Who: Zelda & Chuck What: A talk over drinks When: Recently Where: Victrola Rating/Warnings: Pretty low Status: Complete!
Zelda wasn’t a stranger to Victrola. If it was a place her ladylove was dancing at, then of course she’d stroll in to inspect it - get the feel for place, make a note of who she was working with and who she was working for. Midna’s passion for the risqué sort of dance didn’t bother her in the least (it was also a very nice perk in their personal lives), but from the very beginning she wanted to make sure she wasn’t working for a complete sack of sleaze that thought his female employees were mere eyecandy whose pussy could be grabbed because they were rich and could get away with it.
Which also meant that she became acquainted with the club’s owner, on fairly good terms she’d say - not besties as the saying went, but they were business people and the interactions thus far had been amicable. No complaints on Midna’s end so therefore, the Princess of Hyrule was at peace.
It was rare to see her walk through the doors unless the shadowy counterpart was with her, but she had arrived alone on a night that her girlfriend wasn’t on stage. Gold hair woven into a long braid, a pencil skirt paired with heels that implied she had come straight from the office - she was always dressed well even if her choices were modest, and maybe she stuck out like a sore thumb when it came to the rest of the crowd around her, but.
After realizing she was being thrown into a third set of dreams with a much different feel than what she was used to, needless to say a cocktail was required. Something sweet and tart to taste as she got lost in her own thoughts, and she’d placed an order for a Jolly Rancher martini when the bartender approached.
Unfortunately Chuck no longer spent as much time at his baby (Victrola) as he would like. When it first opened he was there almost every night, making sure everything was going smoothing and enjoying the fruits of his labour. Now he had a manager he trusted that had things perfectly under control, and spent most of his time on his other business ventures. Jack was always on him about giving the hotels more attention. And if he was going to take back his company, he’d have to prove he was better than his uncle. Make sure the West Coast division of Bass Industries out-shined the East.
Tonight however he didn’t have any business meetings lined up. It was the perfect time to check in on his club. See it’s success in action. Dressed in a suit and a suit with a purple shirt and pink tie he entered his establishment. Of course his first stop was the bar. Chuck made his way over nodding at the bartender who immediately brought him a scotch. That was when he notice a familiar face.
While Chuck wasn’t as involved with the club as he would like to be, he was fairly aware of his employees and their schedules. That’s why he was surprised to see Zelda at the club tonight. He made his way over to the blonde. “I didn’t think Midna was working tonight,” he commented taking a sip of his drink.
“No, she’s not,” smiled the princess, not at all surprised by his appearance - he owned the place, it was always a possibility to run into him. Zelda’s martini arrived, finally, poured in a chilled glass with a sugared rim and pink-colored. “I’m here for myself tonight. I decided on a whim that I needed a drink, and since this was on my way home...”
Well, why not? If dancing happened on stage she at least had a nice view of the show, but she didn’t plan to stay here all evening. All she wanted was to decompress. Take the edge off a little. “Here just to make sure no one’s running your business to the ground, I take it?”
“Long day at the office?” Chuck understood that. His days were often filled with too much paper worked and meetings with stuffy old men. Slowly but surely Bass Industries was working with a younger crowd. At least the West Coast division. Chuck was branching out from his father and his uncle’s influence. Victrola was proof of that.
“That,” Chuck agreed with a bit of a head tilt before taking another sip of his scotch. “And to actually enjoy my favorite endeavor.”
Long days at the office didn’t make much of a difference in her life; they’d reached a point where they found a routine that worked and stuck with it, and all the growing pains of adjusting into the corporate lifestyle had settled. “I can’t blame you - doesn’t hurt to sit back to look and see your own creation running smoothly,” Zelda giggled, running her finger against the glass, gleaning some sugar crystals at the tip of her finger. “But, no, it’s not the office. It’s -”
There was a second where she needed to inhale deeply and exhale a sigh just as deep. A sip of the sweet cocktail was taken first, and it had just the right amount of tartness to it. “Dreams. Third set. I went from princess and queen of a golden kingdom to a pirate sailing the seas with my own crew. Turns out that my kingdom over the years had been swallowed by water, and I’m seeing it as a reincarnated version of myself.”
Chuck knew perfectly well that his dreams weren’t that bad. At least not compared to others. Some bitch gossiping about him on the internet? No big deal in the grand scheme of things. Sure witnessing his mess of a relationship with Blair wasn’t ideal neither was experiencing his father’s death all over again. But he wouldn’t complain… much. Blair would be the only one he complained to actually, Chuck wasn’t exactly an open book. How Blair got him to open up he had no idea. But back to the point, Zelda’s dreams sounded like a mess. Certainly worse than his own.
“I’d certainly prefer royalty over piracy,” Chuck commented. A bit of a disgusted look on his face as he imagined sailing the open seas with a bunch of dirty old pirates. “I didn’t know you could dream of reincarnation.”
Piracy came with some questionable cleanliness, but as Tetra that’s all she’d known - there was no monarchy, no royalty she could have been raised in. It didn’t exactly bother her, really. All things considered it was also refreshing to see more adventure in her dreams, and not so much kingdom politics and diplomacy. Every cycle was a struggle about the Triforce, and every cycle there was a hero she’d join and a villain that needed to be stopped. It was only a matter of time.
“Sailing the open seas has its charm.” Zelda’s shoulders shrugged, smile still in place. “I’ve dreamt of being my own reincarnation before - it’s the same soul being cycled through different generations, usually when there’s a big feud of good versus evil to be had. The predictability is sort of comforting?” Though being a pirate did catch her off guard. Just so happens that without the princess upbringing that zesty sass she kept underwraps went rampant, and surprisingly enough she’d made a pretty damn good private, even if she had to take the reigns of the ship and crew at a young age. “What about you? Anything interesting?”
This was all news to Chuck, although he shouldn’t really be surprised. Just because his dreams were on the normal side, didn’t mean everyone else’s were. In fact he knew most people dreamed more supernatural aspects. He was sure glad he didn’t have to deal with all that. Reincarnation wasn’t exactly supernatural per se. But it was certainly along those lines.
“I suppose that would be alright. Knowing what is coming ahead of time, recognizing the patterns?” At least that was how Chuck was understanding it. “I still don’t see the charm of piracy though.” And he never would. Chuck loved his life of luxury. Even if it did come with hard work. “In my real life or my dreams?” Chuck questioned with another sip of his scotch.
Recognizing the patterns, definitely, and not to mention she and Midna recently discovered that their dreams existed here in the form of video games - ones that went back even to the 1980s. Zelda guessed she could always ‘spoil’ herself but it didn’t seem right to see it all unfold that way. Every dream was a lesson taught, personal, although often frustrating.
“Mmm,” she thought for a second, tilting the glass towards her a bit. “Both? Come to think of it I don’t know a thing about what your dreams consist of. You don’t seem to have a very big presence on the network, but you also don’t seem like the sort to air out every single thing about your life on social media.”
Both those things were true. Chuck was certainly not the type to air his dirty laundry, or anything all that personal on social media. The main reason he was on that god forsaken site was for connections, business wise. Clearly he had signed up for the wrong thing, but now he was intrigued. And while he rarely posted himself he did read up on the insanity other people dealt with, occasionally commenting to posts here and there.
“My dreams are hardly fascinating,” Chuck finally replied. “Not something to gossip about on the internet,” he smirked at the irony of his own statement. Not that Zelda knew just how ironic it was. He downed the rest of his scotch before explaining. “That’s basically what my dreams are anyway. Some bitch gossiping about me and my privileged group of friends on the internet.”
Zelda’s eyes blinked in surprised. Seemed oddly mundane for a place that was the very opposite of it, didn’t it? “Well, I always thought the dreams were interesting windows to view those what if scenarios - mistakes included, especially the mistakes. It’s motivation to not always travel down the same path that you once did. I hope things are without that kind of drama here? It’s not smearing your reputation in the dreams, is it?”
Chuck was all about not making the same mistakes as he did in the dreams. He still wasn’t sure if actually trying things with Blair was for the best. It had taken dream!him a long time to come around. Part of him still believed she deserved better. He wasn’t boyfriend material. “Not much,” he shrugged. He was also in high school in the dreams, but just like real life after his father’s death he was supposed to take over Bass Industries. He had spiraled after his father’s death in both places which prevented, but he was sure the gossip on the internet helped with that in the dreams. “What about Midna? Do you two share dreams?”
“Her and I shared a set, yes, but she dreamt it before I did. I was saddled with a different version of things first,” she explained - the first was definitely packed with guilt, considering her actions had led to the splitting of the time stream. Nothing like children playing with powerful forces, trying to do good but ultimately paying a very steep price for it. “In the one we did share, she was the cursed princess of shadows and I was the captive princess of light. One coin, two sides. We had met before though.”
And they also had a history too. Ultimately Midna had left, feeling like she needed to move on so no one could find her after her fall from Hollywood grace, but fate was a funny thing and they were reunited. In a strip club, no less. “Our world’s filled with legends and magic, royalty and monsters, and a very sought after sacred relic that’s fought over through the generations. Kinda exhausting, but I at least got some tricks and cute elf ears out of it?”
Case in point - she reached to tuck blonde hair behind her ears, and the motion was also a lift of the glamour that kept her ears rounded. Now they were elongated and pointed for his eyes to see.
“Well isn’t that a romantic story,” Chuck commented even without his usual sarcasm. “Midna never told me she was a princess,” he added. But then he rarely talked about dreams. Especially with his employees. He did kind of like that she was the princess of shadows though. Nothing against Zelda, but Chuck was definitely more a fan of darkness.
The bartender finally noticed his drink was empty and brought over another just as Chuck was examining Zelda’s ears. The bartender paid no attention but Chuck was certainly curious. “So you’re a princess and an elf?”
“Hylian, technically. In evolutionary terms humans evolved from Hylians in the new dreams - and really, the only main difference are the ears,” Zelda elaborated, not all that occupied in covering her very distinguished feature. Most thought they were fake anyway when she didn’t have a blanket of glamour on them. “Similar to elves anyway. But Midna’s very much a princess, and I take it you haven’t seen her without the illusion she wears?”
Her true form was very humanoid (two arms, two legs, two eyes, all symmetrical), the Twilight Princess was azure-skinned with eyes red as blood. That sort of thing wouldn’t really be socially acceptable unless they were at some Comic Convention, so of course she had to keep a glamour front for everyday purposes - except for home. Zelda liked her girlfriend au naturel.
Hylian was not a race or lore or whatever that Chuck was aware of. But then he was always discovering new things. Anyway the pointy ears weren’t bad. They fit her in a way. “What? Does Midna have elf, excuse me, Hylian, ears too?” He was certainly not thinking blue skinned and red eyes.
Zelda giggled, draining the rest of her drink - the first and last, since she didn’t want to overdo it when she was determined to drive responsibly. “Ask her nicely, maybe she’ll show you - she’s a vision in her true form. But speaking of Midna, I have to get going. Before she blows up my phone with a million gifs asking me where I am.”
His curiosity was certainly piqued. He would have to ask Midna about that either. “I’ll let you get to that then,” Chuck said finishing off his second scotch, but definitely not his last for the evening. “For the sake of your phone,” he added with a smirk. He had no intention on leaving his establishment anytime soon, but it wasn’t like he had been expecting to see Zelda here in the first place. There were plenty of ways for him to keep himself entertained. “It was nice seeing you. Feel free to come back again, even when Midna has the night off.”