aaaaa there are so many good prompts on that list, but how about Hand-Holding 37 ("not realizing they’re holding hands till someone points it out") for Vio and Shadow?
Vio. . .really wishes he had stayed home.
It's not that he doesn't like spending time with his friends. The social interaction is good for him, he knows. It's just that haunted houses aren't his idea of Halloween fun. He'd rather read a book, or catch a bad movie and make fun of it in the very back row. He's only here because the others insisted, and Zelda and Red AND Shadow gave him the puppy dog eyes and it just was not fair, the three of them ganging up on him like that.
So he finds himself wandering through a pre-scripted path, an frown of exasperation plastered across his face the entire time as Shadow leads him through the house. The effects are impressive, and the actors are really good. Honestly the thing that spooks him the most is Shadow jumping and laughing with every scare, startling him from his belated boredom.
They're almost through when they pass through a dark shed portion, after being chased inside by an axe wielding maniac. Shadow turns, breathlessly giggling, and his smile falters at the look on Vio's face.
"C'mon, are you seriously not having fun?" He asks. Vio debates on whether to give him an answer or just a very pointed look. "You've barely reacted to anything. I could hear Red screaming from two rooms ago. What's your deal?"
Vio brushes past him. "I only came because the rest of you insisted. I told you all this was not my idea of fun- it isn't like I didn't warn you."
"Can't ya at least prete-" The lights flick on in the shed, and Vio startles just a bit at the writhing, scuttling interior all around him. He startles even more at Shadow's panicked scream, and turns to see him frozen in place, eyes wide, pupils dilated, white as a sheet.
"Shadow?" Vio asks, concerned, and takes a step towards him, growing even more worried as Shadow's breath quickens. "They're just animatronic-"
"Spiders." Shadow chokes out, a pathetic whimper leaving his throat. "Wh-why'd it hafta be spiders?!"
He looks like he's about to cry, and Vio reacts without thinking, grabbing his hand. Shadow jumps and looks at him finally, eyes unfocused.
"Just close your eyes and walk." Vio says. "This is the last room." He spies an actor in the corner behind them, dressed in a skulltula costume, and gives them a venomous glare and an imperceptible shake of his head.
"But-"
"Eyes closed, now." Vio says so firmly that Shadow instinctively does so. "Walk forward, I'll guide you."
Vio turns, pulling Shadow along. The latter stumbles a bit, a tiny whimper escaping his throat, and Vio looks back just to check that he's still closing his eyes and that the actor isn't sneaking up on them. He leads Shadow to the end of the room, pushing aside the exit curtains and pulling him through.
The air is crisp and cool outside, and Vio makes a point of steadily moving away from the house before stopping both of them. "There. You can open your eyes now."
Shadow blinks, and looks at him sheepishly. "Hey. . .thanks." His voice shakes a bit. "S-sorry for freaking out back there. I. . .I really hate bugs."
Vio shrugs. "It's a common phobia. There's nothing to be ashamed of- I'm just glad you didn't pass out."
That earns him a nervous laugh. "Y-yeah, that would've sucked."
"Wooooaaahhhhhhhhh, look at you two getting cozy!" Blue jogs over, grinning at them. "Did you get too scared?"
Vio stares at him blankly. "What, excuse my Gerudo, the fuck are you talking about?"
Red smiles knowingly at the two of them as he walks up. "Aw, you two are cute."
Shadow jumps and jerks away from Vio, releasing his hand, and Vio blushes to the tips of his ears as realization dawns on him.
"Th-that's not-" He sputters, as Blue laughs. "We weren't-"
"Vio and Shadow, sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-"
"Blue!"
For the Vio/Shadow prompts: how about something with either or both of them interacting with an animal? Like Shadow trying to make friends with a cat, or Vio introducing him to the horses at the castle, something like that.
I set out to write fluff and it became hurt/comfort again... still, hope you enjoy! Threw in the vidow head bonk just for you!
pinecone (1757 words, general audiences, vio x shadow)
They found the cat in the woods near their cottage. An impossibly small kitten with a brilliant tortoiseshell coat, injured leg, and big yellow eyes. The story told itself—most likely, it had been left behind by its mother and siblings. In wordless agreement, they promptly scooped up the kitten and brought it to Zelda.
The princess was able to magically amputate the injured leg, leaving the kitten temporarily wobbly but in perfect health. She also determined the cat’s gender—a girl, like most tortoiseshells—and asked if Shadow and Vio had a name for her. They did not.
Zelda said that she and Green would contact Erune about finding the kitten a home, but requested that Shadow and Vio oversee her healing process in the meantime. Not quite ready to depart, Vio found himself frantically pulling cat reference books from the Hyrule Castle library’s shelves while Shadow cradled the kitten in his arms. Despite Vio’s apprehension, one look at the pair told him everything he needed to know. He made a list of all the things they’d need and told Zelda not to contact Erune. She didn’t seem surprised by this in the slightest.
read the full piece on ao3 or under the cut...
They found the cat in the woods near their cottage. An impossibly small kitten with a brilliant tortoiseshell coat, injured leg, and big yellow eyes. The story told itself—most likely, it had been left behind by its mother and siblings. In wordless agreement, they promptly scooped up the kitten and brought it to Zelda.
The princess was able to magically amputate the injured leg, leaving the kitten temporarily wobbly but in perfect health. She also determined the cat’s gender—a girl, like most tortoiseshells—and asked if Shadow and Vio had a name for her. They did not.
Zelda said that she and Green would contact Erune about finding the kitten a home, but requested that Shadow and Vio oversee her healing process in the meantime. Not quite ready to depart, Vio found himself frantically pulling cat reference books from the Hyrule Castle library’s shelves while Shadow cradled the kitten in his arms. Despite Vio’s apprehension, one look at the pair told him everything he needed to know. He made a list of all the things they’d need and told Zelda not to contact Erune. She didn’t seem surprised by this in the slightest.
━━
Leaves crunched beneath their boots as they followed the tree-lined path home.
“We should name her,” Vio said, trying not to make the physical strain evident in his voice. He carried a large box full of books and supplies while Shadow transported the kitten, who was so tiny that she fit in the front pocket of his flannel shirt. She seemed to be asleep, undoubtedly exhausted from her injury, abandonment, and subsequent magical healing. Vio shuddered to imagine what would have happened if they hadn’t found her.
“Probably,” Shadow answered, his voice uncharacteristically calm. While the day’s events had caused Vio a fair amount of stress, this cat seemed to be something of a missing piece for Shadow. Inevitable. Peace was not something Vio often saw in Shadow’s disposition, but it was palpable here.
If the name was up to Vio, it would take weeks to decide. He’d search legends, dictionaries, and dead languages for the perfect word or words for this strange creature. He doubted there was a perfect answer, but if there was—
“Pinecone,” Shadow said, glancing fondly down at the black and orange ears peeking from his pocket. “Let’s call her Pinecone.”
Vio smiled. “Perfect.”
━━
Pinecone wasn’t a kitten for very long. As Shadow and Vio went about their lives in the cottage, leaving occasionally to help heal the earth they once scorched, Pinecone quickly outgrew any reasonably-sized pocket. She became long and poised, three-legged but possessing the pure force of will to cause just as much chaos as she could with all four.
Vio loved Pinecone very much, but it was obvious she and Shadow had a special connection. According to the literature, this was fairly common with cats—they found Their Person and held a certain amount of patience and affection for them exclusively. It made Vio think about Shadow in what felt like a past life, singling him out from the others and inviting him into his dark troubled world. Except this time, it was him and Shadow inviting Pinecone into the light.
She didn’t seem traumatized, if that was something cats were even capable of being. Maybe she didn’t remember kittenhood, at this point so accustomed to her safe comfortable life in the cottage. Vio liked reading in her company, inviting her to curl up on his chest and even allowing her to partially obscure the pages. She seemed perfectly aware at all times that Vio would never move her from where she wanted to be, unless she wanted to be somewhere dangerous, in which case he wouldn’t hesitate for a second.
According to the books, cats purred loudly to indicate their pleasure. Pinecone’s purr was very quiet, but a gentle touch to her throat always proved that it was there. Vio appreciated the honesty in that. Shadow had his tells, too—a certain sideways grin, increased clinginess, the words “I love you”—but nothing quite as simple as Pinecone’s purr.
It wasn’t always so simple, though, with their newest family member. Despite their immediate connection, Shadow admitted to Vio early on that Pinecone was bringing up some difficult emotions.
“I’m guilty,” Shadow had told him as Pinecone slept in his lap. He seemed almost afraid to pet the cat, creating a distance between them Vio hadn’t seen before.
“Why?” Vio asked, reaching over to give Pinecone’s ears a scratch. “We saved her life.”
“It’s not that. It’s…”
And then Shadow was tearing up, and Vio raised his hand to cup his face, startled by the sudden outburst. “Hey, hey, shhh, what’s going on?”
“I’ve been thinking about this for days. We—I—never hit the human towns. But there must have been animals, right? That I… killed?”
Vio’s heart sunk. It was the truth and they both knew it.
“Yes,” Vio said. “I’m so sorry.”
Shadow stood up abruptly, startling Pinecone off his lap. He looked down at the cat as tears ran down his checks, words clearly on the tip of his tongue. His eyes met Vio’s and he turned on his heel, gone before Vio could even stand.
━━
Vio found him on the forest trail, having abandoned the path for their favorite scenic overlook. Vibrant red, yellow, and dark evergreen trees punctuated the landscape above a crystal-clear mountain stream. Shadow sat on the ground, head in his hands, as his hat blew in the gentle breeze.
Shadow’s body tensed at the sound of Vio’s footsteps. Vio froze, suddenly unsure. “If you want to be alone, it’s okay.” His voice carried faintly over the sound of rustling leaves. “I’m sorry, I—”
“No. Stay.”
Vio nodded and sat down beside Shadow, who finally lifted his head in favor of the view. “I could have destroyed all of this,” he said, voice dripping with disdain. “Eventually, I would have.”
Vio covered Shadow’s hand with his own. “Probably. I’m not going to lie to you. But I’m still here, and I love you, and so does Pinecone.”
“She shouldn’t. Neither should you.”
“Not up to you. Isn’t that a relief, at least?”
Shadow shook his head. “You and I… we’ve talked. We’re working through everything. But she’s just… she’s just this little baby. She doesn’t know anything I did, she wasn’t there. She has no idea who I really am, and if she did, she wouldn’t—”
“Pinecone is a cat,” Vio interrupted. “The only times in her life she experienced cruelty were before we found her. The world failed to make her feel safe and loved, but you succeeded. It’s as simple as that.”
“I don’t deserve any of this,” Shadow said, a sentiment often uttered during his most vulnerable moments. “You, Pinecone, our home, this second chance at life… none of it.”
“Do you think Pinecone deserved to be abandoned or injured?”
Shadow turned his head sharply to match Vio’s gaze. “Of course not. Why would you even ask that?”
“What if she got injured while fighting a sibling, or her mother? What if she won the fight?”
“That’s ridiculous, she was just a—”
“Shadow,” Vio interrupted, “you know what I’m saying. You would love her anyway, you would have saved her anyway.”
“Of course.”
“Then it shouldn’t be impossible to believe that we love you. You’ve hurt me in the past, sure, but I’ve hurt you too. We will always be in the process of forgiving each other, and that’s okay. There’s no one I’d rather be doing this with than you.”
“Vio, I—”
“And as for Pinecone, you’ve done nothing but dote on her from the moment we found her. Maybe… maybe if she was able to comprehend your past, and the things you did, she would struggle with it. You know I have. Not everyone is forgiving by nature, and that’s okay, but I refuse to deny myself a life with you because of things that happened in the past. I can’t speak for Pinecone, because she’s a cat, but why wouldn’t she be the same?”
Shadow’s scowl broke like a dark mirror, its shards running down his cheeks. “I love you so much.”
Vio stood up, brushed the dry leaves off his pants, and offered Shadow a hand. “Let’s go home. Someone there misses you.”
Shadow shook his head, a sad smile on his face as he rose to his feet. “I’ve only been gone for twenty minutes.”
Try months, Vio wanted to say as he trailed behind Shadow on the path. Months mending the mirror and perfecting the ritual, because I wounded you, I abandoned you, and I was never going to feel peace until I got you back.
Maybe it was wrong for Vio to love Shadow, knowing in great detail the many terrible things he did. But Vio was no saint, either. He could have prevented countless acts of cruelty Shadow blamed himself for entirely. He himself had been cruel, his actions calculated and completely sober, towards his closest friends and the love of his life.
There was this attitude Vio often noticed in the sacred texts he read, this insistence that amends could only be made alone. That in order to truly be pure, a person would have to suffer for their misdeeds. That any happiness or peace they experienced would taint their good intentions, up until the day they finally Made It All Right.
Truthfully, Vio didn’t think that day would ever come.
Truthfully, he didn’t care.
━━
Vio made his way to their bedroom around 10 PM, pleased to see Shadow already sound asleep. Even more pleasing was Pinecone, who laid on his chest as she typically did whenever Shadow wasn’t curled up in Vio’s arms.
He’d let them have this, tonight.
Vio got under the covers and gently ran his hand down Pinecone’s back, watching her rise and fall as Shadow inhaled and exhaled. He held a finger to her throat and smiled; there it was. Of course, there it was.
Vio turned onto his side, close enough to Shadow that he could nuzzle against his head. This was something cats did, apparently, an action hotwired in their brains to say, simply, “you are mine.”
And I’m yours, Vio thought as he closed his eyes. He didn’t mention it earlier, but he could recall another time, before Pinecone, that Shadow found someone lost in the woods and loved them in the only way he knew how.
And it was amazing, really, to Vio… how lucky they both were to have been found.
@hauntinghyrule replied to your post: “Are you going to need voices for the redraw, or are they picked? Or...”:
I hope this isn't a source of too much extra stress! Things are absolutely crazy right now and we all understand if that interferes with plans.
I’m just trying to breathe and take it one day at a time lol
Also, kinda taking a page out of nintendo’s own playbook. a project that is delayed will be eventually good, while a rushed one will be bad forever, yknow?
If I rush into coordinating the dub and editing the video, it won’t be all that it can be, so chilling out a little on it seems like the better play. Plus it loosens up the deadline on the manga pages wayyy more.
So, in the official translation of the Four Swords Plus manga, Miss Fairy opens a portal and teleports Green, Red, and Blue away while Vio and Shadow are burning Hyrule with Shadow’s dragonmom pet dragon.
In the fan-translation, Miss Fairy says “I’ll transport you to a safer ground,” but in the official version, this line is completely different.
Red: “Yikes! Lava!”
Miss Fairy: “Let’s evacuate to another dimension!”
ANOTHER DIMENSION?
WHAT?
So, y’all have probably heard of Triforce Heroes. Green, Red, and Blue go on adventures in a town kind of like Termina, Hytopia, another dimension to save that kingdom’s princess who’s apparently super vain and not at all like our awesome Zelda but okay I guess.
“Let’s evacuate to another dimension.”
My theory is THIS ONE PANEL is when Triforce Heroes takes place. I think that in Hytopia, time passes differently than in Hyrule. Hytopia is an alternate version of Hyrule- Another dimension, if you will.
Green, Red, and Blue are teleported to Hytopia and do that whole Triforce Heroes thing there, which is all to try and get back to their world. Hyrule. Vio and Shadow are doing the whole “burning the world” thing, so that explains why they’re not in it.
When they get back to Hyrule, though, then even though it took them a REALLY LONG TIME in Hytopia, it’s only been a few hours in Hyrule.
It’s like the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when Peter, Susan, Edward, and Lucy leave the Wardrobe and return to the Spare Room. They’ve obviously grown up into adults in the Wardrobe, but when they return to their world, they turn back into children and are surprised at how little time has passed, and they go finish the day as if nothing has happened and then a few years pass and this whole thing happens again but that’s not important.
im slightly scared to tag hauntinghyrule in this post but kaenith made me ACTUALLY start listening to taz and i’ve drawn taako in like 12 different outfits with a different harstyle each time but i THINK this is (one of) my final one(s) because i like it and its simplicity
