#misty breaths

[shiningdesignersreflections]

Mercury: Misty Breaths

Designer's Reflection: Misty Breaths

Obtained: top-up for Tides and Flames event

Rarity: SSR

Attribute: Gold/Elegant

Awakened Suit: Dark Contracts

Story - transcripts from Designer's Reflection

Chapter 1 - Beneath the Ice

Chapter 2 - Spirit in the Lake

Chapter 3 - Forgotten Sagas

Chapter 4 - Black Tide Rising

Story - summarized

Mercury and his group finally found the Altar of Arionus, located at the bottom of Lake Bovaly. With the assistance of the Water Elf King's gem, he followed the path into the lake and down a dark passage.

And there, still preserved after all this time, was the stone altar. A misty wraith guarded it, emitting shrieks and screams. But Mercury was not deterred. Instead, he approached the spirit and declared himself a friend of the Water Elves.

The dark mist revealed itself to be Flo, one of the earliest and most devout followers of Arionus. He was there to witness the scorn of the other Elf Gods, as well as how Hephaes led to his great god's demise. Indignant and vindictive, Flo would do anything to restore the great God of Water.

Mercury announced that he had a plan to awaken the long-lost god, but he needed help revitalizing the New Moon gem. Flo readily agreed, and the last of his ghost faded into vapor as he transferred power into the gem.

Now, Mercury could uphold his end of the deal struck with the Water Elf King: he would awaken Arionus, break the oath binding the Water Elves to the deep sea, and assist in the downfall of Pigeon Kingdom and the Light Elves.

But he wouldn't do this for altruism. All he wanted was a glimpse of the power of the Abyss, and he needed Arionus back to do that.

Connections

-Mercury made a deal with the Water Elf King in Startide Dream. Now, he's fulfilling that deal by triggering the events of the Tides and Flames hell event.

-While Mercury craves the power of the Abyss, he still knew the risk of the Goddess of Desire's presence in Miraland and worked alongside the rest of the Shining Nikki cast during the Angel and Demon hell event. He provided resources to the other three factions.

-Flo has met Hephaes, but in Arionus' Reflection for Lost Tides, Flo didn't trust Hephaes one bit, and the moment the other Elf Gods ambushed Arionus, Flo was quick to pin the blame on Hephaes as a betrayal.

-This is not the first time Mercury wasn't the narrator of his own story: the first half of Startide Dream, the full story for Nightmist Aria, Daybreak Overture, Snow Song, and Reminiscence of Flower (to name a few) either feature another character narrating the story or none at all.

Fun Facts

-Even though we've seen Mercury make the deal with the Water Elf King before, this is the first time a mark or emblem has been mentioned.

-This Reflection is a prologue to the hell event, even to the Moon Memories.

-It's never clear if the New Moon gem is the same blue gem the Water Elf King gave to Mercury the day the young boy left the Pigeon palace. But it fits the description.

-While Mercury knows that gods exist, he doesn't worship any and sees them merely as pawns, like the mortals he meets.

[uwhe-arts]

. . . | uwhe-arts

[everysongieverwrote]

I don't even care about Melissa or Hilary but if some crazy bitches invaded my home and attacked me (especially when I know what they're capable of) I too would also go a little feral ngl. I wouldn't try to also kill myself in the process tho, that's just stupid. But my survival mode would be activated for sure.

[novelconcepts]

In watching more interviews with Liv about Van and the escalation of Van's pragmatism to such dark degrees, I find myself genuinely baffled that anyone could ever think Van the bad guy. I mean, I'm perplexed at finding ANY of these girls The Bad Guy. The bad guy is the situation. It's being lost. It's freezing. It's starving. It's being scraped down to the barest bone of being alive. They make choices that might be snippy, or cruel, or hard-headed, sure--Shauna refusing to just hash it out with Jackie; Jackie being too stubborn to come inside; Taissa refusing to discuss her situation plainly; etc--but by the time we reach the end of season 2, it doesn't even matter. Petty bullshit doesn't matter. Jealousy doesn't matter. Those things are still going to be present and complicated, because--for all their choices, for all the distancing they're trying to do--these kids ARE still human beings. But it isn't the point.

The point is survival. Plain, simple, straightforward. Van's pragmatism is survival. It is the difference between living another day with blood on your teeth or dying pretty. It is the difference between fighting forward through the fire and the snow and the hell of it all, and laying down to die. Van knowing, in watching the ritual violence of Shauna beating Lottie nearly the death, that they will be killing and eating one another soon. Van coming up with the cards for the hunt. Van not blinking when the moment comes, Van choosing a weapon that doubles as a tool to bring the body back, Van refusing to apologize for staying alive--it's not evil. It's not Bad Guy behavior. It's purely about survival, because there is nothing else left to her--or to any of them. They can play the pretty little Sweet Angel Girl game and die, or they can get dirty, bloody, horrific and fight. Van chooses the fight. Van chooses to fight for herself, for her lover, for her team, even knowing not everyone is going to make it out...because the alternate path there is that no one makes it out. Van knew the baby wouldn't live. Van knows the rest of them won't, either. Not unless they start making the hard choices.

And, honestly, the fact that Van sees this narrative coming. Comes up with this plan. Brings out the cards. To me, that is the opposite of Bad Behavior. That is as close to justice as anyone can find in the wilderness. If someone else came up with an idea, maybe it would have come down to voting--but that would have had such a human element to it, with bitterness or hostility or whatever ultimately petty shit always comes of humans selecting who to Other. The cards don't leave room for that. It isn't fair, because the situation isn't fair, because Man vs. Nature isn't fair, but it's as close to a just system as they could possibly find. It's the kindest solution to an unwinnable game. Not to bring it back to American Gods again, but all I can think is "it's easy, there's a trick to it: you do it, or you die." Van gave them that.

[skyloftian-nutcase]

So I was messing around with modified amiibos in BOTW, and made one for Wolf Link. I've never used Wolfie before, but now I absolutely love him, he's adorable.

I can feed Wolfie and he does the happy dog bounce before eating? He sometimes looks like he's smiling too! And is an adorable menace, taking off then returning to me with monsters after him

When I eventually return to BOTW, I'll definitely have to use him, seems like it'd be a lot of fun to have him with me

I love Wolfie so much, but he sure does like to just attack every monster 🤣 I usually try to slink by and not fight too much, and Wolfie’s like NOPE LET’S FREAKING GO

Which is honestly par for the course for TP Link, boy was a sweetheart but was absolutely ferocious (and stupidly reckless) when it came to fighting. 😂

[xayspancakeee]

omnipotent perception - rafayel, shy baby fishy

he’s just so gorgeous. a true work of art.

bonus - fishy out of breath (someone’s excited):

[omnicom]

Pokeshipping Week 2023

Day 3: Romantic Gestures

Wanted to draw something in-line with the last season of Ash's Journey (How to be a Master), and thought this would be cute~

Since Misty had to give up her hair tie to make Baynette happy (HTBM EP8), in part due to Ash's request, I was like, "what if Ash wanted to make up for it but couldn't find an exact copy of the original hair tie?" Instead, he buys her a hairpin that's made to look like Baby's Breath. Pikachu takes full credit that it was his idea to go with that, by the way. He knew it'd be perfect, no doubt!

Art © Crumpled-Hakui

Like what you see? Want art like this of your own? Check out my art commission post here and send me an email or private message! Thanks for stopping by!

[mitsybubbles]

I was watching X files, blacked out and I ended up with this

Bonus:

[lighthouseas]

something something misty being the one to trap the yellowjackets in the wilderness and something something nat eventually emerging as their leader as they try to survive. something something they are complete opposites but also they are more alike than they think. idk i'm tired and don't know where i'm going with this but hear me out....

[shiningdesignersreflections]

Mercury: Dark Contracts

Awakened Suit: Dark Contracts

You can find the original suit here.

Bonus:

The motion pose Brilliant Ideas! (There wasn't a second motion pose for Arionus' suit, so I chose a regular one that fit the attitude of the Reflection.)

[uwhe-arts]

. . . | uwhe-arts

[moonsavior]

The tip was definitely leaking, the fingers were definitely soaked

[elizabeth-mitchells]

literally best screenshot i've taken from the show. nothing beats this scene

[starshineandbooks]

Urbosa Sonia, Zelda's bio mom, and Rarru in the afterlife form a club called 'Zelda's real parents'. Roham is not invited.

[16mistypaw]

A quick reference sketch of Dark Link, from my new story Wild Shadow of the Kingdom

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62953072/chapters/164963941

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Random question time!

What inspired your AU's? Some are obvious, like the HC Boys and Blood of the Hero, but what inspired some of the others?

Hm wait, I have to think about this haha

Wild Spirit isn't mine, per se, a wonderful Anon suggested a world where Zelda let Link die so that the new hero could come faster. I went bananas from there lol, but I don't touch it too much.

Breath of the Sky was inspired by me simply saying "what if Skyward Sword got to interact with Breath of the Wild? There's so much overlap!" So I wrote some scenes and then people liked it so I was like "eh, I guess I can write a story for it?" and now it's like my most popular fic ever and I am hiding under a log looking in fear but awe and excitement. If only I could figure out how to write it lol. I want to. We'll get there. But I'm honestly really happy there's so much love for it.

Forsaken AU was me just thinking about how every hero is named Link, and it's probably because it's just a common name, like John, so it's not like naming your kid Link means they're automatically gonna get picked. And then, with that in mind, I thought it would be really funny if Zelda had to figure out who the Hero was, and she knew it had to be somebody named Link, but like half the kingdom's boys (and some goats) are named Link so she has to sort through all of them. XD The rest came after that. I love Mystery Link and adore Friend with all my heart and soul.

As for the Imprisoning War, it's very roundabout LOL. So initially, @/silvercaptain24 had asked on her blog why there wasn't a fic where like Ganondorf was the good guy, Zelda was the bad guy, and Warriors was caught in the middle with Ganon being a dad figure trying to convince him that Zelda was evil. I said "bet" and wrote little scenes. And then I started thinking about it more. And I was like "I can't do the whole 'Ganon is actually a good guy and Hyrule is actually evil' trope becuase it's so overdiscussed and hardly ever well, but I can give Ganon a redemption arc and I can give Zelda a villain arc, and I can make them three dimensional complicated characters. And then I was like let's give this complicated Ganondorf some background story. And then with that background I was like "ok Hyrule Warriors, if Link and Zelda have to get together romantically all the time, let's see how that goes for every scenario" because I hate soulmate tropes like that where other relationships are trampled in lieu of the supposed soulmate LOL sorry (I actually don't mind HW Zelink too much, but the way that game handles Zelink in general rubbed me so wrong that I am very salty about it. And I like some Zelink ships). But once that happened I completely got lost in the backstory of Golden Mercy, hence the Imprisoning War blorbos. They were supposed to just add context to Ganondorf's ways and decisions in Golden Mercy, but they've basically taken over my entire blog. XD

Hero of Shadow came to mind when I was just thinking about throwing Power into Tears of the Kingdom Ganondorf's life. The rest is history lol.