I Am So Sorry To My Moots For Going Down This Hyperfixation

Bruh we have the same cold though??? Are you actually having bad symptoms rn?????

It seems I have caught my annual cold. Technically it isn’t bad at all but holy shit I hate this so much.

Warriors is the only one smiling. Just an FYI.

Hello again! I want to say thank you all for the really kind words and notes, I can’t recall a time where my art has been complimented this much!

So take these doodles I did of my 4 favorites!

I do want to say I am very new to the LU, I’ve only learned about it around a month or so ago, believe it or not! I live under a rock!

Also, side note: this is all digital, I haven’t touched a pencil in about ten years 😅 I appreciate your faith in me, though!

@aaa-batteryy my tumblr is stalking me i swear

Hey it’s ace week and you’re local ace has something to say! I’ve been out as ace for 3 years now and it’s still a big part of my identity that I’m proud of so here’s a lil something for those who need it!

yo that's crazy we might actually end up making a chain

yo i got a crazy idea, bro, like, what if. what if we linked the universes together bro 👀

Oh my gods the characterization? How the heck did you make all nine of them sound like actual real people without going out of character at all? And the secrets and the misunderstandings - I can already see the angst building. This is an amazing first chapter! Also DOWNFALL DUO! I am already so excited for where you're going to take this story!!! You're amazing!!!!!

Holding On ~ chapter 1: Shouldn’t

summary: The Chain gets roasted. Hyrule is scared.

notes: EEE MY FIRST WRITING THAT I’M POSTING!!! :D Took a little inspiration from TCR by @sprite-and-the-bunnydragons with the socks part and the hyrule cooking part lol. I love that fic smm. anyways, yay!! :D

chapter word count: 2,728

(@cafekitsune - banners)

The air was damp and thick. Each of the Heroes’ footsteps squelched in the thin mud of the swamp. Green fog surrounded them as they passed dead trees and ancient ruins. This… certainly wasn’t Hyrule’s most prosperous time.

“Does… this era look familiar to anyone?” Legend said hesitantly with a tinge of uncertainty in his voice. None answered the Veteran’s question. Where were these portals taking them? Twilight looked around cautiously, his senses noticing something… off.

They weren’t alone. He just knew it.

Twilight whipped around to face Wild and Four (who were at the back of the line), drawing his sword. He stopped dead in his tracks, splashing water onto Wild’s boots.

“Woah, there Rancher,” Wild said, stepping back, putting his hands up in surrender, “What… do you think you’re doing?” Wild’s hand hesitantly inched closer to his own blade. Was… was Twilight okay? Four said not a word, and simply stared at Twilight with a concerned, puzzled look.

“Sorry, sorry.” Twilight explained, lowering his sword. Wild breathed a quiet sigh of relief. “I didn’t know you two were behind me. I… felt something.”

“Felt what?” Four asked matter-of-factly.

“Something. Something else. We’re not alone.” The three glanced at their surroundings, as a monkey cooed in the distance. Wild looked unamused.

“It’s just creepy here, that’s all. You’re overreacting, Twi. I know you’ve been in situations that were way more dangerous than th—“

“Shut up, Wild. Listen.” Twilight interrupted, slapping his hand over Wild’s mouth, who let out a surprised, annoyed grunt. Twilight responded with eyes full of daggers, which quickly silenced the restrained hero. The three were perfectly quiet.

A faint, eerie, ominous buzzing, not too dissimilar than that of a bee’s echoed throughout the swamp. Twilight removed his hand from over Wild’s mouth.

“What is it…?” Four said slowly, the sound getting closer.

“I don’t know, but we should tell the others.” Twilight responded, as the three had stayed pretty far behind from the rest of the group. “C’mon y’all.”

The three heroes ran to catch up with the group, the buzzing now clearly audible even through the loud splashes of Twilight, Four, and Wild’s quick footsteps.

“Does anyone else hear that?” They could hear Sky ask, as Time turned around to face the running heroes. “Rancher! Smith! Cook!” Time shouted, “Get over here!” They reached the group, panting.

“Oh fu…” Legend began, as Hyrule tapped and shook the Veteran’s shoulder aggressively.

“What? What is it, Leg? What? Why are you—“

“Sh. Rule.” Legend said shortly. All of the heroes were silent.

Leg was staring directly at Twi. No… he was staring directly… behind Twi. At a… growing black mass floating in the distance. There was only one thing that could be.

“Darknets.” Legend quickly turned to face the group, his expression fearful but stoic. “Everyone, try to…” Legend’s lips were moving, but his words were inaudible; the buzzing was so loud at this point. He ran to the side underneath a tree, signaling for the rest of the group to do the same. As everyone found shelter beneath their respective trees, they glanced at each other with worried looks. Hyrule stared at Legend with pleading eyes: LEG, WHAT IS HAPPENING?! Wind curled up into Warriors’s embrace, as Wars pulled his royal blue scarf over his head.

The Chain had never seen the Veteran hero so… scared. If he was scared… How scary were these ‘Darknets’?

Link…

LINK…

Whispers of the name echoed through the swampy forest. Was it in their heads? Or was it real? None of them could tell.

“DON’T LISTEN TO IT!” Legend shouted as loud as he could.

The voice was in their heads now. Plugging their ears or any other methods of mitigation wouldn’t and couldn’t work.

Link, you started all this. You cursed generations to suffer and created the Chain. This is all your fault. You’re the reason why millions have suffered through all of time. You’re the reason this is all happening right now.

Link, Shadow gave everything, literally his life, to protect you at the Palace of Winds. He shattered his own life source for you. He killed himself for you. If you had just been stronger, he would still be here today.

Link, you messed up everything. All time is crippled because of you. You messed with the timelines so much that time itself shattered and more suffering and more pain ensued throughout each of the three timelines you created. Thousands, millions even have died because of you.

Link, you’re the reason Koholint disappeared. You are the reason Marin is DEAD. No, it’s not the Wind Fish’s fault, not Hylia’s, not anyone’s but YOUR fault. You killed her, Link. You killed her and everyone else on that island.

Link, you failed. You may have saved Hyrule from Ganon twice, but Ganon’s return is inevitable. He will always come back strong each time. Your blood, the Hero’s blood will be spilled on Ganon’s ashes each time you defeat him. You can and will never win, Link.

Link, as the Hero of the World of Light, you had a duty to help the people of Twilight. But no, you left them there in that darkened world as the Light’s trash dump. They will suffer there for all of eternity. Midna will suffer there for the rest of her life.

Link, you killed King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule. He wished on the Triforce for you. He sacrificed everything to give you a future, yet you let him drown there at the bottom of the sea. It’s your fault.

Link, Cia truly loved you, and you just let her die. If you could’ve just opened your mind to the possibility of loving her, maybe you could’ve had a future. Maybe you couldn’t have let Lana suffer that incredible loss. The pain you’ve caused…

Link, all your friends are dead because of you. If you had fought harder at that one second at Fort Hateno, everyone would’ve survived. The Champions would have never died. They are dead because of your weakness.

“D-DON’T LET IT G-GET INto… your… h-head.” Legend stuttered, the words painfully stabbing him like raining arrows. The rest of the Chain winced in pain, as the messages echoed throughout their minds. Slowly, slowly but surely, the buzzing and whispers faded.

“I-is it… gone? The voices? The black cloud?” Wind mumbled quietly.

“Veteran, what was that?” Time said sternly. He retreated from his spot behind a tree and turned to face Legend.

“Darknets.” He responded, punctuating each syllable forcefully with a distinct tone of hatred. “As I said. They’re small, black insects that travel in large clouds like that one. They seek strong spirits and wish to cast them down. They get in your head, as I believe we all just experienced. They’re greedy little pests.” Legend’s face was stern, but a longing sadness lay hidden within his eyes.

“Your help is appreciated, Legend.” Time nodded. “Captain? Rancher? Skyloftian? A word.” Time motioned to Warriors, Twilight, and Sky to meet him.

The four heroes grouped together on the side of the path, slightly ahead from the rest of the group.

“I’m concerned.” Time started, “I assume we all had… personalized messages back there.” Time stared the three down. “Don’t let them get into your heads. Do you hear me?” He spoke with the most serious voice possible, making sure there weren’t any… complications with this incident, and that they could all just leave this day behind.

“Yes sir.” Warriors responded. “I don’t believe a word those Darknets said.”

“Same for me.” Twilight continued.

“And me.” Sky said, hints of fear hidden in both their voices.

“You must have no doubt. You must not give in. I need to ensure this.” The other three heroes nodded.

“And what about you, Old Man?” Twilight said, grinning lightly, resting his hand on Time’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry about me— I’ll be fine. Just make sure the rest of the group is too. Tell them this message.” Twilight nodded, his feelings of sympathy written all over his face. Warriors nodded as well; he was more accustomed to taking orders after his experience in war. Sky nodded slowly too, obviously scared for the wellbeing of the group.

***

“OWW! WARS, GENTLE!!” Wild screamed, as Warriors brushed his long, tangled locks.

“It wouldn’t be this painful if you just brushed it everyday…” Wars responded in a mocking tone. Hyrule could see Wild roll his eyes from across the crackling fire.

Yet Hyrule’s mind was racing.

He was the only one out of all of the Heroes who could sense magic… at least he thought he was the only one. Well, Legend could too, but he kinda sucked at it. A faint smile crossed the Traveler’s face, before it returned to its pensive, overwhelmed expression.

Hyrule was known for… well, not being the brightest. Sure, he literally lived his childhood in a cave; how was he supposed to know how to cook gourmet meals and interact with others normally?

See, Hyrule had kept a secret from the Chain. For about two and a half hours now. Still hadn’t beat his record of five hours and twenty-three minutes of “secret-keeping” from when Wild had stolen everyone’s socks and dumped them into a nearby river. Except for Hyrule’s. No one wanted to touch Hyrule’s socks. According to Warriors, they were “classifiable as biological weapons”.

But anyways, Hyrule had sensed magic in the Darknets. Powerful magic. But not just any regular time manipulation or dark powers or anything so trivial like that.

He sensed something worse. Far worse.

Possessive magic.

Today, Wild was having his hair brushed by Warriors.

Tomorrow, Wild could have Warriors at sword-point.

The thought made Hyrule shudder.

He knew the chances of possession taking over the Chain were low, but a cloud of doubt still fogged the Traveler Hero’s mind. What if…

And how was he supposed to tell anyone? He couldn’t bear the thought of scaring the others like that, with such dangerous information. And what about him? Was he going to survive this? Or any of the Heroes or—

“Hi Rulie!” A cheery voice interrupted. Sky. Hyrule held in his mental breath. “Can I, uh… sit with you?” Hyrule nodded, and the Skyloftian sat down on the log, next to him.

Hyrule’s heart was still pounding. Should he tell Sky? He would be the safest option… but Sky might tell Time. What about Legend? Hyrule knew he could trust him… he was going to have to tell everyone eventually… but how?!

“You… Alright there, Hyrule?” Sky’s soothing voice broke his thought again. Hyrule looked up, staring into Sky’s muted cerulean eyes.

“Oh— uh, yeah. I’m fine.”

“Something on your mind?” Sky was practically an empath.

“No… nothing much.” Hyrule bluffed, “… Sky, how well do you know magic?” The question seemed to catch the Chosen Hero partially off-guard.

“Oh! Umm…” Sky thought for a moment, “Well, there are some interesting magical beings and artifacts in my era. We have these things called Timeshift stones that can turn back time if struck. And… uh, we also have some dragons— elemental dragons… and, umm…” Sky hadn’t satisfied Hyrule’s curiosity, or the pounding truth throbbing in his head… but it was fine.

“Oh! That’s cool.” Hyrule replied, trying to hide his shakiness in his voice.

“RULE!” Someone shouted from across camp. Legend. He motioned for Hyrule to sit next to him on the fallen log across the fire.

“Gotta go,” Hyrule said to Sky, who gently waved him goodbye.

Hyrule made his way across camp. Wild, having finished his torturous hair brushing session, was now serving up some soup to the Heroes.

“Sit.” Legend said, his own bowl fresh with the steaming stew. It looked absolutely divine. How did Wild do it?! All the times Hyrule had tried to cook, it had ended up in an explosion or something. The Chain had decided that Hyrule wasn’t allowed within “five paces of the kitchen.”

Hyrule followed Legend’s command though. “Rule, something’s on your mind. You’re not very good at hiding it.” Hyrule blushed and turned away from Legend. “Rule…” Legend insisted, his tone sounding more annoyed than concerned. “What’s wrong?” He asked.

Hyrule didn’t respond. He didn’t want to. He didn’t think he could. Maybe he should just stay silent forever again.

“Hyrule. What. Is. It. Something’s… off with you.” The Veteran groaned, begrudgingly shoved a spoonful of soup into his mouth. “Or don’t tell me. Or even better, I’ll start calling you Link. C’mon Link, spit it out. You better tell me, Link. Time to start talking Link—“

Ok, that was annoying. “I-I’ll tell you,” Hyrule quickly, quietly interjected, mostly just to get Legend to stop. It felt so weird for Legend to be calling him Link.

But Legend could sense it was serious based on the breathiness in the Traveler’s voice; his face immediately softened. “Oh… ok…”

“B-but… not here. Not now. Later.”

Legend didn’t reply. He leaned back and sighed, patting Hyrule on the back, staring up at the stars starting to shine through the dim sky. “Ok, then.”

***

The sun was long set, and the moon sat comfortably in the night sky. Hyrule’s heart hadn’t stopped racing ever since he had talked to Legend earlier. He knew he had to tell him. Now or never, Link.

“Um, Legend?” Hyrule asked timidly. The Veteran looked up.

“Do you want to tell me now?” He responded, crossing his arms. Hyrule nodded.

The two made their way into the edge of the clearing where the Chain had set up camp for the night. From the distance, they could see the crackling fire and the rest of the Heroes laying out their bedrolls in preparation for a good night’s rest. Sky, of course, was already fast asleep.

“Legend, I… um,” Hyrule started, unable to continue. Legend, the usually dismissive and rude one, didn’t insult or try to interject the Traveler— his friend. This was more important, and even Legend knew it was inappropriate to make a sarcastic joke or something.

“Take your time, Rule.”

Hyrule took a deep breath. “Back there… i-in the woods, I sensed something. Magic.”

“Yes, the Darknets contain powerful magic. That’s what I was saying before… that happened… that we can’t let those… messages get into our heads… if we let them… then there’s a chance that something bad could happen—”

“You knew?!” Hyrule said loudly. Camp seemed quieter now— did the rest of them hear the Vet and Traveler’s conversation?

“I knew… what…?”

“The something bad! I know you know.”

“Rule, I told you beforehand— I told… all of you beforehand.”

Hyrule was stunned. What? Legend hadn’t said a word about magic or something bad or possession or—

Wait.

The realization crashed down upon Hyrule, just like the lightning bolts he could cast down from the sky if he wished to.

He had.

“Everyone, try to…” Legend’s lips were moving, but his words were inaudible; the buzzing was so loud at this point.

Hyrule remembers.

That must’ve been what Legend was saying earlier! He knew. He knew everything— why didn’t he say something when the group got back to camp? How were they going to tell the others? What was going to happen to the Chain? Were they going to have to fight against each other? How? When?

“Rule, nobody heard me, did they…” Legend said slowly. Hyrule didn’t respond again. “Rule,” He said sternly, “Do you understand what this means?”

“Yes.” Hyrule responded. He knew exactly what this meant. “I know. There’s a chance,” He paused, wincing at the next words. “That we could lose some of the group. That they weren’t strong enough, and now…”

No words were needed.

Both heroes knew exactly what was coming.

“We need to tell the group,” Legend said quickly. “This is serious.” Hyrule could see a glint of fear hidden in the Veteran’s eyes— sadness, even. For any of them, the thought of losing each other was something that hadn’t even crossed their minds. “We’ll tell them in the morning. Sky’s already asleep. The magic shouldn’t kick in until… later.”

Shouldn’t. That was the word Hyrule was relying on to keep the Chain safe.

But shouldn’t still had room for error.

bonus! chapter 2 summary: Wild suffers. Warriors tries to help.

This has probably already been done but my solution to having a list of stuff to do this weekend written out in front of me with nothing checked off was to make a low effort meme. Let's pretend the oocca is a manifestation of time (no not Time I'm talking about tick-tock two hands Time).

Also I really love how out of context you could totally look at this scene and see Twilight trauma dumping his entire life on Sky in the first panel, slowly letting his brain catch up to what he's just revealed in the second panel, and then the third panel is just Sky giving the obligatory "um, have you talked to someone about this?" in which the answer is usually some form of "nah it's fine" and then dead silence for a good five minutes.

art by @linkeduniverse

I aspire for my headcanons to look like this one day. Well thought out, deeply personal, and organized. Not the disaster that is my mind just going ‘hey you know what would be really funny…’ but those thoughts are also fun ig.

So I know your autistic Wild (my beloved) has Brenda and Brenda the second for soft friends, does he have any other soft friends?

Do you have any autistic or other neruodivergent head canons for the other Links? (Even if it's just what kinds of things you think they might have for special interests)

OOOOOO wonderful questions!!!!! Authenticity Wild my beloved

He has SO MANY soft friends. I also imagine Flora has a lot too, especially ones with scented things inside- they help her feel grounded when she dissociates or is remembering things related to the Calamity. Their beds in their house (separate beds in the same room on the loft) and their couch are just filled with soft friends. None are as special as the Brenda’s, of course.

I think each culture throughout Hyrule would have a different kind of most common toy and most common stuffed toy. Once everyone figured out how much Wild loves soft friends, they always gifted him one when he helped out the town. Wild loves this so much. The first time it happened he cried from overwhelming emotions of happy and grateful and feeling loved and appreciated.

Other link stuff below :D

I definitely like to imagine all of the Links as neurodivergent. When I have them rotating in my head I like to give them different diagnoses to ✨spice things up✨ and get more diversity in there. Here are the ones I usually give to each Link:

Sky: autism, dyspraxia, dysgraphia, dyslexia

^there is a series I follow of Sky with epilepsy, and I also really love that headcanon

Time: autism, Tourette’s syndrome

Twilight: depression and anxiety disorders

Wind: Down syndrome

Alternatively for Wind: FASD

Wild: autism

Hyrule: ADHD, CPTSD

Four: synesthesia, OCD, sometimes DID

Legend: borderline personality disorder

Warriors: PTSD, anxiety disorder

When I have them as all autistic, here are what I imagine their special interests are:

Time: masks (as a child, not so much anymore), cows, had memorized every dad joke to ever exist

Sky: bugs and birds :). In Skyloft birds was mainly just Loftwings, but then when he discovered all the birds on the surface it became all birds. He single-handedly catalogues and describes all the surface birds.

Warriors: battle strategizing, sewing

Wind: sailing, pirates, also characters from a storybook his Grandma used to read to him and Ayrll every single night (at Wind's insistence)

Wild: cooking, horses, cataloguing plants in the sheikah slate

Legend: magical items, jewelry (jewelry with magical properties are the COOLEST SHIT)

Hyrule: biology/anatomy, and there's a series of books they once found in an abandoned town that they LOVE. Books are hard to come by in their era so those are their absolute most prized possession

Twilight: goats, wolves. He knows every. Single. Fact.

Four: clocks, tools. Four wants collect every tool in existence, and wants to know exactly what it does. Especially blacksmithing tools, bc Four also really likes blacksmithing

Crying to a mcd fic at 1:30am on a school night is an essential part of the ao3 experience and you cannot convince me otherwise

Not gonna lie, I completely thought this was a “fighting back to back and surrounded in the face of an unbeatable horde of monsters” type thing. Spoiler alert: I was wrong.

no face mcserial killer possibly, caught sky with a sleeping spell. it worked very well. time caught nofaced loser in the act and the same sleeping spell Did Not work on him. blunt object to the face works fine. noface mightve not survied the punch, no ones checked yet. doing my public service by making time suffer.

i forgot wild.

I can feel the hyperfixation energy building. It’s getting real.

I am so obsessed with this game that I learned its Hylian writing system

_*_