#lu dusk

Lullaby:

A blend of her adult, child, and Sheik appearances. Kind of. Sheik’s mask had too much cloth and piled up at the neck, so I changed it to the stealth mask from botw, which is simpler but still very sheikah. I wasn’t going to give her a cape, but the mask looked weird and pointless without another part. What’s the point of a disguise if you’re gonna strut around like the crown princess anyways?

Most cryptic out of the girls. A great fighter: least likely to start a bar fight but most likely to win it.

Dusk:

Just a slight simplification of her normal outfit. Had a strand of her hair dyed orange for Midna. (Childhood friends and princesses of their kingdoms? Sounds gay to me)

Has The resting jerk face. Most knowledgeable one out of the girls. Calculating and capable.

Artemis:

Blend of her normal outfit, her appearance as Sheik, and her toon version in that one cutscene introducing the War of Eras. Scars from fighting a war in general.

She’s pretty much the badass girlboss trope. I think her personality’s fleshed out enough in HW, so I won’t yap too much.

Dot:

Lin’s idea of giving her accessories for each of the Colors is deeply ingrained into my brain, so I did my own version of that. Headpiece jewel for Green, necklace for Blue, cape for Vio, and. Uh. Hair thing for Red. (What is that???) I gave her the yellow kinstone too.

This girl is a fluffy golden retriever, but WILL blast you in the face with divine magic if you piss her off too much. Loves puns.

Sun:

Basically the skyloft outfit on top of her white dress. She has feathers from both hers and Sky’s loftwings. I think she has the best design out of all these.

Happy and optimistic most of the time. Loves music, and is absolutely the best dancer.

Flora:

Blend of her normal outfit and the dark blue formal gown she wears, except it’s not dark blue here. Has malice stains from being trapped with calamity ganon.

I don’t think I need to talk about her personality: she already has one in canon. yk, the tech nerd.

Fable:

Really just a lazy copy paste of the maiden’s dress. I considered giving her a pink strand to match Legend (they’re siblings to me), but decided against it since it looked weird. I’m not familiar with her games, so no lore-related stuff.

Calm and collected on the surface, but once you get to know her, she’s absolutely UNHINGED. Her sanity left her a long time ago.

Tetra:

Her canon design with slight modifications. Not much to talk about here.

She’s a pirate through and through, and also very protective of the things and people she loves. Most likely to start a bar fight. For fun.

Dawn:

Her appearance in the official art, with a few of my own changes. Interestingly, as far as I know, Dawn’s ears are never shown in official art. Why is that? idk, but I made sure to reference that. (Speaking of- if you look closely at this lineup, their ears are all different. That’s evolution baby)

Zelda realized with a sinking feeling that she didn’t know.  She hadn't made the crystal around herself like last time… surely her body wasn’t back there?     

The girl saw her hesitation. Her lip quivered, and she tried to bite it to keep it still and bow to hide her fear. She blushed red, perhaps ashamed at losing her composure. “Verily, it is so.”

Zelda struggled to find words of comfort before the girl continued, “What mercy that, despite my friends’ inevitable passing, at least I will not wander this plane alone. If you’ll forgive my intrusion, I beg your leave—” 

Zelda’s heart broke. Alone. A thousand years alone. At least I had Hylia . She stepped close and opened her arms to the girl. 

Composure still crumbling, the girl leaned into Zelda’s chest. She quietly sobbed. 

Zelda rubbed her back. “We’re here. You’re not alone this time.” 

“I know, and I’m grateful! But… I cannot bear it!” she cried, her voice thin with strain. “I just began to trust that I could sleep without fear of losing them all!” She heaved, her cries rising louder. “I wanted to tell him about the amulet we found in the catacombs, so he can finally stop running, so we could purge all the lingering curses for good but…I suppose Dawn will have to do so in my stead. Perhaps it was destined that I’d have to leave them, after all—”

“No! My Lady, you are going back home,” the gold-clad woman declared, steel in her voice. “I promise you.” She knelt down beside the girl and placed a firm hand on her back. Even Zelda felt reassurance at her words: Her own doubts had been buried so swiftly she’d hardly acknowledged them until that moment. Yes, she was afraid too—afraid of wandering here in this realm for another thousand years. Even with company, that prospect loomed, a pattern threatening to repeat.

Zelda envied the woman’s confidence and simmering fire even as she basked in it. 

“What’s your name?” Zelda asked the younger girl. 

But with all the activity unfolding around them, she could not hear the answer over a yell nearby.

“Aurora!” Another girl ran to them, her fluffy pink dress and coiled red hair bouncing at every step. She pulled the girl from Sun’s arms and embraced her with the force of a goron.  

“Dawn!” Pure relief, then horror, then joy graced Aurora’s face. “How did you get here?” She pulled free and inspected her friend, like to loftwing chicks playing grown-up in the nest.  

“I heard you playing that new song! But when I came in I was horrified to see you fading! I had to find you, so I used your flute and played as many notes as I could remember! And here we are!” Dawn took Aurora’s hands, “I’m so glad you’re alright. Do you know these people?”

But a new ruckus halted their responses. 

“I’D LIKE TO KNOW EXACTLY WHICH MEDDLING DEITY THOUGHT THIS LITTLE PRANK WAS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ARYLL’S SPECIAL DAY?” Shouted a small woman gripping two curved sticks. Metal accents caught the light. It looked like something Beetle might sell in his shop. 

The other women tensed at her unbridled irritation, the younger ones flinching. Zelda moved to stand between the younger girls and the screaming one. Many marvelled, open-mouthed, at the fierce, filthy, sweaty young woman with a scar raking down her cheek and another across her neck. “UNLESS YOU’RE ALL COMING TO JOIN OUR CHORUS OF HAPPY BIRTHDAY, THEN SEND ME BACK OR SO HELP ME YOU’LL REGRET EVER INVITING ME HERE!” She looked around, fury fading a little as she seemed to realize the others were real and not some product of her imagination. “And just where exactly in Din’s ugly—WHAT? QUEEN ATHENA?!” 

“Captain Tetra!” A regal woman answered, her voice clear as a bell. The two mismatched women embraced like long-lost kin. Where the scarred girl wore hardly more than glorified rags, Queen Athena donned golden pauldrons, vambraces, and boots up to her thighs. Heavy faulds shielded her hips under a golden breastplate and a dense pink corset. Along with her spiked crown, the armor made Zelda imagine a velvety flower guarded by gold thorns. From her jeweled belt draped a decorative apron embossed with familiar symbols: the loftwing and the Triforce. 

Zelda felt oddly alone. But she had so many opportunities all around her. She’d just begun to form her first question for the purple-clad woman when—  

“PRIESTESSES OF THE GODDESS!” Bellowed a voice over the din, hushing them to whispers. A familiar eye and tear were painted in red across the fabric of his bodysuit. Just like Impa’s tattoo! Zelda realized with a pleasant startle. The crowd stepped back to form a wide circle around a lithe figure. He was tall, thin, and clearly a little anxious, his fingers twitching so fast she almost missed it. “The voice of awakening beckons us here to the Sacred Realm!”

A Sheika! Finally, she’d get answers! 

“We have been called to meet within this eddy in the tides of time. And for one purpose: to seal away the spirit of an ancient evil that lingers here. His spirit is broken and scattered, seeking to hide. We must draw him out, then seal him away, remove him from this place, and return the light of peace to the Sacred Realm. This is the legend of the Ancient Sealing passed down by my people, the Sheikah. I am Sheik, survivor of the Sheikah.”

Impa’s tribe! They were real, still existing out there. Zelda had wondered if she might find them in her own time. So little was known about the Surface and its inhabitants beyond the few realms they’d explored so far. But could her search be ended already? 

And yet, the Sheikah symbol was crudely painted on his clothes, not permanently written on his skin. Was he… was he truly like Impa, or somehow less committed? Lower in rank?

Whispers hissed like wind through the crowd. 

Sheik pressed onward. “The need is dire. Servants of Hylia, bloodline of the goddess, if you trust my words, vow to find the vile deity’s spirit, which lingers here, and seal it away.” 

Hylia stirred. 

Gold light infused her. Specks of dust came into sharp focus, as did the grime on Tetra’s oily vest and loftwing dandruff on her own sleeve. She looked at Sheik. Divine light obscured the boy, but the harp at his side stole her attention—her mother’s harp! The same she lent to Link! It had the exact tiny scratch on the left handle from Indigo’s claw, a mark barely noticeable to most but with Hylia’s eyes she knew it instantly. It had gained several newer scars as well. On Sheik’s other hip glowed a beetle-blue ocarina. Reality bent around it when the slightest motion of air passed in and out of the tiny holes. 

THESE INSTRUMENTS ARE FROM MY OWN HANDS

Doubt fled from Zelda. This boy was surely on the goddess’s errand. She gave a reassuring squeeze to Aurora, and Dawn, the older of the two, noticed and offered an encouraging smile as well. 

Aurora stood taller, taking a deep breath and tossing a small smile at them both–a small promise that she was okay. That things would be okay. 

“Who will join me?” Sheik asked the stunned crowd again. The boy held a hand out: calloused, firm, and inviting.   

Zelda’s heart trilled. Hooks buried deep in her soul urged her forward. She would follow the call—she already had. Just like Impa, Link, and Groose, she could do her part . Determined, she let go of the girl’s hand. 

But Aurora moved faster, perhaps driven by that same need, and she grasped the boy’s hand in her smaller one. 

“I will!” The answer that came was so quiet that none would have heard if the crowd had not already been silent. 

Such courage in one so troubled made her proud, for the girl’s sake. The others shifted stances from anxious or waiting to hope and belief, and then to steel-hard determination. 

 The purple and gold-clad woman to her left looked at Zelda approvingly, and likewise reached out her own white-gloved hand. Zelda accepted her strong, sharp grip. 

“Coulda spat it out sooner, gramps! Alright, we’re in.” The short woman expertly spun the curved sticks in her palms, then shoved both into leather holders at her hips. She glared heavenward, grumbled something about goddess business , then grabbed Zelda’s right hand. Other women and girls strode forward to join hands with them, each face a portrait of determination, resolve, and in some cases pure resignation.  

Light gathered in the center of their circle, though Zelda felt no magic between them yet.