#shang tsung appreciation post

[mrstsung]

I have to break it to you.

But shang tsung loves you.

And there's nothing you can do about it.

He loves you honey. And i ship him with you too. (Despite me not really wanting to share shang tsung as a blorbo and f/o. I still will respect those that also self ship with him and show positivity to self shipping. And i stand by that yes,he loves you because i said so)

It's already too late. He has your soul....and heart.... >:3c

(My edits below)

Srry if there's a lot of old man shang from mk legends. I reeeeeeeaaaaallly love that design of him

Some positivity post for y'all

[arttrampbelle]

Remember shang tsung loves you.

Nrs dont love you nor do they love themselves.

But shang loves you.

So to spread more positivity.

Have some cute shang tsung my shang tsung enjoyers.

(The real shang tsung. Not whatever that thing is in mk1)

Enjoy. Luv y'all.

Plz reblog,share,comment,like. 💖🥺

[eo03o]

shang tsung teeth appreciation post

s̸̡̧͚̼͓̖̳̘̾̆̇͛̂́̈́̾͜ḩ̸̡̲̞̜̖̮̰̪͇̻̉̒̎̍̚o̸̡̖͕̻͙͉͙͍͓͍͛̃̎͐͛͆̚w̴̲̫̣͚̞̉͂̓́ ̵̛̫͖̙̀͆̃͂͊͌͝͠m̶̢̜̭͎̬̪̳͎̖͑̑̃͘ȩ̶̢̛̹̲̻͕̬̝̪͉̘̫͎̃̀̂̏͋̒̅̐̕̕͝ ̴̧̱̬̥̘̗̼̺̞̀͆̂̏̑͊͗́ẙ̶̯̹̠̖̈́̃̀̌̀̋̒̅͘͝ö̷͇́̽̈́̀̂̈́̎͘̕ȗ̶͙͑̋̿͋̎̈́̎͂͝͠͝ŗ̸̙͕̿̃̊̃̍̿̒̔̃́͆̇͜ ̸̛̳̗͇̲͚̼̭͗̀̊̾̈́̑̄̒̑̑͝t̴̳̝̭̫̻̮̥̲̅́̂́̑́͜é̷̢͖̹̺̜̖͓̺͙̅̊̒͒͂͗̃̚͜͝͝ë̵̡͉̱̉̈́̂̇͐̃͐͘͝͠ț̵̢͔̼̲̭̂̽͑̀̑̃̒̇͊h̸̢̧̩̭̖̝̠̫͎͝

[scaryspears]

Mortal Kombat x Bimbo Reader

Another test run, and these are just bullet points not full blown stories. I've already written another bimbo reader post so I suggest checking that out. Please do requests if this isn't enough.

This one is just Bi Han, Kuai Liang, Hanzo, Shang Tsung and Johnny.

"I need to die looking good."

Bi Han Noob Saibot

He doesn't understand your constant need to dress up and put makeup on, but he won't say anything about it. A lot of women are just like that, so Bi Han just figured it's a female thing. Misogynistic of him, but he doesn't care.

While seeing him training you gladly set up a chair and watched him from afar whilst drinking a cocktail, and you've attached yourself to him ever since. He couldn't take you seriously at first, but he could only admit to himself that your dense personality was a little adorable.

When the blood got too much you would hide your face in his chest, which he didn't mind even though some makeup stains would go on his clothes.

When he returned as Noob Saibot he swore to make you drop dead gorgeous, even if you already were. But you would join him in death as his revenant lover. Quan Chi was sure to give you the best manicures so long as you were loyal to him.

Kuai Liang

As a man that puts Lin Kuei traditions in high regard he could understand your need for the newest fashion and dressing well. He showed you his wardrobe and you decided to copy his style, which he found adorable.

He likes having tea with you, but you're certain he must try a frappe or at least a smoothie.

Kuai isn't one for public affection, Lin Kuei and all, but he lets you climb over him. If he's not disciplining Frost or the other Lin Kuei then he's snogging you in the snow. After you drag him into it at least. He only initiates things first if you guys are alone.

Although you didn't understand a lot of things he could appreciate you being there for him to give comfort on sensitive topics.

Hanzo 'Scorpion' Hasashi

It was like talking to a different Johnny Cage in his opinion. It was a bit jarring to have you flirting with him and not get the slightest hint that he's not interested since revenge was on his mind. It was after he was brought back as Hanzo Hasashi that he appreciated your presence more.

The Shirai Ryu are ninjas, so that meant blending into society when on mission and you had a lot of things to say about clothing choices.

The Shirai Ryu shrine looked better than he remembered, you had given him ideas on the layout and studied a thing or two on Japanese culture to make it legit.

When he caught you teaching the new members cheerleading moves he knew he had to be more welcoming with you, because those were complicated moves. And it showed him you were no stranger to teamwork. Hanzo could see the beauty in that.

Shang Tsung

This villainous man came across you giving Mileena style tips and fixing her hair. He had no clue how you snuck into the private parts of the palace, but he suspected you were partially from the Chaosrealm.

Mileena didn't react well to your absence, and after Kitana's rejection she seemed to have formed an attachment to you so Shang expected you around the palace. Shao Kahn was glad that Mileena had a nice person to look up to, so he was fine with you in the palace.

Shang had you participate in the tournament for a reason, but he underestimated your powers as well as your fighting abilities. Such beauty in combat is rare.

Johnny Cage

Barbie and Ken in the eyes of many Earthrealmers, but you two are the 'it' couple when it comes to vanity, expensive taste, and being drama queens.

He is your husband, your best friend, and your mirror. Your super power was convenience and getting yourself out of serious situations, but how it acted up was at random times. Johnny could relate to that.

In the meantime, you could both bathe in the spotlight, and the cameras. And your friends from home can be jealous and gush about you marrying an actor.

It was a match made in pink and green.

[itsohh]

Mortal Kombat 1 Intros

A/N: I always wanted to do some of these, this is sort of the 1.5 chapter from my fic, Electra Heart. You can still read without it but the idea is that your a 'secret' popstar to your now partner Johnny. This is you out of costume and set post game epilogue.

Fighters: Johnny Cage, Kenshi Takahashi, Liu Kang, Mileena, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Shang Tsung, Nitara, Ashrah

Warnings: Hint of something suggestive (if you squint)

Electra Heart

Johnny Cage

Johnny: You know after this we should run a bath, help relax your muscles.

You: I'd bet you'd like that. Johnny: Trust me I have this massive bathtub in the ensuite that you're going to love. Promise to show it to you after we’re done here.

-

You: Johnny it's really fine if your busy you didn't need to cancel your plans-

Johnny: Hey if my girl’s feeling down there's nothing in all the realms that can stop me from trying to cheer her up. Let's get you destressed babe.

-

Johnny: God damn your hot when you fight. Have I told you that before?

You: Only every time we spare.

-

You: Where do you get all your glasses?

Johnny: Come on, babe, a magician never reveals his secrets.

-

Johnny: Still thinking about that thing you did with your-

You: -Johnny. We have an audience.

-

Kenshi Takahashi

Kenshi: Johnny makes you happy, even I can see that.

You: I feel weird when you make blind jokes and they say I spend too much time around him.

-

You: Johnny really appreciates you, you know that? You’re like a brother to him now.

Kenshin: If he appreciates anyone it's you.

You: That's not the same.

-

You: So how's it feel to be a secret agent in your black fancy suit?

Kenshi: Different, but good.

-

Kenshi: Why Johnny?

You: I like a man that can make me laugh.

-

You: So what was your plan if you went to the tournament and then never got Sento?

Kenshi: Originally I figured I could steal while he slept.

You: How did that work out for you?

Kenshi: He's surprisingly very aware even when asleep.

-

Liu Kang

You: Man, I hate fighting you.

Liu Kang: Why's that?

You: Feel like I'm fighting my mum. It's weird that you're the creator of all things.

-

Liu Kang: Is there any way I could convince you to bring your all against Johnny? You holding back is only limiting both your skills.

You: Sorry Liu Kang that's not happening any time soon.

-

You: I kinda miss the academy. It was so peaceful.

Liu Kang: You’re welcome back anytime.

You: Think my manager would kill me.

-

You: If we’re just split in a timeline does that mean we're less than people? Am I just a carbon copy of the original?

Liu Kang: No. Multiple versions of you there may be but all have equal value and all are worthy of life.

-

You: How come you didn't contact Titan me? Surely I would help no?

Liu Kang: I summoned you as a request for help but you did not respond.

-

Mileena

You: So how come you’re so…you… now but when we were in the lab you weren't?

Mileena: The bloodlust overcame me. I am in control now.

-

You: What you have done for those with tarkat is incredibly honourable- no- kind. Not everyone would offer such support. I know you don't do it for praise but I can't help but respect you so much for it. 

Mileena: People with tarkat are people too and deserve to be treated with respect.

-

You: Not to sound like Johnny but you really are stunning Mileena. Nothing like a beautiful, smart and empathic leader.

Mileena: Not many would genuinly say that while I look like this. Thank you.

-

Mileena: I'm surprised you’re not Earth's champion, you fight well.

You: I'm already famous in Earthrealm, I don't want to be famous in Outworld as well.

-

You: I'm sorry for your mother's loss, I didn't know her for long but I could tell she was an outstanding woman and a great mother. Evidence is you and Kitana.

Mileena: She had her flaws and I intend to improve on what she started.

-

Scorpion

You: Do you mind not using the uh rope thingy against me? I'd prefer not to have rope burns.

Scorpion: I never leave permanent marks from sparring but so be it, I can beat you without it.

You: ...Yay.

-

You: Was Bi-Han always like this?

Scorpion: He was competitive and ambitious but I could never fathom him betraying us.

-

Scorpion: You are surprisingly like Johnny, originally you hid your playful manner well.

You: Uh yeah we were in a professional setting, we aren't now.

-

You: Soooo how's the Shirai Ryu?

Scorpion: Growing stronger every day. Tomas was right to initiate Hanzo.

-

You: Got to say, not a lot of people rock yellow well so kudos to you.

Scorpion: Focus.

-

Sub-Zero

You: You know if you really wanted to show your power and defend Earthrealm you could start by refreezing the ice caps.

Sub-zero: Your mockery ends when I tear your tongue from your throat.

You: So violent.

-

You: I have to admit if you weren’t so…you…then you would be a good-looking dude.

Sub-zero: My appearance matters not, you will be dead before you lay eyes on me.

-

You: You’re one ice cold hearted bastard you know that? I do not envy your lonely life.

Sub-zero: You won’t have a life to envy.

-

You: Does it hurt? Knowing that Tomas is a more honourable man, more of a brother than you could ever dream to be?

Sub-zero: That matters not when you have this power.

-

You: Hey, it's the spineless prick.

Sub-zero: It will be you without a spine.

-

Shang Tsung

You: Ugh, it must be exhausting scheming up so many plans. I barely know what I want myself to do let alone other people.

Shang Tsung: Well, some people were made to lead others to follow. It seems you are a latter sheep.

-

You: I'm not going to bother and try to get you to see empathy it's a waste of time for a man without emotions.

Shang Tsung: I assure you I have emotions, one with be glee when I win this fight.

-

You: Yellow so isn't your colour.

Shang Tsung: You can lie to yourself but don't lie to me.

-

Shang Tsung: Nightingale, I would say it's a pleasure but I think we’re past that.

You: Ah fuck, Outworld knowing my stage name is the last thing I need right now.

Shang Tsung: Not Outworld, just me. I do my research and you're an interesting woman to learn about.

-

You: Again with the smug-looking smirk? Maybe you should contract tarkat, perhaps your smile then would be pretty.

Shang Tsung: You think I would be so reckless to contract tarkat? Perhaps you’re less intelligent than I gave you credit for.

-

Nitara

You: This victim complex you lot wear is kinda pathetic honestly.

Nitara: Perhaps you would understand did your race was starving.

You: It's called sustainability, perhaps you should look it up.

-

You: Maybe you should evolve to feed on each other. Feel like this would be a win-win for everyone.

Nitara: We won't need to when I take you.

-

You: Honestly killing when you feed? Rookie mistake should have caught and released.

Nitara: Easier said in retrospect.

-

You: I read up on Vaeternus's history. You did this to yourselves, if a race can't survive without damning another then they shouldn't exist.

Nitara: I will feed Vaeternus no matter the cost.

-

You: Bleh bleh I vant to suck your dick- hahaha. Sorry, I can't take you lot seriously. Like seriously vampires?

Nitara: You mock us but you underestimate our power.

-

Ashrah

You: How are you finding Earthrelm?

Ashrah: It's more incredible than I ever could have dreamed of.

You: If you ever find yourself in LA. Come visit, my home’s always open to you and your sister.

-

You: I'm not one for serious talk but you chose to follow a better path when you saw a possibility. You turned your back on everything I know which is more than I can say about many humans. You the furthest thing from a demon that I've met.

Ashrah: I would say you're flattering me but I can see it in your eyes you mean it.

-

Ashrah: Earthrelm is so bright. So full of life, I'm proud to call it my home.

You: And we're proud to call you one of our defenders.

-

You: When you have time free I'd love to show you all that Earthrelm has to offer.

Ashrah: I'd love my sister to experience that as well.

You: Only if you’re cool if Johnny tags along. He'll definitely want to when he catches wind of our plans.

Ashrah: I can agree to that.

-

Ashrah: It's strange. Ever since Johnny released his ‘film’ people have been approaching me on the odd occasion about a ‘cosplay'.

You: Yeah, you might have to change up your look if it gets annoying.

Ashrah: I don't mind it, it's nice to have such happiness and excitement from strangers.

[moonliteve]

Headcanons for the early days of the deadly alliance

a second deadly alliance hc post has hit the hourglass......highly suggest u read my previous post about their past before reading this one!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

shang tsung was surprised to see that damashi had found someone else to be apart of their scheme to take over the realms

he was a bit upset at first

does that mean i have to share the fruits of my labor? he thought to himself

quan chi, who was still kind of dazed by the whole stunt damashi pulled back in the mines, doesn't say much

he nods, quietly mumbles formalities and fumbles with his hands quite a lot

damashi tells shang they must work together in order to rule

shang was a bit baffled at the notion at first- the man before him who barely spoke and was covered in dirt and grime was supposed to help them somehow?

to which damashi gets a bit angry with shang, he explains the innate magic he possesses and his potential

"you would dare question me, shang tsung?"

immediately shuts down any protesting from him. damashi is his benefactor after all. surely he knows what's best for them

so fine. he'll try and work with the newcomer

the first few months did not go well AT ALL LMAO quan chi wasn't very talkative and he always practiced magic by himself

shang was always the one trying to initiate conversations and secretly observed the other sorcerer practicing

little did he know quan chi did the same

he's. still a bit nervous about approaching shang directly. since he was the later one to join and train under damashi's guidance he felt like his magic was subpar of shang's

he did appreciate the space shang gave him tho. he just needed some time by himself since now that he was out of the mines he was able to do whatever he wanted

day and night he would bury himself in books about all sorts of things, but he took a liking to architecture, biology and different kinds of magic- especially forbidden magic but he wasn't sure if he should be dabbling in that until damashi learnt about his interest in darker magic, that's when he started fully enabling him to practice netherrealm magic

it wasn't until sometime after that did quan chi ask shang for help for the first time

shang was more than happy to help to quan chi's surprise, he didn't think the other sorcerer would be as open as he would be atm

"it would benefit us to have a good relationship, quan chi. after all, any alliance that aids us with our plans is one worth having, is it not?"

he was glad that shang seemed to like him

he thought for the longest time just from first impressions that shang still disliked him, but they seem to be getting along well now

and this made quan chi willing to open up more to shang as well

happy days :)

the three of them were stationed at an abandoned outpost in a remote area, damashi would be the one helping them gather whatever they needed since he could shapeshift and he didn't want any of them to be under the rada

it wasn't anything fancy but they had what they needed

shang had a shitty little basement where he did his experiments, also where he kept syzoth in

quan chi didn't get to see the basement until shang decided to give him a tour. he had always wondered where shang was most of the time when it was mostly damashi who went outside

sure quan chi was shocked at first seeing all of shang's creations. but he wasn't one to judge

he knew shang came from awful conditions as well, they've both been mistreated by everyone around them so why couldn't they do the same?

plus the experiments intrigued him immensely

it was after shang showed him his basement did quan chi elaborately plan on building him a proper vivisection chamber

he wanted to show his gratitude somehow. along with damashi shang has also helped him a lot with practicing his magic

around the same time they had gotten insider info from damashi that the heir to the throne has tarkat

and with how skilled shang was at persuasion and sweet talking, they easily landed a place in outworld's court in no time with the promise of a suppressor/cure for the disease

they transferred their workspace to the laboratory that was provided to him, which was WAYY nicer than what they had before, just the look of it gave others a good impression of shang: a diligent scientist who was neat and efficient

with quan chi's architectural knowledge they built the vivisection chamber underneath the laboratory. shang planned out the whole facility and what he wanted to include while quan chi mainly did the construction since he was familiar with this kind of work, shang even created new specimens for a few extra hands

[dynamites-ao3]

An Exigency

Sub-Zero (Bi-Han) x f! Reader

explicit ; 7k words ; post-MK1 ending, aphrodisiac-addled pwp

Tasked to investigate Shang Tsung’s laboratory for his whereabouts, you find you are not alone in the endeavour. You should have known better.

Or, a mission goes awry.

read here on ao3! or read under the cut.

(a/n: forewarning for nonconsensual elements.)

You had not spoken aloud since you left the city gates.

It was silence borne out of practicality for the most part - not only were you traveling alone but the persisting heat had willed you to preserve your breath. Though it had gotten better once you passed the stretch of desert, the forest’s humidity was no less a pain. 

Should this be all a test of your flesh and spirit, it is certainly an arduous one. Every so often, sweat trickles into your stinging eyes. You check and re-check your pack every hour, even if you hadn’t touched it since. Your blinks are slower, or maybe it just feels that way. 

At any rate by the time you reach the laboratory, a dark mar in the idle forest, your mind is far away, dreaming of chalices of ice-cold water; and fully, entirely unable to appreciate the vast land you’ve trekked under the order of Lord Liu Kang.

Only now does it strike you: you should have asked him to create a portal. It would have been so aggravatingly easy. 

And you’re only half-lucid when you finish securing its perimeters. It’s more of a tedious affair than you anticipated but for what it was worth, you’re content in doing it by yourself. You all but rush in once you were confident there hadn’t been any indication that a certain sorcerer had come back for his supplies.

Shang Tsung’s laboratory, entirely deserted, exists like a picture: it possessed still the facade of a living machine, but the absence of its quasi-scientist owner kept it frozen in time. Had you not known any better, you could easily imagine in your mind’s eye someone returning for their scribbled notes at any given second. You had to concede that Shang Tsung maintained the upper floors with impressive care, no matter its artificiality. 

And for all that you endured out in the elements - best yet, the room feels like paradise on your skin. Cool, dry air, if a bit dusty. If you just ignored the sharp chemical odor that also pervaded the room, the sensation was almost entirely pleasant.

Where the smell originated, you were unsure: there were innumerable flasks on the wall shelves that contained liquid behind its amber glass.

Curious, you lean over the desk and flick absentmindedly at a plugged flask with a half-gaseous, half-liquid residue in it, watching the dark particles convect up the neck. Lord Liu Kang ought to have sent a scholar, you think: they’d know how to separate the valuable information from the drivel. 

Even an imperial mage would be familiar with some of this writing scattered across the table. Still, with the discord done unto the Shirai Ryu and disappearance of Shang Tsung’s allies, having to outsource in other measures was a fair choice to make - just not one you would have made. 

With your head lowered, you take stock of the papers, taking any that looked of import and folding them away into your pack on the ground. This carries on until goosebumps crop up on your arms, a particularly chilling wind sailing up your skin. The room had sapped all warmth from your body.

You almost don’t even realise the atmosphere has changed, the air growing heavier: only when you pull back far enough to witness your visible breath wisp into the air.

Not merely sheltered from the blistering heat outside any longer - 

You’re cold.  

In a matter of milliseconds, you turn your cheek and something sings through the air right over the bridge of your nose, freezing your eyelashes. It drives right through the window, leaving a splintered hole in the glass pane in the wake.

Your body moves on instinct, rolling to the side. You keep from flinching even as a shard of glass - or was it ice? - scrapes your cheekbone.

You hold a gasp back in your mouth, willing the stinging to subside. By the stairs, an approaching silhouette sharpens against the cloud of pale frost. You’re slowed down by shock, disbelieving in your sight.

He shouldn’t be here, not in Outerrealm. Well, you think miserably. Lord Liu Kang isn’t going to like hearing about this encounter. That is, if you survive it. 

“Stand down,” Sub-Zero barks, a guttural demand cutting through the air. In his palm he draws together another stake. It comes together with a splintering crunch, like the collapse of hard plastic. 

It doesn’t make sense - you’re unsure what sorcery, what technology he’s equipped to sneak into this realm without alerting the empire. Though you don’t have time to hypothesise on this as he draws his arm back and jets the projectile your way. You push away from the desks and onto your knees, tucking in your shoulder just in time for the frozen stake to pierce through wood to your left, embedding in a drawer.

Your breath is bedraggled, the frozen air hard on your lungs. Still, you ask, “Where is Shang Tsung? Earthrealm?” 

Sub-Zero’s eyebrows come together; you can easily imagine a snarl under his mask. “Like I’d tell you even if I knew.” 

If he knew?

He hadn’t seemed concerned with divulging this, which demanded further questions. If he knew not of Shang Tsung’s location and spoke truthfully, then it was clear he had the same objective as you here. Before you could act on this understanding, his gaze slides away, focused on something on the ground. You follow its trajectory, dread burrowing in your stomach when you realise he’s looking towards your pack where you’ve tucked away the majority of Shang Tsung’s discarded notes. Half-open, loose corners of scrolls peek out the top. 

Under no circumstances were the Lin Kuei to possess those. Should there be something important, you couldn’t even fathom how Sub-Zero might exploit it for his own ambitions. 

Forcing yourself to your feet, you manage to utter, “Fine. But there is nothing here for you. Leave!”

He doesn’t turn his head but his dark gaze flits back to you. You refuse to let yourself be intimidated by his vitriol - you are better than that. Although you’ve once before met Sub-Zero and his brother in the capital, you doubt any familiarity would give you a boon to this encounter. It was better that he did not recognise you, even, as it would make subduing him all the more professional. 

You can only hope you are choosing correctly to not kill him outright, for that ought to be the choice of the Shirai Ryu. He doesn’t seem to be so self-limiting however, what with the way his hands twitch. It was clear now if it hadn’t been before: he was not to let you leave alive and with your stolen intel.

“You dare tell me what to do?” he says, rounding on you. 

You warn, “They will stop at nothing to capture you.”

“They? Of whom do you speak - the empress or Liu Kang? Both?” He makes a condescending noise, a wisp of pale breath seeping out his mask. “You’re a lackey of theirs. Of course.”

You exhale low. You need only to grab your pack and make it down the stairs past him. You were positive you could shake him in the forest, even if he had stationed more of his assassins around the building. 

“You’re a fool,” he is saying but you are only half-listening, mind racing in a multitude of directions. You could afford a fight, one that would only impede him but it would not be feasible in this space given your arsenal.

Leaving without one would, of course, be ideal but it seemed almost exponentially worse to be later ambushed in the scorching outdoors. 

Perhaps you should not have come alone, after all. It’s too late now. Over the course of your perusals, you’ve familiarised yourself with your surroundings, which were really full of unidentifiable baubles. Any real weapon was out of reach from where you stood, and you’d do anything to avoid touching the various scalpels on the desk - gods know where they’ve been. 

Your options were whittled down to pure martial arts - which was fine, really. But you could appreciate an advantage. So you don’t think too hard at what exactly you’re grabbing as you lean back, fingers in search of something sizeable.

They clutch around a smooth glass bottle neck that feels somewhat heavy, as though partially filled with something, and the choice is made for you.

The bottle is an amber blur in the air once it leaves your hand. With a narrow arch, you swing a rogue bottle aimed at his head, in dire hopes it would combust grand enough for you to flee. 

As it turns out, nothing of the sort happens. Of course not.

With an unnatural deftness, Sub-Zero crosses his forearms, steeling them in ice just as the bottle makes impact. Though the glass explodes, it is hardly to the extent you would have liked. They merely drop in shards to the ground by his feet, nary a cut made. A viscous and inky liquid concurrently splatters his gauntlets and across his face, not even enough to blind him. He grunts. 

Gasoline? It didn’t seem likely, as you would have smelt its pungency if it was. Unfortunate, of course. Lighting him on fire would certainly be a fast solution to this problem.

For a moment, Sub-Zero stills. He wipes a droplet from above his brow and inspects the dark stain between his fingertips; when nothing happens, he growls, snapping back to you.

“Pathetic,” he spits out, seething. 

Sub-Zero launches himself at you. On the defensive, you slip out the way, narrowly missing the sheet of ice that would have trapped you in place behind you. You prowl one another in a circle. You’ve angered him and you could only hope this would make him sloppy. 

As you soon discover, he is terribly ferocious. A performance befitting a clan grandmaster. You spend most of the engagement on the defensive, narrowly avoiding being split in half by axes and maces. Every time an ice-formed weapon swipes by your head, needles of ice spray you, buffeting your skin painfully. 

No longer than a few minutes in, you think you should just go ahead and kill him after all. Jumping around like this only serves to tire you out. The blade you carry burns where you’ve hidden it in your jacket uniform. You surge forward, not yet unsheathing it as to surprise him, but your boots skid. 

What - ?

When had he frozen the ground…?

You miss your mark by what must have been a finger’s width, your energy spent on balancing yourself instead. As you grapple for that stability, he closes the distance. 

With one large hand on the base of your throat, you are brought hard to the ground, pretty much thrown. You wince when the back of your skull taps the rug below you but that is hardly a concern with the weight on your entire body, Sub-Zero boxing you in from above.

He is everywhere and all that you can see, his large body hovering yours and his sash dropping onto your torso.

The metal of his gauntlets are streaked with the unidentifiable dark liquid and it smears you below the chin, cold and wet like blood.

Out of sight, one of his knees dig painfully into your thigh but you do not allow him a single cry of pain. Spots dance in your vision and although the pressure on the sides of your throat grows, fogging your brain, he isn’t putting in nearly enough to end you. When you wheeze, you barely feel it pass through your lips.

It is a despicable move. You thought him merciless, indeed, but you hadn’t thought him cruel. You grab at his wrist, staunchly attempting to pull him off but with gravity on his side, it was a near futile effort. He watches with acuteness as your chest lifts and drops unevenly. “Get off,” you grit out.

He leans so close you could see his blown-out pupils quivering. Then, he speaks.

“I know you.”

For a flash, you tense. “No,” you say. “But I know you.”

“Liar.”

Unblinking and unfazed, he lifts his free hand and in one rough motion, rips off your mask. He throws it to the side, not bothering to look at where it lands and immediately you scowl. 

His eyes thin - you realise he’s strangely humoured and sneering. 

“How dare you,” you say.

Though he doesn’t seem to hear you, his gaze is concentrated on your mouth. “I knew it. One of Liu Kang’s lapdogs from the academy. How honoured you must feel, to be sent on a suicide mission by him.”

There is nothing to be gained in entertaining his goading. Still, something inflates inside you. “He’s done nothing of the sort. His rule is just.”

“You must mean restrictive.”

“You will not blame your greed for power on him!”

He blinks at your anger, his visage relaxing ever so slightly though no less blazing. “Your fealty is commendable,” he says. “How did he train you?”

“Fuck you.” Like a dance, you lift forward and he shoves your shoulder back against the floor harshly. 

“What do you anticipate as a reward, should you return successfully?” he asks, ignoring you. “Acknowledgement, praise? That he’ll tell you ‘good work’ and bend you over the nearest table?”

The image is so violently crass, you shudder. His eyes glitter, delighting in your discomfort. The mouth on this man - if you could move, you had half the mind to sock him in the jaw as hard as you could.

It’s hard to believe that someone this provoking was once a close confidante to Lord Liu Kang. And having only ever met Sub-Zero during conferences with Lord Liu Kang present, you felt appalled just hearing this vulgarity uttered with little fanfare. Unexpected was an understatement.

Mind games! Mind games, of which you never thought him capable. 

You grimace, glaring up at him through your eyelashes. “I suggest you keep your fantasies to yourself, unless you speak from experience.” 

A dark scoff leaves him before it is cut out abruptly. All of sudden, Sub-Zero blinks and breaks eye contact, dipping his head to the side and although you’re unsure what he is looking at exactly, you don’t care to enquire. 

At a glacially-slow pace, you try to wiggle free the fabric of your pants from where he kneeled. As soon as you could bring your own knee up, you would have leverage for a number of things that could put distance between you and him. To distract him from your legs, you continue to claw at his arm. “What is this wait, Sub-Zero? Are you going to kill me or what?” 

A deep crease forms between his eyebrows as he regains his focus. “You,” he mutters accusatively. “You did something to me.”

You frown. “What?”

He makes another low noise that you vaguely register as a chuckle. “You monks are all the same, convinced your training gives you supreme dominion over the body. Wrong, of course. The Lin Kuei will still best you in that respect, as with all.”

“Your pride will be your clan’s downfall.” 

“Wrong, again. And your little distractions are child’s play.”

Then, Sub-Zero looks down. As best you could, you follow the trajectory to your own fidgeting legs. He knows. The window to react and wiggle free shrinks into nothing but before you can plan contingently, he moves. 

Without warning, the knee that was on your thigh lifts - and nestles hard instead right in the apex of your legs. 

It’s like all the air leaves your chest in one fell swoop.

This time, you do groan aloud, noises vibrating under his palm. And, worst of all, it is a shameful sound, mortifyingly loud in the spacious room and ringing in your own ears. Oh, gods. Your eyes snap open, the unexpected pressure not excruciating but stimulating, enough to have you jolting out of your skin. 

It must be an accident, because there is no way, no reason why Sub-Zero should be threatening you like this. It must be - isn’t it?

Dumbfounded beyond belief, you go slack; it no longer figured a good idea to knee him in the crotch. For the first time, you look at him directly and see beyond his feverish eyes and the streaks of black residue flecked across his skin from the liquid you threw. In fact, you find his ears are flushed pink, and have been pink for some time now. 

Something inside you awakens. “What - what the hell do you think you’re doing?” you snap, now scrambling on the floor with a renewed determination. Arching your back to put some distance between his legs and yours comes at a terrible price: your chest lifts up to his. Sub-Zero, fully cognisant of the motion, says nothing. “Unhand me!”

“Had you been smarter and stood down when I ordered it, none of this would be necessary,” he tells you.

You found yourself baring your teeth. “I will not be humiliated by you.”

This captures his attention in particular, his gaze morphing and settling into something indescribable. For a beat, you could almost consider it something as gentle as curiosity - then, it disappears as quickly as it came.

In a cool voice, he says, “Look at me.”

When you ignore him, the pressure on your throat disappears, replaced by a new force on your jaw. His hand from under your chin yanks your head straight. The hand holding your wrists down tightens its grasp.

“Look at me,” he repeats. He grinds his knee between your legs again, this time with malicious purpose. 

Be it distress or arousal mounting in your flesh, a soft gasp escapes your mouth. You’re desperate for relief and with him getting you this far but then stopping, you had to take measures into your own hands. Your hips roll against him and you’re only vaguely aware of your body moving, as if you aren’t even in control anymore. You drag yourself on his leg once more and for what it’s worth, you appreciate him staying so still.

There’s a pause, before -

“Humiliate?” he echoes you, intonation unbearably slow. “I could not humiliate you any more than you have already done to yourself.”

You can say nothing in protest. Your insides thrum, wanting to come so badly they ache. You should feel terrible, having debased yourself with an enemy but your brain is too hazy to think ethically. What a descent you watched yourself fall into. 

You were not in control of yourself, that much you could deduce for yourself. It ought to take much more than this to distract you and yet -

When his hands relaxed, affording you space, you still had not shoved him square in the chest even though it would have been so easy. Something was terribly wrong with you. You should gut him alive for what he’s done to you. 

Nonplussed, Sub-Zero rearranges himself on top of you, pulling his knees in and sitting straddle on your leg. He rests on one forearm parallel to the floor as the other arm trails down your abdomen. 

The cold leather and metal of his gauntlets slip under your hem and you are much too aware of how his fingers dig into your flesh, groping and demanding. What should feel brutalising and repugnant is instead entrancing. There is nothing else to think about from below him, because if it wasn’t his touch you concentrated on it would have been his equally penetrative gaze that which never leaves your face. 

Every soft shift in your expression is noticed, internalised, and responded to accordingly. When his rough fingertips find the swell of your breasts, your diaphragm unsteadies and there is no way he does not feel the tightening of your stomach under the skin. He rolls your nipple under a callused thumb until it hardens, your bra shoved aside. Nothing you do is unseen.

For once, he says nothing grating but that is hardly a relief - you can feel his domination over your flesh and spirit through physical means alone. 

It was impossible to avert your eyes from the truth: you were letting him take control of you. 

Your weakness was worthy of condemnation. The odes you chanted at the academy - limiting yourself from carnal pleasures in the pursuit of the ethereal - were as solid as steam slipping through your fingers. As Sub-Zero touched you, the heat of his palm skimming up and down your navel, you could not cohesively pull any dictum of asceticism into the forefront of your mind. You need not absolute chastity, but even a modicum of self-preservation for your own pride was adequate enough to absolve your acts, present or those soon to come. 

As it were, you possessed neither. Something else entirely was unfurling inside you, ravenous and anxious, encouraging you devilishly to deplete yourself. 

As though somehow able to hear your internal conflict, Sub-Zero speaks. “It is a fool’s errand to deny one’s truths,” he calmly says. 

Truths? What truths? His affliction had spread to you and he was blaming you for it. Mindless carnality was not in your nature, and if it wasn’t his, then you had… then you had unwittingly poisoned yourself. And him.

You grimace, thinking he is trying to assuage you in your position, console you through your own guilty arousal. “There must be another way,” you say, but then he sighs through his nose and his palm grows ice-cold in a flash. Pushing under your waistband, he cups your mound and you gasp, the frigid sensation sparking up your spine. 

“Fuck!” you hiss, splaying a hand on his chest and pushing but there is no force. Your other hand comes around his wrist; he doesn’t budge. Rather, his fingertips press in-between your folds, testing your limits. 

“What were you saying,” he says although the edge in his voice indicates it is rhetorical.

Your face scrunches as he continues to pet you. You begin to throb painfully, anticipating being properly filled. “Stop that. You’re going to - ”

“Give you frostbite? No. There would be no point in that,” he says, flatly and hardly convincing, “I still want you to feel me.”

He didn’t seem to care about breaking you off necessarily but rather in pursuing his own pleasure, he liked making you squirm in obscene desperation. 

His solid metal gauntlets press against your front as his exploratory hand slips further between your thighs. Though you’ve clamped your knees together, his own movements don’t seem impeded; you gasp for the second time, grasping the air, as he enters two cold fingers into you and pushes against your walls. 

It is a strange sensation. You loathe it and yet you’re so wet, so much so that he takes off his gauntlets intermittently before returning. When he cupped you again, your hips rolled for him, lifting off the floor. It’s so lowly of you, to be done in by an erotic touch.

As with yours, his patience seemed to be thinning.

You blink and his fingers are hooked at your waistband, pulling your pants and underwear to your knees; you blink again and his weight disappears. On his haunches before you, you watch in silence - voyeuristically - as he pries loose his sash, his own pleated pants sliding halfway down to his solid thighs. Although the front of his outer jacket fell long enough that it covered his front, even the slightest sight of his exposed body made you shiver. 

By now, the drug had dried on your skin; it came off in flecks as you rubbed your chin. “What the hell?” you mutter drunkenly, only half able to focus. The other half went into spectation, making certain he didn’t make any sudden moves. For this reason, you could not be sure whether the tingling you felt was real or not. 

You try to vocalise this to Sub-Zero, who was splashed much more heavily than you, but he wasn’t listening. “The bottle… I think - ”

“Shut up. Move.”

Although he’s the one who put forth the command, he decidedly manipulates your body himself. Without so much another word, he puts you on your stomach, your bare thighs against the rough floor rug. You don’t fight back because… well, why don’t you fight back, actually? Cognisant of your own compliancy, this question stumps you. 

Astride your legs, you feel the heaviness of his cock prod your skin. With one hand, Sub-Zero spreads your cheeks apart and guides himself into the cleft with his other. There are no warnings besides a husky sigh when he broaches you, the head of his cock stretching you out so luxuriantly. Mercilessly, he drives into you half-way and the speedy intrusion rips a filthy moan from your mouth. 

Pragmatically, you know you should feel some discomfort by nature of anatomy at least - but none of that is a reality for now. He slides the rest of the way in snug, hips flush against your backside, arms straight supporting himself on either side of you. You are so wet that all you feel is full. 

You almost wished it was painful, especially when he begins to move, inching his pelvis away from your rear and coming close to pulling out entirely but it really never does. It’s a disquieting revelation.

If it were painful, you would have reason to rue this entire encounter as a nightmare. Worse, you’ve never felt so comfortable in your life, with your forearms on the hard ground and being taken by a man who has half the mind to kill you after this. 

“Fuck,” he says, dragging out the syllable. You had to agree with the sentiment. 

He gives a few perfunctory thrusts before finding a sustainable rhythm. The carefulness he exhibits dissipates into thin air once he does, his first real thrust almost pushing your body forward by sheer force alone. It knocks the air out of you and you wiggle to establish yourself against the rug.

Apparently frustrated by your sliding forward, you feel large hands shove your shoulders down, smushing your cheek against the rug. You breathe hard through your nose, eyes rolling back in your skull. 

Distantly, you hear a clatter of something hitting the ground in a haphazard fashion. Before you toss a look to the side, cold fingers find themselves back on the developing bruises on your neck, twisting your head back to look up at Sub-Zero instead. You only have a second to register that he has removed his mask before he compels you to his mouth. 

As per his disposition, his kiss is equally as vicious; he does not let up until you’re dizzy and spent. It’s an awkward angle too, given his large stature, making you feel you’re about to drool out the corner of your mouth. You expected no less. 

And he must have done something especially delirious to you because as he draws away, you find yourself already wanting him back, to violate you in every which way he could. He smells of incense and his stubble ghosts you. It is not enough to just feel Sub-Zero pulse inside you, you need to hear his faint huffs by your ear, to feel his tongue against yours - 

“This is your doing,” he says, ticklish breath against your nape. He inhales deeply, his cold nose against your sensitive skin. “What was in that fluid?”

“I don’t know,” you cry out. So he was already aware. Then why did it feel like you were the only one objecting to its lures? 

“More lies. You wanted this. For me to take you like a bitch in heat.”

“I didn’t know. I don’t know. If I did, this would never - I would never have… it’s affecting me, too - ”

He pulls off your backside, dragging his cock out. It slides onto your back thigh, leaving a wet glaze. “Turn over,” he demands, putting a hand on your hip and squeezing hard. 

You do so because there is no alternative. Carefully and inspite of your lightheadedness, you roll onto your back, knees bent and shoes flat against the ground. He pragmatically removes one of your pant legs entirely off you, leaving the other still hanging, and it’s such a desperate, heated scrabble to get you further out of your clothes that at once, your heart quivers in your chest. 

Unexpectedly, you find then that he doesn’t crawl on top to take you vis-a-vis this time, but rather he yanks you forward into his lap, your centre of balance going utterly wayside. You take his collar in fistfuls to counter the inertia. You see your reflection in the shine of his eyes and it is almost too intimate for you to handle.

“You wanted this,” he repeats. “So take it.”

In his lap and resting against your stomach is his erection, wet and shiny and flushed. It does not take a scholar to know what he wants - what you want. You swallow, and draw in. 

His breathing is all you can hear as your hands spread out on his broad chest, sliding down. Two fingers hook at the junction point of his jacket and shakily, you pull it open. When he doesn’t move to stop you - or do anything for that matter - you undo the knots to his inner jackets as well. The jacket sides fall naturally to the sides, exposing his firm chest. He’s warm - you don’t know why that surprises you - and clean-shaven; and as you pass down his abdomen, feeling the jump of hard muscle under your palms, you remember yourself. 

It feels almost embarrassing to appreciate his body, especially so since you were still covered up fully from the waist-up. Now, with him more exposed as well below you, odd emotions were in order, none of which you cared to examine. 

You tear your hands away, missing the heat all the same. His heavy gaze on you doesn’t fetter. Still, at this point you were existing on borrowed time. You lift yourself on your knees and with a breath tampered in your lungs, you guide yourself down on him. 

You watch him as he watches his cock disappear into you, his expression tight. There is a muscle visibly twitching in his jaw and though his palms are flat against the floor for support, his fingers are ever-roving and flexed, a moment away from grabbing your waist and taking lead. You settle onto him, the blunt head of his cock easing into you with a satisfying pressure. 

“Go ahead,” he says - or rather, commands, with a razor-like edge of competition. “Get yourself off.”

The remark is so unnatural you inadvertently shoot him a bewildered look. It was difficult to take it face value, after all: you had no capacity to believe he meant it charitably. But when he counters your bewilderment with a subtle lift of an eyebrow, inciting you to question him aloud, you end up backing off. 

You don’t need to be asked twice. An orgasm to rebalance your hormones that were thrown off by that drug seemed logical in any case, but before you even get to moving, he hums, his head tilted to the side, the expanse of his throat appearing particularly inviting. 

“What?” you have to ask, bracing yourself in suspicion.

“You listen so well.” He purses his lips, clearly in mock-thought of what to say next, before, “Liu Kang wastes your talents.”

Your whole face flushes at the insulting implication that doing this was your talent. But what should take you right out of the mood, has you instead clenching down around him, agitation channeled elsewhere. The sudden pressure makes him grunt, a hand pulling forward to clutch your waist. 

“I am no more in control than you are,” you say and you lift yourself on your knees. His cock drags slipperily against your walls.

Even so, riding him is no easy feat. 

The angle forces you to take his full length every time you lower and though his thick legs cushion you, you have an inkling that he presses right up to your cervix. It doesn’t hurt thankfully but it feels a lot, certainly much more than before. You think he’s probably getting more out of this than you given the flashes of unsteadiness that cross his face when you least expect it, until you roll your hips at a different angle and it makes your calves tremble, to the extent your hands whip out and land on his shoulders for support. 

You take one hand off and slide it down your front, resting at the crux of your legs. You’re close now, and you’re convinced that a little attention towards your clit will get you the rest of the way there. Abruptly then, he smacks the back of your hand away, the lasting prickles of pain on your knuckles startling you. 

“No,” Sub-Zero says. “Don’t you fucking touch yourself.” You glare at him, having no interest in complying. But, almost like consolation, he raises his hips and claps against you in perfect tandem as you’re coming down. You pull your hand away, albeit begrudgingly. 

His energetic thrusts back… it helps round off the ache, a little, you must admit. You possess a perfect view of his core muscles flexing every time your pelvises connect; it is impossible to not be in awe of his stamina. 

You fear that it is this notion, the recognition of his pure strength and endurance, that eventually turns erotic for you. A tension builds in your lower stomach, all endeavours pointed to quelling the heat. You’re pawing him, entranced and stupefied, when you exert the last of your might to will his hips to a standstill.

Resting your full weight on his lap and rocking back-and-forth gently, you come powerfully. Your toes curl at the full-body sensation that tickles every nerve; even he cannot deny himself a ragged groan upon feeling your convulsions wrap around him, contracting and vibrating on his cock. 

He shifts under you, and you let him remove the rest of your uniform, tossing it somewhere to the side. He wraps a thick arm around your waist, dragging you flush against him. You wriggle, grimacing, his cock still rigid inside you. Without much effort at all, he tucks his legs under himself, forcing you to anchor yourself with hands linked behind his neck lest risk falling backwards. It brings your faces closer together than anticipated and as you try again to find your footing and weasel out, his arm tightens.

His opposite hand grips your ass, rooting you to him as deeply as possible. “You’re not going anywhere,” he growls by your temple.  “I didn’t say we were done.” 

You don’t get an opportunity to bemoan, still twitching in his lap. It should be both impressive and frightening, how quickly he pins you down exactly where he wants you, but you’re too dazed to appreciate it. You loosely hang off him as he crushes you, chest to chest, your soft breasts against his pecs, your hands on his nape and neck. Where you and him are still connected is a complete and utter wet mess, fluids running down the cleft of your ass and onto the damp rug beneath. Every slap of skin has a sticky noise following in its immediate wake. 

His head ducks into the corner between your shoulder and neck. With your chin beside his hair, you inhale the scent of warm, clean incense. You get the debilitating thought that this isn’t so bad. It’s not great either, given the circumstances, but after a while, his barraging into you was a pleasant sting. 

You found you did want him to orgasm, with haste - genuinely. Just as you were beginning to think he was being predictable, Sub-Zero skates his teeth on your shoulder and bites, earning himself a cry. You don’t think much of it until he laves his tongue on the bite mark, and it actually stings - he must have drawn blood. 

You lose it a little more this time. 

“Oh, gods,” you begin to plead, your voice so strangled and wimpish it’s hard to believe it’s coming from you, “I can’t…”

His scoff is warm against your collarbone. Sub-Zero lifts his head: his hair is messy, his bun coming undone; several long locks of stray hair now spill over his eyes. “Yes, you can,” he says. “Open your mouth.” He draws away and your lips part, unthinkingly but so very obediently. 

Stilling ever so briefly, he spits into your mouth and your eyes widen, unable to process the sheer depravity of what he’d done. It lands squarely on your tongue and under his heavy-lidded anticipation, you swallow. It reminds you that this - the pain, the domineering, the humiliation - is all for him now; you already got your orgasm.

It gets him closer, you can tell from the way his hips speed up, deep strokes reduced to pumps, though with still enough force to ripple the flesh of your thighs. In a way, it does help - if you could handle something as vile as that, why, what couldn’t you handle? 

But toleration and voluntariness were two different functional spheres entirely. Part of you thinks you would have preferred an outright fight, because then the victor and the loser would be clearly defined. Being orgasm-wrung and panting on the floor, you could constitute yourself as neither. 

Thoroughly robbed of any remaining decorum, you chase after his mouth hotly, groaning into him. Sub-Zero adapts to your strain of desperation, hands planted on the sides of your face to keep you from ever wriggling away before he allows it. And yet his kiss is a respite, ridiculously enough, from how he is making you ache below. 

Your hands run along his bulging triceps, stroking him almost affectionately. Your core was growing tight again and the feeling grew no matter how you tried to suppress it. “I need to… I need…” So muddled, you don’t think your words are even coherent. 

Unable to restrain yourself any longer, you convulse around him for the second time. Pleasure buzzes in your chest, spreading in every direction. 

“Coming again?” he huffs. “I thought your type - ngh - valued self-discipline.” The gait of his taunt is erratic, clearly moved by your sudden tightness. 

“It’s the drug,” you counter, but you don’t believe that at all. No, this must be all you now. 

He does not deign to reply, because right then he tenses - and you felt a liquid heat begin to pool inside you. It registers too belatedly that you should have said something earlier to stop him from ejaculating inside. It rests heavy in you, real evidence of what you’ve done if the scatter of bruises up and down your body wasn’t a sign enough. He pumps in small oscillating movements until you’ve milked him completely and you lay there, stunned and in resignation.  

He sighs again, deep and low, more of a rumble than anything else. Sub-Zero blinks languidly, his eyes downcast and for the first time, you see the exertion in his expression. The loose hair that sweeps across his forehead begs to be tucked away but knowing better, you keep your hands to yourself. 

Sub-Zero pulls off you unceremoniously, dick soft enough to tuck away into his pants. With every passing second, you drop from your high. In silence you drag yourself into a sitting position, eyes trailing him lazily as he stalks off and without warning rips a hanging red cloth off a stand, so violently it leaves the metal stand wobbling. It’s as large as a body towel. He wipes himself first before rolling it up and tossing it to you, its large golden tassels smacking you in the outer leg. 

It is, again, a funny gesture that feels out of place with the rest of his conduct. As you clean yourself with the dry velvet - Shang Tsung’s cloak, seemingly, a fact which you drove yourself to ignore - you had to face the reality of Sub-Zero’s come dripping out of you. Even without contorting yourself, your sopping and battered cunt was obviously the culprit of the dark stain spreading across the rug.

There was, of course, no point in protesting now. And had you said something, you figured without resentment that there was no guarantee he would have listened anyway. Nevertheless, you’ll need to remedy this as soon as possible lest there be undue surprises…

You gather yourself on legs like a newborn faun, teetering until you grasp the edge of the desk, toppling a miniature astrolabe. You shove the stained cloak to the side. Your libido has wicked into almost nothingness for which you had to be relieved, but that did not quell the perceptible imbalance in your energy.

Perhaps the true purpose of that poison was to affect your chi, not your… sexual appetite, after all. It merited further research but too bad the liquid off the floor already evaporated and the bottle itself was unlabeled.

Leaning for support, you redress yourself whilst thinking about your filled womb; it makes you just cringe. Shit. It’s a major inconvenience to now have this on the forefront of your personal concerns and though you hardly had the mind to tell Sub-Zero, the mere thought of him made you faintly aware of how deathly quiet he had become.

You look up. Immediately your adrenaline spikes because he’s not there, not in your line of sight. His mask was no longer where it once was tossed either. 

This, in hindsight, is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. You had no intention to rest in any afterglow, but it appeared even a moment to catch your breath was overly-indulgent. 

Movement flicks on your left. And you have to blame your fatigue because otherwise you’d beat yourself up about this, because before you know it you hear that familiar crunch of ice coming together and the entire room drops several degrees.

You duck but it is the wrong direction and within a millisecond both your shoes are encased in ice. You lurch, unsteady in the trap.

You exhale. You suppose it was always going to converge back to a tussle, one way or another. But then you spot him kneeling by your pack, invasively filing through what you’ve uncovered, and you’re incensed again. Already having wasted enough time, you snap, “You won’t get away with this, Sub-Zero.”

He lifts the pack by one handle and sends a provoking look your way. “I already have,” he says and you bristle. You’re so stupid for letting your guard down, letting him leave your sight for even a second. The muffle of his mask is not enough to conceal the smarmy condescension oozing out. 

Of course, you weren’t expecting him to be romantic, beaming in post-coital bliss, but going back to wanting each other dead so promptly after being drugged up feels dramatically unhinged.

“We need to figure out what that stimulant was,” you say. “You felt what it did to you - what it did to us. This place is dangerous and I have contacts with the Edenians to help us sort through it. I just need… you to hand that bag over.”

You think it’s convincing enough because it’s true. Like hell you’d ever want to be caught up in a position like that, being splashed by liquid that had the ability to strip you of your chi and basic self-control. 

“Come on,” you insist, more aggrieved than ever before, “you were just induced into having sex with a complete stranger. Shouldn’t you be more worried?”

Sub-Zero pauses, smoothing his hair back with the heel of his palm. Somehow in that short span of time, he’d managed to equip all his gear back sublimely. This fact only aggravates you further. “Hm. I didn’t expect you to think so lowly of yourself.”

“You cannot be serious - ”

Then, like a gut punch to cap-end the entire affair, he interrupts, “Should you want this back, you know where to find me.”

No. No, no, no.

It’s the last thing he bothers saying. None of your angry shouts purportedly get to him, even as he vanishes down the stairs and although your backup knife is miserably tiny, it’s the only one you have on-hand. At a loss, you bend your knees and start chipping away the ice.

The upside, you find, is that the ice is very hard: it provides for you an exercise in releasing your stress by hacking into it without holding back. The downside, equally, was that it was very hard, so hard it would seemingly take you ages to free yourself.

Shards of brittle ice spit up from where you stab. Your body trembles; your face is so flushed that you’re surprised the ice hadn’t already melted under the spotlight of your anger and embarrassment. 

You’ve scarcely a desire to enter Earthrealm, and certainly none in hurtling towards a viper’s den like a Lin Kuei stronghold, but - 

You also cannot go back to Sun Do empty-handed. 

What would you even say to Lord Liu Kang when he requests your report? Should you even mention Sub-Zero? You’re sick to the stomach at the mere thought of having let Lord Liu Kang down so gravely… your fretting was giving you a headache.

It did not help that you were already dehydrated the moment you stepped inside the building.

Pinched between your thumb and forefinger, you break off a small chunk of ice and place it on your tongue. It’s so brilliantly cold it practically burns. As you wait for it to melt into water by sucking gently, you try very, very hard to not think about how the cold felt on the rest of your body.

For what it’s worth, you almost do succeed.

[junkanimate]

EHY I'VE BEEN READING A LOT OF FANFICTIONS LATELY

I know, who would have guess?? Anyway I wanted to send some appreciation all around to some of the fanfics I've read, because writers need some more appreciation in general.

so, in no particular order:

✨Here's a list of fanfics I've read/I'm reading that I think they're pretty good✨

Solid Stone Turns To Clay by @randyzorra - MK fic

A solid Johnshi fic set in a pirate au, I'm absolutely obsessed with it. It's a beautiful slow burn, where Johnny is a disgraced bounty hunter who's trying to regain his fame by stealing The Shadow, legendary cursed ship. Ship that so happens to have a certain someone as her captain. Honestly not only I love the romance, but also the friendship between Johnny and Kung Lao and Johnny and Baraka.

Beware that this fic is tagged as explicit, so check the tags carefully

Back There by houndhead - MK fic

Ehy, have you ever thought that Raiden wasn't there when the others went to Outworld to find Shang Tsung? Yeah what if they never told him what happened back there because of good ol' classic trauma? I'm in love with this concept and houndhead explores it in a very interesting way, showing us how each character would act after experiencing what happened at the lab. I also really love how the characters interact with each other, in the last chapter Tanya and Tomas are just perfect.

Raise The Blade (Make The Change) by cherrycola94 - MK fic

A very fun Johnshi fic that's written a little bit like a script, it has some added scene set before the game, some exploration of the canon through a Johnshi lense, ad finally it continues as a post canon, with a very fun story. While I was reading it I could see in my head the scene perfectly, like it was actually a movie. The second chapter has an AMAZING SCENE, like I was so in love that I have a wip of that scene. I should come back and finish it honestly. The new chapter had exactly the kind of scene I was craving for recently, I'm so happy they wrote it!

But I lowered my sword when you held me and swore (you'd stay, stay, stay) by @necromanticzz - MK fic

It's a johnshi fic with a Kenshi pov, where Kenshi has so many walls up doesn't want any help but Johnny just seems to be able to go through them without any problems. Honestly I also advice the other fic necromanticzz wrote about them, the way Kenshi gets chracterized in both of them is just *chef's kiss* perfect, beautiful, amazing. The two fics are just my favourite in the way Kenshi is written, applause all around, love it.

Koffee Shop Kombat by @loujitsushotsoup - MK fic

Because a classic coffee shop au is always needed. We have multiple ships, different writing styles between chaptes, changing with which character's pov we are following, and I love the creativity that was put in it. You maybe saw this post where I drew one of the scenes in this fic, so YOU KNOW that I mean it when i say that I love this fic. And I'm a big sucker for coffee shops as a setting, really love them in real life as well.

Cole's Chilli Recipe by @before-time-had-a-name - Ninjago fic

Another fic where I drew one of the scenes and it's because it deserves it. It's a lostshipping fic, very sweet, very cozy, honestly Cole and Geo make me incredibly emotional everytime and this fic also straight up picked me up and squashed me. I saw in some of the reblogs on my post that people went to check out the fic and I'm so happy about it because they deserve his work to be checked out. And honestly if I can give her more spotlight I will take the chance. Go check out this fic, it's very cool.

Here Comes Casey Jones by Invader_Sam - TMNT MM fic

Very sweet rasey fic that takes place post movie, with the turtles going to highschool and Raph meeting for the first time Casey Jones. What can I say? I just really love Rasey, and I love they're both clearly crushing on each other but they're not really saying it. And the fact that there's no unecessary teenage angst, they just really like each other, and I love that for them ❤

Think Of It As War Paint by less_depresso_more_espresso - TMNT 2012 fic

Another Rasey one, short and sweet, where both of them honestly are giving so much gender in my humble opinion. It's hard to explaning it without just saying all the fic, so we could say it's about them just chilling on a roof.

A Garden Across Our Collarbone by PittedPeaches - LMK fic

I think everyone and their mom already know this fic, and if you don't it would be my honor to talk to you about it. This for me is THE spicynoodle fic, it was one year of my life and honestly at the end of it I cried. This is a soulmate au, where demons sometimes have soulmates, and when that happen it's like they share skin, so they can write stuff on their body and it will appeared on the skin of their soulmate. It mostly starts like a rewriting of seson 1-2-3 by Red son's pov with this new dynamic, and then it becomes a new original timeline. The way this fic is everything to me, every chapter was an incredible experience, I fell in love with this fic at every chapter. So many beautiful scenes, written so beautifully, as I said this fic was 1 YEAR of my life. It was also a very difficult year, and I'm honestly so happy that this fic was there for that time of my life.

Desde el Principio by ShippingMyWorld - Nicktoons United fic

Okay idk If you saw me reblogging a bunch of Nicktoons fanart like two days ago, but just so you know I'm totally going into the rabbit hole of this fandom and I will be lost for a while. Now, this is a Danny Fenton/Manny Rivera fic, the tag has only two fics and both of them are from this writer.

I wish I had this commitment in my life, to just being THE ONLY one creating a specific content for something and still having the motivation of doing it

I read this fic last night, I finished it at 5 a.m. and I do not regret it at all, this was amazing

I actually recommend reading both fics because they are very good, I'm giving a shout out to this one because I think it's the one that made the biggest impact to me personally. ShippingMyWorld you did it, you converted me, I ship this now.

And that's the list, thank you so much to every fanfic writers that give us such amazing art everyday, you're the backbone of fandom!

[cienie-isengardu]

MK1 fanfiction

EDIT: now all chapters will be collected under the title of Cracked mirror of black, cold soul

No one asked for it, but as I did not get enough Bi-Han & Shang Tsung interaction, I was forced to write about them myself. The first part is at least done, we will see if I managed to finish the second. Mainly written as a character study of MK1!Shang Tsung, a bit about his relationship with Damashi, General Shao and potential partnership with Sub-Zero post story-mode.

There was a time when Shang Tsung was nothing more than just a pitiful loser clinging to an even more pathetic life. All he could do to survive was to pretend to be someone else, someone better, wiser; someone worthy of trust, someone people like and listen to. Lying to people was easy. Lying to himself anyone would care if he died came much harder and harder with each passing day. 

Then came Damashi and offered him not only power but also kindness, a praise for making progress, be it for fulfilling her plans or for his own growing skills. He would gladly burn the world just to earn her smile, a good word, anything really. She made him for the first time in a long long time feel valued, appreciated, even liked despite who he was under all the polite words and charming smiles.

But that was a lie too. A lie he foolishly fell for, like a stray, hungry dog falls for a kind pat on the head and a little treat before the new owner will kick it for fun.

Shang Tsung was many things but definitely not a dog to be kicked, be it by Liu Kang or his Titan self. If none of the gods cared for him, he wouldn't care for them either. And now, after he ran away from prison and a terrifying storm washed him ashore on a deserted island full of magic secrets to unlock, he had time and means to repay each of his pursuers, to make all the realms if not respect his skills then fear them.

Since Damashi’s - his own Titan self’s - betrayal many days and nights have passed and with each Shang Tsung’s mastery of magic grew stronger, his knowledge deepened, his confidence restored and strengthened. He claimed the island as his new home, the impregnable fortress secured by the most wicked, devilish and brilliant traps he could think about and for the first time in ages, he finally felt like belonging to the right place.

It was as good a life as it could be. Not perfect, as Shang Tsung still needed to figure out how to secure his food supplies before he would tame the wild land, unused for years and maybe the animals lurking in the shadows could be useful too. A domestic cattle would be a great addition for sure, as it was the only type of animal he had any skill to maintain but then again, there was no way he would engage in tedious farming. He had no time nor patience for that kind of work yet he did not want any stranger on his island either. All he could do for now was to eat the catched fishes and some plucked from tree fruits while bringing all the needed ingredients and supplies from a quick trip to the land. Using magic portals was a tricky solution - magic brought unwanted attention and once used, always left some traits to follow but after the last storm he did not feel safe on a boat sailing through the open sea. On the land, he did run into some of his former allies, exchanged important news and some secrets here and there, never truly betraying where he was hiding. The General and his men treated Shang Tsung with suspicion, always demanding more than he offered. On the other hand, he and Quan Chi worked well in the past, but after the last betrayal, Shang Tsung couldn’t trust anyone anymore. Everyone blamed him for his Titan self’s lies, like he was the one lying to them all. The Royal Family wanted his head, the Earthrealm Champions hunted him too. It was a mess, amusing and irritating at the same time. 

He was going to deal with that matter too, when the right time came. For now, Shang Tsung enjoyed the new found magic - the power awaiting for those who will dare to reach out for it. A power he didn’t need to share with anyone.  

Everything would feel much better though if Sub-Zero didn’t somehow find a way to break into his new home like all the deviously set up traps meant nothing.

Shang Tsung should know something was off the moment he felt coldness creeping into his bones, but in all fairness, it was always cold here. He did not have yet an idea how to heat the interior of an abandoned fortress and as much as he liked to not freeze in his own sleep, luxury like that was not on his priority list. He should be more cautious, more focused on the change in the air about him than walking straight into his own room and then be dumstocked at the sight of Sub-Zero looking through his books as if he had lived here forever and Shang Tsung was the unwanted guest.

“Your security is shitty” was all he got as a greeting. Cold, sharp, uncaring words judging him as an incompetent idiot. The bastard did not even bother to look at him, just kept rummaging through the books like it was the only thing worth this attention.

Shang Tsung wasn’t sure what offended him more - being ignored or watching as his precious belongings were touched without his permission. He liked books way more than he liked people. 

In the last few years he killed people for less than that yet he smiled his most charming smile, the gears in his head working fast and furious on how to turn the unpleasant situation for his own advantage. The fact that Sub-Zero allowed him to see himself in the open instead of lurking in the shadows to cut his throat gave Shang Tsung a reason for a bit of optimism. As far as he heard from his former, maybe-still-maybe-not allies, Lin Kuei rejected Liu Kang’s authority and were on their own. It of course did not mean that Sub-Zero was his friend or ally nor that he wouldn't murder Shang Tsung at the end of day, either to reconcile with Fire Lord or to bribe the god to let the Lin Kuei be in peace.

Shang Tsung couldn’t blame Bi-Han for that - in this cruel world, everyone was looking after their own best interest, but the vision of losing his life did not sit well with him at all. He wasn’t afraid of fighting and he did beat down great Champions in the last battle, but out of all opponents, it was Sub-Zero's ice axe that was the closest to beheading him for good.

He did not plan to forget that anytime soon.

“What an unexpected surprise,” he said, all the soft, so sweet smile, velvet voice and sharp eyes analyzing the danger standing before him. “What can I do for you, my friend? Or did you just miss my humble company?”

He teased with feigned innocence because men hated when he said ridiculous stuff like that. Shang Tsung hated it himself, because he knew no one would miss him at all.  

“For one, drop the false politeness” came Sub-Zero’s cold reply, a mix of disapproval and command that Shang Tsung was so used to, because this was how people treated him, the real him, all his life. “We are not friends.”

There was a flare of anger in Shang Tsung now, the desire to prove himself the superior, not a pitiful dog anyone could kick and command - but he knew better than to allow this fire to burn inside him. Emotions were a weakness he couldn’t afford. Did the man even know how much he provoked the sorcerer with his cold disdain? Shang Tsung had no idea. He heard a lot of stories about Lin Kuei; even in the backwater hole from which he crawled out everyone heard the terrifying tales of Fire Lord’s secret army. Of the ice demons stealthier than shadows and more deadly than night itself and for a long time Shang Tsung did not think of them as living beings from this world.

Still… Sub-Zero was mortal, wasn’t he? A special one no doubt, with control over ice yet he could bleed too. Shang Tsung wondered for a moment what he could find under the fine, cold skin if he ever had a chance to look for the answer. An ice demon, human or hybrid of both?

“But we are still allies, aren’t we?” he asked, still polite and careful, yet walking up to the other man with his typical swagger. Not close enough to be in arm reach, but close enough to show he wasn’t that easily intimidated. 

The great military hero of Edenia always looked down on his movements; how he fought, how he gesticulated, how he walked. No self-respecting soldier would walk like some pleased prostitute after a well-paid job, the General said not once nor twice and all Shang Tsung could do then was to smile the brightest smile and thank him, like his disdain was the best praise he heard that day. The only thing they really have in common, beside the desire to take down Sindel’s regime, was being self-made men for both worked hard to be who they were. Yet General came from an old, aristocratic family with even older military tradition and everything that did not fit his narrow-minded idea of the world was treated with hostility and contempt. 

Shang Tsung’s skinny body, swagger, shrewdness, curiosity and wordiness unsurprisingly annoyed the great warrior and to say he took no pleasure in that fact would be a blatant lie. Even if it was childish and unproductive pleasure, it amused him to know how little effort he needed to test the patience of such a stern and manly man. 

Sub-Zero reminded him a lot of Shao and he suspected it was the soldier thing; the body built for fight and hardship, no-nonse attitude and the way both men moved - with deadly precision and confidence only a person that in fact killed an enemy in battle could muster. Even the way they spoke sounded similar, a barked command that everyone around instinctively wanted to obey, either out of respect or fear.

For that similarity alone, Shang Tsung expected the Lin Kuei Grandmaster to snarl at him some nasty remark about how his Titan self betrayed them all and thus how little he himself was worth of anyone’s trust. Anything to put the sorcerer down even a bit, to remind him what a failure he was.

“That is yet to be seen” was all the Grandmaster said, finally glancing from the book to Shang Tsung. 

It was hard to read anything from the man’s face, as half of it was hidden behind that damned Lin Kuei mask. All he could do was to rely on the move of a brew and the incantation of voice, each syllable, a moment of pause. It was a hard task, as the man showed no emotions and spoke so little so far. But the sorcerer knew there was anger, always lurking in each word spoken by Sub-Zero, but also… an excitement at finally being free of Liu Kang’s control. As Damashi foretold.

Shang Tsung couldn’t help but to think there was something much deeper about Damashi's interest in breaking Lin Kuei from Fire Lord than he ever suspected before. Back then the choice sounded logical - every action that would deprive Liu Kang of the advantage was worth taking so he did not question his benefactor. How could he, really? Now though? The truth burned him to the core and he learned the hard way that each of Damashi’s words had a hidden meaning, each action served a different goal than was promised; the victory he was in fact never part of. Yet… even the deepest shade of lie had a grain of truth. He knew that one well, for he lied all his life.

His Titan self for some reason wanted not so much the Lin Kuei itself as the Sub-Zero specifically on his side. Maybe more than Titan Shang Tsung even wanted his own younger self, corrupted by Liu Kang. 

The mere thought made him want to curse all gods alike. There was no difference for him between Liu Kang and his Titan-self, as both played him like some pawn, not even an important figure. Just pawn, to hold away from power, to sacrifice it when times would come. 

But there was more to it than just jealous anger and the never ending feeling of never being good enough. If Sub-Zero meant so much, if not in the grand scheme of things itself then just for personal satisfaction of Titan, then maybe he could be important to Shang Tsung’s own plans. Allies were hard to come by and these days he could use some, well, not protection really, he was done with living under someone else's wing but he wouldn’t say no to some partnership or at least casual support. The little favor here and there where things were still thick and troublesome to deal on your own. After all, freedom always came at some cost. 

Maybe Sub-Zero came to the same conclusion and his unexpected visit was just a reconnaissance. They were more alike than one would think, as similar desires drove them into this madness of Titans. To prove their own might and skills to all those that looked down on them their whole life. But above everything else, to be free and powerful enough to keep that freedom.

To his own surprise, Shang Tsung took comfort in that thought.

If they were meant to stay allies - or as close two stubborn outcasts with grudge against gods could rely on each other, some sacrifices were to be made. Shang Tsung did something he rarely did - he dropped the false politeness under which he hid himself for years.

“How did you find me?” he asked Sub-Zero directly, raising his chin challengingly. He was not afraid of Lin Kuei, just curious.

“You are not as careful as you think you are” Bi-Han answered with no less challenging stare, yet the flick of an amusement in his eyes was unmistakable. Shang Tsung knew the man was smirking under that damned mask and that thought alone made him puff in anger. 

The brown eyes shone even more.

Sub-Zero moved from his place, slowly walking from one bookshelf to another. His fingers traced books, never stopping at any particular volume, but always touching the book spines, like there was something interesting in their textures. The man did not pay attention to Shang Tsung and not really to books either. He was studying the room itself. The sorcerer couldn’t place why it bothered him so much but he knew better than to allow Sub-Zero to learn even the most trivial things about himself or his fortress. 

Damashi warned him against that the first day when she spoke about Lin Kuei. They are thieves, the mysterious being said, all grace and patience and praise for the unwanted Shang Tsung who drank in her words like the wisdom of gods, who will steal your fortune, life and secrets. Always be on your guard around them, especially around the one named Sub-Zero. If only he was smarter back then, less in need to please his generous benefactor, maybe he could hear in her sweet voice the longing for something, someone, that was not anymore. For the old partnership that was broken and defiled by Liu Kang’s peaceful vision of the world. But he was a fool who thought her yearning was for him alone. 

Shang Tsung was done with being played like a fool.

“Who told you about my island?” he demanded, voice still quiet yet no less burning with an old anger. He would get his answers, whatever kindly or by force.

A long sigh escaped Sub-Zero’s lips and frankly it took him out by surprise. Shang Tsung - or rather his Titan self -  knew the man was running on frustration for years, but that sounded as a whole new level of annoyance.

“I heard about it from Havik, who heard that from Rain, who heard that from Reiko, who heard that from Shao, who heard about it from Quan Chi. But the whole Sun Do is full of similar gossip.”

For a moment none of them spoke. Shang Tsung stared at Sub-Zero’s impassive, half-hidden face that still somehow emanated his disgust at their maybe-allies-maybe-not-but-definitely-idiots who apparently couldn’t keep a secret to save their own life. The feeling was mutual, because this was the reason why the sorcerer hated working with others. No one apparently could keep their mouth shut down if you didn’t help make that permanently. 

He closed eyes and rubbed his forehead, like that could ward off all the bad thoughts assaulting his mind right now.  His fingers were cold, too cold for his liking, unpleasantly stiff and numb. He did not like how the mere presence of a cryomancer affected his body, how it made him shiver and weak. He was an Edenian for fuck’s sake, and Edenia did not even know what winter cold was. He did not know that himself, until Damashi led him to a snow-covered fortress and he almost freezed there the first night. 

It took him a moment to realize something bad was happening. He couldn’t focus, all his senses dulled, body so clumsy and weak. As if his energy suddenly dropped to zero and fatigue was taking over. A flash of panic crossed his mind, but he was too tired, too cold to even be afraid for his life.

He had no idea how long he remained in the grip of this piercing soul frost. A few seconds? Days? He couldn’t even say. What mattered was that once the control of his senses came back, he was still alive and Sub-Zero gone.

And the fact the bastard stole a few of his precious scrolls and books.

***

The books showed up on his desk a few days later. There was no thank you or sorry about that note, not even the fuck you, loser. Shang Tsung both admired the man's boldness and hated him for it. Still he appreciated the books were returned in a good condition, as there was not a single scratch on any of them, not even a new page crease. He had no idea if that was some sort of weird Lin Kuei’s way to test him, disrespect or Sub-Zero took the books simply because he wanted to read them but he was a bastard with no sense of social politeness to just ask as any normal human being would. Damashi mentioned cryomancers were naturally difficult like that.

Shang Tsung had better things to do than to wonder what the check was wrong with Sub-Zero yet he was too curious for his own sake. Sadly, the titles alone did not say anything useful on the matter and even though he read each book just in case, there was hardly anything worth the time it took to finish them. No grand secrets revealed, no magic or military knowledge, not even historical value. Just some technical nonsense that bore him to death and if Sub-Zero was into stuff like that then no wonder the man lacked any social grace. 

The Grandmaster of Lin Kuei so far did not try to kill him and returned the books so Shang Tsung decided to give him the benefit of doubt and so he did not cross out the man from the list of potential allies. It did not stop him however from improving the traps just in case the man decided to return solely to steal again.

***

The scrolls showed up on his desk three days later. Their appearance actually worried Shang Tsung, not just because the trap again turned out to be useless. He was not worried even by the possibility Sub-Zero found some secret entrance he did not know about yet. No, what worried him was the fact he spent the whole morning in his chamber and walked out for like twenty minutes at best and when he returned, the scrolls WERE. THERE. 

That actually unnerved him much more than he wanted to admit. 

The scrolls turned out to be written in a language Shang Tsung did not even know and the implication that Lin Kuei could read it only added to the feeling of cold unease. There was however a note left on the scrolls; a small paper with only Royal Army searching the coast written in Shang Tsung’s own language. 

He was not afraid of empress Mileena’s army but he did appreciate the warning. Of course, the warning could be a fraud, a means to build trust only to betray him. The common sense advised caution yet there was a weird sense of peace within Shang Tsung. A hope or hunch, he did not know, but deep in his heart he felt everything was alright.

All he could do for now was wait to see if Sub-Zero will lead the enemy to his fortress or not. So he waited.

(The fact that another book disappeared with Sub-Zero did not surprise him much. Irritated, yes, but not worried. For some reason he felt everything was like it should be, like some almost forgotten memory of past life came back to him and the sense of deja vu was weirdly comforting.)

[rammystar]

More people saw my Freddy Riley posts than I thought they would so I thought I'd throw some non-selfship stuff out there for fellow Freddy fans :D I eat sleep and breathe Inverse Mercury now and I wish they weren't so vague with essence lore sometimes cause I want to know everything about him... I have some headcanons of my own that I'll put under the cut :3 And if anyone has ideas of their own or something they disagree with I'm very curious to know!! These are very loose ideas and I think I could be easily swayed on some things

💠 I got the idea stuck in my head that he shares some loose similarities to Shang Tsung from MK1, so in my mind now I feel like Inverse Mercury had a similar upbringing. Freddy wasn't raised in a particularly wealthy part of the realm, but very early on he realized how to skillfully wield his greatest weapon– his words– to his advantage. Much like one of his deductions in the game says, he needs to "seem" hard-working, because those are the kind of people that others put their trust in. And as Shang-Tsung is described in his wiki, he is "Too lazy for hard labor and too shifty for honest work". I think Freddy, growing up, valued his own wits above all else, and thought he was too good for the life he had. He strived to be more, but at the time he had to settle with being this snake oil salesman.

💠 Because of how vague the lore is presented I can't tell if Inverse Mercury is still technically related to the law and acts as an attorney? If this is the case then I imagine he used a lot of his downtime burying his nose in books, having an insatiable thirst for knowledge because he knew his intelligence would be a great shortcut into achieving a lot of his goals. And also maybe he studied law in particular to be able to find loopholes to protect himself from getting into legal trouble LOL

💠 Now I don't really know how he came into a position of power, to the point where he had people groveling at his feet like in the trailer. In Shang Tsung's case he got his power from a 'mysterious' benefactor (who turns out to be an alternate version of himself), which I don't think is likely to happen in Freddy's case. For now I just choose to believe the nature of his job and his passion for reading brought him to the ancient books that he familiarized himself with, and used to his advantage. I also think he was probably more well off than Shang Tsung was at the very least, so he probably had easier access to these powerful texts.

💠 Finally the dynamic that Freddy has with Eli in this essence reminds me a lot of the dynamic between Shang Tsung and Syzoth (assuming I interpreted the essence lore correctly). In summary (also referenced from the wiki), Shang Tsung once asked to study Syzoth for his unique ability, and when he refused, Shang Tsung threatened his family– effectively manipulating Syzoth into working for him. Eli similarly seems to have been deceived or manipulated in some way, and we know something like this would definitely not be below Freddy Riley (as much as I love that man).

These are all the ideas I have so far 🫠 I'm so normal about Inverse Mercury I promise (this hasn't even touched on how I wish I could insert my sona into the narrative, but this was supposed to be Freddy Riley centric because I felt bad posting so much about the two when I also just want to show my appreciation for him alone. I did have a little oneshot for them that I wanted to write, but I thought maybe I'd turn it into an x reader despite the very little demand I see for stuff like that because I wonder if maybe people would prefer that instead JDNDJD who knows... )

[cerastes]

Always feel a bit bad when someone clearly appreciative of what I write and post asks me something about the Arknights character they like and it's someone I personally don't care for or maybe even actively dislike, because if you ask me about a character I like, I can launch walls of text with the ease of stoic Japanese master swordsmith from the mountains crafting the next blade to fell a god, but if the character ain't no one to me, it takes every single jutsu in my arsenal to not change the topic to something like Shang Tsung's transformation inputs in MKII or shilling Furi and Katana ZERO.

I feel like that one Hideo Kojima movie review. This is me depending on who or what you ask me about:

I will not pretend to care, and that's a rule I won't break, but it does make me feel bad because the person clearly wanted to hear my thoughts, so I can only hope it's not disappointing or, worse yet, misconstrued as a personal attack or mockery. It's just, sometimes, even with the best of intentions, Thog just can't caare.

[mrstsung]

Shang tsung has BEEN sexy. Always has been

Y'all just late to the game.

I mean 30+yrs of games. You got a lot of material to work with.

Like come on

I mean come on people.

Young,old,beard,no beard. Shang has it all.

He's cunning,scary intelligent,handsome. Funny. Has humble origins(could be written a bit better and less yikes by NRS but ya know) like you feel bad for shang regardless of his predicament. Because being cursed to take the life force of others for eternity because some salty bitch didn't want you to be "better" than him. Never to embrace death or fully feel life. Stuck in a limbo. Have all the powers of a god yet denied any clearance. Have all the ambitions of a emperor and ruler yet desire none of triviality of it all. Only the security and safety of it. Desire nothing more than what you feel you deserve,and that grows day by day through the trials of kombat. Day in and day out you fight for your life for crumbs.

How can anyone not feel for shang? At least nowadays.

Like they gave him something more than "evil bad guy to beat up" yet expect people to still go the status quo when they want us too. How can you root for anyone who sides with earthrealm or any of the supposed "good guys" anymore?

But anyways. Yeah shang tsung deserves better treatment than him being sexy in looks. Tho he is definitely *meow* deliciously cold Blooded.

He is sexy because he is complex. Because he's not afraid to go after what he wants. He's cautious(and more so as time goes on,as he gets a lil bit wiser tho not much changes overall. He's still a lil cheeky shit and stuck in survival mode. Oof). shang tsung is sexy because he's a bad guy with standards. Twisted sense of honor,he stands for himself. Because nobody else will.

See liu kang,in this new "timeline" if you gave him friendship or friends. Ya know genuinely a happy fucking life. And not put edanians on a pedestal because you wanted kitana puss puss so damn bad. Maybe you could have avoided all of that! Ya know maybe kung lao,raiden,and shang could have been the "deadly alliance" you needed. But noooooooo! Pusshy and looking good for these god/titans was more important?! Fuck off.

Dark raiden would have decimated you on spot for that bullshit.

And i would have laughed. This new liu kang is a joke. Fr. (Tbh the whole damn thing has become a joke but eh)

Shang tsung is once again the only thing keeping this dead horse alive,look me dead in the eyes and tell me he aint!? It's the truth and i know it,and y'all know it. And even then that will wear out in time. Even then it's not the BEST shang tsung(storywise)and Alan Lee's voice and performance is what made this enjoyable. Mr lee is too damn nice for this shit. Luv ya man but yeah. Still would love to see more of shang tsung being actually treated with respect and not with nostalgia bait clouding the writing devs minds. But people who actually love complex villains or morally grey characters.

Anyways. We love this sorcerer. But he deserves better than that.

BY FANS AND GAME DEVS ALIKE!

💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚

More kontent soon. Sorry for the smol hiatus.

[arttrampbelle]

🐉❤Old man Shang Tsung appreciation post❤🐉

Foxy grandpa! FOXY GRANDPA! FOXY GRANDPA!

God i love this shang tsung. Look most of the time shang is shang. But there is something about tagawas old man shang tsung in mk11 that hits different.

Like shang tsung is sexy no matter what form. Young or old. Elder or rejuvenated youth.

But old man shang tsung gilf is underrated af!

But also he's just badass too. Like i love this particular version of him sm! Fr!

I mean look at him!

Like foxy grandpa can get it!

(Smug bastard i love him sm 😤💕💖🥺💋)

[gamerwoman3d]

Round 2: POST!

Sub-zero [Bi-han MK1] tattoo appreciation [I think this is the 3rd one!]

As always you can use any screencaps/video of games from my live gameplay for any legal use. Fanart, promote the game, whatever [as long as you don't get a c&d from WB or get in trouble with law enforcement or netherrealm studios, use the imagery however you like!

Original at https://www.twitch.tv/gamerwoman3d/v/1947718972?sr=a&t=13s

Round 1 post links below.

SECRET FIGHT UNLOCKED!

Wanna see Shang Tsung level grinding on tattooed-up Invasions Major Boss Sub-Zero for Daily Challenge Achievements? Here you go. Enjoy the gruntled gamerwoman noises.

[ghostherlig]

I actually dream of the day u write something bi-han/shang tsung omg...

ohhhh those two... they are so toxic in my mind fr- not that that's going to stop me from writing them, i do enjoy playing around with those relationship dynamics- esp since in my mind there's such a power imbalance between the two of them

the long-short of it is, bi han and shang tsung feed each others egos and bi han is very dependent on shang and his view of him to function well in their alliance- and shang uses that to his advantage at every turn bc all it takes to get bi han to change his mind is to plant a seed of doubt- aruashdfkjs

alternate version of them being a bit sweeter but possibly even hilariously like mk11 aftermath sindel and shao khan- literally "what bones of his shall i break for you, my love?" "mm. surprise me. <333" like that kind of so in love but toxic and cruel to literally everyone around them LMAO-

i am going to yap abt them for a moment bc i do have Some Personal Headcanons about the lin kuei and shirai ryu and shang tsung and how that all plays out post-mk1--

in my mind, kuai and tomas almost immediately separate from the lin kuei and form the shirai ryu in secret, cutting all communication with bi han-

and in my mind, bi han isnt happy about that, he does miss his brothers, even if he never admitted it to himself before that moment- it's also a personal hc of mine that bi han wouldnt have been such a shitty brother if it werent for the relationship he had with his parents- in my mind bi han was forced to spend a lot more of his time with his father and got to see things that kuai and tomas had no idea about-

think azula and zuko- bi han is his father's son, and his father used that to mold bi han into his version of the perfect warrior, and bi han shaped his expectations of himself and his brothers around that image as well

so, when kuai and tomas break off of him and "betray him" in his eyes, he's upset about it.

but he also gets shang out of it, and i feel like there's a golden opportunity there for some ✨One-Sided Codependency✨

shang tsung helps feed bi han's ego and personal security, which bi han needs now that he doesnt have anyone else to do it for him, and shang uses that to direct bi han where he wants him to focus. shang also uses the power he has over their alliance to get bi han to prioritize protecting him versus prioritizing the strength of his clan.

if they arent going to be toxic to each other, i feel like bi han would fall HARD for shang's intelligence and cunning. shang is so smart and he uses it for his own benefit, but bi han sees the practicality of it too and it just makes him crazy-

shang tsung would fall in love with how brutal and efficient bi han is- like bi han is very one-track-minded and shang can appreciate the brutality he approaches problems with.

and the two of them together? shang's mastermind with bi han's determination and brutality? they're a pair to be reckoned with, and it's terrifying- shang builds the groundworks for something evil and bi han gives him the men and the efficiency to get it done nearly overnight-

they both adore each other for their strengths but also see how they compliment each other and it takes a while for either of them to make a move but once they do their affections and relationship becomes so casual that it almost seems like it's always been that way...

god, thinking about them too hard fr... idk how quickly i'll be able to write smth for them but i will be thinking abt them for a while now, LMAO- i am sick so it might be longer than i'm hoping for, but i do have a few ideas in mind now.. arugrughaskdjf mk men ruin me 😔

[ggswaywardgifrepository]

Man am I in my thoughts on Khaos Reigns. Spoilers, obviously. And fair warning that I disliked far more than I liked about it.

I appreciate how much attention Bi-Han was given in the narrative. However, overall, I think he was terribly written. I’m just not interested in projecting meaning and depth onto his behavior anymore. I did, and still do, see his time and behavior as Sub-Zero during the main game as more subjective than how he behaved at all in Khaos Reigns. Pre and post being Noob’d.

I’m a pretty big base game Bi-Han apologist, and can apply meaning to some of his choices. DLC Bi-Han, though… I apologize and make excuses for main game Bi-Han; I want the writers to apologize TO Khaos Reigns Bi-Han.

I’m still pleased he was so important to the plot but the character was still shafted. And that’s a pretty impressive feat. But he is just a balls to the wall asshole through Khaos Reigns, and I’m just struggling to find the reason for it. Like, his base game beefs had some merit. I guess the best I can come up with is that he’s shed the last of his restraint by the time, especially once he’s transformed.

His one—ONE—truly selfless act ended up being him going through the portal after Havik. He acknowledges that something happening to Geras will be disastrous and does what needs to be done. It’s unfortunate it was so overwhelmed by shitty things happening to him, or him just choosing to do terrible things. Who’da thunk it that that would be the smartest and most sensible thing Bi-Han did in the whole story?

Well written characters don’t drag us by the feet from plot point to plot point. A lot of this came off as shallow, rushed, inorganic.

Bi-Han being the one to defeat Titan Havik was satisfying, but Liu Kang suddenly caring about what killing a Titan would do their timeline? Like we didn’t just wreck Titan Shang Tsung’s shit??? Even if Titan Havik was potentially connected to more timelines, Johnny, Rain, and Tanya proved that even in the most fucked of timelines goodness existed. He surely damned decent people in Titan Shang Tsung’s timeline, too. He couldn’t be any surer there was no one but his minions left, right?

IDFK. One of many inconsistencies in this new timeline’s story.

Noob’s time as Havik’s henchman was pathetically short, too. And the person who drops his henchman self isn’t Kuai Liang? Or even Sektor? He doesn’t even have a real fight against Scorpion? Because Scorpion didn’t get a chapter and it wasn’t worked into Noob’s chapter. (He was shameless and aggressive enough it honestly could’ve been.)

Don’t get me wrong, I really liked Empress Tanya, but the single playable character per chapter structure really, really hurt this installment. There were multiple instances where the wrong character got the playable fight against the enemy onscreen/impeding the heroes’ progress.

The tower endings for both Sektor and Noob also seem to shit on Liu Kang’s plan to keep Bi-Han safe while he attempts to restore him fully. And that pisses me off. Because the thing that gave me hope about this whole charade was that we’d finally get a Bi-Han redemption story. He may spend the rest of his days disfigured for what Havik did to him, which is fine, but his spirit would be pure. He’d feel remorse and care to redeem himself. It may still happen; I know tower endings aren’t 100% canon, but there tend to be snippets there.

I can only hope that Sektor becoming involved with Quan Chi leads to Sareena being a part of the story and a key factor in Bi-Han’s redemption.

I honestly thought all of his restoration, or the hints thereof, were going to be part of the ending. I expected him to consciously choose to fight against Havik before Liu Kang “restored his mind”. (If that is what Liu Kang considers Bi-Han with his mind resorted roflmao).

Smoke was robbed, as were several characters who deserved to play a larger role (Kitana, for one). Did Tomas even have a single line? I truly can’t remember, he was there so little.

I’m annoyed that Emperor Rain and Empress Tanya were written better as a couple than Tanya and Mileena, because the series is sorely lacking in queer representation. They’re it at this point and they’re sadly, canonically, a kinda boring and neglected ship.

Cyrax is adorable and I loved her. I know some people don’t like her voice or her look, and I’m still lukewarm about the genderswap, but I really liked her. I think her characterization was closest to its roots of any of the DLC characters.

Boy was I wrong about Sektor. I liked her but the trailer cleverly implied she was more of a team good guy player than she is. She openly cooperated with the good guys but it was entirely motivated by her loyalty and personal affection for Bi-Han.

It was extremely refreshing to see Harumi, period. She not only lived but was portrayed as a competent and sympathetic character. One of very few things the DLC did well with.

Several of the skins are fantastic. I love Khaos Takeda, Kitana, and Mileena. Khaos Shang Tsung is awful though. Absolutely hated his look for all 12 seconds he was there.

Overall, though, the DLC was a massive disappointment. It cost $$$, only lasted a couple of hours, and there was no post credits scene to give me anything to look forward to and make the underwhelming story experience more palatable.

And if you loved it, congrats. If you have all the “this is actually a lot deeper because” metas and headcanons, go you. I’m happy for you. I wanted to like this enough to at least try to rationalize what I didn’t like. I really thought I would.