#second chances 2.0

[evasivaardilosa]

Sorry for showing up like this literally months after my last post, after making you all think you got rid of me /jk

But I have been playing again (there is a post coming about it some day maybe) and I just reread what I had written for Second Chances 2.0 (for those who are new or who have forgotten, it’s my fic project vaguely based on Invasions s1 in which the invading Scorpion is Hanzo from his ending of the MK11 timeline, who couldn’t restore his own timeline like Liu Kang and the others did, and who then gets a redemption arc and moves into the MK1 timeline permanently, and anyway it ends as Harumi/Hanzo/Kuai (or as I call them, Scorpion x3, even thought this is not Scorpion!Harumi sorry queen) (+baby Hanzo from the MK1 timeline as their adopted son because why not)) and I don’t fully remember some ideas I had because I was once again dumb and didn’t write them all but it doesn’t matter because I just had a galaxy brain idea for the ending that I know I hadn’t thought of before

So, it was always going to end with Scorpion x3 fighting Bi-Han and his boytoy Sektor because of the Cyber Initiative and stuff. But I think I was going for a sorta open ending on this front, like they stopped Bi-Han for now but he will eventually do more shit, probably. Well, but what if Kuai is really, really pissed at Bi-Han. More than usual, I mean. Maybe he hurt Harumi or little Hanzo for those sweet parallels. Or maybe it’s just Kuai’s past life ptsd from the Cyber Initiative, which was already a thing when I started writing. So Hanzo can see - because he knows this man as well as he knows himself - that Kuai is really fighting to kill.

And Hanzo just stops him. And he starts telling Kuai not to do it, and it sounds to Kuai like it’s some generic speech about how killing is bad and he’s your brother and etc but actually Hanzo is just trying very hard not to shout that he can’t kill Bi-Han because he will come back much stronger and harder to kill, been there done that. Like believe me, Kuai, it can get much worse than this. You don’t want it to become worse.

Ofc just kidding (partially), it would be because he knows that no matter how angry Kuai is at the moment, how much he wants to break all ties with his brother, he will regret doing this.

I just think it would be neat for Hanzo to save Bi-Han’s life for once, and it would be character growth for Hanzo to have learned from all those times he fucked everything up by killing a guy that everyone told him not to, even when said guy really deserved to die. And ofc I like giving MK1 Bi-Han a chance, I really like the doomed from the start feel that canon gives for him but I like the idea that he can still go a different path. And by letting him live I open the questioning if maybe, if og Bi-Han had lived, could he also have gone a different path?

Also then MK1 Kuai gets a mini Scorpion arc, having his family threatened by Bi-Han (not killed because I am nice) and fighting him and intending to kill him. Getting to be “saved” by someone who has gone through this and learned from his mistakes

[evasivaardilosa]

Of all possible misunderstandings, I can’t believe I am just now thinking of mk11!Hanzo thinking mk1!Kuai has fire powers and all that because in this timeline he is a specter and shares at least part of his tragic backstory 😱

[evasivaardilosa]

I really want to mention Bi-Han/Sektor in Second Chances 2.0 because I am obsessed. But I was wondering how. Bi-Han will be a distant antagonist for a good portion of the fic but will only show up in one actual scene and won’t have his pov shown. Sektor may show up in the Bi-Han scene, but still not sure. So, I came up with a scene today that will let me show it, but it does involve Smoke referring to Sektor as “Bi-Han’s boytoy”. I am aiming for Sektor doesn’t really have much respect in the Lin Kuei, but everyone knows about him and Bi-Han, it is public knowledge

Also. The Grandmaster in the first two timelines. He doesn’t have a name, does he? I know people call him Oniro in fics because of Defenders of the Realm, which is nice, but I couldn’t do it in my fic because in my mind Oniro from DotR and Sektor’s father from the games are two different people, for some reason. But as part of the warrior bond that Hanzo has been building with Kuai and Harumi, they will eventually ask him who was the Lin Kuei Grandmaster in his timeline. How does he answer? Well, I just decided that Hanzo doesn’t know the Grandmaster’s name, and really no one except the Lin Kuei (and not all the Lin Kuei, this excludes students for example) knows his name. He is just Grandmaster. Grandmaster Grandmaster.

[evasivaardilosa]

I’m stuck at my fic and I think it’s because I’m having a hard time with Kuai and his voice

Also with finding the balance between his rightful anger at Hanzo for the attack, and the opening I want him to give because if he remains angry forever the plot won’t move forward. I don’t want magical forgiveness but he needs to give Hanzo a chance, or else how will he even learn in the first place how sorry Hanzo is for all of that?

[evasivaardilosa]

I said before that Bi-Han can’t send an email

Now I am trying to figure out the levels of tech understanding that Kuai, Tomas and Harumi have. I’m leaning towards none either

Right now in the fic they were attacked by some Lin Kuei bots and they managed to keep the head of one of them to try and figure out what is going on. For the plot to go ahead, they can’t find answers on their own, which is where mk11!Hanzo enters, as he knows a bit about the Cyber Initiative and all

And it could be that it just there wasn’t anything in the head that could lead them to answers but I am really liking the idea that the three of them just stood looking at the bot head like “what sort of dark magic is this??”, poking it with sticks in fear that it will turn on and attack, or maybe they even try to open it and pick the pieces apart but end up with just a bunch of chips and wires and don’t know what else to do with them

(I know that in the second timeline, Kuai knew enough to figure out how to access Sektor’s memories, but he was also a cyborg at one point there so…)

[evasivaardilosa]

It turns out that in my fics, being reborn doesn’t cure trauma

[evasivaardilosa]

Second Chances 2.0 Liu Kang: The Hanzo I know would never attack the Shirai Ryu. Clearly seeing Harumi married to another guy made him have some kind of crisis

Og Second Chances past!Scorpion: *wanted to kill Satoshi because he thought he was some fake poser new Shirai Ryu*

[evasivaardilosa]

I don’t want my characters to be too suspicious of Liu Kang or to judge him too right, because I genuinely think he is doing his best and deserves a break, but mk11!Hanzo simply can’t trust him specially after he learns the Cyber Initiative is coming back because isn’t this the exact type of shit he was supposed to prevent, he knows how his went last time! And this Hanzo has had a millennia or two to just mourn and go over all the shit that went wrong for him and the people he loves. He really can’t deal with the fear of the Cyber Initiative getting Kuai again

And Harumi. She is just a bit salty she wasn’t invited to the big boss battle. There is the whole thing with how Hanzo arriving her timeline just shakes her whole world view too, and all of that

Kuai does trust Liu Kang, though, both he and Tomas do, as that was one of the things his whole fight with Bi-Han was about. He will probably trust Liu Kang harder just because that’s how much he doesn’t want to admit Bi-Han could be right about even one thing

(Young Hanzo just trusts three people in the entire world, and those are Tomas and Harumi and Kuai Liang, and they had to fight hard to earn that trust)

I love you, Liu, I swear. I know you didn’t mean for any of this to happen 🥺