I would like to offer my humble assistance in helping dragon Ares collect a hoard. Seems like it'd help a little with his stress.
Once he figures out something he likes, let him know I'll be on the look out for it!
He'll figure it out eventually, it just takes time.
Some Dragon Lore for you: Some dragons develop an interest in items they had experienced from their parents' hoards. or just accidentally during or after migration. However, since him and Apollo were raised by hylians, Ares steals pillows and blankets instead since that's all he can really think of or access. He just doesn't get that "hoarding-satisfaction" most dragons do if they have items that click with them.
I gotta ask, is the Matric of Conquest something you made up or is that a tf lore thing? (I only know the vibes of Shattered Glass, so I'm not sure)
PS: If you did make it up, it sounds cool as hell and I'm so intrigued! Would that mean there's no Matrix of Leadership?
PSS: I love your artwork so much!
Actually there's a bunch of variations of the matrix which is cool-- Conquest/Chaos being one of them. I knew there were other variations and was already planning on a name and source for it, but decided to look into them before I did anything crazy and it turns out there was one perfect for my plans lol.
BUT I do still have plans for the Matrix of Leadership, too. Which I'm excited for :3
also TY!!! More below for ya because yk I'm a chronic rambler.
Normally he wouldn't have even been renamed to "Prime" when given the matrix by Unicron but I felt the two would decide on a name that mocks Primus more than anything. Like how (usually) Megatron turns into Galvatron whenever unicron has smth to do with it. Or how Hunter becomes Shokaract when finding the Matrix of Conquest.
^ I guess that means I should mention WHY he wants a name that mocks Primus/the Primes. Orion/Optronix did attempt to take the Matrix long before the war, knowing it'd give him a quick trip to the top of the chain of command in the High Council. But Primus sussed him out and denied him, making it disappear (which starts its own chain of events tbh). So bro stays salty behind the scenes for YEARS, slowly climbing to the top through manipulation because if Primus won't do anything then he'll just do it himself (and succeeds. And then gets so much worse).
Anyways I should shut up now so I don't start saying stuff that's more likely to change (even if I reaaaaallly wanna keep going 😩)
For the WIP asks, either dog tags or feral wars bites, please?
Feral Warriors Bites only has a basic outline to remind myself of what I want to do. The idea is that Warriors loses control and actually bites someone in the chain. When he realizes what happened, he runs off and has to get hauled back to camp for hugs. It's mostly in my head at the moment.
Dog Tags is a one shot around the idea that the army decided that all the time displaced heroes needs to dog tags like everyone else in the army does for some standardization. Warriors hates the idea but gives them out to everybody, including Mask and Wind. When the war is over, Warriors gets super sentimental and keeps one of the tags from each hero.
However, he goes a step further with Mask and Wind. He swaps all of their tags - Mask goes home with one from Warriors and Wind, Wind goes home with one from Warriors and Mask, and Warriors has one from Wind and Mask.
And then LU happens and Wind and Warriors find out that they still have the tags but they realize that Mask is missing. Time doesn't say anything until he goes to the ranch and takes his tags out of a keepsake box.
I have an intro for this one but it started giving me trouble because I didn't want to just skip to the end of the war.
Legend cast another glance over at where Hyrule lay, nearly every blanket the heroes owned piled on top of him. He was so still that Legend had to lean closer just to figure out if he was breathing or not, and he felt a flicker of relief as he saw his friend’s chest raise, them lower.
“I swear Roolie, you can’t keep exhausting your magic like this,” he murmured as he brushed a hand through Hyrule’s curls, “one of these days you’re just going to go too far.”
Just gotta say I love your art and the entire suncaster au!
All of your art just feels so warm, I love the colors, their smiles are so full of joy, I just can't express how my heart just kinda stopped working for a few seconds whenever your stuff shows up!
AA TYSM that's so sweet,,, i love drawing them all smiley it fills me w sm joy
For the ask game, "marks on your body, marks on your soul"??
This on is a platonic soulmate AU! I think we, as a fandom, should make more of these. This fic is supposed to be pretty short, but we'll have to see how long it actually ends up being.
When Arryl had been taken, and Wind had set out on his quest to save her, he hadn’t bothered to look at his soulmarks much. He didn’t forget they were there, or course. No one could forget their soulmates.
It was just… they had become less important in the face of losing his sister. His sister was out there, possibly in danger, possibly dead, and Wind was pretty sure his soulmarks weren’t going to go away anytime soon.
(Send me one of my WIPs' titles and I'll post a snippet of it)
71) “It’d be a shame if someone you loved got hurt, I know how much your friends mean to you.”
**Requests closed**
-o-o-o-o-
He's walking through nothing.
His boots echo on emptiness with every step, and his eyes see nothing but a endlessness you can really only find while staring into the pits of a deep dark cave. He holds a lantern, the smell of the flame nauseating, though he's used to the stench of burning chu jelly being used instead of normal oil.
"Hello?" He asks, because he's alone and there's nothing. He can't think of where he is or what he's doing, just that he has a quest. A place to go. He has to get there, the world is counting on him...
"Link?"
He turns around and smiles, the green grass brushes against his bare feet and the breeze threatens to bring goosbumps onto his bare arms. At the shore of the Ordon Lake sits Ilia, dipping her feet in the river from the makeshift dock that's sat here for longer than what he can remember. Behind her, the cat plays with a rabbit, and he thinks it's cute. "Hi, Ilia, here to watch me fish?" He asks, and she rolls her eyes as he approaches, setting down the bucket of bait and his fishing pole (what happened to the lantern?) And sits besides her, spreading his toes in the water and enjoying the coolness.
"No," Ilia answers, her voice chipper. "I'm just waiting for everything to end."
"What do you mean?" Twilight asks, turning towards her, and a warm feeling settles in his chest at the sight of Midna, sitting there. He wonders where Ilia went, but he forgets about that when Midna turns towards him and smirks.
"It's been awhile, mutt," she says and he nods in agreement, tossing the line into the river... just a small bit away from a particularly large fish he's spotted.
Twilight tugs on his rope slightly. "Yeah, I missed you."
"You need to stop missing me," she says, placing a hand on his shoulder and turning him to look at her. The castle walls stand tall around them, reaching towards the sky in grays and blues, the stained glass windows showing a golden wolf howling to a falling moon. "I'm not here anymore," she says.
Link shakes his head, the sword in his hands so much heavier than a fishing pole, and shield on his back almost too weighty for him to bear. "I miss you," he repeats.
A small, sad smile crosses her lips. "But I'm dead."
"No, no you're just gone-"
"As good as, then, you mutt."
And it hurts. He can see lightning spreading on her skin, her red hair growing dimmer. He surges forward, desperate to keep her, but he crashes through a high window and stumbles towards the shore Lake Hylia, the rocky shore digs into the soles of his boots.
The glass hurts, his skin aches, and he falls to his knees breathing hard. Then, he notices it, the threads of a blue scarf. He blinks and leans forward so he can see into the water better, and his stomach jolts at what he sees.
Warriors... Just under the surface.
Dead. Just floating there.
Then he sees a smaller body, with blond hair and a scarred face. Another with colorful clothes. Another and another and he scrambles back until his back hits a heavy body. He whirls around, raising his sword but all of a sudden he's knocked off his horse, laying on the ground as Ganondorf towers over him, his giant sword pointed down and resting on Twilight's neck.
“It’d be a shame if someone you loved got hurt, I know how much your friends mean to you.”
"Leave them alone!" Twilight snarls, and Ganondorf smirks.
"You can't protect them all forever," he says, "someday, something will tear you down and kill them all right in front of you."
Twilight snarls and grabs his sword, scrambling up from the earth and stabbing his weapon forward, only to shove the blade though something he wasn't expecting.
Someone gasps into his neck and Twilight stares over Wild's shoulder in shock. His hands are warm from blood. He steps back, terrified and sick. Wild stares at him with pained eyes, betrayed eyes, before he falls to his knees and becomes still. Twilight stumbles back more, his hands gleaming like rubies in a Gerudo desert sun, bringing them to his hair so he can fall to his knees and weep.
He couldn't protect them... He couldn't protect them... Everyone leaves and it's all his fault and-
He wakes up with a hand on his shoulder, shaking him awake. He blinks, the nightmare fading ever so slowly, and he swallows.
"You okay, pup?" Time asks and Twilight sits up and rubs his eyes, willing his heart to quit pounding as loudly.
Before he answers, he looks around the camp and settles his eyes on a certain boy that he's not sure how he will ever recover if anything bad ever happens to him. Just the thought of killing him himself...
He places his hand in Wild's hair, who has been using Twilight as his pillow for the night. Wild hums in his sleep and shifts to get more comfortable. Twilight releases a sight.
You wanna ramble on about dragon Ares?? Would you mind telling us more about the surgically removed combustion pouch?
Was it because of an accident? Was it done before or during the war? What does Volga think of that?
YES I WOULD LOVE TO!!!
Ty for the questions, I always have a hard time figuring out where I wanna start (and then also when to end lol). And I like making aus where I already have information established so I can build on it and challenge the garbage I come up with xD
-> Ares’s dragon au ref, for reference
** I do wanna give a warning that the au is a bit more tragic than my other ones. Or at least in a different way. It’s a lot of the two dragons not being raised properly and the consequences of that. Causing them to feel unsafe and not truly realizing it. The details about it are way in the end, but before it really gets there I will be answering the questions and touching on it as lightly as possible <3
Would you mind telling us more about the surgically removed combustion pouch?
Every Fire dragon has two organs relating to their fire. The spitting pouch located in their throat, which comes up to the bottom of their tongue and allows them to spit a corrosive liquid. Then the “combustion pouch” which acts like a secondary set of lungs, much smaller, and holds a gas that when released and mixed with the acid will cause the chemical to “combust” and act like a liquid flamethrower in some instances.
Hatchlings are usually taught how to use both organs properly so they don’t explode, but both organs are separated enough to not become much of an issue. The gas is also usually formed by eating certain minerals and storing the chemicals for later use. And their beaks are strong enough to remove and break apart those minerals to be properly broken down via a digestive process.
A little fun thing too. Some fire dragons, Volga being one of them, have vents near their ribs that allows them to release excess gas then light it by striking their wing claws or beaks. Some do it to impress potential mates, take out enemies, or because they have too much gas in their system and its causing discomfort. (They use it to impress potential mates because its sparkly under certain lighting, they fan their wings out and may do a little dance here and there before lighting it. Depends on the preference.) Otherwise, dragons who don’t have those vents release it like they’re spitting. Could be diverging evolution, or a mutation, or some familial tie, since not every fire dragon is born with it.
Some dragons are skilled enough to breathe fire immediately (using their acid pouch and flammable gas at the same time) while others may use one after the other or wait a little longer before using the gas. Also completely depends on user preference, the situation, and skill.
Was it because or an accident? Was it does before or during the war?
Ares and Apollo’s combustion pouches were removed at a very early age on purpose, to prevent them from lighting anyone on fire. So it would’ve happened before the war and before either of them knew it was a thing they had. The reason their acid pouches weren’t removed instead was so they could use it to break down hard to digest foods, or even bones since younger dragons like eating the marrow. Not that the two are given difficult to eat foods anyways, they’re on a much stricter diet compared to most fire dragons.
They had a lot of stuff removed or whittled down to prevent anything unfortunate happening, but that causes some pretty big consequences when they eventually come across other dragons who do have stuff and make them wonder why they don’t. Puts the question in their head about why their guardians didn’t trust them enough to have smth dragons are built to have. And that’s not a good feeling.
What does Volga think about it?
Everything plays out geeenerally the same as my version of HW (which, not much changes, just a few characters and motivations and some different story beats). They meet in hyrule field, Volga cuts Ares off in one of the keeps to prevent his progress. He notices quickly that Ares is just… strange for a fire dragon but puts it aside. He just assumes its some kind of agreement to keep the hyrulean army happy.
It isn’t until later when he’s freed from Cia’s hold and sides with Artemis’s army that he realizes Ares and Apollo’s strangeness is a little deeper than some sort of personal preference or peace agreement. Its really not common for fire dragons to share territory or even side with hylians and humans, unless they feel their home will be endangered otherwise. Dragons don’t even like sharing territory with their own siblings unless they’re super close or need to. But he realizes then when they’re teamed together that wayyy more is odd and different and simply not right.
They don’t look right, they don’t smell like dragons, they refuse to breath fire, their claws are too short, their scales are too weak, their wing membrane is too short, they don’t have enough muscle mass. It doesn’t take a genius dragon to realize that they weren’t raised by dragons.
Curiosity starts to kill him and he starts making remarks and asking questions when off on a mission with Ares. He learns Ares had no idea they were even the same species, let alone that they should be able to breathe fire. He’s never burrowed before. He may have hoarded in the past? Volga doesn’t really count pillows and blankets as hoarding but its probably the closest Ares and Apollo could’ve gotten to it. He’s never truly had training to hunt for himself, never marked territory, never even scented territory (he’d wonder if that’s why he doesn’t smell right). The diet he has doesn’t encourage boosted scale strength or even body mass.
How he feels? Probably really pissed tbh. Volga was raised by two very strong gigantic dragons in a big family and has a lot of pride in his people. There are certain features and behaviors that encourage it too, and he’s grown up short tempered and fiery due to his lack of horns causing other dragons to see and treat him differently. But never has he met another dragon (let alone two???) that have had all that taken away before they even had a chance to learn it.
He eventually starts sneaking Ares off (unable to convince Apollo, she’s too close and trusting of her guardians), to teach him everything he’s missed out on. Even if he’s permanently fucked tbh, they can at least remedy some of the damage.
Some other miscellaneous information
- Ares and Apollo, in this au, are not twins. They’re born from the same clutch but not from the same egg. I decided on this because it would make twin dragons too common because Volga has twin sisters (he’s from a clutch of six, one of the eggs having been twins). I didn’t want it to be that common so they’re from separate eggs.
- Ares was hatched first and never imprinted. Apollo however imprinted on Artemis when she hatched which is why she’s much more trusting of her and refuses to believe much if anything Volga says. Artemis is practically, officially, her mom because of it.
- Wing claws need to develop throughout a dragon’s life in order to properly balance them out. Even if Ares and Apollo grew them back, they wouldn’t be the right length or weight to make a difference in their comfort.
- Ares has zoochosis, he paces a lot. Although both genders of dragons can and will claim territory, Ares’s lack of imprinting has made it difficult for him to feel safe and secure where he lives. And the inability (or even just the lack of knowledge on how) to claim territory has caused him mass amounts stress he doesn’t realize he has.
- Apollo doesn’t experience the same degree of stress Ares does. She’s spoiled a lot more than him, is let out more often, and rarely has the need to hoard or claim territory thanks to technically having it with Artemis. Dragon hatchlings who imprint on one of their parents won’t have the need to claim territory until they willingly migrate or are kicked out.
- A dragon with no hoard and no territory usually stress out until eventually “rampaging”. But no combustion pouch means difficulty rampaging. So Ares tends to lock himself away, not really truly realizing how miserable he really is.
- Another point on territory. Fire dragons are very sparse, not because they’re rare but because they’re very territorial and don’t like sharing unless they’re mates or (tentatively) family. Volga’s territory was from a different dragon long before Hyrule Kingdom was founded, he challenged the dragon then (a story I might get into later) and won, killing the dragon and winning said territory, the hoard, and now leads the lizardfolk like the previous dragon had. The whole area covers the entirety of Eldin Volcano and a large chunk of hyrule field and some of the plateaus. He refuses to let go of it, even to Zelda’s request as its very important to keep it else the lizardfolk would overrun the gorons and the treaty between the two races would crumble. It would be hell if Volga let go of his territory and moved away, so Artemis tentatively made a verbal peace agreement with him to make sure hell doesn’t break loose. Hopefully that makes sense.
- ^ being in another dragon’s territory, since Volga’s technically reaches into Hyrule Field and possibly into the castle, is also probably causing Ares more stress because he has no way to do anything about it. Constantly smelling danger danger nearby and not knowing what to do is probably really scary for him.
- Last point. Volink might still happen. I feel like after a while of helping Ares, Volga might realize he’s fallen for him a little. Maybe it’s a slow thing? Smth he doesn’t realize until a certain point? Maybe Ares is in danger? Maybe they’re separated for longer than expected? Something. We’ll see.
