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#hes just been having a rough time

poorly-drawn-mdzs · 9 months

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Aw! XL cooking reminded me of when I was working with children and they'd get nightmares/scared of monsters, so was go to the garden and make Monster Soup! Anything that looked good would go into the nearest source of water (often a bird bath) so that the monsters would know we are kind people and stay outside and not come inside. Also the monsters would think of us as friends and protect us instead of scaring us. Now I'm hoping that I have turned any of these kids into bad cooks bc I was like that flower looks good! Toss it in! 😅😄😄😄

Thank you for reminding me of this memory!

I'm-In-Love-With-The-Monster Soup.

#tgcf #xie lian #hua cheng #ask #This story was extremely sweet thank you so much for sharing B'*)#I also used to work with kids and I really miss it!! This brought back lovely memories for me as well.#I am sure you helped a lot of kids through rough feelings by taking them seriously and letting them grow by confronting their fears.#Monster soup is something I am going to be thinking about for a long time....#If anything; experimenting in the kitchen and feeling the permission of freedom to cook helps encourage kids to learn!#even if its a pretend kitchen. A birdbath is just as valid as a soup pot!#Comic-commentary time: I am so sorry to people who didn't know or forgot that this is how I draw the TGCF pair.#Xie Lian actually tried to make a sandwich but it got to wet so he had to put it in a bowl.#no one knows where the green colour came from.#One more comic on this coming tomorrow (what have WWX and HC been up to?)

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youssefguedira · 23 days

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wrote this instead of doing any of my actual tasks <3 tw for brief mention of animal death (by hunting)

Yusuf has been dreading this since the moment they left for Akkala. He had made as many excuses as he could to stay in Goron City for as long as he could, but every one had run out in the end, and he could no longer put off the inevitable.

The first time he had walked this road, his father had accompanied him with a platoon of guards, still cautious, still reeling from the attack that had taken Yusuf's mother. The second time there had been fewer, but still many.

In the years after that, the number of people sent with him had decreased even further until it was only two or three guards, enough to keep him safe. His father stopped accompanying him on these journeys after he turned fourteen and there had been no sign of their worth.

Now, only Nicolò.

He follows, keeping a respectful distance away from Yusuf, but closer than he had walked before they had gone to meet Nile, to ask for her help. He doesn't ever ask to stop, or to slow down, letting Yusuf set the pace. He keeps a hand on the hilt of his sword and does not speak.

What is there to be said? Nicolò knows what lies at the end of this road, even if he does not know what it will mean for Yusuf.

Yusuf can feel Nicolò's eyes on his back. It is bad enough that the whole kingdom knows he is a failure: he does not need Nicolò to watch him fail and say nothing.

The sun is low, casting the landscape in burnt orange. It would be beautiful were it not so horribly familiar. There is a cabin nearby, and not far from it, the Spring. They will stay in the cabin tonight; they will leave for the Spring in the morning and spend three days there, then return to Goron City and after that, the castle.

Yusuf thinks about returning, about his father's inevitable disappointment, and feels sick.

“Yusuf,” Nicolò says, sounding uncertain. He is not yet used to calling Yusuf by his name. “We are not far, yes?”

Yusuf had forgotten that Nicolò does not know every cursed inch of this road the way Yusuf does. “No, not far. In a moment you'll see the cabin.”

Nicolò says nothing. Yusuf glances back just long enough to meet his eyes before looking away.

What is Nicolò thinking? Yusuf can never tell.

Yusuf catches sight of the cabin a moment later. Dread sits like a stone in his stomach.

When they get closer, Nicolò takes hold of his elbow, gentle. It startles Yusuf all the same - he hadn't realised Nicolò was that close to him.

“Let me go first,” Nicolò says. “To check. But stay close.”

Yusuf nods, and lingers barely a handspan from Nicolò's back while he surveys first the outside, then the inside, of the cabin. Once he's satisfied, he gestures for Yusuf to enter.

“You should rest,” he says, and he is being so gentle with Yusuf it almost hurts. Perhaps Andromache has told him what this will mean for him: she has accompanied him before.

Yusuf shakes his head, because sleep means dreams, and dreams will be worse. “What are you going to do?”

“I am going to find something for dinner,” Nicolò says.

“Let me come with you,” Yusuf says. Anything is better than sitting in this cabin alone with his thoughts.

Nicolò looks at him for a long moment. Perhaps he takes pity on Yusuf, or perhaps he thinks that it will be easier to keep Yusuf safe if he stays with Nicolò. Either way, he nods. “All right.”

----------

Finding something for dinner means that Nicolò leads Yusuf a little way into the woods, far enough that the foliage and the dying sunlight makes it difficult to see, and bids him hide beneath a tree, in a space formed by the roots, while Nicolò crouches beside him with his bow, nocking an arrow in one smooth, seamless motion. From his vantage point, Yusuf can see a small clearing with a few fallen trees.

“Do not move,” Nicolò instructs him in a whisper, “and do not make a sound.”

Yusuf rests his head against the tree and watches the leaves move in the breeze. It is quiet enough that all he can hear is their rustling, the sounds of birds and animals calling to each other, the rushing of the stream nearby. After a moment, and with nothing else to watch, Yusuf begins to watch Nicolò.

He has gone as still and as quiet as the trees around them, barely breathing, his shoulders rising and falling only slightly, like he has become a part of the forest. Faron Woods is much further south from here, but Yusuf supposes that this forest must be somewhat similar to where Nicolò grew up. He wonders who taught him to hunt; who taught him to be so comfortable in this place. Why he left it behind to travel to the castle and work for the king.

There are a lot of things Yusuf wonders about him. He cannot tell if Nicolò is aware of Yusuf’s watching; he must be. Still, Yusuf cannot help but watch.

It happens faster than Yusuf can track. Nicolò goes entirely still, and draws his bow swiftly, silently. Yusuf holds his breath and so does the forest.

Nicolò lets the arrow fly.

Yusuf doesn’t see whether it finds its mark, but Nicolò looks for a moment and then stands. “Wait here,” he says to Yusuf, and then heads for the clearing. When he returns he’s carrying something behind his back, the arrow in his other hand. Blood drips onto the grass.

“You can wait inside while I prepare it, if you prefer,” Nicolò says haltingly. Yusuf shakes his head, and so he sits on a log outside while Nicolò skins the rabbit, arms wrapped around his knees and chin drawn up to his chest. Nicolò keeps his back to Yusuf, shielding most of it from view.

Who taught him this? Yusuf wonders. It is a part of Nicolò he has never seen before.

When it is done, he takes it back inside to cook over the fire, and they eat it alongside the bread and cheese they brought from Goron City, across from each other at the cabin’s little table.

“When do you want to leave, tomorrow?” Nicolò asks softly.

“I don’t,” Yusuf says before he can stop himself, and then adds, “I don’t know. Early, probably.” The thought bursts the little bubble he’s been in since they arrived. He doesn’t want to leave, could stay here for the three days they’ve been allocated and return to his father without even having tried and it would change nothing.

“Just after sunrise, then,” Nicolò says. “It is not far, you said?”

Yusuf shakes his head. “No,” he says. “Not far.”

----------

The water is freezing.

It has always been freezing. But Yusuf knows well enough that if he stands in it for long enough, it will start to warm. It reaches to around halfway up his thigh; when he was younger, it felt deeper.

The stone in front of him offers nothing. No sign, no indication that anything is listening to him except for the water and Nicolò, who has been standing at the gate of the Spring for however long he has been in here. Has he been listening? Has he heard Yusuf pleading for something, anything, dreading the moment he returns to the castle and his father looks down at his left hand and sees nothing there?

What does Nicolò think of him now? If he did not see a failure before, does he see one now?

His legs may be going numb. They tremble beneath him, struggling to hold his weight. How long has he been standing here?

“Tell me what I am doing wrong,” he begs the stone. His voice sounds like it’s coming from somewhere else. “I know I am not the one you wanted, but I am trying. I am trying. I have given everything. I do not know how much more I have left.”

The stone says nothing.

Nicolò says, “Yusuf.”

Yusuf hears him without listening, falls to his knees in the water and does not even feel the chill.

“Please,” he pleads. “I cannot return – I cannot give anymore.”

There is a splash behind him, and then there is Nicolò, pulling him to his feet, pulling him from the water. Yusuf tries to hold fast - he cannot leave now or it will have been three days in the Spring with nothing to show for it.

“Yusuf,” Nicolò says again. His grip is gentle but unrelenting, and he is warm. Yusuf, shivering as he is, can’t help but lean into it. “You are exhausted. You are going to freeze. Come with me.”

“I can’t,” Yusuf says, even as he lets Nicolò take his weight, lets him guide Yusuf out of the Spring. “I can’t.”

There is a small paved area where their camp is set up. Nicolò has kept the fire going, or restarted it, while Yusuf was in there, and he half-carries Yusuf over to it now. Yusuf’s legs buckle under him the moment Nicolò lets him go, and he sinks onto something soft laid over the paving stones. He blinks, and there is a bowl in his hands, warming even if he does not really taste it.

“It was never supposed to be me,” Yusuf says without really meaning to.

From across the fire, Nicolò watches him.

“It was supposed to be my mother,” Yusuf whispers. The only sound between them is the crackling of the fire. Yusuf is so, so tired. He has never said this to anybody else, not even Andromache, but he cannot keep the words from rushing out of him now.

“It came to her when she was nineteen,” he says, “and that’s how they knew it would happen in her lifetime. So she trained, and she mastered it, and we were ready. And then she was killed, and because I was the oldest, it came to me.”

He does not like thinking about this. He has not thought about this in years. They do not speak of it anymore.

Nicolò is still watching him.

“I was asleep when it happened,” Yusuf continues. “I dreamt it as it happened, but I didn’t know until later. The moment she died, I woke up screaming. They told me afterwards that I was– I was glowing, bright enough that nobody could look at me for long or get close enough to see what was happening to me. They just had to wait until I came out of it. It felt like I was burning.” If he closes his eyes, he is there again, twelve years old and terrified.

“That’s how we know it should be me,” he says after a moment. “Who can do it. Because I did, once, but never again, despite all of this.” He waves at the Spring, the water, the stone.

Exhaustion tugs at him. His eyes will not stay open, but he cannot let himself fall asleep, not yet.

“Don’t let me fall asleep,” he tells Nicolò. “There’s still time.” It cannot be late yet; the sun has gone down, but it is not quite dark. “Don’t let me.”

“You have to rest,” Nicolò says. It is the first thing he has said to Yusuf since he pulled him from the Spring, and Yusuf cannot tell what he is thinking.

“I can’t fall asleep,” Yusuf insists.

“At least let yourself warm up first,” Nicolò says. There is a pile of dry clothes in his hands - where did he get them?

Nicolò convinces him to change and to sit back down, to rest a little while longer. This time he steers Yusuf to sit down on his bedroll instead, and Yusuf’s grip on his arm goes tight.

“Don’t let me fall asleep,” he says again.

“You cannot go on like this,” Nicolò says. “Sleep, and I will wake you in a few hours’ time.”

Yes, a few hours. That, Yusuf can afford. “Promise me,” Yusuf says, but his eyes are already closing unbidden.

Nicolò says nothing.

----------

When Yusuf wakes, it is still dark outside, and there is a cloak that is not his own draped over him. Nicolò is crouched over the fire only a short distance away. He catches Yusuf’s eye, but doesn’t say a word.

It all comes crashing back at once: the water, the stone, Nicolò. Yusuf sits up.

“You didn’t wake me,” he says.

Nicolò watches him for a long moment. “You needed the rest,” he says finally.

Suddenly his consideration stings. “That wasn’t your decision to make. What time is it?”

Nicolò glances at the sky. “It will be sunrise soon.”

Yusuf’s heart sinks. Sunrise means return, means return to the castle and his father with nothing. He gets up, pushes Nicolò’s cloak aside. “You should have woken me.”

Unexpectedly, Nicolò pushes back. “You would have only made yourself ill. You were barely conscious. I would not have done it if–” “That was not your decision to make,” Yusuf snaps. “I am not a child, Nicolò. I am capable of handling myself. I have lost hours.”

Nicolò does not say anything. Yusuf almost wishes he would keep pushing, but he does not. He simply folds himself back into the same blank expression he always carries, and again, Yusuf cannot read him.

“If the sun will rise soon, there is not much use in staying here for much longer,” Nicolò says eventually, quiet. He doesn’t meet Yusuf’s eyes. Guilt twists his stomach.

Did Nicolò know? Did Andromache warn him? Or was he just worried?

Yusuf nods.

They pack up their camp in silence, side by side. By the time they set off on the road back towards Goron City, the sun has risen, and the early light turns the world around them to gold.

Yusuf walks, and Nicolò follows behind him, as always.

#neon writes #the zelda au which lives only in my head #spring of power baby! if this seems vaguely familiar setup wise its because ive moved the vague plot of the mount lanayru ficlet here #this is a fairly early stage in their relationship booker is the 3rd champion they find (before andy who's the last)#so like. yusuf is warming up to him (hence him actually talking to nicolo) but is still. going through his whole deal #he'll apologise i promise hes just having a rough go of it the springs are a bit of a touchy subject #spring of power btw. nicolo on the other hand has not quite realised the full extent of whats up wrt yusuf and the springs #and his father generally. he doesnt think yusufs a failure tho thats just yusufs brain #anyway ive been replaying age of calamity and Wow botw zelda is the character of all time. for sure. obsessed with her #so i'm channeling that into this. feat. the reveal of what happened with yusufs mom #anyway. enjoy <3 #the old guard #kaysanova #fine main tag. whatever. this is for me and the 2 people who have expressed interest in this au #it haunts me daily

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liltaz-asatreat · 2 years

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I don't remember if I ever made a post about this, but for a long time I thought Griffin made up the whole clone pod thing to give Barry an excuse to get his body back again and then eventually also Magnus, and that that was a cool little world building thing. But I found out a while go that no, apparently it's a real spell called Clone from the Player's Handbook. 8th level necromancy wizard spell.

Also, it takes specifically 120 days for a body to form completely, which means that technically, Barry could have popped into his body again since before Petals lol

In the spell description, it also says that you can make the body younger, and I love the fact that he had that option but chose to keep himself the same age anyway

Also, since Magnus first gave Garfield his blood during the interlude before Crystal Kingdom, technically his body would have been ready since around the Eleventh Hour, and Garfield decided to just hold on to it for another few months without doing anything with it lmao

OH SHIT WAIT-

GRIFFIN THOUGHT MAGNUS WAS GOING TO TAKE THE CHALICE AND THAT HE WAS GOING TO DIE DURING THE MISSION TO GET IT BACK FROM HIM

HE SPECIFICALLY MADE IT SO THAT IF HE DID DIE, MAGNUS' BODY WOULD HAVE BEEN READY TO GO THEN TOO

Man I love how that whole arc played out in canon, but I so wish we had gotten to know what would have happened if Magnus did take the Chalice and how that would have played out

#With Magnus' body being ready by TEH though; that also means Garfield requesting his sideburns was him just being a dick lmfao #I also love how it's been about 2 years since I've started listening to this show and have relistened to Balance countless times #and even now I can still find new things to think about it and also read other people's thoughts that I've never considered before #oh; also; I just realized that I didn't clarify how I knew specifically when shit would have happened; but I don't think it's that #important to add to the post #if someone asks; I'll reblog with the answer or maybe just make a whole new post about it; but essentially I figured out the rough timeline #of when all of the arcs happened canonically based on the offhand comments Griffin made about how long it's been between arcs #which; figuring out when Petals happened was a fucking nightmare because he didn't specify how long it had been since Rockport or Midsummer #and I kept missing how long he said it was between Crystal Kingdom and Petals; but I eventually did catch that and figured it out #and gang; it is a *long* stretch of time between Rockport and Petals lol #taz #taz balance #barry bluejeans #magnus burnsides

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aaapplepie · 10 months

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so I was going through Elowen's introduction again for research purposes and also bc I love her and I noticed

she specifically says she's been looking for Sage for three years. assuming she wasn't just like, hanging out for two years before she decided to go hunt him down, that suggests either a) no one was sure who killed Lucan and it took them a while to figure it out or b) she didn't hear about Lucan's death until two years after it happened.

(I'm leaning towards b because it's angstier because she recognizes signs of corruption in Sage but gets completely blindsided by Lucan's transformation, so it's possible she wasn't around to notice what was happening to him.)

it's just a theory but can you fucking imagine. her baby brother was dead for two years and she just didn't know, and she finally tracks down his killer but instead of finally getting justice she learns he was corrupted the whole time and she didn't know about that either!! I'm going insane. someone get her a blanket or something.

#last legacy #there's a good chance it was just a mistake and nobody caught it #(or that I've somehow got the timeline incredibly wrong)#but if there's a chance to read too deep into something and make myself sad I'm going to take it!!#she also might have been around the whole time and STILL not noticed the corruption which would also be. rough #esp since she seems to have at least some knowledge about it #and maybe could have done something to help and/or stop him #anyway the point of this post is that elowen is having a bad time #mourning her brother for 3-5 years and suddenly he's like a complete stranger and did she ever know him at all???#what else did she miss #it's almost 1 am and I'm so normal about her #apple.txt

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crimeronan · 2 months

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i'm back to thinking about the 'worst' princess AU timeline without vee.

(refresher course: belos "kills" hunter and drags luz back to the human realm, luz escapes and gets returned to camila who doesn't know her At All, hunter survives his execution and tracks luz down later.)

mainly i'm thinking about how Unbelievably Fraught that first day would be. hunter treats camila with suspicion-edging-toward-rudeness for about an hour before suddenly apologizing for being "disrespectful" and acting Freakishly deferential. camila says she needs to ask a couple questions if he's going to stay here, As Literally Any Sane Parent Would, and luz just fucking Dissolves about how she can't send hunter away.

hunter stepping outside and separating himself from luz for the first time since his arrival so he can answer camila's questions, and it's pretty clear that he thinks he's protecting luz from something. and also that that something is camila.

(oh my god, they could even do "thank you for providing me with shelter, ma'am" "please.... don't ever do that again. and you can call me camila" i've connected the dots)

camila like luz hasn't told me very much about how she was raised. or.... where she was raised. you were brought up by the same.... p...erson?? group?? death cult....?

and hunter is just like.

well. yeah.

camila asking questions about things like his age and medical history and if anybody is going to come looking for him because those are all Extremely Practical Things To Know & hunter giving Extremely Fucking Unhelpful Answers like well i'm nineteen i'm alone here and i'm not dead. thus ends my familial and medical history.

camila just straight-up asking "do you know if you have a birth certificate??" and hunter being like "i.... don't think so....?" and her being like yeah i probably don't need to bother asking if you have a social security number huh. okay. we are going to be So Careful.

also camila is not conservative or prudish in the slightest, BUT. if your catatonic teenage daughter has been locked in an unknown death cult's basement for thirteen years & you meet a boy around her age who was also locked in the death cult's basement for thirteen years and has A History with her, you would have to be Out Of Your Fucking Mind to let the two of them share a room unsupervised before you know more about their relationship. like that's just common sense.

so. i'm trying to picture the exact level of, just, Nuclear Fucking Meltdown that occurs. when camila tells them she wants them to sleep in separate rooms.

#hunter acquiesces immediately because he's trying to stay on camila's good side so she doesn't kick him out entirely #luz on the other hand. is already wildly unstable. has been made a thousand times more unstable since hunter's arrival.#and Does Not Want To Let Him Out Of Her Sight #writing a fic using actual prose would take energy i dont have so you guys just get the shape of the thoughts like this #think about it. that first day is ROUGH #toh #princess luz au #princess luz au worst timeline #camila noceda #horrible mindscape trauma pals #long post

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sunnibits · 1 year

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aaaa I just wanna hear izzy laugh so bad!! I want someone to crack him up and miraculously get a genuine smile out of him for the first time in like two decades. I want him to overhear some funny bit from the crew’s shared stories that actually makes him huff a little snort, only for him to immediately try to hide it. I want to hear that gravelly, deep rusty chuckle of his goddamnit!!! I want everyone to hear it and immediately whip their heads up in wide eyed shock. (is that… izzy?? laughing???? I didn’t even know he could DO that). (something in ed’s chest creaks a little to hear it again. it’s been so long since he’s heard that sound). I will not rest until my boy gets a tiny shred of happiness and that’s final!!!!

#I want GIGGLING. GIGGLING I SAY!!! STUPID TIPSY DRUNK GIGGLING!!!!! I’M NOT AFRAID TO SAY IT #izzy hands #ofmd #genuinely I love con’s lil chuckle so much idc I’ll fight ppl on this hill #it’s all nasally and rough. perfection.#pls god I need to see Izzy do a little soft half-chuckle and that lil head shake with his arms crossed and his head bowed #leaning against the wall talking to Jim or someone idc #just give him. a nice moment. pls. Izzy laughter in my life immediately!! I demand it!#god tho… I read a fic onfe that mentioned izzy laughing like. for the first time in front of lucius #and I forget the exact line but they described it something like ‘rusted and like it had been keelhauled a couple of times’#like it was rough and out of practice from years of disuse #but like there was something so miraculous about it?? so magical?#and BOY has that mental image/thought HAUNTED me since I read it!!#imagine someone just making him laugh once and then trying to make him laugh again and again just so they can hear it…..#FUCKK #he. him. god. fuck. I have emotions.

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