#along with other factors

[cosmicheartz]

watching taopib after having had watched the last wish is rlly interesting bc it makes you wonder if puss's time in san lorenzo might have affected him later down the line ( for better or for worse )

an example would be what if his 4th death ( ie the dumbell death ) was influenced/a result of him being insecure about how he wasnt the muscle of the operation ( The Muscle episode ) so he decided to go and get super jacked and ends up dying as a result

[cienie-isengardu]

Hot take: It's okay that Bi-Han doesn't like Tomas. He doesn't have to see him as family or like him.

By the addition of “Hot take” I assume this is not something that fandom at large figured out by themselves yet. Can’t say I’m surprised though. Yes, it is okay for Bi-Han to not like or see Tomas as family, as no one can be - nor should be - forced to like anyone just because others (adults) expect it. That alone doesn’t make Bi-Han an evil person, even if Tomas feels rejected in the process, as each person will define what makes one a family differently. 

Their brotherhood was forced on both, as none had any say in Grandmaster’s decision to adopt the orphaned and traumatized boy (how they adapted to the situation is another matter and so far, we know more about Smoke’s process of adaptation than Bi-Han’s). We know only small bits of what happened that significant day, but so far sources - the way the informations are phased at least - feel to me like the Grandmaster adopted the boy less for Tomas’ sake and more to smother his own guilt 

[...] Having accidentally trespassed onto Lin Kuei lands, they were attacked. Smoke was orphaned. Ashamed by his warriors' actions, the Lin Kuei's Grandmaster adopted Smoke. He raised him alongside his sons, Sub-Zero and Scorpion. [Smoke’s BIO]

and/or to save his honor:

Kitana: "You are Kuai Liang's adopted brother?" Smoke: "His father's honor demanded that he take me in." 

So this is not a situation as if Bi-Han urged father to give him another younger brother and dad complied to make his son happy but once he brought the orphaned Tomas, Bi-Han decided nope, I change my mind and from on I will act as a spoiled brat that didn’t get what he wanted. Tomas did not choose to be orphaned nor to be adopted (as he himself admitted he did not think being taken in by Lin Kuei was anything good for him at that time), the same as Bi-Han was not asked by Grandmaster for approval (and even if he was, his objection apparently wasn’t taken into account as Grandmaster still adopted Tomas).

Smoke: "Father wanted us to be brothers." Sub Zero: "Yet another of the old man's foolish dreams." 

Note this: father wanted. Not hoped they will eventually find a common ground despite the not the best circumstances. He wanted to save honor. He wanted them to be brothers. Again, not sounding as taking into account what the kids wished for or needed and who knows, maybe Grandmaster wanted it so much, he pushed too hard to get the most comfortable solution for his own conscience - except Bi-Han simply never clicked with Tomas, whatever due to incompatible personalities or factors beyond their good will? I presume they all were still enough young when Tomas was brought into picture, but if Bi-Han is the eldest out of them three, then he could had his own duties that simply didn’t give him enough time to bond with the (culturally and ethically) different kid the way Kuai Liang did, again presumably, as closer in age to Tomas. 

But even if Bi-Han simply didn’t like Tomas, then it is still okay, because people can’t be forced to love or like others. Not liking someone though doesn’t give anyone the right to act disrespectful - yet so far, we only heard he was cold to Tomas but that does not necessary mean being intentionally cruel either. A human can be polite and still come off as emotionally cold (and let’s not forget that people can also be naturally introverts or fall into the autism/asocial disorders spectrum that makes it difficult to establish good relationships with strangers. We are familiar with MK1 Bi-Han for what? Maybe twenty minutes of story mode and through intro-dialogues that only gives us a sense of who he is at this point. We don’t even have an idea if cryomancer genes affect his perception of the world or behavior). 

Bi-Han as an adult person seems to come to terms with the situation to some extent and got used to the idea of an additional brother - his and Tomas relationship is tense and complicated but it is now tainted by their conscious choices, however in the past, if Bi-Han didn’t like Tomas for whatever understandable or petty reason, no one can demand from a kid to act as an adult and control/smooth their own emotions to solve the problem adults created in the first place. The whole situation wasn’t fair to Tomas and so wasn’t to Bi-Han either. 

Would it be sad to learn that Bi-Han has never liked Tomas or never come to love him the way he loved his biological brother? Yes. But not liking someone or not considering someone a family member is not a crime itself and is not an indication of being inherently evil. Be it fictional characters or real human beings, people sometimes simply don't like each other and they have the right to feel that way. Not liking each other though does not mean anyone is allowed to abuse or disrespect others, just to be clear here.

I like to think this should be obvious, but knowing fandom, it may indeed be the hot take.

[autisticlee]

it kind of sucks when all your friends and family, everyone you know, are all pairing off and getting married and havinf families, except you. you're the only one that doesn't have a partner and probably can/will never get one. especially if one around you has time for you anymore, they never reach out, never get back to you, because they're only focused on their partners and families. you're stuck alone and drift away from everyone through no fault of your own. you have no hope of finding your own partner or no motivation to look for one for whatever reason. the lack of connections while seeing everyone around you having their own can get overwhelmingly lonely at times....

[narwhalandchill]

its been like. nearly a year (How.) already but i cannot lie theres Still a part in the back of my brain occupied with and being thoroughly entertained by the way that childes confirmed 4.0 complete self-awareness over waking up the narwhal at 14 recontextualizes some key liyue things leading to some very funny self indulgent scenarios in my head

like yes chili is old news its basic please excuse me for predictable popular ship crimes (do NOT however associate me w the crimes of fanon against their actual range. theyre peak to Me) but i just keep replaying the imagery of zhongli and childe back on their homoerotic Professional Working Relationship bullshit where their flirting passed the jkjk unless treshold of even remotely plausible deniability like 8 exorbitantly priced business dinners ago and theyre just like. doing that whole song and dance now neither committing to a move except zhonglis presently feeling moderately conflicted (but nonetheless fairly unfazed at) by the prospects of actually developing some sort of a thing for the harbinger hes supposed to puppet master into executing the major story climax of his 67-step retirement plan bc he turned out to be quite the strangely charming ginger specimen (to His weird fucking 6000 year old tastes at least. they deserve each other) with some fascinating life ambitions he cant help but be enraptured by.

but because hes still 100% Locked In on his entire plan zhonglis also just . simultaneously dual wielding his coy-ass "i like you and am taking it slow to Savor this developing relationship (Also bc of the Geo Archon Shaped Elephant In The Room) except am old as shit so my languid sense of time inadvertedly Automatically turns my behavior into an equivalent of the dark souls boss of playing hard2get" act (cue "waddup im ajax 24 and im in fucking agony with this hot funeral consultant". Yes they live like this) AND also meticulously theorycrafting like 12 moves in advance for his 6d chess play of leaving the most subtly crafted trail of breadcrumbs behind for the tsaritsas 11th to follow into the intended & completely "Coincidental" idea of unleashing the one particular sealed sea deity that zhongli Specifically wants momentarily released for his sweet 6k retirement party and graduation test for the nation hes helicopter parented for 3.7k years .

like. this is zhongli we r talking about the guy Absolutely has it planned out down to a fucking art like he has an entire branching path dialogue tree planned and memorized like its a visual novel for every possible way he can conveniently namedrop osial in a non-suspect way and also that he just happens to be sealed right over there across the harbor (what a coincidence!) and also to slip in the intel about the latent power of the sigil of permission etc etc. like zhonglis just out there doing all this massive galaxy brain computational work simultaneously while infodumping on an academic level about whichever subject childes latest random comment of amicable small talk happened to remind him of because in his helicopter parent in remission mind its Absolutely Critical that the idea about releasing osial occurs Completely organically in childes mind it Has to he Cannot risk revealing anything . (hes in remission not in recovery guys.) so like here we are. he requested notes from the tsaritsa Personally on the character of her 11th just to ensure every move was painstakingly crafted to draw him Specifically to the intended conclusion without risking revealing his true identity .

except. the thing . neither he. nor the tsaritsa . would have been informed of . is that this simply isnt childes first fucking rodeo waking up an eldritch city sized sea creature . and he is very well aware of this fact . he woke that beautiful wonderful beloved huge fucking narwhal up by himself had his brain chemistry Immediately and Irrevocably rewired as a direct consequence do you fucking think hes somehow stopped thinking about that singular moment for even a second since then???

yeah . thought so.

so what actually ends up happening in reality is theyll be on another definitely-serious-business-not-just-a-date and zhonglis going to get down to like dialogue selection part 10 of the 86 step conversation tree at Most where hes only beginning to like Vaguely allude to the key pieces of information involved but it turns out Because Hes That Guy (TM) And Has Been There Done That Before childes basic pattern recognition and sense of irony simply proceed to kick in Way ahead of time and hes Immediately perking up like Hey wouldnt it be really fucking funny if i wake up an eldritch sea beast Again . like just in case. as a last ditch effort .

and zhonglis just sitting there seeing the gears turn in his head as they enjoy their cringe fucking picnic (bc they just stare at each other intently like that nowadays its a thing. being in a room with them by this point is essentially a human rights violation) and is just completely fucking flabbergasted and lost on how in the hell childes speedran his way to that conclusion at what amounts to barely a 13% completion rate in his whole overkill fucking plan (just 1 of 3 contingencies btw) and its like yes he has his intended outcome but also precisely 0 idea on how the fuck said outcome was reached the way it was this fast . like hes still winning its His plan thats well underway and ahead of schedule but How

(pov: ur selling the concept of waking up destructive sea creatures to the guy who woke up a celestial body eating cosmic whale at 14)

anyway its truly beautiful i absolutely detest these two and have prime liyue AQ hijinks nostalgia now thank you for the lore drop that allowed this to become canon in my head hoyo

[lecliss]

I'll never be able to take the theory that Vincent is Sephiroth's real father seriously cuz I cannot stress enough how important I think it is to the plot that Vincent wanted to fuck Lucrecia and did not get to.

[bookshelf-in-progress]

Me: I would really like to begin writing these specific stories from my idea list.

Me, after like one day of serious brainstorming: What if instead you worked on every single other idea you've ever had?

[aefensteorrra]

hmm having flatmates was definitely very good for me

[nerdierholler]

Book binding supplies should finally arrive today! I've done a lot of the prep work so I'm hoping once I get supplies I can start making some quick progress. The big thing left to do is making my end pages so I can sew them in now that I've decided on the fancy paper for them. I didn't leave enough blank pages at the end of the text block so I'm going to have to sew them in, which is fine, but it does mean that need to be done so I can stab holes in them and add to the sewing stack.

[floralstorms]

tehe I have. An au. For The Characters

[bangcakes]

.

[ninas-gf]

while i obviously love the idea of eula and jean being paired with each other… i am also kind of obsessed with the dynamic where the yearning is extremely one-sided on eula’s part. or perhaps something with even more potential flavor… mutual yearning over the course of several years, but neither of them fully acting on it because they’re Repressed 👀

[imsosocold]

Okay but Larry refusing trying to try to learn  about his son and his problems, insistent that if he does the same things he did with Connor when Connor was younger it’d work, unable to acknowledge how his son changed. Cynthia trying ever so hard to understand but not knowing what the source of Connor’s problems and being afraid to push him to the edge, trying literally everything available as a response.  Connor always expressing  his emotions and getting  frustrated people can’t pick up on he’s feeling. Connor knowing what’s wrong but not knowing how to break the cycle except removing himself from it.  Zoe in contrast closing herself off and refusing to express herself in response to being at the forefront of Connor’s outbursts. But becoming cold and snarky like him as a defense mechanism.  It leading to her developing some ableist ideas.  All of them are searching for understanding.

[lukewarmbreadatamoderatepace]

Always weird seeing people talking about violent crime statistics with Baltimore as this, like... "obviously unlivably bad" standard. As this cartoonish abstraction they've made up in their head. I saw someone on here literally refer to it as "hell on earth" and like... sorry no? That's just so... lazy, incurious, reactionary. It's like, you realize that real people live there, yeah? Real people with normal lives? Who live there and think it's basically fine, or even actively like it? You understand that such people exist yes??

It's... mostly just a very affordable city with bad public transit and an abundance of vacant rowhouses, ime. I lived and worked in Baltimore for like 5 years, took public transit regularly, and it was fine.* And like, I was in some of the shittier neighborhoods because that's all I could afford, not the isolated island of rich white people** that is Johns Hopkins-- which is its whole own separate thing! Did the guy calling Baltimore "hell on earth" know the first thing about the makeup of the city, the different dynamics at play? I'm guessing not.

(My impression from living there was always that if you're not personally involving yourself in gang stuff then your risk of violence is about the same as any city, it's mostly just gangs doing violence to each other that throws off the numbers.*** Now, I'm a bit of a shut-in so my experience isn't completely unbiased but I had plenty of friends who weren't and they felt basically the same way. Like even in real cheap neighborhoods it's basically just. Fine. I wonder how often it's like that, really.

[catboybatman]

I saw the barbie movie btw. I have... opinions...

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

[fic: double blind] If there's not too many AU questions yet, the AU from one of the previous asks lives in my head rent free - the one where somehow (magic? probably magic) extremis!Tony and cured!Tony exist at the same time and the former realizes that Peter very much prefers the latter. So if it's ok, question for that extremis!Tony:

So what are you planning to do now, how will you go about "winning Peter back", so to speak? Will you do anything about the non-extremis-enhanced version of yourself? Will you still try to continue with your plans, or will this development cancel them/put them on hold? I'm so incredibly curious xD

I will… have to try to understand him. He doesn't… see the world the same way, and… if he can't accept my plans, in the end-- he has to come first. I… none of this is worth anything without him.

I need him to-- trust me, that I want the best for him, and… if he doesn't want what I'm offering, I'll have to-- give him what he does want instead. I can do that for him. Easily. Easily.

And when I've re-earned his trust we can revisit my plans, and I can make them new with his input-- it will be better that way. It will work. I can make it work.

[firebenders-are-cool]

Years ago I came up with an ATLA fic idea for the earth avatar after korra and it was kinda good but I stopped caring about it. as I developed the plot and transformed my initial (flawed) idea, I got less interested in it because it was no longer the same idea. I basically wanted to write Trope A, didn't like that it was such a bad rendition of Trope A, fixed it, and got bored cause it wasn't Trope A anymore. I absolutely don't have the time (or desire) to go write it now (especially with avatar studios coming in hot with a new avatar), but damn I hope an alternate universe-me wrote it.