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steve0discusses · 3 years

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Yugioh S5 Ep 20: Pharaoh’s Cool New Trick

Digging my way through quite a pile of commission work (funny how these things only come all at once or not at all), nearing the light at the end of the tunnel, was looking forward to some free time to catch up on my many little side projects when I was asked to take off for a weekend to do some cat-sitting to which I would NEVER say no to a cat, so like...Rip this blog I guess, we only update like once a week nowadays, but what do you do?

That’s right, play Puzzles and Dragons! The only phone game worth paying any attention to! Where they just released Pegasus on their Yugioh Collab and he looks pretty great!

So I’m just gonna take a second for some art appreciation, because the Puzzles and Dragons art team is just A++++ honestly, and yes, I did pull 13 times to get a Pegasus in my monster box, and yes, he is a completely insane team leader that is absolutely broken when paired with Yugi (the numbers are so satisfying) but...look at him. He looks so good!

(also I finally got Joey Wheeler, and so now my gatcha cravings are settled. And, don’t worry, I play this game so much that I was there during Christmas when they offered like a bajillion stones for free so I didn’t actually use real money on this.)

Now PAD also released a Weevil and Rex, and I don’t know why, and neither does the art team because they still look pretty good but in comparison to all the mains, they sure do looks like just some shorty guys in some casuals.

though I gotta admit, I want to learn how the hell this art team does swooshy effects, because man, that would make my art so much better to just have flames violently exploding out of all my art. Why am I not doing that more often? I have the technology.

anyway, I didn’t bother trying to pull them. Maybe I’ll accidentally pull them when they eventually release a Duke Devlin. (also, RIP to the fact that Roland will probably never be in Puzzles and Dragons but like...I can only send them so many polite letters covered in stickers pretending I’m some 10 year old child and writing in my broken Hiragana “Roland in PAD?”. Thems the breaks. (They also might not remember who Roland is.))

Shoutouts to the card that Weevil is holding that is censoring this nipple on the booby spider, PS.

So because this is not actually a Puzzles and Dragons blog, and it’s been ten eons since I regularly updated so I could remember episode to episode...where the hell were we?

That’s right, we’re on an island now. This show’s wonderful obsession with evil islands (and spoiler, this is one of the few Yugioh Islands that doesn’t explode at the end. Mostly because Kaiba isn’t here to do it or this place would be cinder)

(read more island stuff under the cut)

Anyway, after announcing “hey guys! Screw islands!” Yugi immediately collapses and without any warning.

Apparently the armor is a big ol parasite, which is something that Yugi is so used to at this point that he refuses to admit that this is a problem. Just normal Muto stuff, refusing to tell anyone that he has a serious illness going on underneath that giant mass of hair.

(the sailor moon vibes coming off this weird orb energy)

Sort of feels like a call back to S1 when Yugi was clearly possessed and everyone else was like “He acting weird to you?” except it’s S5 and everyone has learned to never trust Yugi when he says he’s fine and they are responding like he is about to die. Which is correct.

Outside of the cave falls this scroll that is...glowing, I guess. So they open it up and get a bunch of hieroglyphs that give them the “riddle of light” and like youknow...it’s riddle stuff.

They’re doing this riddle for “wings.” And it’s like...everyone’s monster here has a set of wings or an ability to fly. Every single monster except for I dunno, flaming swordsman? Hell, Yugi himself had two sets of wings when he fused with Dark Magician (which was weird, and I still don’t like to think about what technically was going on there.) But we have to go and get ourselves even more wings.

Weirdly, Joey turns to Tea and does something that in any other show would be completely normal. He was like “you want to stay here with Yugi, don’t you?” and it was the first time Joey has ever actually addressed the fact that Tea and Yugi are close. Uncharted territory. I was amazed at the amount of casual shipping that is happening here. It’s almost like a normal ass relationship.

So the boys decide to go off, and be boys and tackle this themselves. And they shouldn’t have, because Tea is smart for this group, and also has the only healing spell.

Like if you’re playing D+D you wouldn’t typically leave your only healer behind. Just saying.

Also like...Grandpa Muto went with them? I guess he’d have to since he’s the translator but also...kind of weird to leave your grandson dying in a cave, but maybe that’s just the Muto lifestyle.

Do not be fooled by my caps, no one has addressed the Bakura in the puzzle for 3 seasons. I’m starting to think this show will never address the Bakura in the puzzle. Which honestly, that would be hilarious if they made a big deal out of that plot point and then couldn’t use it in the end.

And speaking of plot points that kind of come out of nowhere and don’t make full sense with the continuity of the show--Joey has regressed back to the 4th grade.

Hey show? What?

So like if you love Joey, this is not the arc for you, because this arc he is reduced to a Himbo and nothing else. Straight up didn’t know what an echo is, but is very strong and pretty, I guess.

This inevitably happens with any TV show becuase different people make different parts, and I’ve brought up before that sometimes it feels like some teams only have loose post-it notes of what any character should be like at any given point (ESPECIALLY with Seto Kaiba’s timeline) but like...

...Personally I’m mot so fond of this interpretation of Joey, kind of ignores Joey’s best traits, and makes Tristan look way too smart in comparison (and like I always pinned Tristan to be the Himbo of the group, but maybe it’s because they give Tristan so little else to do?)

And like don’t get me wrong, Joey’s a dumbass a lot of the time and needs to get corrected by his pals...but...to the point he doesn’t know what an echo is? He’s a dumbass in a High School student sort of way, youknow?

Anyway, they get down to this big ravine, and they have to destroy this stone while the light passes over it. Kind of feels like a Breath of the Wild shrine quest, actually. In fact, I think Breath of the Wild recycled the shadow/sunlight pathing quest like 4 or 5 times. (I love Breath of the Wild to death but boy did they run out of ideas at the end there.)

They have to fight a glass monster and it’s kind of like...do you know the game Balls 3D? probably not, but it looked like a bunch of random shapes stuck together like a 90′s animation. They basically went to war with shapes.

Pure Himbo energy, has several pokemon, but punches for his pokemon instead of using them. A power move if I ever saw one.

Youknow that would make pokemon a lot more interesting if you could like throw out your pikachu, and then choose to just physically run up to your opponents Eevee and sock it in the jaw. Raise of hands--I know you all would love a version of pokemon like that. Let Ash Ketchum punch a Ratata.

Bro has informed me that Ash does do something like this in the anime. But I’m not talking about the anime, I’m talking about the video game. Give me the option to physically combat my rival. This is what I want, Pokemon.

They discover a way to break the monolith, and the show thinks we’re like actually 7 years old (because the show is Y7, although I forget because it deals with so many dark themes) so the show is going to hold on to this puzzle for a while...just to fill time. And it’s fine because we gotta switch over to Pharaoh anyway.

Yami has this dream again. He attempts to fuse with Dark magician to overcome the dream, but alas, he is still not strong enough.

Yugi wakes up in this murky cave while Tea is out washing out like...some rag? (he’s also still got a rag, so I guess multiple rags were required for how sweaty Yugi is.)

Yugi says “I feel like I’m a new man!” a lot in this episode, and every time he calls himself a man like he’s some sort of adult it’s very funny to me.

And then this plot lore dropped.

I mean I guess inevitably it had to happen...

But man, end of an era. It was freakin hilarious while it lasted: that Pharaoh refused to read ancient Egyptian because it’s like 2002 and he is a High Schooler living in Japan and he actually doesn’t WANT to resolve the mystery of the puzzle. Maybe the people who made this arc don’t know about how in S2 and S3, the fact Pharaoh couldn’t read Marik’s back tatt was like...a really big issue. He couldn’t read the God card, he couldn’t even read that massive tablet that read “HEY PHARAOH THIS IS LITERALLY YOU”. KAIBA had to tell him how to read the God card for him. Freakin Seto “Magic is a lie” Kaiba had to tell him how to use the God Card because Pharaoh couldn’t read it.

But like...Pharaoh finally gave in at some point after the world was devoured by the Leviathan, and before Kaiba finished building Kaibaland (which was already built in S1 but wtv)

The timelines on this show have always been a mishmash...but this one is just like...

...show are you trying to convince me that at any point in this show after season Zero, Pharaoh had any idea what he was doing? Did he sap that brain energy straight out of Joey Wheeler so he could do this?

Wow.

(secretly hoping he forgets how to read Egyptian after this arc is over and the show goes back to the other development team)

Pharaohs reasoning is that, if this is the riddle of the light.....

....then where is the riddle of darkness????????????

and when Tea was like “Pharaoh that is not even remotely logic. Omg it’s so bright outside, lets go back to gross cave.” and Pharaoh was like “Tea! You got it!” and she was like “What the hell are you talking about?”

Not gonna lie, I saw the Orichalcos green, and I got concerned.

Anyway, Yugi gets very frustrated and was like “ugh, lets go save em. They’re gonna die (again.)” and marches down there as if he didn’t pass out an hour ago.

And he fuses with Dark Magician again while everyone else (including his grandpa) was like “Yugi are you freakin kidding me? The suit freakin kills you omg! Tea you had one freakin job!”

And then we get the plot twist that...I mean it makes sense but it was choreographed in a confusing way.

And out of no where this guy shows up again:

So this mysterious man shows up and says “If you don’t succeed you have to live here forever” which...nice...that would probably save the world a lot of problems if Yami got locked away and took his OP puzzle with him. And then this man also says “if you do succeed you become VERY POWERFUL” and Yami was like. “...”

This whole episode had a theme to it, where Tristan and Joey were trying to prove that they could do things on their own and without Yugi’s help. And honestly...felt a little bit misplaced. Yami’s the same guy who murdered Yugi last season with the Orichalcos so like...

...I mean he is probably more reliable than Tristan who once died and turned into a robot monkey for 10ish episodes.

and then they flew into a glowing door.

Folks, this was wild to look at.

This is wild.

And at this point I closed Photoshop and thought I was done. But then I looked at my timeline on the video and was like...wait...there’s more?

and I’m really glad I kept watching because it went back to Alex, who...is apparently just still at those steps in this haunted ass Pyramid.

Now we’re watching Yugioh.

I forgot for a second when they turned Joey into a Himbo and made Pharaoh literate, but we’re back. I mean...

...look at the liner art on this adult man.

So...I posit the question...has Alex spent the last 2-3 episodes doing nothing but applying eyeliner to his face in the dark? Because he absolutely has. And honestly, the vibe of being in a spooky haunted pyramid with barely any light, just applying eyeliner down the edge of your face...that’s a Yugioh vibe, if I ever saw one.

This arc is wild. Anyway, next episode we do even more fetch quests and riddles? Just going to guess now that we probably will.

(and for those new here, this is a link so you can read them from the top. Which, since we’re in S5, means you got like...hours of Yugioh content to read through. Enjoy the rewards of my weird hobby.)

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

#Yugioh #Yu-Gi-Oh #yami yugi #S5 #Ep20 #It's actually Ep 20 now I was wrong last time #Yugi muto #Grandpa Muto #Alexander the Great #Joey Wheeler #Tristan Taylor #Tea Gardner #TeaxYugi #never thought I would ever use that tag #in this show where they are canonically dating but sometimes it happens #Puzzles and Dragons #Because yes I had to talk about it. This collab is great

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embyrinitalics · 3 years

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Wait! About your botw-avatar au. Are you going to including an appa figure? And if so, this isn't 100% because like they're non existent in botw and you have Revali, a bird, being Link's Gyatso I think, but LOFTWINGS?!?!!

Ok so I wasn’t planning on it, BUT LET’S TALK ABOUT IT ANYWAY

First off I LOVE THE IDEA OF LOFTWINGS. They are beautiful and awesome and I just went and googled a bunch of amazing Loftwing art and now I’m like uuuuuwwww I want!! T^T BUT I can think of a few problems with trying to wedge one into the story (specifically as an Appa figure):

In atla Appa was “preserved” with Aang in the ice. That wouldn’t really work with the Shrine of Resurrection scenario. For it to be Link’s original Loftwing, they would have to be extremely long-lived (ie, 100 years later still not suffering from old age), and it would have had to basically wait around for him for 100 years on the Plateau. (ooh actually now I’m loving this idea for the tragedy potential because of reason two which is)

Link is suffering from full on amnesia, so he wouldn’t remember having a Loftwing in the first place. This could actually be kind of a cool thing where it stuck around out of loyalty and he doesn’t remember it at all and it’s just another piece of the puzzle, and it keeps following them everywhere whether they like it or not...

I had kind of scrapped the whole “original benders” line of thought and given that to the four races: Gorons, Zora, Rito, and Gerudo are the “original” benders, and the Hylian/Sheikah, who can potentially align to any element, would learn from them. So I’m thinking like why would Rito even have Loftwings? But hey maybe they just live in Hebra and when Hylians/Sheikah become full fledged airbenders they get like a pairing ceremony and a Loftwing chooses them and OH MY GOSH I LOVE IT 😱

I don’t like the idea that the whole crew can just jump on the Loftwing and fly away when there’s trouble. And how would that even work anyway, with Sidon being so huge? And if there’s a Goron in the mix? (I actually haven’t decided on Link’s earthbending teacher yet, so that’s a whole other thing, but honestly I was leaning towards Purah as a Toph figure 😁) BUT OMG maybe it CAN only carry one person away and that’s part of the awful awful choice Link will have to make at one point to leAVE THE OTHERS BEHIND??!

So basically what I’m trying to say is this post was supposed to be “No I’m not going to have an Appa Loftwing and here’s why” and it has turned into “Why yes I am going to have an Appa Loftwing in the story.”

#asks #Last Airbender AU #Appa #Loftwings #There is definitely potential

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twilightknight17 · 3 years

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Today, on P5S, we--

......

Today, on P5S, we’re--

.......today, on P5S, we are--

NO. Stop asking.

Today on P5S, we’re overcoming adversity. Without cutting on easy mode, damn it.

I’m still not quite over the fact that I’ve been here IRL. I was the same way with Shibuya in vanilla/Royal, so that doesn’t surprise me. Seriously, though.

I love this. And the background music is like a “traditional Japanese” kind of version of Life Will Change, which is even better. There’s this whole warp portal puzzle, and a sequence of shrines to pray at. It’s nice. Not super-hard, but not straightforward, either.

And then we confronted Shadow Akane, and things hit a bit of a wall.

The Thieves tried to reach out to her, but it wasn’t working. She didn’t want to listen to a word that any of them had to say, least of all Zenkichi. In her mind, she was the one in the right, even as they tried to explain that she was being used.

(Side note, I love her little ringmaster outfit.)

I think we all know where this is going. Since the “real” Phantom Thieves would be on her side. :)

Let’s fucking GOOOOOO

Admittedly, I think it would have been cool to have to fight through all of them. Not sure how that would have worked, though. Would have been a killer chance to have everyone on the battlefield at once. But fighting Cognitive Joker solo was wild.

And also very, very hard. After landing the first few hits, he starts dodging everything. Melee, gunshots, spells... He flips out of the way of the spinning attack you can do on the lamp posts. And he’s extremely fast. The fight ultimately comes down to learning when you can actually land a hit without him either dodging, or immediately turning around to combo you to death. I lost count of how many times I died, but it asked me if I wanted to switch to easy mode three times. I did not.

I also lost count of how many times I’d try to attack him, he would dodge every hit of my melee combo, and then he would immediately turn and combo me to death because I couldn’t break out of it.

God, I felt like a badass when he went down.

Defeating Cognitive Joker is enough to let them talk Shadow Akane down, although it scares Zenkichi when she disappears because no one explained anything to him ahead of time.

...........well, sir, on the grand scale of persona parents, you’re not Masayoshi Shido, Kunikazu Okumura, Madarame, Ikutsuki, or Nyarlathotep, so you’re not even in the top five of terrible.

The kids make it back to the safe house and discuss how to go about targeting Akira Konoe next. Ryuji is only allowed to say “fuck” out loud once, apparently.

Sae calls to check in. She’s glad they’re safe, and she’s gotten the warrant for the Thieves’ arrest dismissed, because the evidence was fake, and a judge didn’t certify it. We owe her a lot when we get home. Sae Niijima, Ace Attorney.

The kids call Ichinose to try to get Konoe’s keyword, and she promises to call them back. So after a good night’s sleep, they head out to meet Zenkichi in Osaka.

I don’t know how I feel about leaving Akane when Konoe’s already shown no hesitation to use her against us. Also, I want to tell her who we really are! I want this kid to explode when Joker talks to her IRL.

Ichinose comes through with the keyword, which is “Zephyrman”. I’m going to cry if this man’s Jail is some kind of knock-off inferior Featherman copycat. XDDDD

.......this woman and her chipper bullshit grates at my nerves.

Osaka is nice, but also you can tell something weird is happening. People are going into withdrawal over EMMA being offline, I keep hearing people crying, “Lord Akira!” in the background, and people keep like... praising the sun at random objects.

Tomorrow we’ll probably go do some more requests and head into the actual Jail. I bought so much food to replace all the items I used up getting past Cognitive Joker. X’D Time to head off for the nigh--

My whole fanon about “Tricksters” existing specifically to restore people’s ability to think for themselves feels very valid. But also... Yald? Is that you?? Did you somehow survive being shot in the face?

Great.

#Li plays P5Scramble #the battle we've all being waiting for is HARD compared to everything else #which is probably only fair tbh

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sintreaties · 3 years

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I see somebody is asking u about genshin too lol I honestly haven’t asked again cause I didn’t wanna spoil u ugh but I don’t think I’ll ever be excited about other regions as i did with inazuma. If ever you do the quests and stuff I’d like to know your opinion on mihoyo’s story telling about inazuma characters, like did anything excite you with the region lol personally i liked the 2nd act of archon quest that felt so cool, Raiden’s story quest on the other hand, don’t wanna do yet lol

So far I’m liking Inazuma for the main reason that it’s quite different from the other two regions. I’m enjoying the puzzles those that I don’t skip at least and even seeing the samurai-esque base enemies is a nice change. As far as the rest is concerned, I can’t say that I like Thoma (?? the guy that helps you when you arrive). I still have to go meet him at the teahouse.

On the other hand I really really liked the side-quest of the “shrine maiden”, the one about the Sakura’s roots. When I started it I pratically couldn’t stop playing until I was done with it lol. It was nice to meet the tanuki in the forest and it was super sad to think that they were still waiting for “that person” to come back. So far truly, the tanuki was probably the most fleshed-out character — which is not that much of a good thing lmao.

Overall, I can’t say that I find Genshin’s storyline enjoyable in general. Even the Memories of the Heart (?) quests aren’t that nice — though man, playing with Klee was a blast and I would really like to get her in the gatcha. When the writers try to be funny usually it ends up being cringe.

(The funniest thing that happened was when I was talking with the woman of the funeral parlour in Lyhue and she goes “I don’t usually talk with the families of the deceased, they leave a box at my door with the necessary things for the burial”. Now, If you look on the left you can see a chest. Upon opening it, Lumine just went “A reward for the road!! 😄😄” as if she wasn’t robbing the jewels of somebody’s dead grandmother.)

#genshin impact #genshin impact spoilers #genshin impact inazuma spoilers #sintreatiesreplies #anon

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inrainprose · 4 years

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First -- Prev -- Next -- Masterpost

He doesn’t dare ask.

Surely if the boy wanted to share his name, he would have by now. Names aren’t as precious to yokai as they are to the humans who run into them, but it may be a local custom Sasuke is unaware of. It’s too late to ask anyway, he will look like a fool. He’s bond to catch it sooner or later.

“The No. 5 bus will take us directly to the train station. Our ryokan is nearby.”

“You don’t live in a temple?”

“Hm-hm. We have our shrine of course, but my mother says temples are no fun.”

The boy scratches at the back of his head, looking embarrassed.

“Is that weird? Are we weird? Some say we are. A lot of people pass through the ryokan, a lot of spirits too, and they are all different, and some say we are weird and some don’t. I guess you can always be weird to someone…”

“It’s not… It’s just surprising, that’s all. I didn’t mean to offend you.”

The fox smiles, relieved, but he frowns again then.

“You don’t have to be so formal y’know. I’m pretty sure you rank higher than me!”

Yet he has been perfectly casual all this time. Sasuke supposes he doesn’t have to be formal indeed, but he doesn’t see what else he could be. He is a guest among strangers and he represents his clan – how can he not be formal?

“Hey, Sasuke, hum… I’m sorry to ask but I think you should… walk.”

It’s Sasuke’s turn to frown, mildly offended.

“Why?”

“People are staring.”

There are more and more humans waiting at the bus stop with them, and he does spot a few puzzled gazes thrown in his direction. He wouldn’t put it above being about his guide’s weird clothes – he can now confirm that he is not, in fact, blending in.

“They can’t see it.”

“Not really. But also, they can. I don’t know why we always say people are less observant in the city, they look at others all the time, it’s what they do. They can tell there is something weird going on. You’re cloaking is not so good.”

The boy shakes his hands, pacifying, when he spots Sasuke’s heated glare.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! But we have to do it differently here, among so many people. I can teach you how to hide from them later, if you want… or you can always shield completely! It’s fine with me. But then I won’t be able to talk to you, or they’ll think I’m crazy…”

Sasuke is very, very tempted. It would make it easier to just vanish from the human eyes, retreat in their own plan where they don’t have to worry about being seen. But that would also be very rude, and so he nods, and slowly lowers himself to the ground.

Flying isn’t as easy here as it is at home, without his parents’ blessing. But it’s still a lot better than this. Sasuke gets rid of his weight whenever he can, never liked to feel its burden. He has to bear it now – he doesn’t know how the humans do it all day long. It feels like he’s going to topple forward, and it tires him just to think of putting one foot in front of the other and do all the walking.

Human form sucks.

“Your laces are untied! You’re gonna trip.”

Yeah, he never ties them, because he doesn’t have to walk. This is stupid.

Sasuke doesn’t get to remedy it though, or to just snap back, before the boy is kneeling at his feet.

He can only open wide, incredulous eyes as the kitsune ties his shoelaces for him like it’s a perfectly normal thing to do. Sasuke is fairly certain the looks they attract have nothing to do with him anymore.

The boy is beaming when he stands up, proud of his handiwork, and Sasuke knows he is reddening enough to match his mask. He touches the long nose out of habit before it occurs to him…

“Should I take it off?” he asks, determined to ignore that weirdo kneeling in worship in the middle of the street. Weirdo shrugs.

“Nah, I think you’re good. People will think it’s a fashion thing.”

Sasuke splutters, offended. The boy just laughs. This is almost enough for Sasuke to take it off anyway, but he doesn’t want to be without it.

“It’s super cool by the way.”

“What?”

“Your mask! It’s cool! I have one too, for special occasions. I’ll show you! I made it myself for my first hyakki yagyo. If you’re still here this summer we can go together!”

Sasuke wants to slide the mask on his face – it would make him disappear, even in the kitsune’s eyes. He wants him to stop talking. And he’s frustrated that he can do none of these things. And that he does want to go to join the night parade, if he has the chance.

The No. 5 bus chooses this moment to take him out of that awkward moment, and just for that, Sasuke is ready to give it a chance.

Notes - A ryokan is a japanese guesthouse and full disclosure, I’m just gona set this in the one I stayed at when I went to Kyoto lol. With artistric liberties of course, but it’s alwyas easier to write about what you know.

The hyakky yagyo in the “Night Parade of Hundred Demons”. If this au goes on long enough, they’ll attend one together!

#yokai student exchange au #naruto #my fics #update #i'm gonna go do the masterpost now #i'll put sources there!#leave a lil comment or rb with tags if you're enjoying this #it would make me very happy #japanese folklore #urban fantasy #yse #yse au

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yggdrasil-mith0s · 3 years

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Another reason people probably didnt like Symphonia their first time but later loved it is because of the themes and undertones. Here is another essay that's going to be a very quick Symphonia walkthrough as a young child playing.

Here's a warning: I mention some stuff that happens in Symphonia. It will be mostly vague but there will be mention of death. There also might be some spoilers in here but nothing too serious, just some of the beginning story more than likely.

Let me begin by saying the box art looks pretty cool for the Gamecube but the front and back does look like a very, very young child's RPG. It seems like an RPG that was creates for super young children that havent hit there teens or are in the very first years of being a teen.

I'm about to give a quick walkthrough as if I am a very young kid playing Symphonia for the first time. This is to show why a lot of people had this as their first game in the series but didnt like it. Why a lot of people weren't the biggest fans until their second playthrough or when they gave it another chance and realized it is absolutely stunning. A top 10 game of all time across every platform created.

First off, there was a lot of adult themes and tones in Symphonia. Obviously, I dont mean nudity or sexually explicit material. I'm talking about the Desian Camps. The idea that millions of people are being captured, put to work, then put to death or letting them die. These type of adult themes.

The first time we played, we were young. We didnt get choked up or super sentimental about what was going on in video games. We didn't care so much about the parallels between real life and our video games. Usually, we just wanted something fun to play. I mentioned it earlier but the start of Symphonia looks super childish and like it's going to be a lighthearted adventure. You have a cast of kids (2 very young adults that added comedy and badassness). A majority of the beginning fights are snakes, birds, bunnies, and bears. The battle system is fun but also easy enough to get the hang of. You can honestly button mash with the occasional arte and not worry about combos . You didnt have to worry about combos at all, really, and just use artes when you wanted. Some of the artes were pretty cool looking and strong too which added more of a "wow, the combat system is cool. There's attacks and a bunch of power attacks you can use. You can also move around and dont have to wait like a turn base game." It's also possible to just button mash or use all your MP on Artes and really kick their ass.

Combining all of those elements together makes it seem more kid friendly than it really is. Playing through the start makes you feel like a 10 year old playing his first RPG with an age appropriate game since you control a bunch of kids. The fights are easy and usually bees or some weak animal. Nothing serious, really. The artes are cool and the more artes you learn, the cooler and more fun Lloyd gets. It's cool to play as Lloyd when you learn a new arte or two.

So far everything has been pretty lighthearted. This RPG is fun, the characters are pretty cool and can be funny. The dungeons aren't super confusing. It's just a fun game overall but nothing spectacular or crazy. Really the worst thing that has happened is "Desians bad. They destroy hometown over something stupid."

Marble's scene is the only real adult sad part in the game so far. They kill Marble in a way that you kind of don't get crushed by emotions. They let you down pretty easy and you get Marble's ring for Genis so now she is always with you. Her death isn't too bad because she was old and it was just one old woman in the game. It's sad but not devastating. Also the Ranch. They use them as slaves. But tbh it doesn't really hit you that they resemble real world stuff and you dont see the parallels like you should. You just kind of write it off as shitty and Desians are evil and the bad guys. Surely you save everyone from the ranches and that's the point of the game. Kill Desians and save everyone.

You get to the dessert oasis where Colette crashed through the wall. Cute and funny. Oh, Lloyd and Genis get captured by bad Desians but the wanted posters were bad so it made it funny. Eventually, You escaped the bad, bad Desians and are back with your friends, yay!!! You go to the fire shrine, finally see more menacing enemies but they still arent that bad, and start your first puzzle dungeon! It's short but a lot of fun with a boss fight. It was a little tough but fun!! You beat the shrine, yay!!!

The serious Angel (Remiel) comes down again and talks to Colette and the gang. He gives her wings! She is becoming an angel. At this point you are thinking, "How cool. Colette is becoming an angel!!! She has wings now and can probably fly wherever she wanted to go! This game is really fun. It's not bad at all. The weapons and equipment aren't difficult and it's fun buying or finding stuff better than what you have and equipping the new stuff. The skits can be funny too and I get to know the characters better with the skits. This game is really cool, actually." It's time to speed this post up, though. I'll be going faster and doing more short versions/storytelling.

We sail across seas and bow we are at Palmacosta!!! Here's where things get a little weird and stuff too. So Palmacosta is cool. We look through town, only to find imposters. That's right. These fools are pretending to be me and my gang. Im the one with a cool group and shit. People wanna be me so bad!!! Lol.

By the way. General Dorr is also the Mayor of Palmacosta.

Imposters are rude and we meet mayor who seems cool till he tells us he thought the imposters were us and gave them a book we need. So....little me is like

"YOU DID WHAT!?" .... so we leave. Lol

We go to mountain gate, cant pass yet, learn Palmacosta is under attack by ... you guessed it... Desians. ,

*little me has eyes stretch wide open* But I was just there!!!! Sucks, I know.

So we head back and make it to Palmacosta. Remember the girl we saved from extreme questioning and customers that were badgering the girl since she was the store clerk/owner. Of course not. I never mentioned it. I saved her back then at the start of Palmacosta. Naturally they chose Chocolate, in some weird, sick revenge way for me making them look weak when they verbally attacked her. So Chocolate is about to hang and be killed. Some stuff happens and Lloyd ends up using his sword to save Chocolate. Boom. He is a hero. He saved someone from hanging....

Wait.... hanging? In kids game? Damn that's a little intense for a kids game but I guess you do save her. Carry on.....

So let's speak to the Mayor. He was conveniently gone while that was happening but meh. Coincidence right? Yeah. Yeah.

Talking to the General/Mayor we decide to go rescue everyone who has been kidnapped from Palmacosta. By the way there's a ranch for most cities that Desian's manage. So there is a Palmacosta Ranch and a bunch of people from Palmacosta are now held prisoners in the Ranch. Boo! But I digress.

Off to Palmacosta ranch!!! We finally reach it and... oh look... General Dorr"s personal Aide/Assistant. What's this? He is a traitor!? You've got to be kidding me! I trusted that dude!!! Maybe that will teach little me to be careful about who I hang out with. A pretty good life lesson for little me and nothing too serious. I'll handle that later though, and rescue the prisoners in the Palmacosta Ranch.

We save Chocolate but she would almost rather die than be saved by you. So you save her but not without a fight and learning some shocking stuff that little me is like "WHAAAA!!!???!??? NO WAY NO WAY NO WAY!!!!!!!! she still lives cause of you and you fight the leader of the Ranch and win that battle!!!

So yay!!! You won the battle and beat Palmacosta Ranch! Good job little you! You did awesome!!! The game has been really great, with a pretty light tone for the most part. Everything is bright, the enemies arent that bad at all, nothing truly fucked up has ha---"we're going to blow up the Ranch with people still in it" -Raine.

That's right.... "YOU'RE GONNA WHAT!?!?"

So yeah, we blow up Palmacosta Ranch. Desians were probably still inside along with a janitor named Chet that everyone forgot about lol. So bye bye Ranch!!!

"That got dark really fast and Raine is pretty ruthless but most people escaped. I guess I can kind of forgive that. This game is definitely darker than I thought but it could be worse. Most people escaped anyways I am sure. So it's not that bad." -me.

Back to Palmacosta to confront the traitor General Dorr!! Here we are! General Dorr and his daughter are standing suspiciously in the basement of the government building in Palmacosta. I'm sure he knows that he has been found out. I know he tried to sabotage the Chosen's journey. He has no exc--- OH NO! They got his wife with the Demon Seed, too!! Now she is a monster! No wonder he is a traitor. He is trying to get a potion which is the cure to save his wife. I kind of get it but that's pretty messed up. He is basically being held hostage. This game just got a little darker.... but it could be worse, I suppo----WHAT!? HIS DAUGHTER IS A DEMON! DID SHE JUST SAY SHE KILLED HIS DAUGHTER A LONG TIM AGO AND HE WAS TOO STUPID TO NOTICE!?"

She really just called him stupid and is acting like he is the biggest idiot for not knowing she killed his daughter!!! This whole time she has pretended to be his daughter. That means she probably went to her school, played with her friends, talked to her dad and played with him. She probably told him she loved him which is so messed up. She also knew there was no potion but continued to watch him and be ready to kill him if he tried to snitch about his wife. This got dark really fucking fast wtf!!! She is a complete demon stranger in a girls body pretending she loves her daddy, plays with friends, and does child things but is a demon the whole time. "I love you daddy says the demon pretending to be your daughter. That's really sick and twisted. Sad thing is little me is like "well that's weird. How did no one notice at all she was acting odd?

Maybe she didn't have any friends and her dad is to distracted about the medicine for his wife, he doesn't notice.

That's absolutely crazy and completely dark. Woah. This game is way way darker than it lead me to believe when I was young. That was pretty much my first reaction/playthrough when I was little. Symphonia is dark as fuck.

I played a little bit further to the next ranch my first playthrough but quit when I found out they were killing people like it was nothing. I was really little then, too, btw. I quit because it got really dark and kind of weird and complicated to fully grasp everything going on and the parallels to the real world. I always played RPGs relating it to real life and such. I have done that since my first RPG so with Symphonia I had to quit. It was too dark and weird when I first played it.

Once I came back and beat Symphonia I thought it was Brilliant. It was absolutely amazing and worth so much more praise. I loved it and still do. Even the dark side of things.

Turns out I am not the only one who did this. Play through, reach a dark part or part where you realize how dark it is, and then quit. I'm glad I picked it back up, though. It's almost a perfect game!!!

So yeah... here's a playthrough of little me and Symphonia. I was too little to be playing games with dark themes even if they were short or small. I say this because I was stupid small and really let my imagination run wild when I played games and read. I often make things 20 times worse so I really shouldn't have played Symphonia till later.

Anyways it's amazing. Nearly perfect.

Enjoy your games, everyone. If you arent currently doing so, find a Tales game to pick up and start playing!!! Tales of Arise or some other Tales game will be here before you know it so practice up!!! Play a Tales game!!!

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fuckit-hero-of-trains · 4 years

Text

Alone Together Ch 2

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22311754/chapters/53599858#workskin

Chapter Summary:

“What are they like?” Four asks, staring up at the ceiling, trying to imagine the images that must be dancing before Sky’s eyes. “The Loftwings, I mean.”

“They are…” a prolonged beat as Sky finds the words he is looking for, “a blessing. At least, that’s what we were told since we were children. It was said that the goddess Hylia created the Loftwings to protect us, to make our lives in the sky easier. Happier.”

Or: A series of fics focused on Four and his interactions, inside and out.

One second, Four is standing beside the others in one of the vibrant forest regions of Sky’s Hyrule. And in the next second, he is not.

The ground falls out from underneath Four’s feet, and yet, he doesn't fall. Gravity is not working properly. He does not fall, and yet he does not stand nor float nor fly either.

Some part of him would be more interested in this if not for the fact that he felt like death this is terrible Holy Hylia we promised we wouldn't throw up again.

He is being pulled and pushed and squeezed and battered, a sword pulled from the flames and beaten into the correct position. But there is no correct position. Not yet. Instead, the force continues to slam and push and prod, throwing him in all directions and yet ultimately gaining nothing from the effort. A net zero.

A dizziness pulses in his skull, making his eyes go half lidded at the pain, but something inside forces his eyes to stay open because we closed them last time we need to see what is happening, No we don’t No we don’t No we don’t .

Curiosity over this, unfortunately, repeated occurrence wins out, and his eyes remain stubbornly open, despite the increased dizziness it brings.

The green of the forest has melted away into a miasma of purple and blacks, fractals of light and other colors blooming and withering faster than Four can make sense of them. He thinks he sees flashes of locations; a beach, an island, lava, ice, stone, castles.

His eyes slam shut.

Different worlds Who cares Where are we When will this stop?

His brain tells him that he is turning circles and flying through summersaults, but his body remains still, the movement and momentum somehow separate from his skin and bones. His stomach is in his feet and in his throat at the same time and his heart has somehow become his entire body, raw and pounding.

He isn't screaming, but somehow there is no more air in his lungs. He can feel himself choking and coughing but there is no sound and he just needs to breathe in–really it's not that hard– but he can't do it .

Just breath! In for four! Haha, real funny. Shut up. Guys!

There is something solid beneath their feet. Ground. They hadn't even realized. Their eyes are still sealed shut as their knees give out beneath them.

“Everyone okay?” Older voice. Male. Time.

Can’t focus on that, focus on us. Shut up! We need to listen Where are we Concentrate

Their body curls up.

Different minds begin to sort through their sensations.

There are too many sensations.

They can feel gravel beneath their body, small rocks poking uncomfortably at their ribs. There is dirt on their face, thick, dusty, and flakey. Wherever they have landed, it smells like grass and moss and wet stones. It is cold here. The air is stagnant, dead.

Sounds echo around them. A cave? Stone on stone. Cloth on cloth. Groans of other voices. And a faint, but incessant whirring.

Focus, focus on what we share

“Everyone sound off.”

They throw hands over their ears. Voices. Voices to the right and left. Older younger higher lower. Inside voices, outside voices. Too many voices for them. Need less voices.

That’s it! What do we all need?

Quite!

We need to be we need to be we need to be…

we are...

“Four? Did you say something?”

Right.

Four forces his body to relax. His spine releases its rigid curve. Tight muscles unlock. The smallest hero lets himself sink into the dirt on the floor for a moment, reveling in the singularity of the experience. Even as more rocks poke into his ribs. And more dirt gets on his face.

Ow. Gross. Okay, enough of that.

“Four?”

“Sorry, sorry,” Four says, closing his eyes and shaking his head for a second, a pantomime of clearing his thoughts. Oh, if only. What a joke.

He looks up to see concern flash in Hyrule’s hazel eyes. The shorter boy offers a lopsided smile to his brunette friend, hoping to dispel any concern as he takes the traveling hero’s proffered hand up.

Once standing, he swipes his hands firmly down first the front and then the back of his tunic. Dust sputters off him in small clouds. “I guess I’m still not used to this whole, ‘falling through time and space’ thing.”

“Oh, you’re preaching to the choir,” Hyrule says with a sympathetic shake of his head. “At least you landed on your feet before falling over this time. I went face first into that moss pile over. I think I swallowed some on accident.” The other boy opens his mouth and bares his teeth at Four. “Do I have anymore stuck in my teeth?”

Four dons a serious expression, his lip quivering with the effort to keep a straight face as Hyrule pokes a tongue over his canines, checking for any offending foliage.

“Oh, no more than usual, I suppose, “ Four says, somehow able to keep his voice calm and conversational despite the laughter threatening to bubble up from his lungs.

“Hey!” Hyrule says, words coming out an octave higher with mock indignation as he gives Four’s shoulder a push. The two go back and forth pushing for a second, laughs bouncing between the two of them.

A warmth, like entering the heat of the forge on a cold winter’s day, spreads from Four’s chest to his face, spurring on his giggles. Oh . A part of him– warm and glowing red like the hearth–that part of him had missed this kind of easy friendship.

They eventually pull themselves together long enough for Four to actually check out their surroundings.

Well, at least they won't have to wonder who’s Hyrule they’re in for very long.

Glowing aquamarine in the center of the room stands one of Wild’s shrines, it’s luminescence painting the entire area in a flickering blue, like the sun shining down through a layer of ocean water.

They seem to be in a very tall room of sorts. In front of him, near the moss pile Hyrule had fallen into, is part of a wall meant to separate their room from others. The topmost part of it has crumbled away from the ceiling, leaving massive stones laying in fallen heaps on the ground and exposing more rooms beyond the one they seem to be occupying.

Four vagley notes that all the others seem to have recovered much faster than him. He wonders how long he had been curled on the floor mumbling to himself. He hopes, for his sake, it wasn't long.

Near the only way in or out of the room– a lone, stone arch way– Time, Wild, Warriors, and Twilight stand, heads bowed low in quite discussion. Wild is shaking his head emphatically as Warriors peaks his head around one side of the archway.

Several beams of red light flash onto the hero’s face and body before Wild and Twilight grab the scarfed hero’s shoulders and forcefully pull him back. The four resume speaking, Wild pulling out his Sheikah Slate and pointing at it as he explains something.

To the left of them, Legend and Wind sit together talking. Or, if Four is going to be more accurate, Legend is going through his bag, filing through its contents while Wind chats away at him, either unaffected or in spite of Legend’s glares and lack of response.

Hyrule seems to follow Four’s eyes and sighs at the sight of his predecessor’s hands becoming more rough a he sorts through his belongings, a sure sign of the pink haired hero’s quickly thinning patience.

“I’ll go over and save him,” Hyrule says, already stepping toward the duo.

“A true hero of courage,” Four calls to the brunet’s retreating back, which is met with a blank look that has Four snorting.

He knows Hyrule will be fine. Legend has a soft spot for the kid, even if he tries desperately to hide it behind heaps of sass and emotionally stunted, backhanded compliments.

Like someone else I know … Drifts through his open mind, cool as the stones around him.

Watch it. Fires back another, a rolling wave cascading onto a beach.

Get a room . Commanding, but with a fondness softening the edges of the words.

His thoughts swirl to a stop. Quite again. For now.

Four belatedly realizes that he had been mouthing along to the words and forces himself to stop. The smithy takes what he hopes is a casual glance around. No one seems to have been paying attention to him.

Good.

He heaves a sigh. It was difficult to break the habit of talking to himself. When he was alone, he would either separate–letting the parts of himself become the individuals they sometimes craved to be– or let the words of the others flow freely from his lips, a running commentary that both comforted and amused him.

Having to keep all of, well, him to himself was a full time job. However, it was one that Four would gladly bear if it granted him the companionship he hadn't even known he was missing.

The short hero turns away from the newly formed group, resuming his examination of what he is beginning to think is a temple– and not one with a stupid amount of needless traps and puzzles and with a giant monster at the end of it– but an actual place of worship.

Four runs a hand down one of the nearest pillars. It is craggly, the gritty nature only broken up by soft, spongy patches of moss.

Though most of Wild’s Hyrule is demolished ruins, there is something about this place that makes the short hero think this temple is older than the other structural remains they had found.

Parts of it seem reinforced with bricks where the stones have fallen away, an attempt to restore what had been lost. Not only moss but vines and roots cling to every surface and burst out from between stone. If he squints real hard at the ceiling, Four can see cracks in the rock where water has leaked through, small stalactites naturally honing themselves into stone daggers above their heads.

It’s the kind of natural reclamation that takes more than a hundred years. Maybe more than a thousand.

Much older, his mind lands on as he idly brushes his fingertips across the carved stone. An ancient temple, crumbling long before the land it sat in ever felt a touch of The Calamity as Wild called it.

Old. Older than the decay around it. A fossil: hard stone, weather beaten and hidden yet undeniably present.

Four can’t help but feel awed.

Looking up a bit higher than he can reach, the smith can see some kind of image carved into the stone of the pillar he is touching. He thinks he can make out large, circular looking eyes and a sharp, downward V shaped mouth. A beak, perhaps?

He turns around, finding the exact hero he was looking for.

“Hey, Sky, can you…” he trails off as the chosen hero does not turn at his words. “Sky,” he tries again. Yet, the man remains static, back to the small hero and deaf to his voice.

The smithy steps over a fallen rock to stand next to the taller hero, peering up at his face. The normally relaxed Link is staring forward and up, eyes wide and eyebrows furrowed. Like he’s seen a ghost.

“What are you…” Four begins, following Sky’s eyes.

And then he sees it.

Or rather, her.

“Oh,” he says.

How in the Four Elements did they miss that?

If he didn't know any better –or have Sky standing right next to him for scale– Four might have thought he had accidentally stumbled onto a portal.

But he does have Sky standing next to him and he does know better; there are no portals in Wild’s Hyrule as far as he knows. He’s checked every time they have landed here to no avail.

Regardless, even without being the size of a minish, she is massive.

Standing silent and stalwart in the back of the temple towers the largest statue of the goddess Hylia Four has ever seen. She looms over the back room, the crown of her head almost touching the ceiling. A sort of indentation has been carved out in the wall behind her, a semi-circle of terraced stone creating a halo around her head.

Though clearly touched by time like the rest of the temple, her face remains free of significant erosion; her eyes clearly downturned in thought while her lips pull upward in a gentle smile.

The blue, flickering glow from the shrine catches in the folds of her dress and the ridges of her feathered wings, giving the appearance of movement despite the rigidity of the stone.

Words flood over the banks of his consciousness unbidden.

She’s beautiful Incredible craftsmanship How did they even get her in here The temple was built around it.

The last comment sticks in Four’s mind.

Looking at the statue again, he can’t help but agree. There are no drag marks on her sides that he can observe. Obviously he cannot see her back from here, but moving such a large piece of stone would create a significant change in its shape. If she was dragged here on her back, it would flatten out that part of the statue, but he can see no change in her curvature. She looks perfectly cylindrical.

It’s like she just dropped out of the sky or something

Four turns to Sky intent on asking the older hero what he knows about it, seeing as he seems to have some sort of connection to it based on his reaction, but is interrupted by a sharp whistle from the front of the room.

Sky jolts next to him, coming out of his revere. The two turn to see Wild beckoning them over.

The two heroes stride over, joining the group already gathered near the entrance to the shrine. Four slides into the semicircle next to Hyrule while Sky merely stands behind Wind, able to see over the boy’s head easily.

“Anyone up for a rousing game of ‘Good News, Bad News?’” Legend whispers none to quietly from the other side of Hyrule. The traveling hero shushes him, but Four can see a slight upturn to his lips.

Four could say a lot of things about the veteran hero, but at least the older man helps Hyrule to come out of his shell every once in a while.

Although, Four muses, he may be a bad influence on the traveling hero. They don't need two pessimistic little shits with too much magic on their hands in the group. One is enough.

“So we have good news and bad news,” Warriors says. Four hears Legend snort and watches as Hyrule’s shoulders fight to remain still under his stifled laughs.

See. Bad influence.

“Good news is that we know where we are,” Warriors continues, though he eyes Hyrule then narrows his eyes at Legend as he speaks. Without even having to look, Four is sure that Lgened is shooting the Captain a smug grin. Typical.

“Bad news is that there is almost no way of getting out of here safely,” Warriors finishes.

“So, where are we exactly?” Wind pipes up, head tilted to the left and eyebrows furrowed. “Like, yeah, we’re in Wild’s Hyrule, but what makes here so dangerous?”

Warriors looks back at Wild in question and then waves the long haired hero forward as he steps backward to rejoin the semi-circle of heroes. Wild takes his place, pulling his Sheikah Slate from his belt as he does so. He taps on it for a second before flipping it around for the rest of them to see.

“We are here,” he says, finger tip indicating a small yellow arrow on the screen. The five heroes not already in the know lean in to get a better look. Four can see that their arrow seems to be next to a darker, jagged seam cut into brown of the map. A ravine.

“This place doesn't really have a name,” Wild continues, looking a little sheepish at the lack of concrete information, “but I call it The Forgotten Temple. It is a historical excavation site dug into the side of this canyon. We found 100 years ago while we were searching for the Divine Beasts.”

Clear blue eyes cloud over for a second. Twilight places a hand on the younger hero’s shoulder.

“Anyway,” Wild shakes his head, long hair flying behind him, dispeling whatever images had entered the young hero’s mind. “We are in the back room of the temple. So, the only way out is through the front.”

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say there is a reason we can't just do that,” Legend says, voice flat with wearied humor.

Wild nods grimly, lips pressed into a thin line. “There are about thirty Decayed Guardians in the next few rooms. And all of the rest of the passageways between rooms have been destroyed so the only way to get out is using a paraglider.”

“Do I even want to know how you got back here to activate the shrine in the first place?” Legend asks, one hand rubbing at his left temple.

Wild’s face absolutely lights up. “Well I took this pot lid an–”

Twilight uses his hold on the younger hero’s shoulder to pull him out of the middle of the group. “Not now, Cub,” he says, shaking his head, exasperation coloring his words. Four gets a feeling Twilight knows the story already and hates the idea of reliving it now or –even worse– Wild giving a demonstration of what happened.

“No, no, let him speak!” Wind calls, bouncing on the balls of his feet, eyes wide as he stares at Wild. “You used a pot lid to do what?”

Time steps forward, silencing the group with a single well placed glare before they have a chance to devolve any further. Part of Four greatly respects the man’s ability to bring together and command a group as rowdy as this one.

But then, another part of him hates being told what to do on principle, so, eh, it evens out.

“We’ve decided that the best course of action is to use Wild’s Sheikah Slate to teleport to Rito Village,” the Old Man says.

The room erupts into groans of disapproval that Four can’t help but agree with. He had once watched Wild use the slate, the ragged teen disappearing into ribbons of dissolving icy-blue light. Just the thought of disassembling one place and reassembling somewhere else makes him feel queasy.

Well, that sounds a little familiar. Maybe if we think about it that way, it's won't be so bad! Blossoms into his brain, warm and hopeful.

You know for damn sure that's not what it's gonna be like. A hiss.

It doesn't hurt to be optimistic. Harsh wind, a reprimand.

“Maybe we should all shut up and listen to what he has to say before arguing about it.” Stone cold and pointed, like an icicle inches from falling.

Wait...

The groans stop. Several heads turn to Four with wide eyes. The ice from his unintentional words drips down, over his ribs and into his stomach.

Oh shit we just said that out loud Dammit It’s not that bad I’m… sorry I didn't mean…

Time recovers the fastest from the very out of character outburst from the smallest hero and inclines his head slightly to Four. “Thank you.”

“As I was saying,” Time continues, and as the other heroes turn their attention back to their leader Four feels himself unwind. Lucky break. “Rito Village is the closest settlement to this location. Once we all regroup there, we can begin to ask around for information on monster attacks in the area.”

“I can carry up to two people with me when I teleport,” Wild says, picking up where Time left off. He quickly turns around for a second, the tapping and chirping of his Slate the only sound for a moment, before he turns back to the rest of the group, a handful of what appears to be wheat stalks in the teen’s hand. He grins as he holds out the grain. “We’ll pull wheat to see who goes when. Longest first, shortest last.”

They go around the circle, starting from Wild’s left and working their way around. Four doesn't really pay attention to the other’s or how long their stalks are– in fact he pointedly ignored Warriors and Legend’s absolutely asinine comparison of lengths, the children that they are– instead only tuning back in long enough to grab his own.

He pinches the top of the stalk, pulling it from WIld’s hand and...

It’s tiny, only an inch of stem beneath the spike containing the grain, a pitiful looking leaf hanging from the cut off end.

Legend, drawn from his squabble with the scarfed hero for the moment, laughs derisively in Four’s direction.

“Aww,” he says, words dripping with false sugar. “It suits you!”

Hyrule elbows the legendary hero in the side, sending Four an apologetic look. Four simply rolls his eyes in response, not dignifying the comment with a response.

Well, at least not externally.

One of these days, I’m gonna punch that smug prick so hard, the pink comes out of his hair!

Those in pot filled homes should not throw stones.

Right?! He’s barely taller than us!

Aw, come on guys, you know he's just joking. It’s his way of showing affection!

My foot is about to show that pantless dick’s shins some affection!

Four lets the dialogue play out in his head, taking care to school his face into a neutral mask even as some of the funnier comments threaten to make him laugh aloud. Soon the rest of the heroes take their turns, cementing the order.

First to leave would be Time and Wind, followed by Warriors and Legend– and wasn’t that great, their stalks were actually the same length– then Hyrule and Twilight, and last would be Four and Sky.

The first three gather together, Wind linking arms with Wild while Time sets a hand on the Champion’s shoulders.

“See you soon!” Wild says, and with a soft chime, the three disappear into flowing blue ribbons of light.

The six remaining Links glance around, unsure what to do with themselves in the interim between trips. The soft whirring from the Decayed Guardians the next room dominates the area for a moment.

A cough.

“So,” Legend says, going through his bag again. He pulls out a small, square paper envelope with a pair of purple bunny ears painted on the side. “Anyone wanna play cards?”

…

Sky immediately and graciously bows out of the card game, citing the need to take a nap for his absence.

As the others begin debating what game to play, Four watches as the chosen hero walks away, the brunette already pulling on the edges of his beloved sailcloth, wrapping himself up even before he sits. The man treads slowly, almost reverently, up the altar, before sitting down and leaning back against the statue, head thrown back against the stone in preparation for sleep.

He seems sad.

However, before he can do anything else, the others settle on BS, a game that appears to transcend the bounds of Time and Space because apparently everyone loves lying to their loved ones, and Four is quickly pulled in.

The game only lasts five rounds– five rounds of Warriors accusing Legend of cheating, Legend not actually cheating because it’s freaking BS, Hyrule’s terrible poker face, Twilight’s incredible poker face, and Four counting cards because he plays to win. Five very entertaining and loud rounds of BS before Wild returns to pick up the next batch of heroes.

And then there were four. Well, three if you didn't count the sleeping Sky.

With their game taken away, Twilight, Hyrule, and Four sit themselves on the edge of the shrine and start to chat. Their conversation roams from their home town– or equivalent home area, cave thing for Hyrule– to their favorite activities to do in their down time to their favorite foods.

Twilight is just wrapping up a fascinating tale of the best soup he ever had while in the company of some yetis when the soft whoosh of Wild’s returning form cuts him off.

“Looks like that’s our queue,” Twilight says, offering a hand up to Hyrule, which the other hero takes.

The two quickly approach Wild, but the teen waves them away for a second, instead striding up to Four with a question in his eyes.

“Hey,” he starts, eyes flicking away from Four’s face for a second before flashing back again. A nervous tick. “Some of the others are getting a bit antsy for dinner. Is it okay if I cook something up really quick and then come grab you two?”

Four raises a hand in a placating motion and offers Wild a small smile.

“That sounds fine to me. I know how some of them can get when hungry. All things considered, this is a pretty interesting to be stuck in. Besides,” and here the shorter hero throws a thumb over one shoulder toward the statue, “I don't really have the heart to wake him up just yet.”

A relieved smile flits onto Wilds face. “Okay, cool.”

“You sure you’re okay with waiting that long by yourself?” Hyrule asks, earnest concern in his words. “I can stay and you can go if you want. I’m used to the quiet.”

Four shakes his head, a wry grin on his face. “No, no, it’s fine. I’m good at keeping myself entertained.”

Hardy hardy har.

Oh come on, that was a good one!

“Well, if you're sure…” Hyrule trails off. Four nods one more time and sends the group off with a wave. Hyrule waves back, until he too dissolves into nothing but streams of light evaporating into the night air.

As the light from the transportation fades, Four takes in a deep breath, holds it and then lets it hiss from between his teeth. He relaxes his mind and tension he didn't know he was holding bleeds from his shoulders.

And then there were five.

“Now what do we do?” his voice asks, a slight grumble to the words.

“I say we get a better look at that statue,” he replies to the open air.

“Seconded.” “Me too!” spills from his lips and Four nods. Good. They’re all in agreement.

He meanders around the shrine, running a hand over the gnarled stone, the smoothness of the glowing glass.

It truly is a marvel, he thinks. Last time they were here, Wild had showed them the almost mystical qualities to the Sheikah weaponry that the Champion used during his travels. Apparently, the way to make such weapons had been all but lost to the Sheikah people during their period of persecution. However, Wild had told Four that one researcher was able to find and repair an ancient Sheika blacksmith automaton capable of recreating the weapons. So far, none of their travels to Wild’s Hyrule had ever spat them out close enough to the research facility for Four to warrant a visit, but he held out hope that they would be able to go at some point.

The small hero comes to a stop in front of the altar, head tipped back to stare up at the statue.

“It really is beautiful,” he breaths. “I wonder how old it is?”

“Ancient. Older than the concept of Hyrule itself.”

Four feels something inside him tense up once more. His head reels as he pulls himself together, dizziness blooming behind his eyes. His sight fills with black and white spots, the back of his skull pounding and heavy.

Despite his clouded vision, the smithy’s gaze flashes toward the voice and finds Sky. He is evidently not asleep, and based on the exhausted look on the older man’s face, he never was.

He is leaned back against the statue, head lolling back as he stares unseeing at the stone that looms over him. His sailcloth is pulled over his shoulders like a shield, with the corners of the fabric held in clenched fists crossed over his chest.

“What?” Four asks, confusion and pain melting together into a disoriented tone.

“It’s from my time” Sky reiterates. “It was from Skyloft.”

Four nods his head slowly, letting the information sink in.

Sky had told their group about his home among the clouds; an idyllic floating society above the world that had been ravaged by the war between the goddess and a demon known as Demise. From Sky’s description, the place seemed wonderful; a location that Four would love to visit if given the chance.

A small, fond smile pulled at Sky’s lips.

“It used to be sort of the centerpiece of the city. Everything happened there.”

“It must have been magnificent,” Four assures the older man, unsure what else to say.

Silence stretches out between them, thick and awkward.

Four is at a bit of a loss. The shorter hero had never seen Sky look like this. The man was usually bright and sunny, offering kind words or constructive ideas to any interaction he was a part of. He had an easy smile and was even easier to talk to, regardless of what the topic of conversation was.

Sure, the brunette often had his head in the clouds – you’re still not funny– but never had Four seen him so out of it.

The chosen hero looks… lost. His face seems to be unable to settle on an expression, turning from nostalgic, to worried, to down right sad and then right back again. If Four wasn't the way he was, he would probably be impressed with how many emotions Sky was jumping through so quickly.

“Had you ever heard of Loftwings before I told you about them?” Sky asks, eyes suddenly locked onto Four. There is something in the look, something intense. Something desperate.

Four shakes his head.

Sky sighs and leans his head back against the statue once more. His eyes trace the stone above him in small circles and figure eights, tracking something that Four can’t see.

This isn’t going well. Forms in Four’s mind, concern dripping from the thought.

Really? What gave it away? Snappish, but with an undercurrent of emotion.

What a helpful addition. Truly, where would we be without your input? Sarcastic but frustrated. No answers.

You guys are terrible at this. Fond.

Four gently lowers himself next to the sitting hero, setting his back against the statue and stretching his legs out in front of him. He brushes his shoulder against Sky’s own and when the other doesn't pull away, leans fully into his side.

It isn't exactly comfortable–the stone is harsh against his spine– but at least it’s warm.

“What are they like?” Four asks, staring up at the ceiling, trying to imagine the images that must be dancing before Sky’s eyes. “The Loftwings, I mean.”

Four nods his head against Sky’s shoulder so the older hero knows he is listening.

“Everyone had one. Every few years on a special day called Meeting Day, the kids who had come of age would gather under the statue– this statue– to greet their partner. Their other half.”

A chuckle pushes its way past Sky’s lips.

“I was late for my Meeting Day. I overslept on accident.”

“You oversleeping? I never would have guessed,” Four snickers, nudging Sky lightly, eliciting another laugh from the older hero.

“Not much has changed I guess,” Sky admits. “Zelda though, Zelda was so mad at me. Told me I wasn't taking my life seriously enough. It was brutal.”

“I think she was mad because it was her Meeting Day too,” he continues. “She wanted everything to go perfectly.”

“But it was a complete mess,” he says, nostalgia apparent in his words. “There were actually three of us having our Meeting Day that year. Me, Zelda, and another guy. He didn't even wait for the ceremony to finish before he was whistling for his bird. Dumb thing nearly knocked Headmaster Gaepora off the statue.”

Four watches as Sky shakes his head in fondness at the memory and wonders if the other boy and Sky eventually became friends, even with their rocky start. He imagines they did. Who could hate someone like Sky, afterall?

The older hero sobers a bit then, smile falling from his face.

“And then it was our turn to go. We whistled at the exact same time. Zelda wanted us to take our first flight together. We had been talking about it for years.”

He sighs. “Her Loftwing landed before we were even finished whistling.”

“And yours?” Four asks before he can stop himself, a pit in his stomach already telling him where this story was going.

Sky smiles ruefully, glancing down at Four’s face before returning his gaze to the ceiling.

“I whistled over and over again, but nothing happened. Eventually, they went through with the rest of the ceremony without me.” A breath in. A breath out. “I had to watch Zelda fly for the first time with my feet stuck firmly on the ground.”

The older hero sighs. “I don't blame them. No one knew what to do with me. No one had ever failed to call a Loftwing before.”

Four stares at Sky’s face, watching as his expression grows more grim, his frown and the furrow between his eyebrows growing more pronounced.

“I kept trying for hours. By Noon, most people had left. Better things to do, I guess,” he laughs without humor. “By sunset, Zelda was forced to go home by her father. But I stayed there. I stayed beneath the statue, whistling and whistling and whistling all night.”

“I must have fallen asleep at some point because when I woke up,” Sky says, finally regaining some light, “there he was. I thought it was the sunrise playing a trick on me, but he was actually there. A real Crimson Loftwing.”

A smile, warm as the sun. “He was mine and I was his.”

And then suddenly, the sun is gone. This is it, Four thinks as whirlwind of dark, heavy emotion blots out the sky that is the older heroes eyes. The storm that had been brewing since the other hero had laid eyes on the stone edifice.

“But they’re all gone now.” Sky says, voice empty. He gently pushes Four away from his side and then turns to more fully look at the smaller hero. The smith is suddenly hit with how cold it is here without Sky’s warmth.

The brunette stares intently at Four, cornflower blue eyes locked onto whatever muddled, chaotic shade has overtaken his own. Four is trapped under the other’s intent gaze, a leaf in a tornado, unable to escape.

Clouds of pain and uncertainty darken the normally bright blue of the chosen hero’s eyes. Something lurks behind those clouds, Four thinks, like the presence of lightning unknown until the moment it strikes the ground.

Then, thunderous understanding rings through Four’s bones, rattling through his body, shaking him down to the fault lines of his mind.

Swarming in Sky’s eyes is a need to be seen. A need to be heard. A need to be recognised.

“They’re gone and no one’s ever heard of them. Or the Mogmas or Levias or Ghirahim or Skyloft or Demise,” he continues, words picking up speed as he does. There is something frantic about the list. A desire to have it all down, catalogued and out in the open air for all to hear. An auditory library of things lost to time.

“My whole life: everything I was, am, or will be is dust by the time you come along.”

The chosen hero suddenly deflates, leaving behind a lost looking Sky. He falls back against the statue.

Above them, the goddess does not move. Her eyes remain gentle, and her smile stays set in unmoving stone.

“Is it selfish of me to be afraid of being forgotten? Like I was never there to begin with?” Sky asks. “Is it selfish to wonder if this is it? If this all I leave behind?” he question, voice going softer and softer.

“Just a sword, a statue, and a curse?”

“No.”

Sky sits up at the tone of Four’s voice. Four pushes himself to his feet, fists clenched at his sides and for the first time in a long time, he feels tall as he stares down at Sky’s bewildered face

“No, I don't think it's selfish,” Four says, and he means it. By Hylia he means it, his chest brimming with some thing hot and cold and too much and too little.

Some part of him wants to punch Sky for thinking this way. Another part wants to hug him. All of him wants Sky to understand, to know that he is not alone.

“What could be scarier,” Four whispers, “than the idea of not existing?”

(he sees four boys: in forest green, ocean blue, flame red, and dusk purple. each one holds a sword above a single pedestal, ready to plunge the blade back in. back where it belongs. but something holds them back, each one barley gripping the pommel as their hands shake.

is this it? everything I did? it was all for this? where will I go? where will they go? where where where where?

am I going to die?

but they need to do it. Vaati had already taken so much from them. they couldn't leave him free. he needs to be sealed.

this is the only way.

together, they drive their blades into the ground and disappear in a flash of light.

a single boy emerges, tunic green but eyes a rainbow of color.

they hold themselves.

no, he holds himself.

no, they hold themselves. four times the amount of tears drip down one face and they smile and scream and laugh and sob)

“It’s not selfish to want to know that you exist somewhere, anywhere, when you're gone,” Four insists, conviction and strength in his words. The pulsing glow of the shrine illuminates his eyes in flashes of multicolored, unnatural fire.

“So no,” Four continues, “I don't think it's selfish. But I also think it's not something you have to worry about.”

The smallest hero reaches a hand down to Sky. The other glances back and forth between Four’s face and the offered hand before tentatively taking it. The smith, strong despite his size, pulls and the Chosen hero follows, stumbling to his feet.

“Look around!” Four says, letting go of Sky’s hand to splay his arms wide. The smith steps away from the alter, spinning on a heel as he does, wide arms indicating everything around them.

“Here we are, goddesses know when, in a kingdom you helped to create. A kingdom that survives through demon kings, and wind mages, and floods, and calamities. It survives.”

Four throws a gestures over Sky’s shoulder, indicating the green and purple pommel peeking out from behind his back. “You left a sword that has protected so many of us. A beautiful sword that cuts through darkness like a torch in the night.”

The smallest hero places a hand on his chest, feeling the familiar stitching marking the border between his blue and green tunic beneath his calloused palm.

“And most of all, you left us the spirit that unites us together. Without it, I never would have met any of you. I never would have found so many new friends.” Four leaves the ‘New brothers’ unsaid.

“Nothing is ever forgotten,” Four says as he points at the pillar he was examining earlier.

Circular eyes. V-shaped beak. Splayed feathers. Not just a bird, but a Loftwing, flying eternal in stone.

“Maybe just lost for a bit, but not forgotten. Never.”

Four turns back to the other hero. He can see a smile on Sky’s face, the silver lining finally emerging despite the rain that threatens to fall from the older’s eyes.

“And if it means anything,” Four continues as he comes to next to Sky once more, placing a hand on his elbow, “I know of at least eight people who won’t be forgetting you anytime soon.”

Sky nods, taking a second to rub his face– physically wiping away emotions that had been plaguing his mind– before turning his smile back to the smithy.

With one hand he takes the edge of his sail cloth and drapes it across Four’s opposite shoulder and then guides the two of them to be sitting back against the statue once more, now bundled together rather than apart.

Four is grateful for the warmth. He hadn't even noticed until that second that his breath was clouding around his face or that the trembling of his hands might have been from cold rather than sheer emotional force.

“You always seem to know just what to say,” Sky says as he pulls Four more effectively into his side. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re great at giving advice?”

Two ‘Yes’s and two ‘No’s collide in his skull.

Four merly smiles.

“I like to think I bring new perspectives to conversations,” he says

Hylia, it would be quicker if you just killed me.

You’re no fun.

“Because no one else has your vantage point on the problem?” Sky asks, cheekily.

Aaaand we’re back to short jokes.

Oh, it’s on, Bird Boy!

Wait, speaking of birds...

“I will let the joke slide just this once if you answer a question I meant to ask earlier. You mentioned specifically that your Loftwing was a Crimson Loftwing. Is that significant in some way?” Four asks.

Without looking up, Four can feel Sky nod from the way his shoulder gently shifts. “That’s because no one had seen a Crimson Loftwing for many, many years. They were assumed to have gone extinct.”

“So the fact that yous was Crimson would have been very important,” Four cataloges. And then, “What’s his name?”

Its goes silent for a moment.

“Well, uhhhh,” Sky says, floundering for a moment.

His voice drops into a defeated tone. “You have to understand, I was pretty young at the time. Children have their Meeting Day when they turn 8 and–”

“Sky,” Four cuts off the brunette’s rambling, a grin slowly growing on his face. “What did you name your Loftwing?”

The brunette pulls his half of the sailcloth closer, muffling his already mumbled words.

“Hmm? What was that?” Four asks, voice going high at the end of the question, ready to tease thevfirst holder of the Spirit of the Hero into oblivion.

“I named him Apple,” Sky says, the voice of man repentant of his crimes.

It’s like an explosion goes off in Four’s head; all four different parts of him howling with laughter.

“You–” Four cuts himself off to take a breath in, steadying his voice, “You named the last known member of an endangered species Apple?!”

“I was eight!” Sky hisses.

Four absolutely cackles.

“Oh come on,” Sky groans, “Like you never gave something a stupid name when you were younger?”

And that shuts up Four. Kind of.

He does have us there.

Oh fuck off, Violet.

I didn’t come up with names, Red did!

Four lets his mind turns into a battlefield but ignores it, instead relaying another question about the intricacies of riding Loftwings to Sky, who readily answers.

Pressed up against the other’s side, Four can feel the older hero's voice reverberate around him. He can feel the steady rise and fall of Sky’s chest and the heat radiating off him beneath the makeshift blanket.

Back in his time, Sky is long gone, lost to the ages. But here and now they sit together and wait, the ever shifting blue pulse of the shrine in front of them and the immovable stone of the goddess behind them.

…

The soft hiss and crackle of Sheika teleportation erupts in the silence of the room, the blue flecks coalescing into one frantic looking blonde teenager.

“Four, Sky! I’m so sorry, there was this whole thing with Wind and a weird pear that one of the Rito children ate and–”

“Shush!”

“What? Is something wro– Oh.”

Sky watches as the younger hero turns the corner of the shrine, catching sight of the pair of them.

They must make quite the sight if Wild’s hand twitching toward his Sheikah Slate is any indication.

Curled against his side, Four breaths deeply and evenly, mumbling every so often in his sleep. The smithy had grown quite a little while ago as his questions slowly petering off into silence.

“Sorry,” Wild whispered as he joins them on the altar. Sky isn't sure whether he is apologizing about his tardiness or almost waking up Four.

“It’s fine,” he assures, turning his head down to look at the small hero while trying to move his body as little as possible.

“Sometimes I forget how young he is. He always seems so,” and here Wild cuts off his whisper to smooth his face out into a flat, unimpressed look.

Sky nods forcing down his chuckles at the look.

“Don’t let him hear you say that.”

They sit in the quiet of the temple for a moment just looking at the small teen.

“We should wake him,” Wild decides. “He’ll want dinner when we get to the village.”

But Sky shakes his head. “We’ll wake him up when we get there. I don't have the heart to do it just yet.”

Slowly, Sky bundles Four more fully in the white cloth and then shifts the teen onto his back and stands. He gives Wild a thumbs up which the long haired teen returns with a shrug and a look that says ‘Your funeral, not mine’ before turning to step off the alter.

And as Wild turns around, Sky catches a glimpse of the shield strapped to the teen’s back. On the blue background, a crimson bird soars, cradling the triforce between outstretched wings.

A smile quirks at the corner of his lips.

Never forgotten, huh?

Well, wouldn't you know.

#alone together #lu alone together #lu four #lu hyrule #lu legend #lu sky #linked universe #chapter two baby #here it is #its a long boy #I only tagged characters with significant speaking parts but all the boys are in this one #oh wait #lu wild #there we go #he has enough lines to get a tag too #train writes

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takonei · 4 years

Text

Beta AU - Main story: Chapter 1, deadly life

Note of the author: The scrum debate was a pain in the ass to write. There, I said it.

Also don’t worry, things are gonna get more interesting soon. I’m gonna bitch-slap your feelings like Hina bitch-slapped Byakuya in chapter 4 of THH. Consider this a threat and a promise.

Chapter 1: Pledge your allegiance to me - Deadly life

...

To say Shuichi was shocked was an understatement. He took a few steps back, hands on his mouth. He had never been exposed to a dead body before, and even though a part of him expected to see someone dying soon, he was not mentally prepared.

Rantaro noticed him, asking what was wrong, even though he, deep down, knew what was the problem.

The others joined him and saw their friend’s dead body, and the music on the monitors stopped.

The body discovery announcement went off.

“Ding dong, dong ding!”

“A body has been discovered!”

“Everyone, please gather at the warehouse!”

About a minute later, everyone was there. Monokuma showed up, happy that someone was murdered on time and said that everything was fine because the culprit just had to raise their hand and take the first blood perk.

But nobody did.

Monokuma was satisfied anyway, and announced the beginning of the investigation. He also told them the Monokuma files were available on their monopads.

Monokuma file #1

The victim is Gonta Gokuhara, the ultimate zoologist.

The body was discovered in the warehouse.

The estimated time of death is unknown.

The victim was stabbed several times in both the chest and the stomach, resulting in an internal bleeding.

The victim died almost immediately from his injuries.

No other injuries were noted on the victim’s body.

Obtained truth bullet! Monokuma file #1

The others started investigating.

Rantaro examined his body, by taking Gonta’s shirt off, to which Miu was about to do a dirty comment but Kaito told her not to.

He concluded the Monokuma file was saying the truth, since the injuries looked fresh, and it was definitely not a mannequin nor a fake body.

After taking a good look at the stab wounds, he also concluded that, out of the 8 stab wounds, 2 looked like they were really deep and the other 6 looked like quick stabs.

Obtained truth bullet! Rantaro’s examination

Unfortunately for them, the murder weapon was nowhere to be seen.

After looking around the warehouse, they didn’t notice anything that could look like a weapon, nor any other hints.

Shuichi, feeling already sick of this, decided to leave the warehouse. He took a quick glance at Rantaro who was still investigating the body carefully, somehow keeping a cool head. But that was to be expected from a war medic.

Outside, he noticed Kokichi and Himiko arguing. Himiko seemed to encourage him with the investigation, saying that if they work together they will surpass this. Kokichi seemed to be panicking, and wanted Himiko to leave him alone because “he only brings bad luck to the others, and doesn’t want the blackened to suffer more than they already will”.

Shuichi preferred not to interfere and decided to look for what could be a murder weapon.

He went to the kitchen, since one of the obvious choices would be a knife. One knife was missing, according to Kirumi, who had just came in and knew exactly how many knives were there.

Obtained truth bullet! Missing knife

A few seconds later, they found Maki who was heading back to the warehouse, but Shuichi interrupted her to ask if anything was wrong.

She responded that it was probably nothing, but one of her Japanese scissors went missing this morning, but thought it was probably lost in all the fabric in her lab.

Obtained truth bullet! Missing scissors

Kirumi asked if she could perhaps take a look around.

Maki was a bit uncomfortable showing her lab like that, but she decided to let it slide because of the investigation.

Her lab was a mess to say the least, but according to her, things were normal. Kirumi asked her if she wanted it to be cleaned, but Maki was fine with the mess.

The three went back to the warehouse, to see if they had anything new to say.

Rantaro said he didn’t find much more on the body, just that the murder weapon was about the size of a knife, or as Maki suggested, Japanese scissors.

Obtained truth bullet! Stab wounds

Angie was examining Gonta’s shirt, who was, apart from the stab holes, ripped around the shoulder.

Obtained truth bullet! Ripped shirt

Maki seemed surprise by this fact, because she remembered Gonta coming to her the previous day, asking if she could repair his shirt because it had the hole in it, but it looked like it was ripped again.

Obtained truth bullet! Maki’s account

They decided to do a recap what everyone was doing before the body discovery announcement.

According to Angie; the people in the library right before the announcement were Ryoma, Kirumi, Maki, Kaede, Kaito, Miu and herself.

Obtained truth bullet! Angie’s account

According to Himiko; Kokichi, Tsumugi, Korekiyo and herself were in the game room.

Obtained truth bullet! Himiko’s account

Tsumugi noticed a box that looked slightly opened and out of place in the shelves. After reaching out to it she discovered a blood-stained sheet.

Obtained truth bullet! Stained sheet

Just as the two were about to inform the others about the sheet, they noticed Tenko stepping on what looked like a piece of duct tape, just peeking from under one of the shelves. She realized almost instantly and took it off. The three looked at what it exactly was, for it to turn out to have blood on the sticky surface. It looked like it had been used.

Obtained truth bullet! Bloody duct tape

Not long after that, the same jingle ringed once again through the other’s ears. Monokuma was asking them to go to the shrine of judgement for the trial.

They all went there, not knowing whether they were going to come out of this alive or not.

The elevator ride felt so long, and the door opened to reveal the giant trial court with the 16 podiums. They all placed themselves to different spots.

No one really dared to say anything as Monokuma explained the rules.

Everyone seemed to show their nervousness differently, Kokichi was trying to make himself smaller, Maki was tugging on her own hair and Angie was unable to stay in place. To his surprise however, some others looked confident, or at least not affected by their situation at all. That was the case of Kirumi, Rantaro, Tsumugi, Korekiyo, Ryoma and Keebo.

They didn’t really know where to start, so the obvious was to talk about the murder weapon. Unfortunately, it was nowhere to be found.

Rantaro had concluded earlier that either the missing knife or the scissors could have been weapons.

Tsumugi made a point saying that Monokuma didn’t give a specific timing for the investigation, so it was most likely they collected all the evidence that could lead to a fair class trial.

In conclusion, the murder weapon not being on the Monokuma file, there was a high chance it was one of the two, and not something else.

Monokuma started arguing that he could stop the investigation whenever he wanted, and didn’t have to be scolded by some stupid teenagers.

They ignored the comment and continued debating on the time the weapons went missing.

According to Maki, her scissors went missing by the morning, but they were in her lab the night before. So someone went between 10PM and 9AM to get them.

Kirumi said that the knife was not missing at lunch this day, but was when they checked during the investigation, so it was between 1 PM and 9 PM, which was a very large period of time.

Ryoma noted that since the time frames were way too large to be investigated, so they should focus on something else.

Shuichi decided to speak about the time of death.

According to Rantaro, the death occurred about an hour before the body discovery announcement at most, but couldn’t say exactly when.

Unfortunately a lot of them went back and forth the warehouse, if not all of them. Besides, the warehouse was huge, and Gonta was in the back when Shuichi found him. So there was a possibility someone went to there without realizing there was a dead body in the room.

Which meant anyone who went there could have been a suspect.

Miu was already visibly annoyed that they couldn’t identify anything, to which Rantaro suggested they calm down and think about something else, such as how Gonta was killed.

Since no bloodstains were visible on the floor away from him, it was most likely he was killed on the spot, and with the Monokuma file suggesting he didn’t have any other injuries, he and the killer didn’t fight.

Himiko argued that they saw Gonta fighting Tenko the day before, and that he had enough physical force to knock any of them if he wanted. He would most likely fight back.

Shuichi responded there were no external injuries, and that Rantaro confirmed there were no trace of physical fight that weren’t from the day before.

That situation became a mystery, and no one was really sure what to think.

“Unless..”

Everyone turned to Korekiyo, who had a finger on his chin.

“... He got into this situation by himself.”

The words of the therapist felt heavy on the others’ minds. Kaito decided to speak up, asking if he suggested a suicide.

However a lot of evidence showed that it wasn’t the case. The murder weapon was nowhere to be seen, and he died on the spot. Besides, the evidence was scattered around, such as the bloody duct tape and the stained sheet found in different places.

Korekiyo was suggesting an assisted murder, and that Gonta agreed to die.

Kokichi thought he was manipulated into doing so, because even though Gonta was strong, he was pretty naive, so the mastermind behind the murder knew about this.

Tenko argued, saying that Gonta, even though he was pretty naive, would never agree to die for no reason.

Keebo reminded her of the motive, the time limit. So it was possible he had agreed in advance if they didn’t find a way to get through the door, nor stop the killing game.

Kaede was puzzled. Even if someone agreed to do this murder, why didn’t they take the first blood perk?

Kokichi wanted to say something, but was very hesitant in doing so. Himiko noticed it and encouraged him to say it, because she knows he isn’t stupid.

He suggested that perhaps Gonta never agreed to anything at all and all of this was a scene orchestrated by Monokuma to begin the killing game and blame one of them for it. After all the timing was perfect for him.

Monokuma chimed in, angry at the accusations, and denied this fact.

Tenko exclaimed that maybe it was the Monokubs, from the strange way they disposed of the evidence.

Some of the monokubs started arguing as well, saying that there was no way they could have touched anyone since they had no power. They couldn’t even resurrect the one and only Monokuma, how would they do anything?

Tsumugi practically jumped at the quote.

“Monokuma can’t resurrect himself? Are you saying someone else other than you did so?”

The others went silent.

“The door in the library wasn’t for you then, it was…”

“There is a mastermind behind this killing game, and they’re one of us.”

It was Kirumi, declaring this in a monotone voice.

They all looked at the maid. Monokuma was visibly pissed.

They all had relied on each other not knowing one of them was an accomplice to this game. Which meant that when Angie and Shuichi told everyone about the door, they informed the mastermind as well.

Monokuma broke the silence, saying that they should go back to the investigation this instant.

Now they were sure that Gonta had asked someone to kill him, which was the reason he didn’t fight back.

Tsumugi suggested the piece of duct tape was used so that Gonta wouldn’t scream in pain and alert the others, and the stained sheet was a cover for the killer not to spill blood on them.

Rantaro also concluded that there was a possibility the rapid stab wounds were to kill him faster, not to let him suffer.

Shuichi and the others seemed to agree on that, as hard as it was to accept the truth.

The question of the murder weapon was brought up once again. The opinions were split up, some thinking the killer used the knife, others the scissors.

But as everyone started debating on which was the more logical between the two, Shuichi sighed. “It looks like we’re split in two…”

“... Split!? Did you just say split!?”

The group turned to Monokuma once again, who presented the “morphenomal trail grounds” as he puts it.

(BGM)

The podiums started levitating to form two teams facing each other, divided by their opinions.

Which one was the murder weapon?

On the left, Keebo, Ryoma, Korekiyo, Maki, Angie, Kokichi, Himiko and Kaito The murder weapon was the pair of scissors!

On the right, Shuichi, Rantaro, Tsumugi, Kaede, Tenko, Miu and Kirumi. The murder weapon was the knife!

Scrum debate, start!

Korekiyo: The killer probably bet we wouldn’t realize the scissors went missing.

Shuichi: Monokuma didn’t interrupt the investigation until we found enough evidence. He would have continued until we realized they were missing.

Himiko: The wounds on Gonta’s body match the scissors!

Tsumugi: They also match the knife. We can’t rule out that possibility.

Kokichi: Scissors can be used for killing...

Rantaro: If the killer wanted to kill Gonta quickly they would have to use something sharper than scissors.

Ryoma: We know the killer prepared their plan in advance, the knife could have been taken by someone in a rush.

Kirumi: If the killer did plan on killing in advance, they could have taken both to confuse us.

Maki: If my lab was entered at night it was most likely to get a weapon without me realizing.

Kaede: Perhaps the killer didn’t think you would use your lab today?

Angie: The killer prepared their plan early, they would obviously use the weapon they took in advance!

Tenko: In advance can also mean this afternoon!

Kaito: We were all in the basement for something, we would have noticed someone leaving to take a knife!

Miu: Everyone was busy trying to open the door, they had plenty of time to take the knife without being noticed!

Keebo: Are you saying the scissors had another use?

Shuichi: Japanese scissors aren’t for killing, there could have been another use for them!

After that the podiums slowly got back to normal.

“Another use” wasn’t something they anticipated, but that was the only option. Kaede asked Maki what the scissors looked like.

Kirumi and Rantaro didn’t miss the dirty comment Miu made under her breath about the two girls.

Maki explained that she uses those scissors to make small cuts. She didn’t use those very often, but she had to this morning, hence why she realized they went missing.

Tenko asked what kind of thing they would even try to do with this.

Shuichi thought about it, and remembered Gonta’s ripped shirt. According to Maki, Gonta asked her to repair it. But when they checked the body, the shirt was ripped again.

Kaito was confused as to why the killer would cut it again - what would they benefit from this?

Tsumugi glanced at everyone in the trial, but Shuichi paid no attention to it.

But that question was important. Why would they even risk stealing scissors, just to cut Gonta’s shirt?

Miu was septic of Maki, since it was her lab, she could easily blame someone else for stealing the scissors.

Korekiyo quickly turned this option off, because it would be too dangerous for Maki to even talk about the scissors.

Himiko suggested they perhaps missed a detail on the scene, that there was more to this.

That’s what Shuichi had been thinking, but he didn’t seem to find the answer.

Kirumi asked the others to describe how they found the shirt.

Angie explained that other than the original rip, there were no damages to the shirt.

Maki seemed to have a flash, and asked to see the shirt. She observed it and traced carefully the cut on the shoulder with her finger.

“The thread I used to repair it is missing. There’s no doubt that the person stole it.”

Shuichi blinked. To steal a thread?

Tenko was confused as well. “Why not just use the knife to cut it? It would have been easier than to steal the scissors from Maki’s lab.”

Maki explained that a knife wasn’t made for this. A tailor could probably do it with a knife without damaging it much, but someone not experimented would prefer to use scissors instead, if they really wanted the thread intact that much.

Keebo being a robot, didn’t know what that could even be used for.

Shuichi didn’t know much, aside from sewing back clothes he didn’t know what else that could have been used for.

Korekiyo felt like they were missing something.

Ryoma shrugged it off saying that most of the times he saw threads it was on someone’s skin, but that theory was probably false.

Angie thought they were searching too far, and that it was probably to repair their own clothes.

Tenko argued saying they didn’t fight, so what would they even have to repair?

Tsumugi seemed to have been thinking for a while before finally speaking up. “What if it was something else entirely?”

Tenko looked at her. From Shuichi’s point of view, she seemed worried. “What do you mean?”

Tsumugi stared back for a few seconds before turning to Monokuma. “Don’t you find this strange that Monokuma asked for the trial to start without us finding neither the knife, nor the scissors?”

Shuichi looked down.

Korekiyo seemed to understand her reasoning. “Are you saying the killer actually has their weapon on themselves?”

She nodded. “The killer and Gonta were accomplices, yes? So Gonta ripped his shirt on purpose to get Maki to repair it. That way the killer had a thread available and didn’t have to steal it from Maki’s lab, because she would have noticed it too easily. The killer then modified their own clothes to create a pocket and carry the tools, so no one would find them.”

That explanation seemed far fetched, but Shuichi needed one last thing to confirm the theory.

The culprit would need to use a needle to sew an improvised pocket.

Maki said that the threads were attached to a sewing machine, and she would have noticed if they were cut off. However she had plenty of needles and pins in the drawers. So the culprit could have stolen one without her realizing.

Keebo still seemed septic of Tsumugi’s explanations. “Do you have any idea about who the culprit could be?”

Of course it had to be with clothes thick enough to create the pocket without needing fabric, so some of them were out of the question, like Miu and Keebo.

Shuichi looked down.

She faintly smiled, but quickly dropped it. She turned to Shuichi. “You’ve been leading the debate… I think you know the answer, right?”

Shuichi looked down. The evidence was in front of his eyes from the beginning. He could have just said so, but… Was it worth it?

“Tenko…”

He paused.

“I heard some things clinging around your waist. Like metal tools.”

Tenko looked at him with sad eyes, and then smiled.

After a long silence, Kaede spoke up. “That’s… That’s a joke right?”

Tenko looked at her with watery eyes.

“I’m sorry… Everyone.”

Shuichi felt guilty for accusing her. “I think… I should recap what happened-”

“No.” Tenko interrupted him. “You shouldn't have to do more. I’ll...” She took a deep breath. “I’ll do it.”

“When the time limit was announced… I couldn’t just sit there. And I wasn’t the only one thinking that. I talked to Gonta in private about it, and we established the plan together.”

“We had to decide who would be the victim and who would be the murderer. So we decided to set a match the same afternoon.”

She chuckled. “Yes, when you all came, it was pretty much to watch a death match.”

“Gonta pretended to have his shirt ripped so Maki would repair it. He was in her lab for a good amount of time, so he got to know where the scissors and needles were. That night I stole them from Maki’s lab after Gonta explained to me where they were.”

“Whether I would kill him with a knife or with the scissors was actually not decided in the plan. I told him I would use a knife because it was more efficient. But I didn’t know if I had the time to take it. Thankfully I did.”

“When the time came, we knew everyone was panicking, and that no one really paid attention about who got out of the room or who came in.”

“So we both went to the warehouse at different intervals, and I… I killed him with the knife. I decided to spread the evidence as an excuse to frame the kubs and see what they would say in the trial.”

“I didn’t want to take the first blood perk. My objective… Was to get as much information as we could during the trial.”

She smiled. “And it turned out to be a huge success!”

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. Perhaps I- we took the selfish route by putting you all through a trial, but I thought it was better than you all continuing this game without any hints on the situation.”

The silence felt heavy. When they all entered the room they thought it was a merciless killer, but Tenko’s intentions were more than that.

Monokuma started laughing. The trial came to an end, and it was time to vote. Himiko yelled that he was not going to kill her. Kaede joined in as a desperate attempt. Kirumi was unsure but said she would not let some robotic bear dictate what she wanted to do or not.

Kokichi panicked and tried to reach out to Himiko but backed out before touching her shoulder. He tried to tell her that Monokuma still had the exisals by his side, but she wasn’t listening.

Tenko yelled to get the attention of the others. Reassuring them that it was okay, this was what she deserved.

Monokuma laughed, and announced the voting time open.

Shuichi reluctantly voted, like the others.

Tenko was glad to see all the votes for her. She smiled with tears rolling down her face.

“I’m glad I was able to meet you all, even if it was just for a couple of days.”

“But hey, if everyone was cooperating to get through the door, I’m sure you’ll be able to stop this game!”

“I know you can. Anyone could have taken the first blood perk but you didn’t. I’m sure you can do this.”

“Now you have more info to continue, and even if someone among us is a traitor, I’m sure you’ll all be able to corner them.”

“I’m counting on you.”

A majority of the others seemed in denial, they refused to believe that Tenko had killed Gonta, that she was slowly approaching her death with a smile on her face.

But it was a death she accepted the second she made the deal with Gonta.

It was a death she was walking to with honor, not trying to run away.

“Hey Monokuma.”

“Let’s get this over with.”

Himiko yelled and ran towards Tenko.

Monokuma laughed as he used a toy hammer to press the bright red button in front of him.

GAME OVER

Tenko has been found guilty.

Time for the punishment!

(BGM)

Before Himiko could reach her, Tenko’s neck was grabbed by a metal claw, and dragged her away to the elevator.

The elevator closed and instead of going up, it went straight underground. She was holding onto the walls to keep balance, but stumbled onto the floor when the elevator brutally stopped.

She slowly got up when all the walls of the elevator fell down. She couldn’t see anything that was further than a few meters away because of the darkness, but she could clearly see that the floor was covered by thousands of mannequins.

She took only a few steps away from the elevator when what looked like hundreds of pair of pink glowing eyes lightened up to stare at her, but she couldn’t see the rest of their bodies.

The closest pair of eyes slowly approached to reveal a mannequin made to look like Gonta, with several holes in its body, filled with a blood colored paint.

The other mannequins revealed themselves, each looking like the rest of the group, also with “blood” filled holes in them.

Enemy of the harmonious world Ultimate judoka Tenko Chabashira’s execution: Executed

The first mannequins started jumping on her, and all she could do was to fight them. They were not hard to throw away, but there were way too many for her to handle.

The Maki-shaped ones were throwing needles, the Rantaro-shaped ones were throwing scalpels, some of them were physically fighting her with punches or were just trying to grab her.

As the hundreds of mannequins attacked in different ways, with different weapons, Tenko was starting to get exhausted, and even more injured, with countless cuts on her body.

She had stopped counting how many of them she had thrown away when she collapsed on the floor.

The mannequins stopped attacking. Tenko raised her head to see that they were moving out of someone’s way.

A Gonta shaped mannequin, towering above her, looking at her with soulless pink eyes.

A lever-rope appeared next to him, and the puppet pulled it.

Countless blades appeared one by one from the floor, stabbing all the other mannequins… And the final one, impaling her in the chest.

Tenko Chabashira, the ultimate judoka, was dead.

This felt unreal. Shuichi watched with fearful eyes the scene that just unrolled in front of his eyes.

They had lost two friends today and learned that one of them was orchestrating the whole thing.

No one dared to say anything.

Monokuma rubbed it in their faces, saying that despair was the most wonderful feeling in this world. He told them to rest because the killing game would continue very soon.

The ride in the elevator was silent. Shuichi looked at the spot Tenko was when they went to the trial room, now empty. He didn’t know her well, but that was not a reason not to feel bad for sending her to her death. A painful one, that is.

Some looked almost indifferent, but perhaps it was not to show their weakness.

A majority of the group decided to go straight to bed, but Shuichi decided to walk for a while, to get some fresh air.

After some time he laid on the ground, staring at the sky beyond the giant iron cage. He almost felt like sleeping here but knew this was a bad idea. He was lost in thoughts until a familiar voice talked to him.

“Can’t sleep?”

Shuichi turned around. It was Kaito. Both sat down next to each other.

“I just wanted some fresh air.”

“I get you.”

They went silent for a while, but it was fine. Perhaps just the other’s presence was enough.

“The game’s already started, huh?”

Kaito didn’t even expect an answer. That was more of a statement than a question.

“Tenko… Has faith in us. She told us we were strong but…” the smaller boy’s voice trailed off.

“You can’t help but think this isn’t over?” the taller one finished the sentence.

“Yeah. I don’t think Monokuma is gonna give us a time limit again, but I know things aren’t gonna get better.”

Kaito couldn’t even argue with him. He got up and offered his hand to Shuichi. “I know this whole situation sucks, but perhaps we should stick together for now, yeah?”

Shuichi looked at him, surprised by this change of attitude and took the other’s hand to get up. “Alright. Thanks a lot Kaito.”

They both returned to their dorms. They saw Kokichi and Himiko sitting further away in the courtyard. Unlike the other times Shuichi saw them, it looked like Kokichi was trying to reassure Himiko, who was feeling down, even though he tried to keep a distance between them.

Tomorrow would be another day.

#ndrv3 #danganronpa v3 #ndrv3 au #beta au #main story

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chromatic-lamina · 4 years

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mimizuka—kill him so atrociously, so wretchedly

Okay, now this talk about ear severing above might seem to be a shout-out to Reservoir Dogs, and Reservoir Dogs might have been a shout out to Kyoto in 1597 when Japanese forces under Hideyoshi Toyotomi pushed into Korea, hoping to then go further into China (or it could just be a shout-out to ear-severing lunatics in general, or some iconic reference I know nothing about).

According to one source, bringing back (pickled) severed heads for bounties was kinda cumbersome, because there were too many of them and they were heavy—they took up too much space on the ships.

So, it was decided that ears sufficed but, because people have two, generally speaking, noses were then the preferred option to avoid rorts. Mimi 耳 means ear, and in Kyoto there is a mound (zuka) with a shrine atop, which is actually the resting place for more severed noses than ears.

It was previously name hanazuka, or nose mound. The thought of a resting place for severed ears was somehow the less horrific of the two, so it was renamed.

Most appendages were taken from slain corpses, but because there was money to be made and prestige to be had by a large ‘body’ count, not all the people who lost an ear or nose were actually dead. And many defaced weren’t soldiers, but citizens. The monument still exists in what is reported to be a sleepy suburb of Kyoto. Google maps will show you a playground right beside it. It’s not well-known, however. The picture below from wikipedia makes it seem more impressive than it is. The history is downright grimdark fascinating though.

Picture source.

One Piece is built on a dark history, and this particular allusion could be to something else entirely, but it always puzzled me why Vergo made such a definitive statement to bring back one of Law’s ears to prove he’d killed him, when he and Doffy discussed how best to off a traitorous Law, so I went digging.

Hideyoshi Toyotomi was active in the Sengoku Era (period of warring states), so maybe that supports the idea. By no means am I an expert on Japanese history. Toyotomi was praised for his compassion by giving the body parts a Buddhist resting place and ordering priests to pray for the souls of their owners, and even though Sengoku might be a period of war, One Piece’s Sengoku’s devil fruit formation is that of a Buddha...hmm.

Anyway, I worked a mimizuka reference into a story chapter where Doflamingo, the (false or true?) King of Dressrosa, has one at the back of the palace. That story’s pretty bleak, so I won’t link. But yeah, soldiers proved their martial valour to Hideyoshi Toyotomi by bringing back heads, ears or noses. Of course those panels above have Vergo’s absentmindedness adding humour and chill (like, not the cool kind) to the exchange, but he’s the most loyal of the loyal.

Hundreds of thousands of Chinese and Koreans died and the estimated 38,000 noses preserved at the shrine are a small percentage of those actually slaughtered.

The links above are to wikipedia and to an amusing planet article written eleven months ago (which draws heavily from the forum link below). This forum question and discussion is really interesting. Make sure you read the comments, because there’s a lot of information in them. And, this 1997 NY Times article covers a lot of it too. I know it’s a long time ago, but not as far back as 1597.

This tidbit layers that murderous pink bastard even more (and I do love a good villain), and his trusty lapdog. Law was lucky Vergo never got to go Van Gogh on him (though squeezing hearts is obviously a bastard move).

#one piece #one piece meta #opmeta #op meta #trafalgar law #vergo #donquixote doflamingo #mimizuka #hideyoshi toyotomi #my stuff #my writing #chromalami #punk hazard #chromameta

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thegeminisage · 10 months

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doing a dog sidequest in zelda and i STILL cant pet them. got the ember trousers tho!!! i bet the whole outfit rules i cant wait to see it

wait wait these guys found a bottle...dont tell me its another gerudo love letter lol

oooh clues to the fierce deity armor...i found some already but that's COOL. and i gotta come back to get the sword even tho i snagged it with amiibo already lol

i've decided to clean up some shrines i've neglected to do...i promised myself i'd do more story but i never have TIME to sit down and enjoy it!!

this shrine by snowfield stable was absolutely delightful. 10/10. it feels like such a proper zelda dungeon

omg lol the well here is frozen

FAIRIES........man thats so cool. the way their light works in this game is absolutely stunningly beautiful. i wish they came in different colors like oot

always gotta grab a few seeds wherever i am but now it's time for A Different Shrine

i've got maybe 6-7 shrines i activated but did not do, and 2 shrines i did do but didn't get the chest at.....in hebra lol that was early game bs. "oh i want to have fun now i'll get the chests later" the literal devil talking smh

GOT MY LAST STAMINA WHEEL........taking a break 4 now but man am i ever stoked!!! my "being is overflowed with vigor" apparently. nice.

omg i never realized it but yunobo got added to the goron city statue!!

daruk looks like he's dabbing lol (i'm taking a pic of it for a sidequest)

death mountain intimidates me so i'm biting the bullet and heading to lanayru - i'm working my way from hateno up around the south/east side of the mountain. and i guess from there gradually towards kakariko, although i'm saving the ones in kakariko proper for later

IT'S NAYDRA HEY GIRL

good lord that horn went all the way back down to the ocean lol

omg my map says there's a letter in a bottle here...i see it now, but i can't believe i didn't see it when i was getting korok seeds before

i cheated and i know where the cave is, so i'm not gonna follow the brightbloom seeds. i'm going that way anyway on my korok journey and i don't want to do it twice in a row. koroks robbed me of doign this quest organically!! oh well. it's my own fault for looking at "user contributed" on the map lol

dragging my bike around in this cave with me bc my supplies are so desperately low lol. idw it to respawn i JUST made it

oh........................i don't know if i can get it back out lol

i did it!! it would have been less trouble to make a new bike which sort of defeats the purpose but whatever

mapla point, my old enemy...when i had 899 seeds in botw, here was the missing one

i can see the brightbloom seed trail from here! it's quite beautiful actually, especially at night. the reflections on the dark water..........

i wish i could shoot arrows while riding the bike/any vehicle. that would fucking rule

if theres one thing i do like about koroks its how the boulder rolling puzzles from botw became these put the boulder OUT of the hole into the tree puzzles. really good subversion since rolling boulders into holes is now completely doable with ultrahand without any effort or thinking at all. and thank god for that frankly.

i thot maybe this cave guy would turn out to be a yiga but he was legit lol good for him

ok, before i tackle lanayru proper i need more FANS........always out of mf supplies around here smh

the gacha i use for fans also gives out portable pots and flame emitters, at what feels like a higher rate...i don't use flame emitters often but it's nice to know there will never come a time when i'm not able to cook lol

49 fans, but only 9 steering sticks! if only there was a gacha that gave out nothing BUT fans and steering sticks...bc soon i'll have to go load up on THOSE

kinda good that i need fan refills so often tho bc from there i go straight down to this construct camp and then into the mining cave to trade zonaite for crystalized charges AND there's zonaite mining in there...a good thing to do regularly. i don't have as many problems finding zonaite as i do with that middle step of trading it for crystalized charges lol. i kind of wish they hadn't added that in there

ugh, off to lanayru we go.

it's fine. i have snowboots now, and so many fire arrows

WAIT DROP EVERYTHING STAR PIECE

lmao. warp into lanayru warp out of lanayru

oh my god i left at 2:55am i can't BELIEVE i made it in time. thank you, bike. thank you, dark link armor

ugh. ok. back to. lanayru

first stop of COURSE back to the wisdom spring. girl i finally have that claw

done. one down two to go........i have the claws i just never wind up at the springs lol. i never want to go near the quarry again <3

AWWW addison is here shivering in the cold...he says he eats food to deal with the weather conditions but man!!! buddy!!!!!

love it when he gives me muddlebuds. king

accidentally dropped my bike off the side of the mountain lol. i used recall on it just in time but it went too far before i canceled and dropped into a lizalfos camp. life is so textured

spotted naydra coming out of her hole (and doing just fine). beautiful! sadly not chasing her at this time though rip in peace the mats i could have farmed

plotting my next few korok seeds and apparently there's not one but THREE sets of gloom hands near one of them (purifier lake). no fucking thank you i'm quitting before i get to that one. a problem for tomorrow me

maybe if i'm careful i can fly over them...? eugh there's a shrine near there too. why do they make certain areas scary in both games!! there was a lynel here in botw!!!!

oh it's zelda 🥺🥺🥺 she's so far away though, i can't go chasing her either...babygirl i miss you

ugh fine ok it's the next seed and i don't wanna quit yet...i'm just gonna fly over them. you have to be kinda close for them to spawn...hopefully it will be fine...

yea tho i walk through the shadow of death or whatever i fear no evil if i can fly the fuck over it

successful landing. no hands so far. if i don't move much while i solve this block puzzle. OF ALL THINGS. maybe it will be fine

I DID IT......

AND it looks like the shrine is underground. huge win for me

wow! and one long trip thru an underground road later here i am at the good old promenade. a great place to either start or fuck off from tomorrow <3

#personal #loz blogging #totk lb #totk spoilers #sorry i did the whole day in one post again

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mrslittletall · 4 years

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Alright, a quick rating of the Zelda titles:

The Legend of Zelda (NES) I actually only played this game when I was 15, because we didn’t had it on our original NES, then sold it and only got the game when we bought a used NES. For such an old game, it holds up pretty well. It is fun to play, but it has some hiccups, like totally random bombable walls in the overworld. I was lucky to have found an old map from some 1989 Nintendo magazine. I rate this game as a solid 7/10. Adventure of Link (NES) Ah, the black sheep. For some reason, they thought they needed to make this game into a sidescroller which were pretty popular at the time, but imo took away from the Zelda experience. It also is hard, super hard, one of the games that named the trope “nintendo hard”. I actually never made it past the second boss. So I never played through the game, but watched others play. I think they shouldn’t have changed the formula so much after only one game, but it isn’t a bad game per se, just one that doesn’t fit. I give it a 5/10. A Link to the Past (SNES) Now that game took everything the original had and made it BETTER. The overworld is huge, the music is stellar, the game even tells a story, a bit hidden, but it is there, it established quite a few staples in the series like the heart pieces and some leitmotifs like Zelda’s lullaby and Hyrule Castle theme. And then the game takes its huge world and makes it in a dark mirror, now that was amazing! The only criticism I have? The Dark World dungeons are too similar, but other than that: 10/10

Link’s Awakening (GB/GBC) Ok, this game was my first Zelda, so it gets the nostalgia bonus. I ADORE this game. Now that I am older, it is obvious, that the game started as fangame, but whatever. It works super well with the tiny console it came out on (the Game Boy), is super fun, has well thought out dungeons which revolve around a theme and also adds two new more staples in Zelda games: The quirky characters and the creepy undertones. LA has a really big twist in the second half and it is kind of depressing when you know it, but I love that scene and the music that plays in it. That game was surprisingly mature for it’s cute limited style. It also gave us the ballad of the windfish, though... In my heart it gets a 11/10, but objectively it gets an 8/10. Ocarina of Time (N64) Ehhhh... Nah, it isn’t the best Zelda ever. I liked the game, but even at age 11 it felt just like A Link to the Past in 3D, even less, because OoT is very linear. LA was linear too, but it had the game boy excuse. What I like about OoT is the focus on more story, the races of Hyrule are more in the focus and the music is gorgeous, as well as the jump in 3D was well done, but I wished they hadn’t given Link the autojump. Ugh. It’s a solid title, 7/10. Majora’s Mask (N64) Now hold my beer, that game looks so stressful, but it is GOOD. Seriously, this game is amazing. It takes a timed countdown and makes it WORK! It isn’t just a reskin of OoT, because of a lot of clever new mechanics, the transformation masks. The story is a bit weird and also dark. Jeez, this game is the darkest Zelda game ever, but wow, it’s also deep as hell. Music? FANTASTIC! Actually my fav score from all the games. Majora’s Mask earns a 10/10. Wind Waker (Game Cube) Adorable, cute, has some really cool twists, music is fantastic, art style is timeless and the sailing wasn’t boring! Like Majora’s Mask, that game lives a lot of sidequests, but I really liked it and I liked the slow reveal of just what the world of WW is. I loved it on the Game Cube and even though I only played through it in like 2014 (because I deleted my save game and started over, wtf?), I think this is one amazing title. It get’s a 10/10. Because I loved the sailing. Twilight Princess (GC/Wii) Well, that game just screams OoT at me at every single moment. I still love it. I played it after I had a a bit of a fallout with single player games and went raiding in WoW for a year straight. Going back to just being single player was amazing. Ok, the wii mote was a bit meh, but the game was good. I liked Wolf Link and Midna and the Twilight Realm and all the references. I felt at home and liked to see a more mature approach at the story, even though this game isn’t as dark as MM, it still counts to the darker ones. But I don’t like every little thing about it... I give it a 8/10 though. Oracle of Ages/Oracle of Seasons (GBC) Yeah, they are weird. Yes, I love them nonetheless. Music is a disappointment though, but love the idea, characters and dungeons as well as some of the new items. 7/10 for both. Phantom Hourglass (DS) Oh, come on, the game isn’t that bad, but I admit, the phantom hourglass temple was uuuugh. 6/10 and one point is for Linebeck alone. Spirit Tracks (DS) Now that is what Phantom Hourglass should have been! A clever story, a nice inclusion of Zelda, the touch screen controls work well, the train is HELLA fun, tons of sidestuff to do, stellar OST, really fun villain. This games works and it works well. 9/10, just because the pan flute was awful and I got dizzy by all that blowing. Skyward Sword (Wii) Master, your batteries are low. Shut up, Phai! I want to like this game, I really want, but, but... I had to recalibrate my Wiimote every 20 minutes! The motion controls made the game unneccesarry clunky and Phai is the most annoying sidekick of all time. The story was cool though, I loved learning how the master sword came to be and it had some really clever dungeon ideas, like the time based ones. Also, Ghirahim as well as Ballad of the Goddess. I give it a 5/10 though, because of the damn motion controls! A Link between Worlds (3DS) It is AlttP with a twist. A good twist. It used the 3D effect of the 3DS and played with 2D and 3D perspective for puzzles. It took the story of ALttP and made it good. It made the OST better. the dungeons were short enough to be played in a short session, good for a handheld fixed the same looking dungeons. 11/10, really, that game ist fantastic BotW (Switch/Wii U) I had some troubles with the game at first, but then? I started to adore it. The world is HUGE, like, never ever have we seen such a huge world, oof. And there is actually stuff to do. Shrines to find, Koroks to find, monster camps, animals to hunt, unfixed events! The game is super non linear and it’s amazing! It is a whole new look on Hyrule and on the formula and it works. It has a few annoying things (climbing in rain, weapons breaking, some foes overpowered), but it is super fun and I want the second installment now. 9/10

#the legend of zelda #not counting the four sword titles because they are basically multiplayer #I didn't forget one I hope

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ayakashiramblings · 5 years

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WTFur-Real Episode 2: Nachi’s Real Age

Right under our noses, in homes, cities, sofas and even laps. One in five of us owns a cat. Yet, only one person in the entire Capital knows what is called…. a Nekomata.

The passion for loving a Felis Silvestris Catus yokai has yet to take off. Dozens of experts just have to attribute such a blasphemous phenomenon to the fact that… it is hard to determine a true Nekomata’s age. That, and maybe the fact we don’t even know if it is an Ayakashi or not.

Is his age merely defined by the very lips that move to meow… but like a newborn kitten instead of a teenaged cat? Will we have to accept that his frolicking in the fields is to be expected of long-honed instincts or new urges surging through a young body? How are we to capture the timely essence of this puzzling creature? To do that, we…

You.

RA! Yura wants you to do this.

Damn it.

Gaku… are you still mad at me?

No, I am simply wondering how did you restore this in perfect condition with that wand of yours while I had to hunt down all those expensive components to make ANOTHER unnecessary one. Nope, no big deal. So, what are we doing?

We are turning into Ayakashi detectives, unravelling this feline enigma from the mystic mountain shrines to a Milk Hall swarmed by dozens of dust bunnies and even random streets Nachi just has to travel on.

Our journey begins here, at home, and the first piece of information I offer is a confession:

I know Nachi cheats on his diet.

A lot of my research takes place out in the field so I can study how he moves in his natural environment. Studying an animal in the wild without disturbing his natural behaviour has never been easy, but over the past few years, ever since I turned five, I have learnt to gather intel… from sources that he encounters along his perilous journey for defying everything the veterinarian has told me to give him as we follow him.

With a bounce of a ballerina, senses so acute, he can pinpoint all the food coming his way from every vendor… dried sardine, vegetables, flowers…

Damn, this guy gets a parade every time he’s here.

Here, it seems, Nachi will now take a cat-nap right in front of our first stop: Milk Hall Raccord. We must hurry to meet someone who could possibly provide valuable insight into the shared history of the Nekomata and the people he has entranced.

Living for a long time (longevity) and the growing old (ageing) are two entities fused at the hip (original or replacement). Those very processes elude several fine specimens. Like how living a century is something all too familiar for this Domeki proprietor: Oji-san.

Here, he is busily practising his energy-saving methods with his Tengu-branded cigars. He always welcomes customers, and that is what we are to him at this very moment stepping through the empty halls of Raccord.

"Ah, bright eyes and... Gaku? Weird pair. Guess the 2nd date went well?"

Dementia is seriously creeping into his poor body just minutes into the very serious interview.

"Just so you know, this interview it better not be the omurice recipe because if Aoi ever finds out the secret ingredient, I know he will kill me in my sleep."

"We just want to ask you some questions about... what you have seen."

"Well, I saw this pretty lady..."

Ok, leave this one to me. It needs a blunt touch.

"No. We mean, when you were younger. Like, way much younger. And if you ever saw an unusual cat."

"Exactly, I was talking about a pretty lady. A pretty cat lady."

Who would have thought at the very first stage of our travels we would chance upon this rare fountain of knowledge? Fountain being that he is flooding all of our senses with some tales of all the ladies the used-to-be-young Oji once tried to court. We silently sip on the milk in serious contemplation… of how this lady has… and I quote from the notes I am taking… ‘long hair’, ‘manicured nails’, ‘pearly whites’, ‘an amazing… derriere’, ‘poor balance’, ‘was a vegan’...

"Wait, you said it was a cat lady?"

"Yup."

"She... sounds a bit too human."

"Oh, she was one. And she is dead by now I think."

"... Then why did you say she was a cat lady."

"Because she loved showing off her claws. Rawr, she was feisty."

It was then we knew… we should have gone with Ginnojo and Kuro first.

Then, after what seems like an eternity, the very pair marches in.

Here is the cool man who works at Kusanagi Books, the small book lenders next to this very restaurant and witnessing legendary events.

Why does the title card say Gin-Gin?

One word. Kuro.

"Hmmm.. A nekomata in the Edo period..."

"Truth be told, I haven't even encountered that many ayakashi species. It was only when the era ended that I saw more coming into the Capital."

Alas, it seems that Nachi has not crept into the hearts...

"Then again, I did meet a Bakeneko once."

"Wait, really? What about it?"

"It screamed a lot."

…

...

"The blood was more purple than red."

Make. Sure. Nachi. Never. Ever. Sees. This.

Noted. Cue transition?

Please.

Here we meet another loyal regular and possible informant: Kuro! He is a performer in the wildly successful Lorenzi Circus Troupe, this happy-go-lucky guy can put a smile on anyone’s face with one of his signature hugs.

D’aww.

Gack!

Hugs that should have embraced the fluffiness of a beloved Nekomata in his younger days.

“Hmmm… I have hugged a tiger!”

… I am changing the questions.

Go ahead, I give up.

“Ok, since everyone is gathered here… ahem, to put it lightly, how does it feel being more… senior or junior to the others?”

“It’s interesting learning from the others and seeing how the Capital has grown. Nobody even knows that more Ayakashi are coming to the city so we remain vigilant.”

“But also welcome them. You youngsters these days have all sorts of interesting things.”

“It’s great hearing all sorts of stories from Old Man and Gin-Gin! And they are living proof!”

Could that be Nachi’s feelings that have sustained his cute, fuzzball form? The indomitable thirst of justice, love and patriotism? Oh, such loyalty only possible in...

Er… MC?

Shh… this is getting good.

Yeah, so is Nachi getting good-to-go for home.

Gagh! After that cat!

MC, are you sure you can handle the camera and cue cards? It's pretty bulky.

Oh, I'm not holding the cue cards, Kuya is!

... He is just snoring... Wait, there is something floating above... Oh wow, he is actually... lifting them with his snores…. Also, what is he doing here?

Koga had some business with my father so he dropped him off here. Also, Koga’s distracting Nachi with petting him as Tama.

Indeed, observe how Nachi/Tama’s head lolls back, eyes closed in pure bliss as Sir Koga gets just that right spot. That’s it, Koga, scratch it. Scratch it while we scratch the surface… of Nachi’s 9 lives with two beautifully aged instruments.

“Hehe, oh my lady. Ne’er is there a dull moment when thou art beside me.”

The mysterious Yura used to dwell apart from society in an abandoned shrine. Having lived for over 1,000 years, his wisdom is an invaluable asset to the team and now, could be our greatest asset in this mystery.

“Maybe because she was dull enough to forget that we had known her past-self.”

A machinist by trade, this genius craftsman is known throughout the Capital by his pseudonym “Mr Kakyu.” Frankly, Gaku should have been called ‘Silver Tongue Tangled By MC’.

“By the way, how is the popcorn brother?”

“Sweet enough to sate my cravings. Many thanks, brother Gaku and milady MC!”

As Yura happily indulges in the caramel treat, he reveals,

“Well, there is one thing that I think is pertinent to this fine entertainment form... pray, may I know what are those Nachi dons in his human form?”

A cheap abomination. We already did that with Kuya.

“Hmm… well, the only cat I saw with thee 1000 years ago wast just a kitten. Weak at yond, and not coequal medicine couldst solveth half of its ailments. Only thy loveth hath kept that him going.”

“I… didn’t really interact with Nachi in the past that much if he really was that cat 1000 years ago. All I remember was him tailing you even though he was bo-legged.”

“Hey, MC, why aren’t you narrating?”

“... Sorry, just had something in my eye.”

“What? Oh, don’t worry MC! I got you something!” came the boyish exclamation out of nowhere.

To MC’s shock, Nachi had suddenly thrust a whole bouquet of flowers, vegetables… and dried sardines and chicken wings into her face.

“Hope you like it, MC! I got it from all these nice people!”

Of course, he is enshrouded by the warmest of sunlight and MC’s arms at that moment. So, we have come to the stunning conclusion… he is a baby to be protected. People say you choose a dog but the cat chooses you.

What people can’t say but I can say is that Nachi is the best friend you can have in any book of your life. From Dawn to Night.

Epilogue

Nachi tried to get both cameras working with his claws. This time, not even the Kagura bell wand could save them.

We then deduced he is probably really one of those naughty teenagers.

A/N: OMG. I did it. I... dunno if it is worthy of being a series though, LOL. But this has been fun! I hope you guys like it and if you didn’t or found this weird (because I did at some points), feel free to shoot a message here.

Bold: Gaku’s voiceover

Italicised: MC’s voiceover

Normal: Characters conversing/MC or Gaku narrating

#ayakashi romance reborn #ayakashi: romance reborn #arr #ayakashirr #ayakashi rr #ayakashi nachi #voltage headcanon #voltage inc #voltage otome

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vgwriter · 5 years

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Breath of the Wild: A Review

A Little History

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild came out in 2017 to universal acclaim and helped to successfully launch the Nintendo Switch. While that is far from a surprise, (the Zelda series is one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful franchises of all time) Breath of the Wild does take the series in a much different direction. It's focus is almost completely on exploration and is the most nonlinear of the series. It is the second biggest jump the series has made outside of going 3D. So, does it work? Well, the rest of the world and their mother seem to think so but here's my take on this game.

What I Loved

*SPOILERS*

#1-A Story to Remember

It seems odd to focus on the story when the game doesn't but behind the vast world and great characters is a subtle yet amazingly well executed story. The player finds Link in a DBZ healing pod after he is just awakened from a hundred year slumber of healing. He is told by the disembodied voice of British Zelda to defeat Calamity Ganon but wait, there's more! Turns out Link has amnesia from the fight he had 100 years ago trying to protect Zelda. After obtaining the Sheikah Slate (the games multi-tool), the player discovers there are photos Zelda locked in the Slate to help Link recover his memory. This is how the story is unfolded for the player. The struggles of the Five Champions and Princess Zelda are seen through flashbacks that explain how Hyrule went to sh*t. It is a simple and traditional method but it is effective when coupled with the games minimalist piano soundtrack and isolated atmosphere. It gives a heartbreaking insight into just how lonely and broken this version of Hyrule is and how much Link and the others lost.

#2-The Puzzles

The games dungeons are split up into two catagories: shrine and divine beasts. The shrines are smaller and have a variety of challenges in their 120 locations while the devine beasts are 4 large challenges with several moving parts. Most shrines are designed to be easy to follow but still make the player feel creative. This feeling of creativity stems from the developers themselves that made each level doable in multiple ways. Each dungeon is designed to test the players use of the games mechanics, the player can play it how it was designed or try to tackle it from another angle. One example from my personal playthrough was using a bomb arrow to light fire because I couldn't figure out how to light a torch through a gate. It worked but probably not the way it was designed to. While not every shrine has a variety of ways to solve them (mostly the trial by combat shrines), they are all intriguing challenges designed with fun in mind and feel rewarding when completed. The divine beasts are a similar story with a few minor details. The player must first find the map of the dungeon and then go about reclaiming terminals to free the divine. The map is a 3D rendering of the dungeon with an interactive portion that moves key parts of the beast around. This was a great design choice because it challenges the player to think of the dungeon as a moving puzzle and to consider how moving the pieces will help them advance to the boss.

#3-The World and Character Design

To say the world is stunning is an understatement. The design of the enviroment feels so natural to explore and interact with that finding Koroks is like spoting cognitive distortion in a high school drop outs racist rant on Facebook. I usually find map towers annoying in games like Assassin's Creed but in BOTW they are better integrated into the games exploration. Some towers are actually challenging to climb if Link doesn't have enough stamina or if the player just throws him onto a tower without looking for enemies first. They are like little challenges all their own and it is a great take on something that has been bland and stale since it was first introduced (to me at least) in AC1. Outside of the towers is the vast world that pulls the player into it with rewarding exploration in cute and helpful ways. The shrines are an obvious reason to explore but there are also Koroks, fun and unique side quests, and just cool stuff to find as well. The variety and density of things to do justifies the games gigantic map. It is one of the few games to live up to the idea of an open-world and keep it interesting throughout a 100 hour playthrough.

The art design, oh my cel shaded god, it's amazing. I'm not gonna pretend like I'm some art history major but the regional designs do some pretty interesting things with the enviroment. The five peoples in Hyrule have all appeared in previous titles but have been tweaked in some way for BOTW. The Gorons have a theme of raw strength throughout their entire section of the map, from their weapons to the steel planks on the streets of Goron City. The Rito's design is more centered on their freedom and ability to fly with the entire settlement resembling a nest. Seriously, everything has feathers. The Zora have an elegance in everything they own from the large city built from one large carving to the silver weapons. The Gerudo seem to be a shell of their former selves like the Hylians with ruins surrounding their two settlements. Their quality in construction and bejewelment of everything that shines shows what matters most to them, beauty and effectiveness. The Hylian design is European with a mix of far east in certain pockets. Hyrule castle is a great dungeon that actually lives up to the title of castle. Kakariko village is a weird area that doesn't fit into the Hylian design but c'mon, you can't go wrong with far eastern architecture. Each region has its own design that both fit its surroundings and its people and feels natural, like the people and land are truly living together. It's impressive that Nintendo was able to pull that off because it is not easy to do.

The characters are simply iconic, mostly. The four champions don't get a lot of screen time but they use what they have effectively. Daruk is a stubborn strong man with a great admiration for strength and brotherhood. Mipha is the white mage of the group with a thing for Link (which I prefer to Zelda). Revali is the arrogent prick of the group that comes around eventually. Urbosa is basically the group mom, being the most mature out of everyone. Each of these characters are simple but fill their role effectively and are all quite likeable (even Rivali). Their present day counterparts aren't as memorable though. I mean, outside of Sidon. Sidon makes me feel like I can do anything just by smiling. But everyone else I had to look up for this review. Yunobo is some shy kid that finally lives up to his potential. Teba is a proud warrior but really not that memorable. Riju comes close to being memorable but I still had to look her up. Outside of the champions and their descendents, Kilton made an impression on me. The Bolson company had one of my favorite quests and some of the funnier cutscenes. Each side quest character has that quaint old fashioned rpg vacuum writing. They all live in their own world and interact with Link for one reason.

Overall, the characters and how they interact with the enviroment are what make this game a masterpiece. The mechanics and story are what make it a great game but the world design is that extra step where most great games stumble to me.

#4-The Combat

The combat is simple but has a multitude of uses against the games enemies. Link has three moves: attack, shield, and shoot. Everything beyond this simple moveset depends on how the player equips Link or uses the Slate Ruins. If an enemy is mostly ice, fire weapons are super effective and vice versa. Thunder disarms anyone, including Link. It gets better than simple elemental weapons. If you bring a cucco to a battle and an enemy hits that cucco, a swarm of bird will rain hell on that unassuming bokoblin. Seriously, that alone gives this a 5/5! Also, the enviroment can be used as a weapon if it's set up correctly. If Link fells a tree and lines up the path right, it will attack the enemies. There is just so much to do in this game and it all works off of three simple actions. Perfect.

#5-Misc.

Some other things that stood out enough to mention but not enough to make a paragraph. The crafting is useful and not intrusive. Link can buy a house, which is always fun. The outfits are all great designs and useful in their respective enviroment. There are throwback outfits from previous titles (mostly through amiibos) and that is always cool. Zelda became a scholar and that was a great take, not just on Zelda but on the idea of fictional princesses in general. Link can cut grass. The variety of weapons is astounding. Oh, and uh, all this fits on a small little card no bigger then the last knuckle of my thumb.

What I Didn't Like

#1-The Weapons Fragile Weaponinity

The weapons break way too easy. That's it. That is the only thing I have to complain about this game. That shouldn't be all I have to complain about. I should have two more points to make at least but I don't. Nintendo has made a masterpiece.

The Score

This game shouldn't exsist, it's too good. The gameplay is simple but versatile. The enviroment is peaceful and relaxing while also being desolate and dangerous and this makes it fun to explore. The story and the enviroment fit so well together and compliment each other every time they connect. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a 5/5 and the definitive way to make open-ended games.

#legend of zelda #zelda #botw #nintendo #video games #reviews #spoilers #5/5 #prince sidon #lady mipha #mipha x link #urbosa #daruk

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mamabearcat · 5 years

Text

The Importance of Ramen Ch 11

Kagome giggled as she grasped Inuyasha's elbow, steadying him as he almost overbalanced in the geta he was wearing. A frustrated growl slipped past his lips.

"How are you doing this Kagome?" he muttered, watching as she walked along in the raised platform shoes without any problem, the two wooden teeth making a click-clack noise as they met the hard surface of the footpath.

Kagome laughed quietly into her sleeve as he almost rolled his foot again. She felt a tiny bit guilty that she was actually enjoying not being the clumsy one for a change. Inuyasha was usually so graceful in the way that he leapt about so effortlessly; it was novel to see him struggling with something physical.

"Practice", she smiled. "Remember, I've been wearing these to festivals since I was a little girl. Maybe Mama should have bought you flat ones, like Souta wears."

She looked behind her to see Mama, Grandpa and Souta bringing up the rear, each in their festival yukata; Grandpa's in traditional indigo stripes, Mama's in swirls of pale blue and silver, and Souta in pale grey with purple dragons and an obnoxiously acid green obi. Souta clumped along noisily in his flat wooden geta; the wooden shoes slowed his usual bouncing a little, but not much. He tugged on Mama's sleeve.

"I love Bon Odori", he said excitedly.

Mama smiled at him. "I know you do Souta, you've only told me about ten times."

"I know, but I don't usually get to go out at night and look at stalls. Do you think they'll have the corn on the stick this year? The ones with furikake are the best! And the choco-bananas? Remember how last year I won an extra one playing Janken? That was awesome! And I bet Kenji that I could beat him at the Shateki stall." He raised his arms, imagining holding the rifle and aiming his cork bullet at a prize, and the defeated face of his best friend as the stall owner handed him his winnings.

Inuyasha chuckled at Souta's animated rush of words. "Someone's excited. I didn't understand half of what he said though."

Kagome looked at him puzzled, thinking about what he could mean, and then realised all the things that Souta had talked about; corn, chocolate, bananas, playing Janken, and shooting guns had all arrived in Japan after Inuyasha's time. Wait, when did the Portuguese start trading in Japan? Maybe there were guns. She was a little fuzzy on that one, but now was not the time to be thinking of all the dates she couldn't remember from history class.

Kagome looked around to see if anyone would notice, and then shyly took Inuyasha's hand in hers, lacing their fingers together. She was not quite used to the feeling of them being 'together' in public. Sure, she'd held his hand before, but that was as friends, before they were a couple. They were a couple, weren't they? Surely they were, especially after those kisses… An image of a gloating Kikyo holding Inuyasha in her arms popped into her head, and she took a deep breath in, shaking her head and dismissing that thought as quickly as she could. Tonight was about having fun together, and she would not let her stupid overthinking brain spoil it.

"Kagome?", asked Inuyasha uncertainly, taking in her sudden head movement and deep breath. He cursed the fact that his hearing wasn't good enough to check her heartbeat, that he couldn't smell if she was worried or scared. If only he had his usual heightened perception, he would have more of a clue about what might be troubling her.

She smiled back at him, ignoring his concerned look. "I could explain all the things that Souta mentioned, but it would be much more fun to show you." She shook the small pink and red drawstring purse dangling from her wrist, coins jingling. "Mama gave me some money to spend, so we're going to try everything!"

Inuyasha drew a plain black drawstring bag out of his obi sash. "Your Grandpa gave me some paper he said I could use to buy things for you; I wasn't sure if he was joking or not."

Kagome grinned. "We use paper money in this time, as well as coins. If Grandpa gave it to you, I'm sure it's fine." Inuyasha still looked a little unsure. "What's up?" she asked, squeezing his hand.

Inuyasha frowned, tucking the small bag back into his obi. "He said it was in payment for all the help I gave him clearing up his shed. Why would he pay me? I didn't help to get something for it. Mama asked if I could help him, and even though he can be an annoying old fart, he's not that bad, I didn't mind." His thoughts drifted back to Grandpa's tearful face, begging him to protect Kagome. He rubbed the back of his neck, uncertain eyes back on Kagome. "I'm not sure it feels right."

Kagome squeezed his hand again. "I'm sure it's fine. He wouldn't have given you any money if he didn't want to. Even though he won't admit it, he's not as strong as he used to be, and he would never ask Mama to carry something heavy that he couldn't lift himself. He probably really appreciated all your hard work." She giggled at Inuyasha's muttered "Keh" at her words of praise. A sudden increase in the level of noise in front of them alerted her, and she moved her attention back to their surroundings. "Look", she pointed, "here's the festival!"

The large open field in the middle of the park was covered in rows of small stalls with pathways in between. Even with his dulled senses, Inuyasha could smell a range of different foods, both savoury and sweet. The air was full of the chatter of people, talking and laughing, the sounds of meat sizzling on a grill, sellers calling out to people as they wandered in front of their stall. A group of small children ran past them, laughing, all wearing different masks to hide their faces; only the tengu and kitsune masks were familiar to Inuyasha. Behind all the noise of the festival, the steady thrum and screech of cicadas pulsed in the slowly dissipating humidity and heat of the day, the temperature cooling a little now that night had fallen.

A raised wooden platform stood in the middle of the area, lit by strings of coloured lanterns. A group of people were up there, all dressed in colourful yukata, some dancing and singing, some playing taiko drums to keep the beat. A large group of people were grouped in the flat area around the base of the platform, following the dance steps of the women on the stage, moving in a circle around it. Everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time.

Kagome squeezed his hand again, bringing his attention back to her. "So, what should we do first? Dancing or eating?"

Inuyasha sniffed the air, his mouth watering a little. "Definitely eating. What sort of food do they have here Kagome?"

They began walking towards the food stalls. Mama patted Kagome on the arm as her and Souta moved past, Souta tugging impatiently on Mama's other arm.

"Kagome, I'm taking Souta off to meet one of his friends, and Grandpa has a Go tournament planned with some of the older men from the library. Have a good time you two. I'm sure you'll bring her safely home Inuyasha."

They both waved at Mama's departing back, and without missing a beat Inuyasha kicked the wooden geta off his feet one at a time and into a nearby bush. Kagome laughed, hiding her loud giggles behind her sleeve. "Feel better?" she chuckled.

"Oh yeah", breathed Inuyasha. "Those weren't shoes, they were torture instruments." He closed his eyes and wiggled his toes in bliss against the soft green grass, cool against his feet after being rubbed a little raw by the fabric straps of the geta.

Kagome smiled, tugging on his hand to lead him over towards the food stalls again. "So, you were asking about the food. They usually serve the same sorts of things every year. I've made you futomaki sushi and inari in a lunchbox before, remember? And Mama's made teriyaki chicken and yaki soba for you at the shrine."

Inuyasha nodded, mouth watering again. "Yeah, I like both a those."

"How about you try some of the things that you haven't had before?" suggested Kagome. "Let's walk around and you can tell me to stop if you want to buy something to eat."

They strolled along the row of food stalls, Inuyasha sniffing as they went. He didn't think much of the okonomiyaki pancake, so Kagome ate most of it. They both ate a serving of takoyaki balls, which Inuyasha didn't mind.

He suddenly sniffed the air and dragged Kagome over to stop in front of a busy stall, the smell of sizzling chicken hovering in the air. Relenting at his pleading look, she bought him two servings of sticky teriyaki chicken, and he ate both, hardly chewing them in his enjoyment of getting them down as fast as possible.

They stopped in front of a stall selling a long yellow vegetable on sticks. "Inuyasha, you should try this! It's corn, you won't see it again where you come from."

"I dunno…" said Inuyasha. He wasn't overly fond of vegetables as a rule.

"You'll never know if you don't try it!", wheedled Kagome.

They ended up buying one serving to share. Inuyasha didn't hate it but disliked the way it got stuck in his teeth, so Kagome finished it off.

"That was good", she sighed, patting her stomach. Spotting another stall close by, she dragged Inuyasha off to one side, under the darkness of some tall trees and out of the flow of the crowd.

"Before we go to the next stall, I need to teach you a game", she said. "It's called Janken, and on this stall, if you win, you get an extra serve for free."

She curled Inuyasha's hand into a fist. "This is rock." She opened his hand up flat, thumb upwards, palm facing inwards. "This is paper." She curled his last two fingers and thumb back into his palm, so only his forefinger and middle finger were extended. "This is scissors."

She moved her own hand in a similar way, showing him the rock, paper and scissors again. "The way it works is, paper beats rock, because it wraps it, but rock beats scissors because it blunts them. Scissors beats paper because it cuts it. Do you understand?"

"Is there a sign for water, 'cause that would beat all those things", said Inuyasha. "Scissors would be rusty, paper would be wet, and rock would be worn away."

"Um, no", said Kagome, smiling. "I guess you're right about the water though. But what's the point of that, you'd always win?"

Inuyasha tugged her closer and laced his hands behind her back. "What's wrong with that?" he drawled, pushing her backwards gently so she was leaning up against the trunk of a large tree. "I like winning."

She looked up and gasped a little at the slightly predatory look in his brown eyes as he leant over her, dark hair shadowing his face. She glanced around uncertainly, but no one was paying them any attention.

"If we played now, Ka-go-me, and I won, what would you give me as a prize," he teased, bumping his nose against hers, and smiling at the pink staining her cheeks.

A sound behind them made him sigh and drop his arms from around her, as a group of people made their way over to the trees to find a place to sit and eat their food. He grabbed her hand and led her back to the crowd but turned his head towards her at the sound of Kagome's soft voice.

"Maybe, we could play later Inuyasha", she smiled, biting her bottom lip. Inuyasha groaned a little, and turned back towards the crowd, trying not to think about those little white teeth pressed against her soft skin of her lip. Wench! She totally knew how much he liked that. He squeezed her hand, trying to get his thoughts back onto food and away from other activities he'd like to be doing with his mouth right now.

Kagome's heart was beating fast. Would he have kissed her under the tree, with all these people around? She wasn't quite sure how she felt about that. Part of her writhed a little in embarrassment at the thought that someone she knew might see her kissing in public, but another part, the part that ran on adrenalin, was more than a little excited by the idea.

They made their way over to the choco-banana stall where Kagome paid for a banana and asked if she could try to win a free one. The seller, a muscular looking man in his late twenties, winked at her.

"Sure thing cutie", he said smiling. "If I win, do you think I could get your phone number too?"

Kagome's eyes narrowed, but before she had the chance to say anything Inuyasha stepped in front of her, blocking her from view, and holding out his fist in the rock shape, ready to take her place.

"Oho, a little man steps up to the plate instead of his girl", teased the seller. "Alright buddy, let's see what you got."

Inuyasha glared at the man, as Kagome whispered the right words to say in his ear.

"Saisho wa guu!" they began and then, "Janken Pon!" The sellers hand moved to the shape of scissors, while Inuyasha's hand stayed steady as a rock.

The seller grinned good naturedly. "Looks like luck's on your side little man", he said, handing another chocolate covered banana on a stick to him.

Inuyasha took the banana in one hand and Kagome's hand in his other. Leading her away, he glanced over his shoulder at the seller and said nonchalantly, "Luck's got nothin' to do with it, old man. My fist always wins." He bit into the banana, making a face at the mushy texture, but had to smile at Kagome's hysterical giggles.

"Maybe I should teach Janken to Kouga too", she teased, as soon as she had calmed down.

"Nah, not worth it. I already know how to beat him with my fist", said Inuyasha in a dry tone, setting off Kagome's giggles again. After a few more exploratory bites, he decided he liked the banana after all, and finished off the rest of his before Kagome had a chance to eat more than a few mouthfuls.

"Hey Kagome, do you think they sell shaved ice around here anywhere?" he asked.

"Shaved ice?", she repeated, her voice muffled around her last mouthful of banana. She glanced around, then pointed to a long line of people waiting in front of a colourful stall. Blue, red and white banners on the front of the stall flapped in the evening breeze that was starting to cool down the heat of the day, but the dip in the temperature didn't seem to have any effect on the amount of people wanting to buy a frosty treat.

"Are you sure you want to wait in line?" asked Kagome. "I'm starting to get a little full anyway. We could go over and try a couple of the games instead if you like?"

"Nuh uh", said Inuyasha, pulling Kagome over to take their place at the end of the line. "I wanna buy some for you." Seeing the questioning look in Kagome's eyes, he blushed a little and muttered, "Your mama said your papa bought her shaved ice to eat the first time they were at a festival together, and I wanna buy some for you, alright?"

Kagome stepped closer to him, squeezing his arm. "Thanks Yash. I'd really like that", she whispered, her eyes bright. She was more than a little touched that he would think of doing something like that.

She rested her head on his shoulder for a moment. This soft side of him, that she had only just discovered, would it all go away once they went back to the past? She knew she would understand that private moments together would be few and far between, especially travelling with first class gossips like Miroku, Sango and Shippou, but she hoped that there would still be some moments. An image of Kikyou popped into her head again, and she pushed it away angrily.

She shifted from one foot to the other, leaning on Inuyasha a little more as they slowly moved forwards in the line.

"What's up wench?", asked Inuyasha, taking in the way she was leaning to one side, resting her weight against him. "Your leg's hurtin' ain't it. Do you need to go home?"

Kagome sighed, smiling at him. "I can't get anything past you, can I dog boy? It aches a little, but I think I'll be okay if I sit down for a while. Besides, we can't go home yet. Dancing, remember?"

Inuyasha ignored her teasing look and his sharp eyes spotted an empty bench not too far away, under the cover of the trees at the edge of the park. During the day it would be a shady place to sit out of the sun, but now it looked peaceful and calm, away from the hustle and bustle of the festival. He pointed it out to Kagome. "Go sit down now, and I'll wait in line. I'll bring it over to you."

"Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"It's not rocket science", Inuyasha huffed. He wasn't exactly sure what that phrase meant, but Kagome often said it when she thought something would be easy, so it seemed applicable. "Go sit down, before your leg starts hurting more."

Smiling at his use at one of her phrases, she did as he asked, limping a little as she went. She sat down on the bench and stretched her injured leg out. Her thigh did hurt, a dull ache with a pulling, tugging feeling deep within the muscle which she was sure had to do with her body healing, but there was no way she was going home. She was having a wonderful time with Inuyasha, talking and laughing, just like a normal couple would. She smiled a little at that thought. Normal was the last word that she would use to describe their relationship, but there was nothing she wanted more.

She must have been thinking for longer than she realised, because when she looked up again, Inuyasha was standing in front of her, two paper cups of ice held in his hands.

"Here", he said, holding hers out with a slightly sheepish expression, "I forgot to ask what flavour you wanted, so I got all of them."

Kagome looked at the veritable rainbow of ice in his hands. Strawberry, melon, lemon, mango, lime and bright blue syrup decorated the ice in thin stripes. "It's beautiful! I never would have thought to get more than one flavour, but now I can try them all!" She plunged the small spoon into the blue ice at the edge and licked her lips at the sticky sweet flavour. "What did you get Inuyasha?"

'The red one", said Inuyasha, looking at the ice a little uncertainly. He'd never seen food quite this… bright… before.

"You need to eat it quickly, or it will melt", laughed Kagome.

Inuyasha plunged his spoon into the centre of the paper cup and shovelled a full spoon of ice into his mouth. "Cold!", he coughed, spluttering a little. Then the intense sweetness of the red syrup burst across his tongue, and he looked up at Kagome, wide eyed.

"Are you okay?"

"It's a little sweet", he said huskily. He'd never been grateful for not having his full range of senses before, but if it tasted this strong to him right now, he didn't want to think at how it would have tasted on a normal night.

"It's okay if you don't like it you know" said Kagome cheerfully, shovelling spoonfuls of the syrupy sweet ice into her mouth. "We don't all have to like the same things. I don't like pickled ginger the same way that you do."

Inuyasha sat the cup of ice down on the bench carefully, and watched Kagome eat hers. She had eaten a third of the way through, carefully not mixing her flavours, her eyes closed in enjoyment. A sudden idea made him smile.

"Hey wench, can I have that for a moment?" he asked, tugging on her paper cup of ice.

"Hey, get your greedy hands off!", joked Kagome. "Did you want to try a different flavour Inuyasha?"

"No, I just thought of a game", said Inuyasha, holding her icy treat carefully in his hands. "You taught me a game, and now I wanna play a different one. Close your eyes."

Kagome looked at him warily. "This game wouldn't involve that cup of ice down the front of my yukata would it?"

Inuyasha grinned wickedly. "Hadn't thought of that one. Thanks for the idea Kagome, maybe I could try that another time", he snickered. He waved the spoon over the flavoured ice. "No, I wanna see if you can guess the flavour without looking."

"Oh." Kagome looked at him carefully for a moment. It was dark over here, away from the lights of the festival, and a little harder to read his expression. He was smiling, but she didn't think he was going to play any tricks on her.

"Don't ya trust me wench?"

Kagome sighed, and closed her eyes, then opened one rapidly to see if she could catch him doing anything sneaky, but all he had done was placed the spoon into the cup.

"Hey, don't cheat!"

Kagome sighed again and closed her eyes.

"You ready?" She nodded. "Open up."

Cautiously opening her mouth, her tongue tingled as Inuyasha delicately placed a spoonful of ice into her mouth. She rolled the flavour around her tongue – it was a little sweet from the syrup, but mostly tart. "Is it lemon? The yellow one?" she asked.

"Good guess Kagome. Lets see if you can do it again. Open."

The next flavour was much sweeter, almost sickly sweet. Kagome rolled it around her mouth again, licking her lips thoughtfully to catch a small drop of syrup that escaped. She couldn't quite guess the flavour as it mostly just tasted of sweet, but remembering Inuyasha's extreme reaction to the taste of the strawberry, she hazarded a guess. "Is it the red one?"

"Hmm, you're good at this, wench. Let's try one more", said Inuyasha a little huskily.

She parted her lips, ready for another spoonful of shaved ice, and almost squeaked in surprise as she felt the heat of Inuyasha's hands on her cheeks, and the warmth of his mouth on hers. He licked at her lips gently, as if asking permission, and she opened her mouth to him, inviting him in. His tongue swept delicately across hers, feeling almost hot after the chill of the ice, teasing her tastebuds with the sweetness of syrup he had eaten earlier. But before she could respond in kind, he was pulling his mouth away, resting his forehead against hers.

"Sorry", he said, panting a little. "I hadn't planned on doing that, but when you licked your lips, you just looked so…"

Kagome stroked him gently on the cheek. "Hey, it's okay. You surprised me a little, but I liked it." He seemed a little less sure of himself compared to earlier today, and she wanted to soothe him, let him know that she loved him no matter what he looked like on the outside.

Her thumbs ran gently over the hardness of his jaw and across the soft skin of his cheek, and his eyes closed as he leaned into her touch. These last few days had shown her an Inuyasha full of contrasts. Boastful and uncertain. Restless and still. Angry and loving. She wanted to get to know him better, experience all of his moods, feel closer to him. If they were going back through the well tomorrow, there would be hardly any chances like this, and she wanted to grasp it with both hands. That one kiss wasn't enough; she wanted more.

She looked down at the almost empty cup of ice. Her cheeks were burning, a little embarrassed at the audacity of her decision to ask him to kiss her again, but she had never been one to back away from a challenge. She glanced quickly around, but she didn't think anyone would notice them here in the gathering dark, when there was so much light and movement over at the festival. And in truth, the idea that there were people close by, made her heart beat a little faster.

Taking a deep breath, she picked up the cup of shaved ice that was beginning to melt in the summer heat. "Look Inuyasha, there's one last flavour left to try." She spooned a large mouthful of the mango flavoured ice onto her tongue and let it melt, watching his expression with her large doe like eyes, licking her lips. Inuyasha eyes followed her tongue as it slowly traced a path around the soft skin of her mouth. Putting the cup and spoon down, she reached her arms out and wrapped them around his neck, smiling a little nervously but with so much love in her eyes. "Would you like to try this flavour too?"

Inuyasha didn't waste any time on words. His hands moved around her waist as he drew her close to him, his lips moving against hers in a burning kiss, running his tongue around her lips where hers had been just moments before. He chuckled against her. "I think I like this flavour most of all."

Kagome's hands moved from his neck to his hair, scratching his scalp, moving upwards towards where his ears usually were.

"Forget what night it was there for a moment did you wench." Inuyasha's hands lifted her, carefully minding her injury, so she was sitting in his lap.

"Sorry", stuttered Kagome. She moved her hands downwards towards the back of his neck again, as his tongue gently teased hers.

"Don't worry 'bout it Kagome", he said softly, kissing her gently. "It still amazes me that you'd want to touch any part of me at all."

Kagome smiled against his mouth, her fingernails softly scratching the skin behind his human ears.

"I like your dog ears" she whispered. "They're sooo soft. And they tell me more about what you're feeling sometimes than your words do." She placed gentle kisses from the corner of his mouth across his cheek, and then gently bit the fleshy ear lobe of Inuyasha's human ear. "But maybe I like these almost as much."

"Hnn, Kagome", he moaned, as she nibbled her way down from his ear to his throat and licked over his pulse, breathing on the wet skin like he had done to her yesterday. "We're gonna have to take this down a notch."

"Why?", breathed Kagome, kissing her way back over to Inuyasha's soft lips. Inuyasha's reaction to her kisses made her feel powerful. She loved that she was able to make him feel a little out of control. She softly bit down on his bottom lip, teasing him with her teeth.

He answered her with a bruising kiss, his hands on her waist pushing downwards as his hips ground up against her. She moaned into his mouth, her breasts pushing into the hardness of his muscular chest.

"Kagome", Inuyasha groaned, moving his hands from her waist to cup her face gently, and with a loud sigh, pushed her backwards to create a little space between them, placing a chaste kiss on her forehead.

He smiled at her mutinous expression and ran his fingers through her dark mussed-up curls, trying to neaten it for her.

"Slow down my baby girl, we've got all the time in the world. I don't wanna rush this, okay?"

"I thought you said the other day that I wasn't a baby", pouted Kagome, still breathing hard.

Inuyasha chuckled darkly. "No, you're definitely not a baby."

Kagome moved in his lap, seating herself so she leaned against him, her head on his shoulder. She reached out and twirled one of the dark sidelocks of his hair around her finger. Sighing deeply, her bottom lip trembled, and without really knowing why she was crying, a single hot tear rolled off her cheek and onto the thin fabric of Inuyasha's yukata.

"Kagome?", he asked, tentatively.

"Tomorrow we're going back through the well", she sighed. "Everything will go back to the way it was before. Miroku and Sango will tease you, and you'll be embarrassed and won't talk to me about stuff anymore. You'll ignore me and go sit in a tree and then run off with Kikyou the first time her soul collectors turn up. My feelings will get hurt about it, and you'll get upset because I'm hurt and get all defensive and say, 'now's not the time to talk about it Kagome', and I'll keep loving you even though it hurts to even look at you. Then I'll remind myself why you should prefer her anyway, because she's beautiful and can actually use her powers properly like a miko should, and can shoot arrows without looking all…

"Whoa, whoa, hold up there a second", said Inuyasha, turning Kagome in his lap so that she faced him. "How did we move from us kissing to you spouting all this crap? Kagome, for someone who's actually very smart, you can really think some stupid things."

Kagome hit him in the arm, hard. "It's not stupid", she hissed, her bottom lip trembling again. "This is exactly what's been going on. Just because you're too obtuse to notice doesn't mean it isn't happening!"

Inuyasha ran his hand down his face, taking in Kagome's defiant but fragile expression. He hated talking about this sort of stuff. It made him feel awkward, because he couldn't find the words to match exactly how he felt, and opening himself up to anyone emotionally was as good as an invitation for them to smack him down again. But this was Kagome. His Kagome. And thinking all this was hurting her.

"I'm not very good at talking about this stuff", began Inuyasha, and then paused, hurt, when Kagome rolled her eyes at him, and sighed melodramatically.

"Fine", he said, tight lipped. He moved her off of his lap, not roughly, but not with quite the same gentleness as before. "I wanted to talk, but obviously you know better. I mean what would a hanyou know about feelings and relationships and stuff like that when they don't deserve to have them in the first place?"

"That's not what I meant, and you know it you jerk! You always make that excuse, that you're not good at talking about feelings."

"For fucks sake Kagome, I say it because it's the truth! You wanna know why I never spoke to you about Kikyou? Because I didn't know how I felt! How was I s'posed to put it into words if I couldn't even get it straight in my own head? She was dead, and then she was alive. She was a sweet gentle person who I loved, and now she's a homicidal bitch, but it's not her fault because she never asked for this. She never asked for any of this. I can't just leave her alone! She doesn't deserve that. I know what it's like to be lonely, to have no one in your corner who cares whether you live or die. I can't do that to her."

Kagome reeled back as if Inuyasha had slapped her, and slid to the ground, her arms wrapped around her knees. There was a faint noise of static in her ears, and she felt dull, lifeless, emotionless. There was a sharp pain in her chest, as if her heart were actually cracking. How had it all gone so wrong?

"I understand", she said in a monotone voice. "You choose her."

"Dammit Kagome!" Inuyasha dropped to the ground in front of her, placing his palms on her cheeks. When she tried to pull away, he held onto her more strongly. "No Kagome", he growled. "This ends right now!"

At the word 'end', she couldn't help the fat tears that began pouring down her cheeks, or the sobs that constricted her chest. She didn't have it in her to fight anymore. "If you were always going to go back to her, why did you kiss me?", she moaned. "Why did you let me believe I had a chance at all?" She slumped forward and didn't even struggle when Inuyasha pulled her onto his lap.

"Stupid wench", he muttered, his own voice thick with emotion. He tucked her head under his chin, rocking gently to try and calm her sobs. "You better listen now and listen good to what I have to say. I'll say it every day, every hour, every minute if I have to, until you get it into that pretty little head of yours." He took a deep breath.

"When I look at Kikyou, I see death. I see sadness and regret. I see a woman I once cared about who has been abused by evil, and I can't help but want to set her free, but that's all I want. When I look at her, I see my past. But my Kagome, when I look at you…" his voice choked for a moment, and he cleared his throat.

"Kagome, when I look at you, I see strength. I see determination to put things right, even if the odds are stacked against you. I see caring and empathy for others, no matter who they are. I see the first real friend I ever had."

He kissed away the tears that were slowly rolling down Kagome's face. "I see an inner fire that makes me want to fight for you and keep you safe. I see a heart that beats for me, like mine beats for you." He kissed her on the lips tenderly and gazed into her eyes. "I was born to find you Kagome. When I look at you, I see my future. I don't know what else I can say to prove to you how much I love you."

Kagome threw her arms around Inuyasha's neck and hugged him tight. She started crying again, but these tears were healing and happy, not the choking sobs of despair that she had been crying before.

"Oi, stop it with the waterworks wench. I'm pretty sure your mother has a machine for washing clothes, we don't need your tears to do it."

Kagome giggled through her tears and sat back to look into Inuyasha's face. His eyes were red, and he sniffed a little self-consciously. He dabbed at her damp face with his sleeve.

"You're all snotty again wench, but I don't have any tissues to blow your nose for you."

"That's okay", smiled Kagome. "I think I have some in here." She opened up the tiny drawstring bag, and after producing house keys, a phone, lip balm, coins and notes, and band aids, she finally produced a small package of tissues.

"It's like a tiny version of the yellow backpack", said Inuyasha in wonder. "Do you have a medical bag in there too? A packed lunch? Change of clothes?"

Kagome slapped his arm. "Quiet, you." She blew her nose loudly, and then placed everything back in the little bag. "You do realise that I'm never going to believe you again, when you say that you're no good at talking about feelings."

Inuyasha rubbed the back of his neck. "That was a one-time event. Never to be repeated. I don't have anything left in me to say."

"Oh really?", teased Kagome, snuggling up to his chest. "I thought you were going to tell me every day, every hour, every minute?"

He scoffed, wrapping his arms around her. "You get the short and sweet version."

"And what's that?"

"I. Love. You. Kagome."

"I like it. Short and to the point."

Inuyasha kissed the top of her head. "I don't know how good I'll be at saying it in front of other people who aren't you though", he said cautiously.

"That's alright. I'm the only person who needs to hear it." She popped her head up and stroked his cheek. "You know that I love you too Yash, right?"

He smiled at her a little mistily. "After all that, I should hope so."

"So, Inuyasha, are you ready to go dancing now?"

Inuyasha flopped backwards, so he was lying flat in the grass. "You're joking right?" he whined. "After all that, my stomach feels like I've just had Sesshomaru's fist through my gut again. I'm not dancing Kagome, and you can't make me."

"I'll buy you some more teriyaki chicken?"

Inuyasha moaned loudly but sat up again. "You drive a hard bargain wench. Okay. Just one dance, right? Can we go back to the shrine after that?"

"One teriyaki chicken. One dance. Then home. Sounds like a plan." Kagome pushed herself to her feet, hissing a little when her thigh pulled again.

"Kagome, maybe we should…"

"No way!", she said, pointing her finger at his chest. "You said dancing! This is probably the only time I will ever get you to agree to this, so I'm not giving up. You can just carry me home."

"Fine", he groused. "I should get two servings of chicken then. Gotta keep my strength up."

They dusted each other off, making sure they looked mostly presentable, before venturing back into the light and noise of the festival. After pausing to buy two servings of teriyaki chicken for Inuyasha, and a quick stop at the sweet stall so Kagome could buy a gift each for Miroku, Sango and Shippou, they ventured over towards the dancing at the centre of the field. Standing at the edge, watching Souta mucking around with his friends was Mama Higurashi.

"Ah, I wondered where you two had got to. Where were you?"

Inuyasha pointed behind him, towards the edge of the park. "Talking."

Mama fished a leaf out of Inuyasha's hair that Kagome must have missed in the dark. She raised an eyebrow at him, and he smiled at her a little sheepishly.

"Mostly talking."

Stepping in to rescue him, Kagome said, "We were talking. I just had some questions about how things were going to be when we went back through the well tomorrow."

"Ah, I see", said Mama. "And did Inuyasha answer your questions?"

"Definitely", she said. The look of love that she gave him nearly stopped Mama's heart.

"So Inuyasha, I take it that you two are a couple now?"

"A couple?", he repeated cautiously, as if not quite understanding the meaning of the word. He reached out and took Kagome's hand. "Wherever Kagome goes, I will follow. Doesn't matter where, doesn't matter when."

"Ah", smiled Mama. "That definitely sounds like a couple to me. Congratulations." She pushed them both a little, so they moved out into the flow of dancers. "Go dance you two. The festival will be over soon. Dance while you can!"

She laughed at them both, Inuyasha doing his best to copy Kagome's movements, and Kagome getting them wrong because she was laughing too hard.

Mama looked up at the stars. "Doesn't matter where, doesn't matter when huh. Toshi, maybe you could keep an eye on the for me when they're out of my reach. And save a dance for me, dear heart. I will be coming to find you again, some day."

She turned her gaze back down from the heavens to smile at her small son, weaving in and around Kagome and Inuyasha, laughing as Inuyasha finally picked him up and threw him over one shoulder to keep him out of the way.

So, they finally had 'that' conversation. I'm not guaranteeing that it will fix everything to do with Kikyou, but it's a good start. Hope you liked the festival. Most of this was based on Japanese Matsuri festival I've been to here in Sydney, and online research. I hope it sounded okay. I would dearly love to attend Bon Odori in Japan one day.

#The Importance of Ramen #inuyasha fanfic #inukag #inuyasha x kagome #inuyasha fanfiction

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