[Despite how lost and confused she feels in this moment, she still finds enough spirit to muster a tiny pout at his teasing, good-natured and ultimately complimentary as it is. She's not a mother! Not yet! And that's a fair percentage of why this is so difficult for her to deal with. Her descendant didn't give any hints that she would be remembered with love or revulsion, but either way, surely her older self would possess greater wisdom, would be more self assured than her current, anxious self is.
How is she supposed to be the Queen she will be remembered as, if she hasn't lived that life yet?]
What I want to be...
[She parrots, clearly frustrated in her contemplation. She tries to think on this question for several quiet moments, but it ends with her shaking her head.]
... I do not know. That... has not been a priority in a very long time.
[First, she had to become a survivor to escape those that would do her harm for her birthright. Then, she had to be a sage to bring those that hounded her to justice and atone for her mistakes. Now, she is a princess in a world where that title means nothing, the twin weights of destiny and duty so far removed from their place upon her shoulders that she feels like she's floating, without any sense for which way is up.
How is she supposed to want anything for herself, after all of that?]
[This question seems to arise nearly every time. Who does Zelda wish to be? Ozymandias has seen Zelda not so much grapple with it before as run from it. There is something easier about not addressing it, certainly. That comes with its own hardships, of course. In avoiding it endlessly, Zelda is setting herself up for that lifetime of emptiness as she fulfills the role of what she is meant to be by the standards of others and there is never that opportunity to shed the guilt she carries from her past. But it is easier in the end to become what others want you to be. There is no thought. The path is laid out before you regardless of how difficult it is to walk.]
[It is a much more difficult thing to grab hold onto one’s destiny and to shape it with your own hands. To forge your own path without hesitation and to hold your ground even when things may threaten to crumble. His suggestion is a gentle one.]
Then perhaps it is time that it becomes one again.
[Zelda doesn’t see her own strength that much is clear. But Ozymandias believes her capable of this.]
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no subject
How is she supposed to be the Queen she will be remembered as, if she hasn't lived that life yet?]
What I want to be...
[She parrots, clearly frustrated in her contemplation. She tries to think on this question for several quiet moments, but it ends with her shaking her head.]
... I do not know. That... has not been a priority in a very long time.
[First, she had to become a survivor to escape those that would do her harm for her birthright. Then, she had to be a sage to bring those that hounded her to justice and atone for her mistakes. Now, she is a princess in a world where that title means nothing, the twin weights of destiny and duty so far removed from their place upon her shoulders that she feels like she's floating, without any sense for which way is up.
How is she supposed to want anything for herself, after all of that?]
no subject
[It is a much more difficult thing to grab hold onto one’s destiny and to shape it with your own hands. To forge your own path without hesitation and to hold your ground even when things may threaten to crumble. His suggestion is a gentle one.]
Then perhaps it is time that it becomes one again.
[Zelda doesn’t see her own strength that much is clear. But Ozymandias believes her capable of this.]