#as mortals we can try

[cynocardia]

i'll be your hired gun, the lump between your lungs

(image described in alt text)

[goreboyyy]

Someone's hungry, while the other is.. conflicted to say the least.

Me and @junkanimate have done the same prompt because we're both desperate for even greater tension between these unfairly spicy bastards.

[cienie-isengardu]

Tomas & Liu Kang

I’m trying to put things into right perspective about Smoke, Liu Kang’s approach to Tomas and how pushed into background he was during story mode so bear with me while I’m connecting dots.

Also, to be clear, I’m not here to morally judge the characters, just to talk about the dissonance between Smoke vs Liu Kang intro dialogues and the story mode.

For one, the pre-fight dialogues imply that Tomas lost his family due to Liu Kang (Keeper of Time)’s choice: 

Smoke: "Did you intend for me to be orphaned?" Liu Kang: "Some threads must be cut to weave time’s fabric." 

and

Smoke: "I'm not sure I can forgive you." Liu Kang: "Being Keeper of Time meant making many hard choices."

When Tomas was orphaned, Kuai Liang & Bi-Han’s father adopted him and made one of Lin Kuei. If the accusation is true, then we can assume Liu Kang wanted Tomas to join Lin Kuei, as he did in the past timeline(s). So, in theory, Smoke for whatever reason was important enough for the Keeper of Time to get involved and steer events to get the wanted result. 

Which raises a question, why did Liu Kang not bother to recruit Tomas into Lin Kuei the same way he recruited Kung Lao, Raiden, Johnny Cage or Kenshi, by like, actually talking to him and taking for training? Or even why not just ask the befriended Grandmaster to take the boy (and Tomas' family) under his wings, which I think the man would do without further question.

Instead, Smoke was orphaned, taken in by Lin Kuei, adopted as son of Grandmaster and trained in magic to equalize his chances in the fight (in contrast, Bi-Han’s ice powers seems to be a natural part of him, related to specific bloodline).

Now, if Tomas was so important, if not in the greater scheme of things, then just for Liu Kang (and Kuai Liang), isn’t it weird, he is so sidelined and omitted by Fire Lord in the story mode?

Again, not judging characters, solely pointing out this choice of storyline, as this is especially visible during collecting the champions for the tournament arc.

In Chapter One, when the test was over and Liu Kang came to Kung Lao and Raiden to explain things, he specifically called only Bi-Han (the current Grandmaster) and Kuai Liang (Bi-Han’s blood-brother)

while Tomas was totally omitted and stayed behind with the rest unnamed Lin Kuei warriors.

Which, visually speaking, is weird, as just before that scene we could see Smoke walking alongside his adoptive brothers (with Bi-Han leading the group, Tomas and Kuai Liang walking a bit behind their leader, but before the unnamed warriors);

In the next chapter, again, only Bi-Han and Kuai Liang assisted Fire Lord in his quest to recruit Johnny Cage and Kenshi. Again, both Lin Kuei were addressed by their birth names, instead of codenames

while there is no information why Tomas was left behind. He likely was entrusted with escorting Kung Lao and Raiden to Shaolin Monks, yet the lack of proper mention emphasizes the pushing into the background.

We didn't learn officially Smoke's status as adopted brother of Kuai Liang and Bi-Han until Sub-Zero's chapter (#8). Unless I miss something, the first person on screen to actually address Smoke by his birth name was surprisingly Bi-Han.

Which makes even weirder the lack of including of Tomas from Liu Kang, as the Fire Lord and Smoke stayed allies through the story mode and intro dialogues (with some resentment on Tomas' side for death of his family) while the relationship between Bi-Han and Tomas was much more complicated to begin with.

We could make an argument that Liu Kang didn't want to antagonize Bi-Han by including adopted Tomas too much, however:

A) Bi-Han has never denied Tomas right to consider himself one of Grandmaster's sons - seen especially in Sub-Zero's speech pattern, as Sub-Zero always says just "Father", the same as Tomas and Kuai Liang, never putting emphasis on "my" as a reminder Smoke is adopted. The real conflict is not about whether Tomas is his and Kuai Liang's brother or not, but about him being a true Lin Kuei. What is also worth to keep in mind, any tension between brothers happened only in privacy (here and during the mission), never around Liu Kang.

(A similar thing can be noticed in intro dialogues. In Smoke vs Sub-Zero, Bi-Han specifically says "Because your blood is not Lin Kuei" however in Liu Kang vs Sub-Zero, when Fire Lord claims brothers (plural version!) miss him, Bi-Han doesn't correct his opponent about Tomas not being one. He instead says "Then they shouldn't have disobeyed my commands.")

B) Liu Kang did not show Bi-Han any special respect, especially not the kind of respect and friendship offered to Sindel and her husband, Jerrod. And yes, Fire Lord mentioned Bi-Han before Kuai Liang, and addressed him during the meeting before the mission (while the Sub-Zero's younger brothers - subordinates - stood together in silence)

but that basically it? Bi-Han didn't seem to be favored in any special way, I don't think he even was addressed as Grandmaster by Fire Lord at any moment in story mode.

Which is why I personally don't see why Liu Kang would omit Tomas solely to not hurt Bi-Han's ego or to not antagonize the man further - especially since Bi-Han himself didn't push the matter in any specific - openly - way nor didn't deny Tomas the right to consider himself one of Grandmaster's sons in the first place.

Frankly, as we don't see how Lin Kuei were informed about the upcoming meeting, we should ask, did Liu Kang call Bi-Han and specifically Smoke and Scorpion for the mission, or was that choice made solely by Sub-Zero? Because Lin Kuei for sure must have much more experienced warriors that Tomas (and Kuai Liang for that matter) but also sending on dangerous mission the Grandmaster AND the second* in line of succession seems impractical from the perspective of clan' inner safety.

*second and third, if Tomas was allowed at all to be the heir. Considering how neither Smoke nor Scorpion even for a moment considered that option and how Sektor & Cyrax would choose Bi-Han's corruption of the clan before accepting Kuai Liang as a new leader, the inner clan politics may not be so simple.

During the Lin Kuei mission (Sub-Zero's Band of Brothers Chapter) and during Bi-Han's betrayal (Scorpion's Civil War Chapter), the three brothers didn't address each other by codenames and as much as the situation allowed, freely interacted with each other.

However once Bi-Han is removed from the story mode, Smoke is even more pushed into the background. When asked, he will answer and make some (one?) observation however he barely interacted with other characters, mainly sticking to his brother. The most important exception is the scene when the heroes were wondering what to do after the big revelation and Tomas on his own talked about Lin Kuei and Bi-Han.

The story mode at that time was focused on other characters (like Mileena & Shang Tsung) so understandably, Lin Kuei brothers were put aside however even then Scorpion played a vital part, as it was Kuai Liang making the plan of attack, when Liu Kang wasn't around, while Tomas for most part was just there.

Again, no moral judging of characters just a mere observation how Tomas interacted the most freely with his brothers while was omitted by Liu Kang - and like, never(?) addressed by him in story mode, either by name or codename, even if the intro dialogues strongly imply Liu Kang was the one pushing Tomas into Lin Kuei in the first place.

Which makes an interesting contrast to Bi-Han & Smoke’s relationship but also shows how without intro dialogues, the relationship between Tomas and Liu Kang seems… non existing? I mean, even at the end of story mode, Liu Kang mentions Bi-Han

and his brother Kuai Liang building a new clan,

yet there is literally no mention of Tomas and his participation in the creation of Shirai Ryu and training its members (something confirmed in Scorpion and Smoke's endings).

Which only add to the weird feeling of alienating Tomas in story mode, not by Bi-Han but Liu Kang of all possible people?

[thegirlsarethriving]

just finished undertale. ok i see the vision. i now understand yall's Sans-to-Benrey obsession pipeline. and the Papyrus-to-Tommy Coolatta pipeline

[littlegeecko]

hi. I have a question, Prismо took Jake's death pretty hard, but what happens if something happens to the Scarab too? for example someone wished that he would die

We often forget that Prismo doesn't grant all the wishes that come his way just like that, sometimes he recommends a different wish (since everyone has 1 wish) to the person, and he clarifies that they gotta be very specific on what they're asking for, since theres always some sorta downside to his wishes.

I think if anyone wished for Scarab to die, he would go, very casually, "you can't wish to kill a god" or "That's a bit mean dont you think? he's standing right here with me," or who knows, Scarab could be protected by Prismo in a professional way too, such as making it impossible for someone to wish for his death just like that now that he's living with him in the time room, and Orbo making sure he goes thru with his "punishment" by preventing that too

Prismo would be casual about it, but considering the Scarab is not that big of a threat anymore, he would find quite odd for someone to wish that on him, or try to hurt him, theres so so many other things they could wish for, why try to go after one guy? It would bother him personally since they're roomies now but it wouldnt be the first time he's faced with a situation like this

(Also, Scarab was mostly hunting down other star beings such as Prismo and himself, i dont see why other gods would personally go there to wish for his death, i dont think that's allowed?)

In a general sense, yea Prismo would totally feel bad if anything happened to Scrabby, that's his roomie now! he would feel bad for any of his friends really. I think Jake was a special case considering maybe Prismo wasnt familiar with befriending mortals.

[loveerran]

There are LDS folks who believe a) all Spirit Children of our Heavenly Parents are binary male or female, and b) everyone's assigned sex at birth matches their Spirit's eternal gender. Since LDS theology holds that our underlying Spirit is part of an eternal existence that has no beginning or end, the binary gender view is particularly significant.

However, consider that there are times sex at birth is assigned incorrectly or cannot be determined:

Perhaps 100 billion humans have lived. If only .02% have had ambiguous/divergent genital/chromosomal presentation, we're discussing 20 million individuals, up to 2 million of whom are alive today. At broader definitions of intersex, that number is more than 100 million persons alive today - about the same percentage as people born with red hair.

Use whatever criteria you want to determine whether a body is male or female, somewhere there will be an individual who rides the line between male and female such that you cannot determine which side of the line they fall on. No matter who defines the criteria, or what those criteria are, there comes a point where we just can't tell.

Which Spirit does God put in that body? What if, under given criteria, the body is 60% male/40% female outside and 60% female/40% male inside? What Spirit is sent to the body then?

We don't have to go far to find cases that raise questions. Castor Semenya was born, raised and competed as a woman her entire life, until it was discovered she was XY (and she still competed as a woman some after that). Other cases, like a 33 yr old man with a uterus, ovaries and XX chromosomes internally, but full outward male genitalia, or an XY woman who never got her period, are mentioned relatively frequently in medical literature and the news. Development factors, natural and artificial, further complicate gender and sex identity. We're still learning about neurological differences outside of typically identified intersex characteristics.

If someone who is reproductively female spends their entire life as a man, what Spirit did God send to that body? Because somewhere, somewhen, this has happened and it may be more often than you think.

Since we cannot make a blanket statement about the gender of Spirits matching assigned sex at birth, let's be more careful about what we say. The truth is we don't always know. The gospel is about ministering to the one, and somewhere that one is listening to you. Be kind to them. Tell them the truth, even if that truth is 'we don't know all the answers for everyone' (LDS Handbook 38.7.7). There is goodness and power in admitting to not knowing everything and in pleading with the Lord for further light and knowledge. Such honesty may give us less to repent of later.

[starpirateee]

Can I request some just pure curtwen angst lol. Like one of them is injured on a mission and the other is UNBELIEVABLY worried or they have a conversation abt self-hatred or something

You know what I don't do enough? Owen being in the line of fire... So y'know what? I'm gonna experiment a little here, I'm gonna get this man bloody, beat him up a little, and see where it goes

Owen knew the way, he was confident of that much. The place that Curt had told him to rendezvous was familiar enough, all that was left was to get there. And that was where it got difficult, because it was currently a chore just to keep himself upright, let alone keep himself on track. Presently, the only thing stopping him from highlighting his every step with a trail of blood was the spare cloth he'd found in his kit bag, that was doing numbers in alleviating the flow of blood spilling from a gash at his hip.

Every other step he took burned with a kind of intensity that he wished he wasn't familiar with. Knowing himself as well as he did, this wouldn't be the last time he found himself in a bar fight for the sake of the job— it certainly wasn't the first occurence, in any case— but next time, he promised himself that he wouldn't be so sloppy.

He felt his weight start to shift, grit his teeth, and kept on pushing. He always would, as long as physically possible. If he focused on something else— the sound of his footsteps against the pavement, or the way his leather jacket felt in this position, or every breath that thundered through his ears— the pain wasn't… That bad.

He regretted thinking that within the moment.

In fact, it was that bad. He'd lost a fight, hilariously outnumbered, and now he was paying the price for it. God, where was Curt? Surely this rendezvous point couldn't be this far away…

"Owen, Jesus Christ!"

Time had passed. Owen wasn't sure of how much, but he did know that he hadn't made it. At some point, he had hit the pavement, and no matter how much he forced himself to try, he couldn't pull himself up without succumbing to the violent tremor that overtook his system.

He hadn't found Curt, but Curt had found him. Enough time had passed for him to have gotten concerned. Owen had a habit of mentioning that he would return by a certain time. Normally, he stuck to it. His timekeeping was impeccable, and Curt knew to trust that, so when he missed that margin, there was normally a cause for concern.

Owen looked up at him, registering the way his brow was drawn. "Curt…"

Immediately, Curt had noticed the blood staining Owen's shirt, and the cloth that he was trying to press against his side. He helped him to his feet without a word, and made sure he was well supported. "The hell happened to you?"

Owen readjusted, making sure that the cloth was still firmly planted against the gash. "It… didn't go as planned…"

"Are you kidding me? That's what you're going with?"

"Don't worry about it, Curt," Owen tried to insist.

"Don't worry? Don't worry?! O, I don't know if you you've noticed, but you're bleeding out on the street right now, and you're more than an hour later than you said you'd be."

"Yeah, I got held up. It's fine…"

"What, held up against a wall while someone beat the shit outta you?"

Owen faltered as they turned the corner, and tried to pretend like that wasn't entirely accurate. "It doesn't look that bad, does it?"

"That's what happened, isn't it?" Curt sighed when Owen nodded silently, and tried to focus on getting them both to the rendezvous point. "Where?"

"Bar. Some bellend packed a knife—" He staggered, and Curt's supporting arm gained a reflexive, brighter grip as he fought to keep Owen upright. He sighed, despising the way his chest seemed to shake upon his every breath. "And I got caught up in the crossfire, that's all."

Curt didn't say anything further until the two of them were inside. It was painful enough watching Owen try to shrug off what was quite a serious wound in his side, but it was even more painful when they got to the rendezvous point and he started grabbing the supplies to fix himself up like Curt wasn't there at all. The more he tried to ask about it, the more he knew Owen was going to shrug it off, so he almost let him get on with it.

Almost.

"Owen, why d'you insist on doing that yourself? I am right here…"

Owen pulled from his pocket the flask and stared down at the equipment for a while, half lost in the offer and half waiting on his mind to catch up and come up with something viable. Nothing happened, though. He didn't try to contradict Curt's offer, nor claim once again that he was fine, nor try to think of any reason why he was so reliant upon his insistence to claim independence out of this job.

Because, as a rule, he didn't have to.

And he knew he wasn't entirely okay, as far as that word would be stretched. The way his hands were shaking was enough of a tell, for starters, and he knew he wouldn't be able to do a good job of himself like this.

"Because if I do a bad job, then it's fine, because it's me. But I don't want my blood on someone else's hands, so to speak…" that answer seemed well thought out enough to qualify as something that had come from him, at any rate.

"Y'know, that's half the reason I'm here. There's always a good chance that you're gonna come back in a state like this, and what happens when you can't take care of yourself, huh?"

"Curt, I—"

"No, what happens then? You just expect me to leave you to bleed out or what?"

"That's— quite dramatic." This was not a good call. The longer they spent fighting about this, the more blood he was going to lose, and he really couldn't afford that. He took a drink from the flask— strong and fiery, though not very much to his taste. At least it took the edge off…

Once he was suitably deterred from feeling the full effects of pain, he finally removed the cloth from it's position, and grimaced at the sight of the blood still pouring from the wound.

"No, it's not," Curt answered defensively, and then he got a good look at the wound too. "I mean, look at that thing!"

Owen raised an eyebrow at that. "Never been in a bar fight before? If you don't have at least one poor lad on the ground, spillin' blood on the carpet, then you haven't done it right."

Curt's mouth opened, looking for something he could possibly say to that, but all that came out was a blank stammer that meant no more to him than it did to Owen. "Jesus, I— how many times have you been the guy on the ground?"

"Enough…" Owen muttered as he started to do what he could to clean that parts that he could see. That's what did it for Curt, and he'd risen, knelt by Owen's side, and had taken the alcohol soaked cloth that he'd been using before either of them could think twice.

"I worry about you, y'know that? Sure, you might not be impulsive like I am, but god, you really know how to get yourself hurt… And don't try and tell me you're fine, because I'm sitting eye level to the reason that you're very much not."

"You and I are—" Owen inhaled sharply. Curt apologised. "We're the same. Don't tell me you aren't also in the habit of pretending you're fine…"

"So you admit you're pretending?"

A single breath of laughter. "I won't admit that either way."

Curt knew what he was doing when it was someone else. He was surprisingly thorough, on top of the distraction of this assuring conversation, that was helping, for all it was worth, to keep Owen's mind off the current happenings.

"Why? Why say you're fine when I hadta come and look for you?"

"Because you know fine well that this isn't the worst I've ever been…"

"Yeah, I know," Curt reached for the bandages. Owen nudged them towards him with the hand that wasn't holding the flask, then took another swig. Curt had to fight a laugh at the way he winced. "Maybe you're not a man after my own heart, after all," he teased, to which Owen shook his head.

"I don't know how you drink that shit."

"I don't know how you can't."

"It's fucking awful."

Curt laughed, partly because Owen was halfway to letting his accent drop— and hearing him swear when he was trying his hardest to remain proper was always amusing— and partly because of his reaction to the whiskey, which never failed to delight. "Nobody said you had to drink it, if it's that bad."

"You can't exactly equip yourself for a mission and pack a flask of wine…"

"Wine, huh?"

"What? If you're going to go in for day drinking, there is a way to do it, and that is certainly the best."

"Imagine tryna give yourself pain relief with a glass of red, though."

"Maybe you have a point there."

Curt shifted back a little, prompting Owen to move from his board stiff position to see how the bandages felt. He seemed to think tey were fine, until Curt brought him back into place and seemed to inspect them for a moment. He muttered something Owen didn't catchm and then picked up another roll.

"What's the matter?"

"You're bleeding through."

"Great…"

"Hold on a moment, I've got this."

[whentherewerebicycles]

I cannot survive this day lol

[neixins]

the more i think about it the more plausible i think it is that yona will end up “sacrificing” herself to save the dragons. obviously she won’t die (she’d be willing to do so, sure, but this just isn’t the sort of story that’d kill off its protagonist) but she will sever her connection with hiryuu (the same way i’ve been saying for ages now that she’ll sever the connection between the dragon warriors and their powers/the dragon gods) bc like. zeno and countless generations of dragon warriors have been stuck in this cycle for so long because they’ve been waiting for hiryuu, right? so the way to break the cycle is to send hiryuu back to the heavens, despite how loath he is to part with humans, bc otherwise even if yona managed to save her friends the cycle wouldn’t actually end, the gods would just find new vessels bc they don’t really care about the damage they cause as long as they can Protect Hiryuu…. and this is making me think of zeno’s line in ch 255: “even if the dragon warriors are gone, this country can get back on its feet on its own. life goes on, with or without us.” which.. to be fair he was using as justification for a failed murder-suicide attempt but if yona says it in a different context…….and then to have the happy hungry bunch back in business helping people, only sans superhuman powers…..oh it’d be such a satisfying ending!!

[sockmonstergotstyle]

Christopher was confirmed autistic at yalc, not ADHD - I literally asked the question

popping on to say if anyone read TMI source’s blog post about the yalc panel the Christopher information is wrong, I asked the question and the conversation was about autism, not ADHD. Christopher is confirmed autistic. I’m actually so frustrated at seeing the two confused especially as it’s lead to Christopher’s autism now being erased bc everyone will see the blog post.

[tswwwit]

just thinking about a Dipper reincarnation who was already in a relationship before Bill showed up! Bill wouldn't kill this partner if Dipper asked nicely to keep them alive... right?

I don't think Bill would kill the partner, necessarily! If only because that would piss Dipper off pretty badly. That doesn't mean he can't be unnerving and vaguely threatening, though!

But honestly, in the case where Dipper's in a relationship that's not with Bill?

Oh boy. If you thought Bill was obnoxious before, see what he's like when he's bringing all his power to bear on being the worst, most omnipresent, third-wheeling, unavoidable cockblock.

[purple-denoje]

Has it really been six months? Only six months? Six very long, brutal months? The optimistic part is that we are finally entering a warmer spring season, the first since then. Atsushi always said he liked the gaudiest flowers the best. Go outside and see all the brightly colored gardens. But also, we're all entering a new chapter where the future is uncertain. It's scary out there now. I hope we can all be there to see what that future holds. May we all live our truths, like Atsushi did.

[anantaru]

opinions on shenhe 🤔🤔

she‘s so pretty and moves gracefully, her attacks look so elegant and i use her whenever i do the abyss as a support for my ayaka !! 💗 also i really like her backstory, it‘s so sad and i like that she‘s chongyun‘s aunt 🤠🤠 the way he said "are you my auntie???!😳" THAT WAS SO ADORABLE!!!!!

[the-scungles-of-crungles]

This is "The Doctor", a resident of the nightmare realm, who has been there long enough to have been almost completely corrupted. His face is normally just a pitch black void hole but sometimes you can see eyes and/or teeth in there

He wants to help people, but he's almost completely lost his mind, and can sometimes act a bit... Feral.

Surprisingly, the nightmare realm's usual effect of making people lose every memory of their life before they ended up here, hasn't managed to take away his medical knowledge. He's still very smart, despite everything.

Unfortunately he seems to scare off most people who he would otherwise have helped...

[ghostzzy]

it would just be a lot easier if i could truly believe Everything Happens For A Reason. unfortunately i find that ideology unspeakably cruel and cannot force myself to live in a world where every violence has a secret greater purpose.

[ludinusdaleth]

i think the reason why theres so much religious confusion in regards to campaign 3's interpretation is because people are either thoroughly taking a christian or athiest-who-was-raised-christian -and-now-hates-all-religion perspective, when to those outside of those categories, c3 could not more obviously be a critique of both, in a world entirely uninfluenced by a christian viewpoint in itself