#after hong kong

[paktderpakte]

Last Flight

The moonlit sea slid by beneath the two Meteors. It felt to Collins like they hadn't seen anyone for hours, but they didn't have that kind of flight time. Every so often the crippled engine sputtered, he felt the plane slow, watched the altimeter bleed the height he was trying to save for the glide, precious feet slipping into the sea like his fuel.

He and Davies had gamed it out on their channel together in the first few minutes after they escaped the blockade, trying to weigh their options and what might have happened on the Island, what might have happened to the relief fleet, where they might go now. Even on a full tank they'd never make it to Papua. Illustrious had to be somewhere in the Philippine Sea, that was certain, far out of reach dueling with Kaga-- or else she and her escort were simply sunk. Flying to her, they would run out of fuel somewhere south of Taiwan and get shot down by Japanese patrols.

The only thing for it, they had decided, was the Philippines. The Americans might throw them in jail, might hand them over to the Japanese, but then they might not. Assuming no leaks, they would run out of fuel a few kilometers north of Luzon, and then they could drift in, make a belly landing on some beach or even land on an airstrip if they could make contact with someone.

It was about the best plan they were going to get.

Speaking of making contact, he decided to try again, flicking his comms to the distress channel for ships. He took a moment to steady himself, then spoke.

"Mayday, mayday, emergency. Survivors from the siege of Hong Kong flying southeast, bearing 1-3-0 toward Luzon. Insufficient fuel to reach land; engines damaged. If any League of Nations or friendly ships are receiving this transmission, please respond. Repeat, emergency, crippled RAF fighters request assistance, en route from Hong Kong to Manila, running out of fuel. Please."

Tenser than ever, he listened for a response. Static. Listened some more, hoping to catch some semblance of speech in the static, and nearly jumped with excitement to hear a human voice until he realized it was Badger. "We might get some shipping traffic, but that's it," he commented, not chastising his friend so much as commiserating. "And it'll probably be Japs."

"I know. Right now-- if I spoke it well enough I might ask them for help too."

"They'd shoot us."

"Maybe." They flew on.

The comment stuck in Collins' mind more than he liked. He thought of Campbell, stumbling back to the Island…the rest of the squadron, left behind, surrendering to the IJA. Would they be shot? Sent off to a prison camp in the interior?

"We wouldn't have to worry about it if Control had done its job." Badger broke his despairing reverie, and anger flared to replace it. This was all down to command incompetence-- incompetence or malice. His fist clenched against the lever thinking of it for the first time since they'd fled. Shattered wrecks strewn on the airstrip at Von Seeckt with his comrades still inside, James' plane blossoming into a ball of fire, Parker sinking under the waves.

He hated that bitch in the red planes. Sylvie Dorn. He had read her file over and over in the brig, burned her face into his memory. He didn't care what Jaeger was like, that he seemed to have a shred of honor-- he had a murderer in his command staff, as far as Collins was concerned, and she would pay for it.

But she only killed James, didn't she.

Adlai. He'd made them stick it out over Guangzhou, he'd refused to send them more fighters over Hong Kong, kept the ceasefire from them too.

He'd killed them all.

He'd pay for it too.

Not that Collins told Badger any of that. His wingman would never rat on him intentionally, but they'd probably be questioned, and having murderous intent toward your former air controller would raise red flags. He just took a breath, tried to calm himself, let the death grip release. "Yeah," he finally radioed back. "They really fucked up bad."

"…anyway. How's your fuel?" Better to get back on survival.

"Little more'n forty. I don't think my fuel lines got hit-- the black squadron's commander, I charged him and it spooked'em. I'll probably make it over land."

Though he couldn't see it, Collins shook his head. "Yeah, you're doing better than me. And that wasn't their commander. It was a stand-in. Whoever it was probably wasn't used to leading so many planes."

"Eh? 'ow you know? Maybe he was just off 'is game."

"Because the black squadron is the first of their wing. Schwarze," he muttered it like a curse. "Their commander was the thief who stole my plane."

Davies whistled. "One 'ell of a trophy. Pilots are a mess without a commander, they teach the Russians that, they say. Kill the head of the snake and the rest falls apart."

"…I hope Temple is having a better time of it than that," Collins finally said, after a long silence. They could see the island at this point, black against the black sky, and yet-- Badger was doing much better than him. Twenty gallons in his tank would be generous, and as Collins stared at the fuel gauge it seemed to drop visibly, ticking away his life, ticking away the time Temple Squadron had a deserter for a commander instead of a dead commander.

The broken engine sputtered again, the airframe shook around him, he sank a few dozen more feet. "I might make it with the glide, but I might have to ditch in the water. We'll see."

"Right."

He made another distress call, but the two pilots didn't say much more to each other. Even when the engine 'ran,' now, it didn't want to put out the same kind of thrust. The speed indicator kept dropping, the altitude indicator, the fuel indicator, all ticking down, grains of sand in an hourglass as Luzon crawled closer.

Maybe thirty klicks out, the pierced engine stopped for good, then the other a few moments later, as the last of the fuel burned up or dripped into the sea. "Fucker. I'm out. I think there's a beach…a little south of our bearing?"

Badger took a deep breath on comms, steeling himself. "I see it. Are you going to try and ditch there?"

"No better options, are there?"

"No." The second pilot hesitated. "I'll bring help back. I still have a ways left to go."

"Yeah. You've been gimping your speed to stay with me too."

The less-damaged plane and its pilot separated from Collins, and started to accelerate, banking away to the south where the lights of a city gleamed. "I'll be back. Really. Even if you're dead I'll be back."

Collins didn't respond. And now he was alone. No men to protect, just his own skin.

They'd practiced engine-out landings, but this wasn't that, there was no runway. He was just falling out of the sky. He pulled the plane into a glide configuration, didn't bother but to glance at the altimeter now, just watched the sea and the strip of sand loom up to meet him. He wasn't going to make it. There would be no leaving a trail screaming onto the beach, he was going to skip across the water like a rock and his plane would shatter and sink and none of them would know what happened to him. God.

An instant before his borrowed Meteor hit the waves, Collins wondered if Davies would make it to an airstrip. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was the canopy splintering from the impact.

[izuke-the-zombie]

This is a little head cannon/What if Macaque had more original powers, a little more Starry Night dreamlike powers leaning into the more nurturing kind, you know, the moon and sun kind of powers? 🌙☀️

 

Maybe in the past, he was like a therapy friend to Wukong, someone he could really be himself with, vent, and tell his secrets without being judged in the safety of his own dreams. Someone he can truly trust, and that was Macaque.

Skip to Redemption Ark for Mac

Now he's a therapy friend to the whole MK team! (Against his will) They cuddle, pet, and vent to him with their problems. He's like one of Sandy's therapy cats, just bigger and grumpier.😾💕✨ he just has this way with people I guess

Okay, this is how it starts: Macaque and Wukong's first encounter was in a dream.

Wukong would not shut up about the pretty demon in his crazy dreams, often to his sworn brothers; he talked about all the fun and crazy adventures he'd have, the long meaningful conversations and jokes, and the occasionally moving pictures of otherworldly strong magical humans with sparkly eyes and spiky hair who wield giant weapons that shoots Fire called anime, and that this had been going on for a few months now.

This annoyed and concerned them; they think it's a demon trying to take over the Monkey King's mind or trying to brainwash him somehow, so Azure Lion and the Sworn Brothers all brainstormed together to devise a plan to somehow confront this tricky dream demon. Wukong doesn't want the fun dreams to end or scare off this other celestial monkey, so he decides to talk to his friend in his dreams. Wukong casually brings up the idea that the macaque should visit Flower Fruit and meet his sworn brothers! Macaque of course hesitates, not sure of the idea of traveling to an unknown island and meeting The Monkey King's questionable choice of sworn brothers, but of course, Wukong, sad and a bit offended, but he doesn't give up.

He decides to bring upon the Ultimate Weapon, begging and whining until Macaque crumbles and gives in, which eventually does. Mac reluctantly agrees to travel over to FFM in disguise, just to be safe he tells Wukong he'll be there. Within a month, Wukong couldn't be more excited; he was like a little kid waiting for Christmas day!

So this is what kinds of powers I think he should have.

😴 the first pic is crossing over to other people's dreams and making their experience life-like he has illusion magic so this makes sense to me. Wukong and macaque would prank the Brotherhood or play tags and hide and seek in their brother's dreams. 🌸The second pic is the soothing ability to calm one's nerves if they pet or cuddle him like a therapy cat,🐈 Wukong would groom him for hours to calm his nerves. now come copes with food🍑🍔🍭

🌸🎶I saved the best one for last the cute/sad little head Cannon I have

At the end of every dream Mac visits they would end it by dancing to music Mac would bring from the future laughing and stumbling while wukong slowly wakes up, wukong has always gone to bed early But now he goes even earlier to bed. Wukong always thought he was the luckiest monkey in the world he gets to have two Adventure and one of them is with his prettiest best friend Macaque 😚✨the monkey of his dreams.

🌸 Wukong couldn't truly dream of a world without his bestest friend🥰✨

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

you want a new kind of guy, fine, i raise you: the lady i was briefly roommates with in college who once smoked a blunt at a party and then spent an hour confessing earnestly to me that she genuinely preferred reading detailed episode recaps over actually watching the tv show in question

[romanceyourdemons]

80s-90s american cop movies: an epic battle between good (cops)…. and evil (crimes)…… but will the cop be able to Defeat Evil (shoot the suspect at point blank range)? or will Evil (due process) prevail?

80s-2000s hong kong cop movies: the words “good” and “evil” and “cops” and “criminals” are so much less relevant than you want them to be when crime is as organized, corruption and police brutality are as prevalent, and the government is as colonial as it is here. will our heroes work this out and develop their own code of honor, or will they merely follow the easy, violent path to success—cops and criminals both? more relevantly, how much can donnie yen blur the lines between a genuinely violent fight sequence and a striptease?

[ellavei]

i like how in all children that aph england raised, aph hong kong is basically like a mini version of him (at least in my head) 😭

they both share the "i don't have time to chill so shut the f*ck up" attitude, talk loud about business/financial stuff, and do weird thing that their family member can't comprehend 😭

[disneyparksattractionstournament]

Disney Parks Animatronic Tournament: Bracket A/Tier 1 Round 1

Anna: World of Frozen/Frozen Ever After (2023-current) - Hong Kong Disneyland (also Epcot, but we are talking about the highly superior Hong Kong versions, that don't have a projected face lmao)

(Video is already set to start at the point of the animatronic! If it doesn't, go to 11:14) 

Mr. Potato Head: Toy Story Midway Mania!  (2008-current) - Hollywood Studios Disney World, Disney California Adventure, Tokyo DisneySea

Propaganda:

"He has his own theme song! He interacts with the crowd in the queue! He tells bad jokes! I just think this was such a clever addition to the midway mania queue, he gives off such old school carnival barker energy and gives something to pay attention to in the long and hot queue line. Plus you know once you get up near him that you’re ALMOST THERE"

[zhengzi]

good thing i bought sleeping dogs on a past sale in anticipation that I'll finish the rgg games and then i need another asian crime game to fill the rgg shaped hole in my heart

[nightwingxy]

So I saw someone on discord posting about the new Tiana Animatronic from the new ride replacing Splash Mountain (which looks INCREDIBLE btw), and that reminded me how the version of Frozen Ever After in World of Frozen at Hong Kong Disneyland is open, with the updated Animatronics, with REAL Faces. So I went to Youtube to find some ride videos and They look INCREDIBLE (Video already time stamped btw)

They did my girl Anna justice! Kristoff and Elsa look fantastic too. The digital eyes for Olaf and Sven still look weird tho. I hope the original Florida version can get updated with the new animatronics, THIS IS SUCH A GLOW UP!!

[marmett]

kind of miss when ov*rwatch first came out and it was like. fun. and that was all*

*that was not all, the way it popularized lootboxes was criminal, and i do not condone that shit.

[cinematicnomad]

2023 is coming to a close and i thought i’d share some random pics from over the year that i haven’t previously posted. happy new year’s eve! 🥂

[what-yadoking-likes]

The heisters occasionally hold ‘Slides Parties’.

The premise is very simple - any heister who wants to participate as a presenter can do so. They must prepare and present a short PowerPoint presentation on the topic of their choosing - and it can, indeed, be on absolutely ANYTHING - under 10 minutes in length, and then their captive audience are free to ask a few questions before the next presentation.

Of course, sometimes the presentations descend into chaos, because the presenter is a chaotic entity - nobody expected Duke’s presentation to be of this sort.

“Well,” Duke began, smiling broadly at his audience, “it’s so wonderful to have the opportunity to talk to you all about my passion - art!

“But I am no fool. I know not everyone shares my appreciation for paintings and sculptures.” He sighed, as if disappointed in his coworkers.

“So that’s why I thought I’d share with you my favourite - and I’m trying to use language all of you will understand - horniest art.”

He clicks the mouse, and this image appears on-screen:

“First, we have Perseus with the head of Medusa by Cellini. Lovely work, truly - but perhaps we ought to rename it Perseus with a bubble butt. I believe it was Sydney who taught me that, ah, delightful phrase.”

Sydney nodded, grinning and cackling to herself in the corner, a can of beer clasped loosely in her fingers.

“Now-” Another click -

“Does anyone know who this is?”

Immediately the heisters began shouting out various theories.

“Jesus!”

“The angel Gabriel!”

“BAIN!”

Raucous laughter, followed by a hollow beep, and: “I wish.”

The suggestions continue, until finally someone gets it.

“My next Grindr hook-up!”

“Satan-”

“Yes! This is Lucifer, the fallen angel, the devil Himself.”

“Damn,” Sokol whistled, leaning forward on his knees with his elbows, “really do wish he was next Grindr hookup. He’s a... handsome devil.”

Duke managed to only show one more picture before his time was up.

“This has all been rather... male centric so far. So, how about the Ecstasy of St Teresa? Uh, literally.”

“What,” Hoxton asked, once the uproar had somewhat died down, “err. What’s got her so...”

“She’s having a religious experience, of course,” Duke answered, barely able to contain his own laughter. “She’s having a most holy, spiritual moment, Hoxton.”

[moonchair]

atori omg hi !! hope you’re well 🥹💖✨

hi beth!!!! i've recently joined the europe squad. not my first time living in europe, but this time is like... for real finally!! 🥳 officially moved here a month ago, still in the process of getting settled (the inefficiency of european bureaucracy has been eye-opening but that's what i've signed up for), never been happier about life! i hope all is well with u too 🫶🫶🫶🌷

[h4bit]

i love editing the photos i took

[justaholeinmysoul]

I hate that European people, especially young seem hyperfocused on the Israel conflict when we are in immediate danger here in Europe like idk there must be some kind of dissonance or white saviour or other reason bc how are you not afraid? Angry? Worried?

[putschki1969]

【Hong Kong】Day 2 - Event Edition -【Vlog】

Hello, this is Hikaru. Thank you so much for watching! This time, I’m posting another Hong Kong Vlog from the time I traveled there for my “Hikaru Meeting Event The Bond 2023 in Hong Kong” which was held on April 16 🍀 This video features footage from behind the scenes of the actual event on Day 2 in Hong Kong! So obviously, I'm more than a little nervous...😂 You also get to see a bit of the event itself ♪ Even though it’s all over the place, I would be happy if you could enjoy it even a little♪

“Ambient Border - AFTER” Event

On a side note, today is Day 1 of Hikaru’s “Ambient Border - AFTER” event. 

Streaming tickets are available for everyone who wants to participate. The events will be broadcast on the app "MUSiC Champ"! The videos will be archived for one week. Streaming ticket price: 3,000 yen [Ticket Purchasing/Viewing Procedure] Download the “MUSiC Champ” app ▼iOS▼ https://apple.co/3yz9isg ▼Android▼ https://bit.ly/ ▼How to use the app▼ https://www.music-champ.com/tutorial

Tweet by Hikaru | Tweet by Yuki Sasaki | Tweet by C.C:C member | Tweet by CC

[carbone14]

Criminels de guerre japonais en cours de transfert à la prison de Stanley – Hong Kong – 29 septembre 1945

Photographe : Sergent R. Watson - No. 9 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit

©Imperial War Museums – SE 5156