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lovemeleo · 3 years

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Me without You (Part 2)

Alrighty y'all, it's finally here. Time for Part 2 of Me without You! Though they didn't know it, the discord server helped choose the ending for this one.

Nuny and the SW world belong to the lovely @lumosinlove.

If you haven't read it yet, here's Part 1 and you can read my entire Nuny series here on ao3.

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It’s been three days since Zhenya left, and Jackson had never felt so lost. Normally at the end of a season, they’d take a breather for a couple days, just chill around the house. Sometimes they’d even go on a road trip. Jackson tended to get inside his head a bit so it was better to be out of the house.

He hadn’t gotten much sleep after his conversation with Zhenya the night before. There was around a 7 hour time difference so they tried to keep the conversations to decent times to not mess up sleep patterns too much, but Zhenya had plans with family the entire day, planning to slowly begin the process of coming out. Instead of his normal afternoon call time, Zhenya called him as soon as he got up which meant Jackson didn’t get to sleep until around 1am.

Waking up the following morning was a bit rough, his warm bed still calling his name as he dragged himself to the kitchen for coffee. Jackson didn’t want to stay in bed though. Zhenya wasn’t there, so what was the point?

He wasn’t the only one who was not taking Zhenya’s absence well. The cats were confused about their missing dad as well. Loki had climbed up on top of the fridge, waiting for Zhenya to take him down but he never came. Jackson had to get a chair so he could reach the giant cat and help him down. Pumpkin had taken to sleeping on the Russian man’s pillow, and Milo tended to look for him in the shower. Milo and Pumpkin were still sprawled on Zhenya’s side of the bed when he left but Loki trailed after him.

Jackson went to pull down his coffee mug, reaching for Zhenya’s as well before he realized it wasn’t needed. Damn.. maybe this was going to be harder than expected. Setting the Stormtrooper mug back in the cabinet, he filled the cats’ bowls as the coffee brewed. He was even more off-kilter than usual today, anxious for Zhenya who would be going through the difficult steps of coming out to his parents. Jackson remembers how nervous he was when he told his parents, but he was lucky. He had Zhenya next to him.

Maybe he should just fly to Russia.. Just to be safe. What if he needed him? No.. Zhenya said he had to do this by himself. This had been a frequent argument he had with himself since the moment he left the airport.

Today, he was getting out of the house. Smitty had called, asking him if he wanted to come out with him and his kids. He was taking the three to the zoo so Allison could get some rest, and asked if Jackson minded being an extra pair of hands. Eager to get out of the house and see the little munchkins he had very quickly come to love, Jackson said yes.

To be honest, he was pretty sure Zhenya had told Smitty to keep an eye on him.

After a quick shower, Jackson pulled on Zhenya’s hoodie from when he played for the Flames over one of his t-shirts. It was one of Zhenya’s favorite hoodies, worn and soft in all the right places. It was also Jackson’s favorite to steal. He loved that it was big on him and just felt like Zhenya was wrapped all around him.

As he pulled his shoes on, the doorbell went off. His eyebrows furrowed as he glanced up at the door. He wasn’t expecting anyone. When he opened the door, Brady was standing there.

“Hey, man. Thought I’d just pick you up since you’re on the way.” He said with a smile, pulling Jackson in for a hug.

Jackson couldn’t help but lean into the hug, the lack of human interaction obviously getting to him. “Sounds like a plan to me. Thanks.” He grabbed his wallet and keys after pulling away, making sure his phone was tucked into his pockets.

Brady led the way to his car, climbing in the driver's seat, “I appreciate you coming with me. Don’t know that I'd be able to handle all three of these hooligans by myself at the zoo.” He said, glancing back at his kids with a grin.

A chorus of “Uncle Nado!!” came from the backseat, Brady’s youngest cheering from her carseat in the middle. Olivia was born not long after the 2020 season, and was coming up on two years.

“Hello, tiny gremlins!” Jackson said with a laugh, pulling on his seatbelt as Brady started towards the Gryffindor Zoo.

The kids were already bouncing in their seats, rambling over each other as they talked about all the animals they were going to see. Max was excited for the aquarium while Noah just wanted to see the Lions, of course. Olivia’s favorites were the penguins.

“Allison told me they’re allowed one plushy per kid this time.” Brady said with a huff. Jackson couldn’t help but laugh at his friend. Last time they had gone to the zoo, their entire van was filled with plushies. Brady had tried to blame Jackson, and while he had bought them all one or two, Brady was the main culprit.

Getting everyone out of the car was an adventure all its own. They had to bring the double stroller because Olivia spent most of the time in there, as she still got tired easily and while Noah said he was going to walk the whole time like his big brother Max, he usually ended up climbing in the stroller once or twice. Little legs could only carry you so far.

The lions were right in the front when they got in, Noah running as fast as he could to the railing of the exhibit, “Dad, Uncle Nado, Look! They’re just like you!” He said, his face lighting up as he watched the lions prowling.

“Yeah, bud. That one even has long hair like Uncle Nado.” Brady said with a grin, pointing out the male lion with the full mane.

Jackson laughed, leaning on the railing next to them as he held Olivia’s hand, “You’re just mad ‘cause Allison won’t let you grow your hair out.” Brady shoved him, laughing as they carried on throughout the zoo.

They made their way into the aquarium, the kids running ahead a bit to see all the different fish with Jackson and Brady following at a more leisurely pace.

“So…” Brady said, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye.

Jackson let out a huff, “Here it comes…”

Letting out a chuckle, Brady elbowed him in the ribs, “Hey, don’t be a shit. I just wanted to ask how you were doing. It’s been a long couple months for you with your leg, and then with Zhenya being gone.. Just wanted to check.”

“I’m alright.. Leg doesn’t really bother me, been keeping up with my exercises from PT. And Zhenya.. I miss him. It’s only been three days but fuck I miss him.” Jackson replied, tugging on the sleeves of his hoodie as he watched the kids.

Brady squeezed his shoulder, his eyes flickering between his kids and Nado, “That’s normal, Jax. I’d say it would be abnormal if you didn’t miss him.”

A shriek from Olivia had both their heads whipping in her direction, but it seemed to be one of delight. Her face lit up as a turtle swam past the window again. Both men let out a quiet sigh of relief.

“I know it’s normal. I just- I just wish I could be there for him, y’know? It was hard enough for me to come out to my folks, and I knew they would be supportive. He doesn’t have that luxury, that knowing.” Jackson said with a sigh, his hand absentmindedly checking that his phone was in his pocket.

Brady let out a soft sigh as he nodded, “It sucks, it really does but no matter what happens, he knows he has you. He’s got the team. We’re all here for him.”

Jackson could only nod, a shaky breath falling from his lips as they reached the end of the aquarium. Olivia ran back to him as quickly as her little legs would take her, automatically reaching up to him. “Up? Up please?” She said, puppy dog eyes in full effect.

As if he could say no to that face. Jackson quickly swooped her up, setting her on his hip as they carried on. After a couple hours of walking around, they stopped at one of the restaurants to grab something to eat.

“We still have to see Liv’s penguins, Dad.” Noah pointed out as he ate a couple of his french fries, a map of the zoo in between himself and Max.

Brady was already nodding as he wiped up Olivia’s face, sauce from her pizza smeared across her chubby cheeks, “We’re not gonna miss the penguins.” Jackson couldn’t help the fond smile as he watched his friend with his kids. He always enjoyed watching their family dynamic, and just being with them. Normally Zhenya would be there too, throwing the boys over his shoulders and running around with them or letting Olivia play with his hair.

Damn, Jackson missed him.

And then, as if he knew Jackson’s phone went off with Zhenya’s ringtone. It was the Imperial March from Star Wars, and it had been his ringtone for as long as Jackson could remember. Brady shooed him off as soon as he heard the ringtone, reassuring Jackson that he could handle his own kids for a little bit.

Stepping out of the restaurant, Jackson quickly answered the phone, a smile spreading on his face, “Hey baby, I was just thinkin-”

His smile dropped as he was cut off by a sob from the other end of the line.

“Zhenya? Babe? What’s wrong? You gotta talk to me, baby, you’re scaring me.” Jackson pleaded, his heart feeling as though it was shattering at the sound of his boyfriend falling apart.

His breathing was ragged as Zhenya let out another sob before he finally was able to get it out: “T-They kick me out. M-My Mama and Papa, they kick me out.”

#nuny #nuny series #lumosinlove #sweater weather #jackson nadeau #evgeni kuznetsov #brady smith #smitty #kuny #nado #zhenya #fic #fic writing #coming out

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outworldgay · 3 years

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Alright ok lemme give like an actual proper review of MK 2021 now. Be wary of spoilers.

I'll start with the bad stuff first.

This movie unfortunately fails where a lot of videogame movies fail which is trying to streamline a story that has a lot of characters who aren't intrinsically tied to the main plot of the story. I don't ever expect a movie adaptation of a videogame to spit back the exact plot to me verbatim because often times the plots in video games, especially those in a franchise with ensemble casts is structured in a way to cater to storytelling through gameplay; game play that takes hours, days, depending on how many games in a series you are juggling. It's a genuinely difficult task to translate that in an entirely different medium like film.

That being said, I think they went a bit too far with the streamlining with tying everything together to this "arcana" plot device. It's super vague and seems to exist for the sake of plot convenience and not much else. I think part of Mortal Kombat's charm is having these clashing genres framed within this Asian inspired fantasy setting. You're throwing characters like Sonya, Jax and Kano into these magical realms, showing them powers beyond their comprehension so tying these characters directly to the main plotline in a neat little arcana bow feels a little weird and makes it almost too easy for them to fit into the world of mk. The Special Forces and characters related to them should feel a bit out of their element when entering this world and that doesn't really happen here. (Ironically enough mk X & 11 take the opposite approach which ends up leading to the same problem; they focus too much on the SF which bogs down the fantastical elements and again doesn't really leave room for the SF to figure out their way around it all since they apparently have a grasp on everything from the beginning.)

I think there was a missed opportunity for Sonya and Jax to act as surrogates for the audience and have us, through them, be introduced to the more fantasy side of mk, with maybe Raiden being the one to walk them and and the audience through this world (which also solves the problem of how little screentime Raiden got) which leads me to my next point.

Cole was such a pointless character. I get why he exists, to be an audience surrogate so exposition dumping doesn't seem so forced, but as i previously stated, other characters could have easily fit that role. He doesn't have much of a personality outside of "must protect family" and it really bogs down the movie to have so much focus on him. Him being a descendent of Hanzo was also a weird choice. I just think his story was entirely unnecessary.

I don't have much to say negatively about casting and acting. Ludi Lin as Liu Kang was unfortunately the weakest actor there in my opinion. I think they could have strengthened Asano Tadanobu's performance if they just had Raiden speak Japanese. Not much else to say there. Kabal was there I guess.

Lighting round of other stuff i didn't like:

feral reptile

weird pacing, it seemed like the characters were kind not doing much for a good chunk of the movie then suddenly every baddie appeared and starting wrecking shit.

WHERE is Raiden??? At least find a better excuse for his absence my god.

For fucks sake you really gassed up Lao this whole movie just to kill him come on.

Now for what I did enjoy.

I think the choice of having these birthmarks be what determines you going to the tournament is actually a better example of streamlining the story telling in a way that works. I'm not sure I entirely enjoy it's mechanics but it did keep in with the themes that surround Liu Kang and Kung Lao (Kung Lao being born into this destiny via his legacy while Liu Kang being an orphan who basically came from nothing found himself on this path.)

I really enjoyed the casting. I think most of the cast did a pretty fantastic job and anyone I can't say that for I think simply didn't get enough screen time for me to form an opinion on them. Performances that stood out to me especially where Josh Lawson as Kano and Max Huang as Kung Lao, especially since they shared that dinner scene where they both got to play off each other really well.

I know I said i didn't like Ludi Lin's performance, but I did enjoy his chemistry with Kung Lao. I think his performance was strongest when he shared scenes with Huang.

Lighting round of stuff I liked:

Kung Lao and Liu Lang's relationship was a nice change of pace from what we usually get in the games. I like that Lao is genuinely respected and how much Liu looks up to him.

Kano's death was immensely satisfying and unlike Kung Lao, i think a character like him can be killed early on w/o consequence. He risks overstaying his welcome as the story leans deeper into the fantasy side of things otherwise.

Setting up Johnny Cage for the sequel was a neat idea. I think in general rolling out the cast slowly rather than shoehorn everyone at once is a better choice.

TL/DR I like the characters and their performances, the story they were put in was a bit of a mess. 5/10

#mk 2021 spoilers #mk 2021 #mortal kombat 2021 spoilers #mortal kombat 2021 #mk #mortal kombat #in another life im an obnoxious yt movie review channel #owg.txt

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