#he has had a lot of time to process and mourn im sure

[gifti3]

lilia is amazing humans took loved ones from him multiple times and he still chooses to love them

this is the type of shit that joker-fies characters and hes like nah i love my son and i would love for fae and humans to live among each other in peace

[crushedsweets]

Awhile back you answered an ask on how other creeps would respond to Toby's death, and I was wondering how they would respond to Kate death?

IM PUNCHING THE WALL. ALRIGHT. warning for death and grief and mourning . . .

im gonna set this after she starts staying at the proxy cabin and becoming friends with more people, rather than rotting in the mines. im also imagining they find her body in the forest, nobody was there when she died.

tim and brian would have a heavy heart about it. sure, they had massive issues with her, but even by time shes 25+, they still kinda see her as a little kid. she was 14/15 when they met her, and she acted like a feral animal till she was like 17. brian got her a job on the farm, tim helped set up a room for her. they'd help toby set up a grave, but overall they dont go out of their way to mourn her - toby has that handled

which.....guides me towards toby... they've known eachother since they were 17-19, and they are like siblings. when she was in the mines, toby would always bring her food and even dragged a whole mattress there. thats his little sister (she is older than him..) and he had always been so so so protective of her. he loses his shit, screaming and throwing shit. is never home, spends so much time at the mines. chops down random ass trees just cuz he needs to exhaust himself enough to stop feeling so much pain. it feels like losing lyra again. he sets a grave up for her, puts her body in it, carves some stuff into a wooden cross he made from a tree he cut down, lays hella rocks all over. him and nina spend a good chunk of time together. nina has never seen him cry until this. eventually, after he's gone for days, he comes back to the cabin and just rots in his bed almost catatonic. clocky has to come collect him

whiiiiiiich now brings me to clocky. she'd find out from nina, since she'd already be in her own apartment by now and tobys not gonna tell her. she'd immediately get nina, get jack, go to the cabin, and try to console toby and nina the best she(and jack) can. has to learn to bite her tongue when tobys mouthing off cuz hes mad she's trying to help. she doesnt really have time to mourn kate at first, until maybe a week goes by and tobys finally eating again and clockys just sitting there and starts bawling cuz kate was her friend too and she had to immediately go into caretaker mode.

nina. screams and cries and needs to have people with her all the time, no matter what. she doesnt feel safe alone cuz she just wants to curl up and die so so so bad. she makes toby take her to the grave(he doesnt want to but he knows kate would be pissed if he wasnt at least a little nice to nina after this) and she just sobs. she holds toby and tries to be like 'its okay its okay its okay' but neither know who shes comforting. she'd print as many pictures she got of kate as possible (not a lot) and try to scrap book it and try to memorialize her like that. just hold photos and pictures and have them in her apartment and cry. give a photo to toby with a letter written on the back telling him how much kate loved him.

similar to if toby died, jack would try to host stuff. make dinner for them all, invite them over, give everyone space to eat and remember her. he'd go with toby to the grave as well, but he's less assertive with his care compared to clocky. less 'get the fuck up, this is making you feel worse' and more 'you know you can come over right? its not good to stay home alone'. toby would come to see him a lot, too. . .

toby would have to take on a lot of her patrols, so he'd bump into ann and lulu a lot. . . ann would tease him a bit like 'ooo is katey in trouble? whyre you here, handsome?', till he smacks the shit out of her w the handle of his hatchet and he grumbles something about her death. ann would shut up after. she'd be bummed out that kates dead cuz she liked her, but not mourn. lulu wouldn't be able to process it. ann would tell her, lulu would cry, then a day later she's asking when kate's coming to visit.

i dont think anyone else would really be impacted, though... jeff/dina didnt like her, she wasnt close with ben, never even spoke to jane or liu... lazari would cry and draw pictures of her, but she'd be okay shortly after, esp cuz jacks okay.

[no-higher-thought]

said you wanted to talk about 2bhank on your last post... well i'm all ears.

oo Wait fr ??

Oh my goodness gracious youve no idea what you just released anon FUCK you for making me write all this down /lh

Very unorganised thoughts cause i had like 12 pages worth of ramblings in my notes and had to cut it down. It was borderline just nonsense, man. Im losing it. Sorry if words don't make sense.

First off, they can and have hurt eachother. Hard not to, in a world as fucked up as theirs. Hank is someone who only knows violence, and doc is far too used to manipulating people and circumstances to gain the upper hand. In combat, in business deals, sieges, all that jazz.

But honestly, considering everything ? Their relationship is definitely among the healthiest, most stable in all of Nevada. Mostly cause the bar is all the way in The Nowhere but. y'know.

Both see it as VERY transactional, which, i mean. It is, first and foremost, a business deal so like. Fair i suppose. Hank is very good at their job of killing, and doc is very good at pointing them at nice targets. A sort of  "ah shit they didn't slam the door this time guess i gotta be extra careful pulling all the shrapnel out of their abdominal cavity."

There was never any moment one could consider "feelings realization" or whatever. They're simply incredibly close as a result of just how LONG they've worked together. Neither is particularly keen on asking somethn like "what are we to eachother?" Because it just. Doesn't. Matter to them.

That and like. I am very aroace. Hank is canon aroace. Saw doc fanart with ace ring once and have been rotating it in my brain since. Big fan of non-traditional relationships, man.

It's mostly convenience, methinks. Hank may not need doc to bring them back to life, but it sure does make the process a lot shorter and less painful. Doc doesn't need hank, he has plenty of money and access to many of Nevada's most feared mercenaries. He could find someone else to do his dirty work, if need be.

And yet.

Every moment they spend together is a moment of putting their life in the other's hands. Hank trusts him not to staple their legs on backwards, and doc trusts them to not dome him the moment he turns around. Don't get me wrong, it's not trust in the other, no. It's trusting that the other isn't dumb enough to get rid of a valuable asset.

But frankly, to someone used to nothing but pain and violence, a simple lack of it might as well be a loving embrace.

Theirs is a relationship built off of many years of contracts, of shared goals, of depending on eachother, expecting the other to catch them when they fall. When they crawl back battered and bloodied. When they pass out from overworking in front of their computer for the upteenth time this week.

They'd share a bed simply because both have horrific waking nightmares and huddling together on a shitty moldy mattress helps. A net positive, mutualism. They might seek some affection from the other, but its always self-serving.

Still. Neither of them are sentimental. If the machine took them on different paths, or hell, if they had to kill the other (for one reason or another), i don't think either of them would mourn.

Simply fill their time with the next mission at hand.

Doc could kill hank. They've been under his knife often enough. It wouldn't stick, sure, but he's very much capable of sending them back to the Other place, at least once.

Hank could absolutely kill doc. There's very little stopping them. All it would take is a single hand around his neck and one good squeeze.

But they don't.

They don't, and neither does he. Because at the end of the day, both of them benefit more when the other is alive.

Mutualism.

... Anyways uh hank is a cuddler. With how fucked up their nerves must be, i bet most of their sense of touch is straight up just pain. Which would be be a bigger deal, except. Doc has access to heavy-duty painkillers. How can you not, in some odd way, love the guy that makes the pain go away, even for a bit ?

[suffarustuffaru]

Opinion on Reinhard's dad possibly seeing "the son he never had" on Garfiel? It could totally take that route tbh

It would be a fun dynamic imo

oh anon as a heinkel fan (hes soo terrible but so fascinating and i WANT to see him get better and grow as a person. but also you may have known that since you are asking me this hah) and someone who is quite fond of garf i lovedddd the recent heinkel-garfiel chapters... and LMAO this idea of like. heinkel being a bit soft on garfiel bc yay!! new son replacement!!! is SO FUNNY ive thought about it a little bit. and IT WOULD BE FUN and i think heinkels arc is super interesting bc he kinda hit his rock bottom in like about arc 7-early arc 8 where its like. its post arc 5 astrea drama so shit just got even more bleak for heinkel, hes stuck in dangerous territory and he doesnt believe in himself At All and hes too depressed to really try all that much at anything.

but then GARFIEL comes along and saves heinkel a couple times and garfiel gets hit down but keeps getting right tf up - and that goes against like literally everything heinkel thinks. he doesnt try to be better bc he doesnt think he can ever accomplish it no matter how hard he tries, but garfiel is someone who just WONT stop trying.

and we also see that heinkel learning more about rowan and cecilus and the whole deal with the segmunts has made heinkel go "oh. okay haha maybe im not as far gone as i thought" bc heinkel gets shown another example of a dysfunctional family with an extremely op son and a deadbeat alcoholic dad and theyre a mirror of reinhard and heinkel. except rowan and cecilus are like if reinhard and heinkel werent so miserable about their shit relationship, bc as shitty as heinkels behavior is deep down he still CARES. he cares a lot about his family. he misses reinhard - why else would he need schult to be a replacement? he's still mourning that loss, if you think about it. but rowan is just so batshit that heinkel immediately goes backtracking like "OKAY IM. IM NOT THAT BAD. MAYBE THERES A TINY LITTLE SPECK OF HOPE FOR ME AFTER ALL."

and garfiel is helping to be a catalyst as well bc of his own determination to always keep growing and keep fighting no matter what gets in his way. hes a spunky little kid whos powerful but when faced with opponents stronger than him Refuses To Give Up. thats inspirational i think for heinkel, especially when its not as if hes a shit fighter, dude is just outshadowed by his family and other people around him. he just has to get up and keep trying, so its interesting that heinkel DOES find the courage to try and protect garfiel while garfiel's trying not to die.

like i do think that its heinkel like having this grudging respect for garfiel after the interactions theyve had, also possibly feeling inspired by garfiel and having that tiny bit of hope in him after meeting rowan and interacting with garfiel, and also trying to repay garfiel. bc heinkel treats himself like dirt and gets treated like dirt a lot - im sure his thought process might be "this kid took the time to keep saving me even though im literally worthless and now hes in danger, this is the least i can do". i would be interested if it went the route of like. heinkel having that fatherly instinct rekindled - i think itd be interesting for garfiel as well bc. he IS lacking a father figure, but for heinkel, i think that its clear with how he acts with schult that heinkel does kind of miss having a son and having that sort of love in his life.

we know he DID use to be a good dad, and tbh i always kind of headcanoned that heinkel probably isnt that mean with most kids unless its someone like. you know. subaru. or julius. or reinhard of course. like heinkels not that much of an ass when his life is on the line or when there isnt super personal stakes involved (ie astrea stuff). hes a character that carries a lot of guilt and shame and self-hatred, someone who's spiraled into being the worst version of himself when he used to be bright-eyed and hardworking and full of love despite the weight on his shoulders - i think he would see a very kind and determined and spirited kid like garfiel (and might be reminded of the kid he Used to love) and hope that garfiel doesnt end up like him (ie lost, burnt out, and depressed). we see this sort of behavior a bit with schult too, bc heinkel tries to give schult advice and tries to look after schult a bit in general!! and garfiel's like a better version of heinkel you know? garfiel's a bit abrasive with a quick temper and all but hes extremely well intentioned in just about everything he does. and i think heinkel might have a fondness for all of garfiel's antics at this point T^T

but yes ty for the ask anon !! :o im very interested to see where heinkel and garfiel go from here, bc it looks like heinkel's started some baby steps in his growth!!

[ewyband]

explaining HRT to my parents and acceptance

hello everypony, if you don't know, im non binary. im gonna be really vulnerable here for a hot sec but i just wanted to share my experience because its something ive found very difficult to write about in musical form.

gender has always been super confusing for me and whilst there were signs of me being trans when i was younger, its only something thats become apparent in the last three years. i wont bore anyone explaining my experience of where i stand with my gender but i wanted to share my experiences with HRT and the process of telling my parents about it.

i started seriously considering HRT around around a year ago and decided to take the plunge around two months ago because every time i looked in the mirror, i noticed more chest hairs, thicker body hair, broader shoulders and a squarer jawline -- this all makes me extremely dysphoric and i hated it. the conclusion i came to was, this was all going to continue to intensify throughout me aging and so the main question was: do i want to age on testosterone or estrogen? once i started estrogen i felt so much better about myself, almost instantly (as in, within the first few days). my mood has drastically increased and i have 'breakdowns' way less now which is great!! one thing i was scared about was chest growth and the day before i started estrogen, i was very tired from a long day and had a breakdown because i was quite literally mourning my freedom. i never really have been more confident shirtless or anything but i mourned swimming in the sea, in lakes, in rivers and in tarns on the mountain tops -- the sense of freedom you feel when you're fresh out of an ice cold tarn on a mountain is indescribable. however, now i have responsibilities, i have a career i have to make work, i have people i need to please and for some reason i felt not being able to be shirtless was another freedom i could potentially have snatched away from me. when i told my mum about me starting HRT she said 'well, i'm sure you've made an informed decision so i'll just tell you the same thing i've said about weed: just be careful okay' which was a genuinely pleasant surprise when my dad found out, my mum called me saying 'just in case you get a call from your dad, he's really worried and he's been losing sleep over it. if he calls you, please dont argue with him, just agree with him for now for our sake' my dad did end up calling me and i explained everything and any worries that he had. he had a lot of questions but i managed to answer everything without getting too upset. towards the end of our call i thought he said 'i just needed you to understand' to which i replied 'yeah i understand, its okay to be anxious, because i definitely was' and he replied 'no, i said "i just needed to understand"' im really grateful for my parents being so accepting and its genuinely strengthened our relationship. even though they're pretty hit and miss with calling me my correct pronouns, they still love me and havent disowned me and im really grateful for that.

anyways, thanks for coming to my ted talk

[yuukei-yikes]

kenjirou tateyama surviving my beloved because god im so curious JUST HOW CONSCIOUS WAS HEEE like. i've always ALWAYS been a Kenjirou Is Entirely Possessed And Unaware Of What's Going On truther, ever since i was a kid. but god. ouuuughhhh his dubious awareness is so damn interesting i've changed my mind so much in the last year

like it's a fine interpretation but it's not as fun. because IF kenjirou is ENTIRELY clearing eyes after the aug15 takane/haruka/ayano die, then every other time he appears afterwards it's just clearing doing the best impression of kenjirou it can. and that's so funny. but idk. in that case, kenjirou's character is kinda flat. like he is just the funny fail man who misses his wife and keeps being moved around like a puppet, barely his own character at all. like this, he becomes entirely a plot device to me?

there is something so much more fun and interesting to consider kenjirou as slightly more involved. not behind it or on BOARD!! but still involved. *points at the dead and seek lyrics* like it's all in there. kenjirou knows, sooner or later

because, sure, clearing could've taken over completely but there is NEVER an indication it can do this. it can do it to konoha, because konoha isn't technically a person so haruka's body was HOSTLESS. but kenjirou's is not hostless, and the condition has always been that clearing gets to work when kenjirou is asleep. kenjirou appears post haruka/takane/ayano's deaths (gotta come up with a name for this aug15) without red eyes or anything too so... he knows!!

i truly do think kenjirou is completely unaware during the haruka and takane set up, like during the "preparation" year he really didn't know anything. to me, it's mostly him being tired off his mind not knowing why bc saeru keeps him awake all night BUT ALSO since kenjirou lived with clearing for so long, he starts mistaking its thoughts/ideas for his own and he's like ?!?!?!? bc i think saeru would do that on purpose. not to mention saeru totally uses kenjirou's science knowledge to do whatever it does to haruka and takane. like kenjirou is mourning ayaka and he's running on 0 sleep so he's almost entirely dysfunctional anyway, but on top of it he's getting all these intrusive thoughts about killing his students for reasons he doesn't understand like he's SOOO unwell during this year. and that's assuming he didn't know he had clearing (i don't believe he knew at this point, but he could've!! that's also a valid interpretation but if he did know kenjirou would come off as even more inactive and pathetic/neg and despite everything i choose to interpret kenjirou as a good person)

basically kenjirou is not in on the plan but some parts of it keep leaking to the part of the awareness he still has access to and he's very freaked out. after the plan actually goes through, to me it's impossible for kenjirou to just not know unless we decide saeru completely takes over which i already said why i don't think is the case.

ayano's suicide? haruka and takane dying? mekatrio moving out? already a lot together for kenjirou to process but we can still assume he's going through all this as himself. but... a conscious kenjirou would've tried to stop mekatrio from moving out i believe, the only way he could've just let them Go was if he knew they weren't safe with him. which he DID because KONOHA IS HERE. that is something we can't deny. like unless kenjirou is completely saeru, there is no way he doesn't know what "he" did by now. haruka's reanimated corpse is walking around his house man.

he knew about the red eyes thing. like come on it was his beautiful wife's special interest he's been probably falling asleep to that lore for years until ayaka passed. he also knows he died on aug15 with ayaka. he knows ayano and his students died on an aug15 too. he WOULD put those puzzle pieces together.

since kenjirou isn't evil, to me at least, i do think it's a mix of both things. kenjirou is himself but saeru has a lot more control now, even when he's not asleep, mostly because of all the grief kenjirou's going through. his wife and daughter are dead, his remaining living children moved out and he can't convince them they're not a burden and apparently without their sister and mom he isn't enough to keep them around. his students who he also loved and actively sought to act as a parent figure to, are dead. one is missing, and the other... is walking around his house like the living dead

all of that is causing kenjirou's already delicate mind to abandon all will to live, allowing saeru to take control more and more. but all its thoughts and plans blurr together with kenjirou's human mind, and he doesn't know what he has done or not. he doesn't know who he is or when he stopped being him, and if he's really not him anymore, then where even is he?

this is why kenjirou surviving post str is sooooo good. he's completely himself again for the first time in years, but he still feels responsible and guilty for everything and he has no idea how to navigate this. everyone's so happy he's here and they're so relieved because despite everything they're still kids. their youth was stolen from all of them but they're still young enough and they're so relieved there is an ADULT here. but the adult is kenjirou and he's not sure how participant he was and no, he didn't KILL haruka and takane with his own hands, not aware at least, and no he didn't personally FORCE kano to pretend to be ayano's corpse. but he remembers as if he did and this second hand guilt for something else's doings is eating him alive. why does he get to live??? if anyone ayaka should get to. not him. this makes no sense to him!!! anyways.

[topaztimes]

hello! I have finished re-reading Scrimshaw from the beginning. here are my thoughts! some of it is probably not very coherent. sorry about that. im not gonna edit it or anything this all just came from my brain as i was reading. also all of the questions are rhetorical. DO NOT feel like you have to answer them. this is just a stream of consciousness. im sure all will be revealed in later chapters anyway!!

Chapter 1

"You don’t work like that anymore." - voice of the dragon? Will absorbed his dragon due to trauma, if I'm understanding correctly. So the dragon still has a separate consciousness and set of memories? Or Will's soul has been replaced with the dragon's? Dragons' eyes can adjust to darkness! That's cool.

"your creations" - the moon created dragons. All of them? Or just some?

Winston had a collar at some point. Who put the collar on him? If the scales are chipped and scratched then the collar was most likely made of metal. Chains maybe? How did he come into Will's possession?

The dragonets are dragons who absorbed their humans. Can they remember their human selves? Do they still have their human intelligence? It would seem not.

The dragon is Hannibal, right? The stag antlers would seem to suggest as much. But he can't talk in dragon form and seemingly can't remember being a dragon when he is back in human form.

"He felt a flicking sensation by his ear, yelped, and clapped his hand to it." - this feels important. Can't put my finger on what it is yet. I'm guessing that wasn't Winston or Hannidragon? Abigail's dragon maybe? Since it is small. Idk man. More data needed.

Will talking to himself - seemingly two consciousnesses? Is this his human soul and dragon soul talking or just talking to himself? Could be either I suppose.

Chapter 4

How small actually IS Ellie? Are we talking chihuahua size or actual anemone size or what?

OMG I JUST REALISED WILL WANTED TO SEE AN INSECT DRAGON AND ABIGAILS IS A BUTTERFLY THATS SO CUTE

"He quietly mourned the pages of his notebook that he’d have to make edits to." - Will has never encountered anyone without a dragon before, huh. But. He doesnt have a dragon. Right? So why would he assume that No One Else has the same thing. Unless. ???? Will didnt HAVE a dragon and absorbed it, he IS a dragon. Wait wait wait he is a dragon for a Thing??? Like the moon??? And is in human form???? What's Will's Thing??? Is it fish. Its fish isnt it. /hj

Ok but if Will IS a dragon, like Luna, then why does he not know that people not having dragons is a thing. Because Luna knew, right? And she said it like it was a thing that happens reasonably frequently. Unless im misremembering.

Chapter 6

"He saw a man smile in his rearview mirror a couple of times, and impressed himself with how ready he was to accept that the image was himself." - more evidence that Will is a Thing Dragon. I'm on this train now choo choo motherfucker im onto you

“He’s a dragon too,” - hmmmmmmmm. And Will immediately says "What happened to him?" SO HE DOES KNOW. THAT PEOPLE CAN ABSORB DRAGONS. SO WHAT WAS HE GONNA CHANGE IN THE NOTEBOOK. IM SO CONFUSED. AM I MISSING SOMETHING im being stupid arent i. Probably

Chapter 10

Dragon in the woods. Does this dragon belong to someone or is this a Thing dragon? Mischa's dragon?

She's yelling at the ground. Is the ground sentient? Is there an Earth Dragon? Probably.

Shimmerscales says trans rights

So. Mischa had a male dragon. That Hannibal absorbed? And he was a girl at the time so now he's trans. Ok. So the dragon soul replaces the human soul when you absorb it? Or they combine? God what are the fucking mechanics of this im so. I can get it i think i just need to process lmao

So humans also count as Things. A dragon forms for every human born. So, is there a dragon for every single tree, or for the concept of trees as a whole? That's uh. That's a lot of dragons. Do you know how many beetles there are? If there's a dragon for every single beetle. Im overthinking again arent i

The knowledge that you have Read and Comprehended Scrimshaw is actually insane to me. You are absolutely wonderful. I hope to return the favour someday but I need to survive GCSEs first *sobbing emojis

Uh uh!!!! I'll answer the questions that I don't think I'll get around to answering naturally any time soon!! I'm giggling and kicking my feet so much rn you actually have no idea omg

-Winston's collar was there for the same reason dog Winston's was -- he was forgotten about and broke away. Technically this WILL be explained soon but I also think you deserve to know now seeing as you DID draw him (I treasure that drawing so much...) -The flicking is the moon! I didn't explain that very well lmfao -- it happens after he badmouths her but I did NOT elaborate enough. However, the fact that she CAN flick him without being physically present is important... greeheehee -Ellie's like... slightly smaller than a chihuahua. I did a little diagram a while back that I'll put in a reblog when I have my phone lmfao -Abigail being an insect was completely unintentional 💀I wish I was smart enough to think of that intentionally LMFAOO (I KNEW there was a reason why I picked it. I didn't even realise) -Part of Will's notebook is actually the next chapter (is that a spoiler?) so all you have to know for him will be revealed kuahahahah. You are NOT stupid for not knowing because I didn't really elaborate, like. At all. So there's genuinely no way you could have knew LMAO (thank goodness for second, third, fifteenth drafts) -Luna was being silly when she explained how Hannibal's absorption worked so he's going to be figuring out the actual story himself. Basically, take everything she said with a pinch of salt -- like Hannibal is actually -(Also yes. Defo an Earth-dragon. I mean... there's a moon-dragon! But idk if she was thinking of that or if she just wanted to yell at something lolll) -THERE IS A DRAGON FOR EVERY SINGLE BEETLE!!! The finer point is: -Every species is a Thing -Every individual in that species is a Thing So, there's a tree-dragon... and there's also a dragon for every tree. Thing is, dragons change in size based on the Thing's thoughts, so since rocks and things like that don't think at all, their dragons are really small. They do hold little dragon teaparties together though. Also, OTHER people's thoughts can increase the size of a dragon, too! Hence why the moon was a stupid rock, but eons of worship turned her into a big, powerful, shapeshifting dragon.

Everybody in the fic gives you kisses as thanks

[monowires]

If ME4 makes the destroy ending the canon one and revives Shepard somehow - what do you think about Kaidans perspective in that case?

I'm talking about the whole "we're very good friends" to "oh no he died" to "he's back but working for the evil guys" to "we're finally dating" to "oh no he's dead again" and then.... Shepard just turning up again? I imagine it must be taking quite a toll on Kaidan, maybe depending on the timespan between Shepard demise and revival. But I'm curious about your thoughts since I love everything about your Mshenko.

ooooh this is a good one! i’m actually in the early stages of working on a fic that covers this exact topic!

so, firstly, im assuming you mean the version of the destroy ending where you have enough military strength to get that small bonus scene at the end of the epilogue that shows shepard gasping awake in the middle of a pile of rubble.

in that case, i feel that that would occur relatively soon after the release of energy by the crucible. with the extent of injuries sustained it wouldn’t be feasible to assume there was a large time gap because he would’ve died without immediate medical care (at least in my opinion). he would either a) be discovered by search and rescue teams, or b) manage to get a stable comms link with his omnitool and let someone know where he is.

i tend to agree with a the large majority of fandom in that it would take a considerable amount of time for shepard to fully recover from his injuries. the main point of division i see is how the crucible affects shepard’s implants from the lazarus project.

now, my main issue with the assumption that the crucible would annihilate shepard’s implants is that it wouldn’t make sense on a larger scale. i’m certain that there’s a number of civilians with cybernetic implants or prosthetics. even today we have things like pacemakers, and to assume that the crucible would obliterate shepard based on the fact that it kills all synthetic life is rather unfair to me. of course, i don’t mind if people have that headcanon, but for me, i see it this way:

shepard is not synthetic life. he was revived, sure, but he’s an organic lifeform. he always has been. it’s still his body keeping him alive, it just has help from implants. if he were to be killed by the crucible on account of having cybernetics then that would also mean a lot of regular people with implants/prosthetics would die solely because they have cybernetics in their body.

this is largely influenced by the fact that i think the crucible is fucking strange and poorly explained space magic. but it’s my personal opinion.

so assuming he is recovered quickly, i don’t think there’d be too much tension between mshenko because there wouldn’t be that extensive period of mourning afterwards. i think it’d take a while for both of them to process everything that’s happened, but nearly losing each other so many times has made one thing perfectly clear: they love each other, and are indescribably grateful for every minute they have. because technically, shepard has been living on borrowed time ever since he was revived.

there would definitely be baggage to work through. on both sides. but they’ve known each other for so long, been through so much, that i think there wouldn’t be much to talk about. shepard has always had self-sacrificial tendencies in the face of the reapers and it isn’t a secret. so i think a lot of it would just be joy for the fact of being alive.

this is… a little off topic from the question you asked but i just have a Lot of thoughts about post-me3. so sorry for the essay LMFAO

[comphetkoncass]

intro scene to the DCYJ fixit fic im writing. bc kon being angsty abt dying in that series doesnt make sense, but giving him 'the world moved on w/o you' trauma fits soooo much better. especially since his lines about "you want to go back to the real world? the one where i died? you think that world was so much better than this world where we get to be heroes in our glory days?" doesnt even make sense since the current 'real world' is, uh, the world where kon never even existed... cant die if you never existed, idk what to tell you

///

The statue of Superman at the Justice League is giving Kon whiplash, because he’s pretty sure he used to have one that looked almost identical. Same material, similar pose, similar size. But this one is Superman – in a way, it reminds him of the future that never was. The one where he eventually became Superman, himself, instead of the mantle getting passed onto Jon, because of course it would pass onto Jon – Kon didn’t exist in this timeline until this year. ...Plus, that Kon-El Superman  went evil, so. Maybe best to leave this all to Jon.

The Superman memorial statue stands next to several others. The Justice League assembles once more just to reflect the bright sunny day off their gold silhoettes – and it's a perfect atmosphere for a funeral, he thinks sarcastically.

But in the bright, overwhelming brightness, for a second, Kon truly sees the statue as his own memorial statue. Reality shifts again, then, and it’s back to being Superman. 

He still feels dazed. Dizzy. 

Cassie reaches for his hand, and it grounds him. Kon lets out a breath, and now it’s hard to imagine he ever saw himself in this stupid memorial. 

It’s funny. Remembering his own statue, Kon should really be more traumatized by dying. And he totally was, he won't deny it messed him up – but the thing is, trauma sort of has a recency bias. And losing his entire dimension, having the world re-written without him, knowing none of his friends remember him – that’s also right up there with dying. Top ten worst moments of his short existence, and the list is pretty damn competitive. And it happened within the last year, compared to not actually remembering how long ago he died anymore.

He remembers the day and time, but who knows when it would've been in this dimension, seeing as it never happened at all. Can't die if you never existed.

Besides... However bad dying was, even if he never really processed that one or told his friends about it – at least his friends had been there for him afterwards. And at least his friends had grieved him. It's selfish (and Kon feels bad, but not that bad; he's always been little selfish with his friends' affection) – but he misses knowing they grieved him. Because it was solid, concrete proof that they’d loved him, that they'd missed him. Missed him to the point of real, genuine mental health crises, sure, and there's a lot to unpack about the particular ways Tim and Cassie grieved – but there was no questioning that they cared. That he had mattered enough to care about. 

...In this world, he didn’t even exist. 

His friends remember grieving him, now that they’ve met him. The spark is there; the realities crashed together and now his friends just remember two timelines. But that doesn’t change that there’s a timeline where he was never there at all. 

Sometimes, he wonders. With the amount of grief he gave them, do they look more fondly on the one where they never had a Superboy to mourn?

Cassie squeezes his hand again, forcing his attention outward. He must not react enough, because she bumps her shoulder against his, leans up and mouths 'Are you okay?'

Even Bart and Tim are looking his way now. Way to make a JLA funeral about you, Kon, he thinks. He gives a quick thumbs up, and tries to stop zoning out. There are speeches, after all. He should probably be taking notes on the eulogies. Given how the hero community keeps dying, he'll probably have to start writing them soon. If he doesn't get his own first, he thinks. If he even gets one. He hasn't left much of an impression yet.

Selfish, he thinks. Got to stop being selfish. Roll with the punches. This is the real world now. Considering it was rewritten without you in it, you should probably just be thankful to exist at all.

The speech ends, and Kon joins his hands together to clap along with the rest of the world.

[nitroish]

Hey have any favourite headcanons about Legend at all? How would the chain react when Legend tells them about his adventures (Specifically how he watched his uncle die, had to rescue his sister and was traumatised by soldiers?) Also they they definitely get arrested/captured at some point and Legend just straight up turns into a painting, leaves the cell and a few minutes later kicks the door open whistling while swinging the ring of keys around his finger lol. (Sorry about the long ask!)

this got kinda long sorry skjgkjfd long answer for a long ask!!! and idm long asks dw :)

this is all hc from here on out

i really like the hc that he has arthritis or some kinda pain in his bones!! both in his arms and legs tbh, hes done equal damage to them both over the years im sure. i also like the hc that he genuinely didnt know that koholint was a dream. for less angst? he loves eggs and rice, but the eggs gotta be not runny. he also likes curry !!! he and ravio would make it together and it was really fuckin good. he likes banana bread (cos koholint) and also pumpkin bread (specifically skyloft's).

for the reactions to some of the things during his adventures?? they would be fuckin horrified, probably. theyve all seen and heard some shit, definitely, and theyre all varying levels of disturbed about a lot of things they hear the others had to deal with. but they also can all tell when something Really fucked with whoever is talking about it, and those things in particular bother the chain more than some (some!!) of the other subjects. its not? fun?, for lack of better terms atm, to see someone still hurt over things. not in a "get over it already" way but in a "im sorry this happened to you" (and that its still affecting you) way.

in legends case? seeing his uncle in the sewer and having to Leave him there would bother him. never getting his guardians remains to bury properly? for a year? that haunted and continues to haunt legend always, even after his uncle was brought back by the triforce's wish. even if his reanimated uncle didnt blame him and said it was alright. even after he (sort of) got to bury his uncle the second time around.

that's a guilt you cant get rid of, at least not for him. its also not something a kid should have to deal with in general, and the chain would fucking hate that legend had to mourn his uncle twice, if he was even able to mourn and process his death at all during his adventure and before the next adventure.

warriors in particular would be pissed about the soliders thing, i think, and rightfully so. in general, too, not just from them literally hunting him and trying to kill him. all in all theyre shitty soliders, at least in my hc? its laughable, how shitty they are at their jobs. they wear armour and all that because its for show. they are there for the fame and glory. all the bark, none of the bite. in alttp the soliders only know one fucking method of battle each (spear, sword, bomb, etc), and that, to wars, is so fucking stupid and hilariously sad.

that, and theyre already fucking weirdos and assholish!!! in the literal games one of them says zelda smells nice and that it's what makes guard duty worth it. another one asks link if shes still as pretty as ever??? its fucking weird. some whine about having to do work, some slack off very obviously, and some just fucking zone out and dont pay attention. theyre not good fucking guards, man. (also link sneaks into the castle multiple times. sneaky, sure, yeah, but also the guard in front of the castle in alttp literally woulda seen legend walk to the garden on the side????)

its why, imo, they were controlled so easily so many times? theyre shit at their jobs and border on bad and weird already anyway. warriors wouldnt think they were honorable or whatever At All.

also the,,, them getting arrested is a little funny. nine armoured men, arrested. for what!!!!!! who knows. breaking out not recommended (very illegal!!!) but thats no fun <3. legend does it anyway.

"we outta here bois :)" "legend what the fuck"

[wlw-lovestruck-fiction]

“Vivienne x Mc, where Mc gets injured and falls unconscious and later Vivienne taking care?“

Pairing with:

Mc x Vivienne - QoT Mc was really close to an explosion during a heist, causing her to permanently loss her hearing. You can include the other members too because I want to see how will they handle future heist when one of their has been injured, how does Vivienne react? Will she let mc continue or not? And how does mc feel? Does she feel she cannot as much as before lost her hearing?

HEY... how do you think Vivienne would deal with a deaf MC? im deaf myself 😳😳 headcanons work if they're easier!

QOT MC gets caught up in the blast from one of Jett’s explosives, and now has severe burns acrros her face and other parts of her body along with slight deafness. Could I get a fic of Vivienne comforting her, and telling her she’s still beautiful? Thanks!

…

Warning: Writer’s first time writing a hard of hearing character.

TW: Panic attacks. Mentions of injury. Mentions of scarring.

Introspection-heavy fic.

…

The explosion was one of Jett’s finest work up to date.

Vivienne could feel it rattle her very bones, even though she was quite a distance away. The building crumbled easily and readily, becoming nothing but a sour-tasting memory. She nodded approvingly, letting out a small sigh in relief. There it went, up in smoke, all the incriminating evidence Benicio had gathered on them. And, as a bonus, most of his fake career.

“Ha! That was amazing!” Jett laughed, his voice bright with happiness, high with adrenaline. The rest of the Poppy soon joined in, albeit in less boisterous chuckles.

Coming down from the building she was in was child’s play. She abandoned Benicio’s unconscious body for the authorities to find, humming to herself as she made her way over to Leon, just barely paying attention to the conversation of the rest of the Poppy.

It doesn’t take long for her to notice that something is wrong. That something is missing.

She balances on top of the balcony she’s on, dread creeping over her body like lead, making her feel sluggish.

“Has anyone heard MC?”

The idle chatter stops. Vivienne can feel the shift in the atmosphere, can practically hear it become tense and chilly.

Amidst the muttered ‘no’ of the rest of the members, Zoe’s voice sounds surprisingly clear, a tinge of panic and worry that makes Vivienne lurch forward, desperate to reach the ground. “I lost her signal. Something must have happened!”

“But Benicio is out cold this time-”

“Nadia backed off, right? She couldn’t have-”

“And there is no way Francesca would-”

“Maybe,” Jett’s voice sounds hesitant, an echo of his usual self. “She got… caught by the explosion.”

Remy scoffs. “There’s no way that could have happened, MC knew the dangers!”

“Keep an eye out for the police, Zoe. We need to look for her,” Nikolai commanded, his voice as cold and hard as steel, immediately cutting through the panicked chatter.

Vivienne lets her teammates handle the distractions to stall the police a bit longer, her mind set only on making sure MC was all right. She hadn’t felt so frightened since everything that happened with Isadora, and she refused to let anything even remotely similar happen again. She couldn’t lose anyone precious to her. She couldn’t. One more person, and her soul would have been shattered beyond repair.

Not to mention, the whole issue with Benicio was her fault in the first place. If MC got hurt… god, if she got hurt…

“Ambulance! Can someone call an ambulance?”

Her head whipped around, eyes wide. There was a man shouting desperately a few meters away, making frantic motions to something behind him. Mouth dry, Vivienne relayed the situation to the rest of the Poppy. Her legs felt like jelly. She wondered if she’d crumble into an unrepairable mess when she got close enough, but no such thing happened. She moved forward as if possessed, dropping to her knees near two bodies. One was a small child, and the other was MC, cradling the child as if she was trying to protect him from the entire world.

They were both unconscious. Vivienne’s eyes trailed MC’s exposed skin, painted an angry red down to its very core, from her left shoulder down to her thigh. Her clothes were ruined, charred beyond recognition, sticking to MC’s body like a second skin. Vivienne’s first instinct is to throw her cape over her, just to cover the burns. Her hands are shaking so bad it proves to be quite the difficult task.

The child MC is holding seems fine, his burns less severe than MC’s, which eases Vivienne’s worry somewhat.

Jett was right. She had been caught up in the explosion.

…

“I had to pull a lot of favors to erase our trail, but at least the police won’t find us for a while. We can lay low while MC recovers.” Zoe informed them, a few nights later, exhaustion sipping from her like water out of a waterfall. Nikolai is in a similar state, sitting near Zoe by the couch, one hand covering his face and the other gripping his knee so tightly his knuckles are almost white.

“And the boy’s father?”

“He’s been trying to locate MC, but I don’t think we should worry about him. As for the boy, he’s much better than MC. His hearing wasn’t as affected, either. She really saved him…”

“Then again, if it hadn’t been for him, MC wouldn’t be like this in the first place.” Vivienne icily mutters, tightening her hold over her glass of wine. Nikolai and Zoe just give her a glance, too tired to pick a fight with her. “If he hadn’t rushed in recklessly-”

“He was scared, Viv.” Remy says, from somewhere in the kitchen. “He wasn’t thinking clearly.”

Vivienne’s scowl deepens. “Yes, but who runs into danger? You’d think the fire alarm would have gotten him to run the other way.”

“Someone who didn’t know there was going to be an explosion, that’s who.”

The seductress growls, a dark expression over her face, bitter frustration raging inside her like a chemical reaction about to explode. It just doesn’t make sense. Everything that boy had done that day was simply moronic, and MC – the angel she was, putting others before herself as she often did – had suffered dearly for it. The burns would leave scarring, no doubt; they had become angry red lines and spots that Vivienne mapped with a careful touch every time she had to apply the ointment the doctor had recommended. She had to watch how MC flinched at the contact, how she bit back a cry of pain, hiding it behind a shuddering smile and glistering brown eyes.

Vivienne couldn’t stop thinking about her expression. About how everything had changed, suddenly and without warning, all because of a boy. She can’t help but think about what Remy says and seethe in anger at the sheer absurdity of the boy’s actions, but she decides to stay quiet. The last thing the team needs is another fight.

Zoe speaks again after a few moments, voice soft.

“How is Jett?”

“He hasn’t left MC’s side,” Vivienne answers, after taking a deep breath. “His guilt is practically eating him alive.”

Zoe gives the couch a mournful, exhausted look, but gets to her feet nonetheless. “I’ll go check on him.”

No one blames Jett.

Ever since she had regained consciousness, MC’s sole focus had been on him. Vivienne didn’t mind. It felt relieving to walk inside her room and find them close, enjoying life, doing Art Club activities or laughing over some funny meme. Or, well, trying to. Jett’s laugh was muted, worried, tinted with sadness and regret; it was a sound that haunted Vivienne wherever she went, something that mirrored her own conflicted feelings. MC’s laugh was restrained and also wistful and a little distant. Sometimes she grimaced in the middle of it, her happiness crumbling in a burning flash of pain that made Vivienne’s heart clench and drop.

But they were trying. They were doing their best.

They would get through this. They all would.

…

Changes are inevitable. MC stands through it all like a stubborn rock holding its ground against a current, taking everything in stride. Vivienne had always found the artist fascinating, a fantastic enigma that Vivienne had foolishly thought she had cracked a long time ago.

MC always surprised her. After everything, Vivienne couldn’t help but feel awed by her. True, the first few weeks were hard, but MC had accepted her condition sooner rather than later, while Vivienne still cautiously danced around it, not sure what to think or feel or do.

MC had lost 65% percent of her hearing due to the explosion. Her left ear was slightly better, only at 50%, but the doctor had warned them she would lose more as the years went by. And while Vivienne had once again thrown herself into a bitter spiral of resentment against the boy, that damned boy, MC had pursed her lips with a determined expression and thrown herself into learning sign language and working around everything.

Everyone had agreed early on that MC couldn’t participate in heists anymore. She’d still be their forger, of course, but she’d stay with Zoe when the heist was underway.

“It’d be too dangerous,” MC had admitted, distractedly playing with the hem of her black jacket. She had this solemn look in her eyes, hollow and heavy with resignation, but it wasn’t defeated. It had this quiet intensity to it, like a volcano about to erupt; no one had dared to say anything as she explained. “I can’t even tell where sounds come from anymore, so I wouldn’t react properly to a threat.”

Vivienne couldn’t really wrap her mind around it. MC had described sounds as muted, fuzzy, distant, as if there was a giant wall of glass between her and the world, and on top of it she was underwater. Sounds simply became a cacophony in the background, nothing for MC to really pick apart. It was disorienting, at first, mostly because Vivienne hadn’t really fully processed everything yet.

Sometimes she would turn towards MC with her usual flair and dramas, all but spinning on the chair of her vanity like the typical movie villain, only to find MC engrossed on her work and not aware at all of the dramatic sigh Vivienne had delivered not two seconds ago. That was, perhaps, the biggest change. It didn’t take long for Vivienne to get used to it, no, but there had been something special in calling MC’s name from across the room and watching her reaction unfurl, be it an amused smirk or a heated stare.

MC carried on, not considering her hearing loss a disability at all. It made things different, but not impossible, something Vivienne had irrationally feared in the beginning. She loved MC and everything that entailed, be it scarring or hearing loss or grumpiness or that annoyingly stubborn personality of hers. There was no in-between, no extremes. There weren’t moments where Vivienne had loved her more or less. One day she had woken up to realize she had fallen hopelessly in love and she had never quite managed to get back up after that.

So these changes? Vivienne would accept them. Welcome them. No matter what.

…

The hearing aids helped. A bit.

MC had put them on, frowned for a second, and then beamed at Vivienne saying: “Oh, I can tell your voice apart from all the sounds now!” And that was it. No magically being able to hear everything again, no magically being able to pick apart the words. There was just a vague tone piercing a muted world, an anchor making lip-reading easier, but nothing else. Zoe had looked. Oh, how had she looked, but that was it. Everyone had accepted that. MC was just happy to her their voices again, however fuzzy they were.

Now, Vivienne could actually come sashaying into the room and call out to MC, and MC would look up and search for her – she still had a hard time telling where the sounds came from – and then roll her eyes with a fond smile at her girlfriend’s antics.

Something Vivienne had discovered about hard of hearing people: they listened. No, really. Somebody else would be distracted by something that happened around them, or would look at their phone or watch or hands or anything else before rejoining the conversation. Small things, really. MC didn’t do those anymore. Her attention was solely focused on whoever was speaking, watching their lips, interpreting their words. Or watching the signs, the body language, everything she could do to figure out what was going on and answer accordingly.

It was only at night that MC confided how difficult and exhausting and frustrating lip-reading was. The Poppy made an effort to sign, they had all gotten quite good at SSE, but sometimes they would go out and encounter somebody that didn’t know how to sign or somebody that wasn’t aware of what had happened to MC. It was all sort of situations, but MC took in stride.

“Baby?” MC’s drowsy voice cut through Vivienne’s thoughts. The pronunciation was a bit off, but charmingly so. MC had been horrified when Zoe commented on it, trying to correct it as soon as possible, but privately Vivienne didn’t really see why she worried so much over it. Her voice was beautiful no matter what. Or maybe Vivienne was just far too whipped. Hm.

She smiled against MC’s skin, feeling the heat of it call out to her like a siren’s song. She shifted a bit, so she could rest her head over MC’s chest, snuggling under the covers. It was a cold night, after all.

“Yes?” She mumbled, internally screaming in joy over the pet name. The vibration of her voice was all MC needed to know she was awake.

“I don’t think I’m up for seeing Jace tomorrow. Think we could reschedule?”

Vivienne hummed, toying with the thought. “I think so.” She finally drew the words on MC’s skin. Her fingers slid over the charred, dry zone that had been burned and she frowned a little, wondering if she should apply more ointment in the morning.

“Great.” MC said, softly. “And… we could… maybe we could watch a movie? There’s a new one that just began airing – I’ll ask Zoe for a subtitled version tomorrow.”

“Lovely.” Vivienne drew back.

“I love you.”

The little heart that was the seductress’ reply tingled in MC’s skin like invisible ink, pure and happy and warm like the first few rays of the sun, something that would linger for many days to come.

…

In the morning, as she had been doing this past month, the first thing she did when she woke up was straddle MC under her.

MC blinked owlishly, staring at her with a soft smile. She let Vivienne move over her, sighing contently at the soft touches from her lover. Vivienne made sure to stay in sight, so MC could see her lips.

With all that done, Vivienne began her worship.

Her hand cupped MC’s cheek, tracing the cheekbone down to the soft angle of her jaw, adoring. Long fingers then glided over her throat, down, down so she could move over her collarbones, one hand to the right, one to the left.

One hand slid over smooth, soft silk, while the other traveled against rough and dry edges carefully. MC’s eyes shifted at that, always hesitant over the marred skin, and Vivienne leaned down to place a kiss just above where the burns had been, as reverently as an astronaut would kiss the ground after months away from the Earth. She hovered there for a few seconds while her hand moved from MC’s shoulder to her side, finally coming to rest over her hip.

“You are beautiful.” She mouthed, leaning back. MC’s eyes flickered to her lips, catching the words, her smile stretching just a little bit more.

Vivienne continued, leaving a trail of kisses over that side, as she often did.

“These tell a story,” she said, and MC listened, brows knitted in concentration. “Of a brave woman that was too caring, and of a silly boy.”

MC starts to shake her head, aware of Vivienne’s resentment, but Vivienne is quick to place a finger over her lips to shush her.

“A silly boy,” she repeated, and for once her voice carried no venom. “That would have had a much difficult condition had that brave woman not intervened. These scars tell a story… and its outcome, filled with obstacles and changes and that one stubborn woman in the center of it all. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone more determined in my entire life. But here you are, MC, here you are…”

She shudders with delight, her smile widening even more. One of her hand comes up to rest over Vivienne’s heart, to feel the vibrations of her voice.

“A warrior, an angel. You are the sun my thoughts spin around, always, forever. You came into my life and gave me a reason to become the woman I am today. You are always so optimistic, so breathtakingly beautiful, with you I-” Vivienne cut herself off, remembering to breathe, to pace herself. MC gave her a grateful nod, her expression soft with affection. “With you I feel like I might soar. You’ve taught me so much. You’ve taught me how to be accepting. To accept mistakes. To not run from them. And now, you’ve taught me the importance of not giving up. I admire you, you know?”

Vivienne looked at the scars again.

“The story these tell… It’s awe-inspiring. I’ll look at them every morning and remember how strong you are. Beautiful isn’t perfect skin and perfect hearing. It isn’t daring heists and life on the edge. Beautiful is you, are you are now.”

The kiss they share is gentle, loving, pure.

[mt-words]

This post is my attempt at making sense of why people were dissapointed by c!Techno and c!Philza’s reactions to c!Tommy’s death yesterday and why their responses make sense both in character and in the meta.

I'm making it out of desire for understanding within the fandom. I tried to reach out to people who were upset with the reactions because the last thing I want is to strawman anyone, but if you feel like I misinterpreted or missed anything please feel free to add on in the comments. I’m not here to judge morality or anything, just to show why things make sense from each character’s point of view.

TLDR; cc!Philza and cc!Techno chose this reaction and they had meta reasons to do so. It’s ok for characters to process things in different ways. It makes sense from the characters points of view to have conflicting or negative feelings about c!Tommy. Head canons are awesome, keep drawing and writing whatever makes you happy! That said, the creators are the authority on their characters as canon goes. Please respect them.

(for this section all names refer to ccs unless otherwise specified) In Philza’s Friday stream he mentioned that he had put some thought into how his character would respond to c!Tommy’s death. Based on all the donation asks he’s been getting in relation to c!Tommy and his reactions, I think it’s safe to say Philza is tired of people seeing his character only as being a bad father for c!Tommy. If you listen to his reaction, before c!Ranboo breaks the news he clarifies who they’re talking about with “that chaotic child?” His reaction was chosen to try to help people recognize that any family relationship between the two is not canon.

This can be confusing. As someone pointed out to me yesterday, there are a lot of moments that make it seem like c!Philza and c!Tommy have an important relationship like the friendship emeralds and him checking on them after the butcher army execution. There are also moments from the same time period that make it seem like they are total strangers, such as c!Tubbo asking for his opinion on L’manburg and c!Philza saying he disagreed with some things their vice president was doing.

It feels to me like Philza was trying to leave things open so that Tommy had room to do whatever he wanted about their relationship, but because no one clarified and no defining actions were taken he decided that the only relation between their characters is knowing each other through c!Wilbur (which honestly makes the most sense for his choices). The actions he takes now are to solidify that choice, and it feels like I’m still getting mixed signals on Tommy’s end but I’m sure the creators will work it out between themselves. Whatever they decide on, I’ll just be enjoying the ride.

Also, Techno and Philza needed to react in similar ways or whichever one didn’t show grief the way people wanted was going to be attacked with the evidence of the others reaction used to show why they were a terrible person.

(after this point names refer to the characters unless specified) People have talked about reactions to grief far better than I can, so in relation to it being ok for the characters to have different reactions than what people might expect I give you three posts if you’re interested. Heads up, the tone of the second post is a lot more vitriolic than what I normally go for.

Neurodivergence in relation to grief and other reactions

Denial being a valid response to grief (with neurodivergent understanding thrown in)

The lines that people are quoting from their responses weren’t their first reactions. Niki, Philza, and Techno all initially responded with shock and disbelief.

The final point I want to talk about is that it’s understandable for the characters to have mixed or negative feelings about Tommy. Disclaimer, having negative feelings about someone doesn’t generally mean you should celebrate their death, but these reactions seem more to me like a mix of disbelief and “eh, it’s not my problem. Moving on.” Also take into account the linked posts.

As discussed, cc!Philza has chosen for his relationship with Tommy to be that he was a friend of Wilbur and Phil didn’t know him very well, but now that Tommy betrayed his best friend he doesn’t really care about him. Philza is ancient. He’s seen a lot of people die, it doesn’t make sense for him to have a super strong reaction to someone’s death if he doesn’t have much attachment to them.

Techno is a bit more complicated here, people were disappointed in his lack of mourning because we know he has genuinely cared about Tommy in the past. May I propose that that genuine care made Tommy’s betrayal (at least from Techno’s point of view) hurt worse? Technoblade shows that he cares about people through actions because it’s hard for him to open up and make himself vulnerable, especially to someone who (from his perspective) has already betrayed him in the past. He shows care by helping people survive and succeed, both giving them the tools to do so and fighting by their side.

On the day of the green festival he gave Tommy his axe as a sign of trust, defended him and his integrity from a large group of enemies, and was even willing to go after Dream to help him accomplish his goals. Within less than a minute of deciding he didn’t want to fight for the disks, Tommy left Techno to fend for himself from that same group of enemies and refused to give back the weapon that had been given to show trust saying that he was “worthy” of it. I think it was the best decision he could have made under the circumstances, but you have to understand how that looks to Techno. So yes, he cared, but every expression of that care was thrown back in his face the second he wasn’t useful (or that’s the reasoning Techno took from it, we can see that it was more because of Tommy’s care for Tubbo). Then when he confronted Tommy on Doomsday Tommy still brought everything back to the disks.

Since then they have only interacted through Tommy apologizing in a way that seems pretty insincere (from Technoblade's pov) as a distraction while stealing from Techno and the invitation to the hotel. People are always talking about character development, let Techno have more than two streams to try to get through all those complicated emotions. Of course he isn’t going to process all of this in front of two people he only recently started to trust.

We know that Tommy has regrets on how their relationship ended, but Techno doesn’t know that and even if he did it would make sense for him to have reservations.

I’m not trying to say anyone is a good person because of how they reacted, their failings make them interesting. This post was made out of genuine confusion that people expected or wanted different reactions from what we got. I hope this clears things up a little, please feel free to share your own opinions!

[backseatsiren]

A Dramatic Day

It’s been awhile since I’ve written here! There are a couple of reasons: first, my life has reached brave new heights of busy - I was promoted to Editor in Chief at work a bit over a year ago, and my responsibilities there obviously take a lot of time. I’m also teaching more courses than usual at Berklee (right now, one section of Film and TV and two of Game Design Principles), and, as usual, I’m training grappling on top of it all. Plus, naturally, the ambulance. I’m hitting my tour hours, and proud to do it, and as pumped as ever to be an EMT in this neighborhood.

I’m also... very, very, VERY slowly *actually writing a book* about all of this. I’ve begun interviewing a few fellow EMTs, mainly volunteers, about what it is we do. Because of how insane my schedule is, it’ll be a very long term project, and I can’t put any pressure to finish soon. But, especially through the pandemic, I’ve felt a desire to document and interview and report on the idea of volunteer emergency medical services in New York City, here in Brooklyn and Queens, and I think other folks might be interested in reading a bit about it.

But I’d like to get back into the practice of writing about calls and concepts and experiences. As always, I’ll respect patients and patient privacy, and will never reveal identifying information or anything inappropriate.

Today was a fairly busy day, but it started with a bit of a dramatic call. We were called to an unknown, and flagged down by a bystander. A man called us over and told us that he saw a man lying on the train tracks (a less-used track, not the subway or commuter rail or anything). He said he regularly feeds a colony of feral cats there, and noticed the gentleman lying down the way.

We thanked him and high tailed it over, yelling out to him (the usual “sir are you ok?”). My more experienced (many, many years in EMS, including at a much higher level of certification) partner took a look at him and said “he might be dead” and began looking forward a pulse. He went for more help (another ambulance was arriving and they needed to be directed over, the physical layout of the space was weird), and he instructed me to look for a pulse. I did, and found nothing. My other partner (a newer EMT, just cleared for CC status, who I also love working with), said “he’s cold to the touch.”

It was raining lightly. The tracks were a little slick, and there was some litter. It’s early may, and the grass had that beautiful sheen on it, that it gets in the rain. Weird things, visual and sense memory things, are coming back as I write about it.

He was lying down on his face on the tracks. I checked for a carotid pulse again and felt nothing. I checked his hands - they were closed and held tight. Rigor Mortis. I checked his arms, his coat, his clothing, careful not to mess with anything, but looking for lividity. He was bleeding from his face, and, on inspection, his face was very clearly badly injured, bruised, and bloated. I was wearing an N95, but even so, you could smell that he was deceased.

I told my more experienced partner that when he arrived with the other crew. We inspected the scene - noting a shovel and some other tools. There was a little encampment nearby - possibly where this man lived. Beer and food in a little shelter.

It certainly looked like foul play was possible. I learned a few minutes later (on my next call) that the cops did start an investigation there.

As one of the other EMTs from the other crew noted, it was “like a movie scene.” Something about the rain and the light, the way the blood pooled, the way the ants crawled around in it... was surreal. It may have been my less experienced partner’s first DOA when they were first on the scene (it wasn’t mine, but it was certainly the first *outdoor* DOA where I’ve been first and had to help establish that). It was my first suspected murder scene.

And yes, it was deeply sad. There’s some initial adrenaline, for me, in every call. There would be more on my other calls today. There is a voice in my head that repeats a lot of the basic instructions and goes through scenarios: “ABCs” (a note to always prioritize airway, breathing, and circulation). I think about what happened in any given situation and what I should do for my patient. I look for threats to everyone’s safety. And when I can breathe and get a clearer picture of what’s going on, that’s when I can start to process things a bit.

We covered him with a clean sheet from the ambulance and did all the things we needed to do. We talked about it a little, after the call. But I always need to think about things for a few hours after, which is what I’m doing here, by writing about it a bit.

I’m a deeply, empathetic person. I feel for my patients. The call I’m about to talk about - the very next call - required that of me in a different way. But in this scenario, I want to first do everything right for the person and situation, and next, be as respectful as humanly possible. This poor man died - was very probably killed - and was left outside in the rain. I don’t know much about his life, and very little about his death. The whole scenario is very sad, and very surreal.

Every time I’ve had a dead patient, it’s stuck with me. I don’t think I’ll ever forget my first, a woman who very probably died of a heart attack or in her sleep, and her son found her. He was mourning. He was on top of the body, hugging her, crying “I’m sorry, mommy,” and there’s... I guess there’s nothing on earth like that. Nothing like that kind of pain. People, as a rule, do not expect to see their loved ones deceased, and when we do, we usually have a ceremony for it.

I’m just a bystander to that. I can do nothing to help the deceased person, and very little for a mourning loved one, besides being a respectful, empathetic human presence. For my deceased patient today, all we could do was establish that he was dead and do the proper things to ensure his remains would be taken care of (and his death investigated).

My next call was very different, but it was heavy in a different way. We got a call for, basically, a suicidal young woman. We arrived, with PD, to her door. The officers assessed things to an extent, but she revealed that she had been traumatized by police in the recent past, and didn’t want any police in her home. I talked with her calmly, and was able to relieve the cops and take this one, with my partner.

We listened to her. She had obviously been through some extreme trauma and needed mental health resources. I won’t reveal any details here, but I had to keep assuring her that I had no handcuffs and wasn’t interested in taking her against her will. She was terrified of being taken somewhere she didn’t want to go, and I basically sat calmly with her and talked to her about her options. Just talking. Just listening.

This is a case, like a patient a couple of years ago, where I’m very happy to take my time. I’m a volunteer, man. I’m not grinding through a shift for miserable pay, as most EMTs are - I’m here because I frankly want to be useful in this manner.

And I’m happy to sit with a person going through emotional hell, because this is what I can help with. I’m five years into being an EMT with RVAC. I do this 2-3 shifts per month, so I’ll never be the fastest, best, EMT in NYC. But I can be the most patient EMT, and I can give plenty of extra time to a person.

I’m not a therapist, and I don’t pretend to be. That’s what I told her - first, that I’m not a cop, I don’t have cuffs, I have no interest in taking her if she’s of sound mind and doesn’t want to go. Then, second, that I’m no doctor, and no therapist, and that I want her to have resources if she needs them.

We talked more, and did more vitals, and she decided she wanted to come to a mental health facility. We explained every step of the process to her, and what she could expect, and what to bring.

Do I wish I was an actual therapist who could help this girl right away? Yeah. Do I wish I had the ability to make mental health policy that provides good, effective, supportive therapy to all human beings who need it? Yeah. Do I wish I could do better for her than an ER with psych specialists? Where she could easily get lost in the cracks or simply never connect with what she truly needs? Yeah.

I can only take her to a place where people are at least trained to assess her and offer her further resources. I can only hope they actually can help, and do so.

I had another call where we did a bit of *psychological first aid* not long after that. A dramatic scene! A young woman fainted at work at a store, and several people were surrounding her and holding her at the scene! Folks were holding her hands and crying.

It looked wild at first glance, but our patient was completely ok - we got her out, had medics assess her completely, and brought her to the ER while assuring her parents that things looked ok. Her mother was extremely upset, and we had a bit of a language barrier, but we were able to assure her and let her know things looked ok, that her child had very promising vitals and EKG readings, and we just needed the ER visit to make sure.

The medics helping us out were INCREDIBLE. They offered a full walkthrough for us of what was going on physiologically with her and gave a very helpful tip on scenes like that - give bystanders little jobs (just simple stuff, like holding the door, or looking for something like a towel) to do! It helps (caring, kind, just want to help) folks feel helpful when they get scared, especially in dramatic-looking situations.

A lot of drama today. A lot of learning. I felt really good about taking charge with my psych patient and helping her to feel safe and able to make her own decision. Im glad we were able to help our young fainting patient. And as much as it’s heavy, I’m glad I was at least on scene today for our first call. I know I can do nothing but confirm obvious death, but, I take some heart in the kind bystander who called for him (the gentleman who feeds cats nearby).

At least someone cared enough to try.

I’m forever grateful for my partners, for the folks who have taken the time to teach me (back when I was VERY green and still, to this day, as I am learning every single shift), and for the patients who trust me to do my best for them. 

I noticed today, this month marks five years of doing this, with my volunteer corps. I can only hope I learn more and become a more effective EMT as I go.

[nimsajlove]

Calling home

Waxer never had his chance to return to Numa, but with Ahsoka as an independent General he, at least, can call home and take a look at his big vod’ika.

Brothers-AU  Ao3

“Coming home”

*~*

"Let's pack up!", Ahsoka shouted over the noise of the camp and closed the hatch of the quarters next to her. Some men clapped sporadically, others grabbed things without wandering around and seemed to draw fresh energy in the process. The mood was much better than in the last few days, it conjured up a smile on Ahsoka's face as well. Nobody of them liked, to be stuck at a place for too long.

She was lifting a crate into the air and getting it onto one of the gunships, when someone tapped her shoulder. Fives. "What's up?", she asked and put down the box, her brother pushed the holoprojector into her hand. He smiled but was silent. Sighing, she gripped the projector tighter. Well, she hadn't expected any leaps of joy from him lately... She switched on the little device and gave the Admiral a friendly smile. "I have a request from Commander Cody, I'll put it through." A heartbeat later, the image of the clone flickered, what did Cody want from her? Was he going to claim his favor? "Hey, what can I do for you?", she grinned and Cody on the other end shrugged in amusement. Fives the same, he was still standing next to her and watched over her shoulder, it warmed her heart that he showed interest in what was happening. "I want to ask you for a little favor." "So you want to claim my guilt?", she asked teasingly, but found less humor than before. Cody's figure sagged a little, he shook his head. “No, it's not for me. For Boil.” Ahsoka looked down and rubbed her temple absently, she knew Boil. She had known Waxer too, he had fallen on Umbara and she had to admit that Boil hasn't been the same since. It was like Fives after Echo was gone. Her heart contracted a little before it skipped a beat and continued, slightly accelerating. In her memory, she hadn't done the slightest enough for her brother back then. So if she could help someone else now... 

"What do you need?" She asked softly and pulled back a little, Fives like a shadow behind her. Cody visibly relaxed and took off his helmet, looking tired. “Could you make a stop on Ryloth? I would take care of it myself, but...” He broke off and raised a hand helplessly. Ahsoka nodded, knowing the troops had their hands full. The war had picked up speed and Cody couldn't go on a little trip alone. Even if she wasn't dying to return to Ryloth. Maybe it would help her too, to see the planet rebuilt and peaceful. "Who should I look for?“, she asked. “Numa, a girl. Turquoise Twi’lek. She was connected to Waxer and Boil and I thought it would help him, to hear from her. They had promised her, to come back.” His voice fell silent and although she had never seen Cody cry or mourn, she recognized the hunched shoulders and the tilt of his head. Appo had been bowed as well after each loss. The instinct to protrect her brothers kicked now fully in. "I'll take care of it, don't worry."

*~*

The equipment was not fully unloaded when Ahsoka was already preparing a smaller ship. She waved Rex over to her, Fives was still her shadow and hadn't dared to take his eyes off her. She wasn't sure why, but she couldn't find any reason to send him away either. “Rex, I'll fly a little detour. The cruiser should take the normal route to the next system.”, she instructed as she climbed around on the ship and made a few final checks. In her time as a pilot, she really appreciated having seen everything for herself before a flight. She was already expecting questions to which she didn't necessarily had an answer. But Rex just nodded. “I know, Cody called me. May I suggest, that you take Fives with you?", he called up to her and elegantly she swung herself back on the floor, briefly patted her hands on her pants and then looked over at Fives. "If you want to. It would be lovely.", she smiled and Fives grinned back. "I would have come with you anyway, after the whole thing one of us owes it Waxer.", he explained and Ahsoka saw out of the corner of her eye, how Rex’s fingers twitched briefly. She put her hand on his soothingly, guilt was out of place here. "It's okay.", she mumbled and the Captain nodded curtly, two seconds passed until he had recovered. One thing was certain, she would never lead her men to Umbara again. Most of them were at risk of having seizures just by the name. She would probably never understand the horror.

*~*

She set out with Fives, Ryloth was reached quickly. Without the battle over the planet, it actually looked peaceful and somehow beautiful. They landed and with a sigh, Ahsoka dug out her datapad, it contained the old reports from von the battle for Ryloth. The coordinates of Kenobi's first point of action were found quickly, they were not far away and Ahsoka got up. "Well then, if we go now, we will reach the city before dark.", she smiled and Fives got up too, in silence he pulled the helmet over his head and grabbed one of the packed backpacks. She took over the other and together they left the ship.

They walked side by side in silence for a few minutes, then Ahsoka couldn't stand it any longer. She understood that Fives preferred to keep quiet. But she missed his voice so much! "You don't have to do this.", she muttered and Fives shrugged his shoulders, he smiled slightly. “I know, but I've heard a lot from the kid and I think it might help Boil. He has no one left. I don't know what I would have done without the others.", he explained and gave her a warm look, again there was brief silence. She, too, had heard a lot about Numa; Waxer had proudly worn her on his helmet. Maybe it would really help Boil. Besides, Numa deserved someone to tell her about the soldier's death. She didn't know how she would feel, if she happened to find out that one of her brothers was dead by accident.

Finding the city wasn't a challenge, but Numa was. Most of the villagers could only speak the local dialect and ignored her and Fives. Annoyed, Ahsoka gave up after two attempts to ask for directions. She should have listened to Master Kenobi closer, when he told her about foreign languages. "And what now?", she huffed and looked up, the sun slowly sinking towards the horizon. "At least we will need a place to stay.", Fives mumbled next to her and together they walked a few steps, the wide main street was still busy and full of twi’lek. She was just looking around when the hand on her arm came out of nowhere. It was a girl, almost a young woman, who had grabbed her wrist. Fives next to her tensed and took half a step towards the stranger before Ahsoka calmly raised her hand. "It's okay.", she smiled at him and the Twi’lek tugged lightly on her arm. She was babbling something, a great flood of words. And in the middle of it all, a name, Numa. "Numa?", Ahsoka asked and the girl broke off, then nodded and pointed in a direction. Finally someone who could help them. "That way?", Ahsoka asked and pointed with a palm in the same direction, the girl nodded affirmatively and went ahead. There wasn't much left for the Jedi and the clone to do but follow.

The way was not far, they stopped in a narrow alley and the girl pushed open a door before letting the other two in. It was cooler inside than on the street and a lamp gave off its light pale. The girl called out a little louder, another voice answered from the top of a staircase next to them. Then the slim figure came down to them, the turquoise Twi’lek was no longer a small child. More like a teenager, she glanced at her guests and then shook her head. A few words were exchanged between the two girls, words Ahsoka couldn't understand. "Are you Numa?", she asked and the two Twi’lek fell silent. "Yes, I am.", the older one answered and nudged the other one lightly on the shoulder, she was quickly gone up the stairs. "But who are you?", she asked carefully and pointed to a table with a couple of chairs. She and Ahsoka sat down, Fives stood behind the Togruta and simply put down the backpack. "I'm Ahsoka Tano, this is Fives.", Ahsoka introduced themself and Numa looked down thoughtfully. “So Waxer isn't coming back? And neither is Boil? Are they dead?”, she asked, her voice calm and controlled. As if she had been waiting for this day, knowing it was coming. And Ahsoka couldn't lie to her. “Waxer fell on Umbara, yes. Im sorry.“

There was a second of silence, Numas eyes where squeezed shut, when Ahsoka spoke up again. „But we're also coming because of Boil.", she explained and rummaged in her backpack next to her, smiling, she pulled out the long-distance transmitter and placed it on the table before she switched it on and entered a number. Nothing happened for a while, then a figure appeared. "Hey Cody, I've arrived.", Ahsoka announced and Cody didn't hesitate long, he seemed to be tapping onto something. "Give me a second." he said and then turned around and pulled someone into the picture.

"Nerra!" The exclamation almost knocked Boil off his feet and he swayed briefly, before Cody grabbed his elbow and held him upright. "Numa..." He smiled, Ahsoka could hear it. She looked over at Fives, he too had a small smile on his face and she got up. Satisfied, she hooked her arm under his and they went outside with the backpacks. Sighing, they sat down on the slightly dusty floor in front of the house and Ahsoka leaned back against her brother. Fives wrapped an arm around her and whenever they heard Numas laugh, they both smiled into the darkness.

[kaediisarchive]

Final thoughts on the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie.

LOTS of spoilers under the cut! Do not look at this post if you don’t want to see spoilers!

And remember, this is all just my opinion. It’s not like an actual in-depth review because I’m not a film student; this is just my perspective on what I saw as a fan of this franchise.

POSITIVE

Sub-Zero and Scorpion were great. Opening fight was great.

“Eddy Tobias” namedrop lmao

I love the snow preceding Sub-Zero’s attack. Very foreboding.

Score is AWESOME. My favorite soundtrack is probably the one that plays when Sub-Zero is attacking them in the city towards the beginning.

Sonya rigging her house with a secret bunker and trap doors is smart and fits her character.

I like that the dragon logo has an integral meaning to the story.

Loved Jax vs Sub-Zero. Not mad about the origin change of Jax’s arms. I like that he had to work through his feelings of inadequacy and failure; people don’t just immediately bounce back after something that traumatic. I also like that his arcana manifests to protect Sonya rather than in the heat of battle. It shows his emotional priorities and what separates him from people like Kano who manifest their arcana in a fit of rage.

Sonya “Throw Hands on Sight” Blade lmfao. They nailed her fighting style too and I am happy.

Kano is the best thing about this movie. No competition.

Kotal reference!

Nightwolf reference!

Shang Tsung’s soul magic being black and wispy and foreshadowing Noob Saibot.

KANO DID THE HEART RIP

CHEKOV’S GNOME I’M SCREAAAAAAMMMMIIIIIINNNNGGGGGG

I love Liu Kang in this. He is 1000000% a Wholesome Boi. I like that he’s younger and unhardened and not the fully realized champion version of his character yet. Let him grow into it so it feels earned later on. I like that he’s the underdog, and I like what they’ve set up for him in the future. Also, the casting for him was perfect and they nailed his fighting style, too.

That little “the FUCK” that the Kano actor improvised(?) in the middle of Liu Kang’s lines made me laugh more than it should have. I don’t know why that moment got to me so much but it did.

I love Kung Lao. And they nailed his fighting style, too! Great to see variation that represents the characters (though there were less shining examples, which I’ll touch on later).

LOW SWEEP! LOW SWEEP! LOW SWEEP!

Egg roll scene is best scene.

Kabal! I love his dry humor. And his voice reminds me of Duke Nukem, which I’m not mad about. It complemented his dialogue well.

Not mad about Kung Lao’s death because it was meaningful. His fatality on Nitara was sick, too.

Liu Kang taking the ribbon from Kung Lao’s hat and wearing it in his honor, giving an origin for his signature headband is FANTASTIC.

THE PIT!

FLYING BICYCLE KICKS!

LIU KANG’S DRAGON FATALITY!

SONYA’S ENERGY RINGS!

Sub-Zero was a GREAT final boss. They really built him up appropriately to make him feel like it.

Scorpion’s fatality! And his skull face!

NEUTRAL

Not sure how I feel about Sub-Zero being wholly evil and there being no involvement from Quan Chi. It’s more straight forward for sure. It makes him an interesting (and badass) character, and I’m really behind this portrayal in that he is one of the most believable characters in the movie, but I’m not sure if I like the implications for later films in how this has simplified the dynamic in the entire Shirai Ryu vs Lin Kuei plotline. Having Quan Chi be the Machiavelli was always one of my favorite MK twists. And how do we eventually end the feud now? If Bi-Han / the Lin Kuei were wholly responsible, why should Hanzo EVER make peace with Kuai Liang down the line? The complexity feels like it’s been stripped down a bit, but I do love this iteration of Sub-Zero. I truly do. That’s why this is in the neutral category and not the negative XD.

Why didn’t Jax tell Cole when he saw the mark? Why wait until his family gets attacked? Maybe he didn’t want to do it in front of his family to keep them out of it, but that ends up endangering them more. Not a gripe, just a curiosity.

Sound editing was a bit too intense at times for my taste. I have tinnitus, so...big boomy bass with very mild voices is a chore for my ears to switch between. My ears were ringing within the first twelve minutes.

Torn between “fuck you Reiko” and “Reiko deserved better”. He deserved just a little bit better, but Skarlet says “get fucked” anyway.

I don’t like the “shaky cam” used in the fight scenes. Not my cup of tea. Very hard to visually process at times.

Whatever cosmic force is picking the champions for Earthrealm is doing a shitty job at it.

Why did they change the location of the Sky Temple to a desert? Again, not a gripe, a curiosity.

“We will not see another full moon before the tournament begins” THEN WHERE IS THE TOURNAMENT BUDDY???

Not sure how I feel about the “arcana” concept. It’s an okay plot device but kinda hammy.

Kitana’s fan! But why? Why is it there? I could understand the Kotal and Nightwolf references because Sonya has been researching, but why is Kitana’s fan randomly in an Earthrealm temple? Purely cheap fanservice.

Nitara was really cool. Shame she had to die, but her death was cool and there have to be some characters that get killed off. Wish she had more screentime though; feels like another instance of fanservice just having her show up basically as a namedrop and a quick kill.

The phrase “Are you okay?” was said WAY too much in this film. So much that I actually notices how often it was said, and I usually don’t pick up on these things.

Pretty sure a camera operator fell at one point in a Sonya scene because the camera jerked around violently all of the sudden then stabilized. Whoops.

How did Sub-Zero know to take Cole’s family to the gym? WHY did he take them there?

NEGATIVE

Opening scene was awesome, but it’s emotional impact felt stunted. I feel like the order of events should have been twisted a bit. Hanzo find his wife and son should have been the big emotional climax of the scene, but it felt like a passing moment and gave him no time to mourn and no time for the impact to truly set in with me. It was an “oh no they died” moment instead of an “ OH MY GOD THEY DIED THIS IS SO FUCKED FUCK YOU SUB-ZERO” moment. I dare say that the Legacy web series did it better in spite of their lower budget and overall quality; the series of events had better pacing and gave more emotional impact because of it. I said what I fucking said don’t @ me.

Wish we got more Scorpion. I love Sanada, I love him as Scorpion, but they didn’t give us the time we needed with his character to truly get a grasp of him.

Cole Young is like white bread in a parade of decorative cakes.

Raiden, a normally passionate and protective character whose fatal flaw is that he involves himself too much in events because he cares about the people in his realm and ends up fucking things up because of it, now seems to not care in the slightest. He feels completely uninvolved save for an occasional pop in to give a nod of disapproval. I don’t like this unemotional take on one of the most emotional characters in Mortal Kombat.

Small complaint from my perspective as a martial artist but uh...”Throw your uppercut!” was a bullshit line in a bullshit scene. If you’re locked up with someone like that and the guy has his arms around your neck, you physically cannot uppercut. You cannot fit your arms between his arms because they are cinched tightly around your shoulders/neck. YOUR HEAD is between your fist + bicep and HIS HEAD. In that situation, the guy has also left his body completely unguarded, so the most logical thing to do since you CANNOT reach his head is to go for BODY BLOWS. Beat him until he lets go to protect himself, catch his floating rib with double strikes, or punch the dude in his fucking liver as hard as you can to DROP HIM. Cole is supposed to be an experienced fighter, yet he makes one of the most rookie mistakes a fighter could ever make. Normally I wouldn’t care to point out mistakes in fight choreography or whatever because it’s MK and I expect ridiculousness, but this is the WRONG kind of ridiculous. It’s just NONSENSE.

I have SO MANY issues with Mileena. I’ll make this as short as I can. I don’t like the design of her mouth. I don’t like her weird stacked voice. She shows NO personality, not in her acting or even her fighting style, just an evil minion that got angry because she almost got her ass kicked. The turned one of the principle characters of the entire franchise and a fan favorite into a GRUNT. There is NO mention of Kitana outside of literal “fan”-service. Not even a reference to one of the most important plotlines in all of Mortal Kombat. And then they KILL HER OFF!!! When they do inevitably bring in Kitana WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY GOING TO DO SINCE THEY KILLED OFF MILEENA???? I’m heated and biased and they did my girl dirty.

Speaking of doing characters dirty, poor Reptile. They turned him into an actual animal. What a waste.

Why are they so mean to Sonya if she doesn’t have a mark? She wouldn’t be as much of a “liability” if they would take the time to prepare her and teach her how to defend against fighters that have unlocked their arcana. Mind-numbingly stupid logic.

This movie relies A LOT on prerequisite knowledge to work. It’s like they want fans to fill in the blanks for them. But not everyone watching is already a fan; this isn’t an obscure release, this is a blockbuster movie released worldwide. These gaps in lore and prior knowledge don’t make sense for such a broad audience.

Cole Young literally could have just been Johnny Cage.

Where was Raiden when his temple was being assaulted?

Cole’s arcana is LITERAL PLOT ARMOR IM FUCKING DONE

No but for real that’s the most boring decision they just ripped off Jax’s MK11 heater effect and Baraka’s blades (I know they’re tonfa and they aren’t attached and I DON’T CARE). Also, now he’s suddenly good at fighting again? After being dog shit this entire movie??? And tanks Goro?????

If Raiden is an Elder God in this continuity, why is he allowed to help Earthrealm AT ALL? It seems like favoritism and bends the rules that the Elder Gods are supposedly bound by way too much. They really just shouldn’t have made him an Elder God; I honestly think they just said it to introduce the concept without a fuck given towards the actual lore of the Elder Gods.

WHY DID RAIDEN TELEPORT KANO TO SONYA’S HOUSE AFTER HE BETRAYED THEM I HAD TO REWATCH THAT SEVERAL TIMES TO MAKE SURE I JUST SAW WHAT I SAW  WHAT THE ACTUAL NONSENSICAL FUCK

Cole REALLY should not have been involved in that last fight. Especially not after Scorpion shows up. It should have been Scorpion vs Sub-Zero ONLY for the final fight. Cole tag-teaming Sub-Zero with Scorpion cheapens Scorpion’s revenge.

Camera work in the final fight was not good, especially in the first portion. At one point Cole gets thrown into a fence, but it cuts to an awkward inverse angle that makes him look like he’s bouncing off of a trampoline. This continues to happen and ruins several shots for me.

Honestly Scorpion should have just possessed Cole. Permanently. No switching back and forth. No more Cole, only Scorpion.

PREDICTIONS

Lots of dead characters come back as revenants and / or with upgrades.

Kano comes back with cyber eye.

Mileena comes back with full teeth.

Liu Kang becomes MK champion, wins tournament, and kills Shang Tsung. As it should be.

Cole Young helps Liu Kang become champion somehow idk maybe he sacrifices himself or something just please don’t make Cole the champion I will start a riot.

Next movie will start IMMEDIATELY at the tournament since there was supposedly less than a month until the tournament starts in this movie.

New characters coming in will be Kitana, Shao Kahn, Jade, Quan Chi, Kuai Liang, Noob Saibot, Ermac, and Johnny Cage.

OVERALL

This movie was good, bloody fun! It’s not an A++ Oscar-winner, but if you expected that going into it, you played yourself. It was Mortal Kombat; it was stupid, it was gory, and I had a blast watching it. Kano and Liu Kang were the best parts of the movie for me, with Scorpion and Sub-Zero tied for third. Also I popped a lot for the cheap nostalgia hits. I’m overall satisfied with what we got in spite of my complaints, and I only complain so in-depth about the things I love lmao so trust me when I say I’m not actually mad, just nitpicky. I’ve watched it twice now, and I would watch it again. It’s like a 6.8/10 for me.

[lesbianrobin]

Im asking this based on your previous ask where you mentioned which season did you like steve the most - why do you think he was happier in S3? Hes still at the same point he was in the end of the season as he was in the beginning...if anything i guess he'd actually be worse given that hes now gonna carry even more trauma with the whole 'tortured by Russians' incident. (Not that the duffers would actually address that trauma...)

fair question! i have a few reasons.

the simplest of course is that steve essentially says it himself. in "the bite," steve tells robin that he's laughed more that summer than he has in a long time. while steve is still undeniably in a rough place in s3, he's been enjoying himself and having fun with robin in a way that he hasn't up until this point.

beyond that, steve is also far more free, more himself in s3, and he has personal connections that he never had before. in s1, he's constantly making excuses for tommy and carol, concerned about upholding his image. even though he wasn't classically miserable, it was clear that he was essentially resigned to a life of cleaning up after friends who didn't care about him and trying to please his father until nancy entered the picture. we seem to leave him in a good spot in s1, until s2 rolls around and shows us the truth of it.

steve's being bullied by his former best friend and the new kid in town, he's incredibly paranoid following the events of s1, he's insecure about his academic capabilities and preparing to follow a career path he doesn't want (working for his father) because he thinks it's all he's capable of. s2 makes things worse for steve by yanking the rug out from under him, leaving him heartbroken and without friends. he does find a new sense of fulfillment in mentoring dustin by the end, but when we leave him he's clearly still heartbroken over nancy.

in s3, however, we see that steve and dustin have become incredibly close. steve goofs around with dustin unashamedly (the handshake!!! the fucking handshake!!!!!) and it's clear that he isn't just hanging out with dustin out of any guilt, pity, or obligation. he genuinely enjoys dustin's company! i won't act like steve is in a great place in life in s3. he's upset and insecure about his academic and romantic failures, mourning the loss of the prestige he enjoyed back in high school. s3, though, is the first time that steve's fully honest about these issues, the first time that his instinct isn't aggressive defensiveness, the first time that he's able to just be frank about how he feels and what he wants.

in s1, he owns up to being an asshole and apologizes, but none of the issues raised (his problems with his father, tommy accusing him of running away "like he always does") are really explored or acknowledged in any way by steve. he's desperate not to get in trouble with his dad, but once it happens he plays it cool and acts like it's no big deal. he likes nancy a lot, and tries to play it cool, but when he believes that she's cheated on him, he gets incredibly upset and lashes out at her and jonathan. in s2, we see some of that same prickly defensiveness return after nancy tells him he's bullshit. he makes a snarky comment about jonathan being her other boyfriend, all venom, but once he's cooled off a little he goes to her house with flowers to apologize, even though he knows that nancy's the one who hurt him and he isn't sure what he's apologizing for. steve can't bring himself to outright say that nancy really hurt his feelings and ask her for an honest conversation about what's going on. all he can manage is either lashing out in anger or ignoring his own pain to try and preserve the relationship.

which brings me to s3. near the very beginning of the season, we see steve trying to bullshit to some girls about how he isn't going to college by choice, and robin asks why he doesn't just tell the truth. steve says that the truth is that he's a loser, he couldn't even get into tech, and his dad is making him work a shitty minimum wage job to teach him a lesson. yeah, he's unhappy. i'm not going to try and say that steve's jumping for joy in that moment. i do think, however, that the simple act of him laying out his problems so cleanly to a friend is a good thing, and i think he's genuinely a happier person, even for all the trauma and misfortunes. steve's unhappiness in s1 and s2 was a type of quiet stress and misery in which he was playing a role, a constant charade with no end in sight, desperate not to lose his friends or his reputation or his girlfriend. in s3, though he has lost all of these things, he gains something else: freedom.

he finds freedom in robin. he does favors for the kids and goofy handshakes with dustin right in front of her without care for how it makes him look. she makes him laugh. there's an argument to be made that steve might have intentionally been bombing with girls to make robin laugh in return. he tells her how he's feeling, the truth of it, admitting his feelings for her in a way he never quite did with nancy, discussing his feelings about his high school persona with her in a way he's never done before, admitting his insecurities as well as being a little vain about his hair without fear of rejection or disproportionate ridicule. he finds freedom in dustin, too, as well as a sort of confidence. dustin likes him and looks up to him for the person that he truly is. he lets himself be a little goofy with dustin, lets himself be neurotic and a mother hen and a big brother and a best friend.

more than freedom he also just finds joy and love with them!! hell, robin loves steve and wants him around enough to give keith a whole sales pitch so that they can work together! dustin fuckin killed a guy for him!

i just think that, for all that steve has his issues during and after s3, he also finally has a little support network, he's finally processing his emotions and communicating in a healthy way, and he's genuinely enjoying himself in his daily life than he ever did in s1-s2! thanks for asking :)