#and vio. back in chapter 3.. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

81emily71 · 20 hours ago

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hey lovelies, I finally finished her!!! A lot of this is in ballet and dance lingo so PLEASE understand what i mean lol. i’ve spend a lot of time and effort on this so any interaction is always appreciated bc ive been INCREDIBLY shadowbanned recently 💔💔 anyways, as per, fic under the cut!!

descriptions and warnings in part 1, part 2

wc: 1865

chapters: 3/3

Am I Okay?

Chapter 3

Then March came around. They’d done a few more showcases with ABT, all pre-existing classical ballets, but the one they’re preparing for is a neoclassical, breaching contemporary - an original piece - completely choreographed by Warso. The ballet is a rendition of Romeo and Juliet with a slightly happier ending, only Will and Mack were the lead pairing. Romeo and Juliet. And as the last dance in the whole production, Will and Mack had a duet to a violin solo that can only be described as near agonising. The dance played to both of their strengths, in a contrasting, beautiful way that depicted exactly what warso wanted. “Star-crossed lovers”, he’d called it in their first practice, and it stuck with Mack for longer than it should’ve.

It was opening night for the performance; they'd practiced the routine nearly 100 times on that stage, but Mack’s palms were still sweating, even though he was only in tights, a roman tutu, and toe turners.

“You’ll do great out there. you’re an amazing dancer,” Will whispered to him before he disappeared to the other side of the stage, while the dance before them concluded. He wasn’t scared of messing up, he was scared of the intimate moments they’d had while practicing and perfecting the dance to get shown to the world. Mack wasn’t sure he wanted other people knowing his true feelings towards Will.

Since joining ABT, their dancing ability, and personalities had grown - as well as Mack’s attraction to Will. Every sly glance in class, or coffee order he remembered, and the way tights clung to his thighs, only made him love him more. He wasn’t ashamed of how he felt, no, he was afraid of the only language he truly spoke being interpreted by others. His feelings being open to the world.

As the music from the previous routine faded out, and the dancers disappeared into the wings, their song - a variation of Think Of Me Once In A While, Take Care - blended through the orchestra, and Mack walked out from stage left, in slow, deliberate steps. His walks came to a stop when he reached the middle of the stage, his elbow came into his side, forcing a hunch, and his opposing foot to lift off the ground. His arms then flowed above him while he galloped backwards, and he did a reverse ronde de jambe, as Will ran out from the wings, jumping into his arms. Mack caught him with practiced ease, hugging his ribs as Will’s arms wrapped around his neck, and Mack turned. Will's legs flew out, and landed on the other side of Mack, who led him into a controlled ragdoll. Mack grand battemented his left leg in front of him, his right bending, and his left slowly lowered, acting as if something was pulling him towards Will as he ran the few steps to him.

Will exited his roll into a turned out, kneeling lunge, and Mack came up in front of him, kicking his leg into a quick needle before Will pushed him away. Mack went into a backwards shoulder roll, but pushed himself into a handstand before he completed it. Will stood and they both ran to each other, meeting in the middle, chest-to-chest. Their hands came together next to their chests, and they pushed apart, hands still clasped together, and Will lifted Mack’s left arm above his head, and Mack prepared to turn. After 3 turns, Mack’s leg left retiré, and pushed into a fan kick, letting himself fall into Will’s arms. His right leg tucked into the floor, under his left, and he rolled on his stomach, with his legs kicked up, at Will’s feet.

Will let himself fall backwards, and turned over his right shoulder to catch himself before running to the back left corner of the stage. When Mack stood, the violin paused for a moment before continuing, and Mack froze, staring at him from across the stage, as he did a turning jeté across the back, before running to the other corner. When Will started to run, so did Mack, but to the front left corner, his back facing Will. They mirrored each other’s moves without looking back to the other - their left legs extended into slow fan kicks, before landing behind their right, leading them into a chassé, pas de bourree, glissade, and they mermaid slid to the floor as they faced each other. They then brought their legs in front of them, brushed them with their hands from their thighs to toes, and pushed back into a one-handed contemporary cartwheel. Will continued out of his, whereas Mack stayed in a bent leg handstand as Will ran up behind him. Mack extended his legs into a middle split and turned to his body faced Will’s, pushing out of the handstand and continuing the cartwheel onto Will’s squatted thighs. Mack’s legs hooked onto Will's, letting him support all his weight, and Mack grabbed at Will’s face, cupping his cheeks as he pulled their faces together so close their noses touched. Mack pushed away from Will, letting himself fall back so his hands brushed the floor as Will gripped his waist like his life depended on it. Mack came back up and unthreaded his left leg from Will’s, pushing himself off him into a backwards walkover.

They faced each other at centre stage, before bringing their right leg into a ragdoll, standing up after, and their hands coming together. Keeping their hands clasped, Will pulled Mack into a front aerial, before letting go and going into a side one himself. Mack crawled towards Will, who helped him up by the hand, and kept their hands together as he brought Mack’s back to his chest. He turned Mack out like a ballroom dancer, and let go as he butterfly rolled into a knee drop, Will running after him, helping Mack’s hunched body back up to stand. They faced each other again, and Mack cupped Will’s face once more, bringing their foreheads together. They breathed in sync, Will tucking one of Mack’s stray hairs behind his ear, and they smiled.

The curtains closed and they ran side stage to start their final bows. They were the last people to bow, being the leads and all, and the applause they received was a cacophony of cheers, claps, and voices- with the occasional whistle.

“I told you you’d kill it,” Will exclaimed when they were back in their change room.

“Thanks, you were great out there. I’m serious, you did really well.”

“Thanks.” Will replied, a goofy grin on his face.

They repeated the production every night for the next week, and it was one of their best selling performances, until Sunday night. Closing night. Everything went smoothly, right to a T, until Mack and Will’s final duet.

At the end of the show, instead of bringing their foreheads together, Will brought their lips together in a kiss. The kiss was everything Mack had imagined - tender, sweet, and full of passion. Their lips dragged against each other, Will’s coarse skin scratching Mack’s soft lips in a sickeningly perfect way, and he couldn’t help but think that Will must love him back. The applause snapped him out of it. Right. It’s a show.

It’s a show.

Will kissed him for the first time as a show?

The curtains closed and they pulled apart, exiting to have their final bows. Mack barely looked in Will’s direction the entire bows, when he would normally search for every minute reaction that painted his face. He couldn’t. Not after that.

After the show, he stormed into the change room, keeping his head down, stripping from his costume and putting on a more comfortable outfit. He didn’t talk - not to Toff congratulating him, not to Ella asking him if he had a spare hair tie, not to Ekky chirping half the room, and especially not to Will. Toff knew why, he’s not dumb, he’s seen the way Mack looks at Will, the way Will is so oblivious he wouldn’t know how much he loved him if it punched him in the face.

“What’s up with him?” Will asked Toff.

He looked at him with a you-have-to-be-kidding-me-right-now face, “Smitty, you are so fucking stupid sometimes.” Toff gathered the rest of his things, said goodbye to everyone else, and left without another word to Will.

Later that evening, it’s just Mack and Will left in the guy’s change room. He watched Mack gather the last of his things, and just as he went to leave, Will finally plucked up the courage to ask the question he should know for himself.

“Are you mad at me?” That stopped Mack in his tracks.

“What do you think?” Mack turned to face him.

“That you are, but I have no idea why.”

“God, you’re so dense sometimes.”

“Just because I don’t know what I-“ Mack cut him off.

“You kissed me on stage!”

“So you’re mad because I kissed you?”

“No, I’m mad that you’re so oblivious that you made our first kiss be in front of hundreds of people! You’re so oblivious you haven’t even clicked that I love you! You know everything about me. You know I hate sharing how I feel in front of people I barely - or don’t even - know. And yet, you still chose to kiss me on that stage. I don’t care that you kissed me, I care that you took a moment that I wanted alone with you, and- and turned it into an act for other people to enjoy.”

Will stayed silent for a moment, the reality of his actions finally sinking in. “I didn’t think of it like that.”

“Yeah, I can tell.” Mack turned to leave again.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t love you.”

Mack froze once more, and Will crept up behind him, clasping his hand in his own.

“I love you, so much, more than anything in the world. I’m sorry that I pushed you into that, and I’m sorry that I kissed you for the first time on a stage, but none of what I feel is an act. I want to be with you, so bad, and I’m sorry that it took so long for me to say it.”

A tear rolled down Mack's cheek.

“And hey, I heard if you kiss someone twice in one day it cancels out so you’ve only kissed them once.”

Mack let out a dry laugh. “Smitty, literally no one had ever said that.”

“I mean, we could still test the theory.” He smirked

“You’re such a dork.”

Mack pulled him into a kiss, smiling. This one was different to the one before - more tender, loving, and less like a show. Their lips danced together like their bodies did a mere hour ago, Will craning his head to make it easier to kiss him as he wiped the drying tear from Mack’s cheek.

“I love you.” Will muttered between kisses. “I love you, I love you, I love you.” He added another kiss for good measure. “So much, Celly.”

“I love you, too, Will.” Mack pressed their foreheads together, keeping his eyes closed as he smiled. “Let’s go home.”

“Yeah, let’s.”

#hrpf #nhl rpf #san jose hockey #san jose sharks #willmack #macklin celebrini #will smith hockey #mackwill #nhl hockey #wacklin #sjs hockey #sj sharks #sjs

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greennoobartist · 3 months ago

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Sooo, what do you recommend for a Four Swords manga dub on YouTube, preferably colored, but I don't care that much if it isn't. I found this kid who did it, but they stopped after chapter 4. (Literally made me so sad) And the whole reason I even watched was because I wanted to understand your posts and ramblings (I'm reallyyyy giving the number 4 a chance here)((Hasn't disappointed yet thank goodness)) AnYyYyYywayyyyyyyyyyy, I figured I should ask you bc you would know out of everyone.

(Dang, I normally don't ramble this bad, I hope you get my question)

Got a notif for an ask, saw the word Four Swords, it's more than enough to summon me lol XD

Im glad that you're relying on me for one of my biggest passions ^^ It makes me so happy that ppl are asking me for my opinions and recommendations and when it's Four Swords heck im more than happy tysm <3

There is this one channel that does the Four Swords Dub so well im literally obsessed over the voice acting (literally in love with Vio's voice no joke intended) and it's like 50/50 colored idk how to explain. Some panels are colored some are not, but lately they've been coloring more and more panels with recent updates which im glad about.

This is the channel and I SWEAR THEY DO IT SO WELL THE VOICES ARE SO MATCHING VIO IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!! (nothing unusual lmao)

It's not complete yet but trust it's always worth the wait. They've been improving over time and it's visible. I think they change voice actors over time im not sure. Again they improve, so more and more panels get colored and video editing gets better and better. They include hilarious bloopers! AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY (probably not but eh), one of the best Four Swords artist is also a VA and they do some art for that Dub, the artist im talking about is the legendary @/kaenith. Trust me Kae is great! Their art is so amazing i love it sm and sometimes they do art for this dub and they also voice act for Shadow and I love it sm! Kae the Legend! (Im sorry but Kae is one of my inspirations to draw and make content for Four Swords, they also got me into Four Swords in general so I just wanna show em some appreciation)

This dub also has a Tumblr account which is @/four-swords-dub on which they sometimes post news and updates so I sometimes check that acc too to know about the VAs and how the project is going.

UGGHH I HAVE TO GO NOW BUT I WANNA YAPP UGHHHH ILL BE BACK WITH THE CONTINUATION OF THIS YAP IF YOU WANT BUT YOU GOT YOUR GENERAL ANSWER!! TYSM BAIII!!!

Edit: unfortunately it's gonna be tomorrow bcuz I know i can't yap for only 10 minutes ':D

#fresco answers #to be continued

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im-wildcard · 2 months ago

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Chapter 3 of Sailing Towards the Near Future is out!

Story in down below if you don’t use Ao3

Chapter 3: Sailing The Great Sea

The last few hours have been a hassle for Wind and Four. They had to convince everyone to wait until morning to tell them their plan. Now, why was that? Well, Wind had to enact his plan for it to all work out.

After everyone else went to bed they used his pirate’s charm to call Wind’s friend and captain. Four found it to be the true form of a gossip stone. Of course, this made Vio very curious and so he planned to research it once he had the chance. Wind noticed the purple hue in Four’s naturally gray eyes, but he didn’t ask about it. They all had their secrets and they all had their encounters with strange magic that could have after-effects. After a couple of buzzes from the stone, it lit up with a bright blue hue and a girl’s voice came through.

“What the hell is wrong with you Link?! You disappeared out of nowhere and haven’t called at all this whole week. We’ve been worried sick!” She yelled at Wind with anger in her voice, but Wind could definitely hear a hint of worry as well, if he listened carefully.

“Umm, Captain I agree with you that we’ve all been worried, but he is a hero after all, and he can handle himself. You're the only one here who was worried sick about him,” a man spoke up but his voice was slightly quiet and distant.

Four thought that he must be some ways away, but not far enough to not hear the girls yelling. Or maybe everyone on that ship heard her yelling because she was so loud, Four thought. Four was worried that the others might wake up, but he hoped not because then their plan wouldn’t work.

“Aww Tetra you were worried sick about me, how nice, and seriously Gonzo!” Wind replied to the two of them. Four realized that he could communicate with others using the stone but he couldn’t see the other unlike with Wild’s slate.

“Aren’t you going to answer me? Why haven’t you called to check up on us? What have you been doing that’s more important than taking care of my ship?” The girl, now known as Tetra, asked once again.

“Well, what happened is that when I was playing around in the crow’s nest with Niko I may or may not have fallen off and right into a portal,” Wind answered sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck but stopped once he realized that she couldn’t see him.

“WHAT THE HELL! WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME!” Tetra shouted as if Wind and Four couldn’t hear her. Both of them jumped a little and feared the others would wake up.

Four tapped Wind on the shoulder to get his attention. “Hey Wind, how about we go outside so we don’t wake up the others,” Four whispered.

Wind nodded, “Yeah, I think that’s a great idea,” he whispered back. The two boys scurried to the front door while Wind encased the pirate’s charm in his hands, covering the bright blue glow of their call. They quietly opened the door and stepped out the doorway onto the silent streets of the cool night. They could hear Tetra yelling at her crew for not informing her about Wind’s accident, but she must have walked away from her stone because her voice was distant.

“Niko, why didn’t you say anything? What if Link was badly injured and couldn’t call? Everyone knows they’re supposed to inform me of stuff like this,” Tetra scolded Niko. I guess they’re good friends, Four thought hesitantly.

“Maybe we should go to the docks where nobody can hear us,” Wind offered and Four nodded a response. The two walked down the skinny dirt road leading to the docks. They walked under the arch where they were met with the only stone road on the island.

“Why is this the only road that’s made out of stone?” Four asked.

“I don’t know, but I guess it's better for first impressions for the travelers that come by. Or so that merchants can sit on their boats while people come to them and don’t have to stand in the dirt the whole time,” Wind answered.

By the time their conversation ended, they arrived at the docks while Tetra was still yelling about proper protocol and crew safety. While Four listened he could tell that she just acted very mean and tough to hide the fact that she does care.

It was dark, but the sky was clear and the light of the full moon and stars lit up the night. There was a nice cool salty breeze that Wind loved and Four was fine with it as well, but probably wouldn’t like it later on a ship.

“Link!” Tetra shouted, snapping the two boys' attention back.

“Y yes Captain,” Wind stuttered from the sudden shout.

“Wow, she yells a lot,” Four mumbled to himself covering his mouth to muffle his voice even more.

“So what do you need, or are you finally checking in?” Tetra asked with a hint of sass. Wind could imagine her standing there with her hands on her hips.

“You can say that I’m checking in now, but I also need your help with something,” Wind replied with a hint of mischief in his voice. Four giggled to himself because he knew, from what Wind had told him, Tetra would be on board with their plan.

“With how you're talking it sounds like you have something fun and mischievous in mind. Tell me all about it immediately!” Tetra said with excitement in her voice.

“I want to take my new friends to see our era and prove that it’s just a big ocean. I want to show them how beautiful and amazing it is,” Wind said happily, practically jumping in place. Four took the pirate's charm from Wind while he expressed how excited he was for this plan.

“We plan on convincing the group to get on a ship and sail around, but some people aren’t a fan of the idea. Some of them say it’s a bad idea and we should focus on other matters,” Four explained with a red hue in his eyes while Wind collected himself.

“Other matters, what other matters?” Tetra asked suspiciously.

“We’ve been running around all of history chasing down a new enemy that Wind named Dink. It’s been powering up monsters and sending them around while it tries to kill us,” Four answered seriously with a green hue in his eyes.

“Every time we get close to defeating Dink it just runs away in a portal that it creates with dark magic,” Wind added, throwing his hands up into the arm showing how frustrated he was at the thought. He knew that Tetra couldn’t see him, but he knew she could imagine him doing it from the tone of his voice.

“We don’t even know how it got this dark magic in the first place. I did come up with a couple of theories but they are only theories,” Four finished with a violet hue in his eyes.

While Four continued explaining the plan to Tetra Wind noticed the sudden changes in Four’s eyes. The rate and the different colors were starting to concern him. Is that supposed to be happening? I mean everyone has seen them change from time to time, but it’s never at this rate. Could there be something wrong with him? Wind thought to himself, he didn’t want another one of his brothers to be hurt.

“Hey Four, are you okay? Your eyes keep changing colors,” Wind asked concerned.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry Wind. This is quite normal actually whenever this happens,” Four reassured Wind with green eyes.

“What do you mean by that?” Wind asked confusingly with his head tilted to the right a bit.

“Yeah, I wanna know the answer to that too,” Tetra spoke up.

“Oh, my thoughts are a mess right now. Nothing to worry about like I said before,” Four answered. I wonder how much longer I can stay together. Everyone wants to do something different. Four thought to himself, starting to wonder how he would explain to the group about his secret.

“If you say so,” Wind said hesitantly. Then Wind fixed his posture and crosses his arms just like Warriors does when he’s being serious. “Do remember to tell someone if you're not alright. Don’t be like Time who thinks just because he’s the leader he also doesn’t need to be taken care of like how he takes care of us. You don’t want a lecture from Warriors either, you know how he gets with this kind of stuff,” Wind slightly lectured.

“Yes sir, I won’t be like our dear leader and father figure,” Four said, jokingly mocking Wind with blue eyes.

Tetra chuckled loudly “Look at you Link being all responsible.”

“Hey! I can be responsible when I need to be,” Wind shouted, crossing his arms and turning away from the stone.

“Wind’s right. He can be very responsible. For example, a week ago when Time hid his injury he was quick to respond and he helped Warriors treat Time,” Four with violet eyes explained. Wind turned back around facing Four with a bright smile. He lunged forward and embraced Four in a great big loving hug. Four’s eyes turned red and he returned the embrace just as lovingly.

“Well well, someone’s growing into a man,” Tetra mocked. Wind stepped out of the hug and Red was left lonely. He liked his brother’s hugs, but now is time to be serious, so Red had to leave again.

“I’ve been a man since I turned thirteen, thirteen is the coming of age and looking upon the world as an adult,” Wind boasted with his hands on his hips and chin held high. Four giggled quietly at his very dramatic brother.

“Enough games, sadly, but let me see if I have the plan right. We start sailing to Windfall Island tomorrow morning and come pick you guys up by lunch. While you guys convince your brothers to go out into the ocean and if you don’t it won’t matter because we’ll already be there. Do I have everything right?” Tetra recounted the plan.

“Yes, that’s it,” Wind replied.

“To summarize the entire thing I would say that would be all,” Purple eyes answered.

Vio said, this should work.

Blue said in a snarky tone, or it could not. Are you sure the plan is full proof?

Vio yelled, OF COURSE IT IS, Wind and I went over it multiple times and I thought of so many scenarios!

Red stepped between the two and lifted his hands up just below his head, hey guys I don’t think this is the best time maybe let’s calm down.

Green walked towards them, I agree with Red. Right now we need to be paying attention and getting back to Maggie’s house before someone finds that we’re not there. I’ll take control seeing how separate we are. Green walked in front of them and stopped. He closed his eyes and reopened them. He was now sitting down on the docks but he doesn’t remember Vio sitting down before letting go of control. He looked over to his left side to see Wind staring at him. His eyebrows are furrowed and his mouth was pressed together and slightly curved down.

_____________

“Alright now that we’ve got the plan down we should head to bed seeing that we have to get up early to arrive at Windfall on time,” Tetra said after Four confirmed her summarized review.

“That sounds like a great idea, I’m starting to get tired,” Wind said. He turned his attention back to Four whose eyes are back to being their normal gray, but they appear to be a bit foggy. “What about you Four, are you tired?” He asked but after a couple of seconds passed he didn't receive an answer. “Four are you okay?” He asked again and once more he didn't receive an answer. Was he lying when he said he was okay? Wind thought to himself as his concern rose. “Four this isn’t funny are you okay?” Wind asked with a trembling voice.

“Is there something wrong with Four?” Tetra asked when she heard Wind’s voice become more concerned.

“I don’t know, he’s not answering me just staring blankly at the pirate’s charm,” Wind’s trembling voice answered while shaking Four trying to get his attention.

“Maybe give him a minute, I don’t know what to do,” Tetra suggested, hoping to help however much she could.

“Alright I’ll give him a minute,” Wind said sadly, consumed with worry for his brother. What is wrong with everyone lately? Why are they all lying about being okay when something is not alright? Wind asked himself.

Wind grabbed Four’s arm and set him on the ground in a sitting position. He sat right next to him and started to count down. He counted two minutes and then lost track of how many seconds passed when Four finally reacted again. Four’s eyes had become less foggy and then he suddenly closed them. Almost immediately he reopened them and the once gray eyes were now a bright emerald green. Four looked down and was confused then turned his attention to Wind.

______________

“Is something wrong Wind?” Green questioned with a confused look.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!” Wind blurted out throwing his hands up. He then rolled his eyes to the side, tilted his head to the side, curled his fingers to make quotation marks. “Is SoMeThInG WrOnG?” He mocked Four with a horrible impression.

“Well from a reaction like that, I think something might be,” Green said hesitantly.

“Wind said that you stopped responding to him and were just staring at the pirate's charm,” Tetra commented out of nowhere.

“Oh! Yes, I was just thinking very intently, going over the entire plan, making sure that it’s full proof. When I think intently I tend to block everyone out. I apologize for worrying everyone,” Green answered nervously because he knew that he was lying through his teeth. Shit we took too long to switch, Green said to himself. Vio and Blue simultaneously apologized for their actions.

Wind knew that Four was lying, but he didn’t press on about it because Four looked completely fine now minus the fact that his eyes have been green since he came to. He’ll just keep a closer eye to make sure he stays fine.

“Maybe we should go to bed, it is pretty late,” Tetra suggests and both boys agree. Green handed Wind the pirate’s charm so that he could end the connection.

“Night Tetra,” Wind said.

“Night Link, see you tomorrow,” Tetra replied.

Wind ended the call and the glowing blue stone stopped glowing. They were now sitting in the dark with only the moon and stars as their light. They looked up to the sky and just stared for a while.

“Ready for bed?” Wind questioned.

“Absolutely,” Green chuckled in response. They pushed themselves up off the docks and started walking up the stone path they took earlier. Just as quickly as they met the stone they met dirt. Once again it didn’t take long for them to get back to Maggie’s house.

When they got to the door Wind quietly turned the knob and pushed the door. When the door was completely open they sighed in relief to see a dark living room and nothing out of place. They had successfully sneaked out in the middle of the night without getting caught which meant no lecture and no one would figure out their plan. To keep this up they took their shoes off outside and carried them while they tippy-toed back inside of Maggie’s house.

Just as they had gotten to the couches they heard a deep sleepy “excuse me” from the west hallway leading to the many guest rooms. They stopped in place thinking about who it could be. The east hallway was quiet as a mouse meaning that Maggie and Mila were still sound asleep. Time and Wild are still recovering a bit more so it wasn’t them, Twilight and Warriors hadn’t left their side not once, Sky loved to sleep too much to be awake at this hour, and it was too late for Hyrule as well. The only person left would be Legend. Why would he be awake?

“Where did you two go this late at night and who was yelling when you left?” Legend questioned tiredly. Legend was leaning against the wall rubbing the back of his neck, his eyes were halfway open and you could see the dark circles around them.

Green said, must have been awake this whole time.

Blue said with a slight attitude, why would he be up?

Vio thought, maybe he thought we were planning something and wanted to find out what it was.

Red wondered, maybe he was thinking about home and couldn’t sleep.

“What are you doing up, Legend?” Green asked.

“Yeah, you can’t be questioning us when you're also awake, and where we went doesn’t matter,” Wind blurted out and Legend shot him a glare. Wind jumped and ran around to Four’s other side to hide from the grumpy and tired veteran hero.

“You two woke me up with whoever you were talking to on your pirate charm, Wind,” Legend snarled while walking into the living room. He walked over to a lamp in the corner of the room and clicked it on then turned around to face Four and Wind.

Vio muttered, liar.

Red said concernedly, wow he must be really tired, just look at him.

Blue shouted angrily, WHY THE HELL IS HE AWAKE, IS HE EAVESDROPPING!

“Are you sure we woke you up because your face says otherwise,” Wind argued from behind Four, suspicious of the vet’s excuse.

“It doesn’t matter! Where were you two?” Legend growled, crossing his arms, eyes shut and brows furrowed.

“We were just talking about the exciting day we planned out for tomorrow that’s all,” Green answered quickly before Wind made another comment. Wind stepped to Four’s side and placed his hands on his hips and shook his head up and down.

“It’s going to be an exhausting day tomorrow isn’t it,” Legend mumbled under his breath. Then he clicked the lamp off and started for the hall again. “Just go to bed,” Legend said before he entered his room.

“Shall we?” Green asked Wind while holding his hand out towards the hallway.

“Yeah, I’m ready to go to sleep,” Wind answered. They walked through the hall and to their assigned rooms. “Good night Four,” Wind whispered.

“Goodnight Wind,” Green whispered back and they walked into their rooms.

Green closed the door behind him and locked it. He changed into his nightshirt and took off his headband. He crawled into bed, pulling the sheets over him and letting the quiet comforting dark take him.

Red chirped, finally bedtime!

Blue grumbled, go to sleep we can talk once it’s morning.

Green whispered, good night everyone we have a big day tomorrow. They knew Vio was already sleeping because they heard his soft breathing. They found it quite strange that he was already asleep considering he usually was awake till five in the morning. They shrugged it off and agreed that he was just as tired as they were.

The night was quiet except for the snores of the heroes and Four loved it. No part of him was trying to make themselves known more than the others and no more thoughts were running around in his head. He could finally relax and get some well-needed rest.

The morning was quick to come and the poor heroes that stayed up longer than the others were still asleep. Even Sky, the designated sleepyhead and daydreamer, was awake before them. Legend, Four, and Wind all slept until ten in the morning. One by one they came out of their rooms and the other heroes greeted them. Of course, they ate breakfast and checked their storage to make sure they had everything they needed.

By eleven-thirty, they were all out on the docks while Wind jumped around telling them about their wonderful adventure on the sea. Four told them the exact details which led to a couple of the heroes to cringe at the thought.

“Oh no, I’m not getting on a ship with a bunch of people I don’t know and letting them take me around the ocean,” Legend protested.

“I agree on the stranger part, but if the sailor says that they are to be trusted then I’ll make do,” Warriors proposed.

“Oh come on guys it’ll be fun! We'll see all kinds of sea creatures and feel the wonderful salty wind blow through our hair,” Wind explained, waving his arms around in wide gestures.

“What if I fall out of the ship? I can’t swim at all because you guys know that most water in my era is poisonous,” Hyrule added.

“I don’t think you’ll fall out of the ship, it’s rather nice today,” Time told Hyrule, placing a hand on his shoulder to ease their traveler.

“I think this is a wonderful idea, Wind,” Sky said happily with his usual bright smile.

“Yeah, it’ll be so fun and I’ll take lots of photos,” Wild agreed.

“Just don’t be running around causing anyone trouble. I don’t wanna get lectured by Wind’s crew about my untamed kid getting in the way,” Twilight added ruffling Wild's already messy hair.

How is it already messy, Four thinks to himself. He looked around and everyone had varying facial expressions. Most of them were happy or excited. There were only two made up of worry or discomfort. I understand why Warriors is a bit off on this idea, having never been on a ship or met the people. What I don’t understand is why Legend, someone who’s sailed his very own ship, is so opposed to this idea. What could have happened to him? Four thought to himself and because of all the questions, Vio and Red start to reawaken.

Vio theorized, maybe he had an accident and was traumatized by the experience.

Red cried, oh no that’s horrible! Of course, he wouldn’t be opposed to this if he was afraid of being on the ocean.

Vio added, well there could be other reasons but that’s just a common reason for most people.

Four shook his head to clear out the voices to grab control again before they did. He needed to stay focused and be one person. He didn’t want the others to find out about his counterparts just yet let alone Shadow. Four could imagine their reaction to meeting Shadow, it would go horribly wrong.

“Even if you disagree, Legend, we're still going because the ship will be here soon,” Wind said.

“WHAT!” Legend shouted in anger.

“So that’s what you were doing last night,” Time said.

“Huh?” Both Wind and Four responded.

“You were awake as well?” Four questioned.

“Of course I was. I heard a yell so I woke up to see if everything was okay. That’s when I saw Legend standing in the hallway,” Time explained and Legend crossed his arms.

“I told him to go back to bed and that I would handle it,” Legend growled.

Four turned around looking at the ocean’s horizon. He could see the silhouette of a small ship coming towards them. Must be Tetra and her crew, Four thought to himself. “Hey guys the ship is coming,” Four announced to the chain. A bundle of “great” was said but each had a different tone to it. They stood on the docks for at least five minutes waiting for Tetra’s ship to arrive and collect them.

“Link!” Tetra yelled from the ship.

“Tetra!” Wind yelled back happily.

Tetra’s crew came into view while pushing a thick wooden board for them to walk up. Once it was sturdy Wind ran up it and leaped into Tetra’s arms and she welcomed the embrace.

She must have been very worried about Wind or maybe she just really cares for him and she’s just pretending to not, Four thought as he watched the two catch up.

“Alright everyone let’s get onto the ship,” Time announced and the other obliged. Of course, their veteran hero had to be dragged by Twilight, since he refused to board the ship.

“Welcome aboard The Pirate or just Pirate for short,” Tetra said welcoming them on.

“Everyone let me introduce you to my captain, Tetra, also formally known as Zelda, but you can’t tell anyone,” Wind said, presenting a girl around his age, fifteen, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She wore a red bandanna around her neck with a blue jacket over a purple shirt. She had another red bandanna tired around her waist over long white shorts with brown strapped sandals.

“Next, meet the first mate Gonzo,” Wind said, presenting a tall man with a red bandanna around his head to cover his maybe existing hair. He had a pale purple tattoo peaking out of his green shirt dressed with a red bandanna around his waist with white long shorts and brown ankle shoes.

Next, it was Mako, a small old man with an orange bandanna around his head with his gray hair peeking out. He had glasses, but one of the lenses was broken. He wore a blue and white striped shirt that was a little short on him. He had green pants and brown boots with a belt with a skull buckle. On his hip, he bore a dagger.

Niko was a short young man or kid, they couldn’t tell. He had a blue hat and blonde hair with buck teeth. He wore a red and white striped shirt with green pants and brown boots. His belt had a skull for a buckle and a stagger to his hip.

Nudge was a tall man with an orange bandanna and black hair. Dressed in a purple long-sleeve shirt with gray pants. He had tall white socks over his pants and brown ankle shoes with a gold skull for a buckle.

Senza was also a tall man with black hair, a cropped purple long-sleeve shirt, and red pants with green long socks covering his pants. He had brown ankle shoes and a regular belt.

The last member was Zuko, a short man with a red hat covering brown hair with long sideburns. He wore a three-fourth-sleeve blue and white striped shirt. He had green pants and brown boots with a skull buckle on his belt. He carried a handheld telescope and a dagger on his hip.

Everyone was nice and welcoming to the chain, and they even showed them how the ship works. As they sailed across the great sea Wind told them stories of his adventures.

“On my first adventure, I fought a huge bird! I also would sail around finding spots where seagulls would flock to find huge squids that I would fight. Sometimes I would get items from them or I would find a great fairy that was trapped inside. I even met the fairy queen who was nothing like I thought she would be like,” Wind would go on and on. When they came across an island Wind would point it out telling them its name and about what was on it.

“That right there is Tingle Island which is Tingle’s island where he and his brother live. I saved Tingle from jail on my first adventure then he asked me to find one of his brothers. That over there is Cyclops Island. It's just an island that used to be full of monsters that were protecting treasure,” Wind happily explained. He loved telling the others about his experiences.

As they continued on everyone split up and went on doing their own thing. Warriors, Time, and Wind all stayed together by the side of the boat because; Wind was still telling them stories. Sky and Hyrule went to a stack of barrels to take a nap. Twilight and Wild were with Niko in the crow’s nest talking. While Legend sat against the mass of the ship looking rather sad. Four noticed and walked over to him away from the edge of the ship where he was leaning. The rocking of the ship made all the parts of Four sick, he so dearly wanted to split but he couldn’t.

“Hey, Legend you okay?” Four asked.

“Just some bad memories. What about you, you look awful?” Legend said looking Four up and down. Four was standing a bit off to the side and his face made a pained look.

“The rocking of the ship is making me feel a bit sick,” Four replied.

“Then sit down,” Legend demanded like a concerned parent. Four obliged and sat next to Legend. They didn’t talk for a minute. All they did was just watch everyone.

“Do you wanna talk about the bad memories,” Red asked.

“It’s just the last time I was on a ship sailing across the ocean I got hit by lightning and ended up in a dream world. I fell in love with a girl and found out that the island was being plagued by monsters so I defeated them. Then the island disappeared and I was on my broken ship again in the middle of the ocean. She was fake, all the people were fake, and the whole island was fake,” Legend explained painfully with tears welling up in his eyes. He wiped them dry and blinked a couple of times.

“That sounds awful, I’m sorry you had to go through that. No wonder why you didn’t want to come,” Red said looking at Legend frowning.

Vio said, I did say that it could be the cause of an accident.

Blue said, know it all, but Red’s right, that is awful.

Green said, I feel pretty bad now. I would never want that to happen to anyone.

Vio pondered, I wonder what made this dream world.

Suddenly the ship started to rock violently and Red lost his balance falling into Legend. Legend grabbed Four keeping him from sliding away while his arm was wrapped around the mass. Four squeezed his eyes closed and held tightly to Legend. Sky and Hyrule were awakened by rocking and Sky grabbed onto Hyrule keeping him safe. Everyone else grabbed onto things around them as well, then the ship was steady again.

“Is everyone alright?!” Tetra shouted to everyone. Wind quickly looked around making sure everyone was accounted for and nobody had fallen off. Luckily everyone was here and they’re safe.

“I’m pretty sure everyone’s okay!” Wind yelled back.

Four’s head was reeling and his sight was spinning, the rocking did no good to his already unknown sea sickness. The colors were being too loud as well as yelling in confusion, making his head hurt even more and making it very hard to stay together. He felt himself slipping away and becoming four different people by the force of the color’s emotions.

“Four are you okay?” Legend asked, straightening them back up, and wrapping his arms around Four.

Four’s face was now burrowed into Legend’s chest and it took him a second to answer. “My head is in so much pain and I feel sick,”

“Did you hit your head?!” Legend shouted concernedly.

“No,” Four said but it came out strained.

“Are you seasick?” Legend asked confused.

“I didn’t know… I’ve never been on a ship before,” Four said, strained.

“I have a few ways to help with seasickness if you wanna try them out,” Legend offered and Four slightly nodded his head.

“The first method is to close your eyes and relax. Listen to the waves of the ocean crashing into each other. To the birds who fly overhead and wind whistling making the sails flap,” Legend said.

Four’s were already closed but he relaxed them and listened. He could hear the wind whistling past his ears making his hair flow in the same direction as it. He could hear the sails being pulled by the wind and heard them go in and out like it was breathing steadily. He could hear the waves gently crashing into each other and hitting the bottom of the boat. He could hear the seagulls squawking and flapping their wings. Though he also heard a strange sound as. Another ship was coming closer.

Legend moved a bit and Four looked up at him. Legend was staring off into the distance and his eyebrows were furrowed. Four turned to look around and saw that everyone was staring in the same direction. Four got up on his knees so he could see what everyone was staring at.

In the distance was a huge ship like theirs but it gave off an anonymous aura. It came towards them quite quickly as well. Four looked over at the ship and saw that it was just a regular brown ship with white sails equipped with cannons on the sides.

“Do you think it’s just coming over for help and not to attack?” Four whispered.

“Hopefully,” Legend replied quietly.

“Link, what's your opinion on that ship?” Tetra called out.

“It’s weird, but I can’t exactly tell if it’s safe. We should keep our distance just in case, don’t wanna be too safe,” Wind called back, still staring at the ship watching its every move.

Tetra steered the ship off course from Stone Watcher Island to the Five-Eye Reef to get away from the ship but it just followed them. Somehow their ship is faster than Pirate and caught up with them.

As the ship gets closer they all can see a black lizard standing at the edge of the ship staring right at them. They can assume, based on the feeling, that it’s not a polite or in-need-of-help stare. The chain recognized the lizard immediately as Dink.

“What is that?” Gonzo shouted.

“It’s some kind of monster ship,” Niko yelled from the crow’s nest.

“Everyone prepare for battle!” Tetra demanded.

“Yes, Captain!” The crew replied and then ran around to their designated cannons loading them up. Niko’s job was to stay in the crow’s nest to give reports of the ship's activities. The chain stopped what they’re doing and unsheathed their swords, getting into a battle stance. Wild and Twilight scurried down the ladder from the crow’s nest and joined the chain.

“They have cannon bearers!” Niko shouted.

“Gonzo, Mako, Senza, Nudge, and Zuko take out their cannons!” Tetra commanded.

They all aimed their cannons at the enemy ship and fired. Cannonballs flew through the air crashing into the other ship’s cannons but 2 of them missed and landed in the water. Only 5 cannons were left on the enemy ship which were fired at Pirate. Since it was bokoblins that were controlling them they luckily all missed crashing close to the ship falling down to the bottom of the ocean.

“Keep going!” Tetra commanded. The chain stood ready for when they climbed into the ship. Wild helped the other by shooting bomb arrows towards the deck of the ship. Soon there were 4…3…2…1 cannon left and that’s when Dink had enough. Dink ran over to the last one and fired it right at the mass of their ship.

Wind knew that they would all be doomed if their mass was taken out so he quickly reached into his bag and pulled out a strange white stick with curls near the bottom of it. Wind held it in the air and quickly flicked it up, left, and finally down. He stopped for a second then violently flicked it to the right and suddenly the wind changed. It blew violently to the right, blowing the cannonball just in time to the right and scraping the side of Pirate.

“Nice!” Tetra yelled gleefully and Wind turned around smiling while the wind returned to normal. Gonzo took the chance to fire his cannon at Dink and he missed but he did manage to hit their last cannon.

A moblin took the wheel and sailed right into Pirate, giving the other monster a chance to climb aboard. They rushed the chain and Tetra’s crew. Tetra jumped down from the wheel and took out her sword fighting a nearby bokoblin.

The echo of metal coming in contact with each other filled the world around them, yells of charging and of struggling, the ship rocked back and forth, up and down with the constant jumping and running. The smell of metal and gunpowder filled the already salty air.

Four tried his best to hold himself together but all the rocking and the smells mixing together made it so hard too.

Vio said, we can’t stay like this, we get killed!

Green said , I know that Vio!

Blue said, we need to split or we’ll die!

Red said, what about the others they’ll see?

Green said, Wild already knows.

Vio said, it is about time we said something.

Blue said, we need to do this now if we wanna live.

Red said, okay okay let’s do it.

Four tightened his grip on the Four Sword and allowed its magic to flow through him. He felt the magic run through him picking him apart, his mind separating, his body feeling as if it’s more than one but then it all goes away. There is nothing at all, nothing of Four is left. Now stands four boys who look just like Four but they are dressed in only blue, green, red, and violet tunic instead of the patched tunic bearing those exact colors.

“Alright everyone split up and fend off the monsters,” Green ordered.

“I’ll go help any of Wind’s friends,” Red shouted as he ran toward Zuko and Time.

“I’ll go over to Gonzo, Tetra, and Wind,” Vio said, heading toward them.

“I’ll go fight the monster over there,” Blue said gleefully, he's bored, pointing at Mako, Hyrule, and Sky.

“Alright, then I’ll go help Senza, Nudge, and Warriors,” Green said to himself.

One by one the bokoblins fall to a hero's feet or a pirate’s. In a rhythmic loop most of the heroes stab, slash, block, and slash. Wild with his unique way of fighting he used the sheikah slate to freeze his enemies and then hit them till they went flying off the boat. Slashed and stabbed ones that got away, parried their attacks at the right moment and charged towards them as if time itself had slowed down. The pirates just run up to their enemies and stab them then run along to the next one. It’s quite a risky tactic which worries the heroes and now that is also added to the list of to-do. The first is to take care of the lower-ranked monsters. Second, make sure that Tetra and her crew are unharmed and stay that way. Third, take down Dink, or at least try.

They know that Dink is up to something because he wouldn’t be working with only a few moblins and quite a few bokoblins. They know Dink has something up his sleeve and is just waiting for the right moment when they think they’ve won. To unleash a great attack that will make them struggle more than they have in the past because the only person who’s fought in the sea is Wind. They know this is about to get messy so they don’t relax, they don’t stop, and they keep fighting and expecting the unexpected.

When there are only a few monsters left they don’t rejoice, they quickly finish the few off and they all charge toward Dink relentlessly. Dink turned around and jumped onto his ship where the moblin that was stirring the ship quickly turned the ship and sailed off.

“Quick follow after him!” All the heroes yelled and Tetra ran to the wheel to stir Pirate towards Dink. They see Dink lift his hand up in front of him and suddenly a huge glowing black and purple portal forms right in front of his ship. The moblin sailed right into the portal while the heroes followed after Dink.

On the other side, they are met with a strange sight, it’s Hyrule but so very different and wrong. There are floating islands high above the clouds but some can be seen under the clouds. Rocks fall from the sky crashing into the water below them. Strange goo can be seen around especially all around strange deep holes in the ground.

“Where are we?” Wind asked.

“It’s huge and looks like Wild’s era," Warriors answered.

“I don’t have strange floating islands in my sky and rocks falling,” Wild added.

“Who knows where we are but what does matter is defeating Dink,” Time finished.

“Right,” the heroes shouted and they continued following after Dink.

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indigos-stardust · 1 year ago

Text

New Four swords fic- Chapter 1

*I'd appreciate if u read it on a03 because that's where my tag/summary is but if you cant for whatever reason, I have it below this cut* thanks for any boost and comment <3

Roaming packs of monsters, ugh. Usually, monsters tend to be attracted or even magically appear from places with plenty of darker energy. It could be some cursed and abandoned temple or some pit where someone died horribly. Maybe, there’d just be one huge monster claiming an area and its magical stink would attract a bunch of underlings.

Monsters aren’t exactly pack animals like wolves. They just follow whichever one’s the biggest and act purely based on greed and violence. They’re happy to follow orders as long as they get their cut. Which is usually the promise of fresh flesh.

The scouts said the monsters were following paths. On a schedule. Almost like they’re planning and guarding. That…isn’t right. Something is definitely up.

The worst part of it is that a lot of the paths they’re taking seem to be cutting off a random average sized fishing village to the south. Lutelin Village. Yeah, Green can see why they had been specifically called to handle this one.

Whatever they’re going to eventually face, it’ll probably seem like even an experienced knight’s worst nightmare. But they can handle it. After all, they’d handled far more with far less. This time they even have armor! The odds are far more in favor since their… “adventure.” Green can’t help but fidget with his fingers anyways.

He’s probably just out of practice, sure they had helped fight against the general excess of monsters but that was just dealing with monsters sprawled out everywhere. Not a real proper fight with layers to get to the final baddie. His gut flares with a hidden anxiety.

It’ll be alright though, the others are literally following his back, and as much as it sucks that those villagers are probably having a hard time with travelling due to the monsters- This will be good for them! Well, Green and his uh, other selves, anyways. Besides, why would you possibly want “rest and relaxation” when you can just crush the ugly mug of some monster?

Okay, maybe he is spending too much time with Blue.

Either way they definitely have better odds! They’ll just find each band (two or three?) and take them down, easy peasy.

Every step is going to take him closer after all, might as well keep his shoulders straight and his eyes on the horizon.

Soft grass and weeds dance in the foothills, with a chilly autumn air as their partner. As much as the others are way too gripey in the early morning, Green knows getting them up early is definitely the right call! The soft crispness of the morning air energizes him with every breath! Practically music, in his humble opinion.

Behind him, he can hear another kind of music. A playful punch to the shoulder, a content sigh, and a little laugh. Conversation that starts and pauses, only to start again. In and out, natural and welcoming. They have his back.

They finally stop at the top of a particularly large hill; this is the spot the scouters said they’d seen the monsters the most. If Green looks to the West, he can see the beginning treeline of a dark and confusing magic-filled Lost Woods. He shudders. From what Vio described about the woods, it definitely doesn’t seem like the ideal spot for a stroll. Compared to their “adventure” and all they’ve experienced, the next few days will be easyyyy.

They’ve barely settled into their spot when Vio, ever the watchful one, already spots a band of monsters practically marching together. A very large band of very angry looking monsters. Nearly time to fight. A cliffside looms in the distance, with the monsters in between them and it.

“I’d say, I think we’re dealing with about eight or so stalfoes, two spear moblins, oh you’ve got to be kidding me at least two dozen,” Green squints, “uh, tiny plant things?”

Strange little hobbling plant monsters, with sharp teeth and leaves coming from a single bud supported by two stumpy legs, covered the ground near the other monsters.

“Tiny plant things?’”

=====

For a place full of nothing but rolling hills, Vio sure is having quite a bit of difficulty finding enough room to fight. It’s ridiculous honestly, he and Green were supposed to take care of the stalfoes by directly fighting against them. Meanwhile, Blue and Red were meant dealing with those pesky small monsters that keep trying to bite their ankles! Or jump into their faces. It’s a bit hard to fight several monsters just taller than you while dealing with a bunch of faces full of teeth trying to lunge at you, afterall.

Not to mention, once they finally get in semi-decent positions the moblins thrust their giant axes right in the middle and scatter everyone all over again! He can hear the annoying squish and splatter of Blue’s hammer smashing into another one.

Red’s fire rod is great at helping to keep the moblins away, but while you would think it’d be great for its intended purpose of burning those DAMN little plants monsters- All it really does is make all the grass around them catch on fire, not harming the stalfoes, and force them to bolt to a patch of rocks while they’re being chased. Of course, the little abominations climb up the stalfoes to stay safe from the fire. Fighting on the bumpy ground only makes things worse in their favor. He really wishes the darn things would be the ones stumbling and struggling for balance instead of themselves.

Wait… This is a far rockier area- He can feel the rattling bones hit his shield once more as he grunts to shove it off. They all need to be knocked down. With the bit of distance he looks around, and there . A pile of rocks, leading up to a cliff. The cliff is extremely uneven at the top, but there is just enough clear space for a person at the top!

Perhaps, possibly, it had been a bit of a.. Risky endeavor. The second there’s the smallest opening, he yells out, “Watch out for a minute!” and bolts to the cliff side. Ignoring Blue’s very p*ssed off , “h-HEY! Where the Hell are you going?!!” and Green’s surprise as he keeps on running. Every thump of his feet pushing off the earth ringing in his ears. Or maybe that’s just his heartbeat.

Just as he’s starting to climb up he can hear the rattling of a stalfoe and feel the bruising pain of those small monsters trying to reach his flesh under the armor. I just need to keep going , he thinks as he finishes pushing himself up and begins scrambling for a new foothold as he simultaneously tries to shake off the miniature snapping beasts. Good thing his ears are protected by the chainmail underneath his cap.

The crash and shattering of bones with a string of swears behind him urge him to go even further up. When the battle’s over, Blue is probably going to get him next. He hadn’t sounded particularly pleased about Vio, “DITCHING THEM WITHOUT WARNING LIKE A B****H*SS,” or whatever. Despite his current height bringing him farther from the battle ground, he can practically hear Green shout, “ LANGUAGE!!” in the middle of battle.

Finally, just as he nears the top he manages to shake the last of those damn pests off his leg and let his heaving lungs rest, if only for a second. Right, this needs to be quick. Forcing himself up, still struggling to breathe from the chaotic climb, Vio readies his bow.

While the experience of fighting various types of monsters, for hours on their own, certainly gave them a lot of skill in adapting to the situation he has to admit—the items they gained, namely his fairy blessed bag of endless arrows, are also a huge plus. Sure, they aren’t as strong as a well crafted bow, but they are endless . In fact, he’d figured out that if he shoots two at once, even if that took a while to master, it’d do the same amount of damage!

He smirks to himself, aiming straight at a stalfoes that is creeping behind Green. With a snap, the stalfoe falls to the ground. The chaos of the battle field, swarming the others with monsters, moving from place to place… it’s familiar; it is a refreshing challenge. Others might’ve balked at the daunting task, but Vio is looking forward to it. It’s time to show off.

With the constant barrage of arrows knocking out stalfoes, allowing Red and Blue more room to work with and giving Green a much needed relief , the numbers begin to thin. He’s even able to start getting hits on the charging moblins, stunning them just long enough for a quick burn or slash on them. There are only a few straggling plant monsters as well.

It’s wrapping up. Vio observes as the Moblin he shot finally falls to the ground. It is time to regroup. Or it would’ve been.

He doesn’t know what he feels first. He can’t even think to process it. The tension of every single muscle spasming. Millions of needles endlessly searing into his flesh. From the inside and outside. Little pieces of him, like miniature marbles bursting outward. The shock of the constant repeated force fracturing and fracturing. The burning in his chest, he can’t breathe.

It’s so, so much, it’s too much. Without a single thought, other than the sensation of indescribable pain, he falls silently down the cliff. Even as his body crashes down onto the unforgiving rocks it still spasms. Red screams before Blue and Green even see what happened.

—--------------------------------

I can’t! No, no, no, no, no, no!!!! Red can’t panic right now, but by Hylia does he want to scream and selfishly look away-

It was horrible, and he saw every second of it. He had stepped back for just a moment, to chug a magic energizing potion. They still had more monsters to fight, after all, and his magic stores were nearly drained from using the rod so much. But then he saw a spark to his right, all the way up where Vio had gone. A sparkling, bright white yellow light, blasting into Vio’s back. Now, he watches.

Vio looks like he’s choking, like every single bit of him was choking and dying . His piercing scream is silently cut off, and then he falls . He falls and falls until his back hits the rocks and he goes stumbling down, blood splattering against the rocks. Red doesn’t want to know where it’s all coming from. And then Vio is there, sprawled on the ground, a horrible finale. He’s still screaming.

No, no Vio isn’t the one who’s screaming. He can see his bloody face against the dirt. Red is.

Blue grabs his arm, nearly shaking him as he tells him to LOOK before he runs off to Vio. Red’s shaking, then he follows Green’s startled eyes they lead back to the top of the cliff. He can only stare as a hulking Darknut trudges behind a row of stubby moblin archers, and even more stalfoes that have already begun jumping off to attack them. Oh, and a bunch of tektites. Because, well, why not at this point?

Red usually tries to stay optimistic, because you can’t get anything done if you always have a bad attitude all the time for no reason but- Honestly? He’s pretty sure he hates EVERYTHING right now. It’s, it’s alright though- They, they’ve got him- Well, well they all would if Vio was down. But, it isn’t the time to focus on that, they have to keep them away from Vio and defeat them!

Just because he’s terrified that Vio could be dying this very second, doesn’t mean he can just start crying when they need him! He will go on, and he will be hopeful! Because Green and Blue need him, and they trust him to at least support them! Red refuses to let them down. Even if he really wants to go cry in a hole right now.

Green screams at Blue, “ DON’T MOVE HIM! We need to get them away from him, Red get here and create a blast! Cut them off!”

Red’s already sprinting. Blue’s hammer smashes into another stunned skull from Green’s boomerang. They’re working to get the monsters away from Vio. The second he arrives the entire earth THUDS as the colossal Darknut finally joins the battle. It’s beady eyes, under its helmet land on Red.

“HEYYYY!!!, come here you, uh, you ugly face!!!” The monster trudges forward, away from Vio and towards him. The Colossal Axe glistens, ready to slice into him in seconds.

“Yeahh!” Red waves his fire rod, sparkling in the burning sunlight, like a shiny fish in front of a starved beast. “Come here!!!”

The axe whizzes through the air with the speed of a bolt of lightning, ready to spear him into two. Red barely dodges. Before the monstrosity can take an even more petrifying swing, Green’s magical boomerang connects. The powerful thing freezes the beast for a valuable 5 seconds.

Within those 5 seconds a few things happen. A small series of whistles rings throughout the battle field within seconds, a code that only they know. During their quest, they had learned that just yelling out to each other with their own plans always ended up poorly. Maybe, they were all just too stubborn in their own plans, but it definitely wasn’t helped by the fact they could barely hear each other at times. Sensitive Hylian ears or not, in the midst of battles words become drowned out easily.

Green’s message, a mix of quick patterns, order: B-G- Core Threats & Close Combat- R- Long Distance Quick. Blue and Green would take care of the strongest enemies and the ones that required close combat. Red would take care of the archers,as fast as possible so he could provide them aid. He could run and prepare ahead just on instinct before he even processed it. It was a mercy, afterall… Every second in a battle is precious, especially with someone left in total vulnerability.

Red breathes in, the blins are readying their bows. Then exhales, a small yet vicious blast of fire spirals forward causing at least two of them to shriek as they desperately try to put themselves out. His shield is already out by the time the other three’s arrows have hit his shield. As much as Red would prefer to shoot more and scorch them while going in and out, that just wasn’t an option. The best way to stop them from shooting far out into the others, was to get in the way before they could do that.

Red forces his way through with his shield to break their line and immediately his sword lunges straight into the throat of one of those wretched things. He has to take care of the other monsters, but Red let’s himself smile a moment at the sign of the bubbling blood. Good . He hoped that was the one that shot Vio.

He has to dodge back quickly in the next moment though, despite the moblins having nothing but bows and arrows, that didn’t make them useless in the slightest. While the armor would definitely protect him from slashes it certainly wouldn’t protect him from their nasty claws aiming at his throat and eyes.

He hacks away at another one that leapt out in front of him before he even got the chance to orient himself. Keep it steady, keep the pace and breathe. Red tries to slash at one of the monster’s belly, but he’s off balance by one of the burnt ones slashing at his leg! I really need to do better!! Red mentally slapped himself, how’d that one even get there? He seriously needed to keep track of everything or else he’d be hit in his blind spot again. Next time may not be so lucky. His free foot crushes the bastard's neck as he blocks more scrabbling claws away with his shield.

Red is skewering the one that he had shoved off when he sees the two remaining unburnt monsters dashing toward him with arrows in their hands. What the hell? Oh, the arrows were sparkling yellow with the same crackling sound as a bomb about to burst. It was familiar. Vio .

All three are charging and from the looks of it they’re trying to trap him with two heading up to his sides and the first one straight in front of him. Red charges right back at the right one bashing into it’s skull with his sword and spinning around, sword first, to face the others. It’s BURNING-

His sword clumsily sliced into an arm, but the arrows- Those arrows, the moment of contact of it against his own sword make his arm convulse in pain as he yells out. Red’s sword is on the ground. The monster, reeling from its own pain, slashes back at him. Thankfully his armor prevents it from truly getting him. It’ll definitely bruise though. The pain threatens to bring him down, but gasping for air with teary eyes he forces his wobbly legs up anyways. Like the lightning wizzrobe- This doesn’t make sense- Oh great fairies please-

Red knows the dangers of magical exhaustion, he’d lived through it several times on their quest. Vio’s words echoed in his mind, “ Take care to not overdo it! Potions may provide a great boost and aid in recovery, but your body still needs time. You’re exhausted… Green was right about how dangerous it is, besides-” and then Vio softly grinned, “ If you’re too tired who’s going to keep us going? We need your laughter, alright?”

He can already feel the aching soreness creeping on the edge of his fingers. He grabs the rod anyways, and this time there’s a blast. Red doesn’t know quite how it’s happening, but the strange arrows seem to make the flames stronger. They topple onto the Earth and the last half-dead burnt straggler has finished crawling its way to him. Red’s sword in his uninjured hand stabs into the beast’s guts with a wet sound. It dies slowly, scraping at his feet desperate to fight until it's inevitable death. Then, just like the others it rapidly deteriorates into a puddle of steaming filth on the ground.

#my art #four swords #four swords manga #four swords fanfic #fs #fs fanfic #my writing #color spectrum #fs color spectrum #fs red #fs vio #fs blue #fs green #green link #red link #blue link #vio link

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zozo720 · 1 year ago

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Okay okay okay, memes aside... I'm so happy right now!! Love them or hate them, X/Y and Kalos in general is the most underdeveloped Pokemon region/generation to date, and the ONLY one that never got any sort of follow-up. Everything pre-Unova has had at least one remake (Kanto got two), and every other game either got a definitive re-release, a full-on sequel, or a hefty chunk of DLC content. But Kalos got nothing. We only ever got one adventure through Kalos, and it was held back by being the first 3DS entries, and having a lot of things cut for time (From Team Flare, to aliens, to an entire sequel game we never got). The closest we ever got to closure was ORAS expanding Mega Stone lore, and Zygarde's final form being thrown into Sun/Moon (which at least delivered on the alien idea with Ultra Beasts) Pokemon Z has been a meme in the community for a literal decade, and while I always had hope we'd revisit Kalos eventually, I was prepared to wait. So to get news that a real revisit to Kalos is on the horizon, AND the Legends series isn't a one-hit wonder, all at once... It's honestly like a dream, it doesn't feel real. I can't wait to see what the game's actually like, and what it takes from Legends Arceus and Scar/Vio. I can only hope that the release date of 2025 means they learned something from S/V's launch. As for my hopes for this game... - Regional forms of Galar/Paldea Pokemon - New Mega Evolutions for Gen 6/7/8/9 Pokemon - MEGA FLYGON, DO IT, DO IT NOW - The Legends Arceus gameplay is intact but in a modern setting - Shauna - SwSh-tier Trainer Customization. It's Kalos, the trainer customisation HAS to be good - We finally get the last few Pokemon with no Switch game to go to

And most of all... can we PLEASE not have another Ingo situation? I don't care how cool it sounds to throw someone into Future Kalos or whatever, or have Emmet show up for a chapter just to say "I am Emmet! My brother went missing forever! Oh well! :3" because I don't trust the post-PLA Submas fandom to be reasonable about the train men anymore. Either conclude their arc or don't bother starting this with another character.

#pokemon presents #spoilers #pokemon spoilers #pokemon z #pokemon legends z-a #lopunnyposting

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cutthroatcarnival · 1 year ago

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Revered Deity, Unknown Hero (8/10)

Read chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Find it on AO3 here!

Four Times The Smith

Four swore that one of these days he was going to pop a blood vessel. His traveling companions did not know how to properly maintain their weapons, although, there were exceptions in order; Twilight, Legend, Time, and Sky. For the weapons they wielded were either meticulously cared for, seemingly unbreakable, or a magical sword beyond his understanding.

He could offer leniency to the other heroes; Wind, Hyrule, and Wild, as they had little to no experience in bringing their weapons in to be fixed. So, none of them fell to the fate of his wrath- none except for Warriors.

As a captain, he would think that Warriors would be used to offering his weapon to be fixed by a smith, but clearly, Four was proven wrong- and nearing his wits end with it.

His anger wasn’t from a bad place, it instead came from his fear of being unable to help someone defend themself or others. And Warriors had willingly mentioned that the sword he carried with him was from the start of his adventure. That’s what had Four’s fuse burning away. Surely his sword couldn’t be that durable?

Four had been nagging the captain ever since they arrived in his own home era, with the blacksmith’s readily available for fixing weapons and armor. Yet Warriors persisted, constantly shaking off Four’s help.

Not tonight. It seemed he had managed to crack through the captain’s resilient shell.

The others- who needed it- dropped their armor and weapons off with Four as they readied themselves to go to Castle Town. Normally, Warriors would have stayed in his grandfather’s house, but he was leaning against the wall, busying himself by fiddling with his belts.

“Finally come to see the smith?” With a roll of his eyes, the captain pushed off the wall, crossing the room to be closer. In a swift movement, his blade was laid in front of Four, along with his shield and pauldron. The smith merely raised his eyebrow at him, tilting his head sideways.

“Time told me to.”

Four barked out a laugh, making Warriors shoot him an unimpressed glare, yet he made no move to leave.

“By the time you all are done in Castle Town, everything will be ready. Now get going, Legend and Wind are surely complaining.” The captain chuckled, quickly slipping out of the forge.

He drew the sword of his namesake and raised it, becoming engulfed in a bright light. Where one stood there were now four, all moving to complete their chosen tasks.

Red gathered the swords at the whetstone, as Green sat at a nearby work table with the pile of chainmail. Vio and Blue took on the armor and shields, an ice rod and a fire rod in their hands. The forge quickly filled with the sounds of smithing; sharpening blades and banging metal.

Vio was going to get a headache from staring at the captain’s pauldron. Everyone had seen him take a blow directly to the shoulder, yet the armor in his hands showed no damage- no dents, no scuffs, no scratches. He growled, once again scanning the metal surface in front of him. Warriors had taken that hit- it had thrown him to the ground with the force, but when Hyrule had checked him- with a frankly skeptical look- the arm lacked any bruises. A hit like that would have dented any armor considerably, and the skin would not be left unmarred.

An angered yell from Blue broke Vio out of musings. The other had slammed the hammer onto the work table, fixing an icy stare at his work in front of him.

“This Hylia-damned shield!” Vio glanced at the pauldron in his hands, to the shield, and back- it was Warriors’ shield. Did it also lack damage?

“Blue? What’s wrong with it?” Red had come up next to Vio with Green in tow.

“That’s exactly it! There’s nothing wrong with it!”

Vio snatched the shield from Blue, casting the pauldron off to the side. As he scanned and ran his hands over it, checking for any sign of damage- his hypothesis was true. If this was the case for his shield and armor, what about his sword?

“Red, what care did Warriors’ sword need?” Vio didn’t look away from the surface of the shield, resolutely ignoring the look others cast his way.

“It didn’t need anything.”

Finally, Vio lifted his gaze from the shield to look at Red, who silently held the captain’s sword out to him. He took it from Red’s grasp and moved the shield to the table. What was with the captain’s belongings? Defenses with no damage and a sword that needed no sharpening- how? Unless Warriors had a magical sword or meticulously cared for it, neither of which were true, so why were they all in perfect condition? Vio stared at the sword- he could feel that headache coming back- if the sword was like his pauldron and shield, would sharpening it even have an effect? Or would the attempt not even affect the metal? He was dragged from his thoughts by Green waving his hand in front of his face.

“The others will be back soon, should we?” The three of them nodded. Placing Warriors’ sword down, Vio drew his own, joining the others in the middle of the forge. The four of them were steadily engulfed in light before they became one once again.

Four shook his head to rid himself of any disorientation. Everything had been seen to, blades sharpened, shields fixed, and armor undented. He could hear the other’s at the house. Before leaving, he cast one last glance at the three items sitting on the table- he swore he could see a faint glow around them. Four blinked and the light was gone. Something was off with the sword, yet he couldn’t place his finger on it. He shut the door with a click, and made his way up the cobble path- a thought for another time, perhaps.

In the meantime, he would ask Time if he knew anything about Warriors’ weapons- they were close after all, maybe he had answers.

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casual-praxis · 10 months ago

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Miscellaneous things I noticed in the FS Manga

I reread the Four Swords manga quite a bit now that I have it, so I figured I might as well share some of the things I’ve noticed over the course of those many rereads.

- In chapter 11 it’s revealed Blue keeps his hammer in his hat.

- The flower Zelda is mentioned to like is potentially a blue flax, just going off of appearance and status as a wildflower.

- In the first chapter, all the Colors have dark-shaded undershirts/sleeves, but starting in chapter 2, only Green has dark-shaded sleeves (Blue has a lighter grey color). This was probably done to save time, or maybe just to make it easier to tell them all apart.

- Everyone’s default expression just seems to be :0 which is honestly probably just a quirk of its era, but still really funny.

- In chapter 2, the first time Blue gets hit by Shadow, Red is briefly seen crouching next to Blue as if to check on him. I think Red remains crouching after Blue gets up, but I’m really not sure. He’s back on his feet by the time Blue gets hit again.

- Vio holds books really weird but at least he seems to be having fun. Up until someone talks to him, anyway. (I attempted to translate the words we can see, but I think it may just be gibberish. It was not a very good attempt to be fair.)

- Shields, swords, and sheaths only seem to exist when relevant.

- For being touted as the “boring” and “uninteresting” member of the team, Green sure does have a lot of expressive moments if you focus on him. I think he’s the most well-rounded of the bunch in terms of personality. His defining character trait is “motivated”, which when compared to “angry”, “cry laughing”, and “morals are a roulette wheel”, isn’t that easy to see visually. He’s competitive with Blue, he shows when he’s scared or happy like Red, and he can think rationally like Vio. He has all these overlapping traits with the others, they just aren’t nearly as prominent. Like a jack of all traits.

- In chapter 2, Shadow jumps at Green in an attempt to kill him. A similar pose is mirrored by Vio later in chapter 7 during his fight with Green. Perhaps intentional? (What do they have against Green??)

- Blue is the undeniable powerhouse of the team. He lands the final hit on Stone Arrghus, protects Red throughout the whole Temple of Light/Darkness (which I thought was really sweet, dude was not leaving Red behind no matter what), takes out Big Poe, and steps in to take down their father (so Green doesn’t have to). He also drops a bunch of Hinox into lava if we’re counting that. Pretty much all these instances did have help from the others in at least some capacity, but you can trust him to finish the job.

- The dynamic between Red and Vio, though not seen much due to Vio’s Evil Shenanigans and the team being split for multiple chapters, is surprisingly wholesome. In chapter 2, shortly after receiving their names, Vio lists the obvious personality traits they all have, and pats Red on the head while smiling (which may or may not be his first genuine non-smug smile at this point?). Red seems to admire Vio, though honestly he’s like that with all of them. They seem to stand near each other a lot early on before the group is split. In chapter 3, when Red gets stuck in place and Stone Arrghus is about to attack him, Vio is the first to jump in between them to save Red. In chapter 8, Red runs to hug Vio after they get him back from Vio’s Evil Shenanigans (and Red also seemed to run to him for a hug in chapter 6, but because it’s not shown, Red probably stopped just short of giving him one). I really wish we got to see them interact more.

- Speaking of Red and Vio, their speech bubbles in chapter 10 appear to have been flipped around.

- Of all the Colors, Vio is the only one to never be shown crying. The closest he gets is when Green stomps his foot and his eyes tear up. Red cries all the time, Blue cries a few times but most notably when Green “dies”, and Green seems to be crying when their father “dies”.

- Not so much an observation but just a question--are the fire rod and ice rod actually two different items, or just a toggle for the same rod?? Due to the lack of coloring, and the fact the rods look pretty much, if not completely the same, I can’t tell if the “click” that comes from it in chapter 7 (while they’re standing on Vio’s execution rock), is the fire rod being changed into an ice rod, or Red switching weapons all together just with a weird onomatopoeia (or potentially the “click” had nothing to do with the rod at all).

- Though not super fleshed-out characters, the other knights of Hyrule showing up in the fight with Vaati to help out the Colors was a nice nod to the start of the story, what with the themes of teamwork and all that. They might not have been there on time, but they made it there eventually and got the Colors out of a tricky situation. Their unity is their strength, as they say. Also, shoutout to Link’s father, he’s doing his best and clearly loves his son(s)

- In one of the bonus comics, “It’s Not Easy Being Purple,” Vio is for some reason labeled as Green. This one bugged me when I noticed it.

- In the final bonus comic, “Fear Like Never Before,” I am convinced Vio’s Evil Shenanigans Part 2 would commence had Green not put the sword back in again. (Just look at his face. Why is he staring at the ground? Shadow??)

- Red is best boy, moving on.

These are just some of the immediate things that come to mind when I’m rereading. I seem to get a new appreciation for each of the characters each time, so that’s really neat. Back when I was like 13, I only knew of a few pages of the fan translation, and of the characters I only really had a feel for Red’s whole deal, so he was my favorite (still is tbh).

Now I can say I like all the characters, each for a different reason, and not to the same amount, but I don’t dislike or feel neutral about anyone like I used to. Green and Blue were really “meh” to me when I first acquired the manga a few months back, but honestly they’re both really interesting in ways I’ve only started to notice recently.

I thought Blue was just angry all the time, but he pulls off a lotta cool shit constantly (not including the time he literally got frozen) and I think he does care about the others a lot even if he won’t admit it (his interactions with Red turning more soft is definitely an indicator). I wish we had gotten to see what his response to Red would have been back in the Temple of Light/Darkness when Red asked if he was even worried about Green and Vio. He was definitely worried, but someone had to be focused, and in that moment it had to be Blue.

Or something, I’m not very good at character studies. I’ll stand by what I said about him caring for the others though.

Liking Green more is still on the newer side for me. Again, I never disliked any of them, but Green always came across as plain (since he doesn’t have any stand out character traits other than being the one who looked most like Link), so I tended to overlook him. The thing that got me to like him more actually was his body language. He is very expressive, be it his facial features or the way he moves. I love characters that emote in exaggerated ways, it’s also why I like Red so much, they share this in common. In particular, Green just has some funky poses I think are neat, like in chapter 5–he may be fighting for his life but his dodging is just so cartoony and bouncy, I want to see it animated.

To some extent they all move like this, but with Green it’s nice since he’s not usually comic relief. It’s nice to have a “main” main character be just as goofy and cartoonish like the rest.

And when it comes to Vio, I’ve always liked Vio. Finding out how unhinged he actually is was a treat, but it also was a really funny realization for me. I knew him as the serious bookworm, which isn’t entirely wrong, but he’s also a smug bitch who, had the narrative allowed him, would definitely have a kill count. In fact, he has only read one book, but it was in doing so that everyone latched onto the idea he loves reading. Love that for him. I also love the fact he’s a liar.

It’s like he got most of Link’s negative traits wrapped into one, and then they set him loose into the wilderness. It’s a miracle he didn’t kill anybody. He certainly tried.

I do not have the words to explain how much I love Red. He’s adorable and so unapologetically emotional that it makes me happy. He’s just being himself, havin’ a good time. The others would have perished without him, I’m convinced (or, well, Blue would have frozen to death, Green would have died to the Hinox, and Vio would presumably continue living in his darkness-sponsored love affair with Shadow until he either killed one or both of them).

This got longer than it was supposed to be whoops.

#four swords #legend of zelda #green link #blue link #red link #vio link #shadow link #ramblings #four swords manga #i love small details

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glowingmin · 1 year ago

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chapter 53 of this is an adjuration but its (moderately) analyzed

hi everyone we need to talk about chapter 53 aka i’m going to talk about it and you are going to listen. spoilers for the not only the entire chapter (btw i’m gonna be going crazy) but basically chapters 39 to 53 too. also yes i will be talking about all 100+ footnotes and yes i am going to be mad theorizing throughout. we cite our sources in this bitch.

first off: we’re starting off with Red being dead! fantastic! already in tears again thank you Vio. But now we get a different point of view, which is a lot more detailed. Makes sense because 1: vio and 2: four.

footnote 1: the implications of the hesitation. followed by footnote 76. green is an interesting critter. Red clearly is worried about dying, about becoming nothing if their sword is lost (footnote 93). From what I’m understanding, Vio and maybe Blue also felt the same during the sealing? Not too sure about Blue.

But also this comes back with when they go to pull the sword again! All of Link is in agreement (footnote 101). Which includes Green. Does existing again as Link where they don’t all fit back together perfectly help this along?

“Shadows grow, harsh and angular, a myriad of isosceles shards spilling out in a tiled plane. The power of them thrums, climes up Vio’s spine in a way that is so very familiar.”

Is Twilight’s shard the same Darkness as Shadow? As the Dark Mirror? I know nothing about twilight princess so I’m probably not qualified to theorize on it. Spoiler alert we're doing it anyways. The wording of shadows here, shadows being used, makes me think that it Has to be the same thing. Especially since Vio says that it feels familiar.

The portals that are taking them across time, whether caused by Hylia or Dink or Hyrule or Whoever Else is playing Tug of Link, also seem to be this dark magic. I don’t remember Vio saying that feels similar. So there has to be some sort of difference between types of dark magic.

revision glowmin here: did some twilight princess research. Apparently Twilight and Vio can shake hands on a friend breaking a mirror and disappearing. they should start a club.

footnote 2: Red and Vio bonding about Shadow! the pain of ‘when that happens, i’ll be right there’. but!! red isn’t here anymore!! christ!! “He’s good at that. Putting his feelings into metaphorical little boxes where they can’t touch him. Where they can sit and wait until he is no longer, and Link can take the boxes and open them up and the piece that is Vio can examine them under the safety of being a fragment, of being less-than-entire, of being whole, of being One.”

lets talk about this paragraph for a second. Link will no longer exist again. this is Unhealthy Coping 101 lads. He can’t be Link anymore to sort through all of those emotions (I figure Red is normally the one doing the mental housekeeping there anyways). So its going to sit in those boxes and rot there. Will it eventually explode? It sure seems like it during Ravio’s time travel dissertation!

footnote 3: king link the first. Sky? is Sky the king link mentioned here? like ik he’s the first in the Reincarnation thingie. is link doomed to be the hero because he was named after the king? if he’d been named bob would he have been spared? hmmmm. i mean Sky is literally mentioned in the sentence the footnote is linked to so.

“(...) it would be so easy to think that it was a piece of the King himself that died.”

but when you think about it, its true. the reincarnation stuff. Four is a Link. Four is a reincarnation of Sky. A part of him just died. So technically yes, I think thats literal.

“Oh. Blue. Blue is here. He can breathe now.”

“He blinks the blurriness out of his vision, to see Blue (his Blue, his guardian, his safety, his wall of ice between them and the world)”

“Of course he has to spell this out for him. Nothing can ever be easy with this man.”

the dual sides of the Vio opinion of one berry boy. The wall of ice though. Is that a callback to Blue being frozen solid in the FSA manga? And how Red had to save him? I notice there’s a lot of elemental imagery in the color-pov’s; green in particular about being comparable to the wind.

footnote 4:Absolute whiplash of a contrast to footnote 2. We go from Red offering to hear Vio talk about Shadow to chapter 39. chapter 39 my beloathed my sleep paralysis demon. The last thing Vio says to Red.

And we know context for why Red died. Red thought that Dink was Shadow. He offers the benefit of the doubt to Dink under that assumption. Even though Vio just spat at him, even though Vio is pulling away, Red is still trying. It gets him killed. If Vio figures out that information, I feel like it’ll be a terrible time.

“Vi isn’t… isn’t really sure which outcome would be worse. Either one would be better than this limbo, this waiting and floating and his body’s instinctive attempts to make him feel.”

emotions can’t touch me these shades are gucci - vio, probably. also I didn’t realize that Vio was still holding Red’s hand when they tried to become One again.

“After that, it’s as simple as wanting, of believing that to not be would be better than being, of feeling the thin tether of magic between himself and the gem in the pommel of his sword, and trying to make it stop. (...) Blue scoops up Red’s sword, the only bit of him left behind but his spilled blood, and two glowing points of red cut through the haze.”

foreshadowing?? foreshadowing?? i don’t remember if any other colors have commented on the tether between their swords and themselves. with that out of the way lets Talk about the difference between Vio and Blue’s thoughts of merging and then we’re getting into my Red Isn’t Dead coping theory

From chapter 40: “The three of them come to him, pushing at the magic and praying to anyone who might be kind enough to listen. There’s a flash of light, and Blue braces himself for the momentarily disorienting experience of becoming One, of having himself overwritten as a part from which the sum is made.

So we know from chapter 53 in particular that Vio has not great self imagery. like not at all. His thoughts of becoming one is summarized in that “believing that to not be would be better than being”. Blue, on the other hand, doesn’t have that thought. It’s a bit more vague, but it’s still enough to notice that merging seems to feel different for all the colors (or at the very least Blue and Vio have different interpretations).

The 2 gems on Red’s sword are glowing, and for the rest its just 1. I didn’t know that was a Thing until chapter 53. so here is my thought: where do the colors come from, actually? This chapter is implying that they are an extension of their swords. Are they physical magic, forced into a ‘body’? So hear me out on this one because I went and reread some of the other chapters to formulate this theory (i am coping hard).

What if: Red isn’t dead. He’s not alive, but not dead. Chapter 41: “Sky sees now, with horrible clarity, the similarity between the glow of the twin gemstones set in the pommel and cross guard of the sword, ruby red like his eyes were, and the sky blue pulsing light of Fi’s consciousness (...) Sky does not know if Red is conscious, if he is aware. He does not even know if he even is anymore. He knows only that Red is dead, and whatever remains of him is inside of that blade.”

First time I read this I was still in tears about Red dying so it didn’t make sense. I’ll be coming back to this theory later but for now let’s leave it at ‘red might not be fully dead he might just be in a coma’.

footnote 5: christ time travel makes my head hurt. i’m looking at it i promise i’m looking at it but the brain is rejecting the knowledge like gas station sushi.

footnote 6: FOUR SWORDS MANGA MENTIONED

footnote 7: ‘magical intervention for dead patients’ you mean the fucking necromancy

footnote 8: thesaurus dot com save me /reference

“What does he think? Of the situation? Of the idea that he has to live like this indefinitely? Of the reality in which Vio lives? Of the fact that this has happened twice now?”

Thoughts are stored in the Vio. the ‘twice now’ really hits hard. going to have a cry break again.

footnote 9: SHIT there isn’t a body either time. both times there’s some Item left behind; the shattered Dark Mirror, Red’s sword. but that’s not enough. good grief this is some trauma

remember the theory i literally just mentioned? here’s another point. I’m unsure how much of FSA manga is canon to adjuration (ik its not canon in LU shut up) but at the end we see very well that Shadow is still alive-ish.

Now hear me out: what if this is the same situation for Red? Alive, but no longer able to interact with the real world? Palace of the Four Sword lore from the Ravio cooking show?? put a pin in it we’re coming back later

““I think that creating a chain of alternative realities would be exactly the kind of thing I’d do to get them back. I think that I’d do whatever it takes, break whatever it takes, until all five of us, were together and home, and safe.” Green nods, and Vio knows that he has been overruled. “We go forward, into whatever fate awaits. We’re going to find who did this, and we’re going to kill them.””

Green doesn’t even ask Blue, now that i’m looking at it. that probably spurred a fight at some point off screen?? Also Vio mentioning five here!! and nobody questions it! I’m guessing they think Vio is out of it because Red is dead and that’s why nobody asked. remember this quote it’s going to be important later.

footnote 10: Green can’t lie? i’m gonna have to reread a bit to see that in a new light. Does Green actually want Shadow back? i hope so i think that would be cool.

“Vio nods. Wind can touch him. Wind is kind, Wind is safe. Wind is robed in blue and just as lovingly violent. Wind is a known quantity.”

Blue is also called a protector multiple times in this chapter and i think thats sweet. bittersweet, but sweet. stark contrast to Vio’s opinion in footnote 6 and between footnotes 3-4.vio honey the opinions aren’t staying in those boxes you made you need a U-haul.

footnote 11: i love these domestic colors moments they’re so. good

““I need you to get your shit together, can you do that for me?” Directions unclear, too broad.”

i am not going to make the joke i am Not going to make the joke

footnote 12: never even watched lttp gameplay but i looked it up just for this footnote. rosetta stone hylian edition real

footnote 13: seeing red. i see what you did there.

““...we lost Blue?” Not another, not a third, Vio can’t do this again, he can’t see that again.”

Green pea please be more specific you aren’t helping things. Considering that just a few paragraphs ago Vio was calling Blue their guardian, I would like to think that Vio is instantly going worst case scenario. and who can blame him, really?

footnote 14: heehoo shadow got thanos snapped, more trauma on the vio boat

footnote 15: I’m not sure how much minish cap is in Adjuration lore but him training at a young age makes him being picked to repair the picori blade more reasonable. because why else would you send a child into the wilderness without any help. he got like 2 years of training He’s Fine.

footnote 16: footnote 84 callback

“Wind is blue and water, and he feels just like a big brother should. (...) Green has his voice, has blown it away with his already made up mind.”

More elemental imagery for the colors! And its also being applied to Wind, who wears Blue, and is being compared to Blue.

footnote 17: i couldn’t find any reference of something called a ‘tracking hawk’ other than something that happens in twilight princess apparently? so maybe that’s what this is referencing.

footnote 18: hesitation to smash the Dark Mirror shaking hands with hesitation to put the Four Sword back in its pedestal? also your daily reminder that in the manga TINGLE contributes to why Vio didn’t smash the mirror

footnote 19: is this Blue perception in the memory? about the ice? maybe.

footnote 20: vio picture perfect memory canon.

“A flash of blue. Blue? No, Wind, screaming and disemboweling a moblin three times his size, an unmoving obstacle between Vio and what had been his certain death.”

From chapter 42: “The rest of them all be fucking damned, Wind is getting Vio out of this alive.”

just figured this little nod to that would be important to point out. Wind goes big brother mode and I’m here for it.

footnote 21: tragedy + time = comedy reference maybe? I figure Blue has had some time to cool down by killing monsters, so that’s probably why he’s able to muster a joke. if it was even on purpose

footnote 22: A field guide on first aid would honestly be really good for the colors/Link to know. especially if minish cap is fully in Adjuration canon. I don’t know how well Ezlo would be for administering hylian first aid in the field.

footnote 23: from FSA manga, vio: “Because I was ‘the smart one’ I thought I was always right. I learned ‘smart’ and ‘wise’ aren’t always the same’. Concussion is definitely going to put some struggle on the braincell.

footnote 24: Is Vio the only color capable of lying?

“Vio sighs, and melts into the warmth, the scent of the Dark. It is familiar and it is safe and he is free to go away.”

THE Dark? Implication that there’s only One Type, so. scratch whatever nonsense I was on earlier about there maybe being different types of Dark, ig.

footnote 25: MINISH CAP MENTIONED!!!!!!!!!

footnote 26: more domestic color moments. Is their home labeled ‘four’? I’m assuming it is because there is an ‘r’ and ‘u’ and each color is painting 1 letter.

theory number three time: what the piss is going on at four’s house. from chapter 44: “Even still, Legend could swear that he saw the handle turn as he drops.” and then chapter 53: “Even still, Vio knows that he sees the door handle turn.” we have 2 inbetween footnotes to go through really quick and then we’re theorizing again.

footnote 27: more fodder for the theory of the colors just being their swords, I think!

footnote 28: wonder which of the colors is the most attuned to magic. maybe vio?

alright its THEORY NUMBER THREE FOR REAL TIME MOTHERFUCKERS THIS IS WHERE I GO CRAZY

“Something Dark and familiar crawls like a shiver up his spine.”

Vio knows Dark magic, okay I think we all understand that. He knows Twilight has Dark magic, the Dark Mirror was Dark magic, Shadow was Dark magic. what in the hell is dark magic inside the color’s home? no clue! this is where my theory comes in (it’s a two in one deal)

theory 3.1: Shadow is going to be revived at some point. The Dark magic is familiar to Vio because it’s Shadow, and Vio knows Shadow’s magic. Is Shadow playing tug of war with Dink to bring the colors home? How would he return from the dead? What time even is it in Four’s era at this 10 second pitstop? This is where I think that this is maybe during the late, LATE part of their adventure through time. but the gist is Shadow is somehow alive and is trying and failing to draw anything other than an uno reverse card.

from chapter 45: ““Odd, that. It’s not like there’s anything interesting in there. We tore the whole place apart after the first time. It’s just a small town forge.””

we will bring this back up at the Ravio hour. everything comes up at the ravio hour.

theory 3.2: its Vio from the future. when we get to the Ravio Insanity I’ll get more into this, but we need to go back to this line from chapter 53: “I think that creating a chain of alternative realities would be exactly the kind of thing I’d do to get them back. I think that I’d do whatever it takes, break whatever it takes, until all five of us, were together and home, and safe.” Maybe this is Future Vio making good on his word. ripping apart time and space alike for a CHANCE to save Red.

footnote 29: legend is royalty Adjuration canon?

footnote 30: vio gaslighting hour, but he’s only gaslighting himself. from FSA manga Vio says: “But as a hero, I never strayed from my hopes and goals.” He calls himself a hero here, but then laments about it later. Plus he doesn’t seem happy during the whole confrontation sooooo

footnote 31: fourth edition hehehe

footnote 32: So Blue is to blame for the color’s haircut? I am so deep into brainworms I can’t remember if Four’s eyes changed colors or not.

““He’s got like thirty books crammed in here, where has he been getting them all?””

i love Green and Blue doing their best to bring Vio back to them. rise and shine gamer you need to read your concussion away.

footnote 33: existential crisis from footnote 27

footnote 34: excellent word choice Blue

“Vio pulls the book up, out of the bag and into his lap. It’s heavy and leather bound, with a metalwork crescent moon on the cover. A present from Ravio. (...) Ravio who insists at some point in their future, Vio will want to shatter a Light spell.”

remember theory 1? about Red not being dead? here’s more food for this theory. Four is also called the Hero of Light. A Light Spell. The Four Sword is made to cleave through the darkness (chapter 52). To shatter a Light Spell might be them trying to bring Red back from limbo. if he is in limbo. i hope he’s just in limbo.

“His brothers are both in their usual positions relative to him when they sit like this, the empty space where Red ought to be gaping like a wound.”

you did not have to hurt me like this

footnote 35: Dark Mirror related trauma hours part TWO!!!!

footnote 36: and then it pivots right back from me tearing up to cackling about Shadow and Vio antics. I wonder what word Vio said here to make Shadow confused.

footnote 37: looking at shattering a Light Spell. looking at the magic of the Four Sword. if the Light spell Vio wants to shatter really is Red’s sword, the fact that Four is a blacksmith just might be what saves the situation

“The book is tugged from his hands and Blue’s own, cold and calloused, take hold.”

Are Blue’s hands permanently cold from being frozen? I know there’s been ice and water imagery in the past with Blue but this would be neat. Also did Blue and Green also see the note Ravio left (Don’t let anyone but you Four see this) and that’s why Blue is taking the book away?

footnote 38: we love character insight!! we love link knowing that a custom product tailored to the horse is better than a one size fits all mold!! hell yeah!

“Vi watches as Blue’s expression ices over.”

More ice imagery, this time with Wind present! Wind is sticking up for Vio like the big brother he is. And from chapter 45 we know that Wind most likely just finished telling Sky off about not being okay, too, so he is just picking up Red’s place as therapist I guess!

39: more important possible minish cap or just adventure in general books to have read

“Wind is curled into the front of him, blankets tangled up in the boy’s legs. Vio twists in place, spinning to face Blue. His brother is still in his sleep, face softer than it ever is when he’s conscious. Red’s sword creating a barrier between them, laid in its scabbard (Blue’s scabbard, they have to get him a new one just for him now) on the bedding, Blue’s fingers held fast to the hilt. Where’s Green?”

I skimmed through chapter 45-46 and I didn’t see any mention of where Green is at this point so I’m not sure where he is. But Wind is in on the cuddling and I’m here for it. And also… Red’s sword is still in the pile. Is there symbolism behind Red’s sword being between Vio and Blue? About how Blue is using the voice reserved for Red for Vio, now?

footnote 40: thinking this is pre minish cap, I think link already has a scabbard when he starts that journey.

“The boy gently presses them to Vio’s temples, and it is warm and loving and wild and red.”

All of those adjectives are applicable to Red. food for thought.

“Vio looks back down at the book in his hands. Not Ravio’s, good. His brothers aren’t that stupid, thank Hylia.”

So here I think the other colors have seen the note Ravio left them. I don’t know if they’ve discussed anything about it or not. or maybe they don’t know and its only Vio?

footnote 41: concussion

footnote 42: book (yeah I don’t have much to say for these two footnotes)

“The fire is warm and the floor is hard under his shoulder blades as he stares up at the ceiling, Blue on one side, Wind on the other.”

Wind is shoving Green out of the equation I think. I feel like this animosity will probably become important later but so far I don’t think anythings happened.

footnote 43: I know nothing about coffee so I really don’t know what this footnote is about, but Red is precious as always.

footnote 44: BODY LANGUAGE FOR DUMMIES i cackled when i saw that

“Green visibly chews that idea over in his mind, probably working overtime to have an original thought.” Compared to chapter 46: “Green frowns, starting to mentally replay every interaction that he has had with Legend. The universe, or fate, or… Hylia, maybe the Goddess herself decides that that is enough thinking for him today, because that is when the portal opens.”

footnote 45: “Not that Shadow's pressence here is strange, but for the first time, Vio didn't sense him coming. The alarms didn't start going off. He was woken by a physical touch, not warned seconds before by the indescribable feeling of wrong that slithers up his spine whenever this boy gets too close.”

WE ARE GOING TO BE COMING BACK TO THIS FOOTNOTE KEEP IT IN YOUR BRAINS FOLKS

footnote 46: Sky is arguing with Green, and then it references the downfall of Skyloft. beans

footnote 47: arson is the answer. arson is always the answer.

““Walk away before I break your nose again.” His protector says this as casually as if he were listing off how many nails they needed to make that week.”

Blue is (as the quote says) protecting Vio here. which is sweet. Blue broke Green’s nose back at the ranch (chapter 46)

footnote 48: Dark Mirror shattering reference? I wonder how long after the adventure this is. Also we know one set of the footsteps is Blue, but who’s the other?

footnote 49: A feeling of something Dark, something wrong slithers with a shiver up his spine. Vio looks up, and sihloutted in the moonlight, there is a boy in a tree.

WE’RE COMING BACK TO THIS ONE TOO.

footnote 50: honestly surprised its not a plastic plant but this is arguably funnier

““Hyrule says a big fight is heading our way. We aren’t going to be able to keep you out of it.””

We’re at chapter 47 now!

footnote 51: considering how Easy the bow is to use in FSA this footnote makes a lot of sense.

footnote 52: multivariable calculus and ‘simple straightforward’ do not belong in the same sentence vio what the shit.

footnote 53: in the manga vio is shown to load 2 arrows at once, so yeah archery being preferred makes sense to me!

footnote 54: blacksmith fun!

footnote 55: god i fucking hate geometry all my homies hate geometry

footnote 56: MINISH!!!!

footnote 57: john mulaney reference?? also grandpa and the colors! wonder where Four’s father went

“Vio nearly laughs at the realization that all of that pain and suffering could have been avoided if they had simply gone through in pieces every time. And he’s supposed to be the smart one.”

They’ve been through a few portals since Red’s death by now, so the fact that he’s only noticing this now speaks volumes to how… mm, withdrawn into himself he’s been.

“Vio stares at the portal itself, considering. Hyrule made this. He didn’t know that was something that one of them could just do. (...) Vio slides his hand into his own pack, feeling around until he makes contact with the book Ravio gave him, finger tracing delicately around the thin ornamentation. All this time, he has had the directions for non-paradoxical time travel literally in his fucking pocket.”

hey remember theory 3.2? this might be where Vio gets the idea that he can do this sort of thing.

revision glowmin here: for some reason footnote 58 got deleted. So here it is! Vio does in fact look smug.

““How long have you known that Red was going to die?” Vio aks, voice as hard and unfeeling as stone.”

More earth elemental imagery for Vio!

“Ravio flinches, not meeting Vio’s stare. “The eighth,” he practically whispers, as if confessing to a crime.”

I know I mentioned this in my Ravio Board Analysis but the Link To Ravio timeline traveling being nonlinear makes my brain hurt and I cry.

footnote 59: Vio would forgo reading to watch Blue and Vio spar (?) so you know its good stuff

““So don’t. Because I’m sorry Legend, but I’m going to have to kill your husband now.” Blue says this as gently and steady as a summer rain.”

graduated cylinder homophobia

footnote 60: the stark comparison between Blue’s playful sparring with green (footnote 59) and the dance fight with Red (this footnote) really makes him going for Legend look like murder. which. was the point but you know what I mean

footnote 61: I am 90% sure this scene happens right after Shadow disguises himself as Vio in order to get the other colors to actually fight Vaati effectively. We don’t see which direction Shadow leaves and Vio enters from, but it is possible that its the same direction. and the next time we see Shadow he is limping, so,,,, yeah.

“(...) Blue flips his grip on Red’s sword and slams the pommel into Legend’s nose, which Legend answers with a shield bash of his own right to his brother’s face. Vio hopes it hurts.”

This strikes me as a bit odd since Vio has been calling Blue ‘protector’ and ‘guardian’ throughout this chapter, albeit with pauses of dismissing him for brashness. Perhaps its because of the note Ravio left in that book, and the knowledge that in the future he wants to shatter a Light spell? And in order to do that Ravio must still be alive, so that’s my reasoning on why Vio wants Blue to hurt.

footnote 62: MINISH CAP MENTIONED also this must be before the minish cap journey because I think after that any attempt to say Link is ‘too old for that nonsense’ is thrown out the window.

footnote 63: vidow (metal pipe sound effect)

““Captain,” he says, walking over to him first. “This is from him.” (...) A room full of eyes on him, Vio tears open the envelope and carefully pulls out the single scrap of paper. (...) ‘You’re going to have to trust me, Violet. And you’re going to have to prove you’re as good a liar as he says you are. I’m trying to help all Five of you. -Not a hypocrite, either.’”

WE’RE HERE ITS TIME FOR THE THEORIES TO COME ROLLING. YOU REMEMBER THE FOOTNOTES I TOLD YOU TO REMEMBER? THEY’RE COMING IN NOW.

back to back here we have the mentioning of a ‘he/him’. I think its pretty clear that when Ravio is addressing Warriors, he’s referring to Wind in the future. Wind hasn’t gone to the War of Eras yet, and he gets called some weather nicknames in chapter 52 (“That crazy little hurricane who knew more than any person should, and was drowning in the weight of all that unwanted wisdom.” (...) “kidnapping people like my poor self and that damn riptide.”)

So that begs the question: who is the ‘he’ Ravio is mentioning in his letter to Vio? Is this future Wind? I see two possibilities, and so I raise you theory 3.2.1: Wind is the one who is helping future Vio rip holes in the fabric of time. You remember right before footnote 10, where Vio mentions five instead of four? Maybe this is where Wind would get the ‘five’ from when describing things to Ravio. Not super important I think but it is absolutely worth mentioning.

now I hope you’re ready for my insanity folks!

The line ‘not a hypocrite either’ leads me to believe that Ravio is referring to himself and Legend. Ravio is Legend’s dark world counterpart, just as Shadow is Four’s. To imply that he is not a hypocrite means that Ravio knows of Shadow’s existence. More than that, he knows of Vio and Shadow’s relationship.

Now I’ve reread Adjuration 3x now and Legend has completed the Palace of the Four Sword (chapter 24: “I FUCKING KNEW IT!” Legend’s mouth moves faster than his brain for once in his life, and he winces, but goes with it. “I knew I recognized that damn sword.”) My running theory is that perhaps the Palace of the Four Sword being in the Dark World is what could possibly lead to Shadow being revived. let me explain.

in the board of madness of chapter 49, we get the timeline of the visits. Chapter 49 is visit 8 for Ravio. It is the only one thats black. For Ravio, he apparently learns who Shadow is BEFORE he learns who Red is. The visit for when he learns about Shadow (visit 8 ravio visit 6 links) is yet to happen in Adjuration. There’s 1 more visit between visit 2 ravio visit 8 links (visit 6 ravio visit 7 links) so SOMETHING is going to happen between the next 2 visits, i guarantee it. My theory? Control is going to be waived from Dink (if only slightly) and he is going to Get Pissed. More on that later but first: who’s at the forge.

Each time Shadow’s magic/Dark magic is addressed by Vio, it is done in a similar way. Chapter 53: “The power of them thrums, climes up Vio’s spine in a way that is so very familiar.” “Something Dark and familiar crawls like a shiver up his spine.” “He was woken by a physical touch, not warned seconds before by the indescribable feeling of wrong that slithers up his spine whenever this boy gets too close.” “A feeling of something Dark, something wrong slithers with a shiver up his spine.”

Every. Single. Time. Dark magic is either called ‘familiar’ or ‘wrong’, and it sometimes causes Vio to shiver. There is some force of Dark magic attempting to bring the chain to Four’s forge. It is that line about it being familiar when they drop in their most recent visit that leads me to believe that it is Shadow. How is it Shadow? Freyja confirmed that Shadow is 100% dead at the end of the events of the manga, so we know he’s dead. I have almost zero basis for this but I have a Theory (this logic is solely going off of the “Entity in the Forge” vibes).

In chapter 24, we get insight on the Palace of the Four Sword from Legend. “Don’t think about where he saw it the first time, don’t picture Four like that , don’t think about the malice and the stench of death, the black magic and the hatred rolling off the blade in waves. Fight now. Panic later.”

Is there a difference between black magic and Dark magic? I don’t know enough Zelda lore to say for certain. What we do know is that Legend is from Four’s future. Time travel confusion aside, in a Link to the Past, there is a copy of Red. What I think is going on here is that the Palace of the Four Sword being in the Dark World is perhaps a catalyst to revive Shadow. He came from the Dark Mirror after all; surely that much Dark magic in one place would be good for this sort of thing? The hatred is a bit concerning but I think a little anger is good as a treat.

How does he get back to his proper time period? Cia’s spellbook, I think. I truly honestly 85% believe that the tug of war here is between Shadow and Dink/the Yiga Clan. From tumblr, we have the list of the chain as follows: Sky, Four, Red, Green, Blue, Vio, Time, Legend, Hyrule, Wind, Twilight, Warriors, Wild, and then a redaction of a member.

(brief pause by revision glowmin here: the distinction of Four being different than the RGBV is a neat detail)

As far as I know there’s only a few options that this 14th Link could be. It could be the link from Spirit Tracks; unless Adjuration Wind also has that adventure. It could possibly be the Ancient hero from BOTW, the one shown on the tapestry and then in the Hero’s Aspect in TOTK. It could be the first ever Link, the one before Sky. Or it could be Shadow. I don’t think any of these four options deal with Dark magic other than Shadow.

There’s also my other theory that it’s Vio (and possibly Future Wind?). Vio has already made it clear that he will do whatever it takes (confirmed by freyja via tumblr: “Vio is willing to get his hands dirty. Vio is willing to shatter fragile things. Vio has nothing left to loose.”) I’ll bet my stockpile of gummy worms that the other 15% is this scenario. (“He doesn’t need to. For the five of them, there is no price too high, no cost too great. He’s going to do whatever it takes.”)

(revision glowmin again. no cost too great? hollow knight moment.)

Now let’s talk about the Yiga Clan for a bit. I want to strangle them like a wet sock. They’re like the Eyes of Ganon that Hyrule talks about sometimes. I know little about them, but the point is that their goals are the same: kill the hero to revive Ganon. For the Eyes, its Hyrule, because they need his blood. For the Yiga Clan, it’s Wild, because… well, he killed Ganon and its revenge time.

I think the reason the Yiga Clan are so against the chain being in Four’s era for more than a few seconds (other than the fact that they’re not the ones taking the chain there) is related to Ravio’s thesis. “His era might not be poison to Darkness the way that Sky’s is, but it’s too closely guarded.”

If the chain wind up in Four’s era, and the Yiga can’t wrangle them back, Dink might lost control of the ordeal. For the most part it seems like he’s been the one picking and choosing where the portals will lead the heroes. (“The Captain arches an eyebrow, “Who are the other players?” / “Hylia, The Yiga clan, and Hyrule, though he has hesitated to take his turns, for starters.””)If he lost that control, I feel like it would be a spiral of madness as he goes off script to get them back under his thumb.

For the silly, how I’ve been coping with the angst has been that Red and Shadow are 2 ghosts following the Chain around and just watching all this shit go down. Canon? 99% sure that’s not the case, but it sure would be funny! i drew a little something to commemorate this coping mechanism.

okay. ramblings and thoerizationings are over (I probably repeated myself way too much). tldr: there’s plausible cause for the dark entity at Four’s forge to be Shadow, but it could also possibly be Vio from the future/near the end of the journey. Whoever it is, they’re threatening to remove some of Dink’s control of the situation and that might Escalate Conflict. The Palace of the Four Sword is important to a possible Red revival (and maybe Shadow)! I am never going to emotionally recover from this.

back to your regularly scheduled analysis that is probably going to go off the walls again.

footnote 64: again: if Four had been named Bob and not Link, would the Minish have had to pick a different hero? I wonder what reasoning Four’s father had for naming him after the king, anyways.

footnote 65: Ravio and Legend’s dynamics being directly related to Vio and Shadow. More correlation of Ravio saying he’s ‘not a hypocrite either’.

footnote 66: domestic color antics. Blue screaming that he’s going to kill Red, starkly contrasting with how Blue reacted when Red actually died. We know that Blue was exaggerating here in the flashback but it’s here, so its getting mentioned.

“Vio gets up, leaving them to it in order to get a better view of Ravio’s notes. It’s not hard to follow. The Timeline in the middle, their lives in bullet points on one end, their visits to this era in history on the other.”

Vio sweetie I don’t understand the visits to the Ravio Center. at least he gets it so good for him I guess.

“Wind marches over, frowning. “What are you - oh.” The sailor frowns as he takes it all in. “Why is my name all over this?” / Green blinks. “That’s what I was asking you.””

The revisitation of the animosity growing between Green and Wind!

footnote 67: Not sure when this flashback takes place, but I’m assuming its shortly after Shadow’s death?

footnote 68: There is a lot of. unrest in the chain because of Red’s death. Twilight gets outed as Wolfie, the colors are in shambles, Green and Wind are fighting, Twilight and Wild are not having good terms, the Fierce Deity is brought out, etc etc it is a Shit Show.

rapid fire footnote time

footnote 69: Legend just said that he might not stop Blue from killing Ravio this time. This is, of course, comparable to how the last thing Vio said to Red was to spit in his face. which is what this footnote is a recap of.

footnote 70: projection moment

footnote 71: Shadow gets blasted to bits

footnote 72: I believe this is a callback to footnote 48

footnote 73: More broken glass imagery back to back. Vio pointing out that for the next two visits that happen for Ravio is going to be when he possibly learns who Shadow is, and a better understanding of Red. I think. the timeline of the Ravio Hours hurts my head.

footnote 74: WHO IS THE HE. we already went over this but I’m bringing it up again. Wind or Shadow, I’m placing my bets.

footnote 75: Red again reassuring Vio about Shadow, and about how they all would like him back. Which is, again, making Vio spitting at Red right before he dies all the worse.

footnote 76: “Green on the other hand, feels nothing but the desire to get this over with.” Now that I’ve given it more thought, I don’t think this is ‘hee hoo Green is Diet Link’. I think Green is still feeling unnerved about it (see footnote 1), but its perhaps muddled over him trying to keep the others from backing out.

footnote 77: of course vio knows statistics

footnote 78: Vio calling himself a traitor here, I think is an implication of how he considers himself a villain but… if he’s a traitor to Shadow, who is the ‘villain’ here, at the very least it’s morally grey territory. i think. i don’t know man

footnote 79: I believe this also happens right after footnote 48

footnote 80: Okay but the fact that this is ‘twice will happen thrice’. This has happened twice to Vio (Shadow and Red). The third time would be Ravio.

footnote 81: Wind specifically being mentioned here is important I think. I don’t know why its important but it feels important. especially since he was the one who stood up to Green.

footnote 82: crying

“Vio freezes, words going still in his throat as they choke him. He’s getting overly emotional. He’s getting worked up. His feelings are trying to exhume themselves.”

I feel like this is a direct callback to the start of the chapter. Vio says that he can put all his emotions into boxes to save them for when he becomes One. I think the boxes are beginning to overflow.

footnote 84: another continuation of footnote 48, 72, and 79 I think.

footnote 85: Vio throwing shade at Green

footnote 86: blue performed a whoopsies

footnote 87: Derealization moment I think. Which honestly, yeah with all the screaming going on in this scene I can. yeah.

“Vio turns and sees Wild, lowering a serving tray down, upon which rests four cups full of steaming tea.”

Four cups, but I think in this case the four are Vio, Blue, Green, and Sky. I don’t think there’s anyone else in this part of the conversation.

footnote 88: IMPORTANT!! IMPORTANT SHIT HERE!! SOUND THE ALARMS. Not only is it a title drop, but we also have Shadow beginning to understand that he can be more than just one thing. He was created by Ganon to be evil, yes, but then in the manga Zelda tells him that he is as much a hero as the colors are. I think this is a scene that will come into play later if the entity at the forge is in fact Shadow. or if there’s any future Shadow related plot points.

footnote 89: I think Vio might be the only color capable of lying. In chapter 53 we hear that Blue nor Green can (or are good at) lying. Red being able to lie isn’t brought up, but I’d assume it to be the same scenario.

footnote 90: quote straight out of the manga

“Everyone else moves an instant after Legend’s fist crashes into Wild’s eye, to pull them apart or join in the fight, Vio isn’t sure.”

Here we learn that Legend punches Wild! I’m pretty sure this is where his knuckles get injured, and its the wound Hyrule’s blood heals.

footnote 91: Shadow dies and then Ganon shows up, so it is… a situation, that’s for sure! Unless Adjuration takes a different spin on that part of the manga. Vio calling himself a villain again is also important because he does not define himself as a hero.

““I’m not letting go of Red,” Blue says, as passive a threat as a sheet of ice above a turbulent river. “Take me if you need to, but not Red.””

It seems like all of the colors understand now that they are (?) their swords. He’s telling Warriors to take himself, but not Red, in reference to disarming. Also, more ice and water symbolism!

footnote 92: ‘singular point of light’. I feel like this might be a contribution to shattering a Light spell

footnote 93: fire imagery for Red!

footnote 94: IT WAS THE WORD FOUR. okay good I wasn’t tripping. I think the black paint here is for Shadow. And since its Link doing this, I think that it is proof that its not just Vio who wants Shadow back but rather All the colors.

footnote 95: callbacks to all the training flashbacks of Link and his father, I think

footnote 96: Ravio says that Four does not fail, and then the footnote is a flashback of him failing to exist after merging back together for the first time. short king stay winning

footnote 97: MINISH CAP MENTIONED. but also ‘happy and warm and safe and red’.... more Red imagery

footnote 98: I think this must be shortly before the adventure begins. Link isn’t split, but he knows that he is able to. So it has to be after the Four Sword is removed from the seal, but before the journey starts else he’d probably be addressed as Four here.

““But we keep going there, so it’s not entirely out of the running?” Warriors asks, trying to make sense of the plot. / “It wasn’t, but it is now.” Ravio sighs. “Dink isn’t sending you there, he isn’t going there if he can help it. The risks far outweigh the benefits.”

refer back to my deranged ramblings about Dink losing a smidgen of control of the situation in regards to this quote.

footnote 99: More wondering of how Ravio learns there’s 5 instead of 4. It’s not mentioned in the Palace of the Four Sword as far as I’m aware

footnote 100: again I am pointing at my deranged ramblings above.

footnote 101: In comparison to Green wanting to get it over with, Link being entirely in agreement to split again here is important. The seal will hold for years, they have time to exist. Why spend that time needlessly suffering?

footnote 102: I would ALSO like to know what happened to the Four Sword Ravio. also cute nickname hours and domestic color times.

footnote 103: MINISH CAP CALLBACK to Zelda and Link being childhood friends. It’s also a FS manga callback but shhhh

““The fate of the Four Sword is not relevant to the mission at hand… Captain.””

The hesitation here. I think it means something. I feel as if its to be directed at someone else (maybe Vio?) that this point of the story isn’t important yet.

footnote 104: And here’s the distinction between Four and the colors, in the 14 links guide.

footnote 105: Green is not Diet Link and we all will die on this hill

“One revelation at a time, Ravio chips away at the stone of Vio’s heart.”

More earth elemental imagery for Vio

footnote 106: (we did it we made it to the last one holy shit.) and of course the last footnote is domestic color moments, and its just… so bittersweet.

““Hey Vio? Can you finish this for me?” Ravio calls him back to the real world. He’s kneeling over a small pile of books, pointing to the righted bookcase by the front door. “I need to check on someone.””

This is absolutely done on purpose. “Between History of Masks and Hytopian History of High Fashion, entirely unassuming, is Cia’s spellbook.” There is absolutely zero way that this part, getting Vio to see Cia’s book here, was not intentionally orchestrated by Ravio.

“What this Palace could be Vio has no idea, yet he thinks the answer to both questions might be one and the same.”

alright we did it. we finished the play by play. a few wrap up thoughts and then class is dismissed.

ranking my theories based on how probable I think they are.

1: Shadow is the one at the forge.

2: Wind and Green’s animosity is going to become a key point later on.

3: The ‘he’ mentioned in Ravio’s letter to Vio is Shadow.

4: The ‘he’ mentioned in Ravio’s letter to Vio is Wind from after the War of Ages.

5: Future Vio is the one at the forge.

6: Future Vio is being assisted by future Wind at the forge.

7: Cia’s spellbook is going to corrupt the colors, leading to the versions of the colors that Legend fights. Could possibly be an alternate timeline

8: The Palace of the Four Sword was put in the Dark World by malicious forces to keep the chain from getting something important out of there.

overall this chapter absolutely demolished my mental state metaphorically and literally. revision glowmin will return at a later time to maybe make this more coherent but I unfortunately sold my braincell already. i heart adjuration but it needs to start paying rent.

#glow whispers and junk #this is an adjuration #im normal about this i swear i promise im normal about this #i might tidy this up later but... i needed to get the thoughts out #final wordcount is like 8k. christ

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wings-0f-sorrow · 2 months ago

Note

4, 7 :3c

(Hi honeeeey, continue yapping cause i love reading when you yap <3)

Hiiiiiiii sweetpeaaaa!! hehe, ofc! <3

4. who was your first favorite character when you initially got into your f/o’s source content? was it your f/o from the very beginning?

For the sake of simplicity I'm going to keep this to 5 rather than mentioning anything earlier in the series, considering this is her only appearance in mainline games, basically. She was my favourite from the beginning, yessir! I did find other characters pretty or neat (Vio/la and Hil/de for example. aaaaalways gravitated towards the ladies lol), but Pyrrha was always my #1 go-to, even at the start!

7. are there any specific scenes/chapters/moments of your f/o that you find yourself going back to revisit more often than any other?

Hmmm, that's one I really gotta think about considering I usually just go into my Pyrrha folder and stare at various screengrabs of her, or watch people's Legendary Souls+Arcade runs as opposed to going into the Story mode itself for stuff. However, if I had to, I would love rewatching any of the 3D cutscenes involving her. Her introductory cutscene, when she protects Pat/rok/los from Ni/ght/ma/re, when she first gets So/ul Ed/ge, when she's trying to free Pat/rok/los from his crystalization, the finale cutscene... I love her 3D cutscenes! Her rendering is so nice she's so beautiful I love seeing her in 3D! (Barring... stares... yk. THAT cutscene, considering what I've said already about her dying. Yeah.). I also like going on Youtube and finding Pachislot videos to watch, and I'll skip to sections when the youtuber gets a roll with a scene involving Pyrrha. She's sooo cute in the Pachislot, I swear. She's a bit more positive in her disposition compared to 5, assumedly them leaning more into the moe thing, and her mannerisms and animations are soooo adorable!! like.. omgggg. I can actually grab screenies I got of her so far that are at least somewhat visible considering a lot of it is so fast paced that its too blurry to see.

She's so cute she's so silly it's not fair...

#☆ spring storm #ask game #♡ 🕊️

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zarvasace · 1 year ago

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For the wip game how about Blood-Sucker's Guide to the Shining Court/cat Shadow or if you already answered the first then how about in vein

Hehe vampires :3

This is a planned sequel to my current magnum opus, Blood-Sucker's Guide to High School. THAT one is a crossover fanfiction which sticks the Four Swords characters into an approximation of the world and plot of the novel Drink, Slay, Love by Sarah Beth Durst, Shadow main character with a side of Vidow. I follow a lot of her plot points but emphasize some different themes. It does not have a sequel, so anything else I write here will be mostly original, just pulling on similar ideas for the world.

I believe that there are three major plot threads I leave off at the end of it.

(1) The point of the climax! Did they really infect the other vampires with light? Is it enough to give them consciences like Shadow? How fast will it happen? How will things be different now? This is part of the original novel.

(2) In the epilogue chapter, someone mentions that unicorn agents arrived on the scene after prom to help contain the situation—summoned by Vio dropping an anonymous tip into a monitored police line. He also talks a bit about the unicorn ideology. While unicorns exist in the original novel, I've given them a structure and an organization, named the Shining Court.

(3) A minor plot thread in the first fic is about vampires having the potential to gain special powers as a result of the fealty ceremony. Shadow wonders once or twice if he'll get something. This is entirely an original addition.

This sequel began life as a 5+1 series of oneshots dedicated to showing Shadow discovering his own vampiric power (turning into a cat), dealing with it, and also dealing a bit with the fallout of the first fic. I intended to tackle threads in the hierarchy 3 2 1, 3 most important and 1 least important.

Then I kind of wanted to explore some of the themes of the fallout more in-depth. As a result of that, I hammered out a full plot for a sequel, but was dissatisfied with the way that the cat thing fell out of the spotlight in favor of the unicorn thing. (Thread 1 has remained pretty consistent. Zelda is the main representation of that thread and she does a good job of being a background plot.)

And THEN I found out that prom is at the END of a school year, not the beginning. (Hi I didn't go to normal high school.) So a lot of my intended plot points for the original 5+1 wouldn't work anyway, since I based them on autumn holidays.

My current plan is to write a small fic centered around the cat Shadow plot and set it during spring break. That will give me the chance to set up a couple things for the full sequel, which I'll set during summer vacation. Doing that gives me a couple good excuses to move characters around and have them doing things that aren't school during the day.

Anyway that's something in-progress. Here's a snippet from the 28k 5+1 that is now defunct! :)

The little girl looked at Shadow and blinked. “Trick or treat?” She was too young to make her words entirely distinct. Shadow laughed and offered out two of the pink tootsie rolls. “Hey, good job. Treat, definitely.” She held out her pillowcase, and he dropped the candy into it. “I like your wings.” “My mom got them for me, I'm Glinda.” She lifted her silver wand, poked Shadow in the forehead with the star on the end, then ran back to her mom. “Sorry, thanks!” the mom said before turning away. “No problem.” Shadow stood back up and touched the spot on his forehead. He glanced at Vio, who watched him with a curious expression. “What? Did I mess up my makeup at all?” Vio shook his head. “No, it's just fine. I guess I didn't expect you to be good with kids.” Shadow shrugged. “They're kinda cute. And I'm guessing human kids don't bite as often as my baby cousins.” “I wouldn't be so sure.”

#my writing #fs dsl au #still using that tag for continuity #four swords #vampires #thanks :)#also i see your other ask!! thanks!! i will answer it soon #i know this one isnt my most popular work #but you know what i love it

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lucky-clover-gazette · 2 years ago

Text

The Past is Beyond Our Control

Chapter 1: A Sheep in Wolves' Clothing

Rated T | Vio/Shadow | Modern Slasher AU (Heavily Inspired by Until Dawn (2015) | 4,241 words, more soon

"Six."

“Fuck me,” Vio groans as he finally grips the handle. Is he seriously about to run from a real-life actual murderer through a creepy basement, all while barefoot and wearing a fluffy purple robe?

“Five.”

Yes, Vio decides, ripping the door open. Yes, I am.

My entry for @fsfrightfight week 3! Look out for the second chapter next week. I apologize for posting like this, but the first half of my October was insane. Glad I can share work I'm genuinely happy with, now that I have a bit more time on my hands.

Read it on AO3 (RECOMMENDED) or under the cut (with author's warnings AT THE END):

11:04 P.M.

Coming tonight was a bad idea.

Vio pulls the fluffy purple robe tighter around himself as he pokes his head out the door. “Seriously, guys?” he shouts, to no immediate answer. “Even the scrunchie?”

Vio runs a hand through his hair, still damp at the edges from his bath. Great. He’s stuck for the night in a creepy massive lodge on an isolated snowy mountain, owned by the parents of a friend whose brother mysteriously disappeared one year ago. One year exactly, actually, hence the group reuniting while home their own families on college break.

It still makes no sense that Shadow would invite them all to return for the anniversary, but Vio just couldn’t bring himself to refuse. Not when it had been Shadow asking, and not when he still felt partially responsible for Link’s death.

Even with his low hopes for the evening, he still found himself disappointed. The second they all entered the lodge, after a long and cold walk from the cable car station, Zelda and Blake had been immediately at each other’s throats. Reed gets, like, exhaustingly emotional any time Shadow speaks, and Shadow is being weirdly avoidant despite him being the one to invite them all back. It’s cold, everyone either hates or feels indifferent towards each other, and the memory of Link—now assumed dead—looms over them all.

So Vio took a bath to avoid their bullshit. Sue him.

“Blake?” Vio calls into the dark hallway. The lodge is simultaneously open-concept and cramped, with a second floor revolving around the lower foyer’s fireplace and massive chandelier. Vio looks over the railing and furrows his brow. Where the others had been arguing around the fireplace just an hour or two ago, there is only darkness. “Reed?”

Vio flicks the hallway light switch, only to be confront by a single red balloon floating near the stairs. “What the hell?”

A grandfather clock chimes loudly. Vio thinks of the jumpscares in horror games he, Shadow, and occasionally Link used to play in middle school.

Shaking his head, Vio steels his nerves. He passes the balloon on his way down the stairs, half-expecting for the others to perform a jumpscare of their own.

“Guys?” Vio calls out again, his voice weaker than before. Not scared, but not exactly annoyed, either. Unnerved, for good reason—the lodge’s main floor is empty, dark, silent, and cold.

He spots another balloon across the foyer, next to a closed door. The home movie theater, Vio recalls from years of staying with the Farore twins over winter break. A chill runs down his back as he opens the door.

More silence and darkness greet him. Vio reaches for his phone to use its flash, but realizes that it must have been confiscated along with his clothing.

“Oh, come on!”

He turns to go back upstairs, but faces a closed door. Vio releases a startled yelp and reached for the handle, but somehow…

“I wouldn’t bother with that,” mocks an unfamiliar voice. It echoes around the room from an unseen origin, so distorted that the speaker is unidentifiable.

Vio stumbles backwards, bumping up against a leather recliner.

“I have so much to show you,” the voice promises. The giant screen comes to life, illuminating the framed posters from Mr. Farore’s most famous horror films. It seems to show some kind of camera feed, although it can’t possibly be live. Vio watches himself, from just a few hours ago, hiking up the mountain trail in a heavy winter coat.

“What the fuck?” Vio exclaims, gripping the nearby seat.

“A lost little lamb,” the voice narrates with almost deranged fondness. “Do you think he has any idea of what lies ahead?”

Vio watches himself leave the frame. “Why are you showing me this?” he cries, yanking on the locked doorknob.

“Why are you watching?”

The shot abruptly cuts to a new location and subject. Vio forgets his escape at the sight of Shadow, restrained against a wooden board in dingy dark shed. He struggles against the ties, glancing over to Blake, tied up in the same manner beside him.

“Shadow!” Vio cries as the modulated voice speaks again. Not to him, though—to them.

“Now for this experiment,” the voice says, “we'll need the cooperation of our two test subjects, Blake and Shadow.”

They both cry out in fear and rage, completely helpless. The camera pans away from them, now focusing on—

“Reed!” calls out Blake, shaking in his bonds. “Holy shit, get me out of here!”

The kindest of Link’s former friends stands behind metal bars, paralyzed in front of a large metal lever.

“But we’re going to need our brave participant to help decide,” the voice calmly continues, “which test subject will live… and which will die.”

Vio slams a hand over his mouth. Now visible in the shot is… is a fucking circular saw, on a track, which splits between Blake and Shadow. Both of them continue to panic, the camera fully fixed on their reactions.

“Shadow,” Vio says, his throat dry. Is this happening right now? Has it already happened?

Will it happen to him next?

“Please,” the voice says, with good humor. “Please please, everyone calm down. It's all very simple, Reed. All you have to do... is choose who you will save!”

There’s a loud noise as the saw begins to move, the grinding of metal almost drowning out the screams. Many thoughts run through Vio’s brain, but none of them matter—this is Reed’s choice, and it’s obvious who he will pick.

“I’m sorry, Shadow,” he says, pulling the lever in Blake’s direction. “I’m really sorry!”

Vio winces as the saw changes its track. Shadow’s screams echo through the room as sharp blades meet flesh, producing the exact sort of viscera one would expect from such an interaction.

As in, it cuts the man in half.

“I’m going to give you ten seconds,” the voice informs Vio, reminding him of his own predicament. “Nine…”

“No,” Vio whimpers, trying the door again. Still locked. “No, no, no…”

“Eight.”

There’s another door in this room, Vio remembers, reaching through the darkness behind the seats. It doesn’t lead upstairs, but it will get him the hell out of this room.

“Seven.”

If he could ever actually find the goddamn door.

“Six.”

“Fuck me,” Vio groans as he finally grips the handle. Is he seriously about to run from a real-life actual murderer through a creepy basement, all while barefoot and wearing a fluffy purple robe?

“Five.”

Yes, Vio decides, ripping the door open. Yes, I am.

The door behind him bursts open, revealing a sliver of light and a person’s silhouette. “Vio,” says the killer, his voice still modulated behind some kind of Halloween mask. He holds a large metal cylinder at his side, and clearly doesn’t intend to keep his ten-second promise.

Vio screams.

“Vi-o,” the maniac repeats in a singsong voice. His movement appears to be somewhat slowed by the weight of the heavy object.

“Shut up!” Vio growls, picking up a nearby vase and throwing it in his pursuer’s direction. He doesn’t stick around to see the aftermath, slamming the door behind him and entering the depths of Farore Lodge.

─────────────────

8:39 P.M.

They make their way down the basement stairs, leaving the others to argue in the foyer.

“Still use that home theater?” Vio asks, glancing over his shoulder at the room behind them. “You and your parents?”

Shadow smirks just a little, immediately calmer and much more like himself. This whole evening, he’s had an energy Vio can only describe as manic—forced enthusiasm that’s deeply off-putting, especially given the occasion.

“Mom and Dad don’t come up here anymore,” says Shadow.

“But you’ve been living up here for a while, like a gap year?”

“Sure. Like a gap year.”

Silence falls between them, again. Ever since Vio went away to college, things have been silent. And even before that, after Link’s disappearance… Shadow hadn’t exactly stayed in touch.

“You know, Vio,” says Shadow, just a hint of playfulness in his voice.

Vio matches it with a small smile. “Yes, Shadow?”

“I just wanted to say…”

“What?”

“It really means a lot to me that everyone came back this year. And y’know… that you came, Vi.”

Vio softens at the sentiment, despite his discomfort with the overall situation. “Shadow,” he says, “I’m here for you, really. Whatever you need, whenever. I understand that you might have needed your space this past year, but—”

“Watch your step,” Shadow warns, holding out an arm to stop him. So much for sentimentality.

“I think I can handle a set of stairs,” Vio scoffs. He pushes it away as they reach the basement.

Shadow opens the boiler cabinet and get straight to work, leaving Vio to look around. He and the Farores hadn’t spent a lot of time down here during their adolescent years, save for a few games of spooky hide-and-seek. Shadow and Link’s parents had always discouraged the boys from going beneath the lodge, and the boys mostly obeyed. It was all pretty much just storage down there—props from Mr. Farore’s horror films, Shadow had said, which were not dangerous but were very, very expensive. At some point Link had also mentioned a hotel or something down there too, connecting the lodge to the abandoned asylum on the other side of the mountain.

Seriously. Creepy basement.

“Sorry to drag you into the bowels,” Shadow tells Vio, surprisingly competent with the equipment. Although, Vio reminds himself, Shadow has always been good with mechanical stuff.

“Bowels,” he says, wrinkling his nose. “Gross.”

“You’re cute.” The response is automatic, which Shadow seems to regret. He clears his throat and tries again. “I just wouldn’t want you coming down here by yourself, y’know?”

“It’s definitely creepy down here,” admits Vio.

“Yep,” Shadow teases. “Not a place to be on your own.”

─────────────────

11:16 P.M.

Vio almost trips on that damn step.

“Shit,” he says, narrowly avoiding the hazard as the killer rips the door open above him. Vio thinks fast, cloaked enough in darkness to hide but not with enough time to make it much further. He presses himself against a pillar by the water heater, where he’d just been with Shadow only hours ago.

─────────────────

8:44 P.M.

“What’s this doing here?” Vio asks, reaching behind a nearby pillar. He spins the wooden sword in his hand and then points it in Shadow’s direction. “I haven’t seen this thing in years.”

Shadow’s expression shifts at the sight of it, a strange mixture of fondness and sadness. “Guess it’s been a while since we play-fought. I dunno, things just end up down here sometimes, especially if they’re not being used. Not sure where Link’s went, though. Not that it really matters.”

Vio’s face falls. He lowers the sword. “Shadow—”

“I know,” Shadow says, holding up a hand. “Save it for the couch.”

─────────────────

11:19 P.M.

It’s still there.

“Why are you hiding?” asks the killer as he makes his way down to the boiler room. That metal cylinder, whatever it is, hits each stair as he goes.

Vio weighs the wooden sword in his hand. No blade, of course, but it has some heft. He holds it against his chest and presses himself even tighter against the pillar.

“Why prolong the inevitable, Violet?”

Vio flinches at that. No one calls him Violet anymore, unless it’s on a legal document. He wouldn’t call it a deadname exactly, but there’s only one person who’s ever said it in a way that actually felt right.

Zero now, though, because Vio just watched that person get cut in half.

“Gotcha,” says the killer, peeking around the side of the pillar. He yanks the struggling Vio backwards against his chest, trying to keep him still. “So sorry.”

Vio freezes as a plastic mask is pressed against his face. It’s easy to recognize the familiar sensation of nitrous oxide, but this seems to be significantly more potent than what he’d get at the dentist. He’s terrified to realize that he’s getting dizzy already.

Weakly craning his head, Vio is finally able to get a good look at Shadow’s murderer. A cheap Halloween mask obscures his features, but it’s not your average creepy clown or werewolf. It’s like… some kind of demented elf, with a pointed head and a goatee. What the hell was it called on the package, Guy You Definitely Don’t Want to Talk To at the Renn Faire?

Vio isn’t sticking around to find out.

Channeling every ounce of strength he has left, he shoves the wooden sword backwards into his attacker’s gut. The masked killer doubles over in pain, releasing him with a monstrous roar.

Vio’s head feels fuzzy as he runs across the boiler room-slash-cellar. He reaches for the door, but—of fucking course—

“Are you kidding me? NO HANDLE?!”

Removed and hidden, probably by Mrs. Farore, to keep the teens from exploring any further. Vio has to improvise.

The wine rack—he can work with that. Vio yanks it downwards, creating an obstacle for his pursuer. Among puddles of wine and broken glasses, a small metal object clatters to the floor.

“A-ha!” Vio sticks the handle back into place, passes the threshold, and locks the door behind him. The killer slams himself against it, but it’s not long before he gives up on that particular approach. His noises cease, leaving breathing heavily in an unfamiliar room.

His mind is clearing, which is good, because it’s pretty much all he has. He left his sword back near the boiler.

Vio turns to assess his current location, no longer familiar from his years of staying at the lodge. He sees a very dirty bed and a very broken dresser—must be one of the abandoned hotel rooms. One door to his left, and another straight ahead. The killer could, hypothetically, be making his way to either right now.

Vio moves forward. If this is a hotel, the door to the left likely leads to a bathroom. He’d be like a sitting duck in there.

His chosen path leads him to a long hallway, lined with several more doors and what looks like a defunct elevator. It’s one of those old-timey cage ones, with it cab stuck just a few feet above the bottom of the shaft.

He feels a hand over his mouth.

“Vio,” says the killer, noticeably out of breath. “Vi, holy shit, just let me—”

Vio bites.

The killer rears backwards, his mask shifting slightly and obstructing his vision. Vio sees his chance and literally runs with it.

He heads down the hall, but doesn’t go through a door. Instead, he slides through the crack beneath the elevator cab, pressing up against the wall at the bottom of the shaft.

Don’t move, Vio thinks to himself. Don’t. Fucking. Move.

From the hallway above, he hears loud pacing. The sound of doors slamming open and shut. Various curses and grunts of frustration.

And finally, thankfully, impossibly—

“FUCK!”

The footsteps reside. The hallway falls silent.

Vio stays still for the next twenty minutes.

─────────────────

11:44 P.M.

One Year Ago

Vio had been perfectly happy reading.

“We know your secret, bookworm,” Blake teases, holding the paperback out of his reach. The lodge’s warm fire illuminates Vio’s scowl.

“What the hell are you talking about?” he demands, looking from Blake to Grant to Zelda to Reed—his ‘friends,’ or rather Link’s friends, invited to the lodge for a weekend of teenage shenanigans.

“We’re helping you with your crush,” Reed enthuses, a little tipsy but earnest nonetheless. “It’s going to be soooo sweet. Like a movie!”

Vio raises an eyebrow, only growing more suspicious. They’re all high school seniors, can’t they be done with the stupid hormonal preteen nonsense? “I don’t have a—”

“Listen,” interrupts Grant, leaning slightly forward towards Vio. “We know you like him. And he obviously likes you. Prom is soon, don’t you want a date?”

“You have no idea what I want.”

“Aw,” Zelda smirks, cocking her head slightly. “I think he’s blushing.”

Reed elbows her. “Don’t be mean!”

“You don’t even have to lift a finger,” Grant continues, just as much a leader here as Link says he is on the lacrosse field. “We’ve arranged it all for you. Left him a little note on your behalf, told him to meet you in the guest bedroom at midnight, alone.”

“A promposal in the moonlight,” Reed swoons. “It’s perfect.”

Vio shoots out of his seat. “This is extremely inappropriate. You people have no idea—”

“We people might not have years of friendship with the Farores,” Blake says, “but we still care about them. And they talk to us about stuff.”

The implication, Vio knows, is that he is ‘stuff.’ A Farore has a crush on him, and he’s been running his mouth about it to his friends. Which Farore, Vio could easily guess—the same one he’s been secretly crushing on since eighth grade.

“It’s none of your business,” Vio argues, balling his fists at his sides. “Even if I… had feelings for him, I’d want to tell him on my own terms. Or he should tell me.”

Reed’s face falls, but Blake seems unfazed. “Too late. He’ll be there now, waiting for you.”

The grandfather clocked chimes midnight, as if on cue.

Vio wants to bicker more with these near-strangers, to explain how serious his feelings really are compared to their trivial promposal nonsense, and to make them feel terrible for assuming they could try to intervene. But Blake is right about at least one thing—it’s too late now. Vio’s crush is waiting for him, and he needs to minimize the damage of this ‘prank’ as best he can.

“You guys suck,” he tells the four, turning on his heel.

“Have fun!” Zelda enthuses, giggling. Vio flips her off and heads for the guest bedroom.

─────────────────

11:44 P.M.

Now

Eventually, Vio finds the courage to leave the elevator shaft. But with one or more of his ‘friends’ dead and a killer on the loose, it seems foolish to head back the way he came.

He knows that these hallways eventually connect to the abandoned asylum on the other side of the mountain. He could escape through there, hide out for the night, but then what? It isn’t like a serial killer is just going to give up at dawn. And who even knows what’s inside that asylum, or in the woods? There could be, like, wolves or bears or something.

Hiding or fleeing still seem like better options than fighting, though. Vio isn’t a fighter, he’s a thinker—but still, he probably can’t exactly out-think a murderer. Especially not one so meticulous with his use of audio, video, and elaborate death traps.

But something does still tug at him. During the chase, the killer was presented with several opportunities to quickly kill Vio. He could have strangled him, snapped his neck, or hit his head with the heavy metal gas canister. But instead, for some reason, the masked man had been determined to knock Vio out.

If only he had shown Shadow the same courtesy.

“Oh, shit,” Vio groans, finally glancing down at the ancient hotel carpet. Bloody footprints, in a steady trail, lead back the way both Vio and the killer came. With the amount of blood Shadow produced, Vio wouldn’t be surprised if his murderer is still tracking it around.

Oh Jesus Christ, it’s Shadow’s blood.

Vio refuses to let himself picture the most recently deceased Farore son, who went silent for nearly a year after his brother’s disappearance. However Vio had felt about Shadow before Link’s presumed death, none of it mattered after. And now it matters even less, because Shadow is dead too.

He supposes he should be more concerned about the others. If the killer has given up on him for now, does that mean he’s now hunting Grant, Blake, Reed, and Zelda? Vio doesn’t like any of those assholes, but he doesn’t want them murdered, either.

But… he isn’t about to throw himself in harm’s way to save them. At least, not right now. There had only been one person present at the beginning of this nightmare that Vio would have fought to protect, and his blood is staining the carpet.

“NO! NO, NO, NO!”

Vio freezes at the sound of a voice—his own voice, panicked cries from the theater playing on repeat.

What the actual fuck?

He picks up a fallen wooden beam, complete with a nail sticking out the end. Vio isn’t sure if he’ll be able to stomach using it, but hopefully he won’t have to.

He has to know. This is just too weird.

He follows the path of footsteps back into the hotel room, where it continues back towards the cellar. But other footsteps diverge, leading through the side door Vio hadn’t taken the first time.

The sound of his voice is coming from there.

Taking a deep breath, Vio pushes it open. It is indeed a small conjoined bathroom, leading to another bedroom. Vio slowly approaches a chair in the center of the space, only lowering his weapon once close enough to examine its occupant.

The killer has tied up a mannequin wearing Vio’s clothes—the same clothes he’d been wearing before he dozed off in the bath, whose absence leave him so vulnerable now. Beside the chair, a small speaker blasts his cries for help.

Vio was supposed to be bait. That’s why the killer wanted to knock him out. And in Vio’s absence, he improvised using a prop from one of Mr. Farore’s films.

It was smart, Vio has to admit.

Too bad he’s smarter.

Back in his jeans, sweater, and boots, Vio feels much more prepared to indulge his rising suspicions. Something is definitely wrong here, and it’s not just the murder.

“Oh, right,” Vio mutters, giving the mannequin a final once-over. He retrieves his scrunchie from its wrist and ties up his hair. “Okay, yeah, I can do this.”

Pointy beam in hand again, Vio follows the footsteps into another hallway down some more stairs. It’s completely silent down here, which honestly might be scarier than any kind of ambient noise.

He seems to have found himself in some kind of utility area. While the other parts of the hotel were decrepit and abandoned, Vio can still imagine them looking nice in their prime. Here? Not so much. These interconnected rooms are clearly not meant to be seen by guests.

But the killer has been down here recently, if he isn’t already here now. Again, Vio considers turning back— but more and more, he begins to question the danger of what lies ahead.

The first room he walks past is a meat locker. A freshly-gutted pig hangs on a rack, its blood dripping onto the tile floor. Footsteps, of course, lead in and out of the doorway.

The second room is not at all like a bloody meat locker. It’s strangely modern, full of modern equipment and furnishings. The surfaces aren’t dusty at all. There’s even a mini-fridge.

“Oh, no,” Vio mutters, examining a blueprint pinned to a corkboard. It depicts what the creator crudely named a ‘death machine’—a long board with straps, hooked up to a track with a saw. A fake prop torso is attached, beneath a hole for someone’s head to poke through.

Under the blueprint, Vio finds a stack of newspapers. He startles at the headline, which is accompanied by an image of Link’s year-old missing person poster.

SUSPECTED KILLER ON FARORE MOUNTAIN - COULD HE BE RESPONSIBLE FOR LOCAL TEENAGER’S DISAPPEARANCE?

“They’re fake,” Vio says, glancing down at an invoice from a printer. “It’s all made up. How could he—”

He winces at a nearby buzz. A very familiar phone rests on the workbench, its black case decorated with a pop-socket shaped like a ghost.

Vio still remembers the passcode—although in this case he kind of wishes he didn’t.

The most recent text is from someone named ‘Dr. Arrghus,’ who appears to have been communicating with the phone’s owner for a few months. Vio scrolls back to the beginning of the current day, trying to get a gist of the conversation between them.

1:34 P.M. A: Hi Greyson, it’s Dr. Arrghus. I hope you don’t mind me texting you, but this is important. I got your email. I don’t think that your plan is going to help. I think you need to stop what you’re doing and come to see me. 4:13 P.M. A: Please, pick up your phone. I’m getting worried. G: LEAVE ME ALONE A: When is the last time you’ve spoken to a person in real life? G: I’m fine. People coming later today A: I am concerned about your safety and theirs. 6:48 P.M. A: Greyson? 12:00A.M. A: Greyson, please respond.

Vio drops the phone, his hands shaking.

Holy shit, Shadow has lost his mind.

Holy shit, Shadow is ALIVE.

“I have to tell the others,” Vio says, because of course he does, what other option is there?

A response comes in the form of the pop and fizz of an opened soda tab. Vio turns to face the would-be killer, now unmasked, offering him a can of chilled root beer.

“Are you sure you need to tell them?”

Specific warnings of possibly upsetting things, but some are pretty spoilery. I HIGHLY encourage you to skip over if you want this to be experienced as intended:

A character has their clothing taken while bathing and wears a bathrobe for the majority of the first chapter. There is a reason this happens, and the character is not sexually harassed.

Gore is mentioned but not described in any detail.

Someone attempts to knock out a person with gas by forcing a mask onto them, but they're quickly fought off.

A character sees a disemboweled pig. Again, not described in detail.

#fsff23 #four swords #four swords manga #vio link #shadow link #vidow #vio x shadow #vio link x shadow link #tagging it #until dawn #bc what the hell #red link #blue link #green link #fs #my writing #ud

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