Hyperfixation Hell

It started off in the dumbest way possible. They’ve had two days off from usual training. Two days too many. Someone grumbled about potentially getting out of shape, but any suggestions of actually going outside to train were met with exhausted groans. It’s too hot outside, they don’t usually get granted breaks like this and actually going through forms was getting boring….. Then, someone joked that they should just tussle it out right then and there. No weapons, no powers, nothing brutal— just pure brawling enrichment…… It didn’t stay a joke for long, because that’s how four of earthrealm’s champions broke out into play fighting right in the middle of the kahn’s living room.

Kung Lao absolutely started it. The second he realized they weren’t joking anymore he pounced on Liu Kang and it all exploded from there. Dude’s usually more elegant in fighting but right now he’s just ragdolling into everyone hoping his weight alone can take them down. He goes easier on the girls at first but that goes out the window when Kitana clotheslines him, then all bets are off. He’s jumping on Jade’s back to knock her down, he’s leaping off the couch and hitting Liu Kang with a haymaker and whacking Kitana in the face with a pillow. And gods forbid any of them knock HIM down because he’ll start going for the legs. Not a shred of restraint from this guy.

Kitana makes it worse tbh. Oh you think that the well behaved empress would fight properly? WRONG. She’s completely feral— turns out Mileena got that from somewhere and it was not the tarkatan side. She’s pulling Liu Kang and Jade’s hairs, if Kung Lao dares to get her in any kind of hold she’s biting him until he lets go. You saw how she launched at Skarlet in mk11? Yeah she’s doing that, no ragdolling here she’s tackling with INTENT. Will feel a bit bad if she hits too hard but just jumps at whoever got hit again if they weren’t hurt. It’s fine, she’s usually getting thrown around and immediately jumps back up to attack again.

Liu Kang is the embodiment of restraint. Like dude’s stronger than all three of them and knows it, and he’s genuinely so worried about someone getting hurt that he holds back on purpose. He’ll grab Kitana and Jade and toss them onto couches and any soft surface he can find, with Kung Lao he’s a bit less worried and just wrestles him to the ground cause you can’t convince me they weren’t doing this since they were kids. Keeps getting dogpiled by everyone and has to physically shake them off. If he gets tired of Kung Lao or Kitana tackling him, he’ll sit on their backs and keep them there until they agree to stop, and then immediately gets jumped again.

Jade’s fighting for her goddamn life. As the tallest one she’s the biggest target and keeps getting tackled and bowled over because of it. She’s fighting at a distance and starts whipping pillows at Kung Lao and throwing blankets at Kitana’s head to fend them off. Flipped over one of the couches to keep Liu Kang from grabbing her and then used the cushions as melee weapons against him. If she somehow gets pinned or grappled she’ll start making truces with anybody else so they’ll help her out and then she immediately double crosses them because there’s no such thing as loyalty in playfighting.

So Kitana is the Dean of the duo— the big sister (by like 5 minutes but let her have this). She remembers a bit of her childhood pre Sindel’s death, but after what happened to their mom it all becomes a blur. She’s always had to be the caretaker because their “dad” Shao Kahn was never around, and even though she and Mileena can sometimes goof around she desperately wants her sister to grow up, afraid that Mileena won’t be able to look after herself should she die.

Mileena on the other hand is Sam— the younger sister who constantly clowns on Kitana for being Old and liking Old Lady Music. She has a very good memory of her own childhood, able to remember pretty much everything except what happened before Sindel died. She can be a bit paranoid and mean, but it comes as a result of her being afraid that Kitana might leave her after everything they’ve gone through. She also made Kitana a protective charm that she proudly calls the “Milamulet”

They got inducted into the hunt very young by Shao Kahn, who aside from teaching them how to kill monsters was generally absent from their lives, leaving them to be semi-looked after by Ermac, another hunter who never really disclosed his past to them (he’s kinda a semi-Bobby for this au). Both sisters kinda latched onto him as a father figure, feeling a weird familiarity that they never had with Shao.

Jade was absolutely Castiel and she only originally allied with the sisters to stop the apocalypse that one time, but ends up kinda sticking around especially when the world keeps getting threatened with apocalypses. She dies a lot, mostly because she keeps sacrificing herself to save Kitana especially and while Kitana appreciates the sentiment she’d much rather have Jade be alive. At some point she does inadvertently take Skarlet (kinda Jack) under her wing, she was straight up going to kill her but saw some goodness in her and now it’s like. A weird mother-daughter relationship between two beings who are millions of years old and two days old respectively and both look mid/late 20s

I also planned to have Tanya be Gabriel as well, especially because og midway/second timeline tanya really fit the vibe. She psychologically tortures the sisters for fun and seems to especially like making Mileena suffer, but all the pain she inflicts is done with the hope of getting Mileena to see the truth— Kitana is going to die, and there’s nothing she can do to stop it.

Kanonically though both sisters die a lot. I think I toyed with the idea of them being forced to be the vessels of Cetrion and Shinnok or some other elder gods to match the whole vessels of Michael and Lucifer respectively but I didn’t give it too much thought.

Another scrapped idea was that either Jacqui or Cassie would be Claire— Jacqui kinda made more sense at the time because I thought Vera from the comics kinda looked like Jade so in my brain it kinda made sense for Vera to be Jade’s vessel but it still felt weird and convoluted so that also got scrapped….