Identity Crisis

[replicatedcourage]

Who: Dark Link and anyone who comes across him
Where: The park
When: January 5th, dusk
Status: Open

It hurts...

Not the park bench to the face, though that had dislocated his nose and given him two black eyes, causing him to look like a raccoon until he discovered Vatheon's version of a fairy's fountain, the coral.

No, he was fine now, physically, and he was safe here, camped out under the trees, even if his sword and shield had gone missing. What hurt was something else.

She knows everything. She knows about Hyrule, and magic, and everything I don't.

He fought to put the breaks on that train of thought, terrified of what lay around the next cognitive bend. But, as trains do, his thoughts rolled irrepressibly onward.

What if she's right? What if I'm not Link?

A long pause as his whole being fought tooth and nail to keep away from the looming question.

...if she's right, then what's the point of me?

Comments

[fonmaster]

Ion had to struggle to not cry. The whole thing was just so painfully familiar. He would wonder what sort of monster would make creatures like replicas, but he knew that Jade wasn't a monster. Originals couldn't understand. They couldn't possibly understand that awful feeling of being incomplete, the need to make your mark on the world some way, any way.

He didn't hug Dark Link again, but he sat down next to him. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

[replicatedcourage]

"It's not supposed to be hard!" His voice was watery, choked out between sobs. "I was just supposed to do my job, but I failed, and now-! And now I don't know what to do! Zelda hates me because I'm not him..."

Gloved hands curled tighter in his own hair as another sob wracked him and he simply curled up on the grass, unable to muster the strength to do anything else.

[fonmaster]

"I'm sure she doesn't hate you," he murmured. "She's probably just afraid..." he trailed off. There was no use in trying to convince him to not try to kill the original Link right now. Ion rested a hand on Dark Link's shoulder quietly. What else was there to say? There wasn't anything. He hoped at least he could make him feel a little less alone.

[replicatedcourage]

Misery dripped off his words like rain down a windowsill. "She does, she hates me..."

Ion's hand on his shoulder was comforting, knowing that someone understood, that someone was at least trying to understand, it was his lighthouse in the darkness and he set his heading for it. Dark Link found himself resting his head in Ion's lap, still crying bitter tears but the sobbing slowly began to subside.

[fonmaster]

Ion sat there for as long as Dark Link needed him to, disregarding the fact that it was getting dark outside. He just wasn't capable of leaving someone in such obvious distress alone. He reached down and smoothed the hair off of Dark Link's forehead, letting him cry it out. His heart hurt for all the replicas just like the two of them back on Auldrant, but he had to trust that Luke would be there for them.

Ion could only be here for Link, but it was enough.