#or how he makes puzzles out of his clansmen's pictures

[ridiasfangirlings]

I enjoy all the ask with Munakata cause he's kind of silly but how much of that is real and how much is an exaggeration? I've only seen the anime series (including the movies) and rarely the extra materials so it feels like I might be missing something.

While I will fully admit to exaggerating things as needed for the good of comedy Munakata is absolutely a silly, silly man, but most of it is indeed confined to the side materials. This is the man who forced some of his subordinates to play the King game with him, assigned them all random chores when he continually won, and then ended up wearing the nose glasses. The man who decided to go surfing in a tiny Speedo. The man who once showed up in the middle of the S4 bath to suggest they all play games like when they were kids, and then destroyed the entire alphabet squad in cards. The man who found a baby sitting in front of S4 and just immediately put the kid in a sling and brought the child into his office, and then made absolutely no explanation of why when his subordinates came in to deliver paperwork. The man who makes people do giant puzzles with him on weekends. The man who made Fushimi dress in a Santa outfit and deliver presents. The man who in the middle of an important mission finds time to troll Yata and invite everyone to have tea while sparkling. The man who once wore a sea anemone kigurumi. The man who found reason to wear one of those miner helmets with the headlight on it and continued to wear it even after he no longer needed to for no apparent reason other than “having gotten too attached to it to take it off.” Munakata is a splendid charismatic genius and also a complete and utter dork, and I love him so much for it.

[russeliarat]

So you know my last post where I gave Link two Yiga outfits for fun? Yeah, so I have the entire concept written out now. It feels more like it would be a comic/book, so go wild and free with those cinematic angles in your imagination because god knows I don’t have the time or energy to actually make either for this.

Thanks to @best-of-brassbox for fuelling my Yiga obsession and giving me ideas for this scenario without knowing. Your writing inspires me, and I won’t lie, if I keep talking about how cool you are, I would have topped the word count for longest novel ever written.

The Yiga have been attacking the Gerudo more and more frequently and Riju suspects that a new master may be involved. Link is sent to find out more about the Yiga Clan’s methods of disguise and magic, as well as about this new master/second-in-command, so that Gerudo Town can be protected as well as Kakariko Village and other at risk spaces. Saula accidentally overhears and is asked by Riju to create a mock-Yiga clansmen outfit for Link, however is told he needs to gain a picture of the outfit for her to do so. He is asked to get a picture of a new rank of clansmen named ‘Yiga Trainee’, which his outfit is modelled around.

As explained in the previous post, Yiga Trainees are essentially newly trained clansmen or those about to begin their training. They are rarely seen attacking Link, but will trigger at certain locations and will almost always be disguised. When Link talks to them/buys something from them, they will be prompted to then attack him. It is later found out that many of these are amateurs and newly young adults and so are quite weak, however are always supervised by a footsoldier or bladesman which will also need to be defeated.

One way or another, Link manages to get caught once inside the hideout as someone not previously in the Yiga ranks and is brought to the new master of the Yiga so his punishment is decided (note that he is absolutely beaten for this trickery). The new master’s room is similar to an old tatami room, though the floor are lined with hardwood instead and is on a raised platform from the ground. Behind a panelled curtain, the new master sits at a short-legged table in seiza. A bladesman guard informs the master of their arrival and is encouraged to take Link into the room, quickly ushered out once doing so. From there, Link learns that the new master is a young girl of only about 14 or 15 years of age. She sits in a black kimono decorated with pale blue embroidery, her sleek black hair tied neatly into a complex bun, though it’s noted how her hair is white at the roots after being dyed pitch black.

Link is then interrogated by the girl, soon learning her title as ‘Master Rikko’, the young niece of the now-deceased Kohga, and his only surviving relative. Rikko asks Link why he wishes to become a Yiga and he makes a backstory on the spot about being an amnesiac whose family had been wrongly executed by the royal family and their Sheikah assassins over the generations. With Link’s wheat gold hair temporarily dyed brunette and his name unrecognized as the one ‘Hyrule’s Hero’ possesses, Rikko gives Link three conditions under which he can join the clan.

The first is if he can beat three ranks of Yiga one after the other in a beat down thinly-veiled as a ‘sparring match’. The second is if he can retrieve an artefact hidden within the hideout in a certain amount of time. The third and final condition is solving a puzzle known that even elites have difficulty completing. Such were the rules that Rikko would allow him to join. Each task shows Yiga culture as well as using skills from outside the clan that Link learned which would render quite the challenge for any normal Yiga.

Once completing the tasks, Rikko begrudgingly allows him to become a trainee, but warns him that acclimating to the Yiga lifestyle is not easy. After being dismissed, Link can hear Rikko muttering about how desperate she’s become to accept a Hylian outsider to kill the hero. It turns out that Link drummed up quite the amount of attention, mostly negative, some positive, due to his entrance. He is labelled as a trickster and ostracized, though a mild-mannered, meeker trainee named Val somewhat befriends him and ends up getting to know Link as he treats his wounds and properly dresses him. He explains to Link how their peers view Link and how he’s known as strong, but not in the Yiga way, so will be taught to abandon his Hylian techniques or they’ll be beaten out of him.

After a short while, Link and Val find themselves in the company of one another after a particularly hard day of training. In the confines of a dark corridor, lit only by a single candlelight, their backs pressed against opposite walls, they talk about Yiga culture and the day-to-day life. Val tells Link about Master Rikko, how she’s crumbling under the pressure of the job of leader after Kogha died, and how she’s truly mourning under her facade of harshness. Apparently, she refuses to leave her room, except from when she is forced to attend one large event - a tournament, where the skills of different clansmen are shown off as they are pitted against each other. Rikko will be forced to attend to ‘bless’ the champion and put the winner to the test as she is now the clan’s leader. Link expresses a want to compete, though Val explains how without even the slightest knowledge of Yiga magic, he will be wiped across the floor by other trainees. Link convinces Val to teach him magic by night, building up his basic skills and how to manually bring forth his magic as he has not inherited his power and cultivated it during his childhood like Val had. Over several weeks/months, Val shows Link different people who will likely attend the tournament and the two slowly figure out each one’s weaknesses and strategies as they train.

Eventually, the tournament comes around and Link enrolls, much to the ire and mocking of his peers. Because of his observational skills, training, and Val’s help, Link barely manages to make it to the top, even with his less than fantastic magic. When Rikko comes to fight him, she defeats him, but she praises his efforts. Though he didn’t manage to defeat her in battle, the fact he could even get so far at his skill level was a feat in itself. After the battle, Rikko takes him to her room, where she presents him with an old tome along with pile of aging notes and papers from inside of a hidden compartment of her room. She tells him to memorize the spells and techniques within as they will be useful for his growth, though also states that he can come back to ask to view it again if he wishes.

Over the next week or two, it becomes a matter of learning these spells and disguises to find an opening to steal the tome. One day, Link is told he will be taken along on a mission to watch and learn from a higher-up (footsoldier/bladesman) who would deal with a traitorous ‘Yikah’ (a Yiga who has returned to a Sheikah way of life). However, he sees Riju subtly grab his attention and hide a note in a crack in a ruined wall. Luckily, the higher-up doesn’t notice as Link sneaks it into his uniform to read that night.

When he looks over the note that night (even as he’s mercilessly teased), it reveals that Riju had found a way into the walls of the hideout and has spent the last few weeks attempting to rig an explosion above the very chambers he and other trainees slept in that would go off if hit by lightning - courtesy of the lightning helm. All Link needed to do was retrieve whatever documents necessary and create a signal for Riju to create the distraction while he escapes. Finding that the very next night was the perfect time to retrieve the tome and notes, Link managed to use his learning techniques to sneak into Rikko’s room, only for her to wake and begin a panicked interrogation. After finding Link using the Sheikah Slate to store away the documents, she shouted for the guarding clansmen to execute him. After taking them out, Rikko herself comes to fight him, though is quickly distracted by an explosion and is killed when Link instinctively chucks a throwing knife into her head.

Riju’s head pops in through the ceiling and explains that she set off the explosion after hearing all the yelling for Link’s death and requests the tome, which she will safely transport home by taking an escape route through the walls and back to Gerudo Town on Patricia. Link manages to follow her, but they get stuck going through a familiarly dark corridor and are stopped by Val, who expresses his feelings of betrayal. Riju tells him that he doesn’t have to stay in the cult, but he refuses as it’s all he knows and has. He makes an attempt at their lives, though Link stops him, almost killing Val but decides last minute to merely knock him unconscious. Link returns his borrowed hakama set to Val. Him and Riju finally make the homestretch to Gerudo Town, where Riju thanks Link for his assistance and assures him that the information gathered will keep everyone safe from the Yiga.

[sea-and-storm]

CHOOSING (pt.1) :  Backstory

OOC :  So I actually kind-of wrote this scene already a few months back, but I just.. really wasn’t happy with it. I’ve been wanting to re-write it and change it but hadn’t had the inspiration to do it until I read @afreesworn‘s writing about Nabi’s parents and got the lizard itch. :v

Decided to break it down into 2 parts though since this first part ran long with more context than content. But the last part is full of sweet drama and angst, so there’s that.

                                       [ Roughly Eleven Years Ago ]

Two days and two nights had passed since the band of Kharlu envoys had arrived at the far edge of the coastlands, to the camp of the Shuurga. Fresh off the back of a resounding victory in the annual battle against the Jhungid, their coming had spurred the small clan of Mankhadi into celebration. The days had been filled with music, feasts, and friendly competition, with the proud warriors of Kharlu as their honored guests.

Perhaps other tribes would think it a strange custom, to not only welcome outsiders but to celebrate them so. Yet other clans weren't so small and ill-suited for conflict as their own, whom had relied upon an alliance with a far stronger tribe for protection for generations beyond count.

Yet such protection did not come without a price that praise and gratitude alone could not repay.

The coming of dawn on the third and final day of the envoys' stay saw the entire clan gathering together. However, no music or laughter filled the air as every last man, woman, and child made their solemn march out to the center of their camp. Only the low rumble of anxious whispers rose from the gathered crowd, mingling in the cool morning air with the sound of waves crashing against rocks at the foot of the cliffs. By the time the sun had fully risen above the horizon, their guests had joined them, standing at the head of the gathering alongside the Shuurga's khan and elder udgan.

Once all had arrived, the blaring call of a horn brought the crowd to complete silence and all eyes forward. The expressions worn upon their faces varied -- nervous, angry, afraid, unsure -- but not a single one was smiling. The celebration was now officially over, and it was time for the Choosing to begin.

Ghoa had already been present at seventeen Choosings, though the earliest that she could recall in any great detail had come in her eighth year of life. Before then, she hadn't really understood in any concrete sense what was happening. But that year, she had watched the normally quiet and sobering event erupt into chaos as a woman, stricken with grief and fear and anger, had lunged at the men who had tried to take the only son remaining to her.

'No! You can't have him!' she had screeched and sobbed as she fought against the clansmen desperately trying to hold her back and calm her down. 'You've taken them all! My husband, my children! You've taken them all from me!' Even as she was dragged away, the wailing cries of 'Not my boy!' had continued to carry back to them eerily over the wind.

Though the incident had been smoothed over with the Kharlu, it had stayed with the young Xaela for weeks after. It had plagued her with nightmares of being dragged away from her home by leering, gnarled monsters and of the echoing cries of a desperate mother. The fitful rest had worn on the apprentice, robbing her of her focus during the day until one of her exasperated mentors had finally saw fit to ask about her distraction. Only then had she reluctantly admitted to the fear.

That was the first time anyone had truly explained the Choosing to her. The price for their protection was to surrender their own people as offering, to do their part to swell the Kharlu's ranks. Though their people made for poor warriors, the Shuurga boasted a number of skilled craftsmen. Others were taken for labor. Others still, to stick a weapon in their hands and set them upon the front lines of the next coming battle. Those that proved themselves would perhaps be allowed to rise above their lowly station one day. But it was no secret that most did not live long enough to see that goal to completion.

Their lives and their sacrifice was the price that they paid for their clan's continued existence and autonomy. It was an alliance that none relished in, but bereft of any other choice except subjugation and extinction, there was little that could be done.

There were laws in place that were meant to keep the agreement balanced and sustainable, at least. Only so many could be taken each year, depending on how many children had been born and the number of able-bodied adults that remained to them. Other laws prevented certain individuals -- chiefly children, mothers with child or a babe still at the breast, and the clan's leaders -- from being chosen.

Yet it was not a law, but an unspoken agreement that had given Ghoa the most peace in her early years and chased the night terrors away at last. Though only the eldest udgan was immune to the Choosing by technicality, the Kharlu had long tended to avoid the rest of the udgan and apprentices as well. It certainly wasn't for lack of skill. Among their modest number were mages who could mend with the life-sustaining power of the sea, and those who could call upon the might of raging tempests. They were the keepers of their people's traditions in herbalism and poisons. And still, despite their apparent value, their protectors turned a blind eye to them year after year.

It could have been simply an abundance of caution, a desire not to potentially tread on the toes of the gods who, in their tradition, had set them upon their path. There had been stories in times long past where an udgan of Shuurga had been taken only for misfortune to follow after. Some pointed to the stories as evidence that the gods would not suffer one of their chosen to be stolen from them, and superstition had always been a powerful force upon the Azim Steppe. Others claimed it was only because their magicks grew weaker the further inland and away from the sea that they traveled.

Whatever the reasoning behind the avoidance was, it gave Ghoa confidence as she stood there among the others in waiting. This was her eighteenth Choosing, but the first that she had come to as a woman grown. Others her age huddled with their families, their apprehension clear. Most were pale in the face, their gazes distant. Some trembled with nerves. A few wept silently in fear. Unlike her, the threat of being separated from their friends, their families, and their homes was a real and immediate threat, and her stomach twisted itself into sympathetic knots as she watched them.

The khan spoke only a few words of duty and sacrifice, the elder udgan offered a blessing to those making the next leg of their journey, and then the members of the Kharlu envoy started forward to begin making their way through the crowd. Watching them weave through the tense, fearful throng of bodies, Ghoa could help but wonder if this was how a flock of sheep felt when a hungry gedan leapt into their unwatched pen. Afraid, helpless, and with nowhere to run or hide.

One by one, their protectors began to make their selections. This year, it seemed that their focus lie on young men that appeared sturdy and strong of body even though they knew that very few among them knew how to wield anything other than a blowgun. They didn't have to. These men would end up placed in the frontlines where number of bodies mattered more than skill at arms.

Ghoa's heart sank each time one was chosen, unable to stop herself from picturing them thrown into the middle of a chaotic battlefield, swallowed up by a war that wasn't theirs, dying so far from the sea that called for them. She had to fight the tears that threatened to spill over and roughly push her mind away from the dreadful thought in the struggle to maintain what poise she had.

By the time that the Kharlu had made their way to the back of the crowd where Ghoa stood with the other udgan and apprentices, only one selection remained to them. A few of the young men nearby grew visibly nervous the closer they neared to them;  yet curiously, she noticed, the warriors' attention passed right over them. It seemed that they were on the hunt for something -- someone -- different now.

Confusion settled over Ghoa as she tried to puzzle out what they were after. Confusion turned to worry as they grew nearer still, until they finally came to a halt directly in front of them. Worry turned to fear the moment that their leader's eyes found hers and lingered there, holding her gaze.

His hand reached out to take her chin in his fingers with surprising gentleness, turning it to give her face a closer look. Soft whispers of shock and questioning began to rise from the crowd around her, but none reached Ghoa's ears. All she could hear was the pounding of her own heartbeat like a stampede of wild horses, practically tasting her racing pulse on her tongue. Any shred of confidence that she had held onto going into the Choosing had fled her the moment the warrior had fixed her with his attention. She was no longer just another sheep cowering in the corral as the gedan prowled;  she was the lamb staring straight into its snapping, slavering maw.

It seemed an eternity to her before he released her, broke his stare, and turned away. For just a moment she felt relief wash over her like a wave, almost feeling silly that she had let herself panic so. But then, he spoke up to the others and her blood ran cold as ice in her veins.

"This one," he stated, voice firm and decisive. "The last we'll take is the girl."

[ridiasfangirlings]

munashiro bonding with Scepter 4 (again), but Adolf decides to pick Kuroh, Neko and Hieda to bond with him

Bonding experiences for everyone! Imagine Munakata decides to invite Shiro on another S4 bonding experience, going for a nice calming day of puzzles (read: life size great wall of China papercraft). Shiro mentions it to Kuroh, who thinks it’s nice that Shiro enjoys spending time with his boyfriend but does worry about Shiro being surrounded by another clan. Neko pipes up that she misses Shiro too and Shiro realizes that he hasn’t really taken his clansmen on any kind of bonding trip before, they go to cute cafes and such from time to time but they haven’t really had a proper bonding experience. He decides it’s time to change that and invites Kuroh, Neko and Hieda to come along with him for bonding.

With the extra people coming along Munakata decides that perhaps a nice trip to the zoo would be enjoyable. The S4 squad are actually a little relieved, like well maybe the presence of the Silver clan will make Captain tone it down. This lasts until they get to the zoo and Munakata suggests having a timed race in front of the Cheetah exhibit, to test their agility and speed. Kuroh wonders if this is allowed at the zoo and Munakata explains that he requested special privileges, which is why the zoo is empty. Meanwhile Neko has tried to climb the fence to say hi to the cheetahs and Hieda has to drag her back. I imagine though that having the Silvers around does make things calmer though, like Munakata is convinced to let everyone go and enjoy their day while he and Shiro walk around with Kuroh, Neko and Hieda, and since Munakata isn’t their King he has to relax and let his men actually have a calming trip. Of course there are still wrinkles, like they come upon Fushimi huddling under a shade tree drinking coffee and Kuroh has to lecture him about proper hydration in the heat, or how Neko keeps turning into a cat to visit all the wild cats and Benzai is quietly enabling her because he wants cute pictures of cats cuddling. Shiro tells Munakata that this was still fun though, it’s like they’re a newly married couple taking their children from previous marriages out on a date with them.