#my thoughts are kind of a mess

[ghostherlig]

did you play the new dlc expansion pass? How was it? Any things you liked / disliked?

oh im gonna get into it bc i have some thoughts about the dlc-

but the TLDR of it is that i enjoyed it!! it was fun to play through, we got to see more of some less-seen characters, we got to see new characters, and i really liked being able to play more story mode and get to see the goofy and fun moments i was expecting... but i wasnt very happy with some of the character and story choices, especially how kuai liang and bi han ended up being, how noob saibot came about, and how everything sort of came together into one big glob of... hollow characters.

(longer thoughts under the cut 😅)

i dont know if i want to excuse the poor writing as being rushed (although that can very likely be the case with WB, it wouldnt surprise me), but i will say that i dont think it's all the fault of the writer (yes singular, thank you WB /s)

my main issues were with the characters themselves- i love the addition of sektor and cyrax as playable characters on the roster, i love that we get noob saibot and get to see more of other timelines and have great character expansions on rain and tanya- i dont love that kuai liang gets the shaft the entire story, or that bi han has all of the problems that his character has, or that there's so much unnecessary conflict the entire story

first things first, i really liked playing through the story mode- even though i accidentally played 98% of it on hard and struggled- it was a fun little adventure! i loved getting to see sektor and cyrax, i loved getting to see all of characters interacting again, i loved that we got to see harumi, and that we got to see more from other timelines-

however, as much fun as it was, there were certain points that just felt hollow, or pointless, or so out of character that it kind of took me out of it- the main sources of that issue being bi han and kuai liang.

bi han and kuai liang, throughout the entirety of khaos reigns, are the most infuriating set of bastards i have ever had to experience in an mk game- and it's just because they were constantly making the wrong decisions.

that isnt to say that you cant write a story where every turn is a left one and nothing good ever happens, you absolutely can and there are masterpieces out there that are like that, however in this specific story, it feels like not a single fucking time do bi han or kuai liang ever make a good choice until the last fucking cut scene- AND IT'S JUST KUAI!!

bi han doesnt even get any kind of redemption arc after THIS???

THIS IS THE STUPIDEST FUCKING MOVE IN THE ENTIRE CAMPAIGN, AND HE DOESNT EVER GET TO REDEEM HIMSELF OF EVEN THIS?? IT'S THE STUPIDEST STUNT IN THE ENTIRE STORY-

and bi han isnt even one of the characters that i personally am super in love with (which may very well be bc of how he was written), but i still think that him jumping into that fucking portal for literally no reason was one of the WORST decisions i've ever seen-

there was quite literally no fucking need, there are a thousand different ways to get him into the khaos realm-

like, geras already gets taken- and the fight scene between them all couldve been improved if bi han had actually tried to help and not had his Dunce Moment of jumping head first into that portal- we couldve had an enemies to brothers story where bi han, kuai liang, cyrax, and sektor all go together to the khaos realm to get geras- and maybe after realizing he was wrong, bi han takes a hit for kuai and gets dragged off and that's how we get noob later in the story-

all that to say, things could've been different.

i think the story couldve even had a good (as in like.. happy-) ending, where kuai liang and bi han can at the very least be somewhat civil with each other, or put their feud aside and work alongside each other to protect earthrealm-

i think there was so much opportunity for bi han to get some kind of redemption arc, and i think it couldve fit into the story because liu kang wanted the best outcome for each of his champions, and bi han is a part of that!! it couldve been that bi han and kuai found a way to set aside their feud to protect earthrealm, for bi han to swallow his pride and admit he was wrong, for kuai to be forgiving and allow bi han another chance- there was so much room for character development and it just feels like it was squandered.

i love mk as a franchise because of their characters and a lot of their complexity that can be scraped from story pieces, but khaos reigns felt more like a cash grab than wanting to make a good story. the characters felt so empty, and having the story end how it did, with the tower endings afterwards stomping out any hope for any kind of redemption?

i'll say it isnt my favorite 😅 i liked the addition of new characters, i thought tid bits of the story like ww2 johnny and emperor rain and empress tanya were cool, i like that we got to see more of kenshi using his powers, i enjoyed seeing cyrax and sektor interact with each other and with others (although in my opinion sektor has a lot of problems with her character-) and i really like a lot of the kind of funky skins we got from it all... i just wish there was a way for us to keep the good and get a better story out of it... even if it still ended with noob waiting to be cured, i think it wouldve been nice for him to have someone other than sektor waiting for him...

[hinamie]

corvidae

[peridots-pixiwolf]

[Start ID. A digital drawing of Gabriel and V1 from Ultrakill in super-saturated, pixellated colors. It seemingly takes place during phase two of his second fight, judging by Gabe's bright yellow-cyan wings and the consequent blush shining through his helmet. Gabriel is pictured on the left, facing the left side of the screen with his head turned to V1, preparing to strike them with the bloodied spear in his right hand. Small but frequent splatters of blood dot his armor and outstretched wings, fabrics torn through in places. V1 is on the right, aiming its piercer revolver at his face. Their arms are stacked in pairs on either side, idle Feedbacker and Knuckleblaster on the left and Whiplash tucked atop their default arm on the right. Both parties are stylized to resemble insects, Gabe with beetle wings and a halo in the shape of antennae, and V1 with the four wings, four arms, short antennae and bristles expected of a dragonfly. End ID]

woah.... happy 1 year anniversary to gay people

also a couple alts (background removed, just gabe, and just v1, respectively) in hopes it'll be a little easier to understand what's going on and all!

additionally once again: special thanks to @magnumopos and @muzzleroars , neither of which I have actually spoken to in my life but both of which are credited with partially inspiring this! (dedicated section under the readmore due to the fact I do not generally tag people at all ever and wasn't sure if I should, but thought it was worth mentioning!) The former for giving me the wonderful idea of dragonfly V1, the latter for drawing V1 like a strange little creature + for the feedbacker plate, I enjoy both your works :]

(retroactively, on march 27th of 2024, assigning them a full bingo with credit to deep-space-lines. ehehehehe)

[quadrantadvisor]

Alright new Jason Todd headcanons in a dpxdc setting:

Danny is a "liminal" ghost, rather than a "half" ghost. He's alive and dead at the same time. (He's like Jesus Christ (in the church denomination I grew up in), fully ghost and fully human.) Danny, in human form, can go through a ghost shield, because he IS a living human.

Jason, however, is a reanimated corpse. He isn't a ghost, wouldn't have a ghost core, etc, he has a normal human system that runs ON ectoplasm. Jason CANNOT go through a ghost shield, because he is always an ectoplasmic entity. Danny can go through the Fenton Ghost Catcher and be split into a ghost and a human; if Jason went through the ghost catcher, he would straight up die.

(For my purposes I'm gonna say that Jason became an ectoplasmic entity upon his resurrection, but wasn't very stable. Dunking in the Lazarus pit stabilized his system but also poisoned his ectoplasm.)

I do think that Jason could learn certain ghost abilities if he learned to harness his ectoplasm, especially if they detoxed him off the Lazarus waters. He's probably already enhancing his stealth and strength in ways he hasn't really noticed. I think he's held back by the amount of physical matter he's lugging around, so maybe he couldn't fly, but I'm imagining temporary invisibility, or intagibility of like, a limb at a time. Maybe he can't walk through walls, but in a fight he can dodge by instinctively making the targeted part of his body intangible.

[thecoolerliauditore]

beauty of the divorce quartet actually is that no matter where you draw the relationship lines you get a fun and fucked up dynamic to think about

[doctorwhommm]

Jack and Ianto being a power couple? Either at work or at a meeting with UNIT or wherever

someone gimme fic recs like this immediately please 🫴

[somegrumpynerd]

This little interaction made me so happy! Killer really fought through Dream to give Cross his necklace back

Asjlkhdkgkd I'm so glad you liked it!! I had fun putting a little story into that one ^^

And, because I am normal and don't think about these guys for hours every day, here's some backstory:

When Cross first joined, Killer actually took to him pretty quickly (Dust and Horror did not get warm welcomes). Which is to say he immediately started flocking to Cross to annoy him and compete with him on missions. Cross didn't have the benefit of knowing Killer already to see these were affectionate annoyances, so to him Killer was just some guy who had a problem and wouldn't leave him alone.

During that mission, Nightmare was calling a retreat when he put a hand to his chest and realised the heart locket was gone. Killer saw him looking all around frantically and had a good idea what was lost, since it was the one thing Cross would absolutely not part with since he joined. So, Killer ran back out towards the stars to look for it, because why learn self preservation now. It was the first thing to convince Cross that Killer actually was being (relatively) friendly, despite all the annoyances.

And also, a doodle of the afterwards of that picture

because it's probably the only time he's managed to get Killer to shut up lol

[coquelicoq]

the best reason to socialize is so that you will have stories to tell other people while you're socializing with them. it's a racket. a pyramid scheme. it's all built on air

[dariusaurs]

i think dinostar is such an interesting ship right now even if i've kind of turned away from it after this season. the problem is that it's complicated, and fandoms historically don't like nuanced situations or takes. i don't think it's fair to say darius is putting brooklynn on a pedestal, since from his perspective, she hasn't done anything wrong, and kenji has been framed as this unfair partner to her. it does feel like his feelings are very immature and more of an infatuation right now ("if he loved you half as much.."/"unless?"), especially when you compare them to kenji's own feelings for brooklynn - his girlfriend who he's loved for 6 years - but that isn't a horrible thing, it's just different. i do completely understand if people dislike the ship right now, and even criticize darius' way of handling the accidental confession, but i just think people have been way too harsh on all three of them without being willing to see that all of their perspectives are different

[splish--splash--avertedeyes]

Scar loves the way Grian looks while he's sat on his cock, hole stretched so prettily around him. Pushing him into a mating press so he can rut into him, cooing words of praise about how good he feels, how he looks so pretty with tears dripping down his cheeks, so overwhelmed with pleasure he doesn't know what to do with himself

[sysig]

Well aren’t you so popular (Patreon)

[courfee]

@jilymicrofics | april 1 - prank | wc 100

“How the fuck do you wordle?” Lily looks up from her phone. “You put in a five letter word, click enter, and work with the information you’re given.” “There’s no other five letter words, this sucks.” “What was your first guess?” “Balls.” Lily stares at James incredulously for a solid minute. “Of course it was.” “Mhm, then adore, briar, kraut and wrack. Just one guess left.” “You got this one.” It’s another minute before James types again, then– “Fuck!” “You didn’t get it?” James shakes his head. “Out of all the words I thought you’d not get, prank wasn’t one!”

[msviolacea]

I think the important thing to take away about these videos about Somerton and other YouTubers who plagiarize and make up facts whole cloth is that this is how a lot of people are getting all of their information now - this is how all these weird ridiculous things start spreading across social media, how people end up convinced that the wildest of lies are true, how nuance dies a gruesome death. Whether or not you personally have ever heard of or watched these people is irrelevant. (Yes, you've never heard of these people, you're very smart and unique and superior, good for you, I guess.) The point is to know where this bullshit is coming from so you can better refute it, or better, teach other people how to do their own research and make these videos be the starting point of learning, not the sum total of it.

Related, I'm now watching the toddintheshadows video, and I think I've said "what the FUCK" more times than I have in a short amount of time ever, and I'm not even an hour in. Seriously. What the FUCK.

[sleepyyghostt]

flipping thru pages of a pathology textbook like its a shopping catalogue trying to pick out something nice for the fictional character

[gotham-daydreams]

i’ve been rereading your not [] series and WOWOWOWOWOW i love it sm. the writing? mwah chefs kiss 🤌🏽 the soul crushing loneliness is felt throughout the whole series and as the reader i can really feel every single emotion y/n goes through while reading it’s amazing. i’m excited for part three to see how it all goes down most importantly y/n’s reaction. i can only imagine the intense anger they’ll probably have after getting taken back to the manor. they’ll be angry cuz of the kidnapping thing but also it took them going missing for their family to acknowledge them. that’s a whole different type of anger and frustration. trying practically all your life to get your family’s attention, to them notice your there, all for it to be vain but the moment you’re gone and don’t exist, just like they’ve been treating your whole life, suddenly they notice. they felt guilty after realizing the damage they’ve done to you and just NOW they want to fix even though you’ll probably be carrying the trauma of the neglect for life so what’s the point of trying to fix it now? especially at this big age? the anger y/n must feel at this is insane. there’s also the fact that if y/n *does* want to give in to the sudden affection there’s that fear they’ll just leave again. they get kidnapped, imprison in what was their once home with high security, are being bomb with a bunch of love from their family they’ve never received before and then suddenly it’s gone, all their left with is just their freedom being taken away. y/n most likely feels intense anger, maybe even hatred, at their current actions but also fear of their future ones. it’s the perfect soup of angst and mannnn i’m eating it up.

sorry for the ramble i just wanted to let out my thoughts on your series but to sum it up i LOOVE your series and i’m patiently waiting for your next chapter to continue to see what of y/n’s fate becomes 🫶🏽

I'm so glad you're enjoying the series!!! And oh my god I love your interpretation as well!!!

As I've kind of stated/hinted at through various posts (I promise a masterlist will be made soon because there is a lot of things now that are piling up-), I don't really tend for Y/n in the "Not [ ]" series to get kidnapped just yet (not in part 3 anyways), but I think we all know that it's bound to happen considering things. And it will!

Honestly, I think a lot of people are kind of overestimating how 'loud' Y/n's anger, frustration, hurt, and pain will be in part 3, and it does make me a little worried about the reception of it. However, depending on one's interpretation, what the reader does instead can make the angst that much heavier. Because, well. They don't get that 'relief' that can sometimes come with shouting out your problems to the world- especially to the person that caused you such pain for such a long time, as it is also kind of acts like an unmistakable "hey!!! i'm fucked up and it's all your fault!!! i'll never forgive you for this and want nothing to do with you!!!" message. Though it is a mix within itself.

However, you are right, honestly!

Y/n in the start of the "Not [ ]" series is upset enough. Not only towards the family, but all the time they feel like they've wasted to try and just have a chance to just... get something they never had. All they wanted was a relationship, some kind of connection with anyone in the family besides Alfred, anything. Which is also mentioned in "Not Tonight" as there is that repeating theme/mention of Y/n doing too much but receiving so little, if not, nothing at all, for their efforts.

So just knowing that — as you've said — it basically took them essentially 'giving up' and being gone for months, for the Batfam to notice them? To try and even attempt to give not even half of what the reader had tried to before? Yet was rejected at every twist and turn? Up until this point?

Yeah, no. Y/n is plenty pissed, and incredibly hurt. Among other things as it's just... too little too late. Way too late.

Yet why I also say that I feel as if others overestimate how Y/n is going to express their anger, and how loud about it they're going to be, is because... well- this is a small kind of character spoiler, I guess, but they feel so detached from the family that the very thought of the Batfam even looking for them, is unfathomable. They don't realize at first how the Batfam is looking for them (despite the obvious signs), because it's never happened before, not even on accident.

They never got saved when they got into fights. They never got help when shit got tough. They were never heard, seen or even acknowledged in the house besides Alfred unless they initiated the 'conversation'. Why would they think that anyone who's acted to them like that, and wouldn't even let them exist in their space for a few minutes, go out searching for them? To put in even the smallest effort towards finding them — and because they were worried for Y/n's health no less — and not because they were the absolute last resort? They wouldn't. They don't.

It's a part of why part 3 goes the way it does, but again-its a part. The other pieces make it bad as well. Though that's all the spoilers I'm willing to give on that, which will go more indepth in part 3 itself (hopefully).

Basically, Y/n is a mess. Everyone is in a way, and that's what makes everything go to hell.

Y/n is angry, yes, but it starts quiet before it gets loud. Along with everything else.

So if and when Y/n does get kidnapped... hm.

I did say in a previous ask that depending on how it goes that Y/n would fight back if they're able to and such depending on how the kidnapping itself goes. And though I won't say much on Y/n's reaction in case it does go into future parts if more than 4 are made, I will say that you're right to assume that Y/n is incredibly pissed. You're also right on the whole idea with them being worried about the family basically neglecting them all over again, when everything is said and done. And that's great!

It's a mix. A whole push-and-pull deal where, yeah, even if more shit hits the fan- their own trauma will, in a way, protect them as well as make their life more miserable than it already is. Y/n'll probably never be able to naturally get close with the Batfam, not without 'help' anyway.

But these are yanderes. Their definition of 'help' is a little... twisted.

Though, yeah! And don't worry about rambling- I clearly do the same seeing as I think this whole post is almost just as long as what you wrote. So it's fine! If anything I really did enjoy reading it! Seeing all these different interpretations, and thoughts about the series and other things is incredibly interesting and I love it a lot! Especially with Part 3 on the rise.

[iris-drawing-stuff]

I've been having weird issues with Medibang paint recently so I decided to try coloring a drawing in Krita instead. I like a lot of the brushes, but am not really used to the layout and how it works.

Anyways, here's Muu.