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training4theapocalypse · 2 years ago

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On Her Majesty’s Supersonic Service (Adrian Chase x Reader) Ch. 4

Chapter 4 No Time to Cry

Rating: Explicit - 18+ only

Word Count: 9.9K

Warnings: SMUT (less than usual tho), Plot with a little bit of porn, Mostly fluff, Moving the plot along, Romance, Descriptions of murder, Descriptions of violence, Descriptions of injury, P in V, Praise, Hurt/Comfort

Summary: It’s time to kill the cow. Adebayo reveals two secrets. Adrian is being Adrian and having the best time mass-murdering butterflies.

A/N: IT'S EARLY!! This is mostly plot and I am obsessed with tying things into canon. There’s some pretty graphic injury description and some totally made-up medical bullshit that I hope you can get past. Thanks so much to @stealsteels for your encouragement to get me over the finish line.

Tagging because I think you might like it: @ladymacbeth1987 , @likeficsinthewnd

Masterlist

Chapter text:

The van is gone from the motel car park, and all signs of Peacemaker and Economos have gone with it.

“Go with the others. I’ll find Peacemaker.”

The sun still hasn’t risen but the orange glow of the streetlights is bright enough for Adrian to see you chewing your lip worriedly in the passenger seat of his car.

“Unless we hear different, stick to the plan. We’ll meet at the ranch.” His earnest green eyes meet yours. “I promise.”

You breathe deeply to calm your nerves. Usually, you’re exhilarated before a mission- ready to fight. But that was before you had something to lose.

“C’mon, it’ll be great! We’ll kill the cow, dish out the same ass-kicking as usual, and drive off into the sunset.”

You’re unconvinced.

“Like Thelma and Louise!”

Now you’re even less convinced. You pull out your phone and text him.

Blackbird: You know they kill themselves at the end of that movie, right? xx

His phone pings, and he reads your message. “What? No way!”

Blackbird: There’s a freeze frame as they drive their car into the Grand Canyon xx

“I don’t think so. I think their car took off and started flying away like at the end of Grease.”

You raise your eyebrows but don’t argue any further. Instead, you study every detail of his profile hungrily as he enthusiastically tells you how the movie’s ending can be perceived differently. His curly hair, still a little messy from spending the night in the sleeping bag, the dimples at the corners of his mouth when he smiles, the way he adjusts his wire rimmed glasses- you try to memorise it all.

You lean over to kiss him goodbye. You grip the chest plate of his suit, pulling him closer to you. You try and put a lot of meaning into the kiss- words left unspoken that you probably wouldn’t have the emotional capacity to vocalise even if you physically could. An assurance that you’ll meet later. A promise that you’ll both live long enough to see tomorrow.

You pull back before he does, preemptively avoiding the possibility of getting lost in the kiss. His face is lit up with excitement.

“We’re saving the world- it’s gonna be fun! Well, for me. I know this is, like, your day job.”

He points at a billboard across the street displaying an array of supercars- Evergreen Exotic Car Rentals. “And then that’ll be you and me tomorrow, cruising down the highway in a Corvette.”

You give him what you hope is an optimistic smile- even though your insides are squirming. Then, you climb out of his car and walk quickly towards your motel without looking back so you don’t have to watch his Sebring drive off into the dawn.

As you pass Adebayo’s room, you can distinctly hear the sound of her and Harcourt in a heated argument. Just what we need at 5 am on the day of the mission.

You knock on the door.

“Who is it?” comes Harcourt’s aggressive bark.

Slowly, you open the door and peer around the corner. Harcourt and Adebayo look relieved at your familiar face for a split second before turning on each other again.

“You were gonna lone-shooter the poor bastard?” Harcourt demands.

“He has a history of instability and conspiratorial beliefs. Couple that with violent outbursts- he was the best choice of the two options.”

Your eyes dart between the two of them. What the fuck is going on?

Harcourt sees your confusion. “Adebayo did it. She planted the diary in Peacemaker’s trailer.”

Adebayo?

“That’s why Peacemaker was chosen in the first place,” says Adebayo by way of explanation.

“And that’s it?” asks Harcourt. “Cut the shit and tell her who else was chosen expressly for this mission.”

No. Your stomach drops. Adrian was just a tag-along- he wasn’t even meant to be part of this team.

Adebayo tosses a book in your direction which you catch mid-air.

A black, leather-bound notebook with the UK Government coat of arms embossed on the front in silver.

Not Adrian.

Hands trembling, you open it up. There’s your name written on the inside cover in your handwriting.

You flick through, eyes skimming over pages upon pages of diary entries. Conspiracies about a secret society of aliens in America controlling Her Majesty’s Secret Service and how you’re going to eradicate them yourself. Paragraphs about how you’re not in control of your powers. All easily corroborated with dates and times of places you’ve been, emails you’ve sent and texts to your boss.

Your eyes sting as you read how they’ve described your loneliness since your accident. Some of it they got right. How much you hate having powers (even if they are useful), how you wish you could talk again and how, more than anything, all you want is someone to confide in. It seals the narrative of a very unwell, isolated woman who’d be desperate enough to commit mass murder.

They really did do the thing properly. You had always assumed MI6 had access to your messages, but you honestly have to applaud the handwriting expert- it’s uncanny.

But… Adebayo? You swallow the lump in your throat and look at her pleadingly. Tell me it isn’t true.

She shakes her head.

“You were the preferred choice. Win-win for MI6 and A.R.G.U.S. MI6 lets you take the blame for the murders; they stage an inquest into the actions of a single employee and get off lightly. Nobody needs to find out how close we came to being invaded by the butterflies. And in return, they get rid of a renegade agent.”

Get rid of? Wait… renegade? You look up and try to catch her eye. What does she mean by that?

“Waller, on the other hand…” Adebayo continues to look away uncomfortably. “Waller keeps A.R.G.U.S out of it completely and gets herself a new member of the Suicide Squad.”

This was never a mission to win the favour of MI6 again. You were their scapegoat. And to Amanda Waller - a new weapon.

You lower yourself onto Adebayo’s sofa in shock.

“They were your fucking friends.” Harcourt’s tone is the coldest you’ve ever heard her. “How did you choose? How could you possibly manage to choose which soldier to sell to Waller?”

“It wasn’t a choice- it could only be Peacemaker because Blackbird’s story didn’t make any fucking sense anymore!”

Adebayo looks between you, like it’s obvious.

“Everyone’s seen the way she’s been skipping around with Vigilante. Everyone in this team has seen you guys literallyscrewing around. The texts don’t match the diary anymore.” She looks at you sadly. “Before you met Vigilante, the last message you sent that wasn’t about work was over a month ago. And it was your fucking landlord!”

Before you can hide it, a single tear runs down your cheek as you stare at her in disbelief.

Of course. Now your messages are filled with flirting and two little x’s. And there’s fun and laughter in the 11th Street Kids group chat. No evidence that would hold up at an inquest.

Adrian… Adrian inadvertently stopped you from being thrown into jail with a nano bomb implanted in the base of your neck. And Harcourt made it all possible by adding you to that group.

Air. You need to leave.

You gesture to Harcourt, excusing yourself. Then, you open the door and are face-to-face with Murn.

“Guess what? Adebayo planted Peacemaker’s diary and had another ready for Blackbird to take the fall,” Harcourt calls over your shoulder.

“Only because my mother made me!”

What the…?

“Holy fuck! Your mother is Amanda Waller?”

“Yes, I figured her mother had her do it,” says Murn.

You give Murn a curt nod and blow past him, not waiting to hear the rest of the conversation. You can’t process this right now. You need to call your boss and have her tell you straight.

Your boss.

As you descend the motel stairs, it dawns on you that she hasn’t messaged you once since you landed in Washington. She doesn’t want the paper trail to show she knows you’re here.

What a cunt.

You let out a small groan of frustration, setting off a car alarm. You head around the back of the motel and video-call her. It rings out.

Blackbird: You were going to Suicide Squad me?!

The message is marked as read. She doesn’t respond.

Blackbird: Fuck you.

You grip your phone and consider throwing it against the wall but then-

BANG. BANG. BANG.

The unmistakable sound of gunshots coming from the motel startles you.

You pull your gun out and tiptoe back around the corner. Police cars- three of them. Silently you watch as half a dozen butterflies in police officers’ bodies exit Adebayo’s room.

Not good.

Your finger hovers over the trigger. You’re reasonably confident you could take them all on your own… but you heard three gunshots - you have no idea if Murn, Adebayo and Harcourt are even alive. As far as you know, you could be the last one left to take down the cow.

Then you see her. Detective Song. The queen who used to be Goff. The one who brutally tortured Adrian. Blinding rage vibrates through your very being as you leap out from your hiding spot and scream at the top of your lungs.

A sonic shockwave is sent across the car park- several butterflies are sent flying backwards. Song manages to sprint out of reach and yells for the others to cover her.

“You tried to cut off my boyfriend’s toe, you bitch!”

You’re going to torture her, you decide. And you’re going to enjoy it.

The shockwave sends debris flying across the car park, and you hear the sound of the windows on the ground floor of the motel shattering. The fear in Song’s eyes as she watches you walking towards them spurs you on. The atmosphere above shifts as you breathe in and let out another ear-splitting scream.

The heads of the three nearest butterflies explode into bloody pulps. Parked cars are blasted into the air and come down violently onto the concrete, narrowly missing the remaining butterflies.

Song turns and runs for her life. You’re quick on her heels but are thwarted when you need to duck and cover behind an overturned car as her associates start firing at you. The three of them run towards a police car in the distance, shooting over their shoulders.

Fuck.

You jump out from behind the car and chase after them, as fast as possible. But it’s too late. The engine of the police car starts, and rubber squeals on the road as they speed off into the distance.

“Oh my god, my car...” says Adebayo.

“And mine...” echoes Harcourt sounding shell-shocked.

They’re alive. You whip round to face them. They don’t look good- Adebayo has a gash on her forehead, Harcourt’s nose is bloody, and her face is streaked with tears.

“We heard you screaming but our hands were tied with Judomaster. And Murn…” She chokes and blinks up at the sky. “Murn’s dead.”

Your hand flies to your mouth, and you point at the motel room. Judomaster killed Murn?

“It was Goff. I mean, Song,” says Adebayo.

Harcourt takes a moment to compose herself and straighten her jacket. “We need to find the others. None of them are answering their phones. But what are we gonna do?” She looks at the overturned cars. “Get some Uber driver to go around aimlessly looking for them?”

The three of you look around the parking lot despairingly until your eyes fall on a billboard in the distance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The road stretches out ahead as the three of you speed your way towards Peacemaker’s trailer- the guys still aren’t picking up, but you’ve got to start looking somewhere.

Your phone is connected to the Corvette’s sound system and you blast Stop by the Spice Girls through the speakers. This is the best thing you’ve ever used your MI6 expenses account for.

The car’s roof is down, and the wind whips your hair as you weave in and out between other cars on the road.

“Slow down! Some of us don’t have a seatbelt back here!”

Adebayo sits in the back hatch behind the two front seats. You’re perfectly happy for her to be uncomfortable, considering she conspired to have you thrown in jail. Maybe fearing for her life will do her some good.

Harcourt grabs your phone. “I’m gonna call Vigilante. Maybe he won’t ignore your calls.”

The ringing stops your music and comes through the speakers.

“Birdie?” comes Adrian’s voice. He’s still alive.

“She’s driving. Why haven’t you been answering my calls, asshole?” says Harcourt.

“Did somebody tell her we drive on the right here?”

Harcourt looks at you in exasperation.

“I hope for your sake he’s better at fucking than using his last two brain cells,” mutters Adebayo.

“Why haven’t any of you been picking up your phones? And where the hell are you?”

“Well, we’ve been kind of busy murdering Peacemaker’s dad, and now we’re on the way to the vet with Eagly. We should- ow!” You hear him wince in pain, and you look at Harcourt in alarm.

“Are you guys okay?”

“Yeah, we just went over a speed bump.” Economos answers now. “Peacemaker is just going through some stuff with his dad, and Eagly’s injured. Vigilante was hit by a grenade-“

A what?! Harcourt notices your knuckles turning white as you grip the steering wheel.

“...Who threw the grenade?” Harcourt sighs pointedly.

There’s a pause at the other end.

“Vigilante-“

“It was intentional!” Adrian cuts across him. “And it was fucking badass- ow! Watch the speedbumps, Economos!”

“Listen, I’m dropping you the location of the vet. We’re almost there,” says Economos. Your phone pings and the satnav automatically updates.

“10-4,” says Harcourt, as you do a U-turn and speed off in the opposite direction.

“Y’know, we could have just got a four-seater like I suggested,” complains Adebayo when you arrive and open the back hatch. You begrudgingly help her climb out.

Harcourt marches ahead inside the vet,, and Adebayo seizes the opportunity to speak to you privately.

“Blackbird, I…” She chooses her words carefully. “I’m sorry. But I thought I was doing the right thing.”

You whip out your phone and start typing furiously. She watches your screen.

“Okay, okay! Stop with the expletives. And cut the bullshit! It’s fine if you want the others to think you’re the victim here, but I’ve read your file. I know what you’ve done.”

You raise your eyebrow, calling her bluff. Nobody knows. Not even MI6.

“You thought MI6 wouldn't find out that you were gonna double-cross them and sell that jet to a private buyer?”

You freeze. How…?

“And don’t even pretend you didn’t know who the buyer was.”

Now you’re perplexed. Clearly, Adebayo is too straight-laced to understand. So you shake your head and type a new message on your phone.

Blackbird: It’s always better not to know who the buyer is

She kisses her teeth in disapproval. “Wow… and I thought you worked in intelligence? Haven’t you figured out that the buyer was Goff? Who else would need something that big, fast and powerful? Something big enough to transport a giant cow?”

Bloody hell.

“You might be a traitor but lucky for us, you suck at stealing jets. The cow’s been stuck in that barn for over a year while they build their teleporter."

You’re not naive- you knew you weren’t selling a stolen jet to good guys. You thought terrorists or maybe the KGB or, like, Elon Musk. Not a race of aliens trying to take over planet Earth. She watches the regretful realisation dawn on your face.

“Look, B bird, a lot of what they said about you and Peacemaker in those files is true, and when I read them, I thought you both deserved to be in jail… but I think Peacemaker’s changed. And I think there’s a lot of good stuff about you they left out.”

She smiles at you tentatively.

“I actually believe you didn’t know you were stealing that jet for Goff. If we make it out alive, I promise I’ll make it right.”

Honestly, you don’t blame her- you’re sure that your file paints a grim picture. And to top it off, your previous actions would have fucked up the entire mission if you’d been successful.

You extend your hand to shake hers. Adebayo grips it and looks at you with mutual understanding.

“We good?”

You nod.

The sound of a fist pounding on glass makes you both whip around.

Adrian is banging on the window from inside the veterinarian’s office with a goofy grin on his face. He points at the car, and you smile and jingle the keys at him in response.

“Fuck yeah!” You see his lips moving from behind the glass. He turns back around, and you can see he’s pointing an assault rifle at something inside. Shit.

“Thank God you guys are here. Dr Hurwitz kindly stitched up Eagly, and Vigilante's being a total freak,” says Economos when you and Adebayo burst in.

Adrian is pointing a gun at three people in scrubs. There’s a streak of blood down his face, and his suit is badly damaged from the explosion. It gives him an entirely unhinged appearance.

“Dude, they saw us. Peacemaker and I are wanted.” Adrian turns to look at you. “Blackbird’s not wearing her mask, and MI6 will probably fire her if civilians see her.”

You rush over to Adrian and the vet staff and put a finger to your lips urgently. Stop talking!

“Well, now they know someone called Blackbird from MI6 was here,” Economos sighs.

“Oh, great! Thanks, Economos- now we definitely have to kill them,” says Adrian aiming his gun around you.

“Do we really have to kill these people?” pleads Economos.

Everyone looks at Harcourt. She groans.

“...No. We'll tie them up, and by the time the morning staff comes in, we'll be long gone.”

“They've seen our faces,” says Adrian, still aiming.

“If we can't stop the butterflies today, it won't matter,” she says with finality.

“Okay. But we can't use duct tape. That'll hurt their skin when they try to pull it off. Right Birdie?”

You touch your almost healed lip but then blush deeply when you realise everyone is staring at you. Thanks, Adrian.

“So, you're compassionate about tape but not brutally murdering people?” asks Economos

“...Yes.”

He lowers the gun and grins at you. God, as you come closer, you realise the full extent of his injuries from the grenade blast. Your eyes linger on his suit- the hard exterior chest plate is scratched pretty severely, and his suit has ripped in places, revealing burned bloody tissue across his abdomen and thighs.

You try to get a better look at the damage, but he wraps an arm around you, pulling you into a hug. He winces in pain. You try to pull back but he just hugs you tighter.

“Worth it,” he groans and kisses the top of your head.

You pat the countertop, gesturing for him to sit on it, and grab some cotton pads and antiseptic. When you dab the wet cotton pad on the burned skin on his abdomen, the muscles there twitch involuntarily.

He stifles a moan of pain and it makes you stop what you’re doing to look up at his face. This only causes you to blush again. What’s wrong with me? You bite your lip and try to concentrate on cleaning the debris from his cuts and burns.

“Hey,” he whispers so only you can hear him. “Are you turned on right now?”

You try to give him a defensive look but it falters when you see the longing in his eyes behind his wire-rimmed glasses.

We need to make sure you're okay first. You tilt your head sympathetically. His wounds will probably need further attention later so this’ll have to do for now.

When you’re done, you hop up on the counter beside him and type on your phone, letting him read over your shoulder.

Blackbird: It WAS kind of romantic that you were gonna kill those vets for me xx

“Romantic?...Really? You’re more twisted than I thought.” His gloved hand tucks your hair behind your ear. “I can still kill them for you if you want?”

The vets overhear this and look at each other in alarm. You shake your head.

“Hey, what do you say we find an empty exam room and we-“

“Hey, we should get a move on killing this cow,” Adebayo cuts him off as she and Peacemaker return to the room.

“Okay, how do we do this without Murn?” asks Economos.

You all automatically turn to Harcourt. Adrian nods his head towards her in encouragement. She takes a deep breath and dives into an explanation of the plan to get to the barn to kill the cow before the teleportation device is ready.

“…Hopefully, we can make it in there before they make their move,” she finishes.

“I’m in,” says Peacemaker

“Hashtag me too,” says Adrian

You nod fervently

“I guess,” says Economos

“Yeah,” adds Adebayo

“Fuck yeah!” says the vet, and one of the nurses cocks a rifle.

“No, I think you need to calm down,” Peacemaker replies. “You’d just die.”

“But we are gonna need to sequester your vehicle out there because somebody rented a sports car with only two seats.” Adebayo looks at you.

“Me and B call the Corvette!” says Adrian as he hops off the counter.

“Fine. But keep up. We’re in a hurry.” Harcourt looks at you directly. “No screwing around.”

As you’re in the middle of typing, ‘We’re not teenagers - we can keep our hands to ourselves’, Adrian blurts “Well, it’s on your conscience that I might die today without ever having sex in a Corvette.”

You delete the message and put your phone away resignedly, rolling your eyes at Adrian.

“Gross dude, that’s a rental,” says Economos as you file out of the veterinarian’s surgery and into the van.

“Surprisingly nice people considering,” says the vet.

“Expect the guy in blue and his girlfriend,” adds one of the nurses.

“Yeah… they’re both a fucking mess.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours later, after an unsuccessful attempt to get Eagly to drop Peacemaker’s sonic boom helmet onto the roof of the barn, you all watch from the bushes in the dark night as Economos goes undercover to place the helmet inside. He’s the only one who Goff wouldn’t recognise.

“Blackbird, when did Goff see you?” asks Peacemaker, confused.

“You should have seen her this morning when she sonic-screamed the butterflies at the hotel. She nearly got Goff,” laughs Adebayo. “You cut off my boyfriend’s toe, you bitch!”

“Boyfriend? I thought you guys just hooked up!” He turns to Adrian. “I thought you were supposed to share these things with your BFF!”

Pretending to fix your holster, you try hard to avert Adrian’s gaze. You haven’t seen any point in labelling your situationship. But he doesn’t seem phased.

“You tried to kill Goff for me?” Your eyes meet Adrian’s from behind his red visor. “Woah, you were right- that isromantic!”

Just when Economos seems to be in the clear, you hear one of the butterflies on the walkie-talkie yell. There’s sudden chaos outside the barn.

Oh shit.

You watch as the butterflies swarm him. Adebayo fumbles with her walkie-talkie.

“Activate sonic boom!”

You hear the first explosion, and the barn starts tumbling down. The butterflies leave Economos and start running towards the barn.

“Activate sonic boom,” she says again. Another sonic wave decimates the barn- the blast radius sends dozens of butterflies flying back.

There’s one more blast as Adebayo triggers the sonic boom again, and you wait, but the barn doesn’t crash into the depths below, where you know the cow is hidden.

“Yep, that's it for the charges.” Peacemaker pulls on his other helmet.

“We need you to stay here, Ads. If something happens to us, you're the only hope,” says Harcourt.

“The fuck am I?” mutters Economos, offended.

“What's the plan, man?” Adrian asks.

“We’re gonna get into the barn-” Peacemaker gestures to himself and you “- Blackbird’s gonna scream at the cow, then we’re gonna try and find a way out.”

“That’s suicide,” says Adebayo

You type a message on your phone and show Adrian, who reads it out loud.

“She says she and Peacemaker will probably end up in the Suicide Squad anyway. They’ll do it,” he says, mildly confused.

You and Peacemaker exchange meaningful looks.

“Let's go kill a cow,” he says.

You, Peacemaker, Harcourt and Adrian hop over the fence and start running towards the barn.

The atmosphere cracks as you inhale deeply and scream. It bursts the heads of a small group of butterflies running at you.

The four of you start firing, and it draws the attention of even more butterflies towards you.

Adrian laughs as he unleashes a massacre on your opponents. He’s in his element. Sometimes he’s such a goofball you forget how fucking good he is in combat.

“On your right, Birdie!” Shit. You take cover from the bullets behind a haystack.

Adrian brings out a machete and cuts down foe after foe. A group of butterflies round on him, and you leap over the haystack and yell, sending them flying back from him He gives you a quick nod before stomping on a butterfly crawling out of one of their heads.

“Blackbird, Chris- go! We’ll hold them off here!” yells Harcourt.

You and Peacemaker make a break for it.

“Fuck, yeah!” You hear Adrian shout behind you- he’s genuinely having fun wielding a machete in one hand and a handgun in the other.

As you reach the barn stairs, one of the butterflies almost catches Peacemaker. Adrian plants the machete directly in his skull.

“Don’t fuck with my BFF!” yells Adrian as Peacemaker jumps down the staircase as fast as he can.

Suddenly a hand covers your mouth, and your eyes bulge as you realise a butterfly is attacking you from behind. Not again, fucker. You elbow them in the ribs and struggle until the cool metal of a gun barrel pressed against your temple makes you freeze.

“Stop fucking squirming.”

The words make Adrian whip around. You’re about to wave at him, to tell him not to do anything rash, but his reflexes are too quick. Before either you or the butterfly realise what he’s doing, he shoots the butterfly in the head. A warm blood splatter hits your body, and you feel the thud of him dropping to the floor behind you.

“The only person who says that shit to my girlfriend is me.”

You check there’s no butterfly crawling out of the dead body behind you, and as you turn back around to smile at Adrian, you see it- a tiny gleam of silver flying towards you.

Instinctively you whip your hand up to block it. A gasp of pain and shock escapes you, as you see a steel throwing knife protruding through your extended palm.

Another gleam of sliver. Sudden pain. You choke. Your other hand comes up to touch your throat. Dazed, you feel a knife stuck deep in your neck.

“Fuck!” Adrian turns around and shoots the butterfly before they can throw a third knife.

The ground seems to come up from nowhere to hit your side. You gasp, trying to stem the bleeding from your neck with your left hand. The smell of grass and the blood pooling out in front of you makes you feel faint.

There’s the distinct sound of a bullet finding a soft target, then a thud as Adrian drops to his knees beside you. Momentarily distracted by your injuries, he was shot in the back. He falls flat on his front, masked face turned towards you.

You cough more blood. The pain searing through your neck is almost beyond endurance. Adrian fades in and out of focus.

“Birdie,” he groans. “Stay awake… We’re still gonna… drive off into the sunset.” He lifts himself onto his elbows to crawl towards you.

Every breath of air you take hurts- each tiny inhale slightly moves the knife in your neck.

You feel Adrian’s fingers remove your left hand, so he can put pressure on the wound. Even now, you feel comforted by his touch.

Hazily, you think that you’re glad to be dying knowing what it feels like to be loved.

There’s another strange cold sensation in your neck- a rush of air. But before you have time to wonder what’s happening, everything fades to black.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

You open your eyes blearily- it’s bright. Daylight. Your throat is raw. You’re in pain. But wait… you can feel pain- that’s a good sign, right? The smell of antiseptic is suffocating.

Looking down at yourself, your eyes try to focus on your heavily bandaged right hand. Your hands fly up to your throat, and you feel more bandages around your neck. There’s a pulse monitor attached to your finger.

“Hey, it’s me. You’re okay.” It’s Adebayo’s voice. As your vision becomes clearer, you see she looks different, as she sits beside you on a blue plastic chair. She’s wearing a white shirt, vest and a blazer. Sort of like she’s dressed for a funeral.

A funeral.

Where’s Adrian? You sit up and take in the rest of the bland room. You need your phone. Where’s my phone? So many questions fly through your mind.

“Hey, hey, hey- sit back down. Adrian’s alive.” You sigh in relief and lie back. “Everyone’s alive. We did it. We killed the cow.”

She tosses you your phone.

“Adrian’s in surgery. The bullet didn’t go too deep, but they need to get the fragments out. He’ll be out soon.”

Blackbird: And the others? x

Her phone pings as your message arrives. She reads it.

“Let’s see… Harcourt was shot right after Adrian- she’s in a coma, but she’ll survive. Chris is fine- he’s waiting with her in case she wakes up. Economos broke his leg. I was human-torpedoed through the cow and didn’t even sprain my neck.” she grins.

Blackbird: I don’t understand how I’m still alive x

“It was Adrian he-”

“Good, you’re awake.” Adebayo is interrupted by a doctor coming into the room. She introduces herself and picks up the chart at the end of your bed.

“The wound to your neck was deep… fortunately, it didn’t hit your spine. Patients with this kind of injury usually die from blood loss. But your boyfriend extracted the knife and stopped blood flow with duct tape.” She shakes her head in disbelief. “Removing a knife from a wound like that is normally very dangerous. But on this occasion, it saved your life.”

Adrian’s impulsivity has somehow paid off.

“Your throat, however-” she hesitates “-we had to do an endoscopy to check for trauma to the larynx, and we’d never seen anything like it. There were strange lesions all along the membrane of your vocal cords.”

You nod, absently fidgeting with the bandages on your injured hand. This is old news.

“We were able to remove the majority of them.” Your eyes dart up to meet hers. “But there are a few tiny ones left that were so embedded they couldn’t be removed without damaging the healthy tissue.”

Her words fly over your head as you and Adebayo exchange glances, clearly thinking the same thing.

“Your powers…” whispers Adebayo. Your heart thumps in your chest. You refuse to let yourself believe what you think might be happening. “Can she use her voice?” she addresses the doctor.

“Sure,” the doctor replies indifferently as she puts the chart back. “Just try not to speak too much or too loudly over the next few days. Otherwise, you’re good to be discharged.”

“I mean her superpowers. Her supersonic scream?”

“Her what?”

You’re unsurprised by her scepticism; this is classified information and unlikely to be on your medical records.

“Uh, never mind. Thank you,” says Adebayo as the doctor leaves the room. She turns back to face you. “...Can you?”

The last thing you want to do is cause an accident. You shake your head.

“C’mon- try and break that old-ass TV.” She jerks her head over her shoulder.

You concentrate and let out a small hum. It hurts. But nothing happens.

“Break,” you whisper- still nothing. Your throat is too raw to try yelling.

“It’s okay, B bird.” Adebayo notices tears forming in your eyes and moves over to sit on the edge of the hospital bed. She touches your shoulder, and the tears spill down your face.

“Happy tears.” Your voice is hoarse and incredibly sore. “There’s no way they’ll want me for the Suicide Squad now.”

She beams at you. “About that… I’m on my way to a press conference exposing Project Butterfly. Nobody’s joining the Suicide Squad. I made a deal with MI6 behind my mom’s back-”

“Bad idea-”

“Well, after this, I’m basically untouchable. I told MI6 I’d keep their name out of the press conference if they fired you. They still keep their hands clean, and if you check your email, you should be getting a pretty sweet severance package on Monday.”

“Kind of sounds like blackmail,” you whisper as you pull up your emails on your phone.

From: HM Government Secret Intelligence Service MI6

Subject: Agent Blackbird - Notification of redundancy

“Eh, I call it negotiation.”

“Thank you, Ads,” you say softly but sincerely.

She gets up from your bed and goes to leave but pauses at the door and laughs.

“What is it?”

“Adrian told the doctors he wanted to see you before his surgery. He was asking- asking for-“

She snorts and has to stop speaking. She begins laughing so hard that she’s struggling to breathe.

“What is it?” you ask hoarsely, waiting for the punchline.

She composes herself, “He was asking for someone called Blackbird. He said it was one name. Like Cher.” She cracks up again.

You bite your lip, trying not to laugh. It’s kind of sweet, but Christ…

“Did you even tell him your real name?”

You shake your head, and the ridiculousness of the situation hits you both simultaneously, and you can't help but burst out laughing. Adebayo doubles over, clutching her stomach, and you dab tears of laughter from your eyes with the hospital bedsheet.

“It never- “ you choke with laughter “- it never came up.”

You both collapse into hysterics. Ouch. Your good hand runs over the bandages on your neck.

“Damn, and I thought Adrian took his secret identity seriously.”

God, poor Adrian. You make a mental note to give him your real name when he wakes up from surgery.

“Hey, I almost forgot.” She tosses you a set of car keys which you catch with your uninjured left hand. “Think you have a few days before you need to return this.”

Once you’re dressed and discharged, you go to the car park for fresh air while you wait for Adrian to wake up from the effects of anaesthesia.

Blackbird: I’m alive. Text me when you’re awake xx

You find the Corvette and sit in it with the top down, the sun on your face. You listen to the radio and hum along gently. It’s raw on your throat, but the vibrations of the tune seem to come from your very soul. It feels… good.

Your phone pings twenty minutes later.

Vigilante: DUDE are you watching the news? xx

You flick through the radio channels on the car's sound system until you hear Adebayo’s voice.

“Peacemaker never wrote any diary. He was part of a team working in a deep-cover operation for the U.S. Government called "Project Butterfly."

Blackbird: She’s actually doing it… xx

“This is all part of a black-ops program known as ‘Task Force X’, where convicted criminals are undertaking dangerous missions in exchange for time off their sentences. It's been running for years, under the command of a woman named Amanda Waller…”

Vigilante: Which room are you in? xx

“Who happens to be my mother. Now, I'm calling for an immediate investigation into these inhumane conditions-“

You turn off the radio and breathe a sigh of relief. No mention of MI6, as promised.

Blackbird: I’m outside in the Corvette- I’ll come back upstairs now xx

You look over at the hospital and clap your hands over your mouth when a man in a gown jumps out of a window on the second story. He lands inelegantly in a flower bed and gets up.

It’s Adrian.

Of course, it’s Adrian.

He waves as he jogs towards you and hoists himself into the open-topped car without opening the door.

He twists his whole body to face you, clasps your face with both hands and kisses you passionately. It happens so quickly that it takes your brain a second to catch up.

He’s alive. We’re alive.

You return his embrace, and your hands wander down his back, trailing along the bare skin not covered by his hospital gown, resting on his waist where you feel the bandage wrap around his back.

Just feeling his warm skin beneath the medical coverings sends a wave of gratitude through you. Your heart races as Adrian kisses you deeply and tangles his fingers in your hair like he’s trying to feel every different texture of you. You’ve missed him so much, and the relief of being back in his arms is almost overwhelming.

You never want this moment to end.

He presses his forehead against yours. “God, I’m so happy you’re okay,” he murmurs “I thought. Fuck… I don’t wanna say what I thought.”

You know. You thought it too when you heard him collapse next to you in the field.

“I can’t believe you jumped out a window just after having surgery,” you whisper.

“I’m fine. I just-” He pulls back in surprise. “Wait…what the fuck!?”

“They removed some growths on my vocal cords,” you say, your hoarse voice barely audible.

Stupidly, you feel tears coming on, remembering your first FaceTime conversation.

‘Birdie, I fell for you the first time I saw you burst someone’s head open with your sonic scream.’

“I… I don’t think I have powers anymore.”

God, the lump in your ragged throat sears in pain. He gives you a concerned look. You don’t know how else to phrase what you’re about to say next, so you blurt it out.

“Do you still like me?”

You stare at him determinedly, refusing to let yourself cry.

He laughs. A loud, maniacal laugh that goes on way too long. You scowl.

“That’s hilarious, Birdie. I love this back and forth we get to have now you can speak.”

“Adrian, I’m serious,” you say sternly, but you think your heart might burst with joy. “I'm not the same person anymore. And I know you… I know you liked that I had powers.” You emphasise the word ‘like’ - you both know you mean ‘turned on’.

“Oh no,” he says mockingly. “I’m so sad that my girlfriend is going to moan all over my dick and scream my name.”

Even after all you’ve been through, your stomach twists in excitement when you hear him say girlfriend again.

“That… that was actually really good sarcasm, Adrian.”

“Uh, yeah, I learned from the best. The most sarcastic, second-best marksman in the team.”

“I’ll be the best marksman again soon. I was getting lazy when I had my powers.” You stretch your injured hand.

“Well…” He tries to sound upbeat. “We could squeeze in some more target practice before you go?”

“That can wait til we’re both healed…I have a bit more time than I thought.”

“How long?”

“MI6 has basically fired me. So I suppose until I find a new job.”

Grabbing your uninjured hand, he turns to look you in the eyes.

“Stay,” he says simply.

“Adrian, I…” you hesitate.

What’s waiting for you back home? Conversations with nobody except your landlord?

“Birdie, this feels right. Me and you. Tell me I’m wrong and I’ll drop it.”

“Adrian, you hardly know me… If you knew half of the things I’ve done… I mean, Adebayo read my file and wanted to send me to Belle Reve.”

“Oh, come on! I was in jail like last week.”

You chew your lip.

“Don’t go back to London. Not yet, anyway. Crash at my place… or if you decide you never want to leave, that’s cool too.”

You grip the wheel as excitement courses through your veins. “Okay.”

“Okay?” He looks at you like he doesn’t quite believe you. “Wait… really?”

“Were you not serious?” You raise an eyebrow.

“No, I was! I just thought you’d take more convincing.”

“I’m never getting rid of you, Adrian. Just like you said, remember?”

He lunges forward again and kisses you again with unbridled enthusiasm. His glasses push against your face. Butterflies - the good kind, not the alien kind- flutter in your stomach. You’ve fallen for him. Adrian. Vigilante. All of him.

You unbuckle your seatbelt. “Can you drive a manual?”

“What?!”

“A… a stick shift?”

“I know what it is. I just can’t believe you don’t think I can drive one.”

You hop out of the car and round to the passenger side. “You can drive us to your flat then.”

“You sure?” He launches himself into the drivers seat and turns on the engine, not waiting for your reply.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first few days, you hadn’t had the strength to do much more than just lie in Adrian’s bed. You ordered food. Watched TV. Changed each other’s bandages. You’re grateful to have been able to rest during the day because your sleep has been interrupted by vivid nightmares.

Tonight, you wake up in another fit of sweat, hand clutching your neck. You dreamt that a butterfly had snuck up on you again from behind. Adrian wasn’t there to save you. And so they opened your throat with a silver throwing knife.

“Birdie?” Adrian says blearily, as he wakes up, and his eyes make out your hunched-over silhouette in the dark. He finds his glasses on the bedside table. “Did you have a nightmare again?”

You nod, heart still pounding in your chest.

“You can use your voice,” he reminds you again gently. Sometimes you forget you can talk after spending so long suppressing it. “Same as last time?”

“Same as last time,” you echo.

The light-up display on his alarm clock shows that it’s two o’clock in the morning. Adrenaline from your night terror pumps through you. You’re wide awake.

“We’ll work on disarming someone from behind as soon as you’re feeling better,” he says in an effort to reassure you.

Adrian stretches his arm out, giving you the perfect space on his chest to nestle into. You lie back down on his burgundy sheets and breathe deeply as you rest your head on him. He smells so good. Like home. Your shoulders become less tense, and your heart rate starts coming back down as you relax into his warm embrace.

“Can you put on a film for us to fall asleep to? Preferably something long and boring.”

“Have you ever seen Titanic? It’s like 3 hours long.”

Before you know it, you’re both engrossed and eating popcorn in bed.

“I can’t believe you’ve never seen this,” he says, absent-mindedly stroking your hair.

“I never understood the point. I mean, we already know what happens at the end.”

You both sit quietly as Jack and Rose kiss passionately in the back seat of an old car.

You roll your eyes. “We need more popcorn.” You get up from his bed and walk down the hall into the kitchen.

“I can skip this scene if it’s getting you too worked up?” He grins as he calls after you.

You hold up a middle finger behind you as you walk away. “Shut up.”

“Aha! You’re being a big meanie, which means you’re horny.”

You scoff and call back towards the bedroom. “It does not! I’m rude to you all the time.”

“You’re giving me the same look you gave me the first time we had sex. Like you’re so annoyed with me that you want to shut me up by kissing me.”

“I am not. I just find it boring watching people pretend to have sex.” Especially when we’re supposed to be taking it easy right now.

“Fine. I’ll find something else to watch.”

You run back to the bed and grab the remote control before he can. “No! I want to know how this ends!”

“I thought you knew how it ended?”

“And I thought you said it was boring!”

“Sit back down and watch it with me then if you’re so interested,” he challenges.

You forget about making more popcorn and sit beside him on the bed defiantly - much more upright than before. Both of you remain silent, eyes fixed on the TV. You watch as they grope each other in the back seat of the car. You clench your jaw, trying to ignore the heat between your legs. You discreetly push your thighs together, but the seam of his borrowed boxers that you’re wearing to bed rubs up against you dangerously.

“Stop looking at me, Adrian. I’m fine,” you say, feeling his gaze linger on you from the corner of your eye.

He moves closer to you. “I don’t think you are.”

“Ugh, please. Do you honestly think I’m horny for softcore nineties romance?” You keep your eyes fixed ahead, trying to look disinterested.

“I know what you look like when you’re turned on.”

“You’re projecting. But if you can’t wait a few more days and need to take care of yourself, then...”

“Yeah? Maybe I will. I’ll even let you watch.”

“Oh my god, Adrian,” you scoff, trying to ignore the hot, sticky feeling in your underwear. “If I need to wait, then so do you.”

“I don’t think you can, B.”

“I can wait longer than you.”

“Well, you don’t have to look at you all day. And you’re always wearing my stuff - it’s killing me!”

“Yeah, well, I have to look at you all day too.” You turned to face him. “You and your stupidly pretty face and your fucking abs. I mean, Christ, who actually has abs?”

He looks pleasantly surprised that you’re finding it difficult to be around him.

“Now I know you’re all riled up because even your compliments are super aggressive.”

You cross your arms. “We’re supposed to be resting.”

On-screen, Rose presses her hand against the car’s fogged-up glass, and you close your eyes involuntarily.

Your weight on the mattress shifts suddenly as Adrian leans in, and his lips meet that sensitive spot a few centimetres behind your earlobe, making you softly sigh. You tilt your head, exposing more of your neck to him, your body leaning into his mouth on you. He plants kisses across your sensitive skin, avoiding your fresh scar.

“Adrian…” you say warningly but it falls on deaf ears as you feel his warm tongue trail over your neck. His hand cups your pussy through the fabric of the boxers, and your body responds automatically, hips tilting towards him.

“You might be able to use your words now, but I can still read your body language like a book.” His firm hand squeezes and puts pressure between your legs. “I think you’re done waiting.”

Of course, you are. It’s been torture being stuck in this apartment with him for days. You want to fuck him, obviously. But more than that, you want to please him, thank him for saving your life yet again, and show him how much he means to you with your body. To fulfil his every desire and fantasy-

Fantasy.

You sit upright suddenly.

“Oh.” He withdraws his hand, surprised. “Is everything okay, B? I was just teasing, sorry, we can just-”

“I don’t believe the window would steam up like that if you had sex in a car.” You cut across him and walk over to the bedroom door. You turn back with a smirk. “Would you like to find out if it does?”

He doesn’t need to be asked twice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You don’t even make it out of his apartment complex’s underground car park.

Adrian sits in the driver’s seat of the Corvette with you straddling him. In a state of semi-undress, you’ve ended up in just his t-shirt that you were sleeping in- everything else you were wearing lies forgotten on the passenger seat beside you.

His hands grip your hips as you grind yourself on him, rubbing your wet pussy along the length of his shaft. Your thighs are soaked. The friction feels so, so good, and your chest heaves as you feel his hips rocking, desperate to be inside you.

His hands leave your sides and lift your shirt up. “You are so fucking hot.” His tongue swirls over your nipples sloppily, and you grab the back of his head, pushing his face into your chest. He lets out a muffled moan with pleasure.

You help him pull his T-shirt off and toss it in the seat next to you. You drag your hands down his lean chest, avoiding the newly healed scars from the grenade blast a few days ago.

“You look so beautiful like this,” he says, watching your flushed face as you grind back and forwards in the constricted space of the Corvette, feeling the sensation of his hard cock against your clit.

The space in the car is limited- his legs take up most of the room on the seat. You lean back in the tight space between him and the steering wheel to give him a better view and feel the cold wheel against your shoulder blades.

“Hey, careful you don’t lean on the horn.” He steadies you with one hand on your lower back, and gripping his cock with the other. You lick your palm and move his hand away, replacing it with your own. His thick cock is warm as you grip the shaft and move your hand up and down.

“Fuck, how are you so soft?” His hips jerk upwards into your clenched fist. “We have the same fucking job.”

He loves the softness of you as much as you love the sculpted, sharp edges of him. Your grip of him falters when his hand moves between your legs, fingers sliding through your folds, making direct contact with your clit. His fingers are broader and rougher than yours, and a small whine escapes your lips when he begins rubbing circles onto the bundle of nerves there.

Your fist keeps pumping up and down the length of him, and you feel pleasure begin to wash over you as his fingers deftly tease your pussy. He traces the entrance of your wet cunt, and your walls clench desperately over nothing.

“Tell me what you want, baby.”

You eagerly adjust your hips over his, and position the head of his cock so it’s pressing up against your lips. He grips both of his hands under your thighs and stops you from lowering yourself onto him.

“Use your words.”

Oh.

“I… I want you to fuck me. Please,” you whisper. For some reason, it makes you shy. You’re out of practice when it comes to dirty talk.

“That’s my girl.”

Adrian’s green eyes meet yours, and it makes your skin feel red hot. His hands return to your hips, helping you down slowly, and you feel the familiar pressure as his length disappears into you.

“Holy shit,” he murmurs, leaning his head back. You get a glimpse of his Adam's apple moving up and down as he swallows.

You pause at the base, getting used to the intrusion. Rocking your hips slowly, the sensation forces you to take a sharp inhale of breath- even though your pussy is sopping wet for him, you still need time to adjust to how thick he is.

“C’mon, nice and easy. You’ve got this.”

His praise spurs you on. You grip the headrest, giving yourself leverage to ride him.

You lean in and suck on his bottom lip, realising that this is the first time you’ve ever been able to kiss him while his cock has been inside you. You allow yourself a soft moan into his mouth. It feels alien to be able to express yourself like this while sliding up and down on him.

The realisation seems to hit him too when he hears you moaning. It makes him hungry for you- his tongue enters your mouth and rolls over your own.

He bucks his hips, and his hands move to your ass so he can control the pace of your movement on his cock. The obscenely slick sound of his achingly hard cock driving in and out of you is only amplified in the constricted space. You bury your face into the crook of his neck, tasting the slightly salty sweat of his skin on your tongue.

“Fuck, you’re taking it like such a good girl,” he says through gritted teeth.

A searing heat ebbs through you, and you feel it creep up to your neck at his words. His words. You remind yourself you don’t have to stay silent either.

“Your cock feels so good,” you say, lips moving to press against his ear. You hear Adrian’s breath hitch in his throat.

You pull apart so he can watch your still-exposed tits bounce as he guides you up and down, fucking you open. The swell inside you begins as you watch his brow furrow in concentration, looking from your tits to the desperate look on your face as you grapple the headrest behind him helplessly.

“Is this what you needed, baby?”

You nod, feeling the heat in your lower abdomen tighten.

“C’mon, say it,” he instructs.

You hear the wet sounds of your pussy and thighs slapping into him. You’re on the brink as he rocks up into something heavenly inside of you, hitting your g-spot. It feels so good- you can’t stop yourself from babbling what comes out next.

“Yes… Needed you. Wanted to - to make you feel so good. For saving me. Again.”

He pushes down on your hips, fucking you with newfound ferocity, and continues hitting that one spot that makes your whole body sing for him. Your fingers move to grip his shoulders, and you lock eyes with him.

“Fuck, tell me… Tell me,” he says urgently.

“Always- fuck- always fucking saving my ass... My fucking hero.”

You clench around him, holding on for dear life as he quickens his pace, working you higher and higher. Your ass slaps against the front of his thighs, faster and faster in rhythm with your panting.

“Don’t- I’m gonna cum if you say that,” he warns.

“That you’re my hero?” you whisper, staring into his eyes, his pupils dilated and swimming with lust. He leans his head back and groans in response. “You are, Adrian. My- my hero. My Vigilante.”

You suck the skin of his neck, squeezing your eyes shut, squeezing everything below your waist as you tumble into sheer ecstasy. You bear down on him as he jerks his hips up, fucking into you like a starved man. The force of his thrusts makes you bounce so hard that you need to lift your arm to stop yourself from hitting your head on the roof of the car.

“Shit,” he gasps. “You can’t say that. I’m gonna cum- oh, fuck I am. I’m cumming. Fuuuck.”

His rambling doesn’t even register clearly in your head- you’re too busy burying your face into his neck again, and with a muffled moan, you cum with him- hard. Your teeth graze his neck, and your walls contract around his cock, as you feel him coat your insides.

You slump into him, your dead weight on top of him. Every inch of your sweat soaked body in contact with his. He wraps his arms around you as you both catch your breath, endorphins lighting up your insides like fireworks. You nuzzle into his neck as his cock still pulses inside you, and cum leaks out of your pussy.

The windows of the Corvette are, in fact, steamed up. His glasses are too. You both silently enjoy the post-orgasmic bliss for several moments. From this position, his heart is pressed against yours, and you can feel them both beating loudly against your ribcages as you begin to resume normal breathing.

“So that was like…That was like my kryptonite,” he says, breaking the silence.

“Being called a hero?” you ask hoarsely. Your throat feels scratchy again.

“Yeah…” And for the first time ever, you think, he sounds embarrassed. “I guess it’s something I always wanted to hear.”

“You’ve saved my life at least three times in the past month.” You trace your fingers across his chest. “And you literally saved the world from an alien invasion five days ago.”

He cups your face, and you lean into his hand, kissing his palm softly.

“Do you think we’re the good guys?”

You hesitate. “I don’t think it matters. We’re good enough for each other.”

“But what about, like, Superman?”

“You don’t wanna be a hero like Superman.”

“What?! Why not?”

“He’s an idiot. Peacemaker told me that Wonderwoman says he can’t find the clit.”

“Well… at least I can do that.” He pauses. “Wait, I can, right?”

“Are you serious?”

“No, I'm totally joking… I think.”

“You can.”

“Thank god.”

You laugh and clamber off of him into the passenger seat.

“He didn’t even offer to fly you and Harcourt to the hospital either,” he adds in disbelief.

“Superman? When was this?”

“Right, I forgot to tell you that Adebayo’s mom did send the Justice League to the barn after all! They turned up super late. The cow was already dead.”

You laugh. Ouch, your throat feels raw. You lean back and massage your neck, swallowing thickly.

“Is your voice sore from using it too much?

You nod.

“Well, we probably should be resting.”

You give him a stern look, and he grins.

“There it is! You’ve still got it!” He pulls his jeans and boxers back up and switches on the engine. “Do you wanna go and get ice cream for your throat?”

That does sound good, you think and hastily pull your clothes on. When you’re both decent, he puts the car in first gear, and it starts moving.

“Ooh, okay, I’m gonna guess your favourite flavour, and you tap the dash one for yes and twice for no.”

You smile at him fondly, secretly pleased that he’s finally mastered the art of yes-or-no questions.

Chapter 5: From Gotham with Love

#adrian chase #adrian chase imagines #vigilante #vigilante peacemaker #vigilante x original character #adrian chase x reader #vigilante x reader #vigilante x you #peacemaker #adrian chase smut #fanfic #vigilante smut #smut

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glowingmin · 11 months ago

Text

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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infinitethree · 4 months ago

Text

Given the nature of the information they're dealing with, the decision was made to drag Vio and Lucid into the mix as well.

Aster is relieved that Daz agreed to do so. He’s even more relieved that because Lucid is involved, they can't meet in the secluded bunker of the Council HQ.

It's a dual-purpose meeting. Firstly and most importantly, they need to share the information they learned about the Showrunner.

Not just the new stuff– though those bombshells are, of course, the driving force of this. The older information that the Council is aware of will have to be shared, too.

Secondly, though…they need to figure out how to free Innit.

Regardless of Daz’s stance on the matter, leaving Innit trapped isn't an option.

For one, it's unimaginably inhumane. Innit clearly just wants to be able to do basic things. Its willing to be enchanted with loyalty to be able to do something as simple as look where it wants to and read books.

Daz and Innit being forced to stay together like that is a recipe for disaster, too. Innit can't get therapy when it doesn't have a voice, after all.

Plus its already proven willing to punish Daz. If it decided to go nuclear…what could they really do to stop it, bar putting Daz in a coma?

So, yeah. Innit deserves to be free, and Daz deserves to have his head to himself again.

…Even if that’s a bit hypocritical for Aster to want for him.

Their chosen gathering place is the Welcome Wagon. It's meant for discussions, there aren't currently any people in the rooms upstairs, and all four employees are a part of the meeting.

The first matter of business is to give Vio a brief rundown of Daz, the Council, and associated information.

Daz is the one who starts the main topic, and he does so by projecting a drawing of the Showrunner on the screen.

Raine’s style is immediately obvious, at least to Aster.

Deadly serious, Daz says, “This is the Showrunner. What we knew as the Scribe– that entity is someone else entirely. Their name was just…borrowed. Aster and I– we met the Showrunner.”

Aster adds, “Innit, too.” “Are you seriously still– this is fucking important!”

He snaps back, “Can you stop being petty for like five seconds? Its presence there was kind of a big deal! The Showrunner likes your admin half, asshole! We can't ignore that fact!”

Daz glares at him a moment, then turns to the others. “The bigger piece of info is that Time isn't real.”

Day, Vio, and Theo all look incredulous. “They’re very fuckin’ real, don't say shit like that,” Theo tells them. It’s a warning, because to Theo that kind of disrespect is liable to earn the wrath of a god.

Since Theo is not only a mythology buff but has met several gods…if anyone has reason to be twitchy about that sort of thing, it's him.

He is the that started the knock-on-wood trend of assuring Time that any potentially negative thing is said without any negativity, too.

“I'll humor this if you can explain who the fuck we've done– everything for. If you can't, I'm walking out right now,” Day warns.

It’s clear he’s not kidding about that.

Aster takes a deep breath and says, “The Scribe, apparently. The Showrunner claimed that Time was just a ‘sockpuppet’ to be used as the Scribe needed.”

He grimaces. “Which, I mean…if the two of them are working together, and the Showrunner is the one behind the questions and Observers…”

Theo suddenly straightens up in a way that Aster realizes means he’s actually using his head. When he wants to, Theo can be smart…he just generally doesn’t bother to want that.

“Are you fuckin’ sure the one who was chatting with us was the Showrunner? Not the Observers, but the fuckin’-- the other shit. You two must know what I mean, yeah?”

Daz’s expression is grim. “There’s no doubt in my mind.”

A soft hiss escapes from Theo as he slumps backwards. He scrubs a hand down his face and looks to Day.

“They fuckin’-- first time we heard them, you remember what they said? We fuckin’ pointed out that Time would be pissed, n’--”

Realization visibly washes over Day as he finishes, “And they laughed. That we ‘weren’t supposed to know’, but it was still funny that we’d try to get Time involved.”

“Fuckin’ shit.”

That’s a sentiment that Aster can fully get behind. None of this is remotely fun to learn, and in fact radically alters what they assumed were core facets of their lives.

Lucid looks stricken. “What are we even supposed to do with this info, anyway?”

Rolling his eyes, Daz tells him, “You? Nothing. But given your position and how big of a deal this is, I can’t justify keeping you out of the loop.”

There’s a long beat, and then Daz adds, “And I wasn’t going to bring anyone else to the Council rooms. If it’s not a full secret from you, it’s pointless to shut you out.”

Aster sighs. “Yeahhhh. The Council HQ is kind of special to us.” “You’ve always hated how it looks,” Daz scoffs. Aster rolls his eyes and tells him, “Yeah, well, it’s grown on me. Kind of hard for it not to, with how much time I spend there.”

“This is so fucking weird,” Lucid mumbles.

Raine pats his shoulder and tells him, “You’ll get used to it. They fight constantly.”

“For fucked up reasons, apparently,” Khons reminds them.

“Do I want to–” “It’s literally none of your business,” Daz hisses at the admin.

Lucid shrinks down in his seat, hands raised defensively. “Okay, not asking then!”

Daz scrubs a hand through his hair as he swipes the screen to show the next image. “This is the Showrunner’s domain. I have no fucking idea how useful knowing this will be, but I’m not leaving something like that on the table.”

Aster studies the art piece for a moment. It’s very close to what he remembers– Daz’s memory and Raine’s skill are an excellent combo.

He says, “The seats seemed like they stretched forever. A few were occupied, but only two were clearly taken. The figures had different levels of definition and the Showrunner called them ‘representations of the audience’. I’m…guessing those are Observers.”

With a nod, Daz confirms, “If I had to make a theory…the more clear they are, the more frequently they show up.”

He reaches up and smacks a hand on one of the solid ones in what seemed like the VIP section.

“One of these two is probably the new one who’s been an asshole.”

Aster grimaces. “Speaking of Observers…” “There’s no need to bring up–”

Ignoring the bastard, Aster continues, “Innit needs to be given a body. Keeping it there goes beyond caution and into inhumane. It fucked up, yes, but– shit, didn’t all of us do that, too? Half of Sanctuary are war criminals in some capacity!”

Theo immediately argues, “It’d fuckin’ attack Lee, wouldn’t it?”

Aster shakes his head. “No. It– Theo, I spoke to it. I saw a– a timelapse of its entire life. Before the Observers came, the only people who knew about it were Dream and Daz. Both of them hurt it deeply.”

He gestures at Daz, continuing, “You’re asking a fully sentient and sapient person to be trapped with someone who tortured it for three years. Daz didn’t just ignore it, Theo– he shut it out entirely. He trapped it in a room and left it to rot.”

“It put me in a coma because I refused to kill a child,” Daz snaps. “A child it still hates!”

“I believe it wants freedom more than it wants revenge,” Aster argues.

Day’s arms fold across his chest. “How can we trust that? How can we trust it won’t try anything?”

Aster stares him in the eyes. “It said it would willingly be enchanted with loyalty, as long as I was the one it was bound to.”

The room is quiet.

“Day– you know how bad Daz’s enchantment was. The fact that it wants freedom so badly that it would be the one to suggest that…”

Daz tells them, “It couldn’t feel it. It’s never had any senses beyond sound and sight.”

Hands thrown wide for emphasis, Aster snaps, “And you think that isn’t fucking horrifying?! It wants to choose where to look, Daz! To be able to listen to the music it wants or eat or walk outside!”

Aster huffs at that.

“The reason I got on this topic is because Innit has at least three Observers it considers friends. I saw them as animals with a silvery-lavender swirly color–”

Vio sighs softly. “Same as the portals. No wonder you realized the connection.”

Sneering, Daz corrects, “No, this dipshit didn’t put the pieces together himself.”

Choosing to ignore that particular jab, Aster continues, “And, again; the Showrunner likes Innit. They sure as fuck don’t like Daz, but they– literally gave his admin half headpats. And squished its cheeks.”

He points out, “As cynical as it sounds? We have a person who the omnipotent ruler of time and reality is fond of. That same person is, as most of this room just heard–”

“I fuckin’ heard it too,” Theo tells him. “Fuckin’ Observers love it back. Enough to ask for it to be treated fuckin’ nice.”

Aster nods. “Either we have someone with all that weight behind them on our side, or we make an enemy out of all of them.”

“Innit wants to see Sanctuary burn,” Daz tries to tell them. “It fucking hates every single person here, and none more than Lee.”

Eyes narrowing, Aster argues, “Pretty sure it hates you the most, actually.” “Yeah, well– I’m used to dealing with it.” “It’s proven willing to make you suffer, and forgive me for not wanting to see what a full mental break looks like from you.”

Daz opens his mouth, but Aster cuts him off by turning back to the others. “One way or another, Innit will be freed. I haven’t just been seeing Daz’s past– I’ve been seeing the future, too. And Innit was sure as fuck walking around there!”

The bastard looks alarmed. “What? When the– why the fuck didn’t you say anything?!”

He folds his arms over his chest. “I didn’t exactly want to get into it.” “You know full goddamned well that’s not good enough. Answer the fucking question, Aster.”

Uhg, there’s no way he’ll let this go.

Reluctantly, he admits, “...At some point in the future, Daz and I get together. And, uh– I saw Innit at the wedding. It…handed Daz over to me, actually.”

Daz takes a deep breath, and guessing what he’ll say, Aster rolls his eyes and adds, “And Day handed me over to you, before you get pissy.”

“Excuse me?”

He shrugs helplessly at Day’s bafflement. “I desperately wish I were making it up. The idea of getting together with Daz, of all fucking people–” “Says the one who apparently gets fucked by me.” “Really? Really?”

Like a lightswitch, Daz flips his personality to a much warmer one. Unfortunately, Aster can tell the difference– there’s too much of an edge of malice in the way he smiles as he drapes his arms over his shoulders.

Cooing, Daz asks, “What’s the matter, baby? Worried you’ll think too hard about it here?”

He feels his face heat up despite himself. “First of all– I haven’t actually seen anything, just enough to know that– that happens. Second of all, get your hands off of me before I break your arms.”

Pouting at him, the fucking sociopath he apparently marries says, “But, Star…despite claiming you hate it, you’re getting all flustered.”

Aster gets a split-second flash of a warm giggle from Future-Daz of, “My sweet, snuggly Star!”

He grimaces. “I’m pretty sure I suffer a psychotic break to actually be interested in you.”

And he sees himself yet again, this time sitting in the Swords and Shields training hall. He’s next to Future-Theo, who seems like he’s really looking at Future-Aster for the first time in a long time. “...If it’s not too weird n’ personal, uh…how did you know? That you, y’know– fuckin’ liked him.”

Future-Aster seems to need a while to gather his thoughts. “Once I got closer to him, I started seeing all the things that were…really good. His quirks stopped being annoying and started being charming. I would get excited to come home, not because we did anything all that interesting but just because…I liked spending time with him.”

There’s a soft, fond smile as Future-Aster absently runs a thumb over what looks disturbingly like a bite mark on his shoulder. “I don’t really even remember what it’s like not to love him. He’s…he’s everything to me. The world feels brighter and happier now that I wake up next to him every morning.”

Future-Theo opens his mouth, but is interrupted by Future-Daz coming into the room.

The moment he clocks Aster’s lack of a shirt– which is how he usually works out, it’s annoying to have them get soaked with sweat– Future-Daz turns bright pink and demands, “Star, why are you– where is your shirt?!

Instead of a normal, reasonable answer, Future-Aster just grins and leans back. “I forgot you bit me, sorry.” “You don’t look sorry at all.” “And you don’t like you hate seeing me like this, soooo–”

Future-Daz huffs, hands going to his hips. “You’re– you’re the worst.” “Mm-hmm.” “Awful. Just, just terrible.” “Indeed.” “A jerk who likes making fun of me and making me embarrassed.”

Future-Aster reaches out and tugs his significant other into his lap. “And yet you still like me.”

Despite another, somewhat sullen huff, Future-Daz doesn’t argue that point.

When Aster is back in the present, Daz is staring intently at him. That faux-flirting is gone, though he’s still got his arms over his shoulders. “What did you see?”

Though he could answer this in a dozen ways, he chooses the pettiest he can think of. “You being easily embarrassed and down bad for me.”

Ignoring the way Daz splutters, he shoves his arms off and turns to face the others again. “Anyway. It doesn’t actually matter if you agree or not. Either you cooperate, or I use the wish I’ve earned via seeing Daz’s bullshit and grant it a body myself.”

Lee finally speaks up. “Ignoring all of– that? I think we should do it. It’s fucked up to keep it locked up like that. If I’m the one supposedly in danger, I should be the one to decide if it’s worth it or not. I think it is. Innit doesn’t have to like me– the server is plenty big for both of us.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Aster smiles fondly at his charge.

Then Lee continues, “And I don’t think it’s fair to make it be enchanted, too. It sets a really nasty precedent and would erode trust in not just Lucid, but everyone who had a part in that. Myself included.”

It’s an extremely good point. Aster nods, brow furrowed. “It– the idea of doing that makes me really uncomfortable.”

He gestures at Theo, who seems unsure. “You’ve got oceans of blood on your hands. I don’t think Innit was right, but I think it felt it was justified.”

“Lee was fuckin’ six,” Theo tells him. “It felt a baby admin, one who could control them because he’s a Dream. Unlike with Day and Lucid, who Daz did not trust–”

“Wait, you didn’t trust us? Then why did you let us undo the loyalty? Especially if you knew about code already,” Lucid interrupts.

Daz, visibly annoyed, snaps, “We could track your coding. If you had done anything we didn’t like, I’d have ruined you.”

Despite the admin’s doubt, Lee nods. “He can do that. He’ll correct my work when I’m not even showing him my console and when I didn’t even think he was paying attention. It’s freaky.”

That little side path resolved, Aster continues, “Daz was way less willing to hurt Lee. Innit, freshly betrayed, deeply traumatized, and desperate to die, went on high alert because it saw Lee as a threat.”

Theo repeats, “He was six!”

Aster responds, “And when Daz was six, he decided to rip out the parts of him that were ‘bad and wrong’ because his brother is a fucking monster. Again, I’m not saying Innit was right! It was a fucked up thing to do! But it was also a trauma response. For trauma that has only festered in the meantime, because unlike Daz, Innit has been alone.”

As much as he hates to do this, he appeals to the one who will hold ultimate authority in this matter.

“You know damn fucking well what isolation does to a person. You’re debating condemning someone to a fate very literally worse than death because you don’t like that they fucked up. Let me remind you that you fucked up pretty damn bad, too. And, again– if all of you refuse, I’ll use the wish on this. Having the memories of its life in my head is bad enough, but knowing I’ve abandoned someone in those conditions…I’d never be able to live with myself.”

He can tell Daz is seething, but for once he doesn’t care.

The bastard is wrong about this. Whatever punishment Innit may have deserved– what its gotten has far outstripped that.

Vio says, “Aster has a point. I know this is a touchy matter, but leaving Innit in there…that’s not acceptable. Not only would we incur the wrath of the Observers and likely the Showrunner, but we have no guarantee that it wouldn’t find another way to escape. We can extend a hand, or risk Innit being free with no reason not to raze the server to the ground.”

Day scrubs a hand down his face, which has a sour expression. “...If we’re doing this, its getting put into therapy with Iatros, too. And I want it nowhere near Summer Hills.”

There’s a sudden, bitter laugh from Daz. “Oh, wow. That’s actually– actually an interesting idea.”

The bastard grips his shoulder with more force than Aster was aware he was capable of.

“It proposes that it could live with Aster. If its so fucking attached to him, and Aster is so goddamned determined to go forward with this stupid fucking plan– surely he can open his shitty little house to that thing, huh?”

He considers where would even work. “I– there’s literally nowhere for it to go. I’m willing to have an extension or something, I guess?”

Daz’s fingers dig into his shoulder. Voice a low, dangerous hiss, he warns, “If you can’t keep it in line, I’ll personally make your life a living hell.”

A shudder goes down his spine. Daz’s wrath is not a small thing, as proven by him killing his ex-mentor in cold blood and destroying him the worst way he could.

“And you should try group counseling with it. Maybe you’ll be less of a fucking sociopath when you learn to at least tolerate a fundamental part of you.”

Flippantly, and forcibly removing Daz’s hand from his shoulder, he adds, “If you want to do the whole song and dance about me getting on your good side? Maybe be less of an insufferable bastard, first. Your trauma is valid but your responses to it sure as fuck aren’t.”

Getting into his space, he growls, “I should be at your throat for the fact that you’ve spent three fucking years conditioning me to hate you. I should be furious you’ve actively abused my trauma to make sure you never had to deal with yours! You’ve refused to actually let yourself heal because you’re a coward, Daz.”

Daz’s eyes thin into slits as he snaps back, “I don’t need your preaching, considering you–” “I’ve fucking told you, I had no idea it would be like this! I also, shockingly, didn’t realize exactly how broken you actually are! I was sure you’d hate me for not taking the offer. It’s a wish that can bend the laws of reality, and I thought you would be mature enough to recognize that even though it sucks to have someone know more than you wanted…that you’d agree it’s worth it.”

He takes a step back and scoffs, “Fuck, at times like these, I can see why the Showrunner hates you. You’re a selfish asshole who only seems to do good things when it’s convenient for you.”

As he turns on his heel and stalks out, he finishes off with, “Lately, I wonder if I was right to take your hand at all.”

Aster knows he’ll regret those words later, in one form or another.

But he’s also sick and tired of Daz kicking him in the dick because he’s pissed that he’s lost control.

At no point did Aster ask for any of this! He hates having to be the one to drag Daz kicking and screaming into a better place! He hates seeing his past and the trauma that have shaped him into the paranoid bastard that he is today!

A lot of the time, he kind of hates seeing the future, too. It only makes their current relationship feel worse, because Aster can see that Daz is capable of being good to him.

Even something as simple as the two of them watching a movie together feels so fucking bittersweet, because it’s clear they do eventually come to love each other.

Yet, right now, Daz hates him. Whatever his actual feelings before, right now they’re at the lowest they’ve ever been.

…There aren’t many times that Aster has seriously considered the benefits of getting drunk. The idea of losing control of himself gives him hives.

But, honestly, the chance of shutting off his own heavily leashed anger and resentment for the night sounds amazing.

This’ll be fun to discuss with his therapist. The poor Puffy has no goddamned idea the shit he’s kept bottled up until now, but it’s beyond time that he start doing so.

#chronotag #asked&answered #shiningaster #dazzlingvoid #chaotictheseus #daydreamer #luciddreamer #drviolet #rainestorm #goldenkhons #darkaleph #innerinnit #god that's so many character tags /sobs #so yeah!! Aster kinda at his breaking point re: Daz's bullshit lmao #this will have An Effect. a good one? uhhhhh well...#it's Daz lmao

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bokettochild · 2 years ago

Text

I'm back.

This was for Mother's Day, but I had another thing out that day and couldn't finish this one in time. Then rewrote this one. then merged the drafts, then had to adjust things, but here it is and now Violet's Mother has a name :)

I hope you enjoy!

(Full fic below the cut if you want to read it here and not on Ao3)

Violet's Mother

There are incidents and then there are Violet Incidents.

There are other kinds as well, Four supposes, but those are limited in their types and usually just fall under the bigger category of ‘incidents’, since most of those situations only happen once.

One could debate that the Violet Incident has only happened twice, others might agree that the thing in the bar that hasn’t let Warriors and Legend look each other in the face since was something else entirely. Four, however, finds it easier to classify it under the umbrella of ‘Violet Incidents’ which he and Wind have agreed are any incidents that involve Legend pretending to be a woman in order to save someone’s ass.

In hindsight, they’re kind of funny.

They’re even more funny when he doesn’t have to do anything except stand there. Legend does most of the work honestly, and they follow along. Wind has played a part of course, always backing up Legend’s stories or feeding the vet what information he needs to make a believable performance, but Four has been blessed with only having to perform two simple tasks, and between Vio and Red, they’re quite easy: cry, and cling to Legend the moment the vet comes within his view.

Okay, so maybe the first time they hadn’t been planning on that, but they were genuinely overwhelmed, tired, and fighting a migraine, so clinging to the vet had been the most wonderful thought in the world at the moment because he was warm and safe and they could hide their eyes for a bit in his shoulder and just breath for a moment while he held them. The second time was definitely acting though, although Red still enjoyed it. Red always enjoys when they can trick someone into hugging them.

Not that it’s tricking if Legend did it of his own accord, but still, Red likes feeling like he’s had something to do with it, so they let him.

There are side effects too, in Violet Incidents. Legend and Warriors are always so tired looking when it’s over, and the vet more often than not spends hours afterwards just staring at nothing for a while, looking done with the world in general until he eventually passes out and curls up against whomever he’s sharing a bed with that night.

Not Warriors though. Never Warriors. Warriors and the vet avoid each other when these things happen.

They have good reason to. Twilight, once he knows what these incidents are (aka, after the second one) has taken to teasing them incessantly, and encouraging the rest of them to do the same. The rancher seems to take extreme pleasure in being able to make the knight flush and sigh and Legend brighten like a tomato and start snapping at him with only a few simple words. And Time never stops the rancher. If anything, he leaves the situation alone. Well, after asking Warriors in a teasing manner if the vet was going to be his step-mother, which earned their leader a twisted ear and granted them the beautiful sight of their old man getting scolded.

Other than that particular time though, most of them know better than to push those particular buttons. Sure, Hyrule grins and giggles and Wild laughs his fair share in the moment, but the lot of them have the good sense to not tease the quartet involved. After all, Nayru only knows when the day may come when they may be the one in need of the vet’s acting skills to save their ass, and none of them want to give the other any reason to think saving them would be a mistake.

Except Twilight, but Twilight's already had his turn, the whole thing being born from Legend trying to cover their asses and draw attention away from the feral rancher. For that reason, Twilight seems to not worry about needing another save, and it’s only Legend’s frequent threats to muzzle him that keeps the rancher in any ways at bay.

Honestly, he didn’t think the man was such a tease!

As for themselves, Four doesn’t tease the vet. No, goodness knows if the others all knew how many times he’s been in a market or village trying to handle something and got mistaken for a child, they’d never let him live it down. Legend’s covered his ass countless times in those incidents, assuring that he won’t tell if Four doesn’t about how many times Violet and her mother have had to make appearances throughout time so that Four doesn’t get dragged off by some worried adult who thought they found an abandoned or lost kid.

By now, they can’t even count on both hands how many times they’ve had to call Legend “mom” to get out of some sort of trouble. A random village in an era they couldn’t place, a street at night heading back to their inn, a forest lane outside of a town while they were scouting ahead. Legend’s saved their ass so, so many times by pulling out the mother act since that first time in the captain’s era.

The era they are now in. Still.

The incident at the bar was only a week or so ago. After it had been over, the captain and veteran had been only too eager to leave the town, find the stalfos encampment and take it out. Not that it had actually been that simple; fighting stalfos is more dangerous, arguably, than fighting the average monster. First of all, stalfos have no blood, so there’s no way to guess if they’re infected. Secondly, stalfos screams have the capacity to temporarily stun most living beings, which had meant that all of them, minus Wild, had been at a disadvantage. Hyrule and Legend had poured every ounce of their magic into holding temporary shields around the rest of the heroes, and that had negated some of the damage, but only so much. Fortunately, their being in a forest meant that the chances of fairies lurking about was greatly increased, and most of their injuries had been healed within moments, only light bruising and some muscle soreness remaining.

Unfortunately, fairies can’t do much of anything for magical exhaustion.

Their magical users have been dragging since as a result, and although Hyrule has recovered somewhat, their vet has not, and according to the traveler, that would be due to the fact that Legend’s magic stores are uncommonly low, and he’s been drawing more on his magical core than is healthy.

That’s probably why, after they got the letter asking them to come to castle town, Warriors insisted on all of them stopping to rest at an inn before he went to see his princess.

That’s where they are now anyway. It’s their first morning back in Castletown and Warriors is already fussing with his clothes, hair, and armor, pulling himself together while simultaneously looking like death warmed over (those stalfos really got a lot of damage on the man) as he struggles to both drink his coffee for the morning and get ready.

Time, sighing, crosses over to help him. “Her highness will understand if you can’t be there first thing, captain, don’t push yourself.”

Warriors makes some noncommittal noise into his mug before settling it down and returning to attempting to buckle on his pauldron with hands that shake far more than usual.

Their leader bats said hand to the side, buckling the thing on himself. “Warriors, breathe.”

“I’m breathing, Sprout.”

“While not doing anything else.”

One perfect brow arches as royal blue eyes fix their leader in place. “So, no sitting, standing, laying, moving, shifting-”

“You know what I mean.” Comes the returning sigh, Time looking entirely done.

Wind, sitting beside Four on one of the beds, giggles, leaning over to whisper to them, “Time did this all the time to him during the war.”

“Time?” They can’t exactly believe that, but Wind nods, smirking as Wars does the same at the leader who cuffs him over the head for his impudence.

“Yep. The things Mask would get up to,” the sailor giggles, “they make Violet Incidents look tame.”

The room as a whole pauses, and the eight heroes within turn to stare at the sailor.

Legend, blessedly, is still asleep in their second room, and according to Hyrule, shows no sign of waking for at least another couple of hours. Magical exhaustion, the traveler had assured all of them, nothing to be too worried about, although the sooner they could find a potion to help restore the vet’s magic, the better.

“A what incident?” Twilight, because of course it’s Twilight, asks, grinning that troublesome smile that usually only gets turned on their captain but now focuses its full strength on Wind, even as Warriors drops his head into his hands and sighs.

The sailor chuckles, well aware, Four thinks, of what he’s doing. “A ‘Violet Incident’.” He explains. “An incident where Four has to pretend to be Legend’s and Wars’ daughter.” Their definition is different, but Wind spares them that. Or tries too anyway. It doesn’t work.

“So, the one earlier this week…” Hyrule’s eyes flit to Warriors, smile apologetic but eyes glinting.

“Four wasn’t involved in that.” Sky points out, not exactly helpfully.

Warriors’ head hits the wall.

Twilight snickers. “Yeah, that was all our vet and the captain.”

“Well aware!”

Even they can’t help but smile at the man’s misery. Warriors hasn’t looked at or talked to Legend since it happened, with the sole exception of checking in on him after the battle was over, when Legend had nearly collapsed the minute the last monster had fallen. Even then though, Warriors was a flushing and awkward mess and Legend himself was all too eager to assure the man he was fine, just tired, no the blood wasn’t his so please for the love of Hylia go bother someone else!

Four can’t say they’ve ever seen Warriors move so quickly.

“That,” Wind proclaims, folding his hands in front of him like Dot does when she’s trying to look dignified, “also qualifies.”

“How?” Comes the responding question, but of course Wind already has an answer because the true definition is based on the vet’s suffering and not Four's own.

“Because all ‘Violet Incidents’ require Legend. If Legend saves your ass by pretending to be someone’s mother and or wife, it qualifies.” And there’s the real definition.

There’s a short pause, during which most of them exchange glances, but then Sky asks what seems to be on the minds of all of them. “Then if the deciding factor is Legend, why are the incident’s named after Four?”

They glare.

“Four’s fake name?” The skyloftian corrects.

“Because,” Wind answers, shrugging, “Legend doesn’t exactly have a fake name. I mean,” and yes, the sailor’s grinning at Warriors, but the captain can’t see so it’s not like Wind is going to be held accountable for it, “other than Missus Taylor.”

“I regret telling you my last name,” Warriors groans, dragging a hand over his face as though he no longer gives a crap how he looks. Honestly, they’d be shocked if that was the first thing in his mind right now.

“You have a last name?” Hyrule breathes, startled.

“Everyone in my era does,” the captain explains, “there’s too many people to not. It gets confusing without. Now,” he claps his hands and turn to the rest of them, eyes dead and face almost Time’s disapproving glare, “we have other things to be doing today than speculating on what Legend’s ‘fake name’ should be.” The man stumbles just a bit while saying that, and Twilight chortles just a bit at the sound, earning him the full force of the captain’s stare, which, for once, actually does nothing. Still, the man continues. “Her highness has asked that I report to Hyrule Castle to explain… recent developments-”

“Meaning the news story about his marriage.” Hyrule whispers to Sky, just loud enough that the rest of them can hear.

Except Wars. Either the captain doesn’t hear, or he chooses to ignore it, because he just keeps speaking. “-and give her a progress report on our investigation. Time,” he turns to the man in question, “if you could come with me?”

“Of course.” As leader, the old man will need to be there to act as Warriors’ back-up and fill in anything the captain may or may not miss. Wars is good, but his focus is more analytical. Time may have noticed something outside of the captain’s report that he thinks will be important, and even if he hasn’t, having someone there to back Wars up is probably for the best.

“Twilight too,” their captain adds, turning to said rancher with a look that borders very closely on ‘open your mouth I dare you’. Their rivalry, or whatever they have between them, has always been interesting to watch, and while they’re closer to Twilight than the captain, in this case, they would take Warriors’ side, no questions asked.

After all, they suffer too when Twilight brings up ‘Violet Incidents’, and he’s been doing it frequently.

Still, that doesn’t exactly explain why the rancher needs to come. “Me?”” he asks, “why?”

“Because there’s a stack of paperwork sitting on my desk that is entirely existent because you can’t keep your teeth to yourself,” the captain growls. “If I have to suffer because of you, I’m dragging you down with me.”

“Sounds fair to me!” Sky chirps, pausing in doling out the breakfast Wild had made them. “What about the rest of us?”

Warriors’ face lightens dramatically as he turns from the rancher to Sky, smiling just a bit, still tired but genuine, at the younger knight. “You six are free to do what you want. I’d like to ask for as little chaos as possible, but knowing you lot, that’s out of the question. Still, maybe with the farmers out of the picture, civilized behavior has a better chance of prevailing.”

“I’m right here,” Hyrule teases, kicking his legs lazily as he perches on the other bed in the room.

“You,” Warriors grins, close enough to reach over and ruffle the traveler’s hair, which he does, “aren’t a farmer. You’re a feral little gremlin, but you also know how to not draw attention to yourself, which is really all I’m asking here.”

“So, we can do whatever we want,” the traveler surmises, “as long as we’re not caught?” His eyes glint wildly.

“And as long as you don’t break any major laws,” Warriors agrees, which seems to be a very loose request, but they can only imagine what Time and Wind have done to Wars in the past for his standards to be so low now, “then yes.”

They’re not even sure how to feel about the fact that Sky smiles at that. They don’t have time to figure it out though, because Warriors turns from musing Hyrule’s hair to stare at them and Wind, hand dropping to the bag at his belt for a moment before pulling out a smaller rupee pouch, not unlike their own. “As for you two,” the captain announces, “I have a request.”

Oh? What could the captain want?

The pouch is handed to them. Not tossed, handed; Warriors watching that it reaches Four’s hands carefully before he continues speaking. “Take this, and when Legend wakes up, because Nayru knows he’ll refuse to sit still until I get back, go out on the town and have some fun.” And then, to follow up while looking Wind dead in the eye “tame fun. Remember, vet’s still exhausted.”

They blink up at him. “Are you asking us to babysit Legend?”

The mere thought is laughable quite honestly. Legend, out of all of them, is the one least in need of someone to make sure he’s taken care of or behaving. Wild and Hyrule may be survivors, and Time and Warriors may be leaders, but Legend is a veteran, and he’s been doing this longer than any of them can imagine. Trying to tell anyone that the vet needs someone to keep him out of trouble is like… well honestly, they can’t think of anything more absurd than that.

Fortunately, that doesn’t appear to be what Warriors means, the man shaking his head at them with a small smile. A real, tired, but fond smile.

It’s the realest kind of Warriors smile, Red thinks.

“No, of course not. This is,” the man pauses, considering his words, “this is me trying to pay Legend back, in a way. I can’t do it by myself, but I know you two probably feel the same way, so I’m asking you two to handle it while I take care of things at the castle. Does that make sense? Take him by the market, grab lunch together. Tell him it’s on me.”

That’s... Pretty generous. More so when they open the bag and see how much is inside.

“Holy shit!” Wind starts, whipping up to stare at the captain. “I thought you were broke!”

The man laughs, reaching over to ruffle blonde curls. “I was, in Legend’s Hyrule, because I hadn’t been paid in months. Arty sent this with her summons though.”

“This is your paycheck?”

“A fraction of it,” the captain smiles, lopsided and warm. “I get paid pretty well, being a soldier and a hero and all.”

“I wish we got paid,” someone sighs, playfully dramatic.

They kind of wish they did too, but they’re pretty sure the only reason Warriors is, is because he joined them by assignment of his princess, unlike the rest of them who kind of just went through the portals of their own accord when they appeared in their eras. They’re not complaining though. Since Warriors is technically on assignment, when he’s paid, he’s often been the one to foot the bill for things like inn rooms, potions, and supplies, citing it as “mission expenses” which he’ll be paid back for later.

It works for them.

“So, will you do it?” They forgot he’s still waiting for an answer.

Wind, however, has not. “Sure thing, cap’n.” A playful salute joins the words, and they mimic it because, why not? “We’ll do our best to give the vet a great time!”

“Good,” another hair ruffle, and then one for them too, “I knew I could count on you two,” the captain beams.

They’re not sure how they feel about the warmth that blossoms up inside them at the sight.

“What about us four?” Wild protests, playfully offended.

“Us Four,” they correct, pointing to themselves. Time is the only one to chuckle.

Ah well, one day they’ll get the joke.

“The rest of you,” Warriors answers, straightening up, and goddesses does he look regal when he’s standing at his full height, all made up to go to the castle, “are to stay out of this.” The man’s brow furrows, disapproval and judgment clear and making Green want to smile. “I don’t trust you to not tease the vet about why I’m thanking him.”

Which is fair, all things considered, what with all the teasing from Twilight. Again, most of the others know better, but only when it comes to Legend, and Warriors can’t escape it, so it would make sense he’s wary about what it’s like when he’s not around.

No one contests it though, the three eldest depart without a hitch later that morning. Shortly after, Sky and Hyrule decide to head off into town to pick up some more potions and explore the area. To their surprise, Wild seems more interested in staying here at the inn, organizing his inventory and taking up nearly all of one of their two inn rooms to do so.

That’s okay though. They head to the other room, Wind on their tail, and sit and discuss where to go until Legend eventually blinks awake.

The vet, true to the captain’s prediction, has no intention of staying in. In fact, he seems pretty ticked that he’d not been included in planning the day with the rest of them and that he has to be filled in after nearly everyone else has left. He’s also ticked at himself for sleeping in, but Wind doesn’t let that last long.

Wind, bright, sunshiny Wind who everyone knows Legend has a soft spot for, quickly diverts Legend’s attention by telling him that they want to go to the market and could he please, please come with them? All the other adult heroes are busy and while Four can, no one will believe that Four’s not a kid.

Once upon a time, they would have had some words on that topic, but in the wake of the Violet Incidents, there is now overwhelming proof that Wind is, tragically, correct.

“Fine,” Legend agrees, looking away from Wind’s pleading gaze (which can out match even Red’s somehow, quite amazingly). “Let me get dressed first at least, kiddo, yeesh.”

Wind waits exactly as long as it takes for the vet to throw on the rest of his clothes before grabbing ahold of the man’s hand, and then Four’s own, and all but dragging them to the door.

They laugh, and Legend chuckles just a bit, holding onto his hat as he lets the youngest of their group direct him out of the door and towards some street or another.

They have to remind themselves that Wind used to live in this world, for a short while, and does, in fact, know where he’s going. They’re not going to get lost.

And they don’t. Wind leads them to the market, and while Legend seems skeptical at first about spending a day “just shopping and having fun” he accepts it eventually, mostly after they convince him that Warriors is paying and there’s not anything else for them to do.

They do have fun too. Legend apparently has never tried doing this before, but between their own efforts and Wind’s, they manage to take the elder hero about the town to a few shops and stalls. The bookshop is their favorite, and Legend’s too, or so they had thought, but once Wind takes them to an odds-and-ends store they know in an instant, and are quite right, that it has the vet’s full attention faster than anything off the battlefield.

Somehow, from there, it becomes a contest. They don’t exactly say as much to each other, but Wind and Four are competitive, and it’s only natural that they begin to make a game out of who can find a place that will make Legend’s eyes blow the widest or smile tilt just a little more towards genuine.

It’s fun. Not just the competition, but just… spending time with Wind and Legend.

They play a few games (learning in the process that Legend’s a crack shot at the archery booth), visit more than just a few shops, which, surprisingly allow them to mess around a bit. It’s Legend who suggests they pop into a costume shop, “for fun” and though they don’t buy anything (well, they don’t, but Legend certainly does), the three of them do have a lot of fun trying things on.

Honestly, they’ve never seen Legend smile as wide as when they were in there. Messing around, playing, being silly. For someone who can’t meet Warriors eyes after pretending to be his wife, Legend is surprisingly open to dressing in even the most ridiculous of outfits.

“You should see the ones I have at home,” the vet chuckles, wriggling back out of a pumpkin costume that Wind had dared him to try on. Four has no clue why the thing exists, but Wind had begged to take a photo to tease Twilight with and the vet had happily obliged.

Wind eyes sparkle as his picture prints out and he looks it over, but more so as they look up to their older brother. “Really? What’s the craziest one you have?”

The fact that Legend has to pause and think, and then checks himself each time he tries to answer, definitely says something. In the end though, the vet shrugs, smiling as he accepts the next ridiculous costume that Four hands him. “Quite frankly, I don’t think I could name just one. They’re all pretty bizarre.” And he promises, when they ask, to let them see sometime. “Probably not until we’re at the ranch though, or my house.”

Still, that’s better than nothing.

“Can I take photos of those ones too?” Wind asks, readying his picto-box for another picture, this time with Four as the smithy finishes pulling on the silly hat he’d found in one of the boxes around the shop.

Legend laughs, bright and clear and hilariously squeaky. “Sure, sailor. Whatever makes you happy.”

“Well in that case-” and whatever dastardly thought the teen has is cut off by the sound of his stomach, making the younger flush slightly.

Legend’s face softens just the slightest bit, smile more a smirk now, but the usual one, not the mean one. It’s Legend’s normal playful-face. “Shall we get lunch next then?”

“I think,” Four corrects, “that would be ‘brunch’. I know you haven’t eaten anything yet at least.”

“Two gremlins pulled me out of the inn before I had the chance.” The words are delivered with a tweak to their ears that makes Four squeak.

They leave the shop shortly after. Legend had found a bunny themed outfit that he claimed was “too Ravio not to buy for him” and so they’d visited the counter briefly. The man there, an elderly fellow, smiles at them as he rings them up, handing over the outfit with a wink. “It’s so nice to see a lovely family like yours in here. Do come again!”

They don’t think anything about the fact that he gives them a discount either, a bargain is a bargain as Legend always says, but then they reach the restaurant that Wind’s been insisting is “the best in all Castletown!” and they’re met with a similar sentiment, although this time in far more familiar phrasing.

“How lovely,” the lady at the front greets as the two smaller heroes drag Legend inside, the vet still smiling just a bit, “welcome in, folks!” And then she does the most infuriating thing and leans over to look him and Wind in the eyes, smiling condescendingly at them. “Have you two brought your mum in for our Mother’s Day special?”

And, well… they kind of have. They didn’t know there was a special of course, but once again, a deal is a deal and while Legend isn’t exactly their mom…

It doesn’t really matter. Especially not when someone at another table looks around and spies them, and immediately starts waving. “Hello there, Missus Taylor! Hello Violet!”

Green, internally, groans as they are recognized. Fortunately, Red takes the forefront and waves back, smiling shyly to the lady at the table and earning a soft coo in return.

“Missus Taylor?” The greeter starts slightly, standing up straight and looking Legend in the face, all surprise and chipperness even as the vet flushes a bit and tries to offer a smile. “Why, it’s an honour, madame! Your husband has done so much for all of us! Please, wait just a moment and I’ll get you a table as soon as possible!”

As soon as possible, it would seem, turns out to be within a few minutes, during which Wind and Four share a look and agree as one to apologize once there aren’t so many eyes on them.

This was supposed to be a day to make up for Legend having to play this role, not another Incident. It would seem, however, there’s not much chance of escaping these sorts of things.

“Should we go somewhere else?” Wind asks, glancing up at the vet as the lady from the front comes to lead them towards the back.

The veteran looks exhausted, but he shakes his head. “It’s not the end of the world. You said the foods good, right?”

It’s telling that he doesn’t complain more.

They make a note to make sure and pick up some magic potions before leaving- No, to stock up on potions to keep on hand. Maybe if Legend’s magical core is in better shape he will be too, and they owe him at least that much after what he does for them. And since apparently paying him back means taking up the role again, they kind of owe him even more now.

The place is nice at least. It’s rustic and charming, and checkerboard tablecloths are spread over little wooden tables throughout the room, stools set around and flowers sitting in centerpieces all around. They’re all made up of roses right now, with little decorated place cards that say “Happy Mother’s Day”.

The place is stuffed full, and there’s not much room between the tables, but they’re given one in the back, out of the worst of the bustle and shouting between patrons. They’d guess the table is probably kept aside for special guests, and for once, thank the fact that they’ve been mistaken for Warriors’ wife and kids because apparently the man has enough celebrity status to be given VIP treatment without a second thought.

“You’re right, this place is pretty nice,” Legend observes, still smiling that tired, but real smile as they settle down and the server assures them she’ll be right back to get their orders. Legend’s smile and Warriors’ have the same qualities these days, warm and weary, but genuine, and they’re glad to see it even if they do wish it was the bright and playful thing from the costume shop.

“Wars used to bring us here when the war was over,” Wind informs them, glancing over the carefully hand-written menu that’s been left on the table.

“He did?”

“Yeah,” the sailor glances around absently. “They were still trying to figure out how to send us all home, so in the meantime he took Time and I, and a few other friends, here to have dinner. The food is the best.”

“Any recommendations?” And there’s the playfulness they were hoping to see.

Wind grins right back, cocking his head on one side as he considers. “I know I’m always partial to the sea food dishes, but knowing your taste…” they’re not sure if Wind closes his eyes in thought as a conscious action or not, but it’s really kind of cute, “I think, this will please you.” And the sailor points to the listing for some sort of rich stew and savory bread that’s on the menu.

They take a look for themselves and when the server comes back they all have their orders, although Legend is the one who makes them, since apparently he is, once more, their mother today.

On Mother's Day.

The irony is sort of killing them, and Vio is having trouble not making them smile.

It gets harder still when the lady taking their order smiles and tells them that their current Mother’s Day special includes a half-off meal for mother’s and a free dessert. “Kids under ten eat free as well!”

And well, a deal is a deal, right? And Wind did say it first!

“I’m eight!” Red pipes up, “does that mean I count?”

“Yes, of course.” The woman beams at them, and then glances up to Wind expectantly.

The sailor flushes, mouth opening-

“My big brother is fourteen!” Red continues. Because yes, this is, in a way, a slight vengeance against the sailor for getting them involved at the market in his world. To cover a theft no less. By pirates, as Blue was only too frustrated to hear.

Their whole thing before being known as a hero was that they handled pirates, and knowing they aided in a raid, in any small way, triggers just the slightest bit of frustration with the most outspoken of their facets.

“Alright then!” The server chirps, and then recounts their order, offers Four another adoring and extremely condescending smile, and then heads off to the kitchen.

Legend chuckles. “Really F-”

“Violet,” Wind corrects softly, glancing around warily.

The vet pauses, checking himself before nodding and repeating, now corrected, with what he was going to say. “Really, Violet, you aren’t going to let your brother eat free?”

Dang, if Legend slipped form his role, he really must be tired! They’ve seen him play their mother half-asleep and with his eyes shut!

They, however, are perfectly capable of staying in character, which is definitely why they stick their tongue out at the sailor. Definitely.

Legend laughs, soft and warm, and shakes his head. “You two. I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”

It’s honestly such a mom thing to say that they’re not sure if the vet is acting or being serious.

And hey, they weren’t exactly planning on acting during their meal, but also, they aren’t exactly? Red is sort of just taking the lead and rather than being reserved as they normally would be, they just sort of… let themselves be silly. They let themselves drop the mature adult facade and be a kid because, hey, Violet is supposed to be eight, right? They can act like a kid and no one, not even the vet or Wind, will think twice of it!

And Wind is doing the same thing. The sailor isn’t trying to act like an adult either, or prove himself, and, even though they’re sort of supposed to be here to help the vet relax, it kind of feels like they’re the ones getting a break too here.

Well, until some kid starts insulting the vet.

“Who are you?” It’s some child from the table next to theirs, watching them with wide eyes and a little pout of thought on their face. The boy would almost be cute, they think, if not for the haughty look he keeps shooting at them.

“I’m Violet.” Red answers back, and barely contains a giggle because, hey, that’s what Blue used to call Vio when he was mad at him!

The other boy glances over at the vet and sailor, who are currently looking up at the wall decor around them and exchanging thoughts on it.

Artists. They’re not sure what they expected.

“Who are they?”

“That’s my momma and my big brother.” They’re almost tempted to complete the nonsense and name Wind as their big sister, but apparently the sailor is about as well known in this time as its own hero is.

The other child smirks. “That’s your mom? She’s tiny!”

Considering the child’s own mother- or who they presume to be his mother considering she’s sitting with him- is a very tall and muscular looking woman, the kid does have a bit of a point. Still, as someone with a height problem themselves, they’re not about to accept someone mocking their mother- er- brother. “She is not!”

“Is so.”

Are they really arguing with a child?

Yes, Blue declares, yes they are.

“Well,” they cross their arms as they stare down the distance between their two tables at the other child, “that’s just because she’s compact awesome.” An excuse that their father has murmured many a time in teasing tones to them, usually while tugging their hair, but which they’ve grown sort of attached to.

The vet spares them a short, very confused, glance.

The other child, the boy, glances at the vet again, staring for a very long while before shaking his head. “No.”

“She is.” They tilt their chin up just a bit, flashing a grin.

“My mom is cooler.”

Excuse?

“Not possible,” they smirk, “my mom can fight a lynel.”

“My mom’s a soldier.”

“My mom fought Ganon.”

“My mom fought Cia.”

Okay, now this kid is really getting on their nerves. It’s not even that they have anything against the woman seated at the other table and happily chattering with some other adults. They’re sure she might be an amazing person, all told, but something inside them is insisting- nay, demanding, that they not allow this slander to stand.

“Well, my mom can do magic.”

The other child’s eyes widen just a bit, glancing at the vet who is subtly watching them with a look of confusion on his face. Heck, even Wind is staring, mouthing a silent “what are you doing?” to them. But they’ve taken the steps and they’re not exactly about to let a child best them. Or insult the vet.

Said child, however, seems to hold similar convictions, looking back at them with a scowl on their little face. “Nuh uh.”

“She can,” they grin. “She can make plants bloom and die and she can talk to animals.” They have seen the vet do stuff like that after all. “And,” they continue, smirking as they look down their nose at the kid (and should they really be feeling so satisfied they can look down on a child?) “my momma can use holy magic.”

“Prove it!” Comes the little terror’s squeaking reply.

They scowl back. “Why, can’t your mama do magic?”

The pout on the child’s face would imply that no, their mother is not, in fact, capable of that.

Four grins. “Oh. Well, that’s okay. Can your mama sing like a bird? Mine can.”

The kid glances up at their mother, who’s deep laughter rings over the restaurant as she continues talking with another woman. He very much doubts the woman sings very sweetly. Oh, she may have a nice voice, but it’s not siren song quality.

“My momma can.” They continue, sitting back on their stool and grinning wider. “She sings like an angel to help us all sleep. And my momma gives the best hugs.” A little boney, to be sure, but the few times the vet has hugged them, usually while acting, it came with the overwhelming weight of his magic settling over them in a protective barrier. That was one of the two reasons they’d so eagerly climbed into his arms during the first ‘Incident’. The second was exhaustion and a migraine, but the magic had helped that too. They’re being honest though. In this group, it’s rare to get a hug from the others. Except Wind, but Wind is a kid and they feel responsibility when hugging him. Legend’s hugs don’t make them feel responsible for someone, they make them feel like it’s okay to not be responsible for a little bit.

“She really does,” Wind pipes up, apparently deciding he’s getting in on this now. “It feels like all scary stuff just melts away when our mom hugs us.”

They’re not sure if they’re imagining the flush on the vet’s face or not as Wind beams at the man. Regardless, though, the vet coughs softly, a silent request for them to leave the situation alone.

As proved in the past, many, many times, they are not good at following orders.

“Our mama makes stuff for us too. She fixes all our broken things and shows us how to do it too, so we can know stuff.”

“And she-” and well, they kind of just wrack their brain for every single thing they can think of that they like about Legend, or things that he can do or has done, and they watch the other kid’s pout turn more and more prominent even as Legend’s face turns progressively more and more red. It’s almost a game, again. Wind is grinning and they’re smiling back, and while there’s a third competitor here, that competitor is clearly losing as the two young heroes go back and forth trying to see who can make the vet flush the darkest with their praises of him.

And maybe, this isn’t exactly what Wars meant about showing Legend their appreciation and thanks, but it’s the thought that counts, right? And maybe the soft little smile the man hides behind his hand means that the vet does appreciate it, even if he’s all flustered by how they express their thanks.

There’s no audience this time, which makes things easier. There’s no crowd of people watching and judging. In the moment, there’s only a mere child to stand against and speak to, but it feels like the best performance they’ve ever given. Well, other than their treachery, but that was all Vio and this one is more Blue and Red.

It’s a pity, they mourn to themselves, that more people aren’t witness to this particular act. That they can’t share the flushing face of their big brother and the pout of the child and the grins on the faces of Wind and themself with all of the others. They think Warriors at the very least would enjoy seeing it. And Hyrule too, Hyrule loves to praise the vet. And Sky, Sky would love nudging Legend with one of those grins as he watches the other hero flush, teasing softly and telling him that it was all true and he shouldn’t get embarrassed, only to earn a kick under the table or some such response from a most likely wordless hero.

The only audience they have, instead, is the mother of the other child, who looks up after a moment, smiling at them and then turning to Legend with something warm and kind. “Somebody’s been making an impression on her little ones,” she compliments, warm and rich and sweet and so kind as the vet starts to look at her. Her smile is bright and even for her size she exudes a sense of warmth and safety as she winks at their vet. “Sounds like you're doing a great job there. Your kids love you very much, don’t they?”

The vet, somehow, flushes deeper, even as Four and Wind make a point of loudly agreeing with her that “yes, she’s the best mom ever!” and “she’s awesome!” even as the vet reaches a hand to rub at the back of his neck in that familiar nervous tick that they all have.

“I try.”

“You’re doing great.” The woman laughs, “Miss?”

The vet starts a bit, and they’re not sure how he somehow pulls a name out on the spot, but he did that for them too. “Kit.”

“You’re doing great, Kit,” the other mother praises, winking, and then turns back to her own child and reminds him to turn around and eat his meal.

Their own meal arrives shortly after, but Legend’s face is so busy hiding in his hands, ears burning red, that he doesn’t seem to notice until the younger heroes are very nearly through with their food.

He denies it all later. Won’t talk about it, won’t hear a word about being “touched” except to roll his eyes and call them touched in the head, all while another flush settles over him at the mere thought.

When Warriors asks how it went though, they tell him. They may or may not take especial pleasure in recounting the compliments and the flushing and the “other mom’s” encouragement, but it draws another of those real smiles to the captain’s face, earns some rich laughter and trembling shoulders as blue eyes lift for the first time in forever to settle on the figure of their vet, sitting across the room and working over his sword.

When they glance back though, following the captain's gaze, they’re greeted with the sight of Legend smiling softly to himself, flushed, but they can tell somehow that he’s pleased.

All in all, they’d call their mission successful.

And on Mother’s Day of all days too. Even Warriors can’t deny the humor of that.

#linkeduniverse #linked universe #the violet incident #lu legend #lu warriors #lu wind #lu four #four and wind like to make prolems #and solve them #but you can't make an omlet without breaking a few legs #er- eggs #right?#yeah #ketto writes #linked universe fanfic

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twink-between-worlds · 7 months ago

Note

can you ramble abt the warped timeline au. as a treat (i’m really bored+tired but I saw the post and I want to know more about it ^^)

~Willow

we absolutely CAN

Prince and Queen are the type of twins that'll kill each other but also kill FOR each other. Nobody gets to insult them except each other. The twins also tore up their official portrait and Impa hasn't found out yet. They fear the day she discovers it.

Light being blind in one of his eyes is due to Vio being completely blind. Vio was blinded when Shadow broke the mirror, and they aren't sure how they're gonna tell Shadow this when he gets back. But Vio being blind is fine. They've got magic on their side now, they don't need their sight to be able to commit crimes and navigate around

Moon is one of the best babysitters of the whole group. He likes looking after kids! He's good at it! He parents all of the links younger than him even if he doesn't mean to do it. He absolutely tells Shad all about the younger ones in letters.

Siren always tries to bring Chunk along with the group when they have to leave Outset. Absolutely nobody is having it. Chunk does not get to tag along and Siren is pouty about it

Warriors hits people with his cane if they annoy him. This ranges from gently bops on the head to getting full on whacked by it. He's a simple man who weaponises his mobility aid.

None of the older ones like that Prince has the pressure of running a whole kingdom, but Sprout is the most bothered by it. Frequently makes comments about how wrong it is, and how he really doesn't think kids should be given large responsibilities. Prince doesn't tell Sprout about his parents being MIA. he is pretty sure Sprout would try and adopt him on the spot.

Courage is a little bit feral. Not afraid to bite you. Little bit sassy, very protective of those he considers his family. He has asthma but being out of breath doesn't matter to him if you've hurt someone he cares abt, he's hunting u for sport

#the rainbow twinks #rainbow ask box #puddles #willow :D #manic + moon!#go eep if ur tired..ily/p #warped timeline is fun. to me.

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twst-drabbles · 2 years ago

Note

Wait can you do a dynamic explanation for how your oc acts with us(Yuu)?

Depends honestly, cause I have Eldritch Prefect, the Caretaker, the Janitor and the Regular Prefect to think about, buuuut since I don't want the post to get too long, Imma talk about the OC's in the house pet au.

For the Caretaker, Antas is another pet, but one that ran away from his owner after he attacked her live on television. Usually, driders such as he are considered to be dangerous pests, so when they show behavior such as that, they'd be put down without hesitation. Basically, he's a mini drider that wanders from house to house, hoping to find a cool little corner to spin his web in and rest. He does not look good, all malnourished and dehydrated since he does not know how to hunt for himself. But, of course, the Caretaker eventually finds him around in their garden and they have to take him in. He had to be in isolation for quite a bit cause he did not relax around the other pets. He needed to have small bits of exposure, over time until he eventually comes out of his shell. And man did he. His spider half started getting more and more vibrant until eventually they started to bloom in some colorful lilac butterfly scales on his abdomen with a stain-glass like pattern. But yeah, he very much ends up attached to the Caretaker at the hip. Would try to crawl up their leg and onto their shoulder. Sometimes will hide in high places and jump right on their head. He's a quiet little thing, but the little shakes of his limbs tell all of his happiness. He can still fit on your hand, just so you know.

Valenio in the house pet au is another pet that managed to escape his kidnappers. He's never had an owner but he did have a friend that he liked to visit cause they fed him all sorts of weird foods he's never find in the deepsea. He had a lot of little guppies following him around, hiding in his very long trails of frills and fins. He doesn't look that different from his regular au self, just vastly smaller. Though, he is the length of your leg. He is big, though not as heavy as you might think. His little human torso, you can grab with one hand, but just barely. But, anyways, Caretaker was having a beach day but had to cut it short when they found a beached Valenio, very much heavily injured with all the little guppies trying to keep hiding in what was left of his fins. At home, Valenio has a tank all to himself. It's a huge tank as well, almost reaching the ceiling. You need a ladder to reach but it's all fine. Caretaker did try to take him back to the sea, but nope, Valenio is staying planted in the tank. He likes it. You can't move him. Just you try. Much like the other pets, he's not the smartest. He tried to get the Caretaker in the tank with him, cause he didn't know they couldn't breathe underwater. Also, despite the large size of his tank, it's the easiest thing to clean cause he goes out of his way to help you out. Though he does have a meticulous system that you have to follow or he will give you the silent treatment.

Oh and the guppies are weird little things. They're these shapeless forms of ink, they tend to take on the form of clione but sometimes they look like jellyfish. Either way, it's a sentient thing that hide within the fins and frills of Valenio. They're not a hazard, nor does it bother him.

Vio is a another human, a brat of a human fae, but a human nonetheless. He's attending the college nearby and is trying to expand his social network in order to make something of himself and his family. To that point, he actually does, initially, look down on the existence of the Caretaker since all he's heard about them is that they're a shut-in that everyone else spoils. So, to his eyes, the Caretaker is a leech. Basically, he's rather ignorant of the plight of the Caretaker cause he has tunnel vision on his own goals. He has magic, so the job industry and the education system treats him as well. Vio has his own troubles to deal with, so he sees his efforts and his well treatment as a result of all his hard work rather than it being something he was always going to get. He will get humbled when he sees the stacks and stacks of rejection letters on the Caretaker's shelf.

Cheridal is a red sea snake that has taken up home in a little ice cream shop by the sea. His owners really do love him to death, but they can't be with him all the time, so they arranged for him to be staying with the Caretaker whenever winter rolls around. His owners don't live near here and they're hesitant on taking him with them as they don't want him to be too far from home. Cheridal is actually smaller than Jamil, thinner too, but that doesn't stop him from play fighting with all the pets. Hell, he'll even play fight with the Caretaker. He'll beat them one day, he swears! He really has too much energy, so when he's not wrestling, he's usually swimming in the pond outside. If the Caretaker is not looking, he will try to sneak into the freezer for any frozen treats that might be in there. He's a weird creature. He likes to take an ice cube, toss it to the floor and skid it across the floor and chase after it.

And Tul'Veith. He's another pet, a ghostly looking immortal jellyfish. His upper body is human, the rest below is the jellyfish, but all of him is slightly see through. You can see his bones. Anyways, Tul'Veith is very much a sickly little thing that was not taken care of right with his previous owner. The novelty of owning a unique pet wore off so that owner tied him up in a bag and threw him in a river. And, luckily, the Caretaker found them while they were on their hike. By the time the Caretaker took him to the vet, he had already started regressing back into a polyp. So, all the Caretaker could do was place him in a quarantine tank and wait for him to grow. And grow he did. Into the tiniest of baby pets. Here's the start of a new life for Tul'Veith, the strange little creature that still, somehow, remembers everything. He'll be staying here for a bit. Tul'Veith is very much loving despite all that he went through. Out of all the pets, this one has to be the most well behaved, but is also the kind that doesn't have much regard for the state of his body. He gets injured oh so easily and he knows it, but it doesn't stop him from playing around with the other pets when he can. He actually weirds a lot of the other pets out cause they're not used to someone as small as he. They look at him and register a baby, but he does not act like one at all, so they take caution and tend to just, distance themselves. Seriously, he's like the size of your pinky. He's tiny.

#admin #twst oc #oc #antas #antas m agoria #house pet au #valenio mara #valenio #vio naphiet #vio #tul'veith #cheridal

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lucky-clover-gazette · 2 years ago

Text

it's dangerous to go alone

two years after shadow and vio's evil takeover, the gang reunites for dinner. this is a multi-chapter continuation of the oneshot "thank darkness for that," which introduces a corruption-type au that's actually super chill. definitely read the one-shot before following this one!

chapter 7 of 7: the final boss (4441 words)

Red takes Blue by the hand, leading them both to a large painting on the wall opposite from where they entered. It looks out-of-place with its ornate frame, and a small golden plaque that Red currently obscures.

“All art is good art,” Red remarks, “but this composition still feels wrong.”

Blue cocks his head, sizing up the piece. It’s a nighttime scene in dark blues and greys, depicting a tree-lined path leading towards a dark mountain.

“There should be something in the foreground,” Red continues. “It’s weird, but I feel like I’ve seen this somewhere before…”

“Guys!” shouts Shadow across the room, although Blue can’t quite bring himself to look away from the painting. “I think I know who’s been living down here!”

“Oh,” Red says quietly, something in his voice breaking Blue out of his trance. “There’s a plaque.”

Red steps backwards, finally allowing Blue to read the name of the strange painting:

Evil Spirit from Beyond

PHANTOM TINGLE.

read the rest on ao3 or under the cut:

“So we just have to insert the swords, right?” Blue asks, sizing up the puzzle-lock on the dungeon’s (hopefully) final door.

“Only one way to find out,” Green says, sliding his sword into one of the four slots. They hear a loud click and Red follows suit.

Green cups his hand around his mouth and turns his head. “Hey, Vio! We need your sword!”

The Kings of Hyrule rejoin the group hand in hand. Seeing Vio, Red beams.

“Finally, you’re wearing it!”

Vio sheepishly rubs the back of his now-exposed neck. “The scrunchie is really nice, Red. Thank you again.”

“I can make more, as long as we survive!”

With that somber reminder, Blue takes a deep breath and relinquishes his sword. Vio does the same.

The Links are no longer surprised by the puzzle-solve jingle, but they certainly aren’t expecting the sudden appearance of a whole other door. But there it is, right beside the large now-unlocked door, as if there’s always been an easy way out.

“That’s weird,” Zelda says, cracking it open. Daylight pours into the dark hallway, and Blue has so many questions about the teleportation magic holding this entire dungeon together. How is Tingle capable of this? And why is he only doing it now?

Zelda cranes her head. “It leads to the woods outside Castle Town.”

“No shit?” Shadow asks, joining her. “Well, no shit.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Vio says, arms crossed over his chest. “I’m not letting Tingle take the throne. He wants me to play his game—so I’ll play, and I’ll win.”

Blue watches Shadow take his husband’s side. “Right there with you. Who knows if we’d be able to get into Castle Town, anyway? Tingle could have turned the entire Royal Guard against us already.”

Vio nods. “That’s what I would do in his place. I’d then put out a cash reward for us, dead or alive, and make sure everyone in Castle Town knows it.”

Red turns to him with deep concern. “You’re kinda evil, Vio.”

“Yeah, Red, I know.”

“But why would Tingle even include this door in the first place?” Green asks no one in particular. “Seems counter-intuitive to the whole ‘making us betray each other’ theme we’ve seen so far.”

Blue crosses his arms over his chest. “I think it makes perfect sense—kind of a final ‘screw-you’ to Vio and Shadow, giving us the chance to abandon them while they have no choice but to clean up their mess.”

Vio’s gaze is razor-sharp. “So, will you?”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Aw, Blue,” Red coos, taking his hand. “I’m so proud of you!”

Blue, ironically, can feel himself turn red. “I… shut up.”

Zelda locks eyes with Shadow. “You already know I’m staying. Green, you too, I assume?”

“Yep,” he answers, not even skipping a beat.

Shadow looks from Zelda to the room’s only other occupants. “We should tell our new friends what’s going on, don’t you think?”

She gives him a thumbs-up, addressing the four hinoxes who appear to have started a game of cards during Vio’s emotional outburst-monologue-apology. “We think the next room is the last,” Zelda informs the group. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. There’s a door out of here and you’re welcome to use it.”

The largest of the four crosses his arms over his chest and gives the hinox closest to him a look. She only shrugs, while the smallest of the group seems to struggle with her words.

“I think it’s just… I’m not really a fighter,” she eventually says, and the hinox beside her nods in agreement. “I want to help you all, and I’m not very happy I was used in this weird dungeon thing, but…”

“It’s okay,” Shadow tells the group. “You’ve already been put in enough danger on our behalf.”

“Good luck out there,” Shadow tells the hinoxes as they head for the door. “Hopefully we’ll see you soon.”

“Hopefully not,” the largest says kindly, “but we still appreciate your help. Good luck to you all… even the nepotism hire.”

The hinoxes depart without further discussion, and in their absence Green cracks a smile. “So Vio’s the nepotism hire, right?”

The nepotism hire scowls. “I—I’m not! I… well… if you define it in a certain way… never mind. Let’s just figure out a plan before we rush into anything.”

“My plan is to stab whatever’s in there until it dies,” Blue says, already reaching for his sword.

It doesn’t budge.

“Never mind.”

Green reaches for his own weapon with equally discouraging results. “Tingle must want us unarmed.”

“Wish I had my powers,” Shadow mutters, and then pauses. “Wait. Are my powers, like, permanently gone now?”

Blue and Red wince. “Sorry,” they say in unison.

Shadow takes a deep breath. “It’s only fair, I guess—I relieved you of your burdensome Triforce powers, and you took my super fun and cool Dark World magic. Not like you had a choice, anyway.”

“If it makes you feel any better,” Red says, “I can get you in touch with an amateur magician I know from the craft store.”

Vio makes a stink face. “Pull a rabbit out of your hat and we’re getting a divorce.”

“A-ha, but the real trick is that I get to marry you again!”

Green claps his hands together. “Guys, focus. Weapons—what do we have?”

“Red’s got his fireplace poker,” Blue says, and Red raises it enthusiastically. “Put that down, you maniac, you’re going to take someone’s eye out.”

“That’s the plan!”

“Do you still have your stake?” Vio asks Shadow, who shakes his head.

“Nah. Burned up. You?”

“Same, actually.”

Green turns to Zelda. “You still have something, right? From the stolen furniture room?”

She sighs. “Just a fountain pen. Not sure what I was thinking, really.”

Green tries and fails to smile reassuringly. “You never know.”

“I think I should lead,” Red tells Blue, tugging at his sleeve.

Blue frowns. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I know you guys have my back.”

Blue’s heart skips a beat as Red approaches the large door. It opens with a loud creak, revealing a large circular room. The six file inside and allow the door to slam shut behind them.

“It looks empty,” Blue observes, scanning over the space. They appear to be in some kind of servants’ quarters, long abandoned by Hyrule’s current leadership. A few wooden tables litter the center of the room and bunk beds line the walls. The only other doorway is open, seemingly leading to a small kitchen.

“No exits,” Vio says. “What… what is this place?”

“It’s your castle,” Green retorts, not unkindly. “Zelda, any ideas?”

“I don’t think servants have actually lived inside the castle since my grandparents assumed the throne. Everyone has housing in Castle Town.”

Shadow is the first to separate from the group, walking over to the bunk beds. “Looks like one’s unmade.”

Blue watches Vio quickly join his husband’s side, while Green and Zelda search the tables for useful items.

“I think someone’s been living here,” Green says, holding up a glass bottle full of milk. “Smells fresh.”

“All art is good art,” Red remarks, “but this composition still feels wrong.”

Blue cocks his head, sizing up the piece. It’s a nighttime scene in dark blues and greys, depicting a tree-lined path leading towards a dark mountain.

“There should be something in the foreground,” Red continues. “It’s weird, but I feel like I’ve seen this somewhere before…”

“Guys!” shouts Shadow across the room, although Blue can’t quite bring himself to look away from the painting. “I think I know who’s been living down here!”

“Oh,” Red says quietly, something in his voice breaking Blue out of his trance. “There’s a plaque.”

Red steps backwards, finally allowing Blue to read the name of the strange painting:

Evil Spirit from Beyond

PHANTOM TINGLE.

Thrown back by a sudden flash of light, Blue and Red scramble towards the center of the room. Green and Zelda help them to their feet, while Vio and Shadow vault over tables to join their friends. The six watch in horror as a spectral form begins to emerge from within the painting.

Hovering a few feet above the ground, a ghostly version of Tingle flashes them a menacing grin. It holds up what Blue first thinks is a sword, but quickly recognizes as a wooden spoon. Phantom Tingle swings the spoon with a grunt, sending a dangerous ball of light in Blue’s direction.

“Guys, scatter!”

As if in slow motion, Red throws himself between Blue and the projectile. He whacks it back with his fireplace poker, temporarily stunning Phantom Tingle with his own attack.

The other four do as they’re told, running to opposites of the large room, but Blue stays at Red’s side. “I’m not leaving you,” he huffs, and scans the surrounding tables for anything he can use to help.

Phantom Tingle sends another attack towards Red, who deflects it flawlessly yet again. Unfortunately this time the boss is prepared, and parries the energy ball for a sequence of nail-biting back-and-forth volleys. It takes a few passes, but Red finally manages to land a hit again.

This time Blue acts, running over to the stunned enemy and throwing a punch as a last resort. He misses the ghost entirely, and to add insult to injury, gets whacked on the head by the wooden spoon.

“Ow!” Blue rubs the point of impact and rolls out of the way as Tingle prepares another energy attack. He watches Red brace himself and then glances back at their enemy, who seems to be taking just a little more time than expected to send out a projectile.

It’s changing the timing, Blue realizes, and knows Red isn’t prepared to respond. A strange instinct causes Blue to snatch up an empty glass bottle and use it to deflect the attack—and despite this being a terrible idea, it somehow fucking works.

Phantom Tingle takes the hit, and this time it’s more than stunned. Red grabs Blue by the arm as the single boss splits into four. The Phantom Tingles, plural, are only distinguishable by the colors of their spectral forms: green, purple, red, and—of course—blue.

It appears they’ve entered the second phase.

─────────────────

“Look out!”

Green dodges at Zelda’s warning, just in time to avoid the green(er than usual) Phantom Tingle’s attack. The enemy taunts him as it zooms around, phasing in and out of thin air. It seems able to turn invisible at will, making it impossible to even tackle.

Beside Green, Zelda narrows her eyes. “Really wish you had your sword right now.”

“Yeah, join the club. And hey, Zel?”

“Yes, Green?”

“Sorry for being a jerk about your dinner party plan. You were right the whole time.”

Zelda turns to face him, her expression soft. “Aw, it’s—OW!”

Out of nowhere, Tingle manages to land a hit—nothing too serious, but enough to tear the fabric of Zelda’s business-casual attire.

“Get behind me,” Green says without hesitation, but Zelda shakes her head. She runs a hand along the now-torn neckline of her dress, scowling… but then her expression shifts.

“Actually,” she tells Green, “you get behind me.”

She withdraws the stolen fountain pen from within her bra and twists it in half, revealing the cartridge inside. Zelda swings half of the pen in an arc, coating their invisible enemy in black ink.

With the other half of the pen—the sharp top half—she brutally stabs Phantom Tingle until it disappears.

Green’s jaw drops as Zelda turns to face him. She tosses the pen pieces over her shoulder with an easy smile.

“Not sure why I ever doubted myself,” she says, and Green thinks she’s the coolest person in the world.

─────────────────

Vio and Shadow take Blue’s command to scatter seriously, ducking inside the small kitchen Tingle has been apparently using on a daily basis. A large pot of pumpkin soup remains on the stove, with an empty potion bottle beside it.

“We should have been paying more attention,” Vio mutters as he crosses over to the oven. He makes sure it’s off, because Hylia forbid Tingle try to murder them and leave the burner on, and then turns back to Shadow across the counter island.

Well, back to Shadow and… Shadow.

“Wait,” Vio says slowly, “I thought you couldn’t shapeshift anymore… which… well, you wouldn’t shapeshift into yourself, even if you could… and there are two of you… I am very confused.”

Both Shadows roll their eyes.

“Purple Tingle flew in here and shapeshifted into me,” explains one of them, while the other crosses his arms.

“No, that’s Purple Tingle, he’s describing what he did.”

Vio looks from one Shadow to the other, already hating where this going.

“Well? What are you waiting for? Kill the imposter!”

“I’m obviously me, Vio, kill him—”

“Both of you, shut up,” Vio says tiredly, picking up a kitchen knife still covered in pumpkin guts. This feels like the third time he’s felt directly responsible for his husband’s potential death tonight—how many times will he have to prove his devotion?

Vio thinks back to earlier, in the throne room, when he’d been so stressed out about the sunlight hitting Shadow at the wrong angle. Then in the chamber of stolen furniture, where they’d both been immobilized, and in the dark hallway, where they’d been forced to separate. He thinks about Zelda, fiercely protective of Shadow, and Red, being kind enough to make him a gift by hand. Vio remembers his own conflicting emotions when Blue had described his time in the Dark World—the revelation that Shadow hadn’t been dying at all, but simply letting go of the darkness that had once defined him.

Vio remembers standing in front of the Dark Mirror, so many years ago, struggling with the mallet’s heavy weight and Shadow’s precious life in his hands.

His grip tightens around the knife.

“I could tell you something only your real husband would know,” one of the Shadows offers, and it could be his Shadow, but there is no guarantee. Vio doubts any single piece of evidence could be reassuring enough for him to hurt either of these creatures.

But if he doesn’t act in his husband’s defense… who will?

“Okay, fuck this.”

Shadow—the real Shadow—rips a frying pan off the kitchen wall and smashes it against the imposter’s skull. Not-Shadow transforms at once, first into a purple ghostly Tingle, and then into nothing at all.

Vio looks at Shadow, dumbfounded. “You… you just…”

Shadow just shrugs, that infallibly irreverent grin on his face. “I know you’d do anything for me, Vio. But I can do things for me too.”

Vio drops the knife, takes a deep breath, and allows himself to be held.

─────────────────

The red Phantom Tingle is basically made of fire, and it’s ironically the one thing Red’s fireplace poker can’t defeat.

He shakes out his hand as the weapon clatters to the ground, its metal far too hot for Red to grip, even by the handle. Whatever makes up this thing, it burns much more intensely than any natural fire. Not even the fire rod could omit this level of heat, and forget destroying the monster—Red has absolutely no idea how he’s even supposed to touch it.

Red steps backwards and catches Blue out of the corner of his eye, struggling with his own color-coded enemy. His Phantom Tingle appears to be made of ice, and he’s having similar trouble figuring out how to approach it.

Until he throws a punch, that is, and is frozen in place.

“Again?” Red exclaims, rushing to his friend/employee/roommate’s aid. As expected, the fiery Tingle follows him right over to Blue, melting him free just by proximity.

“Holy shit,” Blue says and Red envelopes him in a hug.

“Glad you’re okay! But we still have to fight these—”

The red and blue Phantom Tingles collide, instantly defeating each other with opposite elemental energies.

“Oh,” Red remarks. “That makes sense.”

“Really hoping that’s the last phase,” Blue groans as Vio and Shadow exit the kitchen. They look fine, if a little shaken, and Green and Zelda…

“Why are you covered in ink?” Blue asks them. Zelda just grins.

“Fountain pen?” Shadow asks her with a similar expression.

She nods. “Fountain pen.”

“Are we done?” Vio asks the group, and also maybe Hylia herself. “Can we be done now?”

Green shakes his head. “I haven’t heard that noise yet…”

The six stand in a circle at the center of the room, back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back, scanning their surroundings for any sign of Phantom Tingle’s final form.

“Oof.”

Six heads swivel to find a final, life-size Phantom Tingle standing in the center of their circle. He looks up at them all, sheepish, and raises both hands in surrender.

Blue looks to red, already rolling up his sleeves. “I don’t think we need weapons for this, do you?”

Red considers what he had almost lost today—his friends, his life, Blue—and shakes his head. “Nope! But can I say something first?”

“Make it quick,” says Vio, who looks extremely eager to start kicking the shit out of Tingle-once-removed.

Cracking his knuckles, Red smiles. “I just think it’s just really nice we can all work together again.”

─────────────────

One relentless beating later, a new door appears below the Phantom Tingle painting.

“There it is,” Shadow mutters, watching the other Links react to the tune in their heads. Zelda, bless her heart, is still visibly confused by the whole thing.

“Swords,” Blue reminds the group before they can head for the exit. Turning his head, Shadow sees that the lock puzzle seems to have disappeared. The four swords lay unceremoniously on the ground beneath the heavy door.

Shadow follows Vio as he retrieves his weapon. “Glad to have it back?” he asks as the six return to the exit door.

Vio nods. “Yes. I don’t think we’re quite done here, Shadow. There’s still Real Tingle to worry about.”

“We’ve got your back,” Green tells them both. Blue, Red, and Zelda nod in agreement.

Shadow takes a deep breath and reaches for the doorknob. And then—because there’s no use in delaying the inevitable—he opens the door.

“CONGRATULATIONS!”

Shadow is blinded by artificial light, bright colors, and flashes from party decorations. Ironically, when he does manage to see, things makes even less sense—Tingle floats from a balloon before them, flanked by the instantly recognizable faces of castle staff and acquaintances, with a decidedly un-sinister smile on his face.

This can’t seriously be happening, Shadow thinks to himself.

Tingle throws confetti at the stunned six heroes, and by Hylia, this is seriously happening.

“You’re all friends again!” Tingle enthuses, so incredibly earnest that Shadow worries for his immediate safety.

Speaking of which…

“No, Vio, no!” Shadow scolds, already reaching for his husband. It takes the combined might of Shadow, Blue, and Green, but they manage to hold him back.

“I am going to tear you limb from fucking limb, you deranged son of a—“

“Vio!” Shadow repeats, squeezing his arm. “Stop it.”

Vio turns to him, incredulous. “Shadow, he almost killed us all! Multiple times! He basically tortured you, and he took your powers—”

Shadow shakes his head. “I appreciate your passion, beloved, but I can fend for myself. And I gave those up willingly, remember? I told Blue to shatter the mirror.”

“Deep breaths, buddy,” Red tells Vio, who now looks more embarrassed than pissed off.

Shadow watches Zelda pinch the bridge of her nose. “So, Tingle, let me get this straight—you created this entire dungeon, put something in our soup and forced us through an elaborate series of dangerous trials… as a teambuilding exercise?”

Tingle nods, as if that’s the most normal thing a person could possibly do.

Zelda turns to Shadow. “Do you believe him? He’s your employee.”

Shadow thinks back to the time he’s known Tingle, the genuine moments of trust and familiarity he’s felt in the strange little freak’s presence, and...

“Honestly, yeah, I do,” Shadow says, surprising even himself. “We’ve talked a lot about wanting to make things right with you guys—I mean, that was the point of the dinner in the first place.”

“The Kings did say it wouldn’t be an easy task,” Tingle explains. “I went along with the dinner party idea, but really… what else could have brought you all back together?”

“I don’t know,” Vio seethes, “something other than near-death? Something proportionate to the circumstances at hand?”

“My plan was completely proportionate to the circumstances at hand.”

“We did corrupt the world,” Shadow tells Vio, resisting the urge to fix his tousled hair. “Even if it was, like, chill.”

“Hylia, whatever,” Vio groans, shoving off Blue and Green. “I need a drink.”

“What you really need,” Green says, “is a better hiring manager.” He grabs a glass of evil root beer from a passing castle employee and downs the entire thing in one go.

Shadow acquires drinks for Vio and himself. “Last time I checked, we’re the hiring managers.”

“Well, you’re both atrocious at it. I’m finding a seat.”

“Of course!” Tingle says, ushering the six towards a nicely-decorated table in the center of the room. “I invited everyone you know to celebrate, arranged the catering and everything!”

“Did you also arrange the murder dungeon?” Blue asks dryly, grabbing a mozzarella stick off a banquet table as they pass.

“Because if so, you did a great job!” Red adds, because of course he does.

The six settle at the table, each in a different stage of shock, as Tingle continues to explain his involvement in the evening’s events. “I won’t bore you with the details—”

Vio scoffs. “I sincerely believe there is not a single detail about this night that could be boring.”

“—but I assure you, everything was planned. The hazards, the puzzles, the magic pulling it all together, were all completely controlled circumstances.”

“Uh,” Zelda says, “the hinoxes? Were they in on it?”

Tingle frowns. “Well, hm. No. I kinda left that room until the last minute, so I ended up using extra potion to knock out some landscaping specialists. It wasn’t too hard to do a temporary charm convincing them they were Vaati’s henchpeople.”

“I didn’t even know you could do magic,” Shadow tells Tingle, almost impressed.

“Oh, but I can, with the help of Force Gems and the royal library!”

“I don’t know enough about Force Gems and the royal library to dispute that.”

“It tracks,” Vio admits, clearly hating the words as they leave his mouth.

“But back to the hinoxes,” Zelda says, taking a sip of her drink. “That doesn’t sound very controlled to me. And what about the Dark Mirror, and Blue’s trip to the Dark World? Shadow losing his powers? How could you have anticipated all that?”

“Yeah, uh,” Shadow tells Tingle, “I was in very real pain for a bit there.”

Tingle sighs. “I didn’t know that the mirror being fractured would hurt you. I thought Blue or Red would simply fall in and realize they needed to break it completely, and that’d be that.”

“But did we have to break it at all?” Red asks, although his voice remains empathetic. “Shadow losing his powers is a pretty severe consequence of events that didn’t actually need to happen.”

Tingle turns to Shadow, addressing him specifically. “It was going to happen soon enough. Surely, you could tell something was going on with your connection to the Dark World. I realized it myself when you told Vio about being comfortable in the sunlight.”

“Sure” Shadow concedes, “but you still have to admit this whole thing was pretty insane. A lot of things could have gone very wrong.”

“I was almost killed by a lizalfos,” says Green.

Vio’s expression turns somber. “And I had to sacrifice the Fire Temple throne.”

Shadow slams a hand over his own mouth. “No!”

“It sounds like you had good intentions,” Red tells Tingle with a reassuring smile. “And the party is very nice.”

Tingle frowns. “Yeah… okay, I’m starting to see the flaws in my plan. Sorry I got overzealous. I’ll, uh, make sure to send the hinoxes gift baskets or something.”

For some reason, Shadow feels compelled to comfort the strange little man. Maybe he sees himself in the guy, just a little—hadn’t he and Vio thought the same thing about hiring him in the first place?

“You know what?” Shadow says, not quite smiling but not frowning, either. “At the end of the day, your plan was successful. It brought us all together again. And I’m thankful for that.”

Tingle gives him a tiny bow, which looks particularly strange since he’s suspended mid-air by a balloon. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Shadow glances at Vio, who nods for him to continue. “But, Tingle… you’re still fired. Not banished or anything—but very, very fired.”

Tingle takes a moment to consider, and then shrugs. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

Seemingly inspired, Red turns to Blue. “You’re fired too!”

“Sorry?”

“You hate working at the shop. You need to do something you actually care about!”

“Hylia, are you evicting me from the apartment too?”

“Of course not, silly! I love living with you!”

Shadow notices Blue’s blush and smirks. Okay, something’s definitely going on there.

“Fine,” Blue says, “yeah, thanks, actually. I think I want to try my hand at some actual dungeon crawling. I have always claimed to be the real Hero, after all.”

“By all means, go ahead,” Green tells him. “I’m perfectly happy on the ranch.”

Shadow reaches for Vio’s hand and squeezes it. “Not to be tacky, but I think we should do a toast.”

Vio raises an eyebrow. “That is very tacky, actually. Let’s do it.”

Everyone at the table, Tingle included, raises their glasses.

“To the future,” Shadow says, basking in the attention of his new friends.

“And to friends,” Vio adds with a shy smile.

Red beams. “And to fun!”

“And adventure,” contributes Blue.

Green looks to Zelda. “To courage.”

“And wisdom.”

“And pumpkin soup!” Tingle exclaims, and even Vio can’t help but chuckle at the sheer absurdity.

Shadow clinks his husband’s glass and takes a sip from his own. “To the darkest timeline,” Vio says quietly, just between them. Shadow goes in for the headbonk with no hesitation.

“Thank darkness for that.”

#my writing #fs #four swords #four swords manga #vio link #shadow link #blue link #red link #green link #fs zelda #four swords zelda #vidow #vio x shadow

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