lynelsscareme

[lynelsscareme]

Two Hero of Legend's walk into a restaurant, and neither is ever, ever going to tell their respective group what they just saw.

Swift:

Legend:

Swift: ... Never talk about this?

Legend: deal.

Gates of Courage and Linked Universe are entirely different trees in the garden of time. They can see each other, and entangle their branches, but they can only ever grow and drop their own leaves. Legend is from a universe where he will - maybe - retire and have a life. Swift did... not do that. Did not do that at all. Legend dreamed and woke up, faith in happy endings shattered. Swift's nightmare kept going when he left Koholint, and that quest isn't the only one with nothing to show for it except bad memories and poor sleep.

(There is only one Ravio per timeline, after all, and Swift dreamt his away by accident. Much like many other quests he only barely remembers completing across time and reality itself... He's not really sure what number he's up to, and he's not sure quests in realms that may no longer exist after his timeline converges in the War of Eras matter in the count.

In the end, between the two, only one of them carved an Ocarina out of a time stone, and of all his regrets at least Legend doesn't have to lose sleep over that.)

Because of how massive the fandom base is for LU, I might as well state the differences up front so people don't get confused by changed characters and circumstances for each link. No, they aren't part of the same timeline (tree, I've decided to consider it) but they have a lot of shared patterns. The most glaring differences is both the number of Links (Gates has... an unholy amount) and the sequence of events. (The True OG timeline is the Downfall in Gates. Deal with that information how you will. Just know that Swift will be coming to terms with both saving untold numbers of people of the absolute destruction that originally awaited them when the Heroes Spirit broke, and condemning possibly hundreds of thousands of people to witnessing the same cycle of chaos that had plagued the world since the First Hero. You know that scene in Sinbad, where Eres shows the Sand Ocean? Yeah... close shave, mate.)

I can't not acknowledge the importance of LU in how I've made and altered certain characters - I've had to completely rejigg certain ones entirely whenever I notice I'm unintentionally mimicking or running alone the same ideas as Jojo - but that goes without saying, as does the influence all the other 'Link Group Quest' fics and comics have had over the years. There are so many that I, personally, have read and liked that it'd be impossible to list them. Regardless of that, I will happily tag my fanart of other people's pretty dam awesome depictions, and my own as vastly separate entities, and will do my best to extend that curtesy to all the others making their own Mega Works.

The most enjoyable part is, thanks to the Magic Systems and Major Divine Plot Bunny that makes my AU what it is, crossovers can be whatever you or I wish it. This is our sand pit, and we all have been given our buckets!

[In other words, don't let the size and complexity of LU scare you out of making your own variations of the idea. Nor the idea that others like me have been making ours for a while, or have seen the idea before. There is no crime punishable in playing with barbie dolls, go absolutely bonkers.]

[lynelsscareme]

Me, playing totk: dam, not much down in this ancient depths, huh? Pity. They could have done a ‘World Beneath’ kind of thing like Dinotopia…

Also me: (softly) don’t

Still me: … you know w h a t ?

[lynelsscareme]

Pink and Keaton may not get along, but at least there is someone on the team Keaton will never bite. If only there wasn't someone who then supplies Keaton with knives and bombs...

(Looking at you, Swift. It's all fun and games until he starts a team-wide brawl, come on now.)

Beast thought his babysitting days were over. Boy was he wrong. And Keaton will never, ever admit to being older than he looks thanks to time travel, because being a kid gets him lamingtons, and by Hylia, he will not give those up for anything.

Except maybe pissing off Pink, because he deserves it.

The Time Out Barrel was a trial to figure out, mostly because all other forms of Time Out don't seem to keep him contained, or still, and was almost given up on when Sandy got a needle to the bum for sitting on top of it, when trying to keep Keaton from absconding with said barrel. It is now picked up and carried around by Beast with the lid off - just to make sure Keaton is, in fact, still in his time out barrel.

(Theoretically, he could leave any time he wants, but being hoisted around in a barrel is somehow less uncomfortable than letting people physically hold him. Keaton doesn't know what the deal is either. He even actually likes Beast's hugs; he just doesn't like when people pick him up in most ways. It's weird, but the Barrel Method is their last hope, so here goes nothing.)

[lynelsscareme]

Working on Beastie and his Best Girl. My god are they so much fun. Local Country Himbo and his Goth Witch GF are filling my brain and sucking out my will power, ahhhh!

TP!Link being Midna's main reference for a normal Hylian is sure to be an even, rounded, totally not bias inducing experience that will Definitely give her a realistic expectation of Hylian men and Light Dwellers in the future that will not at all backfire terribly in the War of Eras when she realises that Beast was actually downplaying how much of a singular Unit he is. My Hylia, dude throws cannon balls around and barely even breaks pace, Midna was not ready for the average Hylian soldier to rightly balk at being expected to do the same thing. Poor Midna is going to be lying awake rethinking every interaction and wondering at what point these displays of indescribable strength became so ordinary she forgot to question it.

And let's not even bring up the refusal to back down from any fight, at any time, ever. I don't think she was prepared for people who didn't have 'ride or die' tattooed onto their very souls, she is not ready for properly sensible and rational individuals to question her very much insane and impossible plans, and - "What do you mean 'your link could do this, easy as?' Midna, that's ridiculous, there's no physical way I'm moving that with my bare hands, please-"

"...Okay, at this point, the guy you're talking about can NOT be human."

(Baby Hero of Time is probably the only person who comes close, and he's literally child. Woman would be losing her marbles.)

[lynelsscareme]

Sometimes, family is you and the multitude of Beast Magic Users you've found in a ditch over the years - and their spouses. (Beast Warriors pull? Dam, they sure do.)

Halfway to a final design for some of them, but at this point, only half have names, which is hilarious, because they are all animal puns, and I need more.

The heavily reworked Beast Warriors, who were supposed to be defended from the so-called 'Zonai' of Faron Woods, but alas, the Zonai are otherworldly goat people, and it no longer fits. Instead, I'm playing it hard and fast and making them an entirely separate culture based on the limited details we have on the Ikana, concept art for jungle temples and villages, and the tower of the gods from wind waker. Something between vaguely early history Japan with its clothing styles and culture, and as much of the Aztec influence Nintendo used for the Ikana - which actually isn't as much as I expected, with some of the Ikana and their clothing and weaponry being much more modern in fluence than the Aztecs.

Aiming to do more research into where they got the inspiration for Majora's masks cultures, but it feels very Oceania in a strange way, so we'll see.

(Yes, Fenrik has a lot of similarities with my version of TP!Link/Beast, and that is very intentional. He would have been Beast's descendant - if Beast had lived that long. And yes, his name is literally 'Wolf,' I'm very original.

His Boss is called Lykan, and no, I'm not kidding. I'm terrible at names, but at least I have fun.)

[lynelsscareme]

Tri Force Heroes, my beloved.

Jokes aside, I have had a hell of a ride working out who gets to go on this Crack trip of a quest, and that is Swift (Hero of Legend), Chance (Hero of Worlds) and the currently under a name review Pine/Rip (Echoes of Wisdom Link)

Their quest is filled with questionable fashion choices, bad life advice from a Hero who hasn't stopped since he started, miscommunication of the 'I don't know sign, and you can't talk' variety, crimes and slander against the colour pink, poor spoken French, mistaken identities regarding most of the cast, and informing some very put upon nobles that most people - including heroes - very much like to be asked to do something instead of magically forced to do so.

Princess Styla makes assumptions about the heroes her father's time stone summoned, and some take them more personally than others...

("Hero of Time?' Do I look like-")

[lynelsscareme]

When your stupid sister makes you go to a stupid fancy party in stupid fancy clothes

[it's your party]

[lynelsscareme]

Imp-girl and Beast-boy have finally been given attention.

Beast is a rather nervous guy - mostly because that's how it felt to play him back when I first got the game - but ultimately steadfast and openminded. Midna always felt like she was lashing out at the world in the first half of the game, but showed surprisingly protective body language around Beast later on despite what her dialogue may have suggested at the time - she's always got an eye out for her enlisted warrior to make sure he isn't doing himself a mischief.

[Beast keeps becoming a brunet because my brother and I accidentally bought one of those copies that digitised Link with a darker colour palette. It's funny how things work out, because if we hadn't, I probably wouldn't have been able to make myself complete the spookier portions of the game without it. I was emboldened by the feeling that my brother was never far away, because look! There he is, running across Hyrule field with his sarcastic imp gf. Worked for me. Although my brother may have been a little insulted at being replaced by a dictionary character.]

Beast is a bit of a difficult character for me, because I want to show his gentle nature and character, whilst somehow getting the fact that he is fiercely terrifying and intimidating to many of those around him. A good fighter, sure enough, but what I wish to make clear is his deeply rooted refusal to quit, endurance, and single-minded focus. Hopefully, when his pages are ready, it'll come across as I hoped.

[lynelsscareme]

Squire is about to discover that some trees have opinions.

First attempt with coloured source lighting (the fire rod) and I'm pretty happy with it!

[lynelsscareme]

Prince Style Test - mostly complete

Baby, we are in business!

[Close ups under cut]

I have had way too much fun working on this guy. He is so bouncy and dramatic and filled with his own kind of charm.

His games are the ones I played the most (outside of a few exceptions) as a kid, so I have extreme nostalgia for cursing at my DS when it decided to not read a Gameboy cartridge. (the nerve)

He has a lot of nicknames amongst the Links ('Prince' is merely a title bestowed by someone who wanted to upset him - which didn't quite go how Pink intended - and is barely used by the other Links, much like how Pink is only called so when the others want to rile him up) ranging from their Storyteller, Dungeon Crawler, Adventurer, Bard, Swift, and many more. Currently, he stands alone as the fastest of the Links, but only for as long as he can bear the pain of going that fast in a body that tired.

Whilst an incredibly skilled fighter - adaptable, swift and bold - and only just beginning to reach the age of majority, he knows full well his body is at its limit. Despite this - or perhaps because of this fact - he takes any threat to the younger, or more inexperienced members of their group very personally. This can cause some friction between those Links and himself. Luckily, half a decade spent word smithing his way around perception spells and curses have made him very adept at soothing ruffled feathers. Unfortunately, he is inexperienced in one very notable aspect - dealing with constant companionship with not-so amenable souls. Getting used to others when they don't want to get used to him is going to cause him some grief.

Like many of the Links Hylia pulled to her from throughout the Eras, the Hero of Legend died before his time - he hopes to make up for it, for all none of the others think he should have to.

[lynelsscareme]

Mer-Suit Hero of Legend? Mer-Suit Hero of Legend.

It's been a hell of a long time since I've played his earlier games, but nevertheless, he deserves a fancy page to himself.

Currently, his Mer-suit has been turned into a much smaller pearl necklace for ease of use. Poor bloke was getting pretty sick of carrying such bulky equipment with him - and so found a compromise. By technicality, he started out as a Mer when he first used the enchanted clothes to swim underwater. However, after years of use, the spell has shifted to better suit him, so he is now a Merrow, known not for drowning sailors, but for carrying them back to dry land. I will not specify when this change happened for... spoiler reasons.

[lynelsscareme]

What are they in for? Wrong answers only.

[Poor Beast, getting lumped in with these fools.]

[lynelsscareme]

For Linden? Giving her father grey hairs is the least of it. Equal parts mischievous troublemaker, enterprising do-it-yourself-er, and Daddy's Little Monster. She is going to drive the more mature Links to more than just the drink...

[lynelsscareme]

Finally got my hands on TOTK and.

Well.

Let’s just say that this game is going to cause just as many frantic redesigns regarding background characters and areas and sequences just as much as AoC and Jojo’s LU is already making me do. Have to completely rejig some major lore. Redesign multiple in universe races (Zonai aren’t even the most glaring ones to fix, good grief) and drastically change how the grouping was going to happen. Because hoo boy, I am not interested in unintentionally copying someone else without credit when credit is due, and my ‘descendants of the Zonai Barbarians’ may have ad a name change to the Beast Warriors, but now I’ve discovered that their face paint is way too similar to Jojo’s depiction of Twilight Princess!Link. Which isn’t a bad thing. Just something I definitely don’t want to appear as a theft - so back to the drawing board on those guys. Which is a shame. They literally appear in Chapter 3 of Volume 1, so this is gonna be a tight squeeze.

In the meantime, it gives me the chance to go back over all the eras and their inhabitants, and adjust accordingly. Surprisingly fun so far. Especially if you put Skyward Sword before the events of the ancient calamity as I have. Makes the tech used by the Sheikah, the Zonai, and the Hylians of the time rather Steampunk in its own funky way.

[lynelsscareme]

Style test with Lil Sister (Linden) [mostly complete]

Have to say - I really enjoy drawing her. She's very fun, has rather elastic expressions much like any Toon Link would, and is a great starting point for getting a feel for moving characters on still pieces. One day, I'll have to actually do backgrounds for her to stand in... However, it did make me realise that my current style is very inconsistent, and I need to get a lock on it before I move on to finalising pages. As it currently stands, its storyboard quality, but not much more.

She's also been a very fun character to write, but she - rather predictably - likes to go off script and take me for a trip off the intended path. So I guess I'll have to learn restraint when utilising her, too. She has, however, proved a good balance between the Canon Redesign Links and the Homemade Links for characterisation - most of my Links have a tendency to be rather depressing, so at least with have this rambunctious mischief maker in the team. But she won't be the only one for long.

[lynelsscareme]

"This Barbie has seen enough," and by Jove, he really has. Drake, otherwise known as Mr Doesn't turn up until the last minute, two hours late with a fresh slushy to the Battle to End All Battles.

[lynelsscareme]

Love it when a joke comment makes for a great muse. Don’t so love it when it means I’ve had to make this many canvases…