#that isn't at all how fire arrows work but whatever

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Smth fluffy with Four and... how about Hyrule, for the writing prompts? Maybe they go exploring together or smth.

(@tempestraccoon @artisticgamer @luckybyrdrobyn)

This developed into a whole freaking fic, so here you :)

(AO3 link)

With a new world to explore, the team had split to cover more ground and get a better understanding of where they were. Four and Hyrule had paired up and were spending some amicable time chatting and wandering the forest before it slanted downward into a gorge, rock replacing soil, mossy stone replacing trees, and a mist overtook them quickly. When they reached the open maw of an enormous cave, Hyrule immediately pulled out a candle, lighting it with a flick of magic.

Four stared at the cave hesitantly, glancing back at the mist that encased them. The world around them was lost in hazy white. "We should inform the others before we go too far."

Hyrule shot a cheeky grin over his shoulder. "What's the matter? You scared of a dungeon?"

Four pursed his lips, mildly annoyed. He wasn't scared, thank you very much. He just wanted to be sure everyone was informed. Communication was important in--

"Hey!" he shouted as Hyrule wandered ahead, heedless of his statement. "Ugh, fine, wait for me!"

The fog seeped into the cave alongside the teenagers, reflecting Hyrule's candlelight. It danced and swirled, creating false movement that made both of them jump, though it was clear Four had a bit more apprehension to him than Hyrule did. When the traveler giggled at Four jumping once more, reaching for his blade as the fog teased him again with its motions, the smithy grumbled and marched forward blindly, smacking face first into a stone wall.

"You okay?" Hyrule asked.

Four rubbed his nose and felt the cool, damp stone. "Yeah, but we're either walking in circles or this cave isn't actually a dungeon."

Hyrule squinted, moving his candle forward a little bit. As he glanced around the space, Four noticed cracks in the walls, water dribbling lazily along the paths they created. Then he smiled.

"Wait!" he pushed Hyrule away from the wall and pulled out a bomb. "I have an idea."

He lit and tossed the bomb quickly, and both heroes grabbed their shields to protect themselves from the blast after taking a few steps away. The explosion rocked the cave and shoved the fog out of the space, giving them a clear path ahead through the jagged hole Four had created. The water dripped more heavily now, and the two walked ahead side by side. A pressure difference between the cave's entrance and the dungeon proper blew out Hyrule's candle, and their faces were lit with the glow of multicolored crystals, radiating the space in an enchanting splendor. The pair smiled as one and rushed ahead, original mission forgotten.

The entrance to the dungeon was enormous, with high stone ceilings and stalactites and stalagmites creating pillars that served as canvases for the reflective light emitting from the pools of water in the area. A waterfall was at the far side, spraying the area with mist.

"It's a water temple!" Four breathed with wonder.

"What are we waiting for?" Hyrule exclaimed with a laugh, grabbing Four's wrist. "Let's go!"

"Wait we need to find the next door--"

"I see it, it's behind the waterfall!"

Hyrule reached into his adventure pouch and pulled out an entire raft, tossing it onto the water and hopping aboard before dragging Four. The pair attempted to steer the little raft with their hands, but the current of the waterfall was too strong, so Four slipped his flippers on and dove into the water to push the raft while Hyrule cheered him on and assisted as best he could.

As soon as they'd cleared the waterfall, the current stopped pushing against them and instead pulled so harshly Four nearly lost grip of the raft entirely. Hyrule hastily dragged him aboard as the entrance behind the waterfall quickly turned into a water slide, leaving both boys yelling as they slid with a speed Four didn't even want to fathom.

The tunnel swiveled back and forth, pushing the raft nearly onto the walls entirely as they splashed back and forth, making their way to the bottom. Eventually it ended in yet another waterfall, sending the boys flying off Hyrule's raft and straight into the frigid depths.

Four's flippers allowed for him to move briskly, grabbing Hyrule and dragging him to the surface just in time to see a snakelike water monster with teeth the length of Four's hands speeding towards them. Four yelped, pulling Hyrule with him as he desperately searched for the raft. Instead, he found a singular small island made of stone and made a beeline for it as the monster attracted more similar looking friends, all snapping at his heels.

The boys crashed onto the island, one of Four's flippers caught the eel's teeth. The smithy let out a yell, and Hyrule dug his blade into the eel's forehead, making it release his friend. The pair panted for air as the remainder of the beasts swirled the island just out of reach.

"Now what?" Hyrule muttered as Four examined his thankfully undamaged flipper. The room was eerily lit, bathed in red light from crystals in the walls and the earth below. It stained the water a murky burgundy color and outlined the silhouettes of countless amphibious beasts.

"These dungeons usually have themes," Four surmised, rising and looking around. "The entrance had lots of colors, for instance. This room is only red. Maybe there's something from that?"

"Fire!" Hyrule said with a clap of his hands.

"Traveler, we don't always have to set things on fire," Four deadpanned. Honestly, the freckled teenager was worse than Wild sometimes.

"No, look!" Hyrule pointed up. Four followed his finger and traced around the large area, spotting four stalactites with single candle chandeliers hanging from each. The candles were unlit.

Four's smile matched Hyrule's. "Okay, fire it is!"

Hyrule focused, his eyes glowing mildly in the darkness as he thrust his sword towards one of the chandeliers, sending a fireball towards it. It hit the stalactite just above, and the traveler huffed a little.

"It's so dark," he grumbled. "Let me try again."

Four watched him hesitantly. "Traveler, doesn't that spell take a lot of energy?"

"It's only four candles," Hyrule said dismissively.

"Yeah, which means you have to cast it four times, assuming you hit it the first time," Four noted. "We should go back and--"

Four stopped mid sentence with the grim realization that they couldn't go back. He couldn't swim against that current while pulling Hyrule along.

Great. He shouldn't have gone along with this... but he had to admit his curiosity was piqued at this point. He just wished he'd been a bit more prepared for it.

"What if we make our own fire arrows?" Four suggested. He grabbed five arrows from his quiver and placed them on the ground. "Use your spell to light the tips and then we can fire them at the candles."

Hyrule brightened at that. "Okay!"

With a brief moment of concentration, he swung his sword once more as it sent a blaze of energy outward.

Four realized his mistake just before the spell made contact with the arrows. Hyrule quickly recognized the issue immediately afterward.

The arrows were a sad little pile of ash with a black spot burnt into the stone.

"We need less fire."

"Yeah."

The pair was silent as they pondered the dilemma, and Hyrule snapped his fingers. "What about the candle? We can light the arrows with the flame from the wick."

Four smiled in delight. "That just might work!"

With that, Hyrule pulled out his candle and lit it carefully. Four crouched down to light the tip of an arrow, which slowly warmed before flames licked at the wood around the stony point. Four aimed hastily, the flames moving quickly up the shaft, and let the arrow loose.

Just a hair too short.

Biting his lip, he tried again, and this time the arrow flew true. Both heroes jumped and laughed with glee. Hyrule aimed next, his arrow managing to hit the candle while Four lit the opposite one.

Four's chest bubbled with excitement as they worked together. He was used to working as a group, but it was literally with himself. This was filling a void he didn't even realize he'd had.

He supposed he didn't realize how lonely being his own companion could be. He'd had Ezlo on his first journey, at least. But here he didn't just have a companion, he had an equal, a fellow Hero of Courage.

He was suddenly grateful they'd stumbled onto this place.

With the final candle lit, the room shuddered, and the water around them drained down to the stone at the bottom. The volatile fish flailed helplessly, and Four and Hyrule eagerly jumped down and eliminated them with their swords. Hyrule retrieved his raft, stuffing it back into his pouch, and the pair looked around for clues.

The entranceway to the next room became apparent when they turned to look back at their little stone island. The base of it held an open doorway, with stairs leading downward.

Hyrule raised his candle while Four grabbed his lantern, and the pair walked down a spiraling staircase together. The red glow of the previous room faded, leaving them with their respective lights to guide the way.

"I missed this," Hyrule commented. "Adventuring isn't all about just fighting monsters, you know? It's about discovering things and figuring out puzzles!"

Four had to laugh at that. "My adventures were usually kicked off by something, rather than looking for puzzles to solve. But I have to admit, they are fun."

As is the company.

"I wonder when we'll find the compass and map," Four thought aloud.

Hyrule waved a dismissive hand and trilled his lips. "We'll figure it out, don't worry."

Four shot him a flat look, but any response from him was interrupted as they entered a new room.

This new room was smaller than the previous, but had a taller ceiling. The crystals here glowed bright blue, and there were holes in the ground where water would spout out with enough pressure to create a geyser that nearly reached the stalactites. When Four traced up the geyser's path, he saw handles hanging from the stalactites just above them. The room had multiple platforms, most of which were far out of Four and Hyrule's reach, and the floor was littered with what looked like lily pads and little glowing stones of different shapes. They almost looked like kinstones!

"Well... water's the theme for this room, I guess," Hyrule surmised, staring at the geysers. "But I wonder what the end goal is?"

"I don't see an exit," Four commented as he glanced around the room. "I mean, there are platforms, but..."

He trailed off as his eyes hit something that looked eerily familiar. It was a symbol in the opposite wall, carved in and glowing bright blue. It consisted of two parallel lines pointing straight downward before angling together to join at a point.

The point had a key hole in it.

"We're looking for a key," Four breathed, his mind buzzing with all the ideas that were floating through it. What was that symbol? Why was it familiar? How were they going to find a key when there were no treasure chests in the room? Did they miss something in the previous room?

"Maybe one of the levers reveals a chest?" Hyrule suggested, staring at the geysers.

"Let's see," Four offered, walking towards one of the geysers. He placed his shield over the hole when the water settled and waited. When the pressure built up and the geyser returned, it shot him into the air with a yelp. He did his best to maintain his balance, excited and terrified all at the same time, and was satisfied when he felt even on his feet. Reaching up, he stretched his fingers to grasp the lever...

Only to realize he was too short to reach it, even with the help of the water geyser.

Hyrule laughed. "Need a hand?"

Four's very sour response was cut off when the geyser settled, sending him falling to the ground. Hyrule ran over to try and catch him and only succeeded in serving as a cushion as Four landed directly on him. Both teenagers groaned, slowly disentangling themselves from each other just in time to roll out of the way as the geyser returned.

When the water subsided, Hyrule pulled out his own shield to emulate Four's previous action. The smithy simply huffed, crossing his arms and watching as Hyrule was blasted into the air. The traveler reach and managed to curl his fingers around the handle, and when the geyser disappeared, Hyrule maintained his hold, preventing him from falling rapidly and also yanking the lever downward.

For a moment, nothing happened, and then all the holes in the floor gurgled, water slowly rising out of them. It started to flood the room, and Four looked around wildly for a place to climb. There were still those elevated platforms--

Oh, wait, the lily pads were rising too! Those gems on them had to be useful for something.

Of course, the real concern was whether the water was going to continue rising and they'd have to flee into the stairwell so they wouldn't drown.

Four began to worry when the water reached up to his chest, and he called for Hyrule to let go so they could get out of there, and then the bubbling from the holes suddenly stopped.

"Each lever is for a different water level," Hyrule explained from where he hung, pointing to the platforms. "Look! You can push the lily pads to the first platform!"

With a relieved sigh, Four slowly waddled through the water before giving up and just swimming. Putting his flippers on made the venture much faster, and he started tracking down lily pads. But it soon became apparent that they weren't just floating pads, but had stalks attached that would only stretch so far.

Some of the pads wouldn't reach the platform. And the platform had lily pads as well, with some gems matching the ones on their level.

"Okay," Four parsed out. "This platform has a purple and a red stone, and they're cut a certain way. The main level has purple, red, orange, green, and pink."

Hyrule finally let go of the lever, tucking in his legs to land smoothly in the water. Immediately, the water began to recede.

"Wait!" Four shouted, but it was too late. The room dried out, and the geysers returned.

Hyrule and Four both sighed. This might take a while to figure out.

Or it might take multiple people to pull levers.

Four shook his head. He'd cross that bridge if need be, but he'd rather not. Not if there was another solution. Most dungeons were designed to be solvable alone.

Well. Mostly. Sort of.

The pair spent the next five minutes figuring out which lever did what and how they could use it to their advantage. There were three in total, one on the left, one in the center, and one on the right. The one on the left brought the lowest level of water, center brought highest, and right bright medium. The geysers didn't come when any lever was activated, and it would only stay that way while Hyrule was actively hanging off it.

It was a good thing there was two of them. Four would have definitely had to split to solve this room. Hyrule would have had to figure something else out entirely.

The real issue was trying to match the stones with whatever platform was closest based on the stalk length. It quickly became apparent that not only did they need to match the color, but also the shape - certain stones fit together. The red created a handle, the purple a stalk, the pink and orange were the biting edge of the key, and the green slid overtop the blade end of the purple stalk. At least, that's what Four had managed to figure out. He was fairly good at matching stones together, after all.

Hyrule worked on which water level to choose while Four ascertained how to fit the pieces together. Together, the pair managed to finally get the key assembled, and Hyrule finally fell into the water as Four swam to the last destination. The water drained out of the room, and all that was left was to go to the symbol.

Hyrule flexed his fingers, rubbing his hands against his tunic as Four shivered a little from being completely soaked. "That took a bit of work, but it was fun! I'm glad you were here, that would have taken forever to solve by myself."

"You figured out the water levels," Four pointed out with a smile. He wasn't going to admit that he was grateful for other reasons, but he did feel compelled to remind the traveler that he was just as good at these puzzles as Four.

Hyrule shrugged sheepishly. "Let's figure out what this leads to. Do you think it's a boss key? Maybe this is a mini-dungeon."

Four had to admit, he was starting to hope it was. They didn't have food provisions, and it felt like it had been hours since he'd last eaten. Still, he was willing to continue on this adventure with his friend.

The pair walked to the wall, and Four slowly inserted the key into the symbol, gently pushing it along so it slid into place.

The wall shuddered and split right down the center of the symbol, pulling it apart and revealing the next room. As Hyrule and Four entered, the wall slammed shut behind them, making both jump a little before they tensed with anticipation.

This had to be a boss room.

The area consisted of multiple stone islands that shifted, rising and falling above the water level. The only island that remained stagnant was against the opposite wall, and it was entirely taken up by an enormous purple clam shell that was closed. A single, solitary lever hung from a stalactite in the center of the room.

"So is the boss in the water, or in the shell?" Four whispered.

"Guess there's only one way to find out," Hyrule noted, stepping ahead.

Four sighed and followed, examining the surroundings to see what they could use to their advantage. The clam shell opened slowly, making both heroes freeze, and Four felt his heart stop for a moment.

Was that Sky?

Someone who looked just like Sky was lying motionless in the clam. Had the boss monster gotten hold of their friend?

"Sky!" Four called out, rushing ahead and skipping over multiple islands as Hyrule yelled after him.

"Smithy, wait! We don't know if--"

Hyrule's words were drowned out in the echoing chamber as Four called out again to get their brother's attention. How had Sky gotten down here? Had he solved all the puzzles only to get defeated at this point? What was that beast doing to him?

Where was his companion? Sky had gone off with Warriors! Where was the captain?!

Four finally reached the stone that had the clam and then he felt his stomach lurch in realization.

Sky's legs, which were hidden from a distance, weren't legs at all.

They were a white tail.

"What in the name of--" Four choked back the rest of his exclamation when Sky's eyes snapped open to reveal nothing but blood red staring at him, and he let out a hiss with sharp teeth.

"Four, get away from it, that's not Sky!!" Hyrule shouted. "It's a shapeshifting beast, get out of there!"

Four leapt off the platform and gasped as the island he landed on slid into the water. The beast pulled itself out of the clam shell with unnerving speed before dragging itself into the water. Four felt his heart jolt knowing he was in the monster's element and had little chance in fighting it while in the water. At leas the could swim a little faster with--

His world lurched as the beast grabbed him by the leg, its claws digging into him as he let out a scream of pain. Then it lurched again when its squealed and released him and he was yanked out by his tunic. Hyrule was on his raft, bow in hand as the beast pulled an arrow out of its arm. At least it now held very little resemblance to Sky aside from its hair and facial structure. The fangs, claws, red eyes, and fin left very little doubt that it was not, in fact, their friend.

But what if it was Sky?! What if something had changed him, had made him into a beast?! If Twilight could use shadow magic to turn into a wolf, what could stop something else from turning one of their brothers into a monster?

Hyrule fired off another arrow, which the beast swatted easily with its tail before tearing after them at a speed that made Four want to scream. An island erupted up beneath them, beaching the raft and saving them temporarily as the beast backed off and circled the land. When it tried to breach the surface and pull itself ashore, Hyrule loosed another arrow, making the beast hiss and retreat.

"Smithy, you have to snap out of it!" Hyrule yelled. "It isn't Sky!"

The ground shuddered, indicating that the island was about to disappear. Four took a breath, focusing, and pulled out a bomb, nodding at Hyrule, who followed suit. The pair drew the beast out so it surfaced and threw bombs just as the island vanished beneath them. The blast pushed the raft away a good distance while also throwing the beast back with a shriek.

"The only way we can fight that thing is by drawing it to land," Hyrule said, looking around for the other islands.

"The land doesn't stick around long enough to do that!" Four argued. Then he glanced upward. "Wait--we need to figure out what that lever does, but there's no geyser or way to get to it!"

"Leave that to me," Hyrule said with firm resolve, eyes narrowed in determination. "We just need to steer it that way. I'll cover you, but you'll have to push the raft."

The two looked at each other a moment, a silent question passing between them. Four nodded. He could handle it. Slipping into the water, he started to steer the raft with as much haste as he could muster, slipping his power bracelets on to help him. Between the two items they moved almost as quickly as the beast.

Almost.

The creature started to gain on them just as they reached the center of the room. Hyrule crouched down, arrow nocked and ready, but Four called out to say they were approaching. There was no way they were going to be able to linger in the center, so whatever trick Hyrule had up his sleeve he had to pull it while they were moving.

The traveler glanced upward, calcualting the distance, and put his bow and arrow away. He took a deep breath and leapt, magic pushing outward as he flew high into the air, grabbing hold of the lever just as the beast snagged Four's leg once more. Four yelled and kicked, trying to pull himself onto the raft when the water started swirling, pulling both him and the beast in a whirlpool that had begun to form. Four grew both dizzy and nauseous, adrenaline making him try to keep track of where the monster was, to the point that he lost sight of his own surroundings until he slammed into one of the islands that had risen up.

Groaning, he held onto the island for dear life, shoving a hand into his pouch to find his grip ring so he could try to scale the slippery stone. The beast screamed as it tore by him continuously, trying to reach him with each successive pass. Four eventually started to climb, coughing out water and choking out, "Don't let go!"

"Are you okay?!" he could barely hear Hyrule, but the words were clear enough in his ringing mind.

Gasping for air, Four managed to drag himself to the top of the island only for it to sink, plunging him into the whirlpool once more, though this time, the water had seemed to have gotten shallower.

Ah. Because there was a giant endless pit in the center of the room now.

Swimming frantically, he and the beast both barely managed to escape falling into the hole, leaving them floundering on the stony ground that was revealed. outlines of islands that had been rising and sinking were apparent now, and Four scrambled for one, tripping over his flippers as the tailed beast tried to drag itself towards him.

Well, at least they had managed to beach the creature.

Groaning, Four finally made it to the island as it rose, holding his leg that had now been injured twice. Blood was oozing out of multiple cuts, some deep enough to make his stomach mildly queasy. He pulled off the flippers no longer needing them, and looked up at Hyrule, who was watching him worriedly.

"I'm fine!" he called. "Just don't let go! This is the only way we're going to be able to fight it!"

Hyrule nodded, his eyes still worried, but his face was set in stone.

Four readied himself, drawing his sword and shield as the island fell, taking him with it. The beast was awaiting him, pushing its torso into the air with its tail as it snarled and reached out for him with its claws. He deflected a blow with his shield, reaching in to attack it before getting smacked away by its tail, which was surprisingly limber despite its thickness.

And goddesses above, it hurt.

With the wind knocked out of him, Four took too long to recover as the beast half dragged, half slithered its way to him. He yelped and pulled out a bomb, but he was cornered and would either blow himself up in the process or run right into the beast's clutches.

This was getting out of hand. He needed Hyrule's help.

Well. What he needed was an extra fighter.

He was outmaneuvered and he knew it. He could either shrink down to try and be harder to reach (and probably get squished in the process) or...

Gritting his teeth, he squeezed the handle of his sword tightly, feeling the magic activate. His mind screamed, his body felt suddenly too tight and too loose, his sternum felt like it was being ripped in half twice over. Rage at the monster, worry over whether it truly was a shapeshifter or not, logic telling him to focus on the moment, and a desire to protect Hyrule and get them out of here split into pieces, becoming overwhelming voices driving him insane until they separated entirely. The beast quadrupled in appearance, magic sealed the tears in his very being, and the four colors stood in the original hero's stead, glaring at the beast with equal measure.

Blue growled, swinging his his blade at the beast's arm as Red flinched a little, looking away from its face. Vio watched the monster move as Green charged ahead as well, aiming for its other arm.

The beast flinched back, overwhelmed and caught off guard. Blue let out a laugh. "Yeah, take that you asshole!"

"Does it even have one...?" Vio wondered quietly before shaking his head. "We need to corner it."

"We're absolutely sure it isn't Sky, right?" Red asked in spite of edging a head, blade at the ready.

"Trust the Traveler!" Green said as he circled around to get behind the monster.

Red nodded and glanced up worriedly at said Hero to find Hyrule staring at them with wide eyes. A different worry crossed Red's face and then he shook his head.

"Let's go!" Blue shouted as he charged once more since Green and Vio flanked the beast. Its tail whipped around to knock Vio back only for Green to leap on top of it and stab into it. The beast shrieked, distrated and aiming its claws for Green just as Red bashed its arm away with his shield while Blue cut into its skin, only to find that its flesh was much thicker than expected. The beast flailed even more, screeching, knocking Green off and flinging Vio across to a rock island just as it rose, knocking him out cold. Red called out to his companion, but Green waved him off.

"Not now!" he said. "We need to kill it before it can hurt anybody else!"

"Pin it in place!" Hyrule called from where he was. "Bring it beneath where I am and pin it in place!"

The three immediately knew what the traveler had in mind and nodded with smiles. Blue led it first, cutting and tucking himself to roll and avoid a counterattack. The beast's tail whirled, stopping by Green's shield, even though it did make the hero stumble. The three slowly started to corral the beast towards the center of the room, careful to dodge islands as they moved. Eventually, Green looked up and smirked.

"We got him!" he said to the other two. "Now keep it here!"

Red thrust his sword forward to make the beast hiss and recoil a little, only for Blue to yell and land a cut on its back. It pivoted in place, trying to keep the three at bay, and Green called, "Now!"

Hyrule let go, pulling out his sword. He tucked his legs above his blade, and just as Blue drove the beast away just a hair, Hyrule's blade sank into its spine with a clean slice, the sound of steel cutting to bone whirling around the room as the water had before.

The world stilled for a moment and then the beast collapsed. Hyrule rolled off, pulling out his blade in a swift motion.

"HELL YEAH!" Blue yelled, bumping elbows with the traveler. "That was a great move, Traveler!"

Red smiled encouragingly before rushing off towards Vio. Hyrule stared at the four, baffled, and then ran after Red just as the other two Colors did. Water was already pooling, filling the room back up as the beast disintegrated into dust. Red quickly pulled Vio off the ground so he wouldn't drown.

"Okay, but how--?" Hyrule asked, pointing at all of them. "What?"

Green sighed as Blue helped Red prop Vio against the wall. "The Four Sword is able to, well, split us into four people. It's... uncomfortable magic, but it has its uses."

"Wait, so are you, like four people or are you..." Hyrule stopped mid question, shaking his head. "You know what, never mind. Let me take a look at him."

Pulling out his raft, he motioned for eveyrone to get aboard just as the water started reaching their knees, and then he knelt by Vio. Letting his hands glow, he hovered them over Vio's head, and the purple clad hero started to groan and move a little.

"Did we win...?" he slurred.

Blue smiled. "Yeah."

Vio's gaze shifted to Hyrule, and he stiffened a little. "Oh. Hi."

"Hi," Hyrule greeted with a smile beforelooking at all of them. "So... wait... if one of you is injured, does that mean you all are? Because the rest of you..."

"We'll have a headache when we rejoin," Green explained. "But it looks like you cleared up the worst of it, anyway."

"Thanks, Traveler," Red said, face beaming. "You're always so willing to help, we really appreciate you."

Hyrule flushed, a little embarrassed and not sure how to take the compliment, and Green took that as a cue.

"Come on," he prompted, reaching for his sword. The others nodded, mirroring him, and before Hyrule could blink the four were one once more.

Four groaned, a little woozy, and Hyrule immediately helped him sit on the raft.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Four nodded, swallowing bile. His thoughts were going to be a disaster for the next day or so, but he'd live. He felt too big and too small, too whole and too broken. He hated splitting.

Movement distracted him, and he blinked the blurriness away in the distance to see the clam shell that held the beast moving aside. Pointing it out, he let Hyrule steer the raft towards the island as they saw an exit glowing in the wall.

"No prize?" Hyrule huffed.

"Wait, I think I see a chest!" Four said, just as eager as Hyrule to find something after all that headache.

The chest was white in color, intricate carvings embroidering its surface, and the pair squeezed together to open it, eyes wide with eager curiosity.

There was a manuscript made of violet crystal, notes carved into its shimmering surface.

"A melody?" Hyrule reached into his adventure pouch and pulled out a flute, glancing at the tablet for a moment before hesitantly playing notes. He stumbled over a few as Four listened, and then the smithy pulled out an ocarina and tried it as well.

"I wonder what it does?" Four asked as Hyrule continued practicing. He looked around to see if the exit was visible before realizing the bright light was just coming from a hole far, far above them. How were they going to get up there?

Sighing, he glanced back and nearly jumped out of his skin as he screamed. Hyrule immediately stopped playing and whirled, only to be met with the same sight.

The beast was back. But now it looked like Hyrule, and its reddish eyes were a soft pink, its face calm and placid, its posture demure and curious.

Four added shapeshifters to his list of most disturbing things I've encountered. As if his mind wasn't spinning enough.

"The melody pacifies it!" Hyrule realized. "Smithy, this is our ticket out of here!"

Comprehension dawned on Four, and he hesitantly reached forward. The world spun dizzyingly as his brain panicked over only having one arm reach forward and not four, and he shook his head to rid himself of the feeling. Hyrule steadied him, watching him worriedly.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked softly as the beast cocked its head to the side curiosity, Four's own face staring back at him.

"Yeah," Four answered shakily. "It's... not something I usually like doing. Splitting, I mean. It's... a lot."

"No kidding," Hyrule acknowledged. "Is that why you haven't told anyone?"

"Champion knows," Four remarked.

Their conversation was interrupted as the shapeshifter moved a little, growing tense. Hyrule put his flute to his lips and played again, and the beast settled.

"Can you take us to the surface?" Four asked the creature.

Hyrule's beastly mirror image smiled and wiggled to face the entrance back to the boss room. It dragged itself gently to the water and slid in before looking back at them.

"Do you think you have to play the entire time?" Four whispered through the corner of his mouth as he gave a hesitant thumbs up to the beast.

"Maybe one more time for good measure," Hyrule threw back with a nervous laugh.

After ensuring the sea creature was indeed pacified, the pair gingerly slipped into the water. The beast wrapped an arm around each of them and swam swiftly, tearing downward into the gaping maw that sucked the water out before. Four and Hyrule glanced at each other through the water, holding their breath and trying not to panic, but then light started to shine as they zipped through the hole. A kaleidoscope of colors danced before them as they passed walls littered with glittering crystals of varying hues, and they quickly breached the surface.

They were back at the main entrance room, the waterfall crashing behind them.

"Thank you," Four said. The beast hummed and sank back into the water.

"All that just to learn how to charm a sea monster," Hyrule said softly. Then he sighed and smiled. "At least it was an adventure!"

Four huffed out a laugh. Yes, he supposed it was. But there was still one question that lingered in his mind, and no doubt was in Hyrule's as well as the pair exited the cave entirely.

"Smithy! Traveler!"

The pair jumped and looked ahead to see that the mist had cleared, revealing Sky and Warriors heading their way.

"Oh, did you find the cave too?" Warriors questioned as he approached them, sharp eyes scanning for injuries. He lingered on Four, probably immediately noticing the blood stains on his leg and head.

"Yeah!" Hyrule nodded, though his excitement wasn't quite as bright as it had been when they'd entered. "Wait, did you guys find it too?"

"Alongside a vile creature, yes," Warriors remarked. Then he clapped Sky on the back. "Sky managed to land the killing blow."

The realization snapped into place with resounding clarity.

"It takes the form of whatever defeats it," Four gasped.

Sky tipped his head to the side. "Huh?"

"It's a shapeshifter," Hyrule explained with a wave. "Did you guys find the melody?"

"Yeah!" Sky immediately answered. "The sea people love it!"

"The--who??"

"There's a whole community of them up the river," Warriors said, motioning with his head and smirking. "You should've seen Vet's face. Come on, we'll show you. Smithy... are you able to make it that far?"

Four let out a laugh, relieved that everything was finally making sense. "Yeah, I'll be fine. You two lead on."

Sky lingered a moment longer, clearly also noticing Four's injury, but when the sword smith gave him a reassuring smile, the skyborn knight nodded and walked alongside the captain. Hyrule and Four stood in place for a moment before glancing at each other.

"Thanks for the help in there," Four said softly.

Hyrule smiled brightly. "We're all heroes, Link. You were amazing."

Four laughed. "Well, come on, if we stand still any longer Sky's gonna start fretting."

The brothers walked ahead, their next adventure awaiting them.

#that isn't at all how fire arrows work but whatever #I had to improvise #I made a fire puzzle and didn't havea way to solve it without draining Hyrule of his energy #because using his fire spell to a light a tiny candle a distance away is the equivalent of using a bazooka to knock a can over LOL #Four is Smol #Hyrule is amused #Four is not #since everyone loves Four splitting into the Colors I figured I'd throw it in there #honestly he seems like he'd rather keep it as a last resort #then he again he also used it as a JUMP SCARE for Wild jfklgjklsjfk so whatevs could go either way XD #Hyrule has shapeshifter enemies so he'd recognize one if he saw one #I don't know if Four does... I guess Shadow shapeshifts...?? idk I go by the games not the manga #did I happen to mention that listening to the molduga battle medley is GREAT for writing action sequences #it made it really fun haha #hope y'all enjoy because wow this was a challenge #a fun challenge! :) #linkeduniverse #linked universe #lu four #lu hyrule #poor Legend I had to mention him at least a little if I was gonna throw merpeople into the mix LOL #did I mention that I haven't proofread this #because I haven't proofread this #raccoon I hope this is ok for your prompt too #there was a treasure at the end after all #writing #writing prompt #you ask skye answers #lovely frostedshadow #lovely tempestraccoon

[istoleyoursk1n]

How would they all react to a Tav who reveals themselves to be a dragon in disguise?

•❅───────────✧❅✦❅✧───────────❅•

How would they react to a Tav who reveals themselves to be a dragon in disguise?

(I’m assuming you mean they could transform into an actual Dragon or at least something Dragon-like.)

.

.

: ̗̀➛ ASTARION

“Gods! You would have thought to tell someone about the fact that, oh, I don't know, you’re a damn fire-breathing Dragon!”

Shouted when he first saw the transformation. It came out of nowhere so he didn't expect it at all. He nearly stabbed you from the shock but thankfully retracted his dagger as soon as he realized it was you.

Irritated that you’d hide something like this from him. He wanted a warning at least!

He scolds you for keeping it secret but soon enough he takes a moment to admire the sight before him.

You appear similar to a Dragonborn but with notable different features, something that brings that all too familiar smug look on his face.

It would be useful indeed to have some sort of Dragon companion accompany them on their journey against the absolute, a companion he’d love to make use of.

Eventually comes to find the new form endearing as long as your scales don't scratch his body or your firey breath doesn't ruin his perfect hair.

: ̗̀➛ WYLL

“You’re a dragon?! Out of all the things I expected to hear from you, it certainly wasn't this. Not bad news at all though!”

Oh! Well isn't that surprising!

He’s amazed, to say the least, staring in wonder at your new form.

You look incredible! Nearly as glorious as the dragons he’s envisioned in fairytales. He can barely keep his own eyes off of you.

Even more impressed seeing you fight in that form. It's so distracting that he nearly gets hit by an arrow mid battle.

He adores how mystical you look, he hopes that you stay in said form longer and allow him to live out his own little fanatical dreams he had as a boy.

Who wouldn't go on epic adventures with a dragon by your side?

Overjoyed if you do show him your firey breath or even let him fly on your back. You’re bringing his inner child back to life by doing so.

: ̗̀➛ GALE

“A dragon-hyrbird..? Dragonborn? No that's not quite right. Well, whatever you are, good to know such incredible power is on our side.”

‘What the fuck?’ <— His initial reaction lmao

He’s so lost upon first seeing you transform that for a moment he thinks he's hallucinating.

Did you accidentally use some sort of spell on yourself? He seriously can't tell.

Baffled once he realizes that you did in fact transform into a dragon that he's utterly speechless.

His speechlessness is soon followed by an array of questions that may or may not overwhelm you. He’s incredibly curious now, wondering how this all works.

Do you have fiery breath? Does the transformation hurt? Can you fly? Do you have heightened senses? He just has so many!

If you do manage to entertain each and every one of his questions, he’d be delighted, incredibly fascinated by this new form and all the features that come with it.

Would love to study it more once he has the chance, perhaps you both could learn new things from it that could give them a big advantage in the coming battles.

: ̗̀➛ KARLACH

“You’re a bloody Dragon?! A dragon! Hell fucking yes! I can't believe I’m friends with a damn Dragon! An amazing one at that.”

‘WHAT THE FUCK’ (Lovingly).

Her body is set ablaze upon seeing you first transform, she just couldn't believe it.

She's so amazed by you’re form that she's practically quick stepping all over the place.

You look so cool! She spends at least a minute circling you to take in every bit of you.

She freaks the hell out if you so much as breathe fire in her direction (she thinks it's the coolest thing she's ever seen).

Her hype around your new form lasts for a long while before she eventually starts to question how this even happened to you.

I mean, were you born like this? Does it hurt? Can she touch you? Would you not feel the burn if she did? She just wants to admire and feel you! Especially you’re scales!

She becomes a grinning mess every time you spread your wings, everything about this form is something she both envies yet adores.

: ̗̀➛ SHADOWHEART

“Well, I didn't quite expect a… dragon-hybrid? To be joining us on this adventure but the surprise isn't unwelcomed.”

Similar to the rest, she's surprised.

You didn't exactly give off any sort of hint that would colorate to your dragon transformation.

Well, at least they have a dragon companion by their side now. She can’t exactly think of any cons to that.

She doubts you’d go ahead and set the entire camp ablaze now that you've and the others come so far.

She doesn't see you any differently than before if not just mildly curious about the new form.

You certainly look different but she can recognize you despite it all.

As long as this new form hasn't changed you mentally then she's okay with everything that's happening with this new change. You’re still her friend after all.

: ̗̀➛ LAE’ZEL

“Having a powerful ra’stil at my side is nothing short but honorable. Consider yourself useful in the long run. Hope that this newfound form of yours does not disappoint.”

Shocked and amazed. She'd seen red dragons before but having one of her very own travel companions as one is something she’s secretly excited by.

Her staring isn't something you can easily ignore, you can tell how much she loves this form as awkward as her gaze makes you feel at times.

She's simply admiring you, even blatantly admitting how appealing you are in her eyes in this particular form.

Even better when you use such an imposing form in battle, the way it gives you extra strength is something she's impressed by. It only adds to her admiration for you by tenfold.

I doubt she’d ever ask for it herself but if you do offer to let her fly you, she’d be ecstatic, she might even smile.

She’s always wanted a red dragon of her own, but having you isn't a bad option either. She feels more like a warrior soaring through the skies with you alongside her, something that makes her fiery heart burn with joy.

Sparring with you in this form would also be one of her favorite pastimes, getting to see such raw power up close is sure to get her to feel some form of happiness.

: ̗̀➛ HALSIN

“I wouldn't have guessed we’d have a dragon in our midst, such mighty yet graceful beasts are nothing but a blessing to see so close. Especially one so enchanting as you.”

Surprised, but pleased!

Having a dragon companion at one’s side is an advantage sure, but this new form is quite appealing to the eye.

It's not often he gets to admire a dragon-like creature up close, especially one he's come to grow fond of.

With your permission, he’d take a moment to take you in, gazing upon your form as if it was something he’d never seen before.

He’d be curious as to how nature could have come up with such a beautiful enigma such as yourself, subtly complimenting aspects of your new form he had noticed.

He especially loves to see you fly, to witness you taking to the skies with spread-out wings, feeling the wind as you cut threw clouds.

You’re ethereal in his eyes, someone he can’t take his eyes off of in and out of this incredible form.

He would absolutely be on board with racing through the woods with you in his bear form, enjoying yourselves to your heart's content until it is time to continue on with your grand adventure.

•❅───────────✧❅✦❅✧───────────❅•

#bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 headcanons #bg3 headcanon #bg3 x reader #bg3 astarion #bg3 wyll #bg3 gale #bg3 karlach #bg3 shadowheart #bg3 lae’zel #bg3 halsin #astarion #wyll #gale #karlach #shadowheart #lae’zel #halsin

[st-el-la-luna]

Thinking about being a civilian in Las Almas when shit goes down

You'd been invited to stay with a friend and, being in desperate need of a vacation, you'd agreed. It was fun, staying with them, meeting their family, learning about their hometown and childhood.

The fun ended pretty quick when these cunts dressed in black started killing everyone.

You and your friend had been out enjoying the night, eating, drinking, dancing. You were on your way back to their house when you heard it.

A gunshot.

Your friend tells you this isn't entirely abnormal. Tells you to ignore it and keep walking.

So you do.

But the gunshots are becoming more frequent. Louder too. They're getting closer.

A woman you vaguely recognize, one of your friends neighbours, rushes out of an alleyway, terrified and bloodied.

You can only understand so much about what's said before her head suddenly... Not there. Bits of skull and brain and blood spattered all over you as you watch her body drop.

You turn to your friend. "This is normal? Dude...."

You're friend tells you to shut the fuck up and that you need to run. As the sound of heavy footsteps and voices (American accents you register) get closer, accompanied by the sound of a gun being reloaded, you agree.

The two of you make a run for your friends house, passing all sorts of horrible sights. You're a block away when a gunshot rips through the night and your friend suddenly just... Stops.

You look back in disbelief. Their eyes wide with shock, lips parted, slack jawed... The new hole in the middle of their forehead. They try to say something to you, but all that escapes them is a choked groan. They throw you their keys, then collapse.

They're not dead yet. You can tell by their sounds and the rise and fall of their chest. A part of you wants to help them, grab them and drag them off to safety.

The other part of you recognizes the man dressed in all black (he looks suspiciously military but that doesn't make sense, killing civilians is a war crime... isn't it?), who's walking closer as he reloads his gun.

So you run.

Run and run until your legs are burning. Taking back roads and side streets, jumping fences, the adrenaline making it easy to ignore the way the barbed wire tears at your skin.

When you make it to your friends street, you find the door to their house is already open. Kicked down.

You find the dead inside.

A part of you wants to stop here, curl up and break down. The other knows that these people, these men in black, could come back at any moment. And so you do what you can to prepare yourself.

You empty your backpack of your belongings, filling it instead with anything you find around the house that might be useful.

A first aid kit buckled to the side. Rubbing alcohol and tequilla and whatever else flammable you can find poured into glass bottles, the lips stuffed with socks. Kitchen knives. Fire crackers and fire works. A couple flares. You manage to break open the safe and get a gun. An eight round revolver that you have no clue how to shoot but figure, hey, its better than nothing. At the very least, you could use it for intimidation.

You're heading to the garage where you're pretty sure you remember seeing a bow and full quiver of arrows (you were obsessed with the hunger games when you were younger, actually got pretty good with the weapon) when you freeze.

The man in black also freezes.

He's bloody and out of breath. Face smeared with dirt and oil. His mohawk disheveled. His blue eyes land on you laser focused. He's got a gun. A big one.

And he's looting the corpses. Your friends roommates, their bodies still warm as blood pools beneath them, some of their eyes still open, casting judgmental stares, lay there limp. And this fucker is acting like this is a D&D campaign.

You've got the revolver trained on him with shaking hands.

He points his gun (some sort of automatic things) at you. His hands are steady, practiced. His eyes sharp.

He opens his mouth to speak and takes a half step towards you.

You pull the trigger.

Nothing happens.

"Aye," the man speaks in a thick Scottish brogue. He sounds like he's laughing. How dare he laugh? If you could figure out how the stupid gun works you'd shoot him. "You've got to cock a gun like that 'fore you shoot it."

You freeze, your arm drawn back ready to throw the revolver at the man. His accent gives you pause. The other men in black, they were Americans. And this guy... His clothes are a bit different too. Though he's clearly also army.

You lower your arm hesitantly. "You're... You're not one of them."

"The Shadows?" he asks. "Tch, no. You'd best thank your lucky stars for that, they'd have killed you in a second flat."

"What the hell is going on here?" You demand, slipping the gun back into the makeshift holster you had made out of a couple belts. You step around the man to the garage and he follows.

"You're not from here, are ya love?" he asks as he watches you scan the shelves.

"I'm here on vacation," you say bitterly as you stand on your toes, struggling to reach the quiver of arrows. He pulls it down and hands it to you. The arrows are dusty and old, though still sharp. He hands the bow to you as well, albeit unstrung, and you let out a quiet hum in thanks. He watches as you string the bow, a brow raised. He looks like he's going to say something, but you cut him off. "You didn't answer my question... What's happening? Who are those people?"

He hesitates a moment, you notice his ear piece. Someone else is speaking to him. "Aye, i know, I know, but I cannae very well leave her here now can I?"

At the mention of being left, you panic. There's a pair of handcuffs on his belt. You grab them and before he has a chance to react, you've cuffed your hands together.

And swallowed the key.

Yeah... Not your brightest moment.

The man looks at you dumbfounded. Then speaks to the man in his ear. "Uh... Lt? Got a bit of a problem..."

Please reblog to support my writing!

Masterlist

#call of duty #cod mwii #john soap mactavish #soap #soap x reader #soap mw2 #las almas #x reader

[goodnightmemes]

THE WALKING DEAD SEASON ONE SENTENCE STARTERS

❛ Sometimes I wonder if you even care about us at all. ❜

❛ Make sure you got a round in the chamber and your safety off. ❜

❛ Son of a bitch shot me. You believe that? ❜

❛ Look, I ask and you answer. It's common courtesy, right? ❜

❛ Get away from the windows. ❜

❛ Conserve your ammo. Goes faster than you think. Especially at target practice. ❜

❛ There are others. It's not just us. ❜

❛ Folks got no idea what they're getting into. ❜

❛ We are surviving here. We are day to day. ❜

❛ Listen, whoever you are, I don't mind telling you I'm a little concerned in here. ❜

❛ Have you been listening? You're running out of time. ❜

❛ Yeah, whatever. Yeehaw. You're still a dumbass. ❜

❛ You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving! You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the O.K. Corral. ❜

❛ You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things. It happens. ❜

❛ Hey! Y'all be more polite to a man with a gun! Only common sense. ❜

❛ We survive this by pulling together, not apart. ❜

❛ If bad ideas were an Olympic event, this would take the gold. ❜

❛ You can't leave me. You can't leave me here. Not like this. ❜

❛ At least somebody's having a good day. ❜

❛ Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short. ❜

❛ Nothing bit you? Nothing scratched you? ❜

❛ So that's it, huh? You're just gonna walk off? Just to hell with everybody else? ❜

❛ You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that. ❜

❛ The world ended. Didn't you get the memo? ❜

❛ Toughest asshole I ever met. Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails. ❜

❛ They're not gonna say it so I will. You're scaring people. ❜

❛ Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't even like you much. ❜

❛ There ain't nothing gonna stop him from getting back here to you, I promise you that. ❜

❛ One wrong move, you get an arrow in the ass. Just so you know. ❜

❛ You come back locked and loaded, we'll see which side spills more blood. ❜

❛ Them guns are worth more than gold. Gold won't protect your family or put food on the table. ❜

❛ What life I have I owe to him. ❜

❛ I don't think you fully appreciate the gravity of the situation. ❜

❛ You're the dumbest son of a bitch I ever met. We walked in there ready to kill every last one of you. ❜

❛ The people we've encountered since things fell apart, the worst kind… plunderers, the kind that take by force. ❜

❛ Guess the world changed. ❜

❛ The people here, they all look to me now. I don't even know why. ❜

❛ Hell with them people. Wouldn't piss on them if their heads were on fire. ❜

❛ Unless I've misread the signs, the world seems to have come to an end. At least hit a speed bump for a good long while. ❜

❛ Time…it's important to keep track, isn't it? The days at least. Don't you think? ❜

❛ Do not enter the city. It belongs to the dead now. ❜

❛ I know how the safety works. ❜

❛ We start down that road, where do we draw the line? ❜

❛ Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem! ❜

❛ We don't kill the living. ❜

❛ I'm sorry for not ever being there. I always thought there'd be more time. I'm here now. ❜

❛ These people need to know who the hell's in charge here, what the rules are. ❜

❛ There are no rules. ❜

❛ We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do. ❜

❛ I won't leave again. I promise you that. Not for anything. ❜

❛ You save a grave for me? ❜

❛ It's not about what you want. That sound you hear, that's God laughing while you make plans. ❜

❛ We can't stay here. We both know that. ❜

❛ The most important thing here is we need to stay together. ❜

❛ You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back. ❜

❛ Leave me here. I'm done. Just leave me. ❜

❛ The fever… You've been delirious more often than not. ❜

❛ We can't be here, this close to the city after dark. ❜

❛ You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed. ❜

❛ You know, it's over. There's nothing left. ❜

❛ You don't know what it's like out there. You may think you do, but you don't. ❜

❛ We don't have to be afraid anymore. We're safe here. ❜

❛ I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is. ❜

❛ What's wrong with him? Seriously, is he nuts, medicated, what? ❜

❛ I did the best I could in the time that I had. I hope you'd be proud of that. ❜

❛ We always think there's gonna be more time. ❜

❛ You should've left well enough alone. It would've been so much easier. ❜

❛ I had to keep hope alive, didn't I? ❜

❛ There is no hope. There never was. ❜

❛ What part of "everything is gone" do you not understand? ❜

❛ There's your chance. Take it. ❜

#rp meme #sentence starter meme #sentence starters #rp prompt #rp memes #inbox meme #roleplay prompts #sentence meme #roleplay meme #rp sentence meme #*tv #*twd

[tearsofthekingdomcountup]

25 Days until Tears of the Kingdom Release. Is it really? Haha the smaller the number gets the more I doubt reality. I've just been waiting for this game for so long that even with all the marketing and the trailer analysis it's hard to believe its actually happening.

Spoilers under the cut for the last batch of screenshot trailer analysis.

So this tear has the recall chicken symbol on it. I checked. Zelda also has the Master Sword with her. Either she's fixing the sword and that's something only she can do or Zelda is in the past so the sword isn't broken yet and she is leaving something there for Link.

Ganondorf, mummy version I'm assuming, spewing red malice stuff but much brighter red this time. I wonder if Malice is just Ganondorf's version of fuse. Link gets green glue and Ganondorf red. After this there is a shot where the red stuff hits the sky and starts summoning monsters. The trailer transitions it to make it look continuous but once we get into the game we'll most likely find that it's separate cut scenes or different parts of the same cut scene but not continuous. Honestly, I think this might be where Link and the Master Sword get attacked but I'm still not giving up on the possibility that the malice emerges from the Master Sword outwards as Fi looses control on Demise.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned the lack of lynels in the other analysis I did. Welp here they are with their massive antlers (oof on the damage those things will probably cause) and the sword looking thing sticking out of one of their heads. I wonder what fusing Lynel horns to shields, swords, or arrows will do. I think I'll fight some just for that.

What else do I have to say? It's the main man, Ganondorf. I can't wait to kick his ass again.

Never seen this enemy in any of the Zelda games I've played. However, I will look forward to this boss fight/mini boss fight and whatever skill or item we need to defeat it. Maybe ascend or some ice weapon? I heard that ascend works on certain enemies and I'm very curious about which ones. It'd be interesting if this enemy tries to swallow Link and Link just ascends through the roof of its mouth.

This is Hylia or some version of Zelda from the past (yeah I'm aware that Hylia is technically a version of Zelda but whatever.) I think she's very pretty, super amazing, and very strong considering she laser beams a bunch of Molduga with no sweat.

RIJU!!! Look at my girl double wielding swords (Can we do it too as Link? Nintendo?? I wanna duel wield.) Riju appears to have grown into her own and mastered her lightning powers without needing the Helm. I'm so proud of her and I can't wait to fight along side her.

I can't tell you how cool it is to see that Link will be working and fighting alongside other citizens of Hyrule. The resistance in Twilight Princess walked so that TOTK NPCS can run. At least that's my hope. Also neat looking sword Link.

Now this part of the trailer nearly gave me a heart attack. I was like no freaking way will the new champions literally fight besides Link and not just in a cut scene. How sick is this? Of course, I heard some people say co-op but I don't think that's what's happening. You see the blue glowy stuff on Sidon? Yeah it was on Tulin too. I think the new champions might be like summons, automated companions. I think Nintendo took the wolf link amiibo and the Yunobu follow quest and beefed it up. I'm very excited about it.

So Riju doesn't have a tear that we can see and they haven't shown Yunobu but Tulin and Sidon have different tears. I'm very curious about what these things do. I'm also amused that Sidon got blue and Tulin green considering the colors of Mipha's Grace and Revali's Gale. I'm not sure about the symbols on them since I don't think they correspond to any of the abilities icons unlike recall. Anyway, it's just another thing that can't be answered until the game is out.

Giant fire gleeok or three headed evil dragon or whatever it's called, it's a sick looking boss that I can't wait to fight. Also the weapon that Link is using looks so other worldly. It's got the shape of a wing and its probably ice related. I wonder what enemy Link got it from but it does remind me of Naydra so maybe it's a dragon part? Nintendo really popped off with the Fuse ability.

So Ganondorf is most likely what this mural figure represent but look at the Hylian (i think it's a hylian, could be a Zonai) beneath him. I think the figure with its hand raised represents either Link or the person who owned the ancient hand and sealed Ganondorf.

It's a bit hard to see but see these four warriors? I think they might represent the four champions since these guys are the only warrior figures in the middle of the horde of monsters. The warriors that aren't yet in the midst of monsters must represent the other NPCs, the citizens of Hyrule that are also fighting back. I think the mural is neat and I wonder where we might see it in the game.

Lastly, Zelda holding the Master Sword and saying "You must find me Link." The first time I watched the trailer I went "Zelda?? If Link has to find you then where the heck are you??" And that's where time travel to the past is looking like a more and more likely theory. The only other theory I have involves realms/alternate worlds since A Link Between worlds exists and so do the Twilight and Silent Realms. But again, I think we'll just have to wait and see what the game has in store.

Thank you for coming to the end of this analysis with me. I'm ecstatic to have my questions answered on May 12, 2023.

Edit: It has been brought to my attention that Riju does in fact have a visible tear and I even posted a picture where it is visible. Guess my brain was so focused on how badass she looked while duel wielding swords that I missed it. Welp that's three for three tears so I'm expecting Yunobu to have one.

#totk link #tears of the kingdom #loz #legend of zelda #loz totk #princess zelda #botw totk #loz botw2 #botw2 #totk #totk trailer analysis #loz link #picture

[shuttershocky]

Hey shutters, how do you beat SL-3-CM without Mlynar and bikini Ch'en ? (I don't have both)

Idk if this is supposed to be this hard, not sure how I could beat SL-S-5 later

Forgive the diagram for being crude, I'm on my phone.

Before we begin, a reminder that the event mechanic is that enemies in pink clouds take less damage while your units take more damage, while white clouds are in reverse. This means that white clouds allow your operators to tank more damage than they should. This is the key to understanding how to tank the extreme damage in the SL-S stages and why some may have found EX-7 to be so hard: if you don't play with white clouds defensively, only Nightingale can save you from the beating you'll be taking.

While KyostinV's semi-AFK strat for SL-3-CM does use Mlynar, the theory behind it is very solid and is fairly easy to replicate with different operators (I've tried with replacements and alternate ideas). The critical elements are seen here:

The red arrows are your lane DPS units. They're expected to defend against the majority of the units in the stage, as well as deal DPS to the boss. You want consistent and strong ranged damage here, meaning Thorns is king, but any two characters with strong and consistent ranged damage (that can hit flying units, as the boss is flying) should be able to pull this off as long as they have white clouds set underneath them. While the video uses Thorns + Goldenglow, I actually recommend Thorns + Lappland, since Lappland is tougher and can take a hit if enemies in the lane reach her, but pretty much anyone you want is fair game if they can hit flying enemies.

The green tile is the sidelane tank. Place a juggernaut here. Mudrock is used in the video, I tried this with Penance and it still works, so will Vulcan, but you would have to pay attention to her skill timings to heal her properly. If you don't have a tank for this, extra slows and stuns + AOE burst damage in the middle lane for when they try to cross to the other side will be vital.

Now the purple tile is where Mlynar sits, and the reason why it's Mlynar isn't actually for his burst damage (although he does deal a lot of damage): it's also for his taunt. You want Dolly's line attack to strike Mlynar because he's out of everyone else's way and is protected by the geyser, meaning his tile won't become a pink cloud. Dolly using the line attack on the middle lane is an utter disaster as it will make the enemies in the middle hard to kill while turning the tiles your left middle lane DPS unit is standing on into a pink tile. Without Dolly being distracted, you'll be breaking bottles off-cooldown trying to control the clouds in the middle, fighting a losing battle against Dolly's line attack and all the sheep dying to fart pink clouds.

If you don't have Mlynar, you can deploy another DPS unit in that tile, but you will have to alter the deployment order and put them down last (so they always have Dolly's aggro). So long as a Wandering Medic keeps them from exploding from fire elemental damage, you should be okay without Mlynar.

All other team slots must be used in service of these three core ideas. Add in slows, heals, extra DPS, whatever will get your core team over the finish line. There's one last geyser to the right of the stage you can make use of to get extra damage on Dolly's shield.

If you still need more help, just send a picture of your squad and I'll see if I can make something custom for you. We only have 2 days left though so I can't guarantee it, but I'll try my best.

#arknights

[assjuice4ever]

I just love the idea of Gojo and reader being soulmates who keeps getting reincarnated (in reality my OC but I wrote it with the reader)

ONE LIFE TIME ISN'T ENOUGH

Part 1/Part 2

It was the Yayoi period when they met for the first time.

He was fifteen years old and he was already the capoclan of a sea tribe. All the man were tall, with dark skin, burned by the sun, with dark hairs and eyes. They were strong, they dominated the sea and the near land, destroying and burning down neighboring tribes. He stood like a God in the middle of his men, stronger than all of them, with blue eyes that didn't look like the sky, white hair and skin, as a snow flake in the middle of an ash field.

No man was able to win against him, no curse was able to stop him. They called him God and he acted like one.

He was only fifteen and his name wasn't Gojo Satoru but he was him. He was at the top of the world.

He met her in war.

His clan was attacking a tribe, the clan of his future wife, choosen by his father, was attacked by them and it was his duty to extract revenge even if he didn't care about them.

There was war, blood dripping down men, screams, women and children crying and then somebody started a fire. It was like the gods decided to destroy the whole word by burning down everything, it looked like a divine punishment. And she was standing in the middle of it. He thought she was a god of war, fighting in the middle of the fire, face covered in blood, shooting arrow killing his men and the other clan men one after the other. Who was she?

He walked in the fire circle and fought against her and for the first time he felt alive, while watching her vibrant eyes and the smile on her lips. He never had so much fun before in a fight.

The two fought all night, all day, until the next morning when they stoped, no one else was around, all run away from the fire but them.

And then they start to meet there again and again, to fight, to talk, to run on the woods and swim on the river.

And then on the day of his wedding he run away with her, not caring about anyone else in the world, not his clan nor his responsibility. She was the only thing that had value on his life.

It was the most beautiful time of his life, being free and wild, living only by themselves, going from clan to clan together, and being with her. Nothing else in the world mattered.

They created another clan, with strong people, sorcerer helping them fight curse and they were getting paid by the tribes with food, a sleeping place and whatever they needed. People acted as if they were God and they felt like one.

And then the world crushed into him when he realized how mortal they were, the blood coming from her while crying, the baby growing in her slowly killing her from the inside. She fought with nail and teeth, renouncing to her own powers just to keep the baby alive, for him, because he needed a son.

She slowly died between his arms and he cried day and night, holding her to his heart while she grow weaker and weaker. They promised to each other to meet in the next life and to be happy again.

The second time they met was during the Kofun period. She was the daughter of a blacksmith, he was the best and she was secretly learning from him. A queue of men was always out of the shop, watching her and trying to make her fall for them. And then he, Satoru, arrived. His name was different but it was him. He had eyes like the sky, and plush pink lips. He was a samurai and a sorcerer, while she was a sorcerer and a blacksmith like her father.

He saw her working and he decided that he wanted a sword made by her. He came by every single day, tormenting her and pestering her on how he wanted his sword.

Every single one of her sword didn't work for him, too light, to heavy, too long and too short, and yet he wanted one made by her.

It took her twenty years to do the perfect sword, one he wanted to use.

He accepted it on his death bed, laughing and coughing about how finally she learned how to make a good sword, one he could use. Her last word to him was to tell him how annoying he was and how one say she will get back to him, and he laughed before telling her that he hoped to have this fun again in his next life.

The third time they met was in the Asuka period. He was a warrior in search of fame and fortune, fighting curses and men, to be known as the strongest. People were starting to tell legends about him, a man so beautiful that people had to close their daughter in their house, who looked like the first winter snow and as strong as the storm. He met you when he decided to destroy the terrible band of rogue who was destroying the south of Japan, attacking clans and tribes, fighting the Yamada clan, taking their food and money away, killing their men. People talked about monster and demon, yet not a lot of curses where there.

When he went to destroy all the brigands there he met her, with wild hair and a long scar on her face. She laughed at his face before fighting him, he won but he was unable to kill her. And after that day he always had to put up with her.

Wherever he traveled she followed, taking horror and terror with her. When he slept she tried to assassinate him. When he ate she tried to poison him. When he showered his water was always incredibly cold. When he got undressed his clothes disappeared.

It was the most annoying thing in his life.

They fought, and fought and fought. He would have been lying if he said it wasn't funny to fight against her.

And then she died in the battlefield, nor because the enemy was too strong but to protect his son. He said to her that she would protect her in another life while she answered to him that in another life she hoped they could fight alongside.

The fourth time they met was during the Heian period. A struggle of power was going on between the emperor sons, and yet he didn't have to fight as he was not a soldier but a sorcerer. He was taking car of curses destroying village in his clan territory when he stopped near the soldiers to talk with them, knowing curse were going to rise up there. During the night an attack was carried out, the soldier were killed by arrows so silently that he could have missed them if not for his eyes. Then he searched for the killer, her. She was beautiful and angry, as if her face was a mask.

He decided not to fight but to follow her out only of interest and he learned how she was the leader of a group of farmers, not warriors, and she was putting them in harm way even if she was an hunderd time stronger than them.

It was dishonourable or so he thought until she heard her speech to women and men, until he heard her anger and she undressed in front of everybody to tell them how her body was destroyed by that men, how they needed to kill to save themselves and how even dying in battle was better than that. Everybody listened as if it was the emperor himself talking to them.

And they fought and killed and died. Leaving only her standing to fight again. And he decided to help. Maybe because he was touched or maybe because she looked as if fire was in her vein. They fought, and fought again. And then when they got older, he claimed the land for his clan, letting her live there, asking her to stop fighting but she didn't listen. They ended the fight when he died by the end of a Shikigami, him destroying it to protect her.

They promised each other to be friend in their next life.

#gojo satoru x reader #gojo satoru #gojo x reader #jjk men #gojo x oc #jjk men x reader #gojo #gojo satoru x you #gojo x you

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Fext

CR 10

Lawful Evil Medium Undead

Bestiary 5, pg. 115

These terrifying undead are most often used as commanders by powerful necromancers, evil emperors, and other wicked overlords, trained from youth to lead their mortal and immortal armies to glory. Literally born and bred for war, the process of creating a Fext is a years-long process that begins while it's still in its mother's womb, contaminating the young soul with eventual undeath and a morbid fascination with warfare and combat of all kinds. Even if the (usually, but not always) human child destined to become a Fext isn't formally educated in matters of war, they're subconsciously drawn to the subjects and will seek them out in whatever manner they can, absorbing and applying this knowledge with alarming speed. It's a little adorable to picture a 5 year old trying to come up with complex plans on how to take over the playground slide, but the life of a Fext is anything but cute.

All Fext unavoidably die upon reaching adulthood as the cocoon that is their living soul bursts, reanimating mere hours later as a fully realized Undead with a whole host of supernatural powers and an unquenchable lust for battle. While not instinctively bound to the will of its creator (and, in fact, fully capable of slaying its creator if it has reason to), most beings trying to raise a Fext do as much as they possibly can to secure its loyalty from a young age on if they don't simply weave some necromantic spell into them to assure their loyalty. It'd be kind of silly for an evil overlord to leave their child supersoldier project without supervision under their total control!

While most Fext are kept in reserve and act as generals and tacticians, they make for terrifying, seemingly invincible foes if an enemy manages to breach the front lines and attack the commander directly. They're trained like Fighters (and sometimes take levels in the class), and possess superhuman Strength, specializing in heavy armor while being strong enough to wield two-handed weapons in one hand, allowing the other to hold heavy shields of whatever flavor they're most comfortable with. The written Fext uses a +1 Bastard Sword with terrifying efficiency, swinging it up to three times a round for 1d10+8 damage each time with a critical chance of 17~20, augmented by Cleave for multiple foes or Spring Attack while on the move. They're by no means limited to just the sword, able to use any weapon they're trained to, so DMs are free to outfit them as they see fit.

Without any enchantments, a typical Fext has an AC of 25 while still retaining a 30ft movement speed (40ft without it!). They're also immune to Cold damage and have 10 Resistance to both Fire and Electricity, and shield themselves further behind 21 Spell Resistance if faced with a mage. Perhaps their most baffling defense, however, is their Damage Reduction: 10 points that can only be bypassed by a very specific material. Silver? Nope. Cold iron? Not that, either! Gold? Good try, but incorrect. Wood? You're getting closer, but not quite there yet! Mithral, or perhaps adamantine? Getting colder, actually.

In truth, the DR of a Fext may as well be insurmountable, because I can't think of a good reason anyone would be carrying around a weapon made of glass. Yes, glass. Obsidian also works and may actually be easier to fashion a weapon out of, but here's the thing: A weapon made of glass OR obsidian has half the hitpoints of a normal weapon of its type and only 1 Hardness (compared to the 10 of iron and steel), so charging at a Fext wielding a glass broadsword is a good way to be sent right back to the blacksmith when the undead general elects to sunder the weapons you brought specifically to harm it. They're not mindless!

Their weakness to glass is also the only way to put them down for good. Tear them to pieces, chop them to bits, riddle them with arrows, blow up their remains with dynamite, none of it matters, because a Fext is Unkillable as long as its death blow wasn't struck with a glass weapon (only the final blow matters; hack it down with a steel battleaxe, but the last bit of HP must be taken with glass). 1d4 minutes after being reduced to 0 HP, a Fext gain Fast Healing 1 that starts ticking and doesn't stop until they return to full HP, their bodies knitting together from even the most gruesome of wounds, giving them a fearsome reputation as deathless juggernauts that simply cannot be killed without severe methods. As written, Fext can come back from anything so long as their final hitpoint wasn't taken by a glass weapon (or, more mundanely, if their head wasn't severed and anointed with holy water, but that's boring), so unless your DM rules that burning them to ash puts them down permanently, there's nothing you can do to stop them from coming back over and over and over again... each time, more prepared for your nonsense.

A Fext as a recurring foe is made all the more potent by the fact that they have ways to grind down a party's resources. Namely, Bestow Curse at 3/day, and the power to inflict 1d4 levels of Energy Drain with a touch or by eschewing a weapon attack and hitting someone with a bare-handed slam (which also deals 1d4+10 damage). They can use Speak With Dead at-will, allowing the undying generals to quietly follow in the wake of a party and interrogate the dead (perhaps the Fext's own disposable soldiers) to learn of their tactics and abilities, learning from every single failure--whether it be their soldiers' or their own--over the course of an entire campaign until, eventually, they become unbeatable.

You can read more about them here.

#Monster Spotlight #CR 6 to 10 #Pathfinder #dungeons and dragons

[bumblebeerror]

Hi! My oldest wants to know about Redstone. "How do you make Redstone stuff?"

"How does it work and stuff?"

1) me personally? brute force tbh. Other people? Probably by actually thinking about it really carefully and planning it out before they start

2) sort of like simple machines from middle school science class!

[also tagging @heyimreese ]

You have a bunch of pieces that when you put them together like legos, they can make stuff do things! Learning circuits is kind of hard, but if you can kind of walk your way through how you would achieve the thing you want to do step-by-step, you can piece together how to make it the same way you can wrap an inclined plane around a wheel and axle to create a screw.

You start with knowing what each piece does.

What do they do?

Power Sources:

Buttons, pressure plates, levers: these items output a redstone pulse when activated while connected to a circuit.

Redstone Block: This block is used as a power source. Any block that can be powered will stay powered for as long as it is adjacent to this block.

Detector rail: detects if a cart has passed over it and sends out a redstone pulse.

Redstone Torch: a power source, turns off when powered by another power source.

Sculk sensor/calibrated sculk sensor: listens for noises around it and sends out a redstone pulse when activated. Calibrated sensors can be set to only detect a specific sound.

Daylight Sensor: When placed outside, it detects sunlight and sends out a redstone pulse.

Trapped Chest: When opened, it produces redstone signal that can be used to power redstone components. When closed, it stops producing a signal.

Observer: this block watches whatever block it’s placed against for block updates. When it sees a block update, the observer sends out a redstone pulse.

Block, Entity, and Item Movers:

Dispenser: when powered, it uses one item. A dispenser can use shears, water/lava buckets, empty bottles, splash potions, all arrow types, flint and steel, fire charges, snowballs, and eggs.

Hopper: Pulls items from a storage block placed on top of it, and moves them into the block the hopper was placed against.

Dropper: when powered, it drops one item.

Minecart: When placed on a rail, it can be ridden in. If a mob walks alongside one while it's moving, the mob will enter the minecart. This will create a Persistent mob.

Chest Minecart: A minecart with a chest inside. It can hold items just like a chest, and can transfer them across rails. When placed over a hopper, the hopper can pull items from it just like a normal storage block.

Hopper Minecart: A minecart with a hopper inside. When it passes under a storage block or another hopper, it pulls items from them. When passing over a hopper it deposits the items.

Furnace Minecart: When fed coal or charcoal, the cart moves on it's own and pushes any other minecarts on the rail along as it goes.

Slime Block: Sticks to most blocks placed against it and can move them along with it. It can carry a redstone signal.

Honey Block: A transparent block that sticks to most blocks and when moved, carries those blocks with it. It can also be used to slow blocks, and it's hitbox isn't a full block.

Piston: when powered, the piston extends and can push most blocks, with a 12 block push limit. When unpowered, the piston returns to it’s default retracted position.

Sticky piston: this block works exactly the same as a piston, but it stays stuck to the block it pushes. It also has a 12 block push limit.

Change or Transfer Redstone Signal:

Redstone Dust: think of this like wires. All it does is bring a signal somewhere else. If placed on a block where no redstone dust connects to it, clicking it once will make it a dot that only gives a signal to the block below it. It can carry a full strength signal from a power source for 16 blocks before it becomes too weak to power anything.

Note block: this block can transfer a signal similarly to redstone dust, and also play a single note if the block above it is transparent. When placed on certain other blocks, the sound changes.

Powered rails: what it says on the tin, you power the rail and it propels the minecart. Placing a block on one end of the rail will propel the minecart without having to manually push it.

Redstone Repeater: this takes a signal that is fed into one end and outputs a signal of the same strength in the direction of the arrow on it, with a delay of 0, 1, or 2 redstone ticks.

Redstone Comparator: Compares the signal strength at it's input to the signal strength at either side, and sends an output signal when it's input signal is more than the signal at either of it's sides. Clicking it will change it to subtractive mode, which subtracts the strength of the side signal from the input signal, and outputs the difference.

Blocks that can be compared:

Trapped chest (number of items)

Chest (number of items)

Barrel (number of items)

Furnace (number of items)

Dispenser (number of items)

Hopper (number of items)

Dropper (number of items)

Jukebox (playing/not playing)

Brewing Stand (number of bottles)

Chiseled Bookshelf (number of books)

Composter (number of composted layers)

Lectern (number of pages)

Shulker Box (number of items)

Beehive/Beenest (times exited)

Cauldrons (amount filled)

Now, I've used a lot of terms that are probably confusing, so here's what they mean:

Redstone Pulse: A redstone signal that doesn't remain powered.

Input Signal: The signal fed into a redstone component.

Output Signal: The signal put out by a redstone component.

Signal Strength: The amount of power put out by a redstone component, which has a value of 1-16, with 16 being the most powerful signal.

Block Update: Happens whenever the game's code checks to see if something has changed and updates the block's status. Includes things like redstone ore glowing when walked over, sheep turning grass to dirt, a storage block being opened, etc.

Transparent Block: A block that does not transfer redstone signal. The most common are glass, honey, ice, and leaves.

Push Limit: A push limit indicates how many blocks can be pushed at once before they no longer move.

Redstone Tick: a measurment of time and how quickly the game updates redstone components. A redstone tick is 2 game ticks, and 10 game ticks happen every second.

Storage Block: any block that can hold items, including furnaces, brewing stands, etc.

Persistent Mob: a mob that will not despawn. Any mob in a boat, minecart, or on a lead; as well as any nametagged mob and any mob that picks up an item.

Other Important Stuff:

Immovable Blocks are blocks that cannot be pushed or pulled by pistons, sticky pistons, honey, or slime: All Obsidian, All Furnaces, all Storage Blocks, Crafting Tables, Stonecutters, Fletching Tables, Smithing Tables, Cartography Tables, Beacons, End Portal Frame, EnderChest, Spawners, Skulk Catalyst, Skulk Sensor, Sculk Shrieker, Grindstone, Lodestones.

Non-Sticky Blocks can be pushed, but don't stick to slime or sticky pistons. These include Honey and All Glazed Terracotta.

Using these building blocks, you can kinda put together how some machines work, the same way you can use simple machines.

As an example - If I were to make a sugarcane farm, I would lay out what the farm needs; I'd need dirt to grow the sugarcane on, water next to all the dirt, something to pick up the sugarcane, something to break the sugarcane, and something would need to detect when the sugarcane is grown. From there I can figure out that i can use water to push the sugarcane toward a hopper to pick up the items, I can use pistons to break the sugarcane, an observer could detect when a sugarcane grows to full height, and some redstone dust could transfer that pulse from the observer into the piston.

This basic knowledge is how I put together machines when I make them from scratch, but I also highly reccomend following tutorials from YouTube creators like ilmango, logicalgeekboy and shulkercraft. Logicalgeekboy especially focuses on redstone that is simpler, lag friendly, and uses a smaller amount of resources so his farms are a GREAT place to start, and building and figuring out a farm yourself does loads for helping you understand it.

#redstone

[oneatlatime]

Jet

10th episode! Nominally half way through the season, so I might make some kind of review/summary post soon.

This episode opens with a rather ominous musical sting.

Gorgeous fall colours. Which makes no sense because the winter solstice just passed but whatever.

This accordion type trap design is not something I've ever seen before. Are these a thing in real life? Also words cannot express how much I love Momo's little leitmotif. It's so him.

Sokka's aim with that Boomerang of his has got to be near-supernatural.

You know, Sokka kind of does have an arrow on his head.

He IS just a goofy kid! That's what makes him the best! Seriously, after a century of war, there isn't a person alive who doesn't need a hearty dose of goofiness.

Katara is pulling no punches here. Peak little sister. Really railing on those "instincts."

"How do people go anywhere without a flying bison?" Welcome to living like the rest of us mere mortals. Actually, between Appa, his glider, and his ball of air that he rides places, you can make a case that Aang (or airbenders in general) have severely underdeveloped walking muscles.

With the amount that Katara is ridiculing Sokka's attempts at leadership, I predict this going two ways: either Sokka gets a chance to lead this episode and it goes well (disproving Katara) or Katara screws up majorly in a way that she could have been avoided if she'd just listened to Sokka's Instincts. We already had a Katara screwing up episode with the Waterbending Scroll, so my money is on the first one.

I love Aang so much. Sokka's obvious bluff accidentally works and Aang's repsonse is to praise Sokka's skill and 100% believe that it was totally Sokka's doing. Such faith in his friends.

How dumb are these fire nation soldiers? They had superior numbers and weaponry but made sure to wait the appropriate amount of time for the full child-soldier squad to arrive and even out the advantage. Between these idiots and the stupid earth kingdom soldiers in the episode with the black and white spirit, I'm starting to think that this war could be over in 10 minutes if each side unleashed a squad of ten year olds.

This man's weapon is LOG.

Katara DON'T YOU DARE.

Huh. This is an actual squad of child soldiers, led by a teenage boy with Peter Pan vibes. This will end well.

Aang can charm anybody. And it's all genuine too.

Why does a kid who can't be more than like seven know what munitions smell like?

This Jet guy has untrustworthy eyebrows. Obviously this is being set up so that Katara is embarassingly into him and Sokka's jealousy of his leadership or fighting skills or whatever makes him suspicious, but this guy is too smooth.

So Katara gets a ride up but Sokka gets an arm dislocated?

An airbender would love this place, wouldn't he?

Did they stick Appa in a treehouse? Isn't he like super heavy?

I don't like this boy. I don't like. Cult leader vibes here. Knows exactly what to say. Exactly which buttons to push.

NO no no do NOT fall for it Sokka. Your instincts! Listen to them!

Does that work? Can you use a knife in a tree like a stethoscope?

I KNEW IT!!! A FUCKBOY!!!

Jesus Jet's psychotic! This is a kids' show!

Now we've moved on to garden variety mugging.

Even these kids' presents are destructive.

NO. No Katara. Did she sew a hat from leaves?

Thug? I'd use something stronger. I would pay to see Sokka swear.

What do you want to bet that that's Jet's knife? This prick. You are not important enough to be assassinated. This kid's complexes have complexes.

This fucker twists words. Sokka's right. He is smooth. oh god this is making my skin crawl.

Peak comfy.

It's the knife! Also is that headband adhering to this child's eyeballs?

"We can't win without making some sacrifices." And have you asked these sacrifices for their consent?

This guy is totally nuts. He's twisted things around so much in his own head to justify his actions that it's like he sees a completely different world than reality.

I feel dirty finding beauty in such an episode that deals with such horrific subject matter. Is it strange that Aang being the sole survivor of an actual genocide and finding his friend's skeleton didn't freak me out, but this Jet guy makes me want to reach for Holy Water?

This whole conversation makes my skin crawl. It's masterful manipulation. I'm no psychologist or whatever to break this down, but in a few sentences, Jet: -Portrays Sokka in a good light, which he -chalks up to Katara's good influence, thus flattering her, while also -making himself seem like a good, forgiving guy willing to selflessly make allowances for the flaws of others (Sokka), painting himself in the best light out of everyone present, while also -Providing a reason for why Sokka isn't there, which will prevent Aang & Katara from wondering where he is, thus eliminating all possibility of rescue (unless Appa saves the day again).

and all of that is going on while Jet has explicitly given orders that Sokka have god knows what done to him, fully aware of how important he is to Katara and Aang (otherwise he wouldn't use forgiving Sokka to further ingratiate himself with Katara). It's masterful. It's disgusting and awful and exactly the kind of twisty that traps people in horrible situations, but it's also performed with such skill. How many other people that Jet thought could be useful has he pulled this on?

I am not convinced by the physics of this. Can water do this?

"I've never used bending on water I can't see." Um, yes you have? That time you un-drowned Aang on Kyoshi island, getting the water out of Haru's mom's water pump, getting the water out of your very much not transparent POUCH?

No. Fuck off. Leave my girl alone. Hands off.

Good thing Katara taught Aang some waterbending moves last episode. Nice continuity to see him immediately using them here.

"I'm sure he'll be happy to see us." Girl no. Brace yourself. Fuck this boy.

"Jet's a great leader. We follow what he says, and things always turn out ok." So you've outsourced both your morals and your thinking?

Nice callback to the beginning of the episode. One thing I love about this show so far is how well it sets up tiny things early on that I take to be worldbuilding, that turn out to be big things later that are actually critical to the plot. There's so much thought put into each episode.

Log man may be a brainwashed supporter of a terrorist, but you have to admit he knows how to go with the flow. Stuck in a cage? Might as well enjoy the bait.

Again, so pretty, so horrible.

"Jet wouldn't do that." Wanna bet?

Not only a fuckboy, but proud of it too. This is just disgusting. Does he honestly not see what's wrong with what he's doing, or has he worked so hard at justifying his choices that he's deluded himself?

I am honestly disappointed that he didn't eat dirt.

Never have I been happier to contemplate the potential long term frost bite damage of waterbending. Wreck him. Obliterate the fuckboy.

This was a lesson that Katara had to learn, that I've been rooting to see her learn, but damn if this isn't painful to watch. "You're sick and I trusted you!" As disgusted with herself as she is with him. Not your fault. Some people in this world are just fuckboys. Or, you know, leaders of terrorist cells that employ child soldiers. In any other genre of show, the whole child soldier thing would have tipped them off.

This show once again pulls no punches. This whole sequence is intense. The music cuts out, even the picture fades out. In any genre but a kid's show, Sokka would full on die here.

How many episodes now is it that Sokka's quick thinking and Appa's existence combine to save the day?

I love this art style. It looks like it's painted with tea. And the shine on Sokka's hair is so pretty.

This healed some of the psychic damage I took from this episode. Missus Pretty. That's exactly the kind of name a doll would have too.

I love that she leaves him there frozen. I hope no one comes to save him for a very long time.

I've hit the image limit for this post (didn't know there was one - learned something new today!), so just imagine a screenshot of the most disdainful yip yip ever executed.

Sokka is so clearsighted in this whole final scene with fuckboy. Every line is pure wisdom. It's delicious.

Aang told Jet earlier that it was out of character for Sokka to apologise, but it's Katara who should be apologising for the (horribly realistic) folly of trusting a too-smooth guy. She did apologise to the empty air just before the dam blew, but would it kill her to say it to his face?

Final Thoughts

This episode was a masterpiece. That's the word I keep coming back to: a masterpiece, masterful. This episode hit every note it was aiming for and executed every beat perfectly. Everything this episode set out to do was accomplished, and then surpassed. It feels like a giant step up in quality compared to every episode before it. This episode was a masterpiece and I will never watch it again because I never want to see a fuckboy portrayed so accurately ever again. I enjoyed seeing him get wrecked in the end but I won't be able to sit through all the work up to that wrecking again, knowing exactly the manipulation that Jet pulls. Jet makes my skin crawl. The way Jet takes advantage of, actually actively cultivates and then takes advantage of, Katara's crush on him, it makes my skin crawl. The way he takes advantage of Katara and Sokka's difference of opinion makes my skin crawl. This guy plays people like they're instruments and he's a maestro and it makes my skin CRAWL.

I'm also getting kind of tired of yelling 'Sokka's right!' at the screen every second episode. Not that I want him to be wrong, but it's like the lessons learned last episode don't carry over to the next one.

Aang was Aang this episode, with very few lines and basically no agency the whole plot. Just a tag-along. However, I think there's a contrast between how he genuinely makes friends and how Jet manipulates people into working for him. Aang says Pipsqueak's name is hilarious, because to Aang, that is a hilarious name. He's honest, and that wins him a friend. Does Jet say a single honest sentence in this whole episode? Ever? And he's won the loyalty of his Lost Boys more thoroughly than Aang wins over Pipsqueak. Chilling.

This was a Katara episode, which the last one was too. I'm getting tired of her not learning her lesson too. Stop trusting people so easily, and listen to your brother (when he's not trying to assert his manliness at least).

I predicted at the beginning that this would be a 'Sokka the good leader' episode rather than a 'Katara screws up' episode, since that was literally last episode's plot. This episode might as well have been called 'Katara Screws Up part 2: Actual Consequences This Time.' Last episode a bunch of pirates and a not very competent avatar hunter lost their ships. This episode? a completely uninvolved village got their buildings destroyed. To be clear, that's completely not Katara's fault, but she does seem to be developing a talent at getting into Situations.

I feel cheated that this episode had such a beautiful setting for such twisted people. I'm going to go watch some cleansing Spongebob.

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #Jet #avatar the last airbender

[pastafossa]

Stumbling and crashing and tripping with various crashes and a Wilhelm scream into your askbox to ask, YOU PLAY BG3????? ISN'T IT GREAT?!?!?!! I LOVE IT SO MUCH AKSHQKXBQ it's been my Focus since December!!! Who's your favorite so far?? How far are you in?? What kind of route are you doing?? Have you discovered any funny loopholes yet?? What race do you favor playing?? I LOVE to hear about other peoples playthroughs,

IT'S GODDAMN AMAZING AND I ALREADY HAVE MULTIPLE PLAYTHROUGHS PLANNED BECAUSE ONCE IS NOOOOT ENOUGH! I AM IN LOVE. Like I know these types of games (I've been a Bioware slut since KOTOR 2, so I looove this genre), and so I feel very confident saying holy shit, BG3 is one of the best! ALSO IT'S HUGE??? INSANELY HUGE??? AND FULL??? I LOVE IT SM.

Oh god favorites are hard, I'm gd attached to all of these little ducklings following my Tav. So far at least, storywise it's SCRATCH HE IS THE BESTEST BOY maaaybe Astarion. I LOVE his arc, his voicework is stunning, (I accidentally killed him with the big monastery laser and his reaction was hysterical) and his quest has been very moving. A close second is KARLACH, MY GIRL, MY FIREY BFF, like damn I HAD my little battle group (Gale + Astarion + Wyll) when I found her but I adore her so much I'm rotating Gale and Wyll to keep her permanently, SHE JUST WANTED A HUG. 😭

I'm in act 3, I just hit the city! I have no idea how but I am also STILL on my first PT after over a month of play. I love to sniff around under every nook and cranny granted, AND YET I STILL MISSED THINGS, IT'S SO BIG???

So far my route has been a chaotic good route! Outside, uh, occasional murdery hiccups goodbye creche but ya'll were assholes I've mostly managed to follow that alignment, and somehow still made friends with Lae? That was unexpected. I thought she hated my Tav's guts before she hit on her. 😂

Hilarious moments: setting off the giant laser at the monastery cause why wouldn't I grab the shiny weapon (sorry Astarion); being instakilled by Vlaakith at said monastery after basically mocking her with 'if you were really a god you'd be able to just kill someone yourself ha ha-splat'; friends telling me to talk to animals so I got excited when I saw a squirrel and ran to talk to it - it proceeded to bite me, then I failed a persuasion roll about being friends and it told me to fuck off; trying to get to that dwarf lady's husband in the Underdark and shooting an arrow at one of the mushrooms in the field he was in, thinking I could clear them one by one to get to him, only to set off a chain reaction that incinerated him and left the entire field a smoking crater (me as the explosions begin: oh, OH, oh no - wait, sir! Sir! Oh you're fine, you're - oh fuck, RUN SIR RU-shit he's dead); placing my druid in rothe/battle cow shape at the top of a ladder and charging whatever bad guy comes up so they fall back down (catchphrase: MOO, BITCH); and finally, I was having trouble with that one boss guy in the goblin camp, the one that sits on the throne. So when I saw I could get to the rafters, I painstakingly dragged every last explosive barrel and grenade I could find into the room and innocently placed them around the throne, then went up to the rafters and had Astarion shoot a fire arrow. I figured I'd at least bring the guy's health down but instead I set off the fourth of july, blasted that guy so hard he bounced around the room like a pinball before his body wound up glitch-stuck halfway through a wall, but hey, dead as a doornail sooo... it worked? Chaotic good alignment: MASTERED. 🤪

I'm playing a half-elf druid CAUSE I CAN BE AN OWLBEAR OR DINOSAUR TO FIGHT. I now have a chance to run around as a dinosaur druid with my 200 yo elf boyfriend, my BFFs, and find random bowls of poutine, this is the BEST GAME EVER. Also hilariously, I didn't check the stats closely and her intelligence wound up quite low, so she is very wise but also dumb as a bag of hammers, I love her, my first Tav is a good-hearted, unintentional bundle of chaos.

#baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate 3 spoilers #i love this game so fucking much #and i can already tell i'll be playing it repeatedly like mass effect and dragon age #it has been a huge comfort to me even if i only have a little time for it each day

[rohirric-hunter]

Update on the Deadly Defender's Bow situation: according to the LotRO companion, there are a total of eleven bows that share this appearance. Two of them, however, I believe are not actually accessible in game, the Ashwood Recurve Bow and Tanglind, leaving me with nine options. I've put detailed information about each bow under the cut, but the short summary is this:

In Eriador, I might be able to find the Deadly Defender's Bow. It seems to be intended as a sort of Ultimate Weapon for level 40 characters, and has been in the game since very early in its development. My suspicion is that it was intended for "endgamer" players before Angmar was even open, and that I will actually find it on level 37-40 enemies, rather than 40 and above (as it isn't terribly uncommon in early game areas to find gear a few levels above whatever you're actually fighting, so you can "grow into it"), so I've been hunting around the endgame areas of Evendim and the Trollshaws, but without much luck on either count. Some challenges include the fact that the game doesn't appear to consider Gauredain to be "humanoid" based on the loot they drop (or rather the loot they don't drop), so I've pretty much been restricted to Angmarim and a handful of tomb-robbers in Evendim and the wights and hillmen in that one tiny corner of the Trollshaws.

In Moria and Lothlorien, there are 5 possible bows that might have the appearance I want: the Bow of Bluffing (58), the Masterful Bow of Extermination (52), two variations on the Supple Bow (59), and the Swift Bow (54). From my brief excursions into Moria I also think these might be found on enemies a few levels below the actual bow's level. Also, none of these names are unique. There are lots of bows with these names in Moria. There's more information about that below the readmore.

And in Mirkwood there are 3 possible bows: a different Bow of Bluffing (62) and two more variations on the Supple Bow (63). Again, these aren't unique names, more information below.

I'm not asking anyone to go on a hunt for this bow (I've been hunting for this bow for almost two years with no luck) but if you do see it, please let me know, and any information on where you got it from is much appreciated! This is the appearance I'm looking for:

(Low quality screenshot but it's the bow new Hunter characters hold during the first stage of character creation. And beautiful. Look at how beautiful.)

More information about each bow under the cut, as well as links to their LotRO Build cards for even more information.

Deadly Defender's Bow Rare item Item level: 42 Min. level: 40 Bind on Acquire

Ashwood Recurve Bow Rare item Item level: 75 Min. level: 75 Bind on Acquire Note: The LotRO Companion includes a table of scaling information for this item which I believe it didn't include a few months ago (though I could be misremembering), showing scaling information from level 45 to 140. It's possible it's in incorporated into scaling loot tables, possibly to facilitate item drops in missions, though unlikely, as it still has the -10% Fire-arrow Miss Chance attribute, which still, as far as I can tell, doesn't refer to an actual skill in game. LotroBuild seems to indicate that this is a Hunter skill of some sort, but I have no idea which one, and still categorize this item as "probably obsolete" and "most likely just the item that the character creator screen references." (Besides, why would there be a level 75 bow with specific references to Hunter skills when level 75 Hunters ought to have a LI? That would be silly. Although to be fair I got all the way to 120-something before I sat down and really put work into getting myself a proper LI.)

Bow of Bluffing I* Rare item Item level: 58 Min. level: 58 Bind on Equip Note: According to the LotRO Companion, this item can sometimes be found in level-appropriate wooden chests.

Bow of Bluffing II* Rare item Item level: 62 Min. level: 62 Bind on Equip Note: According to the LotRO Companion, this item can sometimes be found in level-appropriate backpacks, corpses, and wooden chests.

Masterful Bow of Extermination* Rare item Item level: 52 Min. level: 52 Bind on Equip Note: According to the LotRO Companion, this item can sometimes be found in level-appropriate wooden chests.

Supple Bow I** Rare item Item level: 59 Min. level: 59 Bind on Equip Note: According to the LotRO Companion, this item can sometimes be found in level-appropriate wooden chests.

Supple Bow II** Rare item Item level: 59 Min. level: 59 Bind on Equip Note: According to the LotRO Companion, this item can sometimes be found in level-appropriate wooden chests.

Supple Bow III** Rare item Item level: 63 Min. level: 63 Bind on Equip Note: According to the LotRO Companion, this item can sometimes be found in level-appropriate backpacks, corpses, and wooden chests.

Supple Bow IV** Rare item Item level: 63 Min. level: 63 Bind on Equip Note: According to the LotRO Companion, this item can sometimes be found in level-appropriate backpacks, corpses, and wooden chests.

Swift Bow** Rare item Item level: 54 Min. level: 54 Bind on Equip Note: According to the LotRO Companion, this item can sometimes be found in level-appropriate wooden chests.

Tanglind Legendary item Item level: 35 Min. level: 35 Bind on Acquire Note: This is a Hunter class item. It's also the only non-rare item on the list. A level 35 legendary item is already a bit odd, but it gets odder; it appears to be part of a set of level 35 legendary weapons that all share similar brief descriptions along the same lines: Tanglind's is, "Bow Song, legendary Elf-bow of Forest of Brethil." There is also a crossbow, Ferediron, which is class-restricted, but aside from that none of the other weapons are class items, although a few of them are unique. My suspicion is that this series of weapons were meant to be rewards for some kind of quest or deed in game that was never implemented, especially since the inconsistencies in construction make me feel like the series isn't even properly finished yet. And nobody I've talked to has ever found any of these weapons in game. (I wonder if they might implement them as rewards for class deeds, now that you don't get trait points from that anymore? Or something similar, anyway.) In any event, I'm not spending any time looking for this one.

*Items marked with a single star do not have unique names. There are lots of bows in the game with this name. However, if they only have a single star they can be differentiated by their level and rarity: the only rare quality bow of that level with that name has the desired appearance. **Items marked with two stars cannot be distinguished by their level and rarity: there are several rare quality bows of that level with that name and not all of them have the desired appearance.

#lotro #oh yeah and just in case its not clear #the roman numerals are just to differentiate between different bows with the same name for the sake of this discussion #they dont have roman numerals in game #so the plan is: put a couple of alts through vol. ii #a hunter because i think bows in general and rare bows specifically drop more often for them #and a burglar for the treasure tracking skill that will let me find containers #ive already tried non scaling instances and just running around killing mobs and it just isnt working #hathelling is the right level to start moria so maybe him #and i have a handful of hunter alts i can grind to 50 reasonably quickly #coupla lp grinding alts still knocking around that can make themselves useful #(i keep em around after ive got all the lp from them to get extra task quests for other characters) #oh and one other note re: the deadly defenders bow specifically #i think i might be able to get it from the unmarked trail #as i have gotten level 40 bows from enemies in that instance and rare 42/40 gear #but not rare bows. but theoretically its possible #but you have to understand ive run it on a hunter like 32 times. at least #i dont think its an efficient use of my time at this point

[wjbminecraft]

A screenshot of Steve's Quest, a commodore 64 game released in 1989, developed by an anonymous developer known only as HM Vocal.

The gameplay is very simple; tilting the joystick left and right makes the protagonist walk either left or right; tilting it up makes them jump, and tilting it down makes them crouch, with diagonal tilts jumping or crouch-walking in that direction.

The fire button, in C64 tradition, does different things based on what direction the stick is in. When neutral, it swings whatever item is in the player's hand; down changes the held item to one of four options (Crystal Sword, Iron Axe, Hellsteel Pickaxe, Stone Block), each of which does a different thing; the sword is used for fast attacks, the axe is used for breaking through trees, the pickaxe is used for tunnelling through mountains, and the block is used for creating walls and bridges; left and right increases the player's speed for a few seconds; and up does a larger-range melee attack.

There are five enemies. The three of them depicted above are Zombies (have a weak melee attack, using a small crystal knife), Skeleton Rangers (shoot arrows), and Aliens (turn red on contact accompanied by a low-pitched static hiss, and send the player back to the start if they don't get away fast enough); later levels introduce Nightmare Skeletons, which are dark-grey and carry swords, and the final boss, the Skeleton Lord, which is a flying Nightmare Skeleton with no visible arms, which attacks by shooting exploding skulls.

Now, this is not the best game; as you can tell, there's no HUD, so you have no idea how much health you have, though most enemies kill you in one hit anyway so that doesn't really matter. The fire+left/right ability can also be exploited to speed past most enemies, although it does sometimes stop working entirely if you do it too much. Also, the Skeleton Lord is ridiculously difficult, as its projectiles have the same properties as the Aliens; that is to say, if one hits you, all your progress is lost.

Now, about that developer. Hidden in the game's files are diary entries written by HM Vocal, which gives some interesting information about the game and its developer; apparently, she is a half-Japanese, half-Swedish developer who lived in Croydon, England. She based the game's protagonist on one of her fellow developers, and the Aliens were based on an injoke they shared.

I actually managed to get in contact with HM Vocal (and even met her, though she asked to remain anonymous), and she said I could upload a digital version the tape, so here's an emulatable version.

I put this in the tags and put an out-of-context Civvie clip instead of the actual game, but just in case this post gets big; no, this game isn't real. It's literally just a random image I made for fun.

HM Vocal also doesn't exist; it's literally just a "Miku made Minecraft" joke, which was originally going to also be a "Miku is trans" reference, but I don't want to have to research how gender-affirming care worked in the UK in 1989 since it'll probably be stressful.

Also if you want context for the clip, here.

#mineblr #minecraft #commodore 64 #c64 #fake game #unreality #unreality tw #long post

[rphelperblog]

Walking Dead Rp Meme

inspired by the sweetest rper I have ever spoken to or witnessed before @handsbloodied​ - feel free to edit the quotes or change pronouns for rp purposes

"My mercy prevails over my wrath."

Why are we running? What are we doing?”

Don't talk. Think.”

You think God exists?”

I know what kind of man you are.”

We need to start treating him like an adult.”

You shoot me again? You best pray I'm dead.”

This isn't about what we believe anymore. It's about them.”

I was just trying to keep everybody safe.”

I was a fool, and you people saw that.”

Waste of an arrow.”

You can't just be the good guy and expect to live. Not anymore.”

“Ought to be polite to a man with a gun. Only common sense.”

"If I got the chance to do it again, I'd kill you all."

“Adolescence is a 20th century invention.”

Get one thing straight. You're staying? This isn't a democracy anymore.”

“You’re my brother.” 

The world we know is gone, but keeping our humanity? That's a choice.”

You're just gonna kill him?”

People in hell want slurpees.”

It's done. We do it today.”

"We are the end of the world."

There is no hope and you know it now, like I do, don't you? There is no hope for any of us.”

Please, Lord, punish me however you want, but show mercy on her.”

It's a waste of time all this hoping and praying.”

He was trying so hard to be reasonable, but that pushed my buttons even more.”

You want to kill me, you're going to have to do better than that wrench.”

“If I had known the world was ending, I would’ve brought better books.” 

“We don’t kill the living.” 

I'm responsible. I ain't gonna sit here while this fella takes this on alone.”

You're completely in over your head aren't you?”

You see 11 condoms, I see 11 minutes of my life I'm not getting back.”

Are you trying to buy my silence with fruit?”

Whatever it is, we all carry it.”

I ain't nobody's bitch.”

I'll control my people, you control yours.”

“I’m not the good guy anymore.”

You're a man of God, have some faith.”

"Everything now... Just consumes you."

"It's human nature to come together."

“We won’t get weak. That’s not in us anymore. We’ll make it work.” 

The pain doesn't go away. You just make room for it."

"As long as It's all of us, We can do anything." 

"People out there are always looking for an angle. Looking to play on your weakness ..."

“You can breathe, you can blink, you can cry. Hell, you’re all gonna be doing that.”

I can't profess to understand God's plan, but when Christ promised a resurrection of the dead, I just thought he had something a little different in mind.”

I'm not the good guy anymore.”

“They’re screwing with the wrong people.”

“I’m not your governor.”

"Goodnight, Love."

"Look at the flowers."

"You gotta be who you are, not who you were."

"I can't profess to understand god's plan ..." 

"You honor the dead by going on, even when you're scared. You love because they don't get to."

“I try not to mix it up with the almighty anymore.”

I believe this one bloomed for your little girl.”

"I might be the one walking away, but you're the one who's leaving."

“Rest in peace. Now get up, and go to war.”

“You don’t look at him, you don’t talk to him, and I don’t make you chop anything off of him.”

Good thing we didn't do anything stupid like shoot it.”

“You like that, huh? Li’l Ass-Kicker?”

“I’ve got my fingers crossed for a little freaky deeky.”

“You got some beach-ball-sized lady nuts coming in kamikaze like that.”

“While they’re at it, I just want to point out to you that I’m not taking a scrap of your food.”

“Well, pardon me young man, excuse the shit out of my goddamn French, but did you just threaten me?” 

“There’s a compound bow and a machete with a red handle. That’s what I’m gonna use to kill you.”

“Funny how a little ‘Holy sh*t! Somebody’s gonna die!’ lights a fire under everybody’s ass!”

He'll be locked up in the barn unless you bust it open again.”

“Lucille’s beautiful, smooth surface is never gonna look the same, so why should yours?!”

Your bitch went window shopping. You want him? Go fetch him yourself.”

“If they can’t make it, we’ll just take this place.” 

C'mon, man, don't give me that gansta shit.”

#open to all #open to anyone #open rp #ask meme #rp meme #open meme #open to anybody #roleplay meme #ask prompt #memes #asks open #ask rp meme #rp ask meme #ic asks #walking dead #walking dead rp #handsbloodied #open oc rp #open oc starter #oc roleplay #meme starter #meme rp #ask memes #open walking dead rp #open walking dead starter #open twd rp #open twd starter

[godling-jesse]

PROMPT 002: POWERS !

Being the son of Apollo, Jesse's connection to his father's domain can be a bit of a complicated one. He not only has access to his father's connection to the sun, which is the most prominent, he's also tapped into his father's connection to music, and his affinity with a bow. Each aspect of his father's gifts connect to Jesse in very very different ways. Some, like music, come naturally to him. His skill with a bow takes a bit more conscious thought and practice, but it's as if it's a skill he's always had but never bothered to tap into. Then, there is his relationship with the sun, profound bond he's never experienced before. Furthermore, Apollo's power is vast, and there are aspects of it Jesse has yet to tap in to. He's still learning, still growing, and still discovering.

                                              ☀️ SUN ☀️

First and foremost, Jesse's connection to the sun itself is incredibly potent and strong. As oppose to just a source of magic and power, it's almost as if the sun is an extension of his soul; an entity that's ever present, that fights alongside him, that protects him, even guides him. When he manipulates sunlight around him, he essentially calls out to it, commanding it. Radiant magic bends to his will like a celestial companion. When he does hold sunlight in his hand, it's as malleable as clay to him. He can work to shape it into whatever he wants, from a beautiful mote of shining radiant energy, to a sharp arrow. He is even able to wrap and mold the light around him to render him effectively invisible for a time.

His body naturally absorbs sunlight, and acts almost like a solar panel. While he's out in the sun during the daytime, his skin soaks it in. He uses that stored light to generate sunlight when the sun isn't around, or to empower his arrows. It's also why on sunny days, his temperament and energy levels are heightened. He's more productive, more amiable, and all together just happier. On the contrary, when there's been a long stretch of days with overcast skies or rain, he's lazy, irritable or at times even depressed. Night time doesn't seem to bother or effect him, as the energy his body absorbs during the day is more than enough to tide him over when the sun is down.

He feels the closest to his father when he taps into the power of the sun. That is when he feels the most powerful, the most in tuned with his divinity. Whenever he reaches out to it, a comforting rush of warmth courses through him. The only thing he can compare the feeling to is when he's on stage playing a song. At times that excitement could be a quiet focus, or an explosive burst of adrenaline. That connection to the sun is the most potent ability, and the power that weaves through every other ability he has.

                                        🏹 THE BOW 🏹

Up until Jesse drank the ambrosia, he'd never held a bow and arrow in his life. Why would he ever need to? The first time he picked one up, it was as if he'd found a missing piece of him, like a limb he'd never thought he'd missed. His initial training sessions were a little clunky, as he hadn't realized the power he could wield, or how to wield it. After a short time, things came as naturally to him as playing a guitar. He's become so comfortable with the bow, that he's now able to weave the power of the sun into his shots. He can coat his arrows with light, or alite his bow string to light his arrows on fire. He can even create arrows of pure light to fight at an enemy. While technically the radiant arrows he uses could be any color he wanted, he tends to embrace his father's magic, imbuing them with a golden glow.

It's because of his affinity with a bow that he's adopted his father's fighting style. The 'Far Darter,' the archer. He doesn't do well in hand to hand close combat, and instead looks for ways to keep his distance. His agility has made him a faster runner than most, and with his cloaking abilities it's not difficult for him to hide and escape in order to create distance. Part of him does feel a bit useless when he sees his allies, particularly the other fighters, getting up close and wailing on their opponents, while he's back with the mages taking cover.

                                          👁 PROPHECY 👁

This is probably the ability Jesse is least comfortable handling. Forethought and foresight has never really been something he excelled in. Spontaneous and impulsive was always his tendency, so suddenly being blessed with the ability to see into the future has thrown him for a loop. When he attempts to peer into the future, it's a full body experience. It's as if he's being transported into a different time and place. His body is momentarily incapacitate and his eyes glow a radiant gold, while his mind is in another timeline. He can essentially watch an event play out at the desired time in the future. Most of the time the vision is fuzzy at best, and not necessarily accurate, but when he's tuned in enough he can see everything as plainly as if he was there. He can't effect anything in the vision, nor can he be effected physically by it.

                                               🎵 MUSIC 🎵

For as long as Jesse could remember, music has always been his calling. While he'd thought it was his mother who passed that passion down to him, ever since he'd officially answered the song, he discovered a whole new level to his connection to it. While he was once simply able to make his own music, creating his own harmonies to move and inspire people, now he can alter other harmonies. Is someone singing out of tune? With enough concentration he can autotune them with a mere thought. Is something too loud, he can muffle the music to a barely audible hum. Does he want to increase the volume of a particular tune so much it could temporarily deafen or rupture someone's ear drum? He hasn't tried it yet, but probably. His musical ability, from what he can tell, hasn't changed much. He's always been a talented musician, though while before his talents were geared more toward instruments, now his singing voice has improved.

#godlingprompt002

[shuttershocky]

Hi, I just have two quick question which i hope it's not a problem.

The first one is do you have any tips on how to clear JT8-3 easier? I watched so many videos but none of them helped me.

The second one is a lore one so i hope it's not a problem.

How does the Art ability work in the world of arknights? Do only those who are infected can use arts? Or can someone who isn't infected use arts?

Talulah is a very extreme boss battle. You're going to need to watch out for three different skills, and have a very strong team that's around E2L40.

1.) Talulah will inflict a damage over time effect on the last two units dropped into the stage. You can cheat Talulah by dropping Gravel + one other fast redeploy unit down to put her skill on cooldown, retreat them, then keep deploying units as normal until the two fast redeploys are off cooldown again. You can also solve this by using Therapist medics: status resistance halves the duration of the skill, which greatly reduces its overall damage output. In other words, if a skill does a lot of damage over time, just cut the time in half so you don't have to worry about it.

2.) Talulah will create crystals on the field. After a long enough time, the crystals explode, sending fireballs in 4 directions. This is another reason why it's useful to have fast redeploys in JT-8-3, you'll need to send units out to destroy these crystals before they explode.

3.) The first time she's knocked out, Talulah will cover the screen in a wave of fire that moves from Left to Right. This does a lot of Arts damage, but can't pass through operators. This means you want Operators with a lot of RES or HP at the frontline to tank the hits and shield the units behind them. Phalanx Casters are great at shielding the ranged tiles, while Guardian Defenders with their heals and RES are great at shielding the melee tiles. Gravel can of course, tank a few waves as well. The best counter to this however, is Nightingale S3, which creates a RES field around her that nullifies most of the damage.

Because of how powerful Talulah is, I've found that the best strategy for dealing with her is turtling up.

The two red arrows must be tanky units able to hold the line from all the minions passing through (i recommend Centurion Guards), while the red box is where you will duel Talulah.

Let Talulah run across the entire stage using the teleporters. Don't chase her. You are highly unlikely to get a proper defense up that's able to take her down before she moves locations. Instead, focus all your forces inside that red box and on the red arrows, packing heals, DPS, and whatever support buffs you can all concentrated into a single area. Since this is Talulah's very last trip before she enters the blue box in the center of the map, you have enough time to set up a sturdy defense.

Due to her two lives (with a very long pause between Phase 1 and 2), multiple skills, and massive damage, it's easier to fight Talulah in a war of attrition than trying to burst through her health using big DPS units if you don't have an extremely powerful team. Better to have a sturdy tank supported by medics to block her while one DPS unit hits her than to try taking her down with multiple DPS units at once. If she can't get through your defensive line, you will /eventually/ win, but if you try to DPS race her and someone dies, your entire defense can crumble as they get cut down one by one.

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As for Arts, Arts are an ability both infected and noninfected can have. However, noninfected need to use tools, as Arts are powered by originium. So for example, an uninfected Caster will need to use a wand with originium inside it. An infected on the other hand, is able to cast Arts using the originium inside their bodies, at the cost of making their infection grow worse.

However, Arts are an ability only some people have a talent for. Some people have a very poor aptitude for Arts and do not use it, such as Degenbrecher who fights purely with martial arts skill, or the Abyssal Hunters, who do not use arts but have incredible physical strength. Others are extremely talented in arts even if they're not infected, such as Ebenholz who only infects himself at the end of Lingering Echoes, but before that is already a powerful caster able to duel the the partially revived Witch King (with help). Finally, there are infected who were purposely infected in nonstandard ways by mad scientists in order to create super soldiers with extraordinarily powerful arts, such as Rosmontis, whose brother was purposely infected and then had his brain sliced out and grafted into Ros' own brain to create a telekinetic monster, or Ifrit, whose body was infected with an originium shard from a member of the extinct Flame Demon Sarkaz to create a fire wielding soldier.

#Arknights