#hopefully you guys reunited with joe!!!

[space-qu33n]

That was a fucking rollercoaster! To think we started from claustrophobia hell to fighting a version of Ludinus and shit almost going hard sideways xnx At least we'll be able to (hopefully) reunite with Imahara Joe and return to Whitestone!

And I think next week's the Halloween episode!! So I'll see you guys for that! Take care of yourselves!!! 💙💙💙

[alexstandoll]

OMG! THE FACT THAT GWIL INTERVIEWED BEN!!! ✨✨✨✨

[koskela13]

So, there’s an Amphibia Swap AU where Marcy is in Anne’s place, Anne in Sasha’s and Sasha in Marcy’s.

And this came to me: What if the reason they ended up in Amphibia was the same, with Marcy being the one saying she just found the perfect birthday present for Anne when she really wanted to avoid moving away and losing their friendship, and these differences to both canon and the AU occurred?

- The three girls all retain their backstories, personalities and respective connections to the gems in canon, but what happens to them in Amphibia is switched around like in the AU: Marcy is taken in by the Plantars, Anne is taken prisoner by Grime and his army at Toad Tower, and Sasha becomes a close advisor to King Andrias, wanting in on his plans.

- In place of Domino II, Marcy meets Joe Sparrow and adopts him during one of her and Sprig’s quests. Anne instead adopts Domino II at some point during her time at Toad Tower… to the toads’ worry and detriment.

- Anne still has the box when they end up in Amphibia, as she was the one that opened it, and it was in the Toads’ possession until Reunion, and Anne’s feigning having sided with Grime and his army so she can find Marcy and Sasha.

- Upon returning to Wartwood, Marcy explains that she found it at a store in her world and it was supposed to be a birthday present for Anne.

- Andrias and Marcy bond during the latter’s stay in Newtopia with the Plantars when they search for information about the music box that brought the girls to Amphibia. After the search, this is when their game of Flipwart occurs, which leads to the Core wanting Marcy as its host after she beats him.

- Upon learning what’s happened to Anne, Sasha starts to feel bad about how she treated her back on Earth and promises that she’s going to make up for it when all this is over.

- Rather than try to take over Newtopia by force, Anne wants to put an end to Andrias’ plans to conquer the Multiverse, after discovering them during a visit to one of the robot factories, and of the three girls she is the only one to know of his true intentions.

- At the end of the True Colors part, Marcy is the only one still connected to her gem, and is the one who escapes with the Plantars, while Anne is stabbed by Andrias and Sasha winds up escaping with Grime.

- Sasha has a harder time trying to win the townspeople’s trust in Wartwood than in canon.

- Back on Earth, Marcy goes to her house to reunite with her parents… only to discover they already moved months ago, and a new family had just settled in, leaving her and the Plantars to have to find somewhere else to stay, leading to her winding up at the Boonchuys’. And yes. It IS as awkward as it is emotionally draining.

- With Marcy still connected to the Wit gem, the Core had to make due with Anne until Andrias can have Marcy captured alive so they can have her powers fully drained.

And those are just some ideas I have personally for how I’d handle the Amphibia Swap AU. Hopefully you guys like some of these ideas; I just thought it’d be fun to throw in my two cents with this.

[thevindicativevordan]

Thoughts on the new Priest/Pagulayan Superman mini announced?

I did not see this coming!

Priest was expressing some frustration in recent podcast interviews he was on that he felt like he was getting pigeonholed as "a villain writer" the same way he had been pigeonholed as "a black writer". Now he gets the chance to write a straightforward hero, and one of the Trinity no less. Shocked it isn't Batman given that's the guy Priest has named as his favorite DC hero, but Kaminski is close to Priest since he edited Priest's Deathstroke run, which might be why it's Superman instead of Batman Priest ended up on.

When it comes to Superman himself Priest has said this:

I see Kal-El as a kind of buffed out Tom Hanks: an identifiable Everyman with whom I identify a great deal. As a minister and a person of faith, I try, every day, to do good, to be helpful. We live in a cynical world where people are perhaps rightly suspicious of strangers trying to help them, and it is frustrating to constantly be treated with suspicion. There are days when I tire of it, where I become anxious about it, where I throw up my hands in anger.

But, the next day, I just get up and start over again. That’s Superman.

Amusingly in that same interview he also said there was little to no chance he would ever write Superman because "his" Superman would bear little resemblance to the Rebirth incarnation of the time, and likely mock that status quo. Will this story retain that aspect? I know quite a few people who would love to see Priest take the piss out of that era, as a guy who mostly enjoyed Rebirth I'm game to see Priest take swings at Superman. We've got PKJ and Williamson doing the ongoings which are all about letting Superman be cool, Waid as the biggest Superman fanboy ever writing the character in World's Finest and Testament, even Russel is very positive towards the character in Space Age, no better time than now to let Priest deconstruct Superman before hopefully putting him back together.

Pitch reminds me of Joe Kelly's Superman story where he's stuck fighting demons with Wonder Woman for eons. He's tempted to cheat on Lois but stays true, that was a story all about Superman's willpower and fidelity. Here I expect the story will examine the emotional toll that comes with being Superman. If like me you've been waiting for a Tom King Mister Miracle-esque approach to the character as opposed to the love letter of Up in the Sky, then I think this book will give you what you've been looking for. Reuniting the Deathstroke team for Superman makes me very excited to get my hands on this come March.

[elizabeth-mitchells]

Andy and Quynh One Shots - chapter 50 -  Impossibly Sweet and Disgustingly in Love

Prompt: Andy and Quynh being impossibly sweet and disgustingly in love around everyone Tags: Post-Canon, Fluff, Extreme Fluff, Tooth-rotting fluff, dangerous amounts of fluff, absolutely nothing but fluff

reposting my favorite one with an added bonus to wish everyone a happy new year!!

the most beautiful and incredible art inspired by this prompt by the lovely and crazy talented @mortt-artsy is here 

The first victim was Booker. Ever since he had joined the team, considering Joe and Nicky were always together, he was used to partnering up with Andy during their missions. When Nile joined in and shortly after they were reunited with Quynh, he stayed with the two older women while Nile joined the other couple. Now, seeing Andy and Quynh fight side by side was an incredible thing, it was admirable, intimidating and somehow, beautiful. But, then there was the downside, whenever they had to sit around and wait for a signal or the right moment to attack, and he was left there while Andy and Quynh…

“Andromache, focus!” Quynh squirmed on her place on Andy’s lap. They were sitting on top of a building somewhere, Booker was intensely focused on his binoculars pointing at somewhere in the distance, and Andy was thoroughly entertained holding Quynh in her arms and kissing her neck.

“I am focused!” Andy tried to defend herself but, after another kiss, she added, “but only on you.”

“Lucky me,” Quynh whispered, turning her head to meet Andy’s eyes. There she found the usual unmeasurable love and adoration in every shade of green.

“No, I’m the lucky one here,” Andy held her close, softly brushed her nose against Quynh’s, and then finally indulged herself in kissing her favorite pair of lips.

In the background, they could faintly hear Booker cursing in French under his breath.

--

Soon enough, Nile encountered a similar fate. Andy and Quynh had volunteered to cook dinner, but after it was obvious they weren’t getting very far on it, Nile forced herself to go in and help. Though she stopped in her tracks when she entered the kitchen and found Andy sitting on the counter and Quynh standing between her legs. The two women were exchanging quick kisses and completely ignoring Nile’s presence.

“We could forget about dinner, you know?” Andy kissed her. She had her arms loosely draped on her lover’s shoulders, and she was strongly considering just pulling her closer already. Then she added, “I have something different in mind.”

“Oh, do you, my heart?” It was Quynh’s turn to kiss her, “I think I might have the same thing in mind.”

They kissed again while they ignored the whispered “Gross,” coming from Nile still standing by the doorway trying to get their attention.

“Something sweet?” Andy whispered against her lover’s lips.

Quynh lightly bit Andy’s bottom lip and then slowly released it and pulled away enough to say, “Stop pretending you’re flirting, I know you hate cooking and would seriously prefer to jump to the dessert.”

Andy laughed wholeheartedly at that, and let her head fall on Quynh’s shoulder, “I love you so much,” she said, with her lips brushing the woman’s neck.

“Guys!” Nile turned around and yelled in the direction of the living room, “We are ordering pizza!”

--

Even Joe and Nicky, previously unparalleled couple in being extravagantly in love with each other, found some… light aversion to the two women’s newly rekindled flame. The two men perfectly understood how passionate love could be between two immortal beings, and they had even seen Andy and Quynh before torture and grief had tainted their souls. However, now they were seeing what it meant to have five hundred years of love to make up for. Plus, it looked like the women had suddenly remembered their old on-going joke of annoyingly, but hopefully playfully, constantly reminding the men that they had been together for much, much, much longer.

They were driving away after a mission. Joe was behind the steering wheel, Nicky was on the passenger seat and Quynh was sitting in the back seat, with Andy laying down with her head on Quynh’s lap.

“So, it’s almost three thousand years now then?” Quynh wondered, while her fingers played with Andy’s hair, “Three millennia of devoted and ardent love?”

“Yes,” Andy, who was holding Quynh’s other hand, brought it to her lips and started tenderly kissing her knuckles one by one. “I have treasured you since the very first dream of you I had, and I have adored you more and more every day.” Andy’s eyes were soft in a way that only Quynh had ever seen them, but Quynh also loved the way that in the blink of an eye she could read the sudden change for playfulness in her lover’s eyes. “We should celebrate like during our second millennium. So long ago, and still, it feels like yesterday.”

“I agree, my heart” Quynh smiled with matching mischief, “and do you remember our first thousand years together? It went by in the blink of an eye!”

“Oh, I could never forget!” Andy replied with a perfect teasing tone, “Even if we have loved each other for two more thousands of years after that.”

“That’s literally three times more, huh?” Quynh couldn’t hold back a small laugh, even if then she added more seriously, “Every thousand of years is impossibly better when I’m with you”. Her voice had turned soft and sincere and it was obvious she wasn’t just thinking about teasing their friends. Every ounce of love and truth in her voice and heart was perfectly matched in every feature of Andy’s face and the spark in her eyes. It was so easy to forget the rest of the world existed when they were staring at each other just like that.

Still, on the front seat, Nicky’s face was settled in a deep frown. Joe was tightly gripping the steering wheel, and he mumbled, “You two should get a taxi.” But they continued to be ignored by Andy and Quynh, still lost in each other’s eyes, in their memories, in all the love they had ahead of themselves.

--

This tendency of Andy and Quynh being impossibly sweet and disgustingly in love around everyone, didn’t lessen with time, to the surprise, delight, and annoyance of different members of the group.

Nile swore off grocery shopping with the two other women after the time that something about some cheese brought out a pleasant memory that had Andy and Quynh making out with each other in the middle of the aisle. On one occasion Booker had to shoot himself in the foot to get out of shooting practice, because successfully introducing Quynh to modern weapons had turned into Andy praising the woman’s skills in a seemingly unending speech. Then there was Joe, who would refuse to visit a certain mall for at least a century after someone in a store mistook him for Quynh’s husband, right before everyone there noticed his alleged wife getting up to some highly inappropriate business in the dressing rooms with another woman. Nicky wasn’t the exception either, since he had lost count of how many times he had to walk out of the kitchen, unable to take one more second of Andy and Quynh exchanging affectionate words and lovingly feeding each other bites of whatever sweet dessert they had that day.

Finally, when the entire family was together, well, there was no difference. They could try to tease Andy for her sudden, and wrongly deemed uncharacteristic, softness, but she’d reply with a threat or Quynh would successfully intimidate them in her defense or, more often than not, Andy would simply not notice at all, completely lost while staring at the love of her life. They could try to complain when both women laughed about inside jokes while they walked toward a mission, or when they flirted with each other in a dead language only they knew while they were all having dinner together.

But, at the end of the day, when it was time to enjoy some time to themselves, relaxing in some remote corner of the world, the six of them scattered around a safe house’s living room and watching a movie chosen by Nile, it wasn’t annoying at all. Centuries of pain, guilt, grief, and nightmares, that in moments like this they could pretend never happened. Moments when Nile, Booker, Joe, and Nicky can do nothing but exchange smiles with each other, genuinely overjoyed to watch Andy and Quynh, the two women that had suffered the longest, and loved each other even longer, finally get a chance to do nothing but enjoy each other’s company.

It didn’t matter if it could be annoying to be in the presence of the couple that had been together for the longest amount of time in history and still had the ability to love each other with the dedication and enthusiasm of millennia ago. Sometimes, all the mattered was Andy and Quynh, falling asleep in each other’s arms, with smiles in their faces, and in their hearts the glorious knowledge that they would wake up the next day to continue loving each other more than ever before.

[firstagent]

Review: Digimon Adventure: (2020) Episode 27: To The New Continent

In this episode, Patamon trolls everyone by only evolving after the rest of the team ekes out a narrow win.

There are moments during each series that you just salivate waiting for because you know they’re going to be epic. The fall of an arc’s villain. A team finally coming together for a big united battle. The unleashing of a promised new power. When you’re looking at a show that’s entirely driven by story and action, the payoffs for these moments have to click. As much as this season lacks, it has pulled some of these off. DoneDevimon’s defeat may have been narratively awkward but you can’t say it wasn’t big or memorable. And the big united team wins over Gorimon and Eyesmon remain epic highlights. So there’s decent odds that Angemon’s triumphant return is going to blow us away, right? Time to be let down again…

With the team finally reunited and after an intense run of fighting evil incarnate and sitting in a gazebo, maybe we expected too much in thinking there would be actual personality revealed. Instead of talking about anything interesting, the two sides slog through the formalities of catching up. Hikari continues to be as creepy as ever, staring at Taichi with dead eyes and no idea what’s happening. Her introduction to Takeru is spotlighted to be a big moment, our two cryptids meeting for the first time, shippers all ready to make hasty assumptions about them. It’s the most generic exchange imaginable. There should be something notable about Hikari not being fazed by the presence of Digimon, but neither was Sora and there’s nothing notable about her this season.

Beyond the bland interactions and the traditional act of Joe making a fool of himself, the priority shifts instead to Koshiro somehow managing to upgrade the Digimon analyzer in the spare time he didn’t have, and watching the Zurumon they left behind continue to unleash havoc on the real world. Real world implications have always added to the pressure of what our heroes are trying to do, but unless the trouble is nearby, there’s a ceiling where it just becomes a generic “the world is in trouble.” As dramatic as the sight of a NASA rocket exploding at launch is, it’s all detached from the reality the kids are in. Much like the tanker crisis, they’re watching everything through a computer screen, and none of them have a personal stake in anything. As far as they’re concerned, everything happening now is a step down from Tokyo nearly getting nuked in the first three episodes.

The rocky arrival on the new continent and their run-ins with the Tortamon and Groundramon build on the nature of the post-Devimon world, morphing into this Tamers-esque environment where everybody’s trying to kill each other to gain more evolution power. It’s an unsettling development, but also rapidly devolving into an excuse to give us a monster every week that doesn’t have any connection to the overall story. Groundramon is visually imposing and gives everybody a good battle, but he’s functionally pointless once it’s established that he’s found a new interpretation to the term “turtle power.” Everybody contributes enough to the fight, but naturally it comes down to Taichi’s heroics, a combination of strategic ingenuity and utter recklessness that’s almost a little too clever to root for.

It’s one of those episodes that would have worked better had we just been able to write it off as more filler and move on to something hopefully meaningful. But its attempt at significance drags it down even more with a tacked-on appearance by DarkKnightmon. His presence on the new continent is totally predictable (as evidenced by us predicting it two episodes ago!); the only surprise is that they’d waste his debut at the end of a throwaway episode like this, all out of desperation for some sort of cliffhanger.

Compounding the problem is that they wasted yet another big moment: Angemon’s big return. There’s no warning for it, no big moment of personal growth. The show forgets Takeru exists half the time and we have no idea who he is beyond brother to Yamato and puppet to the Holy Digimon. But suddenly here comes Angemon, a tidy seven episodes after his initial death. Without the emotional buildup, what should be a triumphant moment is met with a shrug. Especially because Takeru and Patamon just watched the rest of their team get their asses kicked by Groundramon for twenty minutes. They didn’t consider maybe jumping in and helping out during all that?

My Grade: C

Loose Data:

Sora checking with Yamato that Takeru was “the brother” sounded less like actual interest in Yamato’s family and more confirming that Yamato’s story was actually true. With that tone she could have asked for ID.

Farewell Team Leomon. Rest assured we’d rather follow you guys, wherever you ended up. We’re even going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you survived that storm. With this series, that takes a lot of trust!

If you want a perfect example of how lazy the show is about showing character, look at Koshiro’s lack of reaction to Taichi throwing Hikari into his care. Any sort of discomfort about suddenly being responsible for his friend’s little sister could offer clues about Koshiro’s family situation, or his surprise at the degree Taichi trusts him. In episode 36 of the original series, Yamato really struggled when Taichi left Hikari in his care and it was beautiful. That’s also the same episode Joe got an new evolution over his determination to protect Takeru.

The level of acrobatics Taichi continuously has to perform to jump and land on Greymon is getting borderline ridiculous. Of course, his insistence on always riding Greymon already is.

Sadly, the best character interaction of the episode was Greymon teasing Garurumon before their fight with the Tortamon. And even that doesn’t give us anything new!

Mimi freaks out atop Birdramon but is absolutely fine once she lands, even saying that it was a fun trip. We appreciate that Mimi’s doing her best to be interesting, even joining us in complaining about DarkKnightmon’s gratuitous appearance!

See reviews of every Digimon episode at Digimon: System Restore! Support the site by joining our Patreon!

[365days365movies]

January 27, 2021: The Raid: Redemption (2011)

So, uh...I’ve switched things up a touch. Originally, I was going to do Lindy West’s suggestion today, but...no. No, I need something good to pick me up from yesterday’s disappointment. So, we move from the United States to a country with far, FAR less movies: Indonesia.

The country of over 17,000 islands hasn’t exactly made a lot of films, but their film industry does exist. I might look more into these films someday, but the one film that EVERYBODY recommends is Gareth Evans’ The Raid: Redemption. And no, Gareth isn’t an INdonesian name; it’s a Welsh name for a Welsh director best known for his Indonesian films. Interesting, innit?

See, Evans was hired to direct a film about the Indonesian martial art type, pencak silat. One of the specialists he filmed was Iko Uwais, who was a deliveryman at the time. Together, the two made the movie Merantau in 2009, and it was a big success in Indonesia. So, the two reunited for another film.

And hopefully, that film will leave me more satisfied than The Expendables did. Shall we? SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap

The day begins as a policeman, Rama (Iko Uwais), prays, spars aggressively with a training bag, and says goodbye to his pregnant wife (Fikha Effendi). His father (Henky Solaiman) is also there, and he promises to “get him back.” Don’t know who “him” is, so I’m intrigued.

In a truck, 20 SWAT agents, Rama included, are being briefed on an upcoming raid of a building that would appear to be a crime hotel run by drug lord Tama (Ray Sahetapy). While raids have been attempted before, none have been particularly successful. This time, however, they pledge to take down as many people as humanly possible, and clean up the city of Jakarta as a result.

The agents, led by Jaka (Joe Taslim) and Wayhu (Pierre Gruno), stand below the massive concrete apartment building, and creep their way into it. They split into two groups: one takes out a guard, and goes in through one entrance. The other encounters Gofar (Iang Darmawan), an innocent tenant with a sick wife upstairs. Hothead Bowo grabs and threatens him, before being told off by Rama.

Rama promises to get the man to his wife and apartment safely, and the group goes in. The raid’s begun as they begin arrests of everybody in the building, floor-by-floor. They make it to the sixth floor, where they encounter a child in a hallway. They fail to calm the child down, and he runs to warn a friend...and is then shot in the neck by Wahyu. This movie just killed a kid, guys. Holy shit. 

The second kid raises a building-wide alarm, and now EVERYBODY knows that the police are here, including Tama and his two lieutenants, Andi (Donny Alamsyah) and Mad Dog (Yahan Ruihan). And now, all hell breaks loose.

Tama’s reinforcements arrive, and take out the officers RUTHLESSLY. One guy single-handedly takes back the fifth floor, and the SWAT truck is shot up as well. Snipers take out officers on the outside and in windows. And as our remaining officers start to realize this, Tama makes an announcement over the comms, announcing both the SWAT team’s position and free rent in the apartment building for those who take them out. Yeah, they’re FUCKED.

What’s even worse is that nobody knows that this team is there, according to Wahyu, which means that there are no reinforcements coming. Also affirms my suspicions that Wahyu is a SHITTY cop, holy shit. And as I’m thinking that, with all of the men in a dark stairwell…

HOLY FUCK!!! Tama’s men above, SWAT below, trading gunfire and picking each other off like a close-up trench war! The only light during the fight is from their muzzle fire! This is...amazing, oh my God.

Tama and his guys are watching from cameras all the while, and Tama seems to know Wahyu, and how shitty a cop he is. He gives the order: wipe them out, and destroy any evidence they were here. Nobody will know. Nice one, Wahyu; nice one. The SWAT team narrowly escapes into a room, only to be greeted by gunfire from the outside. Trapped again, Rama comes up with a solution: get to the floor below by chopping through the floor with an axe! FUCK YES.

And the action doesn’t stop there! They get ambushed in that room, and use the axe to defend themselves, as well as fighting and guns. At one point, the criminals come in through the floor above, and a guy catches one in mid-fall, and THROWS HIM THROUGH A WINDOW WHAT

And then, AND FUCKING THEN, they put a tank of compressed flammable gas in an empty fridge, shove it against the door, throw a FUCKING GRENADE IN THERE, AND BLOW THE FRIDGE THROUGH THE GUYS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR

WHOOOOOOOO I’M BACK BABY THIS FUCKIN’ RULES

Tama, frustrated at the damage and loss of his men, sends Andi and Mad Dog to take care of the situation. Meanwhile, a scarce handful of officers are left, including Rama, Bowo, Jaka, Wayhu, Dagu (Eka Rahmadia) (whom I haven’t yet had cause to mention), and about three more officers have survived.

Rama and Bowo make their way to the 7th floor, where Rama hopes to leave the badly injured Bowo with the tenant from earlier. Rama fights off, just...SO many gang members, allegedly pulling no punches (allegedly because he totally does, if you look at the fights), and eventually makes it to Gofar’s door. Despite his sick wife and reluctance to help, he agrees to take them in. Tama’s men barge in, looking for the men, who are hiding within a hidden wall compartment. And that’s when…

HOLY SHIT THAT WAS FUCKIN’ RAD AS HELL

But Andi, another of Tama’s men, is headed down to take care of this mess. On the elevator down, he TAKES OUT TWO OF HIS COLLEAGUES, WHAT?!? OK, some questions to resolve here, but I’m sure we’ll get to it. Rama leaves to find the others, and immediately gets into another fight. He throws a man down a staircase at one point.

Ow. OW. Just when he’s cornered by sword-boy and more goons, we get yet another Rama hallway fight, this one much more authentic-feeling, damn! And it ends with Rama tackling a dude out of a window, FALLING WITH HIM ONTO A FIRE ESCAPE, AND DIVING INTO ANOTHER APARTMENT LIKE A GODDAMN CHAMPION

And unlike other stereotypical action protagonists, he’s not exactly OK after all this. He stumbles about, hallucinates a little for good measure, and almost passes out until found by...someone he knows. The “him” from earlier perhaps? Iiiiiiinteresting.

Back to the other SWAT agents, finally! Holed up in an apartment, Wayhu writes off Rama and Bowo as dead. Jaka ain’t exactly happy about this comment, or with Wayhu. We now find out that this mission isn’t sanctioned by the police, hence no reinforcements. Additionally, Wayhu may not be on the up-and-up, as it’s implied that he may be a corrupt cop. Jaka, tired of his bullshit, gathers the men to go find their colleagues.

Not that that lasts very long, because Mad Dog ambushes them literally as soon as they open the door. Holding Jaka at gunpoint, he guides him back into the apartment, where the two fight. Oh, and this one’s GOOD. It’s REAL good, holy shit.

Cool as it is, though, it represents the end for Jaka, and Mad Dog snaps his neck, and he’s gone. Damn. HELL of a fight, though. Mad Dog’s doing well, but how about Andi?

Well, Andi’s the guy who took Rama, and yes, he’s the “him” that Rama mentioned to their father. That’s right, THEIR father, because Andi’s his brother. They bond and catch up, and while they do clearly love each other, they’re also estranged, due to their differing paths in life. But Rama signed up for this mission SPECIFICALLY to get Andi back home, to their father. Andi refuses, and tells Rama to leave before he gets killed. Rama also refuses, not wanting to abandon his colleagues to the gang. And so, they part ways.

We’re down to four now: Rama, Wayhu, Bowo, and Dagu. Rama proposes going for Tama, the location of whom the corrupt Wayhu already knows. Just like how Tama knows that Andi is a traitor, having saved Rama. Tama stabs Andi in the hand, and questions him on who Rama is, and the nature of their relationship. I’m sure it’ll end well for Andi.

Our three remaining non-injured cops take out a drug lab in the building, where we get some more good fight choreography, and the reason that Dagu is here: he’s a pretty goddamn good fighter. And I know I’m breaking records for the number of videos in this one, but their fights are...just stellar.

Afterwords, Rama finds his brother being used as a human punching bag by Mad Dog. See here’s the thing about Mad Dog; he’s a brawler at heart. While he might use guns to kill or threaten people if he has to, he prefers to use his hands and feet. And now...it’s two on one. This gon’ be güd.

Wayhu and Dagu, meanwhile, corner Tama in his office. Whew, finally, good guys prevail.

AWWWWWWW, DAGU! We hardly knew ye! Literally, I’m not sure you did literally anything the whole movie, except for fight that one time, like 6 minutes ago. Wayhu holds up Tama at gunpoint, ordering him to get them out of there safely.

The fight between Mad Dog and the brothers is still happening, by the way, and it’s still awesome...despite the terrible sound editing during these fights. Yeah, I’ll get there in the Epilogue. This fight, though, is crazy. It’s incredibly difficult to track who exactly has the upper hand throughout, but eventually, Mad Dog reveals that it’s him. He locks Rama in the same stranglehold that killed Jaka...and then...I’m putting this fight in video right here, because the ending is amazing. THE WHOLE FIGHT IS AMAZING

After that’s all said and done, the brothers escape, and encounter Wayhu and Tama. Wayhu fires upon the brothers, fully turned traitor at this point. Tama tells Wayhu that there isn’t much hope for him anyway, especially as the person who ordered Wayhu to take the hit already told Tama that the raid was going to happen. No, this was never about Tama; Wayhu was the target all along, as they sent him there to die.

Not that it matters, as he kills Tama regardless. Realizing that he doesn’t have much better luck outside of the building at this point, he tries to do the same to himself, only to finally be out of bullets. WHOOF.

It’s over. With Andi’s help, they get evidence against Tama and all of the corrupt cops that he dealt with, retrieve Bowo, and leave the building. Andi stays behind, once again stating that this is where he belongs. The brothers part ways once again.

And THAT...was The Raid: Redemption. GOD. DIGGITY. DAMN. EPILOGUE.

[mirkwoodshewolf]

Lessons from Ben Cardy; Ben Hardy x reader ft. Joe Mazzello

*Author’s note*

Hey guys well this idea had been buzzing around in my head for months. I kid you not months on end since a certain video of when Joe Mazzello not only did the Ben Cardy but also included the real Ben Hardy himself. So I decided to do this little fic since I managed to FINALLY get some free time in my hectic schedule but this will be the last update for awhile cause I’ve got a convention this weekend, my sister’s wedding the next weekend and then finals the following week but hopefully by the summer I’ll be back to do tons more updates and work on those requests to the anons who sent them back during my winter break. I PROMISE!!!

So in the fic you will literally find no warnings just PURE FLUFF AND GOOEYNESS OF MORE FLUFF!!! Hope you all love this cause I sure as heck enjoyed writing it :)

___________________________________________________

The sun peered in through my curtains of my bedroom.  I let out a groan and turned to the side of my bed and saw the infamous cutout of Ben Hardy laying on my bed.

“Oh Joe I’m gonna kill you!” I hissed under my breath.  I shot out of bed and grabbed the cardboard and trudged out of my room and banged on Joe’s room and cried out, “Joseph Mazzello III you get your ass out here right now!!” The door soon opened and as soon as Joe saw me with Cardboard Ben he said.

“Whoa (y/n) long night?”

“Shut up you little shit! I know you implanted this thing in my bed.” He gasped and took the cutout back and said as he stroked it’s head.

“How dare you? She didn’t mean that Benjamin. She’s just cranky in the mornings, you’ll get used to it.”  I shook my head at him and said.

“Joey, it’s a piece of cardboard that looks like him.”

“You’re hurting your boyfriend’s feelings (y/n)!”

God how I’ve put up with Joe Mazzello after all these years I’ll never know, but again my life would’ve been boring without him.  As a kid while most girls wanted to be pop stars, princesses or movie stars, I had an interest in fashion.  By the time I was in high school, I got involved with my school’s theatre department and always got involved with the costume department.

In college I majored in fashion and got an internship at the best shopping centers in New York City.  Soon my works got viewed by magazines and Hollywood that I had actually been offered to do the costumes for an upcoming B movie.  I worked my way up until finally I was called up by Steven Spielberg himself to do the costume work for his and Tom Hank’s new project “The Pacific”.

I think that out of any decade that I would say would be my favorite is the 1940’s just because of the simplicity of their fabric and designs.  Plus I’m a sucker for a man in Marine uniforms.  And it was through The Pacific that I met and became friends with both Joe Mazzello and Rami Malek.

Every day with those two was an adventure and full of laughter and stories.  Joe had told me how he worked with Stephen back when he was a kid for Jurassic Park, of course me being me I freaked out because I practically grew up on that movie and watched it religiously. 

Even after the show wrapped, I kept in contact with both Joe and Rami and I soon got involved with bigger film projects, hell if you’ve seen Guardians of the Galaxy, I helped design the Ravagers, Gamora’s, Ronin’s and Nebula’s costumes.  Then one day I was on break after doing the 2nd GOTG movie, I had gotten a call from Graham King the Producer of a new Queen biopic that he was planning to do and asked to see me.

I agreed because this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Along with the 1940’s, I always loved the outfits that the actual band members of Queen wore.  They just gradually changed with the era and it was just amazing to see them evolve with it.  I met with Graham, even got to meet with Brian May and Roger Taylor themselves and they were impressed with my work and happily welcomed me on board as the head costume designer.

So I flew out to England to where we would be filming and as I was getting myself set up, I actually gotten a big surprise that day.  I was at my station pulling out and organizing all my sketch books and labeled to which band member would be in which book, when suddenly I felt something tickle my waist.

I let out an almost inhuman shriek and when I turned around I saw two very familiar faces.  It was Rami and Joe.  I gasped and let out a cheer as I hugged Rami who was closest to me.  He picked me up and spun me around laughing joyously before setting me down when Joe piped in.

“Oh I see how it is (n/n) good to know where your loyalties lie.”

“Shut up you little shit and get over here and hug me.” I had told him.  He then picked me up and spun me just like Rami did. They told me that they had gotten the led roles as Freddie Mercury and John Deacon respectively, and when I told them I would be the head designer for the project, they were so happy for me just as happy as I was for them.

The three musketeers reunited at last.

As the filming went on, I also got to get close with the two other gentlemen playing Roger and Brian.  Gwilym and I had a lot in common in favorite authors and plays since I had done some Broadway work before being signed up onto Hollywood, and Ben…..

Ahh Ben Hardy.  That loveable man.  I mean it was hard to not get along with Ben, he was sweet, kind-hearted, a great listener, and had a great personality. And it seemed that the more time I got to spend time with Ben, the more my feelings began to develop for him.  And of course with Roger’s well-known wardrobe choice, it made it so hard to stop a blush from beaming on my face, especially when it was an outfit where it would show his chest.

Of course Joey being Joey knew immediately of my little crush on Ben and every day would tease me about it while in his John Deacon get up, either dropping the accent or using it.

After filming ended and I went back to the states, Joe had actually invited me to stay with him for a while.  Since living in New York was so expensive, he offered for me to stay in his home.  He says it was because he missed his ‘bestest friend in the whole wide world’ and wanted to spend time with me, but I think he just wants more opportunity to torment about my feelings for a certain blonde Brit.  He even went as far as to buy a cardboard cutout of said Brit and bringing it back after the press tour in Tokyo.

Of course he spread the ‘Ben Cardy’ all over Instagram and the fans were going nuts over it.  After having to do two big projects back to back I’ve decided to take a year off work so I guess it’s good that Joe offered me to come live with him, cause if I hadn’t I’d probably be evicted out of my apartment.

Now back to the present, I rolled my eyes and muttered.

“You’re so annoying.”

“Aww you know you love me.”

“Do I know that?” I teased as I headed to the kitchen.  As I got me a bowl of Coco-Puffs, Joe came into the kitchen and said.

“C’mon (n/n), why can’t you just say?”

“Say what?”

“You love Ben.” I dropped my spoon into the bowl and said.

“Why must you be so nosy about my love-life Joey?”

“Because I want my two best friends to get together and name me the godfather of their future children.” I shook my head at him and that’s when he said, “But seriously (y/n), you’ve been pining over Ben since the start of filming. Anytime he was even mentioned you’d blush like a lobster.”

“But Joe…..even if I did confess, you know that I’d…..how would I go about being a good girlfriend? This is whole new territory for me. And I’m ashamed.”  I felt Joe come up behind me and wrap his arms around me, hugging me from behind. 

Yeah it’s true. In my 26 years of living, never once did I have a boyfriend.  It just seemed that no guy ever wanted to go out with me, meanwhile all my friends were losing their V cards by the time they were 16.  Then I guess I got so involved with my growing career that I just didn’t want to go into the dating scene.

“There’s no need to be ashamed (y/n). You just needed the right partner. And I think Ben’s that partner. He’s your lobster.”

“Did you really just quote Phoebe Buffay?”

“Damn right I did. Wait here for a second.”

“Oh my god Joe can’t it wait till I have my cereal first?”

“Nope!”

“Ugh! Then you owe me breakfast for this when it gets soggy.” It was then Joe came back with Cardboard Ben in tow.  “No, no, no! I’m not practicing with a cardboard cutout of him!”

“Too late chickadee, now come into the living room and sit on the couch next to dear old Benjamin.” I groaned but followed his order and sat down a couple inches away from where Joe had Cardboard Ben sitting.

“I can’t believe you’re making me do this.”

“Trust me it’ll help you for when the real day comes. Now talk to him.” Joe ducked down behind the arm of the couch but kept Ben adjusted.  I faced Ben and said.

“Hey Ben,”

“Yes love what is it?” Joe spoke, mimicking Ben’s accent and that’s when I broke and said.

“Gah I can’t do this Joe!”

“Yes you can, pretend I’m not here keep going you’re doing great.” He said as he peeked his head out from the couch.

“Joe—”

“Don’t chicken out you wuss!” He demanded which led me to sigh heavily.  “Ben?”

“Yes darling?”

“There’s—well I have uhh……lately I…..”

“It’s okay (y/n), you can tell me, you know I’d never laugh at you.” I looked up at the cutout and could almost swear that it really was Ben speaking to me.  I took a deep breath in before exhaling out.

“Imighthaveharboredacrushonyousincefilmingstarted.” I rushed out.

“Love I couldn’t understand you, what was that?”

“I…..might have….harbored…..a crush on you Ben. No I—I like you Ben. I mean really, really, really like you.” I felt my face burning up and that’s when Joe spoke up in Ben’s accent.

“Wow (y/n) I’m honored that you feel that way about me,” oh god why did I feel like there was a but coming in. “But,” I knew it. “I unfortunately have another waiting for me.” I lowered my head when I heard Joe say, “A strong, handsome brunette man with an American accent, not Welsh of course. He’s the man of my dreams.”

“Joey!” I whined out.

“Sorry I had to. Gwilym and Ben are having their little buddy-bromance story all over Instagram and I’ve gotta do better.” He said as he got up from behind the couch.

“Nice to know your relationship with Ben is more important than mine.” I snapped at him. I felt Joe sit beside me and wrap an arm around me and he said.

“I’m sorry, but you know Ben will love you. I mean how can someone not fall in love with someone like you? From day one since Rami and I met you all those years ago, we knew you were someone special. You’re smart, you’re beautiful, the youngest and most fashionable fashionista that I know. And if Ben can’t see that, then he’s a dick.” I felt Joe tuck a strand of hair behind my ear and I smiled softly.

“Thanks Joey, what would I do without you?”

“Be all depressed and focused solely on your work.” I slapped his arm making him cry out in pain and collapse onto the floor crying in pain in such a dramatic way.

“That didn’t hurt.”

“Yes it did, you’re so mean!”

“Oh get up yah big baby.” I pulled him up and that’s when I was suddenly thrown over his shoulder like a sack of flower. “Gah Joe put me down!”

“Nah I don’t think I want to.” He then spun around and I gripped onto the back of his shirt tightly and said.

“Joseph Mazzello I swear I’ll hurl all over you if you don’t put me down right now!” He set me down and I adjusted myself trying to make myself more presentable. “Remember you owe me breakfast now because I’m betting you $20 that my cereal’s gone bad.”

“Fine lets head over to Dunkin Doughnuts and get us something and I’ll even throw in a Starbuck for you.” He said as he extended his hand out.

“Deal.” We shook on it and then went to our rooms to get dressed and head on out. 

A week later, the BoRhap cast was back together for a little reunion just before the award seasons start.  We all decided to head to the best karaoke bar this side of New York had.  We reserved our table and ordered our meal and looked through the song book to see what kind of songs they were allowing.

“Oh guys check this out they have an entire section of Queen songs.” Gwilym said.

“Ohh what all do they have?” asked Lucy.

“They’ve got pretty much everything.” He answered.

“All except Bohemian Rhapsody.” I replied.

“Aww why don’t they have it?” whine Lu.

“I think I read somewhere the reason they banned it was because last time a group of guys tried it, a fight broke out as a drunk man tried to stop it and the person who was the front man started a fight with the guy. But then again it could also be because they don’t allow six minute songs.”

“Well I pity their wives if they think six minutes is forever.” Answered Rami.  We all laughed and the inside joke and Joe and I high fived Rami for speaking up about that.

As the night got late, some of us like me were a little tipsy while others were completely wasted e.g. Joe.  Joe had just gotten done singing “Purple Rain” by Prince and of course he dedicated it to Ben.  I couldn’t help but film the whole performance and hearing him screech out the lyrics, it was hilarious and now I had some blackmail on him because during one point of the song, he had actually tripped on the wire of the mic but still kept singing.

Lucy and I did a duet of Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s girl” I sang a couple lyrics of the first verse before she finished and we both did the chorus together.  Jumping up and down to the beat and leaning up against each other and then we’d flip roles for the next verse and it continued to that formula. 

As Alan was singing “Love of my life” to his lovely wife, I was sitting at the bar getting my next drink when I heard Ben’s voice say.

“Wonderful performance up there.”

“Please it was all liquid courage. I hadn’t done karaoke in years. In fact ‘Somebody to love’ was my first Queen karaoke song back in what was it—middle school? No High school, no wait definitely middle school cause I had a bunch of kids looking at me weird because they had no idea who it was that I was singing to.”

“Seemed your middle school was clearly uneducated in the music department.”

“Tell me about it. All they listened to was their rap music.” Ben laughed softly and there was a bit of silence between us till he finally spoke up.

“Do you remember during the second week of shooting, the day Joe dared me to try and dip him?” I laughed and said.

“How could I possibly forget that?”

*Flashback*

I had just gotten Joe’s jacket on him for the scene where Freddie tries to reconcile with the band in Miami’s office.

“Thanks (n/n) you’re the best.”

“Anytime Joey.” I walked out of the set and watched from behind the camera as the boys ran their lines.  But for some reason one of the records that hung up from the wall kept falling down.  I was surprised that no one had broken character cause I was about to die laughing.

It was then Graham decided to call a break while they tried to fix the falling record.

“Hey Ben, I wanna try something!” Joe cried out.

“What is it Joe?”

“Dip me.”

“What?”

“Dip me, you know the dance dip. I’ve never been on the dipping end of it and I want to try it.”

“And why must it be me to dip you? Why not Rami or Gwil?”

“Rami’s too deep in character and Gwil’s twiggy arms might break.”

“Thanks mate.” Gwilym pipped in sarcastically.

“C’mon Benny please, just this once.”

“Alright, alright come here then.” And it was there that Ben took Joe in his arms, wrapped one arm around him and bent him backwards. Joe let out a playful swoon.

“Ohh Benjamin you’re such a divine dancer.” I rolled my eyes at him as he looked straight at me when he said those words. As Ben lifted Joe up it was then Gwil said.

“Wait, I’ve got a better idea to make this a bit more interesting.” It was then he grabbed an apple from the concession stand and held it up.

“No, no, no that’s too much!”

“Aww c’mon Joe it’s no different than a rose.” I teased him.

“No because he’ll just focus on the apple and drop me on my head!”

“Mate I promise I won’t drop you.” Ben assured him.

“You promise?” Joe asked skeptically.

“I swear it.” Ben vowed.  Joe turned to Gwil who still held the apple.  His brow quirked up as he extended his arm out to Joe and Joey took the apple and placed it in his mouth and got back to position one with Ben.

With our phones, Gwil and I took pics of the progression and once Ben took hold of the apple, he set Joe back up before taking the apple out of his mouth.

“Please tell me we got some good shots of that?” proclaimed Joe.

“I got you.” I proclaimed as I handed him my phone and he browsed through the pics.

“Send those to me.” I gave him a thumbs up and that’s when I heard him say, “Okay your turn.”

“Wait what?”

“Go on it’s your turn to be dipped by Ben Hardy.”

“Joe that’s really not necessary—”

“If I can do it, then so can you. Hey Ben care to take on a new partner?” I was then shoved towards Ben who steadied me.  I looked at Joe who gestured for us to get on with it. I turned to Ben and he said as he took my hand in his.

“I promise not to drop you (y/n).” My heart raced as I stared at Ben’s face.  Even with the famed “Roger Taylor” shades blocking his green eyes from my view, it still made him look absolutely handsome.  And the shoulder length blonde wig (although I do wish they had given him the same hairstyle Roger did have during this time, I saw a quick glimpse of it from an album cover they recreated and he looked handsome with the mullet look Roger had at the time). I gulped and nodded to Ben as I tried to calm myself down but that’s when Joe proclaimed.

“Wait! Wait I’ve got a better idea!” He then went over to one of the flower pot props and pulled out one of the fake flowers and held it out.

“No! No, and no Joe! Absolutely not!” I proclaimed.

“Aww c’mon (n/n), it’s no different than an apple.” He reversed my words and threw them right back in my face.  He grinned at me wagging the flower in front of me.

“I could strangle you right now.” I grumbled.

“I’d still haunt you in the afterlife dearie.” He mocked. I growled and took the flower and placed the stem between my teeth.  Oh god I can’t believe I’m doing this; god Joe is always a little shit and I swear he’s going to—

Oh, oh my god here we go Ben’s dipping me. Wow he has such a strong grip.  Not even some of my old friends could dip me like this without complaining.  Feeling his hand sprawled out along my back and his hand gently gripping mine made my stomach churn and my heart jump from my chest to my stomach.

I then saw him lean closer towards me to grab the flower. ‘Oh my god he’s leaning forward to grab the flower from my mouth.  Oh shit c’mon (y/n) just be cool, keep calm keep calm!’

As he reached for the flower, I could feel just a graze of the blonde wig tickle my cheeks and soon I was no longer holding the flower but Ben was as it lay there between his teeth and he gently set me up right. Even after bringing me back right-side-up, he forgot to let go of my waist.  The two of us looking at each other but it was soon broken by Joe’s voice.

“Okay that was hot I’ll admit that.”

“Too pure and yet passionately erotic.” Stated Gwilym.

“Okay guys we’ve got everything reset. Hopefully that record will stay for the take. Let’s wrap this scene up.” Graham called out.  It was then the guys left to go back into Miami’s office set.  Ben handed me the flower and I took it as he walked passed me.

“That boy has some skills even I didn’t have, I’ll admit that.” I jumped and turned to see Roger standing behind me.

“God Roger no wonder why Brian hates it whenever you sneak up on him like that. You’re like a freakin cat, we’ve gotta get you a bell or something.”

“That would ruin my look, so when will you finally admit it to yourself darling?” I turned to the legendary drummer and said.

“I’ve got nothing to say. Ben and I are just good friends, that’s all. Strictly platonic.”

“Uh-huh sure keep telling yourself that, love. But I can tell you this, he definitely doesn’t shut up about you. Always asking me for advice on how to woo you into his arms.”

“No he doesn’t.”

“Give yourself more credit dear, you’re a beautiful young woman. Hell if I was 50 years younger I’d definitely try to ask you out.” I laughed and said as I turned to face the old drummer.

“I’m flattered Roger, really I am. But from what I’ve heard he just got out of a nine year relationship. And I doubt he’d rebound to someone like me.”

“(Y/n) we need some help! One of the newbies screwed up the measurements for Freddie’s officer uniform!” I heard one of my assistants call out to me.

“Duty calls, see yah later Rog.” I then rushed over to help re-measure the uniform and re-worked on it just before Rami had to get into costuming with it in.

*End of flashback*

“That was probably the most interesting day on set.” I admitted.

“Yeah, but it was also one of my favorites.” He said.

“Because you and Joe got to make the fandom go crazy over the Hardzello shipping?”

“Well partly.” I looked up and saw that he had moved a little closer to me.  His arm was placed around the bar behind me, if he wanted he could’ve placed his arm around me and pulled me close to him but he didn’t.  “Truthfully (y/n) I never thought that I’d get the courage to do this but I might as well do it now while I still got the nerve.”

“What? Ben I’m confused what are you talking—”

“I love you.” At that point my heart stopped.  “I’ve been in love with you since the day I got to know you. I mean Rami and Joe have told Gwil and I loads of stories about you, but getting to actually know you face to face. Their stories don’t do you justice at all.”

“Ben you’re drunk you don’t know…..”

“No I do. I’m still sober enough to know what it is that I want. And what I want is you. To hold you, to kiss you, to make you breakfast in bed. I love you (y/n) (l/n).” I swallowed and lowered my head feeling the tears in my eyes.  “You don’t feel the same way do you?”

“No, no Ben it’s not that. Hell even Roger himself saw how crazy I was about you. I love you too Ben it’s just—” I sighed heavily and lowered my head in shame.

“What?” I felt his index finger and thumb raise my chin up so that I was forced to look into his hypnotic green eyes. “What is it love?”

“You and your ex were together for almost a decade. Meanwhile I’ve never once had a boyfriend in my over two decades of living. Hell I’ve never even kissed anyone. I feel like such a loser and you shouldn’t be exposed to someone with no experience in the dating spectrum.”

“I’m not looking for experience (y/n). It doesn’t matter to me whether you’ve had a relationship in the past or not, all I want is you.” His forehead touched mine and I almost collapsed to my knees right then and there.  “And I’d be honored to be your first everything. Now and in the future to come.”

I smiled happily and allowed a few tears to slip down my face but they were immediately caught by Ben’s thumbs as he wiped them away as he said.

“I love you (y/n).”

“I love you too Ben.” He leaned in closer toward my face, his nose brushing against mine. His lips faintly grazing mine as he whispered.

“May I kiss you love?”

“What if I screw it up?” I couldn’t stop myself from blurting out.

“Don’t think of it, just do what your heart tells you to do, okay?” He looked directly into my eyes and I tried to calm myself down before nodding.  Ben’s lips once again grazed over mine with the lightest of pressures until finally he kissed me.

My stomach exploded into knots and mad moths, I felt this tingle shoot up my spine and my toes curled as I just went for it.  I wrapped an arm around his neck, stroking my fingers through his sleeked, blonde hair.  After giving me one final peck he muttered.

“How was that?”

“Is it normal to feel like your stomach’s going to just explode when you have your first kiss?” Ben softly chuckled and said.

“Yeah. Cause I felt it just now.” I smiled and that’s when Ben kissed me again.

This time the kiss had a little more passion to it as I felt one arm wrap around my waist bringing me as physically close to him as possible, while his other hand cupped the side of my face stroking my cheek with his thumb.

“YAAAAAAASSSSSSSSS BENJAMIN!!!!” We heard the drunk scream of Joe scream out into the microphone. “IT’S ABOUT DAMN TIME YOU TWO GOT TOGETHER!! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I’VE BEEN KEEPING THIS SECRET OF YOUR BOTH!?! FOR FUCKING EVER!!!” Ben and I looked to Joe and he said to him.

“You happy now Joe?”

“Just know this Benjamin Jones. You break my girl’s heart, I’ll kick your ass so hard, you’ll be as flat as Ben Cardy. At least he treats her well.” Ben turned to me and I explained.

“He’s been putting your cutout in my bed for the past several weeks. He even had me practice confessing my feelings for you by practicing with him.”

“But let me assure you something darling,” he cupped my face with both his hands and leaned towards my ear and whispered huskily, “Cardboard Ben will never be able to dip you like I can.” Suddenly I was dipped just like on the second week of shooting.  I let out a series of giggles as Ben leaned forward and kissed me doing that famous kiss dip pose.

*Extended ending*

I rubbed my eyes and stretched my arms out before turning to my right and felt the familiar piece of cardboard lying beside me.  My eyes shot open and I let out a groan as I muttered.

“Oh you’ve gotta be kidding me.” I clicked my tongue once before saying to Cardboard Ben, “Hi, yeah hi, yes. I know you always gotta come back here. But listen up okay, you listen to me mister.” I pointed to him.  “I get it, okay I know you must feel some kind of physical chemistry for me, for whatever reason and we’re only human…..Well I’m only human. But this can’t happen anymore, okay? I’m sorry, goodbye.” I turned to my left and that’s where the real Ben Hardy was lying.

Both his hands resting behind his head, the top of my head just barely grazing his strong bicep.

“Oh my god—” I squeaked out.

“Hey baby girl.” He cooed out.

“Hi.” I said bashfully.  I hummed awkwardly before saying, “You good?”

“Yeah I’m great.” He said as he pulled me closer to him, my head now resting on his chest.  I felt my face heat up and I’m pretty sure I was blushing as red as a lobster if not a rose right about now.

“Good.” I squeaked out.  Ben kissed my forehead and hummed as his nose stayed at the crown of my head.  “Uhh Ben,”

“Hmm?”

“What about umm…..” I gestured towards Cardy B. Ben looked at the cardboard cutout of himself and said.

“Sorry mate, she’s taken.” It was then reached over and flung Cardy Ben out of the bed.  I looked up at him and he looked down at me.  I grabbed the top of the sheets and as Ben bit his lip, I pulled the sheet over us covering us from view and that’s when we heard Joe say.

“Did you have to fling him off the bed?”

“He was eyeing her for too long.” Said Ben as he pulled me closer to him and we kissed each other.

“Alright keep it PG you two.”

“You started this Joe, and now you must suffer by letting it run its course!” I cried out.  Ben and I then began to ruffle the sheets making it seem like we were fooling around as I let out a few lustful moans.

“Augh gross! I’m not continuing with this anymore!” We then heard the door shut and both Ben and I poked our heads out from the blanket and I said,

“Think he bought it?”

“Well one way to find out.” He pulled me close to him and I felt his face bury into my neck.  I giggled as he began to kiss up and down my neck.

“Ben…..that tickles!”

“Oh really? Does it tickle when I do this?” I then felt his fingers dig into my sides which made me squirm even more.  He got on top of me still continuing his ticklish assault as I begged him to stop while trying to shove his hands away from my sides.  He ceased his attack and said with a grin, “Say please.”

“Please.”

“Now say uncle.”

“Uncle.” I giggled out.  He smiled down at me before capturing my lips with his in a soft and loving kiss.  I wrapped my arms around his neck bringing him closer.  

Our kiss got deeper and more passionate until the need for air became a problem. As we separated, we stared into each other’s eyes and I said breathlessly.

“How did I ever get so lucky?”

“I should be asking you that my love.” He kissed my brow and lay back down on his back. I crawled up onto his chest and lay my head over his heart while his arms wrapped around me and I felt his hand stroke down my hair.  I felt him kiss the crown of my head and I heard him humming “Somebody to love” I smiled and said.

“You know that’s Joe’s song right?”

“Yeah, but it’s also your song. You did say that Somebody to love was the first Queen song you sang at your school’s karaoke.”

“How do you remember that? We were drunk when I confessed that.”

“Even shitfaced I’d still remember what you’d say.” I awed at him and nuzzled into his chest and felt him kiss my head again.  “I love you (y/n).”

“I love you too Ben.” We pecked each other’s lips gingerly and just stayed in bed for the rest of the day cuddling, watching Netflix and of course Ben had to start another tickle fight the sneaky bastard.

But I’m happy to finally say that all because of getting lessons from a cardboard cutout and the persistence of a true friend, I finally got the man of my dreams.

[mrs-evadne-cake]

“You shouldn't like things because people tell you you're supposed to.”- Movies And TV

Since we’re about to hit the Stranger Things Doldrums where it’s been a while since S3 and S4 has just started filming and if you’re anything like me you’re gonna start jonesing bad- I thought I’d make a So You Need A Hit survival kit for myself of some Stranger Things-esque media to read/watch/play during the wait and that maybe you guys might be interested too. Not all of them are gonna set the world on fire- but hopefully there’s some stuff that people haven’t seen before Expect a lot of Small Town Nostalgia, a bunch of monsters, and more plucky, dangerously unsupervised kids than you can shake a stick at.

(STRANGER THINGS-ESQUE RECS CON’T) 

It (2019 and 1990): “Set in 1989 (and 1959, respectively) in the fictional town of Derry, Maine, the story begins when a young boy named George "Georgie" Denbrough disappears after the sudden arrival of a mysterious clown named Pennywise. Georgie's older brother, Bill, is left distraught by his disappearance, and after an encounter with Pennywise, looks for the help of six other outcasts who have had similar encounters with the clown and its other forms. The seven work together to examine the behavior of this shapeshifting creature — which they dub "IT" — and see if they can rescue Bill's missing brother at the same time.” -TVTropes (Obviously)

Super 8   “A group of middle schoolers in a small Ohio town in 1979 are dedicated to making a zombie movie to enroll in an upcoming film festival... While filming a scene late at night, they happen upon a freak train crash and barely escape before the authorities show up. Shaken up by the experience, they find that they accidentally filmed something on their Super 8-mm film camera in the aftermath of the crash, and soon they're caught up in strange happenings  with a monster on the lose and a secret military operation.”- TVTropes

(You don’t get closer to ST than Super 8. If this doesn’t fill the Teenagers, Monsters and CIA shaped hole in your life nothing will.)

Monster Squad -  “The film follows the exploits of a group of genre-savvy kids who seek to stop Dracula — and a host of other infamous movie monsters — from finding a mystical amulet and bringing about The End of the World as We Know It.” -TVTropes

Midnight Special “Alton Meyer, an 8-year-old boy with supernatural abilities, has been reported missing. In reality, his father Roy, along with Roy's lifelong friend Lucas, have taken the boy from the religious compound where he previously lived and gone on the run. Meanwhile, they are being pursued by members of the religious sect and agents of the FBI and NSA, both of whom are pursuing Alton for their own ends.”-TVTropes

Beyond the Gates Two estranged brothers reunite at their missing father's video store and find a cursed VCR board game dubbed 'Beyond The Gates' that holds a connection to their father's disappearance.” -IMDB

The Hole (Joe Dante 2009) “17-year-old Dane Thompson, his 10-year-old brother Lucas, and their mother, Susan, move from Brooklyn to the quiet town of Bensenville where Dane and Lucas befriend their next door neighbor, Julie. While exploring their new home, Dane and Lucas discover a trapdoor with several locks along each side in the basement. Opening the trapdoor reveals a hole which appears to be bottomless and  leads to the darkest corridors of their fears and nightmares.” -IMDB

The Babysitter “Tells the story of a twelve-year-old boy named Cole Johnson  who is constantly bullied, but is very good friends with his babysitter Bee. One night, while his parents are away in a hotel, Cole stays up to see what Bee does after his bedtime...and things take a turn for the worse.”- TVTropes

The Lost Boys “A recently divorced mother and her two sons move to Santa Carla, CA. The older one, Michael, falls in with a gang of biker vampires; the younger, Sam, befriends a couple of seemingly insane comic store assistants. When Michael begins turning into a vampire it’s up to Sam, with the help of the Frog brothers, to save him.”- TVTropes 

(For the Billy fans out there since Jason Patric and Dacre Montgomery got the same look going.)

Twin Peaks “The plot kicks off with the discovery of a teen cadaver,  one Laura Palmer. Eccentric FBI agent Dale Cooper responds to the matter in Twin Peaks, Washington, where he's teamed with the trusty-if-skeptical Sheriff Harry S. Truman. With the arrival of the Feds, further scandals start to bubble to the surface along with this supposedly unprecedented crime. Cooper, meanwhile, finds himself visited by enigmatic visions and dreams pointing to the real culprit.” -TVTropes

Marianne : “Emma, a famous and successful French horror writer, is forced to return to her hometown after the woman who haunted her dreams fifteen years ago begins to re-appear. The work she writes is apparently a work of fiction, but how much is fact? Joined by her childhood friends she finds herself battling a creature that takes the form of her own creation.” Wiki

(This series is one of the most legitimately frightening things I’ve seen in ages and feels more like a Stephen King adaption than most ACTUAL Stephen King adaptions. Like IT it bounces back and forth between a bunch of childhood friends as kids and adults as they fight a monster- originally French but the English dub is excellent for those who don’t like subs.) No-Creature Features:

Summer of ‘84 - “In the Summer of 1984, in the sleepy suburb of Ipswitch, Oregon, teenager Davey Armstrong is a conspiracy theorist who begins to suspect that a neighbouring police officer is a serial killer. With help from three friends, Davey launches a daring investigation that soon turns dangerous.” -IMDB

The Sandlot   “Follows the summer adventures and misadventures of a group of boys and their ragtag baseball team playing on "The Sandlot," their makeshift baseball field in Los Angeles, during the summer of 1962.” -IMDB

(You’re KILLIN’ me Smalls.)

Stand By Me: Twelve-year-old Gordie  and his friends Chris Chambers ,Teddy Duchamp and Vern Tessio  journey into the woods near their home to look for the body of a boy named Ray Brower, who was struck by a train while picking berries. Through the boys' misadventures and conversations, the viewer learns about each character and their friendships.- Wiki

The Goonies: “A small group of kids living on the "Goon Docks" of Astoria, Oregon are in dire straits: the owners of a local country club have threatened their families' homes with foreclosure so they can finish building a new addition to said country club. On one of their last days in the neighborhood, one of the "Goonies", Mikey discovers a Treasure Map in his attic. The map supposedly reveals where to find the treasure of infamous pirate One-Eyed Willie —but to get it, they must outwit a trio of mobsters and survive numerous death traps designed to keep One-Eyed Willie's treasure safe from outsiders.” -TVTropes

[tomhollandnet]

There's a moment in Sony and Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” where Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) tries to convince Peter Parker (Tom Holland) to abandon his school trip to come save the world.

Peter — fresh off of the highly emotional events of “Avengers: Endgame,” and still reeling from the death of his mentor Tony Stark — is reluctant to shoulder responsibility again so soon, and struggles against his Spider-Man duties.

“In our iteration of Spider-Man, Peter Parker gets on with everyone,” Holland said over coffee. "Even with Flash, who’s his bully, there's kind of a good rapport there. But with Nick Fury, [he] just keeps butting heads ... which is quite fun for me to play. But it’s also tough arguing with Sam Jackson … it’s pretty scary. There’s a bit in the trailer where he says, ‘Bitch please, you've been to space.’ It’s kind of every actor’s dream to be called a bitch by Sam Jackson.”

At the age of 23, Holland has been living his own dream playing Spider-Man for a significant chunk of the past four years. He’s the third actor to don the superhero’s spandex in a live-action feature — following Tobey Maguire in Sam Raimi’s blockbuster trilogy and Andrew Garfield in the less fondly remembered “The Amazing Spider-Man” and its sequel — but quickly made the iconic character his own when he debuted in 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War.”

As the official Spider-Man of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Holland played a pivotal role in the epic two-part “Avengers” finale “Infinity War” and “Endgame,” and led his 2017 solo film “Spider-Man: Homecoming” to $880 million in worldwide box office. All while being the youngest actor to fill the role.

“My voice has obviously gotten deeper [since being cast], which is a little bit embarrassing because it’s something that happens when you’re 14,” said Holland. “I have to pitch my voice up a little bit now. And when you play a character five times, you run out of ideas — sometimes it’s a little tricky to find new unique things to do to keep the character growing and progressing.”

Growth is a major theme for Peter in “Far From Home,” which opens July 2 in the U.S., as the world scrambles to figure out who will step up to assume the mantle of Iron Man. For Holland, that sense of pressure mirrored his own nervousness over anchoring the first MCU release following the massive spectacle of “Endgame” — which exploded box office records to become the second-highest grossing film of all time both worldwide (behind “Avatar”) and domestically (behind “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”).

“There’s a level of pressure because people really want to know what’s next,” Holland said. “‘Endgame’ was a bit of a kick in the teeth at the end. Everyone’s fallen in love with those characters for the past 10 years, and all of a sudden people we know and love and feel we have a connection to, we’ve said goodbye to forever.”

For director Jon Watts, also returning from “Homecoming,” the intense emotional stakes of “Endgame” presented a unique challenge to explore in the Spidey sequel.

“I like to see it as an opportunity,” he said. “So many crazy things happen in that movie and so many questions are left unresolved. It really helped focus this film and create a very strong emotional jumping-off point for our story and for Peter.”

...

While all eyes will be on “Far From Home” for clues about Marvel’s future, the notoriously spoiler-prone Holland is still recovering from harboring the knowledge of Iron Man's death in "Endgame" long before audiences saw it.

“I nearly had to sew my mouth shut,” he said. “I think what people forget when it comes to these movies is that I’m a fan. Before I was even considering becoming an actor, I was obsessed with these movies. I’m as much of a fan of these movies as the fans are.

“When I find out spoilers, I want to talk to people about it because I can’t quite believe it,” he added. “I just get so excited, honestly, and I want to share the information because the term ‘break the Internet’ is a real thing. And if you know something that could break the Internet, it’s kind of a cool power to have.”

For the filming of Tony Stark’s death scene in “Endgame,” the filmmakers did not tell Holland why the cast was assembling.

“When I walked on set, it was Robert [Downey Jr.], Gwyneth [Paltrow], Don [Cheadle], myself, [co-directors] the Russos and Kevin Feige, and they [told us the truth] and I, like all the fans, felt like someone had just pulled the rug from under my feet. There was no real script, just ‘This is what’s going to happen. We know you guys are so emotionally invested in these characters that whatever you do will be truthful.’

“For me, it was just my moment to say thank you to Robert for being my mentor for the past five years and hopefully for the future of my career,” Holland added. “I think there were even moments where I improvised and said, ‘Robert, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.’ And when you say stuff like that to someone you love — even now, thinking about it, I’m getting a little choked up — the emotions kind of come through.”

Loss is a major aspect of Peter Parker’s journey throughout the comics, which was another reason director Watts was excited to tackle the “Endgame” fallout in “Far From Home.”

“Losing Uncle Ben, losing Gwen Stacy … so much of what shapes him as a character is tied into the people that he cares about being lost,” Watts said. “So the fact that he’s losing Tony as well allowed us to explore some of those iconic Spider-Man themes.”

As the world waits to discover what’s next for Marvel (also rumored to include a third Spider-Man adventure, perhaps sooner than some may expect), Holland is simultaneously plotting his acting career outside of the franchise. The actor, who initially made his name on the London stage in the musical “Billy Elliot” and delivered a critically acclaimed film debut in the 2012 disaster drama “The Impossible,” recently wrapped a pair of indies and several voice roles.

He has a whopping six films slated for release over the next 12 months, including a voiceover role in Universal’s “The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle,” starring Downey, and the lead in Netflix’s “The Devil All the Time,” produced by Holland’s “Far From Home” co-star Jake Gyllenhaal.

He’ll also reunite with “Endgame” filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo for the drama “Cherry,” about an Iraq war veteran grappling with PTSD and opioid addiction.

“He turns to drugs and becomes a bank robber,” Holland said of his character. “And for me, it’s a very exciting prospect because it’s a very different role to anything I’ve done before.”

Still, Holland admits the transition from Marvel’s massive productions to smaller-scale films has been challenging.

“You can get so spoiled when you make these big movies,” said Holland. “I felt that a little bit this year. ‘Devil All the Time’ is a really small little indie movie with a wonderful director, Antonio Campos. And I was on set like, ‘Why is this taking so long? What’s going on here?’ You get spoiled when you have a crew of 500 people and 12 cameras and anything’s possible.”

As Holland pauses to consider what else might come next, he reveals one genre he’s especially keen to try.

“Part of me would really love to do a funny movie,” he said. “I think I’m a pretty funny person, and I think it would be fun to do. I just love challenges, me. I don’t want to do the same thing twice.”

[toaarcan]

RvB 15-17 Condensed

The working title for this was “RvB 15-17 but not crap”.

Now, this might seem a little presumptuous to include Season 17 in this, which, at time of writing, has yet to be released, buuuut I’m basically mashing S15 and S16 into a single block which would make S17 actually the sixteenth season in this version. So the rewrite is that Season 17 happens a year earlier.

Now, I have my problems with RvB 15-16.

I don’t want to start off on such a negative tone, but I feel like I need to establish that before we go ahead.

While Season 15 was at worst, a mediocre RvB Season with tonal problems and inconsistent characterisation for our leads, Season 16 is all of those problems made worse. Like, it’s not Season 9 bad, but it’s still bad, and while I’ve mostly covered those issues in past posts, I haven’t really covered how much the setup for the climax is just plain stupid.

Like the setup for the finale, and thus Season 17, is as follows:

Atlus: Don’t do the thing.

Wash: Don’t do the thing.

Huggins: Don’t do the thing.

Carolina: ... Alright guys let’s do the thing.

[Time breaks because they did the thing]

It’s a little more complex than that, but not by much.

Now, I ummed and ahhhed over how to make this work for a while, but ultimately, I came to the conclusion that this is how I would do it.

For starters, 90% of Season 16’s plot is getting dumped. If not all of it. Legitimately all I’m keeping is the ending. Sorry, it’s not exactly a big loss.

Second off, I’m not heavily altering Season 15. While there’s definitely a good Season 5-13 tier plot that could be told with a fake BGC, this isn’t it, and attempting to alter that leads into a completely different set of stories. So Season 15 is mostly unchanged, just assume Temple is actually a competent villain and the plot isn’t driven entirely by the BGC being dumber than usual for a week.

So the timeline is now Season 15 -> Paradox -> Season 17.

We’re also scrubbing Wash’s injury from Season 15. It’s going to be an unnecessary complication for the lead-in to the next season anyway. If we’re going straight for the time paradox, then having Wash be injured is kinda pointless. Given that Season 16 ended on a warped Blood Gulch way before Wash ever showed up, there’s nothing to gain by having him out of action. He’s already imperilled enough by time being fucked.

“But wait,” I hear you say. “If Wash and Locus are with the heroes when they take on the Blues and Reds, surely they catch up to Temple quickly enough that the time machine doesn’t get turned on!”

Ah, but that’s the beauty of it. Whether the time machine is turned on or not is not the focus of the paradox here. And because that’s not a vital plot point, we’re free to have the characters just Travel At The Speed Of Plot, and arrive precisely in time for the actual climax.

You see, rather than changing history around Wash’s injury and thus fucking the timeline up, the key to the paradox is Church. Specifically, what happens when Church is removed from their history because someone pulled him into the present before the events of Blood Gulch really happened.

In the actual show, when Church appears in the portal, Tucker tells Caboose to pull him through, and Caboose refuses, instead bidding farewell to an extremely confused Alpha and allowing the portal to close. It’s a big moment for Caboose’s character, and it’s one of the parts of Season 15 which is pretty well-executed.

Obviously, I’m not going to overturn that and have him not have the growth. So, how does Church end up being pulled through?

“Tucker did it!”

Now, I’m not a big fan of Joe’s Tucker. In fact, that’s an understatement. I hate the way Joe writes Tucker, and I’d rather not fall into that same trap, so I’m going to explain in detail why Tucker would make this mistake.

 1) Tucker just had Epsilon die on him. Inside his head. And at the same time, the other remaining pieces of Epsilon all faded away too. And Tucker didn’t even notice it was happening, by the time he realised what was going in, the fragments were gone and he was left in a very empty and very non-functioning suit of power armour. Given how heavy this armour is, with it non-functioning, Tucker was probably unable to move until his friends removed most of the suit, so he was trapped in a coffin that was emptier than it should’ve been.

2) Struggling to cope with his grief, Tucker does something frankly stupid and activates the Temple of Procreation.

3) A while later, Tucker is starting to recover from his friend’s death, when Dylan shows up and he finds out in short order that A) Someone is committing terrorist acts while disguised as him and his friends, B) The planet he sacrificed so much, and Church gave his life for, is being blamed and might be invaded, and C) Church might be alive. This effectively halts Tucker’s recovery.

4) The consequences of his fuckup with the Temple of Procreation come back to haunt him, and suddenly, something Tucker has always been proud of- that he’s a great father to Junior- is called into question because he’s now an absentee dad to a fuckton of Chorus babies, which deals a blow to the poor man’s ego.

5) Shortly after that, the fiasco where Temple manages to manipulate him happens, and it makes things even worse for him. He should’ve seen through it after Felix, but he didn’t. And now, Wash and Carolina are hurt because of him, and the message from Church was a fake.

6) Finally, after all of this, he’s face to face with Church, and he has the chance to save him, and while maybe he could follow Caboose’s example… there’s one key problem. This isn’t Epsilon, it’s Alpha.

Y’see, there’s a big difference between those two. As has been pointed out before, Epsilon was always kind of a total prick to Tucker. A lot of this can be chalked up to Epsilon’s knowledge of the BGC coming entirely from Caboose, who purposefully left Tucker out of his recounts of their many adventures.

But this isn’t Epsilon. It’s Alpha. Tucker’s best friend, Alpha. Alpha, who went off and died without Tucker being there. Without Tucker ever getting a chance to see him once again. They got separated and one year later, Alpha died, in denial about a fact that Tucker had figured out long ago. Maybe Tucker could’ve helped save Alpha if he’d been there. Maybe Alpha wouldn’t have had to leave the safety of Wash’s suit and end up vulnerable to the emp if someone else had been there to hold the Meta’s attention.

 Tucker decides to save his friend. He’s at the end of his rope and after all the crap he’s been through on this journey, which he set out on because he wanted to save Church, he’s going to damn well save Church.

Additionally, by tying Tucker into the portal scene properly, there’s now a proper narrative throughline from the characters receiving Church’s message to the portal. Caboose has been covered, but Tucker hasn’t.

 Time paradox.

Despite his best intentions and hopefully understandable motives, Tucker has just pulled Alpha-Church out of their history before it even got started. And given how much of Seasons 1-13 was motivated by Church in some form or another… well, they’ve just unmade themselves.

The final twist is that time isn’t rewound to Season 1. We don’t need to see that. Season 1 retreads aren’t needed. If they want to remake Season 1, they should just bite the bullet and do a full remaster of the early Seasons to clean up the audio, rather than forcing new Seasons of the show to ape it.

Instead, we see a Blood Gulch wherein the same amount of time has passed since S1E01, but with none of the elements that Church brought in having happened.

Tex never goes to Blood Gulch. She spends her time hiding from Freelancer and desperately trying to find her other half, whom she was ripped away from and now will never be able to reunite with.

Tucker loses his friend, and is left with Caboose, who already doesn’t like him.

Caboose, for his part, doesn’t get brain damaged by Omega, but he still has his air shut off and Church still convinces him to drink Scorpion fuel, so he’s not doing much better.

Kai probably gets deployed to Blood Gulch faster, since Blue team is undermanned. She’s stuck in an empty box canyon with the rest of them.

York lives on, not getting recruited by Tex, until the Meta comes for him. The Meta takes Delta and leaves York to die alone.

Wyoming is not sent after Tucker, and doesn’t get the chance to formulate the plan with Omega.

Junior is never born.

Because Wyoming’s plan doesn’t happen, Wash is left to try and combat the Meta without the aid of the Reds and Blues. He fails.

The Meta remains free to hunt down and murder its former comrades. Like Tex, it ends up searching endlessly for the Alpha, which it will not find.

Without the Project’s downfall, and without Epsilon’s activation, Carolina remains in hiding.

The Director remains in hiding, endlessly repeating his attempts to perfect his remake of Allison. He never finds the answer.

Chorus is destroyed by perpetual civil war, all according to Hargrove’s design.

And as the galaxy darkens, people who would’ve been friends die or are left alone to rot, and the Project that put them there tears itself apart until only Tex, the Meta, Carolina, and the Director remain, scattered to the winds and pursuing impossible tasks, Blood Gulch remains. Its purpose is lost without Alpha, and the Project is gone, but with no new orders, VIC perpetuates the “war” between Red and Blue teams, and so it goes on. Static. Unchanging.

Cue the ending, and the setup for the next season. A Blood Gulch without Church.

[mythgendered]

Archie Mega Man:  And Friends Edition

With the wonderful Spirit ex Machina arc completed, we move on not to a new game adaptation, or even another formal storyline at all. Instead, the next six issues are (mostly) one-shot stories that, while continuing from what was established or set up in the last arc, are largely self-contained and serve to explore the world Flynn has crafted over 16 issues of robotic fun.

Because of the unusual format, this reread is probably gonna be a little different from the others, and hopefully not too over the place. So let’s start with the only multi-parter in this sequence, which covers the origin of the elusive Blues Proto Man he chose the name Break Man in the last issue, guys.

Heads up y’all this one’s even longer!

Proto-Type gives us the backstory of Blues, the mysterious robot who was alluded to as far back as issue 2, and was last seen joining Dr Wily’s Lanfront army in the last arc.

Blues is Dr Light’s first major creation, the first true robot master -- and Thomas’ first son. The fledgeling Light family flourishes in those early days, and Thomas and Blues grow as close together as any father and son could. But after a disastrous military test, it’s revealed that Blues’ power core is faulty, putting him on a path to his death. Tensions flare between the two over concerns that repairing the core risked erasing Blues’ personality-- the young robot fearing he is doomed to die no matter what.

Unfortunately, an exasperated Thomas says the worst possible thing at the worst possible time -- pushing the already fearful robot into fleeing the lab in the dead of night.

On his own, Blues travels the world, aiming to make the most of what remained of his life. He spends his days a hero, saving lives and halting tragedies, even at the cost of his dwindling time. Ar the end, the dying young bot remembers the man who called him son, and makes his way back home at last to make amends and reunite with the man he hopes to call father once more.

And if you’ve been paying attention, you know about how well that goes.

And we know the rest from there-- a trip to the amazon, a meeting with Dr Wily and one fancy new helmet later, and Break Man is born.

Proto-Type is a solid introduction to Blues, a character who joins the cast with all the heartache and complexity expected of our bold, post-Spiritus world. He is a lost, hurting child betrayed by the person closest to him and with nowhere to turn. His fears were dismissed, his very personality was threatened and he was, ultimately, replaced and forgotten.

But we know that’s not quite what happened. The first time we heard about Blues, it was from a stunned Dr. Light mistaking a sniper joe for his long lost boy. This is not a man who replaced a robot, but a father desperate for any sign of the child who ran away all those years ago. Their dynamic isn’t just strained, it’s broken, and though Blues is very much alive by end of his two-parter, we’re left wondering if the Light family will ever be truly united and whole. It’s bittersweet, and best of all, it’ll be explored in the stories to come.

The two-parter builds up that forgiveness theme I was getting at last discussion -- because while I’m getting ahead of myself somewhat, forgiveness, whether it be of another person or of yourself, is at the core (ha) of Blues’ personal story for the rest of the comic. It’s also, in a way, one of the comic’s central themes moving forward. I mean, it’s not for nothing that Light is talking to Dr. Lalinde when he says what he does (and I’m really getting ahead of myself there). 

Dr. Lalinde, and a lot of the comic-original characters actually, feature prominently throughout these issues, which is really nice, and not just for narrative parallels. Like I said, Flynn has been carefully crafting a larger world for the game’s characters to live in, and its nice to see the day to day of Rock’s world when he isn’t embroiled in a catastrophic terrorist attack or bid for world domination from Dr Wily. Which actually brings us to our next talking point--

In addition to giving us Blues’ backstory, issues 17 and 18 give us two small backup stories starring the MM1 robot masters doing...well, what they were designed to do!

They’re simple, cutesy stories that wrap up in a few short pages: Guts Man and Concrete Man stop a dam from collapsing after getting on each others nerves -- while Ice Man has to chill his brother out after he gets a little confused on the nature of arctic study.

There’s a lot to smile at with these stories -- it’s noteworthy, for one, that one (soon two) of the Mega Man 9 robot masters are already active, given what the conflict is in their own game -- but I mostly just like what these stories mean in the greater context of the setting. Like I said when I talked about the first arc, one of the nice things about this comic is seeing the robot masters when they aren’t trying to take over the world. We know that each of the games’ bosses have their own unique function -- one that Wily is generally perverting for his own selfish ends -- but rarely do we actually get to see these functions in action.

So it’s nice to see ice Man actually helping out with polar studies, and Guts Man actually using his strength to help construction projects and the like. It’s what Dr Light always dreamed of, and it’s genuinely heartening to see that his robots aren’t just Wily Reprogramming Fodder.

Also, the casual interactions between the Robot Masters is just cute.

But hey, it’s not just former bosses that get the time to shine in this stretch of stories!

Issue 19 is a one-off adventure starring Roll and Tempo, whose emotions have been restored per Dr Lalinde’s personal revelation at the end of Spiritus Ex Machina Like I said last time, that arc  focused on Lalinde herself, and what drove her to delete Tempo’s personality. In this issue and others, we get to see how that decision, and the incident that prompted it, has impacted Tempo. But we’ll get to that in a sec, let’s talk about Roll!

Roll takes the spotlight in the best way in this comic, immediately taking charge when her day on the beach with Tempo and Kalinka Cossack (yay for a more connected world!) is disrupted by a damaged and sinking cruise liner. With Rock out of commission getting the much needed “slide” upgrade, Roll oversees rescue efforts and directs Tempo, Oil Man and a newly activated Splash Woman to minimize both casualties and environmental damage.

And they do! Roll gets to save the day, all while delivering action that is both exciting and unique to the comic. Rather than robots blasting each other, we see the robot masters, again, do exactly what they were built to do, ultimately preventing a much larger tragedy. It’s death free. The crash left no pollutants to poison the area. It’s precisely the type of humanity-helping action Dr Light envisioned when he said, “Yeah, let’s make a robot mermaid!”

I keep repeating myself here, but it’s just really nice to see this kind of story in the comic. Whether in this comic or others, I like seeing the smaller, personal impact heroism has. This isn’t saving the universe(s) or foiling a bid for total galactic control -- it’s just one boat, a small group of people, and making sure those people make it out unharmed.

 It’s a smaller scale conflict that nonetheless delivers on fun action and character moments-- especially for Tempo, who, uh...I will talk about in a moment, because it’s better to talk about her development once it rounds off in a later issue!

For now, there’s Issue 20 which....doesn’t really have a whole lot to really talk about!

Rock of Ages is the 25th anniversary issue, even coming out the same month as Mega Man 1 for the NES. In it, we get a kinda-sorta set up for an adaptation of The Wily Wars, before Rock is blasted throughout time to all of the major games and spinoff titles -- even  Challenger from the Future gets a quick cameo!

The whole thing is just an excuse to shout out to all the Mega Man Classic titles, which is fine! It was fun to see split second flashes of how the games would play out in Flynn’s universe, and it’ll be fun to see it again when we hit the end of the series.

There’s just not a lot to say about it!

Hey look! The Mega Man Killers and the Genesis Unit! And the Upon a Star time machine! RIP Time Man, your death is highly appropriate given the nature of Wily Tower.

Also, it’s interesting, the decision to mash these two enemy groups AND the Chronos Institute together. Just puttin all your time travel-related eggs in one basket, eh, Flynn?

Also, say hi to Quint everyone, the single most confusing and interesting character from the Classic Era. Better hope time travel runs on Multiverse theory, Rock!

Anyway.

Countdown sees Rock celebrating New Year’ Eve with the city he’s now saved three times over. He’s a guest of honor, and it’s a little awkward for the Light Bot, but public speaking concerns are quickly forgotten thanks to (what’s left of) the Emerald Spears showing up for another wacky terrorist attack! They could kill many innocents, haha! 

Issue 21 is another solid adventure, following up on Spiritus Ex Machina’s main conflict (where other issues merely followed up on its theeeeeeeeemes 8) ). Rock works with Agents Krantz and Stern once again to take down the last three Spears -- and while he worked closely with Krantz to save Roll in Time Keeps on Slipping, here Rock grows closer with the much surlier Stern to take down Payne.

It’ll be more explored in the next issue, but here we see GIl Stern’s resentment of the rushing wave of robotics -- and how it it contrasts with Xander Payne’s...uh, continued temper tantrum? The two agree in theory on the fact that the X Series, which is coming at the setting like a freight train full of explosives, probably isn’t the best future for mankind. But, you know, Gil is a rational, mature person about it, and Payne is still throwing a hissy fit about his totally rad cyborg eye.

But that’s not to say that Stern hogs all the spotlight -- Agent Krantz gets some more time to shine, too, and we even get a hint at some backstory!

I’m not sure if this was supposed to go further or develop more, but it was nice seeing the groundwork laid for a more fleshed out background for these guys. I haven’t been shy about the fact I adore these comic-original characters, and this scene, as small as it is, was appreciated.

This issue was also really good for Mega Man, and the insight we get into Rock’s character. So much of what we’ve seen of Rock has painted him as conflicted and guilty, burdened by the violence needed to do the right thing.

But in this issue -- and the next -- we see a more relaxed side of Rock, and get a glimpse at the person he is when he isn’t fighting for everlasting peace. He’s a polite, sometimes silly little robot who’s learning from the world around him while trying to help it. He’s very much his father’s son: wide eyed and idealistic, optimistic about the future and always, always willing to see the best in people, no matter how surly they act. 

I dunno, I admit I might be reading a bit much into some sparse characterization in an otherwise action-filed fluff story. In any case, it’s real nice to see Rock doing what he was enjoys without the crushing weight of his own guilt eroding him with every panel.

Plus, I am awfully fond of his speech from the end of the issue:

He’s just such a good boy, guys.

It occurs to me that you could probably write off these issues as filler, though you’re probably not surprised to hear I disagree with that view. Though these have all been fairly self contained stories, the degree to which they flesh out the setting and further story themes make them just as essential to me as any of the adaptations. None more so, in fact, than the last of these in-between issues!

Cold Crush is just about everything I like about the comic mashed up into one story, and it’s up among my favorite issues in the series.

Cold Man has invited Rock, Roll and Tempo to lend a hand (and drills) in his arctic research. This invitation is actually something of a ruse, though, as Ice Man (somewhat confusingly) has a crush on Roll and is hoping to get something going between them. Unfortunately, Roll herself gets the wrong message and, well...

Meanwhile, Agents Krantz and Stern are having a friendly night out after the former was ditched by a date, when they run into Doctors Light and Lalinde, also on a romantic night out, making it a double date.

Nothng but polite conversation ensues.

It’s a simple setup with a simple conflict -- the dinner date gets heated while an ice collapse endangers the bots -- but one that weaves together cleverly and really pushes the kinds of questions I’ve been gushing about for the past 21 issues.

Agent Stern isn’t as fanatical as the Emerald Spears, but he’s still firmly against the rapid advancement of technology; and even without the readers’ foreknowledge of the disasters that the future brings (Maverick Wars, Elf Wars, a freaking space colony slamming into the surface of the planet, whatever the heck happens to prompt the Legends era), the fact that Dr. Wily has launched several destructive campaigns with the robot masters would probably give anyone room for pause.

But Dr. Light, ever his son’s father, is an unrelenting optimist, wholly believing in the benefits of his work. While that might strike some as naive, especially knowing what comes later (shout out to Agent Stern all but calling the Maverick Virus by name), you can kinda see where he’s coming from.

We just saw, over the course of these in-between issues, the robot masters stop a dam from breaking, halt a terrorist organization’s plans and almost completely negate the possible devastation of a sinking cruise liner. For as much terror as we know lies ahead for the Mega Man series, we can also see the good Dr Light’s efforts have done for the world around him.

It’s a complicated issue, and even though it seems to favor one side, I feel the comic leaves just enough room for the reader to determine just how founded Light’s optimism really is.

And that’s not getting into the other plot!

The two stories are interconnected, with the romantic escapades highlighting the points made during the double date debate. It’s a clever way to tell the story, and recontextualizes what would be a generic story of awkward/oblivious love interests and unrequited crushes -- or at least it did for me when it clicked for me “Oh yeah, these guys are all machines and one of them is literally learning how to emote."

All of them are highly advanced robots, but social nuance is something they weren’t really programmed to process.

Ice Man, you gotta stop crushing on your sister, though, it’s a little weird.

What really makes this issue for me, though, is Tempo’s development, which give us the complete picture on her emotional status since Spirtus Ex Machina.  We got our first look at her state of mind back in Issue 19:

Poor girl only just got her emotions back and she already has anxiety. Last arc we saw that what happened to Tempo deeply disturbed Dr. Lalinde, and led her to delete her daughter’s emotions. As shown in her anxieties, the whole incident left a mark on Tempo, as well -- beyond just the initial damage.

She’s still learning to feel again, but she can process trauma just fine, and she spends much of  Issue 19 nervously weighing every one of her actions. She doesn’t want to fall again, be hurt again -- and while in that issue she manages to push through her fears and act...

...it’s in this issue that, confronted with her literal worst nightmare, we get to see her fears laid bare:

Things are so complicated for Tempo. She’s afraid of being damaged, of being lost, and most telling of all, she’s afraid of what her mother might do. It’s a candid, tragic admission, and shows the deep, lasting effect that Dr Lalinde’s actions has had on her. It is unfair to say that Tempo is afraid of her mother, but there is a very real fear present in their relationship regardless. It certainly reads that the consequences of injury are worse to her than the actual damage itself -- the fear of losing everything that makes her Tempo for a second time

Hey, I said it was fitting that Light was talking to Lalinde when he pushed Blues away.

I would not characterize Dr. Lalinde as a villain at all. She made a terrible, awful mistake-- one that’s left a clear emotional scar on Tempo --  but she’s also clearly working to make amends for the hurt she knowingly inflicted on her own daughter. And, near as we can see (and will be made explicit in future issues) Tempo still trusts her mother. She does not speak ill of her, and they are shown spending time together on New Year’s. The Lalindes have a complicated, heart-wrenching relationship, and the story of their gradual reconciliation is one of my favorite parts of the comic.

I think she’ll be fine, guys. And that’s wonderful.

But that brings us to the end of this stretch of issues! There’s technically one more issue, but that doubles as prologue for Worlds Collide and Curse of Ra Moon, so I will not be discussing it! This post is long enough as is, oh my goodness.

As I’ve said, you could probably pretty easily brush off these issues as filler. They’re all simple one-shots that don’t connect to an overarching storyline, don’t adapt any games and don’t really lead up to either of the two major stories we’re about to head into. But I adore these issues, and I’ll fight you on calling them filler.

...Except Rock of Ages! That one pretty much was filler and you could skip it with...only some confusion? I dunno, it really only matters if you’re Xander Payne.

In any case, these issues are all wonderful looks into Mega Man’s world, and continue to explore the central themes and ideas of the comic. Lots of characters get to share the spotlight, any of them developing in pleasing ways. And our boy Rock isn’t left out to dry, getting plenty of good, good moments -- like his comforting of Tempo.

It was a good run of stories, but next time we’ll get back into the lengthier arcs. Crossovers are looming, Ra Moon is scheming, and Mega Man...has a birthday party to attend!

Until next time!

[janethepegasus]

BMC Miraculous Ladybug AU RP Thing: Purge Akuma

An RP me and @pika-ace did relating to the BMC Miraculous Ladybug AU, where an Akuma brings The Purge to life.

(The Akuma flies above the city, he smirks and casts a spell upon the city) Akuma: Time for the real life Purge to begin! >:) (A couple of seconds later, everyone jolts up from their beds, hearing the sound of a loud siren)

Jeremy: God, why are all akuma’s like this?!?

(Suddenly, an announcement echoed throughout the city, talking about something called "The Purge")

Michael: Wait...no...NO we are NOT in that god awful movie!!

(As soon as the word "Purge" was heard by Jane, she immediately bolted out of her room and started dragging every precious thing she can think of into her room. Joe

walks out of his room and sees Jane dragging the shelf that once contained the Miraculouses)

Joe: ...I’m assuming you know what this purge means?

Jane: YES I FUCKING DO! It's when every crime in the nation becomes legal MEANING that during the Purge, it's A OK to break into someone's house! So i'm NOT gonna let

ANY Miraculous related thing you own get stolen by some freak!!

Joe: O_O

Jane: So yeah, gotta put every single precious thing in the house in my room!

(Joe nods and pulls out his phone for a group text, telling everyone to meet up and to be extra careful)

Eric: *text* Alright, meet you there!

(Joe nods and closes the text and looks up to see Jane running back to her room but carrying Kirsty) Joe: How did you...? Jane: ADRENALINE. Kirsty: Janey, I know my parents are out of town but you didn’t have to break me out of my own house... Jane: I DONT CARE! EVERYTHING PRECIOUS STAYS CLOSE TO ME

(Jane puts Kirsty in her room and runs out only to get Mittie)

(She then sits in her pile of stashed objects, holding Kirsty and Mittie close) Joe: ...Alright then I’ll...be back soon...

Jane: Wait Dad, stay! I know you're a Miraculous Holder but i don't want to loose you in whatever hellstorm is gonna brew up out there! D:

Joe: Jane, an akuma is causing this, and I’m not letting my children fight this without me!

Jane: I've SEEN clips and trailers for the Purge movies! I learned the basics of how this goes! Even if an Akuma is doing this, i don't want you getting killed by some

maniac! *she lets go of Mittie and Kirsty, then she holds onto Joe's arm* You're just as precious to me as everything and everyone else i care about!

Joe: Jane...what kind of father would I be if I hid while the rest of my children risk their lives out there? I have to do this to protect them, and you.

Jane: *looks at Joe for a few seconds and squeezes Joe's hand* If you're gonna do this...just please...PLEASE...be careful...i...i don't know...what i'll do...if i

loose you, Dad... *starts tearing up*

Joe: I will, darling. You be brave and stay safe, and keep these two out of trouble. *winks at Kirsty and Mittie*

Kirsty: We’ll be okay! (Joe gives a little kiss on Jane’s forehead) Jane: Please be okay, Dad...

Joe: I will... (He transforms and flies off)

(Jane holds onto Kirsty and Mittie, as Owl leaves the house)

(Owl flies to a roof where the other holders are waiting)

Leo: There you are Owl Dad!

Owl: Did everyone arrive safely?

Hound: Yep!

Owl: Good; hopefully this won’t be like Party Maniac Where we get separated and captured. Tiger: Knock on wood. Owl: So we have to find the akuma

Timber: Yeah, and once we do, we beat the crap out of him! Like we usually do.

Coral: I still can’t believe we’re living this stupid movie...

Owl: How is this "stupid"? From what i heard from Jane, it actually sounds terrifying having a day where every crime in the nation be legal.

Leo: Yeah, but they never explain WHY or HOW it works and causes World Peace! Pacific: I hear the other movies are better since it’s really just a ploy from the government to kill off all the poor people

Owl: O_O Well, i have to disagree with the fact this “Purge” causes World Peace. Peace cannot be achieved through death and destruction, and using it to eliminate the

poor is just sick and wr- Cyber: Can we talk about those films AFTER we deal with the Akuma?!

Atlantic: PLEASE

Owl: Fine...

(They start looking for the akuma)

(As they search for the Akuma, they look and see that a couple of people have taken advantage of the Purge, such as people breaking into stores and stealing whatever

they want)

Swan: It looks like no ones stooped to murdering yet

Timber: Yeah... (Suddenly, Timber’s ears perked up, hearing the sound of a dog crying)

Timber: Oh HELL no...! (He immediately jumps away from the group towards the noise) Cyber: Jordan?!

(Timber follows the noise until he sees a man cornering a dog, shaking and crying in fear) (The man raises a gun near the dog with a wicked grin on his face)

Man: No more howling at 2am for you! Finally I can get some sleep!

(Timber glares at the man and leaps down towards the dog)

(He knocks the gun away just as it fires, making it fire into the air) Timber: Hey now, what kind of prick goes around shooting innocent dogs for fun? >:(

Man: The ones who want some FUCKING sleep! >:(

Timber: It’s a STRAY! It doesn’t know any better!

Man: Who cares?! It’s been keeping me awake every single night! About time I shut that little fucker’s face for good! >:(

Timber: Okay then... (He sucker punches the man and knocks him out)

Timber: That’ll teach ya! >:( (He looks at the stray dog, who’s tail was wagging at Timber)

Timber: Okay, buddy, head back to where ya came from and stay outta trouble, okay?

(The dog barks and walks away)

(Timber smiles as the dog walks away, then he jumps up and runs to reunite with the group)

Cyber: Jordan! What on earth was that about, you scared me to death!

Timber: I saved a stray from a psycho, that’s what I did.

Hound: Awwwww dad!! Looking out for my army :Dc

Timber: Yep! No dog’s gonna get killed tonight or ever! >:(

Atlantic: There are some real scumbags out there...

Leo: Yeah...

(They keep looking)

(After a few minutes, they hear a car explosion followed by gunshots)

Frill: Okay, NOW it sounds like we’re in a Purge movie!

(They look and see two large groups of people having an all out war with each other)

Timber: *listens to the yelling* Oh... -_- (The other strong listeners listen in too) Hound: Well... Tiger: I’m not THAT shocked...

(The non-strong listeners look at them with a confused look) Cyber: What? What are they yelling about?!

Scarlet: Sports!

Cyber: ...They're having an all out war...over sports? -_-

Pacific: Oh...that makes sense...sports fans are bloodthirsty...

Dasher: They pull off all kinds of crazy shit all because their team lost or something... -_-

Timber: And judging by this...this could get ugly...

Leo: Yeah, let's get out of here before things get worse... O_O

(They Head off and keep looking)

(As they keep going, more noises and sounds can be heard, like car crashes, more gunshots, screams, and at one point, every screeched to a halt as they saw a whole

bunch of big fireworks go off)

Jade: Goodness...! O_O

The dude that lighted up the fireworks: YEAH BABY! LIGHT UP THE SKY!! WOOOOO!!!! >:D

Maiden: *shudders remembering Party Maniac* Whew! Bad memories...

Cloudy: Yeah! (In the corner of Dasher’s eye, he sees someone walking out with a bunch of DVDs labeled “Hamilton Bootleg”) Dasher: *GASP* >:O

Timber: *takes his shoulder* Pick your battles Speedy...

Dasher: B-B-But THAT asshole has bootlegs of MY SHOW!! >:(((

Papillion: Bootlegs aren’t THAT bad you know...it lets people see shows that they can’t afford... Hound: Plus it’s IMPOSSIBLE to get tickets to YOUR shows

Dasher: True...but seeing those bootlegs doesn't have the same magic as seeing them live... :(

Natura: Trust me, we know Papillion: If anything, bootlegs make us want to see them live even MORE

Dasher: Wait, really?! O_O

Hound: You think we LIKE watching shows with shitty visuals and audio?! It sucks!! But it’s the best we got so we suck it up

Dasher: *crosses his arms* Even though that kind of stuff is pretty much illegal to make, i...can see why you're all willing to do that... :/

Atlantic: Can we please discuss all these illegal things AFTER shit isn’t blowing up??

Dasher: Oh! Right! Man, we are getting off-topic tonight, aren't we? XD

Leo: Yeah XD (They head off)

(They keep going, hearing and seeing all the things people are doing in the Purge, until they see where the Akuma's "lair" is. The Akuma settled himself in City Hall,

walls painted in blood red paint and a large army of mind controlled soldiers with guns and masks on their faces stand in front of city hall)

Leo: Of course -_-

Tiger: Sooo...do we fight the army of soldiers or do we just simply break in? :/c

Inferno: I think we'd all prefer to break in and get out of this with as little blood as possible XS

Cyber: Yeah, the last thing we need is a little bloodshed *looks at Timber* Especially you, Jordan.

Timber: Then don't put yourself in a position to get hurt. *passive aggressive stares*

Cyber: I won't, hopefully...

Ursa: Maybe you should stop being a human shield for once. Timber: Maybe you should mind your goddamn business. >:(

Ursa: Oh, i'm sorry! Didn't mean to OFFEND the living shield for ONE man who literally has the power to defend himself if he activates it! >:(

Timber: Adrenaline makes you do stupid shit, Matt! And for your information, Silver Claws DOESN'T make me invincible, I'd STILL get stabbed or shot! >:(

Ursa: Even so, your HUSBAND, as Cyber Shock, can defend himself! He can use electricity for whatever he wants! Hell, he could electrocute a foe if he wanted to! With

that kind of power in his hands, he doesn't NEED a living shield defending him! >:(

Hound: To be fair, this usually happens when Cyber has no time to defend himself or shock away the problem...

Ursa: So? Even in those kind of scenarios, you SHOULDN'T be risking your own life just so Eric could live! >:(

Atlantic: GUYS!!! Akuma now, controversial romantic bullshit later!! >:(

Timber: ...Fine *glares at Ursa*

(They sneak above the army and break into the building)

(Once they got into the building, they see a large group of mind controlled soldiers, standing there and ready to fire at them)

Tiger: ...Fuck. Frill: *jumps in front with Coral* IMMUNE SHIELD!! (Everyone ducks behind Coral and Frill as the soldiers open fire, hitting the shield and Coral's shell)

Leo: Jesus Christ!! O_O

Pacific: Thank god for shields!!!

Tiger: Yeah!!

(Eventually the bullets run out)

(The soldiers immediately throw the guns away and pull out knifes, bats, and other weapons)

Dasher: Okay, close combat! Much better! (They fight)

(The soldiers and the Armada fight each other, the Soldiers wanting to deal heavy blows on them. During the fight, while Timber was busy trying to beat up a soldier,

another soldier sneaked attacked Cyber and used a sharp knife to make a deep cut on Cyber's arm)

(Cyber screams and clutches his arm before shocking him)

(Timber hears Cyber's scream)

Timber: Will?! Cyber: I'm okay...!

(They keep fighting for a while, eventually, they manage to beat all the soldiers. However, the whole Armada had bloody cuts, stab wounds, and bruises all over their

bodies, Atlantic and Timber being the only ones to have bloody broken noses)

(They all stand together, breathing heavily)

Owl: Thank the heavens...we all...miraculously...survived...

Hound: Pun...intended...?

Owl: No...it's...a miracle...we lived...through this...brutal brawl...

Tiger: Dude...it's a joke...we're 'Miraculous' holders...and...we did something...MIRACULOUS...

Owl: Oh...forgive me...that fight...really messed with my mind...so i wasn't thinking straight...

Leo: Let's just...get the akuma...

Timber: Yeah...let's...go...

(They make it to the main office)

(They see the Akuma, sitting in the office chair like a throne. He looks at the Armada and smirks widely)

Akuma: You all made it, bravo

Akuma: And look at all of you! I'm surprised you all survived my soldier defense squad! >:)

Tiger: Don't...fuck with us...

Akuma: Well *gets up from the chair* now i'm gonna fuck you all up more! >:)

Atlantic: Great...fuck you...

(The Akuma leaps towards them and they start fighting)

(The holders shakily fight, still exhausted from the soldiers)

(The akuma takes advantage of this by grabbing the chair and throwing it at Cyber, and it hits)

(The chair hits Cyber and he falls down and struggles to get up)

Timber: WILL...!!

(Cyber tries to shock him, but the akuma stomps on his chest and pulls out a knife) Akuma: Say goodbye! (Right when he's about to stab, Timber steps in and blocks it with his claws)

Akuma: What the?!

Timber: You keep away from him!! *pushes the akuma off Cyber*

Akuma: AH! *stumbles as Timber pushes him away*

Cyber: Jordan...

Timber: Will!

(Timber helps him up) Timber: You okay? Cyber: Yeah...and look at that, you saved me in a way that didn’t involve you getting hurt ;)

Timber: Heh, yeah! :)

Timber: But let’s not get our hopes too high while it’s still chaos

Cyber: Yeah...

Akuma: *growls at Timber* So...tough guy, huh? Swooping in to save the damsel?

Timber: Yes, that's what i do if Will's in danger! >:(

Akuma: How touching...

Akuma: Well, if you're willing to save HIM *he quickly grabs Leo and Hound and lifts them up by the neck* Will you save them? >:)

Cyber and Timber: HEY!!

(The Akuma tightens his grip on Leo and Hound, waiting for Cyber and Timber to act)

(Cyber then shoots lightning at the akuma at rapid speed, making him let go of the boys)

Akuma: GAH!

(The boys run to their dads)

Leo and Hound: DAD!

(They push the boys behind them) Timber: Stay behind us, boys.

Hound: Alright...!

(Cyber and Timber glare at the akuma)

(The Akuma glares back at them)

Akuma: Well, what a nice little family we have here

Akuma: Even so, you’re all in a pretty bad shape to do anything! I like to see you all try taking me down! >:)

Timber: Yeah...but at least there's 29 of us...and only one of you...

Dasher: Even if your little army fucked us up, we can still fuck YOU up! >:(

(The fight continues)

(The Holders try the best the can to give it their all against the Akuma, inspite their injuries.)

(The akuma manages to keep up with all of them due to them being tired and slightly injured)

Timber: Come on...!! (They keep fighting)

Akuma: God this is annoying...do you know how hard it is to pick a hostage with this many heroes? >:(

Timber: Wait, what?!

Akuma: I didn't want to do this, but I had to think outside the box if I wanted to keep you down...so I did. >:) (He opens a cabinet, revealing Jane curled up inside, looking a bit ruffled from being taken; she looks up at the holders, but doesn't move or speak) Akuma: Don't worry about that; she knows that if she makes a peep or a move then her little girlfriend's done for. >:)

Owl: JANE!!

(Jane tears up, but doesn't speak as she stares at him)

(Owl glares at the Akuma, anger building up)

Jade: What did you do with Kirsty?! Akuma: The runt? Oh she's somewhere else in this building, but all I have to do is press a button *holds up a remote* And she's done for. (Jane squeezes her eyes shut and hugs her knees in despair)

(Owl fumes with anger upon seeing Jane hugging her knees in despair)

Owl: You're a monster...!

Akuma: Of course i am! I'm an Akuma after all! >:)

(The holders glare at him) Leo: *softly* now what?!

(Cyber looks at Owl, who's shaking in anger)

Cyber: *softly* We need to find Kirsty, or at least get that remote away from him...

Timber: *softly* Yeah...

Karma: *softly* Leave that to me... Camouflage...!

(Karma turns invisible)

(He sneaks around to the akuma, eyes on the remote)

(Once he got close to the Akuma, he snatches the remote out of the Akuma's hands)

Akuma: What the-?! (Owl then storms forwards and punches the akuma’s face, HARD)

(The Akuma gets knocked down to the ground and Owl pins him down by the neck, glaring and growling at the Akuma in rage)

Owl: You have CROSSED THE LINE!!

Owl: No one shall EVER harm MY DAUGHTER AND HER GIRLFRIEND!! >:(((((

Owl: Now where did you put Kirsty?!

Akuma: Erk...i'm not...telling...! >:(

Dasher: I’ll scour the building; gimme ten, fifteen seconds tops >:(

Owl: Do it as fast as you can, Dasher! Dasher: Yes sir! *runs off*

(Ten seconds later, he comes back) Dasher: I found her! Jade: ...And? Dasher: ...And we’re gonna need some special treatment to get her out in one piece...

The Trinity: WHAT?!

Dasher: Yeeeah theres shit involving a guillotine and I think I saw some fireworks and trip wires down there, guy spared no expense...

Owl: *glares at the akuma* ...You were going to ANNIHILATE Kirsty?!?! >:((( *tightens his hold on the akuma*

Akuma: Erk...!! (Leo and Hound get Jane out of the cabinet and comfort her)

(Jane holds onto Leo and Hound tightly, letting out a few sobs)

Hound: It’s okay, we’ll get Kirsty back... (The kids gather around them for extra comfort)

Timber: Alright...how are we gonna get Kirsty out of there in one piece?

Cyber: Dasher, lead us to where she is; Timber, Atlantic, Jade, Scarlet, with me, the rest of you make sure the akuma doesn’t get away...

Ursa: *nods* Alright.

(They follow Dasher and they lead him down to the basement of the building)

(Once they got to the basement, they see Kirsty and everything else around her)

(She’s tied up and her head is under a guillotine; the whole room is packed full of explosives and tons of trip wires are set up that one wrong move would either set

off the explosives or the guillotine)

Scarlet: Oh god, baby sis...!!

Kirsty: *crying* Help....

Jade: D-Don't worry...! We'll get you out Little Sister! Somehow...

Cyber: Oh boy...

Timber: Yeah, we gotta think of some way to get her out of there without triggering anything... :/c

Cyber: Quantum Analysis!

Dasher: Oh! Kinda forgot you could do that! (A visor appears in front of Cyber’s face, observing and analyzing the area)

(He gathers the data) Cyber: Oh boy... Timber: What? Cyber: There’s a solution but...there’s a VERY small window for error... Scarlet: How small? Cyber: Microscopic Atlantic: So...If we mess up ONE little thing- Cyber: Kirsty won’t make it...

Scarlet: Ooooooh... O_O

(Everyone looks uneasily at the set up)

Timber: So if we want Kirsty alive...we gotta do this PERFECTLY. No mess-ups, no mistakes.

Cyber: Yes...okay, I think I got this...this should work...

Timber: So what's the plan, Peach?

(Cyber directs everyone to their proper positions)

Dasher: Alright, let’s do this!

(They execute the plan, and the trinity slowly make their way to Kirsty, but at the very end, right when Jade is seconds from disarming the guillotine...) Tiger: *opens the door* Guys!! You down here! (Everyone jumps and Jade knocks into one of the wires holding up the blade and it breaks, the blade falling towards Kirsty's neck)

Atlantic: OH FUCK!!

(Everyone screams in horror) Scarlet: NOOOOOOOOO!!! (Scarlet leaps up right between Kirsty and the blade and stops it between his hands, milimeters from his own face)

Dasher: Holy shit! O_O

(Cyber just about collapses to his knees from shock) Timber: DAMN kid!! Good reflexes!!

Scarlet: Erk...thanks...!

(Jade quickly jumps down and removes the blade and pulls Kirsty out while Scarlet collapses in relief)

Scarlet: Thank god...!

(Jade unties Kirsty who clings to him tightly)

Jade: You're safe now, little sister...thank god we saved you...

Kirsty: Y-Yeah...

(Kirsty keeps clinging onto Jade tightly)

Cyber: My god...that tiny window for failure shouldn't have been possible to fix...but Scarlet did it...!

Timber: Yeah, holy damn...! O_O

Scarlet: Never again...

Atlantic: Yeah...that was too close...

Dasher: Let's just get out of here, get the akuma and restore the damage before we all die of heart attacks...

Cyber: Y-Yeah...let's go...

(Jade carries Kirsty and they leap over the explosives to the stairs and they all hurry out of the basement)

(They run down the hall and towards the main office)

(They burst into the room, hearts still pounding from what happened) Leo: Whoa, you okay? Cyber: Yes, just...had a very close call...but we're okay... (He steps aside, revealing Jade carrying Kirsty)

Jade: And...she's okay...thank god...

Jane: KIRSTY!!! (She runs up and takes her from Jade)

(Jane hugs Kirsty tightly)

(Jane peppers her with kisses) Jane: Oh my god, Kirsty...!!

Kirsty: Janey...!!

Jane: God I was so scared...

Kirsty: Me too...!

(Owl sighs in relief and yanks the akuma off)

(He crushes the Akuma and a black bird flies out)

(Cyber purifies it) Owl: Time to end this nightmare. Cyber: *nods* Restore the Damage!

(A ring of electricity flies out and restores all the damage)

(Everything is fixed and everyone is returned home) Hound: Oh thank god...

Coral: Let's get out of here, these late night akumas always fuck up by beauty sleep schedule...

Owl: Yes, but... *looks at the injuries that were given to the soldiers earlier* We're all pretty beaten up from those soldiers...

Tiger: Nothing a few bandages can't fix, no need to spend the night in a stiff hospital bed Pacific: Yeah; can everyone still walk in a straight line?

(Everyone raises their hand, however Cyber glares at Pacific, gesturing the deep cut wound on his arm)

Pacific: Okay yeah, but you can still walk with that. Tiger: More like we know your hubby's gonna carry you everywhere >;3

(Before Cyber could say anything, Timber immediately scoops him up and carries him in his arms) Timber: You red my mind! XD

Cyber: God why... Tiger: Dude, you're married and love dovey now, no need to be embarrassed

Timber: Yeah, come on Peach, you know that by now! XD

Owl: *picks up Jane and Kirsty* I'll escort these two home; I imagine Kirsty doesn't want to be alone tonight. (Kirsty frantically shakes her head and keeps clinging to Jane)

Jane: Of course not...

Timber: *to Cyber* Think you can teach me how to make a good arm cast? ;)

Cyber: ...Sure...

Leo: That's probably a good call, if people hurt each other during this, hospitals are gonna be SUPER crowded

Hound: Yeah and no room for us! XS

(They all leave and head back home)

[bigyack-com]

The 46 Most Anticipated Movies of 2020

2019 was a landmark year for movies, especially for Disney, which propelled past its own box office record thanks to Avengers: Endgame — the biggest movie of all time — The Lion King, and Frozen II. In 2020, the start of the new decade promises a bit of a clean slate, with no big mash-up movies or remakes in store. Of course, there are still plenty of big hitters around. We've got two entries apiece in Marvel Studios, DC, and Sony's Marvel universes, including the return of Black Widow and Wonder Woman. There's a new movie in store from Christopher Nolan, in addition to the return of Fast and Furious, Minions, King Kong, and Ghostbusters.And after a year filled with Disney's remakes of past hits, we will be treated to three original efforts from Pixar and its own studio in 2020. Speaking of animation, there are also upcoming movies involving Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, and Sonic the Hedgehog. And oh, James Bond is back after five years, though in terms of time, nothing can beat the return of Tom Cruise's Top Gun after over three decades. Closer to home, we've got a few historical dramas, Aamir Khan remaking a Hollywood movie, and Farhan Akhtar in a boxing film. Kabir Khan will give us a film on India's 1983 Cricket World Cup success, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali has roped in Alia Bhatt to play a red-light district matriarch.Note: for Hollywood movies, most release dates are for the US, except wherever specifically mentioned.

January

ChhapaakRelease date: January 10, 2020Deepika Padukone plays an acid-attack survivor in a film inspired by the life of Laxmi Agarwal, from Raazi and Talvar writer-director Meghna Gulzar.TanhajiRelease date: January 10, 2020Based on the 17th-century Battle of Sinhagad, in which the Marathas fought the Mughals, respectively led by General Tanaji Malusare (Ajay Devgn) — serving Chhatrapati Shivaji — and Udaybhan Rathod (Saif Ali Khan). Kajol stars as Tanaji's wife.DolittleRelease date: January 17, 2020In his first role since Avengers: Endgame, Robert Downey Jr. is a Victorian England-era doctor and veterinarian who can speak to animals and prefers them over humans, but is forced to set sail on an adventure to find a cure for Queen Victoria's grave illness.The GentlemenRelease date: January 24, 2020After Aladdin, Guy Ritchie returns to his action crime roots with this story of an American immigrant (Matthew McConaughey) who has decided to cash out his marijuana empire in London. Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsan, Colin Farrell, and Hugh Grant star alongside.Bad Boys for LifeRelease date: January 31, 2020 (India)Seventeen years later, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence return to wrap up their buddy cop trilogy, which reunites the detectives after a mob boss desires revenge close to their official retirement.The Rhythm SectionRelease date: January 31, 2020Blake Lively, Jude Law, and Sterling K. Brown star in this spy thriller from the producers of James Bond, which follows a woman who discovers that a plane crash that killed her family wasn't accidental. You know where this goes.

February

Birds of PreyRelease date: February 7, 2020In this Suicide Squad spin-off set in the DC film universe, a Joker-less Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) teams up with three more female vigilantes to save a young girl from a brutal, iron-fisted crime lord (Ewan McGregor).Watch the First Trailer for Birds of PreySonic the HedgehogRelease date: February 14, 2020Delayed to make time for the redesign of its blue speedster in the face of criticism, this video game adaptation follows Sonic (Ben Schwartz) visiting Earth, teaming up with a former cop (James Marsden), and evading Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey), a scientist interested in world domination.Watch the New Trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog

March

OnwardRelease date: March 6, 2020Pixar's next film is set in a suburban contemporary fantasy world and follows two elf brothers (Tom Holland and Chris Pratt) who set out on a quest to rediscover magic so they can spend one day with their father.Watch the First Trailer for OnwardA Quiet Place: Part IIRelease date: March 20, 2020John Krasinski returns as director on this sequel to the 2018 hit, which forces the family — Emily Blunt and her two on-screen kids — to venture out into the world, where the creatures that hunt by sound aren't the only threats.MulanRelease date: March 27, 2020Disney's wave of live-action remakes continues with this Chinese folklore tale about a young woman who takes her ailing father's place in the army. It's got an all-Chinese cast, thankfully, and it's one of the most expensive movies of all time, with a reported buget of $300 million.SooryavanshiRelease date: March 27, 2020You know we've hit peak “cinematic universe” when Rohit Shetty crafts one for his over-the-top cops. Akshay Kumar is the new eponymous entrant as the chief of an anti-terror unit, with Katrina Kaif as his love interest, and Ajay Devgn and Ranveer Singh cameoing as Singham and Simmba.

April

The New MutantsRelease date: April 3, 2020Delayed several times, this last entry in Fox's erstwhile X-Men world is about five young mutants — including Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams — trying to escape a secret facility while discovering the extent of their abilities.No Time to DieRelease date: April 3, 2020 (India)Daniel Craig returns as James Bond for the fifth and final time. Set five years after Spectre, a semi-retired Bond must find a missing scientist after a new villain (Rami Malek) poses “a danger the likes of which the world has never seen before.”Watch the First Trailer for No Time to Die‘83Release date: April 10, 2020India's surprising success at the 1983 Cricket World Cup is told through the eyes of captain Kapil Dev (Ranveer Singh) in this biopic from director Kabir Khan.Black WidowRelease date: April 30, 2020 (India)The first Marvel movie since Avengers: Endgame jumps into the past — shortly after Captain America: Civil War — and follows Scarlett Johansson's titular character as she is forced to confront her past. David Harbour, Florence Pugh, and Rachel Weisz also star.Watch the First Trailer for Black Widow

May

Scoob!Release date: May 15, 2020The first feature animated Scooby-Doo movie is going to be an origin tale for the gang, telling us how a young Scooby and Shaggy met, and then teamed up with Fred, Daphne, and Velma to form Mystery, Inc. Warner Bros. hopes it will kick off a Hanna-Barbera Cinematic Universe.Fast & Furious 9Release date: May 22, 2020This ridiculous franchise somehow continues with Fast Five director Justin Lin returning to (hopefully) reinvigorate it. Most of the old gang is back — including Jordana Brewster and Charlize Theron — and they are joined by new faces in John Cena and Michael Rooker.Artemis FowlRelease date: May 29, 2020Pushed from last year, Eoin Colfer's 2001 novel of the same name is getting the big-screen treatment 19 years after it was first announced. It involves a 12-year-old criminal mastermind, fairies, and a possible robbery.

June

Wonder Woman 1984Release date: June 5, 2020The second DC film of the year reconnects with Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) seven decades on in the eighties, where she's (somehow) reunited with her old love (Chris Pine) while going up against two new enemies (Pedro Pascal and Kristen Wiig).Watch the New Trailer for Wonder Woman 1984SoulRelease date: June 19, 2020In Pixar's other original movie in 2020, a music teacher's (Jamie Foxx) soul is accidentally separated from his body and transported to a realm where souls develop and gain passions before passing into a newborn. There, he meets a soul-in-training (Tina Fey) who has been trapped for years.Watch the First Trailer for SoulTop Gun: MaverickRelease date: June 26, 2020For more than thirty years — as much time since the first film — Tom Cruise's Navy aviator has avoided promotion to remain in the air as a test pilot. The man with no future is forced to reckon with the ghosts of his past after he encounters his late best friend's son (Miles Teller) in training for a special mission.Watch the First Trailer for Top Gun: Maverick

July

Minions: The Rise of GruRelease date: July 3, 2020This sequel to the 2015 billion-dollar hit follows the tiny, yellow creatures as they encounter a young Gru — their eventual leader — for the first time.Free GuyRelease date: July 3, 2020A video game character (Ryan Reynolds) finds out he's in a video game and then tries to make himself the hero. Wait, isn't this the plot of Wreck-It Ralph? Anyhoo, Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, and Taika Waititi star alongside.Ghostbusters: AfterlifeRelease date: July 10, 2020After a critically and commercially unsuccessful reboot, Sony rejigs the machine to produce a direct sequel set 30 years after Ghostbusters II. It follows two children and their mother (Carrie Coon) who discover their link to the original gang — most of whom are retuning — after moving to a farm. Paul Rudd is new to the cast.TenetRelease date: July 17, 2020Christopher Nolan's next film involves time travel and finds an agent traversing the world, including Mumbai. John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Clémence Poésy, Himesh Patel, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh star.Watch the First Trailer for TenetMorbiusRelease date: July 31, 2020Sony's own Marvel universe expands with this tale about a scientist (Jared Leto) suffering from a rare blood disease who attempts to cure himself and instead becomes afflicted with a form of vampirism. Adria Arjona, Matt Smith, Jared Harris, and Tyrese Gibson part of the cast.ShamsheraRelease date: July 31, 2020Ranbir Kapoor plays a father and his titular son who are part of a dacoit tribe that fought for their independence from the British colonialists in the 19th-century. Sanjay Dutt, Vaani Kapoor, Ronit Roy also star.

August

Bhuj: The Pride of IndiaRelease date: August 14, 2020Set during the 1971 Indo-Pak War, the story of a squadron leader (Ajay Devgn) in-charge of the Bhuj airport who helped reconstruct an air force base with the help of 300 local women. Sanjay Dutt, Sonakshi Sinha, and Rana Daggubati have supporting roles.

September

Gangubai KathiawadiRelease date: September 11, 2020Alia Bhatt will play the titular brothel owner and matriarch in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's next venture, based a chapter of S. Hussain Zaidi's book, “Mafia Queens of Mumbai”.The King's ManRelease date: September 18, 2020This period prequel to the Kingsman series follows Ralph Fiennes as Duke of Oxford and his protégé as they put a stop to tyrants and criminals. Gemma Arterton, Matthew Goode, Daniel Brühl, Djimon Hounsou, and Charles Dance are part of the cast.Last Night in SohoRelease date: September 25, 2020After Baby Driver, Edgar Wright's next film is a London-set psychological horror starring Thomasin McKenzie (Leave No Trace), Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), Matt Smith (Doctor Who), Diana Rigg (Game of Thrones), and Terence Stamp.

October

Sardar Udham SinghRelease date: October 2, 2020Shoojit Sircar's dream project about the titular revolutionary freedom fighter (Vicky Kaushal) comes to life. Udham is best known for taking revenge for the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre by killing Punjab's then-lieutenant governor in 1940 London, for which he was subsequently hanged by the British.ToofanRelease date: October 2, 2020Farhan Akhtar and director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra reunite for another sports drama — after 2013's Bhaag Milkha Bhaag — about a fictional boxer. Paresh Rawal, Isha Talwar, Mrunal Thakur, Rishi Kapoor, Rajpal Yadav, and Soni Razdan are part of the cast.Venom 2Release date: October 2, 2020The first film was total carnage, so it makes sense that Tom Hardy's journalist and the titular symbiote are next taking on a serial killer (Woody Harrelson) and his own alien symbiote who is actually called Carnage. Andy Serkis directs.Death on the NileRelease date: October 9, 2020The story of Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) continues on holiday in Egypt, where a love triangle spills into murder. Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright, Armie Hammer, Annette Bening, Rose Leslie, and Ali Fazal also star.

November

The EternalsRelease date: November 6, 2020The second Marvel movie in 2020 spans several thousand years, following the titular immortal alien race as they battle their evil counterparts to protect humanity. Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Gemma Chan, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Don Lee, and Kit Harington star.

PrithvirajRelease date: November 13, 2020Chanakya and Pinjar director Chandraprakash Dwivedi helms this epic historical drama about the life of Prithviraja III, who ruled parts of north-west India in the 12th century before his defeat and execution at the hands of the Ghurids. 52-year-old Akshay Kumar will play a man who died in his mid-20s.Godzilla vs. KongRelease date: November 20, 2020This is what it's been building to since the 2014 Godzilla reboot, and the film's title tells you all you need to know. Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobby Brown, Kyle Chandler, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Eiza González, Jessica Henwick, Julian Dennison, and Zhang Ziyi will play the humans.MaidaanRelease date: November 27, 2020Ajay Devgn plays coach Syed Abdul Rahim in this sports biopic, who is considered the architect of modern Indian football and sparked the national team's golden era between 1952–1962. Badhaai Ho director Amit Sharma is behind the camera.Raya and the Last DragonRelease date: November 27, 2020Disney Animation's first original film in four years — since Moana — is about the titular warrior (Cassie Steele) who's looking for the last dragon in the world. Little does she know that she, a water dragon (Awkwafina), is trapped in a human body.Here's the First Concept Art for Raya and the Last Dragon

December

DuneRelease date: December 18, 2020Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem lead the star-studded cast of Denis Villeneuve's ambitious two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1965 sci-fi classic, often termed unfilmable.West Side StoryRelease date: December 18, 2020Steven Spielberg is behind this remake of the multi-Oscar-winning 1961 film adaptation, though it's said to stick more to the original Broadway musical script. It's about two young adults, associated with rival street gangs, falling for each other in 1950s New York.

Laal Singh ChaddhaRelease date: December 25, 2020Aamir Khan stars in Tom Hanks' role in this remake of Forrest Gump transported to Bollywood, which will hence run through the events of India's history. Kareena Kapoor plays the love interest, played by Robin Wright in the original.Tom and JerryRelease date: December 25, 2020The second 2020 film based on a Hanna-Barbera cartoon is a live-action and animation hybrid. It follows a young adult (Chloë Grace Moretz) who teams up with the titular cat to stop the titular mouse from ruining an important event. Strangely not a part of the aforementioned cinematic universe.The Tomorrow WarRelease date: December 25, 2020In the near future, humans figure out how to draft soldiers from the past — Chris Pratt among them — to fight a losing war against alien forces. Yvonne Strahovski, J. K. Simmons, and Betty Gilpin also star. The Lego Batman Movie director Chris McKay at the helm. Read the full article

[randombydesign]

Survivor Series 2017 Predictions.

Back again. Not gonna give some big, wordy intro. We’re just gonna get into it.

Kick-Off Match: Enzo Amore (c) vs. Kalisto (Cruiserweight Championship)

As much as I really don’t like Enzo, he’s really only relevant with the title on him. Without the belt, he’s just another guy on 205 Live. And one who doesn’t have as much in-ring pizzazz as the other members. With the cruiserweight championship, he claims of being a big star are just that, claims. Kalisto was never supposed to be given a title opportunity in the first place, but Neville’s untimely walk-out made them adjust on the spot. It’s clear they want Enzo to be the face of 205 Live for a while, and unfortunately, he’s only good on 205 at the top.

Winner: Enzo Amore.

The Miz vs. Baron Corbin (IC Champion vs. US Champion)

I think this is the sleeper match. The one that has the potential to exceed expectations. It’s been surprisingly personal in the build up, with Miz telling Corbin he’s a nobody to Corbin mentioning Miz’s wife and unborn child. I expect to see a much more fired up Miz than normal on Sunday. That said this one could honestly go either way. But I ultimately see Miz taking the W. Miz winning for Team Raw will allow him to stroke his ego and give him further fuel against general manager Angle. I also Miz is just the stronger of the two champions right now and the result should reflect that. But I wouldn’t be surprised with a Corbin victory.

Winner: The Miz

The Bar vs. The Usos (RAW Tag Team Champions vs. SD Live Tag Team Champions)

The Usos have been so good on SD. Granted, so have Sheamus and Cesaro, but the Usos have been on a whole other level in my opinion. The Bar became tag team champions two weeks ago I think just to set up New Day-Shield. I personally think their reign as tag team champions will be a transitional one. The titles were given to them so Ambrose and Rollins could join Roman Reigns in a dream match against The Patriarchs of Positivity. I expect their reign to end shortly after Survivor Series has come and gone. Not to mention the fact that last year in the 10 v 10 Raw tag team vs. SD tag team survivor series match, it came down to Sheamus/Cesaro vs the Usos. Which the former won. The Usos winning gives them some nice redemption from last year.

Winners: The Usos

Alexa Bliss vs. Charlotte Flair (RAW Women’s Champion vs. SD Live Women’s Champion)

I personally think this match is going to be much better than Alexa vs Nattie. Alexa needs to face a top face from SD Live, not another heel. And while this match doesn’t have a lot of on-screen build-up, there’s definitely a story here. Alexa Bliss has dominated Raw and is a multi-time Raw Women’s Champion. Just like how Charlotte was when she was on Raw. A lot of the things Alexa has done in the last year, Charlotte did it first. That’s not to say that I think Alexa Bliss is a knockoff version of Charlotte. I’m honestly just tired of Alexa Bliss, the heel, always winning clean as a whistle. It’s been very....odd booking with her. Charlotte also needs a huge win after becoming SD Women’s Champion to assert herself as champion. 

Winner: Charlotte Flair

Alicia Fox, Nia Jax, Asuka, Sasha Banks, and Bayley vs. Becky Lynch, Carmella, Tamina, Naomi, and Natayla  (RAW Women vs. SD Women Elimination Match)

Team Raw has Asuka. I highly doubt Asuka’s undefeated streak gets thrown away in an elimination match. It’s too soon and her being dethroned by someone not even on the same show as her is bad booking. I also think Sasha needs a good showing after being eliminated somewhat unceremoniously last year. A fairly early elimination of Bayley could also be good storytelling in what I hope is an eventual Bayley heel turn. 

Winners: Team Raw. Sole survivors: Asuka, and maybe Sasha

The New Day vs. The Shield.

I love the New Day. But the Shield need to win. This is their first big match since reuniting. And beating one of the best teams in the New Day reasserts themselves as the dominant Hounds of Justice that they once were. I suppose a New Day heel turn is possible, but they still sell so much merch that it wouldn’t be cost efficient.

Winners: The Shield

Brock Lesnar vs. AJ Styles (Universal Champion vs. WWE Title)

I feel really bad for Jinder. They spent so many weeks advertising Jinder vs. Brock and then it got changed for AJ at the last minute. I understand why they did it. Because AJ vs. Brock is a much bigger draw and no one was really feeling the Maharaja vs The Beast. But still, I can’t help but feel a bit bad for him. That being said, AJ Styles vs Brock Lesnar is a dream match in any part of the world and a match that will definitely tear the house down. As much as I want AJ to win, the person that pins Brock Lesnar will have so much momentum, and that person should obviously be a Raw superstar on the same brand as Lesnar. Plus if Jinder is winning the championship back in December for WWE’s tour of India, then AJ might just be champion to sell the first ever Universal-WWE Champion. Will not complain about the outcome either way, should be a classic. Possible Jinder interference. 

Winner: Hopefully, AJ Styles, realistically, Brock Lesnar

Kurt Angle, Braun Strowman, Samoa Joe, Finn Balor and Triple H vs. Shane McMahon, Randy Orton, Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura and John Cena. (RAW vs. SD Live 5v5 Elimination Match)

A lot could happen in this match. Hunter and Kurt could have descension which could lead to them getting eliminated, Jason Jordan could come out and attack Kurt or to a lesser extent Hunter. Kane will almost certainly play a part in Strowman’s elimination. John’s definitely a wildcard, but I see him getting eliminated by a younger talent like Finn or Joe. What really happens depends on what they wanna go with. On the one hand, Stephanie basically said Kurt’s out of a job if Raw doesn’t win, and I’d rather Monday Night Raw not go through another general manager so quickly. SD Live won last year, so I feel like it’s logical that Raw should win this year, but this one could really go either way. I don’t personally think there are too many part timers in this match. They want this to be a stacked card and Triple H, Shane, Cena and Angle are all huge names. Not to mention the dream matches you get from Cena-Balor, Triple H-Nakamura and so on. But maybe my opinion isn’t what’s most popular.

Winners: Team Raw. 

Thanks for stomaching the awful predictions post. I don’t know when I’ll be able to do it again. Looking forward to this Sunday more than I have in a long time for a show.

[suggy-maynard01-blog]

Lost boy

A/n this is based of the song “lost boy” by 5 seconds of summer so I recommend listening to it while reading this but you don’t have to x

Joe and Jack, or Joeck if you like, used to be a thing. They didn’t tell their viewers, too scared of how over 8 million people would react. But all good things have to come to an end eventually. And unfortunate for the two boys, their relationship only lasted half a year, the best time of their lives. They told their close family and friends, everyone supported them and it was perfect. Too good to be true even.

So one night, when all the boys were round Joes flat after filming videos for all of their channels, an argument between Joe and Jack broke out. They had both been stressed with work recently, and seeing this just caused them to snap at each other.

“Joe. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me” Jack pleaded

“No! How can I? You cheated on me Jack! Am I not good enough for you?” Joe shouted. All the boys attention was now on them, trying to calm them both down but hateful words were sent each other’s way, unforgivable things, and then it was over.

A simple, “bye, Jack” and Joe was gone. A slam of the door and he left. Back to Wiltshire with his dad. Gone. As far away from Jack as possible. So Jack left too. Jack was the one who caused it, cheating on Joe when he was drunk one night. So he ran away, living all over the world because he couldn’t bare to see the looks of disappointment of his family and friends faces.

While Joe was back at home with his dad, he sold his old flat but now started to regret that. He missed Jack, deeply. You never know how much you love someone until you loose them. Hoping Jack would forgive him, Joe started texting his mates, hoping someone knows where Jack is. But no one has heard anything from him. Both boys have been off social media and YouTube for 3 months, stopped with a tweet saying they needed a break and was gone. After texting Conor for a solid half an hour, because their brothers surely Conor should know where Jack is, but he didn’t. Joe missed Jack that much he didn’t believe him, so he left Wiltshire to go live with his sister in Brighton, Jacks home town.

��Hopefully I can find him there” Joe kept thinking on the train, but he didn’t. Jack was currently in America with Anth because he ran out of money for a hotel room. Jack knows he should go back to Brighton soon, he has too, he’s left all his family and friends. But they wouldn’t care about him, right? I mean, he was in the wrong, why should they forgive him? And Joe, god did Jack miss Joe. He hasn’t seen him in over 3 months and he misses him so much.

To try to get his mind off it, Jack went out clubbing a lot, bringing home boys and girls to get his mind of Joe, but for the whole time he just kept wishing that person was Joe. That’s when he knew he had to go home.

Jack moved back to England, but as soon as he landed, he headed straight of to Wiltshire, that’s Joe’s home town so surely he will be there. They just miss each other in the train station, Joe going to Brighton and Jack going to Wiltshire. They need each other. They are two halves and together they make a whole. They can’t live without each other, so they are trying to find each other however their searching in the wrong places. But love always finds a way.

Joe: Hey Cas. I’m heading back to London. Can I stay at your apartment for a bit please?

Caspar: Thats fine buddy. Conor and Josh are currently here but just come round whenever you want

Joe: I’m on my way now. Thanks man! I owe you

Caspar: your welcome??

Joe got on the first uber to London while Jack was on the train to Brighton however Jack received a text of his big brother, one of the many people he has been avoiding for 3 months

Conor: hey lil bro. Miss ya. When you coming to visit me? Love you bro x

Jack: I’m just heading to Brighton now. Miss you too big bro. Do you not hate me for what I did to Joe? X

Conor: I could never hate you bro. I’m your brother. I’m not allowed to hate you. Come to London!!! I’m at Caspars rn but pleeeaaaseee

Jack: ugh fine I’ll come to London. See you soon x

Conor: yay! I haven’t seen or talked to my brother for 3 months. I finally get to see him. Woo!😂x

Shaking his head, Jack gets on another train to head to London to see his friends, clueless as to where Joe is. Although he has high hopes, he just needs to see Joe, hear Joe. He needs Joe. He’s lost without him. But he thinks Joe will never take him back. Jack fucked up, he knows that, but he thinks that a Joe will never forgive him. But Joe needs Jack just as much as Jack needs Joe. Forgive and forget people say, and that’s what Joe did. He loves Jack too much to stay away from him.

Joeck isn’t joeck without the Joe, Joe thought. So he is going to make Joeck happen again.

Joeck isn’t Joeck without the ck, Jack thought. So he will do what he can to make Joe forgive him and Joeck be reunited.

When Jack finally arrives in London, he heads to Caspars flat like Conor told him and let himself into the building.

“Joe! That’s not possible! Rematch” Jack hears his ex-roommate, Josh, shout. Joe is here, in the same building as me, Jack thinks, I can’t fuck this up.

“Look whose arrived! Hey jack” Caspar says, standing up to greet him as Jack stands fully inside Caspars apartment. Conor grabs Jack and pulls him into a bear hug and tells him he missed him. Once they’ve separated, Caspar and Josh bro-hug Jack then Jack makes eye contact with Joe.

“I-I can leave if you want” Jack stutters

“Don’t. Don’t go” Joe tells him “can I talk to you?”

“Joe. I’m so so sorry. I fucked up, I know. Hate me all you want. I hate me too. But I just. I want to tell you how sorry I am. Your an amazing guy, I love you so much but I fucked it all up and I’m so so sorry” Jack rambles, tears springing to his eyes threatening to fall

“I’m sorry too. I love you Jack. I forgive you” Joe notices the tears in Jacks eyes and gets up of the couch from where he was sitting and holds Jacks hands “I can’t live without you Jack. Yes, you fucked up. But you know you were wrong and I forgive you-”

“But-”

“No. Let me finish. I can’t live without you. You make me, me. And I’m so sorry for leaving you. For not talking to you for 3 months. For hating you. Because over that time I’ve realised without you I’m a lost boy. I need you in my life. So I forgive you”

“Joe. Your too good for this world. I don’t know why you want to take me back, but I’m not going to question it. I need you in my life, I can’t live without you. And I’m so so sorry. I’m going to apologise everyday of my life and it still won’t be enough. I love you so so much and I’m a dick, I know. But please. Please don’t leave me again”

“Never again Jack. I love you too”

And Joeck was Joeck again. They were both whole, happy and them. They went strong, from that day on a year passed, then two, then the year when Jack proposed to Joe, then a year later they got married, then two years later they adopted, then again. And nothing could tear apart Joeck. Because Joeck are Joeck, two lost boys who make each other whole. Two lost boys in love.