#I can’t wait for movie 2 where the mortals kombat

[cureofthenonesense]

*watching the mk21 movie with my mom*

Bi han: “I am no longer Bi Han…I am….Sub-Zero..”

My mom: …🤭🤣 ..so dramatic

Me: ….

Wait till he noob saibots everywhere

[whatifxwereyou]

Ashes Chapter 2: Buried Deep

Mortal Kombat 2021: Liu Kang x Reader

Some more angst with this delightful broken version of Liu Kang I've created here Lol. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it. They're a fuckin' mess. Obviously, still spoilers from the movie <3 thanks for reading. love u. This one is going to update Wednes/Sun cause I'm goin out of town on wednesday~~

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The ride to the reservation was about as bad as you expected it to be. Silent and awkward. You wouldn’t even look at each other. You had no idea which reason it was that had brought you to that level of awkwardness. Kung Lao’s death? Your grief? The straight up pornography you’d lived while you were drunk last night? Hell, it could have just been your upset stomachs. Or all of the above. When you got out of the car, you had never been more thankful to breathe fresh air. Even the driver had felt your tension.

The walk around the reservation together hadn’t been great either. Liu Kang had almost nothing to say and when he did, it was in a grumpy low tone that you had barely understood and you didn’t dare ask him to repeat himself in a mood like that. You had started with the shops and had purchased a blanket and incense. Then you’d asked around about Nightwolf and the legend he was known for.

When the shop had yielded no results, you had argued about where to go and how to approach your search. You couldn’t agree on anything. Liu seemed to be interested in taking shortcuts which seemed very unlike him. You tried not to worry about him and now considered that Raiden sent you together because Liu was not himself. You wanted him to find peace. You wanted that for all of them.

At least he didn’t bring up the night before so maybe he was ready to forget it as much as you were. Maybe you’d blacked out and that had been it. Not likely but your brain kept making excuses so you could try to cope with your bad behavior. There was still a chance that he’d forgotten what had happened. That he’d blacked out and woken up sore, naked, and with scratches down his back and couldn’t remember how.

You forced away the mental image of how you’d likely given him those marks in the heat of the moment. Oof. That was not helping your ability to look at Liu Kang. You decided to split up which had helped the tension considerably.

But even alone you’d had little luck. No one would acknowledge what you were talking about. You’d gotten a half-assed response here and there out of a handful of people who had been bad at lying and hadn’t expected you to bring it up. You still refused to talk about Nightwolf or where you might find anyone with a dragon marking. You had even showed the one on you back as an example but got nothing in response.

You met back up in front of the big store where you’d gotten the blanket. “Now what?” Liu Kang approached you as you sipped on a tea that you’d bought. Another pathetic attempt to kill the hangover headache. He leaned against the wall next to him and you offered him a second tea that you’d bought. He turned it down. “Feels like we hit a dead end.”

“They know something. They just won’t tell us. I can’t blame them. We’re strangers.”

“We should…” He began, bite in his voice that you knew would end up in you snapping at each other for the twentieth time that day. Why had you slept with him again? Other than that he was incredibly attractive? You hadn’t had anything nice to say to each other since Kung Lao died. A young woman approached you and so he silenced. The woman took your hand and slipped a folded piece of paper just within.

“You seem very nice but you two should be on your way.” The woman scolded them but looked to your hand with significance before heading into the shop.

“Interesting.” You walked away from the shop and toward the road where you’d been dropped off. Liu took the piece of paper from your hands as you began to unfold it. You resisted the urge to snap at him for doing so and instead waited for him to unfold the secret message. With the way that day had gone you’d half-expected it to be a nasty note.

It wasn’t.

“A map.” He showed it to you, and it was, indeed, a map. Your current location was circled in blue and a path led up a crudely drawn mountain and was marked out for you with the words ‘be careful’ scribbled at the bottom. That was more than you’d gotten from anyone else so it was the best lead you had. Daylight was quickly fading. You walked back to the shop and asked to use the phone which got you looks since everyone there was holding a smartphone. You called a car to come and take you back to the motel.

Liu had pocketed the map and was waiting for you by the side of the road. The sky was overcast, and you stood next to him to wait. “The car should be here in a few minutes. We should find somewhere that I can pick up a phone. Everyone here has them and I’m getting looks for asking to use theirs.”

“That’s fine. We need a map and some supplies for hiking anyway.”

Silence followed and it was more than awkward. It was painful.

You missed Kung Lao. He never would have let the silence be this awkward. Even when you’d fought, he’d filled the silence with noise until either you laughed, or you fought again. You’d take the fighting over silence, gladly. Then again, you were afraid of the kind of fight you’d have with Liu Kang.

The car arrived and you muttered ‘thank god’ under your breath. It took you back to the motel which was within walking distance of a nearby strip mall on the same road. You picked up a prepaid smartphone to make your lives a little bit more convenient while you were in America. The man behind the counter taught you how to use it. You were adaptable enough but had appreciated the head start.

Liu had purchased a map and hiking supplies while you’d been getting the phone. Then you’d gone together to grab takeout from a Mediterranean place in the same strip mall before you returned to the motel. Liu laid the map on the little table by the couch and you setup the food. This was less awkward and more nostalgic. You’d spent most of your time with Liu after coming to Raiden’s Temple. There’d been an attack in your hometown and while protecting your home, you’d killed a man with the dragon mark. Liu Kang had eventually convinced you to come and stay and fight for earthrealm. He’d been a comfort to you back then and you had become fast friends. You’d shared and instant connection and attraction that you hadn’t even bothered trying to resist.

You’d had fun back then.

This was not fun even if it was nostalgic.

Liu used the drawing you’d been given to pinpoint a trail on the map which hadn’t been easy since the drawing wasn’t accurate to the map that you’d bought. You poked around at your food offering insight that he’d rejected time and again. Your stomach was too upset to eat much of what you’d bought.

“That’s quite the hike.” You tried to sound friendly even if he kept arguing with you about the path.

“If we have to hike then we have to hike.”

“I wasn’t trying to argue.” You fought the urge to roll your eyes at him. It didn’t make sense for you to set out tonight. The sun had already set. “In the morning then?”

“Yeah. Rest will be good.” He sounded as tired as you did and avoided your eyes as he folded up the map and tucked it in his bag for tomorrow. You sat silently, poking at your food. Then he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “How are you holding up?” You were taken aback. You hadn’t had a civil discussion about even the weather and now he was asking about your feelings? Now to play the game of whether it was about the night before or about Kung Lao. It was most likely about Kung Lao. That was the first thing everyone asked you about these days.

“I’m… okay.” You shrugged, poking at your food again. “Some days are better than others.” That was vague but true. It was what you said to almost everyone who asked. Today had not been your best day. Then you spoke without thinking. “I miss him. All the time.”

“Me too.” He leaned back on the couch, arms folded over his chest. This food had been a complete waste of money. Your stomachs were just too sick from your foray into liquor the night before. You remembered him reluctantly joining you to have a drink now after the other monks had encouraged it.

“Sometimes it doesn’t feel real still.” You stole a glance at him, and he seemed surprised that you kept talking to him. This was the most you had talked, after all. You were surprised too. “I wasn’t there. I didn’t see it happen.”

“I’m glad that you weren’t there. I’m glad you didn’t see it. I still have nightmares about.” Liu adjusted himself onto the edge of the couch and then cleared his throat, as though he were about to begin a difficult conversation. You panicked. He couldn’t possibly be wildly shifting from your grief over Kung Lao and your broken heart to what you’d done the night before. “Y/N, we should probably talk about…”

“What we should do is get some rest.” You shut that down and stood abruptly. “Long day tomorrow.” Your voice was too loud and you were awkward. But you grabbed your bag and rushed into the bathroom without so much as a second glance back at him. He may have been ready to talk about it but you couldn’t handle the hurt. Not on top of all the other hurt. You couldn’t handle more rejection or failure. Not now. The panic was overwhelming, and you were in the bathroom with the door locked just in time.

You sank against the door to the ground and held the bag in your lap and pulled your knees to your chest, breathing shakily and trying to resist the urge to sob. It didn’t occur to you until your heart had stopped pounding in your ears that maybe he hadn’t meant to talk about the night before but now you would never know. You were sure he was mad that you’d interrupted him and ran off but your fight or flight sense had kicked into high gear.

You could have smacked Raiden for sending Liu Kang with you. What was this? Some kind of horrible test? You had been waiting for a break! A distraction! But now all the things that you’d been avoiding were sharing a room with you. Liu Kang was at the center of them all. You whispered apologies to Kung Lao with your face buried against your bag.

When you had collected yourself, you’d then washed up for the night, changed, and finally left the bathroom. Liu Kang was lying on the couch with his back to you, resting. You were grateful not to have to fight over who would sleep where. You had the feeling that he was pretending to be asleep to avoid you and you were okay with that. You’d earned it.

You kicked off your shoes and then curled up in bed. You stared at the wall and hoped that sleep would eventually come for you. The bag was cradled tightly in your arms, fingers brushing over the cool, jade circlet, soothing you.

Your first trip with Kung Lao had led them all across Indonesia in search of ancient texts that Raiden had sought out in reference to a prophecy. You’d had a blast together and had gotten in more scrapes than you had ever been in before that. You’d bonded over martial arts movies and bad jokes. It’d taken nearly a month and he’d become one of your best friends by the end of it.

When you’d returned to the temple, he’d asked you out on a date. A real date, not the kind where you would just go sit in the temple or get laid. You’d been flattered. Kung Lao had been trouble, but he was also sweet and confident in a way that was just plain sexy. You’d been flustered when he’d asked. Not because you weren’t attracted to him but because you’d had a complicated little physical thing going on with Liu Kang over the months prior.

You’d joke around or practice and one thing inevitably led to another and you’d wind up in his bed or he’d be crawling into yours. Your attraction to each other had been sparks from the get go. But you’d also never talked about it directly. Instead, you’d just kept sleeping together which had been dangerous and stupid as you remembered it. Yet, you remembered it fondly and had even missed it over the years.

You’d decided that you’d have to talk to Liu before you could even consider Kung Lao’s proposal. If Liu had wanted to pursue what you’d had then you would have seriously considered it. Your attraction was too intense for you not to give it a shot. It was beyond your control. You were attracted to Kung Lao too, but it had been different. No less important, just different.

You’d met up later that night with Liu Kang to talk about it. He’d had other ideas and you couldn’t blame him considering your track record and that you hadn’t seen him for a month. You’d been very direct- had even rehearsed it in your head a dozen times before saying it.

“What is this… that we’re doing?” You had been nervous and sounded it which had made it immediately awkward.

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean, Liu.”

“Why?” His sigh had been so heavy that you’d instantly been on edge.

“Kung Lao asked me out. I wanted to know what you thought about that and… all of this.” You gestured between you. Liu was immediately distant and different than you had ever known him to be.

“Kung Lao is a good man. Trouble but so are you. He’d be good for you.”

That was not what you had expected him to say. He avoided your eyes, face full of indifference. You hadn’t expected him to encourage you to date Kung Lao, not when you’d spent so many hot and sweaty nights in his arms. You must have looked surprised because he kept talking.

“You two have a lot in common. Both stubborn. Similar interests.”

“But what about… this?” You couldn’t seem to bring yourself to say the actual words.

“You don’t owe me anything, Y/N.” He had said this in a way that made it feel like you sleeping together had been a transaction. A means to an end. Had you misinterpreted everything? You felt, for lack of a better word, dirty.

“Well, if I’m going to date Kung Lao then we have to stop this.” You’d said that with far more venom than you’d meant to, but he had earned it.

“That’s fine. It wasn’t like it meant anything.”

You’d sat silently in awe and trying to hide the slow shattering of your heart. It had crushed you. One short conversation had completely destroyed your relationship. “Well, that made this decision an easy one.”

“Good.”

“Good.” You’d marched off without another word.

Just like you had tonight. Then you’d never talked about it again. It had taken time for your friendship to recover after that. You were still hurt thinking about it. Days later, when you’d thought about it, you’d agreed to go on a date with Kung Lao and it had been the best decision you’d made in a long time. You’d clicked quickly and naturally. He’d been a wonderful boyfriend and you’d gone from cute and flirty to serious and romantic very quickly. You had always struggled with commitment, and you’d had your fair share of fights but for the most part you’d been happy. Liu Kang had eventually come around and you’d been friends again, as if nothing had ever happened.

You hadn’t been one on one with him for more than a few minutes since back then. Not until now. Kung Lao had always made sure that didn’t happen, even if he had never said why. You’d never told him that you’d slept together. Why cause Liu more grief than you needed to? Besides, if he had asked you if you were still attracted to Liu, you would have had to lie. Your fingers brushed along the jade circlet and your eyes blurred with tears.

This was too much. You were emotionally drained.

You fell asleep cradling your bag to your chest.

Next Chapter >>

[hoodassnerd]

Butterflies pt.2

Swallowtail pt.1 here

“With a taste of you lips I’m on a ride your toxic I’m slipping under with the taste of a poison paradise I’m addicted to you don’t you know that your toxic”

Jo sang into the flatiron “bitch imma big gangsta I turn her out with the foreign love. Cocaina slang-“ yurrr what’s good witchu?” She said into her primary phone “where you at girl? I’m outside waiting on ya fine ass to come downstairs “ Erik said. “Nigga I’m doing my hair. You said 5 not 4:30 sooooo, you can stop trippin cuz I got a whole half hour” “Girl it’s 5:30 bring yo ass on!”

Jo looked at her phone “Oh shit! Ight I’m coming now” she said as she grabbed her music phone to stop the music.

“Damn I didn’t know my hair would take that long”

Jo grabbed her 4’s and ran down the stairs

“Dis nigga really outside”

“Bro why you ain’t call earlier. I would have been done sooner” she said walking up to the car “ cuz I knew yo ass was gon talk like you always do” he said “ Fuck you, open the door” “ Not until you back up” he said. Jo rolled her eyes and backed up from the door “Bruh!” She sighed as he walked around to open her door “there you go” he said smiling “ I fucking- Ight bro”

“We going to the same theater as last time? Cuz I don’t think they like me.” Erik laughed “ I wouldn’t either,eating all those damn m&ms” “you had some too I dont wanna hear it. Let me DJ” she said. Erik looked at her for a second “fine, here” “we bout to be litty euggh!!” Erik rolled his eyes ‘best friend’ by 50 cent starts playing. Jo starts milly rocking and Erik bobs his head “ damn I haven’t heard his in a minute” “see? This is why you let me DJ”

“What we watching?” Erik looked at jo “you pick” he said putting his chin in her shoulder” oh detective pikachu!” “ you serious?” Jo looked at Erik “ you deadass bout to sit here and tell me that Pokémon wasn’t the shit!” She said crossing her arms “ I’m not , but you telling me that yo grown ass wants to see a Pokémon movie?” “ yes! I wanna be the very best like no one ever was. Dun Dun Dunna to catch them is my real test to train them is my cause” “really?” Erik said smiling “ I will travel across the land searching far and wide” Erik walked up to the ticket counter “Two for detective pikachu”

——————————————————————————

“Outstanding. Girl you knock me out” jo sang while dancing. Erik nodding along, turns the car stereo down “you should sing professionally “ jo stops “I do, I be having concerts in the shower” Erik sucked his teeth “foreal, you sound good” jo shook her head “hell nah. I’d be on the news cuz I stomped a bitch out over some simple shit” Erik laughed and turned the music back up. “Aye you wanna smoke and go on an adventure?” She asked Erik “nah let play Mortal kombat. I still didn’t get my rematch from the last time you cheated” I ain’t cheat nigga, you just trash”

“Grab the sticks, I’ll go get the drugs” she said going upstairs. Erik grabbed the controllers and turn on the PS4. Jo connected her music phone to the sound bar in the living room ‘Rain on me’ by Ashanti starts playing “Hold on, whatchu tryna do?” Erik said smirking. “Whatchu mean?” Jo asked walking into the kitchen “you know what this songs about?” “Yea this a breakup song. What you thinking bout is SWV with they nasty asses. Don’t nobody want you.” She said “damn it’s like that?” He said looking hurt “it’s always been like that don’t act brand new, grab the chips hoe”

“JOHNNY CAGE WINS. FATALITY” “Thank 6-1. You wanna go again?” Jo asked grabbing her juice (mango passion fruit. Shit is fire btw) “pick another character” he did not taking his eyes off the screen “ Ight bro”

“SHANG TSUNG WINS. FATALITY” “Switch characters”

“ ”What a mess” JAQUI BRIGGS WINS” “ that’s some bullshit, you only won cuz I was staring at her ass” he says rubbing his beard “whatever you say nigga” “ ok you play with liu kang then”

“LIU KANG WINS. FATALITY”

“you wanna play something else?” Jo asked “that’s foul. You gave me the fucked up controller” Erik said looking at the accessory “you picked the controllers when we started. And I got the busted one.” She said turning it around to show the blue tape in the back. Erik sucked his teeth and looked away “oh Ight. Order a pizza since you can’t see me in this game.” She said as she mushed him and got up to pee.

“She lucky I love her”

[spacehologramcollection]

The Kombat Kast and Music.

A nice fluffy post. As it appears all I’ve been writing recently is smut and Fujin smut at that. One fine man there. A finely aged wine if ever there was one. I’m not even sure what to call this. I guess it’s like The Kombat Kast and your song. Do people still have songs? (Like this is such a 00’s thing: ‘OH MY GOD THIS IS OUR SONG SHUT UP LET ME RECORD IT ON MY PHONE!’)

I don’t own any of the songs.  Didn’t link anything in because I’m sure Tumblr wouldn’t be happy with that. Under the cut for slight NSFW and because it’s a looooong post. I’m going to do a part 2. This was so long.

Enjoy!

Warnings: Slight NSFW below the cut so 18+, little bit of angst, lots of fluff. Mentions of Kano, slight shitpost, it’s at the bottom, because the tea has been spilled. 

Songs don’t belong to me. 

·        Kabal. Song: Morocco

Artist: Moon Taxi. Lyric: Running in circles I was losing my mind, when you found me and you led me to the water just in time, Reasoning: Okay. So, this may just be a self-insert fantasy of mine. But I can imagine this song playing in the background after you get caught in a thunderstorm, you’re drying his hair off and you’re cuddled up in your dimly light apartment. I also think the lyrics speak to your relationship. The verse is talking about been lost and someone finding someone. Post-burn Kabal is very lost, unsure, confused. So, I feel the lyrics really speak to your relationship. Because he literally was running in circles, he had lost his mind little, and you kind of helped. When you tell him ‘This is our song’ he fucking loves it instantly. He doesn’t give a shit if it’s not his style of music. If you say it’s your song, then it’s your fucking song. Will. Put. It. On. In. the. Car. Stryker is done listening to it. When he hearts it, he thinks of you, which always bring about a goofy smile on his face. Pre-burn: I also feel this applies to pre-burn, he was running around with the Black Dragon, slightly lost in life, and like (AU where his shit storm story in 11 doesn’t happen) you pulled him out of that shit just in time.

·        Raiden. Electric Love. Song: Electric Love. Artist: Børns Lyric: And every night my mind is running around her. Then it's getting louder and louder and louder… Baby you're like lightning in a bottle, I can't let you go now that I got I, All I need is to be struck by your electric love, Baby, your electric love Reasoning: Raiden gets two. Lucky bastard. This song has two lyrics that speak to your relationship with the God of Lightening. He’s literally like lightening in a bottle, well in a man, and you got hit by his electric love. It’s an obvious choice. The whole song could be attributed to his feelings towards you, or your feelings towards him. You’re in love with the thunder and lightening itself. It’s a very sweet song. One that you’ve caught him humming along to. Once you tell him, ‘This is our song’ he loves it. Such a cute fucking song for the both of you.

·        Dark!Raiden. Song: Electric Feel. Artist: MGMT. Lyric: Baby girl, Turn me on with your electric feel… You can feel it in your mind Oh you can do it all the time, plug it in, change the world Reasoning: Need I say more? Probably another obvious choice for yours and Raiden’s song. This one has less of a romantic feel, the beat really gives me power/sex vibes when associated with him. So, it suits Dark!Raiden more. He’s more dominant and more in control. He’s also my likely to use his powers to get you going, if you’re into that sort of thing. You’ve probably fucked to this song too. When you tell him it’s your song, he becomes obsessed with it. And whenever he comes on, he’s reminded of that first sinful time he heard it. Your body is electric to him and he loves it.

·        Fujin. Song: Rather Be,

Artist: Clean Bandit. Lyric: We're a thousand miles from comfort, we have travelled land and sea But as long as you are with me, there's no place I'd rather be I would wait forever, exalted in the scene As long as I am with you, my heart continues to beat Reasoning: Okay guilty pleasure song, but it fucking bops. This sums up your relationship because your relationship was not only a shot in the dark, because you’re falling in love with a God. You’re unsure if it’s going to work. It’s more than just a long-distance relationship, you’re falling in love with someone who could be in a different realm to you. Literally a thousand miles from you. When he returns, he finds great comfort with just hanging out with you, taking walks, and enjoying your company. There really is no place he’d rather be or anyone he’d rather be with. You wait for him, completely taken back when he arrives. As long as you’re with each other, you’re content and at ease. He misses you a lot but knowing he’s returning to you makes it easier. When you tell him about the mortal custom of having a song with the one you love, he wants to know what yours is with him. You two love this song. He really vibes with it. You have gotten a little drunk and sung/butchered the song together. Good times.

·        Smoke. Song: Ophelia. Artist: The Lumineers. Lyric: Oh, Ophelia, you've been on my mind girl like a drug…Oh, Ophelia, you've been on my mind girl since the flood, Oh, Ophelia, heaven help a fool who falls in love. Reasoning: I totally changed my mind with this one, I originally thought it suited Kabal. But it fits way better with Smoke and your relationship. Smoke is a giant Hipster, and no one can argue with me on this one. So, he loves the band. He’s the one that comes up with the idea for this been your song. He’s unsure of himself. He’s not fully human anymore, love isn’t his forte either. So, it literally is heaven help a fool who falls in love. When you first listen to it, you’re unsure. But when he explains that your constantly on his mind, and he constantly thinks about you. You kind of get the meaning more. That, and it’s a very catchy song. He’ll also, on occasion, sing it to you whilst he twirls you around your apartment.

·        Cassie Cage: Song: Jenny. Artist: The Studio Killers. Lyric: I wanna ruin our friendship, we should be lovers instead, I don't know how to say this 'Cause you're really my dearest friend. Reasoning: The reasoning for this song been your song with Cassie, is mainly due to the fact that you’d always listen to it in her car. No matter the trip. She and you would sing it and vibe to it. You always did wonder with the lyrics if it had another meaning, you hoped it did. So, it comes to no surprise when you share your first kiss to this song. You’re both driving home from the movies, and she’s about to drop you off, the songs just ended and you’re both giggling and the adrenaline is high. Queue a soft kiss between the two of you. Cassie does admit she hopes the song kinda gave it away, she was being very forward, but wanted to like you give you time to see if you felt the same. Que it becoming your song, whenever it comes on in the club, you’re ready to get up and dance. Jacqui is requesting it so she can watch you two groove!

·        Jacqui Briggs. Song: What We Live For. Artist: American Authors. Lyric: We look up at the stars, a perfect night to dream with you Got nineties retro on the radio, our favourite tune I put the pedal to the metal just to laugh with you It's interstellar when it's just us two Reasoning:

This is such a cute song. The two of you live and love 90’s songs and retro music. You both love cute dates involving star gazing, going for drives and your dates are always filled with laughter. It’s your jam. You also love road trips, planning them, talking about them and obviously going on them. Jacqui literally also has the best music taste. It came on your first road trip as a couple. You both kind of looked at each other, your mouths sort of mouthing the lyrics, not wanting to admit it your guilty pleasure song. When you both catch each other singing it, you both smile, and then you turn your solo mumbling act; into the best operatic duet the car has ever seen! Your relationship is also interstellar. You both live life to the maximum and you’re living life to the full. When you ask what your song should be, you both agree on this one instantly. You trust each other both so much, as long as you’re together, you’re prepared for anything including the great unknown.

·        Sub Zero (Kuai Liang):

Song: Almost (Sweet Music) Artist: Hozier. Lyric: I wouldn't know where to start, "Sweet Music" playing "In the Dark", Be still "My Foolish Heart," Don't ruin this on me. Reasoning: A pretty cute reasoning. Why this is considered your song. You chose it because of how he often referred to love as foolish prior to your relationship. That, and when you had your first romantic moment, he did utter the phrase ‘Be still my foolish heart’ and it did make you giggle in the moment. It’s such a Kuai way of saying ‘What the fuck is going on?’ he’s basically a window error noise when it comes to romance. When you tell him this is your song, he’s confused and wants to know what you mean. Once you tell him, he’s kind of into it. It’s a happy sounding song, with a nice beat, and he kind of looks at you when listening to it. If it was to come on shuffle and you were in private, he would remark on it. Smoke once played it and he ended up blushing a little too much. Don’t let Bi-Han know, he’ll never hear the end of it.

·        Scorpion (Hanzo Hasashi.)

Song: Would that I

Artist: Hozier.

Lyric: The whole song. Just the whole song. But specific lyrics: With the roar of the fire my heart rose to its feet… I fell in love with the fire long ago … So in awe there I stood As you licked off the grain Though I've handled the wood I still worship the flame As long as amber of ember glows All the wood that I'd loved is long ago… Oh, let it blaze alright (ooh) Oh, but you're good to me

Reasoning: This whole song screams what a relationship with Hanzo would be like. And it’s just not because of the fire theme either. His heart has been dormant for a while, but when he sees you, it literally rose up and got life back to it. It speaks to your relationship in terms of you too, you’d fallen in love with him a long time ago and had fallen in love with the fire a long time ago too. He’s always in awe of you and you’re always good with him. Your patience is never ending, and he burns bright in your life. You’re falling in love with fire, the warmth, the crackle and familiarity when you love him. When you tell him, this is your song and you’re both listening to it. You swear you see the smallest smile. He pretends like it’s not a big deal. Music is not his jam, not modern music anywhere, but he finds the lyrics soothing and accurate with your relationship. Cuddling with this in the background too.

·        Erron Black.

Song: Home. Artist: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Lyric: Girl, I've never loved one like you

Ah, home, let me come home Home is wherever I'm with you Ah, home, let me come home Home is wherever I'm with you Reasoning: So, it’s not a proper country song. But the lyrics have meaning, and it’s kind of got a folk/country vibe to it. This song fits your relationship, just because the lyrics suit his kind of way speaking. It reminds you of him when you listen to it. Erron hasn’t had a fixed home so to speak of in a while. He’s a drifter, has been for a long time. Until he came to Outworld, he hasn’t really had  fixed location. Nothing to come back to. It’s a lifestyle he’s grown accustomed to and used to. If you’re going to be with him, it’s kind of a life you’ll have to either grow used to too or be prepared to wait for him. Either option you choose, this song fits that relationship. Either his feelings towards coming home to you, or you travelling with him and home being wherever you are as long as you’re with him. When you admit this is the song you’ve got in mind for the two of you. He kind of furrows his brow. He listens to it and he can vibe with it. It’s got a certain country style jam to it; he loves the whistling and he definitely can do the whistle part perfectly. He’s also started affectionately referring to you as ‘the apple of his eye’. You two also have a bit too much whisky and end up singing this. Confusing the fuck out of Kotal and Jade, who are trying to figure out which realm this song has come from.

·        Bi-Han.

Song: I think We’re Alone Now. Artist: Tiffany. Lyric:

Look at the way we gotta hide what we're doin' 'Cause what would they say If they ever knew Reasoning:

Ever since watching the Umbrella Academy, I can imagine Bi-Han, Smoke and Kuai just dancing TERRIBLY to this song. But I digress. This song started as your song as joke. He caught you singing it, he thought it was a jam. Queue you both getting a little tipsy at the Lin Kuei temple and fucking belting the fuck out of the song. You’re both hammered, Smoke isn’t sure how to react, Kuai is dying on the inside. You’re having a great time. You drunkenly both agree this is your song. Purely because, you constantly have to hide what you’re doing, because what would Kuai and the Clan say? Frost couldn’t give a fuck. She just wants to be left out of this. You have had to run hand in hand outside, because he really wanted to fuck you, but they had a full temple. So that wasn’t happening. And in his absolute adrenaline fuelled state, he may have started singing it. He’s not sure if it was out of nerves or if he wanted to make light of the situation .

·        Sareena. Song: Trust. Artist: Martha Bean. Lyric: Don't let history haunt you, just let the mystery guide you I'm telling you now, there's a way (Close your eyes and let me guide you Take you to a place where love can find you) You gotta liberate Find your freedom… Reasoning: So this song is more geared towards personifying Sareena. It’s a song that makes you think about her. She has a pretty shitty backstory and she’s also a fair bit of mystery around her. She’s haunted slightly by her past, has regrets, and in the end found her freedom. She just needs some love guys. That’s all she needs. Love literally helped her find her way and freedom. It’s such a powerful emotion. When you tell her, this song reminds you of her, she doesn’t know how to react. She’s not exactly clued up on pop culture, so you play it to her. She loves it. She suggests it represents both of you. You both heal and guide each other, when you’re together it’s a place of love, and a place you both found together. Who would have thought it?

·        Kano.

Song: Lonely Together. Artist: Rita Ora featuring Avicii. Lyric:

Oh Lord, here we go

I might hate myself tomorrow but I'm on my way tonight At the bottom of the bottle, you're the poison in the wine And I know I can't change you and I, I won't change Let's be lonely together

A little less lonely together Reasoning: Okay. This was going to be a major shitpost. But I thought I’d use this to let people know why I don’t think Kano is like ‘marriage material’ on a serious note. At the bottom so you can skip. The lyrics sum up the relationship pretty well. Kano isn’t the type of guy to actually give us a fuck. You can’t change him, and you never will change him. But at the time you can both feel like you have someone, I guess. I was going to just put ‘fucked with an anchor’ because he can actually fuck himself with an anchor.

[aion-rsa]

10 Injustice Characters the DC Animated Movie Needs to Get Right

https://ift.tt/3fCncB7

As we wait an announcement pertaining to the existence of NetherRealm Studios’ Injustice 3, we at least know that Warner Bros. is set to adapt the games into a DC animated movie.

Ever since its release in 2013, the Injustice franchise has not only become a staple of NetherRealm’s roster, but the comic spinoffs have made it a beloved part of the DC multiverse. The plot revolves around a reality where the Joker was able to mess with Superman so badly that the Man of Steel gradually became a mass-murdering dictator, with the support of several members of the Justice League. Left without any other option, Batman brought in counterparts of the Justice League from the “mainstream” universe to help him fight a civil war against his former friend. It was a story that merged the Justice Lords two-parter from the Justice League cartoon with Marvel’s original Squadron Supreme comic series.

A popular prequel series was released, mostly written by Tom Taylor, that explained the five years in-between Superman killing the Joker in cold blood and Batman’s last stand. Sometime later, the game’s story was adapted into the comic Injustice: Ground Zero. And the Injustice universe has only continued to grow since then.

As snazzy as NetherRealm’s story modes are, they are going to have to make some changes to the narrative for the animated movie. It’s not like every character is going to stumble into exactly four best-two-out-of-three fights in a row before someone else is the focus. Knowing that there will be alterations, some characters are really going to need some tender love and care.

Superman (Both of Them)

Injustice: Gods Among Us didn’t invent the idea of an evil Superman, but things are a bit over-saturated these days. Face it, “Dark Superman” has been done to death, what with Brightburn, The Boys, Invincible, and everything Zack Snyder intended with his Justice League movies.

It’s important that the animated movie really get into the WHY of what turned Superman evil instead of the Joker just getting a tragic win over him. The Injustice comic nudged him over and over again with multiple betrayals and manipulations before he finally snapped and angrily broke every bone in Green Arrow’s body. Hit all that, or at least enough of it.

More importantly, Injustice is a story of two different Supermen. The mainstream Superman has to ring true. He has to be the beacon of hope and positivity that pop culture has been missing for the past decade.

Ultimately, as long as they don’t do that minigame where Superman blows up cars and the people in them with his eye-lasers, we’re cool.

Batman

In this DC take of Marvel’s Civil War, Batman is by default the better person when compared to Superman. He has a line he won’t cross and that means no murder and no tyranny. That said, he still needs to be portrayed as a flawed hero. He may be competent, but he still behaves like a total douche at times and deserves to take one to the chin every now and then.

Being a paranoid futurist who buries himself in contingency plans means alienating allies, friends, and even family members. There’s a great moment in the Injustice comic where he reveals that he infected Cyborg with a virus within a week of meeting (you know, just in case), which Killer Croc says is outright sinister. It’s this kind of behavior that led to Superman’s fall to darkness, because even if Bruce wasn’t behind any of the horrors, he still chose coldness and paranoia over being there for a friend who was going through some serious shit.

Harley Quinn

A hype trailer for Harley painted her as a major protagonist in the first game but the game’s story mode just didn’t measure up. The comics did a better job and the Ground Zero volume was specifically about telling the game’s story from Harley’s perspective. I’m not saying that she should be joined by her team of BFF henchmen from Ground Zero, but she should definitely be a prominent hero.

Similar to the Mark Waid comic series Irredeemable and Incorruptible (also about an evil take on Superman), Harley’s turn to heroism is the universe’s response to Superman’s actions. She’s done some horrible things and may never make up for her actions under the Joker’s thumb, but she’ll keep fighting to stop Superman’s atrocities.

Wonder Woman

While Batman did a bad job trying to pull Superman from the darkness, Wonder Woman succeeded in pushing him in. It’s noted here and there, but this Wonder Woman was also altered by tragedy. In this timeline, Steve Trevor turned out to be a Nazi traitor. His betrayal left Diana feeling much less optimistic and hopeful than her mainstream self.

Wonder Woman’s villainy isn’t as pronounced as Superman’s, but she’s definitely the friendly face who eggs him on and wants him to stand over all mankind. As Superman uses her to fill the void left from Lois Lane’s death, the power couple become very good at bringing out the worst in each other.

Damian Wayne

The Injustice game did Damian a little dirty, revealing deep into the story that the Nightwing fighting on Superman’s side was not Dick Grayson, but Damian. According to Batman, Damian murdered Dick. The comics dove deeper into that and made it more of a freak accident brought on by Damian being an impulsive and angry child. Still, Bruce and his son were unable to make amends due to their shared lack of warmth.

Later stories, and even Injustice 2, added more depth to Damian. It always made sense that he’d join Superman’s Regime, but there was a soul in there who would eventually see that this wasn’t the right path. In the comic Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe, which was treated as a sequel to Injustice 2’s dark ending, Damian took up the mantle of Batman to oppose Superman and even grew a long-missing sense of humor in the process.

Lex Luthor

The great tragedy of the DC multiverse is that Superman and Lex Luthor just can’t get along. They will always be at odds no matter what Earth they come from. The Injustice universe was the one exception, as Luthor was portrayed as fairly warm and altruistic. Much like Batman, he has contingency plans up the wazoo, but they don’t come off as creepy.

Seeing him there as Superman’s longtime friend who sadly has to stab him in the back brings back that multiversal truth about the duo. Just because this is a world where Superman kills and things get very bleak doesn’t mean it’s the worst world and that it isn’t worth saving. The mainstream Cyborg is reluctant to come to terms with this heroic Luthor, but he ultimately accepts the miracle that this universe created a Luthor worth befriending and even looking up to.

Hal Jordan

Maybe it’s just me, but I was never a fan of how Geoff Johns retconned Hal’s past and gave him deniability for everything he did as Parallax. I liked that a boring hero dude like Hal snapped, did some bad stuff, and then had to accept his failures in an attempt to be better. With Injustice, they gave us that exact Hal.

Read more

Games

Injustice Beat Zack Snyder’s Justice League to the Punch

By Matthew Byrd

Comics

Injustice: Year Zero Brings the Justice Society to DC Alternate Universe

By Jim Dandy

Overflowing with willpower and being an otherwise competent space cop, Hal is still something of a dunce at times, and he’s susceptible to manipulation in the right situation. He’s already following Superman’s lead, but having Sinestro pop in to indoctrinate him into the Sinestro Corps makes him actually interesting. Let Hal be the worst version of himself here so he can double back on it in the sequel and beg Guy Gardner’s ghost for forgiveness.

Shazam

Injustice may be the B-side to Mortal Kombat, but the game itself is fairly tame on the violence. Joker’s death isn’t actually shown on screen, Luthor’s end is fairly clean, and Grodd taking a trident to the torso is relatively tame.

But what we absolutely, positively have to see in the animated movie is Shazam’s death scene to really give an idea of how far gone Superman is. It’s bloodless from our point of view, but it’s grisly as hell and made worse when you remember that Shazam is a literal child under all the mystical power.

Batgirl

The Barbara Gordon version of Batgirl was one of the first DLC characters added to Injustice, but it’s unfortunate that she’s not in the main story mode — something the animated movie could fix by giving her a more prominent role in the fight against the Regime. Her ending gives her a kickass backstory where she returns to the cowl after her father dies at Superman’s hands. The comics go deeper into this, even making it so that Superman doesn’t directly kill Commissioner Gordon.

In this continuity, she was already wheelchair-bound as Oracle. She had to go under a very dangerous procedure under Luthor’s care in order to walk again. This is one of the storylines that could make for a captivating arc in the movie.

Alfred Pennyworth

Alfred isn’t in either Injustice game. He’s already dead by the start of the first game. But I don’t care. Alfred needs to be in the animated movie because he is the heart and soul of the Injustice comics. While others bow to Superman, follow him, or even try to reason with him, Alfred Pennyworth doesn’t play those games. He will straight-up verbally clown Superman for his actions without flinching. He is not afraid of the Kryptonian, no matter how red his glowing eyes get.

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This comes to a head in the comics when Alfred takes a pill that gives him Kryptonian strength and he kicks the absolute shit out of Superman for ruining his family. I know I’m asking for a lot, but I simply need to see Alfred stomp a mudhole in Superman so hard that his own shoe explodes from the impact.

The post 10 Injustice Characters the DC Animated Movie Needs to Get Right appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3hIQH7h

[thedeaditeslayer]

Exclusive interview: Bruce Campbell is having a renaissance.

Here’s a highly recommended interview which discusses what Bruce Campbell has in store for fans in the future.

Bruce Campbell is experiencing a creative renaissance, of sorts. In a recent chat with the actor, he discussed a return to his horror roots, cutting a comedy album with Ted Raimi and so much more.

Bruce Campbell hasn’t been idle during his time in self-isolation. The actor has been experiencing a creative renaissance of sorts. So, we figured now would be a perfect time to reach out and get some of our burning questions answered.

With so much uncertainty in the entertainment industry at present, rumors are running rampant. We gave Campbell a chance to clear the air so to speak and address some of the myriad of questions that fans have regarding Mortal Kombat 11, the latest Evil Dead incarnation, Ripley’s and whether or not he will work with Sam Raimi in front of the camera again.

The actor also surprised us with some monumental news. He will be returning to his horror roots with the sequel to My Name Is Bruce as well as several other projects that he has on his docket including a comedy album with one of his closest friends.

Get comfy, grab your favorite beverage and let’s catch up with Bruce Campbell.

Mortal Kombat 11, Ripley’s and the State of the Industry

1428 Elm: Thanks for speaking with us, Bruce. It’s always a pleasure. We have so many things to discuss. Recently, a site came out and said that you were definitely going to be Ash in Mortal Kombat 11. It seemed like a done deal the way it was reported. Can you comment on that?

Bruce Campbell: I probably shouldn’t emphasize yes or no because I don’t know. I have not been told. If it is not through my agent or proper channels than it usually means its wishful thinking.

1428 Elm: Apparently, an email from Warner Brothers Interactive was sent to a well-known entertainment site and Ash as well as Army of Darkness was mentioned in it with the trademark from MGM.

BC: The reason why it may not happen, just so you and the readers can know this, a lot of time for legal purposes, that character cannot appear in other things because of the license. If you can’t make a deal, that character is not going to show up. So, we may have been talked to about it.

But I do know with MGM that handles the Army of Darkness licensing that they’re hasn’t been a discussion with them about it. They’re pretty touchy. We have to be careful of ownership.

I honestly don’t know. I think I would have heard something. It’s not like my agent books me without consulting with me.

Even if Mortal Kombat came to me and said they want to put me in it, you still have to make a deal. If my agent says, “Bruce Campbell wants a hundred billion dollars,” and then they say no, the deal is dead.

The answer is we don’t know. No point in beating around about that.

1428 Elm: You might not be able to discuss this but what’s going on with Ripley’s Believe It or Not!? Will there be a Season 2?

BC: We’re one and done. It’s not your father’s Travel Channel anymore. If I wanted to host a ghost hunting show, I’d be on the air right now.

Ripley’s was made for the older school Travel Channel like Drive-Ins and Dive Bars where you go to wacky places around the country. There is a big push for paranormal, mystery and science-fiction, Discovery type stuff. I think we just “out aged” ourselves.

1428 Elm: It would have been nice if the Science Channel would have picked it up.

BC: It’s all good. I remain philosophical about all shows that come and go. There are so many factors involved. You change executives and things change, companies get bought and sold and things change, ratings aren’t what you expected…

After this virus, we’re going to see what shape the motion picture industry is in. It’s going to be a wounded beast. Projects are going to go away.

You’re going to have fewer tentpole movies too. I am hopeful we’ll have a return to low budget filmmaking.

That’s what I hope comes out of it. Each studio will start a low budget division and spend the money wisely.

Number One on the Charts with a Bullet

BC (Cont.): In the meantime, what is nice, I’m finishing up a couple of projects. I’m hoping by the end of the year to put a book of essays out and a comedy album with Ted Raimi.

1428 Elm: A comedy album?

BC: Yeah, we finished it. I’m in post-production on it. I’m putting all the sound effects in now.

1428 Elm: That sounds great!

BC: Who knows? We’ve never done one before so we’re going to find out.

1428 Elm: So, you guys are harkening back to the 1960’s when comedians like Bob Newhart had hit albums?

BC: It’s our version of that. I used to listen to the top comedy albums during the 60’s and 70’s. I wouldn’t dare compare myself to any of the masters like Mel Brooks and the 2,000-Year-Old Man with Carl Reiner. We gave it a shot. I love audio and I like radio plays.

Bruce Campbell vs the Classic Monsters

1428 Elm: So, tell us what is going on with your political satire, House Divided. Are you still working on pitching that once everything gets back to business as usual?

BC: It will be on the sales block. It’s a harder sell. There’s no blood. It’s not a horror movie, it’s a political satire. Associating Bruce Campbell with political satire isn’t the first thing investors whip out their checkbooks for.

To combat that, I just finished writing a sequel to My Name Is Bruce. The idea is we want to take Bruce and have him go through each of the classic film monsters. The sequel is Bruce vs Frankenstein.

We’re done. I finished my draft and sent it to Mike Richardson, my partner at Dark Horse Comics. We’re actively looking for money on that one. It is the Expendables of Horror. I fully intend to load the cast with so many familiar horror faces. It should be a lot of fun.

It would be a cavalcade of genre stars, old, young, on TV now. We really want to cover the bases. A lot of people will be getting killed. Guest star kills. Basically, Bruce bumbles his way into being a hero.

1428 Elm: Will you have to go through Universal to get permission to use the classic monsters?

BC: Some stuff is public domain. I’m not a lawyer but we would figure out a way to do this.

I think the bolts on Frankenstein’s neck are trademarked, as well as certain looks. But you can make a Frankenstein. That story is under public domain.

It’s also a parody of a Frankenstein movie and that gives a lot of leeway legally as well. I don’t think you can say, “Wolfman,” but I think you can say Bruce vs the Werewolf. This is my version of the Bob Hope road movies.

Ted has two parts; I have two parts for Robert Englund and I have a couple of parts for Kane Hodder. If they’re a name, I am going to put them in it.

After we come out of the zombie apocalypse that we’re in and everyone gets back to work, that is what I will be actively pitching. There’s plenty going on. So, I have been self-isolating in a constructive way.

It’s an Evil Dead World

1428 Elm: We’re curious about the 1970’s period piece that you were working on when we talked to you last year. What happened with that?

BC: It’s currently on my action board. I will eventually get to it. I am going to finish my book of essays first and then I am going to get to that one.

The story is set in 1979. The idea behind it is what would have happened if us raising money for Evil Dead went horribly, horribly wrong. It becomes a horror movie in and of itself.

1428 Elm: How did this idea come to fruition?

BC: I was going through projects in my computer. People who have a lot of downtime do spring cleaning. Clean out your woodshed, toolshed when you have extra time. In this case, I went to the head of my projects folder.

This one popped up and it was just an outline that I had written 15 years ago. I thought, wait a minute, this is pretty well thought out.

In the 70’s, filmmaking was real, you didn’t have a lot of options. You had to get cameras from a certain place, you had to have insurance. There were a lot of steps that you had to take that made the process really difficult.

I remember making calls for money from payphones in blizzards and s*** like that. You had to leave messages, you’re getting busy signals, you’re not texting anyone. There are no computers, there’s no email, its old school. You sent things in the mail.

Today, filmmaking is not difficult. I can go to a store and buy a 4K camera. I can make a movie with $5,000 worth of equipment. Probably less.

1428 Elm: Well, you can do it on your phone too. Sam Raimi is on Quibi now with 50 States of Fright, which is entertainment tailored to your device. If his series continues once everything settles, do you think there’s a chance you might appear on the show?

BC: Never say never, that’s all verbally at this point. They have to succeed; they have to survive. Any new format, any new platform, I’m game and if Sam’s involved all the more reason.

1428 Elm: Have you ever thought of doing anything like Quibi?

BC: Not yet. I’m used to writing 90-page screenplays with a three-act format. I can adapt anything too.

I was thinking the other day, I have a few screenplays that might be tough sells but maybe I might convert them to a fricking novel and put them out as books. There’s lots to do. I’ve got plenty going on.

1428 Elm: Has the current situation affected the new Evil Dead? We remember that you talked about possibly going into production at the end of this year. Is that pushed back like everything else?

BC: No, not really. It was so early in the stages that we can keep going. I just read the first official draft today. So, then we’ll give notes and additional writing will take place.

Then you have to budget the thing so you know how much money you need to raise and then you have to get the money. Nothing will stop any of that.

You can make calls for money, you can send the script to people, you can do budgets. The only thing that will be affected will be the actual start date. Which we didn’t know anyway. We may end up not being delayed at all.

Many thanks to Bruce Campbell for chatting with us.

[miximax-hell]

Happy Goku Day, everyone!!

I checked and, miraculously, I still have followers on this blog. In fact, I’ve gained some since the last time I posted, for some reason! I’m not going to question it, though. Just... bless. But, hey, long time no see! As usual!

This time, I’m going back to my roots. The first drawings I posted on this blog were meant to show my love towards original Raimon, and it’s never a bad time to remind you all that I still adore these kids. Especially now that my friend @dust-monsters-under-my-bed​ has reminded me of them. Go check her art, btw! She’s not very active on Tumblr, but you can find her art on Twitter right here: https://twitter.com/rachelmonart

Anyway, she’s watching Inazuma Eleven for the first time and she’s made me think again about how much love these kids deserve, BECAUSE THEY SURE GOT NONE FROM HINO. DAMN YOU, HINO. So, today, let’s talk about the one and only IE character whose feet are classified as mass destruction weapons, who decided to borrow power from someone who will make you all question me, my logic and my tastes: Yamhan (or, as he is known in the west, Tiencha), THE FUSION OF YAMCHA AND TENSHINHAN FROM DRAGON BALL.

Introducing ShoYamHan! More on him under the cut.

So, first of all, how have you all been? I suppose many of you, like myself, are being told to stay at home to fight this situation. I salute all of you who do your best to stay safe and not help spread anything. It’s a very necessary fight, even if it can be boring at times. Many of us have friends or relatives fighting on the frontline, though (unless you yourself are the doctor or nurse friend!), and we hopefully know that staying at home is a small price to pay.

As for me, I got a job in December and lost it last month, so... yeah. It’s not been great. Still, something I’ve been working hard on for a while should be released soon and that’s so exciting! MY NAME WILL FINALLY BE ON SOMETHING’S CREDITS AND I CAN’T WAIT FOR IT TO BE UP.

But, anyway, back to business!

Rachel suggested I talk about the reasons behind this particular miximax, and considering it makes for a perfect parallel with my first posts, where I talked about the reasons behind Max’s and Kageno’s miximaxes, I’m all up for it! But, this time, I will have to do something new: explain WHO THE HECK YAMHAN IS. So let’s start with a picture of this handsome devil.

As most of you hopefully know, this project is about miximaxing Inazuma characters with video game characters. No anime, movies or anything else. Only and exclusively video games. Dragon Ball has probably spawned all those things, but it started as a manga, so you’d be right to think it most definitely does not qualify for this project. And, indeed, Dragon Ball doesn't. What DOES qualify, however, are Dragon Ball characters exclusive, or first introduced, in a video game. And that’s exactly the case we’re dealing with here!

Growing up, I loved Dragon Ball games. Even before I watched the show properly, in fact! I would go to my friend’s house, who was a fan of the show, and we'd play the Dragon Ball Budokai games nonstop with absolutely zero regrets. Those were some great times. And once I came to know the source material, the game that blew my mind the most was Dragon Ball Budokai 2. Was it the best one? Not necessarily. Is it my favourite? Not by a long shot. Still, it was the most creative! Most games follow the story of DBZ, which, obviously, is always the same. But Budokai 2 wasn’t afraid to do new things. Its story mode resembled a tabletop game and it was more than happy to deviate from the source material in some really fun ways; most notably, with exclusive fusions.

Budokai 2 introduced us all to Yamhan, the fusion of Yamcha and Tenshinhan, two long forgotten characters in the series, as they (and especially poor Yamcha) didn’t do anything especially relevant past... well, past the original Dragon Ball. As a champion of the unloved, that blew my mind. There were other fun things in Budokai 2, but what fascinated me and stayed in my thoughts for years to come was Yamhan. It was just such a cool concept. Two underdogs who had fallen into obscurity fusing to create a much greater warrior!

Of course, Yamhan isn’t the only videogame exclusive characters in Dragon Ball. He isn’t the first, nor the last. Yamhan isn’t the strongest, nor the weakest. But I haven’t played FighterZ nor Fusions (yet), nor pretty much any game that wasn’t on PS2 or GBA. And even if I had, I doubt Android 21 or any of the HUNDREDS of combinations available in Fusions would captivate me and my imagination as much as Yamhan did back in the day. Yamhan was a fusion, which is something that has always fascinated me to begin with. I MEAN, THIS ENTIRE BLOG IS ABOUT FUSING CHARACTERS, SO I THINK IT’S PRETTY OBVIOUS LMAO But he wasn’t just one among hundreds. He was this very specific, never-seen-before, cool as heck and usable fusion. Like, wow. That was wild for me. Sign me up, man.

But, you know, I try not to let that sway me too much. Of course, I wouldn’t likely pick a character I hate for a miximax, but, still, my preferences aren’t everything. And choosing Yamhan begs a question that I have already alluded to: if Yamhan isn’t the strongest game-exclusive DB character out there, then, why him? Well, the answer to that is related to the biggest problem posed by the sheer concept of miximaxing with a Dragon Ball character:

Power escalation.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Goku is, pretty much, the strongest character that has ever played the lead in any manga, and one of the strongest fictional characters ever, period. By the end of the Dragon Ball Super anime, he has EXCEEDED THE POWER OF MANY LITERAL GODS AND IS (or has been) A CANDIDATE TO BECOME ONE. You may prefer One Piece, or Naruto, or anything else, but few things reach the astronomical, reality-bending scope of Dragon Ball. Not to say DB is the best series--I’m just saying that it’s so out of control at this point (and I love it). But, of course, the stronger Goku is, the stronger the villains need to be, and Goku ends up becoming EVEN stronger than said villains. Rinse and repeat dozens of times until you can make an entire universe disappear by raising your hand.

Now, imagine applying that out-of-this-world power escalation to a context where the power balance isn’t so outrageous. For example, Inazuma Eleven.

Goku wriggling in his sleep is more powerful than Zeus, and an accidental sneeze would smash all of Ixal Fleet to smithereens. Do you see what this would do to the balance? It would ruin it completely, as anyone who miximaxed with Goku would be immediately a one-person army able to defeat ANY opponent--and if the opponent were to be EVEN GREATER than Goku, well, the rest simply wouldn’t stand a chance. Ever. Remember: the point of this project isn’t to create perfect and unbeatable players, and I’m not trying to prioritize anyone or make them noticeably stronger than anyone else just because I happen to like X more than Y. That completely ruins the tension and the fun (and my attempts to create justice in this unfair universe). The point is to come up with a balanced team full of players with strong points, but with flaws, too, that complement each other when they play together against stronger enemies.

So, if we go with Dragon Ball, and I love Dragon Ball WAY too much to not include it in this project in some way, we have to be careful and avoid overdoing it. Balance is key. And now that you know why I didn’t just choose the fusion between Beerus and Whis or something crazy like that, I’ll move on to explain what makes Yamhan a very interesting option. I SWEAR THERE ARE SOME ACTUAL REASONS.

First of all, the very concept. You know, Yamcha and Tenshinhan fused to created Yamhan, and now, Shourin is fusing with a fusion. That’s just... hecking cool. I won’t lie--my preferences towards Yamhan didn’t tip the scales towards making this happen, but my preferences towards FUSIONCEPTION totally did. XD But there’s more, thankfully.

From the very beginning, I knew I wanted a fighting game character to miximax with Shourin because it fits his theme best. I’m not big on fighting games, though, so it was quite tough. Especially because just any fighting game wouldn’t do it. Shourin is a martial artist. As I mentioned at the very beginning of this post, his feet are his weapons. His entire body is a weapon, really. If I were to suddenly miximax him with some character who wields a sword or an axe, for example, it would be a complete disservice to Shourin. Original Raimon members don’t have much going on for themselves, and I’m going to cut or ignore the ONE thing that makes one of them special? Not in a zillion years. Shourin needs to fight with his body. That, of course, cuts many characters already: pretty much the entire roster of Soul Calibur, many members of Mortal Kombat, many from games like Skullgirls (which I still want to try to represent here in the future, because @lumaga worked on it and it makes me happy just because of that), etc. For a very long time, I considered someone like Ryu, from Street Fighter, but then it hit me: I have never played Street Fighter and I don’t want to include him just because I know what a Hadouken is. It’d be... cheap. And fake. Thankfully, as I also mentioned earlier, I played LOTS of Budokai back in the day and I am an actual fan, so I don’t have to pretend to know what the heck I’m talking about. XD And, thankfully, most of the characters in DB games fight with their bare fists and legs, so they perfectly fit my needs. Yamhan is, of course, no exception.

Now comes my favourite reason to choose Yamhan and not, well, literally any other DB game-exclusive character. And that reason is style.

Remember that power escalation thing I mentioned earlier? Well, it’s epic, but it comes with a big disadvantage: power ends up becoming much more important than skill. Early Dragon Ball was very focused on fighting styles. There was an ongoing feud between the Turtle School and the Crane School, who taught different martial arts to fight in different ways, and there was a big plot involving which one was superior. It wasn’t just about who was strongest, but about who fought better. With time, that disappeared, though. Even though battles became flashier, aerial and more spectacular, they were much more indistinct. Sure, there were gimmicks like “heh, I have a tail and I will sometimes hit you with it,” or “I will try to hit your face with the palm of my hand instead of my fist for some unspecified reason,” but that isn’t... much. You just see very fast people avoiding equally as fast punches to the face. And Goku, the main character, only shows some style when he adopts a fighting pose BEFORE fighting. Once the punches start flying, it’s all a race to see who can hit the other the hardest in the gut to make them spit blood. Cool nonetheless, but still.

Ironically, though, it’s two of the least relevant characters who never really lost those styles that made them unique when they were first introduced to the series. And those are, of course, Yamcha and Tenshinhan.

Yamcha joins the Turtle School and learns techniques as classic as the Kamehameha, but he had his own style way before that, based on attacking and tearing enemies apart like a wolf would. This is best represented by his signature move, the Rougafuufuuken or Wolf Fang Fist. He never drops this style, but instead builds up on it through his training to make it even fiercer.

Tenshinhan has different things going for himself. First of all, he is a hybrid between a human being and a civilization known as the Three-Eyed People, which grants him powers such as growing extra arms from his back or dividing in 4. Not just moving so fast that it looks like there’s four of him, but ACTUALLY dividing into 4 separate bodies. In terms of skills, he was a Crane School student, but when he realised the wrong of his master’s doings, he decided to start training and developing on his own. Basically, a path that mirrors Yamcha’s, but both lead to unique fighting styles unlike anyone else’s in this universe. And, most importantly, none of them depend on appendixes that are always there, like the aforementioned tail, so they totally work for us here!

Shourin is a proper martial artist. He wouldn’t want to make himself crazy strong as much as he would like to refine his technique and learn new moves and tricks. Martial arts are about discipline, self-control, skill and protection. He would take a cool-ass combo based on a wolf’s moves over earth-shattering strength any day of the week, hence why the fact that these two have so many techniques to offer is so appealing.

Finally, and probably least, is the design idea that immediately came to my mind when I thought of a miximax between Shourin and Yamhan. Historically, I have had to work with characters like Fudou, who are usually mostly bald and they miximax with someone with hair, thus making for some very... difficult things to figure out. But the idea of miximaxing Shourin, who is mostly bald, with Yamhan, who is ALSO mostly bald, was just golden and too good to ignore. And the fact that Yamhan has three eyes GIVES ME AN EXCUSE TO ADD A THIRD CROSS-SHAPED EYE ON SHOURIN’S FOREHEAD. IF A MIXIMAX BETWEEN BALD PEOPLE WAS GOLDEN, THIS IS OUTRIGHT PLATINUM.

Shourin would've probably looked a lot less like a joke if he had had hair covering his entire head or if I had at least given him proper eyes... but that would no longer be the Shourin I love. Not to mention that it’s very likely that Shourin willingly shaves his head to begin with (even if the ponytail ain’t doing him any favours--but that’s just Inazuma logic, so let’s not look too much into it), just like Tenshinhan or Krillin do, so he would probably be happier to keep that, uh, advantage. Relative advantage, but still.

As a side note, though, we can’t forget the balance. When Yamcha and Tenshinhan fuse, they undoubtedly become the strongest human being in the DB universe, overcoming the one who is usually strongest: Krillin. A fusion is always greater than its parts individually, and Yamcha and Tenshinhan aren’t so far away from Krillin to begin with, so that’s not even a question. Regardless, they still don’t have that overwhelming and surreal strength from other characters, so we still don’t get into absolutely OP territory. Yamhan is strong enough to provide Shourin with a power that can make a real difference without completely putting him above everyone else.

Sadly, Yamhan doesn’t really have a backstory, as he’s a game-exclusive character that, honestly, was probably only there for a laugh. That means there is no deep connection between them. We can, however, make obvious connections between Shourin, an aspiring martial artist whose dream, as stated in IE2, was to study at Manyuuji (Kogure’s school) for their focus on martial arts, and is now trying to become stronger to protect what he loves, and two skilled warriors who have been training nonstop under different masters and on their own for basically their entire lives to keep becoming stronger and more skilled in order to defend what’s precious to them and, simply, to be the best version of themselves they can be. Upon seeing such dedicated warriors and artists, Shourin would undoubtedly want to learn from them and, if necessary, borrow their strength too.

Or he might just fanboy and ask for their autographs, honestly. I sure as heck want Yamcha’s. And his baseball card.

[lost-combustion]

GET TO KNOW THE BLOGGER.

can be used for rp   &   non-rp blogs to get to know a bit about the person behind the screen   !

1. FIRST NAME:           Stephanie, but call me Bishy <3

2. STRANGE FACT ABOUT YOURSELF:            If you were to walk into my apartment, you’d find medieval weaponry hanging up on the walls all over the place. I also was always compared to Iron Man, only because my entire left arm is almost all metal.

3. TOP THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU FIND ATTRACTIVE ON A PERSON:             Their eyes are the first thing I look at. When I saw my wife first, I looked at her eyes and just. Yes. The next observation I really look at is the smile. Each smile holds part of their personality. Then I tend to notice their height. Luckily for me, my wifey is taller than me. <3 

4. A FOOD YOU COULD EAT FOREVER AND NOT GET BORED OF:               Ooooof. If I had to choose just ONE dish, I would have to choose Lemon Pepper fish. While I love sushi, and Alfredo, the lemon pepper fish is absolutely amazing and I finally learned how to make it myself. So I won’t starve if my wife leaves for a night or two. xD

5. A FOOD YOU HATE:               Spinach. Just. Yuck.

6. GUILTY PLEASURE:              Okay so I have a few guilty pleasures. First and foremost is making characters with character creators in games. I just love making them. I also have a huge guilty pleasure for shipping. I’m actually going to copy a statement that someone else made because they describe it incredibly well. 

I love healthy ships and unhealthy ships (but like, don’t glorify them. Recognize they are unhealthy and should not be idealized for RL) I just love love, and I love the butterflies and coyness and excited uncertain that leads up to the very first time a ship admits their feelings most of all.

             But yeah. More guilty pleasures. I also love editing screenshots of characters. I love playing around with the colors and shadows. 

7. WHAT DO YOU SLEEP IN:           Pajama pants. It’s rare for me to sleep with a top on, only because my wife is a massive heater and I’ll overheat if I wear too much.

8. SERIOUS RELATIONSHIPS OR FLINGS:              Hah, well I’m married soooo. In October it’ll be 2 years, but we’ve been together for almost 5 years. Longest relationship I’ve ever had! <3 We have our difficulties, yes, but we work through it and keep on trucking.

9. IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN THE PAST AND CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT YOUR LIFE, WOULD YOU AND WHAT WOULD IT BE:               If I could go back, I’d tell my boss to fuck off and stay in Texas with my dad for an additional 3 weeks. That was really the last time I got to spend time with my dad, seeing as the next time I saw him, he passed away. 

10. ARE YOU AN AFFECTIONATE PERSON:             I didn’t grow up around affection. So it took a long time for me to open up and actually showcase affection to people willingly. I’m finally getting better at it though! I want to say yes, I am an affectionate person, but I still struggle at times on whether it’s appropriate or not.

11. A MOVIE YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER AGAIN:             This will forever be “Sweeney Todd”. I absolutely adore that movie. Or any of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” just because of the aesthetic.

12. FAVORITE BOOK:            Oh gosh. This is extremely hard to choose, only because I love reading. Call of Cthulhu, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones; anything from Stephen King; I read anything and everything, so choosing one as a favorite is nearly impossible.

13. YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO KEEP ANY ANIMAL AS A PET, WHAT DO YOU CHOOSE:               A skunk <3

14. TOP FIVE FICTIONAL SHIPS [IF YOU ARE AN RP BLOG, YOU CAN USE YOUR OWN SHIPS AS WELL]:            Ooooof. I have too many to share. So like, it’s a very toxic ship, but Tsumi ( @tivtastic) and Syat’a are a huge toxic ship that I cannot wait to dive into. Another good ship that I’m kinda adoring is the friendship between Shoto ( @chooseyourmuse) with Astrid. Their closeness just brings me massive feels, and I adore them. Okay, so that’s only two. Let me think. I also am really interested to see the development between Denki ( @persona-de-interes) with Astrid.

           Oh! Another super big ship of mine is Caspian with Roselyn ( @sky-gryphon) on discord. Their raw connection just. Mmph. I love it. I also am really in love with the connection between Colette and Zegnes ( @sky-gryphon) on discord as well. While she’s this big bad predator, he’s so soft towards her and I just. He makes her feel things, which results in me feeling wonderful things for them. Now another- OH MY GOSH HOW COULD I FORGET.  

           How could I ever forget Arron ( @-tiviani-)??? He with ANYONE of my kids. FUCKING ANYONE. Give me that GORY SHIP. So fricken toxic, but YESSSS. 

             EDIT: HOW COULD I FORGET THIS ADORABLE SHIP. OMG SOMEONE HIT ME FOR FORGETTING. Jupiter with Niel ( @softvorenoms). LEGIT GUYS. This ship is SO SUPER ADORABLE. Every time I think of canon relationships for Jupy, I immediately think of Niel. When I finally sit down to write the actual books for Jupiter and her siblings, Niel will either show up in it somewhere or be mentioned. Because these two. <3 <3 <3

15. PIE OR CAKE:           Pie! <3

16. FAVORITE SCENT:                I’m more towards vanilla, but I also am really liking cinnamon (even if I can’t say the damn word)

17. CELEBRITY CRUSH:              Ooooof! Hmm. Okay, so I don’t really keep tabs on celebrity life, so give me a moment to really think. The actress that plays as Scarlet Witch. Yep, she’s real pretty. I also really adore Felicia Day. She’s just perfection. Then there’s Tom Hiddleston. He’s gorgeous. 

18. IF YOU COULD TRAVEL ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD YOU GO:          Mm... Probably Italy ( seeing as I’m Italian and have yet to see where my family came from ) or Scotland ( because who doesn’t love their accent?? )

19. INTROVERT OR EXTROVERT:              Technically, I’m classified as an “Extroverted Introvert”, but I just like to call myself an Introvert and leave it at that.

20. DO YOU SCARE EASILY:             Hah! I don’t think I scare easily, but I jump super easily.

21. IPHONE OR ANDROID:               Android

22. DO YOU PLAY ANY VIDEO GAMES:               ...Do I play video games?? OOOOOF. Yes, lmao! I bounce between PS4 and PC. From Mortal Kombat, Dragon Age series, FFXIV, and soooo many others; I play pretty much anything. 

23. DREAM JOB:                 I’m actually doing my dream job! I work at a museum; I’m a tour guide. I adore learning new things, and retelling history to others. 

24. WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH A MILLION DOLLARS:               I would first and foremost pay off any dept that my wife has. Then I’d put half of my cash to the side for saving. The rest would be put into paying off my wife’s vehicle (since mine is already paid off) and helping us settle down in an actual house somewhere we want to live for good. Currently we’re living in an apartment, and it’s comfortable yes, but it’s not forever. 

25. FICTIONAL CHARACTER YOU HATE:            A fictional character I hate? Hmm. Oh, oh! I know so many others really adore this character and find him “oh so attractive”, but I cannot stand Zenos yae Galvus from ffxiv. Just no. I can’t. At all.

26. FANDOM THAT YOU WERE ONCE A PART OF BUT AREN’T ANY LONGER:                I used to be big into Inuyasha. In fact, that was the first fandom I actually got into! But I’m not into it any more, only because finding tons of people that still want to write that fandom is almost impossible. Shout out to @nioiidamaa for pulling me back into the fandom because they write AMAZING.

STOLEN FROM:  @bagwormmulti TAGGING:  everyone that I already tagged in earlier, soooo @chooseyourmuse, @persona-de-interes, @sky-gryphon, @tivtastic, @nioiidamaa, @softvorenoms. I also welcome anyone else! If you do it and you weren’t tagged, you’re tagged now!! :D

[thebibliomancer]

50 More Days of Comics! 37/50: Dark Horse Presents #137 (1998)

An anthology! I love an anthology! Ask anyone!

Apparently Dark Horse Presents was the first comic published by Dark Horse. Which is fair enough. And it ran from 1986 to 2000 when it was cancelled. And then volume 2 of Dark Horse Presents ran from 2007-2010 and was published on MySpace!

Wild.

Anyway, this comic has the Predator fighting Nazis so it must be exceptional.

So the first of the three stories is Predator: Demon’s Gold.

The story is narrated by an Ecuadorian remembering back to when he was a child. The Nazis came and burned his village and killed everyone in it except for him. Him, they needed.

Narrator: “They wanted the same thing white men have always wanted from my land: silver and gold. They wanted what was hidden high in the Llanganati Mountains, the secret my village had kept so long.”

And they tell him they’ll let him live if he leads them to it.

Something I learned while googling the Llanaganati Mountains to try to find out where on Earth this was set is that the Treasure of the Llanganatis is a pre-existing legend and not something this comic made up.

Per the legend, it was the gold and silver and platinum and assorted other treasures hidden in the mountains by the Incan general Rumiñahui. He had been gathering it as a ransom for King Atahualpa but when conquistador Pizarro just went and had Atahualpa killed anyway, Rumiñahui hid the treasure and never revealed where it was.

Except in this story where he told somebody who passed it down to a nameless village and a nameless narrator.

Knowing that actually adds to the story weirdly enough.

When frightened boy Narrator leads the Nazis to the “sweat of the Sun, tears of the Moon” treasure, they plan to kill him anyway.

And like in the legend, if you renege on a promise to let someone live in exchange for two rooms full of treasure, you don’t get the treasure.

Because as the boy prays to the Inca gods, his prayers are answered in a way.

I don’t know why he was there but a Predator was there and he starts murdering the Nazis in his gruesome Predator way. 

Narrator: “These men who had butchered my village, they were ripe corn before the harvest blade.”

He kills the Nazi leader last, pulling his spine out by his head, like some kind of Mortal Kombat.

The boy assumes the Predator, who he thinks is a demon because sure, will kill him last “would demand one more sacrifice in return for protecting the sweat and tears” but with a swipe of his wrist blades, he cuts Narrator’s bonds and walks out of the cave.

Narrator: “But it spared me. And vanished back to whatever pit had given it birth. That was long ago: I’m an old man now. My own death draws near. You ask me where the treasure is? That secret I take with me.”

There’s so much intriguing potential here. Who was he telling the story to? Was this like a Titanic the Movie setup? Why was the Predator guarding Incan treasure? But alas, as far as I know, they remain mysteries.

STORY 2! My Vagabond Days.

Set April 4th, 1968 and centered around a boy named Martin who is generally unenthusiastic about school. But his teacher talks about Apollo 6 and tells the students to write three paragraphs on “What Would I Like to Accomplish.”

Martin and his friend Jerome already know they want to be astronauts!

And later at dinner, Martin tells his parents about his assignment, his mom noting he sounds excited considering he doesn’t usually do his homework without a spanking.

Martin: “I am! ‘Cause I know exactly what I want to be!”

Dad: “Oh yeah? And what’s that?”

Martin: “I’m gonna be ‘n astronaut!”

Dad: “Ha! Oh you are, are you? Is that what you think?”

Dad: “Astronauts get good grades, and they don’t get caught stealing an’ lying all the time. So where does that leave you, spaceboy?”

And Martin runs to his room to cry. Mom berates dad because this is the first time she’s ever seen him excited about his homework but dad says Martin will be lucky to get a job at all the way he’s going.

Later, Jerome calls Martin out to climb to the roof of their building and use binoculars to look at the moon.

They obviously don’t see astronauts on the Moon with binoculars.

Jerome: “So, what do you think you’ll accomplish in your lifetime, Martin?”

Jerome: “Martin?”

Martin: “... nothin’.”

Jerome: “No, I’m serious.”

Martin: “Yeah... Me too...”

Kids internalize stuff, parents!

This was kind of a bummer after seeing the Predator fight Nazis. Kind of jerking my emotions around, Dark Horse Presents.

Last story: The Ark Part Four

The last part of a multiple part story? You fooled me, Dark Horse Presents! Uncool!

Anyway, near as I can gather, there was an alien spacecraft that got shot down and unleashed a bunch of alien monsters who seem animalistic and not gleep glorp take me to your meepmorps.

Also they’re fairly resistant to bullets.

There are several convicts from the nearby prison and some prison guards or cops? who are with them and worried that the prisoners will attempt to escape in the confusion and then there’s a main guy maybe called Guidry.

He has the idea that since the town of Pruitt has been evacuated, they can vent the natural gas pipes underground, saturate the town, and then drop a match. Boom, no more alien monsters.

On his way into the sewers, Guidry cautions everyone not to take up smoking.

Jonas: “No problem. I’ve got a rule about cigarettes. Only after sex... Or when somebody punches up Leann Rimes on the tavern’s juke box.”

Guidry, later: “I’d like to buy her a carton of Marlboros, and I don’t mean for some country-pop listening party...”

Once the gas has been vented, the group runs into another problem. Somebody has to set it off. And there’s a monster now between them and the manhole.

Then somebody steps up to take the sacrifice.

Narrator: “I don’t know what prompted Dylan to do what he did. Was it out of some suddenly-discovered sense of obligation? I doubt it. Serial arsonists rarely undergo that sort of epiphany. But I can’t help remembering the look on his face. He wasn’t thinking of the pain, or the finality of death. He was looking for the cleansing embrace of the flames. I only hope it was all he had ever dreamed.”

And then the town blows up.

And all the monsters blow up. Except for the biggest and meanest of them. And now its pissed.

The four survivors flee the surviving monster and wind up back at the prison.

Guidry: “Guns, grenades, hell, Warden Moeller probably keeps whips and leather in the basement -- That doesn’t work, we can throw cafeteria food at the thing till it pukes to death--”

Hah.

The warden won’t let them in, even though one of the survivors is Sheriff Hiatt from Pruitt. So Jonas just kicks a prison bus open and drives it through the fence.

Jonas tells Warden Moeller to stfu and the prison guards open fire on the monster, to no avail.

Guidry has one last plan though and tells Jonas he’ll need her help.

So he aggros the monster to chase him through the prison -- and holy crap, this thing is tearing through prison bars like they’re twizzlers -- and all the way to the electric chair room.

He dodges behind the chair to trick the monster into skewering it with its claws and then Jonas turns on the power.

The monster is finally dead. And Guidry voluntarily turns himself in to serve out the remainder of his prison sentence because Pruitt (the town that’s currently on fire and flattened) is his entire life and home and between another six months in jail vs never seeing it again? Easy decision.

Plus, he’s also sweet on Jonas and she seems to be into him too. “I’m a firm believer in rehabilitation.” So, yeah, that’s disciplinary action waiting to happen.

[all-appreciation]

More Than a Chance

“Hey babygirl.” I heard a voice from behind me. I turned around to see Jackson Wang, one of the schools resident bad boys, standing there with his friend Jinyoung. Mark, Rhia, and I looked at them for a little before responding.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

“Yes you can. You can go on a date with me this weekend.” He spoke with a smirk. I turned toward my friends before responding.

“No.” I start to walk away, Rhia following behind but still looking at Jinyoung. Mark stays behind and talks to them before joining us at the school gates. “What did they want?”

“Nothing much. Just that he was being serious.” We started walking as Mark spoke.

“He is always serious.” I responded sarcastically.

“Also I invited them to game night tonight.” Mark began walking faster.

“You did what?!” I could Rhia yell at the same time I asked. “Mark, I didn’t want to see Jinyoung again. He fucked up when he became a bad boy, he screwed us over. He left me.” Rhia rushed up to Mark.

“Rhia, it’s ok. We’ll be fine. We both know you still like him anyways.” I walk past both of them as I talk.

“I do not!” Rhia exclaimed as she hit my shoulder. I just rolled my eyes and kept walking. Mark jogged up to stand by me and called back to Rhia.

“Yeah, you do.” He sighed before speaking again, “Look, I get it. Both of you. Y/N, you refuse to date another bad boy after last time and Rhia, you’re worried he’s changed completely and is nothing like the Jinyoung he used to be. But he hasn’t changed completely, yeah he’s a dick now but he still has his moments. He’d come running if you needed him. I’ve been friends with both of them since we were kids. So, Y/N, I know Jackson. He has his moments too and he likes you. You should both give them a chance.” I glance over to Rhia and see her staring at her feet, biting her lip.

“We can try. I’ll admit that Jackson is attractive and he always seems to treat the girls he “dates” like goddesses. Even stops flirting when he’s with them.” Even I can tell I sound exasperated as I speak.

“I guess it’s ok you invited them.” Rhia mumbles out. I link my arm with her and smile over at her.

“Come on Rhia. It’s at Mark’s place anyways. If things go south, we can leave and you spend the night at my place. I mean it’s Friday anyways. We’ll have fun no matter what.” I bumped my shoulder to hers and finally saw her smile. I slid my hand down to link it with hers and reached out to grab Mark’s hand too. “Now come on, we need to get snacks.” I pull them behind me as I drag them into the convenience store.

We end up at Mark’s place a little later, arms filled with bags of snacks. We drop them onto the floor in front of the couch and Mark goes to get his different gaming systems.

“I’m making ramen!” I yell out as I walk to the kitchen.

“Mark said to make enough for everyone.” I hear Rhia say from behind me. She hops up onto the counter and starts scrolling through her phone. “Can I play some music?” I nod my head and hear Red Velvet immediately start playing. We both start singing aloud and she hops off the counter to start dancing with me. I move the noodles off the flame and finish up before joining her dancing. We get so into the music, we don’t notice the three boys at the entrance to the kitchen until the song is over.

“Shit.” I gasp out. “Jesus fucking christ Mark. How long have you guys been standing there?” Rhia runs to stand behind me, head down.

“Oh, only two songs. That first song was a little too sexy for you to be dancing too. Not really your style.” Jackson speaks before Mark can. That stupid smirk on his face. I roll my eyes and flip him the bird. Turning from them, I grab bowls and fix Rhia and I some ramen, grabbing drinks for us and walking past the boys.

“Foods done, get what you want.” I bump Mark and whisper, “thanks for the warning.” He just gives a sheepish smile and follows the boys to the food. Rhia and I go to claim the love seat in the living room. “Don’t let them get to you. Jinyoung looked like he was drooling when he stared at you. Jackson is just being a dick.” She just nods and starts eating.

We both finish relatively quickly but the boys haven’t come from the kitchen yet, so we set our bowls down and grab the game controllers. Rhia picks out Mortal Kombat and we decide to fight each other until the boys decide to be social.

“Damnit Y/N! You’ve had practice!” I laugh as she screams at me, trying to push me over.

“I have not. You just suck, my friend.” I continue laughing as she pouts after I kill her character. “Come on don’t be a sore loser.”

“Bet you can’t beat Mark.” She glances over at me.

“MARK!! Get in here!” I scream. He casually walks in, the boys in tow. “1. You are being inhospitable leaving us alone with each other. 2. Come on. I want to beat your ass at your own game.” He shakes his head but smiles and takes Rhia’s place beside me.

“I’m not gonna go easy on you.” He smirks at me causing me to roll my eyes.

“Oh, I’m so scared.” I say with mock terror. We both pick our characters and start the match. Mark is more difficult to fight, he definitely knows what he’s doing compared to Rhia, but I refuse to lose. It takes more effort and I lost the first round but I do end up beating him. He drops his controller in defeat but smiles over at me.

“Nice job. I’m actually surprised.” We both stand up and shake hands.

“Now I’m gonna go clean up the kitchen or the dishes will be there for weeks. You’re welcome.” I grab Rhia and our bowls, taking them to the kitchen. I hear the game start again and few rounds seem to go by before Rhia come to the kitchen just as I finish up.

“Come on, we’re playing strip poker.”  She says.

“What? No I’m not.” I ignore her and place the dishes in the right cabinets.

“Yeah we are. I made a bet, you were a part of it, and I lost.” I groan as she grabs my hand and drags me back to the living room, the boys sitting in a circle waiting for us. “If it helps, it’s boys against girls.” “Yeah, helpful. You suck at poker. You are lucky I don’t. I hate you.” I mumble reaching to shuffle the cards before handing them to Mark for him to deal. “If I lose more than my shirt and pants then I’m out.” Rhia just shakes her head and the boys laugh. Mark deals out the cards and I can already tell I have a shitty hand. I immediately fold when given the chance, Rhia following my lead. My next hand is, surprisingly, 4 of a kind and I decide to take the chance. This leads to a win for the girls and the boys choosing to remove their shirts.

“Hey, Y/N. Get a picture of this.” Jackson calls out. I decided to humor him and take the picture, deciding to post it.

The game continues on for a couple rounds. The boys losing their pants and us girls seeming to only lose our top shirt. The next round causes a lose for the girls meaning something else has to come off. Rhia, being tipsy, reaches for her pants and pulls them off, causing a cheer from the also tipsy Jackson and I’m damn sure what was a look of lust from Jinyoung. Mark and I being mostly sober. I just sit there until Rhia bumps my shoulder.

“Come on. Just take your camisole off. You’re wearing a cute bra anyways.” I glance at her as she speaks but do as she suggests. Standing up to pull my shirt off more comfortably. I can feel the stares of Mark and Jackson, luckily Jinyoung is still staring at Rhia. I quickly sit back down and pull the closest pillow into my lap. The boys do the same.

“This is the last round.” They all nod in agreement to my statement and Mark deals out the cards again. I see my hand, a royal flush, and know not to worry. Jackson looks cocky when he shows his hand but the smirk fades when he sees my hand. “Looks like I win. Now we can all get dressed.” I slip on my camisole and tell Rhia to follow me to Marks room. “Hey Markie,” all of the boys turn toward us at my voice, “can we steal some of your clothes for the night?”

“Sure, you know where everything is?” he assures we know and I nod, dragging Rhia up the stairs. We end up in Mark’s closet and start shifting through his clothes. Rhia grabs a hoodie and some of his sweats, slipping both on before leaving the room to go back downstairs. I decide to slip a pair of his joggers over my shorts and grab one of his sweaters, slipping it on as I walk back toward the stairs.

Wandering back into the living room, I see JInyoung scrolling through his phone alongside Mark while Rhia and Jackson are stifling through the movies.

“No horror.” I blatantly state, receiving a groan from Rhia. “You know what happened last time and you being more inebriated will only make it worse. Pick something Tim Burton.” I move over to collapse onto the couch next to Mark, shifting to rest against his side when his arm moves to the back of the couch. Once they picked a move, Rhia makes the decision to sit next to Jinyoung, an odd choice but makes sense with how she was drinking tonight. Jackson puts in the movie and switches off the lights, taking a the seat by me as the title screen starts to play.

We all sit in relative silence as The Corpse Bride plays on. Over time my legs have shifted to laying over the pillow in Jackson’s lap and my head in Marks lap. Rhia is passed out onto Jinyoung’s shoulder who doesn’t seem to mind, his head dropping onto hers as he appears to doze off. As the movie comes to an end, I notice Jackson and I being the only ones awake. Standing, I grab some blankets, throwing them over the ones sleeping, but shifting Mark to lay down. I watch as Jinyoung and Rhia shift into a lying position, Jinyoung appearing to wrap an arm around her. I bid jackson goodnight, telling the guest room is his and that I’ll be in Mark’s. He nods but doesn’t follow up the stairs.

I wake up the next morning before the others, having not had the best night sleep due to waking up a few times and having maybe seen something I shouldn’t. I decide to make some breakfast and get ready to head out. I think about Jackson, that maybe he really does deserve a chance. As I eat, I decide to check instagram. I see a few new comments on the post about Jackson, one saying they want a night with him and he of course responds for her to come and get him. I should have expected it, but if he really does like me then he has a shitty way of showing it.

I leave soon after that. Rhia is still wrapped up in Jinyoung’s arms, something she’ll regret when she wakes up, Mark is curled up on the couch and Jackson’s door is closed as I walk back down the stairs after changing. I send a quick text to the group chat with Mark and Rhia before sneaking out the back door and down to the flower shop a block away.

“Morning Y/N. You look like shit.” I hear as soon as I walk into the back room, grabbing my apron.

“Jee, thanks Sanha. You sure know how to make a girl feel special.” my voice muffled as I pull my apron over my head.

“Hey, are you ok?” Sanha places his hand on my shoulder, forcing me to face him. I let out a sigh and run a hand across my face before responding with a smile.

“I’m fine Sanha. Just...tired.” I feel him pull me toward him and wrap his arms around me. I hug back instantly.

“Take a nap. It’s just you and me anyways. I can handle it for a few hours.” He motions to the sun room out back. “The cot is still out there with some pillows and blankets. Go ahead, just yell if you need anything.” I pull him into me again.

“You’re a savior Sanha. I owe you one.” I run off to the sun room, drawing some of the blinds and laying down onto the cot. I fall asleep almost instantly. I awake about 2 hours later and sit up. I readjust my clothes and the room before walking out to main room. Sanha is sitting there with some freshly wrapped flowers and two cups of tea.

“Feeling better?” he asks as he pushed the tea toward me. I nod and take a few sips, savouring the warmth and flavor. “A few people came in looking for you but I told them you weren’t here yet. They’ll probably be back later though.”

“I’m sure they will if it’s who I think it is. I’ll probably get yelled at by one and a disappointed look from the other.” I resume drinking my tea.

“Well maybe from the girl and one of the boys, but what about the other two?” he mumbles into the rim of his cup.

“The other two? There was four of them?” He nods in response. “Dark clothes? Did one have like a blank stare unless he looked at the girl?” he nods again. “Great. They all know where I work now.” I drop my hands to my sides and lay my head onto the counter.

“If It means anything, one of them bought these for you.” he hands me the bouquet of flowers. “He said he was sorry. And that Mark wasn’t lying.” I move to grab a vase, placing the flowers in it with some water before placing it on the counter by the register. “ And that blank stare one you were talking about was holding the other girls hand.”

“I have missed a lot. How long was I actually out?” I shake my head and make a mental note to talk to Rhia.

“Don’t worry. It hasn’t been days. Just a couple hours. We haven’t been very busy, as expected.” He stands up and pulls me to sit on the stool, wrapping his arms around my shoulders. “You are really shook up about this. This is your happy place, forget about it for now.” He leaves a pat on my shoulder as I nod. The rest of the day goes by smoothly, the others not returning.

I just finished putting up my apron when Mark and Rhia text me to come over. I can’t really say no and I’m sure they want to talk, so I head back toward Mark’s place. Mark is on the couch with Jackson and Jinyoung is holding hands with Rhia on the love seat.

“Happy you came back. Thank you for breakfast this morning by the way.” Mark spoke as I sat in the empty chair. I nodded. “So...Maybe we should talk.” I nodded again and glanced to Jinyoung and Rhia. “Not about them.”

“Th-then about who?” I mumbled.

“Jackson...and you.” my eyes snapped over to Jackson as he glanced at the ground.

“What about us?” I questioned. No one answered, they just glanced at each other before staring back at me. “I’ll ask again, what about us?”

“Well Rhia is giving Jinyoung a chance. Maybe it’s time you gave Jackson one.” Mark stood from his seat and walked over to kneel by the chair I was in.

“I will do no such thing.” I spoke aloud.

“Yesterday you were telling us that you would give him a chance and today you want nothing to do with him.” Rhia spoke up from her place on Jinyoung’s lap.

“That was yesterday, but today is different.” I spared a glance at Jackson and saw him staring down at his hands.

“What changed in so little time?” Mark questioned from beside me.

“What changed?” I reaffirmed. He nodded. “What changed was that yesterday you were telling me he really liked me and later that night he was flirting with a girl and telling her to come get him if she wanted him. Real proof that he liked me huh.”

“Jackson is just a natural flirt.” Jinyoung tried to defend.

“Oh I know he is, so am I, but this is different. If he wants me to believe that he truly likes me, he needs to understand that I don’t like when he invites girls to sleep with him in my comment section.” I stood from the chair and started walking toward the door. “It’s been fun but I’m going to Sanha’s for the night. Thank you for the flowers Jackson. They were lovely.” I turned from the group with a brisk wave and walked back to the flower shop, unlocking the door and heading to the staff room. I was going to spend the night here hoping no one would come look for me.

The night went by uneventful with no contact from the others. Sleeping on the cot wasn’t too painful but I felt bad most of the night with how I spoke about Jackson, especially with him in the same room. I know I was harsh but it seemed the only way to get my point across.

Work went by uneventful as well before Rhiannon sent me a link to a post from Jackson’s instagram. I noticed how the number of people he was following had dropped drastically.

I decided I needed to talk to him, and soon. I didn’t mean that had to drop people, I just wanted him to be less flirtatious with those around him, to show me that he really did like me. I found him still at Mark’s, lazing around the house and waiting for the others to return.

“Jackson..?” I called out to him as he rounded the corner to the kitchen. He dropped the blanket from his shoulders and snapped his head to me.

“Uh...hi” he spoke as he picked up the blanket, wrapping it tightly around himself.

“Can we talk? You know...about your post. You didn’t have to do that.” I went over to grab his hand and pull him to sit down.

“I..uh I know I didn’t but you wanted me to prove I want only you and I thought what better way than telling the others that I had found the one for me.” He ran his thumb over the knuckles of my hand. I didn’t realize I hadn’t let go. “I wanted you to know I care for you. That I do really like you and am willing to do anything to make you see that.”

“I can see that.” I stood up and moved closer to him. “I do really like you Jackson, I just didn’t know if I could trust you. But...I think I’m willing to give you a chance. Maybe more than just a chance.” he stared up at me as I spoke before wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me to him as I finished.

“Do you really mean that?” I nodded and whispered I do. “That means the world to me. Don’t worry, I’ll treat you like the queen you are. The way you deserve.”

“I know you will Jackson. I know you will.”

[hardeepcox]

The Chronicles of Hardeep Cox - Bangkok pt 1

Intro

Hi my name is Hardeep Cox, I may or may not be a guy born to an Indian mom and a white guy from Boston in the DMV area. Then again I may or may not be just an extremely immature adult with a ridiculous sense of humor. Quick warning: if you are easily offended then I suggest you just exit this shit right now and idk go watch cable tv or something.

I am writing this as we prepare for our first legit night out in Bangkok, as I and a dude named Paper awkwardly wait for my dad to finish showering so we can head out. Tonight’s destination is Above Eleven, but I’ll explain more later on. Let’s begin with our arrival.

Flight and Night 1

After about 20 hours of flying we met up with Paper, our guide/family friend (on my dad’s side). Paper picked us up from the airport and helped us hail a cab. My first impression of Bangkok when I stepped outside of the airport was that it seemed so similar to Los Angeles, I guess because of the weather and vegetation. Anyways, the cab dropped us off at the Doubletree where an enormous wooden figure of a football (soccer) sat in the lobby. To my unbelievable surprise, it turned out that Paper was actually going to be staying in the hotel room with us because he lives outside of the city (my dad of course manages to leave out important details like this when planning trips). Because of the timezone change we were hungry upon arrival, at 3 in the damn morning. So we did what any idiot American tourist would do, we went to 7 Eleven. I had to accept the fact that chili and cheese quarter pounders would no longer be an option, so I went with the spicy basil rice and fish sauce. I gotta say that it was pretty good, even though it was spicy as hell. After crushing my first meal in Thailand, we did our best to sleep for the next couple of hours.

Day 1

Sleep deprived but feeling ready to roll, we got ready and headed downstairs for breakfast. The buffet included the usual American stuff, sushi, dim sum, and some freshly made Thai dishes.The dim sum was by far my favorite, and today it was Chinese egg tarts.

We went to some Buddhist temples, hundreds of years old. There were so many Chinese tourists, and so many lame pictures being taken by them (sitting down in lotus position next to a statue of the Buddha, a chick looking dramatically and diagonally down at the floor while her boyfriend takes a picture for her instagram and you KNOW she’s gonna add some kind of bullshit philosophical caption to it). It was hard to get into the spiritual groove with all these tourists, and the only places where I could feel peace was in the praying rooms where I wish that I could have stayed longer. The best part was the Wat Phra Ram, literally the place where they filmed one of my favorite childhood movies Mortal Kombat. It was totally unexpected and spontaneous, the most interesting part about it was the dog that had managed to sneak up into the actual ruins and seemed to be searching for something at a calm pace. My pathetic attempts to whistle loud enough for the dog to hear me led me to run around the ruins hoping to catch a glimpse of it. I heard it howl a couple of times after that and I’ll always wonder why, maybe its spirit led it to the ruins to discover a link to a past life. Who knew I would have accidentally stepped into the Netherealm, but too bad I couldn't meet Raiden, Shang Tsung, and Liu Kang's dead brother (if you don't get this reference please find a time machine and go back in time to 1995, break into a Hollywood video, steal a copy of Mortal Kombat, watch it, go back into the time machine, return to the present time, and punch yourself in the fucking face).

Tired as hell we walked around markets near the Chao Phra Ya river, they were pretty generic developing country markets and I was extremely tired so I just wanted to go back to the hotel and pass out. We tried some sticky rice dessert that was pretty good so we bought some, and my dumbass ate my entire portion in the cab and felt even more like a piece of shit after. We made a stop for some roadside Pad Thai, it was delicious but again I was exhausted. Back in the cab again I pretty much passed out from exhaustion.

Night 2

I woke maybe 45 minutes later still in the cab but the sun was setting and the nocturnal city was coming alive. Suddenly it dawned on me that we had to be in Chinatown and my street-mode immediately turned on. After driving us through some beautifully sketchy streets, our cab driver dropped us off at a main road. All the lights made it look like it was an attempt at giving it a times square feel. I was now totally awake and ready for more exploring, and after walking for a bit we walked by a Chinese restaurant (Chinatown in Bangkok is an extremely fast-paced environment full of beautiful chaos, if you can’t keep up you might as well stay in your comfy apartment and drink lattes or something). The menu had so many choices, but no combination fried rice, general tso’s chicken, or lo mein (at this point I realized that I should just forget about these options because I’m not gonna find this delicious diabetes-maximus anymore). I got the egg noodles with roasted duck for $2, and the portion was just right for me since I was still full from that sticky rice and exhausted from the jetlag. Before the food coma took over, we took a tuk tuk to the nearest metro train station and made our way back to the hotel. The metro was actually very organized and technologically advanced, the DC metro could learn a thing or two from it. Because of the timezone change, the beers, sticky rice, and random stuff that I had eaten, I hadn’t really used the bathroom all day. Walking from the metro to the hotel at some point became truly difficult and I had tell myself just breathe man don’t shit yourself on your first night in Bangkok goddammit.

Now back at the hotel and totally relieved, our night actually began.

Nocturnal Adventure

We started out at the Queen Bee, a little bar across the street with shitty mojitos but a damn good blues band. From there we went to a place that my dad would not stop mentioning, Above Eleven, a local Peruvian restaurant. Probably one of the coolest restaurants that I’ve honestly ever been to. This was some upper class bougie shit as the kids say, but the view of the city was breathtaking and the food was absolutely delicious (and I am a picky fuck when it comes to flavors). The Peruvian food was authentic, the Pisco Sour was legit, and we got to meet Chef Omar Frank Maruy. Chef Maruy is the Japanese-Peruvian chef in charge of keeping the food quality at Above Eleven at its exquisite level. After downing a few Pisco sours, and devouring a few dishes (ceviche, jalea, and anticucho) we made our way to Havana Social. I could tell this place was throwing a good party as we walked to the entrance which was a random door in an alley with working girls in the corner. Too bad some of us were wearing shorts so we were ultimately denied entrance. Bummed out we walked to the nearest bar, Oskar, and had Lavender Pisco Sours. Seriously so creative and surprisingly delicious!

After downing these drinks we basically gave up and made our way back to the hotel. Maybe like 5 minutes away from the hotel we walked past a really sketchy alley and I shit you not, my dad says “let’s go into a small street shithole bar!” He’s already walking towards it so Paper and I say fuck it and we join him, plus I mean come on I gotta watch my dad’s back since hookers have been flirting with him for the past 25 minutes. We walk in and of course all these chicks are so psyched to see us, a very pretty hostess welcomes us so we sit at the bar and get some Tiger beers. With Youtube as our DJ, we start sipping on beers and my dad is just having a blast with these two chicks. They try to flirt with me but I’m like meh, I’ve honestly seen hotter escorts in Lima. Then one of them says, “I’m gonna bring my sister for you.” I’m like ok cool whatever, totally unimpressed as I watch my dad party at this little bar. This chick brings the pretty hostess over and introduces her as her “sister”, and I notice dude this girl is actually super cute and obviously not an actual escort. Me and her are both like uhh… hi? She’s not sure how to interact with idiot foreigners, but I can tell and I am just my usual super chill self with her. She gets a jack and coke, and I continue sipping on my Tiger. Her name is May, I was like “is it pronounced like the month May, or is it Mai like my?” She looked at me like if I was a dumbass but she was playful about it, and I start crushing on this chick because I mean duh I am a fucking idiot and I do shit like this. This all ended with a bill of almost $200 USD, an escort angry at us for not taking her back to our hotel, and me DJ’ing some old school reggaeton on their Youtube. As we made our way back to the hotel we ran into into girls selling booze on the sidewalk in what seemed like the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo but cut in half the long way, and the girls turned the bottom half of the car into a mini-bar. As I took a whiz on a street corner, Paper points out that dude there is a toilet at this mini-bar on the sidewalk! I look behind a little curtain next to the mini-bar and there is in fact a toilet there, I mean not connected to any plumbing or anything, just literally a tiny toilet placed on the sidewalk. Did I whiz into this tiny toilet like 20 minutes later? Yes. Did I drink a few too many rum and cokes at this sidewalk mini-bar? Yes. Did I have any idea of what the hell to expect the next day? Hell no.

Night 3 - Let’s try not to die tonight shall we?

I’m skipping to Night 3 because the highlight of Day 2 is just me holding a lemur (by the way lemurs are freakin adorable and they have actual fingers and thumbs!), and realizing that my dad should move to the Thai countryside cuz he is actually genuinely happy there (he greeted random people from a canoe, including a naked fat guy who was in the middle of a soapy bath in the river).

On Night 3 we make another attempt at Havana Social (if there ever is a place with reggaeton and Cuban rum then you’ll probably find me there). The entrance is the #1 coolest that I have seen in my life so far, some dude gives you a code and you punch it into an old phone-booth, this then unlocks an old door next to it which you push open and find a little piece of Havana hidden within Bangkok. So there I am doing my thing downing Cuba Libres, dancing, and laughing at tourists dancing like idiots when I notice three pretty cute chicks dancing near us. I am not the most extroverted dude, but when I hear Latin music the beast is then awakened and I just let it take me places. So I slither over to these girls and pull off some of my signature moves, including one borrowed from my grandpa which I call the Egyptian knife hands. One of the chicks starts dancing with me and my first thought is “wow my dad is watching me spit some legit game, now I AM THE MASTER!” But anyways yeah we dancin and shiet. Suddenly she asks if I wanna go with her and her friends to another club, I thought it was a bad idea but the rum and Daddy Yankee had me saying “yeah screw it let’s go.” The four of us leave the club and somehow fit into a tuk tuk that says VIP on the seat and one of the girls say it’s free! RED FLAG - free shit usually comes with a price later on, and these girls seemed way too excited to have me along. One of the girls pulls out a wrapper with a bunch of pills and puts one in my mouth, my first thought is oh fuck I’m about to get roofied, or flooried, dammit Zack Galifianakis! I pretend to swallow the pill, then I look over into the street and spit this shit out. The girl is like are you feeling okay? I’m like yeah I’m great (meanwhile internally trying to think of an escape plan without freaking out)! We get to this club called Mixx, and this party is poppin. Every tourist is dancing with a local, and I’m thinking wow is every girl at a club in Bangkok an escort… like every single damn one?! My phone only has internet if there is wifi, and I tell the girl that I wanna call my friends to come but I need the wifi password so she hooked me up with her hotspot. Instead of figuring out how to use the wifi to escape, I’m in the bathroom FB messaging my friends back in the states how I almost got roofied and that I’m probably gonna die cuz I mean that is a brilliant idea right? I go back out there and one of the girls goes “if you wanna hang out with me it’s gonna be 3000 baht (like almost $100 USD).” Since I don’t wanna die I go “okay sounds good, let’s hang out every day this week okay?” Her eyes brighten up and she has a huge smile on her face, she tells her friend who then makes a face like “we did it bitch!” I’m thinking okay thank god I’m not gonna wake up tomorrow in a tub full of ice with my internal organs missing because they wanna take all my money throughout the week. Suddenly the Thai DJ starts playing the cumbia song “Colegiala”, and it was at this exact moment that I knew that everything would be okay! I stopped freaking out and danced the night away, didn’t sleep that night, and somehow found a really nice cab driver to take me back to my hotel afterwards (he charged me 300 baht but had no change so I just gave him my 1000 baht bill, really nice guy and really grateful). Yep definitely not doing that again, from now on I will assume every chick at a club in Bangkok is an escort. If you are asking yourself if I hit up that girl again to hang out and continuously pay her $100 USD throughout the week, the answer is dude of course not wtf.

[aion-rsa]

10 Best Fighting Game Movies

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Once upon a time, Bruce Lee, Jim Kelly, and John Saxon visited a crime boss’ private island to compete in a fighting tournament and it was awesome. The 1973 movie Enter the Dragon is basically the prototype for the fighting games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. And when those fighting games became popular, they inspired their own movies that either tried to emulate Enter the Dragon or do something completely new.

The ‘90s gave us the cheesy live-action fighting game movies from Hollywood and the animated movies from Japan. There have been several live-action Mortal Kombat movies as well as a few animated ones. There have also been multiple Street Fighter movies, four attempts at Tekken, a trilogy of Fatal Fury films, and more.

Are most of them bad? Yes. But did we pick our 10 favorite fighting game movies anyway? You bet. Here are our picks:

10. ART OF FIGHTING (1993)

Eh…it’s harmless.

The Art of Fighting series is mostly defined by the twist that the first game’s final boss is the main character’s father and the second game’s final boss is a younger incarnation of the villain from Fatal Fury. Take away those aspects and you’re left with a rather lowkey storyline for a fighting game where a teenage girl is kidnapped by a mobster and is rescued by her brother and her boyfriend.

Wait, I said that weird. It’s two different people, I swear! Except in Capcom, where Dan Hibiki is literally both of them merged into one character.

In the 45-minute Art of Fighting movie about Ryo and Robert, who are like chiller and dopier versions of Ryu and Ken, we watch as the duo gets sucked into a plot about stolen diamonds, martial arts criminals, and angry police lieutenants. It doesn’t take itself seriously and it’s a fine, breezy watch.

Ryo’s incorrect hair color kind of irks me, though.

9. STREET FIGHTER ALPHA: THE ANIMATION (1999)

This movie suffers from the same problem as Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture. It features a cast of heroes from a fighting game taking on a villain created for the movie instead of the villains we actually give a shit about. But the movie does also have some brief but awesome cameos (Kim Kaphwan and Geese Howard from Fatal Fury and Dan Hibiki and Akuma from Street Fighter Alpha) to brighten up a less-than-stellar plot.

Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation does at least get by because the original characters play up Ryu’s whole fear about being overcome by “the Dark Hadou.” This leads to some cool animations where Evil Ryu looks like a mindless, shambling zombie but also an unstoppable fighting machine.

The movie’s main storyline is about a kid named Shun who claims that he’s Ryu’s long-lost brother. He too is a fighter cursed with an inner dark side, which is used as a red herring to suggest that Shun’s father (and presumably Ryu’s father) is actually Akuma. That ends up being bupkis and Shun is just linked to some scheme by a mad scientist or whatever.

Probably the funniest thing about this movie is the directors’ infatuation with Chun-Li’s midsection. She’s wearing her form-fitting Street Fighter Alpha costume and there are dozens upon dozens of random close-ups to her lower torso from the front and back. If this were a drinking game, it would kill you.

8. FATAL FURY 2: THE NEW BATTLE (1993)

Of the Fatal Fury movie trilogy, this one is easily the best, even if it makes all the good guys seem like a bunch of overly-serious crybabies. The basic story is that after having avenged his father’s death, Terry hits rock bottom, dusts himself off, and comes out the other end stronger. Good, good. Going Rocky III is the perfect direction for a follow-up.

The problem is that Terry comes off as a bit of a whiner and the other heroes try way too hard to vilify the movie’s main antagonist, who hasn’t actually done anything that terrible. Krauser shows up one day, challenges Terry to a fight, wins, and says, “Okay, when you get better, train and fight me again.” Krauser isn’t trying to take over the world or murder orphans or whatever. He’s just a dude with huge shoulder armor who wants a good fight.

But everyone acts like Krauser’s the absolute worst. Terry starts drinking and falls to pieces while his buddies hope to get revenge. What a bunch of jerks.

While a fun romp, the worst thing about this sequel is how they redesigned Krauser. Gone is his mustache and forehead scar for the sake of making him seem younger. Kind of a bullshit move, considering he’s supposed to be the half-brother to middle-aged Geese Howard.

7. TEKKEN: THE MOTION PICTURE (1998)

This hour-long anime is almost great but just can’t stick the landing. It runs into the same problem as Mortal Kombat: Annihilation where the game series tells a specific overall story but the movie cuts corners to tell the same story. Tekken: The Motion Picture covers the first Tekken while setting up Tekken 3 and skipping Tekken 2 completely.

It means that everything’s well and good until the confusing and rushed finale. Otherwise, the movie is a fine use of the Enter the Dragon formula. Heihachi Mishima has a special island fighting tournament and the entrants include his vengeful son, a couple of cops investigating the situation, a gigantic robot, an angry Native American girl, two feuding assassin sisters, and a bunch of awesome characters who only get about three full frames of appearances each. Really would have liked to see something from Paul, King, and Yoshimitsu, though.

Other than Kazuya being pissed at everything, the best scenes are the over-the-top ones. When Jack does crazy robot stuff, when dinosaurs show up and start eating people, and that memorable sequence where Heihachi catches a hatchet with his mouth and then shatters it with his jaw.

6. STREET FIGHTER (1994)

I know this movie is just a GI Joe script with Street Fighter names pasted over it. I know it’s a cheesefest of dopey ideas and Belgian accents. I’ve long accepted that. Thing is, the movie is still a total blast to watch. What it lacks in faithfulness to the source material, it makes up for with pure camp and ham.

The 16 characters from Super Street Fighter II are represented here, except Fei Long is replaced with the forgettable Captain Sawada. How ironic that the movie star character isn’t even in the movie!

In general, the movie features some head-scratching depictions of classic Street Fighter characters. All-American Guile is played by Jean Claude Van Damme, Charlie Nash and Blanka are the same character, Dee Jay is an evil hacker, Ryu and Ken are comedic conmen, and Dhalsim is a frumpy scientist.

It’s Raul Julia’s M. Bison who keeps this guilty pleasure afloat. He’s to Street Fighter what Frank Langella’s Skeletor was to Masters of the Universe. He gives 110% and his performance is easily the best reason to watch this movie. It’s truly a wonder to behold.

Read more

Games

The Forgotten Fighting Games of the 1990s

By Gavin Jasper

Games

King of Fighters: Ranking All the Characters

By Gavin Jasper

The movie is infamous for inspiring a fighting game based on it, but you know what nobody ever talks about? The Double Dragon movie also had a fighting game based on it made by Technos and released on the Neo Geo. And Double Dragon wasn’t even a one-on-one fighter to begin with!

Anyway, if you intend to sit back and watch Street Fighter, make sure to add in the RiffTrax commentary.

5. DOA: DEAD OR ALIVE (2006)

Enter the Dragon meets Charlie’s Angels is a heck of a concept, but DOA: Dead or Alive is so confidently tongue-in-cheek that it succeeds as an action comedy that’s way better than it has any right to be. Part of why it works is that Dead or Alive has never had much of an overarching storyline, but is more defined by the individual characters (plus, you know, all the cheesecake). Enough of those characters appear in what’s your regular “fighting tournament on a mysterious island” setup.

The whole thing moves with such energy that it’s easy to get sucked in. It’s the opposite of the live-action Tekken movie, where even though the film features accurate versions of all the characters, everything is so drab and lifeless that you just can’t wait for it to be over. In DOA, the combatants spend their downtime playing cartoony action volleyball with Fake Dennis Rodman on commentary, while in Tekken everyone mopes about dystopian capitalism.

Other than Helena’s character being “important dead guy’s daughter,” most of the main characters are charismatic enough to keep your attention during the 3% of the movie when fights aren’t happening. It must suck for Ninja Gaiden fans that Hayabusa is depicted as a total dweeb, but he at least gets to do some cool stuff here and there.

The movie also has Kevin Nash playing a character based on Hollywood Hogan and he’s so likeable that I’m genuinely bummed that he peaces out about halfway into the movie. Luckily, the movie is entertaining enough that I didn’t even notice until after it was over. It helps that during that time, we get more of Eric Roberts, his amazing hair, and his special sunglasses that turn him into the ultimate martial arts master.

Spoiler alert, but the secret to defeating him is, get this, removing his sunglasses!

4. MORTAL KOMBAT LEGENDS: SCORPION’S REVENGE (2020)

It took a while, but Warner Bros. Animation is on fire these days. After that Batman vs. TMNT movie and Teen Titans Go vs. Teen Titans, the studio appears to be hitting more than they miss. That’s exactly the kind of team needed to put together the latest animated Mortal Kombat movie.

This is the umpteenth retelling of the first game’s story. Not only does it have to compete with the first live-action movie, but also the events of Mortal Kombat 9, which depicts the tournament in cutscene format. Fortunately, Scorpion’s Revenge has a few tricks up its sleeve. First, it puts Scorpion in the forefront as the protagonist. He was barely a character in the original movie and the game just had him kill Sub-Zero and feel bad about it for the rest of the story mode. Now he feels like a character in a crossover, making a mark on the original story instead of being put in the sidelines.

We also have the wonderful stunt casting of Joel McHale as Johnny Cage. More importantly, Jennifer Carpenter plays Sonya Blade, which is such a step up from Ronda Rousey’s voice acting in Mortal Kombat 11.

This cartoon has a very hard R when it comes to violence. From the very beginning, Scorpion’s origins are gruesome and grisly. Once Jax is introduced, it doesn’t take long until we realize, “Oh, that’s how they’re dealing with THAT plot point in this continuity.” Then there’s a surprise villain death late in the movie that not only comes as a shocking development, but it’s so graphic and nasty that you can’t help but be taken aback.

Scorpion’s Revenge is a fantastic first chapter of what is hopefully a series of animated movies, but it does have its pacing issues. Scorpion being the protagonist may be a welcome change, but at times it does feel like a square peg being crammed into a round hole.

3. TEKKEN: BLOOD VENGEANCE (2011)

One of the best things about the Tekken series is the endings. While the cutscenes from the first couple games haven’t exactly aged well, these CGI epilogues have become a staple in nearly every installment. What better reward for your time and success than watching a rocking action sequence with Yoshimitsu and Bryan Fury killing each other in the jungle?

And so, to play to the series’ strengths, Bandai Entertainment released a Tekken movie that’s really just one big ending cutscene. It’s not canon, but it feels at home with the games.

Since Tekken’s main conflict is with two ruthless megalomaniacs (Heihachi and Kazuya) and a disgruntled nihilist (Jin), it’s hard to treat any of them as a real protagonist here. Instead, they go with Ling Xiaoyu, who is portrayed as the person who sees the good in Jin and wants him to see the light. She’s given a robotic BFF in Alisa Bosconovitch because Xiaoyu is kind of a tame character and needs someone with chainsaw arms and a jetpack to liven things up.

The first hour or so is good enough to keep your attention and its lightened up by a couple appearances by Tekken’s best character, Lee. But once it gets to the third act, it just becomes a completely awesome Heihachi vs. Kazuya vs. Jin fight, with Xiaoyu taking a backseat to watch all the crazy shit going on. It’s a full-on fireworks factory, as we not only see Devil forms of Kazuya and Jin but a very special final form for Heihachi that’s a true delight for Tekken fans.

2. STREET FIGHTER II: THE ANIMATED MOVIE (1994)

Let it be said that for someone who grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, finding a faithful cartoon adaptation of a video game property was not easy. Link and Simon Belmont were unlikable sexual harassers. Mega Man was a more annoying sidekick than Scrappy Doo. Mario and Luigi teamed up with Milli Vanilli. Power Team was…a thing. When we got an animated movie based on Street Fighter II, it was mind-blowing. This was a movie where the very first scene was Ryu tearing Sagat’s chest into a bloody gash thanks to a well-animated Shoryuken.

There’s a lot going on in this movie, but at the same time, nothing is going on. By this point, there were 17 characters in the various Street Fighter II games, and outside of a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Akuma cameo, it feels the need to include every single one of them. Some get minor roles, like Cammy and Dee Jay. Then there’s Zangief and Blanka, who fight each other for no reason other than for the sake of giving them something to do. Even Ryu vanishes for a huge chunk of the runtime.

Once everything funnels into the third act, this movie is great. And the earlier fight scenes are straight fire too, including the memorable Chun-Li vs. Vega brawl. Even though the movie already feels true to Street Fighter II, it’s even better when you realize that it’s all supposed to be a prequel to the game itself.

Or at least I hope so. Otherwise, all Sagat gets to do is get his ass kicked by Ryu and get chewed out by Bison.

1. MORTAL KOMBAT (1995)

The stars truly aligned for this one. Mortal Kombat Mania was at its peak, so it makes sense that this movie was a retelling of the first game’s story with added aspects from the second game, all while hyping up the arcade release of the third game. CGI was such a novelty in Hollywood in the ’90s that even if it looked primitive, it still looked cutting edge at the time. It was the perfect time to release this movie.

But Mortal Kombat isn’t perfect. Reptile is embarrassing. Scorpion and Sub-Zero being relegated to goons still stings. I still roll my eyes at the part towards the end where Sonya is suddenly the damsel in distress and Raiden flat-out verbally buries her by saying she couldn’t beat Shang Tsung in a million years. Otherwise, it’s the perfect storm of ‘90s action garbage.

There are so many over-the-top and charismatic performances here. Johnny Cage, Raiden, Shang Tsung, Kano, and even Goro are a blast to watch. All 10 characters from the original game are given something to do and, most importantly, they realize how uniquely weird the game’s story is and actually dive headfirst into it. The movie isn’t embarrassed to be a Mortal Kombat movie but handles itself well enough that we aren’t embarrassed to be watching a Mortal Kombat movie.

Even with a PG-13 rating, the movie was violent enough. Kano talked up seeing a pile of frozen guts in the wake of a Sub-Zero fight, Scorpion got his skull sliced apart with demon brain goo spewing all over the place, and Shang Tsung got impaled to death.

With the reboot being rated R, going for the gore could very well be the right route to go, but for the love of the Elder Gods, don’t forget to have FUN. All I’m saying is, if even Johnny Cage isn’t hamming it up, then what’s the point?

The post 10 Best Fighting Game Movies appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2Qf5EPa

[fun-sized-owl]

Tagged by: @seboostianillustrations (thanks lovely!) 

I tag - @clvsterfvcks @makaruba @tindomendur anyone else who wants to!

favourite game from the last 5 years? ‒ I would love to say DA:I, but honestly I’m going to say The Witcher. I honestly can’t find a single fault in the Witcher 3 OTHER than Roach being a nong of a horse sometimes, but other than that, it’s fucking gorgeous, amazing, I love the story and the graphics are so damn pretty. I had SUCH  good time playing it, and I miss playing it, haha. 

most nostalgic game? ‒ Omg, so many old nintendo and SNES games, tbh. A lot of old PC games as well that me and my siblings would play. Things like Mortal Kombat, Croc, Snake Rattle N Roll, Life Force, Donkey Kong, Alien Vs Predator, The Lion King. LOTS of old school 90′s games. 

game that deserves a sequel? ‒ Most of my fave games already have sequels or are a part of a series... I’m just being impatient for them XD

game that deserves a remaster? ‒ Dante’s Inferno. FUCK I WOULD LOVE to play that game again, but EA went and kicked Visceral Games out and that makes me salty as fuck since they were amazing. -_- Also Dragon Age Origins is in desperate need of a remaster.

favourite game series?  ‒ The Dragon Age games, The Mass Effect games, Dead Space series, Gears of War, any Aliens game tbh, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Half Life, Tomb Raider (the newer series), and I’m excited to see where Red Dead Redemption goes :D

favourite genre?  ‒ RPG and survival horror. 

least favourite genre?  ‒ Mmm, probably deck building games. 

favourite song from a game? ‒  Oh god so many, lol. I’m probably going to say Dark Solas theme from Trespasser though, because it gives me SO many feels. Also the main title for Ori and the Blind Forest because UGH FEELS!!!

favourite character from a game? ‒ I honestly have way too many... I mean mostly it’s protag characters in all my favourite games, especially if it’s a CC option protag.

favourite ship from a game? ‒ M!Adaar x Bull, Any Quizzy with Dorian, Cass x any Quizzy, Shakarian from M.E, Gil and Ryder from M.E, a lot of others, hahaha.

favourite voice actor from a game?  ‒ Probably going to say Marcus Fenix from Gears of War (John DiMaggio) because his voice is SO DAMN distinctive, and he really is the story for me. I love the side characters, but damnit that voice is what makes Gears for me. XD But I also enjoy Gideon Emery (Fenris/Samson)

favourite cutscene?  ‒ When Solas first takes you to Skyhold and it goes through the mountain scene. I will never forget that experience for me, and it was when Kaaras (My Inquisitor) finally broke away from me just playing some dude and became his own character. That scene for me is something really special, also the score in it is just so damn beautiful and motivational. I frigging LOVE it. Also when you just defeat Corypheus and walk back up the stairs in Skyhold where the advisers bow to you. It’s so hopefilled and really moves me. That kinda happy ending shit is my scene, okay. I LOVE it. 

favourite boss?  ‒ Zobek from Castlevania. I think he was a really well written character, and a BITCH to fight in the end. Also Satan from Dante’s Inferno. Ugh I LOVE that game so much, and Satan was amazing in it. Also I really love that they didn’t shy away from giving him a huge floppy dick in game when you fight him, it’s great! Go see it if you haven’t watched it. XDDD They were both just really great written characters.

first console?  ‒ Nintendo ;’D I am OLD

current console or consoles? ‒ I am a PC person, but I have an Xbox One and PS4. I still also have my old Xbox 360, PS2, SNES and gameboy colour >.> 

console you want?  ‒ I honestly just want a better graphics card for my PC since games are becoming so demanding on them, lol. I prefer to play on PC and just use my controller if I require it in a game. 

place from a game that you’d like to visit?  ‒ Thedas, Skyrim or The Continent (The Witcher world). 

place from a game that you’d like to live in?  ‒ The above. I’m pretty sure I was meant to be born in the medieval times, okay.

ridiculous crossover that would never happen but would be super fun?  ‒ Sign me up for anything, but I would love to see Dragon Age and Mass Effect cross paths! I’d also like to see Dragon Age and The Witcher. A lot of medieval ones I could see mixing and making sense. :) 

book that would make a good game?  ‒ Ah man, any of the Alien books that I’ve read. But other than that, probably very little, hahaha. 

show/movie that would make a good game?  ‒ I would have a crack at any so long as I am a fan of the movie, lol. But horror movies would probably be best adapted. Or Fantasy worlds. 

games you want to play?  ‒ Detroit Become Human (I’m planning to get it this weekend), the next Tomb Raider, Red Dead 2, Ori and the Blind Forest 2, Gears of War 5, basically all ones I need to wait for until they are released, lol.

have you gotten 100% completion in a game?  ‒ Definitely, lol. Most of them are older games where they weren’t all secrets hidden, though. 

have you cried over a game? ‒ No, but I have definitely felt emotional. I think Ori and the Blind Forest did a great job at making me want to bawl my eyes out rofl. 

what power-up or ability would you want in real life? To either shape shift or fly. I LOVE games that give you wings!

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

FANTASIA FILM FEST Announces Second Wave of Programming

One of Canada’s favourite genre film festivals is back, and they’ve announced even more exciting new films coming to the 22nd annual Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal on July 12th-August 1st.

The second wave of films, which Fantasia announced via press release (check it out in full below) is chock-full of premieres, awards, exciting new talent, and genre legends. The full lineup of 130+ films won’t be announced until June 28th, but there’s plenty here to whet our appetites until then.

Fantasia 2018’s opening night film will be the North American Premiere of Dans La Brume (“Just a Breath Away”), co-production between France and Canada, directed by Quebecois filmmaker Daniel Roby (Louis Cyr, White Skin) in a welcome nod to Fantasia’s Quebecois roots. A disaster thriller about a mysterious toxic gas and a Parisian family that tries to escape it, Dans La Brume looks like a tense, nervy start to the fest.

On the premiere front, several films will have their official debut at Fantasia: the world premieres of The Man Who Killed Hitler And Then The Bigfoot, directed by Robert D. Krzykowski in his feature debut and starring Sam Elliott, as well as another fantastically-named film: Louder! I Can’t Hear What You’re Singin’, Wimp!, a musical action comedy from festival fave Miki Satoshi (Adrift in Tokyo, Instanto Numa). Fans of the brutal Korean horror I Saw the Devil will also be pleased to note that its writer, Park Hoon-jung, will be premiering his latest film at the fest, a bloody sci-fi about telekinesis: The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion.

Finally, in news so exciting it deserves its own paragraph, the festival will present the world premiere of Tales From the Hood 2. The sequel to the beloved cult classic anthology Tales From the Hood, original Executive Producer Spike Lee and writers/directors/producers Rusty Cundieff and Darin Scott will return for another series of anthology shorts exploring social topics in funny, clever, creepy ways. Considering how films like Get Out have brought socially-aware horror to the forefront of the genre these days, it seems like an especially apt time to make another Tales From the Hood.

Check out the full press release below, which contains more news on Fantasia’s debut Action! Achievement Award as well as more films in its Action! programming block, some indie anime, a bonkers-looking true crime doc, and the Canadian premiere of La Quinceañera, the new web series from the queen of Tex-Mex horror, Gigi Saul Guerrero. We can’t wait for the full lineup of films on June 28th – stay tuned!

  FANTASIA 2018 TO OPEN WITH DANIEL ROBY’S DANS LA BRUME AND WORLD PREMIERE OF RUSTY CUNDIEFF AND DARIN SCOTT’S TALES FROM THE HOOD 2

World Premieres of John Sayles-produced THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT and Satoshi Miki’s LOUDER! CAN’T HEAR WHAT YOU’RE SINGIN’, WIMP!, bold new works from Sonny Mallhi and Dennison Ramalho, and a special Action! Achievement Award for Cynthia Rothrock are among the Montreal genre festival’s spectacular Second Wave announcements

Montreal, Quebec – June 14, 2018 – The Fantasia International Film Festival will be celebrating its 22nd Anniversary in Montreal this summer, taking place from July 12 – August 1, with its Frontières International Co-Production Market being held July 19 – 22. The full lineup of over 130 feature films will be announced on June 28. In the meantime, the festival is excited to reveal a selected Second Wave of titles and events.

TRIPPING THE FOG FANTASTIQUE: DANIEL ROBY’S DANS LA BRUME IS FANTASIA 2018’S OFFICIAL OPENING NIGHT FILM

Fantasia is proud to announce that the festival’s 22nd edition will open with the North American Premiere of DANS LA BRUME (“Just a Breath Away”), a large-scale genre co-production between France and Canada, directed by celebrated Quebec filmmaker Daniel Roby (LOUIS CYR, WHITE SKIN), starring Romain Duris (MOOD INDIGO), Olga Kurylenko (QUANTUM OF SOLACE), and Fantine Harduin (HAPPY END). Paris is hit by an earthquake, then filled with a mysterious toxic gas that seems to come from below ground. A family attempts to survive the massive catastrophe, but first… they will have to face the fog.

YOU’LL BE KNEE-DEEP IN THE WORLD PREMIERE OF RUSTY CUNDIEFF AND DARIN SCOTT’S TALES FROM THE HOOD 2

Fantasia is proud to present the highly-anticipated world premiere of Universal 1440 Entertainment’s TALES FROM THE HOOD 2. The sequel to the groundbreaking original film TALES FROM THE HOOD reunites Executive Producer Spike Lee and writers/directors/producers Rusty Cundieff and Darin Scott for an all-new gripping,  horrifying, and oftentimes devilishly comical anthology. This next installment will keep viewers on the edge of their seats, as they course through several stories that explore socially relevant topics from the past and present.

WORLD PREMIERIN’ SATOSHI MIKI’S LOUDER! CAN’T HEAR WHAT YOU’RE SINGIN’, WIMP!

After a five-year hiatus from feature-filmmaking following 2013’s IT’S ME, IT’S ME, Fantasia favorite Satoshi Miki is back with LOUDER! CAN’T HEAR WHAT YOU’RE SINGIN’, WIMP! An explosive musical comedy with energy to spare, Miki’s usually quirky, offbeat characters, extravagant hairdos and vintage costumes are back, colliding here with a renewed sense of energy and chaos, as the charismatic Sin (THE APOLOGY KING’S Sadao Abe), a rock musician with an superhuman, steroid-enhanced voice, meets the shy Fuka (AKEGARASU’S Riho Yoshioka), a gifted busker with a whisper quiet style. With an eclectic soundtrack oscillating from J-pop to metal to clerical music, with contributions from TOO YOUNG TO DIE!’s Kankuro Kudo, Hyde from L’Arc~en~Ciel, and comedian Abe himself, this is the rock ‘n’ roll feel-good-movie for the ages!

SAM ELLIOTT IS THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT (World Premiere)

Sam Elliott stars as a legendary World War II veteran who many years ago assassinated Adolf Hitler – an incredible secret that he’s frustratingly unable to share with the world. One day, just as he’s coming to terms with rounding out his life, Calvin gets a visit from the FBI and RCMP. They need him to take out Bigfoot. A wondrous feature debut from writer/director Robert D. Krzykowski, featuring visual effects by celebrated two-time Academy Award Winner Douglas Trumbull (2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, BLADE RUNNER), who also co-produced alongside the great John Sayles and Lucky McKee. A fantastical discourse on the melancholia of old age and a singular blast of entertaining wit, THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT (World Premiere) also stars Aidan Turner, Caitlin FitzGerald, and Ron Livingston.

PREPARE TO BE SPELLBOUND BY THE INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE OF THE BLOODY ACTION-FANTASY THE WITCH: PART 1. THE SUBVERSION

A nefarious agency has been genetically engineering children. One of the telekinetic kids escapes and goes into hiding with an adopted family. Ten years later, she appears on a talent show, where she’s spotted by the bad guys and  becomes prey for both her peers and a hit squad. Writer/Director Park Hoon-jung, who wrote the savage I SAW THE DEVIL, is back with THE WITCH: PART 1. THE SUBVERSION. Nothing will prepare you for the fusion of over-the-top sci-fi thrills, surprising twists and a climactic bloodbath that will leave you gasping. After THE VILLAINESS, South Korea has a new girl in town (Kim Da-mi) to kick butts and give action fans what they always dreamed of.

FANTASIA’S DEBUT ACTION! ACHIEVEMENT AWARD GOES TO THE LEGENDARY CYNTHIA ROTHROCK

Fantasia will bestow its first-ever Action! Achievement Award upon U.S. athlete and action legend Cynthia Rothrock, an unstoppable action starlet who inspired a generation of martial artists and kicked open doors for women in the male-dominated action industry. Her skills, courage, and determination – along with black belts in seven separate martial arts – paved the way for today’s action starlets such as Charlize Theron, Gina Carano, and Milla Jovovich.

Rothrock – or Law Fu Lok, as she was known to millions of Hong Kong cinephiles – was a five-time World Champion before becoming the first western actor to headline a Hong Kong action film with 1989’s THE BLONDE FURY. A member of Black Belt Magazine’s Hall of Fame and the inspiration for the Mortal Kombat character Sonya Blade, Rothrock would go on to star in over thirty martial arts films and inspire a generation. Fantasia is deeply honored to bestow their debut Action! Achievement Award to the amazing Cynthia Rothrock, a true pioneer in the worlds of martial arts and action cinema.

LOOK NO FURTHER THAN FANTASIA FOR THE CANADIAN PREMIERE OF SEARCHING

Fantasia is proud to be showcasing the Canadian Premiere of Aneesh Chaganty’s Sundance smash SEARCHING, produced by Timur Bekmambetov (working with Sev Ohanian, Natalie Qasabian, and Adam Sidman) in his innovative “screenlife” storytelling approach that brilliantly captures the way we engage online. After David Kim (John Cho)’s sixteen-year-old daughter goes missing, a local investigation is opened and a detective is assigned to the case. But 37 hours later and without a single lead, David decides to search the one place no one has looked yet, where all secrets are kept today: his daughter’s laptop. In a hyper-modern thriller told via the technology devices we use every day to communicate, David must trace his daughter’s digital footprints before she disappears forever.

    DENNISON RAMALHO’S SPECTRAL MORGUE UNLEASHES AN EVIL AMONG THE LIVING (World Premiere)

Brazilian Writer/Director Dennison Ramalho instantly captured the hearts and nightmares of legions with his brilliant shorts LOVE FROM MOTHER ONLY (2003) and NINJAS (2011), in addition to scripting José Mojica Marins’ celebrated Coffin Joe comeback EMBODIMENT OF EVIL (2008). His entry in ABCS OF DEATH 2 (2014) further cemented the filmmaker as a hellishly original talent to watch in world horror cinema. Fantasia will proudly be bringing Brazil’s subterranean maestro of the macabre back to Montreal for the World Premiere of his long-awaited feature debut, AMONG THE LIVING, a film brimming with grotesque imagination and otherworldly magick in which a morgue attendant working the night shift in a very large, very violent city possesses an occult ability to communicate with cadavers. He commits the sin of acting on information obtained from the dead and horrifically curses himself and those that he loves. Brace yourself.

YOUR BIRTHDAY WILL BE YOUR LAST DAY IN THE WITTY COMEDY-FANTASY I HAVE A DATE WITH SPRING

Multiple award-winning director Baek Seung-bin brings us to doomsday with a smile in the omnibus styled intimist South Korean apocalyptic dramedy I HAVE A DATE WITH SPRING (North American Premiere). Different characters, all with unique personalities, celebrate their birthday the day before the end of the world, meeting bizarre individuals in surreal circumstances in this truly unique gem of a film that debuted at 2018’s International Film Festival Rotterdam.

    SONNY MALLHI TEAMS UP WITH BLUMHOUSE TO BRING YOU A SPECIAL KIND OF HURT (World Premiere)

The world first discovered Sonny Mallhi’s poignant style of character-driven horror storytelling with 2015’s ANGUISH (a Fantasia World Premiere). Earlier this year, his second feature, the vampiric drug addiction chiller FAMILY BLOOD debuted on Netlfix. And now, Sonny Mallhi has teamed with Blumhouse for his third feature, HURT, in which the collective psychosis of American culture is an inescapable horror film and a waking nightmare. Its story honors masked mascots of fear such as Jason, Freddy, and Michael…. but explores those who helplessly wear a mask of normalcy while desperately fighting the traumatic monsters within.

GET HAZED TO HELL AT THE WORLD PREMIERE OF PLEDGE

It’s not getting into an exclusive fraternity that three geeky college freshmen need to worry about, it’s getting out – alive! Boasting amazingly well-rounded characters, endearing performances, a wicked streak of black humour, and a desperate situation that erupts into sickening violence, in many ways Daniel Robbins’ PLEDGE (World Premiere) is an intense, acceptance-themed companion film to Jeremy Saulnier’s similarly gasp-inducing GREEN ROOM. Rats, torture, knife fights, and vodka shots – who’s ready to pledge?

    WRITER/DIRECTOR LEE CHANG-HEE WILL LEAVE YOU BREATHLESS WITH THE VANISHED (North American Premiere)

In this clockwork thriller, nothing is what it seems – not even a corpse. THE VANISHED (North American Premiere) is a piece of classic cinematic construction right out of the Golden Age of Hollywood, polished to a sleek modern sheen, South Korean-style. Without an ounce of padding, this is modern suspense in gothic drag, full of old school brio, dolly zooms, a ticking clock, entitled murderers, and vengeful ghosts.

CAMERA LUCIDA UNVEILS TWO INTERNATIONAL PREMIERES: TADASHI NAGAYAMA’S BEING NATURAL AND AARON SCHIMBERG’S CHAINED FOR LIFE!

The Camera Lucida section, dedicated to experimental, boundary-pushing and auteur-driven works on the borders of genre cinema, unveils two major International premieres!

Taka (SAUDADE’s Yota Kawase) is a bong-playing, turtle-loving saint. When a hypocritical couple from Tokyo moves into town, intent on opening a health-conscious, eco-friendly coffee shop at all costs, the man’s peaceful existence is shattered to pieces. Tadashi Nagayama’s second feature, BEING NATURAL, is a total revelation; a surprising and eccentric satirical rural comedy, with a dash of the absurd and the supernatural! A unique introduction to one of Japanese cinema’s most promising new auteurs!

The beautiful Mabel (TEETH’s Jess Weixler) admits to being pushed outside of her comfort zone on the set of a foreign auteur’s shlocky English-language horror film debut. Playing the role of a blind woman, she soon meets her disabled co-star Rosenthal (UNDER THE SKIN and DRIB’s Adam Pearson) and soon, the boundaries between fiction, reality, exploitation, and fair representation become blurry. GO DOWN DEATH’s Aaron Schimberg returns to Fantasia with CHAINED FOR LIFE, a reflexive and surreal black comedy about life on set – casting a critical eye on cinematic representations of disability and difference, from ELEPHANT MAN to FREAKS and beyond.

The full Camera Lucida lineup will be unveiled on June 26.

FANTASIA 2018’S ACTION! SECTION UNVEILS BUYBUST, CHUCK STEEL: NIGHT OF THE TRAMPIRES, AND LÔI BÁO

Dedicated to discovering the world’s best undiscovered action films, Fantasia’s Action! Section, now in its seventh year, is proud to announce three new titles and one incredible retrospective film. Following the section becoming competitive in 2017, Action! is now proud to introduce its debut Action! Achievement Award, which will be bestowed on U.S. martial arts legend Cynthia Rothrock. For the occasion, Fantasia will present a 35mm print of the 1989 Hong Kong classic THE BLONDE FURY with star Rothrock in attendance.=

Four years after seducing Fantasia audiences with his short film RAGING BALLS OF STEEL JUSTICE, Michael Mort will return to the festival with his animated feature debut, CHUCK STEEL: NIGHT OF THE TRAMPIRES (North American Premiere), hot off its World Premiere at Annecy. Chuck Steel is a maverick, renegade, loose cannon, lone wolf, cop-on-the-edge who doesn’t play by the rules. He’s the best goddamn man on the force and, once again, Los Angeles needs him to save the city from an army of Trampires – a mutated hybrid of vampire and hobo.

With LÔI BÁO (North American Premiere), Vietnam has officially jumped on the wave of superhero movies in a very big way. Without a single cape or hero clad in spandex, Victor Vu’s clever interpretation of what it means to be a superhero brings a wildly unique vision to the genre, as a man on the receiving end of a head transplant finds himself suddenly granted a seemingly endless supply of superhuman abilities. With LÔI BÁO, Vietnam has created a world of very unlikely superheroes – and villains – like no other.

Five years after the impressive ON THE JOB, director Erik Matti returns to Fantasia with the Canadian Premiere of BUYBUST, one of the most action-packed movies ever to come out of the Philippines. Here he writes, produces, and directs a truly one-of-a-kind actioner about a rookie female cop who finds herself in hot water with an anti-narcotics squad. Starring Filipino superstar Anne Curtis, over 1200 extras, and featuring an unbelievable 300 stuntmen and women, BUYBUST is packed with spectacular gunplay, nonstop hand-to-hand combat, and a nearly-uncountable number of people being stabbed in the face.

As of 2017, all titles selected in the Action! Section are eligible for Fantasia’s Best Action Film Award, awarded by a jury composed of Quebec director Alain Desrochers (BON COP BAD COP 2), actor/stuntman Alain Moussi (KICKBOXER: VENGEANCE), and filmmaking duo Sebastien Landry and Laurence Morais-Lagace (GAME OF DEATH).  

MAJOR ANIME PREMIERES ARAGNE: SIGN OF VERMILLION AND PENGUIN HIGHWAY OFFER THE SINISTER, SENTIMENTAL, AND SURREAL!

Fantasia’s Axis section is thrilled to announce two more anime titles in its lineup, each a major premiere.

Something sinister is manifesting itself – something at the cursed crossroads of mythology, monstrosity, and medical science – in Saku Sakamoto’s ARAGNE: SIGN OF VERMILLION, a potent new slash of independent, high-standard horror anime from Japan making its World Premiere at Fantasia this summer.

One memorable summer, a precocious schoolboy contends with a crush on an older woman and a strange penguin invasion in the sentimental, surreal science fiction anime PENGUIN HIGHWAY (International Premiere). The first feature from Japanese director Hiroyasu Ishida, creator of the 2009 indie online sensation FUMIKO’S CONFESSION, and his colleagues at Studio Colorido, PENGUIN HIGHWAY is a delight for the mind, eye, and heart.

FANTASIA UNDERGROUND’S INSPIRED 2018 LINEUP REVEALED!

Fantasia’s section dedicated to bold, ultra-independent, outsider works returns with a charming, counter-cultural teen film made by a twenty-year-old girl who cut classes to shoot it, a single-take Japanese zombie oddity, a genuinely shocking and surprising black comedy/crime thriller from Colorado, and a Mexican-Canadian action siege assault that’s likely the bloodiest coming-of-age film ever made.

Described at the latest Berlinale as the “distant cousin of Louis Malle’s ZAZIE DANS LE MÉTRO crossed with the DIY spirit of punk Japanese cinema from the 1980s (Tsukamoto, Sogo Ishii, and co.), one thing’s for sure: twenty-year-old Yoko Yamanaka’s AMIKO (North American Premiere) will instantly charm you with its gleeful irreverence, and its crystalline, sour-sweet candied confection of extreme emotions, forged in the fiery pits of adolescence, and effectively turning the schoolgirl into a counter-culture icon.

Let’s be honest – a low-budget zombie movie shot in one take about a film crew shooting a low-budget zombie movie in one take sounds bad. Add the fact that the indie film crew stumbles across real-life zombies and Shunichiro Ueda’s debut, ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (Canadian Premiere) sounds worse. And you couldn’t be more wrong. This indie marvel isn’t a just zombie movie or even a one-take stunt. Instead, it’s Japan’s smartest comedy of the year: a touching father-daughter story, a tale about the value of perseverance, and a meta puzzlebox that cleverly unpacks itself onscreen, one severed limb at a time. Pick your rotting jaw up off the floor, because this is pure horror-comedy gold in the vein of SHAUN OF THE DEAD.

A neurotic, introverted young military veteran forces himself to go to a party to meet new people and finds himself plunged into a bizarre criminal underworld of sex and blood in Drew Barnhardt’s utterly mad RONDO (World Premiere). An exuberantly seedy, obsessively well-directed gonzo thriller that’s funny in the darkest ways, RONDO’s violent twists and genuinely uncomfortable moments will leave you breathless from gasping, laughing, and screaming – possibly at the same time. Oddly reminiscent of CRIMEWAVE-era John Paizs by way of De Palma, this is a squirm-inducing, one-of-a-kind exploitation oddity that even the most brazen viewers will never be able to unsee.

Award-winning Mexican-Canadian filmmaker Gigi Saul Guerrero bathes the screen with ferocity in her scorching web series LA QUINCEAÑERA (Canadian Premiere), in which a girl’s fifteenth birthday party becomes a demented, blood-fuelled journey of revenge when the cartel shows up to attack her relatives. This ultra-violent homage to the strength of women and the power of family may be the bloodiest coming-of-age tale ever told.

2018 DOCUMENTARIES FROM THE EDGE LINEUP REVEALED!

Fantasia’s showcase of compelling documentary works returns with a trio of docs hailing from Quebec, China, and the USA.

Jailed for comics?! The unbelievable true story of the only U.S. artist convicted of obscenity is explored in the chilling and captivating BOILED ANGELS: THE TRIAL OF MIKE DIANA (International Premiere), directed by the legendary Frank Henenlotter (BASKET CASE, BAD BIOLOGY) and narrated by Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra, neither of whom are strangers to censorship struggles themselves. The obsessively well-researched doc features Neil Gaiman, Stephen Bissette, Peter Bagge, and Diana himself, alongside the case’s investigating officers, prosecution, defense, and even members of the local Florida press who initially reported on the situation. This truly thoughtful account won a well-deserved Audience Award at NYC’s What The Fest!? and should be considered required viewing for anyone remotely interested in confrontational art or stories of overreaching law enforcement.

Marginally-talented internet personalities skyrocket to fame in Hao Wu’s provocative, dystopian documentary PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF DESIRE (Quebec Premiere), where hordes of devoted fans tune in to find comfort in virtual relationships through live streaming. A Grand Jury Prize-winner at SXSW, the film tracks China’s emergent breed of off-the-rails celebrity-making obsession, and the impact of plunging into the virtual to satisfy real human needs. Fantasia’s screening will be a co-presentation with the RIDM.

Shot over a period of three years, Jean-Simon Chartier’s PLAYING HARD (Quebec Premiere) gives us a sprawling behind-the-scenes window into the drama, tension, and compromises behind the creation of a blockbuster Ubisoft video game, and the grueling personal tolls the process can take on its creators, both in terms of fractured relationships and mental anguish. An engrossing film that met with major acclaim at its recent Hot Docs launch.  

The post FANTASIA FILM FEST Announces Second Wave of Programming appeared first on Nightmare on Film Street - Horror Movie Podcast, News and Reviews.

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[jimins-little-world-bts]

Night Shift || pt. 2

Taehyung x Reader

Genre: Fluff, gamer!bangtan, gamer!reader, bestfriend!Jungkook, cotton candy fluff in a fluffy date #fluff

Words: 1.9k

You were a hardworking person, and you were really focus on getting a promotion from your actual job. At the same time, you loved games and played everynight when you’ve got time. One day you met someone online and you thought that it was time to meet new people and stop worrying so much. Would you like him when you meet him face to face?

The big day is today, you were studying your closet for like two hours after you showered and finally giving up wearing a short pink t-shirt with some high waisted jeans with some cuts on the knees and white sneakers. It was hot outside so you decided to hold your hair high in a bun. 

In the meantime, you were thinking about the makeup. Would it be few or a lot? In that moment you wished you had girl friends. But then you decided, nobody knows why, to call Jungkook.

“Kookie, you think that girls are better with a lot of makeup on or not using it?” You asked him trying to not seem desperate. “I can’t believe that V got you like this, you never put on makeup when you’re around me.” He said sighing but before you can refuse to something, he continued. “V doesn’t like girls like the girls i like. Like… you know… bitches.” He said holding a grin. “Are you telling me that if I put on makeup i would look like a bitch? Ok, got it-”

“No, no! put it on but… don’t wear red on the lips and a lot of foundation. He doesn’t like that. I think you look pretty when you have eyeliner and pink lips.” You blushed a little under his confession, you thanked him and cut out the call. It was seven o'clock and you were almost ready to go now, you grab a little bag that contained your lipstick and your wallet and went to the street. 

Taehyung was working a lot today but almost always messed something because he was thinking about the date you two will have. He had his outfit on his bag, perfectly folded and smelling like clothes softener. When the time has come, he went to the bathroom and change before going outside. He was feeling really nervous, he didn’t had a date in months either. The last girl he had dated was unbearable, she never let him choose what he wanted to do, and they always finished fucking in her department. He doesn’t tag himself like a romantic guy either but he loves love, and dates, and cuddles, watch movies and if the girl likes gaming consoles he would be the most happy man ever. So, when he met your voice and the way you altered yourself when you were killed or killed someone in the games, he felt something inside his chest. He didn’t know you personally but he had a thought of you as a “perfect girlfriend.” 

When you reached the left door of the cinema, you were looking for someone with a blue shirt. The only people who was outside in that spot were your coworkers, you saw three girls and the new guy. What was his name again? You couldn’t remembered. Well, tomorrow maybe you’ll ask him. You were standing there laying your back on the wall, watching the building’s clock ticking, when it was eight fifteen, you saw your coworkers leave, but the new guy stayed there, and you saw it.

He was wearing a light-blue shirt. No way, it can’t be him. What was his name? You felt something on your stomach because of your oblivious mind, but you actually remembered that his name doesn’t starts with a V. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but then you saw him approaching to you. “Hi, y/n. Are you going to watch the new movie tonight?” He asked you politely. Where did all this confidence came from? You thought he was always shy. Well not always, you heard him making jokes here and there with his sweet voice but not directly to you, or so you thought. The fact was that you didn’t really knew him because you were always doing something, you just crossed words like “Y/N, is it ok if I put the popcorn on the box like this?” Or “Hi Y/N, how are you today?” To what you’ll answer “good, thanks” and going to your box to sit and turn on your computer.

“Am, hi mhm… no, not actually, I’m waiting for someone.” You answered, still not diverting the view from his light blue shirt and trying to remember his name. “Oh, we’re two then…” he said shyly. That gave you a little push to ask discretely if it was him or not. “Yeah, it’s a guy I met from my games.” You confessed. “Wow, I didn’t see you like a gamer girl. What do you play?” He asked looking to your face with a bright smile, no. He’s not V. 

You were trying to not look at him too much, returning to your searching for a guy with a blue shirt. “Am… you know, the basics, Call of Duty, Mortal Kombat, Overwatch… all of that.” You said. “Oh cool, I play Overwatch too, there’s not much people who plays that game.” He said looking around too, probably searching for his date and continued. “Well, there is, but they’re just littles scums.” He said turning to you again, arching his left brow. In that moment you raised you head to look at him. “V?” You asked with a confused face and a high peach voice, winning a huge smile from him, who started to laugh shyly and nod repeatedly. “Oh my god! It’s you? But, how can it be possible? We’re coworkers! I mean, did you know it was me all the time?” All your shyness were vanished at the moment he nodded you. “No, no. I guessed it right now when you said Overwatch” he said between a slight smile. You couldn’t take it in so you were paralyzed.

“Do you want to leave or…” he told you seeing your confused face. “Of course not! I won’t waste more time that the wasted, but firstly tell me how’s your name, please. And I’m sorry for forgot it.” He laughed and say that it was ok, he knew how hard you worked and he’s never near to you anyways, and his name is Taehyung. Giving you an arm and saying “Do you mind…?” You took him by the arm and started to walk with him to the carnival, talking about the game you always play, your stupid manager and many times about you saying ‘sorry’ because you didn’t remember his name.

You noticed that Taehyung was really charming. Yes, he calls you scum some times but to mess with you. The shirt he was wearing fitted perfectly to his wide shoulders and the neck of it let you the view to a perfect neck with a silver chain with two tigers in it. His hair was brown and a little messy in a cute way, and his perfume was delicious. When you two reached the carnival, stood astonish to the lights and all the games it had. He told you to choose the first one and as a competitive girl you are you chose a shooter. You didn’t want to say it out loud but you noticed he let you win, you’re not that great in the shooters, but well, you won a water gun so you were happy. That water gun was the little thing that made you two started to play while you walked through the games choosing another one, laughing like kids. 

The match was 5:5, although you weren’t counting. You had a big teddy bear he gifted you when won a game, when he suddenly asked you if you liked cotton candy, to what you told him something like 'who doesn’t?!’ And took him by the arm to run to the nearest food truck. You asked for one because he said he doesn’t wanted, and he payed for it. You finished sharing the cotton candy with him, and he told you that he wanted to go to the ferris wheel. You agreed and when you two were up on the highest, started to talk serious for once. 

“I still can’t believe the fact that I didn’t even recognize your voice, like… in work your so shy and talked so sweetly but in game you’re a talker, boy.” You said pushing his arm slightly. “Well, that’s because I’m shy personally, I don’t talk too much. I was shy with you because you’re like my boss, I don’t know… I respect you more than the others.” He said raising his head to look at you in your eyes. You were starting to feel your cheeks turning red but you didn’t want him to notice that so you answered cocking you head. “Yes, because you didn’t wasted time in the room to starting to call me 'scum’ like the guys.” You two started to laugh and you didn’t noticed but he was closer to you than before. “So… are you enjoying our first date?” You blushed instantly, “so there’s gonna be more than one?” You said with your head down. “Only if you want” he answered with a deep voice. You had goosebumps and your heart was beating like crazy. It was amazing how you passed from not knowing someone to thinking that he’s really cute and pretty. You were hypnotized by his eyes, his stare was so penetrating that you felt defenseless but you loved that idea, and his boxed smile got you going all the night, he was beautiful. 

After his statement there was a comfy silence wherein he smiled at you and then diverted his view to the outside of the cubicle you two were in. “We choose a beautiful night to go out, don’t you think?” He said looking to the outside. “Indeed.” You told him, as you starting to look outside too. After a minutes you felt a hand on your hand and you took it after a few seconds, intertwining your fingers to his while you two were admiring the view. He turned to face you, and started to lean closer, you were about to kiss when you felt a small stroke that advertised you that you were already on the ground. Still holding your hand, he separated his face from from yours while guiding you to the outside of the cubicle. 

“Want a burger?” He asked you. To what you said yes. That was an incredible and a horrible idea. He had a big… big mouth. He ate the big burger without any problem, but you had troubles eating it girly style, so you tried to copying him to joke, failing and made you both laugh hard, and you blushed from shyness. 

When your date was over, he take you to your home, you lived near there so you two walked together holding hands, enjoying the moment in silence. When you reached your building, he told you that he had a great time and that he would love to have another date like this one. You agreed and then you kissed him on his cheeks to say goodbye, he stayed standing there until you closed the door, holding his cheek, smiling to the ground. You closed the door and look at him through the peephole, he started to dance like a kid celebrating. You smiled to yourself and started going upstairs with a huge smile. 

Damn, you really liked this boy tonight, you had a feeling that you didn’t felt like this in years. But from now on you will see him on work everyday. You were lucky though because you have a night shift this week, so you won’t feel uncomfortable every time you couldn’t talk with him because of your work, you still needed that promotion. But you wanted to see him everyday now. How will it be your relationship now that you know he’s your coworker?

I enjoyed writing this part a looot hahaha. Let me know if you want a part three, please :3

- Admin Min

[perfectirishgifts]

Box Office: Why The Future Of Movie Theaters Is So Unclear

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Box Office: Why The Future Of Movie Theaters Is So Unclear

Gal Gadot in ‘Wonder Woman 1984’

Until the pandemic ends and studios start releasing theatrical tentpoles under their new individual structures, we have no idea how Universal’s “from theaters to PVOD” or Warner Bros.’ “in theaters and HBO Max” plans will affect movie theaters.

We don’t know how Warner Bros.’ blockbuster announcement concerning their 2021 movie slate will affect the theatrical movie industry. We don’t know how their choice to release not just Wonder Woman 1984 but their entire 2021 theatrical slate into theaters worldwide and (for a month) HBO Max concurrently will impact the industry as it attempts to claw back after nearly a year of Covid-related shutdowns. Dune, The Suicide Squad, Godzilla Vs. Kong and The Matrix 4 will open theatrically worldwide as previously scheduled, with the films getting a 30-day window (in participating territories) on HBO Max concurrent with their first 30 days of domestic release. It would be a readjustment or the end of all things.

To be fair, WB claims that this shift is just for 2021, an admission that even a handful of successful vaccines won’t immediately return the world (and specifically North America) to business as usual until mid-to-late 2021. If nobody signs up for HBO Max as a result of this release strategy, it probably won’t continue past The Matrix 4 over Christmas 2021. Conversely, if tons of folks sign up for HBO Max and watch the “theatrical” movies while ignoring them in theaters nationwide, there’s a good chance that Warner Bros./AT&T T will continue the strategy or lessen their investment in theatrical distribution, especially if HBO Max launches in more overseas markets.

That Chris Nolan’s Tenet did pretty well overseas ($300 million, or about 75% of what might have been expected in better times) yet bombed because it earned maybe 1/3 ($58 million) of what it would have domestically is proof that North America still matters to the overall theatrical landscape. If America didn’t matter, the soft domestic performance wouldn’t have factored into the delays (for No Time to Die, Black Widow, Wonder Woman 1984, etc.) following Tenet’s softer-than-hoped $20.2 million long Labor Day weekend launch. Correlation is not causation, but many of the chess moves (including Disney DIS shifting Mulan and Soul to Disney where available) is about making up for lost/endangered 25%-50% of global grosses represented by domestic theaters.

Is this the end of movie theaters in North America? Is this the declaration that HBO Max wants to compete alongside Disney and Netflix NFLX , and if so, will it result in them sacrificing billions in theatrical revenue for theoretical (and more shareholder-friendly?) streaming success? Is this just about Warner Bros. wanting to get their current product out into the world and trying to find a happy medium in terms of overseas box office and domestic theaters? It’s almost cruel to market films in domestic theaters when many theaters won’t be open (or thought to be safe). Will any of this matter if life returns to normal in 2022? We don’t know because we can’t know.

If this were an otherwise normal theatrical landscape with this singular monkey wrench thrown in, then, yeah, we could make certain guestimates and predictions about how it might pan out and we’d be able to make concrete conclusions from the data. This also applies to Comcast’s CMCSA recent deal with AMC and Cinemark (thus far) to allow their films to go from theaters to PVOD in as little as 17 days (with theaters cutting a cut of the PVOD revenue) and however Disney does or doesn’t respond, but we don’t know because there is no current normal with which to compare. The pandemic, and especially the U.S. federal government’s arguably inability/unwillingness to control it, has essentially put the nation on hold.

This isn’t like a stereotypical “What if?” sci-fi movie where the world is as we know it save for one huge difference (“We can erase your bad memories!” or “Humans and fairy tale creatures coexist!”). Everything is up in the air until we see how the vaccines (and/or the new Joe Biden administration) mitigate the current medical perils. We don’t how consumers to react when vaccines hopefully put a relative end to the coronavirus crisis sometime next year. Will they continue to just stay at home and stream? Will the absence of the theatrical experience make the heart grow fonder? What will Disney, the third of three biggies in theatrical distribution, do in response to these divergent strategies?

One big reason is that we won’t be getting any huge movies to test these “new windows” for a while. Wonder Woman 1984 is going to kick off WB’s big HBO Max/theatrical release scheme, but we’re still in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic, with theaters closed nationwide, so it’s not like that’s an ideal “control group” for deduce how this will play out. Ditto Universal mostly offering smaller studio programmers (the kind of movies everyone wrongly claims Hollywood doesn’t make anymore) as theatrical fodder over the next few months. Presuming Mortal Kombat doesn’t keep its January 15, 2021 release date, neither Universal nor Warner Bros. will have “big” theatrical releases to test the waters until mid-May.

Since No Time to Die is an MGM movie (Universal is distributing overseas), it may not be part of the “quick to PVOD” plan if/when it opens April 2, 2021. Ditto MGM’s Candyman moving to August 27, 2021. It’s mostly smaller movies from WB (Tom and Jerry, The Many Saints of Newark, Lisa Joy’s Rebecca Ferguson/Hugh Jackman thriller Remiscence, etc.) up until Godzilla Vs. Kong on May 21, 2021. Universal’s first tentpole, give or take The Boss Baby: Family Business on March 26 (and, yes, The Boss Baby earned $500 million worldwide in 2017), is F9 on Memorial Day weekend. Until then, the movies are the sorts that would have been theatrically challenging even in better times.

Tom & Jerry (which looks fun) and the Sopranos prequel are the kinds of WB flicks that might have followed The Witches to HBO Max anyway. We won’t have anything more than ideal speculation until the summer, by which time the country (and/or the world) could be back to normal in terms of pre-Covid “safety” for activities like theaters, sports and theme parks. I can’t imagine WB’s plan will “help” theaters, but we don’t know how badly it will hurt. I imagine it’s going to be detrimental for repeat theatrical business. I can see fans seeing Godzilla Vs. Kong the first time theatrically, but not three times when it’s temporarily available on HBO Max.

Will the same folks who crave the theatrical experience, or at least make a point to show up a few times a year for the biggest of big movies, still do so? Will the lure of staying at home and watching the newest mega-movie with their 4K HDTV and Dolby Atmos sound bar prove too enticing, especially for families with kids? The at-home option will be appealing for kids flicks (like Tom and Jerry and Minions 2), where concessions and ticket prices will make a theatrical outing quite expensive (I still think theaters should comp tickets for concession purchases). It may prove just as appealing for R-rated movies (like Malignant and Candyman) that would otherwise require a babysitter.

With at-home viewing options steadily improving in terms of availability, quality and affordability, the biggest trump card for movie theaters was temporary exclusivity. That’s why theater chains have spent the last 20 years fighting the notion of shrinking theatrical windows. If you only go to a theater because you want to see Wonder Woman 1984 *right now* as opposed to 75-95 days from now, well, are you still going to bother if Wonder Woman 1984 opens in theaters and on HBO Max on the same day? Absent exclusivity (and presuming growing availability for HBO Max), theaters will be for folks who want to see a specific film not just right away but also specifically in a theater.

I won’t begrudge anyone, especially in the middle of a pandemic, who is thrilled that they won’t have to wait an additional six months (or more) to see Wonder Woman 1984 and also won’t have to find an open theater (or risk going to an open theater) to do so. That choice/accessibility is great for consumers now, especially now. However, it may be less great if the downturn in theatrical revenue means that Hollywood can’t justify big-budget movies sans the massive theatrical earnings. The doomsday scenario is that we sacrifice everything we claim to love about the movies (production value, spectacle, star power, etc.) in the name of convenience as everything just becomes “content.”

From Hollywood & Entertainment in Perfectirishgifts