#*insert that video of the screaming lynxes*

[g-xix]

How accurate are my Sidemen HC's?

A couple years ago I did "Duke of Edinburgh with the Sidemen" Headcanons... And DofE is like a long hike and camp overnight - quite like THIS VIDEO:

So, having watched that video n seeing what the Sidemen are like camping.... How accurate were these HC's I made, from a few years ago⁉️:

Josh: RESPONIBLE "DAD" LEADER -Helps everyone stay on track -First to trample the path through the nettles and brambles  -Goes ahead to hold nettles and thorns out of the way so everyone else can walk -Makes journeys to the back of the group to talk and motivate the person at the back of the group -Waves and says hello to all passerbys -Also apologises to passerbys for the others when the group gets too rowdy -Became leader by firstly being elected by teachers to be the "LEAD ROAD CROSSER"- and thus being made to line everyone up and look both ways before counting to three and all crossing the road together. After that, Josh became head of taking breaks, breaking apart arguments, and dealing punishments. Oh yes- whenever anyone became too rowdy, Josh dealt sanctions- whether that be five push-ups, fifteen sit-ups, or a sticky-weed slap. Ethan, at one point, tried to push Simon into the lake- which would've made Simon's entire kit wet, and have broken his camera. Thus, Josh sanctioned Ethan to bend over whilst all the boys made a circle around him and neck slapped him one by one for his transgression. 

Vikk: TRUSTY NAVIGATOR -Has a compass strung around his neck and map in hand at all times -Whilst the other boys lie in the grass and relax he's on his feet tracing the trail on the map with a finger, finding the route they'll travel during the next 30 minutes -Guided them down the wrong path and made them do an extra 2k one time. JJ showed Vik what everyone wanted to do with him. -Often walks with Josh towards the front or chases after Harry who's stolen the map -Great banter- always sets up his puns by beginning an innocuous conversation about the landscape or the weather before saying the most face-palm-ing dad-pun which makes everyone groan

Tobi: LEAD SNACK-MAN -Think you're running out of energy? Getting hopeless? Tobi'll have something in his pocket to make your day (  ;)   ) -Nobody knows how he managed to carry so many snacks on him -Somehow he always knows exactly what everyone needs  -Often pulls random people to the side and deals a sneaky sweet before saying shhh and returning to the group as if nothing happened -Somehow also never has his snacks melt or get crushed???? -Also 100% snapback merchant - no burning to be seen with Tobi's sunhat  -When he slept (in a tent with Josh) Harry and Ethan stole Tobi's rucksack at 3am and took it back to their tent, giggling like schoolgirls- ready to see whether they were right, and Tobi's rucksack was stuffed to the brim with snacks and nothing else. They ripped the zipper down and peered inside... but were surprised to find nothing but Tobi's toiletries bag, a can of Lynx deoderant, and 3 more snapbacks. Confused, they tip-toed back and inserted Tobi's rucksack back into his tent... Though they also saw a deflated, empty sleeping bag on the side of Josh. Shrugging, thinking it was nothing, they turned back to return to their tents... only to see Tobi shadowy figure stood directly behind them. The sheer shock of Tobi's presence scared Harry and Ethan and caused them to scream before sprinting back to their tent and diving into their sleeping bags, near to shitting themselves from fear...  before giggling once more as they saw Vikk stirring as one of the other tent boys (who had been confused and stepped out of their tent to see what the scream was) got a bollocking from their DofE coach for being awake at such hours. 

Harry: MISCHIEF MAN -Simply signed up for shits n gigs -Got distant cousins and relatives to forge all of his DofE documents as he said that he had volunteered by "Walking his elderly grandma's dog" (Their grandma lived next door and all Harry did was walk his dog afterschool). -Also pretended to have learnt parkour for his skill, and said he rollerbladed for his sports. His Uncle signed both of those off, saying if Harry could do a backflip by the end of the 3 months he would sign them. Harry almost broke his neck trying to do the backflip, but he did it in the end, and Uncle George did end up signing his forms -Steals the map from Vik just to get chased by Vik and see Vik have some fun -Harry has an unbelievable stamina and was able to walk the whole way, and chase butterflies, and throw his backpack down the hills before rolling down the big hills whilst all the boys walked.  -Tried to do a backflip at the campsite (which was shared with other schools) and took down another school's tent. Ethan and Harry ran away giggling whilst Vik just stared at them warily wondering what they'd done now -Harry knew Vik was navigating them the wrong way that entire time (when they ended up doing an extra 2k) but didn't tell anyone because he wanted to see the lake that the 2k route went by -Deffo just wore a pair of shorts got cut by the brambles and strung by the nettles, but didn't care. Came home with bruises and scratches along his legs and told his family he got chased and mauled by a horse, but won the battle in the end.

Simon: CAMERA CREW  -His dad made him take his camera so he could take nice pictures of the landscapes and things to show when he got back home -Took pics of the landscapes + all the boys together -Accidentally knocked the camera and switched all pictures to live pictures which turned out for the better, as the pictures displayed a short audio and video before the picture was taken -Every time Simon got the camera out to take a picture of a landscape, JJ would try to moon the camera by standing by a bush or in the grass and bending over, pulling down his bottoms too. -JJ got a big bug bite on his arse the next day, having pulled his bottoms down in so many fields. -In the night, Harry and Ethan also stole Simon's camera and recorded a video with whispers and giggles, as the duo threw things at Vik and sat on top of him without Vik so much as stirring.  -JJ filmed a few random clips of Simon sleeping with his own commentary before Harry and Ethan stole it

Ethan: MISCHIEF MAN #2 (+CHEF!) -Harry's doppleganger -Whenever someone got too sick of Harry, Ethan would double back on Harry's joke and laugh his iconic laugh that made everyone smile a bit, even if they were sick of Harry's antics -Had a sword fight with Harry using the tent poles needed to set up a tent. Vik just sat on a camper chair to the side and watched in "wow these dumbasses", only running when Harry began jabbing his tent-pole at Vik -At camp, everyone was exaughsted and just wanted to sleep, and Ethan made a great tomato pasta with some cheese on top which was really what everyone needed.  -Last to go into his tent at night and first to wake up, having made hot chocolate for everyone and spent his time packing the stove whilst everyone headed to brush their teeth and change -At first, Ethan wanted just Harry and himself in the tent "for the Behzy-bog vibes", but When everyone got into their pairs for tenting... Vik too focussed on mapping his route and subsequently didn't get a say. Therefore, Harry insisted Vik came into their tent despite Ethan's unsureness. Ethan thought Vik was just a book-smart, education lover. But during their hike, at the times when Harry got too energetic and ran off with JJ, and Ethan was too tired and lagged at the back... Vik would give his map to Josh and join Ethan at the back, making sure he was okay and offering some water and words of encouragement which were surprisingly necessary, Ethan found. And then, although Vik fell asleep quickly during the night, Ethan didn't mind as him and Harry still did all the devious things he thought they might. 

JJ: nobody knows why he's there -Literally hates the outdoors -Hasn't been on a 10k+ hike before -Asks whether they're there yet every kilometer -Drank all his water within the first two hours -Subsequently needed to stop the hike four times so he could take a piss in a bush -Started stealing other people's water bottles so he could drink for the rest of the walk -Got stung by a nettle and began screaming and rolling on the ground clutching his forearm. Josh carried his bag for the next few kilometers before Vik told JJ to suck it up and put it back on JJ -Vik (like everyone) ended up getting stupidly sick of JJ and had a rage moment, yelling at him to "FUCK OFF YOU INCOMPETENT FUCK" which was humbling... until the group walked into a rapeseed field. JJ broke off a shoot of the plant and began violently tickling Vik with it (as Vik sneezed whenever he inhaled too much rapeseed pollen... It was a very specific type of hay fever) until Vik was running across the field with JJ chasing after him giggling maniacally. When Josh reached the end of the field and found JJ laughing over Vik, crouched on the floor and covering his face, and became Vik's protector from JJ for the rest of the day. For the rest of the day, JJ instead (from a safe 2 meters away) threw sticky weed onto Vik's back and ended up covering his back with the foliage- so much so that when the group reached camp, they had to use a pocket knife to cut through the swathes of weed JJ had stuck to Vik's rucksack -Whilst Ethan, Harry and Vik went on plate washing duty, JJ stole a shovel from the camp and tried to dig a hole under the trio's tent. He made about a 10 inch deep and wide hole, which the trio found him digging once they returned. Vik was made to sleep on top of the hole, and woke up groaning from the back pain of the small hole, as well as the fact the entire tent had slept with their heads facing downhill and thus they all had incredible headrushes in the morning. 

[andy-clutterbuck]

TWD S9 Premiere ★ Sept. 27th 2018

[dazstormretro]

Street Fighter 2 & the Mega CD - Oct 1991

Rob and I watched enthralled as player after player battled it out, throwing fire balls, sonic booms and performing dazzling midair flying kicks. We’d never seen anything like this in the arcades. I’d watch as the more skilled players would effortlessly chain together combinations of moves to create a wonderful choreographed routine. A low kick into an uppercut into a flying uppercut, just jaw dropping. So many different special moves and fighting styles. Ken’s cocky attitude, Ryu’s cool persona, Chun Li’s.... legs! Plus there was the thumping soundtracks to each stage including Guile’s theme which I still enjoy listening to in my car today.

Maybe it was the blaring noises from the surrounding arcade machines or maybe it was the overactive imaginations of two teenaged boys but Rob and I could have sworn we heard the characters swear? For some strange reason instead of Ryu screaming “hadouken” when he launched a fireball my teenage brain brain heard “yooouu git” and instead of “shoryuken” I heard “oh you bitch”. Still to this day I find it hilarious that on the following Monday at school I was telling all my mates about this new fighting game where some of the characters actually swore, what a dick!

After what felt like hours of waiting in line for my turn I finally inserted my fifty pence into the coin slot and proceeded to select my character. I chose Ken after seeing his awesome range of moves from other players. As you can imagine I got my arse well and truly kicked and was unable to perform any of the special moves which I had previously seen but this didn’t stop me from reviling in every second of its gameplay. Street Fighter 2 was now officially my favourite arcade game and this chance encounter started a life long love for the franchise.

After this day Rob and I would return to Grand Central on a regular basis with pockets full of change. Street Fighter 2 became so popular they ended up getting three cabinets just to keep up with the demand. People say this game helped save the declining popularity of the arcade, I’m inclined to agree.

When we weren’t spending all our pocket money in the arcade me and Rob would be constantly playing through Streets of Rage. Rob would choose Axel and I was always Blaze. In many ways better than Final Fight, Streets of Rage was the perfect way to unwind after a long week at school especially during the final level when we got to beat the crap out of one another all over again.

Between us we had built quite an extensive Mega Drive collection and would constantly swap games over the weekend, but this didn’t stop me from pining for more Street Fighter. I was constantly on the lookout for new magazine coverage or posters to stick up on my bedroom wall. This turned out to be rather easy as Street Fighter 2 was huge business so every video game magazine wanted a piece of the action. Stick a picture of Ryu on the front cover and it would fly off the shelves.

This was now the video game magazines heyday. So many new magazines were being published on a monthly basis, so many in fact that the industry would soon be oversaturated. During October and November there were two more new mags hitting the shelves - Game Zone and Sega Pro.

It was flicking through issue one of Game Pro that I first took note of a new upcoming add-on for the Mega Drive, the Mega CD. Sega Pro was great at covering the import scene and would heavily feature what was hot in Japan and the US. I remember seeing this new sexy looking device sat beneath an imported Mega Drive, they looked so right together, so.... complete. The article promised incredible enhanced graphical power and CD quality sound plus huge new games. Lunar: the Silver Star and Ernest Evans quickly caught my attention. This was the first time I’d really taken notice of Japanese anime in gaming magazines. I would sit and draw these amazing pictures over and over.

Obviously seeing this new bit of Sega hardware my mind started turning, could the Mega CD be my next purchase. The imported model was due out in December and some shops were starting to take preorders. It was after reading Robs copy of the November issue of Mean Machines that my mind was made up. A small article in the news section stated that Street Fighter 2 was being developed for the upcoming Mega CD and would be a very close arcade conversion. As you can imagine I was beside myself with this fantastic news, finally I would be able to play Street Fighter 2 at home.

Once again it was time to beg my parents for this years Christmas gift unfortunately this time it wasn’t to be. They certainly weren't about to shell out £250 for a Mega Drive peripheral and unlike the previous time I didn’t have another console to sell. As it turns out it was probably for the best as Street Fighter 2 was sadly never released for the Mega CD and as we now know Sega didn't have the success it was hoping for following the systems release.

So what did I end up getting for Christmas or 1991? Surely it would have made sense to get some brand new Mega Drive titles. I could have asked for Golden Axe 2, Chuck Rock or my own copy of Streets of Rage, instead I asked for an Atari Lynx 2? Now why I asked for this present is still a mystery today. Maybe it was a rushed decision after the knock-back of not being allowed a Mega CD or maybe after seeing my sisters Game Boy I wanted my own handheld device. Either way I would soon regret getting this big, bulky, battery draining monstrosity.

To be fair the second iteration of the Atari Lynx was a well designed and aesthetically pleasing handheld device, it just never did anything for me. To go with the system I received a copy of Gauntlet and Warbirds that Christmas. I have a few memories of playing the Lynx but I think it ended up stashed away in the cupboard of crap and it wasn’t long until I sold it to a friend at school. Unfortunately my parents had no idea about this little arrangement and once they found out I got into a whole lot of trouble.

For some reason I have a very faint memory of Rob finally purchasing a PAL Mega CD of his own but this could be my old age playing tricks on me. Either way both the Mega CD and the Lynx 2 are both systems which I don’t currently own but hoping to one day add them to my retro collection.