Shrine Out Of Time 2.2 - The Last Shrine

Evening of Tuesday, November 17, 2020 (comprised of some raw note editings from April 29 through April 30, 2023 that I really hope sound consistent because I left it alone for too long) ~ 2

Shrine Out Of Time 2.2 - The Last Shrine

I was in my Hateno House.

I was out of practice. The buttons. The buttons....

I knew those could give me trouble. And so I decided to journey on foot.

I needed the practice.

The fabled Roscoe would be down on a southern beach, far to the west. I could probably get into ample trouble by following the coastline. That would give me practice on the buttons.... And Hateno was close enough to the beach.... I’d go there first!—oh, after I got dressed.

I said it before—this blasted game preying on my girly need to try on clothes! I remembered! As I perused my closets, I remembered. I’d bought an extra pair of Well-Worn Trousers from Granté, down in—up in Tarrey Town, and brought them here, to the Dye Shop.

To Sayge.

I never bothered to remember his name....

I donned some ensemble more suitable for the road.... or lack thereof.... left my house, ran down to the main thoroughfare, and jogged and sprinted my way back up the mountain, toward the Ancient Tech Lab. I was close enough to the beach....

But upon cresting the highest hills and looking down on that beach.... and being so struck by the familiarity of it.... I decided I didn’t need to explore any regions I’d been before along the eastern coast. Several times. I would go south instead.

I could see the Muwo Jeem Shrine from here, way out on its prominent overlook. I warped there, ran inland, then jumped off the crag, and ran and climbed and paraglided until I came down over Lurelin Village.

But I didn’t stop there. I ran straight up over the following mountain and paraglided all the way to Aris Beach. And there.... I started walking.

There were Guardian husks scattered across the sand. I used Stasis to check whether any of them were alive and—oh, that’s a Talus. I’d been so focused on the Guardians I hadn’t even noticed it.

I killed it. With a big wind-up of my weapon, like Ben said he’d done. And Urbosa nailed the thing in one. Felt good.

Walked.... walked....

Lizalfos appeared, and I donned my Lizalfos mask.

Skeletons cropped up, and I put on my Radiant Suit.

Electric Keese came out, and I put on the Thunder Helm.

The cost of a peaceful passage was only so much juggling and juggling....

But I knew there was a live Guardian down here somewhere; that one would be trickier to bypass....

The Lizalfos didn’t mind me sneaking up and sneaksriking them. I took their treasure from under their noses and they left me alone. These masks were so handy....

Kept walking.

I knew there was a live one somewhere.... I was sure I’d seen one.... some place.... some time....

And there it was.

A Guardian Stalker.

Sitting still as a spider.

I hated it when they did that.

There was a Lizalfos kind of near it, hunkered down in camouflage, facing my direction. I didn’t want to deal with them both....

On went my mask again, if it wasn’t already, and I crouched down and continued my westward march at literally the slowest possible pace. I didn’t know the reach of the Guardian’s ken.... but I wanted to get behind that lizard and kill it!

I circled wide enough to evade the Lizalfos’ interest, if not his swiveling little eyes, and.... came around his back side without the Guardian taking notice.

One sneakstrike put him down, leaving the field clear for just me and my larger opponent.

I crept closer to it still....

But the Guardian, it seemed, was nowhere near as lively as I’d feared. I came quite close and it still didn’t move.

It wasn’t even decayed. What was wrong with it?

Maybe some of ‘em just get low on batteries.

I tried whistling. It had worked for that turret on the castle grounds. But here on the beach.... nothing.

So.... I shot it in the head with an arrow.

That got its attention.

It came on....

And I put it down in three Perfect Parries.

....

And kept walking.

The beach was long.

There were more Lizalfos occasionally.... always more Lizalfos....

And the weird, overhanging rocks from the cliffs to the right....

It was a strange place.

And there, another tide pool, with a big hump of black rock rising out of it near the edge.

And I climbed up on that rock.

And there—

Orange—

There it was.

The last Shrine Pedestal.

It was set into a cluster of rocks just a few paces down-beach from.... a very large, very strange.... mushroom-shaped rock? It was tall, it was immense, with a high-rolling, grassy top, like a hill, but.... weathering down so narrow toward its base.... like a tree trunk.... A house-sized tree-trunk.

Maybe it had come to be this way from weathering near the sea.... maybe this area used to be sea caves.... Maybe.

Near the base of the MushRock I could see the light of a fire—a wok—a couple of large wooden crates, some barrels.... the silhouette of a dead Guardian there off the right side.... and the glow of—

The Orb.

Heh, the legendary Roscoe, I assumed.

And sitting on the ground beside it, leaning up against it with her palm upon its surface, her cheek against its face, her knelt legs folded off to one sultry side.... was a woman named Loone.

Heh. Fitting.

“So smooth and ancient...” I heard her murmur as I approached.

And as I came up to her directly.... “Your skin is so smooth and gorgeous, my little Roscoe.... Hm? Someone’s watching us? Oh, my sweet Roscoe! You’re so shy, aren’t you? YES, YOU ARE! Why not proudly show off your beaming beauty, my darling? You really MUST come out of your shell.”

This was amazing.

“Hm? The person watching looks like he wants something? Maybe he’s after... *GASP* Is he after you?! Don’t you worry, my sweet Roscoe! I would never ever EVER let you go!”

Well heck, that wouldn’t do.... I needed that thing!

“I’m head over heels for my special friend who’s been around since ancient times! You’re so ancient and special, Roscoe! YES, YOU ARE!!”

The way she just kept stroking it....

But then her voice dropped— “Sorry, my sweet Roscoe, but I fibbed a little... The truth is...” —and then rose again! “I wanna see Guardians! Flying ones! Small ones! Ones that walk around! I wanna see all the Guardians in the world!! Not the ones around here that have rusted away, either. I wanna see fresh and lively Guardians! If I ever do get to see them... I may just have to leave you, my friend.”

For a moment I panicked. Did I need to actually herd a Guardian over this direction and show it to her?

But no.... I remembered.... That’s what Ben had said—she only wanted to see pictures of different types of Guardians.

Well, there was my out.

“Oh, but don’t you worry! Getting near a Guardian is too dangerous for me. Flying ones, small ones, ones that walk... I’m afraid seeing Guardians like that is nothing more than a dream within a dream for me...”

Well, no worries, Loone. It wasn’t too dangerous for me. And it was already a waking nightmare within a waking nightmare to boot.

There was just one problem.

My album was full.

I hemmed and hawed a good long while. I didn’t like deleting records.... Well.... Lasli-in-the-Fireflies had replaced the picture of Impa’s orb....

I.... erased her pictograph. Ach.

Then it was a simple warp to the Castle; easy enough to find Guardians there. I found a flyer first. And the pictograph came out marked with a little red exclamation mark. Good.

I took it back to Loone, but.... she gave no different responses.

Uh.

....?

Let me see....

The quest was called Guardian Slideshow.

Oh no.... she.... she wanted to see all three of them at once?

Then I would need to delete.... two more pictographs?

How could I?

ajhglajgkeklr;ajkf

I pushed it aside, went back to the castle; I would decide when it was upon me.

I made my way to the Observation Room. And I erased.... one picture of Windblight Ganon. For I’d had two of them. The one I erased was less dynamic, but it did better showcase the blight’s four “braids”.... like Revali’s....

I’d just.... found it.... interesting I’m sorry, my friends....

Somewhere near the Observation Room, I snapped a pictograph of a Turret. But no exclamation mark appeared on this one.... Huh.... So by “little one” she must have meant a shrine-crawler, then....

I paraglided down toward Castle Town, got a pictograph of a Crawler, and then.... warped to the Shrine of Oman Au. There were crawlies in there.

Hemmmmmed and haawwwwwed and hemmmmmed and hawwwwed....

That picture.... that picture that I took of the Great Calamity, Calamity Ganon.... right up friggin’ main street.

I actually went and made sure it was on my computer first.... and then.... I deleted it.

It definitely needed better retaking.

And there were other facets of Ganon I had failed to capture as well.

I would find him again.

Soon enough.

I got the crawly, beat the shrine, warped back to Ka’o Makagh.... climbed over the mountain, came back to Loone.

“My sweet Roscoe... Don’t you worry, my special friend! I would never ever, EVER let you go. ...Unless, of course, I find a way to see a flying Guardian and a small one and one that walks around.”

Ah-hah, my choices, “I’ll show them to you.” or “You’re...funny.”

She did seem maybe just a wee bit touched, but....

“I’ll show them to you,” I offered.

“Hm? Someone’s speaking?” she said. Oh gosh.

“You’ll...show me? A Guardian?”

Oh, she addressed me this time! But she was still glued to her precious ball.

“Hey, you! Could you please not bother my Roscoe and me?”

But I held up my Sheikah Slate, and showed her—

“It’s not like you can show me a Guardian or anything...”

—the Guardian Skywatcher.

Suddenly Loon was on her feet. “That image... That’s a flying Guardian! Wow, I feel alive with terror just from gazing at its beautiful form!”

Beautiful?

....Well, I know most of that feel, sister.

I then showed her Oman Au’s little crawly.

“A small Guardian! Awww, it looks so vicious for its tiny size! Adorable!!”

Adorable?

“Hold on... If you’ve been able to show me two types, then that must mean...”

And I held up my slate once more with the pictograph of the Stalker.

“A walking Guardian! I can’t believe it! Nothing could be more dangerous! What an exhilaratingly scary sight!”

Exhilarating? Wait, let me look it up.... “Ex-” plus.... “hilarus” as in “hilarity”?

....

Well maybe if your sense of humor is very, very dark.

“Phew... What a joy,” Loone sighed. “Hey, you! Give me that box, OK?! I wanna look at those images every single day!”

Uh oh.

“I can’t do that,” I said.

“You can’t? I see... How unfortunate.” Her face wilted into her palm. “I guess I’ll just have to burn those images into my imagination.”

“Can I have that orb?” My only option.

Loone raised her head again. “Hm? Oh, you mean Roscoe? Sure, that weird sphere thing is all yours. Really, I’m over it.”

Oh wow, Loone. XD

“Yeah, I’m all about Guardians now! If I close my eyes, I can see them in my imagination! It’s glorious!”

Heh, and I hope that’s the only place you’ll ever see them.

I’d been taking my time.

Mom and David were in the room with me, and David had been impatient, but.... he said if he’d known it were the last shrine....

He was understanding about that....

I picked up the Roscoe Orb, walked it over the few paces to the pedestal, and set it down in the hole.

Up came the Shrine of Shoqa Tatone.

The Final Shrine....

I stepped inside.

 

The Least Dangerous Game

Waking of Friday, October 12, 2018 ~ 2

The Least Dangerous Game

Eventually I floated down all the way to the Afromsia Coast.

I had reached the sea. At last I could switch out my one defense point Warm Doublet for something stronger.

There were more Koroks down here, hiding beneath huge stone slabs on the beach. And it had already been quite a fruitful Korok hunt up on the mountain! I was on a roll....

I started southward along the shore, using my Zora Armor to swim for it whenever the beach ran out and gave way to rocks, until I came to a certain Mapla Point.... and its resident Talus.

I recognized it. This was the first Talus David had ever defeated. I had helped him that time.

Now I took my own turn killing it, after which I continued to scare up a mess of Koroks, as well as a lot of new seafood: crabs, fish, porgies.... Lizalfos....

Following the coast, which bent in a general westerly direction now, I swam across Deepback Bay—which I’d always thought was a cool name whenever I saw it on my map—to reach Hateno Beach, which I traversed, and traversed, scaring up Koroks and killing baddies all the way, until I finally came to a landmark I recognized: the Hateno trailhead.

But I saw something else that piqued my interest, even further west.

Way up on top of a lone spire of rock standing out in the water.... was Kass!

So I swam out to meet him—killing an Octorok, in the water, along the way! Felt so boss.... Its Lizalfos pal proved to be a bit more trouble, though. Never mind him then! I swam out to the rocks, the Lizalfos buggered off, and I climbed up to visit with Kass.

He sang me a song about a Hero’s Stash, located at 17 of 24.... and said that this rock would show the way....

Well anything of twenty-four had to be a time of day.... and it was half past three! An easy wait.

And when five o’clock rolled around, the rock spire’s shadow pointed to.... Eventide Isle.

Well.... I knew what was over there.

I’d seen David do it.

Hadn’t done it myself yet! But....

Well.

Soon.

Before I took my leave from Kass’ rock I wanted to check if there were anything Magnesable in the surrounding waters. I took out a Bomb instead on accident.

“Wah!” Kass jolted with a start! XD

I put the Bomb away, switched to the appropriate Slate function, and swept the area.... but could see nothing. Well.... no worries.

I paraglided back toward the shore, coming up short and splashing down almost on top of that pesky Lizalfos I’d run into before. And this time, I killed the beast—in the water! In its own element! Excellent.

For old time’s sake I hiked up to Hateno by the grassy seaside switchbacks. I even considered the house. But once again I left it alone. I didn’t have the money for it at the moment anyway.

I’d picked up an awful lot of Luminous Stone in my travels thus far. Breaking from the Korok hunt for a spell, I warped to Cotera to see about my clothes. I had her do up my Radiant Suit, but.... not the Climbing Pants yet. I still wanted to show Siara all the funny animations, especially that fourth one. Later.

As long as I was in the neighborhood I paraglided across Kakariko Village and headed out the back door to the Sahasra Slope—and had the easiest time I’d ever had killing all three Guardians out there—and got a core for my trouble!

Life was just a bowl of cherries today! ^_^

From thence.... it was just a big crawl around the Dueling Peaks and all the western foothills and surrounding regions looking for more Koroks. It was, once again, pretty fruitful! Though the Silver Bokoblins down in that silty monster-nest did give me a bit of trouble. I thought I should see Hestu again soon.... maybe....

But before I did, I decided to warp over to Gerudo Town and check on Pokki.

She was in the canteen.

“I ask you, Furosa, is there anything better than a taste of Noble Pursuit?” she asked as she leaned against the bar.

“You were at death’s door and you ran all the way here for that! Good grief... You’re in incredible shape,” said Furosa in response, “Does that mean you don’t plan to investigate that shrine anymore?”

“Definitely. I never dreamed that kind of work would be so dull...”

Dull. Hah....

“I’m not surprised you found it dull,” said Furosa, “That sort of thing isn’t really “you”.”

“Yeah, you know what really is “me”? Drinking.”

HAH! XD That made me laugh! It was.... a little bit refreshing to have conversation so uncoddled from the NPCs!

While I was there, I went to see what those three gossips—Heh, Three Gossips—in the other room had to say. They spoke of one Perda, who had gone to find the Lover’s Pond.

Hmmmm....

Maybe I would make it an adventure for another day.

But for now....

It was time to head to Korok Woods. And Hestu. I’d accumulated an awful lot of Korok Seeds since I’d last seen him. I wanted to see what he might be able to do for me.

“Shaka-kala!” he exclaimed as always. With music notes flanking his speech.

“Weapon please,” I asked. And he obliged.

And when he had finished, “Dah-na-na-na-naaaaaaaa!” OH YEAH HE SANG THE SONG! With more music notes flanking! XD I’d forgotten!

Ah! Delightful times. ^_^

Well I’d had 99 Korok Seeds on me, and that expansion had cost me 45. And I asked, and the next weapon expansion would cost 55. And I only had 54 left.

Rats! Heh.... Guess I cut my Korok hunt only just a little too short....

Did I want to get another shield slot in the meanwhile? I could afford it. But.... only one more Korok Seed and I could get the weapon; it’d be a shame to let the opportunity go to waste.... Besides, in normal play I felt the need for expansion more in my weapons inventory than in my shields.... Still, maybe if I expanded my shield inventory some more, well, maybe it would run out of upgrading room, like my bows had. Why not....?

Nah. Not right now. I decided to wait.

It’d been a great hunt, but.... I was done for now.

I went to Pepp’s, and slept.

Good night.

Oh Snap

Waking of Thursday, March 9, 2017

Oh Snap

Well, I’d given the wood bundles to Bolson.

Now I just needed to come up with a hot three thousand rupees.

It wasn’t like they grew on trees....

I decided I had spent enough time cooling off. It was time to familiarize myself with Hateno.

I found the man, Seldon, whom the man at the gate had told me would be happy to give me a tour—and boy was he ever! He ran around showing me things until he had puffed himself right out.

I also did a good deed for one Koyin, a young lady whose sheep were being hustled by the monsters that kept coming up from Hateno Beach.

So I went down there and gave ‘em what for and came back and told Koyin about it, and she gave me some milk in return. That’ll be good in some stew later, I am sure.

There were other people I’d wanted to get to know better, or who wanted to get to know me better, but.... on a bright, slightly drippy morning, I decided to finally pay the Ancient Tech Lab a visit. This was where Impa had said I could meet her mentor.

It was.... a funny place.

A little girl named Purah told me the Director was in the back, so I went to talk to this big man named Symin.... but he addressed the little girl Purah as the Director!

“Check it!” Purah shouted at me, and struck.... a kind of pose with fancy fingers.

She apparently thought it was very amusing to play a tiny trick on me, but, well.... Whatever.

Purah was odd. She also said she recognized me—but how could that be? She didn’t look older than twelve or thirteen. She said there was a reason for that, some kind of accident I gather, and that the details were contained in her diary upstairs—which she admonished me not to go looking at!

Not that I could find a way “upstairs”; there was only one ladder in the room, up against the wall, and it didn’t go anywhere. It was all one big room from what I could tell.

Her mannerisms were obnoxious, but she seemed eager to help me repair my Sheikah Slate to full functionality. But in talking with me she kept taking furtive little notes on my behavior, like I was some kind of lab animal!

And after a little fetchquest to start up the furnace powering a Sheikah Pedestal she had, she kept trying to tease some kind of cheer or shout out of me. “Snap!” she wanted me to say.

I don’t think she was very impressed by my offerings.

It felt.... childish. Didn’t we have important work to do?

I wonder what had happened to this Purah character, what had made her like this.

And she told me she had brought me to the Resurrection Chamber, after Calamity Ganon had fatally wounded me.

Did she look or act like this then?

Some part of me hoped not.

Somehow it seemed.... well....

Less heroic.

Hey, a man has his pride.

Even a dying one.

I gave her three of the ancient screws I had salvaged off the old dead Guardians, and she used them in her repairs. Now the Sheikah Slate has a built-in Pictobox feature, and the sensor can now be modified to search for other objects or substances. Neat! And what’s more, images I capture with the pictobox can be identified and expounded upon in a built-in Compendium. Very handy!

If I bring her different parts, she’ll be able to upgrade my Stasis capacity.... and my Bombing capacity.

Ja Baij would be so pleased.