Seattle is home to a wide variety of astouding NPCs, the majority of them found in the Capitol Hill area and specifically on the main drag, Broadway. We have the usual array of drunks, punks and junkies; but also goths and cyberkids; roaming, feral baristas and some truly spectacular drag queens.

But Seattle is so phenomenally geeky, so drenched with nerdery, that even our wandering crazies are Nintendo-soaked. Amidst this vast bounty of local flavor, perhaps the most treasured is "Link".

From this Last Days entry in Seattle indie paper The Stranger:

The week drew to a close with a very special event: a rare "Link" sighting. Also known as "Elf Boy" and "Peter Pan," Link is a heavyset young man who is often seen between Capitol Hill and lower Queen Anne, always wearing a dark green tunic, a brown WWF-sized leather belt, huge custom-made tan leather boots, and little green cap (like Link from the Legend of Zelda). Guest Last Days once had the honor of sharing the #7 Metro bus with Link and his older gentleman friend, who spent the entire ride ranting and raving about poor people needing to get jobs. As a finale, Link pulled from his backpack what appeared to be a firearm at first but was actually a collapsible metal shovel, unfolded it, and began to wave it around, scaring the living Christ out of fellow passengers. Despite occasional spookiness, Link is still regarded as a sign of good luck, like a rainbow or a UFO: We spied him waiting for a bus on Denny Way, and Hot Tippers report that he's frequently found at a local coffee shop, playing chess in full regalia. Keep your eyes peeled.

Collected stories, references and indeed, links about Link after the jump.

I put out a general call for Link stories and was rewarded with a smattering of encounters, most of them with unhappy endings. Young Link has picked the very worst place to live, if he truly hates gays as much as it seems. He is rarely spotted without his "father", who seems to have the hero well in hand.

Says LiveJournal user Psykoinsane:

So I saw the Zelda kid for the first time last weekend when we were playing the Seattle Urban Golf. A bunch of golfers were outside of the Redwood playing music, dancing, having fun and he got hella pissed at the people dancing and having fun (they were the space virgins that started the ruckus and it was good times...they were all shiny silver and dressed up nicely) and he started yelling at people and walked away super pissed off. He was all "What is this a party?" .... "Well you don't have to be so loud!" and storms off (I was headed to the next hole and only caught the tail end of this fine confrontation. My team assumed he was pissed since he wasn't the freak at that moment. We out freaked him. Fun times.

Mr_sadhead relates the following tale of Sapphic screaming:

I have a friend who was trying to write a profile of the kid and his dad for a gaming magazine. She interviewed them. Everything went well up until the dad started yelling around about the gays. He started yelling at my friend "You're one, right? One of those lesbians?" and kept on about it until she left in tears and confusion. (For the record: no, I don't think she is.) Naturally, she never finished the profile.

Chinaski wraps this up on a positive note:

I saw him last week or so. He was nice. So was his dad, except it seemed like maybe the old man didn't want him talking to me. I don't know why. I was just saying, you know, I used to really love Zelda. It was my favorite game. Ok, I only had a few but it was my favorite. I don't think he's so extraordinary as to be legendary. But it's "the legend.." so I guess we must. Love what ya got.

Those of you who crave more factoids about this mysterious creature of mystery, please to be availing yourself of the following resources:

Link's entry at Wikistak [Sleestak.org]
The Link Preservation Society [MySpace]
The Seattle LiveJournal community, where Link sightings and photos are posted regularly [LiveJournal]

Next time I see Link in person, and he isn't too agitated, I'll endeavor to get an interview out of him. Until then, I'd love to hear about amusing or amazing crazies in your neck of the woods. Eliza Gauger

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