“Apocalypse In Pink” Part 2 (see Part 1 Here), From The August 1983 Issue Of SPECTAGORIA Magazine.

Bi Han x Bimbo Reader

"I need to die looking good."

This is for chickensandwich69

Warning: Bi Han is sexist (and a bit of a d*ck), and mild sexual flirting but nothing explicit.

She has priorities.

She wasn't fighting for Earthrealm, nor did she have any interest in fighting for Shao Kahn. She was in it for herself, blindsided and forced to compete, but making the most of what she could enjoy out of it.

And that was something Bi Han could respect, even though her motivations weren't. Spending time with friends, shopping, getting her hair and makeup done, and scoring herself a romantic companion.

The She/Her in question is you. You were a ballerina, a gymnast, a cheerleader, pageant Queen. It was clear competition is in your blood, so the tournament was a walk in the park for you. The fighting part, anyway. Seeing you freak out over blood was another matter.

"Do you want me to massage your hair?" you asked him, a cheeky smile on your face. He nodded, and you did as you offered.

Seeing Bi Han's face was a luxury, and you would do anything to see it as long as you could, even though you didn't mind him with his mask. You liked being the one that gets pampered, but you would make an exception for Bi Han.

He questions how it came to this, all the time.

Maybe it's your Chaosrealm blood. Nothing made sense around you but it came naturally. It happened out of nowhere. First, you're watching him train with Cyrax. Second, you're following him and yapping your mouth off. Third, he ends up doing something very intimate with you and he's wearing less clothes. And it involves his mouth and lower region.

Your relationship wasn't much of a secret, considering you were seen hugging his arm if you were both in the same room or area, but not enough lived to know it as fact. With the tournament and all. Or just in general. Bi Han saw competition in their gazes, which meant jealousy. Which meant lots of ice and blood during fights. Thankfully you were too dumb to figure it out, because blood upset you a lot, and you had only started making an exception for the tournament.

"What else would you like me to do?" you were sitting on his lap now, something in your eyes. Pretty obvious what you were feeling.

Oh yeah, that's why. There was no way he would resist this.

Bi Han may be a Lin Kuei assassin, and one that takes his profession very seriously, but he could enjoy a good lady himself. You had just broken up with your boyfriend so it felt like a fitting decision to take your attention while it was still available to him. So long as you were his no one else could have it.

Companions were not common within the clan, and you were an excellent fighter. Sure, there were the cultural differences and the clash of personalities, but if the Lin Kuei were to ever find out it would be unbelievable, so it was a right decision.

You desired him and he desired you, it worked both ways. Both of you were being selfish, he was certain, but you initiated so he had no reason to care about your feelings.

[Noob Saibot]

He grew more possessive of you, and that possession followed him when he died. Before he would freeze any man that flirted with you, these days he killed them. You were distraught when Bi Han died, but you weren't sure what to make of his new self. It was still Bi Han, but he was Goth now and you've never been with a Goth before. You were determined to try something new, however, so you kept going on with the relationship.

You didn't understand his new found problems with his brother or where his bizarre mindset came from, but your main concern was matching with your boyfriend, so you had a bunch of black designer dresses lined up in your wardrobe.

"I guess Goth isn't a phase." you said to yourself. Then again, your parents thought you were a phase.

Bi Han gently brushed your hair out of your face and kissed your cheek, even though his skin wasn't as soft as it originally was, which meant his lips were almost shrivelled into his skull. It would only be fair if you were dead as well, that way he wouldn't feel left out from lack of lips.

"Where is your fear?"

"I think I left it in my purse."

"We will find it."

You had only started getting used to his new odd way of showing his affection, but it still made your insides all fluttery. You kissed him sweetly. Your lip gloss stained on his 'lips', and Bi Han didn't show any irritation, but there was the pride she recognised. It wasn't often he gave an expression since his change.

Rowana Micblair - The Dark Fairy

So I was reading some young Snape leaves Hogwarts stories and came up with this character. I know it's cringe and kind of predictable, but I think it's interesting. I'll never forgive the first 3 seasons of Winx Club for not giving us actual dark fairies, that would've been interesting. We've seen fairies capable of evil yet they would have to transform into a witch to use dark magic, and the closest we've gone is Mitzi and the Wizard of the dark circle. I haven't watched anything after season 4, so I won't be writing about that.

Name: Rowana Micblair

Age: 16+

Likes: chocolate, being with her friends, reading, doing potions, practising spells, telling jokes

Dislikes: being made fun of, hurting people, not understanding something

Type of fairy: Darkness. But she can do light magic so I don't know, growth and healing? Chemistry? Acceptance? Welcome?

Quotes: "I've never been good at flying on brooms, so magic decided to give me wings."

Love interest: Thran (is a student at Red Fountain and has Elven genetics)

Pixie: Estelle (a time pixie that teaches her to be more open and forgiving, but also guides her on the importance of time)

Planet: Some random name. Everyone can use magic with the help of a wand, make potions and fly with a broom. There's backwards technology, old music, and everyone wears robes and outdated clothing. Everything is HP based, even the spells. There's light and dark mages, and everyone mostly lives in harmony.

Origin: Rowana Micblair is the result of a light witch and a dark wizard falling in love, and this made her family outcasts due to how unusual it is on their planet. 

Rowana struggled to make friends growing up because of her parents reputation in the place she lived in. Not to mention she was considered unattractive to anyone outside her family. They also moved houses often, so that made it hard for her to grow attached to people anyways. They stopped moving around when she was 12, and at her new school she was able to only make one friend, but she was bullied often by light and dark mages alike. They were friends for their own reasons, Rowana was lonely but the friend was using her. Taking advantage of Rowana's need for companionship and loyalty. 

The girls were total opposites, the friend being popular and outgoing, and Rowana being the opposite. The friend was bright, while Rowana was dull. Everyone wondered why they hung out with each other in the first place, and what the friend was getting out of it.

Rowana wouldn't discover this until she was 16, catching her friend bragging to one of her bullies about how she always has Rowana on a tight leash and how she can never be friends with such a freak. Hurt by the betrayal (or revelation rather) Rowana would use her dark powers with the intent to harm (for the first time) on her friend, ultimately having her expelled from her school and ruining her image even further. 

Soon after Rowana is surprised to get an invitation letter from Alfea school of fairies. Fairies are unheard of on her planet, there are only mages, so the invitation was very shocking. Rowana, though hesitant at first, accepts the invitation with the encouragement of her parents.

She is welcomed with open arms, and her roommates are pretty nice people but she spends the first 2 months keeping to herself despite them inviting her to hang out with them and asking her to study with them. There's especially one of them that reminds her of her former friend, Bloom. The same hair, the same apparent friendliness, and being good at making friends.

What makes her stick out is that she's able to do the spells, but a dark form of them. Like a dark light if that's even possible.

Soon Rowana opens up about being a dark fairy and what life was like on her home planet as being an in between-er of light and dark. The girls are sympathetic and before she knows it she's a part of the Winx Club. Her wardrobe is different thanks to Stella, she knows the latest music thanks to Musa, discovers how to use the latest technology with the help of Tecna, and discovers new ingredients to use in her potions with the help of Flora. She finds out that Bloom is genuine in her good intent, also finding out that she's an outcast where she grew up as well. The girls discover a funny, loving and cute side to Rowana once she starts opening up to them.

The Trix have tried to recruit her but after she gave them a taste of their medicine they've been sworn enemies ever since. They are more cautious of her than they are of  Bloom and every other fairy. When the Winx have to study at Cloud tower for a short amount of time, she can easily keep up with the teachings without some kind of negative effect. Her willingness to work with people despite the background they come from is what makes her earn her charmix. Also makes friends with Aisha just because.

One day her parents invite her over to visit and does so with the Winx, but this grabs the attention of Valtor who decides to target her planet. Meanwhile, she bumps into her old classmates and she still has grudges against them. They are pretty mean to her, and she has a meltdown before running off. The girls find her and are able to coax her into coming out of her hiding place. She decides that she's not gonna let anyone's words get to her ever, and should be happy of her heritage despite the freak many will believe her to be. Then they fight Valtor and his minions along with the Trix, and risks her life saving her former classmates, thus earning her Enchantix. It isn't just about saving them, but also putting the past behind and being ready to forgive and move on without any ill will.

Here are some images from some fanmade dress up games.

Edenian supremacism probably comes with the Sindel retcon. They were originally allies of Earthrealm and as much victims of Shao Kahn as anyone else - Kitana and Jade were actually freedom fighters for Edenia. Why they're now apparently all soulless pieces of shit (and why the narrative turns against Kitana beginning with Aftermath, seriously listen to how Spawn just dunks on her), I think, has to do with a change in society as a whole.

As more and more previously unheard people speak up and tell their stories, more and more narratives are getting flipped, and rightly so - those we've been told to admire all our lives are turning out to be bigots at best and greedy, power-hungry butchers or heartless religious zealots at worst. Conversely, the people society whose voices society wishes it could silence - BIPOC, LGBTIA+, workers, those with disabilities (ND included), really anyone who's suffered at the hands of the powerful and privileged - are finally starting to be vindicated, to have their complaints validated, and their stories heard.

In other words, our heroes are turning out to be way worse people than our villains ever were, and fiction is starting to reflect this; The Boys would be a textbook example, nobody with superpowers in that franchise is anywhere near heroic, and honestly I'm a little disturbed that anyone would want to play Homelander in MK. The Edenians were presented as the most virtuous in the original universe, so they were the obvious choice to be the rotten bastards in MK11 (not a choice I exactly agree with, or even the Sindel retcon at all, but if I got to make every choice cheese curds would grow on trees, so)

Having made that observation, I still consider having villains more sympathetic than your heroes to be an immense failure on the part of the author. Let's be real, "princess" is part of Kitana's identity, and that implies she's up to her eyeballs in some sort of privilege. The thing is, free will exists, and privilege does not (or should not) hard-lock you into being an asshole. Even Kitana could have chosen integrity and real compassion, to do what's best for the people even when it came at expense to herself, but nope, she chose to play footsie with Kotal's buddies and attack people for not meeting her sky-high standards.

This is not the Kitana Outworld deserves, and this is not the Kitana the MK community deserves.

I'm falling asleep at my laptop rn, so good night and thank you for pointing out that Sonya is trash.

Goodnight.

Not gonna lie, I always saw Sindel as an evil character even with the whole mind control thing. If their own queen was willing to kill her own husband, an Edenian, to have a stronger one (Outworld-ian) then they shouldn't be flabbering about supremacy.

I've been meaning to vent out about Sonya but didn't know when.

"I'm a little disturbed that anyone would want to play Homelander in MK" I thought this was a joke when I first heard it, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone actually meant it.

When it comes to villainising the heroes I think it's more of a Severus Snape situation, where we the viewers find out there's more to the villains and the heroes. I think NRS figured we were tired of goody two shoes and wanted to see those goody two shoes be more humanised, if humanised means less decent. And then proceeded to butcher some beloved characters, I guess. Harry's been told his parents were good people only to find out they did terrible things. When shown that Mileena just wanted a family we can hold some kind of sympathy for her, even though it doesn't excuse the fact that she's a blood thirsty killer.

One thing to be noted is that there's a lack of consistency when it comes to the games, and not just designs, so when you're talking about "those we've been told to admire all our lives are turning out to be bigots at best and greedy, power-hungry butchers or heartless religious zealots at worst." I think it's the writers changing their minds to fit the mindset of current audiences, acknowledging that it's not just kids playing the games nowadays and it's their way of making things more realistic.

As a Johnny Cage stan, I can very much tell you that there's a lot of things wrong with him, but he's an angel in comparison to the other heroes. (even if he was sexist and mouthy in the past, he is the most relatable) He is a good example when making a flawed character in my opinion, or maybe I'm being too soft on the guy.

I don't think Scorpion was held accountable for screwing everyone over, either. Or killing Bi Han. Poor Bi Han.

I would hate to be the guard that got taken out by a bucket of water. Imagine explaining that to your superiors.

The Blue Spirit putting out firebending with a bucket of water is the absolute funniest thing ever done in avatar combat. It just is.

The warriors 4 aren't friends

This is something that I addressed in my fanfic https://archiveofourown.org/works/62259737/chapters/159281697, but I decided to post this opinion here in hopes to make a small discussion. (This a ramble, so everything might be all over the place. Sorry.)

I don't think the warriors 4 are actual friends. (I'm only talking about the MCU versions.)

First of all, their personalities might clash. Hogun, the quiet one. Fandral the ladies man, Volstagg who eats, and Sif... is a girl? Sif is smart(?). Has black hair? Obviously, that's not their only defining traits, but it's their most memorable ones because that's how they are portrayed. I understand that a lot of friend groups are like this, but when I look at the warriors 4 I don't see that same charm of "Oh, they enjoy each other's company and get along really well". If anything, they can barely stand each other, especially when tension is high. Now I know that's a tough claim to make considering I came to that conclusion based on this deleted scene, but it would make their dynamic more interesting.

I believe/theorise that the only reason they are friends is because of Thor, and their dislike for Loki. If you take Loki out of the equation they won't really have anything else to stand on friendship wise even with the warrior thing. Being Thor's friends I'd assume they are all from high ranking families, so were kinda pushed to be together anyways. Hogun for more diplomatic reasons, and going with the Frigga being a Vanaheim war bride theory, might also have something to do with her or is connected to her. Not sure about Volstagg, Sif or Fandral, and I don't care about them as much. So much is poured into these three by the fandom that I can't be asked to think of anything.

Despite sources saying that Sif and Hogun both despise Loki the most (Hogun even more), I first interpreted them as arguably the most tolerant of Loki, Hogun especially. Hogun is the most respectful towards Loki even if his opinion of Loki is clear. Whereas Volstagg and Fandral pick and choose when they want to be allies. They have both defended Loki, but do not hesitate to go on the bandwagon of threatening him and such. Also, "Silvertongue turned to lead?" They're bullies. The fact that you can't tell whether or not they are going to be your enemy makes them more dangerous. In other words, they're both kinda fake.

In a deleted scene Loki, Hogun and Sif are in a black haired trio. You'd think that Loki would be directly next to Thor and away from the other warriors, but instead there's a big distance between the brothers. Why is Loki standing directly next to two people who clearly hate him? Is Hogun Thor's spy or something? Is that why he's so observant?

I grew up thinking Hogun was the smart one, but his friendship with Thor would sometimes blind him from his own intellect. When they end up in Jotunheim he's the one that says "We shouldn't be here." to the others. Loki was the one who made sure they would be rescued should something go wrong, so they're the only ones with a brain cell it seems. It kinda makes me wonder why Hogun hangs out with them besides the warrior thing. He isn't so jolly, or loud, or spunky, or hungry, or even too eager (blood thirsty/prideful). He's observant and is dragged along for the ride, kinda like a certain someone. I think this is the MCU's fault when it came to writing his character, but he's kind of just there.

Another insight on Hogun, I believe he's only expressive with Thor. Everyone sees Hogun as this figure that embodies silence and restraint, and maybe even lacking emotion, but I can picture Thor not having that same view on him.

LOOK AT HIM! He's avoiding eye contact! He's all shy!

(I'm going to be real with you guys, the main reason I care this much about Hogun is because he's played by Tadanobu Asano. That's Kakihara.)

You have been Warned!

I don't like him.

Does anyone remember that time The Flash got distracted from his mission to holla at some girls?

It's fine. I should be the one apologising since I shouldn't have gotten so heated. I felt the need to defend my ship. I interpreted the post as you bashing the ship.

I don't think Ayano 'deserves' better, she can choke. I think the shippers believing that are either people who deep down believe they can change a bad person, like most delusional people, or young teens who don't fully understand/can't comprehend the severity of the situation. I think the fact that it's fiction also has something to do with it.

There's something psychological about it that I am not qualified to get into, but I can only theorise.

Whenever I see people saying "Ayano should dump Taro's ass and go with Budo, he's SO MUCH BETTER than him!", I ask: ...why are you so desperate to see Budo go through what Jokichi was subjected to? Do you secretly hate him or are you just masochists? Ayano is not a good match for ANYONE.

ooh this is gonna be long

Yes you have a good point! Ayano isn't a good match for anyone and it doesn't make sense to suggest that she should be with Taro or that she should dump Taro and go for someone "better" because whoever she ends up with is doomed to live in captivity among other unpleasant things. So why would people say this?

1. They don't know the game's concept very well, especially evidenced by the fact that they think Ayano is in control of whoever it is that she's obsessed with. She isn't. Stands to reason that if they don't know that, they ALSO don't know that being Ayano's lover is definitely not a good thing.

2. They forgot to mention that they're talking about their AU/rewrite in which Ayano isn't a bad person. Like it's very clear that some people like to pretend that Yandere Simulator's problematic characters aren't problematic. What if the bullies weren't bullies? What if the delinquents weren't delinquents? What if Ayano is just a slightly more cunning than average schoolgirl experiencing her first crush? That makes the game more enjoyable to them so that's the lens through which they perceive it, and when they talk about it, that's what they mean.

3. They know exactly what they're talking about and they're curious about how Budo might respond to being put into such a situation. Wanting to see bad things happen to a character doesn't necessarily mean hating them. There are characters in Danganronpa that I think should die, but I don't hate them as much as I hate Vlad from Magicka. FUCK that conniving little "nyeh nyeh I'm not a vampire!" bastard. Point being, they may not hate Budo, but they might think that it would be more interesting to see Budo in that position than Taro.

So which is it? Honestly... I hope the first one, because it's the best compromise between non-offensive and actually realistic. I don't think it's the third solely because the focus is on what kind of guy Ayano deserves to be with, not on who would make a better Magic Senpai. The second one is just... guys, you know Yandere Simulator is gonna be an M Rated game, right? Bad people do bad things. Ayano isn't a good person, even if you play pacifist, because her aim is to take away another person's agency over their life. I've talked about this before with Info-chan but it applies to e v e r y problematic aspect of the game. But I can't really blame anyone who says that Ayano deserves Budo over Taro just out of ignorance. Realistically it's probably a mix of the first and second options tho.

Hotaru and Havik: Parallel

I wrote this in a Youtube comment section and realised I should've posted it here.

All or Nothing (2006) Background Cheerleaders