Work Text:
“Does anyone here feel…” Wind struggled to speak his mind. “watched?”
“Watched in what way?” Legend pressed, his eyebrows knitting together and his ears flicking to hear any details possibly missed.
“Not in a dangerous way,” Wind clarified. “But as if some else is also here, but not.”
“An invisible entity that follows?” Time asked.
“Something like that,” Wind said. “I started feeling it during my adventure, and then afterwards it went away, but then it showed up again when my second one happened.”
“I know that feeling exactly,” Hyrule said, other Links perking up as if they recognized what Wind described. “I’ve felt that phenomenon too, and I can even feel it now!”
“I figured that I wouldn’t be the only one,” Twilight said. “I’ve seen some of you look over your shoulders the same way I would when I would check if it’s still there.”
“It seems that this is a universal thing then,” Time remarked. “I haven’t felt that presence since my younger years. It surprised me to feel it again when I met you boys.”
“I’ve always thought it was the call to adventure,” Wild said.
“Or that it’s the calling card to something significant and grand happening,” Legend remarked. “It’s a feeling that’s both excited and scared me.”
“I wonder if this entity has a name,” Four pondered.
“Call it strange, but the word ‘player’ comes to mind,” Warrior said.
“Why?” Four asked.
“I’m not sure. It just seems right.”
“Does it talk to anyone?” Sky asked.
“Does it talk to you?” Time asked. “It doesn’t talk to me.” The others agreed with the eldest.
“No,” Sky replied, “but I do feel like it has a sort of influence over me. Not possession, or getting my autonomy taken away, but like… impressions?”
“I think of them like suggestions,” Wild said. “I’ll think of different responses or different paths to take, and one of those choices will end up being the most prominent. I could go against it if I wanted to, but somehow I feel like it’s a bad idea every time I think of doing that.”
“So in a way I guess it’s saving us,” Wind wondered. “Because that’s my experience.”
“Maybe it’s the goddesses’ way of protecting us,” Four theorized.
“I don’t think so,” Sky said. “It probably does have that intent, but I have a feeling it isn’t tied to them.”
“Whatever it is, it’s not malevolent, and I don’t feel threatened or tied down by it,” Time concluded. “But I do agree that I’m glad I’m not the only one that feels it.”
meanwhile, in a simple house in a different world, a woman stared at her screen dumbfounded, her sister looking over her shoulder.
“Do we have a name for this kind of fourth wall break?” Her sister asked.
The woman said nothing, too surprised to say anything.
Her sister poked her cheek. “…Jojo? You there?”
…
“I didn’t draw this.”