The Speaking Squid

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Sunday, June 7, 2026

The Minish Cap: A dandelion gone to seed

A dandelion gone to seed

Green Kinstone: Green Kinstones are the base model for Kinstone fusion. Combing one of Link’s pieces with a person’s piece from around Hyrule usually unlocks a minor treasure or a new opportunity for adventure, often in the form of a rarer Kinstone piece for more fusing. Link can find these Kinstone pieces while by cutting grass. Slaying enemies, digging holes, and anywhere else he’d normally find a rupee or a heart.

Find a flower, gone to seed

Make a wish and fate may heed

Intention’s power, vision’s clear

So many fish and beggars cheer

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I often say, “if wishes were fishes…” assuming people know the phrase, “If wishes were fishes, we’d all swim in riches. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.” Many don’t, but now you do.

Go find a dandelion and make a wish, you never know if it may came true.

How to support me:

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Sunday, May 31, 2026

The Minish Cap: Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Red Kinstone: Kinstones are found broken and fusing matched pairs of kinstones with the people Link meets on his journey unlocks boons, treasure, and new places to explore. Fusing red kinstones often changes something about the world. A person is inspired, a pathway opens, or a treasure appears somewhere else.

Happy birthday to you

Haaaappy birthday to *insert name of loved one here*

Happy birthday to you

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My Kinstone drawings are mostly things to make wishes as wishing is such a core part of fairy tales.

My older kid loves these drawings more than almost any other that I have made because they can play blowing birthday candles out and then they magically relight. Their love for these makes these drawings some of my favorites from this set.

If you can do anything creative. Share it with your kids early, they will be impressed and tell everyone about your amazing skills.

How to support me:

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Sunday, May 24, 2026

The Minish Cap: A single rainbow

A single rainbow

Bow of Light: A powerful Picori artifact, the bow of light can charge the cleansing poser of light into held shots with the bow that burn enemies of darkness. Link must visit the wind tribes village in the clouds by fusing kinstones, and then save a man from ghostly possession using the wind jar. If he saves this man , the next time Link visits the village in the clouds, the recovered man will gift him the bow of light. If he fails to save this man, he will die and Link will never find the bow.

It was another dreary day questing for the bow of light prophesied to end the 10,000 years of darkness, and then it started to rain. After all these years of danger and peril, what finally makes you give up is wet socks. That is until the sky clears and you see a simple rainbow and you realize the bow isn’t some long lost piece of archery equipment but the belief that we can work together to make things better.

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I’m still bitter about not getting the bow of light when I played Minish Cap. I guess I didn’t have enough patience and didn’t vacuum the ghost long enough to save the man and he died. I still think about that, even though it’s been almost a decade since I played that game.

There is so much going on in the world that I could and should comment on, but nothing prepared me for how ad it would be when you, your partner, and both kids get really sick all at once.

My life is a bit in shambles, but I’m hopeful things will get better.

How to support me:

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Sunday, May 17, 2026

The Minish Cap: A nest of golden eggs

A nest of golden eggs

Gold Kinstone: Like their more mundane counterparts, golden kinstones are broken into two halves and give some reward when the matching pieces are fused back together. Unlike the less luxurious kinstones, Link fuses the golden kinstones exclusively with pedestals and doing so u locks forward progress in his journey to the sky peoples’ cloud top homes.

The gilded goose lays golden eggs when listening to the songs of the enchanted harp. The giant that keeps the harp and the goose has no use for the solid gold eggs, but they do love hearing the harp play and they love their evening chats with the goose. The eggs are unceremoniously tossed in the giant’s midden which is the most valuable room in the realm, if you value gold more than friendships.

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"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

I finished the line work for all the items in Twilight Princess! It took more than two years to get that hunk of inking done and I finished it last week! Now I get to color every piece and then I’m done! Finding moments to celebrate throughout long projects is the only way to finish long projects.

How to support me:

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Sunday, May 10, 2026

The Minish Cap: A ball of yarn

A ball of yarn

Dungeon Map: The dungeon maps are found in each of Minish Cap’s dungeons and reveal the complete layout of the dungeon, minus any secret rooms. Link can find them in a chest inside of each respective dungeon after solving some puzzle or overcoming some challenge.

When you announced you would enter the labyrinth to slay the monster and return with its treasure, your companion gave you a ball of yarn. The catfolk’s gift seemed odd, maybe all cats really appreciate yarn? “Tie it to the entrance and unroll it as you explore so you can find your way back you small minded fool.”

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If you are feeling lost, check your yarn path you laid down to get here. Oh you didn’t put a yarn path down, well then we’ve got some serious work ahead of us to get unlost.

Today is Mother’s Day in the USA. Not everyone has a stellar or even positive relationship with mothers in their life, so maybe check if someone is observing Mother’s Day before assuming they are doing something for the day.

How to support me:

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Sunday, May 3, 2026

The Minish Cap: A flaky croissant

A flaky croissant

Croissant: Available for purchase at the bakery, these refreshing rolls restore a few hearts when eaten. Link also has a chance to find a kinstone fragment baked inside the bread.

Flaky dough with hundreds of paper thin layers of butter are the hallmark of the croissant. It is also the bar that all apprentice bakers must meet to graduate into the rank of sojourner and be set off to work and learn in the bakeries of the Royaume. The bakers guild’s high standards and commitment to education have made the pastries of even the simplest town a delicious treat.

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There is some to do on the internet about curved vs straight croissant, but I don’t have enough time to really find an answer with proper support. Let me know if you know and tell me how you know what you know.

What can we really know anyway?

One way you can improve the world is to reach out to your friends with strained or estranged familial relationships. That sort of thing takes a toll on a person , so check in with them and offer them love.

How to support me:

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Sunday, April 26, 2026

The Minish Cap: A little clock with a big personality

A little clock with a big personality

Compass: Link can find a compass in each dungeon in The Minish Cap. Like most Zelda games, the compass shows where treasure and bosses are located within the dungeon where the compass was found. Finding the compass is usually the reward for solving a puzzle or succeeding in a difficult combat encounter.

The story goes that this clock is from the estate of a noble who died while under a witch’s curse. Apparently, the noble was cursed with a beastly form, but the servants were all transformed into furniture and housewares, ever bound to the fate of their master. This clock is probably just a regular clock, but it does seem to linger on 3:41 and 8:18 when the hands seem to make a mustache on the clock’s face.

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The first time shows a mustache, why do you think I picked the second time I did?

As I write this I am almost done with the line art for the items from Twilight Princess. That set of drawings has taken me more than two years and I am so close to being done I can actually sense progress. I’ll still have to color all the drawings, but we are almost through and that is an amazing feeling.

How to support me:

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Sunday, April 19, 2026

The Minish Cap: Our last piece of bread

Our last piece of bread

Brioche: These tasty loaves can be purchased at the bakery and heal a single heart when eaten. Some of the loaves are baked with a surprised kinstone piece inside, which means you should hew with care until you are sure if there is a friendly rock in your food or not.

I know this is our last piece of bread, but we need to know the way back to the edge of the forest so we can find our way home once we find the snipe nest dad sent us after. He said that us going after the snipe nest will solve all of our families' money issues so it’s bound to be worth a lot. Maybe we can ask whoever lives in that strange looking hut in the clearing up ahead.

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My vast collection of item cards includes a lot of these odd ones that people always ask, “why would anyone need that?” I love randomly picking some item cards to spice up loot drops in my games and getting one of these weird ones. Sometimes I have a great idea, sometimes my players have a great idea, and sometimes it just get stowed in their shared loot for so long that I come up with a “the vault has ants” plot because they stored a crumbling slice of bread.

How to support me: