Febuwhump Day 6 - "You Lied to Me"
I decided to try something different today, and I hope y'all don't mind. Introducing Link, the Hero of Power—predecessor to Captain Link, the Hero of Warriors—and Queen Zelda, the Sacred Diplomat. Together, these two legendary figures, alongside Gerudo Chief Hemisi, split Ganondorf's soul into pieces and sealed him away across time and space as a permanent way to end the ageless curse (before that got reversed in Hyrule Warriors). Anyway, here's a little angst with them!
X
The water was almost too hot as it bubbled against his skin. Link sighed, trying to relax into it, accepting this odd vacation he and Zelda had been given. The Gorons weren't unfriendly by any means, but it was strange that they had invited the monarchs to their hot springs for some time off.
Stranger still that Zelda had accepted.
Link glanced over at his queen as she bathed in the water, her figure wavering in the heat as it lazily drifted up from the surface. He was still curious why she'd agreed to come. The pair had never taken time off, and most certainly never together alone. This was a bizarre move, and it made him slightly uneasy. Although it felt beyond freeing to leave the castle, he missed his children. Relaxing like this was a foreign concept to him at this point.
What are you up to, Zelda? he wondered.
He decided to try his luck, swimming over to her. She turned in the water as he approached, face imperceptible as usual.
"Why are we here?" he asked softly, cautiously.
"The Gorons invited us," Zelda answered simply. "I wasn't going to refuse such kindness."
"Because they would view it as a slight, or because of something else?" Link pressed. When Zelda watched him a moment longer, he continued, "We've... been married for years, my queen. I imagine we can speak plainly to each other by now? It's just you and me."
Zelda's façade cracked, her lips twitching, gaze falling to the water level. "You can call me Zelda, you know. You do that, sometimes, when we are being intimate."
He supposed he did. And he supposed this was a moment of intimacy and vulnerability. "Then what's this about, Zelda?"
"I just..." Zelda faltered, showing uncharacteristic hesitancy. It reminded him of how she'd acted at her father's funeral, when it had just been the two of them, long after the crowds had dissipated (and after she had left). "I just wanted you to have something nice. I... I wanted us to have something nice."
Her voice grew so quiet as she added the last statement, nearly shriveling into the water. Link could understand why. She wasn't exactly responsible for giving him anything nice for a long time.
Well... aside from their children. But even then...
A bitter part of him let her look this small and defeated, demure and timid and so penitent. A part of him was angry that she was even trying.
You had promised a brighter future for all of Hyrule, that voice snapped. You lied to me.
It wasn't a lie, though, and he knew it. Just because he had sacrificed his happiness and his life didn't mean the rest of Hyrule wasn't thriving.
Link sighed tiredly. Despite all the hurt between them, he still didn't like to see her like this. It wasn't as if he was the only one who had sacrificed everything. He leaned forward, pulling her close, letting her rest against him, his finger absentmindedly tracing the green paint that adorned her arms, watching it slowly trail off her pale skin. "That's... considerate of you."
Zelda's own hands traced a scar on his chest, and he swallowed, feeling his heart start to race. She pulled away, though, calming his rushing blood and making him curious again.
"I figured I'd... try," she said quietly, refusing to make eye contact. "After... we don't do this much. Spend time together."
Why would they? This marriage hadn't exactly been his choice. He'd hardly spent enough time with her to create an heir the first year. Though in the years after that, he'd used her as his escape as much as she'd used him as her political toy.
So was she using him now? Or was she being genuine? He remembered she was capable of being kind to him.
Was she lying to him now?
"Is this some sort of favor to the Gorons?" he finally asked, letting himself be candid. She'd requested as much, anyway. "Creating a child in their homeland? Would they view that as some sort of honor?"
"This isn't--this isn't about that," Zelda shook her head. "I just wanted you to be able to relax. Back home, you... you're usually taking care of the children more than me."
"Then why did you come along?" Link questioned further. When Zelda winced and swam back a hair, his wariness died down, replaced by guilt.
She really... she just wants to spend time with me?
Oh.
She was lonely.
Link huffed, looking away. Goddesses above. He really was being self-centered, he supposed.
"Well..." he trailed off awkwardly, not really knowing what to say. "Even sacred diplomats need a break, I guess."
Zelda smiled a little forlornly, still looking into the water. Link moved towards her again, letting his body sink into the bubbling warmth so he could look up at her from where her gaze had stayed. He rose up to her with an inviting kiss, and she let him lead.
Though the act was nothing new, it held a bit more tenderness to it than ever before, a sort of mutual pain that emanated between the quiet couple as they sought comfort in each other. Typically after the fact the two would go their separate ways, but this time they basked in the heat, letting themselves dry off on the volcanic rock, draped in towels. Neither had anything to say—at this point what could they say—but they stayed, and Link settled into a nap that was more restful than he'd had in years.
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iroh azula antagonism is sooo important to me guys i cant ever read azula redemption fics cus none of them include their insane beef. its such a lonely world out here. can u even imagine how nuts it wouldve been if she found out abt the white lotus. i need to talk ab them dude
i like to imagine the trip back to the fn after ba sing se zuko didnt talk to iroh at all while he was in the brig because he was so in shock and still reeling that iroh outright betrayed him and his family and nation for the avatar. those three years iroh spent with zuko on the ship encouraging him meant what now? "why would he banish you if he didnt care" meant what now that you helped what would undo the banishment evade me?
and azula has never been above gloating, even over the most pathetic scum. so she makes sure to head to the brig the night they depart, her exhausted brother conked out in his quarters none the wiser, mai and ty lee flanking her. and even though the mission had been to capture the avatar dead or alive, theres something about looking down at her restrained uncle whod been working the whole time to get zuko (who has an unending list of faults but is loyal above all else and had been trying his hardest to fulfill the terms of his banishment even while being a wanted criminal to their nation- something she will not overlook) to betray their nation is somehow more satisfying by tenfold than looking down at a restrained avatar.
she knows just how hard iroh takes losing. he lost ba sing se and a son years ago, and here he has lost ba sing se and a son once more. or a boy his senile, trauma-riddled mind has convinced him is his son. her uncle bet against her father by trying to turn his son against him for whatever traitorous and foolish reasons he has and frankly shes just overjoyed to have him out of the way once and for all, because azula is a dragon just as much as iroh and she will always strive to protect her blood, because irohs the one who let zuko into that war room in the first place, because what right does he have to allow her foolish brother that couldnt keep his trap shut to save his life in a situation like that and then have the audacity to try and turn him against them when zuko even being in ba sing se (instead of working under azula along with mai and ty lee like he shouldve been) was all his fault in the first place? she hopes freeing zuko of him stings unlike anything else. she hopes if that sting manifested in reality it would take the shape of an ugly stamp right across his face and haunt him for the rest of his days in his self made prison.
and then iroh can say that zuko had no choice BUT to be loyal above all else because if he wasnt thats a death sentence from ozai. and then azula can say that thats wise of her father then because if that wasnt how it was then their whole family would be an infested nest of lying cowards like iroh. mustve been something her dad learned from his dear old brother. and what can iroh even say to that
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Something about the way Dot is handled in the narrative that I really appreciate is that it's less about "fixing" her and more about giving her opportunities to open up little by little. There is this nice balance of trying to respect her boundaries and space while also trying to reach out to her and make her feel included in things. Liko and Roy both care about Dot and want to spend time with her so they try to include her in different ways (when Liko invited Dot for curry, she just wanted her to make good memories, when they all went shopping together, they just wanted to spend time with her), but they never pressure her and it's up to Dot to go forward and make her own choices.
Even in the most recent episode, it was up to Dot to tell her mom that she wanted to stay on the ship. Liko and Roy wanted to know her side of the story and conveyed to her that they wanted her to stay on the ship because they care about her, and Liko tried to explain to Blanca that Dot needed to find the right moment to talk but that was it. Liko and Roy told Dot that they didn't want her to leave, but they didn't tell Blanca that. They didn't tell Blanca anything about how Dot should stay longer on the ship (because they knew it wouldn't be exactly right to intrude in this, or to impose). Even Murdock didn't interfere and didn't say that being on the ship had been a good experience for Dot. The only thing he did was encourage communication and told Blanca that bringing donuts to Dot could make her open up more easily (since he knows Dot loves those), but he didn't speak for her. In the end, Dot had to open up and tell in her own words what she wanted, and how she felt about being on the ship.
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Not gonna get into danganronpa another spoilers because this whole scene is something else that I’m still processing but I absolutely love this line. Like to bring up milgram I think this is an idea which can reflect on lots of the characters as well. The idea of basing your entire existence off of a certain thing/person/ideology and then for something to happen that completely destroys that. Your entire person has been stripped away and just what’s left? You can’t comprehend your own existence or meaning without that specific attachment and you start to question all of your actions based off that…
I can only really think of John, Kotoko, and Es here (and possibly Amane and Mikoto to an extent). And John bases his life off of Mikoto, Kotoko upholding justice, and Es being the warden.
John’s idea of his whole existence and reason for being is Mikoto. It’s the only reason he believes he exists and if he were to fulfill his role he’d “disappear” as he would be completely worthless without him. John tries to repress and ignore his humanity and reduce himself as a tool to protect Mikoto and that’s all he can see himself as. But now Mikoto’s starting to not deny his existence and feels pure hatred for everything about him. And what will happen to John, when the person he’s dedicated his entire life to and desperately wants praise from, denies his existence? What will he be but some worthless existence that is only a burden, to him.
Kotoko. An ideology of upholding justice and punishing evil that has completely overtaken her. She has pushed herself into a role of a “fang” for justice, protecting the weak and persecuting evil. But even so matter how much she tries, she knows her goals are unreachable. She denies relationships and attachments to other people based on this ideology. Kotoko admits that she does feel attachment to the prisoners, but has to deny them in order to fulfill the role as a tool. And believes that pain and violence is necessary to achieving a greater good. Trying to deny any regret because wouldn’t it be easier to believe you’re entirely in the right? She latched onto Es, believing them to be similar as the warden who carries out judgement on wether the prisoners are forgivable or not. But now, Es has denied her whole ideology, her whole existence due to the pain she’s caused. Kotoko wants to believe that what she did was right and that Es, another enforcer of justice would accept her, because that’s how it is.
And Es… they’re the warden of the prison. There’s nothing more to them than that they believe. Es has no memories of their identity or past before Milgram and immediately latched onto the identity given to them, of being the guard. Es took this role as their entire identity, an extension of the milgram system in order to interrogate and judge prisoners. I think Muu put this best.
“Warden-san, we call you "warden" because that's what you are, right? And I was assigned the role of prisoner, but that doesn't mean I'm now nothing but a prisoner at heart, too. After all, I'm still me.”
Es has an unstable sense of identity, to the point they latched on to the first thing they were given in order to give themselves a purpose and a meaning for existence. And Kotoko calling them “imperfect caused them to question their identity. But as the story progresses Es will probably begin to learn about the audiences control and the truth behind what they assumed to be their verdicts. That their will never was 100% their own. Who knows what Es’ past was, but eventually they’ll likely have to tackle it and their whole identity, the warden, the arms of milgram, is gone.
gonna think about Mikoto and Amane here as well. Mikoto, although may not seem to be as first, focuses his entire identity around other people. He’s the friendly sociable guy who’s easy to chat with. But that’s all he believes he should be, I guess. As perhaps this mindset is upheld by an inherent fear of other people rejecting him, so he focuses all his attention and identity on being a social person. He’s never truly friends with people, as perhaps that would be “too close” and open up the possibility for danger. He doesn’t completely deny his identity like the others, but he molds and shapes it in a way that is acceptable to others. He likes what everyone else likes and does what everyone else does so the fear of being rejected for being different won’t hurt him. But now he’s stopped denying John’s existence and his DID, believing himself to be crazy, and to be completely rejected from other people, his entire sense of identity to an extent. And especially with John scaring other people off with the mindset that will help Mikoto, he has now been completely distanced from everyone else and now has to come to terms with himself, but not the ideal persona he put on to be acceptable to other people.
Amane is a more different case as she in a way has rejected that idea, but not completely. Growing up in a cult it’s very likely that she was always conditioned that she was just a servant for god. That all the good things she did were actually god blessing her and all the bad things a fault of her humanity, herself as a person. She is in a unstable relationship with the whole submitting her personhood to her religion, as she sacrificed her ideologies in order to help a cat. But at the core, that wasn’t about herself and her identity, rather a focus on the cat’s life. Amane’s murder was her will. Rejecting everything and fighting for her life in direct opposition to what she has been taught her entire life and how her identity should be, a rejection of that and a glance into “herself”. But once again, this murder wasn’t entirely self motivated. She’s still broken enough that she can’t fully grasp herself as a person besides god and religion. And a large cause of her murder was out of the death of the cat, rather than simply protecting herself. Amane still slips back into the belief that her personhood is entirely dedicated to god. As she tried to convince herself and Es that the only reason she killed is because they deserved religious punishment and she is in the right for carrying out god’s will, once again denying her personal reason for doing so. Reducing herself to “we” on behalf of her religion, that this isn’t herself anymore. Amane is in a limbo between rejecting her personhood for god, but at the same time rejecting the suffering she’s been through in order to save “herself”. Amane’s case is so interesting, as there’s no clear answer of what she believes in here, and it is truly fascinating.
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Skelefam
Unfortunately, as much as I love this mod - I mean, it’s beautiful! Just look at it! - it does have a game-crashing bug D: For some reason skeletons can’t get jobs, it crashes the game lol, so as much as I’d love to have Gaster in the Science career, he is a stay-at-home parent! That’s fine, nannies suck in TS2 lol. There’s also only a few clothing options but I’m gonna try some poking around to at least expand upon what’s there already :D
I ended up using the stretchSkeleton cheat - hehe, skeleton - to make Papyrus a bit taller and Sans a bit smaller. It’s only really noticeable in their ankles, and their animations are a bit misaligned, but other than that it’s very cute! :D Sans is also chubby but it’s kinda hard to tell :0
Sans, stop breaking the fourth wall!
Look how little he is compared to his brother hehe
Also, and I did not edit or plan this - they naturally started falling into their relationship dynamics! Gaster and Sans have a much lower Short Term Relationship here than Gaster and Papyrus haha
Would that I could! I was still testing at this point and yup, it crashed. Sadge
Well even if I can’t get the jobs, I can still cheat-unlock the Career Awards! Scientist behaviour lol
Look at their delicate little haaands
Did you know that Gaster sucks? He does!
Oh what are skeletons not your type? Don’t be rude
Sans even rejected him when Gaster offered to dance together! I love them
Gaster’s POV - he was listening to Sans tell a joke and next in the queue Papyrus wanted to show off to him. So accurate haha
Papyrus’ POV, of course he’s friends with both of them, sweet boy
And Sans’, look at how much more he thinks of his brother over Gaster! What more could I ask for honestly
Only concerned with Gaster seeing lol, Papyrus is way closer! He doesn’t count haha
Racecar bed babyyyy
Retextured the outfit for Papyrus, so now they’re much easier to tell apart! :D
Crossover babies ♪ One of the Todds walked by and I just now realized I also gave them a red/blue twin aesthetic haha
And that’s all he’ll want and care about from now on :)
Hehe. He gets it!
Papyrus is bad at making friends! Sans there in the background passively ++ing with Todd lol, he’s a natural
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For Fake Peppino, have you heard about Fake Peppina? She made her first appearance in Recd's Lap 3 Cover, and entered the mod called "Peppina Ramen over Peppino." She is only seen in the opening before your boss fight. And in the version 3.8 update, Fake Peppina was now a boss while you're in the background of her boss battle, The Crumbling Tower of Pizza, and the ending of the mod.
('Fake Peppina' does not exist in this AU, and certainly not in the way described - bc that 1. Assumes I (Bean the mod/artist) has seen or was even aware of these (I didn't know about them until this ask), 2. Assumes that the cover and mod are canon here, and their story events played out - which is not the case bc, again I was not aware of them, and I don't take ideas from fan creations such as mods (at least not intentionally fsdklsdf), and 3. Implies that the characters are aware they are in a game and are aware of mods/other fan creations - they're not jlkgsfd
Even regardless of that specific mod, there still is no 'Fake Peppina' or a 'real Peppina' or any genderswapped variation of the characters - I am not a huge fan of genderswapping and that is not the story I want to do
There are plenty of female clones here, but they are their own characters and not just 'Fake Peppina', so if you are looking for specifically her, then you'll have to go somewhere else to find that - there are plenty of creators who do genderswapped AUs etc out there!)
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