#legend of the black scorpion

[alintalzin]

She's lovely.

Empress Wan

[overlordraax]

I'd like to congratulate MK Legends Liu Kang for being the first person to successfully pacifist run the Mortal Kombat tournament. Congrats buddy, no one's ever actually managed to do that before.

[teatime-tangents-and-toys]

Interesting Monster High design things that are never explicitly stated:

* Unlicensed vampires are all some type of pink-skinned for some reason, including related species like the manananggal

* Clawdeen, and by extension, other werewolves, never wear silver metals, because that weakens them. The Wolfs only wear gold jewelry and accents.

* Lagoona's sporty theme aligns with the use of mesh fabrics to make a pun about fishnets

* Wydowna Spider's hairline is a widow's peak and one of her hands is in Spider-Man's web-slinging shape

* Twyla's eyes glow in the dark on most editions--common knowledge, but Mattel has never told buyers about it on her boxes!

* Twyla is a boogeyman and her costume designs all feature antique architectural details and imagery of things that might be in a scary bedroom at night, like wallpaper patterns, doorknobs, bugs, and beds, while her outfits often resemble pajamas

* The two G1 pop star characters are a witch and a black cat, and a witch and cat were also a Create-A-Monster duo

* The Grant sisters' monster twist on genies is to make them plated like desert scorpions

* Elissabat's face is deliberately highly similar to Draculaura's, but their sculpts have been determined to be different--this when MH has used shared sculpts for more distant-looking and disparate pairs of characters!

* The Blob and Ice Girls are a Create-A-Monster duo because freezing was the one weakness of the Blob monster

* Deuce and Cleo as a couple invoke the synergy of snakes and Egyptian culture, the famous Cleopatra being Greek, and Cleopatra being stated in legend to have died by snakebite--similar reasons a mummy and Gorgon were paired in the Create-A-Monster sets

* Operetta is from New Orleans because it's a uniquely French area of the USA, tying her into the original setting of the Phantom of the Opera

* The manufacturing code on the back of Skelita Calaveras' original head mold is a custom sequence made to depict the name "KATRINA".

This refers to the tradition of carving a name of honor into a Dia de Muertos sugar skull, and may also reflect La Catrina, the iconic Mexican skeleton woman in the wide hat often seen in the holiday's imagery. Other dolls have these stamps on the backs of their heads with meaningless sequences of letters and numbers which are never meant to be seen, but Skelita's stamp was used for a purpose. I've checked her dolls after G1 (starting with her first collector doll in 2016), and they have a generic code stamped in and have lost this detail.

* Viperine Gorgon has distinct visual hallmarks of both human and serpent albinism, and her use of sunglasses could correspond with sensitive eyes from the condition, though she's never stated to have the condition in any material.

* Great Scarrier Reef's transformations: Electric-powered Frankie became an electric eel, Draculaura became a vampire squid, and tigerlike Toralei became a lionfish. I've heard Clawdeen was based on a wolffish, but can't be sure that was actually clear. Gil turning into a ray may be a pun with manta and manster? No idea if Lagoona was based on a specific fish or not. Nor why she even had to transform in her native territory for any reason beyond making a new doll.

* Bonita Femur's color palette is based on the rosy maple moth, which is as implausibly candy-colored as Bonita. Luna Mothews is absolutely not actually a luna moth, but could be loosely based on the cecropia moth, the largest in North America and found in regions that could include New Jersey where she's from (or West Virginia, where the Mothman is from). Her yellow exoskeleton also loosely resembles the hornet moth, but may not intentionally be based on it.

* Mouscedes King, Luna Mothews, and Elle Eedee are a primary yellow/red/blue trio but also a past/present/future trio based on an old fairy tale, a current cryptid legend, and a speculative idea of future tech

* Headmistress Bloodgood's first name was eventually revealed to be Nora, an iconically Irish name that may have been chosen to liken Bloodgood to the Irish folklore of the dullahan, another "headless rider" monster.

* River Styxx is a young-adolescent Grim Reaper ghost who is partially translucent, revealing bones in her limbs and having a more opaque face that looks like thin skin over a bony structure. This creates a fun possible worldbuilding idea that reapers start as ghosts with skin and it fades as they develop, becoming full skeletons in classic Death style when mature.

* Peri and Pearl are conjoined Hydra sisters, obviously reflecting a rare human scenario of conjoined twins through the Hydra monster concept, but also possibly being influenced by the animal phenomenon of snakes being born with two heads in an even Y-shaped structure.

* Elle has a separate sculpted panel on her hip where her factory stamp is placed, canonizing the real-world manufacturing artifact as a real/literal/diegetic feature on the manufactured robot character.

* Corazón Marikit's red fringe blends the two halves of her outfit, but also stands in for the gorier imagery of dangling intestines and entrails when the manananggal monster's body splits at the waist. She does have a spine coming out of her upper torso as the peg that clicks her pieces together, but the dolls aren't brutally gory, so her costume alludes to the folklore's more extreme imagery in a graceful way.

* Scary Sweet Birthday Cupid is the only doll in the SSB collection whose cage element is under her skirt rather than on top of it.

This placement and its rectangular silhouette make the cage functional rather than decorative, replicating an old-fashioned crinoline frame used to internally shape big skirts, and its wide boxy shape matches some rococo skirt silhouettes, suiting the other elements Cupid has drawn from the rococo aesthetic, even before G3. Victorian-steampunk Robecca Steam has also worn cage elements that invoke a crinoline without a skirt to be shaped by it.

[hellaverse-reimagined]

Husker: Reimagined

Character critique + explanation under the cut:

Husker is my 2nd least favorite Hazbin Hotel design, right after the radio demon himself. Husker’s design, however, ranks #1 as the most frustrating, based on this origin and the executive decisions made.

Throughout the wiki, Vivziepop is quoted referring to Husk as a “magician”, but watching the show, we don’t get that at all, not even from his design, which while it showcases a lot of card suits, still invokes more of a casino/gambler vibe than a magician. Even when he used playing cards as weapons in episode 4, it still came across as more of a gambling thing than a magician thing to me, so I am approaching Husk from more of the casino angle, with magic tricks being a footnote in his abilities.

I like how Husk is characterized as a “husk of his former self” - a dry-humored, secretly empathetic straight-man who’s good at reading people, all which are well-presented in the show. I think that he’s used too much as a tool for lazy expositing by the writers, so my version of Husk will be more of the strong silent type who is only speaks intentionally, besides grumpy grumbles.

As for his design, the magician/casino thing feels tacked on considering that he was originally an oc gifted to Vivziepop by her younger sister, favoring nostalgia over effective character design.

His design doesn’t feel like a professional character design, it feels like a professional deviantart OC. Not to imply that I am a professional, but I do believe that Vivziepop has poor and tacky character design sensibilities.

Besides his real-world origin, being a winged cat doesn’t seem to have anything substantial to do with the way Husk lived or died besides “hating cats” and a possible “death by falling” which feels so tacked on and lacking creativity, which is why I have opted to make Husk a manticore from myth and legend, to make sense of these design elements from his official design.

I chose to make Husk a manticore bc in my iteration, I see him being a ruthless casino owner with possible mob affiliations in life, reduced to simply being a gambler in Hell, where he regained power by dealing in souls which ultimately became his undoing.

The Manticore of myth is described as a man eater that swallows people whole, even the bones, which I think in this case could be a tongue in cheek way for how he treated people in life as a ruthless casino owner.

I think that gambling away his soul to Alastor would be humbling and would have helped him gain some perspective with how his victims felt in life and death, making him more quiet and withdrawn as a result, speaking only when he feels necessary. This makes what he does say have more weight, making interactions feel more meaningful when he opts to speak.

My biggest gripe with Husk, of course, is that he is voiced by Kieth David. Husk’s official design is not something befitting the voice of Kieth David. I suspect they cast him mainly for his singing voice, as the majority of VAs trying out for the role were only doing Rick from Rick and Morty impressions, as according to the wiki, Vivziepop cited Rick Sanchez as inspiration for how she’d like his voice to sound like. I don’t think Rick would fit either for the modern Husk, but his voice would definitely befit the original DeviantArt design.

Thus I decided to make a design for Husk that would be befitting for the voice talents of Kieth David, opting for a heavier, more boxy design, with 70’s inspired clothing (the era he supposedly died). I used more oranges and yellows for his color palette to cite his sins of Gluttony (orange) and Greed (Yellow/Gold), while also throwing in some green sheen in his black dragon wings and scorpion tail, to balance the everything out. I kept the tophat as I think Alastor would force him to wear it to hide the only part of Husker’s demon form that he actually likes about himself- his coif of hair (as seen in the flashback in Episode 4). Alastor would do this as a silly way to torment him.

I also kept his suspenders, and kept the card suits motif but much more subtly. The clasps on his suspenders are diamonds, his nose is an upside-down spade, the tufts on his ears and the white patch on his chin are vaguely heart-shaped, and I plan to make his paw pads resemble clubs. Not pictured is an Ace of Hearts tucked away in the brim of his hat.

I dont know how big or tall to make him, but I do want him to hold an imposing figure when compared to anyone sitting down at his bar. His wingspan is definitely going to be bigger than in his official design.

I personally am not a big HuskerDust fan, simply because I see them having as having a mentor/student relationship, with Husk being a glimpse into Angel’s future if he continues down his self-destructive path, and with Angel being a symbol of hope for the future for this old grizzled man.

Also, you can’t tell from the show, but Husk is canonically supposed to be in his 60’s??? I look to rectify that with visible crow’s feet and wrinkles when he emotes.

That is all I have for now, here is a bonus Husk drawing as a thank you for reading this far 🙌

Likes + reblogs appreciated 🧡💛❤️

[mikka-minns]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO! SNOWBLIND 😩😩😩😩😩😩🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏💛💙💛💙💛💙💛💙💛💙💛💙

Erron, after picking a fight with the guy who's bf is literaly the devil:

@subscorp-week - Day 5: MK Legends

Bro thinks he’s Batman

Kuai smirking hard knowing that his boyfriend is gonna kick Erron’s ass lmao.

Okay this took longer than I anticipated. I decided to go with a Manga/Webtoon look for this prompt since I decided to torture myself by making Snowblind Scorpion but, it was all worth it. Scorpion’s design in Snowblind is probably my favorite out of all. Gives off a mixture of Berserk, Batman, and Spawn vibes hehe.

Hope y’all like it even tho I’m a bit late 💀🙏

[skyeslittlecorner]

Tails for all! - Kings edition

Other parts: Gehenna | Tartaros | Hades | Avisos | Nilfheim | Abaddon | Paradise Lost

Satan

The most classic tail, simple elegance. Ankle-length, black, with a red arrow at the end, just like his horns.

At the base, it is as thick as the wrist and tapers towards the end.

Identical to the horns to the touch, set won in the lottery.

You'll recognize his emotions more easily by his tail than by his face, he wags it like a cat when he wants to make some noise and lifts it at the base when he's happy.

The end has rounded corners, making it resemble an elongated heart instead of an arrow.

Sensitiveness 8/10. Doesn't like it when someone touches him by surprise.

When he's in a good mood, he gives tail slaps instead of kicks. The nobles are delighted.

It's not sharp at the end, so he'll try to stick it inside you. It's smooth and slippery, an arrow produces milk just like horns, and it fits so good.

Mammon

Big tail for a big man. Long, winding along the ground, golden and scaled. Standard tip without decorations, at least as thick as Mammon's thigh at the base.

His tail and greed gave rise to the legend that dragons collect treasures.

The upper scales look like pure gold, the lower scales are black and resemble obsidian. The entire tail resembles flakes of stones and precious metals.

The scales are bumpy like his horns, but it has no spines or blades.

Surprisingly warm. The scales at the base are very large.

Sensitiveness 5/10. He really enjoys being scratched hard as you leave lighter marks on his scales from the pleasure.

He likes to put his tail in his lap and you on top of him and watch you grind against him while he plays with your ass.

Leviathan

Not much longer than Satan, but covered with scales. They are soft compared to Mammon and shimmer like smoky mirrors. At the base, it is as thick as two cupped hands, shimmering purple and black.

Its ending is unique. On land it has a long, soft fur, but when he approaches water he can wrap a thin layer of skin around it, making it membraneous and resembling and looking like a fin.

Similarly, it has tiny long fins on its sides. They are a bit sharp, so sometimes he hurts himself with them. (Kiss these wounds, he will criticize you but he will love it anyway.)

Due to childhood trauma, he learned to hide his tail, wrapping it under his clothes and only showing the tip. That's why many demons think his tail resembles that of a deer.

Very, very sensitive. 12/10. Proceed with care.

He loves playing with his fins, but of course he won't tell you that.

Just seeing his tail in all its glory is incredibly rare, and being choked with it is the greatest honor. Not even Solomon experienced it.

Beelzebub

rainbow unicorn tail narwhal tail insect abdomen A long tail, similar in thickness to Leviathan's, but does not taper towards the end. Black, with dark green lines on the sides and back.

As befits the Lord of the Flies, his tail resembles a pelecinus polyturator. Composed of segments like a scorpion. Shiny, slippery and very hard. Chitin.

Green stripes are not just decoration. He can pull out the blades from them, and whipping will easily cut off your limb. He can pull out a sting at the tip, each blade producing a paralyzing venom.

His whip is almost a mirror image of his tail, but with golden blades instead of green.

While the rest prefer to wrap their tails around their legs, its natural position is twisted upwards, also like a scorpion. When he feels uncomfortable, he can "blow out" his tail into a swarm of flies that follow him. After all, it is a deadly weapon.

Sensitiveness 2/10. He likes it because it gives him an advantage over you. Until you start scratching his skin at the base. He's all yours on his knees.

If he doesn't pull the stinger out, the tip is rounded and a little bulbous, but you won't notice until he's deep inside you.

Lucifer

Long and thick, almost like a Mammon, phenomenally beautiful, angelic white with golden reflections. Resembles a snake. It splits in 1/3 and has two ends.

If you get close enough to it, you'll see that the base is as red as its horn.

You'd expect it to feel like reptile scales, but it's more like smooth feathers. Soft, but only the top layer. When you press it, you feel that the core is iron-hard.

He has the same scar as on his chest above his tail, only smaller.

Sensitivness 6/10. Unlike others, instead of pleasure, he may suddenly be struck by pain. Take care of him.

That doesn't mean he won't use his tail against you.

He wants to see your tears when you have his penis in your mouth and the tips of his tail in both holes.

[kelin-is-writing]

kelin may i hear more about rockstar touya \(★ω★)/

I was planning to post other headcanons before going for these, BUT I’ve got some for Rockstar!Touya that are pestering my mind these days and your asks come in the right moment, so bear with me please 🤧

࣪𖤐… ROCKSTAR!TOUYA

The first time Touya knew that he wanted to become a rockstar was in middle school, right at the age of thirteen, his influent CEO of a father was trying to mold him into a carbon copy of himself to rival Yagi Toshinori’s Enterprise. While taking a break from studies, he saw his sister watch on TV a rock concert of “Loudness” and to say Akira Takasaki is his role model is the least. That’s a true legend to him.

After “Loudness” and Akira Takasaki, he discovered “Metallica” and Kirk Hammett which made him go like “HOW??? HAVE??? I??? MISSED??? ALL??? THIS???”, scolding himself for taking so long to fall in love with the electric guitar and its sound. The next week he’s blasting full volume “The Final Countdown” by Europe inside the Todoroki Mansion like the good old stamp rock fanatic he is, getting himself scolded and grounded by Enji who is a fan of traditional Japanese music so yeah…

At one of the Todoroki family gatherings during the weekend, he was scrolling down his phone looking first of all where to take guitar lessons and second for a guitar to buy, but he knew his father would never agree to get him one. That’s when his grandfather, peeking at his grandson’s phone, butted in and asked Touya if he’s interested in music. He wasn’t sure if it was a good thing to answer that question, since he’s the father of his father, but he did and hell has it been the best thing he did!

On his fourteenth birthday, Enji’s father bought Touya his very first electric guitar, a good old Fender Stratocaster CUSTOM MADE for him. It’s snow white like his hair and has a his name engraved on the bottom left side of the guitar, while on the other side there were engraved tiger’s fangs, all in turquoise… The color of his eyes. And this has been by far Touya’s best birthday ever.

After finishing Middle School he choose to attend an Art School, taking the music classes as main classes of course; he may or not have done it to piss off and raise Enji’s blood pressure from how mad he got for choosing something different from Finances and Management. Oh his father was livid and Touya was so proud of himself for that.

He has formed a rock band, of which he’s the guitarist and vocalist, with Tenko Shimura (Bassist&Vocalist) and Shuichi Iguchi (Drummer) called “The Villains”… Are we even surprised about this name? Really? Because I am not. Tenko suggested, Iguchi supported strongly and Touya just went with it because complaining and thinking about another name was “Too much effort”. He likes it a lot but will never admit it.

At the age of nineteen, Touya owns a Fender Stratocaster (Custom Made), an Elite Stratocaster, an ST-83-80 Japan (1983) black, Lone Star Strat, IC350 black, IC50 black, ICHI00 white, Gibson SG Standard mahogany and a Jackson Pro Series DK Modern HT6 MS. He also owns four acoustic guitars for songwriting, like a Martin GPC-X1E, Martin 000-28 Modern Deluxe, Taylor GS Mini-e Rosewood SN LTD and a Taylor AD22e. Did he pay all them with Enji’s credit card? Hell yeah. Did he do it out of spite? Absolutely. Did he care about his father’s blood pressure rising even more? Not even remotely.

His favorite groups are Loudness, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Europe, Scorpions, Slipknot, Three Days Grace, Green Day, Skillet, Linkin Park, The Rasmus, L’Arc-En-Ciel, UVERworld, Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses and Evanescence to list some, because there are many more he adores honestly. He isn’t a picky ear as long as the song gives him chills and inspires him, being someone who’s driven by emotions that’s what makes him likes something he hears.

Atsuhiro is their homeroom teacher, at the Art University they attend, who introduces them to Giran, a friend of his, who has an agency for new talents and after they sent him six of their songs wants to launch their very first album by August to make them debut at the “Rock In Japan Fes.”

Touya, being the emotional driven type of musician, is the one put to write the lyrics for the band’s songs and most of the times are hits, especially because his and Tenko’s voice brings to life the emotions of the lyrics in a way that it reaches the listeners right into the heart and soul.

You will never catch Touya’s fingers empty, there’s always rings decorating them and some rings are even custom made by his cousin Geten, who owns a Jewelry shop that he promotes a lot on his social media. One of his most precious rings is the one that he got made for him, with his birthstone carved in it, when he turned eighteen.

He has three earrings on his right ear: an helix, mid helix, conch and low helix. Four on his left one: two helix, a low helix and one on the lobe, plus three nostril piercings on the right side of his nose.

After “The Villains” debuts and proving his father that he could succeed through music without his help nor his name, Touya owns now a black card that he lets Fuyumi and Shoto use to their heart content.

Last, but not least, be ready to be the muse of Touya’s songs the instant he falls head over heels for you. The moment it happens everything, and I mean everything, to him becomes about you driving Tenko and Iguchi to pure exasperation.

[gmax-centiskorch]

Mainline Pokémon Games Based on How Buggy They Are: A Thread

Red, Blue, & Yellow

Pretty buggy. The Butterfree line set the stage for regional bugs and emotional trauma. Everybody loves Scyther. Inspired use of Cordyceps when designing the Parasect line. Kabuto and Kabutops should have been Bug to honor trilobites for founding Arthropoda. 8/10.

Gold, Silver, & Crystal

Yes, we had Scyther, but what about second Scyther? Scizor, Heracross, and Shuckle are legends. Game Freak decided to invite arachnids (Spinarak and Ariados) to the party, truly redefining what it means to be buggy. 9/10.

Ruby, Sapphire, & Emerald

This generation is loaded with bugs! Game Freak realized their mistake in not giving the Kabutops line Bug typing, making up for it with Anorith and Armaldo (who are based on Anomalocaris). They fumble the recovery, however, in not only depriving the Flygon line of Bug typing, but forever making them second fiddle to the Salamence line. The Beautifly, Dustox, and Ninjask lines introduce some interesting approaches to Bug-type evolution. Volbeat and Illumise are there. 7.8/10.

Diamond, Pearl, & Platinum

DELELELELELEWHOOOOOOP! A smaller collection of bugs this gen, but a well-rounded one. Vespiquen slays. Scorpions get some love via Skorupi, Drapion, and Gliscor. Writing this post is making me realize that slugs, snails, and nudibranchs like the Magcargo and Gastrodon lines aren’t bugs. We grew up thinking snails were bugs, right? Anyway, Yanmega rules. 8/10.

Black, White, Black 2, White 2

Game Freak’s magna opera. Truly the buggiest games there are. While you have to wait until Pinwheel Forest to encounter your first bugs, you’re rewarded upon arrival with Sewaddle and Venipede, the larvae of the Leavanny and Scolipede lines. From there, you encounter the Crustle, Galvantula, and Volcarona lines. Game Freak has some more fun with Bug evolutions, having Karrablast steal Shelmet’s armor as they evolve into Escavalier and Accelgor (inspired by the real-world interactions between the ground beetle family Carabidae and the gastropods they feed on). Durant is our first proper ant, and we get our first (and only . . . ) legendary / mythical Bug in Genesect. These games made Bug my favorite type. 10/10.

X & Y

A big step down from the previous generation. This game hardly has any bugs. Do you like butterflies? You get a butterfly. Vivillon is a lovely butterfly that comes in all sorts of colors, but SURELY there are more bugs than that in France. 6/10.

Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, Ultra Moon

Giant isopods! Diving bell spiders! Giraffe stag beetles! A true return to form. While the native bugs of Alola are great, we are also introduced to the ultra beasts, two of which (Buzzwole and Pheromosa) are really cool bugs. It seems they were going for wasps and bee flies when designing the Naganadel and Ribombee lines, but they don’t really work for me. Faint blemishes on an otherwise buggy generation. 8.5/10.

Sword & Shield

Centiskorch is the greatest Pokémon ever made. I have them tattooed on my arm. Blipbug is the worst Pokémon ever made. I see them in my nightmares. Interesting that they’re both Bug Pokémon, and that Game Freak really min-maxed with them. Fortunately, Blipbug evolves into Dottler and Orbeetle, who are great. Snom has a place in everyone’s heart, and Frosmoth is elegant as can be. 9.5/10.

Scarlet & Violet

I love Rellor and Rabsca! I . . . don’t really love the rest! Iron Moth and Slither Wing are great, but they’re nepo babies. Tarountula and Nymble are nice, but Spidops and Lokix leave something to be desired. At the end of the day, these games would be alright if they weren’t so wonkily coded and glitchy. Wish there was a better word for that. 7/10.

[milliondollargirlstuff]

Bi-Han and Sareena: An analysis and their future

I'm not good at analyzing characters or stories, but I didn't like what Netherealm did with these two over the years, so I decided to explore their relationship. Keep in mind that everything I'll say here is just my opinion, I ask that you respect my point of view.

PART ONE: THE DEMON AND HER "MESSIAH"

The first time we see Bi-Han and Sareena together is in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, also being the first Mortal Kombat game we saw Sareena. She is introduced as one of Quan Chi's demonic servants alongside Kia and Jataaka (in other words, they are slaves, but apparently, only Sareena wants to be free from Quan Chi's tyranny) while Bi-Han is on his journey to find Shinnok's amulet, the first interaction between them happens after Sareena and her sisters fight Bi-Han and lose. Bi-Han for some reason spares Sareena, I see this as an "act of pity", but calm down, I will explain starting with the story of Bi-Han.

Bi-Han has been seen as a villain for years thanks to his actions as Noob Saibot and the fact that he is a Lin Kuei, which was a clan of assassins and mercenaries, his current incarnation as a villain in Mortal Kombat 1 also doesn't help break this stereotype. But analyzing his character, he's not that bad. In the first timeline, he is the son of a Chinese man and an American woman, having a younger brother and a younger sister, being taken alongside his brother, Kuai Liang (or kidnapped alongside his brother, interpret it as you wish) by his father to China to serve in the Lin Kuei clan, abandoning the boys' mother and sister in America, So to begin with, he is not serving this mercenary clan because he wants to, but only because he has no choice, the Lin Kuei are also assassins, so for the safety of the clan, I imagine that anyone who tries to leave the clan ends up executed (I mean, If you watched Mortal Kombat: Legends, you know what happened to Kuai Liang and Smoke when they both tried to escape the cyber initiation, Kuai Liang escaped but Smoke was trapped and turned into a robot).

We also cannot forget that he was unfairly blamed for the Shirai Ryu massacre, even though he explained several times to Scorpion that it was Quan Chi, not him, who killed Hanzo's family, and what does he get in exchange for having only his word as proof of his innocence? Being killed by Scorpion and turned into a slave to Quan Chi, just as Sareena once was. Compared to real villains like Shao Kahn and Shang Tsung, Bi-Han doesn't seem to be as evil as the fandom thinks, he felt sorry for Sareena like any other human being with feelings would feel for an enslaved person (believe me, slavery happened here in my country in the past and to this day it is a sensitive subject even for non-black people) but getting back to the subject, Sareena doesn't want that life anymore and asks Bi-Han to take her to Earthrealm when he goes there, she doesn't even ask to live with him, just to help her get out of that literally hellish place, a bird wanting to be free from the cage.

This is the same arc as Ashrah in Mortal Kombat 1, a demon who has grown tired of the Netherealm and now wants a purpose in life, but before Bi-Han can say "yes" or "no", Shinnok attacks her and she falls into Bi-Han's arms, making us believe that she died (although it is later revealed that she survived, only losing her human form and being banished to the fifth plane of the Netherealm). A connection was created here, between a person and her "savior", she was defeated by that human, however, instead of running away to avoid being murdered, she simply asked him to help her get out of that place. After Sareena was trapped in the fifth plane for years, there was nothing Bi-Han could do for her, soon after he went to the tournament and everything we know happened.

PART TWO: DIFFERENT FATES

Sareena was trapped in the fifth plane for years, until she escaped through a portal created by Quan Chi and Scorpion, recovering her human form thanks to the energy generated by being in another realm. She meets Kuai Liang, who at this point is the new Sub-Zero and the new grandmaster of the Lin Kuei, who as a way of thanking her for the help that Sareena gave to Bi-Han in Mortal Kombat: Mythologies, grants her a place in the Lin Kuei, just as Ashrah went to the Wu Shi Academy in Mortal Kombat 1, the Lin Kuei became Sareena's new home.

In Armageddon, Kuai Liang wants to restore Noob Saibot and Smoke, who are fused, imagine that Sareena's wish is also to restore the one who helped her one day, Sareena helped Kuai Liang defend himself from Noob Saibot's attacks, ending up awakening her original demonic form. Kuai Liang does not recognize her and attacks her, abandoning her in the Netherealm, being found by Quan Chi later and manipulated into being his slave again, returning to the place she wanted so much to escape.

She was eventually freed from the spell that was mentally binding her by Taven, but like the rest of the characters, she was killed in the final fight at the pyramid. Her ending in Armageddon is "cute" to me, she ends up becoming a cryomancer, the connection she had with Bi-Han and Kuai Liang was so strong that it made her have the same superhuman abilities as them, a form of the gratitude she had for them.

Now speaking of Bi-Han, well, I imagine you already know what happened: He was transformed into a sort of ghost of darkness, having his mind manipulated by Quan Chi to become one of his evil agents. As mentioned, he somehow merges with Smoke while Kuai Liang tries to restore him. He also ends up dying in the pyramid by the way. And this is how their story ends :(

PART THREE: THEIR CURRENT SITUATION AND THEIR FUTURE

Sareena returns in Mortal Kombat X to help the Special Forces. In a fight against Kitana, things get interesting... Sareena claims that Bi-Han helped her, and she can do the same for Kitana. Kitana says that she got very close to Bi-Han (you can interpret this as Sareena becoming more human thanks to Bi-Han or Sareena actually fell in love with Bi-Han). In Mortal Kombat 11, at the end of Kabal, Sareena marries him and has two boys with him (don't ask, even I was confused). In a taunt round with Skarlet, Noob Saibot says that she reminds him of Sareena, showing that even after twenty-four years, he hasn't forgotten about her.

For me, it was always an implied romance, hidden feelings, I had hopes for the two of them when it was announced that Bi-Han and Sareena would be in Mortal Kombat 1 and would appear in the story mode, but Khaos Reigns destroyed everything! Bi-Han is transformed into Noob Saibot by Titan Havik, and sadly, him and Sektor (who is now a woman) are now a couple, probably since their teenage years, while Sareena is just a jobber in the story mode, but is later freed by Ashrah in her ending.

I believe there will be a Mortal Kombat 12 (after all, I've already lost hope for an Injustice 3, and we know which game makes more money between the two for Netherealm Studios) and while I and half the fandom agree that Mortal Kombat NEEDS a writers room, I still have hope for these two. Bi-Han apparently wants to continue as Noob Saibot, there's nothing stopping Quan Chi for having ambitions for him, and since Sareena is an enemy of her former master, they might meet again.

I like to imagine that Sareena would make him be "good", making him realize that he can be much more than the grandmaster of the Lin Kuei with fascist ideas, it doesn't even need to be a romance, just a friendship! But unfortunately Netherealm Studios doesn't listen to the fans (apart from the insufferable Mileena fanboys in MK11) so any chance they have of getting to know each other is minimal, even if they are as enemies since Sareena wants to train with the Shirai Ryu.

[melodymunson]

older! Rockstar Eddie Munson x fem! reader x eventual older Steve x fem!reader.

(Eddie is 38 and the reader is 25.) The year is 2008. All 21 chapters are on ao3. Only chapter 1 will be on tumblr.

series title: Love Buzz

chapters 1 and preview of chapter 2 (5K words)

chapter 1: like a dream come true

series summary: Corroded Coffin have a reunion tour with none other than doom/gothic metal legends Type O' Negative. Reader recently finished college with a bachelor's degree in the music business. After being interviewed by none other than Eddie Munson himself, you get the job as their touring band manager. What starts as a business relationship grows into friendship and eventually an epic romance. Steve Harrington is CC's bodyguard. Eventual Steddie x fem! reader. Multi-series.

Ao3 link

The sound of your alarm clock blared in your ears as you removed your eye mask and stretched. You turned it off, then got up and put on your house slippers, then made your way to your shower to get ready for the day. Gone were the days of doing pole dancing and burlesque for money to pay for college. Your college debt was all paid for and you had a temporary, yet steady job working at your best friend's family-owned restaurant. Pay and tips were good, but today you were interviewing for your dream job. You couldn't wait to meet the frontman and lead guitarist of the legendary 80s metal band Corroded Coffin- Eddie Munson. They toured with so many amazing bands back in the day before they reunited, such as Carnivore, Cinderella, Whitesnake, The Scorpions, Bon Jovi, W.A.S.P., and even the Prince of Darkness himself- Ozzy Osbourne. The 80s were a bit of an obsession to you, even though you only grew up late in the decade and were just a kid when the 80s were about to end. The 90s were just fine, but you had the fondest memories of your childhood in the 80s. Once you washed your hair and used your favorite body wash, you shave your legs and blow dry your hair before applying your favorite scent of perfume and lotion. The interview flyer said to dress casually, so you dressed in your favorite pair of black leather pants and a Black Sabbath tour shirt. You paired it with your most worn and metal pin-decorated black leather jacket. Although you were a bit apprehensive about anything that could go wrong, you instead decided to focus on all the good. After getting some breakfast, you headed out to go to the drive-thru and pick up your favorite coffee order then go to Eddie's studio for the interview. Corroded Coffin was recording a brand new EP and it was the first music they would release in over 10 years, since their last show and album was back in 1995. The original lineup was back together, though and they needed a new manager- someone reliable. With your degree and experience working a little in the music industry throughout college and in your 2-year internship.

When you arrived at their studio, Eddie's uncle Wayne led you into the recording studio and told you to make yourself comfortable. You had a short phone interview with Eddie but this second interview would be the last one to see if you would get the position. That summer Corroded Coffin had a 30-date North American tour that was sold out, including 4 dates in Canada. Traveling was something you wanted to do much more of and this would be the perfect opportunity for that. Your last relationship ended only two months ago and you couldn't wait to find more things to do to keep yourself busy. This dream job would hopefully be the best distraction. As you walked into the studio, Eddie saw smiled at you as he looked you up and down. He was quite impressed with what he was seeing. When you sat down in the room opposite the recording booth, Eddie put his guitar down and made his way over to the room you were in. You stood up as soon as he entered and Wayne left. Eddie looked even more attractive in person. He had the most stunning tattoos and his curly locks of hair were something else. When you were younger, you had a big crush on him, but now you felt like you were smitten. Seeing him in magazines, on posters, in interviews, and even in music videos didn't do him enough justice. He was not just hot and sexy he was a very handsome man and his stubble only added to the allure. His ripped Ozzy shirt complimented his pair of spandex jeans quite well.

"Sit down, please. I'd like to get this interview started and after you can stay if you'd like and hear us record a new song. How does that sound?" He asked as he sits down in a chair opposite from yours.

"Yes, sir. I mean Mr. Munson. I would like that very much."

"No, no, don't call me sir, or Mr. Munson. That's my father and sir just makes me feel like an old man," he admitted, trying to hold back a slight chuckle.

You sat back down and nodded your agreement, waiting pensively for the interview to start. Even though no one else was around or super close by, you couldn't help but feel your nerves get the better of you. Here this beautiful rockstar and guitar Adonis was sitting right in front of you, and it was making you nervous. It was a good thing you had some time before the studio to do your makeup- some black eyeshadow, lipstick, and foundation.

"Well, to be quite honest with you, judging from your resume, you are one of the two most qualified so this interview will be the last one before I make my final decision. I will call you with the news by tonight after talking it over with the rest of the guys. Now my first question is, are you completely dedicated to being on a full-length all-summer tour across North America with Canada included?" He asked with a raise of his brows.

His brown button eyes were so gorgeous. You couldn't fall for him though. He was your potential boss after all. If you didn't end up getting the job, then you probably wouldn't hear from him again unless you went to one of their shows.

"I know I am qualified for this job and I am very dedicated to my job. At the moment, I work at a restaurant, but I can give my week's notice and be there for you at the start of the tour and throughout the summer, Eddie. I also have my passport renewed and ready at my disposal now if you'd like to check it out."

"That won't be necessary." He clears his throat, then eyes you up and down again with a small smirk on his lips. "I need to have you sign an NDA otherwise known as a nondisclosure agreement. What happens and what is said on tour and in the studio stays on tour and in the studio. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Eddie. I understand that fully. I am familiar with NDA and I could sign one."

"Good, because we wouldn't want my band's new songs to be leaked, now would we? The album isn't being released until the very end of the summer after all. Not even the song track titles," he explains to you as he gestures with his hands for emphasis. His metal and sterling silver rings were a sight to see and you liked his style.

"I completely understand. I can keep it a secret."

"Now there's no set uniform for this job, but just to let you know I like your style and would like to see you wear similar outfits on the tour. Just throwing that out there. I've seen your references, resume, as well as your degree in music and your GPA, and I am highly impressed. I just have one last question for you. Are you prepared for long days and some grueling nights? Can you keep up with that sort of lifestyle with little sleep some nights, well most nights actually, and being around as well as managing 4 crazy old dude rockers?"

He didn't want to scare you off or make you nervous. Those things were far from his true intentions, but he wanted to know that he had someone reliable for him. Someone who truly was a person he could count on, because there were so many people he couldn't even trust.

"Yes, Eddie. I can be the manager that you and Corroded Coffin need."

He got up and put out his hand for you to shake. You took it and shook his hand.

"I'll be in touch. We are about to record our guitar and drum solos for the new track and I think you should stay."

"I will. Thank you."

He nodded and left the room, closing the door gently behind him. As they recorded, you watched in amazement and fascination, as you banged your head along to the music. His eyes met yours as he played his solo, and a wicked grin was on his face whenever he made eye contact with you. Later on, he talked to his bandmates and they decided on the new band touring manager.

Eddie's POV:

I like her already. She has a good personality, likes great music, she seems reliable and trustworthy, and even better she certainly has the look to be my band manager. I just wonder if she will have what it takes to survive out on the road with the 4 of us crazy rockers. The relationship is going to be professional and I won't let myself stray from my music and my job but God if I said I didn't want to take her out I would be lying. She is drop-dead gorgeous and I feel like she is the perfect fit for our band. Once I call Miranda and let her know the job position has been filled, I will call her to let her know she has the gig.

Your phone rang almost right after you had finished up your dinner and watched one of your favorite movies on DVD. You picked it up almost instantly once Eddie's name showed up on the caller ID.

"Hello?" You asked.

"It's me, Eddie. I just got off the phone with the other interviewee and I had to let her down easily. You got the job."

You muted your mic for a few seconds to do a happy dance and scream before unmuting him.

"Great. When do I start?"

"I'm glad you still want the job. Two weeks from tomorrow, we start tour prep, and two days after that we are off on the road. Are you sure you're ready for this and fully committed to it?"

"I am. I swear."

"Good now get some rest and I will call you in about a few with some more details."

"Thanks, Eddie."

"Good night. Take care of yourself."

"You too, Eddie."

You hung up and danced all around your house before you called your best friend to celebrate. She came over for celebratory drinks and hugged you before she left. She more than understood you calling it quits with your job at her family's restaurant and things were great between the two of you. You slept well that night.

Your best friend couldn't help but gush about it with you when you revealed you had gotten the job, and that you were now officially the touring band manager of Corroded Coffin. She was so happy for you and it was going to be the best thing ever to go out on tour with one of your favorite bands. The summer tour started in Los Angeles, California, and ended in Brooklyn, New York, with some other dates. Of course, there would be a stop in Hawkins, Indiana, the band's hometown. Your friend couldn't help but talk about just how hot she thought Eddie was, especially in recent interviews and magazine print photos. She was so jealous of you and you promised her a backstage pass in New York. Eddie and his fellow bandmates had moved to Brooklyn in the early 2000s because of the great music scene there. The tour with Type O' Negative was a co-headliner with the bands switching stage times each night of the tour. Of course, you thought Eddie was great looking and getting to know him better throughout the tour, which you imagined would happen, was going to be pretty great. According to the tabloids, he was recently single but of course, your relationship with him was going to be professional. You didn't dare ask an almost stranger about his relationship status. Eddie was formerly married with no children. His ex-wife, Hailey, supposedly could be a real bitch, and you hoped you would never have to cross paths with her. It was going to be the summer of a lifetime guaranteed and as you packed for your trip, you listened to Corroded Coffin as your bestie and roommate helped you get ready for the tour. The way he smelled at the interview was a mixture of nicotine and a nice spicy cologne and aftershave. His hands were calloused from playing the guitar, but it seemed like he had the tried and true hands of a real guitarist. What you wouldn't give to have his hands in yours. You fantasized about him at night and thought about his big and strong arms wrapped around you, but of course, that couldn't be possible, right? He was your boss and good-looking, but still, you didn't want to jeopardize your dream job. You would keep your hands to yourself. For all you knew, he probably had a girlfriend, and in a low-key relationship, he hid from the public's view. Either way, there would probably still be groupies on tour.

A few nights later, just days before the tour, Eddie called you post-band rehearsal.

"Hi, Eddie. I hope you are doing well."

"Thank you, and I am. I just wanted to get in touch to talk to you about a few things. The plane and itinerary that you have received in the mail are all paid for up-front and included in your salary. Is now a good time to talk?"

"Definitely. I wasn't busy doing anything."

"Good. I assume you also got the checklist for what you need to bring on tour and what's suggested, what you should probably leave behind?"

"I did. I received it in the mail today," you told him sounding eager in your tone as you lay on your bed.

You took another sip of your glass of red wine, as Eddie took another puff of his joint.

"Well, great then. Now on this tour, family and friends can be invited backstage, and on the tour bus, but we have a strict schedule, with a limited number of days off. I was just making sure it's understood that you run it by me first before any family or friends come backstage?"

Secretly, you wondered if Eddie liked younger women but quickly dismissed this thought.

"That's perfectly understandable and I will let you know in advance. My best friend wants to come to the New York show. Is that alright?"

"In Brooklyn? Definitely. I just have one more question for you." He paused for a few brief moments, and took another drag, before placing the joint down on his ashtray and continuing. The suspense was killing you. It sounded like he was smoking, and his voice was smoky, but in a good way. "Well, since all the technicalities are already taken care of, and the traveling logistics, as well as the food budget, I was just wondering if you would be interested in directing and being in our next music video?"

At that moment, you wanted so badly to jump up and down in excitement- and to scream, but contained yourself, and calmed down before you responded to him.

"That sounds pretty amazing. I'd love to direct and star in your new music video," you told him, sounding very intrigued.

"Great and finally, I just wanted to make sure you don't have any further questions for me."

"Not at the moment. My best friend will take care of my dog and I will be there for the full duration of the job. No one will come in between my job or be in the way."

"Well, you are still pretty young. You'll be pretty great for the job then. I have one more thing to say. You'll be one of the very first people to hear the new album in its entirety, including bonus tracks and all. Also, I wanted to tell you about one of my good friends. Steve. Steve Harrington. He's going to be our merch guy. Just letting you know."

"Great. I can't wait to meet him."

"Me too. Take care and I'll see you at the airport on Saturday?"

"Definitely. See you then. Good night Eddie."

"Good night, Y/N."

As you counted down the days on your calendar until the next time you would see Eddie again, you made the most of it. You spent each day with your best friend, until the day of the flight. After a nice shopping trip together and buying some new clothes, as well as shoes for your trip, you had a sleepover and reminisced about old times. When the day finally came to see Corroded Coffin and meet up with the band at the airport, you put on your best perfume after your shower. You changed into your favorite band tee, along with ripped jeans, your best black leather jacket, and platform boots. You took a taxi to the airport, and when you arrived at JFK international airport, you checked in through security and met Eddie, Jeff their guitarist, Gareth their drummer, and their bassist, Grant, by the gates.

Everyone ended up being nice in the band, and as a late arrival, Steve showed up.

"Hi, I'm Steve. You must be the new band manager, Y/N."

He extended his hand for you to shake, which you accepted.

"Eddie mentioned you. Nice to meet you."

As everyone sat around waiting for the plane to board, Eddie went to the nearest snack machine and brought bag packs of chips and bottles of water for everyone. You thanked him, glad to have a snack. Soon the plane was called to board and you got on soon finding your seat in first class. It was amazing to be sitting next to Eddie, and you felt like rock royalty, as you were in that section with the band. You didn't quite feel worthy, but you felt so at ease around him and near him. The faint smells of both tobacco and a nice cologne were coming off of Eddie. It was so comforting to you and as the plane took off and emerged into the air, you felt more calm than ever before. Soon you had champagne, and after your first big swig of it, you could feel the alcohol hit you. It was a nice feeling to have. The movie Playing on the flight was a horror film called The Devil's Rejects, and it was pretty enjoyable so far. You wanted to pace yourself and had just one glass as opposed to the other guys having between 1-3. Soon it was lunchtime, and after you ate you fell asleep and napped for the next few hours. The total flight time was about 6 hours. When you woke up close to the time of the plane landing, you were resting against Eddie's shoulder. Startled a little bit by your position, you looked up into his chocolate-brown eyes.

"Did you sleep well?" He asked with a smile on his face.

"I slept well," you replied, trying your best to not make anything seem awkward as you smiled back at him.

Eddie said nothing about the way you were sleeping and instead looked out of the window. Soon the plane made its descent, and you felt a mixture of emotions, including apprehension and happiness, but also a feeling of euphoria. After all, you were in the city of Angels and you felt like anything was possible. The following night was the first day of the tour at The Mayan. It was a sold-out show and would have close to 2000 attendees. The night after was Vegas, and you were looking forward to seeing some of the West Coast.

"So, are you ready to hit up the hotel and then maybe go out after for some drinks?" Eddie asked you.

"Oh, that would be great."

"Good. You have your room at the hotel, of course, and with the best view."

"Thanks, Eddie." You wondered if the bar meet-up would be with just Eddie or some of the other guys as well.

As you got off the plane and went to collect your luggage at the airport, Eddie stayed close to your side. He couldn't wait to take a smoke break, but right now, his priority was getting everyone safely to the hotel. He hailed a cab for you and him, along with Jeff. Gareth and Grant would take the next one though. L.A. was so busy and crowded, but as the traffic lightened up a little bit, you soon found yourself at the entrance to the Sheraton Hotel. The place was very nice, and after checking in with the hotel staff at the front desk, you took the elevator with Eddie to your rooms on the fourth floor. Once you parted ways with him, you explored your room and unpacked, before freshening up just a little bit. He texted you he would be at the local bar at the Virgil in downtown L.A. around 630 p.m. You texted back you would be there. Soon you left for the club and when you arrived, you found Eddie outside smoking. As you walked up to him you noticed the song playing in the bar was a Corroded Coffin song.

"Sounds like they are playing your song."

"Yep, they sure are. Shall we go in?"

You nodded your approval and walk with him into the bar. Soon you sat down, and the bartender came over to ask for your drink orders and ids. You showed her your ID, and she took your order of a mojito and Eddie's order of a triple shot of bourbon.

"So, what do you like to do for fun?"

"I'm very into art, cinema, photography, makeup, concerts, and shopping. That sort of stuff."

"Nice. Pretty much the same for me except makeup and shopping aren't all that bad. It just depends on what you are shopping for I guess. I love record stores."

"Me too. Swap meets, garage sales, and vinyl record shows can be pretty fun too."

"I agree. Great minds think alike."

With drinks in hand now, he gave you a toast.

"To us."

"To us," you repeated after him right before clinking your glasses together, then taking a big sip of your mojito. It was delicious, and most importantly, refreshing.

He loved how his bourbon tasted on his tongue, and he loved the feeling of the liquor in his system. A good drink after a nice smoke was just what he needed.

After a long silent pause, the song Master of Puppets began playing in the club. Eddie's head banged along to it and you smiled at him warmly, feeling a slight buzz from the liquor as you took another big sip of it and so did Eddie.

"This is my favorite to cover live especially," he mentioned with a slight hum, as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"I love this song and I'm sure the cover live is great. Hopefully, I will hear it on this tour."

He nodded in agreement as a big smirk formed on his face.

"Definitely. You sure will," he told you as he lifted his glass again to clink against yours.

He drank and leaned his head against his hand as he looked at you with his beautiful chocolate-brown eyes.

"What's on your mind?" He asked, sounding genuinely curious as he stared at you.

You took a big gulp of your drink, practically finishing it now, then set it down on the counter.

"I'm thinking about dancing. Head banging. I mean Metallica is awesome and makes me want to move. Know what I mean?"

"Sure. Why not?"

He got up and offered his hand for you to take. As soon as your hand met his and you made contact, you let him escort you to the dance floor.

As you moved in time to the music and danced close to him, you spun around, then bravely bumped and ground against him, with your back facing towards his chest. You boldly moved against him and leaned your head back. He enjoyed the close contact as the song's second verse wrapped up and the chorus kicked in again. He sang along to the music, and his head banged as you continued to move against him, but almost lost your balance. Catching you instantly, Eddie whispered in your ear.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, fine."

"I think we should dance a bit more, then head back to the hotel," he suggested.

You nodded in agreement, then continued dancing as he held onto your hips so you wouldn't fall. Eddie was all smiles as you danced for him. He was just so happy. You felt so excited and felt that at that moment, anything was possible. It was getting late and the tour was starting tomorrow. Right now you were going to live it up.

More songs came on, and with each one, you danced close to him, getting so close that your lips almost brushed against his. The way he smiled at you made you smile. He made you feel so safe with him. It was getting late, and soon you said goodbye and parted ways. The next day would be the first day of the tour and it would hopefully be amazing.

You slept well that night. Morning light soon came into your window and without hesitation, you turned off your alarm clock, eager to start the day. You checked your phone- finding a text from Eddie.

It was great to spend time with you last night. Eager for tonight. Let's rock!

His text made you smile, and you texted him back.

Can't wait for tonight. It's going to be the most metal show ever! :)

Eddie soon read your text, eager to see you again. Getting a good morning text from you was the best way to start his day, and you felt the same way about him.

After the concert, there would be a meet and greet. As the manager, you had to run that, but hopefully, it would go by well without a hitch. Beautiful women who were around were sure to be throwing themselves at Eddie. At least those that would give him their numbers. He was your coworker though. You had no right to get worked up about this. You wanted to look out for Eddie. You didn't want him to get used by any woman. Spending more time with him was all you wanted, and if anything more happened between the two of you, then so be it. Everything was going to work out and your dream job was starting today. You needed to be focused, but hopefully, later there would be time for some fun and getting to know Ed's better. As for Eddie, he was glad to have a dedicated person to be Corroded Coffin's tour manager. With you, he had just that.

chapter 2 title and preview: rock n roll all nite

Summary- Corroded Coffin put on their first concert of the tour. After Eddie has a fun night at the show he seeks comfort in someone else but realizes he needs you.

The club was one of the nicest you had ever seen. Everything about being there felt like home to Eddie. Playing gigs and living it up every night as a rockstar was his calling. His life revolved around Corroded Coffin, and his band meant everything to him. Without his bandmates, he wouldn't be where he was after so many years of putting both his heart and soul into his music. The hard work paid off, and he could launch a successful musical project even with all the turmoil of his past and being the town freak. Saving Hawkins from the likes of Vecna, and all the destruction that came from Hawkins' lab- he still had received no acknowledgment for any of it. Left for dead in the upside down, he eventually made his way out of the other side alive by some miracle. After extensive healing, he made a full recovery and healed. Music kept him going. Tonight was special. Type O Negative was one of the most respected bands from the east coast and Brooklyn. Being around the band and finally meeting them was one of Eddie's best experiences. Peter Steele was an influence of his. Doom Metal meant a lot to Eddie, with his favorite band being Black Sabbath. They were also the biggest influence on Peter and Type O Negative. The day had finally come that they would play a show- a co-headliner no less with these doom metal legends. The soundcheck went by without a hitch and everyone had a good time. You had the best view and once they had played through a few of their big hits; they took a short break before the VIP guests would arrive. Most of the tour had been a sell-out already, with the meet and greets sold out.

The meet and greets were very exclusive, but Eddie was going to meet every fan individually, along with Jeff, Gareth, and Grant. Everyone arrived in a timely fashion. To no one's surprise, at least half of the guests were women. All of them were so pretty. No doubt Eddie would have a groupie or two, maybe even more tonight. As a manager of the band, you had to be professional. Some girls had him sign their boobs, which was nothing new for him as to be expected. Many had magazines and posters to sign and when you took their group pictures, some women hugged him. The women were at least classy enough to not flash anyone.

One woman had fan art for Eddie and she got a backstage pass from him. Everything about Eddie was charming, so it was no surprise this was happening. Once the meet and greet ended, you accommodated all the guests back outside and assured them they would have an early entry. Eddie was too old for all the groupie stuff, but he wanted to meet every fan that wanted to meet him.

the rest of this chapter and the full 21 chapter series can all be found on ao3

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[mariacallous]

There’s a sense of occasion to the new “Othello” now at the Barrymore, on Broadway—Denzel Washington, one of our last true movie legends, is playing the titular role, and Jake Gyllenhaal, no slouch in the stardom department himself, appears as his evil saboteur, Iago. Producers are charging north of nine hundred dollars for orchestra seats, the kind of ludicrous, norm-busting event pricing that somehow drives demand; the sidewalk outside buzzes with excitement. Inside the theatre, though, it’s another story.

In Shakespeare’s oddly comic tragedy, jealousy is the prime mover. As the Venetians and the Ottoman Turks squabble over Cyprus in the background, the men before us quarrel over everything—a woman, a job, a handkerchief. Iago, a veteran soldier, hates Othello, his general, a Moor who fights for Venice: Iago’s missed out on a promotion, and he also half believes a rumor that Othello has seduced his wife, Emilia (Kimber Elayne Sprawl). His hatred devours all but his capacity to lie and plot; “I am not what I am,” he says. Iago turns his sights to ruining Othello’s new wife, Desdemona (Molly Osborne), with false clues and poisonous innuendo. Envious of what Othello has, he takes it.

You need energy and clarity to make “Othello” work—to make the language sing and to propel the deceptions forward—especially because the vicious Iago hasn’t got an actual goal, just an appetite for chaos and a ready little knife. The director, Kenny Leon, is uninterested in clarity, though, and the vibe is mild depression: a pre-show projection reading “The Near Future” doesn’t turn out to be particularly useful, and the dreary, gray-columned set, designed by Derek McLane, looks like a parking garage. (Dede Ayite dresses the soldiers in de-rigueur fatigues, the Venetian senators in suits.) Famously, Iago hurls racist abuse behind Othello’s back, calling him, for example, an “old black ram,” and that poison, too, worms its way into Othello’s mind. “I am black and have not those soft parts of conversation that chamberers have,” he says to himself, alone. In this production, Emilia is Black, as are some soldiers in Iago’s platoon. The casting choices might raise a whole host of interesting questions about how this Venice reflects our own time, but Leon doesn’t foreground, or even really acknowledge, them.

Leon and Washington have had triumphs together, namely the Broadway productions of August Wilson’s “Fences,” in 2010, and Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” in 2014. In those shows, Leon turned his eye for behavior to prop-heavy naturalism, where he seems most graceful and at ease. Here, there’s very little reality in his direction—Emilia switches randomly among the jobs of lady’s maid, glamorous chief of staff, and camo-wearing lieutenant, for instance—and too few people look at one another when they talk. At least Gyllenhaal, crazy as a scorpion, makes a point of facing the people he’s bamboozling, jabbing his hand at them as if he could drive his lies in by force. He and Andrew Burnap, playing Cassio, one of Iago’s many persuadable fools, find nice moments together, largely because they seem like they’re in conversation. The rest of the time, if there are more than a handful of actors onstage they drift into a half circle, the hallmark of amateur staging.

When Washington enters, we sense, for one bright moment, the Othello that might have been: he charges in, tucking his white shirt into his blue trousers, and here is his Don Pedro from “Much Ado About Nothing” (the Kenneth Branagh film from 1993), still forceful and on the go. As long as he’s joshing with other soldiers, or glad-handing senators, he moves comfortably. And, early in the first act, Washington’s touch with the verse is casual, knowing, deft. The trouble hits when he greets his “soul’s joy,” Desdemona—who is dressed in a series of Political Wife pants suits—and exhibits only a faint, avuncular enthusiasm. As Leon’s production toils blandly along, Washington employs a light, high delivery, lapsing into vagueness and singsong. Nothing commands his full attention. Othello is supposed to be “declined into the vale of years,” but Washington moves past what might be a portrait of an overtaxed old general into apathy.

Sinking onto Desdemona’s bed, reciting his lines without notable crescendo or feeling, Washington puts Osborne into a weary headlock, and then kind of leans on her to death. As Act V plays out, Othello is often found sitting on this bed, staring out into space. Watching Washington’s gotta-take-a-load-off finish reminded me of his most recent Broadway performance, in 2018—as Hickey in Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh,” another presumed cuckold who, it turns out, has murdered his wife. In that production, the director George C. Wolfe had Washington conclude the play sitting in a chair at center stage. As in “Othello,” he stopped engaging with the cast around him, delivering his monologue like an aria, straight out to the audience.

Maybe Washington just doesn’t like blocking? My suspicion is that a director in a rehearsal room, looking at the megastar as he runs his lines, thinks, If only people could experience what we see here, without necessarily calculating the difference between that small room and a Broadway house. But these ill-spent moments do, I think, matter. Ticket prices aside, the theatre really cannot afford to waste a chance with Washington like this. He values the stage, and returns to it often, but, at seventy years old, he’s started hinting in interviews about retirement. It’s heartening, therefore, that he has been talking about a film of “Othello.” I can see it in my mind’s eye already—his magnificently tired face filling a screen, where we can finally see the flickers of waning nobility and waxing madness. Also, it’ll cost maybe twenty-five bucks.

There are still bargains to be had this week in live theatre, however. On Twenty-third Street, at a long, narrow, no-frills space called Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre, you can pay fifty dollars and get a “Friday Night Lights”-inflected synthwave-musical retelling of Homer’s Iliad, performed by a joyfully committed ensemble. “The Trojans,” written and composed by the hugely gifted Leegrid Stevens and directed by Eric Paul Vitale, is that rara avis: a gorgeously produced downtown epic, somehow both trash-based (the costume designer, Ashley Soliman, has made football armor out of knee-pad inserts, for example) and luxurious, rich in the way that theatre is meant to be rich—with imagination, intelligence, and potential.

On entry, the room looks like an Amazon warehouse, with boxes piled to the ceiling. If you take a minute to read the labels, though, something seems odd: the addresses all list places like Parthenon, Arkansas, and Athens, Georgia. The glum workers pushing their hydraulic carts and listening to a tinny boom box perk up the moment someone mentions the “old days,” when their town resounded with the rivalry between two high-school football teams, the Trojans and the Highland Kings. Soon, the workers are reënacting the run-up to a long-ago homecoming game—way back in the nineteen-eighties, I’m guessing, based on the occasional Walkman. Back then, the prom queen, Heather (Deshja Driggs), left her boyfriend, Johnny (Roger Casey), for the allure of Highland’s arts program, and everyone freaked out.

Is Heather Helen of Troy? She certainly causes mayhem, as the teen-agers drive their cars—those same hydraulic carts, weaving only inches from the audience—toward disaster. Paris is the coy Daris (Arya Grace Gaston), and the doomed hero Achilles has become the grim-faced Trojan running back Keeley (Erin Treadway, in boxer braids and golden work boots), who refuses to take the field after Johnny utters a fatal insult. Stevens has slyly flipped the sides in Homer’s poem, but we’re not here for a one-to-one narrative mapping of a Bronze Age tragedy. Instead, we’ve come for the same reason that scouts go to high-school football finals: to see stunning talents like Casey and Treadway before everyone else hears about them, and to get back in touch with our love of the game. 

[devilrose]

Tristan Legend and Giuseppi Mezzoalto from the Sims handheld series camping out in the Strangetown desert. The number of incredible tales that Tristan can share surely increases with the amount of beers had.

Commission for @just-ornstein - thank you for giving me an opportunity to do something with this concept :D

Ever since we discussed the idea of Giuseppi having kind of a crush on Tristan, I've been wanting to write a small fic about it, and working on this commission gave me the kick in the pants I needed. The bonus fic is under the cut. 388 words. It probably takes place a couple hours before the moment in the artwork.

Passenger seat

The desert eats people, they say, and they're right. It's not just the giant scorpions - it's the wind that rips out the dew from within your throat, it's the sky that's too tall and wide and blue and heavy; best to keep your mouth shut and your head down. The desert goes on, infinite wherever it spreads; a limitless space bisected by one straight road, a matter of basic geometry - that's where you drive fast and steady, alone for days in all directions, unless someone is filming some cheesy car commercial. The desert is the space of nothingness - but if you go there, you're searching for something, and you'll sure find it.

Tristan had been at the wheel for a few hours now. It had been baking hot all morning and afternoon; now the sun was finally going down, and in a couple hours it'd be the cold and dry night of the desert. Giuseppi stretched in the van's passenger seat. Not even a lone funky saguaro in the window to distract him from his thoughts. He turned to look at Tristan instead: in the late afternoon light, the stray frizz of his hair against the sun drew a golden halo. He was always like this, carrying that perfect glow, that dazzling charm, that winning smile. Giuseppi squinted his eyes to shield himself from that stupid brightness. What else could he do? Of course it hurt to see; someone like Giuseppi belonged firmly to the night, where dressed in black he concealed the wrinkles on his too-young face, the roughness that would never become smooth again. Tristan, instead, was all gold and shine, in spite of everything - what envy; and what delight. When he considered himself burnt enough, Giuseppi turned away to look at more rocks and sand. Strangetown was how many miles away now? There's nothing behind, and there's nothing ahead. The van drives on. In that moment, that's where the whole world began and ended.

Tristan slowed down, ready for a break. Giuseppi had promised to himself that he wouldn't slip back to his old ways, but maybe he had in him one last crime, if he would find the courage - to steal some sunlight from his lips. Would it be so bad?

//

[laismoura-art]

How do you think Kenshi and Suchin met in this new timeline? Especially if you consider that Suchin was the reason for Kenshi’s redemption?

Hey, Bloos! Thanks for the ask!💕

I'll let you know that I have plenty of ideas for Suchin, both for the New Era, as well as for my Scorpion!Harumi AU (you let me know if you're interested in that one too 👀)

I had the chance to brainstorm a bit about her recently with ma gal @thedragonholder and also with @rasta-bot (both make amazing Suchin content💕), and that really helped me to organise my thoughts and ideas for her!

So, to answer your question, you gotta know my version of Suchin better, so please, let me walk you through this more polished version of her origins (now with more Kenshi🤭)

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

ORIGINS:

Suchin's family descends from Seido, the Golden Kingdom, in Outworld.

Form an outsiders perspective, the place may feel like a true utopia, everything and everyone has their role and order reigns above. Unfortunately, to assure "order" the rules of Seido ended up being SEVERELY punitive, unfair, and often targeted the less fortunate classes.

Tired of such unfairness, the Bunnag family decided to flee and take as many families as they could (which, sadly, were not as many families as they wished).

For their decision, the Bunnags were cast as traidors and criminals and were hunted down by the city's rulers and their police forces.

The family could've gone after Queen Sindel and requested refuge in Sun Do (which she would've granted, mind you), but they were afraid Seido would see her actions as an act of war and start a bigger conflict.

So, instead, they went after Delia's help.

The Goddess of the Eternal Flame granted all the families a safe trip to Earthrealm. And to praise the Bunnags for their courage, she crafted a pair of blades and blessed them in her flames.

THAILAND VIGILANTES:

Once safe in Earthrealm, the Bunnags had decided they would never again turn a blind eye to the injustices surrounding them. Thailand was now their home, and they would make it a safer and just place!

That resulted in them becoming something akin to vigilantes. Urban legends even. No one really knew their identities, but the locals were certain every generation had their very own vigilante, and soon, Suchin would become her generation's!

But before she could take over the tittle that currently belonged to her mother, Suchin wanted to learn more about her family's mysterious heritage (her parents and grandparents were far too vague about that, and she strongly believed knowing her roots would make her a better warrior, a better protector for Thailand!

So she made sure to gather the attention of the Umgadi and grant herself a place among them. She would be trained and in the meantime, learn about her roots and about that mysterious hooded figure her family seems to worship...

Said and done! Suchin was recruited by the Umgadi and trained for years with a selected group (Tanya, Jade and Harumi). Her instructor, Li Mei, made sure to tell her everything she knew about Delia and Seido (she didn't know the specifics of what happened between the Bunnags and Seido, but she could guess, and did advise Suchin to remain within Sun Do, where she would be welcomed and more importantly, protected)

YIELDING THE BLESSED BLADES:

After her training years were over, Suchin returned to Earthrealm and took over her mother's place so the later could finally retire.

Suchin became an outstanding vigilante. And her notable job started to call attention of some evil forces outside Thailand.

The Black Dragon, the Red Dragon and the Yakusa, all wanted a piece of her!

Her fight with this groups led her to travel all over the globe, and eventually, get to Japan, where the Yakusa already had a price for her head, and to handle such talented swordswoman, the evil organisations sent their most talented swordsman: Kenshi Takahashi!

THE REDEMPTION:

By the time Kenshi was assigned to the task of killing Suchin, he was already starting to question his place within the Yakusa.

He wasn't loud about it. In reality, no one could really even tell he was having any sort of second thoughts.

That is... until Suchin.

She could tell by his fighting alone. He was a skilled fighter, that was not doubt about that. But his head was just not there!

Which was why Suchin decided to spare his life once she had defeated him, "Face me again." She challenged him, "Once you had decided who's your real opponent."

He was sent again, and again he hesitated. Then again and again. Each time less motivated. Each time more confused and torn up.

Suchin was growing impatient. "If you're not going to give me a real fight, at least offer me dinner or something. Fighting you exhausts me!"

He vanished instead.

Only a week later, he reappeared and offered to pay her coffee and pancakes with syrup.

"Coffee and pancakes? Ha! Who would've thought the Yakusa would be such cheapskates!" She teased, but accepted the invitation anyways (a good choice, as the pancakes were phenomenal!)

Good pancakes made up for the long hours of Kenshi just venting about his problems.

One thing he said truly resonated with her, "I feel like I'm not on the right place. I feel like I'm betraying myself, betraying... my very blood! Does that make sense??"

And yes! It did make sense! That's exactly how her family felt in Seido. That feeling of unease and self-betrayal, of self-loathing was precisely what led them to flee their hometown and start all over, reconnecting with who they truly were, away from any external oppresive influences.

So to help Kenshi, she shared with him the story of her family (something she had only done with her teacher and her close Umgadi friends).

She advised him to find his roots, so he would find himself in the process and fully understand who he wanted to be from that moment on.

"You're right." He said in a rather monotone way, but Suchin could tell he was having an epiphany inside his head. Which was confirmed by his sudden movements, he got up at once, kissed her cheek and left with only a rushed announcement: "I must go to Hollywood! Right at this moment!"

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Sorry I took your ask as an opportunity to brainstorm a bit more about Suchin, I hope you had enjoyed my headcanons still (including the one you actually came here for, lol)❤️❤️

@mikka-minns

[black-arcana]

MACHINE HEAD, PAPA ROACH And GOJIRA Among First Confirmed Bands For 2025 Edition Of WACKEN OPEN AIR

The organizers of the annual Wacken Open Air festival have announced the first confirmed bands for the 2025 edition of the event, set to take place from July 30 to August 2 in Wacken, Germany.

A total of 34 artists have been announced for the 34th edition of Wacken Open Air, including MACHINE HEAD, PAPA ROACH, GOJIRA, APOCALYPTICA, SAXON and WITHIN TEMPTATION.

A total of 85,000 tickets were sold for Wacken Open Air 2024.

Confirmed bands so far for Wacken Open Air 2025:

MACHINE HEAD SALTATIO MORTIS PAPA ROACH GOJIRA APOCALYPTICA SAXON WITHIN TEMPTATION DIMMU BORGIR MINISTRY MICHAEL SCHENKER (My Years With UFO) PEYTON PARRISH BEYOND THE BLACK CLAWFINGER GRAVE DIGGER (45th-Anniversary Show) AUGUST BURNS RED OBITUARY WIND ROSE BROTHERS OF METAL TARJA & MARKO HIETALA HANABIE DECAPITATED DESTRUCTION CELESTE ORANGE GOBLIN ANGEL WITCH DOMINUM EXHORDER NIGHT DEMON MIMI BARKS SEVEN SPIRES CLOWNS DOOL CROWNSHIFT MIDNIGHT

The ticket presale begins on Sunday (August 4) at 8 p.m. German time from metaltix.com and wacken.com.

German hard rock legends SCORPIONS headlined this year's edition of Wacken Open Air, which takes place annually in Wacken, a village with a population of just about 2,000.

The first Wacken Open Air event in 1990 drew less than 800 people, but it has since grown to become the biggest open-air festival of its kind.

Around 30 percent travel from other countries to the festival, which over recent years has been growing in popularity.

Wacken Open Air was forced to take a break for two years due to coronavirus restrictions.

Wacken Open Air normally does not announce the names of its headliners before tickets go on sale. Still, the festival usually sells out within hours.

The festival also doesn't sell VIP access or upgrades and all purchases are for all the days without a single-day ticket option, something they did away with two decades ago.

[antiromanticbaby]

Monsters - Obey Me TSL

[✧] ー I'm obsessed. That's it.

[✧] ー Each kingdom in the TSL series has their own eerie monsters and urban legends. At least to me. Part 1 of my TSL rants <3 all of them will come with the tag #♡ ┊ tsl rants by pk.

Lord of Corruption:

♡ ┊ The Lord of Corruption might have tamed the three headed hellhound, Cerberus, with a breath of fire and destructive nature, but the monsters deep in the forests are much like Chernobyl animals and wildlife. Have you seen the two headed sheeps? The animals in Lord of Corruption's territory are horrifying, way bigger, made of shadow. They corrupt every place they set foot upon. Sacrifices are made once a year, young and innocent humans setting foot into the forest and never coming back.

♡ ┊ If anyone deemed Cerberus scary, they had never seen the monsters lurking the forest.

♡ ┊ The forest is completely off limits for everyone but the Lord of Corruption himself, as he is the only one able to handle the demons. It seems like the hostile monsters had been sealed away by a protection spell from The Lord of Corruption himself. There are rumors that the Lord of Corruption feeds on the magic of these beasts, empowering himself more and more.

Lord of Fools:

♡ ┊ I like to believe that the Lord of Fool's territory has multiple gold and diamond mines. Even magical rocks, and another headcanon of mine is that his empire is much like ancient egyptian empires, with gold south asian castles and deserts.

♡ ┊ Monsters lurk underground. Earthquake? Oh no, it was probably one of the monsters. Some miners lost their lives as the mine collapsed? The mines didn't collapse, monsters took it down.

♡ ┊ Huge, humanoid spiders and scorpions roam the deserts and unknown, ten legged monsters peer at miners in silence when they venture far too deep. These beasts aren't as hostile as the ones in Lord of Corruption's empire, but they can get very mad if someone steps foot into their houses. It's very hard for the people to see what exactly outlines them, but Lord of Fools has the power to detect those. There is always a certain aura surrounding certain golds, and as much as he hates to let go of some, he prefers not to anger the beasts.

Lord of Shadow:

♡ ┊ Lord of Shadow tamed Lotan, but there are still beasts lurking deep underneath his empire, which is pretty much like Venezia, a town on top of water. There are two days in one year that the people bring sacrifices from different empires and drown them for the monsters. 

♡ ┊ As an empire which is used to war and training for it, Lord of Shadows has everything needed to defend the empire from these monsters lurking within.

♡ ┊ Of course, Henry is a great help too, with the ability to surf underwater and shapeshift (another hc of mine). Lotan always accompanies Henry to make sure he's safe while he patreons. Henry trains many guards to patreon under the water and make sure none of the beasts venture too close to the empire, or the surface.

Lord of Masks:

♡ ┊ Finding something suitable for him was hard. But here me out we all remember Hide Behind from Gravity Falls, right? Or at least, Slenderman. So imagine this, creatures as tall as Slenderman, even taller, with no face or form but only a humanoid shape and made of a black void. They can take the form of anyone they meet, mimic them, and observe them enough to take over the victim's life.

♡ ┊ These creatures want to experience the life of humans and demons, so they observe, from the shadows, deep in the night and bit by bit take your life, your personality, and your loved ones.

♡ ┊ The Mimics, as I call them, are hard to detect. Specially since the victims can never be found again, as if The Mimics absorb them. But they have one weakness. They can never take off the masks every citizen and the Lord wears. So every month, at unpredictable days, everyone living in the kingdom attends a ceremony to take off their masks and close their eyes, with only Satan looking at everyone. The Mimics are never found after then, until the next ceremony.

Lord of Lechery:

♡ ┊ The most part of lord of Lechery's fashion comes from the feathers the sirens shed. Note that by Siren, I mean the Greek version, the birds with human head. The thing is, however, that these sirens are way bigger than the Greek ones and way wilder, with an even shorter temper. They're not as hostile as the other monsters in other empires, but they get offended way too quickly 

♡ ┊ They also have a thing for stealing jewelry and pieces of clothing from noblemen and women. Their weakness is mirrors, as these huge Sirens live in constant denial of their appearance and believe themselves to be the most beautiful beings to ever exist.

♡ ┊ These creatures seem to have a liking to the Lord himself, and never steal anything from him. They also find him superior and do listen to him. But who knows? Maye the Lord is using a little it of charming spells too.

Lord of Flies and Lord of Emptiness:

♡ ┊ The lord of Emptiness' grief has casted everlasting shadows that move through the empire. Legends say that if Lord of Flies was not here, the whole empire would be swallowed by these shadows. It is clear to every demon to never step foot into the shadows, as they will fall into a long lasting sleep, never waking up. There is a temple for those who have fell in the trap of these shadows, and the people tending to the temple say that the corpses are stuck in an ever lasting nightmare, being eaten from the inside out by ther own organs. 

♡ ┊ One day every year, shadows take over the empire. The people living there must lock themselves inside at all costs, and protect themselves with charms of light. And whatever they do, they must not let the lights go out until the shadows are gone, no matter what. The duration is not completely set, sometimes it's 2 or 3 hours, and some may last days and weeks. So everyone living in the kingdom has piles and piles of food, canned in magical devices to use.

♡ ┊ Still, the shadows are always tempting and full of temptation. One must not even look outside their window, for they might fall for the shadows' tricks.

[a-sad-mage]

Casually re-watched all of Lego Legends of Chima for the 100th time and...

What the absolute hell is the timeline of the Crawlers?

Because Queen Crunket says the Crawlers spawned after eating the Chi Laval dropped in the Gorge.

But Lavertus, the crazy old lion, implies they've been around longer.

Like when he's explaining everything to the gang after they confronted him about being ShadoWind, he says, "I was just minding my own business living in exile in the Outlands when Spiders, Bats and Scorpions showed up!" [Not a direct quote]

He then goes on to explain that because of the Crawlers, he started racing in Chima under the alias of ShadoWind to get Golden Chi to build his lair to keep himself safe. (possibly the Legend Beasts as well, seeing as how he's basically friends with them, and its kinda implied he was going to rescue them until the gang showed up)

So if we follow Queen Crunkets' story, the Crawlers have been around for maybe a few weeks, maybe six months at most, until the Black Cloud makes its appearance. But according to Lavertus, they've been around a lot longer.

Remember, ShadoWind has been around for a few years. And if Lavertus's of stock piled Golden Chi is anything to go by, it's been a long while. Because during the whole thing with the Ice Hunters, the Exiled Lion pulls out like 12 whole Golden Chi orbs for them to escape from under the ice. And he still has more.

According to the Fandom Wiki Section for L-LoC, Golden Chi is created once every month. And since ShadoWind basically wins every Speedorz race he enters, I wana say he has at least two years' worth of Golden Chi orbs that we can tell hasn't been used up yet.

But he's been in exile for so long that Laval didn't even know he was his uncle. Obviously, Lagravis wouldn't want to bring up his brother or mention that he had to exile his own brother(can't wait to talk about that in its own post). As Laval says, he knows Lavertus is the only Lion in Exile he was told about. So he was most likely told about this during his studies, with no way of knowing the significance.

And since the gang are all around the same age 16-19(speculation, were not exactly givin thier ages but we know thier young warriors and 16 just feels right for the youngest they can be and 19 for the oldest idk why), Lavertus has been in exile for I wana say 20 or so years.

So 20 years of monthly Speedorz races, and the implication that the Crawlers exists for just as long.

Obviously, Lavertus could have just been referring to him getting more Golden Chi to fortify his home.

But the wording is weird with how Lavertus says it.

Could possibly there have been some Crawlers in the Outlands before Laval dropped the Chi? Sure, I mean there is an army of them, and a bag of Chi shouldn't be able to awaken that many Crawlers. The Spiders I can excuse because... Spiders. But the Bats and Scorpions? Na man, that's fishy as heck. And that's why Lavertus needed so much Golden Chi.

Tldr: The timeline is wack, and I say this as someone who likes FNAF.