乙巳 004: 大寒

[singlemilletgrain]

[video broadcast]
Greetings again, Corsairs.

[As usual, following a bow, Shu addresses the video feed with perfect poise and elegance.]

After the... challenging events of the New Year's mission, I wish to call for some levity. In Yan, as the year changes, we visit the temples to have our fortunes told for the coming year. It is just for fun, of course. In Dahuang, I keep a place of worship to... [a faint pause] a Xian of agriculture, Shennong, and occasionally run the festivities.

Please come by. There will be traditional New Year's food, of course.

[If anyone has learned anything about Yan at this point, it is that they have Too Many Holiday Traditions and Too Much Food.]

[option 1: just for fun]
[Shu's doorway is vibrantly decorated in red and gold, and when she ushers you in, the most immediate sight is the table filled with plates and plates of food. Mostly dumplings, for dumplings are easiest for visitors, but also whole fish, noodle dishes, and sticky rice.

To the side, there is a little chest with two sets of burning incense at either side. Fortune seekers are invited to kneel, burn incense if they wish, pray for luck from whatever deity or the general karmic wheel of the universe, and then reach out for a container of what look like sticks. There is a little sign explaining this is the tradition of 'qiu qian,' beseeching insight from the gods.

One must ask a clear question, shake the container a few times, and pull out a stick.]

[option 2: the real thing]
[Shu sits at her 'priest's seat' and laughs lightly at the interpretation of the fortune received. Perhaps she sees something more ponderous in your eyes, for after a moment or two, she clasps her hands together and exhales lightly, bowing her head.

Her red pupils have constricted to tiny dots when she raises her head once more.]

...I could give you a better fortune, if you wish.

((If you pick option 2, Shu will either tell you in very vague prophetic terms something that may or may not happen in the future of your canon, something that happened in the past of your canon, or give you a random item that might be useful to you this year. If you pick option 1, it will be total nonsense.))

Comments

1 + 2 (because why not both?)

[newmemorywhodis]

It's not a statue of Hylia, so it feels a little strange to pray before the burning incense. Sure, lighting incense for Hylia would make perfect sense, but...there should be a statue.

Except there aren't any statues of Hylia in this world. So he prays anyway. There's no question of what he wants to ask - when will he be able to go home? When will he see Zelda again?

He takes a stick. What does it say?

[singlemilletgrain]

As is custom, the qian sticks just have a number on them. This one says #67. When Link opens the divination book next to the shrine to look up the fortune, he will read:

Consider the bumblebee. Alone, he is worth nothing. But with his fellow bees, they create a swarm and make bountiful honey.

...

[newmemorywhodis]

...What.

There's a moment, where Link just stands there, starting blankly, at this utterly nonsensical fortune. It's not even a fortune! It's just a random note about bees. Zelda's not a bee!

But then he turns, slowly, and shifts his flat stare to Shu.

[singlemilletgrain]

"Ahh. #67. A classic."

Shu nods wisely, unfazed by the flat stare of incredulity.

"It, er." A slight clearing of the throat. "It suggests that you will accomplish the goals you seek when working in tandem with your companions. All things are possible if you rely not upon your strength alone, but the strength of all who are behind you, supporting you, keeping you progressing through all trials that may hinder you."

...
...
...

"...Not convincing?"

[newmemorywhodis]

Link just continues to stare, wordless.

Does this look like a convinced face?

[singlemilletgrain]

"It is inspiring, really."

...

"I did say it was just for fun."

If Link continues to look dissatisfied with his -ahem- totally family-friendly joyous new year's celebration free of charge!!! -ahem- Shu will take on a slightly more somber expression.

"...You deeply desired an answer to your question?"

[newmemorywhodis]

Link pauses. Looks back at the little bundle of sticks. And then nods.

Yes. Yes, he truly wanted an answer.

[singlemilletgrain]

There is a slight pause before she continues, and a flicker of indecision passes across her face. It was one thing to do this for someone she didn't know, and another to peer into the future of a friend. She didn't mind so much when it was something minor. When she foresaw small accidents and could provide the necessary tools to avoid them.

But she has a feeling she knows what Link wants to see.

"You are sure?"

Link is one accustomed to reticence. She thinks he will probably understand what she is trying to convey in those three words.

Wordlessly, she holds out her hands and beckons for him to give her his palm.

[newmemorywhodis]

He does understand. He's been the subject of prophecy before, and he knows just how much fate can be a weight upon you.

But he still feels that need to know. And he's not one to back down, not even from, the things that scare him.

He steps forward, and holds out his hand.

[singlemilletgrain]

She nods and accepts it. With a deep intake of breath, she takes his hand into her own and allows the air around them to settle for a long, few seconds.

Her red pupils have dilated to mere dots when she opens her eyes once more. Her ochre green fingers, cool and light, trace the lines of his hands slowly, as if she is seeing through sensation alone. Her voice, when she speaks, echoes gently, though the room is too small to sustain such a phenomenon.

"A severed line of life, a hero's time extended. Upheaval and calamity walk ever by his side. For trifold power manifests and calls upon his spirit. Again, again, he walks this path, his head held high, his heart laid low.

Of wind and wild, sky and time, of twilight pale beyond his ken. He wonders, seeks, and dwells. When shall the journey end?"

[newmemorywhodis]

Tingles creep down his spine as she speaks; and Link cannot help but be reminded of the feeling of praying before Hylia. Shu is not a statue, and she is not Hylia. But she rings with truth and divine power, in a way that is deeply familiar to Link.

He shouldn't interrupt her; should let her continue to speak. And normally, staying in silence is what comes easily to Link. But right now, he can't help but whisper:

"Are you a goddess?"

[singlemilletgrain]

" -- Oh!"

Her eyes snap back to their normal state as she blinks, coming out of a trance.

"Er." She looks more like someone who has just been woken up from a nap, but when she processes his question, she shakes her head lightly. "No. I am... an illusion. Now shh. Don't interrupt."

This is likely to make less sense to Link than her cryptic mutterings.

"Where was I... Ah, yes. I had read your head line."

[newmemorywhodis]

Link blinks. No, that does not make any sense at all.

But she asks him not to interrupt, so he stays quiet. Maybe later, he'll ask.

For now, he just gives her a questioning look. What is a head line? He thought she was looking at his hand, not his head.

[singlemilletgrain]

"This one."

She gestures to the middle of the three long lines that cross the palm. Without further explanation, she exhales deeply once more and resumes her reading.

"...Hie! Look to the marble'd sky. The dance of dragons that resolves fate's bifid paths. Hand-in-hand, the shooting stars, to earth they fall, before them shall lay bare the endless cycle of torment. The wheel of time shall grind -- merciless its pestle. Yet Hero of the Now be not disturbed.

The call has quelled. The wilds tamed. For all paths lead... to home again."

[newmemorywhodis]

"...I'll go home?" He whispers softly. "Will it...will it be very long?"

Because if anything, that was his biggest fear; that even if he got home again someday, that it would simply be too late. That it would be another hundred years, another thousands of years.

[singlemilletgrain]

Shu, after an annoyingly long period of silence, looks up and exhales lightly. "No. Not long. You will be together once more." Her smile is faintly rueful. "I am much afraid... your sun line is extraordinarily faint after the early indentation. It means your life will be quite calm and placid in its later years."

She frowns slightly.

"I must be mistaken, but for some reason, there is a fair amount of... cheese?"

This is Link's own fault for reintroducing cheese into the world.

[newmemorywhodis]

Not long. He just had to hold on, for however long that was.

And his life will be...calm and placid? Huh. That was almost strange to imagine. Although if a life that involved rather a lot of things like shield surfing, sky diving, and excessive use of bomb flowers could ever be called calm...

...Well, maybe it was all relative. Compared to the Calamity and the Upheaval, even Link's general chaos could be called calm.

As for the cheese...

"I helped Koyin find her great grandfather's cheese recipe?" He says, head titled to one side.

[singlemilletgrain]

"Ahhh."

She murmurs oracularly, as if she has any idea who Koyin or her great grandfather is.

"That must be it. There are many paths in which that village becomes famous for its cheese products -- Hateno, correct?" That wasn't fortune-telling; he had just mentioned the village he lived in a few weeks ago. There was another path she had seen briefly in which Link was wearing what she could only describe as a tremendously ugly hat resembling a dead bird with artists surrounding him drawing portraits, but that one she doesn't even bother to mention. Sometimes the fortune-telling went a little weird.

Her eyes drift towards Link's head.

"...Do you have a helmet?"

[newmemorywhodis]

Link nods. Yes, Hateno. He could see it becoming famous for cheese; it kind of already was when Link was last there.

As for whether he has a helmet...

"...Which one?" Link had lots of helmets. Lots. And various other kinds of headgear as well.

Really, Link just had a lot of things, period.

[singlemilletgrain]

"...You might want to keep one on hand."

Her words come out a little bit hesitantly.

"For some reason... there are a few futures where you... come out of floors. Head-first. And quite a few people kick you in the head or hit you with something heavy."

She sounds confused as to why he was coming out of a floor in the first place. To be honest, it looked like a video glitch, except that was complete nonsense in the context of a fortune. Still, it was hard to imagine under what circumstances he would be clipping through the bottom of somebody's house.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link blinks.

Wait.

"...I get Ascend back?" He says. He'd had the Fuse ability come back, but...he hasn't seen any trace of any of the other Zonai arm abilities yet. He'd wondered whether he ever would, or if it would only ever be Fuse that would be returned to him.

But if Shu was seeing it...

[singlemilletgrain]

"Well..."

The other futures were even weirder.

"Or sometimes... superglue?"

She didn't know how else to explain the other possibilities. Really, all around, besides the part where he didn't have to fight off any more world disasters, this fortune was very strange.

"But it is all in the rather near future, so you'll probably see soon enough."

[newmemorywhodis]

"What's superglue?" He could recognise the description of Ascend when he heard it, but this one involved references to things Link didn't have the faintest idea about.

[singlemilletgrain]

"A material that can stick things together, even objects that shouldn't be able to stick."

That was the only explanation for why she saw him building a giant robot with six flamethrowing hands out of discarded steel beams and wood.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link's mouth makes a silent 'oh!' of understand, as the description clicks.

"Ultrahand!" He says. He holds up his right arm, looking at his hand. The Zonai arm is gone, but he got Fuse back. And now...it looks like he's getting Ascend or Ultrahand back too.