#its been Seven Years people change hes hardly 'suffering' in this game anyways he has so much time to be a Prick to apollo

[mekatrio]

losing my mind are u telling me a large reason why ppl dislike aa4 is bc they dont like the fact tht phoenix got disbarred omfg..... do you hate drama. tension. seeing a deeper inversion of a compelling character. Hello

[common-nerd-knowledge]

Obey me! One Nerd To Explain Them All!

Asmodeus Headcanons: Another Side

Hear me out- I’m well aware that at times there’s not exactly much light being shown with him, but I genuinely believe there’s a vast possibility of things that could be done to dive deeper into the character. I believe under that narcissism and his sin (that plays a huge factor too), he really could be a decent demon otherwise. The same goes with the other brothers, but they are not my focus for today.

!!Warning!!: these are just my own personal headcanons and may get sensitive topics mentioned (or spoilers for the current end of the year). By no way, shape, or form am I expecting anything from this.

Honestly, I think he’d be one of the best demons to go to for comfort for those struggling with themselves.

I mean- he’s been there and it’s hinted that he is insecure and seeks love and attention. Genuine, platonic love and attention. He just isn’t quite sure what to do with it. He’s the embodiment of Lust, after all. However, surely he must crave friendship too. He’s just so used to the sexual aspect that it’s become like the norm.

After all, he doesn’t even try to get you in his bed at the end of the game. He just wants to hear someone tell him they love him, genuinely, through the time and few experiences over the year.

Jewel of the Heavens. He likely does want to still be the angel he used to be, making due with the situation given to him. Remember- its very possible that he wasn’t like this as an angel. He reminds me of an incubus in game- as he acts much like one in his own way. But he went from adored angel to almost a nobody. After all, why would the demons have cared much for an angel when the brothers first fell?

I think this was likely a factor in his behavior, as demons aren’t usually considered to be the nicest. If he wanted to be popular again, to avoid letting go of that title, he has to keep up with the trends in the Devildom and do whatever it takes to get back up where he should be.

He might have accepted his new look just fine, but imagine how hard it must have been to go from that angel to nothing. So, now as a newly made representation of Lust, alongside this issue, the wreck that comes his rising popularity for more reasons than one begins.

Whether it was from sleeping with someone or wiggling in somewhere, it would still get him known as something or prove that even here, it proves he’s adored to the point of where he’s considered desirable. He’d have to look the part too. That’s where the strict beauty routine comes in. It’s to a point where, honestly, I believe he doesn’t know what else to do then. He just knows what he can make of himself here and is rolling with it.

Plus- as he can come off as a feminine man, it’s no surprise that it’s possible he just doesn’t care for gender norms. He’s confident in his own skin, especially when it seems the populace can agree with that too.

That doesn’t mean he’ll tell someone to get over themselves so simply. He can say some pretty choice words, but I doubt he’s purposely go out to upset someone if they did nothing to him. (Or if that persons Mammon- that might change. We know how Mammon gets the short end of the stick.)

I bet if he met someone struggling with themselves (when he’s not self absorbed- actually aware), not only would he treat them to a self-care day, but he’s probably vocally make his support known. 

You’re a female but don’t want to “dress” like one? You want a suit? Okay, honey. Lets go to the store and pick you out some that just scream (name) then. You’re going to look wonderful, darling. Not as much as I would, but close enough!

You’re a male but want to dress feminine? Well then, sweetie today's your lucky day? How about we get makeovers then? Shopping spree too? Want some nice skirts that’ll flow yet fit you and help you look your best? Trust me on this.

This goes for all people of sexualities and genders, by the way.

He’d probably do his best to make sure you get accepted. Heck- he probably could introduce you to a few friends since in the present time he knows a lot of people.

When it comes back to the topic of love interests...

Someone who he can’t charm and isn’t easily wooed, being a test for him to likely show what he does really want? An MC or S/O like that, for him, would be able to give him a good challenge, yet also be able to have a bond like that of best friends.

He would not make it easy at all, for sure- peeling back the layers past his narcissism and flirty behavior would be much of a challenge. But he’d have just as hard a time trying to charm his respective MC who he can’t just woo so simply.

It’s bound to lead to one of those scenarios where the popular boy (because lets admit- he is one of those characters.) and the new person end up having their rocky start since neither know what to expect, but with some time could easily become a sweet reveal and overtime good relationship too, whether he is a supporter of their choices (if you prefer one of his brothers within reason- since he isn’t completely innocent either.) and identities or they truly want to work towards an actual relationship with a lot of time and effort.

He’d likely spoil them, but love can’t be bought. He’d be shown what an actual relationship (platonic or romantic- doesn’t matter) is like with the right person.

They also might be able to genuinely notice his visible struggle with keeping the title of most popular, even if not many can top him in popularity. With some insight, you’d be able to see the ‘not so fabulous’ side of him. A side he hardly ever shows.

And this could be an unpopular opinion, but I think he envies Beelzebub and Lucifer for their bodies too, plus how popular they can also be. He might word it in an odd fashion, but I think he does believe that they do have traits that, if they aimed for it, make his attempt to be the pretty, adored one of seven to shreds with some more pushing. He could genuinely just admire them as well, but I think its a possible misinterpretation with his rambles that lead to the assumption that he’s a total creep about it.

I mean- is it just me who noticed despite the blush that he seems a bit pouty or upset when he rambles about the good things about his brothers? Again, it could just be how he just looks- but to me it looks like he genuinely does have something he’s not saying about it. He loves them both- Lucifer especially, but he almost seems a bit down.

I think he’s just good at keeping his emotions put away to save face so no one can tell he’s suffering or facing his own inner demons just as much at points, though can let that come down when the times right.

He just needs a good platonic hug, and a reminder that its okay to just be like this at times. Or someone to be his friend- someone needs to make sure he can have a friend who doesn’t want to be near him for those reasons of wanting to keep the cycle going without an end. It won’t stop it from happening, but it’d probably mean a lot to him that one person really doesn’t want that much. He’d spoil them anyway though.

Especially if he ever gets the chance to open up about how dark his side of the story, likely, really is: losing Lilith and also in a situation where he struggled to cope with this new forced identity of a demon at the bottom until things got squared away. Almost a completely different person, who grew to believe that this was one of the only ways he can find to become valid again.

He’d be able to experience, at first, what having someone- an outsider truly care about his own well being just as much as anyone else close to him is like. Get this too- they don’t expect repaid, nor will anything go down if he doesn’t sleep with them, to make up for it! Someone who could listen to his problems like he would for others if he was given that chance to explore some more positive aspects of him. It’d balance him out perfectly.

In the same respect, he could teach someone how to truly care for themselves and watch out for anything that’d hurt them. Seeing him help a few struggling demons- or even humans with their identities and making sure they are safe when they do their own thing would be a good enough eye opener to see there is more behind that guise.

I don’t expect him to change much, but seeing him try to better himself and work with what he can for someone- a love interest he genuinely wants-- or keeping a real friend around would be such a good way to add to his character in my personal opinion. I believe it’s possible, with the right person and resources. He could completely improve a bit and treasure a friend/partner more than he would have ever done before. He’d actually be able to fully get his time to shine and show he’s more than just some lusty flirt. After all, it’s his sin. Not entirely his character. It’s a factor, but not his whole character.

[xtruss]

The Wacky Story of How China's Navy Got Aircraft Carriers

China was proud to launch its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, in 2012. This vessel was a refit of an incomplete Soviet Kuznetsov-class cruiser carrier. However, the story of how China got that ship in the first place may as well be a comedy—because the carrier was actually a rogue acquisition for the Chinese military against the wishes of the government in Beijing.

— by Sebastien Roblin | September 16, 2019 | Nationalinterest.Org

Key Point: So if there’s a moral to the story of the Varyag, it’s not to expect too much gratitude for your good deeds . . . and always keep the receipt.

China was proud to launch its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, in 2012. This vessel was a refit of an incomplete Soviet Kuznetsov-class cruiser carrier. However, the story of how China got that ship in the first place may as well be a comedy—because the carrier was actually a rogue acquisition for the Chinese military against the wishes of the government in Beijing. And it was undertaken by a basketball player who claimed he wanted to build a floating casino.

The People's Liberation Army Navy first became interested in acquiring an aircraft carrier in 1970, when China was still on bad terms with both the Soviet Union and the United States. However few concrete steps were taken, because the cost and complexity of such an endeavor far exceeded the PLAN’s limited capabilities during the Cold War.

The Soviet Navy did deploy its first carriers in the 1970s: Kiev-class vessels that could launch Yak-38 Forger jump jets of limited effectiveness. By the 1980s, the Soviets began construction of two more promising Kuznetsov-class carriers. These had a “ski jump” ramp, allowing more conventional—and much higher-performing—Su-33 Flanker fighters to take off from it. Like the earlier Kiev class, the Kuznetsov was technically an “aircraft-carrying cruiser” due its powerful armament of twelve P-700 Granit antiship missile systems. This technicality was important, as “aircraft carriers” proper weighing more than fifteen thousand tons (which is to say, virtually all aircraft carriers today) were not legally permitted by the Montreux Convention to transit from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean via the Bosporus Straits.

However, the fall of the Soviet Union left the second vessel in its class, the Varyag, only two-thirds complete in Ukraine, lacking its armament and electrical systems. Construction ceased in 1992, and the cash-strapped Ukrainian government did its best to pawn off the fifty-five thousand tons of inoperable metal rusting in its Mykolaiv shipyard. Russia, India and China all passed.

A two-part series in the South China Morning Post in 2015 revealed the machinations behind how the carrier ended up in Chinese service anyway, two decades later. It turns out the PLA Navy did want the Varyag—the team sent to inspect it recommended purchasing it! But the government in Beijing was worried that acquiring a carrier might increase tensions at a time when it was seeking to further open itself to Western investors.

Instead, in 1996 a group of PLA officers including intelligence chief Gen. Ji Shengde approached Xu Zengping, a former PLA basketball star who had become a successful businessman arranging international events. The cabal’s proposal: to have Xu purchase the carrier as a private citizen, ostensibly to serve as a casino so as to avoid undesirable scrutiny. Then the PLAN could collect it for its own use once the political winds were more favorable.

This cover story is not as ridiculous as it sounds. Remember those Kiev-class carriers mentioned earlier? Two of them are now moored in China, serving as amusement parks. The Minsk was actually purchased by a consortium of video-game arcade owners in Shenzhen for $4.4 million, and has since been moved to Nantong, north of Shanghai. And the original Kiev? Now a floating hotel in Tianjin. However, the more modern Kuznetsov-class Varyag was undoubtedly of much greater practical interest for the PLAN than either of those ships.

Xu was down with the scheme and borrowed the equivalent of $30 million in Hong Kong dollars from a friend to help fund the venture—the first expense of which was to create a $6 million shell company in Macau called Agência Turística e Diversões Chong Lot Limitada, in order to maintain the fiction. (Macau was still in its last years as a Portuguese colony at the time.)

In January 1998, Xu arrived in Ukraine and met with the shipyard owners. After four days of negotiations, in which enormous bribes were offered and fifty bottles of 124-proof baijiu liquor were consumed, he reached an agreement to purchase the carrier for $20 million—well below the cost of a single jet fighter today. He wasn’t able to make the payment until a year later, with a $10 million extra late fee tacked on.

Some international observers smelled something fishy in the arrangement—Xu’s company did not actually have a gambling permit in Macau, nor a listed phone number or address. Ironically, however, a Jane’s analyst interviewed by the Washington Post at the time stated it was “farfetched” that the PLA Navy would try to operate the Varyag due to its decrepit and incomplete condition.

By June 2000, everything was ready to go. The carrier’s four engines were packed in grease seals (they had yet to be installed), several tons of blueprints were sent overland to China by truck, and a Dutch towing company was ready to tug the 306-meter-long vessel all the way back to China. What could go wrong?

Ever been stunned by the towing fee after your car breaks down far from home? Imagine that, but around five hundred times worse. Why five hundred? Because that equals the roughly five hundred days the Liaoning was stuck being towed in circles off Istanbul, after the Turkish government denied it passage to the Mediterranean via the Bosporus Straits.

The Turkish maritime minister argued that should there be a mishap towing the 306-meter-long carrier—which could not maneuver or move on its own power—it might spin around and block the Bosporus straits to all shipping, or run into one of the bridges connecting the two halves of Istanbul. The straits are only seven hundred meters wide at their narrowest point and require at least six major course corrections to navigate. Hundreds of ships had suffered accidents there in the past. Curiously, the Chinese appear to have perceived the Turkish refusal to be in retaliation for China’s opposition to the NATO air campaign in Yugoslavia the previous year.

The Liaoning spent sixteen months racking up $8,500 a day in towing fees. Finally, Beijing had a change of heart on the matter, and stepped in on August 2001, promising major concessions on tourism to persuade the Turks to let the Varyag pass.

Finally on November 1, in an operation involving more than two dozens tug and emergency vessels, the Varyag was towed through the Bosporus without incident, and traversed the Dardanelles the next day. The hard part was over.

Except for the sea storm with sixty-mile-per-hour winds that struck the rudderless vessel off the island of Skyros two days later, causing it to snap its tow lines. It took two more days to recover the runaway carrier. Tragically, a Portuguese sailor fell to his death while helping reconnect it to its tugs.

Once under power, a normal vessel could have taken the shortcut through the Suez Canal and straight on back to China via the Indian Ocean. But the canal would not accept powerless vessels such as the Varyag, so it had to cruise all the way around Africa, Vasco de Gama–style, chugging along at a brisk jog of seven miles per hour.

In March 2002, the carrier finally arrived at the port of Dalian in Liaoning province, which would lend the carrier its name in Chinese service. Three years later, it was put into a dry dock to allow for an extensive refit process, including sandblasting away all the rust and restoring and installing the engines in 2011.

The PLAN intended to operate the vessel as a pure carrier, rather than as a cruiser-carrier hybrid, so the shipbuilders didn’t bother with the enormous antiship missile systems. They instead confined its armament to a trio of short-range HQ-10 air-defense missile launchers and a few close-defense guns. The vessel’s primary weapon, of course, would be its complement of twenty-four J-15 Flying Shark fighters. The Flying Sharks are domestic copies of the Russian Su-33 fighter, a prototype of which was also acquired from Ukraine in 2001. The Liaoning also flies six Z-12F antisubmarine helicopters, four airborne early-warning variants and two Z-9 rescue choppers.

The Liaoning was commissioned on September 25, 2012, and the first J-15 landed on it a month later. A home-built carrier based upon the Liaoning will soon put to sea this year; those blueprints must have proved useful.

The Liaoning is hardly equal to a U.S. supercarrier—in addition to its smaller air wing and lack of a nuclear power plant, its steam turbines are prone to breaking down and the ski-jump deck limits the fuel and weapons load its fighters can carry. However, it afforded China a leap forward in its naval construction program—which now includes five more carriers in the coming decade of increasing planned capability. According to Xu Zengping, a naval officer told him that the Varyag saved China fifteen years of research and development.

So was Xu richly rewarded for his initiative? He was rewarded with bills: $120 million in all in Xu’s estimation, forcing him to sell his decadent home in Hong Kong and spend all of the intervening years paying his lenders back. You see, General Ji was jailed in 2001 for his involvement in a massive smuggling ring in the city of Xiamen—so the cabal of officers that set Xu up for the task was no longer around to see that he was compensated.

Beijing did pay for the $20 million value of the carrier—but argued that it couldn’t cover other costs because he lacked receipts. Apparently, invoices—or fapiao in Mandarin—don’t come standard with bribes paid to Ukrainian businessmen. And, as one quickly learns in China, you always need the official fapiao.

So if there’s a moral to the story of the Varyag, it’s not to expect too much gratitude for your good deeds . . . and always keep the receipt.

— Sébastien Roblin holds a master’s degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring. This first appeared several years ago.

[scummy-writes]

(1/2) I don't know if you've been asked this before, but what are your thoughts on the story and script quality of MM? Personally I thought it was fine, a good balance between drama and comedy, until the secret endings. The secret endings felt awfully like an effort to "rail-road" the story, to the point of reducing MC's role to less than a bit character, and the resolution itself was kinda rushed. I do agree with your opinion on V that, ultimately, it was necessary for him to die in the story

(2/2) But his character suffers because of the terrible handling of ANOTHER character: Rika. It's obvious that she was meant to be a tragic, sympathetic character but falls short of the "show, don't tell" trope because the game never shows us why, only spelling it to us via the other characters that she used to be a sweet person (and even that is dubious). Compare Saeran, who comes off as crazier but garners sympathy by *actually* showing us how he used to be and why he's like that now

(3/3, got longer than expected) The complete lack of consequence was more of a pet peeve, as I find it unlikely that after the meltdown at Mint Eye hq there wasn't any police investigation or testimony sheding light over what happened. That could have been easily handled by showing Seven or Jumin intervening (they would). So yeah, sorry for barreling you with this lol, I just love discussing narrative tropes and found your thoughts on V and Rika very interesting

It’s okay! I like trying to discuss this kinda stuff! It’sfun! I think they’re called Metas?

This might be a little long! As a side note, this is just mypersonal onion about the whole thing. In no way do you have to agree, nor do Iexpect anyone to. 

In terms of storytelling and scripts, I think that for anotome phone game it does a good job. Maybe arguably great, but nothing ‘superduper amazing!!’. Don’t mistake my words though, even though it might not bethe best, doesn’t mean I don’t love it to death. I have just seen freebiegames, even with hardly any dialogue, show a more concise and followingstoryline than MM does.

Granted, I think some obvious faults come from translationerrors, or maybe forgotten notes on characters. A small example that I’ve knowngo around a bunch is Yoosung complaining that he can’t type well on histouchscreen, when in CGs and the RFA handbook we know Yoosung has a flip-phone.So, excluding those kinds of mistakes, which I believe can happen when you havemultiple people working on one game, the main storytelling is a little messy attimes. I think a lot of that has to deal with the fact that they tried to makeeach route vastly different.

For replay value, and to make each route special, they didhave to have them different. And I think a good way to see it is that all ofthe characters routes are AU’s against the True Route, which is Seven’s.Because of this, we sometimes run into the characters acting vastly differentat times, and we’re left to scrape up all these ‘facts’ and try to use those tobuild-on to these characters. At times this is difficult, because they cancounter each other. Usually its small things, but I think there’s a bit ofinformation that gets missed about Rika because of this. Like with the factthat she was adopted by Yoosung’s aunt and uncle, apparently. I think that’sonly mentioned on one route, and referenced in the VIP book where her sectionof family is literally scribbled out, but if we didn’t run into that, we wouldbe left to assume that Rika is Yoosung’s cousin by blood.

Which…Is weird because I think he may say that he’s relatedto Rika by blood during a moment where he’s angry at V.

(Don’t even get me started on how Rika isn’t even her name?Apparently??)

In a way, the storytelling is a bit creative on a wholebecause of that. They change it up so you’re not bored replaying new routes,and so you get to possibly see other sides of characters, but it does fuck someinformation up about the characters themselves at times. There’s probably moreexamples than what I gave.

Though they did manage to make each character soundrespectfully different through the dialogue alone. Not the voice actors, butthe written dialogue. I know there have been many times where I’ve seen ascreenshot of a phone call with no context on the caller, and it’s been very easyfor me to figure out who it was in just a few seconds. That takes some skill!

But to tackle the True Route after ends. Unfortunately tosome, Seven is the true route, since Saeran is the main ‘antagonist’ for awhile, next to Rika. In order to give context for Saeran existing, his motives,and to explain Rika’s absence, they made Seven the True Route. (I’m assumingso, anyway). Now, it is true they could have found a way to include each of theroutes to display the information that Seven’s does, but I think it would havebeen a huuuuge fucking mess. It’s much easier to follow and make if they have a‘True Route’. How the game is needed to be played if you want the ‘full’ story.The other routes are just AU’s that can possibly fill in some gaps ifyou know what those gaps are first.

Annd this is where Rika falls in with your ask (that took mesome time ahbfhs). If we don’t play the True Route, we’re left to assume Rikawas a sweet and helpful person who had an aching heart of suffering shewitnessed, and also suffered from what seemed to be depression since shecommitted suicide.

Now, I don’t know about any of you, but because I’m afiction whore, I called that bs out when V always dodged questions about herdeath. Am I always doubting fictional characters since I play detective gamesmainly? ….Probably, but in all honesty I figured there was more to it thanthat.

Then we get to the True Route and the mess that happens inthe After Ends- V revealing she’s not dead, she’s alive, she’s a cult leader,etc etc. We all know what happens in that mess, though with some randomprevious information, we can infer a few things about her that we weren’tdirectly told.

She was most likely very manipulative from the start. Idon’t know if this would be a learned behavior from Rika’s true family, or thereasons she would be adopted later on, but it is briefly mentioned (I think)that her adopted parents regretted taking her in.

She was possibly using V the whole time, and didn’t actuallylove him.

She used the RFA as a front to get Political Leader’s infoto officially jumpstart her ‘perfect’ world one day. (KINDA obvious but Ididn’t realize how serious it was until a bit after I had played the AfterEnds).

Buut, we never know what led to these thoughts and behaviors.We’re just left to assume that it’s either A) Her MIs, or B) A combo of thatand her real family.

There is a high chance they didn’t write a full fledgedbackstory like we get with the others, about their childhoods at least, becauseof the chance of portraying MIs very very very very verypoorly/stereotypically. It could be argued that it was handled poorly as theyhave it now, but it’s still not nearly as bad as other cases I’ve seen.Instead, like you said, we get second hand info from Yoosung and V mainly, abit from Jumin as well.

As for the dramatic throwdown that happened at the HQ, Ithink that went well. It’s true that it could be possible that Seven or Jumincould have had better timing, stopped Saeran from shooting, stopped a lot ofstuff from happening, but I always assumed that they were unable to reach V dueto all of the members blocking their path, and any general hubbub that couldhave been happening due to Jumin’s security slamming in. And, as we’ve noted,that I still think for the story V couldn’t have survived.

However, with the police investigation, I think it’smentioned they purposely avoided that because of the Choi Boys existence. Theywere never supposed to be alive, and were doomed to hide who they were fortheir life. A police investigation would have brought forth that, and for Rikato be arrested and tried, and if that also happened, Choi Boys (again) are atrisk.

I can see how it’s all “There def should have been one”, butunfortunately to some, money can stop that from happening, especially if itskept under wraps. It seems like Jumin, Seven, and the cult members familes tookcare of the others that were affected…I think that’s what happened.

And in terms of MC being kinda pushed to the side during the After End of his route, I think they had to happen in order to tell the whole story. Because the stuff that happened to Seven was never about us to begin with- We just managed to stumble in and make the Choi’s reunion actually take place, but from that point on it’s all about Seven’s past and Saeran’s past, explaining the whole plot of MM. 

I mean, granted, it might have taken years if for them to reunite again, if they ever did, without us. But at the same time, at that point, it’s still not about us or our choices. 

Does any of this make sense? It’s a lot longer than I meantit to be...;;;

[queen-empathy]

18/08/2017 17:00, Report by Steve Bartram ALAN TATE: ONCE A RED, ALWAYS A RED... Features editor Steve Bartram relives last week’s trip to the Liberty Stadium for Alan Tate’s testimonial as former Reds – including Tate’s close friend, Darren Fletcher – came from far and wide to salute an ex-Academy starlet who never made a senior Reds appearances, this was an occasion which showcased Manchester United’s family spirit… Dwight Yorke, his eye twitching with tiredness, sinks into his seat at the back of the coach. The previous day, he returned from working in Indonesia; a trip which followed a day at home in Cheshire after three weeks on the Reds’ pre-season tour of the US. As he tells Russell Beardsmore and Ben Thornley, without a hint of the infectious grin which accompanied his stellar career, 90 minutes of football is hardly what the doctor ordered. When Wes Brown boards the coach, however, he has just the tonic. “Yorkie. Poker?” The Trinidad and Tobago legend is exhumed. His hooded head lifts. That smile consumes his face. “Yeah, man. Just come and get me." By the time the coach has reached Sandbach – 40 miles into a 220-mile trip – the group is in full swing. Brown, Yorke, Fletcher, Danny Webber, Chris Eagles and Karl Munroe occupy the six seats at the heart of the coach. While the players are spread about the top level of the double-decker coach – Beardsmore and Thornley at the back, while Denis Irwin, Andy Ritchie and Quinton Fortune bookend the party at the front - the whole group intermingles. Those who aren’t involved in the poker drift past, pausing to share stories or crack wise at whoever loses a particular hand, before meandering downstairs to catch up with staff. Downstairs, the players share hugs and handshakes with security guards and Foundation staff. Di Ryding, the trip’s physio, catches up with players she has known since she joined the club in 2004. Everybody is family here. The reason this assortment of United players is on the bus is to contest the Alan Tate Testimonial. The Easington-born defender rose up through the United Academy system in the early noughties, winning the 2000/01 Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year award and captaining the club’s Reserves before eventually making a loan deal with Swansea permanent in 2004. Over 250 games later, after the Swans’ first-ever Premier League fixture, he suffered a broken leg in a golf cart accident. Though his career continued, Swansea took the decision to award him a testimonial and a United XI was scheduled to provide the opposition on 13 August 2013. The only condition was a rearrangement in the event of the two clubs being paired together at first team level later that same week in the opening game of the Premier League season. That’s exactly what happened, and the game was postponed while David Moyes began his brief managerial reign with a thumping 4-1 win at the Liberty Stadium. After a combined seven managerial changes between the two clubs, several unsuccessful rearrangements and almost exactly four years, the Reds are now Swansea-bound. This group – with a combined 1,660 appearances, 157 goals and 49 major honours – is intent on honouring the 34-year-old who never played a single first team game for United. The road to this point has been long and arduous, and the bid to build a team has not been easy. Working in tandem with Fletcher, Manchester United Foundation co-ordinator James Lester has managed to pull off various coups, despite the friendly being arranged in the middle of holiday season and falling the week before the start of the Premier League season proper. Munroe, a late call-up, is a friend of Brown and an ex-Academy player. Meeting the coach in Wales is Clayton Blackmore, Kevin Pilkington, Erik Nevland (hastily flown in from Stavanger), Alex Lang and Damian Gielty. The latter pair are the only members of the group with no affiliation to United. Lang is Swansea’s 17-year-old youth team goalkeeper, providing emergency cover should anything untoward befall Pilkington, while Gielty is Fletcher’s cousin and flies in from Norway the day after completing a 50 kilometre hike. Fletcher has more involvement than most in this fixture, both organisational and emotional. “I was 15 when I moved down to go full-time at United,” recalls the Scot. “Tatey was already there because he was in the year above me. He recognised that I was a young lad finding my way in a new city. Whenever the lads went out for a meal or to the Trafford Centre to play pool, Tatey got me involved. He welcomed me into the group and that is something I’ve never forgotten.” Having assisted Lester in rounding up a squad which is now – bar those meeting the party later – safely en route, Fletcher can settle into the subplot of the trip: the poker. The six players use Brown’s custom-made poker set, featuring various coloured chips which bear the defender’s name on a United shirt. “I got it as a present and it’s my pride and joy,” beams the defender, before ruefully adding: “Eagles has had it in his garage for months.” Eagles is the youngest member of the party, a pup at just 31. Looking around the bus, he is 25 years younger than Ritchie, the group’s elder, and this is his first foray into legends football. “At first I thought it was a bit out of my comfort zone,” he admits, “But I spoke to Webbs about it and he sold it to me. I thought I was maybe too young… what is a legend anyway?” Therein lies a common theme surrounding such games: what constitutes a legendary Manchester United player? Webber mustered three senior appearances during his time on the club’s books, but has long since made peace with a debate which, on social media at least, often surfaces and seldom remains pretty. “Listen, I was on the radio the other night, debating whether or not Wayne Rooney is a Manchester United legend,” he tells the group. “If people don’t think he’s a legend, what chance has anyone got?” Eagles shakes his head. He notched 17 outings and a solitary goal with United – an unforgettable, vital strike at Everton in 2007 – before leaving the club to join Burnley the following summer. After a short stint at Port Vale towards the end of last season, he is currently plotting his next move as a free agent. So too is Brown. A week later, the Longsight libero will join ex-United coach Rene Meulensteen at Kerala Blasters in the Indian Super League, but on the coach he mulls over his alternatives, one of which is to hook up with former team-mate Teddy Sheringham, a recent managerial appointment at Atletico de Kolkata, also in the ISL. Fletcher is the only professional, and has special dispensation to travel to the game. The Scot has been allowed by boss Mark Hughes to miss training and partake in the game as much as he likes, but returning with any kind of injury ahead of the Potters’ Premier League opener at Everton will not go down well. “Tackle like me,” proffers Eagles, suggesting the best way to approach the situation. “Just don’t do it! I’ve never been injured in my life!” As Fletcher mulls his dilemma, he steadily surrounds himself with coffee cups brimming with poker chips. John O’Shea calls Brown and is put on speaker for the party’s benefit. The repartee zips about the group, Yorke taking centre stage when he assumes the role of dealer. Though he turns 46 later this year, his regular golfing – he plays off a handicap of one – and gym work have combined to give him a doorman’s physique. Now, as he loudly predicts each card before he deals it, speculating on the other players’ strategies in order to get into their heads, he fills the bus. Not that the strategy ultimately breeds any great financial reward, but that isn’t the motive on this trip. None of the players are paid for answering the call to return to United duty. The motivation for playing is altogether more wholesome, ranging from longstanding friendship with Tate to craving the dressing room culture which underscored their playing days at Old Trafford. Between them, they have represented United from the reigns of Ron Atkinson to Louis van Gaal, but they are team-mates. “You just feel at home,” says Webber. “There’s that special bond you get at United,” continues Eagles. “You never lose friendships, it’s very strange. At other clubs I’ve been at, that’s not the case. I was at Bolton for three years but I wouldn’t go and meet any of them for a coffee, but at United, it’s like best mates.” After arriving in Swansea, the squad is bolstered by those who have made their own way, before the group heads to the Liberty Stadium. They arrive two hours early for the 7pm kick-off, but this has its benefits. While this is a friendly match, the players’ spread of ages makes the encounter “a high-risk game,” according to physio Di. Some hop on to the massage table, others take to the floor and go through their own stretching routines. Eagles requests music, and is duly handed with an enormous sound system by Swansea’s staff. “Did they pull this off the stadium?” he laughs, before putting on house music which, judging by one or two expressions among the senior seniors, prompts the first glaring reminder of the generational gap bridged hitherto. Eagles and Brown play two-touch keepy-up; Blackmore’s son – sporting a Henrikh Mkhitaryan shirt – weaves through the group and takes pot-shots at Pilkington; new parent Fortune rubs his face and stares into the distance, having hardly slept for two months. The football proves almost incidental. Within 11 minutes Yorke, who nine hours earlier joked about having an easy night, thunders in an unstoppable opener, which is equalised by a superb chip from Andy Robinson for a Swans legends team managed by Brendan Rodgers. Webber then slots home, only for Sam Ricketts to level once again. Those finishes are forgotten, however, shortly before half-time when Fortune misjudges a dropping ball and it hits him in the mouth. The United bench falls about in hysterics. So too, it seems, do the secret MUTV-watchers among United’s former players sat in their respective homes. The opening moments of half-time are spent with Fletcher reading aloud from a players’ WhatsApp group revelling in Quinton’s misfortune. “Did Quinny try to eat the ball?” messages O’Shea. By this point, Irwin has left the fray with a hamstring injury, throwing Munroe on for his legends debut. On the bench, Damian Gielty – whose football career included a stint in Luxembourg and peaked at Berwick Rangers – remains cool, seemingly unfazed by the fact that the next injury will turn his emergency call-up into an outing for Manchester United. His quads, he admits, are a touch stiff after the previous day’s marathon descent down a mountain. When Munroe is withdrawn with a toe injury, Gielty takes to the field midway through the second period, by which point Webber has clinically put United back into the lead. Yorke, who has dropped deeper and deeper, dictating United’s play, rounds off the scoring late on with a typically calm finish to secure a win. For the hosts, even an away win can’t spoil the party, and Tate takes to the public address system to express his gratitude for everybody’s involvement. At least, that’s what United’s players assume. On the field, they can’t hear a word. When Tate goes over to the visiting Reds to shake hands, Eagles quips: “Tatey, whatever you just said, well done!” All parties reconvene in the stadium’s VIP lounge for a post-match meal, where the players can unwind ahead of the following day’s hefty return journey. Fletcher will be up before dawn to take a car back over to Stoke for training, while Yorke has to hastily make his way over to Gatwick Airport before boarding a flight back to Trinidad. The striker is dismayed, however, to learn that he has a three-hour trip to London, having been told by Irwin that it would take him under 90 minutes. “Oh,��� grins the Irishman, knowingly. “I thought you were flying to London.” The bulk of the group remains for a post-match party in Swansea, and among those who board the coach to return to Manchester the following morning, the chatter is as animated as it had been pre-match. “I know it’s a friendly game,” says Eagles, “but when Webbs scored to make it 3-2, I was punching the air and screaming! I don’t care who I play, I want to win, especially being back at United. Pulling the shirt on again and playing just brings back loads of memories. I loved every minute of it. "Having that kit on, it was like waking up, like I’ve been asleep for the last eight or nine years. I knew some of these boys from before, some of them I’ve only met on this trip, but I knew everything would just click into place because we’re all United players.”