"Uzuki, have you seen my armband?"
Mitsuhiro hastily rifled through the top drawer of his dresser, sifting through underwear and socks. Last he remembered, he had hung it up by the door, but he wouldn't have put it past himself to lose it in the chaos of his living situation.
Three drawers later, still no sight of it. Laundry, perhaps?
"Uzuki!" Mitsuhiro called out again, this time out into the hallway. "My armband, where is it?"
Uzuki poked her head out from the dining room, shooting him a glare. "How should I know? Just go without it, Hale's getting impatient out here!"
With an aggravated sigh, Mitsuhiro began dumping his clothes back into the dresser, keeping an eye out for his armband in case he had missed it the first time.
"This is so stupid . . ." he swore under his breath. He was supposed to be the organized one - it made up for Uzuki's messier, forgetful and scatterbrained antics.
"Is this what you're looking for?"
The voice - an eerily familiar one - immediately snatched Mitsuhiro's attention away from his pile of clothes. As he spun around to find its source, the first thing he spotted wasn't a face, but the glimmer of metal bolted to a dark piece of fabric. In the next second, he recognized the face of the person holding it - peachy skinned, blue-eyed, with dirty blond hair that fell on either side of his face. Not Hale, but close enough that it took a moment for the man's name to resurface from the deepest pits of Mitsuhiro's buried memories; as soon as it did, any color on Mitsuhiro's already pale face disappeared completely.
"Link?!" he gasped, almost choking on the name as it came up out of his throat like vomit. He quickly composed himself. "Uh . . . h-hey, buddy! It's been, what, three years?"
Link's face was burning red as his response came out so quickly and loudly it was practically one word. "IT'S BEEN TEN, YOU JACKASS-!"
Mitsuhiro defensively raised his hands in a calming motion. "Hey, hey, it's alright, we're cool. I missed you, buddy-!" Technically, it had only been six years since they had parted ways, but this situation was bad enough; and he knew from experience what Link was capable of, though he paled in comparison to Hale.
Link hadn't even brought him the right bandanna; they had retired the engraved metal plate bands around the same time they bid him farewell.
Again, not the time or place.
"So, uh . . . not like I'm not glad to see you, but what are you doing here?"
Link raised the bandanna high into the air. "I'm here to claim what's rightfully mine!" he shouted. Even after all these years, he was still over the top and corny.
Mitsuhiro raised an eyebrow at him. He hadn't the faintest clue what Link was referring to. "Your hat?" he guessed. "Because I swear, I've thrown out like, five of them, and I keep finding more-"
"MY ROLE AS THE LEAD CHARACTER IN THIS OVERBLOATED FARCE!" Link screamed.
Mitsuhiro stifled a laugh. "Whoa-kay, that's great, but uh . . ." he had to deliver this next part as gracefully as he could, ". . . the position's sort of been filled."
"By who?! Hale?!" Link scoffed with a dismissive eye roll. "As if he could live up to the legacy I left behind when you people fired me!"
With his hands pressed together, Mitsuhiro drew in a sharp, patient breath. "Now, we didn't fire you. The story was going in a different direction, and we felt that you wouldn't . . . 'fit in'-"
"THAT'S CALLED BEING FIRED."
"We prefer the term 'let go'," Mitsuhiro said quietly through tempered teeth. He took in another breath before continuing. "Listen, Hale's a good guy. He's reliable, he's funny, he's fresh . . . and he makes the best apple crumble I've ever tasted."
". . . Oh my god, you slept with him."
Mitsuhiro's face went red. "Now you can't prove that-!" he snapped, but Link was still staring at him, eyes narrowed.
"Mitsuhiro?" Uzuki's voice spoke up from the hall. She stepped into the room; as soon as she did, her eyes were wide with equal amounts of shock and surprise. "Link?!" she choked.
"Oh, don't get too excited, you might hurt yourself," Link scoffed in a sarcastic tone. "I heard you're the bitchy one now, Uzuki. Not that I should be surprised, traitor."
Uzuki crossed her arms as she shot Link a cold glare. "For god's sakes, Link, get over it. You've got plenty of other jobs, it's not like you needed us."
"Couldn't you have at least waited until we wrapped things up?" Link sighed. "Do you know how many times I've heard people ask me about that stupid1 train scene?!"
Mitsuhiro shot Uzuki a questioning look. "I thought we had gotten around to finishing the train scene? We've got like, four more chapters written up-"
"You what?!" Link exclaimed, a vein popping from his forehead.
Uzuki angrily glared at Mitsuhiro. "We decided to keep those chapters unpublished because they were crap-!" she hissed under her breath.
"Fuck the both of you!" Link yelled, seething. "Are you kidding me?! You've had those stupid chapters all this time?! Good God-!"
Mitsuhiro and Uzuki could clearly see the markings growing along his skin now.
"Link, calm down-!" Uzuki gasped. "We're not going through this right now, okay? How about we treat you to lunch?"
Link scowled as the markings danced on his skin. "Cause that'll make up for the years of absence and replacing me-!"
"Who's replacing who now?"
Uzuki, Mitsuhiro, and Link all looked to the man who had entered the room - peachy skinned, blue-eyed, with dirty blond hair that was streaked with two individual strands of white and black respectively.
Link stared coldly for a solid minute, not a word spoken between any of them until he could muster up the confidence to speak.
"You're all fucked."
A Short Interlude
No, it's not the anticipated ending to that cursed train scene, or the chapters that were meant to follow that I would go on to write but never upload.
That being said, that doesn't mean I've forgotten about you guys. Even to this day, this place still holds a special place in my heart as the birthplace of my love for writing. Things may have changed, and I may have moved on, but the past still lives on through other means.
The last time I updated, I left a message for all of you that have taken the time to read my old works and leave comments - a formal apology of sorts, to hopefully make up for the fact that I never did finish the story I started ten years ago. As a part of that apology, I assured you all that even though The Legend of Zelda: Time Gate was doomed to never see its completion, Time Gate would still continue on as a series, in both novel and webcomic format.
But it's been ten years. And I have to celebrate somehow.
On February 2nd, 2020, it will officially be ten years since The Legend of Zelda: Time Gate (also known as The Child Chapters) was released on . It's been a long ten years. A lot's happened since then - I've evolved into a fully-but-horribly-functional adult, found my place in the art world as a tattoo artist, gained (and lost) many relationships, and replayed Tales of Symphonia more times than I can count.
In that time, I've been a published magazine comic artist, children's book illustrator, and best of all, I've continued working on Time Gate, even if it's not in the form so many of you were familiar with back in 2010. Ten years will certainly do that to you.
To celebrate the end of the decade and the continuation of a passion project I'm so proud to still carry with me, I'll be hosting a live art stream on Picarto, at 2 PM (AST) February 2nd, 2020. The stream will consist of a few different events, including a Q&A and a drawing request time slot, among others. If any of you are still around (even if you just pop in here from time to time like I do) and have been wondering what I've been up to, or have had any questions you've just been dying to ask since you first asked "Where's the end to that stupid train scene?", now's the perfect time. Such questions can be asked in the announcement posts for the livestream via Tapas, LINE Webtoons, or our official Discord channel: /invite/gZ4Nz8x
In addition to the livestream, the completed novel manuscript for Time Gate: Reaper will become available to read in its entirety, for free, on Tapas (where I also post the comic version which is also free to read, though not completed as of yet.) Upon its availability February 2nd, you'll be able to find it at /series/TG-Reaper-The-Compiled-Edition
The Legend of Zelda: Time Gate is currently being reworked into its original equivalent, Time Gate: The Child Chapters, and is slated for release Summer 2020.
As for those mystery post-train-scene chapters, I'll try to track them down and upload them. You guys deserve it after all this time :)
A/N: Between 2008 and 2010, Time Gate was merely an idea. However, one of my biggest inspirations when it came to fanfiction writing was Rose Zemlya and her fic, The Legend of Zelda: The Return. Though, like my own writing as well, it's quite dated, I can't deny that it served as the inspiration and motivation that would propel me to bring The Legend of Zelda: Time Gate out of my mind as just an idea and onto paper as a work of art that would shape my adolescence and give me joy in my adulthood. A lot of things in this big, grand universe had to go right for Time Gate to make it where it is today - and Rose Zemlya was part of that. Next July (2021), The Legend of Zelda: The Return will be turning 20 years old. So let's take a moment to recognize and show gratitude to one of the many things that had to go right so that I could learn how to write. Whether or not you ever see this, thank you, Rose.
And thank you all.
- Uzuki Cheverie | Project Reaper Team