#but all of them are there

[zarvasace]

Bubbly Water

2.5k worth of LU fluff. Disability AU and blatant Four favoritism. Sorry. Gen in every sense of the term. :) AO3 link here! (this is really not that good but. I had fun. So whatever.)

--

"Wars, where are we going?" Twilight asks, craning his neck to keep Wild and Wind within his sight as they all do their best to weave through the dense crowds of Warriors's Castletown. They can't go very fast, but they have a wedge formation, so there's room for Four to roll without hitting people and for Hyrule to walk alongside him. 

Since Warriors walks at the head of the wedge, he can't exactly turn around to sign. Four sees his hand wave in a sort-of acknowledgement, but Twilight's question goes unanswered for now. Four isn't too worried about it, he knows that Warriors knows that they're all tired from three solid weeks running around the Great Sea. They'd run into monsters no matter where they went, and had only managed to spare two days saying hello to Wind's grandmother on Outset. Four is a little irritated with the day. He just wants to flop face-down on a bed and not move until morning, honestly. 

It seems that Warriors is leading them to the hospitality district. Four remembers the tall, bright blue-painted inn they'd stayed in last time. The stairs hadn't been fun to navigate, but like always, they managed. 

Warriors walks right past the inn and towards a nicer building, made with light-colored stone and lit up with colored glass in the lanterns, visible even in the bright overcast afternoon. The colors are cool, making the place look like it wavers underwater, an illusion only enhanced by the shells and pearls painted on the outside. The ocean theme is a little old, after three weeks of sailing and hearing waves, so there must be some good reason Warriors brought them here. It doesn't really look like an inn, and it's definitely not a tavern. 

The lobby is nice, with marble or marble-patterned tile stretching from the front entrance to a counter, with doorways and stairs on either side. Four feels bad about the grime his wheels are undoubtedly smearing across the light floor. At least his aren't the only marks. 

Warriors straightens his scarf, runs a hand through his hair, and puts on a smile. Backed by Time, he heads up for the counter. Warriors is lucky, sometimes. He's a celebrity in his world, though not always immediately recognizable to his people, and many of them have learned bits and pieces of sign because he uses it. The girl at the counter evidently knows enough to book them with whatever service they offer here. 

Wind clearly wants to go explore, but Wild has his arm, and Twilight has Wild's belt. They make a very interesting chain as they all head into the arch Warriors directs them to. 

The smell of flowers, citrus, and vanilla fills Four's nose as he pushes his way under the arch. There are a few doors out this way, spaced evenly with little shells glued to them in the shape of numbers. Four makes a noise of comprehension—it's a bathhouse. He hasn't been to many of these, and none since his accident. Hyrule looks more suspicious than usual. It doesn't explain why Wild, of all people, looks excited, though. Four has never seen a bathhouse or anything remotely similar in Wild's world, but to be fair, there's enough space there to hide an entire fortress or three. Sky has an absolutely delighted smile on his face, and Warriors's own smile is a little smug in light of that. 

"Ooh," Wind says as he heads into the door Warriors opens up, and his voice bounces off of the tile. "It's so steamy in here!" 

'Natural hot springs under the city,' Warriors explains, holding the door open with his shoulder. Sky repeats the words out loud, mostly for Hyrule's benefit. 'We can use any of the soaps over there, just don't go too crazy with them.'

The room is beautiful. This is no second-rate bathhouse. The ocean theme continues in here, with decorative nets hanging from the wooden rafters and more pearls painted in swirling designs along the plaster walls. In the center of the room is the bath, sunk into the ground and lined with a mosaic of sea turtles. The water ripples ever so slightly, under the influence of what Four assumes is a vent to circulate the water. It does, indeed, steam. 

Wild makes a beeline for the floor-to-ceiling shelving that Warriors indicates and starts picking up each bar and jar to sniff and prod. Twilight pulls off his furs almost immediately, setting them on top of one of the counters along the other side. Sky follows suit, removing his weapons and cape. Wind plops down on the side of the bath and pulls his shoe off of his foot, then dangles it in the water as he wrangles with the laces holding on his other leg. Legend mutters to Hyrule, explaining what a bathhouse is, while Time runs a hand along the murals. 

Four rolls in, and Warriors lets the door drop shut behind him. "How deep is it?" he asks softly, under the sounds of the others getting undressed and talking. 

'There are steps,' Warriors assures him, understanding the concern, and Four nods as he watches Warriors turn the lock. 

He knows that if he really wanted to, he could stay out, or use one of the many buckets instead of actually getting in. His chair is magical enough that water won't bother it, which had been a very good thing the last three weeks. The portal to Wind's world had dumped them a few yards offshore, and Four had gone entirely under before he knew what was happening. Luckily, Legend had reacted quickly enough and had enough swimming strength to get them both up above the surface before he sucked in any salty water. 

Needless to say, Four isn't exactly overeager to go underwater again. Swimming takes up a lot of energy, and he can't do it for more than a few seconds at a time, since he mostly relies on his arms. 

He gets a little closer to the water to look inside. True to Warriors's words, the bath gets deeper in stages, with wide steps that descend down a foot or so at a time. Gauging depth through the water isn't an exact science, but it looks like the center of the bath is about four feet deep. Even if he could stand, it would be a bit of an issue, but he can probably stick to one of the steps and be fine. 

Besides, it looks warm. Four's a bit achy, and his hair has been salt-crusted for such a long time. A nice, warm bath really does sound just about perfect. 

Sky, in his loose, embroidered undershirt and no shoes, walks around the edge of the bath, dropping in handfuls of white powder that sud up the water at the edges. "Nobody drink the water," he says, and his voice echoes, too. 

Wind's eyes go wide. "Is that soap?" 

"Bubbles!" Twilight says, grinning like an idiot. He turns red when the others turn to look at him. "What? Nobody else had bubble baths growing up?" 

Wild shrugs. He's holding a bar of soap in each hand and weighing them. "I don't know."

"I did," Four says with a smile of his own. "Been a while, though."

"Bubbles?" Hyrule asks suspiciously. "Like…"

"Not the enemy kind," Wind interrupts. He shucks off his tunic and shirt and throws them to the side, where they're likely to get soaked in the water on the floor. Twilight rolls his eyes and picks them up to set them on the countertop. 

Wind continues, heedless of the rescue of his clothing. "Come sit! They're a fun texture." He stirs the water with his foot a bit and scoops up a handful of the resulting bubbles to squish between his hands. 

On the other side of the bath, Twilight, Sky, and Time get into the water. They're all delighted by the bubbles, and only Time tries to hide it. Legend complains a bit, but sits on one of the steps near Hyrule and Wind playing with the bubbles. Warriors and Wild hold a quiet discussion about the different soaps and what they're made out of. 

Four watches the puddles of water grow from the edges of the bath, splashed by Twilight and Sky and Wind. He rolls over the countertop and reaches down to pull off his boots, then his socks. He's so caught up in his thoughts of how to wash his hair that Time's voice startles him. 

"Are you getting in?"

After Four's heart calms back down, he looks up at Time and nods. "I'm planning on it. Maybe a little worried about slipping, though." 

"Want some help?" Time asks. Time is probably the only one who can ask Four that question with any kind of regularity and not annoy him. 

Four considers the myriad of ways he could slip on the tile, then nods. He stands for a few seconds to get his tunic and leggings off, then grabs his brush from his pack and lets Time pick him up—one arm behind his back, one under his knees, and both of Four's arms around his neck. He feels his face turn red, but tries to fight it down. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. He's just glad he's the smallest, so when people do have to pick him up, he doesn't present too big of a problem. 

Time gets into the water slowly, making sure not to slip or fall. Some water droplets from Twilight and Sky's bubble fight fly their direction, and Four shields his face with a laugh. The water is delightfully warm, and the heat soaks deep into his skin. He can feel the dirt leaving him. It's nice. 

Perhaps sensing his contentment, Time doesn't put him down immediately. He stands in the deepest part of the bath, with the waterline nearly over his chest. The warm water covers most of Four, too, though it seems like Time is careful to keep his shoulders above water. Bubbles float past him, sent over by Legend agitating the surface of the water with his hands. 

Four smiles a little and lets go of Time to pull some of the white suds a bit closer. He looks up to see Legend watching him. Legend's eyebrow moves upward, seeing the mischief that must be in his eyes, and Four answers with a wider smile. Legend just makes more bubbles and pushes them Four's way. The water ripples as Sky goes under the water, pushed by Twilight. 

Once he's gathered enough bubbles, Four scoops as many as he can into his free hand, then slaps them on Time's face. He's nice and keeps to the lower half of it. 

Time jolts, his arms slipping a little as he splutters. His eye is wide as he looks down at Four, shocked and betrayed. 

Four can't help the laugh that breaks out of him at that expression. He's joined by Twilight and Legend, who'd seen the whole thing. Twilight's laugh cuts off after a second as Sky dunks him back. 

"Four?!" Time says. He spits out bubbles, and Four's laughter redoubles. 

Wind almost manages to catch Legend's face with a handful of bubbles, too, but Legend pushes him away with a shout, a spot of white just on the end of his nose. Wind and Hyrule's giggles add to the cacophony. 

"Don't even think about it," Twilight says to Wild, who gets in by them, though the intimidating tone is dampened somewhat by his smile. 

"I wasn't!" Wild protests. "Much. Here, this one is for you." He hands Twilight a bar of milky green soap, and gives a pale blue one to Sky. "I chose the scent, Wars chose the type."

Twilight takes the soap with a scrunched nose. "Type?" 

Wild shrugs and slips through the water to offer Hyrule another bar of soap. Warriors finally gets in, stretching and sighing at the heat, and answers Twilight's questions about types of soap. 

Time continues to spit suds out as he takes Four to the side of the bath. One of the steps is at the perfect depth for Four to sit, and Time is only a little salty when he lets Four get down. He wipes the bubbles from his face. 

"Bleh. Those do not taste as good as they smell."

"It's just soap," Four says with a gremlin smile, curling his fingers around the edge of the step as he sits there. He's a bit slow to react when Time scoops up an unfair amount of water to dump on his head. 

Four shouts in protest. Sopping wet hair falls into his eyes, and drips some bubbles into his mouth. It's his turn to spit out soap. "Oh, you are asking for it."

They play for a while, letting out some of the stress of the last few weeks. The water doesn't get any colder, though Wars shows them a spout on the wall where they can get cold water into buckets. That sets off another round of dunking and splashing. Nobody's immune to getting ganged up on and dunked. Hyrule is very good at it, somehow. 

It seems that Wild chose different soaps for all of them, and he makes sure everyone appreciates the scents he chose. Four does appreciate the minty, deep smell of his own. Sky takes a break from the tussling to sit by Four, and tells him that the light scent of his own Wild-chosen soap is apparently named "spring breeze." 

Somehow, Legend wrestles Wild into sitting still so he can work at his hair. Four has to wince at the way the water around Wild gets gray from the dirt and salt. He intends to do his own hair by himself, but can't say no when Wind asks quietly if he can help. 

When everyone has been scrubbed and washed and tired out, they sit at the edges of the bath and wait for the bubbles to dissipate. The conversation turns to where they'll stay that night, though it's just a little before dinnertime now. Wild suggests a cafe he'd eaten at on a previous visit to this town, and Sky starts to fall asleep in the heat. Warriors says he has a place in mind, one away from crowds where he thinks he can get a ground floor room. Four doesn't have a lot to add to the conversation, but he enjoys listening and adding thoughts and snide comments every so often. He doesn’t say anything when he notices Legend inspecting the soaps, getting teary-eyed at one of them, and tucking it away for later.

Maybe tomorrow they'll all fall in the mud, or get covered in monster blood again, but for now, Four enjoys the feeling of being clean and tired and safe. He kicks his feet out in the water. His toes poke out, and he smiles. 

They call it an evening when Wind drops off to sleep and falls in. The towels provided on the shelves are fluffy and just warm enough. Four changes his mind about the day—it’s nice. He likes it. He would like to spend the rest of it eating and reading past his bedtime. 

[bokkerijder]

pro-AI in the sense of "they taught a bread scanning computer to recognize cancer cells" etc etc

against AI in the sense of "we stole artwork from hundreds to thousands of artists, didn't credit them and didn't financially compensate them"

[mayhemchicken-artblog]

in the hour or so it took me to draw this op turned reblogs off

EDIT: reblogs are STAYING OFF. op was right and correct and i have never regretted making a post as much as this one. if you want to reblog my art you can reblog something else from my blog. or commission me, lord knows i deserve financial compensation for the nightmare this post has put me through

[stimmingandstruggling]

more good news from tiktok: they’ve started blocking celebrities.

they’re calling it block party 2024. just blocking and ignoring countless celebrities who havent said shit about palestine. influencers, actors, anyone who went to the met gala, whatever, they’re getting blocked. and people keep talking about how cathartic it is, how good it feels, how they never realized they could DO that. there was some kind of subconscious law against blocking famous people, but it’s broken, and people are LOVING it. and it’s WORKING. a social media/digital advertising coordinator was talking about how ad companies are PANICKING, because they can’t accurately target anymore. so many big influencers, including fucking LIZZO started talking about palestine the MOMENT their follower counts started going down. and the best part? no one is forgiving them. lizzo posted a tiktok asking people to donate to palestinian families, and all the comments just said you’re a multimillionaire. put your money where your mouth is. blocked.

i feel like i’m witnessing the downfall of celebrity culture, right here right now. people are waking up.

[sylvies-kablooie]

i do unironically think the best artists of our generation are posting to get 20 notes and 3 reblogs btw. that fanfic with like 45 kudos is some of the best stuff ever written. those OCs you carry around have some of the richest backstories and worldbuilding someone has ever seen. please do not think that reaching only a few people when you post means your art isn't worth celebrating.

[bonerey]

characters have to be a little bit awful in ways that you cant defend. its good for the ecosystem. your honor he did do that. He did in fact do that

[etherealspacejelly]

me when the disability disables me: oh what the fuck? this sucks. what the hell man!

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The math just adds up!

[versacethotty]

this is fucking frying me rn 😭😭😭

[buttercuparry]

Reblog the fundraisers you mfs!!!!! I don't know why you all skip those to reblog some pic of a banner saying "FREE PALESTINE" or of news from Columbia University! Literally these people from Gaza have made an account on Tumblr and is writing in english to communicate what they need and you all are coming onto my blog or on the tag and not reblogging their posts. We have people both Palestinian and non Palestinian vetting the fundraisers! I mean more the reblogs, more the chance of the fundraisers gaining momemtum, the more there would be a chance of a donation. Please donate if you can and reblog!!! and follow them if it is possible.

@/mohammedayesh has posted about getting leaflets, telling them to evacuate Rafah. They are very low on funds. Go follow them and reblog their posts and donate if possible.

We have @/haneenatya too whose mother is suffering from eye stroke and need to evacuate. Please I have been following them for some days and it doesn't seem their own posts are getting much attention.

Follow them! They are on tumblr. Reblog their posts and donate. The protests in universities are being done on account of them. They should be our focus.

(EDIT: on re-reading my post it seems as if I am dismissing all that the students of universities are doing. I am not. I just meant, since all of it is to help Palestinians, we must not ignore them when they ask for help).

[elliesbelle]

emily gwen, the creator of the sunset lesbian flag that we’ve come to commonly use, still continues to live in poverty.

multi-billion dollar companies have used their design and made profit from it, and yet they have not seen a cent for their creation.

i’ve been friends with emily for years, and i have not once seen them be financially stable the entire time. i’ve seen them homeless, unemployed, starving. right now, they need our help more than ever.

please consider donating to emily’s ko-fi, especially if you’ve used their design to create something and profited from it.

[liquidstar]

If my mom sees a significant amount of blood she gets lightheaded, and has fainted on some occasions. Once it happened when we were kids, I wasn't there to witness it but I heard the story from my dad. Basically my brothers, around 7 or 8 at the time, were playing outside while my mom was making their lunch, and she accidentally cut her finger. It wasn't anything serious, but it drew a fair bit of blood and she passed out. My dad saw this and rushed over, but he didn't really know what to do so he just sort of started slapping her to wake her up (not recommended, but he had no idea and panicked)

At that exact moment my brothers both came in from playing, and all they saw was our mom unconscious on the floor and our dad slapping her. So, like, without even saying a word to each other they both just INSTANTLY start whaling on him, like, full blown attack mode to defend our mom. Which obviously didn't help the situation, but she did wake up and everything was fine.

Now our dad says that he's actually really glad they attacked him over what they thought was going on, because it means he raised good boys. And I still think that's true, they're very good boys.

[buboplague]

a journey of pain, growth and persistence

(prints available here)

[dreamquestofunknownkadath]

One of my favorite genres of post

[myclericalromance]

i went to a tiny counterserve diner once and accidentally poured sugar instead of salt all over my hashbrowns and was eating them sadly anyways. the waitress took them away and started making me another one and I tried to protest, but she just snorted and said "we're not catholic here". now every time i'm doing something painful out of obligation i think about how that is not repenting, this body is not a catholic establishment, there is no nobility in suffering.