#i am tired but satifsied

[chaoticbreadcrumbs]

HAVIK EXPLAINED

⚠️SPOILERS⚠️

Thanks to the previous games Havik set himself up as a strong, very intriguing figure when it comes to his lore, firm beliefs, his iconic terrifying appearance, and unpredictability. After many years and not being involved in the MK games, the character's potential was revived as Havik took a pivotal turn in Mortal Kombat 1, establishing himself as the hero, the anti-hero, and a villain in the game's new era yet again but this time even more distinctly. His actions in the game shaped his character arc and laid significant groundwork for future narratives within the MK universe. Today I decided to explore Havik's appearances throughout the Mortal Kombat franchise.

Havik's original design was intended for Noob Cybot as an alternative skin in Mortal Kombat 4 but was scrapped. 🎮

Havik's beta name was "Skab." 🧪

Havik was first introduced in 2004's Mortal Kombat: Deception. 🕹️

Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004):

Havik originates from the Chaos Realm. 🌀

Havik is a cleric of chaos who is very protective of his home and culture. 🌪️

He seeks to spread chaos across the Realms. 🔥

He is approached by Shujinko, a supposed Earthrealm emissary of the Elder Gods, who seeks guidance from him to obtain the Kamidogu of Chaos. 🌍

Havik agrees to help Shujinko if he helps him defeat the Seidan Guard invaders (Order Realm), who have invaded the Chaos Realm and are trying to control and alter its water (which was worshipped by Chaos Realm inhabitants because of its shapeless, malleable, impossible-to-control form). ⚔️

Havik teaches Shujinko the ways of chaos and gives him the keys to obtain the Kamidogu of Chaos. 🗝️

Havik plays an active role in the events of Mortal Kombat Deception, as he sees the rise of Onaga as a threat to the Realms. 🐉

Havik wants to obtain Onaga's heart as it possesses the power to raise the dead. 💀

Havik, seeing Kabal as a valuable ally, nurses him back to health and convinces him to reform the Black Dragons. 🐲

Havik seeks out others to assist him in his cause, but it is unknown how much of a part he plays in Onaga's downfall. 🤔

By the end of the canon lore, Havik is able to somewhat fulfill his wish with Onaga's defeat but is unable to obtain his heart. (Havik wanted to restore the Chaos that once ravaged Outworld by bringing the heroes' worst enemy back to life as was shown in his non-canon ending). 💔

Mortal Kombat Armageddon (2006):

Havik plays a very minor role due to the large roster. 🎭

He appears as an illusion battling the Edenian demigod Taven. 👻

The real Havik makes his last and final appearance during the battle of Armageddon, joining the forces of darkness in their war against the light. ⚔️

Despite his connection to the Chaos Realm and his defiance of mortal laws, Havik dies during Armageddon. 💀

Comic Book:

In the MKX comic book line, Havik was portrayed as the main antagonist. 🔪

He used the blood code, a powerful form of blood magic, to enchant the kamidogu daggers. 🩸

Anyone cut by these blades would be infected by his possession, allowing him to spread chaos across the realms. 💥

Despite its initial release being canon, the comic book line was later retconned. 📚

Mortal Kombat 1 (2023):

Havik's story in the new era is drastically changed as Liu Kang's vision is one without a Chaos Realm. 🌌

Now, the title "Havik" is given to an already existing MK character named Dairou introduced in MK Deception. 🔱

Dairou was a former god of the Order Realm who was stripped of his title for killing the murderer of his family. ⚖️

Dairou strongly disliked the Order Realm and fought against it actively. ⚔️

Dairou's bio mentions the idea of chaos, but there was no connection between him and Havik until the new era. 🌀

"Once a member of the Seidan Guard. I believed in the power of Order and lived by the strict codes of my superiors. I had saved many lives during my years of service. But when I killed an assailant in a fit of rage, I was arrested and sentenced to a life of incarceration. For all the good I had done, the event that had come to define me was that one moment of Chaos. I eventually escaped during a riot incited by the Resistance. I emerged from prison a changed man. No longer would I follow orders of the Seidan. Neither could I bring myself to give in to Chaos. Instead, I opted to serve myself. I became a mercenary, a warrior for hire, and have become revered in Orderrealm's secret underground. My neutrality has been put to the test, however, as my current contract is to find and kill my former guardsman, Hotaru."

In the new era, Dairou takes on the title of Havik in defiance of the Order Realm. ⚔️

Havik does not have a family in this timeline, as his fall from grace was due to the Order Realm's belief that purging chaos was the only way to save the realm. 👪

Havik forms an uneasy partnership with Quan Chi, who grants him supernatural abilities. 🤝

Havik makes his first appearance in the game during Ashrah's chapter, where he and Darrius hand over a red crystal to Quan Chi to power her soul harvester. 🔴

Havik battles Ashrah but is defeated. ⚔️

Havik later appears at the Ying Fortress, guarding the stronghold and keeping out intruders. 🏰

Havik successfully keeps out intruders until Scorpion and Sub-Zero infiltrate the facility. 🔥❄️

Havik and Darrius are defeated by Scorpion, who melts off half of Havik's face, giving him his iconic look. 💀

Havik's story ends here in the game, but his aftermath is revealed in the game's story. 📜

After the Deadly Alliance crumbles and Titan Shang Tsung is defeated, Havik achieves his goal of cleansing Seido by causing a great flood with the help of Rain. 🌊

Tens of thousands of Seidans die, and Havik turns Seido into an anarchist Utopia. 🌪️

Another Havik emerges after the battle of Armageddon. 🌀

This Havik is a Titan variant with many followers. 🌟

He swears that the next time such madness, murder, and anarchy occur, it will never stop. ⚔️

I am sure that Havik's character will continue to grow and shock us in the most chaotic and unpredictable ways in the future. I can't wait to see him as a main villain. I mean, he definitely showed us in the last minute of the game what he is capable of.

[daylite-writes]

“Do Your Worst” - Capitano x fem!traitor!reader

You were a spy for your homeland placed high up in the Fatui command, until you were outed as such. Now, you face the man who’s heart you stole.

cw: mild violence for the sake of information, implied previous relationship, not the healthiest relationship, prisoners of war.

~~~

You whined under your breath as his shadow covered, as his hand brushed through her hair. You were a prisoner of war. This was war. The brutality, all of it. If only it hurt, if only it wasn’t soft and sweet.

“C-Cap…” you cough out once.

“Quiet.” He said simply.

Slowly he peeled away your sweat and blood soaked armor, leaving you bloodied and unprotected.

You heard the slosh of water. As the Captain soaked a washcloth, rung it out, and began to clean the dirt and blood from your skin. The ragged cloth brushed over bruises, circling over your ribs, your spine. You said nothing.

Finally, the washcloth left, but he didn’t. He pulled himself close, on his knees in front of you, hand winding through your hair to lift your gaze up to his.

You stared into his mask, a swirling void blankly staring back. He sighed, hand moving to cup the back of your neck, pulling you close against his chest. By now you knew him well enough to understand only silence would satifsy him.

It was a short while, no more than a minute or two, before he spoke, quiet. “Planted or compromised?”

“Planted.”

His grip tightened, his other arm possessively curling over your battle scarred back. “Your name is not [False Name].”

You nodded against his shoulder.

“A lot of us liked you, assassin girl.”

It was an understatement. Columbina enjoyed your gift with the lyre. Pantalone complimented your efficiency at dirty work. Dottore once called you “the useful hawk in a flock of pigeons”. Arlechinno complimented you, to your face. Childe always requested duels, no matter if he knew the outcome. You were, undeniably, liked within the Fatui’s highest ranks.

Capitano though, he was your sergeant, your general. He helped train you into something more lethal than before. He appreciated your battle prowess and scouting skills on expeditions earlier on in your spying career. Even when you fell into your role of Fatui’s assassin, you were often called to his side, some lousy excuse given every time, a job able to be done by any well trained soldier, delegated her for the simple purpose of keeping you close.

They fell for your ruse. The carefully crafted place you’d gained in the Fatui as a spy. And Capitano?

Perhaps he fell harder than any other.

“What ties you? What is stronger than the two of us, that you’d leave me?” He demanded, quietly, desperately.

Nothing. You’d lost all your family long ago, never having met anyone after them. Your loyalty to your nation was hardly more binding than your loyalty to this one. But loyalty was how one stayed alive. Loyalty and skill. You moved through her days like a ghost. Like a killer. Should your home fall, you’d never cry. But until then, the nation that raised you demanded your undying loyalty.

Your eyes were nearly as tired as his, the weight of your actions painted the under of your eyes a bruised blue.

“Graceless, loveless, homeless assassin. You know what happens to you now?”

You nodded.

“Horrid, horrid.” His hand grabbed your jaw, bones almost creaking as he squeezed. “Horrid, horribly enchanting woman.”

He let go, and your head fell.

“How dare you do this to me.” His deep, heavy voice shook.

“If it’s any consolation,” she rasped, eyes on her knees. “This… us... It wasn’t planned.”

“It’s not.” He spat.

You barked out a laugh. It stung your throat.

“Who is your master?”

It takes a moment for the question to process, but as it does, you smiled sadly. “This conversation will not end in a way either of us like.”

“Be happy I am the one to interrogate you. Others more cruel than me would have much more fun with you.”

“You already know my ties are with my home country. I will give you nothing more.”

“Then you know what happens now.”

His knee struck you square in the stomach, forcing you to grunt as bile crept into the back of your throat, but you didn’t curl into yourself. He struck again.

And again. And then once more.

Blood and vomit crept up the back of your throat. You swallowed it down. On the ground now, the steel toe of a boot replaced the knee, striking you in the ribs this time.

You did your best to dissociate, to wait both him and the pain out, hiding in your own mind. He must have noticed, because he refused to allow it, gloved hand pulling you up by the roots of your hair into a half sitting position, grabbing your attention for a quick moment before he stomped on her ankle so hard it cracked.

You cried out then, the scream tampering off into choked sobs.

His boot settled on her other ankle.

“What’s your true name?”

“[First]. No last name.” You gasped out.

He paused, “appropriate.”

What the fuck did that mean? You glared up at him. Gods your ankle was fucked.

“And your master?”

“Didn’t-” You spoke between labored breaths. “We just go over that? I won’t answer a question like that.”

“You will. Eventually.”

You tried to laugh, but you just ended up wheezing, falling forward. Grey was seeping into your vision, blurring at the edges. All the adrenaline in your system was basically gone.

“Kill me.” You said, “I did my duty. And I won’t assist you. Kill me.”

“I have better uses for you.”

Your expression soured. “You’ve never been one to deny an honorable death. It is the one thing you’ve always granted. Why… why is it different now?”

“You don��t deserve an honorable death.”

“There are others who’ve done far worse than me; and you’ve granted it. What crime have I committed where you deny me this?” You bit out.

“Thievery.”

“Thievery?”

“Yes. You stole so much from me. My time, my effort, my heart. It is a disrespect I won’t tolerate.” His hand slipped under your chin, pulling your head up.

“Then what? Torture?”

“No.” He said after a moment. “I will receive your loyalty. Your devotion. I will take it, even without you wanting to give it. We will return to how we were before, only this time you will not be a traitor.”

“I will not stand by your side and serve you. You know this.”

“I am a patient man. No matter how uphill the battle. I will acquire your loyalty. I will not lose you.”

You huffed. “You can try. I am not easy to break.”

“I already have a head start.” Capitano said, tilting your head with his hand. It was true. You’d done a lot for him. You underwent interrogations and torture by mutual enemies and gave up nothing. You trained by him. Fought for him. Killed for him. Sure, it was while delivering intelligence to her homeland, but it was loyalty nonetheless.

You closed your eyes. “Do your worst.”

~~~

[heather-next-door]

@grandenoirceur tagged me in a SDS! I have to say, although I'm loving my Disney week, I am jealous that I'm not soaking in a tub with booze too Chad 😂

Today was our last park day at Disney 😥😥😥 and we did 3 of the 4! 😴 With 25,000+ steps in, I'm enjoying my peanut butter and chocolate Mickey bar! A little sunburnt, a lot tired, and satifsied with life right now.

@ninelivescatseyes25

@darkphoenix25

@boo-badger

Gimmie those cute faces!

[mtate]

On Life & Friendships

Hi Tumblr, 

It’s not nice to see you again. 

But I need an outlet to let it out and “express myself”. In the midst of this silly new point in America’s history where we “the people” nominated a dumbass to be our next president. In the midst of willtering friendships, new friendships, and far away friendships; each that come with their own set of complications. Finally, in the midst of a rocky time in my life...a time in my life without my grandma. 

First, lets start with this: FUCK TRUMP. I’m not one to abuse cuss words frequently but my sentiments about this situation can only be properly expressed with continous use of the words FUCK TRUMP FUCK TRUMP FUCK TRUMP FUCK TRUMP. Oh and one more, FUCK TRUMP. 

Next. I am literally missing my whole group of closest girl friendships. My lifelong best friend Alex is currently in the midst of moving in to her first HOME. A real home with a MORTGAGE. Exciting right? Kind of. If not for the fact that I am slightly jealous of this. I really want a house to call a home. But for now I’ll use the term “home is where the heart is” to satifsy this deep desire. Anyways, basically she’s super busy and in the middle of starting her new career as a interior designer and has no time for me. 

My best friend Marina is here. When I say here I mean Portland. Like, actually Portland. Not the burbs in Beaverton where I live. We work very different schedules and I am not very willing to go visit her at work because doing anything these days requires a lot of motivation and energy- neither of which I have, especially after a week of dealing with super energetic sponges...aka kids. I miss her to bits. I have to suck it up and go visit her and get free ramen while I’m at it.

Rocielle is still in Florida. Rocielle is engaged. Rocielle is in Florida engaged to a guy that quite frankly I don’t really like. She came to visit recently over Christmas break but I was sick and then there was snow and I didn’t get to spend time with her. It was shitty and I was sad. But at least I didn’t have to deal with her fiance. 

My little sister Aliz just moved to Florida as well. She’s doing the Disney College Program. I’m proud of her but I miss her already. It was tough the day I realzied she was actually leaving and not just pretending she was going to Eugene for the weekend but really taking a last minuite trip to Vegas to get caked by Steve Aoki. Crazy one she is. She’s my “let’s do something crazy NOW” friend. I like it. Except when I’m warm in bed ready for bed which is 90% of the time. 

I haven’t even seen Kylie since my wedding. I miss her. But she’s doing awesome Catholic things as always because she’s awesome and she’s Kylie.

That brings us to the next point: I’ve gotten SUPER close to two girls at work. Two of my co-workers. Kaitlynn and Kristi. Kaitlynn even dated Jake for like, a month. Kristi is basically my long lost soul sister. We do everything together from going shopping to playing video games to smoking to drinking to laughing to playing Pokemon and literally everything in between. We have pretty much all of the same interests and she’s a sarcastic asshole. Kait is like me- 5 years ago. So sweet, so caring, so crazy to find love (well that part is NOT like me cause 5 years ago I was already in love). But I love her too! We are the 3 amigos at work and outside of work. What is really really really cool is that Kristi’s boyfriend Gavin has become super close to Nick and Jake. So basically we hang out 100% of the time. 

The only issue with that is that when you hang out with the same people 100% of the time you start to notice annoying things that they do and you both mutually start to get tired of each other. So today we literally actually had a group fight for the first time, like ever. They said they don’t want us over at their house 100% of the time anymore because we all need to save money and we don’t clean as much anymore (tru) and we eat their food. But we also give them WEED and we also give them RIDES which wastes GAS. And anyways it sucked but we talked it out. We both love spending time together but the winter means we can’t do much except for hang out at each others’ houses and one can only imagine how so much time together with the snow days and such can make one kinda annoyed with each other. I love them and it  hurt me for us to fight especially because Nick and Kristi are like the same person aka subborn as fuck and the flight was really between them while Gavin and I just sat and tried to meddiate it. Because Gavin and I are like the same person. In the summer it will get better because we will go on hikes and swim and do fun summer things and go to the mall and go get pokemon and stuff so we won’t be in their house all the time but for now we are going to try to limit our time with them for sure. At least our time at their house. 

Finally, I really really really miss my grandma and somedays it hits me more than others. Like today, its really hitting me hard.

If you read ALL of this you really deserve an award. HERE. A lame ass 2008 heart <3 LOLOLOL. 

[tartan-ink]

Apple#56

The size of our dreams?

I have been keeping my eye on the availability of apples, of course, since this project began, and have really enjoyed buying just one of some new specimen for "today's" snack. The bramley I bought back home in Waitrose was definitely the largest so far, although I didnt get round to measuring it, so it cant be entered into my Big Apple contest. Neither did I get round to actually eating it before we left, ho hum. Here I have picked out some red and shiny beauties. The most unexpected apple so far was one I found this week that was about the size of a gobstopper. The cashier was most bemused when I brought only one to the till to be weighed and paid for; I was not sure if it was going to be worth eating, so I wanted to try it out for flavour, didn't I?! It was in fact sweet and juicy: just teenyweeny. Small and perfectly formed.

 But what is it with the name Big Apple?

The Society for New York City History's website, salwen.com, tells me that it was most likely a horseracing journalist from the New York Morning Telegraph in the 1920s, John J. Fitzgerald, who first publicised the term, having heard it from the stable boys who worked around the eastern States. New York, this huge city full of opportunity, was the place of big money: the Big Apple. He called his regular column "Around the Big Apple". (Go and do likewise, yeah.)

Be that as it may, the name Big Apple was popularised in the jazz scene of New York in the 1930s and '40s, when getting a gig in Manhattan was the height of ambition. It seems like our big cities attract dreamers (we know, don't we, that the streets of London are paved with gold)(..or were?), although you cannot rightly accuse me of the same aspiration: when asked if I had ever fancied living in America, as happened several times while we were preparing to come here, the honest answer always had to be no. But I am delighted to be here; and fully intend to find all the best bits of life in this city so nice they named it twice.

 I spent most of the last 4 days managing admin to do with our arrival, with Luca for 2 days and alone for 2 days when he started work at his new office. Bank account, mobile phone contract, social security number, application for a work permit for me, dealing with customs about our boxes that we have shipped with FedEx and that are held up at customs (because some of the paperwork was incomplete/ missing); and, most time-consuming of all, apartment hunting. This bit at least has been such fun! We have been looking in any area in lower Manhattan, from 14th Street southwards, mostly in West Village (hip, artsy, rather niiiiice; perhaps a bit aspirational?) but also East Village (more gritty, noisy, scruffy; and more exciting?) and in the Financial District (less of a neighbourhood feel but plenty of vibrancy too; very close to Luca's office). For the same money the size can be 50% bigger if the area is less trendy, or if the building sits even just to the side of the fashionable neighbourhood, or is a high rise modern building. But price and size have to be balanced with number of rooms, traffic noise, quality of the decor, and all that stuff. It's all dead expensive - makes you wince. One we saw today has a most idiosyncratic layout, is at the very top of a 5 storey house (no lift), and has its own generously spacious roof terrace. A true loft apartment. "Shabby chic", perhaps, with most of the building comfortably shabby, but the inside of the flat itself is newly kitted out with good specification in the kitchen and bathroom, pale wooden floors, plently of natural light - so let's call that bit chic. We both really liked it, but would we prefer to live in a something, er, simpler?

 Today it was snowing all day and we walked to and fro and round and about and in and out, and it was beautiful and tiring. I like that Manhattan is an island, and a narrow one at that. You can only go so far east or west until you meet water, and that dictates the nature and defines the feel of the place: it doesn't sprawl endlessly like, say, London. The grid system of road names is also really helpful for gaining familiarity and orientation quickly - so both of us feel we kind of know what is where, more or less, after a very short week. Or at least that we could easily enough find whatever it was.

 To end the day, how about some music? We didn't get to taste the flavour of Big Apple jazz, although we had tried to book a table in a club in West Village. Instead, we sat in the gods at Carnegie Hall and were entranced by the gently swirling music of Bach's Christmas Oratorio. A satifsying day.