why. “That’s why we’ve got this infusion assignment. You could be a knight who brings back ingredients to Skyloft. You’d have to know which ones were the good ones then.”

All flying and no fighting?

Link thinks he might like that.

Besides, if the scrolls they found are right, Guardian Potions need ingredients found at night to become more powerful. Maybe remlits in other parts of the world are nice at night and grumpy during the day! He wouldn’t mind finding out.

Her ship is gone, and Awn Elming wouldn’t think much of it, but her ship is gone.

And when she sleeps there’s singing. She wouldn’t think much of it, but her ship–

AND THAT’S ALL YOU’RE GETTING OUT OF ME, BUT IN THIS LIEUTENANT AWN IS ALIVE AND JUSTICE OF TOREN IS DEAD. A GHOST SHIP IF YOU WILL.

I DON’T SHIP IT IRISH, I DON’T SHIP IT AT ALL. EXCEPT HORRIBLE UNREQUITED PINING ON SEIVARDEN’S PART.

Also I don’t think I can write Ancillary fic. Not too good at being a multi-fandom writer. It’s hard to keep so many character voices in your head at once.

If I did attempt this it would be something about Seivarden the prep school teacher and Breq who has become the guardian for Awn’s little sister, and Seivarden’s like wow can I hit on you relentlessly hi, and Breq’s like you disappoint me, and Seivarden’s like I CAN BE BETTER FOR YOU, and Breq’s like that’s cool but boy do I have some bad news for you I’m not into you.

I think a major reason why I like Link so much is that, like me, all he really wants is dinner and a nap. Also for things to not be trying to kill him always, though that’s not something I have to worry about with the same frequency he does.

I love this idea and fully agree he would share his homemade ice cream because he is a hero.

++ She spends an hour crying after the bird takes them away, but this is only because her soup tastes best after an hour’s simmer. Once she wipes the water from her cheeks she is done with sorrow. Sorrow won’t return her grandchildren to the island. That task, it seems, is up to her.

++ The pirate girl doesn’t like it one bit and says so loudly when she approaches her on the beach. “You’d die faster than anything, Grandmother,” the girl says with an impatient stare. Almost polite. “But my crew and I are going north anyway, so.” So she allows the girl to show her up to the captain’s cabin, and thanks her for being so kind, and settles in for the sea to take her to where she needs to go.

++ Valoo offers to fly her from island to island until her task is done, the old charmer. She declines. Her King would get in a right snit at being left behind.

++ She asks the pirates to take Link and Aryll home. They don’t. Instead the pirate girl takes them under the sea, though how they manage it without the King is beyond her. They awaken Hyrule only to send it back to slumber on the back of a golden arrow. She promises the King she will look after the pirate girl who looks so much like his daughter.

++ By proxy. She looks after Tetra by proxy - Link - because that girl was never going to make Outset Island her home. She watches them sail off in search of a new homeland and waves with Aryll until their ship is smaller than a gull on the horizon. Then she goes back inside the home she has lived in, and will die in, and sets about making some soup.

// (She cries this time too.)

I never read it either, but whenever I see the name it reminds me of Record of Lodoss War because Parn. Being not lazy is hard, though. Kudos to you for getting to it eventually. How are you liking it?

Deep space pine.

This would be some kind of time travel / groundhog day AU where One Esk Nineteen has to do it over and over again until it gets it right, and ultimately picks Lieutenant Awn up physically and carries her like a bag of skel into the nearest shuttle. Absconds into the night. Somehow Justice of Toren still blows up and proof appears and they take a detour to become minor gods somewhere, and then the books still happen, but instead of being alone Breq has Awn when she finds Seivarden’s cold drunk mess in the snow.

And Seivarden has to have her OH NO SHE’S HOT moments WHILE AWN IS AROUND, BEING THE REASON BREQ WANTS TO PUNCH THE GOVERNMENT ETC ETC and Awn has to pull her pining fuckup ass aside and be like ok no you think you know the score here but you do not know the score and then they all punch the government together and nothing hurts except for Skaaiat, I guess, who spends this entire time thinking Awn is dead and being super emo about it.

I AM BOTH AWFUL AT MEMES AND AT HAVING MEME HEADCANONS LYING AROUND but I think it would be pretty funny if the youngest Anaanders are corrupted by their youthful fleshprisons and spend all their time on the Radch universe version of the ansible being narcs. Hey did you hear they took ancillaries away? Sad right. OMG look how improper these people we are about to colonize are being!!!