#..and now i disappear into the shadows. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

amethystpath-writes · 1 year ago

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Entertainment

(NOT A PR0MPT)

******

“I don’t love you,” Hero said. “I won’t love you, even though they all suspect it.”

“Isn’t it disappointing?” Villain asked.

Hero only hummed in question. She felt serene despite the storm brewing in her mind. For now, she would listen.

“To make another human your source of entertainment? You are televised. You don’t see your shepherds now, but there is a show playing in their minds during this very moment. You. Naked in my bed- as if we could ever be lovers. A scandal- because no one can ever be good enough. Nobody is allowed to be The Hero. That person, should they ever arise, must always be eradicated.”

Villain stared at the night sky from the park bench, swollen and wet from the rain which had passed. The dark clouds above appeared so thick that they stretched across space, blocking even the moon from seeing her subjects below. Another storm was being pushed through. “They wait for the day you’re found out- living out any trope that serves them, even if it’s not true of your life at all. Enemies to lovers.” He scoffed. “The new fad. Unfortunate for them, I hate you,” he said, and his eyes never left the stormy clouds. “We are not their love story, and I’ll spite you at every turn for making them think this rivalry could turn to such. Tell me, why did you decide to become their next victim, hero?”

“You make it sound like I wanted them to call me a traitor under their breaths.” Her voice held no contempt. She was too tired for that- for anything besides a quietly piqued interest. “I don’t want to betray them. I fight you because they don’t have the ability to. It’s all for them. It has always been for them.”

“And yet”- Villain shrugged- “what have they done for you? Spread rumors? Spoken to teen entertainment vlogs about their accounts on witnessing our ‘dates’? None of it is real. I tell myself I’m fighting for something, but the truth is, none of us are. Not even you, though you think your purpose is to oppose me- to oppose evil and all that is ill. It’s not.”

Progressively, Hero felt the tips of her ears warming- a deep contrast compared to the cold air around her. “I don’t entertain them.”

“You serve them. Is that phrasing any more to your liking?”

She couldn’t argue that. Hero did serve her community- by fighting Villain, by bringing justice to him. Or…trying to at least. The rumors came with their own consequences. She was outcasted. No one trusted her even though she never gave them a reason to distrust her. Hero fought Villain. That was all she ever did, but one person got it into their head that maybe- just maybe- they weren’t fighting at all. Maybe Hero and Villain were living a fairytale. Maybe they were an item and the fights were all a facade so at least one of them would be praised.

Still, it had nothing to do with entertainment. Hero didn’t want to think of it that way. If she did, it meant she did all of this for nothing. She had no purpose. She wasted her time, energy, and effort.

“Why did we meet here?” It was going to start raining again, and Hero was already shivering. She only met him tonight because doing so meant he was with her, in sight, and unproductive in his schemes. He volunteered her as a distraction; she wasn’t smart enough to say no.

“We might only be a means of entertainment, but I’ve learned to appreciate the act. You and I are not friends, but they think so. There’s a camera- over there…” He pointed to a tree, and Hero cursed under her breath. “And it’s been filming us the entire time. Having casual conversation on a stormy night where no one else would dare relax. Nice and private- though cold, but we’re willing to sacrifice that warmth if it means being together, right?”

“You set me up.” Here she thought she was allowing herself to distract him, but it was his plan all along. Of course he wasn’t wanting to fix this problem. “You said you were tired of the rumors, Villain. That’s why we were here, to lay them to rest.”

Villain laughed and finally looked to Hero. His eyes trailed to her ears, all red from her frustration. It irritated her even more and she untucked her hair. “You aren’t just their entertainment, Hero. You’re mine, too.” He muttered, “So easy.”

She wanted to argue: I’m not your entertainment; I’m Im no one’s, but it would only prove him right. Looking at his smile now, Hero regretted even pulling her hair from behind her ears.

I can fight him now. The camera would see it and the people would know that the two were not lovers at all. But again, she’d be amusing him. Right now, he was expecting her to make a move, to- to retaliate, if only to entertain him more. Yet, if she didn’t do anything, the tape he had now would only confirm in the community’s mind that she was a scandal. Untrue and unfit for being their voice. Would they arrest her?

“I’m all you have now. Your only security.”

Hero shook her head. “No. That’s not true.”

“Then who else do you have?”

The sky was sprinkling now. Fat cold raindrops touched on Hero’s shoulders and she shivered. “They’ll believe me,” she said, though it came out as a whisper. Still, Villain heard.

“Do they believe you now?”

No.

“If you are not with me, you are nothing but a bad face to them. I can give you a new identity. I can give you a new start, one where you can be the one entertained- not them.”

His hand touched her face. She flinched. When had she closed her eyes and when had he stood from the park bench? When did the sprinkling of them sky become thin, pelting drops?

It stung: his hand, the rain, the biting cold, the realization that she was running out of options.

“I don’t need your help.”

“They’ll arrest you. Treason,” he said, and rubbed his thumb across Hero’s cheekbone. “Isn’t that the highest punishable crime?”

Was it? She wasn’t sure.

He was scaring her.

He was scaring her, and it was working so well that she felt herself sweating despite also quivering in the downpour.

His fingers wrapped under her chin while his other hand rested on her shoulder. “I can help.”

“You’re the reason I’m in this position!” Hero tried to rip away, but Villain stopped her with a heavy grip. “I don’t want your help. I don’t want your help.”

“You put yourself in this position by fighting something you had no right mind fighting. You were unprepared, Hero. Ill-advised.” His thumb strummed her cheek again, calming, manipulative. “I only helped you realize.”

The drop on her cheek was warm- a tear, not a raindrop. “You told me we’re not friends.”

“No. I pity you.” The hand on her shoulder fell and Villain wrapped his arm around her back, pulling her into a hug. Instinctively, she turned her head against his chest. His shirt was soaked and cold, but it was comfortable. She stayed, forgetting entirely who he was.

When had the heat left her ears? Was it when the rain started or when she laid her head on his chest? “We’re not friends,” she said, but as she stood in the pouring rain, cheek pressed against Villain’s wet shirt, she couldn’t imagine leaving. Let them have their entertainment, she almost said, but no. She wasn’t supposed to be here.

Almost seeming to read her thoughts, Villain asked, “Who else do you have, Hero? Stand with me in this rain; let it wash away the hero you tried to be, and start anew.”

Thunder crackled across the sky. Hero remained silent. Enemies…lovers…amusement…what did it matter? She was comfortable in the rain, comfortable in the cold. “Will you delete the footage if I agree?”

He hummed.

“Delete it,” she begged, though her head never left his chest. “I want to start over. I would do anything.”

“Will,” Villain corrected. “I have some ideas for you.”

For now, they would leave the open sky, full of lightning and threatened existences. They would leave, and Hero would cry, grieve over her attempted heroism, and look to Villain- of all people- for a shoulder to cry on.

And as all villains do, he would take advantage of her, warp her mind, make her believe that she was wrong to be a hero, that she was a source of entertainment, though we, dear audience, know she was an inspiration all along.

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greennoobartist · 26 days ago

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Finally! The first off to break the ice, Shadow! The menace of all the shadows be upon ye!!

He was pretty fun to design and not too complex for the start. It didn't take as long as I've been actually scared to color him. Thankfully, since I was finally able to do it digitally, my fear calmed down. He could've been done earlier if I had any opportunity to color digitally, but I'm still very proud with how he turned out. For someone who didn't do art in general and especially digital art in a long while, im really satisfied with this. He's just a little menace, that's all :)

All data & info about him in this AU will be under the cut ^^

Headcanons that have been inspired, reminded of, modelized a bit or completely Blep's (@/blupeeblep) will be marked with ✨ (there's not a lot of them but I'm still giving credit c:)

Basic information:

Full name: Shadow Link

Preferred name: Shadow

Titles: the menace of all the shadows, the master of mischief, the black swordsman, the shadow of the hero

Age: 18

Height: 5'9" or 175cm (same as Green)

Personality traits: playful, sarcastic, drama king™, friendly, prankster, reactive, expressive, emotionally fragile, easily bonds with people, easy to snap but will avoid violence until a certain mark, slightly naive, protective over loved ones (especially Vio, his best friend)

Data & Information:

- After the defeat of Vaati, he disappeared and was sent back to Shadow World. In this AU, he doesn't die and doesn't need any sort of resurrection. He stayed alive on the other side of the mirror.

- Even with betrayal and everything that happened between him and Vio, he's completely fine with it and now understands that Vio was only doing his duty. He placed it aside and decided to leave it in the past and he got over it, now seeing Vio as his best friend like the betrayal never happened. It hurts him to see that Vio is struggling to accept that he completely forgave him.

- He's still a demon, so some demonic traits slip occasionally. The canines are something he can't hide (or refuses to?). Tho other traits like claws and a snake tongue can be managed. These mostly slip when he's dealing with strong emotions like anger.

- Speaking of him being a demon, he's disguising himself as best as he can to look like a Hylian. It's sometimes just difficult to keep his Dark Magic in check so he purposely sometimes let's it secretly down a bit.

- He's not afraid of light as he was before, but he's not fully fine with it either. Kinda like 50/50. Still prefers to be in someone else's shadow if it's too bright outside. This is why he prefers slightly clouder days.

- Loves to define the gravity. Very rarely walks and mostly just floats. He does sometimes walk to see how it is for Hylians to be on the ground.

- His pronouns are he/him, but he's also fine with "it" pronoun. He thinks that since he isn't human at all that he doesn't deserve human pronouns, so "it" seems mostly inhumane to him. Vio obviously doesn't agree with his view and is trying to convince him that just because he isn't a human doesn't mean that he should treat himself like that. If you do use "it" for Shadow, in Shadow's view, you did nothing wrong.

- His hat mostly waves like smoke, but it also reflects his emotions. Rarely, since it takes him a bit more of his magic to do so, he uses it as a third longer arm. But again, it takes him more magic for that so he doesn't do that often. He sometimes even forms it like a regular hat to not draw attention, but smoke like movement is it's natural way so that's most common. It reflects his emotions which doesn't drain his magic.

- He can change his eye color at will. Scarlet color is the base.

- The scarlet highlight in his hair is purely inspired by Vio's hair highlight. It makes his eyes stand out and especially at night, since both can have a low glow at dim light. (Somehow that highlight of his hair can glow and so far it doesn't seem to take him his magic to do so)

- Can shapeshift without much issues. He does it often so it's becoming easier and easier for him to do so. Since he's still not fully fine with light, it is harder for him to shapeshift if he's directly on sunlight or any other form of light.

- Speaking of light, he's completely fine with moonlight. He says that it cools him down and that he actually loves it. It could be that moonlight even boosts his strength and Dark Magic.

- This is his basic form, tho when he's a silhouette (coming out of someone else's shadow), he mostly copies that persons look and is literally like a living shadow. Just imagine your shadow standing up on its own, that's basically it XD.

- He's a real imitator, so he can shapeshift into other people and even copy their voices. He loves to prank people with that ability but somehow it's starting to not work on the Links. They say that there's something in their voice that he can't copy so they always figure it out.

- To keep his canines in check and sharp, he has a bone in his inventory and just spawns it when he feels like chewing it. He kinda looks like a dog when doing so but he doesn't mind. He knows that he has to keep his canines healthy.

- He doesn't understand water. For some reason his hand just goes through and doesn't get wet if he drowns it underwater. He doesn't get wet when it's raining either. So with this, he's just confused about the concept of water.

- He gets along well with everyone so far. Blue easily gets annoyed by him but they're still good. Green shares his height with him and since he's the leader he includes him in everything as well, trying to prove him that he's part of the team as well. Red loves to listen to his random yapping sessions and they love to prank the rest of Links together. Shadow's also trying to learn how to cook. Results so far? Black chicken and rice and macaroni pudding. He somehow made it. And Vio? Besties forever. They get along with everything. Well, most of the time. There are some besties shenanigans.

- He's also pretty good friends with Zelda now, tho they don't talk much because they just can't find the right time to. Lately, Zelda's been really busy with kingdom duties that she's rarely free.

- He fights with his sword from the Shadow World he has, he says that he lost his Four Sword?

- He doesn't feel temperature and can't get sick like Hylians can. He can feel physical, mental and emotional pain, but some human traits like homeostasis are either completely missing or traits like responding to stimuli are very weak. He does have reflexes but are very weak and slow. He's working on improving them.

- Dark Magic allows him to do lots of things. He loves pranking the rest with it. But he can't overdo it or he'll exhaust himself. This, unfortunately, happened many times, which resulted into him collapsing and even fainting multiple times

- He might be unable to get sick, but he can get something similar. There was once a time period when he was something like sick, but no one was able to figure it out what it was. The closest the Links were able to associate it with was nauseous. It turns out that Shadow can't get human illnesses, but there are some types of shadow illnesses he can get. Thankfully he did heal from that after a while. Still unknown what it was, but it's important that he got through it.

- He doesn't really have the best memory. He very often forgets things, and if he does remember, it somehow gets "corrupted" in his mind. His memories often don't match his way of speaking and he doesn't know the reason behind this. It's a good thing to have someone approve or correct him when he's talking about something from his memory. The Links aren't sure why does this happen, but they have theories that it might be because of the disappearing at the end of the manga, but it can also be just because he's a demon and not a human.

- He's really like a Bombay cat when it comes to personality (affectionate, playful, extroverted). Bombay cats are also Velcro cats which means that they like to stick with their owner and can be a bit clingy to them. Shadow can work like Vio's Bombay cat XD ✨

- He literally had a life before the events of the manga. He was kinda glad he left the Shadow World, but after disappearing he was sent back to it, which made him both frustrated and scared. Before the events of the manga, he lived in the Shadow World as nothing more than just Vaati's servant, which was only pain and suffering. He was also bullied around by people for being the only shadow that "doesn't have it's own right and is literally a copy of someone else". This always frustrated him but also hurt him. It is why he was angry at Blue when he called him "just a shadow." It reminded him of those bad times and he spent his life trying to prove people wrong before and during the manga. Now with that he was sent back to it, he was partially afraid that he'll be bullied again. He won't have anyone to rely on for help and would be left on his own, and unfortunately he was right, he was left on his own when he came to the Shadow World. Even though Shadow World is technically his hometown, he hates it and has bad memories of it, now always trying hard just to leave it as soon as possible ✨

- For the current story of TSoW, he works as a narrator every even chapter and retells the details of the moments of being sent back to Shadow World. He retells how it was to return there and how he escaped again, since in the TSoW present time he's in the Light World. The past holds important information and details so he knows that he can't leave the reader not know what happened in the past.

- In TSoW present time, he's mostly being in Vio's shadow, rarely coming out.

Fears, phobias and disorders:

Photophobia - Sensitivity to light. It's more of a sensitivity than a phobia.

Heliophobia - fear of The Sun, sunlight, or any bright light

Thanatophobia - fear of death, but can also be associated with fear of losing loved ones due to death

Tyrannophobia - fear of dictatorship

Athazagoraphobia - fear of being forgotten or forgetting

Isolophobia - fear of being alone, isolated, abandoned, and ignored

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - ADHD

Separation anxiety disorder - causes fear and anxiety centered on separation from a close attachment figure

Post-traumatic stress disorder - a disorder in which the person has difficulty recovering after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event

Feel free to ask for an explanation of a certain phobia or disorder if I have it. Some of these describe him and his experiences in the story well while some are my personal headcanons without much explanation.

Important note when it comes to Vidow in The Spirits of the Triforce AU:

Any content that you see with Vio and Shadow regarding this AU, PLEASE DO NOT tag it as Vidow or any other romantic way. In this AU i kept them as only besties and they're NOT a couple or interested in each other in any romantic way. I ask you kindly to not tag any Vio and Shadow content for this AU as Vidow or any other romantic way (Vio x Shadow, Shadow x Vio). They're both not gay so please don't tag them that way when it comes to this AU. Please don't ship them in TSoTT. If Vidow can be used as a duo name then go for it, but don't use it in a romantic way. Please and thank you.

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Shadow is definitely the most confusing and complex character of this AU, that is why this might be short and lots of data might be confusing and unexplained. Im trying to avoid major spoilers for the story so that is why if you're confused, good 👍 Everything and i mean every plot hole and gap and anything that doesn't seem to make sense will be explained by the progress of the main canon story of The Spirit of Wisdom. Nothing should be left unknown. Most of things should become more clear by Shadow's retelling and some might be by the present time of the story.

"If I listened to everythin' people around me told me, I would've committed suicide at the age of eight. I'll prove to 'em that they were wrong. Never underestimate The Shadow of The Hero. I'm not just a shadow. Ill prove it to ya!" - Shadow Link

#fresco's art #Four Swords The Spirits of The Triforce AU #The Spirits of The Triforce AU #fs tsott au #TSoTT Shadow #<- yae im making seperate tags for them for this au :) i have to. i can't help myself #four swords au #four swords shadow #four swords shadow link #four swords manga #four swords #fs au #loz fsa #fsa manga #fsa #shadow link #*SCREECHING*#I FINALLY GOT IT IT!!!#YEEEEEESSSS!!!#NOW WATCH ME COMBUST YEHEHEHEHEHHEH #i got it i got it i got it #im proud of myself #im satisfied and very happy :)#if you read all of this tysm <3 #my au means sm to me you guys have no idea #i love it sm #now ill take a little break from stress and everything #so if you see me make bijjilion doodles of this demon you'll know why XD #he's not leaving me alone and im fine with that #now ill probably disappear into void bcuz im very nervous so yeah

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