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kintatsujo · 3 years

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LoZ AU- The Courage of Running Away Part FOURTEEN

You’ll see why this one took a while in just a second, I did that thing where I drew a whole ass scene again

Content warning for fantasy religions based loosely on Christian schisms

#AU August

#LoZ AU: The Courage of Running Away

So while Link is getting acclimated to Castle life and getting hugs from Marla and Tonbo (and also getting unofficially adopted by the royal family) Astramorus flies back to the Sky Temple with his loftwing.

And he has a lot of time to think while he’s doing it; I don’t know how fast a loftwing flies but even so it would have taken some hours on Hera’s back and you don’t have anything to do up there but think about why you got blasted through a wall by a god-queen. So he gets back and he’s feeling pretty fucking subdued when he hands Hera off to the Sky Temple commune’s gardener/bird caretaker, Maurice.

[Image description: Astramorus, looking tired and still missing his hat, his hair a mess, is standing opposite a short and round mustached man with bushy eyebrows dressed in the same priestly robes, except that this man has his sleeves shortened to his elbows and is wearing thick gloves. This man is holding Hera the loftwing by a lead, while she makes a particularly vacant happy face. “NAYRU’S EYES, man, WHAT HAPPENED?” Astramorus gives a very small smile, and after a pause, answers, “TURBULENCE.” The man harrumphs skeptically, then says, “Well, LORD SERENUMBRA from the LORULEAN ORTHODOXY showed up three days ago and he’s been giving me ADVICE ON MY TOMATOES, so turbulence or OTHERWISE I’d appreciate you DISTRACTING HIM before I commit some WEEDING.” Astramorus smiles. “Ah,” he says in understanding. “Yes, thank you for your PATIENCE, Maurice.” End ID.]

A note on Maurice, originally I was going to make him look like Gaepora OR Rauru and then Ice suggested basing him on Maurice-Belle’s-Dad and I liked that, so I blended the ideas a bit.

I think I’ve mentioned that Lorule and Hyrule have different takes on the Hylia religion, haven’t I?

Basically since this Lorule is just the country south of Hyrule instead of a dark-mirror-universe world, Invid suggested that part of the idea might be that Lorule insists that Hyrule is wrong about which country the Golden Goddesses left the world from, and that the Triforce belongs there instead. I kind of played with that a little further, and so now part of the thing is that their royal line is actually also descended from Hylia directly, except that at some point a sister broke off from (one or the other of) the royal family, founding the Hilda line versus the Zelda line.

And real quick here’s the Hilda of this story, which I promise is relevant:

[Image Description: Sketches of a tall, black haired woman with pale skin and blue eyes and extremely long pointed ears, dressed in a cape and dress of purple, dark blue, red and gold. She wears a blue and green belt trimmed with gold and black gloves, and a diadem featuring a red gemstone and golden spread wings. There is an inverted Triforce symbol on her sash. She is also wearing black lipstick and red blush and eyeshadow. A sketch to the side shows her making a decidedly less dignified expression with the note “All the finery and rouge is a desperate attempt to fool you into thinking Hilda is in her twenties but she’s only actually seventeen, same as Link.” Another sketch shows her next to an old man with round glasses and priestly robes different to the Hyrulean priests, who only comes up to her chest. She has her hands on her hips and is ranting at him. A note reads, “Hilda TOL.” End ID.]

Anyway the thing is that currently, the two churches are relatively peaceable with one another, they have joint gatherings to quibble about tradition and who should be allowed to have what sacred treasures and who has to bring the roast boar next time, and that is how a very young novice Astramorus ended up as friends with the man he would eventually match in equivalent rank, Lord Serenumbra. Who gets a nice picture equivalent piece to Astra’s introduction because of symmetry:

[Image Description: The same short priest from the picture with Hilda. He has white loosely curly hair, circular gold glasses, a hat similar to Astramorus’s but in red, a dark red robe over a black underdress, both trimmed in gold, and is wearing a heavy golden neck piece with an inverted Triforce and golden wings framing a blue disc. To the side are various comic panels; in the first, he has taken an extremely young Astramorus’s hand and is saying, “Let me be the first to CONGRATULATE you, my friend!” In the second, he’s spread his arms wide while approaching Astramorus and Catena, Link’s mother. “Let me be the first to CONGRATULATE YOU, my friends!” he’s saying, and Catena laughs, giving Astramorus a rough side hug that lifts him off his feet despite her only coming to his chest, while Astramorus gives her a gooey smile. “TOO LATE,” she says, “I told my mum first,” and laughs. In the last panel, Astramorus has collapsed limp into a chair at a dining room table, his hair in his eyes, his face wet with tears, propping his head on one arm as Serenumbra pats his shoulder from behind the chair. “Let me be the first to say,” Serenumbra says, “How DEEPLY SORRY I am, my friend.” End ID.]

This is awful but that’s currently my favorite picture of Astramorus.

Serenumbra’s design is based on the priest and philosopher from ALttP and Link Between Worlds; the philosopher’s robes were red so I sorta priestified them. The blue disc in the center of his neck piece represents the Moon Pearl from ALttP, which was actually red in the game but blue in some of the promotional materiel, and the blue was a nicer contrast. The Moon Pearl was mostly important because it let Link run around in his human form in the Dark World but I always liked it because it was sort of weird and mysterious. In Four Swords Adventures there’s actually a LOT of moon pearls and they let you make portals between the worlds. There isn’t going to be a lot of world hopping in this AU, I just thought it was interesting context.

Anyway here’s two old friends having a conversation, image description and a little more commentary plus some bonus poking at Astramorus at the end:

[Image Descriptions: Astramorus is entering a room with a rounded door and a coat rack on the wall. “Seren?” he calls. “ASTRAMORUS, are you QUITE all right?” Serenumbra answers. He is sitting at a round table in the center of the room; there are two dining chairs, one of which he is sitting in, and opposite of him is a comfortable looking rocking chair. “I came because I heard about your SON, have you still not found him?” Astramorus, looking deeply pained, straightens some of his hair with one hand. “I found him,” he says. He settles into the rocking chair with a long creak. Serenumbra is clearly shocked by his demeanor. “Astra,” he says, concern clear in his face, “What HAPPENED?” Astramorus stares at the ceiling while looking like death warmed over. There is a panel fading from light to dark to indicate the passage of time, then we see that Serenumbra has a hand to his mouth in thought. “So the queen refuses to see the DANGER here,” he says. Astramorus has folded his hands together. “She’s right about my SON, though,” he answers. Serenumbra is quick to defend Astramorus to himself: “Well- he’s such a SOFT BOY, you wanted him PREPARED,” he begins, but Astramorus stops him. “I pushed him too hard, too SOON, and with too little CARE.” Astramorus lifts his hands and grins painfully, continuing, “WHAT was I DOING, trying to teach him how to FIGHT when all I knew was an ADULT’S routine?” He puts a hand to his chin, still smiling. “I must be the STUPIDEST MAN ALIVE.” “Astra,” Serenumbra begins again, and Astramorus interrupts again. “My wife used to tell me I WORRIED too much, did I ever mention that?” He asks. His face turns solemn. “It was even one of the LAST THINGS she said to me,” he says. We get a glimpse of young Astramorus and Catena together backlit by the sun; she’s wearing a blue version of the classical Link costume with a sword strapped to her back and plate armor on her shoulders, he’s wearing his priestly robes and hat. She’s reached up to grab his face, grinning, while he’s put his hands on hers. “And then she died,” Astramorus says. He sits up, animate once more. “What else could I DO but worry?!” he demands. “You’ve studied the legends, same as I-” he subsides again- “That mark on Link’s hand may as well be a DEATH SENTENCE.” He puts a hand on his face. “And I’ve so THOROUGHLY FAILED him that now I’ve put the Royal Family in danger TOO.” Serenumbra puts a hand to his chin, thoughtfully. “WELL, you never KNOW,” he says, “Princess HILDA is more of an age with Link, maybe the Triforce of Wisdom will arise in the LORULEAN line this time.” Astramorus laughs. “That doesn’t change the SITUATION, Seren,” quietly adding “But also KEEP DREAMING.” He then puts his hand to his mouth. “How do I even BEGIN to atone?” Astramorus asks. “Ahh, old friend,” Serenumbra answers, soothingly. “If only Catena were still WITH us, she’d know how to ease the boy’s burden. Why-she’d face down GANON HIMSELF if it came to that!” Astramorus makes an intense face, as if he’s been suddenly burdened. Serenumbra stands and puts a hand on his shoulder. “Get some REST, dear friend, you still look TERRIBLE,” he says with a smile. Astramorus is wringing his hands, staring forward. End ID.]

DUMBASS BRAINCELLS ENGAGED.

I didn’t expect “Got pegged by his wife so hard that the mere invocation of her name knocked him back to his senses after over eleven years of fucking shitty behavior towards their son” to be on the bingo card for this character when I started this project either, but this is Draft 0.5 so anything can happen XD

Astramorus is so layered now what the fuck!

[Image Description: Serenumbra, face full of concern, asks, “Astra, what HAPPENED?” Astramorus stares at the ceiling like death warmed over. Behind him are the words “HELLO DARKNESS MY OLD FRIEND.” End ID.]

[Image Description: Serenumbra, face full of concern, asks, “Astra, what HAPPENED?” Astramorus stares at the ceiling like death warmed over. Behind him are the words “WELL FIRST OF ALL I FUCKING DIED.” End ID.]

[Image Description: Serenumbra, face full of concern, asks, “Astra, what HAPPENED?” Astramorus stares at the ceiling like death warmed over. Behind him are the words “...my wife made this chair.” End ID.]

Catena got into carving as a hobby during long trips but she started making furniture while dealing with nesting urges while pregnant, so imagine this little tank of a woman assembling a rocking chair for her tol noodle husband while ranting about her weird cravings.

#my art #au august #loz #loz au #Loz au: the courage of running away

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hightigervision · 7 years

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Christian Testimony

I was in the middle of browsing the Q&A Archive of Reasonablefaith.org as a break from typing out one of debates between Christian John Lennox and atheist Richard Dawkins and for some reason started typing on my google profile. I found some old messages, mostly single-sentence summaries of what I was going through, much like a supercondensed version of my tumblr, but spanning only maybe 5 posts within 2 years. I wanted to post on it, and I did, but realized as I began typing more detailed and personal stuff that I had a reason for a tumblr and turned to here. I will finish writing what I had, which was like I said interesting and personal events in which I want clear recollection for a more euphoric nostalgia when I’m older and reading these posts. This is one of the subjects that I decided to dedicate a post to and will upload more , duh.

The background of my religious faith for the majority of my life up to this point was fairly static, simple, and can be understood in few sentences for it to be sufficient in introducing the more relevant events in college. I was a monotheist for most of my life, perhaps as long as I could remember. The idea of God, thought not fully understood (impossible to anyway), was easily conceivable and intuitive as a child and believed the bible to be ultimate authority. I was ignorant of Christianity, as evident by my life, and was more along the lines of a Moralistic Therapeutic Deist. I went through an emotional experience at a local church (probably during Baker Middle School) crying. I was with my dad, and my family made this church a regular thing for us where we even went to some Wednesday services. I didn’t know the extent to how personal God could be, as I didn’t really learn anything at this church, and didn’t know who Jesus was, much less His deity. I committed to abstinence in the summer prior to 10th grade to become a better person under God’s eyes and my father’s, yet remained sexually immoral. I became more curious and began wondering about the existence of God and lost a lot of faith in God, becoming a weak Christian theist. I remember telling Gerardo Nunez in Statistics class Senior year “I believe Jesus is the Son of God, but I’ll never call myself Christian”. I wasn’t sure I believed the first part of the sentence anyway, and the existential despair I experience my junior year from contemplating the consequences of the lack of God and inability to affirm that there is one rather annoyed me every now and then during my senior year swim practices. So upon leaving high school I had more questions than I had answers, and was at a vulnerable part of my life where I was looking for fulfillment in places that was not concerned with God whatsoever. In the summer before my first TAMUCC semester, I was living in a transitional apartment and one night casually searched on twitter “evolution is a lie” to see what I would get. My curiosity led me to a twitter account @evolutionisalie that had links to facebook which I browsed and found some to be funny. My favorite page, Atheism on the Slide, had memes poking fun at atheists and appealed to me in a way I didn’t know I could find so uniquely funny. I moved to my new house that Fall semester and for the next couple of years learned more about philosophy, theology, science, and history from Christians on the internet. Although I identified as a Christian, I certainly didn’t act like one especially since I wasn’t proud to proclaim it, felt weird about the idea of people praying for me, and didn’t understand the point in worship. It’s like I thought Christianity had better arguments that made the world make more sense, so I looked at the world through the knowledge I had of the Christian lens. I learned more about Christian apologetics invoking an exponential interest that became increasingly unquenchable as I learned more (catch 22). One 2016 sophomore Spring semester afternoon I was walking up the stairs of the University Center with Marla Bantigue and came across a pretty large room with people and tables. We were spontaneous at the time so we walked in and I stole lunch that turned out to be free. Everybody prayed catching me by surprise, yet I had no objections to the prayer led by a tall white gentleman. The food was good, and the prayer was an unexpected surprise, but what absolutely gripped my attention was the announcement of an apologetics conference, dubbed [un]Apologetics Conference. I made sure to speak to the same man after the lunch to make my interest known to learn more about the conference. I didn't go to it nor any meetings from the organization who hosted the lunch after that due to issues in my home, but the following summer my interest in the philosophical subject of the Christian God grew to the point where I was studying it more than school at the time in which I did well in. I reached back to Eric wanting to become more involved in the organization that I thought was involved in Apologetics and I even went to a few Baptist Student Ministries functions. I wasn’t much very interested in the others as much as I was in love with Engage Training, especially since it was easily available and thought it to be a class about learning Christianity. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn more about Christianity in a safe Christian environment where I could even provide my knowledge and level of inquiry and constructive criticism and questions, not to mention we shared our knowledge in conversation (potential debate) with people on campus! And I already was self-taught and experienced in argumentation so I wasn't intimidated by talking about one of my strongsuits, religion, with strangers. One of the first few sessions, Eric was stubborn in retaining that the resurrection was significant which at the time I didn't understand it's philosophical/theological significance or relevance to the Gospel summary I was learning. I looked more into it after remembering the Apostle Paul saying it was important. I refreshed on some things I knew and learned more but in a self-driven centered research. The final night of research, which was weaker than what Lee Strobel had to go through and much quicker, I experienced something life-changing. I felt a feeling easing up on my peripheral senses, but I was engaged too much with the webpage containing resurrection facts. The more I scrolled down and read, the stronger the feeling was, comparable to being in a chamber filling up with water and slowly and calmly submerging me yet making me feel buoyant. It was captivating me to the point that once I finished the webpage, I was staring off in my room slowly realizing and accepting something new (the best I could desribe). That creeping feeling now was capturing my body, still filling it up, and I even experienced it somatically. I stood up trying to look at something to fix my eyes upon but let them go when I tried to understand what was going on with me. Something fundamental about me was activated and I felt overwhelmed with a sense of objective worth, value, meaning, and purpose to life. One thing that stuck out to me was an undeniable sense of hope that I had for the future that made me fearless against any future event, later learning that this centered on Christ. I believed the resurrection happened, Jesus is God, and that He loves me. The experience unlike any other held on to me for weeks. I lost sight of it eventually and kept with the Engage Trainings. Out of all the BSM people, I went to Engage Training the most, even more than the interns and Eric! I only missed one due to me and my then-girlfriend Andrea Jimenez staying at her apartment which leads me to my next story worth telling later. Thought the experience made me want to read the bible, I didn’t get to it. A fun December mission trip to Denim Springs near Baton Rouge, Louisiana helped me connect with Christ better, but like before I lost sight of it. I was glad to learn I was accepted to student-leadership for the Baptist Student Ministries as an Engage Training Leader and even connected with Christ the first few weeks of the following 2017 Spring semester, but yet again I lost sight of it as my weak prayer became evident of it.

I kept myself emotionally isolated and felt unbelonged many times, up until the Spring Break mission trip called Beach Reach. It fell in love with that week in such a short amount of time, and is comparable only to the week or two I felt when I accepted Christ with my whole being in September. I felt closer and more accepted by the people of BSM and felt so much better about myself in general especially after being baptized. I wrote about this before, using Adeline as a rhetorical medium of whom I should stop ignoring and express my gratitude fully.

However after that Spring Break, I went back to my old ways (surprise) and felt once again separate from God and the BSM. I gave my testimony in a banquet of 150 people, making it longer than the others because it was mainly for my parents though my dad wasn’t there and my mom (she was there) couldn’t produce a recording for my dad. My connection with God was better again during the day of my speech, and after my speech I felt immediately tired which Chris Robinson explained is the result of my adrenaline rush speaking. Strange enough, after revealing that I no longer had gay feelings, I began to get them again that week! It was a mental struggle because I didn’t want to accept that I was actually dealing with them especially after convincing myself that they were finally over. I caved in and experienced a depth of

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