#masks and magic

[convexicalcrow]

okay i love your fic it is AMAZING please write more??? also im curious if cub's old man look is just a mask? or is it magic related? also if it is a mask then him wearing a vex mask is a mask ON a mask which is funny to me

tyty! :D I'm def interested in writing more for sure. I want to do Something with him changing his skin in s8 to look more like him bc I think that would be fun to write about. Like he's finally comfy enough to take off the old man mask and be himself and I think there's a lot of trans joy to write with that scenario, esp bc he went through a couple of iterations before he settled on his current skin. I also wanna write something about him meeting Scar too so Imma have to get on to s4 at some point I think. Plus idk, I have an idea for more Kingdomcraft fic with him talking to Ren and something something dog hybrids idk idk and how that all works. bc I think that would be an interesting convo. And I def want more Cub & Iskall as well. Maybe when they're working on the cathedral together is when Cub feels brave enough to start that conversation.

As for the mask, it's definitely magic of some sort. It's the one thing I struggled with for so long in trying to conceptualise HOW you make this work at all. But I think seeing his face as a mask, magical or otherwise, is a good way to do it. I'm kinda leaving it vague on whether it's a physical mask that becomes his own face with magic, or if it's more an illusion or glamour that simply makes people see Old Man Cub and not Actual Cub. I think both are viable methods tbh and I'm not wedded to either. Whichever one makes sense to you is fine with me tbh, even if that's a mask on top of a mask lol. :D

I have in my head a lot of ideas about Cub's conflict with masking his appearance, and how he relates to his body. Why he would want the Vex to literally take his unwanted flesh and give him scars, rather than simply magic his body the way he wants it to look, bc that's just more illusion and it's Not Him, but those scars? That's him. Maybe he doesn't like showing them off much, bc that's still A Lot and maybe he's still not entirely comfy with his body, but it's still his, and not another illusion. His time with Scar in s5 and s6 makes him comfy enough to show off more flesh with the Pharaoh skin, while also being a more practical dress for a desert. The scars wouldn't be that visible though, but if you knew what you were looking for, you'd see them. It helps with that shift to taking off the final mask and putting Old Man Cub to bed at last and getting comfy enough to be himself.

idk how much of that will get into fic, ofc, but that's the progression I see in my head at any rate. :D

[sailorsenshigifs]

[novaswrldd]

s e l f c a r e

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

chinese 傩舞nuowu/nuo dance and nuo fashion on xhs

[ottostoast]

playing around with some spider-KID designs

[miscellaneousrenaissant]

Well, yeah, it's just where your bar for success is

I kept the arm

[kabukiaku]

when u accidentally kiss ur bandmate during a show (the feelings were too strong)

bonus:

[raplinenthusiasts]

💐 @cordiallyfuturedwight

{© namuspromised}

[heartorbit]

can i get a magical girl set please

[sweetmapple]

Mostly Hiring manager, but HR manager and PR manager too

[turtleblogatlast]

I think a lot about Leo’s tendency to push his way into the spotlight despite clearly being a natural in the shadows. Hell, you could argue that his worst moments are when he’s forcing himself onstage, and his best are when he does things no one notices until it’s already been done.

[pinktie]

I don't know how true this is, but if it is, then Kaito has about 0,1% responsibility for popularizing the magical girl genre.

Salute to him, everyone, for he is a legend.

[sailorsenshigifs]

[hellishfig]

finally watching today's adventuring party

and what brennan says about how evan can only be himself while jammer has a version of himself for everyone is really fucking me up

not being able to mask versus being only able to mask is very interesting

[roomwithavoid]

this comic is mostly about mental disorders. i used my changeling sona for this one since i felt the metaphor to be quite apt.

the panel with the muffin represents a person headcanon of mine that reformed changelings will often eat food that is "made with love" to sate themselves

[gay-jesus-probably]

I like the general fandom trend to just take the plot of Hyrule Warriors as a loose guideline at best and just use the whole concept as a good excuse to get blorbos to interact across timelines, BUT I'm very disappointed that everyone is missing the comedic potential of a very specific squad of characters:

Young Link (aka Mask), who walks out of the nightmare of Majora's Mask and immediately gets portal kidnapped into a temporal war, takes one look at the whole mess and decides that you could not fucking pay him to admit to being the resident expert on Time Shenanigans. He introduces himself with the title of Hero of Termina, and definitely doesn't have any other ones, that would be crazy. Hero of Time? Never heard of him.

Tetra, who is a kickass pirate captain with zero patience for people trying to shove her into the Designated Princess role, and realizes immediately that Oh Fuck, this Hyrule has a lot of Ideas about how the Hero and the Princess are supposed to properly play their parts, the second they realize she's technically a Zelda they're gonna shove her in a goddamn dress and damsel her again, that's not happening. So she's definitely just a really cool pirate captain, nothing else going on here at all, definitely not the heir of the Hylian royal family in her time, that'd be crazy.

Ravio, who is literally just a palette swapped Link, meaning that the second his hood comes off, things are gonna get Awkward. There's no way in hell he's dealing with all that Hero baggage, that's Link work, so that giant bunny hood/mask is practically superglued to his head, and he's not taking it off for love or money.

Spirit Tracks Zelda, who is just in the Phantom Armour the whole time, and passing herself off as just a friendly ghost posessing a suit of armour to help the Hero of Spirits. Of course she isn't Princess Zelda, that's ridiculous, if she were a Zelda then people would start getting really weird about her technically being dead, and boy does that ever sound like a whole Thing she doesn't want to deal with, so she can't possibly be Zelda, she's just a nice ghost knight. Also, her teenage grandma is here, and that's kinda weird, so it's easier to just not admit to being royalty and avoid that awkward conversation.

Finally there's Sheik, who is not the Princess Zelda of the era straight up abandoning her war torn country for months at a time so she can risk her life in extreme cosplay for no clear reason, but is instead the actual Sheik from Ocarina of Time, who just beat Ganondorf like a month ago and is still trying to process what the fuck to do now. Also, he's been pretending to be a boy since he was ten, and is realizing there's a pretty good chance that he isn't pretending anymore, so that's a whole other can of worms. But for the last seven years of his life, being Princess Zelda meant certain death, so he's not really inclined to introduce himself like when in a new and stressful situation (not to mention he might actually just not be a girl named Zelda anymore), so he automatically introduces himself as just Sheik the spooky ninja man, and fuck he's in too deep to back out now, looks like he's committing to the bit. If you think you sense the Triforce of Wisdom on him, no you don't.

Cue shenanigans as the five of them attempt to hide that they're all actually kind of A Big Deal. The group motto is "Nobody says shit", which is usually delivered as a frantic hiss whenever someone slips up. Just the reunion between Sheik and Mask alone would be absolutely buckwild given how they parted, and how they're both frantically pretending to Not be involved with each other. For added hilarity and/or drama, Sheik gives his semi-bullshit cover story of having just been a friend of the Hero of Time, then runs into said Hero of Time and they both have to desperately pretend not to know each other, because if anyone picks up on the mountain of baggage between them then Mask is busted, and he won't hesitate to drag Sheik down with him out of sheer spite. Not to mention the weird balance of Sheik being used to this Link being a teenager that's actually a small child, and now has to adjust to Link who is a small child that's actually a teenager.

Also, i really feel like we're all missing out on the comedy potential of Ganondorf recognizing Young Link on sight and the two of them immediately launching into a grudge match with some extremely personal and specific insults on both sides. Meanwhile literally everybody else is just standing there watching, trying to process the fact that out of every single person that's been pulled out of time, Ganondorf only has personal beef with a literal nine year old.

I just feel like we're all really sleeping on the potential for Shenanigans here. The whole thing is an absurd mess, why not have some fun with it?