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Part 3 of System Legend
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LU Write-A-Thon (November 2025)
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Published:
2025-11-16
Updated:
2025-12-07
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4/9
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A Splotch of Green Paint

Summary:

Link snorted, quickly covering his mouth as more giggles threatened to escape.
Too late, though, because Time and Wind both turned to them.

But then Wind saw Time's face, and burst out laughing, which broke the dam of Link's and Hyrule's barely contained giggles. Soon enough, they'd gotten the attention of the entire rest of the Chain.

It took entirely too long for them to calm down.

Someone's taken to painting on people's faces while they sleep, and it's Legend('s system) turn to try and figure out who it is
(Updates Sundays)

Notes:

Written during the November LUWAT and partially as part of a sprint prompt for the big LU server, welcome to our silly mystery fic!

Reading other fics in the series shouldn't be needed to understand, and this does basically introduce everyone to you
It happens kinda all over the place in the timeline, after the Chain learning about Legend's plurality and sometimes related to other fics not posted to the series yet, but no extra context should be needed

Thanks to our beloveds gurlgallade for looking it over for us <3
Enjoy!

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Link looked up when he heard muffled giggles from Hyrule. Focused as he was sorting through their bag after the mess of the previous day, he had missed whatever was so funny. It had taken him too long to even find his own bracelet, much less any of the less used items they usually kept conveniently organized precisely so they didn't take ages to find when they suddenly needed them in the middle of combat.

Point being, there was something funny going on and he wanted in on it.

At his curious look, Hyrule used the hand not covering his mouth to point towards Time, whose facial markings had been painted bright green, as well as someone having drawn a mustache on his upper lip.

Link snorted, quickly covering his own mouth as more giggles threatened to escape.

Too late, though, because Time and Wind both turned to them.

But then Wind saw Time's face, and burst out laughing, which broke the dam of Link's and Hyrule's barely contained giggles. Soon enough, they'd gotten the attention of the entire rest of the Chain.

It took entirely too long for them to calm down.

Man, he'd really needed that laugh after the stress of the past few days. Between all the fighting, the injuries, and coming out to their family, Link hadn't much been in the mood to laugh when he'd woken up.

He offered Hyrule a shaky smile, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. The other looked a little startled by it, not yet used to Link's more cheerful nature, but he returned the smile. It even reached his eyes.

"Very funny," Time deadpanned, looking at his reflection on Legend's mirror shield. The corners of his mouth inched upwards, clearly amused as he looked back around at the group. "Now, how might this have happened?"

Wind was too busy still cackling to even seem cowed, Wild was back to working on breakfast, and Sky had somehow managed to sleep through the commotion up until then. Everyone else just kind of looked around at each other.

"I'll say, Mask, I get why you liked being such a little shit, now," Warriors piped up, a grin on his face. "I'm only sorry I didn't think of it myself."

Blame went around, but after a while of no-one admitting to it Time stood up and went off with Twilight to find the river from the previous day again and attempt to wash it off.

Wind asked again while they were gone, hoping the culprit would admit to it while Time wasn't around, but had no such luck.

Link shook his head fondly.

Whoever had done that (which he told himself he wasn't about to look into, as he took out their journal and started making a list) had a good sense of humor and great timing. List made and tally marks added next to names, he continued sorting their stuff until Wild called breakfast ready and Time and Twilight came back to camp.

And that was it.

Notes:

(Spoiler alert that was not it, stay tuned for 8 more chapters of this)

Chapter 2

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Except that wasn't it.

A couple weeks later, when they were camping out in the woods again, Legend woke up to Wolfie having some extra bright green whiskers and an eyepatch painted on his face.

The wolf huffed and shook his head like he was trying to shake the paint off, but ended up having to go wash it off in the river with Warriors' help. Legend wished them good luck getting it out of all that fur.

They looked at the bright faces around them while helping Hyrule re-wrap clean bandages around his arm. Link had been right, it was quite the mood raiser.

But they couldn't tell who'd done it.

Clearly not Twilight, given the lack of opposable thumbs and the fact he would've had to paint on his own face. Unless the paint transferred between forms, or he'd had an accomplice.

Some of the others had originally accused Wind, although Legend personally thought Hyrule was more capable of mischief than anyone gave him credit for. It could have been Wild, too, but they didn't think he would've been as quiet about it.

Almost anyone was an option. The only thing Legend could be sure of was that it hadn't been them either time. So far.

They didn't know where whoever it was had pulled the green paint from, which added another point for Wild, probably, given that slate of his. Surely it couldn't be too difficult to acquire some, though.

Warriors and Twilight returned to camp not too long after, and Legend decided it didn't matter that much. They had other stuff they needed to focus on, and were happy enough to just appreciate the light-hearted moment (and make a note of it in their journal) before they got on with another long day ahead.

... They did keep an eye or an ear on the conversations around them, hoping to catch any other potential clues without having to interrogate anyone about it.

Time had accused Warriors before, despite the other's insistence he'd had nothing to do with it.

Now, though, the Old Man didn't seem so sure anymore. There'd been mention of revenge on Time from past wrongs, but it didn't fit with attacking Twilight, unless it was intentionally an attack (silly as it had been) on someone he really cared about.

Legend wouldn't have put it past Warriors if they'd been the one to get their face painted next, but it hadn't happened yet.

Although they were one of the lightest sleepers in the group, so it wasn't like it would have been easy for him to do so. But that also begged the question of how the culprit had done it without waking a single person up...

Unless they hadn't?

The mystery could be more complicated than originally thought.

They weren't invested, though.

Notes:

Hope you enjoyed, see you next week for more!

Chapter 3

Summary:

The shenanigans continue, and they get dumber still
At least Raven gets some new hints as to who might be behind everything

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Raven pinched the bridge of their nose and let out a deep sigh. They opened their eyes back up and looked at the two in front of them.

Nope. Still idiots.

"What the fuck are you two doing?"

She hadn't been gone nearly long enough for the singed hair, barbarian armor and war face paint to have reasonably made an appearance, and the way they both stared back at them told of mischief. As soon as they'd returned to camp, Warriors had pointed her to the two and declared them Raven's problem, which also spoke of future desires of immense violence upon them.

"Rulie woke up with the paint," Wild answered, like it explained everything.

"And the outfit?"

"It comes with a similar face paint, so seeing that reminded me of it and we decided to try them on?"

"And what did you do while trying them on?"

"... In our defense, Warriors left the fire rod right there."

Of course he did.

And he'd acted like none of it had anything to do with him, the bastard.

Raven sighed again.

"Why don't you two go wash that off, and when you come back we'll continue with what we were supposed to be doing."

The Chain had been separated by the latest portal, and they were still missing several of their companions. Several companions that Raven could lower the suspicion points on, apparently, since someone had painted on Hyrule now while they were separated.

They took out their journal, flipping to the page towards the back they'd dedicated for tallying their suspicions. She added a mark next to Warriors' and Wild's names, and after a quick glance at the somehow still sleeping Sky added a half mark to his.

It seemed unlikely Hyrule was involved, given he'd been the one to wake up painted this time.

They frowned down at all the marks, no-one standing out particularly against the others. They didn't even have any concrete proof about it.

Maybe one day they would catch someone on the act, but so far they'd been stealthy enough that no-one willing to tattle had.

For now, Raven put the notebook away again and went to wake up the last of their current companions.

Notes:

I, realize this is most people's introduction to Raven? Surprise I guess!
This fic doubles as an introduction to the entire system lmao
See you next Sunday for more, thanks for reading! <3

Chapter 4

Summary:

It is Bunny's turn to see the green paint situation!

Notes:

This can be taken to be set right before our other fic Minish Burrow (well, a bunch of these are actually associated to fics you just haven't seen lmao), but you don't need any extra context to understand it <3
Enjoy!

Chapter Text

Bunny yawned, their face crusty and weird-feeling as it stretched. He'd slept better than they had in a bit, but he was still so incredibly sleepy.

He would get breakfast, and then he would hopefully sleep again.

Wild had been making really nice food, which wasn't new but was good on their sore throat and how cold they felt all the time now. Their friends were so nice to them. A faint chime sounded in agreement from the back of their mind.

"M'rnin'..." he mumbled, rubbing his eyes as he entered the kitchen.

They were currently resting for a few days in Four's Grandpa's forge, which meant Wild had access to a proper kitchen and they all got to have a nice, relatively slow morning. Being sick meant Bunny got to sleep in and spend all day laying down, but the others didn't want them to sleep through all of their meals.

"Morning, sleepyhead. How are you feeling?" Twilight asked from where he was setting a full plate for them at the table.

Bunny coughed, making a miserable little noise.

He wasn't happy to be awake, and their body still felt heavy. Their head wasn't killing him, though, which was an improvement from how they'd been feeling when Uncle had gone to sleep the previous night.

Twilight looked up then to offer them a smile, and Bunny went to smile too when the other froze and snorted.

"Wuh?" He frowned.

"You, uh, you have a little something on your face."

He pointed to his own cheeks, and Bunny lifted a hand to rub at theirs. It felt weird, a little like they'd drooled and it had gone sideways, or dried snot. Was kind of gross.

"Is i' gone now?"

"Ah, no. It's that paint thing."

Oh!

That was kind of rude. Why did someone paint on them while they were sick and sleeping?

Bunny frowned.

"Whassit?"

Wild turned around from where they'd been putting away some leftovers and starting to wash what they'd used to make the food. They gestured to their own face.

"Whiskers! And I think it kind of looks like a flower?" Pointing to one cheek and then the other.

"Yeah. It's a little lopsided, but it looks closer to one of those than it does anything else."

A coughing fit decided that moment to interrupt again. When it was done, Bunny sat down at the table in front of the plate Twilight had set for him and offered them a small smile. He made grabby hands at the water pitcher set towards the center of the table when a chime pulled his attention to it.

He did his best to convey that they'd be fine and he'd take care back at Felicia, but he couldn't be sure how much he succeeded.

The paint on their face sounded cute, but now that he'd been told about it he could feel it and didn't like it. It made his cheeks tug weirdly, which made eating also a little weird once they started.

When he was done, he grabbed the plate and held it up to Wild and Twilight doing the dishes, proudly showing he'd managed to eat all of it.

"I wanna was' off now," he requested, pointing to the soapy water Wild was using to clean the dishes before passing them to Twilight to dry and put away.

They made space for him in-between them and helped him rub the paint off. The cool water felt nice against their still slightly feverish skin.

Once it was all gone, he went back to the living room to lay down on the couch for a nap.

That had been nice, but he was still so tired and having a full belly was making him even sleepier.

He didn't even think of making a note of the paint thing on their notebook so they could keep trying to figure out the mystery, before falling back asleep.

Notes:

Thanks for reading <3

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