- Hey, I'm Ray. | She/They | I'm drawing fanart and original content | Please do not edit or repost my artwork without permission. - (main is @raycatz)
“There’s a muffled thwump of ignition from Link and Four’s direction. Warriors startles, looks up in time to see a circle of fire fading harmlessly back to nothing. Four and Link stand unharmed in the center of it, ruffled but much more dry.”
This is fanart for @sister-dear’s fic My Heart’s Forsaken Me. I love the fic so much! There are so many good scenes to choose from when it comes to drawing. However, I especially enjoyed the juxtaposition of this scene where Wars is trying to have a serious conversation with Sprite and Link and Four are just,, lighting fires in the background.
I put some of my favorite frames under the cut!
You’ve reached the end of the post so here’s where I get to gush about the fic!
“My Heart's Forsaken Me” has nearly all of my favorite things to read about in LU fics. The Four Sword splits someone, Wind goes dungeon crawling with a magic afflicted friend, Mask, fairy Hyrule!!!, and found family (just to name a few!) Sister_dear has a wonderful attention to detail when it comes to the chain's in-game abilities and her characterizations for them are some of my favorite. If you have the time and like LU fics I really recommend giving this (or any of her work) a read!
The boys want you to walk away from the giant spider, Smithy. Smithy? Oh, he's still going.
I heavily referenced and color picked from The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance comic vol #1 for the background and spitters. The tdc comics are all so beautiful. There's a lot to learn!
Okay i have lots of questions about four's ascendency connection!!!! How bad can the pain get when another member of the hive is killed/multiple are killed at the same time? Does it pose a threat to his life?
ALSO does four ever get seperated from the ascendency? If so, how? 👀 And what are the rest of the chain's opinions on it-- I can imagine it could create barriers in their relationships
Obviously you don't have to answer all of these but I hope you have fun answering them!!!!!
Things are pretty miserable for Four but it’s not a threat on his life.
It’s been a while since I’ve watched AOR (and if you're rewatching it rn then you know more than me! xD ) (I don't remember if pain-sharing was a thing in the show, but if not I am adding it for angst woooo!) In this AU the Ascendancy is being infected by the Darkening and it's causing the Arathim and subspecies to go mad and attack their own. To protect itself, the Ascendancy is sloughing off the infected Arathim from the hive mind. The abandoned Arathim are dying, it’s just a matter of what gets them first: the Darkening, or being severed from the hive.
more yapping under the cut!
This is the situation that Four’s Threader is in. It dislikes being separated from the hive, and having been left to die of the Darkening alone, it grabbed onto the nearest creature with a strong connection to the crystal, which happened to be Four. Lucky for it, Four is sympathetic to its situation and Four’s connection to the crystal / light force (through the Four Sword) is preventing its Darkening from progressing. As it spends time with Four and stabilizes, its connection to the Ascendancy strengthens (+ in time when the connection is stabilized (or the Ascendency realizes something's different with this Threader), the Ascendancy decides Four is useful.) Four and the Threader can stay connected longer than what’s normally safe because the Ascendancy is currently treating it like it is infected and keeping it at a distance. I think of it as like a semi-permeable-membrane or something. The hive connects to itself and the creatures it interfaces with through its/their connection to the crystal. It's trying to force away and ignore the infected Arathim but they are reaching through the crystal back.
The Ascendency can feel itself dying.
I think it's a dull and consistent ache for Four as he feels the creatures in the hive be pushed away- their madness, anger, and then their death. Witnessing an Arathim die is more intense~painful. The first couple of times was incapacitating (if the Threader freaks out it impacts him as well) but he becomes accustomed to it (I'll still be using it loosely, though. If more angst is appealing in the moment then aw yeah knock that guy over!) I'm still debating whether or not Four would become fully integrated into the hive mind (and unable to return.)
The AU's plot/goal atm is to quell the Darkening (the LU equivalent of the black blooded monsters + botw malice/gloom ~ bad things are happening, etc.) I want to crack the crystal but that would mean I need to figure out what to do with the Skeksis TAT
The rest of the chain are Not Happy about Four’s decision.
Wind + Wild: If the Threader messes up or hurts Four ONCE I am killing it and the Ascendancy. (Wind does not like possession and I don't have Wild's background pinned but there's something there to do with the Calamity.)
Time: Trusts Four to be responsible.
Sky: Icked out by the spider.
Legend: The Ascendancy is made up of intelligent, sentient creatures. Gelfling and the Ascendancy are perfectly capable of creating an allyship. I worry for my friend but let’s see how this plays out.
Twi + Hyrule: Similar to Legend but they have personal experience with the Ascendancy attacking their villages. Where Legend is working in theoreticals, these two are looking for grounded results.
Wars: Doesn’t trust Four being threaded buuuut Four is clever. Maybe the Threader can be used to an advantage.
Dot: "wtf are you doing, man? This is going to be so much paperwork…" Her main worry is that Four will change again.
Shadow: He’s not surprised but he’s not happy about it. Doesn’t like Four giving attention to anything that isn’t him. Like Dot, he worries for Four’s sense of self.
Grandpa: (Four hasn't told him yet, but,) if Four says he can do this then Grandpa Smith will believe in him. He will always be a place for Four to find a steady arm to lean on and someone to set his thoughts out with. Grandpa Smith was ready to welcome four boys into his home (and the energetic princess,) but uhhhh... he's not so sure about a colony of spiders. Four says it won't come to that and that he'll still have his grandson so that's what matters. Four has found his balance before and now he knows how to keep it (and if he needs to, he'll find it again.)
the first was trying to figure out how @mmmwafflesart did this and the second was colored with @desmess' art in mind
Another version where the 2nd one is even softer.
That plum color is really nice so I did a rough background. (OH NO didn't @lemonheadart just do a drawing of Four in a tree? Yeah. 'xD haha. Just goes to show how influenced I am by the artists here. There are so many cool people and incredible works. (There's so much to learn!))
A follow up to my blue ring comic! I got a comment from kobolddraws on it over on instagram and have been holding onto the idea of Blue Ring Four since.
The hair tucked behind an ear while blue is a must!
