07

[ninjaprincess]

Maxwell! I almost didn't recognize you with that beard. You look so grown-up. It's wonderful to have you with us again. You were certainly missed.

The campus is always so beautiful when it's covered in snow, though it's a shame the days have to get shorter. It's dark so early now. I hope everyone is staying warm and healthy. Are there any residents without sufficient winter clothes? It must be the first winter for at least some of you. Perhaps a shopping trip is in order if enough people are lacking in warm clothing or snow boots.

There's still so much to do before the break. Is anyone interested in helping me decorate the dorms for the winter holidays? I plan to travel home to Hyrule for a short time, but seeing as we don't celebrate Christmas, I'll be sure to return here by then. In the meantime, please remember my open door policy! As your Resident Assistant, I'm here to help, so don't hesitate to seek me out for anything you might need, even if it's just to chat.

[OOC: Office log! Feel free to swing by Zelda's room/the common room any time between now and the start of winter break on December 14th. She's pretty much up with the sun and out and about most of the day, but she returns to her room in the late afternoon/early evening when Vashta wakes up. For the purposes of this log, she'll be around the dorms (common room cutting out paper snowflakes and untangling lights, kitchen baking a million cookies, outside shoveling snow from the walkways, anywhere around the dorm complex, location is up to you) from about 9 AM to 6 or 7 PM and in her room until 10 or 11 PM, when she goes to sleep. This entry can be responded to like any normal journal, but if you opt for the office log route, please use paragraph format, and fill out this template!]

<b>Date:</b> <b>Time:</b> <b>Location:</b> <b>Eavesdropping?:</b> <b>If Zelda's room, can Vashie be a creeper?:</b>

Comments

[notstevejobs.livejournal.com]

"I'm Apple Kid," he said, in between bites of cookies. "What's your name?"

[rulebywisdom.livejournal.com]

Her name was out before she realized that it would probably result in some kind of connection on Apple Kid's part. "Zelda."

Oh well. At the very least, she could pretend she had no idea what he was talking about.

[notstevejobs.livejournal.com]

In the back of Apple Kid's mind, some synapses fired. He'd heard that name before. On a rooftop. Where a long-legged rag-clad tramp (vagabond? acrobat?) had kicked his invention off of the roof and broken it.

A mouse popped up out of the front pocket of his overalls and looked at her. They both stared at her for like the most awkward thirty seconds of silence ever.

Finally Apple Kid said, "What's Lake Hylia?"

[rulebywisdom.livejournal.com]

...Oh Goddesses that was the most frightening terrible awful stare it felt like Apple Kid and his mouse were boring into her very soul.

She pretended to look confused.

Zelda had no idea how he could segue into Lake Hylia, of all things, it was better than being stared at. "It's a large lake in Hyrule. Why?"

[notstevejobs.livejournal.com]

"Hyrule," he said, pausing. "Interesting."

His mouse moved up to his shoulder and it looked like it whispered something into his ear. Hahaha, talking mice that's just silly, right? Yeah.

"Do you have a courtesy title from your father or mother that makes you duchess of Lake Hylia?" he finally asked.

[rulebywisdom.livejournal.com]

"Well..." She began, choosing her words carefully and eyeing the mouse all at once. That was a creepy mouse. It was kind of creepy.

"I am the princess, actually. It gives me at least titular jurisdiction over many of Hyrule's landmarks."

[notstevejobs.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I see," he answered, then paused again. He was clearly in deep thought. Or something.

"Would you mind if I went to my room to get an invention? I would be back in a few minutes."

[rulebywisdom.livejournal.com]

Zelda was suddenly incredibly apprehensive. But if she were to display suspicious behavior, Apple Kid would certainly pick up on it. If not Apple Kid, then his mouse for sure.

"Oh, not at all." She said, faking a smile. "I'll be here."

[notstevejobs.livejournal.com]

"Alright," said Apple Kid, taking his mouse off of his shoulder and putting him on the tabletop.

"My mouse says he wants to stay here to keep you company," said the rotund little boy. "Don't worry, he doesn't bite."

Apple Kid waddled off to his dorm room.

The mouse looked up at Zelda with it's little mouse eyes.

[rulebywisdom.livejournal.com]

"That's fine."

Zelda watched Apple Kid waddle off and immediately went back to rolling out sugar cookie dough.

Except the mouse was watching her. Staring. With its little mouse eyes. "Do you want a cookie?" She asked.

[notstevejobs.livejournal.com]

Apple Kid's mouse kept looking at her, making sure she didn't run away or anything.

She was tricky, this one.

But the nameless mouse was clever.

"(Yes,)" answered the mouse. "(I would like a cookie. And then a glass of milk. And then a mirror to see my milk mustache in. And then a comb to comb my hair...)"

[rulebywisdom.livejournal.com]

She took a plate from the cabinet and set a cookie on it for the mouse.

Then she stared right back.

[notstevejobs.livejournal.com]

As the no-name mouse was eating the cookie and staring at Zelda, alternately, Apple Kid came walking back, with a pair of opera glasses in his hands.

"I'm back," he said, as he raised them up to his face and peered through the glasses.

He then lowered them and looked at Zelda, then raised them again, lowered, looked, raised, lowered, and looked. He seemed confused, somehow, by what he saw, as if his brain were trying to process two bits of conflicting information.

[rulebywisdom.livejournal.com]

Their staring contest was cut short as Apple Kid made a triumphant return, and she looked up, pretending like absolutely nothing had happened.

Were those...opera glasses? "Is something wrong?" She said, in reference to his curious expression.

[notstevejobs.livejournal.com]

"Do you have a twin?" Apple Kid asked cryptically.

[rulebywisdom.livejournal.com]

"A twin?" She knew that answering the question would probably back her into a corner, but so would not answering it. Zelda opted for the more clueless route. "No. I'm an only child."

[notstevejobs.livejournal.com]

"Are you a good jumper?"

[rulebywisdom.livejournal.com]

What an odd question. Zelda really...did not know how to answer it at all. "No better or worse than most people, I suppose."

[notstevejobs.livejournal.com]

"I'm about 98.7% certain of something. But first I would like you to look through these glasses at me and tell me what you see," said Apple Kid, holding the opera glasses out to Zelda.

[rulebywisdom.livejournal.com]

Oh boy. She took the glasses and peered through them cautiously, taking a quick glance around.

...Everything was labled. All the ingredients, the kitchen appliances, even the cookies. Finally she settled on the student in front of her. "It says 'Apple Childs'. Above you."

[notstevejobs.livejournal.com]

"So that's my last name," said the rotund inventor. "No wonder why people started calling me Apple Kid."

"May I have them back, please?" he asked, and held out his chubby little hand.

[rulebywisdom.livejournal.com]

Apple Kid not knowing his own last name aside, Zelda was certainly baffled by the strange contraption. Still, she handed them back to their owner. What else could she do?

[notstevejobs.livejournal.com]

Apple Kid took the glasses back and then put them in his front pocket of holding. He then looked at Zelda earnestly.

"Several months ago I observed a strange figure on top of the roof here, while I gazed at the stars with my mouse. It was a slender man wrapped in curious clothing, strips of cloth, and what can only be described as as tights with a stylized eye on them. We conversed for several minutes about my latest invention, which was a larger model of these," and here, gentle reader, he gestured towards his pocket where his naming lenses were currently stored. "When I began to read his name, a curious thing happened. As I read his name it began, 'Zelda, Princess of Hyrule, Duchess Lake Hylia, Marchioness Death Mountain, Countess Lost Woods, Viscountess Kakoriko, Baroness Lon Lon Ranch, followed by a number of orders I never bothered to commit to memory. When I started reading all of this to him, he kicked the lenses out of my hands, where they hit the ground and broke. Thankfully, I had the prototype, these, in my pocket, and I continued until I'd read most of the name, down to the non-hereditary titles, anyway. He insisted his name was Sheik. "

He paused for a moment. "Today you introduced yourself to me as Zelda. An uncommon name, but not wholly unheard of. But I became curious, the chances of two Zeldas at this school seemed unlikely. And you did, indeed, confirm that you were a princess. So I decided to test it."

"I had come up with two possible outcomes - the first being the two of you were switched at birth, Sheik being the true daughter of the whoever the King of Hyrule is, and masquarading as a man for unexplained reasons, while you had been set up in her place, being born of someone else."

"My second thought was there had been no royal baby replacement, but simply that you were the mysterious person I met on the roof. My seeing your name for myself confirms this second suspicion - and you telling me my own name confirms that my lenses are indeed working properly."

"Ergo, I am 98.7% certain that you and this mysterious man are one and the same person."

[rulebywisdom.livejournal.com]

Zelda pretended to look very intrigued, surprised, and somewhat clueless, disguising the fact that she did, indeed, understand everything Apple Kid was talking about.

Of course, the princess understood every word, and felt her heart skip a beat at having someone put the pieces of the puzzle together. Baroness of Lon Lon Ranch? Since when did that happen?

She tilted her head ever-so-slightly in a rather inquisitive fashion. "I've never met anyone named Sheik."

[notstevejobs.livejournal.com]

"Yes, well, if you're pretending to be someone it would make the most sense for you to say you had no idea what I was talking about. It would also make sense for you to say you had no idea what I was talking about if I were wrong. Ergo, claims that you don't know what I'm talking about are sadly meaningless."

"Further testing of my hypothesis is, of course, needed. I'd like to achieve at least a 99.5% certainty. Without the other subject, however, I can't do any further tests to either prove my hypothesis correct or prove your claims to be true."

"Do you have any suggestions for how we might go about getting the two of you in the same place?" he asked, his Apple Kid eyes staring into her very soul.