#cultivate a legend. headcanon

[the-moon-files]

Linked Universe / GN!Reader - Random Headcanons abt the Chain! :)

Part 1 / Part 2 (ur here!) / Part 3

Sun: Reader (you/they/them)

Orbit: Headcanons-ish

Stars: Hyrule, Time, Fierce Deity, Twilight, Warriors

Comets & Meteors: Content Warnings: light cussing, & Trigger Warnings: none known.

☆

Hyrule (The Legend of Zelda - OG game, Zelda II: Adventures of Link):

Lost easily, obviously, you know this

What you didnt know was that its very easy to get lost with him

Bc he's so excited/curious for new sights he doesnt give any fucks abt where he is, so it devolves into that "wait, I thought YOU were leading us there?? Then where tf are we??!!" very quickly

Does feel bad he stressed u out smtimes but he somehow manages to get into such wild shit that Hyrule's kinda preoccupied being confused/amazed/finding his way out, or any combo of these situations (once again, usually with you unfortunately)

Is the luckiest when it comes to getting lost or anything to do with "natural" things

Like he heard u rlly like this one fruit? Accidentally gets lost all day and panics all the Links + You until he shows up at midnight with a shirtful of them

("I found a few fruit trees/plants in the woods while wandering! I tried to grab a few for you and before I knew it, it was dark, sorry...")

Likes learning little skills from other people, like learning how to do makeup from Legend, or how to spot collections of rupees the Minish have left somewhere from Four, or how walk on any terrain from Wind (good at walking on a ship, on land, climbing etc)

More of a "sunset" hiker than a "sunrise" one

Likes to do your hair! Whether that be braiding, putting accessories (he handmade shhh) thruout it, or helping with hair maintenance, likes how strangely intimate but domestic it feels together with you (u return the favor ofc)

(All the other heroes are looking at you both like kicked puppies jfcccc🙄)

Time (Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask):

Gets anxious if he's late to things, likes being fashionably early (or ungodly, when u let him get away with it)

Has absolutely been that meme from Parks and Recreation where he's like "Alright. I'm not mad, I just wanna know. Who broke it?"

(Abt the coffee pot for the camp)

Knowing full and well-

"I broke it. It burnt my coffee for the 3rd morning in a row, so I punched it. I predict 10 minutes from now they'll be at each other's throats with war paint on their faces and a moblin head on a stick. ...good. It was getting a little chummy around here."

MF LOVES GOSSIP (wouldn't admit this even at swordpoint)

Wars has absolutely been the person in the meme of:

Wars: "...why would you tell me this??"

Time: "Bc no one will ever believe you."

Wars: ...😦

Has a resting bitch face and knows it, actively cultivates it, scary dog privileges for you,

Type to take ur side in whatever situation ur in, even when Time has no idea whats going on, always, without question <3

The same height as First, (Twi's a close 2nd), and feels most secure when the 3 of you are at the front of the group, but First/Time are slightly in front of you

Like ur literally the person walking their 2 huge scary doobermans/mastiffs one leash in each hand basically 💀

(Once again, Link is deeply comforted by ur voice just over his shoulder/just hearing u even without seeing you)

Very subtly sarcastic, u dont even know he made a dig at you until 3-5 business days later

Likes ur sarcasm more than anyone else's in the group, or even his own lol

Fierce Deity (Majora's Mask):

Likes music, any music (amused at drunk karaoke)

Casually cradles ur arms or back whenever ur falling asleep/tripping/being clumsy near him

Very warm and smoothed calloused hands

Thinks abt what he's about to say so hard/long, that the conversation's moved on by like, 3 rounds/subject changes by the time he's actually ready to talk

Scolds ppl (in like a sentence) who neglect their needs, like sleeping/eating/hygiene

Finds peace in nature, if hes ever upset, u can bet he's already taking a walk by a stream

Likes teaching u/other Links little skills he has, its nice to feel appreciated/needed for something other than fighting or big moments

He falls in love with small moments, like the first time u made them all a dessert recipe from ur world, or repaired First's scarf (for the millioneth time) and bc everyone had gotten their clothes scratched up, everyone needed repairs so most Links were sewing smth lol

Enjoys watching ppl experience smth for the first time, or even himself exp smth for first time

Fierce smiled fully for the first time when you got into the mountain hot springs in Wild's Hyrule for the first time and were super excited

Also the type to hold ur hand while stepping in to make sure u dont fall, or just subtly boost a Link that was abt to fall from climbing smth

Like for being the tallest, he's surprisingly sneaky, the energy of the biggest cat in the house yet somehow also the quietest

Does that thing where someone takes ur hand and like massages ur fingers, palm, wrist and shakes them out kinda for you <3

Twilight (Twilight Princess):

Trips UP the stairs.

Cold start LMAO

ok ill be nice to him,, sike

Easy to bully?? U mean that kindly, he's just such a golden retriever sometimes u cant help urself (tho u make sure to reign it in and not take advantage of it so as not to genuninely hurt him)

Lol likes to "herd" his favorite people, like those dogs livestock farmers have u kno that they say end up herding their owners/their family lol

Like making subtle circles around the Chain, wrapping an arm around Hyrule and teasing him to quietly bring him back into the group before he gets lost,

Tugs on Time's armor to slow him down, mf may be in armor head to toe but he'll outpace all of u 💀

Likes to put his hand on ur lower back to guide u back into the group from whatever scenic thing u got distracted by

(so sue you, ur literally in The Legend of Zelda's Hyrule, surrounded by pretty blondes, why tf wouldnt you be distracted all the time??)

The only time he doesnt herd actively is in Ordon, just subconciously lol <3

Terrible sleep schedule, but sleeps like the dead when he does, has collapsed with a limb on top of you and u couldnt escape

Hard time waking up in the morning despite being country boy, who usually have to do chores first thing in morning on a farm

hates/envious of Wild (up at 5am even on days off?? Foul.)

Runs warm, but complains abt a slight breeze?

Would sleep with no covers if it werent for morning dew

Wishes cats liked him more (its the wolf smell)

Twi has the constant energy of a tall person carefully maneuvering around cluttered/low doorways while someone a head shorter runs by him and bounces off of him

U get onto/scold the Links and he's immediately the first to just sit on the ground, or put down whatever he's holding no matter what he's doing LMAO 😭😭

Keeps his eyes on u too the whole time lol

Warriors (Hyrule Warriors):

Cries over romance novels/dramas

A virgo in all stereotypes of the word tbh

Invented the red-string conspiracy theory board before the red-string conspiracy board existed in Hyrule

Also likes to take care of your hair! (What?? He and 'Rulie don't fight over ur hair, that'd be childish, he's not a foolish boy- Hyrule, hand over the brush.👹)

Remembers the little things abt u type of person, like ur favorite drink, ur favorite stories like tv shows/books even if theyre from ur world, ur favorite clothing pieces like shorts vs. pants, etc.

The only Link who can single handedly claim he could take your closet and dress you in something you'd actually wear.

Honestly once he got the hang of it, would get better at dressing you, than you

(Another domestic thing he adores, picking outfits for u/finding that perfect piece of clothing you've been needing lately)

Born to night-owl, forced to morning-bird 😔

Wars wakes up stiff sometimes bc soldier training is sleeping on ur back, hands to ur sides, laying straight in ur bed, so as to fit into bunks/bedrolls close together

It got better as he was promoted to Captain, so he could have his own quarters but its still a hard habit to shake

One of the few Links who works up the courage to genuinely pitfully ask if you'd mind massaging his shoulders again? He slept badly last night, please?? 🥺👉👈

(Ur so weak for pathetic hurting pretty blonde twinks lol)

The most lowkey abt taking care of Chain, but u make sure to take care of him as a gift back, and you've definitely caught him tearing up abt it 💖

☆

Debated writing smth else first but figured this was easy and short and i started it first so youll have to wait like one more post before more Masc Reader stuff guys 😔

Dw its coming, i havent abandoned u my homies out there 🫂

Let me know what u think in the comments of my slight characterizations here!

Im struggling to conceptualize their personalities so thats acc part of why i started to write smaller stuff like this first! :)

Peace out,

🌙

[goodqueenaly]

Hi and I hope you are well! I don’t know if this is a weird question, but I’m always fascinated by the legends of the Reach particularly regarding the children of Garth Greenhand, and how that connects to the Faith in those areas. I think I saw a post you wrote some time ago about how for example Rowan Gold Tree’s story might have been adapted by the Faith into a parable about the Mother (apologies if I’m mistaken). I guess my question is, do you think Rowan and the others might have been actually worshipped as gods before the Faith, like Garth might have been? Also if I may ask a second question: do you have thoughts about Floris (my personal fave) how her story fits into Westeros’ patriarchal attitudes towards women? Does the fact that she founded three houses mean that she’s not vilified by the Faith for being non monogamous? Thanks and sorry again for weird questions!!

(I was mistaken, I think it was actually about Rowan’s story as a parable about the Maiden, like that her hair turned into a tree as a sign of being favored by the Maiden? I don’t quite remember who wrote this post.)

I have a vague memory of a post I wrote along similar lines a very long time ago too, but I couldn’t find it, so either I never did or I deleted it. Anyway, I do very much like to headcanon that the myth of Rowan Gold-Tree was co-opted by the Faith during its early establishment in the Reach as a myth about the Maiden - that Rowan, abandoned by her love for a richer rival, prayed to the Maiden in her heartbreak, and the Maiden, guardian and benefactor of virtuous maids, gave Rowan her golden tree, almost Cinderella style, perhaps as a sort of dowry to show that maidenly virtue was literally worth more than gold.

Whatever the particular relationship between the Faith and the myth of Rowan Gold-Tree, do I think that some or all of the legendary children of Garth Greenhand may have been worshiped as gods themselves? Very possibly. We know that there was at least some tradition of Garth being worshiped as or at least considered a god by Westerosi: Yandel notes that “[s]ome even say [Garth Greenhand] was a god” and that “[a] few of the very oldest tales” present Garth as a “considerably darker deity, one who demanded blood sacrifice from his worshippers to ensure a bountiful harvest” and a “green god [who] die[d] every autumn … only to be reborn with the coming of spring”. Yandel also compares Garth to fertility gods and goddesses worshiped by “[m]any of the more primitive peoples of the earth”, as Garth not only “taught men to farm” and “showed them how to plant and sow, how to raise crops and reap the harvest” but also scattered a seemingly divinely plentiful bag of various seeds and “brought the gift of fertility” to people and crops alike. Nor was this early history of Westeros an era without the worship of local deities beyond the old gods: the myth of Durran Godsgrief features a sea god and a goddess of the wind, the people of the Three Sisters worshiped the Lady of the Waved and the Lord of the Skies, and of course the ironborn believe in the eternal divine struggle between the Drowned God and the Storm God.  

So I could see where, depending on the era and the location, various individuals among Garth’s legendary children might have been worshiped as gods or semi-divine heroes themselves. If Garth Greenhand was worshiped as a god for teaching the First Men to sow, cultivate, and reap, might Gilbert of the Vines have been similarly worshiped by the people of the Arbor for teaching these people “to make sweet wine” from their island’s lush native grapes (and indeed, might there have been some local tradition that Gilbert had inherited his father’s fertility and made these grapes grow “so fat and lush across their island”)? If Garth was treated as a god for his apparently mystical and/or divine ability to bring and cultivate life from the land, might Ellyn Ever-Sweet, Rowan Gold-Tree, and/or Rose of Red Lake have been similarly worshiped by the locals of Beesbury, Goldengrove, and/or Red Lake, respectively, for their supernatural, perhaps also seemingly divine, connections to and power over the natural world? If the earliest worshipers of Garth Greenhand offered him blood sacrifices in return for bountiful harvests, might worshipers have given Bors the Breaker similar blood sacrifices in return for grants of strength and courage, since he himself had supposedly drunk the blood of bulls to gain the power of 20 men? If Garth’s divine power included the gift of specifically sexual fertility so strong that he “[made] barren women fruitful with a touch” and caused “[m]aidens [to ripen] in his presence”, “mothers [to bring] forth twins or even triplets when he blessed them”, and “young girls [to flower] at his smile”, then might Harlon and Herndon have been similarly worshiped for the seeming eternal fertility they apparently enjoyed and represented as husbands to their woods witch wife, or Foss the Archer worshiped as a similar roving fertility god casting a welcome eye on maidens as his father had done (with his arrow and apple exploits perhaps a sort of sexual euphemism)? Again, these are just a few creative examples, but the larger point is that I could very well see where Garth’s children may have been seen not only as extensions of his own legend, but gods in their own right who took over aspects of the worship of Garth Greenhand. (To say nothing of whether any of them might have been worshiped for their own persons and/or deeds - if, say, John the Oak, Owen Oakenshield, and/or Brandon of the Bloody Blade might have been viewed as a sort of proto-Warrior or god of war, or if Maris the Maid became a sort of mother goddess for Oldtown and House Hightower.) 

As far as Florys the Fox goes … eh. I think that strict monogamy was not an entirely consistent or mandated practiced among the First Men before the arrival of the Andals, including in the Reach: not only do the myths of both Florys and the twin ancestors of House Tarly feature as their protagonists participants in polygamous (and, indeed, polyandrous) marriages, but King Garland II successfully brought Oldtown into the Gardener kingdom by putting aside his wives, plural, to marry Lymond Hightower’s daughter. Nor indeed should we ignore the fact that Florys seems to have been considered clever not just for having three husbands but for keeping each a secret from the others - a suggestion, perhaps, that the expected (read: patriarchal) order of the universe, playfully subverted by the literally extraordinary Florys, was that a woman should be the submissive partner to a single man, rather than the dominant mistress keeping three men at her nuptial leisure. So I think the pre-Andal Reach may have accepted two beliefs as true at the same time - namely, a patriarchal world in which women were expected to serve and obey men and also a pro-polygamy world in which a demigod/heroine/goddess figure could be lauded for having kept multiple husbands simultaneously without being caught. 

Too, I think it’s possible that just as septons and maesters downplayed the mythology and divinity of Garth Greenhand in later accounts - with Yandel noting that legends of Garth Greenhand, “though cherished by the smallfolk, are largely discounted by both the maesters of the Citadel and the septons of the Faith, who share the view that Garth Greenhand was a man, not a god” - so these same post-Andal Invasion academics may have deemphasized the myths surrounding Florys the Fox, including her celebrated polyandry. Perhaps dynastically persnickety maesters or septons argued that Florys had not really been married to three men, but rather that the myths had conflated her marriage to the ancestor of House Ball/Peake/Florent with marriages by other women, or perhaps remarriages by Florys, to the ancestors of the other two Houses. Perhaps the myth was bowdlerized to have Florys merely be courted by the founders of each of these Houses, rather than having her marrying each, with Florys perhaps then serving as more of a spiritual or romantic ancestress rather than a literal matriarch of this bloodline. Of course, it’s also possible that septons did look down on and preach against Florys for her polygamous marriages, branding her a “wanton” - though to what extent they could or would do so, while also looking to convert these powerful aristocratic families of the Reach, is speculative at best. 

[tavina-writes]

Do you have any particular headcanon or meta about mdzs's world? Mdzs's world is a little different from other xianxia's worlds imo

Hi Nonny!

The worldbuilding I like to do is intrinsically character related, so it changes a lot between different fics that I write, so I wouldn't say that I have any hard headcanons about the world of MDZS.

And if I may, because this is a thing that bothers me intensely, I'd like to clarify that neither modao zushi the book nor cql the show are....xianxias. They're very much genre bucking, but they are spiritually much closer to being wuxia than xianxia (which is more like tgcf from what I can understand of the plot of tgcf).

I would however, like to observe that the world of MDZS is much much more polite and not prone to killing actual literal people than the typical wuxia. Yes, despite the war. And also despite the many many crimes nearly everyone commits in this universe, MDZS cultivators are, by training, ghost busters rather than wandering hitmen or cops. This is also what causes so many problems when they try to figure out what to do about crime and punishment. They're not suited for crime and punishment OR for judging the morality of any particular action committed by humans.

I have a longer essay about this somewhere comparing MDZS and the structure of its society to other common wuxia (Jin Yong's Legend of the Condor Heroes and Gu Long's Sentimental Swordsman Ruthless Sword) but that's a much more serious meta essay for another day!

Thanks for the ask!

[whinlatter]

author's note | chapter 12: scarecrow🪞

thank you soooo much for reading chapter 12 of beasts. january was long for all of us, but january 1999 was especially long for the worried youngest weasley, stomping around in the highlands snow going through that all too common and deeply humiliating experience: trying to get a text back from a man. embarrassing! pls know the response to this chapter has knocked my socks off and as a thank you i have given you many unsolicited words on mirrors, weird latin names, and thestral erections. to paraphrase movie molly weasley... just what you all wanted, actually! (plus the smallest of sneak peeks at chapter 13)...

✨ spoilers for this chapter below the cut  ✨

writing notes and headcanons:

curse you/bless you chapter 12: my god this chapter took SO long to figure out. not just because of real life ramp up (cheers again for being patient legends with this), but just because i couldn’t for the life of me decide how to structure or pace it, kept writing scenes then scrapping them or deciding to keep them for later then repeating that ad infinitum. it had about five different opening scenes til i figured out how it needed to start. i know a lot of fic writers will have discovered this long before i did, but it’s such hard work when you know what the arc of a chapter should be, what the main plot points that need to happen are, where the emotional beats should come, but need to actually write a lot of building-block scenes to create that sense of pace and mood to build up to the important scenes, as well as also weaving together plot-threads that need to happen at this point in the fic in order to set up the later stages. this is how i learned that writing a service/‘turning point’ chapter (and this is, in many ways, a turning point chapter for a lot of different plots) is really really hard. part of the trouble is that to earn the relief and the dam breaking you have to write so many little scenes to create a sense of build up, and because those scenes are sort of service-scenes it’s so easy for them to be boring to write and, usually, boring to read. some realisations about what needed to happen happened way too late (there were no governors in this chapter as of like january 28th lmao. i was out on a walk and swear i stopped dead on the path when i remembered that the governors exist and i could use em to start to add the state in a more meaningful way, and especially the encroachment of the outside world on the castle.) when i posted i was feeling VERY uncertain about the chapter and just wanted it to be out so i could move on from it so honestly the response to it has been like the biggest loveliest shock ever. thanks forever lads. the gems i've been left in the comment section and the askbox will stay with me for a long time.

mirrors: this chapter is structured around the idea of the mirror (sylvia getting us going with the poem, sorry you ended up kicking off a chapter in a harry potter fanfiction mate). it begins with little ginny unable to look herself in the eye in the leaky cauldron’s talking mirror (that freaks her out - where does the mirror keep its brain?). it ends with ginny holding the two-way mirror, looking her own reflection, then watching it fade into harry’s as the two of them finally speak and connect after starting, for the first time, to be properly honest with each other. partly this is me wanting ginny to have a different way to talk to harry, something more honest that doesn’t let her cultivate or craft false versions of her days in letters but actually speak face-to-face much more honestly, and that is harry showing he gets that writing is a more loaded act for ginny than it might be for others. but what i hoped to convey was the idea that the mirror has other significance. the mirror is such an important image and device in harry potter - the mirror of erised, that shows you who you truly are and what you really want; the chipped mirror in the girls’ bathroom that leads to the chamber of secrets, where malfoy will later break down when called upon to do crimes he can’t bear to (plus hermione carrying one to look around corners with the basilisk); the foe glass mirror that shows you when your enemies are close; the two-way mirror itself, the item with the most tragic irony (a lifeline to sirius harry doesn't use to devastating consequences, the portal to malfoy manor that saves the day and costs dobby his life) etc. “what do you see when you look in the mirror?” - it's a line dumbledore first utters in PoS, and that comes back in DH, when harry is grappling with the idea that dumbledore might have lied to him about the answer (the socks are convincing nobody). it’s such a good mission statement for some of the themes that run through the series at large: who are we, really, what is the contents of our soul, who will we be (it is our choices that define us etc). harry potter as a series is also full of mirrors in its structure (see this on the books as mirror pairs), and narrative mirrors are a really important device in characterisation (most of all harry/TMR, the two orphans, but also sirius and snape, ron and draco etc). like most female characters in the series, ginny’s narrative mirror is a bit underdeveloped, but it does really seem to be bellatrix, the narration drawing them into association on multiple occasions to compare and contrast them as characters. (hermione’s is like - what, pansy? develop female characters jkr i beg). canon romantic pairings don't get to be properly fleshed out mirrors of each other, in part because they're a) all het pairings and b) het pairingswhere the female character is either excessively idealised and/or underwritten. it's fic writers' job to problematise, unpack and challenge basically errrrrr all of that. to that end, then...

hinny & mirrors: … what i wanted to suggest is that part of what makes hinny so compelling is the idea that harry and ginny at times come as close as being mirrors of each other of the canon ships, in ways that hinny writers can play with/tease out/develop as a canon coherent choice. i’ve talked previously about how we might see sirius and ginny as narrative mirrors in some ways. but i think harry and ginny are mirror characters too, to some extent. it's not just that they're extremely similar. the harry and ginny plotline as rendered in the series starts to happen the moment ginny starts being herself in ootp, and the two of them are able to see each other clearly and see themselves in the other person. there’s also a reason HBP and CoS are the mirror image books by design, harry and ginny literally paralleling each other with the prince’s book and the diary etc. even their respective journey to their own death mirrors the other person's. playing with the mirror as the item that brings harry and ginny back together after their conflict is therefore me doing a bit of a wink and a nod to this idea: harry and ginny on this journey to seeing themselves as equals, as two sides of a coin. the mirror as a device inherently invites character to see themselves clearly, and, in the case of a two-way mirror, invites the character to consider who they see themselves in, who is their reflection, who is their opposite number. ginny finding her way to a mirror where she can both see her own face and yet also call on harry's is a big moment for her starting to think about who she is, what she wants, and also start to grapple with how she feels about her own selfhood, her soul, her morality, her past. on harry’s part, him mending the mirrors and starting to use them - the mirrors he vowed he would never use with sirius, and that are so connected to his guilt over sirius’ death - is such an important step. it’s (literally) him picking up the pieces and rebuilding the mirror and his connection to another person he sees as his family, moving past his grief and guilt to try to see and be seen more clearly by the person he loves. we know when harry potter looks into the mirror of erised, he sees his family: here we have harry, having come a long way in having to confront, acknowledge, unpack and apologise for some of what he’s asked of ginny over the years, lifting up the mirror given to him by his dead family member and seeing his new family, the family of his future.

on the break up that wasn't... two months of getting the nicest most polite threats in the inbox if i broke harry and ginny up… lads. i would never! the scarecrow of the chapter title is partly a reference to ginny's fears - the inquiry, the forest - but ultimately about her relationship with harry, which she fears is in jeopardy - a fear that, ultimately, turns out to be baseless. part of my point in the hinny plot for this fic is to write a version of them that sees them growing up, and especially growing up together, not burning things down or being emotionally immature and dramatic, but doing the quiet boring grown-up work of learning to become a team, and learning it together. break-up plotlines can work beautifully (and i will always devour them), but i knew it wasn’t going to be a part of this fic as i imagined it. i wanted these two burn-it-all-down impulsive characters not to go for the nuclear option, which they might do in other relationships in their lives, and instead do something arguably harder: commit to doing thinking and reflecting and owning up to where they’ve both gone wrong along the way, because they care about what they’re building between them. there are all sorts of general writing love stories manifesto issues in this for me (people can grow and change and learn when they’re in healthy relationships, the only catalyst for growth in a relationship doesn’t have to be a breakup, female centric dramatic arcs don’t have to be break-up centred even though lots of brilliant ones are). but there are also some hinny specific points i wanted to make. the main one is that one of the things i like most about harry and ginny as a couple is that in canon their drama is largely external to their relationship. they’re just two people who properly like each other, get each other, bring out the best in each other, want to hang out and build something together, despite all they’ve been through. they're two characters that canonically just want to hang out and talk to each other, in a really nice way but also, i think, quite a healthy way too that would see them in good stead in their conflicts. post war hinny absolutely have issues and blindspots and skewed dynamics to confront. they have things to learn and they are going to fuck up (harry hurry up ya thinkin and write her back you dickhead). but it’s my view that they’re not going to have a big dramatic screaming breakup, they’re going to muddle through and figure it out, because what’s true about hinny is that it’s a ship where its two participants are emotionally mature, kind to each other, and ultimately constructive even when they aren’t always with other characters lol. that's my two cents anyway!

quidditch: this WAS in this chapter originally and then it got shunted to chapter 13. partly because this chapter had far too many plots already but also (i think) it’ll make more sense there for lots of juicy reasons. so that’s why you have that cop out line at the start about quidditch practices being on pause x because the author can’t juggle very many balls at once :)

death eater recruitment, or: why are young people drawn to dark magic? what i wanted in this chapter was to have a political flashpoint that kingsley, the politician, can use as a catalyst for the thing he really wants, which is an inquiry into hogwarts, as a microcosm of the wider wizarding world and the symbol of its future. the inquiry should happen, but, in reality, it would take political will to make it happen. it was important for me to have the catalyst for the inquiry be something that would really galvanise and piss off the DA, namely why does everyone care so much about the kids they hate getting involved in violent blood supremacist politics and not care about the victims of death eater hate. of course, the DA are understandably fuming: they suffered so much for fighting against death eaters, and they want their story of persecution and of resistance to be told. but the elephant in the room, and what's awkward in these little moments of right-wing talking points on the wireless or in the press or parents of death eater children pleading for understanding is that, actually, there is quite an important question at play here, which is, wait why would a fourteen year old kid or whatever want to go out and kill muggles? isn't that fucked up? how much agency do we give them? when is it grooming, when is it someone being actively hoodwinked (including the possibility of the imperius curse), and when is it an active choice of intent that deserves punishment? didn't all of that recruitment of young people for extremist politics happen before the war? aren't there child soldiers on both sides of this conflict, and if so, is that ok? how did that happen? these are uncomfortable questions that defy easy answers. they're questions that will sharpen and take on new life in the form of the inquiry for our protagonist and for the DA and resistance as a whole. i am so so excited to develop it let me tell ya!

the governors thinking ginny is dead: this - bleakly - is canon! in CoS, the governors think ginny has already died, that’s why they ask dumbledore to come back. (“Well, you see, Lucius,” said Dumbledore, smiling serenely, “the other eleven governors contacted me today. It was something like being caught in a hailstorm of owls, to tell the truth. They’d heard that Arthur Weasley’s daughter had been killed and wanted me back here at once...") wouldn't dumbledore correct them when ginny was out of the chamber? a question for future chapters...

what's in a name: wouldn't be hp worldbuilding without trying to come up with some good latin and/or greek names to hint at character traits. this chapter we had to stick in a load of minor new characters (human and otherwise), so to google we went. we have benignus tuft, the governor - benignus giving us benign, so someone who is at best harmless and mild, but at worst ineffective and sort of useless. we have another governor, coelamus (koelemos), minor deity or spirit, god of stupidity and foolishness (of course ginny isn't dead you idiot). for the thestrals, we know hagrid named one of them, his favourite in canon, who is called tenebrus, like tenebrous, in english, meaning shadowy or obscure (from the latin tenebrae, meaning darkness). so the other thestrals got their names on a similar theme: caligo (darkness, fog, mist) anima (in some variations, the soul), and umbra (shadow). umbra's got a little deathly bun in the oven, which is going to need a name, too - much like a certain owl...

thestrals: the worldbuilding around thestral and thestral breeding was maybe the most fun but strangest part of this chapter to write (i googled a lot of stuff about horse pregnancy and birth and saw images i do not wish to see again). i will thank david yates for giving me the idea and then go back to never thanking him ever again. in canon, we know the thestrals live in the forest and that ginny is familiar with their habits as early as ootp, long before she's able to see them ('because in case you hadn’t noticed, you and hermione are both covered in blood,' she said coolly, 'and we know hagrid lures thestrals with raw meat, so that’s probably why these two turned up in the first place…', in ootp) the only thing we know about the hogwarts' thestrals' origins is dean thomas accidentally insulting firenze ("did hagrid breed you, like the thestrals?”). this is hardly concrete knowledge or evidence, so in this chapter i wanted to play with the idea of hagrid quite readily admitting he doesn't really know how thestrals come to breed, part of these magical mysteries of the natural world that are beyond wizarding knowledge. we do know, though, that thestrals have some connection with death, especially to bearing witness and processing it. i think they're one of the most intriguing and poignant images in canon (retconning over their visibility aside, joanne), and i'm excited for the plot that explores these themes and ideas as the different plots start to wind together. (a spoilery clue for ya: hagrid mentions time periods where the thestral herd has previously grown... thank you to @saintsenara, the real unsung hero/brains behind the operation, who puts up with all of my inane questions and thinking at her and always proves enormously and generously helpful, especially in this instance with some crucial date deets). also i took out a joke about thestral erections because it wasn't the vibe and i think we can all agree that is for the best.

songs from the playlist for these chapters:

had to wap out the celtic vibes on at least one song now we're back in the castle ya feel! neko case, herself a ginger goddess, has provided too many great songs for inspo for this fic and one of my favourite's of hers is in this week's batch (the most tender place in my heart is for strangers/i know it's unkind but my own kind is much too dangerous). the hinny songs for this week are star by mitski (that love is like a star, it's gone/we just see it shining/it's traveled very far/i'll keep a leftover light burning/so you can keep looking up/isn't that worth holding on?) and comrade sweetheart by my beloved bonny light horseman/anaïs mitchell (who's going to bind up your wounds? who when the wildflowers bloom? no other lover but you... in the dusk of my days.) it's about the blessing of time, the hinny DH parting gift! hours and days and maybe years baby!

underwater by the national | tuttle's reel by lorkin o'reilly | hold on, hold on by neko case | comrade sweetheart by bonny light horseman | me & my dog by boygenius | coolest fucking bitch in town by haley blais | star by mitski

and a wee sneak peek of chapter 13... (the inevitable line now harry and ginny basically have wizard facetime):

'Gin. For fuck's sake. Stop. Dropping. The mirror. On your own face.'

[sillygoofyqueer]

Okay, okay, quick masterpost of everything going on upon my blog before beddybies!!!

First of all, my profile picture was drawn by the incredible @leouusaurxoxo!!!! It's Crowyuan <3

So, other blogs I've got are:

@sillygoofyqueer-reblogs - the name is self-explanatory

@xielian-gets-his-own-blog-now - a blog dedicated to my Xie Lian plush and co

Fanfictions I've currently got up on AO3:

The Three Blades - MXTX crossover, modern au with cultivation, in which a legend surrounds three ancient blades and one missing wielder

Losing Hope - MDZS au, canon-divergent I guess, in which the Jin Sect were the ones to grab Wei Wuxian after the Nightless City Massacre; trauma ensues

The Human - MDZS au, Fantasy/Fae au, in which two Fae from different courts mistake one another for a human; antics ensue

Tags I use:

Four's fanfic - anything adjacent to Losing Hope

Three blades au - anything adjacent to, surprisingly, The Three Blades

Mdzs fae au - anything adjacent to The Human

Crowyuan au - an au where Shen Yuan transmigrates into a crow demon, as well as general facts about him no matter the variety

Panyuan au - is that....Shen Yuan transmigrating as a pangolin?! On Wan Jian Peak?!!??!

Wei Qingwei my blorbo - my personal headcanons for lore on Wei Qingwei (MXTX lost the rights to him in the divorce, he's mine now /j)

Shui Muyang my silly - I did it again and imprinted on the Zui Xian peak lord despite known fuck all about the peak, let alone the lord, so I made my own (read above reasoning)

[thatboreddrake]

Castellans of the Shaded Castle:

Wanted to include this with yesterday's post, but that one took longer to explain than I expected. More of a mini-theory/headcanon, but I feel like it fits well.

As usual, we start with our research (item descriptions as always):

Marais Mask: "Mask in the image of a white-haired young noble. Customarily worn by the head of House Marais. Increases arcane. The Marais family has a dual history spanning generations, serving as both executioners and castellans of the Shaded Castle. This mask bears the likeness of the first of their line."

Fact #1: the Marais family has inhabited the Shaded Castle and served as executioners for a very long time (unclear how long)

Fact #2: the Marais Mask boosts Arcane, a stat which among other things increases build-up for bleed and poison. For our purposes, we'll be focusing on the poison.

Fact #3: the Shaded Castle is built directly on top of a poisonous swamp.

Poison Armament: "Those who dwell within poison know rot all too well. The death that begets life, that comes to all equally. That is to say: it is the cycle of rebirth put into practice."

Fact #4: poison has a direct connection to rot and death as a method of rebirth.

House Marais has operated as bringers of death, executioners, for an unspecified length of time. Given its hidden and out of the way location, I presume that they have operated since before the establishment of the Golden Order.

Mushroom Crown: "Long ago, great lords served the scarlet rot. Perhaps such fungal bodies served as their crowns."

I propose that these "great lords" were indeed the scions of House Marais, representing death and its connection to rot, decay, and eventual rebirth. They well understand the importance of rot and death in the cycle of death and rebirth, dwelling in a castle beset by poison.

Mushroom Head: "To those enraptured by the scarlet rot, they are holy vestments that root one to the earth."

They built the Shaded Castle either on top of a poison swamp or cultivated the swamp because poison and fungus is sacred to worshipers of rot. Then, the Golden Order comes along, the god of rot is sealed, and House Marais elects to bend the knee and become executioners for the new regime rather than go down with the ship. I believe this is supported because the Marais Robe is incredibly similar to the Official's Attire, worn by Marika's Inquisition (Ghiza).

See what I mean? Anyway, fast-forward to the present day (ish).

Antspur Rapier: "Scarlet rot is an old legend, of which Maleigh Marais of the Shaded Castle was a private believer. And indeed, he eventually found his own personal goddess."

The Marais line carries the legend of the god of rot with it, but it is a closely guarded secret among the heads of the family. Marika would not take kindly to her executioners continuing with their heretical religion.

Marais Robe: "The sons of House Marais are all sickly born. Little wonder that Maleigh Marais would be so beguiled by the beautiful and fierce goddess who was born into rot."

Maleigh Marais becomes the head of the family. Considering that the family is consistently in "not great" health, I would imagine he's pretty young when he takes over this role. Naturally, he has official duties to attend to, mostly ceremonial (there's not been much need for executions since the end of the Second Liurnian War). Anyway, he's at court in Leyndell one day for some reason or another and encounters the Twin offspring of Queen Marika and King Consort Radagon.

He is captivated by Malenia, both for her beauty and for her position as the vessel of the rot god. This is about the time when the Twins are preparing to leave Leyndell and establish the Haligtree. Given the Shaded Castle's secluded location, it's the perfect spot to offer inconspicuous passage to the Consecrated Snowfield (remember that the Forbidden Lands are strictly off-limits). Eager to prove himself to his goddess, Marais offers his services. Miquella is skeptical of his intentions: people feel sorry for his sister, but they are never as nonchalant about her curse as Marais is. However, he needs his help so they strike a deal to use the Shaded Castle as a port (this part of the lore courtesy of @catcas22).

In return, Maleigh requests a simple boon: a token of Malenia's favor. Perhaps he could serve as caretaker of her prostheses when she outgrows them?

Valkyrie’s Prosthesis: "When Maleigh Marais, Lord of the Shaded Castle, embraced this prosthesis, he claimed to feel the presence of his personal goddess."

Obviously, this prosthesis is protagonist-sized, as it fits Millicent perfectly. Thus, it must have been one of Malenia's earlier models from before she grew to demigod stature. This is largely why I say that Maleigh became involved with the Twins early in the Haligtree's development. I imagine that this was the first prosthesis that Malenia granted to him, thus explaining why this one was particularly special to him.

So, yeah

Conclusion: House Marais served as executioners to continue the cycle of life, death, and rebirth during an age when the god of rot was a natural part of the world, and Maleigh was thus enchanted by Malenia as the return of his family's deity.

[floofgryph]

Moonpearl, Shinton Galancen, and Ondine Toyotama headcanons for @myluckymoon

Moonpearl

She has a strong sense of loyalty and devotion to Moonshade and her goddess work.

She delights in pushing boundaries and challenging the status quo

Even though she likes to annoy her twin, Moonshade, she deeply worries about losing her trust and the sisterly relationship they have with each other.

She likes to use her reality-altering powers to play pranks, creating absurd and humorous situations.

She has a tendency to procrastinate and avoid tasks she finds boring and/or tedious.

She wants to spend more time with her mother, Oasis, and make her understand the true value of humanity.

She's usually dismissive and aloof with those who try to flirt with her, having little patience for romantic entanglements.

She occasionally talks to herself in different voices, arguing herself over stupid mistakes she's made.

She sometimes "forgets" her own abilities, leading to comedic moments where she tries to do something but fails to do so.

Whenever she isn't dealing with paperwork, she likes to collect strange and exotic objects from different dimensions, displaying them in a vast, labyrinthine library.

She's fond of looking back on human history and telling thoughtful jokes in regards to the biggest mistakes that humanity has made.

Her greatest fear is being trapped in a dull and unchanging, unable to use her reality-wrapping power to shape the world around her.

Shinton Galancen

In order to instil the fearsome nature of the deities into others, he likes to transform into a sly fox to play tricks that cause panic and potential nightmares, masking them as punishments from the deities.

Wherever he goes, an atmospheric ghost light (kitsunebi) trails behind him, changing colours to indicate his current mood (e.g. yellow means that he's feeling mischievous and blue means he's melancholic).

The kitsunebi is an emotional manifestation of his soul that others can see, but not him.

Even though he doesn't like anyone touching his ears and tail, Ondine is the only person he allows to do so. Nobody knows why, but a few believe that he has a great amount of respect for Ondine due to being a descendent of the Great Nuckori.

He has a superiority complex

He possesses a bloated sense of self-importance, expecting to be treated with reverence and obedience.

He demands offerings from those who seek his favour and assistance

His favourite offerings are spicy gyoza, red fox tails, and spider lilies.

He frequently uses hypnosis to manipulate others into praising and worshipping him.

He uses his fire manipulation to create elaborate displays of flame and light to draw attention to himself.

He has a usual habit of dramatically flailing his tail and twitching his ears when he's pleased or excited about something.

His greatest fear is being ridiculed and mocked by the deities, which would undermine his carefully cultivated image of superiority.

Ondine Toyotama

There are legends surrounding her that she transforms into a crocodile sea monster under the full moon on an annual basis.

She has a pet cormorant bird named Ugayafukiaezu

She likes to make jewellery from sea glass and the scales of fish who died naturally.

She's a gentle soul that values serenity and tranquillity, seeking refuge in her shrine work, aquatic habitats, and long walks in the forest to escape the chaos of reality.

She's a compassionate listener who has a strong distaste for violence and verbal aggression.

She's a capable fighter, but she'll only fight if the Grand Montoro Shrine, aquatic ecosystems, and merfolk are under attack.

She has a secret talent for baking the most delicious pastries and desserts, which she often shares with her colleagues and those in need.

She likes to wake up at dawn to meditate, which is essential to her routine because she has poor stress management skills.

She has a garden full of stargazer lilies, peonies, snapdragons, bleeding hearts, and hydrangea.

She likes to collect beautiful seashells and pebbles, using them as decorations for her stunning garden.

Whenever she's happy or content, she usually hums a soft, melodic tune, which often calms those around her.

Her greatest fear is losing her connection to the ocean and failing to live a prosperous and righteous life like the Great Nuckori.

[mazosstuff]

Introduction ^^

Hi there! I'm Mazo, and in my free time, I'm a writer (and professional fangirl, but that's unrelated), and i'm fairly new to tumblr!

It's been a while since I've started writing in my free time, and I've recently wanted to get some requests since I'm out of ideas :'D

I'm a minor, and english is not my first language. I don't feel uncomfortable with writing NSFW content, but i'm very inexperienced, and I fear that I won't be able to express myself in the best way possible.

What I WILL write:

Character × reader (romantic and platonic)

Character × character (romantic and platonic)

Headcanons

What I will NOT write:

Rape

Incest

Adult × minor

Heavy yandere themes

I'm into a lot of fandoms, but the ones I'm most familiar with are:

Games:

Honkai Star Rail

Genshin Impact

League of Legends (especially KDA, True Damage, and Heartsteel, but can also write about the normal/canon to the universe of Runeterra versions too)

Anime/Manga/Novels:

Vanitas No Carte

Tokyo Revengers

Mo Dao Zu Shi / Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

Haikyuu!!

Audio Stories:

Redacted Audio

Obsidian Lantern

Castle Audios

YuuriVoice

Reverie Audios

[boonsmoon]

Hello

It is your average foolish fool. I accidentally deleted my old account, so I have a new one. So, another introduction incoming.

You may call me Xepher. I'm 18+ and in college, so reqs might be slow. I go by she/her and my first (and only) language is English. Warning: I don’t proof read, more like briefly scan so you can correct me.

Masterlist

What I WILL write:

Oneshot 🎉

Headcanons 🎊

Fluff 🌸

Angst 🥀

Character x reader (m + f) 💞

Character x character 💕

Platonic 🪭

Romantic 🧪

What I WON'T write:

Lemon/Lime

Yandere

Incest/Abuse/Pedophilia

Character x OC

Fandoms:(more will eventually be added)

Record of Ragnarok (ROR)

Ragna Crimson

Howl's Moving Castle (Movie)

Legend of Zelda (LOZ)

Heaven Official's Blessing (TGCF)

The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS)

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (MGRR)

Devil May Cry (DMC)

A Date With Death (ADWD)

[agentnatesewell]

OOOH okay! So I have been reading plenty of this blog about your N-Sewell thoughts would just like to say "I tip my hat to you from one legend to another" xD.

Now I gotta ask! Since I am also somewhat new, if you have some fun information or headcannons about your Detective Suri and Nate!!!

Especially now that the relationship route in book 3 is both steamy but also sweet!!!!

Hello, my friend! You are so very sweet - thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts! Truly, I have so very many of them regarding my favorite fictional character.

Thank you for asking! Here are some of my favorite Nate and Suri, “Nuri” headcanons (you’ll see some align with canon and some are just what I’ve cultivated in my mind and with friends between the books):

* At some point, Nate and Suri elope. It’s a wonderfully impulsive and romantic decision. Afterwards, Suri is Suri Batra-Sewell and she will gently inform, remind, correct anyone that calls her Batra (I guess it’ll be Agent now? Agent Batra-Sewell)

* They adopt a dog, a small terrier. Fluffy, furry, full of personality , and very cute. Perhaps up to fifteen pounds. His name is Bishop

* Suri’s grandfather is Arab and she’s always wanted to learn Arabic to be, at least, conversational. It is a very good opportunity for them to learn together

* There is a lot of romantic and romantic, physical affection between them (pretty touchy-feely)

* Adam is important to Nate, his oldest friend. Thus, Suri has made an effort to get to know him and befriend him, and she is glad she has. Because Adam is actually pretty great

* Suri likes poetry, and sneaks in a few lines to Nate. Whether spoken in a private moment or written on a note and left in his jacket pocket or in a book he’s reading. Favorite poets include Rumi, Khalil Gibran, and Pablo Neruda

* Whether they’ve communicated it or not, they both know that despite the attraction and feelings of love have come easy, this relationship isn’t necessarily so. They know that it’ll take time, work, and believing in each other and themselves (well she does, anyway!)

*Suri is as protective of Nate as he is of her

* Before book three, my friend and I hc’d that Nate called Suri ‘hayati’ and she called him ‘rouhi’. Now after book three, that’s switched!

Thank you so much for asking and letting me talk about my loves! Please, please feel free to send me your headcanons about your detectives and their ros!

[trickstercaptain]

DMTNT VERSE ALTERATIONS.

CONTINUITY WITH OST AND THE TRILOGY Jack and Henry KNOW each other. Jack was a sporadic presence in the young boy’s early life and became a surrogate father to him in Will’s absence ( but never did he seek to replace Will. Jack was always the one telling Henry stories about his father ). Therefore, when Henry receives the message from Salazar to find Jack, and he encounters Jack in that jail cell, the two of them already have a strong relationship and rapport. This also means that Jack is in favour of using the trident not only to defeat Salazar, but to free Will from the Dutchman’s curse.

POST-AWE: Jack briefly meets Margaret Smyth during this post-AWE period, because Carina is the same age as Henry in the novelisation ( they’re both nineteen ). this is also around about the time that she’s conceived and later left in an orphanage by Hector. this is also why I lean towards the headcanon that Jack and Barbossa spent more time together leading this joint crew than is implied right at the end of AWE, and therefore Jack does not immediately lose the Pearl following the third movie.

PRE-OST: during the time between AWE and OST, Jack would have been pirating, regularly ( ish ) visiting Elizabeth and Henry on Shipwreck Cove but, most importantly, looking for the Fountain of Youth. he does eventually find it – or at least locates the caves past Whitecap Bay, hence why he is in a position to lead an expedition there during the fourth movie – but he does not know of the ritual at this point, nor does he actually see the fountain himself.

The events of OST take place SEVEN years after AWE.

The events of DMTNT take place TWELVE years after OST, meaning that is the length of time in which the Black Pearl has been locked away in bottle-form.

To explain away Jack being in his late fifties at this point yet looking and acting like a man no older than his late forties, even though he doesn’t drink from the Fountain himself in OST, some of the youthful properties of the water rub off on him and slow his ageing process after this point. Jack wonders at whether he has somehow unlocked the secret of effective immortality.

CHARACTERISATION:

FIRST THINGS FIRST, JACK IS NOT THE USELESS DRUNK JESTER THAT HE IS FOR THE VAST MAJORITY OF THIS MOVIE. HE DOES NOT MAKE LEWD COMMENTS ABOUT ELIZABETH OR ACT AS IF HE DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THE TURNERS, NOR DOES HE LACK THE INTELLIGENCE AND WIT HE POSSESSES IN THE OTHER FOUR MOVIES.

He is depressed at the very beginning of the film, which results from a curse placed on him by Shansa at Barbossa's request to 'curse his enemies.' This curse is placed on him around a year or two before the events of DMTNT, and immediately hampers his cultivated legend by causing repeated bad luck and disaster at every turn.

Every attempt he makes at getting the Black Pearl out of the bottle or tracking Barbossa down with the intention of using his sword to do so ( in the twelve years since OST I refuse to believe that thought does not cross Jack's mind ) ends in failure. He attempts to barter and scheme for another ship and instead ends up with the Dying Gull, which is so unseaworthy that it strands Jack and his crew on the island of Saint Martin.

Jack has spent roughly six months on Saint Martin prior to the events of DMTNT, and his grand plan to secure passage off of it is to steal from the bank ( with the aid of the mayor's wife, Francis, with whom he is having an affair and intends to accompany him ) and use the funds to refit the Dying Gull and make her seaworthy again.

I am also stating right here that Jack does not demand tribute of his crew following this failed bank robbery and, when it comes to his execution scene, Gibbs does not have to be paid to come and rescue him. That's nonsense I want nothing to do with, thank you.

When that ends in failure, Jack, in a moment of desperation and amplified by the effects of Shansa's curse, gives away his compass for another drink. For a fleeting moment, he gives it away with no intention of getting it back, and that is all the compass needs to lash out and free Salazar.

The compass' reaction is the first moment of realisation for Jack of how far he has sunk in the last couple of years. When Henry reaches him with Salazar's warning, he actually sits up and takes notice and, for the rest of the film, is the same Jack we know and love and actually cares about seeing Henry reunited with his father.

With the trident of Poseidon destroyed, Shansa's curse is lifted and Jack is once again free to do as he pleases.

Jack goes with Henry and Carina on land where they are united with Will at the end of the movie.

THE COMPASS

To explain away that Jack has given away his compass MULTIPLE times throughout the trilogy without any serious repercussions such as... whatever the Devil's Triangle is, I'll firstly note that each time he has bartered it away to somebody, the intention on his part has never been permanent. He has always intended to get it back somehow or use the bartering away to further his own ends, and through whatever laws of magic or physics has always obtained it again.

The difference in DMTNT is that Jack gives it away with no such intention, and that is what constitutes as betraying it. Jack and the compass are inextricably linked and have been ever since he was given it by Tia Dalma as a child: the compass is a powerful enough magical artefact in my opinion to have a consciousness or soul of some kind, in the same way that the Black Pearl is implied to have. In betraying it, the compass is spurred to react.

I don't like the idea that the compass directly caused Salazar to be trapped inside of the Devil's Triangle ( since Salazar and his crew went down as they entered -- that had nothing to do with the compass ), but instead I interpret that freeing Salazar is the compass' reaction to being betrayed. It lashes out and causes the earthquake in order to punish Jack and, on some level, spur him on to restore his reputation and break his own curse that's plaguing him.

FLASHBACK

The ship Jack is on is NOT the Wicked Wench. Nor is he made captain of it through his actions against Captain Salazar. Instead, he is a sometimes crewman on an unspecified ship sailing from Shipwreck Cove and comes up against the Silent Mary in battle. Jack's actions and quick thinking save the lives of those on his ship and others trying to escape the carnage.

Jack does not gain his 'sparrow' moniker from Captain Salazar. Firstly, there is no plausible way for Jack to overhear or know that Salazar refers to him as a sparrow given that they do not say a single word to each other ( other than Jack shouting in the crow's nest ) and Salazar spends the next several decades trapped inside of the Devil's Triangle, and secondly my own interpretation is that Jack obtains his last name from his mother.

Jack did not receive his compass from the captain of the ship he's on in the flashback, but from Tia Dalma as per trilogy canon. He also does not receive pieces of his costume from the crew as tribute.

Jack did not realise that Salazar would end up trapped inside the Triangle. He saw the ship get destroyed by the rocks and go down once it entered the cavern and so Jack assumed, for the next forty years, that he’d killed both Salazar and the rest of his crew.

Over the next forty years, the Devil’s Triangle became a place of legend ( enough for Henry to be able to recognise it ). It was rumoured that any ship who strayed too close would disappear without trace ( much like the Bermuda Triangle myth ). Jack eventually hears about the rumours but thinks nothing of them, and certainly doesn’t put two and two together that his compass could potentially lead to their escape.

[tothedarkdarkseas]

I feel your pain; every time I think I'm tired of Stu, I too start missing him. I was going through what I thought was a Stu burnout too when I read your latest post, and you captured the feeling perfectly. I don't know what it is, but I guess he has just a way of eating away at one's brain like the zombie he looks like....

What an apt way to describe it! Your mentioning of the zombie-lad life he once led does remind me of a headcanon/bit of a missed opportunity regarding this phase's plot: all mentions of Moon Flower's film The Hills are Hungry from Noodle, Murdoc, and Moon Flower herself have a particularly disparaging tone, you know, we're clearly meant to infer the film was "shite." It seems completely bizarre to me that one of Stu's original defining character traits, which is his love of B-movies-- zombies being a particular favourite, but his quotes have always opened the floor to horror across the board-- was never actually made relevant in the conversation around this or his relationship to Moon Flower. It's not only less significant or narratively compelling to have Stuart stripped of any personal agendas or desires and simply dress him up as a "Hapless Victim" for the Nth time, but I think it's actually a less logical way to establish that relationship given the foundation is already there. Stu's a connoisseur of these types of films, so not only is it believable that he'd know of it despite the others not having a clue what it is or who it came from, but he'd maybe have a "cult film" appreciation of it. Even if it was, in fact, quite the disaster, he strikes me as someone who appreciates that for the spectacle of it, for the urban legends that such famed failures spawn. Or, and I ask the Unflattering Stu fans to stand with me on this, he's at least able to adopt and present that perspective when there's a clear goal being pursued (ingratiating himself to Moon Flower) and clear benefit from doing so (getting back at Murdoc.) To base "the cult next door" on an ill-remembered Old Hollywood horror film and place story significance on the mutual gain/mutual downfall of Stuart's entanglement with their leader, and yet none of that calls upon Stu's well known fascination with B-horror films or implies any intentionality (in cultivating this knowledge, in flattering Moon Flower with it, in his movements just like, actually being purposeful or reactionary at all) on his part whatsoever... I don't know, it just strikes me as a waste!

[misto713]

agreed, sqh and sqq are totally 'cosmic horrors' from PIDW NPCs point of view. and there would actually even be some evidence in canon to support this idea.

take sqq's mushroom body for example.

my pet theory is that it took 5 years to grow because the body wasn't enough to support sqq's soul. not without the system actively supressing shen yuan's spirit. that the souls/spirits of our world are much more powerful (reasons why that is so explained down below), and the system had to actively supress them for the 'possession' to work. and so when the soul catching array connected sy's imprint to the mushroom seed, the seed went like 'wtf?' and had to modify the body to handle much larger spirit capacity... and that took five years.

imagine it like someone trying to stuff a mammoth into some dwarf cattle breed. that's not going to work - the mushroom had to make some changes!

in canon, when SY finally woke up, he was incredibly strong. stronger than any cultivator described before. and sure, some of it might have been shen jiu's damaged cultivation / spiritual roots and some of it was 'without a cure', but it doesn't feel like enough of a difference.

after all, during the skinner attack, SY hadn't been poisoned yet, and couldn't even get outnof a single coil of the immortal binding cables. and yet as soon as he woke up in mushroom body, he easily tore apart a hundred of those cables with his spiritual power alone. that's too much of a difference to be purely due to spiditual roots damage and lack of experience.

and then most of this super OP badassery went away as soon as the system woke up from maintenance mode, and sqq was summoned back into his old corpse (poisoned, much weaker body with damaged spiritual roots) less than a week after gaining all that power.

that's sus, no?

why i think this world's souls would be stronger:

our mythology and legends mention quite a lot of apocalypses that left our world weaker. and there's so many fairy tales where we used to have powers but eventually lost them. think the destruction of the second moon fata so now we only have half the 'cosmis protection' we should have, the fall of atlantis where the world lost its strongest magic knowledge, the fall of the tower of babel that scrambled our brains so we can't fully understand each other anymore, the bermuda triangle that's basically a hole into some other reality, loki who locked up the asgardians and jotuns so we are cut off from an entire pantheon, and so on and so on.

all this means that when a baby needs to be born, its spirit knows it is going into a 'war zone' and needs a lot of power to compensate for the state of the world. especially since this world either doesn't produce enough power (magic, wi, other) to allow people to cultivate it, or we simply forgot how to. so to compensate, we are born with very high amounts of spiritual power (compared to a world without all this damage and with abundant natural resources like qi). so babies are born with enough spiritual power and senses to 'last them a lifetime', so they will be able to die properly when the time comes and actually be able to leave.

and our people do have some nice spiritual senses, don't they? like intuition, ability to tell (or calculate) the future, or even such things like feeling it when someone stares at your back. like.. with which sense do you feel it? your spiritual sense? something that is only fully developed at 'nascent soul' stage or higher?

...

and thrn sqq and sqh's souls travelled through the void between realities, knowingly or not, willingly or not. something like that would change you, right?

so my pet headcanon is that they are not 'golden core' cultivators, but rather either nascent soul or deity transformation cultivators and it's the system that keeps them supressed.

it would also sort of explain how sqh "always got the stages confused and didn't know the difference between foundation establishment and nascent soul". yeah i bet he had them confused when, compared to his own soul state, the nascent souls look 'normal' and yet are considered totally OP.

.

.

.

now imagine a situation after sqq throws binghe into the abyss. a little glitch :)

system (powered by binghe who is not currently in the same realm as the two demi-gods that are under supression) is in maintenance mode. sqq has a terrible depression out of sheer guilt, shang winghua is also going through it since so many innocent children died due to the system-enforced demon invasion and he had to be the one to start it. so they get drunk and start to cuss at the system. "and now, let's say it together, bro: Fuck the system, fuck the system, fuck the system!" they both yell it, again and again, from the heart.

the system breaks.

even without a cure shatters, unable to withstand such pure spiritual power.

the peak lords suddenly ascend two whole stages into their 'natural state'.

the other peak lords rush over, thinking cang qiong are under attack... but instead find two of their peak lords, cultivation through the roof, drunkedly ceying on each other's shoulder. (the lords of the alcoholics peak surreptitiously steals their booze to see if he can ascend that way too and no, he's totally not jealous and baffled about what happened).

oops.

anyway, as soon as they are semi-sober, they realoze just how much more powerful they are now. and that the system is gone.

sqq grabs sqh and punches the air until a portal into the abyss opens. swh (still a little drunk) finds this hilarious. they go through and fall on their asses right in front of poor depressed little binghe.

sqq crying because noooo! he didn't want to hurt his beautoful white lotus! his beloved little sheep! his darling disciple! please forgive him waaaaah!!!

sqh still thinks all this is hilarious and giggles drunkedly like 5 feet away from them. absentmindedly swatting away terrifying monsters that even a heavenly demon like binghe had trouble with.

binghe spends 2 seconds thinking about it... then decides that it doesn't matter as long as shizun doesn't hate him.

cue: binghe and two demi-gods speedrun the abyss in hours. sqh navigating them where to find xin mo, sqq alternating between crying, apologising to binghe and punching any monster that gets too close. binghe honestly enjoys himself amd the 'free ride'. by the end of the night, binghe is back in the bamboo house, beimg cuddled and hugged by his still mostly drunk shozun who keeps calling him a sweet and adorable baby. sqh wanders off to bother mobei.

cang qiong leadership finds them in the morning and learn binghe is a demon but honestly what are they going to do? there is no cultivator or sect strong enough to go against someone at the 'deity transformation' stage (except maybe sqh but 1/ he's not a fighter, 2/ sqq is still stronger than him and 3/ he doesn't mind binghe being a demon either). so they guess they'll have to accept him accept them both.

but, for appearance's sake, sqh uses some of his 'prophet' powers (abandoned outline knowledge), to clear tianlang-jun's name to show that not all heavenly demons are evil.

the OPM is in soo much trouble >:)

anyway, from that point on, the whole world of PIDW is like an extended field trip for the two 'deities'. binghe spends some time in despair because how is meant to catch up to his shi'un now??? but shizun loves him anyway so maybe there's less pressure to become strong when he's already loved.

I love fics that really highlight that Shen Yuan and Airplane are the weirdest entities in the story.

Because it's true! As strange, rare, and powerful as beings like Heavenly Demons or Dream Demons or once-in-a-generation cultivation prodigies are, they are also still native to the world they exist in. They're known to exist, and there's precedent for most of the things they do. Somebody like Luo Binghe may be exceptionally uncommon and remarkably powerful, but in the end he's still existing within the parameters of this world, its history, and its other inhabitants.

Shen Yuan and Airplane, and the System, aren't. They are something else altogether. I mean, canonically! The System is basically a god, and Shen Yuan and Airplane come from a world with entirely different rules, and to some extent are also godlike in their (however unwitting) influence in the creation of this world. They are cosmic mysteries. Even their version of being human is different from the other humans in this world because this world is built different from ours.

For us, the readers, they are the touchstone and the "normal" perspective counteracting the different norms and expectations of the rest of the characters and the setting. But from the perspective of all those other characters (the vast majority of people) in that world, if what they actually were was known, they'd be the most strange and spooky beings around. Like cosmic horror type shit. According to all known things about how the universe works, those guys should not be here. But they are. They are and they know fragments of incomprehensible things, they've taken over the bodies/lives of actual "normal" people, they see the world very differently from everyone else, they have to abide by rules which are invisible and even nonsensical according to the expectations of others (like faerie beings forced to follow contracts, or vampires bound to wait for permission before they can enter a home, except it's all the System's hoops and penalties), but they also have limited information about some peoples' destinies and about things that no one else has seen or interacted with for untold ages (all the lore and subplots that Airplane chucked in).

Like by the standards of our world, Luo Binghe would be a billionaire -- uncommon, over-powered, controversial, gifted with many advantages but also no guarantee of actual happiness or love, etc. But crucially, still definitely a kind of person who can exist without bending anyone's current concept of reality.

But Shen Yuan and Airplane are aliens and/or gods.

I love fics that get into that.

[canni8al]

hi! i’m so sorry this is gonna be weird and out of nowhere.. but i just started getting into league of legends/arcane recently & going through the grapevine of old posts & fanart (from 2012-2017), and i stumbled upon some of your old jinx cosplays!

first off, just wanna say ur cosplay is very cool, even like, a decade later.

secondly, i noticed some of ur old reposts & commissions of vi/jinx, and i thought it was interesting! i’ve pieced together that they weren’t considered siblings back then since ive came across alot of different ship art of them from that era.

i also noticed that you and your (maybe former?) gf cosplayed them together & had matching usernames and i thought it was sweet. there were a few other people that i came across who did the exact same thing with their partners & it was so cool to look at. unfortunately i couldn’t ask them anything as they’re inactive 😞.

to get to my point,,, i basically just wanted to know if the ship was popular at all? what were peoples reasonings for liking it? and when they were confirmed as sisters, were people disappointed? were you? and when did that confirmation happen?

i’m asking this because i saw that some people still ship them to this day, and i thought it was odd at first but then i wondered if i was in any place to judge, as i’ve just learned that them being sisters wasn’t always a thing. so i’m assuming there’s just still people out there who’ve shipped them for so long and just can’t let go despite what happened.

if it was MY favorite pairing that got turned into siblings, i know i’d be super pissed. that’s alot of passion, art, cosplays and more down the drain immediately. i could tell that you used to like them a lot so i just wanted to hear your experience. & maybe ur thoughts on their new sibling dynamic in arcane as well!

again, this is SO weird and out of the blue. you absolutely do not have to answer if you feel uncomfortable, but any kind of response is appreciated. i also don’t mean to sound like a stalker or anything like that, i’ve just been extremely curious since i joined the fandom not too long ago, and just wonder what everything was like before arcane. i also like to see how people perceived certain characters and ships before the show, and compare and contrast them. i’ve been in ask boxes pretty frequently today so ur not the only one😅, just trying to learn. if there’s any other information you’d like to give me for my journey, please feel free.

thank you so much if you answer and have an amazing day! really hope u see this ^_^

this is totally not a DM i ever expected to get, but hi!

thank you so much!! i really appreciate that!!

yes, that's my ex. we broke up well before arcane was released so i can't speak for how she felt about it, but i can totally talk about how i felt.

honestly? the story that's been cultivated with them and their sibling dynamic has surpassed anything i could have ever expected. i adore it. i love love love arcane.

when i was roleplaying jinx, i felt that i had come up with some random sort of headcanon backstory just to have something (being in the roleplaying community, it didn't always feel like you had to have as much information as possible, but it definitely felt like i should and that it helped, if that makes sense), but i never jived with it. it was just there to fill an empty page for the sake of filling it (and having a little fun with it).

in hindsight, it's obvious that they were sisters--but i think that (for me at least), because my ex and i loved them both so much, and we were together, it was sort of unthinkable that they'd be related. so in a way, with that hindsight, i believe it was a bit of projecting LOL

as soon as it all came out, i had that sort of "ew" moment thinking back on all of the shippy things we'd done, but i didn't like, make myself feel too bad about it because we really just didn't know. and especially with when jinx came out and in the years following her release, riot reworked a lot of the lore, did away with "the league" altogether, and revamped their entire world. it has us thinking, "well, is any of this info to be trusted anymore?" about everything they'd written and released pre-change.

once it was absolutely confirmed that they were sisters, i logged into my old jinx blog and started deleting or hiding what i could easily find of the shipping content. it felt a little gross to leave up if i had the ability to do away with it. there is no sense of posterity in keeping it.

as an unasked-for-addendum, i love cait/vi. i always have. it's a fantastic dynamic to say the least. i absolutely feigned childish hatred for it for awhile because of the ship i already had, but cait/vi is, without a doubt, where it's at.

i'd imagine that jinx/vi shippers had a similar feeling of "oh, ew, this feels kind of gross--but let's move on, because we didn't know any better, and now we do." or at least i'd hope so.

[steadyclips]

BRAYLEN + CAREER. (1/?)

Braylen was always one to think outside the box. Brewing up plans of mischief and being the beacon of execution for the other kids on her block. From stealing busted bikes to paint them up and resell them or selling candy out her backpack at school, she was a hustler. Though her mother was very vocal about the hell her daughter was causing, Braylen was going to get it by any means possible. One of those ask for forgiveness later type situations. (Later never came however.) Her argument was that she was helping put food on the table, keeping her brother fresh at all times , and nobody was calling about a bill. And though Paloma appreciated it, she wanted her baby to be safe at home, doing teenage things.

As a hustler, she knew for a fact that selling Snicker Bars out of English class wasn’t going to fulfill her needs the older she got. So, she dabbled into other things. More dicey things. Things that would have her in a court room. Things that could upend her life. But, Braylen was hustler. A self declared provider for her loved ones. Mami, if you want it, I got you. This drive was something her father admired, but her mother had grew to have a strong hatred for.

Her work did not go unnoticed. Cristian’s daughter is starting to become resourceful. Her name touched the rooms of mid-level dealers. Only to eventually move and push weapons through Key West and get them to Georgia. With this responsibility, she had to pull from the streets and delegate her small game.

 She answers to her grand-father on her father’s side. Top dog in Southern Florida. Even at his old age, he oversees a thriving crime scene in SF. Besides the quota she is supposed to meet in sales every month, which she does with ease because her and her team are good at what they do, that weapon run that she makes every other month, keeps her employed.

Once she touched the immaculate profit of her first run, she felt powerful. She was told that money is power. That’s what the men in her family thrived on. But her mother would be the one to remind her about respect. And how you need your community to respect you so it’ll be easier on you. So, with that first unloading of 20 grand on her coffee table in all cash, she budgeted for three things; her jewelry shop, her father’s mechanic shop, and a back to the community account.

Now, her cash flow is consistent, safe (as it can be), and she focuses most of her time and energy delegating to her team rather than being in the streets. She still does her once a month drive to Georgia, each time with a new car, new tag, and switched up route. All the other time is spent at the jewelry shop.

The game she's in you don’t just choose in or out and honestly, it’s all she knows and all she wants to do. Whether she dies behind it or gets locked up. The David bloodline should not have to worry about financials.

Forms of income momentarily:

jewelry store.

profit from moving drugs and guns.

father’s mechanic shop.

one rental property. (childhood home.)

[ganymedesclock]

I know Zelda lore is generally complicated and all, but if you know of the manga (it is a prequel to Skyward Sword and considered a origin story of sorts) what are your thoughts on Hylia and Demise? and the chosen hero aka The First Link?

Some would interpret it as more of a origin story of hylian legend, so like something that is more biased and very different than the true historical happenings of an ancient era, so shrouded in legends very much.

IMO Zelda lore is also immensely take-it-or-leave-it. I've always been a bit lukewarm on The Great Zelda Timeline, since I feel like it's more logistical to think of the games as effectively self-contained AUs of each other with a few threads of continuity that can give context.

I'll also say that I know little of the various manga adaptations, but the skyward sword manga in particular doesn't really appeal to me; I know enough of it to not particularly want to know more. I’m not a fan of its version of Hylia being almost exactly like Zelda, especially when canonical details in Skyward Sword imply Hylia was not really humanlike at all- the “feathers” from her wings look more like chunks of crystal shrapnel.

I've got my own headcanons / reads into that gap, which are- much like canon- completely take-it-or-leave it, but I think they’re fun. I will put those down under a cut, here, because they get long.

So my major read on the events predating Skyward Sword, and thus predating "everything" in the Zelda mythos, is that the golden gods are effectively the big bang. Nothing 'as we know it' exists before them, everything 'as we know it' exists after them. For a while, they overlap with their creations; this is where their names and predilections become known to a degree. Thus, there's a kind of dynasty of gods- the first dynasty being Din/Nayru/Farore.

This ultimately ends in the creation of the triforce- the point where the gods exited the world. Eldritch artifact, basically a hole in reality that leaks infinite primal potential. Simultaneous evidence that "the throne" is empty, and the tools of creation used to shape the world.

A take I have at this point is that both Hylia and Demise are worshiped like gods, but they're basically powerful natural spirits. But they're kind of major contenders, and begin fighting each other over the Triforce. Hylia has her supporters and creations, Demise has his, and they’re both, IMO, flawed.

Hylia is calculating. This is basically textual in Skyward Sword- she appears to value leaving as little as possible up to chance (hence Fi as a guide to Link, who seems to have been trained to disregard her own emotions as much as possible) and by the works she leaves behind alone, she verges on pretty heartless- the entire Lanayru Mine society consists of sapient robots who are clearly people, and cherished by the Thunder Dragon and vice versa, and, um... are obviously dying and collapsing into an inevitable disrepair they are, a certain degree aware of. Skipper does not even leave his duty to try and go home using the borrowed time the Timeshift stones give him so that he can be with his family when that borrowed time runs out... and it does, because we never see those guys in any “future” game.

Basically, Hylia values order, but not autonomy. If she has her way, it will never even occur to you to contradict her or speak against her. She cares, but her model of caring is irreconcilable with human free will or determination. She’s seen as the benefactor of the hylians, who took their names in her honor, but Skyloft from what we see of it is a little less like a sanctuary and a little more like the Human Zoo from Steven Universe- especially down to that it was used to cultivate Link and Zelda. The Loftwings are even ostensibly divine forces that specifically observe and manage each denizen.

Fi is arranged to self-terminate so she won’t contaminate anything other than her objective. Zelda is given the ability to realize Hylia’s goals at a key point such that if she has an attack of self-loathing on recognizing Hylia’s memories, this, too, serves her larger game plan- it in fact works better if Zelda doesn’t want to be Zelda right then, because she’s just gotten Hylia’s memories uploaded into her real hard. (We’ll get back to Zelda)

Meanwhile, Demise enjoys freedom, but not in a way that really seems to respect people. Ghirahim, compared to Fi, is wildly unfettered; left to his own devices, to pursue his own interests and opinions. He’s free. And Demise crushes him.

Likewise, when talking to Link, Demise is polite, even charmingly sporting. Unlike any other Zelda boss before or since, he textually in-universe suggests that you should prepare as best as you can and take as much time as you need, while agreeing to wait in one specific location. In polar contrast to Hylia, he clearly does not have a grand divine plan. He intends to strip Link down by force exactly the way he did Ghirahim, but he won’t enjoy it if he doesn’t give Link the chance to waste all of Ghirahim’s hard work stalling and forcing Link to a standstill. Demise wants Link to be as gorged up with freedom and power as possible... so that he can be the greater force and shatter it.

This factors in to their metatextual successors, Zelda and Ganondorf. Zelda is anticipated, cultivated, and extremely controlled. Even at the extreme endpoint of the timeline as we’re aware of it, Zelda is invoking Hylia for power. This, logically, shouldn’t be the case- Hylia is completely terminated. Anything that Hylia had, is now Zelda’s, via birthright and the ritual that awakened Skyward Sword Zelda, the very first one. Zelda’s a divine-blooded demigod; she ‘honestly’ comes by all the power she must need.

But Hylia never really meant Zelda to be a worthy successor; simply a Favored Heir, who, for her favoritism, has the best prize Hylia gives all of her most important servants: the prize of being completely preordained. Known. Controlled. Nayru seems to be the “natural” god of time given Oracle of Ages; but Hylia seems to position herself as a conqueror of time. She viewed Zelda as an extension of herself; simply a continuation who would behave in certain, useful ways- human ways, sentimental ways, that are inaccessible to Hylia herself, to love Link and be loved by him- and then when the time is right she wakes up and knows all of her instructions and will act perfectly, because you were Hylia all along.

Conversely Ganondorf pretty obviously hates the gods period, no exception, no “your god’s worse than my god”. He wants things to be his and his alone. He’s not even a favored son to Demise’s curse, if we are supposed to believe- as seems to be the implication- that said curse is responsible for every Zelda antagonist that is a blight to Hyrule; there are plenty that have zero connection to Ganondorf, and it suggests Demise’s Incarnation is a concept that abandons Ganondorf, regularly even. If there’s anything Ganondorf has from Demise, it’s things like the title of demon king, that seems to be Ganondorf’s own efforts that pull him over the gap.

The one time Ganondorf succeeds by the obvious assistance of a higher power, it is when the Triforce of Power intervenes on his behalf in Twilight Princess, and in the same game, we see Ganondorf desecrate and behead the statues of the Triforce Goddesses in Hyrule Castle’s throne room.

So- getting back to Skyward Sword and the god war.

Hylia claims she was entrusted directly with the triforce. We hear this claim through the story told by her subordinates. It seems to line up with that Ghirahim- the chattiest member of Demise’s forces by virtue of being last man standing for most of the game- makes it clear Hylia’s incarnation is his biggest problem to resurrecting Demise.

But, there’s a couple of threads to spot in this narrative, and those are the things that make me think Link’s position is complicated, both regarding the triforce and otherwise.

Hylia cannot use the triforce. This is explicit. If it was truly given to her for keeping, she’s at bare minimum using bad faith workarounds of instructions she was given or parameters set on her. We don’t have Impa as an entity informed of the war who understands and agrees with Hylia make the wish on her behalf; instead a hero is cultivated. Link is a trap for the triforce.

And Link is obviously cultivated. He’s marked from birth by the Red Loftwing. Zelda’s speech when Link finally catches up to her and she gains Hylia’s memories have her outright say that Hylia used Link. That Zelda’s existence is a trap for Link.

Now... to me, I feel like this has fascinating context for the fact that Link and Zelda have this omnipresent yet often stilted relationship. Almost every game ends with the implication Link and Zelda are together now, a couple now; games that give him over love interests tend to come with this obvious subtext of “but you’ll leave her to be with Zelda, right? Or if you won’t be with Zelda, you won’t be with anyone,” and even in isolation, in Majora’s Mask, the Song of Time taught by Zelda and the Ocarina of Time given by her are the most essential thing in-game to proceed.

But also, there’s a bunch of times Link either optionally or explicitly tried to be in a relationship with someone else? In Skyward Sword you can flirt with Peatrice and while the game clearly insinuates this is a fake, ‘mean’ relationship unlike Link’s devotion to Zelda, it never out and says it. Link could be totally serious. He definitely was serious in Breath of the Wild, where Mipha’s working on their engagement rings, which no unserious couple would be talking about, and the wedding’s only called off on account of the bride’s abrupt death... which her kin even take out poorly on Link.

I don’t mean this as an anti-zelink screed, but I think it’s interesting to me- and really morbid- that Link and Zelda are implied in Skyward Sword to be cosmically ordained star-crossed soulmates. Link is destined to be Zelda’s symbolic groom, but also, their happiness and union are actually optional. The real thing that’s mandated, that Hylia counted on, was Link loving Zelda and despairing at losing her. Link, running after Zelda into certain danger. Link, loving Zelda, and Zelda being loved by Link, as a trap.

This is the main way I diverge from the manga’s take of Hylia and the zeroth hero as lovers- because I feel like the fact that Hylia, who herself does not seem to value emotion directly (less than Demise, who deliberately wants to get an emotional response out of you) is so concerned that Link must love Zelda, that he must know and chase Zelda, that Hylia’s will has to be distant to him...

Implies Hylia was perhaps scared of Link. Which is silly; she’s a goddess and he was not even really destined yet. She was scared of a hypothetical person she was molding into a template, or if ‘scared’ isn’t the right term, she was concerned that something might. go wrong. with Link, if she started selecting people for these qualities.

As if, perhaps, from the original person Hylia was seeking to cultivate again, there were actually qualities about the zeroth hero that Hylia didn’t like very much. That the zeroth hero may have been strong, and brave, and deserving of the title of hero... but did not love Hylia, and was not devoted to her.

The zeroth hero also seems vanished from Skyloft’s history. Only Hylia is stated to have saved them.

But things come in threes in this franchise, even if one of the three is disgraced or hidden. 

If Zelda is Hylia’s favored heir, whether or not she wants this and often explicitly not wanting this, and Ganondorf is Demise’s (figurative) discarded bastard whose frustration and ambition allow the parent to parasite off of him from beyond an absolute grave...

What is Link?

Let’s talk about Majora’s Mask.

A friend of mine exposed me to the notion that Majora’s Mask is kind of a dying-dream game; that it takes place overwhelmingly within Link’s mind. Actually looking at the imagery and word choice used by this game, and how many characters inexplicably repeat (Cremia and Romani’s unnatural resemblance to Malon; Koume and Kotake as benevolent NPCs who seem to never acknowledge their previous run-in with Link; Ganondorf’s face leering down from the moon), this would seem to make sense.

Especially the Happy Mask Salesman, who as textually as the game can get, is functionally a psychopomp and definitely has some kind of agenda that makes him very pushy towards Link, but in a way that feels distinct from any other character nudging you into a quest.

Majora’s Mask seems to be illuminating the death of the Hero of Time, not the first Link but the ‘ur’-Link that out-of-universe came to define modern Link. There are two major, powerful figures in this game, one that’s omnipresent and the other that is much more enigmatic and missable.

The first is Majora. We are introduced to Majora only through its death mask. Implicitly, like Darmani and Mikau and the Deku Butler’s Son, Majora is dead. Majora is also immensely powerful, and was used by others to curse their enemies.

Unable to rest or be at peace, Majora has tumbled through time. Its current host is Skull Kid, an innocent child from the woods who was driven by loneliness. Skull Kid has fairy companions, and also, feels that he was abandoned by his friends, because they departed to the corners of the world to become divine pillars protecting from harm. They are only reunited in event of catastrophe.

All of these things are traits of Ocarina of Time Link, actually. He was also, originally, a child from the woods; we can figure he was almost definitely lonely when everyone in his society had a fairy except him, when he was actually a hylian among kokiri and lacked words to articulate why he felt unlike others; Saria was kind to him but most others are at best indifferent and at worst, Mido. Much is made in OoT that he cannot be with Saria and this becomes true no matter where he goes; he can’t be with Ruto, or Darunia, or Impa, or Nabooru, or Rauru. Just about anyone who’s notably kind to him perishes or ascends to become a sage. He is not like them.

And Link is told that there is this specialness, this thing that is beyond him and older than him, but it becomes core to his identity until after a while it’s the only thing anyone sees: the role of the Hero.

“But Clockie,” you might say, “the hero is a good thing, and Majora was used to curse others!”

To which I say: in Wind Waker, The Soul of The Hero is explicitly and repeatedly tied to the wind. His legend survives ‘on the wind’s breath’. Link is given a powerful royal artifact, that the king of Hyrule used to command the wind.

And at the very end of Wind Waker, Ganondorf talks about the wind. He lays it out as plainly as possible that part of what he coveted in Hyrule was that the wind favored it. The winds over Hyrule bring it peace and prosperity. That same wind, over Ganondorf’s world, brings death and destruction. This is... never argued with. In fact, at the very end of Wind Waker, as Ganondorf lays dying at the hands of the hero yet again, he cracks a bitter smirk and says that the wind is blowing.

To the civilization that profited from Majora’s Mask, it probably seemed like a blessing until it became impossible to contain. While we never hear about the hero going rogue or turning on the people around him, it is notable that Wind Waker’s incarnation of the hero’s myth in particular features people cursing the hero’s absence. Just like with Majora, the prosperity given by the Hero fails.

It’s also notable that as a villain, Skull Kid seems to do an awful lot of sidequests, doesn’t he? He messes with others’ trivial affairs quite a bit.

So, I think that Majora, in Majora’s Mask, is almost a form of Dark Link- he embodies things Link fears about himself and the hero’s role.

And then there’s the other entity- the Fierce Deity.

The Fierce Deity, unlike Majora, is completely erased from history. We do not know who or what they are.

We know that they are dead, because they’re a mask.

We know Link only gains access to them if he faces the questions of the moon children- questions that seem to be interrogating both Link’s feelings, and the nature of the Hero, but one in particular involves asking Link if that’s really his face.

The Fierce Deity is otherwise never seen in Hyrule’s pantheon. Their fallen regalia surfaces on rare occasions.

They are stated to have overwhelming dark power, and seem only willing to manifest through the mask to fight a great enemy. And unlike any other spirit Link connects with in Majora’s Mask, they never speak.

The mask has an uncanny resemblance to Link.

I think that Majora’s Mask is a point where Link is accessing his precursor.

I think that in the original god war, there was a third contender.

Hylia, Demise, and Majora.

Majora, the Fierce Deity, presenting as neither a goddess nor a demon king, an entity that aligned themselves with mortals and brought prosperity and security to them. A creature of dark power, who nonetheless became known as a Hero.

At some point during the war, Majora aligned themselves with Hylia. They may have had their own designs on the triforce. They may have seen her as the lesser of two evils. After all, compared to Demise, Hylia just wants to control people; she doesn’t want to crush them.

But the key distinction here is, Majora did not love Hylia. If they may have, they did not let this stop them from seeing her as almost as much of a problem as Demise. They would bring her prosperity, but only up to a point. Then, they would part ways.

Majora faces Demise. Demise is pleased to have an opponent, and facilitates Majora, perhaps far more than he should have.

Demise crushes Majora, but not without sustaining serious injuries.

Majora dies; mortals and smaller spirits grieve the loss of their hero. A death mask may or may not be forged in their likeness.

The stalemate is broken; a weakened Demise is no match for Hylia. She embeds him in the sealed grounds, and becomes the decisive victor and remaining survivor. The die is cast; from this point onward, the existence of Hyrule as the dominant land and the worship of the golden gods becoming synonymous with the worship of Hylia has its foundations here.

But Demise isn’t gone; he’s a god. He’s a little hard to kill, if he wants to stick around. And Majora does not want to stick around; and forcing them to will almost certainly exacerbate their connection.

If only, Hylia thinks, there was a useful way to contain all that was important about Majora- their valor and great strength- in a form that was more pliant. She has worshippers. She has the mortal entities that Majora once cared for.

That’s right. Majora cares about mortals, don’t they? They fought to save and protect others. A Majora who doesn’t remember that they lived wild and disobedient, a Majora whose uncanny power of twilight is tempered and weakened, a Majora who grew up among Hylia’s chosen people so as to carefully control who he gets attached to, and to ensure among those attachments, there is a friend- a dear friend, a beloved friend- who he will fight to stay close to, no matter what.

Who is not the entity that they once distrusted, but who will, predictably and perfectly, act as a continuation of that entity’s will, and because her love is real, she will be so, so sorry about it, and hurting so much, that it’s impossible he would ever betray her.

How many times is Link in essence, told to wake up, often by a manifestation of Zelda?