CHOSEN ONE,

lee’s mk/gaming sideblog • any pronouns

[liukangofficial]

@willofyaoi said: I…I didn’t know Cole was an orphan too XD

yo i missed it too until my last rewatch and i was like….what the hell! what the hell. and now my feeble memory is failing me AGAIN and i can’t remember if he tells anyone else, but i think he only said it to raiden?

also i am very sorry for co-opting your ask that was probably liulao-intended IM SORRY

[ihavealotoffeelings]

An orphan from the south side of Chicago!! I don’t really ship liucole (I see the appeal but liulao is shaping up to be a very ride-or-die otp for me), but I think there’s definitely an AU in there somewhere where somehow lil orphan Cole ALSO ends up at the Wu Shi Academy and becomes Shaolin Boy Number Three. I’m not sure where Cole fits in the age ranking here but I suspect Liu Kang might still be the baby and I’m here for it.

[liukangofficial]

your BRAIN…. if raiden knew cole was the one from the prophecy, he could’ve found him in chicago and brought him back to the academy to raise & train him? liu kang and his two shixiongs aw (or: cole, kung lao, and their overprotective shidi)

[avi17]

@ihavealotoffeelings Funnily enough, in terms of the actors’ ages, Lewis is the oldest and Max is actually the youngest xD But I think Kung Lao is definitely meant to be the older one in terms of characters- and given that Ludi was playing teenagers a few years ago, and just how he played the character, I don’t think his Liu Kang is actually intended to be 33

But this is an A+++ au and one of y'all should definitely write it 👀👀👀

(Also same re: liucole, I’m just not really a multishipper and when I see “we swore to die together” levels of devotion I’m pretty much done XDD)

[ihavealotoffeelings]

My first thought was Cole in the middle because my brain just kind of plopped him in there, but you know what’s very good, is Cole as the oldest and Kung Lao periodically having to be reminded that he may be the descendent of the Great Kung Lao but he’s still Cole’s shidi.

(I need to finish the first MK fic I have started before I contemplate any others but oh no now I want this. 😆)

[avi17]

Bahahaha omg yes. I’m here for either of those honestly, but Liu is absolutely the squad baby. (Okay but finishing the first one is also good  👀👀👀 but then yes)

[meduseld]

I'll Keep Your Brittle Heart Warm

Liu Kang’s arcana didn’t settle quite as smoothly as he implied.

(Or another Liu Kang x Kung Lao fic, on AO3)

[ginpotts]

Mortal Kombat (2021) dir. Simon McQuoid

[liukangofficial]

@willofyaoi said: I…I didn’t know Cole was an orphan too XD

yo i missed it too until my last rewatch and i was like….what the hell! what the hell. and now my feeble memory is failing me AGAIN and i can’t remember if he tells anyone else, but i think he only said it to raiden?

also i am very sorry for co-opting your ask that was probably liulao-intended IM SORRY

[ihavealotoffeelings]

An orphan from the south side of Chicago!! I don’t really ship liucole (I see the appeal but liulao is shaping up to be a very ride-or-die otp for me), but I think there’s definitely an AU in there somewhere where somehow lil orphan Cole ALSO ends up at the Wu Shi Academy and becomes Shaolin Boy Number Three. I’m not sure where Cole fits in the age ranking here but I suspect Liu Kang might still be the baby and I’m here for it.

[liukangofficial]

your BRAIN.... if raiden knew cole was the one from the prophecy, he could’ve found him in chicago and brought him back to the academy to raise & train him? liu kang and his two shixiongs aw (or: cole, kung lao, and their overprotective shidi)

[liukangofficial]

@avi17 said: I don't ship them romantically at all but I'm SUPER here for them becoming each other's family, especially after what happens in the movie, and what Ludi said about how that's basically what Liu has wanted his entire life. My thing I'm trying to finish this week is just some liucole friendship and I'm very soft for that <3

A FIC. do you know how much life you’ve given me ever since i stumbled into this fandom 😭 i love love love the extended family concept !!! when the film was like “here’s liu kang using his powers to give allison and emily some warmth” and then Nothing Else. that was despicable of them. thank you for helping fill that void omg i’m so excited to read it

[liukangofficial]

@willofyaoi said: I...I didn’t know Cole was an orphan too XD

yo i missed it too until my last rewatch and i was like....what the hell! what the hell. and now my feeble memory is failing me AGAIN and i can’t remember if he tells anyone else, but i think he only said it to raiden?

also i am very sorry for co-opting your ask that was probably liulao-intended IM SORRY

[liukangofficial]

I suddenly form a scene in my head in which Liu cooked all the nice food for Kung Lao, who then found out Cole accidentally ate more than half of them......XD

LMAOOOOOOO

okay but listen......i’m weak for liucole okay whether it’s platonic or romantic ;__; two orphans who managed to find a home in other people aaaaaaa them cooking together and trading recipes maybe

kung lao getting a Little huffy about it at first but eventually seeing they’re good for each other, and he sees how liu kang’s sort of taken cole and sonya and jax under his wing :-( kung lao and allison & emily eventually joining in the kitchen and they have one big potluck together and they’re like FAMILYYYY and neither of them might say it out loud, but it means So Much to cole & liu kang?? this act of seeing their loved ones well fed and taken care of, especially when they both had a rough time growing up where basically nothing guaranteed?? that silent understanding between them as they wash the dishes together afterwards....their elbows occasionally bumping......the sounds of the people they love the most laughing and safe and happy outside........ i want to END IT ALLLL

[liukangofficial]

God I’m just DYING for some service top!Kung Lao, I’m gonna have to brush off my writing pen aren’t I

PLEASEEE me, kneeling before you: let ME brush off ur writing pen for u

[liukangofficial]

Little kid Liu Kang and Kung Lao ending up in disaster level brawls with other kids because they both think the other has been insulted and that is UNACCEPTABLE and they have to defend them immediately

They are Problem Children and have to run many laps afterwards but they won so who cares 🤣

“but they won so who cares” LMAOOO liu kang gets his first prayer beads to help him focus on meditating and reigning in his anger but MAN when it comes to his Best Friend it snaps (literally. he goes through so many mf prayer beads until kung lao gives him a replacement pair one day, and only Then does liu kang start being careful about not breaking them)

im crying at that image of them running laps sharing dirty looks over the other kids who “insulted” them QKWPWJQK but, like. it’s the only way the monks can guarantee kung lao attends his training, so maybe it’s not all a lost cause

[liukangofficial]

First of all I love everything you’ve written for the boys so far, bless, doing amazing, LOVE IT thank you for this nourishment of my soul

But I really love how you write Kung Lao as like, a -little bit- of a fuckboy, and how Liu Kang is patiently adoring of him, so cute.

(Like in that interview, where they said that Kung Lao sort of became Liu Kang’s shield, I can so easily imagine that socially where Kung Lao uses his naturally outgoing personality to deflect attention away from Liu Kang, ugg god I just love the relationship dynamic so much)

WAH thank YOU for consuming my content and being here to share liulao thoughts while we are in this draught sobs

im hollering that my kung lao came across as a fuckboy JQKKSKWK but no yes thats exactly my thoughts on mk2021!kung lao….. i really vibe with the earlier versions of him who actually didn’t care about becoming champion and just wanted to mind his business, AND NOW WE HAVE A VERSION OF HIM WHO’S CHAMPION FROM THE START ?! oml the duty complex that i imagine that boy has.

i loved writing him leaning into his bravado + the weight of his title and really wanted to explore how a lot of that is just a front, courtesy of #just“i’ve had this duty for so long i can remember that my identity ended up growing around it and now i don’t know how to extract myself from it without falling apart”things, and how my liu kang understands very deeply what it’s like to have something define such a core part of you so young, hence him “suffering” kung lao’s projected cockiness with that fondly exasperated love. he Knows that it’s a defense mechanism for kung lao, but he doesn’t have it all figured out yet either and doesn’t know yet how to completely help kung lao past that (BC HE BELIEVES WITH HIS ENTIRE BEING THAT KUNG LAO HAS NOTHING TO PROVE TO ANYONE DAMMIT [slams head into concrete]). i think that awareness goes both ways for my versions of them, but neither of them really know how to cope with it yet bc they’re still young and have yet to fight in their first tournament, so they kind of “default” into this dynamic because it’s easy for them if that makes sense. would u believe me if i said thats originally what i started writing Coda to explore for, until my brain decided to switch gears to pwp 😭😭😭😭

ok and i also want to talk about this “kung lao is liu kang’s shield” business bc I LOVE IT SO MUCH U DON’T UNDERSTAND…….. my kung lao def thinks of liu kang the same way max thinks of him as kind of “innocent,” except liu kang is ?? not ?? but it’s this whole thing in my head where kung lao wants to shield him out of this desire to protect liu kang from what he knows is an unkind world, but not realizing that liu kang already knows and has SEEN an even unkinder version of it already — and liu kang doing his own quiet kind of shielding by letting kung lao be protective because he knows it’s just a defense thing, but also by finding ways to remind kung lao that he can exist (and is worthy to exist) without the “destiny” thats been thrust on him. like a silent game of “who’s protecting who” but both of them believing they’re the one doing the protecting and not realizing they need the other’s protection too and YES those two things can coexist and . SOBS listen. Listen theres so much of them to write about i want to scream

but tldr, liulao being each other’s shields in this fucked up world, but also being the only ones who can see each other past their OWN shields — and maybe not knowing yet atp how to get past them, but by god will they stand by each other and until the other lets them in

[avi17]

Okay I have so many feelings about all of this and it makes me VERY excited to see longfic coming from someone with such A+ characterization ideas <3 Though also I wanna point out that the word Max used (at least in the thing I watched) wasn’t innocent, it was “pure,” which I feel like was different? One of the things I found so compelling about movie!Liu is that whereas game Liu starts off as kind of this sheltered monk type and eventually became the destined chosen one and all that, movie!Liu has already seen the absolute worst of humanity in his very earliest years and has chosen to be its defender anyways.  No destiny, no obligation- he chose. I think it’s so much more compelling to be able to be purehearted and see the good and the value in people even in the total absence of innocence.  Ludi describes him as the franchise’s heart and soul, and I totally agree. As for Kung Lao…man yeah, I feel like he is confident but also some of that is absolutely a front, because the alternative is to absolutely crumble under the pressure of not only being told that it it is both your responsibility and your purpose to save the world, but even bearing the name of someone it has to feel impossible to live up to.  The idea of struggling to separate himself from that duty is something I really want to explore in some fixit stuff, because while being resurrected would be awesome, coming back also means facing the fact that he basically failed in that great purpose, and having to both live in that failure and figure out who he is beyond it. (It’s weird that while I have mixed feelings about Cole being our main character, I kind of like that he was because it allowed both of these guys to fall into these more interesting characterizations that I think they might not have had if they were the mains.  I dunno) Also just. “ like a silent game of “who’s protecting who” but both of them believing they’re the one doing the protecting and not realizing they need the other’s protection too and YES those two things can coexist” god i have feelings Though that “shielding others from Liu’s fire” thing made me giggle because I’m imagining a scenario in which like, Lao gets between Liu and someone who absolutely needs their ass kicked, and they make some kind of shitty comment about how Liu must be so weak as to need protection and Lao is just like.  No no I’m protecting you from him, we’re not supposed to actually kill anyone today xDD

[liukangofficial]

GAH i mistook the word, thank u for clarifying!! god thats such a good observation too about liu choosing to defend earthrealm even when he’s seen some of its worst. it takes so much strength to be able to do that and im abt to cry just thinking about it i love him so much and ludi was so right to call him mk’s heart and soul ;_; i get what you mean for cole though, while i wish we had more content for liu kang and kung lao i sort of love that not everything was defined and we have room for headcanoning

GOD KUNG LAO COMING BACK HAVING TO DEAL WITH not only having “failed” his duty but also bis best friend having had to take up the mantle AND having something irrerversibly changed between them.....not just the failure of his duty but also that shattering of the illusion that anything is within their control,,, that even their pact to die together isn’t guaranteed GAHHH. if we have a fix it via the mk11 hourglass, i could see that as just . A Last Straw, bc holy shit nothing about their destinies may really be up to them at all. theres just someone up there playing with time and reality as they speak. (but also maybe an opportunity for them to be sexy and defy the gods’ will and carve their own destinies together chef kiss)

im mf dying at that last image u paint YES. people interact with them Once and they’re like oh we need to watch out for HIM and point at kung lao and liu kang is there one Wrong Look away from fireballing their asses . kung lao inadvertently learning diplomacy bc Babe please these fire damage fees could be going to our travel fund

[liukangofficial]

ik you’re mostly liulao BUT,,,, hear me out,,,,,,,,,, liulao domming cole just for Shits And Giggles™️ and kung lao being like “Oh Shit Liu Is Rly Good At This” wjejsjjd here’s a halfbaked idea j and when you answered my other q speaking of which tyyyy☺️💖

FR cole literally lives in my head rent free and the Only reason i havent jumped into coleliulao polyam is i also love allison and idk how to handle that relationship except by undoing it </3 but anyway Yes i love him and i enjoy that thought MANNN the wound cauterizing scene gave a certain Energy ok. cole kinda crushing on this soft spoken ass kicking monk but kinda confused about it and when liu makes the first move he thinks he’s gonna be kinda blushy in bed but then they get kung lao involved and kung lao’s just like “LMFAO u’ll see .”

also u dont have to thank me omg thank U! for talking to me, i am just ur court jester doing tricks for entertainment 🤸

[sunsetwish]

Kung Lao and Liu Kang: Film vs Game

[liukangofficial]

there’s so many sub liu kang fics but like.... Idk smtg abt little bunny scene just gives me dom vibes jabejsbd

oh no

“oh no” MDKWKDJS no believe me i SEE IT i see it and honestly the amount of pressure kung lao is under is fantastic reason for him to Let Go and sub and also i think he’d genuinely enjoy being dommed by liu kang tbh and and AND liulao are exactly the kind of couple who would be receptive to each other’s needs and switch dynamics when they need to if that makes sense ?? its just a personal preference of mine atm hehe i like writing dom kung lao but lets hope some variety will come with more fics too 🤸

// EXACTLY:

[rondoel]

Parting hurt but reunion even more 😂

[liukangofficial]

ykw an underrated scene is. when the new warriors first get to raidens temple and liu’s going around trying to hammer in the importance of them training, and he’s like half a head shorter than cole and kano and he’s gotta look up to talk to them but he does it w the most confidence t_t

[ihavealotoffeelings]

YES. Like, Ludi is not a short guy, but either he’s on a lower elevation there or Lewis and Josh are both just giants (or a little of both), and either way it makes the way he gets up in their faces while delivering his dramatic monologue both hilarious and amazing.

[liukangofficial]

One thing I forgot to add is that I would love to see how Kung Lao always reduce his shidi into a little, horny, needy, impish sl*t in the bedroom;) Kung Lao seems to be the one who wants it from Liu 24/7 lol

ngl i have Thoughts about how liu kang is the more typically composed of the two of them and how he has more patience and how when he does submit, he does it Consciously and in a way where he still has some control (bc he Chooses when and how to submit, to what extent, etc), but it would be very fun for kung lao to kind of study/observe that over time and then figure out the best way to dismantle him completely

edit // @avi17 replied: Big agree and I also have several nsfw ideas about that sort of 'conscious submission' >.>

oh SEVERAL IDEAS.... whenever u are ready to share any of them, i am just sitting here ready to listen /chinhands

[avi17]

Ideally they will be shared in fic form.... ;)

[cykelops]

Liu Kang that is a married man. That is a man with a DAUGHTER.