Naomi knew that mission would be a bad idea. It was in Chicago. You didn't in your right mind go there, ever, because you would end up fighting thousands of insect spirits for something and you would die, covered in bugs. If you were lucky they would drain your will to live before they ate you.

Not that that shaman made them go through that. Instead it just called the magic of a swarm so big it blotted out the sun and banished her to ... somewhere. Hm.

She notices that her deck is off. She turns it on. Probably she just landed in some rich person's beautiful manicured garden arcology. She'll be able to map the sprinkler systems to the water main to find out where it ends and then she'll find her way back to Boston. Somehow.

The closest electronic device... Is not. There are no detectable interfaces within her Deck's range.

.... everything is running silent? Did she land in a high-security arcology? She better not have landed in a high-security arcology, that would be so annoying. 

She does a matrix perception for hidden tech within a hundred meters.

Not within a hundred meters.

The wind and the rustling of grass die down long enough for her to faintly hear music from the direction of that little hill with the lonely tree.

... she is now pretty sure that she has no clue where she is. There are no -- untouched spaces -- on Earth, not anymore. Maybe she's hallucinating. 

She walks towards the music.

It's a bit of a walk, a few hundred meters. A couple of relevant details come into view as she approaches.

There is an active volcano visible in the far distance. Surely that's some kind of AR? The person making music on an accordion-thing - no Persona - is shaped a lot like a bird. And that glowing pedestal is probably the best candidate for an access point of some kind she's seen so far.

"Hello?"

He pauses his playing and singing. "Hello, traveller. What brings you out here?"

"I've gotten. Uh. Lost. Where is 'out here'?"

"We are on the Rabia Plain, out in the north of the Necluda region, of the land of Hyrule. You're lucky if you're lost- I've traveled farther than most and might be able to point the way."

Naomi recognizes precisely zero of those places. "Are there lands other than Hyrule?"

"Hyrule is a very large region... To the east is the Great Sea. In the far north, past the wastelands, the Kalvit, the tree-lands. West of Hyrule are tribal lands. The deep south is not well explored." He names some countries. None particularly familiar.

...Something descends below the layer of clouds, above the high cliffs behind them.

A great blue dragon. Its head must be the size of a car, or bigger.

'Not well explored', huh. Did she somehow land somewhere preindustrial --

She notices the dragon and panics, turning on the camouflage function on her suit and immediately dropping to the ground.

"I- Traveler?" The bird-person glances around. "Ah, interesting. If you wish to hide from Naydra's gaze I will not stop you, but I do not think you are in any danger."

Naomi doesn't say anything. Instead she periodically looks back up at the sky, waiting for the dragon to be gone. 

Naydra is still there, undulating leisurely across the sky. At this pace it'll be a while.

The bird-person sighs a bit, then resumes playing his music.

"Do you know what Naydra's doing up there -- more generally do you know what area she's claimed or what she wants --"

"I don't know why she is flying here. Usually she stays... More eastward. Naydra lives at the spring of wisdom, at the peak of Mount Lanayru, and tests the merit of any who approach. If they are worthy, they may receive holy power and a holy duty. I actually know a song about it, if you want to hear it?"

".... sure, I'll hear it."

" On mountain high above the land,

Dragon Naydra sleeps in wisdom's hand.

If you wish to bathe in knowledge and grace,

Ascend the peak and seek her test.

The knight, the scholar, the lord all fail,

Wisdom is greater than your mortal aims.

Naydra's sages guard the springs of power,

T'will serve Hyrule in our darkest hour. "

"...That's one verse of it, at any rate."

Ooooh, that is a pretty tune. She claps when it's over. 

The birdman looks pleased and gives a little bow. "Thank you. I'm glad to know that I'm improving as a bard. I hope to live up to my teacher's skill some day."

"Do you happen to have a map of the other regions?"

Naomi is not going anywhere fucking near Mount Lanayru; for all she knows the dragon made that story specifically to tempt her to go there with -- precog powers, or something -- although she's probably screwed either way if the dragon's already paying that much attention to her. 

"I don't have a map, alas. I have little need for one, as I can fly. But Mount Lanayru is to the east of here, Zora's Domain is to the north, directly south is hard mountainous terrain - I do not recommend that route - and Kakariko Village is a few miles to the west of here."

"Which is closer, Zora's Domain or Kakariko Village?" Naomi keeps a wary eye on the dragon. "Are there signs?"

"Kakariko Village is definitely closer. No signs, I believe, but if you simply go right at the fork in the canyon, you will arrive there. It's not far."

"Thank you, I think I'll head there."

"Fare well, then. I think I'll head south for now."

She waves cheerily back at him as she runs away, letting the adrenaline keep her going further than she would otherwise. (She still doesn't get very far away before having to stop to walk.)

The birdman takes off with a few powerful flaps of his wings. The instrument goes around his back.

That campfire has some random guy sitting next to it now. He shrugs when Naomi just runs past.

The canyon is up ahead as described. Naydra is still turning lazy circles in the sky, and doesn't seem to be paying attention to her.

If the dragon is still there she's going to keep running. Walking. Walking while sometimes also running? Something like that.

The canyon's walls are intimidatingly steep, but hides her quite well from Naydra's presence. She can see a fork a few hundred meters ahead just as promised.

Seems to be getting a little close to sunset - the shadows are long and the bottom of the canyon is out of direct sunlight.

She'll keep going. The village is more likely to have safe food than the wilderness. She will hopefully be able to do something for money to pay for it.

The right fork takes her to a dense patch of woods nestled between more mountains after about twenty minutes of walking. There are mushrooms here and there, acorns on the ground, a few pretty looking flowers.

She can take the upper path or the lower path through the woods. Presumably the bard would have mentioned if they led to different places...?

Naomi does not know how to identify non-poisonous mushrooms and she does not think anyone will be interested in the acorns. She picks the flowers and meanders through the woods picking more. 

She finds a couple of carrots, too.

...Well, this thing looks important. A few things that are either small glowing birds or exceptionally large pink fireflies hover lazily nearby.

It even shows up on her deck. Almost like a very, very, very weird Host.

... that is deeply, deeply strange. 

She tries to finesse access into the host.

It takes about thirty seconds to find a configuration that convinces the weird Host to give her a mark. Everything about the process is a little off, including what the mark looks like. But it lets her in.

The inside is one large room like a cave made of wood, like the inside of a tree. There is a large pool of water in the middle. Little nacelles with fairy-tale style mushrooms or giant flowers are scattered around. A large workbench-like thing with tools proportioned for a Troll - or someone bigger - sits in front of the pool.

Naomi makes sure she's running silent before she steps in. Not that she's planning to get marks on and copy any files, she just wants to take a look around.

The host definitely doesn't match any of the aesthetics she's used to. She has absolutely no clue whether the water or the mushrooms or the nacelles or the tools are ornamental or representations of files. It would be outrageous to not have any security measures except for the entrance to the host, so she guesses that the objects are all reskinned not to look like files.

She sets about peering at the objects to see if they've been reskinned -- easy, but time consuming if she has to do it for all of them.

The nacelles on the walls seem vaguely like... Recharging stations for drones? Sort of? Same with the flowers. The mushrooms are apparently ornamental.

The workstation and tools are not disguised. They have slots for magical power input, two inputs of something else that she doesn't recognize, and some options ports.

The water is a disguised path to another room, and probably a strong security measure too.

It's odd how much this area looks like a place where something lives. Naomi thinks about AI with weirdly human tastes and rogue sprites as she examines the tools more closely. 

It's really quite hard to tell what they might be meant to do without touching them. Thematically, something with clothing? Protection or disguise? Maybe magical manufacturing?

She spends some time 3-D imaging the tools, the flowers, the nacelles, and the water fountain, and leaves. The tools are -- not files, somehow, and if they're actually for making anything instead of just being set dressing they're probably some technomancer bullcrap that she can't use anyway. She may as well collect more flowers to sell in the village.

The end of the forest is near! Another half a mile or so. There is a large, mysterious structure - same design motif as that pedestal the bird guy was next to - that bears another Host. It overlooks a steep cliff above a medieval-looking village. There are human-looking people walking around, tending gardens and things. A path down is off to the left.

Another host! Fancy, and potentially informative! She'll take a look inside that one too. 

This is much trickier. It's looking for a specific key device. There is a little pedestal with a physical connection for it. Eventually she manages to mimic the signal with her Deck closely enough that the Host marks her.

Neat! She -- figuratively -- steps inside. 

The Host is a large, empty room with a few pillars in place, and a few treasure chest-looking things. Another room rests at the end of the hall.

Chests! That way more like a place where someone would store files. She makes a beeline for the closest one.

Too bad something comes out of that other room.

An elf? But it looks - shriveled, mummified, it wears golden ornamentation and has a strange eye symbol tattooed on its forehead. It floats toward her in a steady pose.

"You are no sage. This place is not meant for you. Leave the realm of this shrine immediately."

What the -- she was running silent! She didn't even notice anyone looking! That should be impossible!

... well, not impossible. The same kind of thing happens if you get noticed by GOD. Automatic convergence, no matter how careful you've been up until that point. Which means that if this thing can communicate with anything else, she'll have to redesign her persona and her marks and change her deck identification to go other places. Goddamn it, there goes an afternoon she could have used collecting stuff to sell.

"Right, right. Before I do, do you have like. A primer? On the rules of the local matrix? I'm from ... um. Not around here."

"You are foreign. Few remain who can enter the matrix in this land. Do not interrupt my brothers' and sisters' slumber by intruding into the shrines, unless you do so in aid to the Chosen One. Be wary of the great evil that stalks the land, for it seeks to destroy all things. Do not pry at the minds of others through this realm, this is a grave offense."

"Can't do mind control, but thanks. Who's the chosen one?"

"The one destined to seal the great evil once more and restore peace to the realm. You will know them by their bond to a powerful artifact bearing the same symbol as on my head. Lost one, I tire. You must leave."

"Yep, yep, I'm going," she says. She looks at the symbol from several angles and saves it and disappears.

Her eyes open and she rises from where she left her body leaning on the inner wall of the shrine. She checks her flowers -- good, they're not damaged. May as well go to the village.

The village is a peaceful little agricultural place. Men and women tending gardens, one man walking up the road holding a weird chicken. No electronics anywhere, sadly enough. Though it's big enough to support a clothes store, apparently! A salesgirl-or-someone looks up from her book to call out to Naomi as she passes.

"Hey, that's an interesting outfit! If you want something more local, we're open every day. The tailor shop Enchanted, right this way!"

"Do you know where I could sell these?" She holds out the flowers. 

"Ooh, Bluebells and Silent Princesses. You went gathering up in the forest, huh? Claree will probably buy them from you inside. Merchants sell stuff to each other, too, you know." She winks.

Grin. "I'm mostly looking for something to eat and a place to sleep. A barn if I can't afford an inn. I can also sell tech expertise, if there's anyone buying."

"Huh, tech? I guess that depends on what kind of tech... Not that there's too much tech around here. Uhhhh, a bunk in the inn goes for twenty Rupees and you'll get at least that much for those flowers. They're good for elixirs."

Good! She'll have a place to sleep. That's ... that's good. Even if the inn is probably lower-tech than anywhere in the world where she comes from, let alone anywhere she's been. "I don't know if you've seen them, but there are these -- big structures that are actually hosts. One of them is in the forest outside the village, another one looks like a cave made of glowing rock. They seem pretty low-traffic, though? I didn't see anyone else locally online when I was heading over here."

"Hosts? ...Glowing cave, you mean the shrine up there? I don't know anything about lost ancient technology, ma'am. You'll want to go to Hateno Town for that."

"...... ancient technology?"

"Uh yeah? Like, shrines and the Guardians and stuff."

"How ancient are we talking?"

"The height of Sheikah technology was ten thousand years ago. Nobody really knows why their wonders mostly disappeared, but the evil god was probably involved. I heard they tried to dig up and figure out some of it before the Calamity happened."

New theory: Naomi was dropped into an apocalyptic future? Somehow? Ten thousand years is a really fucking long time. 

"Um. Wow. Okay. So, you mentioned some other stuff in the 'ancient technology' category -- the caves are shrines? Shrines to what?"

"To Goddess Hylia, I guess? Or to ancient monks, or the legend of the hero, or something." This person is starting to look a little impatient.

Naomi isn't good enough at reading people to notice. "The legend of the hero, eh? Is that one of those Guardians you were talking  about before?"

"No, the Guardians are mechanical monsters. Mindless, creepy things that shoot at anything big enough that moves." She shudders, then sighs. "If you're really all that curious about this ancient stuff you should try someone else."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Who'd be best?"

She's sarcastic now. "Try Lady Impa. The big house, can't miss it."

She mutters something under her breath. Then, "And we're always open if you decide you want local fashion down pat!"

"Yeah, thanks! Sorry for, um, reminding you about. Old things! I'll definitely take a look at your stuff when I have more money."

She approaches the big house. She's not sure what's most polite. Maybe she should knock?

The guard armed with an honest-to-god medieval spear stops that notion.

"Hold, stranger. What business would you have with our honored village elder?"

She's wearing future-armor but is still probably vulnerable to a determined spearperson. She stops. "I'm from a really far away place that has technology like some of the stuff I've seen around here, but more -- widely used. I have special expertise in this tech and I'm sort of stranded here and looking for work, and I was told that your village elder knew more about it."

The guard hesitates. "Ancient technology? Well, I suppose Lady Impa might be best for that here, but you really should visit Hateno Town for that... She remembers the Calamity so perhaps she knows something that would be useful to you. But how am I to know you are not some bandit or a Yiga or something? You could be lying."

One of the things she landed with was her gun. She explains how it works and demonstrates basic safety information before handing it to him, alongside a grappling hook and a couple of nets. "I'll take those back when I come back outside. Does that work?"

He is kind of alarmed by her presenting a weird weapon and has her set the stuff down on the ground instead.

"......Hmmmm. You still might be a waste of her time. But this stuff is weird enough that you're probably telling the truth. I'll ask her if she wants to see you, wait here please."

"Alright, you can go see Lady Impa."

Naomi really hopes nothing happens to the gun. Not that she's very good at using it. 

When she starts up the stairs she hears a beep on her commlink and whirls around. It's been going off for the last few minutes and she's been tuning it out, assuming it was a reminder she had set for herself to make a map overlay from all the geographic information her eyes had collected so far. Before she steps inside and sees Impa, she checks it absently, like she normally does before she goes into a mission and needs to meet with a Johnson -- 

And she sees a persona. The Matrix representation of a person, silhouette outlined in a blue AR line through the door. Augmented reality, indeed.

She blinks. Maybe Impa has an "ancient technology" commlink and monitors the matrix in her area? She's not quite sure why someone would need to do that. Maybe it helps keep those Guardians away.

She walks inside.

Impa is... Very, very old. The house itself looks old too, in a 'history' sort of way.

"So, a stranger from far-off lands finds herself here. Young lady, you may have stumbled into trouble. Hyrule is not truly at peace."

There's a faint glow around the woman, only visible through AR. "How 'not at peace' are we talking, is there a war going on with another country or did I land in the middle of a civil war?"

"Civil war is not quite right, but probably your best reference point. Since the evil god Ganon's return one hundred years ago, and because of his continuing blight on the world, all countries I know of have destabilized and collapsed. The kingdom of Hyrule, the kingdoms of Rhobe and Latrife to the north, the nomad republics... The island tribes of the Great Sea occasionally visit our shores and trade, but we have seen no great sailing ships from the more distant lands of Kalvit for eighty-odd years, or ships or travelers from other lands as far as I know, either."

"What does 'blight' mean in this context?"

"Summoning wandering storms. Poisoning wells and creating fetid, toxic swamps where once was lush farmland. Taking control of the robotic army left over by the Sheikah... And monsters. Many, many monsters. All those that one may kill simply reappear whenever there is a blood moon."

"I haven't seen any monsters. Where are they?"

"If you have not seen any monsters, you came here from either due south or through the forest in the north-east, during the day. There are more at night. Young lady, enough of Hyrule. Though I sense no Malice in you-" That 'Malice' definitely had a capital letter in it. "-I don't even know your name. So, tell me your name. Tell me how you arrived in Hyrule. And tell me some of where you came from so I can judge if you are making it up on the spot."

"My name is Naomi. I come from a place called, uh -- should I say 'UCAS' my country or 'Earth' my planet -- I was um. Investigating. A magical phenomenon there. And that sent me here. I have no clue how, I don't do magic, I only work with technology. It was something done to me, not something I can control."

"Oh? An investigator? And one who works with technology at that. I have never heard of such a thing as people from another planet. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, I'm sure you understand."

"I left my gun and other weapons outside. Why don't I --" she reaches into a pocket and pulls out a tiny drone, which she lets out to zip around near her head. "This is a drone. It's small and entirely mechanical and I control it."

The drone startles her. "-Ah! ...So it is like a tiny Guardian. Hmm. I think I am forced to believe you." She coughs a couple of times. "Perhaps you are part of the divine plan and will help rid the world of Ganon in some way."

A drone is like a tiny Guardian, huh? Interesting. "Maybe. I'd be more able to do that if I knew anything about the gods, or Ganon, or how Guardians work."

"I do not think I should tell you everything, but... Yes, everything a Yiga infiltrator would already know, I will explain. And in return you should explain more of what you can do, perhaps what your home was like if it is relevant. Does this sound fair? And am I correct in assuming you would seek a way to return to your home?"

"That sounds great! And probably, yeah, I had some unfinished projects going on." Although nothing that really required her to be there. She was mostly collecting money and resources and could probably do something like the same thing here. She likes to think she was doing some coalition-building to take down a giant mega-corporation, but she wasn't dumb enough to think her first forays into networking were very good. And she was already expecting that to be a very long-term project. 

"What do you want to know?"

"You have that drone... You say you are an investigator - I gather you do not necessarily mean scientific investigation... Perhaps I should send you to my sister after our conversation. She is, in all likelihood, the person who knows the most about Sheikah technology still among the living. Ahem! At any rate, now to tell my story..."

"Ganon is important to this tale. A primal evil that has returned again and again over the ages. He has been turned back time and time again by a warrior bearing the soul of a hero and a princess carrying the bloodline of the goddess... Ten thousand years ago, the land was at the height of power and technological progress. It was then that the Divine Beasts, the automated army of Guardians, and the ancient shrines and towers were created. The Divine Beasts, piloted by four champions, and the Guardians worked with the hero and the princess, and successfully sealed away Ganon. But at the last moment, Ganon's influence lashed out and corrupted the Guardians and the Divine Beasts. They became lifeless, useless. And so the time of prosperity came to an end, with no technology remaining in working order."

"One hundred and twenty years ago, growing increasingly worried about the prophecies of ruin spoken by sages everywhere, King Rhoam ordered the formation of a research institute. We were instructed to excavate sites likely to hold ancient Sheikah technology and devote ourselves to understanding it... Whatever effect the legend speaks of, where Ganon had disabled Sheikah technology, seemed to be gone. We made rapid progress. Uncovering the army of Guardians, uncovering the four Divine Beasts. We learned to control them, learned a little bit of the ancient thinking machines. We arranged for a mighty champion to learn to pilot each Beast, and we identified the hero and the princess foretold by prophesy. Everything seemed to be in order. But we were overconfident... When Ganon arose once again, one hundred years ago... He did not merely disable the Guardians and Divine Beasts, he took control of them, turned them to evil ends. The four Champions were slain. The hero fled the battle with grievous wounds, and was brought to a place of healing, and the princess..." She shakes her head.

"The army of Guardians spread throughout the land, destroying everything in their path. Legions of monsters rose up, more than ever before, and aggressively attacked anyone they could find. The knights of Hyrule fought bravely and well, but in most places there was little they could do. Guardians are terrifyingly fast and boast weapons that can blow stone walls to pieces with little effort. The knights somehow held a line of defense at Fort Hateno, and another at Akkala Citadel. They slew a great many Guardians. Akkala Citadel fell after three days, but Fort Hateno held. Alas, everywhere else defense was mostly futile. Millions died. Hyrule has yet to recover. We called this the Time of Burning Fields."

"That is a hell of a story. Wow. I ... I don't want to minimize your suffering or anything but I think I know the reason why Ganon took control of the guardians so quickly."

Impa shakes her head. "Most do not remember the Calamity, at any rate, and those of us who do must move on and deal with the world as it is now, not dwell on it. Do explain your idea, please."

"Well, first of all, I come from a world that has what we call the matrix. It overlays physical space and you can leave your body and move around in it if you have the right interfacing tools, which I do. There also seems to be a matrix here, but it's lacking major functions that I'm used to. There aren't as many hosts -- places in the matrix where the extra dimensional quality of the matrix can store information, extra space, or act as a locus for interacting with someone from far away. In my world every single building has a host. Everyones' houses have hosts, every restaurant has a host, office buildings have hosts.

"Also in my world everyone has a persona, because you have to interact with the matrix to do your job. Everyone has a device called a commlink that lets them communicate with their friends, make reservations, pay for things. Some people, called technomancers, don't need commlinks to have personas, though." She looks at Impa thoughtfully.

"So anyway, in my world Matrix-use is so regular and widespread that there's also widespread security and protocols over device ownership. There's an organization called GOD -- the grid overwatch division -- that makes it really difficult to change ownership of devices. Instead people rely on a different system of interacting with matrix objects called the mark system, which lets you have temporary access to another device or application or host. But if you reboot your device you lose your marks and you have to get them again."

"But your world doesn't have a GOD. So when Ganon came back -- I guess he's a technomancer -- he just changed the ownership of the devices to himself. Nothing was stopping him. And no one bothered to change it back because no other people knew how to work in the Matrix -- no one had changed the ownership of the Sheikah devices.

"... that's just a theory though. I could verify it if I got my hands on a Guardian and changed the ownership."

"I believe I know what you are referring to - the mana field, we called it. A space where magic and information can reside adjacent to the physical world, just as real but not directly accessible... I would caution you not to assume the Matrix here works as it does in your world. And do not underestimate the evil power of Ganon. And you should not go seeking out a Guardian. It will kill you if you cannot control it. It would be a tragedy for you to underestimate the dangers of this land and meet a violent end."

"I could try from here, actually. You don't actually need to be near something to get access to it. I would need help to bring it back after I bricked it, though, since it wouldn't be able to move afterwards, and I'd need it immobile to dig into the hardware so I could change the ownership."

"Hm. This seems dangerous. Guardians are too large to move easily when not under their own power, but a place with one Guardian is likely to have more. No, I do not think we can help you bring it back here. We would not want it here in any case, lest it awaken again and destroy the village."

"If I bricked it it wouldn't be able to reawaken. But you're right that I'd have to be extra careful the ownership was changed before I turned it on. I can also do the turning-on part remotely, which would help."

Impa seems conflicted. "You truly think you can do this? There is something that may help you, but I hesitate to tell you about it yet. I have to think on this. Paya!"

A youngish teenaged girl squeaks in surprise in a back room and nervously walks up front. "Y-Yes, grandmother?"

"Paya, this is Naomi. This visitor is our honored guest for now. Please go introduce her to Trissa and get some food for her belly. Perhaps she would like Steen to teach her spearfighting. Naomi, you can come back tomorrow morning. I will have decided. Do you have enough money for the inn?"

"I think so? One of the shopkeepers said I'd have enough money if I sold these flowers.

And wow. Thank you."

Impa nods. It almost looks like a bow with that giant hat. "Good. You should try to find some way to earn your keep - foraging is one such way. Have a good evening, young lady."

"Uh, if you'd like to, follow me?" Stammers out Paya.

"Yeah!" Naomi can definitely get behind free food and spearfighting lessons. Not that she expects to be very good at those. "Yeah. Paya, is it, I'm Naomi, I don't know if you caught my name."

"Y-Yeah, I'm Paya. Well, follow me?"

They go out of the house. That spear-armed guard nods politely at Paya and glances at Naomi. "Lady Impa says she is our honored guest, f-for now."

"I see. Well, you can have your stuff back. Please don't shoot at anything in the village."

"I won't, don't worry." She collects her stuff, which has been sitting on a pile in front of the guards feet -- hmmm -- exactly as she left it, according to a picture from her eye-camera. How polite of them.

"So! Where to now?"

"The, uh, general store. Trissa's store. I'll tell her that- That Lady Impa asked me to feed you. She'll give me something to cook with."

Paya is really quite nervous, isn't she?

"Are you okay?"

"I don't... Talk well. And- And- You're an important guest and everything. I'm sorry I'm nervous!"

"It's okay. I'm a bit nervous too, honestly."

"Oh. Okay. Well anyway, here's Trissa's store." Paya walks in. Trissa is a portly middle-aged woman. "Good afternoon, T-Trissa."

"Good afternoon, Paya. Who's this?"

"Ah, Lady Impa's guest. Naomi. I was told to get some food for her..."

"Of course, of course. Free of charge for Lady Impa's guest," she sounds the tiniest bit sarcastic as she says this. "Perhaps a few eggs and some carrots, those are going spare. Nice to meet you, Naomi."

The shop's items are mostly food, but there are a few stranger things... One of the displays contains what look like claws and teeth, as well as gruesome-looking purplish masses that occasionally twitch.

Naomi's not used to eating anything fresh. She's been eating manufactured, largely soy-based food with artificial flavors since she was in diapers. She frowns at the shopkeep's admission that she'll get bad eggs, but she has no clue how to judge them, and anyway some food is better than the no food she'd get trying to make it in the wilderness.

"Thank you for your kindness, I appreciate it. Do you happen to know where I could sell these flowers? I need the cash to stay at the inn."

"I'll buy all those off you. Decent for elixirs. Let's say, forty rupees for the lot."

Paya timidly asks, "P-Perhaps some butter or rice as well?"

"Ah, not so much of a surplus of that. You'll have to actually buy it. Sorry, Paya."

"Hey Paya, forty rupees is enough for a night in the inn, right? And it's fine if we don't have butter or rice." She does note the prices of everything though, where they're displayed.

Paya hesitates. The shopkeeper answers, "It's twenty rupees a night, dear. So forty's plenty."

Prices vary. The claws-and-things, monster parts, are the most expensive, thirty and above. Most of the food items are in the five-to-fifteen rupee range.

"Oh, perfect!" She pays for ten rupees worth of additional food items, letting Paya pick because she has no clue how to cook.

An exchange is made. Paya picks rice. Then she heads outside to where there is a little fire and cooking pot and borrows a bowl nearby. The eggs are cracked into the pot and start sizzling - she puts the rice in the bowl and carefully places it above the fire. Then chops up the carrots and lays them on the hot pan as well. By then, the eggs are ready to be mixed up and around.

Cooking is some kind of relief from - interacting with people - her hands are steady and her expression focused, but as soon as she stops that nervous posture and demeanor comes right back. "We have to wait a few minutes for the rice to finish. D- Do you have any questions about Kakariko Village?"

Naomi watches and records the process carefully. She can't rely on the matrix to teach her anything she would want to know anymore.

"Are people generally happy here? Do they feel safe?"

"Uh- Yeah. Mostly. If monsters or the Yiga Clan ever come, the guards are ready fight them away. Uh, they got a Bokoblin a couple weeks ago and it was a piece of cake apparently. And, there's a journal anyone can write in, called the Book of Various Worries, and- and only about ten pages are filled in for this year's even though it's already autumn."

"Oh, people all write! That's great!"

"...Why wouldn't people write? It's much better than trying to, to remember everything important."

"In some places in my world's history not everyone knew how to write. I don't know much about what kinds of priorities societies in this world have, and it's good to know that they value writing."

"It'd be weird not to have everyone know how to read. I mean... I mean I guess you don't need to read to farm? But it'd be weird."

"It would be weird for me too, honestly."

Nod, nod. Paya goes quiet after that. She stirs the rice. Closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

Naomi continues to watch and record.

Soon enough, the rice is declared done.

Paya drains the bowl, then spends a few minutes turning the extant ingredients into three onigiri. A small packet of fried egg and a few carrot shavings go into the center of each one. And separately, there is a plate with fried eggs and chopped carrots. "T- The plate is for now, honored guest, the rice balls for later. I will fetch a sheet of wax paper to wrap them in."

"So we can start eating?"

"-Oh, yes, of course. This food is all yours though. I'm- I ate earlier. Uh. Careful, it's hot." She fetches a fork from somewhere.

"Thank you!" Naomi takes a bite.

"This is delicious, holy crap."

"R- really? It's just scrambled eggs and steamed carrots."

"I'm not sure if I've ever had a carrot this fresh before. Not even in fancy restaurants, where they serve real carrots; I'm used to soy substitutes for everything."

"Sub- Substitutes? What's soy? I guess it might be easier to grow?"

"Soybeans are a kind of plant and you can change their texture a lot so they taste somewhat like lots of other foods. And yeah, I think they are easier to grow? Or hardier or more resistant to magic storms? I'm not sure how the agronomy works there."

"Storms are pretty dangerous for crops. Grain and corn stalks could break, and that's obviously bad, but- even things like carrots and pumpkins can get flooded to death if you're lazy about drainage. A-Anyway I'm glad you like the food even though it's not what you're used to. Do you, uh, will you need anything else tonight?"

"I still have to buy the night at the inn. But other than that, no."

"Well, I shall show you over there."

It's literally just across the dirt street. But Paya walks Naomi over there and introduces her to the innkeeper anyway.

"Hm? Traveler? We haven't had much business lately, so you can have any room for twenty rupees, even the good rooms..."

Two nights at least! Nice! "Thank you! Can I take one of the smaller rooms for less?"

Shrug. "A bunk in the shared room for fifteen? Either one comes with breakfast."

"Sure!" 

Paya is standing off to the side shyly.

"Hokay. So when do you want to be woken up?"

Naomi names an appropriate time. 

The innkeeper accepts payment. "I'll show you to the bunkroom then. Reckon you can go home, Paya."

"...Okay."

"Thanks!"

The innkeeper is quietly professional. The room is... Basic. Basically just rows of wood frame beds with a small alcove that has a primitive sink and a door to some kind of toilet. "Pick any open bunk," he says a bit wryly, pointing to The empty room.

"How many travelers do you get? One a night? Fewer?"

"A whole bunch in the late spring and late autumn. It's high summer now, though. Folk are all working their farms, excepting merchants and adventurers and such. Even I head to the fields during the day when it's time to plant or harvest."

Oh, right, she's keeping him from working. Oops. 

She makes up her bunk. She only has to sleep for four hours, thanks to an implant -- and a real bed definitely beats a corpse-locker at a morgue. 

She rises in the early hours of the morning. 

There's some guy in a bunk on the opposite end of the room from her. He's still asleep.

If she wanders out front, the innkeeper looks up from some kind of craft project in a corner and says, "Ah, I guess you want your breakfast. I'll fetch it, no worry."

Breakfast is a small portion of rice with some kind of sauce mixed into it.

It is similarly delicious! All the food here is extremely good. Naomi savors it. 

"You're a strange one, if you don't mind me speaking my mind, miss." The innkeeper eats his own breakfast over by his desk.

"I don't get to have real food that often!"

"Real food? As opposed to, what, imaginary food?"

"As opposed to -- imagine if someone took some other food that didn't really taste like rice, but could be made to sort of taste like it. Then they made it have sort of the right texture, but not quite. Then they added extra flavoring. That's what I normally eat. It's nutritious, but it's not as tasty as the real thing."

He nods. "Food is more than just fuel for the body. It centers you for the day, it's one of the world's greatest pleasures. Eating food solely to get nutrition sounds depressing."

"Yeah. I'm glad it works differently here."

After Naomi finishes her food she goes outside.

The village is much the same, aside from looking sleepier. A chicken-or-something looks at her and then decides she is of no interest. The only other person out this early is a different guard than last night walking down the street with his spear.

So, she needs to get started on plan hack-a-Guardian. But that's best done in a bed, since she'll look like she's unconscious to any outside observer. Instead, today she'll spend some time exploring, picking flowers, and finding other things that people find useful.

She walks into the general store. 

That middle-aged woman is there, sweeping the floor. "Hello again, dearie."

"Hello! I was wondering what kinds of flowers or other things you wanted more of? I'm planning to go out collecting today, for some more money."

"Oh dear, you'd better be careful out there, miss. It's hard to sum up... Most plants that aren't grass or trees or bushes have some magical value.  Mushrooms and insects and frogs and things, as well, or monster parts if you manage to kill any of the wretched things."

"I'll be very cautious around the monsters, don't worry. Are you saying I should get a variety of things? Which things are most shelf-stable?"

"I can't sum it up, miss. I don't even know where to start. You'll just need to go out and try your best and get used to this place's flora."

"Okay. Have a good day!" She exits the shop, waving. 

"You too, miss."

If she's hungry, she still has the balls of rice with filling Paya wrapped up for her yesterday. They kept fairly well, but it's not as good as fresh. Kind of sticky. And cold.

And more familiar, since this is usually how she ends up eating back home. Yum.

She leaves the village, scavenging for anything she can find and reasonably carry, keeping a lookout for monsters.

There's a fairly long stretch of canyon without much of anything interesting in it (bunches of purple mushrooms from about five to twenty feet up the cliff face here and there), and then the path widens and softens until she's not in a sharp canyon but a narrow valley, still leading up. There are wild horses right there, eating the grass.

When she reaches the top of a little ridge, the land falls away. It's a great view of the surrounding countryside. The volcano to the far north, A wide, marshy-looking swampland a bit closer, grassy fields and patches of woods to the west until what looks like a grand castle in the distance. (Dark, magical-looking currents swarm around it.) Further south it gets increasingly hilly and craggy, until a rising path that she could continue up a mountain with.

There's a traveler walking down this long slope towards the swampy area ahead of her.

"Hello!" She greets the traveler.

"Ho, fellow traveler. So much to worry about these days, eh? I'm taking this route to avoid the Dueling Peaks passage."

"There really is! What are you most worried about? Since, you know, you're coming from a different direction than me and all."

"They're closing down the safe pass in the Dueling Peaks early this year. Next blood moon, they won't clear it of monsters again 'till spring. Not enough knights left, I hear."

"Oh, that's a pity. What's near there? So I can know to avoid it."

"It's the other way out of the Necluda region. Unless you want to try your luck with the sea." He points at the up-mountain path. "You can barely see an old Sheikah shrine from here. The mountain it's on is the northern Dueling Peak."

She memorizes the information and plans to record it in her deck's burgeoning map of this place. "Thanks! Safe travels."

"To you as well! And as long as you're worrying about traveling, definitely avoid the dark castle." He points at the only castle visible. "Can't miss it. But it's dangerous to even get close because of the Guardians."

"Are there active ones in that direction? What's their range?"

"Yes, lots of hunting Guardians. Flying ones too... I'm not sure anyone has measured it. Close enough to shout would be too close, as a guess. Take care!" The traveler resumes his walk towards the swamp.

And Naomi continues on her path. She needs to find a good spot to go into VR, so she can go further afield in the Matrix than a hundred meters and actually find the things. It's too bad that she would probably break an arm trying to climb up a tree. Or up a cliff.

There's a nice, almost stair-like rock formation a ways down the slope she could hide on top of. There are purple flowers on it.

... Convenient. She does that, sits in a familiar cross-legged pose, rests her back against the face of the cliff, and enters VR. Her body slumps backwards, but, caught by the cliff-face, her body doesn't tumble down.

Meanwhile her mind is racing through a systematic matrix perception action that will let her see where the Guardians are. If she's right and they have access to the matrix, anyway. 

This is still a big swathe of countryside. She has to go for a while.

...As her perception nears the shrine by that wide river that flows here, there is some kind of system - there. It's not doing anything. Wait, a sudden burst of activity, a jittering series of unanswered pings, and then it is silent again.

Her persona creeps close to it. Carefully. Is she spotted?

Apparently not. It continues its occasional... Scan? Checkin? Not reacting to her.

It looks... Damaged. Bits of the sturdy, imposing Persona flicker, or are entirely missing.

Huh. She does a more thorough scan of it. Is there anything that would prevent her from getting marks?

No. Though it really does look like some parts of it are probably not working correctly...

Yeah, she's not planning on adopting it, she just wants to see how it works. It's probably safer to start with a broken one anyway, since it might be missing some security things.

She gets a mark and goes in. Does it have any information on what it's supposed to be able to do?

There's a... Control panel. Plain and obvious by the standards of these things.

Guardian 14524

Status: Guard mode. No threats engaged recently.

The rest is fuzzed out or broken.

... huh. She leaves and returns to her body, checking to make sure nothing's happened in the minutes it took her to do her search.

The herd of horses has moved on. That traveler is a small speck in the distance now.

No monsters, though. Good.

She rests for ten minutes and admires the scenery. Then she dives back in, looking for a functional Guardian.

To find a more functional Guardian takes a lot longer, involves getting closer to the castle.

There's one. Its scan/ping/whatever is as unanswered as the damaged one's was.

She gets close and stakes it out. Is it in range of any of the others? She's not sure how it determines hostiles but a change of ownership might set one of them off. 

This one doesn't seem to be in range of other Guardians. It roves over a fairly wide area, though, perhaps a mile or so. Seems to be on a hill.

She picks a time in its rounds when it's most isolated from the other Guardians or from possible bystanders. Then she goes in. One mark, two marks, three --

Control Device. 

There's a moment of startup screen -

Guardian 2742 Direct control

Power Core: OK

Sensors: OK

Weapon: OK

Mobility: OK

- And then she's looking through its frontal camera, down a pretty, grassy hill and toward a patch of woods. No sound feed. A targeting reticle is prominent.

That looks like a monster over there, just kind of sitting with a wooden spear. Like some giant deformed Orc. It has a blue overlay in the Guardian's sight.

... it's so weird for there to be no oversight against doing this indefinitely. Back home the Grid Overwatch Division would make her reboot every 20 seconds, or else fry her device. Here she can pick at settings at her leisure.

She really wants to kill the monster. But she should probably wait to do that. She's not sure whether anyone's paying attention, but it pays to be paranoid. Instead, she pilots it to a landmark she'll be able to find later.

Ultimately she wants to change ownership of the Guardian from ... whoever the current owner is ... to her. Ideally without letting anyone know the ownership has been changed. She looks through the files on receiving and sending comms and duplicates them, saving one version to her deck. She'll analyze them and make dummy versions later.

More urgently, she needs to find out how to render it harmless it in a way that she can trivially repair. (Her interim solution to this is to shut it down, but she's not sure whether that'll stand up to an external reboot.) Meanwhile she copies its targetting system so she can use its autopilot settings instead of piloting it remotely.

With two projects to work on, she jacks out.

The Guardian, free of her influence, returns to its original programming.

...It looks like monsters may have wandered into the area while she was searching. Something is riding that horse visible in the distance, and it looks far too short and wide to be human. It's still reasonably far away... But it has a horse.

Wait, there's three of them. At least one has a long spear.

She's better at sneaking than she is at fighting. She turns the camo on her suit on and slowly heads villagewards.

The monsters fail to notice her. The trip back through that canyon-y passage is boring.

Ugh. Is there any stuff to collect?

She got it all on the way out.

The village is in her sight soon enough, the clacking of those wooden charms hanging from ropes welcoming her back.

Charming!

Will she have any trouble selling the things she found?

No trouble, though her haul is not as good as yesterday. Fourteen rupees.

She has some left over from yesterday. And she should only need the one night to finish those projects before she has something she can test, if she gets a room now. 

... her stomach growls. Maybe some food first.

The general store and its smiling matron is available! None of it is free this time though.

She gets small, portable food she can eat raw, on the road. She'll probably have to ask Paya for cooking lessons if she wants to try actually cooking things; she's .... not very good at that. 

Can she get a room for tonight this early and camp out there while she works? A private one, this time. 

Sure. The innkeeper makes the arrangements with a shrug.

She sits on her bed, enters VR, and works. 

She comes out of VR a half-dozen hours later, realizes she forgot to eat, and scarfs down her food. Then she goes back in for another six hours.

It's the dead of the night and she's exhausted and she needs to sleep for just four hours. She falls backwards and is dead to the world in minutes. 

The innkeeper doesn't bother her. Nor does anyone else.

There is the sound of a thunderstorm outside.

She's still not done. She keep working. 

A couple hours past sunrise the innkeeper knocks on her door. "Are you staying another day, traveler? I'll get you clean sheets if you like."

She's sitting cross-legged and her head is bent over. Her eyes aren't open.

"Miss? ...Miss? Are you alright?"

He comes in and shakes Naomi's shoulder if she doesn't respond to that.

He'll find that she's alive, if he knows how to check for that. Breathing steadily, normal pulse.

This is still concerning.

He leaves and goes to see Lady Impa.

...He comes back and leaves her a note saying she is invited to see Impa again when she wakes up from her reverie. It's phrased in a way as to be a summons in disguise, not really an invitation. He leaves again.

She doesn't wake up for another few hours. "Done!' She says out loud. 

... okay, Impa wants to see her. She grabs her things and heads to her house.

Lady Impa greets her cordially. "Miss Naomi. I hope you are enjoying Kakariko village so far. I have two questions for you... The first is more out of concern than curiosity. Reeves told me that when he came to wake you this morning you were unresponsive, but clearly alive. Are you... Alright?"

"Oh! Oh no! I must have scared him! I was working on modifying a couple of files so I could control a particular Guardian, I was going to test them today."

"...Oh dear. You're still set on that. I suppose that answers my other question." Sigh. "From what I have heard you seem like a good person. I could tell myself you may yet be part of the Yiga clan, but eventually we must trust other people for things to work at all."

"Aw, thanks! If all goes well I'll have a guardian under my control by tonight. Can I bring it here? Or maybe outside the town itself but nearby."

"No."

"That is... Please do not. None of us have any wish to see those monsters, however much you feel like you are in control of them."

"Okay. I don't want to freak anyone out."

Impa sighs a bit. "Now, the thing I kept secret from you... The legendary hero survived. I saw her taken to the Shrine of Resurrection, which repaired her body over the years. Alas, it could not easily do the same for her memories. The princess survived as well, in a way, locked in what I believe is some sort of suspended time, holding back Ganon's rage. The hero is searching the land as we speak, gathering power and seeking to subvert Ganon's control of the four Divine Beasts. She may already have succeeded in one case. I am not sure how much progress she has made... But I do know she could use an ally with strange and powerful abilities, like yours. Saving Hyrule, and the rest of the world, from Ganon is a crucial task."

"Yeah, those monsters look pretty lethal. Do you have any clue where she might be now?"

"No, alas. But my sister in Hateno Town might have some idea. I sent her there at one point."

"I'll mark that on my map."

"Ah, that reminds me, you could probably use a map, since you are a foreigner. I will let you borrow one of mine to copy if you wish."

"I was able to generate a map by looking at places I've been and saving recordings from my eyes, but that'll definitely help!"

"The land of Hyrule is large, so perhaps it will help you plan your visits to areas you have yet to see."

She has Paya fetch the map. It looks like the land declared 'Hyrule' is maybe a couple hundred miles across in total.

Hateno Town is southeast, away from where she ventured yesterday, and a slight bit closer to Mount Lanayru than this village is. 

Sparsely populated arable farmland that hasn't been irradiated and only has a slight monster problem. Naomi is reminded of how much Aztech would want to get their hands on this place. 

"That's a good idea. Anything else I should know?"

To be fair, not all of it is arable farmland. There's a large section of desert, some jungle, a lot of mountains and ridges. Though that just raises the question of mining.

"Perhaps you should learn to ride a horse? They are much faster than walking, you know. But that is your choice."

A horse? God, no. ".... I think I'd rather take my chances with a Guardian."

"As you wish... The beacon towers and ancient shrines might be accessible to you as well, if you can control a Guardian. And I think that really is all the information I have to offer at the moment."

"Have a good day!"

Time to capture a Guardian and find Hateno Town. She buys some provisions, apologizes profusely to the innkeeper for scaring him, and heads out of the village.

The innkeeper is just glad she is okay now.

Buying a goodly amount of provisions uses up the rest of her money, for now.

The trail south is the most direct way to Hateno Town from here.

She'll take it. She picks up more things to sell on the way, just in case.

There are things to be gathered! 

There are two little monsters camped out on the road about a mile out of town. Ugly looking goblin-things with wooden spears.

Her plan was to head to Hateno Town first and then capture a Guardian, but she might need the Guardian just to get through the area without dying. She only has limited rounds in her pistol and is inclined to save them instead of using them.

She goes off road, carefully avoiding the goblins.

Her choices for 'off road' are 'up a cliff' or 'into a lake'.

... so she will have to get the Guardian first. Annoying.

She turns back into the village, parks herself in front of one of the statues so she can look like she's praying, and enters VR. 

Where's that Guardian she found yesterday? The functional one.

It is back on its original patrol route, not where she left it.

Sure, she expected that. Should be just as easy to get marks again, right?

Just as easy as before.

Perfect. She does that.

... but now comes the hard part, where she'll have to stay in the Matrix long enough to carefully change ownership of all the subsystems and check to make sure no warning signals get sent to the original owner. She has a program that will help her with the latter, which is more important. But the former will probably require more tedious attention. She gets started.

The systems on this thing are weird. Despite her looking around thoroughly the other day, nothing is working quite as she expects. It'll take a while. A few subsystems hit fatal errors and factory reset themselves.

She's not as frustrated as she might be otherwise. Too distracted by her leftover worry that GOD's going to be on her ass any minute for doing so many illegal actions in one place without rebooting. 

At some point, though, she comes away finished. She's tempted to marvel at it before she realizes she should test that it's hers before she brings it closer to the village. 

The guardian patiently awaits commands. The sensor identifies the Orc-monster-thing she can see in the scope as a Moblin.

Oh those things have names. Interesting.

Can she reach it in person from here? She wants to position it such that there's a rock in the way of its sensors and her, and see if she registers as a threat, a neutral, or a friendly.

It's actually a pretty long trip from there to here. This Guardian is almost halfway to the dark castle. She'd basically have to take it through the village (or just go back there) or possibly scout the surrounding area for paths through the mountainous areas.

... she'll do the latter. In the meanwhile she sets it to plot a course towards the mountains and ping her if anything tries to attack it.

The Guardian does as she asks.

...Is she still paying attention when it starts terrifying travelers into diving straight off their horses and into the river a few minutes later? Probably not. The Guardian proceeds.

She is blissfully unaware of this and is travelling on-foot so she can meet it halfway through the mountain passage.

After an hour and a half-

Guardian #5742 is being attacked. Combatants: One Hylian.

... damn it, she was really hoping she could meet up with it first. 

Naomi finds a spot that's out of the way, a surface to lean against, and arranges her limbs again to look like she's meditating. She goes out and searches for the Guardian and enters it, seeing through its eyes instead of hers within the half-second.

Yep that is a Hylian. On a horse. Chasing her pet guardian and hitting its legs with a sword.

Well, that's inconvenient.  How about if it starts cowering like a frightened dog?

Her pet Guardian is kind of too big and not mobile in the right ways for that, but it can try. The sudden shift in behavior does not convince this Hylian to stop hitting it.

...The Guardian reports minor systems damage.

Damn it. 

... she tries to make it dance.

It can kinda dance. Two strange, new behaviors in a row? And it's not shooting at her. "What the fuck is this thing doing?"

Nice, that worked!

Hmm, should she continue to have it travel through the pass or stay put? 

... she has it mark a smiley face in the ground. 

"Are you. Uh. What?"

How should she tell her to stay? Does she have enough space to write "friend"? She tries that.

It's kind of tricky to get fine detail, and Link tenses up again when it moves more than a bit.

"No, no, Guardians can't be smart. They're autonomous things. I think... Exceeept when Zelda was controlling one! Wait a sec, how do I know that... Hey Guardian! Uh. Stop scaring people by running on the road! I had to fish a terrified little girl out of the river ten minutes ago!"

...  it bows in apology.

"You can't just run people off the road! And how did you take over a Guardian anyway and how can I tell you're not Ganon trying something new and evil!"

... it trembles.

Then it reaches out a limb to write again. sorry stay?

Link squints at it. She taps a thing that might be a tablet computer and squints at that. She hmms.

"...Someone's controlling this Guardian from somewhere, yeah? Wave two arms for yes, one for no."

(Oooh, she's smart.) Two arms!

"That explains why the scanner calls it a 'Modified Guardian Stalker'..."

... she should double check to make sure Ganon won't be able to find it by looking for "Modified Guardian Stalker".

can get messages?

"I don't get what you're saying. Where are you? I need to actually talk to you. And boy will I be mad if this is an elaborate ambush or something."

pass

a crude drawing of an arrow in Naomi's direction

2 hrs

"I'm gonna follow your Guardian that way. Wow, if you can steal Guardians from Ganon that is a big deal. Looking forward to it."

It moves.

... Naomi can probably save hacking into her deck for later. Besides, turning autopilot back on might make her jump and start attacking it again.

It's a weird feeling, spending this much time in a matrix. She's heard of people who get addicted to hot sim because of the heightened sensation -- not something she has to deal with here. Likely. Hopefully. 

Link follows quietly. It ends up being closer to one hour, the tricky terrain can be skimmed right over by the Guardian.

She is mildly suspicious of the Guardian - not hostile, just... Prepared, the whole time.

And after that hour they'll find Naomi passed out on the ground!

Link has a look around the area searching for waiting monsters first. She finds none. "That's you?" She asks the Guardian.

The Guardian nods. It reorients its limbs underneath its body such that it will take several seconds to stand up properly. Then it goes dead.

Naomi blinks her eyes open and stretches. "Heya! I didn't catch your name."

"I'm Link! You're not a Gerudo, are you? Your ears are right for one, but your skin... Not really."

"I'm not a what now?"

"A Gerudo. The people who live in the desert in the southeast. Guess not. What's your name and how do you take a Guardian back from Ganon's control?"

"Naomi and with technology you guys don't seem to have! I fell in a field some ways that way --" she points "-- and I think I'm from a different universe or something. Magic works differently here. And dragons are nice, apparently, that's going to take some getting used to."

"Dragons are okay. They're not friendly exactly but they work for Goddess Hylia, who's trying to save the world. Never heard of people falling in from another universe. You sure you're not from the far east or something?"

"Probably not? My whole planet's been explored. And the climate's really different here. Cooler, the rain doesn't burn everything, more plants."

"...Huh. Well, welcome to Hyrule, this corner of this planet. Wanna help me save the world?"

"Saving the world. Sounds important. I'm in."

"Heh. Great! Rule one of being a hero, Guardians are fucking terrifying! They still kill people and everything!"

"Yeah, I was thinking of painting this one so people would be able to distinguish them. At some point when I get enough they're going to start going after monsters but I don't want the monsters ganging up on the fleet too early."

"A Guardian can totally beat most monsters one on one. Uh, what are you gonna do about blood moons?"

"I haven't been around long enough to see a blood moon so I dunno if it'll revert the programming. So far I'm having this one turn off for the duration and then turn back on at a safe distance. For one of them I'm going to practice more subtle changes  and keep it on to see if they revert."

"So you're good at poking Sheikah tech?" She takes the tablet from her belt and sort of waves it around. "I don't really get it, but then again my job is mostly fighting monsters."

"Ooooh, that looks kind of like a deck. An ancient deck, it's weirdly shaped compared to what I'm used to seeing."

"It does things to or with other Sheikah tech. It has a sensor and a camera and a few magic tools and a map and it runs my inventory-" With a tap on the screen and a little blue flash, she has an apple in her hand. She takes a bite. "Dunno what a deck is."

"Whoa, magic tools?"

"Yeah! It's great. I can make force bombs and blow them up on command, use telekinesis but only on metal stuff, some kind of ice pillar power, and pause things in time for a bit. Sheikah tech is crazy stuff, the Guardians will tell you that much."

"I'm not used to tech being able to do any of those things." And maybe there's something in her Guardian that she missed because it's magic, and anyone here would be able to see it because they're all technomancers but she can't ... she needs to get it to the engineer Impa mentioned.

"Magic is tech and tech is magic, with Sheikah stuff."

"Where I'm from they're different and I can't do any magic. And the only reason I can do tech is because I have tech installed in my head." 

"Huh. Hey, did your brain tech learn anything I can use against other Guardians?"

To be used with caution of course. Naomi probably isn't Ganon but could be against her.

"Yeah, I can tell you where the most important bits are. Unless you'd rather disable them so I can fix them up afterwards?"

"It's always good to know what you're dealing with! Maybe some day I'll want to, like, cut off all the legs of one but leave it able to shoot, I don't know. Lay it on me if you can."

She does -- but mostly about the structural information, since she didn't even know to look for files about conjuring or stopping time. "I'll have to go back into that one for those -- they should be inactive so they're safe to poke at, but I'll at minimum want to incorporate the magic into their autopilot."

"I'm not sure Guardians can do that stuff actually."

"That'll make things simpler."

"After meeting up with the Guardian I was going to be paying a visit to a lady named Purah so I could learn more about the tech here. I got some directions to where she lives, do you wanna go with me?"

"Oh, I know Purah! She'll be thrilled to poke a tame Guardian! Might want to disassemble it though."

"Or capture another one. I was going to rely on this one to protect me on the way there."

"The main roads are pretty safe if you've got a sword and a bow or go with someone who does. At least during the day in the Necluda region."

"If you gave me a sword I'd probably stab myself. If you gave me a bow I'd probably shoot myself, somehow. I have a weapon but it has aiming software so I don't shoot my allies -- actually that's another thing Purah might be able to help me with, making bullets for the weapon. I have the specs and the materials in my deck -- although she might need some rarer metals."

"We should go see Purah together, yeah. Paint the Guardian - yellow, maybe? Or white? Oh, uh, just... Don't make fun of Purah, you'll see what I mean when you see her."

".... I might need more of a description to keep from laughing or staring or whatever."

"She's. Small. But she's an adult still no matter what she looks and acts like. A smart one too."

"Oh, okay. I'll, uh, prepare for that."

"Yeaaah. Anyway. How are you expecting to paint the Guardian? And are you going to try and ride it like a horse or something?"

"I didn't know what pigment would be easiest to find -- probably red, so the end result will end up being brownish or pinkish. And well. If I'm going to be using it properly I need a harness so that if my limbs suddenly give out I won't fall off. Otherwise it'll just stay on autopilot, which is fine but not ideal if I need to do something unexpected."

"Telling it that the monsters are the bad guys and then staying out of the way would work pretty well... If you can put a chair on it, that'd be a potent weapon! An armored chair, I think."

"I was thinking something where I was lying on my belly, so it would be harder to shoot me."

"It'd be kinda bumpy. But that's your project. You know, there's a guy who runs a dye and paint shop in Hateno Town too. Probably be easier to paint the Guardian there."

"Oh, yeah! ... I don't have much money, though. Only what I'd have from selling this." She shows link the materials she's gathered while scouring the mountain pass.

"Yeah, that's not a lot of cash. We could farm monsters with your pet all-destroying menace and split the profits?"

"Sounds good. What do you need to buy?"

"Who, me? Stuff. I dunno."

"Like, what's most important? I don't want to accidentally prioritize some shiny thing I want to research over something that helps you kill more monsters. Or protect yourself."

"We're going to split the profits evenly no matter what you need and what I need unless there's something that's clearly important and we need both halves. I buy food and arrows and sometimes enchanted clothes or armor."

"Oookay, sure."

"Nothing against you, but we're going to split the profits. That way nobody feels cheated, see?"

"Right, it makes sense. Want to head out?"

"Follow me, I know some good monster-y areas along the way toward Hateno Town! We'll still probably scare people but someone walking near it might calm them down. Uh, we might want to leave it away from the stable if we stop there for the night."

"Oh, yeah, don't want to spook the horses."

Link starts walking. "So where'd you come from again? Another universe apparently?"

"Yep. Got here by some magic accident. I'm not too sure what was going on, I don't know much about my world's magic."

"Magic is a potent and primal force. Some of the things we use it for a lot are well understood, but when gods and dragons start to get involved, lots of rules go out the window."

"What's it like to use magic? I can't use my world's magic, but I might be able to use the magic here."

"You can mix elixirs if you can cook. You can probably use Purah's tools if you learn how. Maybe if you pray to Goddess Hylia she'll talk to you."

"Goddess, huh. How, uh, involved is she?"

"Advice and lending magical powers sometimes. Guidance. Goddess Hylia doesn't judge sinners or anything but she only grants power to those who will help others."

"It's just so weird. The only things like gods in my world are dragons. And if you make a deal with one of those you can basically expect to die within the next year or two, or wish you had."

"I bet if you made a deal with Ganon you'd probably die sooner or later."

"With dragons the issue is that they're always trying to one-up each other. So the danger comes from rival dragons. And they don't care enough about metahuman lives to coordinate to stop, so it keeps happening."

"Ganon wants to destroy the world. Hylia and the dragons and the sages want to stop it. They're a bit more unified than it sounds like yours are."

"Yeah, my world's a mess. Everyone uses the same weapons and wants their piece of the world, and if they're in power they want to stay there."

"Well, to be fair, I'm sure the King of Hyrule wanted to stay on his throne. It's just that the best way to do that is to keep Goddess Hylia's favor and the best way to do that is to be a wise benevolent ruler."

"Tidy. ... why doesn't she just rule things?"

"I get the sense that she doesn't have enough attention for it... I'll ask her the next time I pray."

"How does praying work?"

"Uh? How does praying work for your god? Gods. I guess it helps if you're looking at one of the goddess's statues."

"We don't have any gods. There used to be people who thought otherwise but corps mostly discourage the practice so they've mostly died out. I guess a lot of people are into spirit-worship? There've been a few tech cults but all the important ones died out during the last matrix crash." She shudders. 

"Half of those words made not much sense."

"Oh, sorry. Corps are -- they're like merchant operations, but really big and powerful enough to trade in lots of industries and all over the world. They're hierarchical and they can buy mercenaries so they can basically do whatever they want. I don't think there are gods because I've never seen evidence of one, but a corp is going to want people to be loyal to them, not a god.

Spirits on the other hand are a real thing -- they're magic but they're kind of -- inhuman. Like dragons but smaller scale, and weirder. Did that clear everything up?"

"Matrix crash? Anything called 'crash' can't be good..."

"Oh. Huh, you have a matrix here, I'd have thought -- 

Anyway, a matrix crash is like a natural disaster. Anyone who was plugged in during the last one just died."

"Huh. You might be talking about the mana field." Shrug. "Anyway, monster farming! The first camp I'm pretty sure about is about five minutes ahead. Your Guardian bombards 'em, I move in to finish them off?"

"Sure. You have way more experience at this than I do so I'll let you take the lead."

"I wouldn't attack a whole camp by myself but with a Guardian as backup we can clean up easy. You can hear me when you're controlling that thing right? Have you done any target practice yet?"

"When I'm controlling it I can perceive things through its sensors, yeah. And no. What things should I practice on?"

"...Uh. That rock?" Link shrugs. "Not me that's for sure."

"Right, let's get started then. Uh, do you have any rope?"

"You're going to try and rig up a seat right now? Why don't you, like, sit on a horse and I'll lead it while you walk the Guardian along?"

"... I'll need the rope if I sit on a horse too. Otherwise I'd just fall off."

"Scoots has a saddle! It's harder to fall out of a saddle than bareback."

"Even if you're completely passed out?"