#and the area around satori mountain | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

noirandchocolate · 6 months ago

Text

In the vein of this post I made a couple weeks ago about imagining locations in the Breath of the Wild/Age of Calamity era map of Hyrule being bigger, more populated, etc., I want to share some headcanons I've got about one place specifically: Satori Mountain!

Satori Mountain is one of the most mystical locations in Hyrule, what with the Lord of the Mountain and many blupees calling it home. I picture it with an entire grove of pink sakura in the area around the summit, not just one. And I love the thought that the trees are ever-blooming, just timelessly flowering and shedding petals regardless of the seasons changing around them. In fact, I headcanon that uncannily unseasonal plant growth is present all around the mountain, with the caches of herbs, veggies, mushrooms, and other plants dotting the slopes all unaffected by the passage of time elsewhere. It is always apple season on Satori Mountain, even though it is also always sakura blossom season. (BotW is a video game where the seasons don't apparently change anywhere else, either, despite how many in-game days one spends saving the world. However, I think Hyrule, if it was a "real place," would have seasons. But Satori Mountain doesn't.)

So why is this? Well, to extend my headcanon, I theorize that Satori Mountain is situated atop a very large wellspring of Ancient Energy. I could tangent off into my ideas about the ancient Sheikah and how Sheikah magic works and Ancient Furnaces and all that, but for now I'll stick to my narrower subject (you're welcome). Anyway, the energy continually revitalizes the mountain and its land, plants, and animals, which in turn then keep the wellspring of this natural energy going, creating a cycle that makes Satori Mountain the way it is.

Despite the fact that it could have been an enormous source of Ancient Energy for the Sheikah of days long past, to be tapped with Furnaces and used to power their technology, etc., this was never done. Instead, the Ancient Sheikah considered Satori Mountain especially sacred because of its uniquely timeless and powerful energy, and would never have risked unbalancing it. Instead, they took note of the fact that the land kept plants fruiting and regrowing, and cultivated many varieties of foliage and crops in groves and clearings on the mountain. The Sheikah had some settlements around the base of the mountain and in its environs, and lived harmoniously with the land--farming their apples and carrots and pumpkins and such, but carefully, so as not to over-use the land's energy.

I may be making a post at some point about my headcanons on Sheikah shrine locations in general, but for now I'll say I believe Satori Mountain was chosen as a site for Monk Mogg Latan's shrine because the area was so important to the Sheikah. The ancients who were setting up the shrines as places for a future Hero to train and receive the monk's spirits had no idea that the Hylian King of their era would soon turn against their people...

So! Because my posts always devolve into Yiga Clan stuff, here we go. Yiga Clan stuff.

My lil' story is that! When the ancient King was oppressing and then full-on committing genocide against the Sheikah, turning over their villages across the kingdom and then chasing down and killing those who were refusing to disarm and submit (and even many of those who'd surrendered), eventually he turned his eye toward those living on and near Satori Mountain--who had been joined by many fleeing others. The Sheikah thought that surely, the Hylians wouldn't attack them in their most sacred space, which was clearly blessed by Hylia. Surely the Royal Family they'd been protecting and serving and doing the dirty work of for centuries untold wouldn't go that far. Surely even this murderous King would stop short of such desecration! Well, they were wrong. The army showed up. And rather than make a last horrible, bloody stand on the mountain they loved, and risk its destruction, the Sheikah fled once more, leaving only a few warriors behind to hold off the pursuit as long as possible.

And many of those involved—some of whom had already been militantly angry and disinclined to obey the anti-tech, anti-magic, and anti-armaments laws, and some of whom were finally convinced of the Royal Family's depravity by its actions at the Mountain--used their abilities to run and hide in the Gerudo Highlands. Up over the plateaus of that unforgiving land, and into the desert. Specifically, to a certain valley...and a site that had been abandoned by the Gerudo long ago... And one of those Sheikah, who’d been the Chief of the villages around the Mountain…well I bet you can’t even guess what his name was, and what he became. Let’s just say that every one of his successors has taken that name and title on their ascension to the post…

Fast forward through thousands of years, and by the time of Age of Calamity (and the 100-years-ago Calamity of BotW), Satori Mountain is known to Hylians as a wild, strange place. Best not to ever go there, because They Say the Lord of the Mountain will curse you if you so much as look upon him. And there are so many tales about the place being haunted. About travelers in days past who would hear voices on the mountain, but never find their source. About finding new, un-rusted farming implements in the apple orchard, but never seeing any other people around. Some of the stories, the scarier ones meant to keep children awake at night and adults from getting ideas, end with unwary explorers being attacked by barely-seen assailants, who simply slash, laugh, and disappear without a trace. Perhaps the ghosts of ancient Sheikah warriors, still furious and traitorous over the ancient King's necessary disarmament of a race that could have turned on the pure, precious Royal Family and their Hylia-blessed, rightful rule?

Well...yes and no. :)

Because you see...the Clan needs to eat. And it cannot live on bananas alone (more's the pity). And given that (as I said in my linked post above) their complex in Karusa Valley runs deep into the Highlands...Satori Mountain isn't that far from where they live.

I think one of the things the Yiga have retained of their Ancient Sheikah heritage is a feeling of connection to Satori Mountain that even the Kakariko Sheikah are only recently (only since they were allowed to come out of hiding to help King Rhoam prepare for the newly-foretold return of Calamity Ganon) beginning to rediscover. I think the mountain is one of their food sources, alongside the banana groves in Faron (yet another headcanon for yet another time) and all the theft and shady, disguised dealings they do. I think they take branches from the sakura every year for their spring matsuri rituals. I think their operatives traveling across the kingdom purposely cultivate those spooky stories, to fend other races away. I think those sent to gather materials and hunt, if they see, hear, or otherwise sense anyone else around, will reenact the ghost stories or at least teleport away, leaving the intruders wondering what they just heard. I think newly-married couples often run up to the peak to unmask and show each other their true faces where no one else will bother them. I think that although many members of the Clan never or rarely leave the Valley, they all value the Mountain as a historical site for their people's resistance and as a place that nourishes them to this day.

In short, I think Satori Mountain is Important to the Yiga Clan. After all, a place where the sakura are constantly both displaying the fragility of life by shedding their blossoms and tenaciously hanging on, refusing to die? I think they find that fitting.

#yiga clan #legend of zelda #breath of the wild #age of calamity #kidk says stuff #((this post is my birthday gift to meee bc i haven't had time to post essays lately lol))#note that mogg latan’s shrine is about balance (on moving platforms at the beginning) and dealing with…big spiky balls :)#kidk headcanons

25 notes · View notes

wheresmycontent · 2 years ago

Text

Paradise Awaits [Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild]

Link x Reader [Cis-Female]

C|TW: none

After months of rigorous fighting and training, he’s finally done it. Ganon was no more, having been defeated once and for all. The beasts that preyed on the remaining hylians were now slain and no longer regenerating. With the freedom to unwind and focus on building a better future, Link could do what he’s been craving for a while.

During his time as the hero destined to free Zelda and vanquish Ganon, Link couldn’t allow himself to feel anything. There was no time for romantic attraction, there wasn’t any time for him to be indulging himself, let alone committing to someone when he hadn’t put an end to the chaos. It didn’t completely stop him from socializing though, he didn’t mind befriending travelers and merchants along his journey. Like when he met you on his way to Lurelin.

He asked you about the area and a series of questions concerning rumors and unruly monsters. You even sold him some resources you’ve collected from the region. It wasn’t much of an interaction but he remembered the way you treated him kindly and offered to assist him on his journey. In these times when he was met with rude and entitled Hylians, it was a nice change. He’s always had a spot for the ones that still spread kindness in these trying times.

After parting he thought about you more than he’d like to admit. Finding himself curious about what you were up to and if you reached your destination safely, especially on the nights of the blood moon. It’d be devastating if you happened to be around the stronger monsters with little to no chance of escaping them. He’d have to remind himself not to dwell on the dark and morbid thoughts, and focus on putting an end to the madness. Then, he would have less of a reason to think you or the people he’s befriended have met a gruesome death.

He didn’t expect to see you as often as he did. Once Link had completed his tasks in Faron he thought that'd be the last time he spoke with you. Yet upon reaching Gerudo and disguising himself as a vai, you pulled him into a vacant area to ask why he thought it was funny to disrespect the people of Gerudo. Of course, he was a little embarrassed to be caught impersonating vai but he was happy to see you again in good health. After explaining himself for context, the two of you did catch up over lunch. That’s how he learned you could protect yourself against the Lizalfos and Moblins that lurked around.

When you had departed from Gerudo to visit your family, having been on the road for a while, Link was on his way to calm Vah Naboris. He didn’t expect to be bothered about not being able to say goodbye, he told himself it was because he forgot to buy the few bright-eyed crabs you had left. That couldn’t be the reason since he’d already bought plenty from Bugut during his time near Kariko. Nonetheless, he didn’t let himself ponder too much, he had a mission to complete.

It had been many days, probably two weeks before Link had run into you for the third time. He felt a sense of relief when he spotted you in the Hebra region, during his search for hidden shrines. You were collecting spicy peppers and cool safflina that day. As the two of you caught up, you were so excited while telling him of your new experiences and it made him feel warm inside. Link wondered how you’d react to seeing the beauty of Satori Mountain, maybe you’d like the cherry blossoms and serene atmosphere.

That night as the two of you part ways once more, Link was sure that he developed romantic feelings for you. He was scared to walk away, not sure if he’d ever see you again. However, he knew that for the sake of Hyrule he had to keep moving. He told himself that while he couldn’t pursue you he could at least use these overwhelming feelings as motivation to finish his work. Then, and only then, is when he would think of revealing his feelings to you. It’d save you both the heartache if he waited until peace was restored.

From then on, Link fought harder somehow. Knowing that the sooner this was all over, he could have you. He wasn’t able to see you as much after your encounter in the Hebra region, but he was informed by other travelers that you were alive and well. That’s all he needed to carry on. That, and the memories of you. It took him a couple of months but he finally defeated Ganon and freed Zelda. As they stood in the fields of Hyrule there was one thing on his mind. Searching for you as soon as possible and finally telling you just how much you mean to him.

While he didn’t expect you to wait for him, especially when he never hinted at his feelings, Link prayed you’d still be free to accept his love. Only then would he be able to live a life of bliss.

Note: was gonna muck it up with yandere goodness but decided to leave Link alone, for now.

🌗 @enchantedforest-network 🌓

#link x reader #link #botw #botw x reader #botw link x reader #botw headcanons #botw fanfiction #loz link x reader #loz x reader #legend of zelda x reader #riley writes

420 notes · View notes

turtleduckscribbles · 10 days ago

Note

15 and/or 16 for the ask game?

Thank you for the ask! (And thanks for all the attention you give to my stories too, I appreciate you sm! 🥰)

15. Favourite location within Hyrule?

I'm gonna go with the BOTW version of Hyrule, it's beautifully handcrafted and has so much to offer! Also I can't choose just one 🙈

Environmentally, Satori Mountain and its surrounding foothills. The Lord of the Mountain is mysterious and iconic (the lore behind it is especially touching), plus the views and sheer amount of foliage and wildlife makes spending time here a true delight. I love riding horses here and around Hyrule Field. So peaceful and pretty 🌸

Activity-wise, the Gerudo Desert. I love the Gerudo — their customs and history are fascinating, and entering town for the first time is a hilarious and unforgettable experience. Gerudo Town is just PACKED with fun and engaging side quests that are unique to that area, and I can't get enough of it!

16. Favourite location outside of/parallel to Hyrule (Termina, Lorule, Holodrum, Subrosia, the Dark World, Labrynna, the Great Sea, etc)?

I've played through every mainline LOZ game at this point except A Link Between Worlds, so I can't speak for that one, but for now I have to go with Subrosia! Getting around can be kind of a pain there ngl, but dude I just love the Subrosians. Their designs are so cute (and also not what you'd expect a heat-resistant race to look like??), and every time a new LOZ game is announced I can't help but wonder if this will be the game that finally brings back the Subrosians. 😄 That Rosa questline is quirky and adorable!

A close second favorite is Koholint.

Send me TLOZ asks!

#turtle talks #ask meme #guardedchild #asks

3 notes · View notes

thenewnio · 28 days ago

Text

MORE TSS OCS

Near the semi-rural Japanese village of Kainomachi, there is a mountain known as the Yokai's Mountain (妖怪の山), home to many varied yokai and Japanese cryptids. The locals could spend all day telling the many stories of the mountain, but the most famous one is the legend of "Ohachirō-Sama", the resident daitengu queen, and her extensive family of which she is the matriarch.

Here are two notable family members of Clan Hachibō:

Natsuki

A Lemurian girl raised by Clan Hachibō.

Somewhere around Fisk's age

Can speak clear, coherent English and Japanese, but not the Lemurian language (She was only a baby when found and adopted by the clan)

Tends to annoy the other yokai and cryptids with her chatting

Disguises herself in a tengu costume before meeting the Secret Scientists and the Saturday family

Uses a giant magical tengu fan to fly with her adoptive family

Initially assumed to be an unknown type of satori due to her mysterious powers of telekinesis, which only manifests with strong emotions

As an infant, Natsuki was found by one of the tengu next to her dying mother (fatally injured by the naga), who begged for her daughter's protection with her dying breath. The child was taken in and named after the summer, the season in which she was found. As Natsuki grew up, the tengu taught her their ways, from Onmyōdō magic to how to speak in their tongues. She soon grew curious about the human world, and would annoy her stepsiblings by constantly talking about its wonders. Still, her older foster sister, Daiko, made her wear a tengu costume so that whoever killed her biological mother wouldn't recognize her. One day, during an outing, Natsuki snuck off to spy on the humans. At the same time, the Saturdays were in the area researching the local cryptids. Watching them from afar, she saw Fiskerton, recognizing him as the same species as her. She tried to reveal her true species to them, only for the other tengu to arrive and return her to their mountain home. After an argument with Daiko, Natsuki went out again, this time without her disguise, to meet with Fisk. However, she got lost, and was caught in a trap by Abbey Grey, but was rescued by Professor Mizuki/Hibagon, who upon recognizing her species, brought her to the Secret Scientists for confirmation. This done, they next informed the Saturdays, who were astounded that there was another Lemurian. Fisk, especially, was excited, and he and Natsuki began to bond.

Daiko

The eldest daughter of Ohachirō-Sama.

Her natural-born leadership earned her the position of her mother's second-in-command

Actually genuinely cares about Natsuki

A bit strict and serious

Like all daitengu, she towers over humans at 10 feet.

Really despises Piecemeal since he tried to eat Natsuki

Secretly wishes that Natsuki would stay with their family forever

After tracking Natsuki to the Saturdays, she ambushed them under the initial assumption that they had kidnapped her adoptive sister. Upon seeing Fisk, she "abducted" him, forcibly taking him and Natsuki back to the mountain. While the Saturdays set out to rescue Fisk, Natsuki helped him escape, and they began their descent down the mountain. Unbeknownst to them, Daiko discovered their absence and followed them with some other daitengu. Making things more complicated was the fact that Piecemeal was nearby, seeing a two-course meal. He tried to capture the two Lemurians, but Daiko, seeing this, flew to their rescue, keeping him occupied long enough for the Saturdays and the other tengu to arrive. After the tengu dealt with Piecemeal, Clan Hachibō and the Saturdays agreed to work together to protect Natsuki from the naga, whom they now knew was responsible for killing her birth mother. Meanwhile, Fisk began undergoing training under Daiko in order to fully unlock his Lemurian powers.

#secret saturdays #my ocs #yokai

2 notes · View notes

silverdragon-imagines-blog · 2 years ago

Text

Satori’s Blessing

[Finally finished the follower raffle fic for @wayward-lotus , thank you for being so patient with me. This is pretty much just fluff. And I’ll be putting this on AO3 later on today. I hope you enjoy ^u^]

The group had ended up on a mountain; one Wild seemed to both know and be very excited by, if his bouncing in place and large smile were any indications. It was later in the day by now, and after traveling first through a vast expanse of land and then a disorienting trip through a portal, they had decided that it was as good a time as any to make camp for the night. Wild led the way between three large rocks that made up the pointed tip of the mountain. From the inside, there were three well-trodden paths with a cooking pot on top of a pile of ash.

“This is a good spot to rest for the night; besides, there’s lots more to see up here when it gets dark.”

“Not that I don’t believe you,” Legend spoke, sitting close to the pot and looking up at Wild’s grinning face, “but I don’t believe you.”

Wild laughed, setting up an area to prep the food for dinner in the center of the three rock spires. They all started conversing amongst themselves as Wild finished and passed around dinner as the sun slowly set over the horizon. Wild hummed to himself, putting things away and cleaning up everything left over from dinner.

“So, what’s so great about this mountain? You got super excited when you realized we were here,” Wind questioned.

“Well, besides the ridiculous amount of useful resources here, there’s something special that you can see on rare nights beyond this peak. I have a good feeling about tonight,” Wild explained, setting the now clean cooking pot down with some finality.

“I’ll admit, there’s a… feeling, I guess,” Hyrule spoke, closing his eyes and setting his hands on the ground, “Something is definitely here. Something with powerful magic.”

“Good or bad?” Four poked Hyrule, the traveler batting Four’s hand away with a chuckle.

“Neutral? I’m not sure, but it isn’t dark magic.”

“Well,” Time spoke up, rumbling voice gaining everyone’s attention, “we’re staying the night anyway, may as well see if we can spot what you mentioned, Champion.”

Wild nodded as he sat against one of the tall rocks and stared at the world beyond. Conversation flowed soon after, talking about other areas with similar magical feelings. Twilight mentioned the Lost Woods of his era, how the skull kid that resided there was mischievous but not an enemy. Sky talked about three dragons' lairs and a sky deity that could have been similar. Four mentioned the Minish, while the others shrugged with little to offer. Soon, the stars shone brightly despite the fire blazing between the group members as they talked long into the night. Then, slowly creeping in, a strange teal mist began to pour into the clearing. Wild sat up with a grin, then stood slowly and motioned for everyone to quiet down. As they noticed the mist, they stood up, following Wild’s lead to stay quiet.

Looking down the path between two rocks, they spotted a glowing blue creature with a face like an owl and two long feathered antennae coming out of the fur on its head. It peered at the group with beady gold eyes but did not seem frightened by the sight of the group. It came closer, repeatedly stopping to cock its head as though thinking or questioning them all. Hyrule was the first to move, stepping next to Wild and getting down on one knee to get closer, extending a hand to the creature. It went right up to him, sniffing curiously at his hand and lightly brushing its face against it. Hyrule smiled wide, Wild slowly taking out his slate to photograph the scene.

“What is that?” Wind whispered the question, and Wild held the slate in a hand as he turned to the Sailor.

“A Blupee. I think they’re drawn to magical locations.”

“They’re beautiful,” Hyrule whispered, petting the top of the Blupee’s head.

The Blupee closed its eyes as the hero petted it, then turned and walked toward the end of the path, where the teal-colored mist was coming from. It turned to them as though waiting. Hyrule took no time to stand and walk forward, the others following closely behind, eyes sparkling in wonder.

When they passed the rocks, the group found themselves overlooking a small pond that Blupees surrounded, with cherry blossoms steadily drifting from the tree at the water's edge. And in the very center of the water, looking up at the group, was what looked, at least in part, to be a horse. But that didn’t do the creature justice. Its body was cloaked in a teal-blue light, with lines and shapes of light blue wrapping around it. Its mane and tail were long, the mane covering and wrapping around the creature’s neck. It had the same antennae that the Blupees did, but its face was not one of an owl’s. Instead, it had long ears that hung at the sides of its face and a long patch of fur that hung from the center of its face that seemed to act as its mouth. It had four golden eyes that shone like stars, watching as the heroes entered its domain.

“It’s beautiful,” Twilight breathed out at the sight, and several of the Links nodded in agreement.

“What’s that in the middle of the pond?” Wars asked.

“Oh, that’s the Lord of the Mountain. A spirit that protects Mount Satori,” Wild explained, taking a seat at the edge of the water, cross-legged, “Some travelers believe that the Lord is a nature spirit and that they are here to help mend the land after the Calamity.”

“So, the Blupees?” Legend asked, kneeling down near Wild.

“Think of them like Fairies are to the Great Fairies. They’re like helpers.”

A Blupee approached the two by the water, occasionally pausing to watch and tilt its head. Legend watched in turn, tilting his head like it was. When the Blupee got close enough, it stood up on its hind legs, leaning with its forepaws on Legend’s side. Legend watched it, making eye contact with the Blupee, holding still. The Blupee slowly closes its eyes, then opens them, Legend copying the action. That was when a small group of Blupees also approached, practically running and knocking into Legend’s back as they started to climb him.

“Hey!”

Legend didn’t get much time to yell as he ungracefully fell forward onto his face, hair barely brushing the water’s edge. Laughter erupted as the other Links saw Legend's predicament. Wind fell to the ground in a fit of laughter, practically rolling on the ground with the force of it. Wild reached out to scratch a Blupees head, chuckling to himself.

“They’re pretty cute,” Four spoke, sitting next to the downed Legend and petting another Blupee on the back. The Blupee in question turned to Four and jumped to his lap, nestling in and closing its eyes.

A few more Blupees were brave, trotting up to Time and Hyrule, pawing at them as though to be picked up. Hyrule smiled, happily bending down to pick them up, and holding them close to his chest as he walked toward the trio by the water. Time merely reached down to pat the Blupee’s head, but the Blupee was not satisfied, jumping up Time’s arm before he could fully pull away. The Blupee took up residence on Time’s shoulder, and Twilight chuckled at his mentor, scratching the Blupee between its antenna.

The remaining group approached the water, Wind kneeling down and dipping a hand into the water. Mere moments after Wind had done this, a low humming noise began. Sky looked up, watching the Lord of the Mountain turn toward the group, watching them unblinkingly. Wild nudged the Blupees off of Legend, helping him sit up in time to watch as the Lord of the Mountain gracefully walked toward them, the water barely shifting with each step. When the Lord of the Mountain was a single step away, the Lord stopped and watched them. The low humming grew louder.

“Heroes across time and space,” a voice echoed, “I, Satori, welcome you to this sacred place. Though you came here unnaturally, know that you will not be harmed, not while I am here.”

“Thank you, Satori,” Time spoke, giving a short bow as the Blupee on his shoulder moved to keep balance, “We will only be staying the night nearby.”

A soft breeze blew, almost like laughter.

“There is no need for formalities here, Hero of Time. You may stay as long as you need and take with you the resources the mountain has to offer you for your journey.”

“It’s very appreciated,” Warriors spoke up, smiling.

Satori nodded, then closed their eyes.

“I wish to bestow upon your group a blessing.” Satori spoke, and the humming quieted, settling over the space like the teal mist around them as Satori’s markings began to glow, “With the powers invested in me, may the wilderness provide you with all that you need, may the moonlight your way at night and the stars shine as a silent comfort. May the road that stretches before you not challenge you and may the ocean waves not toss you from safety. With the powers instilled in my spring, I bless you, heroes, that all these things come to pass.”

The humming ceased, and with a single blink, Satori vanished with all the Blupees that had surrounded them disappearing as though they were never there. In the distance, they could see the sky starting to lighten.

“Let’s just sleep for a while. We can stay here until we’re all fully rested,” Time stated, and none of the heroes disagreed.

They all slept peacefully, without the need for a watch shift as Satori promised them that as long as they were here, they would always be safe.

#linkeduniverse #linked universe #linkeduniverse fic #lu fic #lu wild #lu ensemble #silver writes

37 notes · View notes

mageofsleep · 2 months ago

Text

Koishi Vs Miss Merry Chapter 2(technically Chapter 1): Gluttonous Youkai Terrorizing The City!

Alright so this one's not working so well. if you want to read it properly I have an ao3 link to this you can use instead for tumblr i had to divide some paragraph out because it literally would not work unless I divided it out :( Click this link for part 1

　"So anyways, we’re here to investigate strange happenings in this area…” The scientific-looking woman, Renko, looked at Merry, “Merry, you're a bit sleepier and just completely zoned out this morning... Much sleepier than usual. Did something happen last night?" She was worried about the woman dressed in purple with baggy purple eyes. "Oh my... oh dear..." Merry tried her very best to keep both eyes open and her head up, "Last night, I tried to test out something with powers the doll witch in the forest gave me…” she yawned, “I merged my powers with the doll magic and created a doll of some sort that I could possess… I tried to dream of visiting the Youkai Mountain in Gensokyo… but I went to a time period farther than what I was hoping for… it obviously didn't take me long to encounter youkai either.... More specifically, a pair of satori twins. The doll was destroyed and as expected it left me with no injuries, but it felt so real… the satori were also still capable of reading my mind and I had the worst migraines ever. It took me an entire hour to fully wake up," she had laid her arms on the table and rested her head face down against her inner elbow.

　Inside a bakery café had a duet of academics sitting together on opposite sides. They have traveled to Kofu to investigate rumors of a strange individual in the city. A waitress greeted them and offered three menus. Renko thanked her and took the menus, placing the first on Merry's side of the table, the second to Renko’s right end of the table, and kept the last. The waitress was concerned about Merry, "Is she alright?" but the scientist reassured him, "Oh she's fine, she just needs a little bit of caffeine." The scientist turned back to Merry, "Anyways, let's try to keep you awake. What were we talking about? Satori? Those are the human-looking mountain youkai with a detached third eye who could read minds, right, Merry? It's a pretty scary ability, I wouldn't even be surprised if other youkai themselves feared them." 　Their conversations were much different than any normal guest at the café and were often centered around the occult. Sometimes, passersby would eavesdrop into their esoteric discussions. "Oh yes, these two were a little bit different, Renko," Merry yawned, "A satori can innately only read the thoughts of what you're thinking of at the moment, but…" Merry yawned, "They learned a psychic skill on how to hypnotize you into thinking about your inner memories and traumas….. later learn attacks from the memories against you…." Renko desperately tried to hold the discussion about Merry's dream, "That’s kind of like that spell that can steal enemy moves in RPGs, right? Pretty dangerous for a satori of all things to learn such a trick," but ultimately Merry once again fell asleep.

　Renko said, “Ohhh… I guess I’ll get something for you to wake up to…” she picked up the menu, opened it and slipped, “I love you, Merry…” then froze. She clutched the menu and her face gradually reddened. “What’s wrong? Why’s your face all red?” Renko heard a voice to her right, she turned her head and saw Koishi, whose vessels were in the shape of the straps of a crossbody purse, with her eye at the end. She was surprised. “Goodness, with all the food choices here, my face would go red, too. I can’t seem to pick any of these delicacies, because I just want them all!” The girl said. Renko scolded her, “Who are you and what are you doing here? I thought it was just me and Merry.” Koishi replied, “Oooh was this supposed to be a date? Oops, I just wanted some treats.” “No-no-no-no-no! This isn’t a date! We’re supposed to be investigating youkai exploiting people for tre-” Renko peered at Koishi’s satchel and realized that the ‘bag’ was her third eye and the ‘strap’ were her vessels and was horrified. She then interrupted herself and exclaimed, “You! You’re the youkai exploiting people for treats, aren’t you?!” Guests at other tables around slightly turned their heads towards the Hifuu Club. Koishi asked, “If it's not a date, then why did you confess your love to her?” Maribel had woken up startled from the noise. Renko’s face became as red as a sweet cherry; she could not form a single proper sentence. Merry said, “Oh, I think I had another crazy dream, I think I was in burning in the fires of He-” she widened her eyes, “Renko, did you bring a youkai with us? Weren’t we supposed to investigate youkai? The one you found is exactly the one I fought in my dream this morning that read my mind and gave me headaches.” Renko was surprised, “M-Merry? Ohh I hope you didn’t hear-I mean… I didn’t really plan on bringing her, she’s the culprit behind the incidents in this city. She’s exploiting humans for treats, and that’s why we traveled here, but we got a bit sidetracked. Or… our investigation has been solved in a way.” Koishi sulked, “I guess I got caught, and now you won’t give me treats because I pranked you, right? It’s fine, I couldn’t decide on what to order anyways.” Merry answered, “Actually Koishi, I could give you something that you like. I’ll even pay for your drink and treat. If I do, though, could you give us something in return?” Koishi’s eyes lit up, “Ooh a trade!? If you surface dwellers order me something I super ultra mega love, I’ll give you both a formal invitation to my palace. Although, it’s in the Underground which is a dangerous place!” Renko questioned Merry, “Merry, if you spoil her, she’ll just continue to prank humans, but maybe you have a different motive than the incident she caused in this city?” Merry replied, “You read my mind better than this satori. I think I’m more invested in something related to my dream last night. Let’s talk more after we’ve ordered something; I’m already starting to fall back to sleep.”

　The waitress walks toward the table and asks them what they would like to order. Renko answers, “I would like just an iced mocha coffee with just a little bit of milk, please, I'm not really hungry.” Merry questioned her, “Goodness, Renko, are you also indecisive? I could get something for you too; we have a lot of work ahead of us, you know.” Renko blushed and answered, “N-No, I’ll just stick with the coffee….really it’s fine.” Merry sneered at Renko and then sighed, “It is what it is then,” she faces the waitress and finalizes her order, “Okay, I would like a hot cappuccino signature blend, a tray of assorted cookies, and a whole round tiramisu cake. The green one wants a caramel hazelnut latte shake and pancakes with strawberry toppings and whipped cream. Also, give her maple syrup with it, too.” The waitress writes down the Hifuu Club’s orders then takes leave. Renko becomes surprised at Merry’s order, “Merry, did you buy those cookies and cake for all of us? I’m seriously not that hungry.” “Well, if you don’t want the rest, I’ll just keep it in my house just in case you do get hungry. The cookies are rations for our real investigation, though.” Koishi wonders, “So you ordered me something too? I hope you ordered me something I really love!” Merry answers, “Of course, Koishi.”

　Later on, their conversation shifted and Renko turned toward their youkai friend, “You know, I kinda forgot she was here again. This satori is a bit strange.” Merry agreed, “I’m able to remember her fine, actually. Although, she’s not the same Koishi I fought in my dreams. She can’t read minds, but I do see that there seems to be a barrier of some sort that’s affecting that ability.” Koishi responds, “It’s true, I’m not like other satori. We’re so hated by everyone because we can read minds, so I closed mine. Ever since I closed it, I’ve been able to go as I please!” Renko asked Merry, “Do you think she’s in a state of nothingness? She always seems content and thoughtless.” “Definitely not if she’s gluttonously exploiting people for treats, of course. The eye of a satori is their ‘heart.’ What I feel like I’m seeing is that the seal’s true nature is that it’s a barrier within her ‘heart,’ or a divide between the conscious and unconscious. Although, the way she has sealed it is a bit imperfect,” Merry answered. “Hmm, Miss Merry seems to know a lot of stuff! If you’re trying to learn how to unstitch it… then… then there’s no way to unstitch my eye. I'll be like this forever and ever!” Koishi smiled, but to both of the Hifuu Club members, it felt insincere. “Hmm… I think we’re making her a little bit too uneasy… She hasn’t had her treats to interrogate her with, so let’s change the topic: We would know more about Koishi from her sister, right? All of my answers about the banishment of the oni and the satori will be answered underground.” Merry said. Koishi said, “My sister likes to talk to people who enter our palace. She's not much of a fighter, so you don't really have to worry about her fighting you.” Renko worried, “That’s true, but the oni and plenty of other dangerous youkai on the path there are the ones who guard the underground, right? We would have to fight them in order to get to the castle in the center. Would you give us a pass from them?” Koishi exclaimed, “Nope! You have to go through the journey to Chireiden yourself!” Merry followed, “I’m all up for it actually, I will just use the same doll magic I used last night. Although, the doll I made to spy through other worlds so the real ‘me’ wouldn’t get hurt still felt too realistic, and I’m kind of worried about that.” “So you were trying to create a doll similar to a ROV or a planetary rover, right? Something to use as a camera for dangerous places instead of getting injured, but it didn’t really work out,” Renko said. “More like it worked out a bit too well. I don’t think satori are able to read minds through a doll. It’s much different than how I used mine.” Merry faced Koishi, “The Koishi of the past was very strong, stronger than her older sister, but they were both able to read my mind even if I was using a doll to spy on them. Actually I don’t…” Merry hesitated, “I feel like it was another body that I created rather than a doll… like another ‘me’ or a doppelgänger. It feels a lot different than what I normally do. Before, I just brought the original ‘me’ with me to those worlds, but this doppelgänger is much different.” “You’re saying you fought me in the past?” Koishi wondered. Merry answered, “Yes, many centuries ago when you were still on the mountain. Although, I guess it may be centuries for you, it was literally last night for me. I’m guessing you don’t remember it.” “Hmm… Even if my eye was open, I don’t think I could remember all the humans I’ve fought. I’ve scared so many people, both human and youkai alike, it would be hard to keep track of them all!” Koishi admitted. “Oh dear, how unfortunate,” Merry worried.

“Also, I don't believe one could make two bodies of themselves, it just doesn't make any sense. Maybe if you go back to the old witch you learned it from, then she might know what’s going on.” Renko noted. Merry refuted “I would believe it’s the same as how a god creates or possesses an avatar, would it not?” Renko insisted, “Merry, you can only have one brain. You should know this, we’re post-grads after all.” “Oh you know, I think my migraines started back up again. I’m too tired to debate with you right now, Renko. I think I’ll wait on my drink,” Merry sighed. Koishi was confused at what they were arguing with each other about, but was nonetheless interested in the cold stares the academics gave each other.

The waitress entered and placed drinks and dishes at each girl’s sides of the table while the academics still silently stared at each other. Koishi gazed at her wonderfully cold and earthy shake. She turned toward the tray of desserts being placed one by one on the table, and was so infatuated, “Oh my, they all look so amazing… so many amazing treats!” Merry snapped out of her cold and silent feud with Renko. She faced Koishi, then turned back toward Renko and agreed, “Right, our food and drinks are ready. We should start interrogating her as she enjoys her meal.” Koishi looked at both Renko and Merry before she began eating and shivered, “What are you two saying?” then murmured, “‘Merry has completely… Renko’s so cute whe… but she’s so cute… so ignorant like this…’” and finally exclaimed, “Your mouths aren’t moving but you’re saying things! This is strange!” Renko and Merry become so flustered, their faces reddened to the color of a strawberry. Renko peered at Koishi’s third eye and quivered, “Her eye… it’s opening back up… Does that mean she just…” and blushed even more. Merry hesitatingly pressed, “I’m not able to see it from here, but it doesn't look like the barrier is undoing itself… but… I did say that… it’s imperfect… oh no…” Merry shiveringly cut a slice of the tiramisu onto her empty plate, as it flaked and parted along the way. She then picked up her mug and slowly downed the hot cappuccino. Koishi tilted her head, but she felt a tight feeling in her stomach and peered back at her treat. “You guys are strange humans. Well, it may all look beautiful, but let’s see how it tastes. Will I super duper ultra mega enjoy it? If I do, I’ll formally invite you to Chireiden!”

Renko shakingly picked up her cup and sipped some of her own coffee. She then snapped out of her embarrassment and faced Koishi pouring maple syrup on her pancake then exclaimed, “Merry! Let’s focus on interrogating her: Koishi, I wonder if you know or remember how you traveled to this city.” Koishi said, “Oh, hmm… I just followed this tanuki with a bunch of colorful glowy spinny things. I got caught, but she said I could only be here if I prank humans. They give me lots of soft things that look like animals if I do!” Koishi then joyously snacked on her pancakes. “Alright! So we already found where she got this idea from, but now we have to find the real villain, right?” Renko asserted, “I might be more interested in finding them out than going to Former Hell filled with dangerously foul youkai, honestly. This satori here is already a handful to deal with and she’s not even trying to fight us.” Koishi worried, “You won’t accept my invitation to Chireiden, Miss Renko?” Renko hesitated, “I-I mean…” Merry assured, “Koishi, it all depends on how you enjoy your meal, right? How is it by the way?” “Well, these pancakes are very great, but the strawberries don’t taste as fresh as the freshly picked strawberries my pets harvest for me. The drink is super amazing, though, I think I might just give you the invitation for that alone!” Koishi smiled. Merry said, “Really? I will gladly accept your invitation, then. I’ll give you some of these cookies to take home with you, too, Koishi.” “This youkai is just as spoiled as a princess,” Renko giggled. Merry notices a slice of tiramisu on Renko’s once-empty plate as she packs various different containers with cookies. She said, “The way to Former Hell is in Gensokyo, so I’ll dream about visiting the forest as a start just so I can learn more spells before our mission. I don’t think I will be able to bring you with me this time, though, as I’ll be using the same exact method I used last night. I hope you understand; you’re going to have to find your own way to Gensokyo.” Renko was shocked, “Huh?! How would I be able to find a way to Gensokyo?” “I’ll give you a hint: It’s the true ‘villain’ of this incident in this city, the bake-danuki boss. She’s the one who brought Koishi here. Also, the bake-danuki thrive on Sado, but there must be something important in Kofu if their boss is causing mischief here.” Merry explained. Koishi asked, “You guys are talking about Miss Futatsuiwa?” “Yes, could you perhaps take us to this Miss Futatsuiwa as well?” Renko replied, then Koishi pondered about her question.

“Renko, after we’re done with our food and packing the leftovers, we’ll split up. If you ever even get the chance to find this Miss Futatsuiwa and travel to Gensokyo, then we’ll decide where to meet. You are interested in this incident more than visiting Chireiden after all, right?” Merry said as Renko then agreed to her plan. The Hifuu club spend the rest of their time chattering and playfully debating each other, all while Koishi and passersby become more and more invested in their conversations. Merry argued that they will both find a different outcome to their mission, while Renko wondered how youkai could physically travel between a tiny brane like Gensokyo to the greater Outside World in a non-microscopic form. The waitress who had served them even eavesdropped onto their conversations, but she heard a ringing noise in her pocket. She took her phone from her pocket and gazed at the ringing screen. She quickly turned to her managers and said, “Sorry, I really have to take this phone call,” then darted to the bathroom, then to a stall. She crouched, held the phone to her ear and quietly answered, “What is it?” The girl on the other end of the call said, “Nue, did you forget about Koishi?” “Oh, sorry I had you on speaker for a minute,” she taps her screen and then continues with her call, “No, I didn’t forget about her, but I think the humans she’s pranking are onto our game.” …“The humans she’s pranking are occultists who are madly in love with each other, but they’re both in complete denial. They gave her treats and she read their minds. I think her eye is slowly opening back up, just as you wanted, right?” … “Hmm… You’ve seen those occultists before, too?” … “Alright, I’ll try to lure one of them to you, it will be so much fun to watch you prank these lovestruck losers.”

After notes: Kofu is a city situated in the Yamanashi Province and is very close to the iconic Mt. Fuji. I can't really explain in detail why I chose this spot. Also in this story, Koishi is able to exist within the Outside in a similar fashion to Yukari and Mamizou but unlike them she cannot travel there on her own. Nue in this story is also allowed to exist and travel here because it explains how she fished Mamizou from Sado to solve the incident in Ten Desires, but it's never explicitly stated that she could in canon works.

2 notes · View notes

shade-pup-cub · 1 year ago

Text

Couldn’t get this scene out of my mind. Added some art to it.

Six hours later and Wild was no better. If anything he got worse. He had opened his eyes a few times, mumbled incoherent sentences about Zel, then went back to sleep. Dametrius had to finally place Wild in his own bed down the hall so he could stretch and try to think.

Sky was pacing with him. "And you said there are no healers in this era."

"Right. Most Hylians know how to make elixirs and mend their own wounds. The closest thing to a healer would be the Zoras, but they don't treat Hylians often enough and this is magic. The last magic holder that was a healer was Mipha. Her spirit isn't here… anymore… Wait."

"You can't be serious." Hyrule stepped between him and the hallway. "You can't do that."

"No not that… spirits. There's a spirit or being that can help." He walked into Wild's room and scooped him into his arms. He was lighter than an hour ago. He didn't have time to explain anything. "I'll be back. It's nearly nightfall and the spirit should be there tonight." He teleported to his destination.

Fogged breath clouded his vision at first, then he heard the chattering of teeth. Wild was shivering violently. The water he walked into with different shades of pink petal like leaves was warmer than the air around them. Everything was quiet and still though.

He went to his knees, still cradling the too light of a son in his arms. He bowed his head and closed his eyes. "If you can hear me, please. I need help… My son needs help. Lord of the Mountain, hear me."

There was a rustling of grass and leaves to both sides of him. Hooves that sound like they were able to hammer metal, but also had a soft sound to them was coming closer. The water rippled around him and he bowed lower to the being.

Blue fur-like hair touched the top of his head, then a hand. "Fierce Deity. I hear your plea. What service can I aid you and your son, the hero of our lands?"

He looked up into the two sets of eyes, blue hair draped down light blue skin with pink lined markings. Their nails were gold colored, matching the gold hooves they had when in their other form. Blue glowing light surrounded the area around them. They were neither man nor woman, just a being. A spirit with great powers. "Satori, I come to you, begging for a way to save my child. Magic was forced into his body and is killing him."

The spirit knelt and placed a hand on Wild’s chest. “Much of the ancient magic has left his body, but I must agree, this is killing him. He is nearly out of time.”

“Can you help him, save him?”

“Normally I would let life take its course, no matter the outcome. I am conflicted with this one though. He has saved this place twice now and has died for its survival, but he didn’t save Zelda this time. That is my conflict.”

“What do you mean, didn’t save her? Where is she?” His mind was telling him that she was only missing.

“She was sacrificed to Ganondorf. She has perished by his hand.”

“Dead. You mean she’s dead?”

“I do.” Dametrius’s chest clenched. That couldn’t be right. “Hearing this, do you still wish to save him?”

“Of course I do, he is my son. My flesh and blood. There has to be more to what you say.” The spirit was that, a spirit. The idea of family was unknown to them.

“Then I will do it. I won’t be able to draw out all the magic, but enough that his body will stabilize. There are a few things I need from you and him.” A bowl was presented to him. “Like you said, he is your flesh and blood. That is what I need from both of you, though hair will do in place of flesh.” Wild had lost enough flesh, he would settle for hair too. “A lock of hair and enough blood to cover them.”

With the bowl, a blade was given to Dametrius. He took a small lock of Wild’s long hair from behind his ear, cut it and put it in the bowl. He took Wild’s left hand and placed the almost translucent blue blade against his palm. A deep enough cut was made to allow blood to spill into the bowl and not rapidly clot. It was concerning that Wild didn't so much as flinch.

He turned the blade on his own hand and made a deep gash, blood pouring from the wound, mixing with his son’s. Their blood shimmered with their godliness color of silver and gold. He didn’t have time to admire the swirling colors. He took a decent size lock of hair from behind his left ear, cut it close to his scalp and dropped them into the blood-hair mixture.

The spirit took the bowl from his shaking hands and the contents inside ignited in a blue fire. “Place him in the deepest part of the water. What must happen next will test you, not him. It is the only way this will work.”

“What is it?”

“The blood and flesh connect you to him, but this is the will of love. How far will you go for your love of your son?”

“I’ll do anything… give anything.”

“And I believe you, Fierce Deity. Come, place him in the water.”

He did as he was asked and Wild floated on the surface. “What now?”

“These waters are magical on their own. They will burn a cold fire and you will need to hold Link under the water after the magic is called upon. When the flames go out, he can rise and his body will have been purified as much as it can be. No matter what, do not let him breach the surface before the flame leaves. If you do, it will be his death.”

Swallowing thickly, he agreed to the terms.

“We begin.”

Satori stood with the bowl over their head, fire growing brighter. The words that left their mouth were unknown to Dametrius, but they rumbled with power and demanded attention. With a bellowing roar, Satori aggressively and precipitously slammed the bowl into the water, startling Dametrius as the whole pond caught fire, but didn’t burn him.

He laid his hands on Wild’s chest, pushing him fully under the burning water. Satori danced through the flames in a hypnotic and dramatic way, gathering water and fire alike in their hands and throwing it into the air. They spun in circles and stomped their heavy hooved feet to a rhythm that Dametrius couldn’t hear.

He would have loved to watch the magical spirit do their work, but his focus was on Wild and keeping him under the water. Bubbles of air left his child’s mouth and was beginning to struggle under his grip. Nails dug into his pale skin, legs kicked at whatever they could reach. Dametrius wanted to let up, wanted to let Wild breath, but that would be his death. He kept the pressure on the other’s chest, but straddled his legs to pin him more. He gritted his teeth as the tears blocked his vision. The tears fell from his eyes without shame, directly into the water. Sobs broke free, it was the only thing he could do while Wild’s movements slowed to a stop and the last few bubbles burst at the surface.

The time between his body stilling and Satori stopping their dance was infinite to the father. The cold flame died and spirit placed a hand on Dametrius’s face, removing tears, saying, “It is done. He can rise.” They sounded exhausted.

Wild’s body broke the water and Dametrius recognized the boy there more than when he went under. His skin was the lighter tanned color, pink cheeks. His hair was not deep red, though it held a red undertone to his golden blond strands. The white bang was still in place. The black rectangular shapes on the remaining part of his arm and chest were faded, but he wasn’t breathing.

Lord of the Mountain laid a hand over Wild’s nose and mouth, drawing water from his lungs. The young hero coughed, bringing the last bit of water out of his airway. His cobalt blues were back, but like his hair, the glowing green could be seen at different angles.

“Link, can you hear me?”

Blue met white. “Dad, what happened?”

Dametrius smiled and pulled the boy into a needed hug. “Doesn’t matter, you are okay.” He savored the feeling of the younger gripping his tunic. The deity looked around, Satori was nowhere to be seen. He sent a quiet thank you to them.

#ao3 writer #a deity's son #fierce deity #hero of the wild #Satori #lord of the mountain #botw #digital art

22 notes · View notes

jadedrrose · 6 months ago

Text

𝐀 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧'𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐩𝐞

𝐂𝐡��𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞: 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞

art/other info is available on my masterlist.

With the sun barely shining over the Great Plateau, a new day was beginning. Rose, in her pink kimono and regular gear on, was at the Outskirt Stable bright and early. She needed to make some more preparations before she could embark on her new journey; part of which included getting materials to reinforce her armor. Dealing with the Yiga would be risky, even if she was now technically on their side. So she’d decided it’d be best to give herself extra protection.

Sitting at one of the tables inside of the stable, she was mindlessly looking through the newspaper while waiting for the traveling shop owners to show up. They typically rotated which stables they’d come to, and today happened to be when the man who specifically sold monster parts was supposed to be there. She’d hopefully be able to purchase the parts that she needed to upgrade her armor, so long as he had what she needed in stock. As the guests that had stayed at the stable overnight began to awaken, Rose figured that it was finally getting closer to business hours. Setting the paper back down on the table, she stood up from her seat and stretched, yawning as she did so. She didn’t typically enjoy waking up so early, but it had been necessary for her plan in joining the Yiga Clan.

Heading outside, she was glad to see that the sun was fully up now, brightening the area around the stable. None of the traveling shop owners were in sight just yet, so with some time to kill, Rose found the Hylian Retrievers that lived at the stable and began petting them.

With a joyful grin, the brunette giggled as one of the dogs rolled onto its back, waiting for her to rub its belly. The second one began to whine from the lack of attention, though, and with another laugh, she moved her left hand to begin scratching behind that one’s ears.

“You two are so cute,” she mumbled, glancing between them. I wonder if they allow pets in the Yiga Clan, she briefly wondered.

Standing up, Rose began to search around for a couple of sticks before luring the dogs over to the small grassy field beside the stable. Waving them around, she smiled as both retrievers began jumping around, eagerly waiting for her to throw the sticks. Tossing the branches, Rose watched fondly as both dogs took off after them before bringing them back to her. They did this a few more times, the dogs happily barking with their tails wagging wildly the whole time.

Looking back to the stable, Rose realized that the shop owners had finally arrived. Sighing, she glanced back at the dogs with a slight pout. “I wish we could keep playing,” she petted both of their heads again, “but I’ve got to go. Hopefully I’ll get to see you two again someday…”

Approaching the shopkeeper who had an assortment of monster parts displayed, Rose started to look over his items. He had some hinox guts, but none of the lizalfos tails that she also needed.

“How much for three of the hinox guts?” She inquired.

Scratching his chin, the man seemed to think it over for a second, “hmmm, I think 240 rupees outta do it?”

Nodding, Rose pulled out some rupees from the small pouch tied to her belt. “Sounds good,” she handed the money over, in exchange for a pouch of the guts. Since he didn’t have the tails, all that was left to do for now was to hunt down some lizalfos. Though that would put a temporary stop on her plans, unfortunately. Thanking the man for the items, Rose walked away, intending on heading back towards Satori Mountain where she could go monster hunting in the woods or fields nearby. But before she could get even ten feet away, someone began calling her.

“Miss Rose! Wait!”

Turning around, lips pursed in confusion, Rose found that a Hylian man was trying to catch up from behind her.

“Is something the matter?” She asked, a bit surprised.

“Yes-“ he huffed, catching his breath, “over at Riverside Stable, they’re having a monster problem lately. Seems like the soldiers stationed there can’t deal with it properly, so they want outside help. I told them I’d track down Hyrule’s best bounty hunter for them,” he explained, a toothy smile on his face as he said the last part.

“I see,” Rose nodded. What could she do, though? She needed to get into the Yiga Clan, but it seemed like the people at the stable really needed her help… “I’ll head over today,” she decided.

“Perfect! They mentioned that they’d pay any amount for your assistance, so it’ll be a good deal, promise!” The man exclaimed, shaking her hand.

“Money isn’t my concern,” Rose shrugged with a slight smile. “Though it is a nice bonus. I’ll be on my way shortly.”

“Well, I was uh… gonna ask if you’d uh, go on the journey with me, just you and I, you know?” The man awkwardly asked, clearly trying to hint at something. And Rose certainly wasn’t interested in traveling with a random man who was making such… odd comments.

“Don’t wait for me,” Rose brushed the comment off, willing herself to forget it. “Go ahead and tell them I’m on my way. I’ll probably only be a couple hours behind you.”

Stammering away, the man gave a “yes ma’am” as he walked in the opposite direction, more than likely embarrassed at the rejection.

With that, Rose made her way back to her cottage with haste, and quickly began to get ready for her unexpected job. Leaving the hinox guts behind and gathering whatever supplies she needed into her leather bag, she double checked everything before going back outside, heading down to the Outskirt Stable for a second time that day.

—

Three and a half hours into her trip, Rose had reached the Gatepost Town. Darkening clouds hung over the quite large settlement. The place had grown in recent years, and it seemed like there was plenty of liveliness going on as she entered. There was a food market going throughout, children running through the streets, laughing and playing, and tons of travelers passing through. That was the town’s purpose, after all. Travelers from all over Hyrule would stop in this town to rest. It was the perfect stop for Rose’s day trip to the stable.

Deciding that she needed some rest after walking for so long, Rose found a small tavern and dipped inside, avoiding the rain that was starting to come on. A few people sat at a bar, conversing though not necessarily drinking, especially so early into the day. It was only noon, after all.

The bartender smiled to Rose, waving her in. “Hello, welcome. I take it you’re a traveler?” She asked.

“You could say that,” Rose replied, sitting down at the far end, away from the group of people who’d already been there. “I’m heading to Riverside Stable, but figured I should rest with the rain starting.”

The lady nodded, her blonde curls bouncing as she did so. “Oh yes. I hear they have a nasty monster issue over there.”

Rose hummed, “mhm, I’m going over to see if I can help with it, actually.”

“Oh, really? A pretty girl like you, fighting monsters?” The bartender teased.

Rolling her eyes, Rose shrugged. “It’s what I’m good at. Otherwise they wouldn’t pay me so much.”

The blonde gave a laugh at that, before turning to get a glass. “Well… Can I get you anything?”

“Just water, please.”

Filling up the glass with water, the woman passed it over to Rose, and then headed back to the group of people, who were seeming to get rowdier by the second. Perhaps an inn would’ve been a better, quieter place to stop at.

Sipping her beverage, Rose finally got to relax, giving her aching feet a break from all the traveling she’d done. While the thought of having to get back on the road for a few more hours sounded agonizing right now, Rose figured she’d just use an elixir to help soothe the aches, and all would be well. At least, she hoped so. With this work being suddenly thrust upon her, she was delaying putting her plan into action. She needed to visit Kaysa to have her armor reinforced, but now that would have to be postponed until at least tomorrow, if not two more days. Not to mention, she didn’t even have all of the necessary materials yet. Letting out an internal groan, Rose found that she was getting a bit frustrated. Maybe if she would’ve just accepted Sooga’s initial offer all those weeks ago, she wouldn’t be dealing with any of this.

Half an hour later, when the rain finally began to let up, Rose figured that was her sign to get going. Pulling out her cloak from her bag, she threw it over her head before giving a couple green rupees to the bartender, and heading out the door.

Though some rain was still falling, the clouds were clearing, revealing a darkening sky as the sun started to set. Looking to the exit of Outpost Town, Rose began passing between the rest of the buildings, finally getting herself back on the road.

A short while later, as she rounded the bottom of Whistling Hill, Rose could finally see Riverside Stable, nearly within reach. Breathing out a sigh of relief, she pushed forward, putting a light jog into her steps to get to her destination faster.

Now at the stable, the brunette spotted the exact man she’d spoken to that morning. He waved her over to where he was standing with a couple of the stable workers, seemingly in conversation.

“She’s finally arrived! Hyrule’s best bounty hunter!” He announced, gesturing to her.

“Hello,” Rose gave a short bow to the two stable workers. “I heard you guys needed my help with some monsters?”

“Yes,” a young woman answered. She was shorter and a lot thinner than Rose, presumably a bit younger than her. Perhaps her parents worked for the stable. “Those lizalfos have been scaring the horses… It's terrible.”

An older man, who resembled the girl, crossed his arms and sighed. “Their camp is over by Batrea Lake. They’ve been crossing the river and attacking.” Overlooking his uniform, Rose determined that he must’ve been the stable owner.

“That’s strange,” Rose replied, “I’ve never heard of a stable being attacked by monsters…” shifting her feet to stand in a more comfortable position, she folded her arms. “I can try to investigate why, though it’s hard to understand why monsters do what they do.”

The stable owner nodded. “We’ve tried to look into that ourselves… all we can think of is that they’re enticed to come over whenever we cook fish?”

Humming, Rose gave that some thought. “Maybe… lizalfos do typically eat fish, after all. Okay… so I’ll try to eradicate their camp, because obviously they’re a huge nuisance. And as for why they’re coming over here… I’ll attempt to find out, but I think you’re right about it being the fish.”

“Thank you,” the stable owner smiled, a little desperation and relief in his tone. “We’ve been trying for weeks to take care of it… not even the Hylian soldiers were of help.”

“So I heard,” Rose frowned. What were Hylian soldiers even good for at this point? All they seemed to do was kill parents and be generally useless.

After Rose and the stable owner came to an agreement on her payment, she ate a dinner consisting mainly of Hylian tomatoes since they primarily grew in the area, along with some other vegetables and boiled potatoes. Then, she was able to finally get some, in her opinion, well deserved rest.

Standing hunched over a tall wooden table, entirely focused on cleaning the blades of his prized dual swords, Sooga worked at his swords with a good amount of strength, determined to have them looking better than ever.

He’d been throwing himself into various tasks, almost anxiously awaiting any news about what the Great Fairies’ Warrior was up to. Uki had departed earlier in the day, prepared to go entirely unnoticed so that Rose’s guard would be down, hopefully leading her into doing something that could give them a glimpse into the truth.

Huffing, Sooga pulled back, looking over his dual swords. They were spotless. Putting them back into their sheaths, he then tried to find another task to keep himself occupied with.

But before he could find anything within the room, there was a knock at the door. Focusing his energy, he was able to figure out who was visiting. Uki.

Quickly grabbing his mask and fixing it back into place, Sooga spoke; “you may enter.”

The wooden door slid open, revealing an annoyed-looking Uki.

“Did she do anything of interest?”

“No,” Uki huffed, a pout forming on her lips. “In fact, I almost couldn’t find her the entire day. She wasn’t at her cottage, nor at the stable that she frequents. Finally, I overheard someone saying that she had gone to Riverside Stable for some bounty hunting work. Though by the time I learned that, it was too late to start following her.”

“Hmm,” Sooga hummed, considering Uki’s words. Given her obvious foul mood, it probably wouldn’t be wise to send her back out. “I shall go investigate, then.”

“You might as well just snatch her and bring her here while you’re at it,” Uki groaned. “I can’t take this anymore. She’s… boring me to death.”

Sooga could tell that the woman was holding back her anger. “Uki… you should retire for the evening. And do not worry over Rose any longer. I’ll handle things from here.”

“Oh, thank Ganon!” She cried, a smile finally forming on her face. “I’ll go update Master Kohga. You go have fun with your little-“

Despite his face not being visible to the footsoldier, Sooga’s crossing of his arms said it all, and Uki immediately went silent.

“Forgive me,” she muttered, before bowing to Sooga and taking off. “Well, bye then!”

Gathering his swords and locking them onto his belts, Sooga prepared himself before forming a hand sign and transporting himself to the woods across the river from Riverside Stable.

Appearing with a puff of smoke and tags, Sooga gazed at his surroundings, finding that it was quiet. The night air was a bit chilly, but it wasn’t anything that he wasn’t used to. Stealthily and silently, he began to make his way towards the river end of the woods, needing to get a better view of the stable.

Reaching the treeline near the river’s bank, Sooga scanned his eyes over to the stable, seeing that all of their lights were dimmed. Most of the guests and workers were asleep, then, aside from the few night owls who hung out by a fire. They chatted away, their voices loud enough to reach all the way to where Sooga stood.

A few minutes had passed by before anything in the scene before him changed. A figure emerged from the stable, heading onto the road and towards the bridge that connected the stable to Batrea Lake. It was Rose, seemingly coming into the woods to investigate. It made sense, she was here for bounty hunting work, after all. Only what she was hunting, Sooga had no clue.

Returning deeper into the woods, Sooga continued to keep track of Rose’s every movement, watching as she headed towards Batrea Lake, stopping to watch a medium sized lizalfos camp. She observed them for quite some time, then made her way closer to where Sooga hid, keeping her eyes on the camp. So she’s hunting lizalfos, then.

With every step closer that she took towards him, Sooga’s anticipation grew more and more; expecting her to eventually notice his energy. They were so close now, and the fact she hadn’t realized it yet… how? Perhaps she was too focused on her task.

“You guys are gonna be a pain in the ass,” he heard her mumble, and through the trees, he could just barely make out the shaking of her head with a sigh following. She turned on her heel, heading back the way she came. Until… she paused after about six steps, her body visibly tensing. She’d noticed him.

The right hand of the inverted eye watched as her blue eyes, wide and still bright within the darkness, gazed around frantically. There was a look of concern on her face, and when she finally caught sight of him… she almost looked frightened, as if she’d been caught doing something wrong.

Though Sooga’s were obscured by the mask he wore, their eyes were locked on each other’s for what felt like minutes. Finally, Sooga took a few slow steps forward, stepping into the clearing where Rose stood, staring up at him.

“So this is where you’ve been,” he mumbled.

Brows furrowing, Rose looked up at him in confusion. “What do you mean? I… haven’t exactly gone missing, at least I don’t think so.”

“Our spy couldn’t find you for the entirety of today,” he clarified.

“So you did send someone to spy on me,” she pouted, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “…I was traveling here for most of today.”

Sooga gave her a nod, a strange tension taking over the silence between them. It was heavy and thick, with a tinge of awkwardness mixed in. As he gazed over Rose, taking in her features underneath the pale moonlight, he felt his heart skip a beat, then begin pounding the same way it did when he was in an intense battle. Why?

She seemed fearful, yet she made no move to run away from him. What was she feeling; thinking? This woman held so much mystery, and Sooga desperately needed to unfold the pages of her story.

Finally, the brunette spoke again. “Why are you here?” She asked, playing with a lock of her dark hair that laid over her shoulder.

“To observe you,” he answered. “I still need to know the truth, Rose.”

Biting her lip, she finally broke her gaze, looking down at her boots. “I… can’t tell you… not now.”

‘Not now’? What did she mean by that?

Sooga folded his arms, his curiosity growing further. So she did have a secret, after all.

Faint voices broke through the air, the men at the stable getting rather loud as they shouted around the fire.

“I need to go. They’re expecting me back,” Rose said, sounding almost… disappointed.

Sooga gave her one last nod, not saying another word as she hesitantly began to walk away, giving him a few glances over her shoulder. Once she was about thirty feet away though, she took off into a sprint, quickly making her way back to the stable.

—

The following day, Sooga returned to the woods nearby Batrea Lake. Knowing that Rose had bounty hunting work to do there, it was incredibly likely that she would be returning, too.

Transporting himself to the same exact spot as he had the previous night, his eyes had to adjust to the sudden brightness of the outdoors. The clan’s hideout wasn’t exactly well lit, so the harsh light, even through the wood’s tree canopy, gave him a slight pause. After a couple seconds, he’d easily recovered and began to walk towards the lizalfos camp, quietly. They would more than likely be awake by now, keeping an eye out for intruders.

Carefully, he crept around the camp and made his way over to the bridge, positioning himself behind a cluster of trees. Sooga had no clue how long it would be before Rose showed up, but he couldn’t afford to miss her. Leaning against a tree, he began to think, while keeping his eyes in the bridge’s direction.

What could he even say to her? She’d rejected his offer of joining the clan twice now, and while she didn’t seem opposed to being somewhat involved with them, she also didn’t act as though she was actively changing her mind. Uki had suggested that he blackmail Rose with their knowledge of her secret. But despite them using that sort of tactic on other people, Sooga found that to be too harsh of a method on Rose. He didn’t want to harm her in any way. It was as if… he almost felt the urge to protect her. But of course, he chalked it down to knowing a good warrior when he saw one. And Rose… she’d be more than perfect for the clan. Therefore, they had to minimize the risk of making her their enemy.

Still, he couldn’t deny he felt so… strangely about her. He’d dealt with many people within the clan, but had never felt so strongly about any of them. Aside from Master Kohga, but that was entirely different from this.

The image of her hadn’t left his mind since their meeting near her cottage. Her pale skin that glowed beneath the sun, her chocolate-colored hair that fell around her figure so… gracefully. And those large, blue eyes that always looked at him with a hint of hesitation. It bothered him, in a way he’d describe as an illness. Shaking his head, Sooga knew he was simply desperate to have her in the clan; highly anticipating being able to have her train under him. He could turn her into the clan’s greatest assassin. But was she willing to do it?

Realizing he was getting incredibly lost in thought, Sooga pulled his head up and focused on the present. How should he approach Rose, this time?

She was here to take down that lizalfos camp. It was a hard task for anyone, especially a lone person. Perhaps if he aided her in taking the monsters down, she’d be more willing to accept the offer. With that idea playing in his mind, Sooga locked his eyes onto the bridge, waiting for Rose to finally appear.

And when she did, he stood up straighter, making no attempt to hide himself or his energy. So naturally, Rose noticed him fairly quickly.

She’d just taken a couple of steps off of the bridge when she realized he was there. Her head turned to face the direction he was in, her deep brown hair swaying behind her in a smooth motion. Her rosy lips parted as though she were going to speak, but nothing came from them. Instead, she glanced behind herself before approaching Sooga, veering off the path she’d just been walking on.

Once they were both behind the cluster of trees, she began to speak in a hushed voice. “Why did you return? I… can’t afford to be seen with you,” she frowned.

What did she mean by that? Wouldn’t anyone else just assume she was being ambushed by him? Odd. “You’re here to fight off that camp of lizalfos. Even though I trust your skills as a warrior, I know the task is too difficult to handle alone. I’ve come to aid you.”

Her blue eyes widened, and she stared up at him with a confused but surprised stare. “What? No, I- I can handle it myself.”

“Perhaps you can. But I’m not willing to risk you getting torn to shreds by those monsters,” he replied.

Averting her eyes and pursing her lips, Rose seemed to think about it for a moment. When her eyes met his mask again, she looked a little more certain, though. “Alright. But I need to do most of the work. I’m getting paid, you know.”

“I don’t desire rupees,” Sooga unfolded his arms, resting his right hand on the hilt of his sword. “Just you… your presence in the clan.”

Rose’s eyes widened again, and a blush overtook her pale cheeks as she tensed up. “O-oh… um,” she didn’t seem to know what to say. “Really? Even after I… rejected you twice?”

Sooga nodded. “While I do not wish to resort to taking you by force, I believe it is in the clan’s best interest to have you among our ranks…” he clarified, “so I must persist.”

As they slowly got closer to the lizalfos camp, their voices grew much quieter. “Sooga, I…” his heart skipped a beat at the sound of his name falling from her lips. “I must ask for your forgiveness, then. I rejected the offer twice but I… think I’ve changed my mind,” she confessed.

“So you will join?”

Biting her lip, Rose gave a hesitant nod. “…yes.”

A small smile formed on his lips, though Rose was none the wiser with his mask being on. “Master Kohga will be delighted to hear that.”

Rose’s eyebrows popped up a little bit, before she began to smile, herself. “Really? Even he wants me in?”

“Indeed. Perhaps more than I do,” Sooga said.

“That’s… nice, I suppose,” she hummed. “Although I need to make preparations at my cottage, still.”

Sooga gave her one nod, their conversation coming to a complete stop as they reached the outskirts of the lizalfos camp. Scanning over the base, Sooga found that most of them were either standing still, their big eyes twitching around, while some of them were swimming in the lake.

“I can use the ancient arts to attack the ones in the lake,” Sooga suggested, waiting to see if Rose had a plan or not.

“I could strangle a few,” she mumbled, a pink glowing rose popping up above her palm, indicating that she meant to strangle them with her powers. “Cut down the rest.”

“It would also be wise to completely destroy the camp. That way, no other lizalfos will take it over.”

Rose nodded in agreement. With that, she looked to him, “will you be striking first?”

“If that’s what you think works best,” he replied.

“Okay… go as soon as you’re ready, then.”

Sooga didn’t have to be told twice, forming a hand sign, he transported himself into the center of the camp, making all of the lizalfos jump out of surprise. He raised his hand into the air, making a swirling motion with it. A deep red glow emanated from it, and suddenly, he thrusted his hand down, slamming it against the grassy floor. The area became surrounded in a red field, and with one swing of his right sword, all of the lizalfos flew into the air, making awful noises that indicated they’d been injured.

Glancing back at her, Sooga found Rose watching in awe, distracted from the lizalfos creeping towards her. Calling her name out seemed to break her out of the trance, as she jumped into action, drawing her katana. She slashed it in the direction of a couple lizalfos, thorns flying from the blade. They pierced directly through the lizalfos scales, instantly killing the two that she’d struck.

With two of the monsters out of the way, Sooga began working on killing the ones near and in the water. Rose took on the ones still on land, using her power to shoot vines at them, wrapping them around the oversized lizard's throats. She tightened her hand into a fist, squeezing the life out of the monsters so easily. Now it was Sooga’s turn to be in awe.

Even if it was enhanced by the powers the Great Fairies had gifted her; Sooga could see as clear as the skies above them that Rose had a talent. One that would greatly benefit the clan. And to think she’d finally decided to join them- they’d be more powerful than ever.

As the three lizalfos she’d strangled disappeared with a purple puff of smoke, Rose turned to smile at Sooga, seeming incredibly proud of herself. But then her eyes widened, her facial expression turning to one of worry, her hand reaching out toward him. “Sooga!”

Whipping his head around, the blademaster found that he’d failed to finish off a couple of the monsters that had been in the water. Just before he could strike them down, though, there was an explosion of smoke as Rose appeared behind the two lizalfos. She sliced directly through their scaley bodies with her katana, a pink color glowing from it as she poured her energy into the attack.

If all of his attention wasn’t now on the fact that Rose had transported herself, Sooga would’ve been cursing at himself for getting so distracted by her before that he hadn’t kept an eye on the monsters behind him. Instead, he let out a heavy sigh, eyes locked onto the woman before him. “I should have made sure they were dead. You have my thanks, Rose.”

She gave him a weak smile, a slight blush on her face. Though that was probably from all the fighting she’d just done. “You’re welcome, I guess,” she looked down at her feet, which were now a foot into the lake’s water. Sooga looked her up and down, concluding on something in his mind.

So she could intentionally transport herself, then…

Rose and Sooga stood at the now deserted monster camp, a silence having washed over them. Breathing heavily from the fight, Rose stood still and attempted to regulate her breaths, feeling as though she’d used too much energy. Maybe even with an evening of rest, the traveling she’d done had fatigued her far too much. If that was the case, she’d probably need to stay at the stable for another day, delaying everything even further.

“We should destroy the camp now,” Sooga then suggested. “Otherwise, more monsters may take over.”

Nodding, Rose took in a deep breath before getting on with what Sooga had suggested.

When they were done with that, they returned to the woods, out of sight from the road. Sooga stood tall, his arms crossed, while Rose opted to lean against a tree, still not having recovered.

“Rose, I must admit, you are an excellent warrior,” Sooga told her.

“Oh… thanks,” she quietly replied, her hands folded together in front of herself.

“I look forward to seeing the power you’ll add to our forces. You’ll still need training within the clan, of course,” he added. “Speaking of- I shall transport you there myself. It will save travel time.”

Rose gave him a small smile, “really? Thank you. Although I should get some stuff from my cottage first. That and- I need to go back to the stable to report to them.”

Sooga nodded.

“Is it far?” She asked, then.

“Yes,” he answered. “Have you heard of Karusa Valley?”

Rose pursed her lips, thinking about it. Had she? Thinking back to everywhere she’d gone for work, she tried to recall if it had ever been mentioned to her before. But she couldn’t think of any instances of that, nor could she remember seeing it on a map. Shaking her head, she responded, “no, I haven’t.”

“It’s in the Gerudo Desert,” Sooga explained. “Towards the highlands. Our hideout is located there.”

“Which is why nobody’s ever found it, then,” she hummed, earning herself another nod.

“Indeed. Nobody would dare travel on foot into such a place. The desert heat would kill them before they could even reach the valley.”

“Not even the Gerudo have made it in?” She asked.

“The ones who tried did not live to tell anyone of the location,” Sooga answered, darkly.

“…oh.”

For another awkwardly silent moment, the two hung out.

“Well, I need to get to the stable. I’ll come back here as soon as I’m done,” Rose then announced, breaking the silence.

“I’ll be awaiting your return,” Sooga nodded.

Pushing herself off of the tree, Rose began to head onto the path, walking back to the stable. When she was at the bridge, though, she began to feel slightly dizzy. Stopping to catch her breath, she decided right then that she’d definitely used too much energy today. Hopefully she’d be able to rest once at the Yiga Clan’s hideout.

—

Finally at the stable again, Rose found the owner. He was within the counter area, waiting for guests or customers needing horse services. He seemed incredibly bored. His head perked up upon her return, though. Approaching him, Rose gave him a smile, trying to hide her growing exhaustion.

“Well? Are they taken care of?” He asked, seeming desperate to hear her answer.

“Yep, the camp’s been destroyed, too,” Rose happily announced, causing the owner to immediately leap with joy.

“Oh, thank Hylia! I know we had agreed on your payment, but miss Rose, you should take an extra hundred! I insist!” He grinned.

“O-oh, no, that isn’t necessary,” she tried denying the extra rupees, shaking her head.

“You’re taking it! That’s final,” he exclaimed, shoving a bag of rupees towards her, tossing another silver one in. “You’ve done a great service to us- you deserve every bit of the money!”

Taking the pouch, Rose tucked it into her bag and gave the man a slight bow. “Thank you so much,” she smiled, sincerely. “Well, I have to get going now. Good luck with the stable!”

Waving goodbye, Rose then headed back to where Sooga said he’d be waiting. Rushing across the bridge, the brunette felt her fatigue growing stronger. As she approached the woods, she slowed down significantly, and by the time she’d reached Sooga again, she was nearly ready to collapse.

“Are you ready to go?” He asked, his deep voice barely registering in her ears.

Huffing, Rose weakly nodded. “Y-yeah.”

Sooga then took a couple steps toward her, until they were nearly touching. Then, hesitantly, he reached his arm out. “Sorry- may I?”

“Huh?” She looked up, feeling more dizzy “y-yeah,” she then said, not even caring what Sooga was asking permission to do.

But when his arm wrapped around her, she shuddered deeply, ready to begin swooning. As she swayed forward a small bit, she clutched onto the belts across his chest, stabilizing herself.

Holding her tightly against his taller body, Sooga formed a hand signal with his left hand, and with a puff, they disappeared.

Reappearing about ten feet from her cottage, Rose felt a rush of relief washing over herself. She was home; where she could hopefully go sit down, rest a little bit and then gather her belongings and finally go to the hideout with Sooga.

“Gather whatever you need,” Sooga said. “Though do not worry about bringing everything. We can return to get the rest.”

Feeling his arm relaxing as he carefully let go of her, Rose stumbled away from Sooga. The world around her was spinning- and his voice had sounded incredibly faint, despite him being so close. Barely, through the ringing of her ears, she heard him speak again.

“Rose? Are you alright?”

Vision fading, Rose opened her mouth to tell him that no, she certainly was not alright. But nothing left her lips, as her eyes fell shut. Feeling herself beginning to fall, the last thing Rose heard was Sooga’s voice, calling out to her again.

“Rose!”

#sooga x oc #sooga x original character #hwaoc sooga #sooga #sooga x reader #legend of zelda fanfiction #zelda fanfiction #zelda fic #hyrule warriors fic #age of calamity fic #yiga clan #yiga oc

3 notes · View notes

calamitaswrath · 1 year ago

Text

Twentieth and twenty-first day in Tears of the Kingdom:

Filled out the map of the Depths some more, getting really close to being done with it

Got the last piece of the Zonai set that saves energy for devices. . . which turned out to be on a sky island that I had been to before and had solved the puzzle for, but missed the chest containing the piece

Continued filling out the map of the Depths, clearing an arena that had Zant's mask in it

Did a whole bunch of sidequests in Hateno, including the dispute about the position of the mayor, and the most important one: the one that allows you to purchase cheese. Side note, but Hateno really does more and more become one of my favourite areas in the game - it just feels super cozy.

Went to the maze in the northeasternmost corner of the map, which I assumed had the last lightroot that I needed beneath it. . . yet when I cleared the maze in the sky, on the ground and the Depths, it turned out that I had missed two roots.

Also cleared a cave near the maze.

Found the last two lightroots below Central Hyrule, finally filling out that map

Went back to the Thunderhead Islands in the sky, where I had already done the story content, since there were more islands still that I had yet to explore. Radar alerted me to the fact that there was a shrine nearby, that I just couldn't find because the map was obstructed and visibility was terrible. In the end, I just caved and looked up what to do about the Shrine online. . . turns out, if I had come to the islands via the story path, I would have had both the map and the visibility of the area cleared up for me.

Did the lead-up to the Thunderhead Islands after all, got myself a new armour set, and then the shrine on the islands

Chasing a shooting star, I leapt off the islands and flew over Lake Hylia. . . but by the time I got there, it was daytime, and the stupid thing disappeared, which was lovely.

Went around the sky some more, exploring some islands I hadn't been to yet and clearing out some bosses there

Decided to explore some caves instead, so I had them marked by Satori, starting at that mountain - though one that was supposedly at the plateau where there was constantly a thunderstorm in BotW had me completely stumped, so I had to abandon it

Settled on a cherry tree near Hateno to look for more caves from there

#shut up cal you fool

7 notes · View notes

stealthnoodle · 2 years ago

Text

There Is No Pond but Ice Pond: Let's Play Tears of the Kingdom

Today on Zelda, I briefly meet the Gerudos and proceed to have a normal one

Lol I got another Zelda flashback and this one is all "I sure am a time traveler! You sure are my ancestors! I sure do need to get back to my time before we get another calamity on our hands, haha! Prime Directive? I don't know her"

I made it through the sandstorm (somehow I made it through-ooh-ooh) but Gerudo Town appears to be empty? What fuckery is this

Okay, I found everyone in an underground shelter after paddling around in the sewers and Ascending through a random ceiling. I was immediately jailed, then released, then kicked out on the streets until I put a shirt on:

You CAGE Miette? You cage her nipples like the tigers? Oh! Oh! Jail for Gerudo! Jail for Gerudo for One Thousand Years!

I have endured Unspeakable Oppression and then stood right outside the entrance, making eye contact with the guard, while whipping my shirt right back off

Ganondorf doesn't have to wear a shirt in this flashback when he pretends to swear fealty to Hyrule. >:( This is bullshit

Dude hang on, I'm finding a korok

I have finally done a "find the crystal and bring it back to the shrine" quest, because the one in Satori Mountains was very close to the target. All I had to do was tuck myself up in a little rock passage and rain down arrows upon a hapless Hinox. You know, hero shit

Call me a cartoon monkey because I have yet to encounter a banana trap that I didn't fall for:

The underground beckons. I think this is the last Big Poe statue and it is being very difficult:

Great Plateau, huh? Okay, back up topside, wanderwanderwander, hello, statue, how are you—

are you motherfuckers in cahoots

You want under the water behind the stone wall? I will FIND your under the water behind the stone wall, mark my words

Okay, I'm pretty sure this is it (it's got arrows point at it from all around!), but how do I get under the icy water?

Openings in the rock below: 0

Successful efforts pairing warm pants with warming elixirs and diving in: 0

Successful efforts dunking a goddamn zonai flamethrower in there: 0

Number of times I have startled a cat with an outburst like "SHIT FUCK COCK FUCK": 4

Items dropped in the water to no avail: lots

I am losing my mind. There is no world beyond the ice pond. The secrets of the universe lie in its frigid depths. I am putting on that one Evanescence track that isn't "Bring Me to Life" because it is 2003 I just finished playing Enter the Matrix

"Ice pond" is an anagram for "coed nip," WE'RE COMING FULL CIRCLE BABY

"Noodle you could look this up" ABSOLUTELY NOT, ice pond forbids it

I've thrown a snowball in and it's slowly bouncing off the edges like a 90s DVD screensaver

Ice pond continues to to reject my sacrifices but I have beheld a golden light shining upon the top of Spectacle Rock and I choose to take it as a sign from my fickle frozen god

Ice pond hath led me to a star fragment. All glory be to ice pond

There's also a gleeok up here, but I recognize this as a trick of the infernal warmth. Not today, hot one

This is what that Florence + The Machine song was about

Um, so, I found a much more obvious stone wall while running around the plateau, blew up a stopper of rocks, and unflooded the area around a little stone statue, so, uh, gonna chase that lead up real quick:

Ice pond, in its infinite and ineffable wisdom, has granted me a special dispensation to pursue this quest of throwing four magical eyes into chasms, because ice pond, in its infinite and ineffable wisdom, understands that this is rad as fuck

My soul of course remains the property of ice pond. From ice pond I have come, and to ice pond I shall return. The frozen bosom awaits. Amen.

#stealthnoodle plays loz: tears of the kingdom #tears of the kingdom #totk spoilers #if it turns out there's just a korok in there i will lost my ENTIRE SHIT #hi i'm playing this game very much as intended #i'll do another main quest someday #probably #maybe #it depends on what ice pond wants

7 notes · View notes

thegeminisage · 1 year ago

Text

back at it in zelda. i complain about the western half of the map but one region i do really like is tabantha, esp around the canyon. everything is very tall and pretty. im grabbing a few korok seeds here while i do shrines as a treat before i move on to satori mountain

flame gleeok where the "stop following me" memory was!! at least i'm equipped to fight them now

i figured out why flame armor doesn't work. you need hot weather armor ie gerudo clothes. wtf

TUNIC OF AWAKENING!!! gr8 reward

SHOOTING STAR!!!!! i didnt see it fall but i can see the light tower from here. it landed directly on the peak of satori mountain and i have no way to fast travel there. it's almost 3am, even with the bike there's no way i can make it. ugh!!! :(

geez i forgot how good the foraging was here. so many mushrooms......

wah. the ruins at the little horse shoe shaped area with the statue. there was a memory here too iirc!

wait...there's water flowing here! wasn't it dry in the last game?? wtf zelda has been at work restoring things AAAAAA

satori mountain cave is cool as hell. all these little guys running around and every time i think i've got to the end there's more of it. i keep going the wrong way on purpose so i can see everything lol

okay! i did some math and if i wanted to get every shrine and still have time to beat the game before pikmin 4, i'd need bare minimum to get 3 shrines per day. but i want FOUR shrines per day so i also have a bit of time to fuck around. today i've gotten the two on satori mountain and it is OFFICIALLY cleaned out. i didn't plan to get all the korok seeds, but they were RIGHT THERE, so.

not sure what shrines im getting next...maybe the horrible hand one by the tower just to get it out of the way lol. i can't believe i walked past those hands 3000 times w/o knowing they were close by. augh

break for now for Stuff tho.

break over. going to the scary shrine before i can chicken out :(

lindors brow cave, for the curious

im so scared im so scared Im So Scared

ok. the good news is. i think if i fly over this Big Pit That Looks Like An Arena i'll miss them. the bad news is. i don't get my frog if i do that. so i gotta spawn them and THEN run. i don't get out of this without spawning them.

AAAAAAAAAGH I DONT WANNA. ok. here we go.

spawned them by ACCIDENT while flying over. good fucking god. im waiting for them to despawn now but its taking forever. idw fight them bc then they'll just spawn phantom ganon

well. they are not leaving.

i'm not going down there. fuck that. i'm shooting them from up here til phantom ganon shows up to kick my ass

SOLO'D THAT MOTHERFUCKER WITH A LYNEL BOW AND BOMB ARROWS!!!!! BUDDY YOU AIN'T SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my hands are shaking. that was horrible. oh my god

ok. wheres that damn frog.

at least its a raurus blessing shrine. imagine having to do all that and THEN they hit u with puzzles

you know though i feel really lucky in some respects though bc. there are places on this map that indicate hand presence. and i remember being in those places and not running into hands there. a brush with fucking death and i didn't even know it

like i swear i walked RIGHT over their spawnpoint in maritta exchange ruins and...nope. nothing.

the biggest chunk of ground shrines i havent gotten yet are in hebra or gerudo desert, both areas i HATE bc of the walking speed debuff. might as well swipe a few more hebra ones and make it easier for future me

oops, i did this shrine quest out of order, i killed a talus which had a crystal on it and now i have to take it to a shrine which means dragging it behind me while i explore this whole cave. smh. at least i can cheat with my map to tell me where the shrine was tho lol

wtf how am i supposed to get it up this big tunnel...dont say hot air balloon.......

(im using a hot air balloon)

THE AIR CURRENT FUCKS WITH MY BALLOON

this is so harrowing. this is the worst cave, oh my god

ANOTHER vertical air column? for the love of god

i guess i have to make another balloon. i only have 1 floating platform and im saving it for worse emergencies than this :/

wait. i think i just went in a big circle?? IS THE SHRINE NOT IN THE CAVE?

oh my god it LITERALLY wasnt in the cave i dragged it around that whole time and made those annoying wonky hot air balloons for NOTHING!!! the beam didnt show up until i tried to pick it up with my hands (which didnt happen until near the end of the cave exploration), so i just assumed...

jesus goddamn christ. fucking bullshit lmao i'm an idiot

OKAY. shrine get.

another shrine which was some eventide bullshit. i wish you could keep the items from those i want arrows :(

ANOTHER BREAK.

ok. im back. gonna see whats in that big fuckoff hole (my map says a shrine)

i always feel so bad for addison when i find him in rough climates. he's shivering!! go home, buddy!!!

this froggy armor fucking sucks. i've got the whole set and i still slip on the ice >:(

ok, i got...5?? 6?? shrines today so well ahead of schedule lol. tomorrow i'm doing ANYTHING but hebra

#personal #loz blogging #totk lb #totk spoilers

5 notes · View notes

hylianjo · 2 years ago

Text

Tag Game - Word Search

Okay, okay, I had to do this for @mikaharuka, @udaberriwrites, @oceangirl24 and @alpaca-clouds. Thanks for tagging me! My post kept crashing so I had to make a new one lol.

These are all from part 3 of my "Fire of a Thousand Suns" series, "A Twisted Timeline Tale of Breath of the WIld." My words: Sword, Blood, Shiver, Voice, Lock

SWORD: (Chapter 80):

Fi’s voice abruptly addressed him once again, the voice of the Sword still echoing in his mind. "Ganon was born out of a dark past. He is the pure embodiment of an ancient evil reborn time and time again. He has given up on reincarnation and has assumed his pure, enraged spiritual form. If set free upon your world the destruction will be unlike anything ever seen before in all the Realms."Link's eyes were suddenly drawn to Zelda's golden orb floating above him, and he breathed a deep sigh of relief. She spoke within his mind once again. "Link! I'm so relieved you’re safe! We must hurry! The Goddess has forged a weapon, the counterpart to the Sword That Seals the Darkness. She has entrusted you with the Light Bow. Take it, and we will defeat Dark Beast Ganon together! I love you, my beloved king."

BLOOD: (Chapter 14) Link is still bleeding profusely onto the ground. He cannot speak but only stares up at her helplessly. She violently rips off his shirt to soak up his blood while she yanks the Sheikah slate from his hip. She frantically taps the screen with shaking hands and materializes Blood Balm and a bottle of disinfectant. She winces, knowing this is going to hurt.

Forty seconds left.

She quickly pours the disinfectant over him. He yells and passes out from the unbearable pain of the liquid as it rushes like a scathing, burning river of serrated razors tearing through his open wound.

"No Link, please. Don't you dare."

She applies the Blood Balm. His physical life force is quickly draining into an ever-growing dark red puddle beside her beloved. She applies pressure with his soaked shredded shirt hard against the massive wound.

Twenty seconds left.

“Please, Hylia, help him." She jerks a large bandage out of her bag, forces the shirt out of the way, and tightly wraps the bandage with frantic speed against the large gash that has gloriously begun repairing itself thanks to the quick effects of the Blood Balm. She breathes for the first time.

“Goddess Hylia, please help me! Link, hold on!”

SHIVER: (Chapter 53)

Link placed a hand around the small of her back and gently pushed her down with the other, easing her onto her back on the ground underneath him. He playfully ran his tongue from the base of her neck up to her ear and gently gave it a nibble.

"Liiink…” She was breathing faster now, unable to stop the waves of desire that were sending trails of fire though her blood again.

"So, what do you think, my lady? Shall we stay here? How many mountains in Hyrule can we defile? We’ve already defiled Mt. Lanayru. Shall we add Satori Mountain to the list?” His hushed, low whispers in her ear sent a shiver down her spine and straight to a certain area of her that Link was slightly rubbing himself against.

She let out a nervous giggle, and Link saw her blush at his stimulating words, even in shadow.

VOICE: ((Chapter 58)

She climbed into his lap and turned, facing away from him. She could hear his breath hitch at the contact of her sitting there. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and began slowly placing sweet but teasing kisses between her shoulder blades as she leaned back into him. Pricks of pleasure zapped her with every kiss. Her voice was breathless. “I don’t know about you, Link, but…I think this beats a massage and a soft bed…don’t you?” Her voice was shaking, reflecting her building desire. “Mmm…” he softly hummed. “I’m the happiest anywhere and anytime I can hold you and kiss you like this.”

LOCK: (Chapter 67)

Vah Naboris, the camel-like Divine Beast, takes a walk, the land shaking with every step. It settles upon the cliffs of the Gerudo Desert, folding its legs underneath itself as it lies in the dry, arid desert air of the region’s highlands. It faces Hyrule Castle as anticipation wells within its pilot, the Gerudo Champion Urbosa. A large, powerful red laser beam extends from between the ears of the camel-like Divine Beast, setting its sights on Ganon’s cocoon, joining the other three beams that are armed and at the ready.

Urbosa speaks. “You are a legend! Isn’t that right, Naboris? The bitter essence of my defeat a century ago still sits upon my tongue, but that is now in the past. It is written that Calamity Ganon once took the form of a Gerudo. That will make this victory all the more satisfying. I like that, because now I can take this personally. We have established a lock on that thing, and now it is up to Link to keep Ganon occupied until the moment we unleash our strike. That moment is going to be so delicious.”

Vah Naboris unleashes a deafening grunt and a cry in response that echoes throughout the land of Hyrule. The Divine Beast and its pilot are ready. What a fun game! Tagging @axolotlsupremacyowo, @1up-girl, @zeldaseyebrows, @drsteggy and @tsunderewatermelon (No pressure!) Your words are: Love, fallen, high, battle, and soft

#tag game #my friends are awesome #pick a fic #word search

10 notes · View notes

fallen-knight · 2 months ago

Text

Development problems were absolutely at play. And since Masterworks leaves out most actual developer insights in favor of rehashing fan theories, they'll probably never own up to it, explain any of what actually happened behind the scenes, or acknowledge there was a loss of quality at all. Which stinks, but it's par for the course with huge entertainment companies.

(hope the pain gets better btw, and don't feel bad for complaining about this stuff! serious and thoughtful criticism of tloz, like any media, is good in itself, and the fandom bringing it to notice is an integral part of the series' (hopeful) improvement.)

The depths in particular are so unfinished though, I can't get over it... Very negative analysis of TotK's world structure below:

The surface map of Hyrule, especially in BotW, used every corner for treasures, training the player to pay attention to odd looking spots because 99% of the time there's something there to reward your curiosity, even if it's just a korok seed, hot spring, or other resource cache. And even if it turned out to be just an odd little spot, it would usually be nice to look at and hang out in, and provide a vantage point to get to other locations.

In the depths though, only a handful of major locations (towns, zonai ruins, leviathans, great plateau, satori mountain) seem to have received any attention. After the gibdo cemetery directly beneath the Arbiter's Grounds, I was hoping for something interesting under other locations that reference past games like the Breach of Demise and Ash Swamp/Blatchery Plain.

But nope, the cemetery was a one-off thing apparently - nothing to reference the SkSw myth or BotW Link's defeat at all, except for a copy pasted coliseum that isn't even in the right place. Beneath those locations there were just oddly formed rocks and a few scattered poes, like any random part of the Depths. After hours upon hours of getting this "why bother?" feeling from exploration, my expectations - that had been formed by the areas the devs actually put effort into - naturally became as low and gloomy as the depths themselves. Maybe that was all part of the game's artistic intent though, who am I to say.

Besides the major surface-relevant locations, the valleys each got a functionally identical mine, the same few resource dumps were copy pasted at random around them, along with oddly intentional ascend points that I'm still convinced were part of scrapped DLC, and most of the dead ends and odd bits of terrain created by nature of the inverted map ended up with nothing to acknowledge their existence, not even a treasure chest or a single poe.

I remember finding one really cool cave over a lake, like a hollow tree with a stone shelf inside, mirroring a surface structure, that was - surprise - completely empty. The lake didn't even have fish. It was bizarre and felt like walking into a half-built house. If someone had actually put a single thought into polishing the map's construction, they would have put something, anything inside that cave. And I can't even say the exploration was a reward in itself - the depths are really kind of ugly and severely lacking in enjoyable views beyond the "ooh, spooky" of something moving in the darkness, that gets old fast and disappears as soon as it's lit up.

The sky islands have similar problems, though they're helped by having slightly more original content to discover like the forge, lightcast, and thunderhead isles, as well as being beautiful to traverse. But a pretty paint job can only cover so much of the same shit, over and over, and that's just what most of them turned out to be.

And as for the surface itself... The remixed landmarks like shrines, towers, and fairy fountains were placed with far less intent than in BotW, and the old terrain that was created for them has barely anything to fill the void, making the map overall feel less coherent. Plus the repetitive nature of smaller points of interest is far more apparent, thanks to the new mechanics making the map so fast to traverse, as well as the sheer volume of copy pasted content (Addison my beloathed) and the fact that a good chunk are in the exact same locations as BotW. (Looking at you koroks.)

There isn't really a problem with reusing locations as easter eggs/nods to old players if the content is new and unique, but 99% of the time in TotK, it just seems lazy. The caves are actually refreshing, but also ultimately repetitive in content, and only a handful have any kind of environmental storytelling or implied lore.

I'll just say it as I see it: The amount of effort and intention that went into building BotW's world was exponentially greater than TotK's, and the quality saw an incredible backslide once you look past the veneer of novelty. It's quantity over quality all the way, and it really stings for those of us who genuinely tried to explore and enjoy the game's secrets as we were encouraged to do by BotW.

Anyway yeah, my inner explorer was just fucking frustrated by all three levels of the map, but the depths in particular lmao. Rant over

(while i am crumbling into pieces from cramp pain)

back when they announced the totk masterworks book i said i wasnt happy about it bc it would either

prove they thought all this was good from the start and everything went as planned

show us that they had unbelievable better ideas and plans but for some unknow reason scrapped it all

as it stands now with the concepts i have seen ... they somehow did both, some things seemed to have been planned fro mthe start (the whole focus on sonau/zonai stuff for example, which i personally just dont like bc i liked them better as an unkown mystery you never get to meet) and other stuff (like ganondorfs concepts, or the infinitely cooler castle in the sky esque concepts for the sky islands, instead of some nonsensical, meaningless little stone crumbs) was much, much more interesting initially (together with the interviews that said they initially planned to have the battery be a magic meter and make the sonau more magic than tech- but then decided to build their stuff around modern electrical devices just so players would immediately know what it was an what it would do -why????? thats so boring?? and unecessary ?? and they still give you tutorials for it anyway, multiple times??!!- for some ungodly reason)

it makes me more and more sure that this game, that took 6 years to make with most assets already being there (the same time that botw took to make?????????), went through a similar development hell as that one final fantasy game did where the director decided to make it an entirely different game every few weeks bc he saw something cool in another game-

its the only thing that makes sense to me, why else would it be so weirdly ... unfinished, its full of grand ideas badly executed, or like i said in a previous post, like an alpha build (weird! did someone in charge also see cool stuff every few months and decide they wanted it in there too no matter what so everyone had to scramble to try and put it in making the whole jenga tower fall over and over??), just to test how far you can push things, with placeholders everywhere, the same cutscene pasted in where another should be and a placeholder reason to get players to go soemwhere (fake zelda) and rough ideas for puzzles etc, that was never finished, jsut highly polished (in looks, sounds and presentation) in hopes of it being 'good enough' or players not noticing (like, take the underground for example, the idea itself is fantastic and cool as fuck, but its feels like an idea that was never finished and just barely fileld with some things to try and cover up the fact that it was never done, like a statue that wasnt done being carved but ran out of time so they painted it anyway- take the base map and invert it, put some easily accessible points of jumping down into it in random spots to test if the game can handle it- no time left to actually get that idea anywhere more specific and well thought out/put together, so its left like that, put the same texture everywhere, barely modified copies of the same enemies, and some little reward spots that make no sense, modelling three types of trees and an enemy camp is way quicker to do than actually making an entire new map (they didnt have to make it the same size btw, just make it big but unique caves, put the gravity effect down there in enclosed spaces! makes it less weird to have randomly happen in the sky! etc) but its there!! its in the game and if they are lucky most players wont go down there enough to notice how meaningless and unfinished it all is)

knowing they would most likely never admit to it though, probably bc of their reputation, is just addign to the frustrations i have with it :I

(i just hate to not know the reason for things, if the devs, who are usually the ones being worked to the bone for things they know arent good, where put through that bc some executive big shot threw their tables around every so often or neglected their project bc they wanted to focus on something else first ... id like to know, i dont enjoy making up these conspiracy (?) theories .......... but i cant shake this feeling, its jsut makes no sense)

#needed to get this off my chest sorry #it's so frustrating to be dismissed for comparing totk to botw #when stuff like its world design and story logic have no excuse to be actively worse #yes comparing a game with its predecessor is sometimes fair and needed actually #i can count the things i actively dislike about botw on one hand #and while a couple of those are pretty major (gerudo design and the narrative around them) it has nothing on totk #the legend of zelda #tears of the kingdom #analysis #the knight speaks

54 notes · View notes