Just Ends

Waking of Saturday, April 20, 2019

Just Ends

It was late. I sat down and thought to play, but.... the dryer was so noisy....

So I just went treasure hunting instead.

Hit Mekar Island again first. Nothing but a bunch of bad guys. Then why does it feel so....? Why does it feel like there’s something there?

Searched the shrines for chests I may have missed. But I still couldn’t find the Rubber Helm. I did find some other good stuff, but.... eventually I came to a point where I wasn’t willing to chuck out old weapons in exchange anymore.

Boy the Thunder Helm is useful for wandering around electric-path-type Shrines.

Pepp’s and bed.

Good night.

Lunacy at Washa's Bluff

Waking of Saturday, August 11, 2018 ~ 2

Lunacy at Washa’s Bluff

Forget Faron Woods—I wanted that shrine at Washa’s Bluff, dang it.

I rode Memory out from Hateno, still collecting this and that for a bit until we arrived at Dueling Peaks. I boarded him then, maybe for time’s sake, and warped ahead by my lonesome to the Ridgeland Tower. After making a few flights for Branli, setting a new personal best distance record, and earning a few more rupees, I continued on foot into the rolling western hills.

The traffic was unusually thick, and I made a lot of new friends on the road, not the least charming of which were Nazbi and his horse Dauntless. I don’t even remember what they were on about; I just thought it was great to meet such a brash, young-hearted character with a horse by the name of Dauntless. They were a merry duo....

Another hop, skip, and a jump and I had made it to Washa’s Bluff, and the pedestal I’d need to stand on in order to call out the shrine. Kass waltzed away on his accordion in the treeshroom above me....

Hm. I wanted to go see him.

A quick warp to Satori Mountain and a long and precise paraglide saw me up into his lofty home. He recited the riddle for me, to stand on the pedestal bare—

Um....

When the moon bleeds and enemies are reborn, the monks will something as they have sworn, stand on the pedestal bare, with nothing between you and the air.

Or some such words.

It had been a while since the last Blood Moon, and Washa’s Bluff wasn’t exactly easy to get to.... I’d had the thought to do this in my mind for some time, but now I was actually doing it—I was going to wait with Kass until the next Blood Moon. That way I would be sure to get the shrine!

I almost went crazy listening to his music. I read his journal, I climbed on top of his house.... There wasn’t much else to do.

And when there was no Blood Moon that night, I laid down some wood and flint, built a fire, and waited ‘til the next night....

And as luck had it.... that was a Blood Moon.

So I floated down and stood on the now glowing pedestal.

And stood.... and stood.... and stood....

And Zelda’s vision of warning loomed through the night....

And I stood.... and stood.... and....

The pedestal went out?

Wha-euh—? Where was the shrine??

I scurried back into my menus and tracked down the shrine quest details.... I read the poem carefully....

Yes, yes, Blood Moon, blah blah blah....

Stand on the pedestal bare, with nothing between you and the night air.

Stand on the pedestal bare....

Stand on the pedestal bare.... with noth—

OH MY gosh.... this—

The descriptor, “bare”, referred to ME, not the pedestal!

UGHH I couldn’t believe this—Washa’s Bluff was so isolated, so far away from anywhere—There was no quick way to reach it, and Blood Moons gave such short notice.... I’d been so focused on actually being there during a Blood Moon that I hadn’t bothered to heed the rest of the poem....

I’d needed to strip for the shrine to come out.

I thought “bare” was just a rhyming device! Padding! I mean, judging by how every other song and poem in the game had felt when it reared its asymmetrical head.... The localizers had been wonderful and clever; I don’t deny that, but for friggin’— THEIR SENSE OF RHYTHM AND METER....

....

Wonder why it took me ‘til page four hundred to bring this up.

....

Probably ‘cause it’s the first time it’s gotten me in trouble.

....

....

I suppose just a comma might have helped but In my experience once you set a shape for your lilt you plumb that thesaurus ‘til the language FITS or you don’t come back at all.

Dang it.

The thwartation made me reckless; I warped to the Shrine of Katah Chuki—I was gonna get that Korok in the Castle Town Prison....

I actually found a lot of Koroks along the way. But when I closed in on the prison, and killed the Guardian that had scared me off before.... the little row of three statues stood with one platter empty, and the other two bearing.... Rusty Shields?? I didn’t have a Rusty Shield!

And considering the location you’d have thought I’d be able to find one fairly easily but no matter where I wandered there were absolutely none in sight!

So I tried just moving the Rusty Shields over and filling all the platters with apples.

Nothing happened.

Dang it!

I was just thwarted all over today.

I wandered a little more around the riverlands northwest of the castle; there was yet another Consolation Korok on a little crag below the ruins of that Ancient Laboratory or whatever it had been north of Jeddo Bridge. And a Star Fragment struck the earth a good ways upriver, near the base of the northernmost of the gigantic sealing pillars surrounding the castle—I made it there by Ninja Suit. Been picking up a lot of those lately.... due to waiting around looking for so many Blood Moons, I realized.

I flitted back along the shore beneath the Elma Knolls to where I had been, and scared up one more Korok before.... just warping to the Keo Ruug Shrine and sweet Pepp’s bed. I was tired.

It was 10:40 in the morning, game-time.

I slept until noon.

Heh, sounds about like the sleep I might get here, I thought, and went to bed.

The Basement

Waking of Thursday, May 31, 2018

The Basement

NOT—THREE—MONTHS.

I REFUSE.

I AM GOING TO PLAY BEFORE MAY BECOMES JUNE, WHICH IS SOON stop rhyming....

I was in the Great Deku Tree’s Navel.

I talked to Pepp, and as it was evening and he insisted so sweetly, I slept in his bed until morning, whereupon I spoke to some of the other Koroks, just to refamiliarize myself a bit. One of them told me a little about the place—“We’re actually inside the Great Deku Tree’s stomach. Try not to think about it too hard.”

Mm. Good advice.

David has been very far ahead of me in the game for quite some time, but.... I wanted to do something that he had never done, and I wanted him to see it.

But he wasn’t around.

So....

I decided to hunt Guardians in the meanwhile. I needed to save up on Ancient Gears so I could get the Ancient Cuirass from Cherry.

And there were a few Guardians I knew how to handle easily enough....

My first stop was Lomei Labyrinth Island. I still had a couple of Ancient Arrows on me, and I knew just where to put ‘em....

The crawler in the central court was easy enough, and then I tracked down the decayed one in the maze. Blew him up too—and found some pretty neat stuff down the corridors formerly under his lasers!

Actually.... as I approached the one long dead end.... it made me kind of sad. Sword and shield and bundles of arrows, and the Thunderstorm Rod....

Somehow all I could imagine, seeing that scattering of weapons on the floor at the dark end of the tunnel, was how they must have gotten there. And in my mind I saw some poor brave warrior meet his final end....

I did not bother with the Flyers, but after cleaning up the two Guardians (well, one and a half) on the main floor, I warped back to the shrine, and considered the column of air blowing up from a deep, deep shaft before the shrine.

I’d found this place before David, but I had just assumed that the air current came from some door down in the central court. Like an elevator. Guarded by that Guardian.

But when I watched David do the labyrinth, he had decided to explore that shaft for himself.

The bottom of it did not come out into the central court.

It turned out that Lomei Labyrinth Island.... had a basement.

And that basement was full of Decayed Guardians.

Admittedly most of them were truly dead, but that did nothing to lessen the terror of seeing them all like so many spiders in the bottom of a forgotten barrel. Some of them were even Stalkers—they were of the variety that could move, like the one in the central court.

I knew all of this as I climbed down the shaft for myself, dropping short distances and grabbing on again to conserve my stamina. And when I neared the bottom, I dropped out and angled myself just enough to clear the air-column, and then floated with my paraglider directly downard to the floor where I landed in a crouch and did not move.

I considered my surroundings. My pictobox came in quite useful, as I could use it to spot which Guardians were alive. Marking their locations carefully, I gave these all a very wide berth as I combed the gigantic underground room to get at the dead ones.

Wasn’t able to salvage any gears, though.

But when I had satisfied myself with scavenging.... or when I just plum couldn’t take it anymore—I turned my attentions to the last thing I knew I’d be able to touch in peace down here. That’s how it had been for David.

In the center of the chamber was a small rectangular dais, set with torches. And between those torches sat an unassuming treasure chest.

I did just as David had done, dipped into a cautious crouch, and moved slowly—so, so slowly—toward it.

And just as David had done, I made myself stand up for a frightening few heartbeats so that I could get onto the dais.

And crouching once again, I approached the chest....

And opening it I obtained.... a Diamond Circlet, with protective properties against Ancient weaponry!

And.... just as had happened with David.... once that chest was open and the dialogue box showing me my prize had closed....

LASERS.

Four of them. From all sides.

It was here that I had planned to deviate from the course that David had followed; I had no intention of making it back to the entry point and riding the shaft of air back up to the top—I just wanted to warp back out to the shrine!

But.... for some reason, I didn’t.

Some distant memory stirred.... And I had a Guardian Shield on me. Couldn’t those deflect....?

For some reason, right then, I just wanted to see.... if I could manage....

I didn’t. Four laser bolts came in at once and flash-fried me where I stood—but for some reason when I stopped tumbling I noticed I had only lost five hearts. Maybe one of the bolts had blown me clear of the rest....? Or it could have been Daruk....

I didn’t spend too much time thinking about it; I retreated to my Sheikah Slate and told it to warp me the heck outta there. And it did. Usually I’m standing when I do this. It was a little dramatically striking to see Link instead crouching in a protective huddle, with his arms raised over his head, as he coalesced into blue light and teleported away....

When I was safe again I checked my inventory. Yes, the Guardian Shield could defelct Guardian blasts. From Guardian Scouts.

Oh dear. Did Guardian Stalkers and Guardian Scouts have similar weaponry? The Stalkers were everywhere on the map, but the Scouts could only be found within Combat Shrines.

But.... I wanted to test it....

Where in the world was this Courage coming from?

The Blade Of Evil's Bane

Afternoon of Saturday, February 24, 2018 ~ 2

The Blade Of Evil’s Bane

[[In which Contraltissimo cheats by reviewing game footage one more time instead of relying solely upon memory and notes, since it has been so, so dread long]]

I walked across the stones, and.... there was the Sword. It demanded my attention through a brief cinematic.

The Master Sword.

It stood in a triangular pedestal, and Silent Princess flowers grew all around it....

I.... took a pictograph, for the Compendium, before coming closer.

The Master Sword!

I reached forward and touched it to draw it out.

Flash!

Images—Zelda’s voice—Ganon—the rain—I was hurt—

And I was backing away, reeling.... dazed....

“Well, well,” the giant tree in the middle of the woods spoke, “It’s . . . you.”

Or some . . . what . . . I . . .

I mean I knew I’d been getting closer to the middle of the forest and I knew there was that giant tree there and I’d seen its branches from far away and I always thought it kinda looked like a cherry tree in bloom but everything had seemed so dead but—

My gosh, I had not been expecting this giant tree to .... talk to me.

“I was beginning to lose hope that you’d ever show up. Even my patience has limits, you know.” Or some . . . such . . . words?

“Pocahontas . . . that tree is talking to me,” I said.... or thought.... I think....

The voice was slow, deep, airy.... and decidedly affected.

Well, they were big lips to match.

Koroks gamboled about the woods.

This was the Deku Tree, a being who had watched over Hyrule since time immemorial.

He knew who I was, but I had no memory of him.

But he told me about the sword—the sword with the power to seal away the darkness. He told me it was I who had wielded the Master Sword one hundred years ago against Calamity Ganon. And that it could only be wielded by the knight—the Hero—worthy to defeat such an evil.

I had been that Knight.

But the Deku Tree warned me even so: the Master Sword was not to be taken lightly. It still exacted a test of and a placed burden upon any who would dare to possess it.

It felt as if.... it had a fierce will all of its own....

If I tried to take it in any kind of weakened state, I would lose my life where I stood.

I might have reached into my pockets for an apple or something at this point. Just to get up to full hearts. I had a good number of them....

Well.... If I had wielded it once before....

I set my hands around the hilt . . . . and pulled.

Dyoop . . . Dyoop . . . Dyoop . . .

My hearts began to drain out. Fast.

....

Alarmingly fast.

Dyoop . . Dyoop . .

And faster still....

THE SWORD BUDGED.

Dyoop. Dyoop. Dyoop. Faster and faster—

The sword budged bit by bit—

And as my hearts neared their lower limit—

I pulled it out.

And I raised it up.

And that fanfare—that iconically Zelda fanfare played in so grandiose and great and terrible a crashing as I never had heard it before—

The screen went white.

“Your master will come for you,” said Zelda’s voice.

The Master Sword lay on the triangular pedestal.

It was....

It was a wreck. Battered and stained and with deep gouges and notches and cuts into its blade.

And Princess Zelda....

She looked no better off.

She wore the same white dress she had worn as she prayed in the Spring of Power, but now it was all muddied and dirty. She was filthy; there were smudges on her arms, her shoulders, her face, dirt and grime browning her hair.... She looked a mess—What had happened to her?

The Princess had brought the sword here for safekeeping, until I could come to claim it again—she was so certain that I would come to claim it again, though the Sleep of Restoration would drain me of my memories.... so certain....

They exchanged some words, the Princess and the Tree. There was something else yet that she had to do, but she asked the Deku Tree if he could deliver a message to me for her. “Tell him I—” she started. But—

“Now then,” the Deku Tree’s voice interrupted, resonating deeply and warmly, “Don’t you think it would sound better in your own voice?”

The Princess smiled. “Yes,” she said.

The Master Sword still lay battered on the ground. When Zelda finally did bend down, it was with the utmost tenderness and a Grecian grace that she laid her hands on the hilt.... raised it high, the tip pointing downward.... her eyes closed in penetrating meditation for a moment.... and then lowered it slowly into the pedestal—sealing it in place with a last downward thrust.

Holy light seemed to shine up from the earth in a tiny shaft about the blade where the sword stood alone, in the grove of the Deku Tree....

I lowered the sword and moved through a few vigorous practice-swings before sheathing it—in that blue sheath with the golden trim—

The Deku Tree seemed to know that I had just relived one of my memories. He told me that when I had become separated from the Sword, the Princess had thought to bring it here, where she knew it would be safe under the his watch.

But as for herself.... she was still fighting, trapped within the confines of the castle, waiting for the time when I would be able to free her again.

“She has a smile like the sun,” the Deku Tree said, and for just a moment, the affectation melted away, and I could have sworn the great trunk of him bowed back in a wistful skyward glance, “I would do much to feel its warmth upon me again.”

A smile like the sun.

That was beautiful . . . .

But the lovely spell was shortly broken and gave way to a giddiness I didn’t quite expect, when that four-note theme, indicating a new acquisition, played in a somewhat slower, hammier style than I think I’d heard it before. “Yooou geeet theee thiiiing!” I was always wont to sing along with it....

Oh my gosh....

I HAVE THE MASTER SWORD.

I HAVE THE MASTER SWORD.

The Deku Tree told me not to rely too much on its power, and to avoid overusing it when I didn’t need to, or I would have to wait for its power to recover.... but....

I HAVE THE MASTER SWORD.

When I had come through quite every cinematic, I moved slowly forward. The woods, Korok Woods, sprawled temptingly in every direction, several Koroks standing here and there and everywhere whom I knew would not disappear at my approach. Some of them were tailed by little exclamation marks, indicating quests or tasks they might ask of me. They perched among the giant tangles of the Deku Tree’s roots, or stood by the heads of trails that led off to who knew where, into this forest that seemed so enormously youthful as it burst with life and water and color, flowers and mushrooms and strange luminescent pods growing in the jovial celebration just short of a tendrily riot—

But....

Not yet....

I stepped forward, regarding the chirruping creatures kindly but not pausing to speak with any of them. My shrine-locator was still brreeping, and it wasn’t until I had locked down the Keo Ruug Shrine that I allowed myself to relax at all.

And relax I wanted to.

Though I’m just a little sorry to say that one of the first things I did was muster the gall to go climbing up the Deku Tree—all up the side of his face now, really—until I had reached the top.

There was a Korok up there.

The color of his face and the fine shape of his hinted moustache made me nickname him Colonel Mustard, right there.

But when I spoke to him, he asked me if I were ready to take on some kind of super-challenge.

What? No! I backed out. What did he want of me?

But Colonel Mustard only laughed at my poor timid hesitance—a wicked little cackle that made David laugh, too—“I’ve never heard him do that before!” he said.

Enough.

I paraglided back down to the ground, and climbed a gently sloping root until I came to a kind of large knothole in the Deku Tree’s front. It seemed to be some kind of hub....

The Deku Tree’s Navel? That was the name of this place? Um. ._.

There was a hollow space inside, the ceiling a bit low, but not oppressive; it was rather cozy—and there was a lit wok in the center.... and a small Goddess Statue to one side.... and two alcoves manned by two Koroks selling homely forest goods—and somehow Shock Arrows—I bought those right up.... and one alcove more....

“This is my favorite character in the game,” said David.

“Really?”

He had been hinting that his favorite was around here somewhere....

This alcove contained what was unmistakably a bed, formed from perfectly twisted, shapely segments of natural wood, blanketed with broad, soft-looking leaves, and nestled among great fungusy shelves growing from the barked walls like bedside tables while one of the luminescent pods kept vigil.

I spoke to the attendant Korok, Pepp, who.... well now I think about it had kind of an ironic name for how sleepy he was. XD

Pepp had been waiting for me ever since I had gone, keeping this bed ready for whenever I should return. And it was with the tiniest, most helpful, eager, sweetloving vocalizations that he expressed his dear little hopes to me that I, the Hero, would lie down in the bed that he had been making and keeping and freshening just for me for a hundred years. How hopeful he sounded that I would like the thing that he made. <3

It was these noises that had struck David so, and given him such a liking for the little guy.

And hearing him for myself.... kinda gave me a liking for him too. :3 My gosh he was so cute.... X3

And so, as it was late, I fulfilled little Pepp’s dearest wish, and lay down in his leafy bed, asking him to wake me in the morning.... before drifting off to sleep.