#anyways i wanted to draw deuce as well - so win-win! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

twst-bs · 3 years

Note

I read your works and immediately fall in love. Can you make an dorm leader witness their s/o gamble (like they didn't know their s/o is a king/queen of gamble similar to kakegurui?). If you comfortable with this request...

Thank you~

Ah, thank you so much! I'm glad you like my writing.

The reason I took so long writing this is because I actually decided to watch Kakegurui out of curiosity and got really sucked into it, haha!

I hope this was worth the wait!

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Riddle: Card playing wasn’t an unusual occurrence in the Heartslabyul lounge. On any given night, students would gather around in groups and play anything from Old Maid to blackjack.

What was unusual was for Riddle to see the Ramshackle Prefect amongst them.

Well, maybe he shouldn’t have been so shocked. Between their friendship with Ace and Deuce, and their own relationship, they were basically a member of Heartslabyul anyway. Maybe it was more of the fact that they felt welcome enough to simply waltz into the dorm and make themself at home.

“Oh, hey, Riddle!” they smiled when they saw him. “Do you want to play too?”

“Dorm Leader Roseheart doesn’t usually join,” Deuce chimed in, peering down at his hand of cards. Riddle cleared his throat, causing all three of them to look up.

“He’s right, typically I stay out of the games and watch for rule-breakers. However,” he felt his face get warm, and he had to look away from the three sets of curious eyes fixed on him. “I wouldn’t mind sitting in and watching, if you’ll have me.”

“Of course!” the Prefect scooted over on the floor, completely ignoring the slightly stricken looks that Ace and Deuce were giving them. Riddle, trying to maintain some amount of grace despite his face being as red as a rose, carefully sat himself between Ace and the Prefect.

“What are you playing?”

“Poker!” they replied cheerfully as the game resumed. “I’m not so sure about my skills, though.”

“Whatever,” Ace shrugged. “Poker’s more the luck of the draw anyway. Deuce, are you gonna call or just keep trying to stare holes through your cards?”

“Shut up, Ace,” Deuce shot back. “I’ll call.”

Deuce placed two gold coins in the middle, and Riddle raised an eyebrow. “You know there’s rules against betting money -”

“They’re chocolate, Dorm Head, it’s legal.” Ace laughed. “Do you think we’re stupid enough to blatantly break the rules in front of you?”

“Do you really want me to answer that?”

“Not particularly.”

“Alright, we good?” the Prefect asked. “I want to eat my chocolate.”

Deuce was the first to show his hand. “Three of a kind.”

Ace went next. “Two pairs. What do you have, Prefect?”

With a grin, they laid down their cards. “Straight flush.”

“You jerk!” Ace laughed. “You were playing us the whole time, weren’t you?”

“That’s part of the fun, isn’t it?” they stuck their tongue out at him, gathering the small mountain of chocolate coins. “Pleasure doing business with you, boys.”

“Man, you wiped the floor with us,” Deuce sighed. “You’re way too good at hiding your reactions.”

“Or you’re just really bad at reading them.” Ace smirked.

“Whatever.”

“Hey, Riddle,” the Prefect leaned over while the other two continued bickering. “Look who showed up to help me win.”

With a grin, they held up a card between their index and middle finger. The Queen of Hearts.

Riddle laughed softly. “The Queen treats her favorite subjects well.”

Leona: “Come on, Ruggie!”

“No way! I saw it first, it’s not my fault you’re slow!”

“You almost tripped me to get to it first, you little -”

Leona growled, cutting through the two’s argument. “Quit yelling or I’m eating the damn sandwich.” he didn’t even lift his head from where he had pillowed it on his arms. The lion really could sleep anywhere, even the lunch table.

“Okay, fine, here,” the Prefect dug around in their pocket. “We’ll flip a coin for it. Heads, you get the sandwich, tails, I get the sandwich.”

“Fine, fine, whatever.” Despite his words, Ruggie was grinning. “Flip it.”

The coin they pulled out made a satisfying

noise as they flicked it into the air. They caught it, slapping it down on the back of their hand. “Ready?”

“Quit with the dramatics, I’m hungry!”

They stuck their tongue out at him, lifting their hand. “Tails! It’s my sandwich!”

“Damn it!” Ruggie snarled, but there was no real malice behind it. “Fine, I hope it’s rotten.” he got up to go get himself something else to eat.

As Ruggie stomped off, Leona turned his head to lazily raise an eyebrow at his mate. “Never really took you for a risk taker, herbivore.”

“How can I be dating a literal predator and not like a little risk?”

“Fair point.” Leona yawned. “You’re still going to give him some of that sandwich, aren’t you.”

“Yeah,” they were already ripping the thing in half. “He did actually get there before me, I just got lucky that his little tripping plot launched me closer to the front.”

Leona clicked his tongue. "So this was your idea of revenge?"

"Just keeping things interesting!"

Azul: No one was surprised when the mermaid mafia decided to run a gambling den.

Well, it wasn't a true gambling den, because it wasn't real money being wagered. Azul, always profit-minded, sold tokens to students that could be exchanged for specialty items at Mostro Lounge. That one night a week brought in considerable revenue for them.

"Hey, Azu~l!"

Said octopus looked up from the papers he was looking over in his office. "What is it, Floyd?"

"You'll never guess who is here tonight." Floyd grinned, showing all of his teeth. "Go on, guess!"

"I haven't the faintest-"

"It's Shrimpy!" Floyd laughed. "Shrimpy game to gamble tonight!"

Azul blinked, trying to figure out if Floyd was messing with him or not. "They actually came?"

Of course, he had invited his partner multiple times, but usually they were so bogged down with homework and other people's problems that they couldn't make it.

Floyd nodded. "They look like they're having fun! You should come out of your hidey-hole and come see!"

Floyd slammed the door shut without waiting for a reply. With a slightly irritated sigh, Azul straightened the papers and shoved them into a drawer. He wasn't fond of sharing his time with his partner with other people, but both of them were so busy that he had to take what he could get.

There was an unusually large crowd gathered around one of the tables - he could even see the twins towering over everybody, watching the game in progress.

"My, what have we here?" He made his way to the twins' side, attempting to get a glimpse of the action.

"Our dear Prefect is putting on quite the show," Jade chuckled lightly. "Perhaps we should have them come in more often."

"Oh, you actually came out!" Floyd exclaimed before turning around, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Hey, Shrimpy! Azul's here!"

They startled slightly at Floyd’s sudden volume, but when their eyes landed on Azul, they smiled. They sent him a wave with the hand that wasn’t holding the dice, and he tried not to look too shy as he waved back. Sometimes just seeing them was enough to get his heart rate up, but he had an image to uphold.

The Prefect tossed the dice, and they clattered against the wood of the table. The crowd surrounding them seemed to hold its collective breath as they waited for the Octavinelle student acting as the rule enforcer looked over.the two sets of dice.

“Ten-nine, to the Ramshackle Prefect!”

The crowd erupted into cheers. Azul joined in before he could stop himself, and Jade smirked at him knowingly.

“You’re allowed to be happy for your partner, Azul.”

“Shut up.”

“Azul!”

Speak of the devil. The Prefect made their way through the crowd, positively beaming as they held onto their bag of tokens.

“Well, it seems you’ve been busy.” he commented as they came to a stop at his side.

“Guess luck is on my side today!” they laughed, wrapping their arms around his neck in a hug.

No matter how many times they did it, it still caught Azul off guard, and he still had to fight down a nervous laugh as they let go.

“I was saving these tokens for two slices of the special blueberry cake.” they grinned, jingling the bag so the coins clinked together.

“Why two?”

“So we could both have some!”

“You know you could have just asked and I would have saved some for us for later,” Azul raised an eyebrow. “You do get some perks for being the manager’s partner.”

“Yeah,” they shrugged, already turning towards the price counter. “But it’ll taste so much sweeter since I got it by wiping the floor with those cocky Savanaclaw bastards.”

Kalim: “What’s that game over there?”

The Prefect followed to where Kalim was pointing. “Looks like roulette.”

There was a fair going on near NRC, and the students had been given permission to go as long as they were back in their dorms by curfew. Kalim, practically vibrating with excitement, had begged them to come with him and Jamil. It was the three of them for a while, until Ace and Floyd found Jamil and basically dragged him over to the hoops game. The Prefect promised they would keep Kalim safe.

“What’s roulette?” Kalim was staring at the big wheel like it was hypnotizing him.

“It’s a betting game,” they explained. “You pick a color and a number, and the caller spins the wheel. If it lands on your guess, you win the money.”

“That sounds like fun!” Kalim grinned, before he seemed to remember something. “Ah, but I’m not allowed to gamble. It’s not a good look for House Asim.”

“Well that’s kind of boring.”

“Right?”

“Well,” the Prefect hummed. “How about we play our own version. We each pick a color, and whoever’s color gets picked wins! Loser pays for ice cream.”

“Alright, you’re on!” he laughed. “You pick first.”

“Okay, I’ll go with black.”

Kalim nodded. “That means I’m red, right?”

“Yup!”

The wheel began to spin, and the two of them watched over the heads of the actual participants. Both of them stood on their tip toes as the wheel began to slow.

“Hey, it stopped on red!” Kalim cheered, pumping his fist in the air. “That means I won!”

“Yup! Congrats!” the Prefect laughed as the two of them kept walking. “Looks like I’m paying for ice cream.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, I’ll pay.” Kalim said dismissively.

“Huh? But I lost.”

“I had fun!” he beamed. ”So let me thank you!”

Vil: “Do I even want to know?”

The Ramshackle Prefect was always getting up to some sort of shenanigans, but they weren’t usually so bold about it. This time, however, they were proudly striding out of the Pomfiore lounge with a zip-loc bag of mismatched eyeshadow pots and tubes of lipstick.

“We were playing cards.” they smiled up at Vil, who simply raised a well-groomed eyebrow.

“That doesn’t explain your goodie bag there.”

“Well, we couldn’t gamble with actual money,” they shrugged. “So Epel suggested apple chips, but then we ate all of those, so we decided to bet makeup instead. Epel let me have some of the stuff you gave him so I could play, and, wow, did I luck out!”

They opened up the bag and pulled out some name-brand purple eyeshadow. “I could never afford this stuff, honestly! Maybe you should have a talk with your dorm members about not betting things they aren’t willing to lose.”

“They have to learn their lesson somehow,” Vil sighed. “Be careful, potato, gambling can lead to some ugly habits.”

“I don’t do it often, I promise!” they smiled. “It’s mainly for fun!”

“And humiliating my dorm members.”

“Like I said, fun!”

Idia: “Which one, which one, which one…”

The Ramshackle Prefect had been watching Idia agonize over this decision for the better part of twenty minutes. It was starting to get a little old.

“You really are invested in this one, aren’t you?”

Idia didn’t bother turning to face them. “I HAVE to get this card, it's a limited edition UR+ with a swimsuit costume. This is my last shot, I’m out of gems after this.”

“Isn’t it a random chance though?” they asked, kicking their feet idly from where they sat on Idia’s bed. “How are you going to be able to tell which loot box it’s in?”

“Nerd sense.”

“Then why didn’t you use nerd sense for the past nine pulls?”

Idia groaned softly, staring intensely at the screen. “Which one?”

“Oh for-” the Prefect hopped off of the bed and leaned against Idia’s back to be able to reach the mouse. “I’m picking for you.”

“W-Wait, don’t-”

They clicked on the middle loot box before Idia could protest too much. The box rumbled around, building suspense, and Idia almost started crying.

Then, suddenly, with a bright flash and a triumphant fanfare, the card was revealed.

“...Are you a god?”

With a sparkling animation surrounding it, the coveted UR+ card blazed across the screen. The colors danced across Idia’s shocked face, making his pale face look rainbow.

“Nerd sense.” they laughed, pecking him on the cheek.

“You joke, but I think you do actually have some sort of psychic powers.”

Malleus: “It takes bravery to play a game of chance with a fae, you know.”

There was a warning in his words, but the sparkle in Malleus’ eyes told the Prefect that he was actually looking forward to the human’s antics.

“I trust you.” the human grinned. “If you wanted to steal my soul or whatever, you would have done it by now.”

“Such confidence,” Malleus chuckled. “Alright, Child of Man, what game shall we play?”

“A guessing game!” they held their hands behind their back as the two of them walked down the cobblestone path that led into the graveyard surrounding Ramshackle. “Just guess which hand the coin is in. You’ll get a prize if you win.”

“Oh? What am I playing for?”

“You’ll have to win to find out!”

Malleus was beginning to wonder if the Ramshackle Prefect wasn’t part fae. “And if I lose?”

“Then I get the prize!” they laughed, deftly avoiding a protruding tree route. The two of them had made these nighttime walks a routine, to the point where they knew all of the potential dangers. “Come on, guess! You have a fifty-fifty shot.”

“Very well. Hm...left.”

“Ding ding ding!” the human held out their left hand, revealing the coin resting in the palm of their hand. “You get the prize!”

Slipping the coin back into their pocket, then grabbed onto Malleus’ sleeve and tugged him downwards. He complied, and was rewarded with a press of soft lips against his own.

“It was a kiss.” they laughed.

“Indeed it was.” he smiled. “Shall I give you a consolation prize?”

#request #twisted wonderland #disney's twisted wonderland #twst riddle #twst leona #twst azul #twst kalim #twst vil #twst idia #twst malleus

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murdereraisuha · 3 years

Text

Alright, time to continue the Pair Swap AU I made a post on a week ago. This post will focus on Vil & Epel as bickering 1st years, Lilia and Malleus as mentor and rebellious mentee, and Silver & Sebek as boss and henchman.

---

So, for Vil and Epel, Vil is now aged down to 16 so he can be part of the 1st year squad, meaning that he isn’t as powerful/skilled as he is at 18 and he’s probably less mature as well. In canon, when Vil and Epel first meet at the entrance ceremony, Vil absolutely destroys Epel in combat. However, with the difference in age taken away, and given that both of them have likely already worked to become strong, the fight might not be so one-sided. Therefore, for this AU, their fight is going to end in a draw due to running out of time before the dorm sorting begins. Once they discover that they’re both in Pomefiore, a rivalry forms between them based on their differing ideologies.

I imagine that in this relationship, Epel would be like Ace while Vil would be like Deuce. Since Vil does not have the power to effectively control Epel, Epel is free to wear what he wants, behave like he wants, and talk how he wants. This would likely put him in conflict with the others in Pomefiore the same as how Ace conflicts with Riddle and the Queen of Heart’s rules in canon. For Vil, I feel like he already has a dream of eventually becoming the dorm leader, so he would strive to make a good impression on the other Pomefiore students. However, now, his rivalry with Epel and the disgraceful scenes that their spats might cause would likely hinder his plans to some degree.

Since Vil’s not the dorm leader in this AU, we have to sort out the state of the dorm and what Rook’s doing. Rook is all about observing the beauty of others and doing what he can to help nurture that beauty. In canon, he focuses on Vil’s beauty, so he accepts the position of vice dorm leader so he can be close to Vil. I think it’s safe to assume that in canon, no other Pomefiore students in Rook’s grade match up to Vil, so in this AU there’s been no one in particular for Rook to latch onto. Therefore, I think that Rook is going to be dorm leader here, since it would allow him to better observe + nurture beauty within the rest of Pomefiore, and he also gets to be in dorm leader meetings with Leona. Also it’s funny for one of the 7 dorm heads of NRC to secretly be a super fan boy for an RSA student. The vice dorm leader is therefore going to be some random mob, since that position gets decided before the entrance ceremony and Rook probably can’t switch the mob out for some random firstie unless the mob does something to warrant losing his position.

So now the dynamic of the Pomefiore trio is basically going to be a dad and his 2 moody kids. In terms of story, I feel like Rook would see the potential of Vil & Epel to be dorm leader / vice dorm leader in the future, so he might use the VDC as a way to help them uncover that potential and also learn to work together better. Therefore, I feel like the story doesn’t have to change much besides Vil and Epel’s conflict during the preparation for the competition being different. I could change it completely to eliminate Neige and replace him with Epel, so Vil’s angry at Epel for his natural beauty and he tries to steal the spotlight from him or something, but I feel like that’s going too far away from the dynamic of canon Ace and Deuce, so I’ll leave it at that.

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Since their immortality’s been passed to Ortho & Idia in this AU, Malleus and Lilia are now both teenagers. Lilia’s family has served the Valley of Thorn’s royal family for a long time, but, so as to not infringe on the master & servant dynamic that’s gone to Riddle & Trey, Lilia has only been tasked with looking after Malleus since he started attending NRC.

Since I equalized Vil and Epel’s ages, I’m going to separate Malleus and Lilia’s ages. Welcome to the 1st year squad, Tsunotarou. I’m also going to make Lilia the dorm leader now. Since Malleus is such a naturally powerful wizard and Lilia doesn’t have hundreds of years of experience over Malleus anymore, I feel like I have to give Lilia that age and position advantage for him to stand a chance against Malleus and enforce the mentor & rebellious mentee dynamic.

Since Malleus is still a prince, he isn’t going to be as openly hostile as Epel so his form of rebellion is going to be on the passive aggressive side. As an immature 16 year old prince who can finally go outside whenever he wants now at NRC, he wants to savor his freedom as much as he can regardless of any concerns about safety that this random short guy voices, even if the random short guy is his dorm leader and someone specifically tasked to help protect him. However, Lilia is still pretty powerful and wise even as an 18 year old, so there’s gonna be stuff like Lilia confronting Malleus about something, Malleus teleporting somewhere to escape the lecture, then a swarm of bats instantly ambushing him because Lilia guessed where Malleus would try and escape to. Poor Malleus.

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With Lilia getting bumped up to dorm leader, I can’t think of anyone more fit to move up into the vice dorm leader spot than Silver. Since, again, Lilia is just a teenager in this AU, Silver is Lilia’s adopted little brother now instead of his son. Also, since much more of Lilia’s time is spent making sure Malleus doesn’t get into trouble, a lot of the duties of managing the dorm fall to Silver. Anyway, with the dorm situation figured out, how exactly do we apply a boss & henchman dynamic to Silver and Sebek?

So, what we have is

The being knights thing is given to Ace & Deuce now, so Silver and Sebek don’t have the duty of protecting Malleus or anything now.

Even if they tried, Malleus’s rebelliousness means that they would utterly fail since they don’t have the skills of Lilia.

Sebek has a lot of respect for Lilia and Malleus.

Alright, to make this work, here’s what I’m thinking: Sebek is ecstatic about entering NRC alongside prince Malleus. While he isn’t trying to become a knight, Sebek still trains hard for some other goal and he hopes that he can learn from those that he admires. However, absorbed in the euphoria of freedom, Malleus accidently snubs Sebek. Rejected by one of his idols, Sebek approaches the other: the powerful dorm leader, Lilia. However, Lilia’s too occupied with Malleus to spare much attention for Sebek. With his wounded pride winning out over his prejudices and letting him lower his standards, Sebek settles for trying to work for vice dorm leader Silver.

So it becomes this weird relationship where Sebek is helping Silver with his duties and trying to learn from him since Silver is probably pretty strong even without the drive of becoming a knight, but also Sebek criticizes him a lot and sometimes ignores Silver in favor of chasing opportunities to speak to Lilia and/or Malleus. Since Silver is a Good Boy (tm) I don’t think their relationship can get the scheming aspect of canon Leona & Ruggie’s partnership, but Silver’s relaxed attitude and occasional airheadedness means that Sebek is probably going to be running around and cleaning up after Silver much like canon Ruggie does for Leona. I feel sorry for the rest of the Diasomnia students. Sorry for plunging your dorm into chaos my dudes.

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst au #vil schoenheit #epel felmier #malleus draconia #lilia vanrouge #twst silver #sebek zigvolt #just want to note that I don't have the strongest grasp on diasomnia's personalities so this might be more ooc than intended

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fumikomiyasaki · 4 years

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Hi Fumikomiyasaki, hope your day is going well. Just a quick question. . . How would a Monsville chapter play out if it were in-game? Your characters are great but I would like to know more about how their characters would canonical change through out the chapter. Also, could you possibly add in Syncrean (sorry if that's misspelled 😅) and any other Twisted Wonderland ocs? Thank you for reading this and your contribution to the Twisted Wonderland Fandom 😄- Anon

Monsville story chapter in Twisted Wonderland:

Placing between Ignihyde and Diasomnia, or maybe after Diasomnia if we wanna keep the 7 dorms first.

MC Has a dream of a factory, cogs are turning lots of Doors without rooms, Like a Maze MC runs through it without knowing where to Go

After this dream they wake up with some commotion in front of Ramshackle dorm.

They find Ace and Deuce fending off huge walking machine. As they struggle to calm it down, Leroy appears and turns it off with his handiwork. He kinda mocks Deuce and Ace mostly for being such wimps and how they were afraid of the machine, before he leaves with his freshmen who carry the machine away.

After that Crowley grants them a permission for a tour through the monsville dormitory…

to investigate why some of the machines have gone haywire. As well as what Leroy's involvement is in this affair. Idia, who was again talking over his machine, said he would look into the monsville construction from his room.

So MC, Grim, Ace and Deuce went to the Monsville dorm to start their mission, however they were greeted by the Dorm Leader himself Henry. He wanted to give the tour personally and said he wanted to discuss something with them after. You get to meet Students like Suffy and Mitchell working on a fridge with some extra functions, Alyn great you when you enter the building, Roslyn is focused in her paperwork, Gio tripped and accidentally threw a wrench in Deuce direction… Just simple interactions with all the Monsville students so far.

At the end of the tour you arrive at Henry's office, where he confronts you that he knows you have been stopping lots of Overblots. After the group was kinda intimidated by him, he flashes a smile and thanks them for what they do. He reveals how his main goal is to make everyone use less Magic in live and make people feel happier overall so that Overblots won’t happen. He shares how he witnessed a good friend died due to an Overblot.

The group ask him if there has been any odd occurrences, Henry is hesitant, but says he has some troubles with a student names Leroy. He does his work well, however he constantly announces how he is the true dorm leader of Monsville and he will prove that he is worth it.

However since then the Company is kinda split in two fractions, the people that support Leroy and the people that support Henry. Henry gets a call from his father and says they can explore the dorm more if they want to.

After that you talk to certain students, get attacked by some Monsville students who support Leroy because they fear like you are manipulating the students and when you finally find Leroy he asks Suffy for a little contest. Cue a Rhythm game with Suffy and Mitchell against Mellow and Leroy with the crew watching them.

After this MCs group interrogates Leroy why he feels like he is the true dorm leader. Leroy tells about the Origin of Interstate hill and how they are two stories, one about the Crab monster and the other about the Chameleon monster. He feels that because NRC has a statue of the Chameleon monster, that he is the true Leader of the dorm.

After this conversation Mellow will ask you to come to the garden to talk about something with Leroy and Henry.

In the garden Mellow tells you about the third story of Origin for Interstate hill, in which both Monsters work together. He also mentions how Leroy has changed even more than he already has through this competition. Mellow feels like Leroy waers himself down to get a following, and has it hard to be himself anymore.

But for the sake of Leroy, Mellow refuses to speak about his past.

Mostly after that you witness some clashes between students that support Leroy and students that support Henry and cause trouble around the cafeteria. Henry stops them because he wants the Monsville name not to be ruined anymore, Leroy swoops in to say: “You really have to kill the fun, do ya?” And mostly it leads to a fight of Ideals.

After Henry draws back and offers Leroy a competition where Leroy could win the right to become a leader, Leroy agrees and says he will crush him.

Mitchell, who watched the spectacle with you, actually mentions that he, Mellow, Suffy and Leroy went to the same school, that Leroy was way different back then. But before he can tell how different, Mellow dragged him away and apologizes.

During the Final Clash, something got messed up and The team that supported Leroy the whole time starts doubting Leroy, after Henry commented how Leroy doesn’t plan out things much… They started to turn to Henry again.

“So in the end again… I am all alone.” Leroy begins to laugh madly and tear roll down from his face, revealing his freckles on his face. “In the end, this friendship I searched, the love I wanted…. it was all a lie… I worked my ass off… AND THIS IS THE THANKS I GET FOR THIS!”

Cue his overblot transformation. "Again I am left alone by everyone. Just because I am different... I tried to change color, to blend in with the popular crowd but where did it get me... I am sick of it... Fine, I'll be the Monster I was always destined to be. TIME TO GO WILD!"

During the Fight His canister hammer has for 3 rounds increased strength and you can hear screams when He Hits you But needs to Charge it back after.

After you defeat him and convince him with Mellow and others, that he has friends that care about him, Leroy turns back to himself.

Cue an scene about Leroy and his love for Anime and Manga, switching to bullies taking his stuff away, stealing his glasses, ripping his favourite Manga apart… Leroy sat at the tables alone most of the times… he wanted to stay strong and try to be the smartest, but kinda Suffy and Mitchell got in the way. Mellow talking to him and introducing him to Suffy and Mitch and telling that as group they wanna work together against the bullies. And so Leroy had a place to belong and before Night Raven College, Leroy decided he wanted to become confident, make it on his own and shine brighter than everyone. Which led him to his overwork with his outfits and looks.

After this happened Leroy apologizes to Henry and admits, that it’s true he sometimes doesn’t think through, but also comments how Henry messed up in construction a lot. They both start laughing and Henry pulls Leroy in for a hug and cries. “Ew, could you stop that, it’s gross.” A finally end of the War between those both and it has been turned into a friendly Rivalry. Leroy comments how he still won’t lose to Henry, but will agree that he now also tries to hear out his suggestions. Henry smiled and thanks your crew for helping them.

The machines are finally under control again, and Leroy is now not shy anymore to wear his glasses sometimes and show his freckles all the time. He is now more open about his hobby, but in the end, he still kept his new Mischievious and Sassy self as a part of his new personality. The new Reborn Leroy.

Syncrean secret story chapter in Twisted Wonderland:

You meet the girls one day in the basement of NRC college by accident…

It mostly follows a story how they go on Missions to sabotage RSA and DCA to gain advantage in status and become their own school. the story mostly involves Sindrens Homeplace and her plans that get more and more devious as she is to invested in playing a villain herself when she wants to be the Hero. Mythra trying to get her to the right part, Feena making kinda mean comments, that push Sindren even harder into madness.

“If no hero is worthy to save this world, I guess I don’t have to become a hero, but a Villain to motivate these Heroes to try harder.” Sindren gets power hungry and fears like no RSA student could stop her plans. Which leads to her overblot.

Mostly I haven’t worked much on their story, so these are the Ideas I have.

Datamane story chapter in Twisted Wonderland:

Learning about the Robots, Crowleys curiousity about them and how they can use Magic.

The Overblot will play out like a Virus but I haven’t actually decided who will overblot. I think Damon would be very interesting, because although Maurice is the leader and Datamane is split in Professors and Robots, I think Damon would bring it more Emotionally, in a way of:

“I can’t do it… I can’t save Maurice or Seymour…. What is my life worth anyway… if it’s not of anyones use….” Mostly along these lines, storywise nothing is planned so far.

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland oc #twst oc #twistedwonderland #twistedwonderlandoc #twst #disney twst #monsville #monstersinc #twisted wonderland ocs #monsville dorm #monsters inc #syncrean #incredibles #datamane #tron legacy #tron

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kousuisetsu · 4 years

Note

This might be weird but do you think it's possible if you could share all of class zero's reactions to Rem and Machina in the crystal stasis and possibly their final boss dialogue? I can't find them anywhere and I'm interested in what they say. Thanks!

Hello~!I was about to say “they’re in my Pandaemonium quote compilation” and then realized I never actually released it... I've had it 99% finished since 3 years ago, but I’m eternally stuck on a few RNG lines from the very last cutscene where they’re all dying on the last boss arena right after defeating him (the “let’s go home” scene).So if anyone feels like contributing to the cause, I’m missing Ace’s 2nd and 3rd lines, Deuce’s 3rd line, Queen’s 1st line, and King’s 1st and 2nd lines.

Anyway, here’s what you asked for:

ACE.

Sanctuary of Descension:

Machina... Rem? What happened?

Machina... Rem...

Consecrated Ground:

I'm sorry... I couldn't avenge you...

Machina, Rem... Lend me your strength! I'll get you!

DEUCE.

Sanctuary of Descension:

Machina? Rem? What...happened here?

This is terrible. Machina and Rem...why?

Consecrated Ground:

I lost... Sorry, Machina and Rem...

Machina and Rem... Thank you for your power! We won't lose!

TREY.

Sanctuary of Descension:

Rem? Machina? Why have they been crystallized?

Is this the trial they had to face?

Consecrated Ground:

I'm sorry...for my...disappointing performance...

Machina, Rem... I will need your power for a brief while! We won't lose!

CATER.

Sanctuary of Descension:

Machina? Rem? But why are they both...?

Why...why did they do it? Why did they have to kill each other!?

Consecrated Ground:

This is...as far as we can go. Sorry, guys...

Really? You guys... Then I guess I'll have to go for it! You're going down!

CINQUE.

Sanctuary of Descension:

Machy and Remski!? Why are you guys frozen like that?

*yells*

Consecrated Ground:

You've become crystals...but you can keep on living...

Machy, Remski... Good call! I'll take it! Just leave it all up to Cinque!

SICE.

Sanctuary of Descension:

Machina and Rem? What happened here!?

You gotta be kidding me. You guys have such horrible timing―every time.

Consecrated Ground:

Sorry, guys. This is...the best I could do.

Ugh, you guys are crazy! I guess I have to do this now! I'm gonna tear you apart!

SEVEN.

Sanctuary of Descension:

Rem and Machina? What happened to you?

Both of you, sleep for now. I will draw strength from your sorrow.

Consecrated Ground:

I wasn't...good enough. I'm sorry, you guys...

Machina, Rem... Thanks for the power. I'll be right back! This ends now!

EIGHT.

Sanctuary of Descension:

Machina and Rem? What in the world happened to you?

Your pain won't be forgotten―I swear to you.

Consecrated Ground:

I couldn't avenge...your pain... I'm sorry.

Machina, Rem... Your power will take us to our future! Let's put an end to this.

NINE.

Sanctuary of Descension:

Is that Machina and Rem, yo? What the hell's going on!?

What the hell... What the hell! What the hell!?

Consecrated Ground:

Dammit... How lame am I? Dammit...

Well, if you insist, hey... I'll use this power to kick this guy's ass! I'm gonna crush you!

JACK.

Sanctuary of Descension:

Rem and Machina!? Wh-why are you crystals?

Heh heh, that's quite an awful Focus... Not funny, I know.

Consecrated Ground:

Heh heh... Not really our...finest hour...

If you insist... I guess I have to get serious! I'm gonna end this now!

QUEEN.

Sanctuary of Descension:

Is that...Machina and Rem? Why have they been turned into crystals?

Is this what the Crystals wanted? This is...it's too cruel!

Consecrated Ground:

I couldn't see it through...to the end. I'm...I'm sorry.

Machina, Rem... I'll use this final power to finish this! We will win!

KING.

Sanctuary of Descension:

Machina? Rem? Why are they...?

It would seem that the gods just want to toy with humanity.

Consecrated Ground:

Toyed with...and discarded. Pathetic...

You two have gone too far, but I won't hold back. I'll use every bit of this final power! Victory will be ours!

#final fantasy type 0 #class zero #anonymous #ask #i'm flattered to still get a type0 ask despite me being inactive on here for years #also i'd really like to release the last quote list but those missing lines will bug me #unless they just don't exist like some others #i'd check my ultimania but i'm not home

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mnemememory · 6 years

Text

happy people

They’re probably made up of 90% alcohol and 10% spite at this point. And good intentions. Spite and good intentions.

(or; "it's what molly would have wanted")

It begins – well.

Intentions had never really been a big part of the Mighty Nein before the series of unfortunate events that had begotten kidnapping and death, but that hadn’t stopped good deeds from squeezing themselves into the group’s shared vocabulary every now and again. Even as individuals, doing the right thing (though annoying) somehow was more appealing than just sitting back and watching the world burn. Depending on circumstances.

So here they are, sitting back and watching the world burn. Nott is, predictably, the one who says it:

“It’s what Molly would have wanted.”

Beau’s eye twitches, because she’s somehow become the most sensitive to mentions of Mollymauk Tealeaf, despite the group having all-round misgivings when it came to conversations on the dead. “What? No.”

Nott gestures to the – whatever it is that is unfurling behind them. It’s a mess, is what it is. A lot of blood. Some fire (somehow, even with Caleb snoozing peacefully in the back of the cart, there always seems to be fire). The screaming has mostly stopped, but that’s probably more because they’ve moved out of audial range than anything else.

Up front, Fjord surveys the open road glumly. “I just wanted to buy some food.”

“Don’t be silly,” Jester says, sprawling out next to him and patting the top of his head. He makes a valiant effort to dodge, but it’s no good, and he sullenly gives over to his fate with all the good grace that seventy-three hours without sleep can give. None of them are in a particularly pleasant mood, but Nott thinks that as soon as they get away from that broken excuse for a settlement, things will get back to normal.

(Burning down the world is sometimes the right thing to do, in the end).

(Funny, that).

Nott has the buttons on Fjord’s vest mixed in with the rest of her collection; she has Jester’s ribbons looping through the holes in her bag; she has three of Beau’s throwing stars tucked tight into the lining of her coat. Nott has a satchel of Deuce’s tea pressed up against a paper-thin flower, both hidden inside one of Caleb’s old books.

Don’t steal from happy people, Molly said. Nott is trying.

The second time, Nott is less drunk, and also has had more sleep. It makes the reference simultaneously more and less tasteless, which seems on brand.

“C’mon,” she wheedles, tugging gently at the edge of Caleb’s jacket. She’s learned just the right amount of pressure to put on the fabric without making the movement overly insistent – too much, and she’s being pushy. Too little, and she doesn’t want it enough. Humans are weird, but Nott is determined to learn all of their strange idiosyncrasies, if only to be better able to dupe them. (Oh, and also to walk around without getting arrested, Nott wants that too). “It’ll be fun.”

“No,” Caleb says, with all the petulance of a teenager. Nott had thought she’d been lucky to skip out on that stage of developmental hell, but hey, at least she can cross teenage rebellion off her list of life experiences. Children these days. No respect for their parents.

“Caleb,” Nott sighs. The rest of the group are playing hooky doing some very important serious business – that is, trying to find some freelance jobs so they don’t starve to death. Being good people or whatever that’s supposed to mean isn’t really cheap. Nott hoards gold, but that doesn’t mean she can keep supporting these freeloaders forever. They need to come up with better investment strategies, and fast, or Nott is going to have to do it for them. Accounting hasn’t ever been one of her skills before, but travelling with these morons has helped her to refine down the important things in life. Like keeping track of party funds. And shooting straight while drunk. (Well, she’s had that last one for a while).

“Nott,” he sighs, right back at her. Nott makes a face up at him. They grow up so fast…

“It’s what Molly would have wanted,” she says.

Caleb’s eyebrow ticks up. “Molly would have wanted us to leave the rest of the group for an unknown period of time to go – gambling.”

Nott nods, vigorously. Jester’s been teaching her a few things she hadn’t heard of before (probably because they were really illegal, but Jester didn’t know that, and Nott isn’t going to tell her your mum is basically a genius when it comes to counting cards). The city rests on a riverbed of gold – “if you want to make a fortune, come here” is the unofficial motto, tacked onto “to all the people in need of a disposable income; who have no future plans for success; who are desperate around to gamble everything you own in a single sitting”. Nott loves places like this, she really does.

Though she should probably stop saying that within hearing distance of the rest of the group, because they’re trying so hard to make this “we’re definitely absolutely 100% the good guys now” thing stick. There have been…slips ups…but Nott is confident that with enough perseverance mixed into this powder keg (ha, get it?) of interpersonal family planning and parental issues, they can make the world explode in the best kind of way.

“Molly would have definitely wanted us to leave the rest of the group behind for three guys, Caleb, that’s all I’m asking, to go gambling. I’m very sure that Molly would have been in support of this plan.”

Caleb is still giving Nott the sceptical eyebrows, but Nott is right (Nott is always right) and Caleb should just give up now and accept this. She’s never gambled with actual money before (Jester trades in chores, which is fun right up until Nott loses) so this is going to be a thrilling new experience. And also Caleb will be there, watching her back and keeping her safe from the undoubtedly fierce card sharks that will be waiting in the seedy taverns and grand casinos (there are a lot of grand casinos around here). Nott has heard enough stories about gambling – mostly from Jester, now that she thinks about it – to know that she will definitely need her son there, watching, to make sure that no one else cheats.

Caleb blows out a breath, long and low. He looks around the intersection, which is full of people shouting obnoxious insults at bystanders from behind foods carts, which seems a little counterproductive to the whole “selling of wares” thing, but hey, what does Nott know? Nothing, Nott knows nothing about making money, except that being drunk and killing things generally provides favourable results. In her experience, anyway.

“I suppose I cannot argue with that,” he says.

Caleb has to set fire to the casino, because of course. Of course he does. Nott will never be able to go anywhere ever again without having to set fire to something, she just knows it.

Third time, and it isn’t even Nott – which is progress! Nott thinks that it’s progress, anyway; on the downside, Beau starts a barfight, but that’s not uncommon, so Nott is calling this a ‘win’ in her books.

They’re drinking, heavily, because if there’s one thing this group knows how to do, it’s drink. They’re probably made up of 90% alcohol and 10% spite at this point. And good intentions. Spite and good intentions.

“I just –” Beau says, with the kind of slurred voice that only comes with mixing caffeine and liquor. “I just miss her. A lot.”

Fjord sits next to her and pats her on the back. It’s a rhythmic, absent kind of gesture, like he started because of a reason, some reason, there was definitely a reason, and how he can’t quite get his arm to stop moving. Nott predicts that he’ll be passing out soon, the amateur. She takes another swig of her flask (less quality, more burning familiarity) and leans into Caleb’s warm weight.

It’s good, being here, watching her family make a mess out of themselves. Painful, in a way, but good. Letting things fester under loose bandages is a good way to lose a limb (Nott knows, she’s seen it) (she’s done it) (there is nothing more terrifying than watching your body disintegrate in on itself). Here, talking and drinking and crying their eyes out (no judgement!), Nott is watching them sew open wounds back together.

Now all the needs is Yasha, and she’ll almost have the full set.

“I should message her!” Jester says, sipping at her milk and watching her drunken friends with mild fascination. She still hasn’t really gotten the hang of socialising with drunk people, for all she’s very good at following weird conversation tangents. “I can definitely message her – we haven’t seen Yasha in ages, she’ll be wanting to know where we are –”

Beau blinks. Well, sort of – one of her eyelids goes down, but the other one is a little slower to follow. It’s a weird parody of a wink, is what it is. Nott snickers into her flask, but quietly, so she doesn’t draw attention to herself. She’s happy to let things fade into the background, for now. Look at them! Being so responsible, sorting out their relationship issues. Nott is so proud.

“Yeah,” Beau says, with the dawning light of drunk revelation. “Yeah! You should message her. Say – say, er –”

“Tell her we miss her,” Fjord says. His arm is still patting Beau’s shoulder.

“And how to find us,” Deuce says.

Caleb hmms. “And that we may have another big job coming up, soon.”

“And that she should take care of herself,” Nott adds.

“Yeah – yeah,” Beau says. She clears her throat and scrapes her chair back a little, like she’s trying to get more room. It slams into the foot of a passing waitress, causing her to stumble forward and drop a rather large bowl of soup onto the head of a man on the next table over. “All of that. It’s what Molly would have wanted.”

Jester frowns. “That’s a lot, you guys.”

(“WHO DID THAT?” the man roars, lurching drunkenly to his feet and swinging his meaty fists wide. The waitress ducks, and he brains the person of indeterminate gender sitting next to him.

“WHAT THE FUCK!”)

“Don’t worry, don’t worry, we’ll write it down,” Beau says. She paws at the table in front of her, like she’s waiting for a piece of paper to spring forth from the lacquered wood. After a few seconds of disappointment, she turns to stare forlornly to where Fjord is still patting on her back. “I’ve got a pen somewhere in my bag,” she says.

(“WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?”

“YOU HEARD ME, YOU –!”)

Jester smiles and takes out her sketchbook.

(They don’t flinch at the name. Nott is counting this as progress).

It sort of becomes a thing, after that.

Beau is a tipping point; she’s the leverage, especially when it comes to mentioning Molly. Without the threat of her flying into fits of rage of despair (none of them knows which one is worse), they relax their chokehold. Well, Nott relaxes her chokehold, which is good, because she’s never been much for staying silent.

“It’s what Molly would have wanted,” Caleb says, resigned, when they somehow (she isn’t sure how, she will never be sure how) manage to bluff their way into the festival line-up. They are not musicians. They cannot play instruments. Nott has heard (at one point or another) all of them sing, and of the group, only Jester can do a passable imitation of pleasant. This is going to end in disaster.

(It does, of course, end in disaster).

“It’s what Molly would have wanted,” Fjord says, lightly teasing, when they hijack another boat (what is it with this group and boats?) to make sail down the coast, human cargo ferried safely to the proper authorities. The group has taken a somewhat dim view of kidnapping, and hasn’t been overly thrilled to find the hold full of scared, dead-eyed people.

“It’s what Molly would have wanted,” Nott says, firmly, when she swipes a jelly doughnut from a rude man with a goatee.

(Don’t steal from happy people).

Yasha comes back to the group with all the drama and mystery they have come to expect from her; which is, she trips of Beau’s sprawled leg and then claims confusion at finding them here, in this tavern, which Jester had mentioned in her last message three hours ago. Yasha is fooling no one. Nott wonders why she even bothers anymore. What does she think they’re going to say? No, go away?

Nott wants to laugh. If she’s learned anything from this group of sanity-deficient people, it’s that family sticks together. She’s not letting any of her children go and ruin themselves without being there to help. Oh, well. Yasha will learn.

(Nott is never going to get the full set, but for this, for Caleb and Jester and Beau and Fjord and Deuce and Yasha, she will settle).

(It’s as much a concession to fate as she’s ever going to give).

Caleb is telling a story, face animated, arms spreading out in lively, sweeping gestures. He knocks his mug off of the table and onto the ground, the ale spilling onto the floorboards and all over poor Frumpkin’s head.

The group stare at the hissing, furious cat in a beat of silence. Then Caleb says, almost automatically, “It’s what Molly would have wanted.”

Yasha pauses at that, tankard halfway to her mouth.

Then she throws back her head and laughs.

#critical role #critical role campaign 2 #nott the brave #caleb widogast #the mighty nein #mollymauk tealeaf #beauregard #caduceus clay #yasha #fjord #jester #i think i'm funny #Nott is a Good Parent #who just wants what's best for her kids #her adorable disaster kids #100% not serious #my writing #fanfic

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izazaa · 6 years

Text

[tf2] sniperspy prompt fill

TF2, Sniper/Spy

@usedtobehmc: Spy inspires Sniper. (Not quite what you were expecting, I’m guessing, but I hope it reads easily enough :’D Thanks for the prompt!)

Spy is captured and Sniper has to win him back in a game of cards.

The bar is a shabby thing on the mainland, near one of the lesser used ports that Hale's using to smuggle weapons to the obscure island that he's converted into his Mercenary Park, and its occupants all turn towards Sniper as he pushes through its creaky doors – a casual curiosity at first, that sharpens to something nastier as they survey his six feet of foreigner, the rifle strapped to his back, SMG and kukri holstered at his waist.

This wouldn't faze him usually, but the stakes are much higher this time, and he can't help that cold sweat breaks out along his brow. Sniper is Sniper and not Spy for a reason; he's rubbish at this sort of trickery, rubbish at close range. But Spy is incapacitated, and the rest of his members back at the park, oblivious, so Sniper steels his nerves and saunters his way to the counter with false bravado.

"I'll take the best you have," he growls as he flags down the young woman behind the bar, slapping a bill on the table. The denomination is far larger than any drink has right to cost, but she slips it into her shirt, pours him a single shot glass of golden liquid, and doesn't give him any change.

The first shot burns as he leans against the counter with feigned disinterest, the second shot goes smoother, and as he turns to fetch a third, he spots Spy at the far end of the bar, nearly blocked from view by the burly, heavily-tattooed man perched on a stool between them. Sniper barely stops himself from flinching; though he hadn't expected anything pleasant, the sight of him – gagged, hands bound between back, crumpled in the corner – and his stomach drops.

The burly man leans into his view, scowling. "What you looking at, boy?"

In the haze of his camper, the orange light of dusk filtering through heady cigarette smoke, Spy had confessed a few tricks to his trade. "I don't lie," he drawled as he stretched out atop Sniper, light-hearted contempt curling off the tip of his tongue.

"That's a lie right there," Sniper accused as he swept his hand over Spy's back.

Spy pinched his nipple in reproach, but otherwise ignored him and continued, "I'm hardly a common swindler. Espionage requires more skill, and grace."

Twisting away from Spy's teasing fingers, Sniper rolled over to cover Spy's body with his. Murmured against Spy's neck, "Yeah?" to feel him shiver beneath him.

"I do not lie. I manipulate truths, and make them work for me." Spy tangled his fingers into Sniper’s hair and dragged him into a bruising kiss. Gasping as he pulled back to growl, "I make them mine."

There are few words after that.

Remembering this, Sniper jabs his finger towards Spy and says, "Him. I want him."

It's not a lie. His wrath isn't a lie either. He almost heaves a sigh of relief when the man, after scrutinising him, grunts, "Yea? He stole something from you too?"

"An' he hasn't paid me back," Sniper agrees. Curiosity wins over him, and he pushes off the counter, leaning past the man to peer at Spy. "Well, aren't you a sorry sight?" Spy doesn't look up, doesn't even react. Sniper's blood runs cold. "I want him," he repeats more urgently, "What's he worth to you?"

The man studies him, then says, "Ten thousand."

Ten thousand is… a lot. It is twice what he has on hand right now. Sniper refuses to delay getting him back. Mind racing, he blurts out, "I'll play you for him."

The man laughs in his face, an incredulous bark, but he sounds more amused than offended. "Dai di?" He pulls out a worn pack of card, with a sneer that suggests he doesn't expect a foreigner like Sniper to know it.

Dai di. Deuces. He's played it before; a team of liars and cheaters and card sharks and geniuses had to rotate card games often to keep it entertaining. Sniper tries not to let his relief show as he tells the man, "Challenge accepted."

Spy pressed against his side as they sit around a crate, playing cards by the light of a kerosene lamp. "You are a terrible bluff," he pointed out gleefully.

"Ain't my fault I'm playing with a weasel and the smartest man on base," Sniper grumbled, waving to Pyro as he added, "and whatever you are."

Spy snorted. "The labourer wins because he counts cards –"

Engie interrupted with a good-natured scoff, "The snake wins because he cheats."

"I bluff," Spy corrected with a smirk. "And the Pyro wins because they have… an impenetrable poker face. Among us, you would get more mileage following in Pyro's lead."

Sniper mulled this over, returned the head tilt that Pyro gave him with one of his own. "A poker face, eh?"

"May as well have that horse face be good for something –"

"Oi."

"– and you are observant, being a sniper. You should be able to glean some of their tells, if not mine. Give it a go, mon ami."

Sniper ended up losing the next three rounds anyway, because the air hung heavy with humidity; Spy had shed his jacket and the garters cinching his sleeves tight around his forearms were very distracting. But with the night so quaint, with Spy warm and languid at his side, Sniper found it hard to be upset.

He's never gleaned any of Spy's tells but the brute before him isn't Spy, and doesn't hide his tells as well. The muscle in his jaw ticks in an ill-repressed smile. He thumbs the corner of his cards impatiently when he wants Sniper to fall for his lure. There's a furrow between his brows that deepen as he realises Sniper's expression gives nothing away. There's a twitch at his right eye when he draws a bad card, and it twitches again when Sniper gains the upper hand, and it is positively throbbing as the final round draws to a close.

With a nasty, throaty chuckle, Sniper lays his hand down – a straight flush – and grins at the brute. "Too bad! Guess I'll be taking him."

"Guess again," the brute snarls, furious at being beat at his own game, and reaches for the gun at his hip.

At once, Sniper is on his feet. He reached towards his hip, not for the handle of his kukri, but his SMG. The way the eyes follow the path of his hand, then widen, was not lost on him. The brute and his friends are armed with rifles and pistols but more of them means more targets for Sniper to hit, especially if he lets loose in such a cramped space. A shoot out will not be pretty for any of them.

Bloody hell. What would Spy do in such a sticky situation? Stand in that cocky manner of his, chest puffed out, and lie his way out. But that was impossible; if Sniper even tried to mimic his posture, he'd fall back on his ass. Instead he draws himself to his full height, a good head taller than any other man here, and bares his teeth like a vicious animal. "I won him fair and square! An' I'll gun through the lot of you to get what belongs to me!"

The stalemate draws out for a long terse moment, before a clear voice rings out, "Let him go."

The young barkeep, who kept his change, to his rescue! She arches an eyebrow when the men begin to protest, and slams down a shot glass down against the counter. "Who wants to explain to Pa that they shot up his bar, harh?! He'll skin that pretty ink off you!"

As she whirls upon the brute – "And you! I saw you lose to that ang moh! Still want to say what?!" – Sniper hurries to Spy, yanking him up by his arm, masking his concern as another sneer when Spy lurches and hisses in pain. With no time to spare, Sniper hooks an arm around his waist and leads his hard-fought prize out of the bar, grinning fiercely.

As soon as they're safe in his hotel room, Sniper lowers Spy gingerly onto to bed, making sure not to jar his injuries. He's glad he had the presence mind to lay out the contents of his first aid kit on the rickety side table as he peels off Spy's shirt – there is a coconut-sized concave in the left side of Spy's rib cage, bones cracked inwards. A painkiller first, administered by needle, and then the lone health pack is applied to that cave in, admitting a soft red glow that contrasts with the sick crackling as Spy's ribs pop back into place.

Weakly, Spy whines as his most grievous injury heals, his eyelashes flutter as he strains to open his eyes, and then he's rasping, "Sniper! What a sight for sore eyes."

Sniper wants to laugh with relief, that Spy still has it in him to be a mouthy bastard. "Can't say the same for you." Just at a glance, Sniper spots ruptured blood vessels in one eye, bruises spread across his pale skin like watercolour, and numerous lacerations already yellow with infection in this tropical weather.

It's unclear if Spy hadn’t heard him, or if he chose to ignore him; either way, instead of replying, Spy hums under Sniper's careful hands, and informs him, "I saw your performance. Lying and trickery! I had not expected these from you! It was very impressive."

"No jab about how I learnt from the best?" No matter that Sniper did learn from the best. No matter that Spy does inspire him to be more. Gritting his teeth, Sniper sets about cleaning the open wounds next.

"That goes without saying. Why, with such a promising teacher, perhaps there's a spy in you after all!" This awful, heavy-handed innuendo is too much for Spy to tolerate, and he dissolves into feverish laughter.

"You're stupid," Sniper tells Spy shortly, focusing instead on looping bandages around his poor, abused torso.

"Oh no, don't learn that from me." Spy chuckles wetly.

Sniper thumbs away the blood from the corner of his mouth. "Learn what?"

"Petty insults in lieu of honesty."

Sniper looks away. "I was bein' real honest when I called you stupid."

"Sure, sure." Spy laughs again, and as he lists slightly, reaches out to Sniper for support. "Is that all you want to say to me?

Catching that hand, Sniper holds it against his cheek for a moment, bites his lower lip, then gives up his search for words, and turns his mouth to Spy's palm.

Spy huffs and leans into Sniper, sulking. "Well I'm glad to see you."

There's a petulance in his voice that makes Sniper snort. Helplessly, he abandons the first aid just for the moment, to rest his forehead lightly on Spy's shoulder, cheek against the side of his neck. "You're delirious," Sniper tells him, but with a sigh, relents. "I'm glad to see you too."

Drop me an ask with a prompt if you, too, want a haphazard prompt fill! (9*^*)9 I’ll be with my thesis until the next prompt, or the deadline o/

#tf2 #sniperspy #sniper #spy #shout out to loopy painkillers and the most.. local thing i've written for this fandom yet hahahaha #shout out to the ridiculous way spy stands #how does he not topple backwards #is he compensating for sniper's slouch #ficbit #mine

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menimusings-blog · 7 years

Text

Competing, Winning & True Contentment from it all!

It started off for me as a sustainable way to remain fit – a 2 hour doubles badminton game every weekend. While data may say that this much is not enough at my age, but then it’s a good start, I have been at it regularly now for over 6 months and it has sustained, unlike gym and running and lawn tennis that I tried earlier. We now have a regular team of 6 people taking turns. The running around, the stretches, the sweating helps and one goes back home relaxed and well bonded.

Our adjacent court also had 4 players and I ended up noticing what’s occurring there whenever I took a break.

This piece is about that group.

That group also got formed when four friends from one neighborhood started coming together every weekend for a few games. As their games improved over time, they reached a stage where everyone had the same standard of game and fitness levels. As a result most of the matches were close and often got decided at deuce.

But I have not yet come to the point. One of the members of that group I had noticed seemed to be able to win more number of doubles matches irrespective of whom he partnered with. Let me call him Tim. And, as I mentioned before, most of the games were generally won by a margin of 1-2 points and Tim had the best winning record. I started respecting Tim and gave him credit for what was “visible leadership” – he really pushed himself hard, took charge, was always changing his game based on changing situation and wanted to win every game.

But soon on closer scrutiny, all admiration ended. I started noting that Tim was a wily opportunist who never missed any chance to swoop down and usurp/steal a point – a shot that would have just landed very near the line but was out. He had a no doubts posture when the shuttle cock would have landed on his side as the opponents would be farther away. And even when the shuttle cock would have landed at the other end, he would contest and try hard. I often noticed that no one would protest, lest it became uncomfortable and ugly. After all, who wants to spoil the fun? People would let him take the point. If there was a vehement challenge from an opponent, I saw that Tim would withdraw his claim.

The other facet where I noted with dismay was a different yardstick for oneself and a different one for his team mate. If Tim played a silly shot and lost a point he would be mildly disappointed at himself, but when his team mate lost a point because of a silly shot the level of visible anger, madness and disbelief got amplified many times.

Soon, I started observing that when they took turns to shuffle teams, two people would quickly team up as Tim’s opponents and the slowest of the three would ruefully walk to suffer one more game playing with Tom as his mate

I hope like me you also are drawing a lot of parallels from this with our daily lives. In today’s world with mostly everyone in the same tier/team having similar opportunities, hyper competition around us and colleagues working in homogeneous teams, the winning team will always be decided by small margins. There will never be unassailable and permanent leads. And opportunities (projects) will be like the badminton games we play – short duration, fast paced. There will hence be similar cunning and opportunistic Tims amidst us, with the skin of a hippo and in whose integrity white list; all points are worth going after. As I mentioned earlier, all things being equal, these snatched points then could make the difference between the winner and the vanquished – at that point in time!

But, then as this situation I gave in the weekend game, it is worth reflecting whether these so called wins engineered through such means – is it worth it in the long term? Starting with one’s conscience which one cannot fool or lie to when one does something wrong, to knowing but not acknowledging that this shoddy behavior does not endear you to society with no one wanting to even partner with you, is it not clearly an unsustainable and foolish path to nowhere. Our working lives are like a series of small, short term projects in one company or stints with companies. Our career, reputation and one’s personal brand – at work and in society should be free from deceit and malice. And, life is like a marathon, will always come full circle. Anyway, corporate history is laced with obituaries of many organizations which either fail to notice, or maybe ignore and even tacitly promote such Tim’s and their definition of “result orientation” !

To end the story, Tim continued to test and stretch the limits as his group of friends did not want dissonance. After all who wants to spoil the atmosphere for a couple of points or matches lost in such casual games?

Suddenly in between, Tim was out for a few weeks due to an emergency and he informed one member. That member posted in a newly created WhatsApp group about Tim’s impending unavailability. I guess the trigger happy social media habits people now have should be blamed, the post now and think later culture, no one realized that Tim is in that group but everyone sent copious posts on how they now looked forward to a few weeks of respite from the silly suffocation and could enjoy 2 weeks of unadulterated, corruption free weekends of badminton. One member even hoped, Tim does not return to their group.

Tim (hippo skin maybe a blessing here) did join back the same group, but was a reformed man. At least on court I never ever then saw him reverting to his old behavior.

The lesson to me is reinforcement to living by core values most of us I believe are born and brought up with. It is intuitive and innate in human beings. And, the second reinforcement is that a lie “very near” to a truth is still never a truth. As responsible citizens and adults we should not wait for a stroke of luck that accidentally engineered Tim’s reform. Many impressionable youngsters could get swayed. Don’t we now realize the value of the boring Moral Science and Civics class at school decades back, not sure if they are still taught!

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UFC 209 Preview

WHAT'S HAPPENING: *Fight Night from Halifax pretty much followed the same script as most of UFC's offerings this year, that terrible UFC 208 card aside - nothing was particularly amazing, but the card was filled with pretty solid, well-matched action from top to bottom. The best fight of the night was probably the main event, which saw Derrick Lewis get stunned early by some body kicks but come back to score a TKO stoppage over Travis Browne in the second round - in fact, this was the kind of crazy brawl that UFC 208 really could've used, which is somewhat bittersweet, since this fight was in fact initially slated for that card. But all's well that ends well, since being in the main event slot here gave Lewis a platform to be the guy everyone would be talking about the next day, and boy did he give people something to talk about. Lewis kicked things off by explaining that he wasn't actually hurt by Browne's body kicks early in the fight, but just suddenly needed to, well, drop a deuce, then went on about being happy he could knock Browne out because of previous domestic violence allegations against Browne. Somewhere in there was a weird comment asking where Travis Browne's current girlfriend, Ronda Rousey's "fine ass" was, along with some distaste for the snow in Halifax, and then in the post-fight interview on FS1, Lewis apparently had a toy UFC belt and was proclaiming himself interim heavyweight champ. So yeah, Lewis will probably eventually say the wrong thing at some point - assuming something in this interview wasn't already it - but for now, just enjoy the ride, I suppose. Also, Lewis suddenly finds himself as fresh blood near the top of the heavyweight division, as despite a pretty limited game, his sheer physicality means he's probably one or two fights away from a title shot and should probably be fighting contenders from here on out. While Lewis will probably be overmatched against all those guys, he hits hard enough and seems to do a solid enough job of just surviving that there's actually a chance he could knock out pretty much anyone in the division. As for Browne, this marks three straight losses, and I have no idea where he goes from here - he apparently spent parts of this camp with three different teams, and he looked more comfortable than he had in his last few fights, but one fears that Edmund Tarverdyan's coaching may have broken Browne's game for good. *The co-main event was a weird one going in, with Johny Hendricks and Hector Lombard both trying to revive their careers in the former's middleweight debut, but it wound up being a pretty solid bout. Things went back and forth, and both guys probably looked the best they have in a while as far as the latter stages of their careers; both are obviously diminished, but there's enough veteran craft and bursts of violence that it was a fine nip-tuck three rounds. Hendricks wound up getting the win, and it was pretty nice in the aftermath to see him actually being happy about fighting again, as he finally found a weight class he could make and just seemed overjoyed with how much energy he was able to fight with now that he wasn't training himself to attempt making welterweight. Sadly, I'm not really sure how well things are going to go going forward, since Hendricks is still quite undersized for the weight class, but he should be able to hang around as sort of a top-ten gatekeeper of sorts, as long as UFC doesn't feel pressured to put him into bigger fights. *Outside of the top two fights, the biggest result probably took place about halfway through the undercard, as Randa Markos got a stunner of an upset over former strawweight champ Carla Esparza. Esparza's been looking to get back into action for a while, as she's been sort of the forgotten woman at the top of the strawweight division, while Markos's career seemed to be careening downwards after some camp changes and a few losses. But Markos looked better than she has in a while here, using a weird, hunched-over striking stance to just keep Esparza at bay on the feet, then holding her own in the grappling department with one of the best wrestlers in the division. Honestly, I still thought Esparza won, but it was a narrow affair, and that alone was impressive from Markos - and getting the decision win has suddenly given her career new life, while it's suddenly Esparza that's looking for answers. *Running through the rest of the card, the most important result was probably Sara McMann pretty much running through late injury replacement Gina Mazany, as expected. McMann then gave the world's most polite callout to the winner of the assumed Nunes/Shevchenko bantamweight title fight, and honestly, McMann has suddenly revived her career and probably become the top contender; it's either her or Raquel Pennington, and that may be the fight to make in order to officially crown a top contender. Two Canadian prospects both made solid debuts, and it was actually the much less-heralded Gavin Tucker that had the more impressive one, outclassing a solid vet in Sam Sicilia on the feet and looking like someone UFC could make a priority in the Canadian market. Meanwhile, Aiemann Zahabi, brother of Tristar coach Firas and considered one of the top Canadian prospects out there, was merely solid in a win over Reginaldo Vieira; Zahabi was obviously the better fighter, but he just seemed to struggle a bit when faced with Vieira's aggression and forced to counter, enough so that Vieira easily could've stolen the fight through sheer activity. Canadian favorite Elias Theodorou got a big win over Cezar Ferreira, even if the fight wasn't all that pretty, as a grappling-based struggle. Two striking matches saw brutal finishes, as Paul Felder destroyed Alessandro Ricci's nose with a vicious up-elbow for a first-round stoppage, and Thiago Santos got a bit of a comeback win over Jack Marshman with a beautiful spinning wheel kick. Marshman's ridiculously tough, as while he was in no position to defend himself and the fight was rightfully stopped, the Welshman actually stayed awake and seemed to merely be stunned rather than unconscious from such a ridiculously violent blow. Santiago Ponzinibbio beat Nordine Taleb in another fun fight between two action welterweights, and midwestern vet Gerald Meerschaert opened up the card with a slick armbar submission over Ryan Janes. *UFC officially announced that Georges St. Pierre is back in the fold, and this week, Dana White went to ESPN to announce his comeback fight, and people...are not happy. There isn't a date or a venue, but St. Pierre will be making his comeback against Michael Bisping for the middleweight title, because...because. I'd say it's a fight that fans want to see, but is it? St. Pierre against Anderson Silva seemed to be the obvious win/win fight in terms of starpower and interest, playing off the years where the two were the consensus best fighters in the sport, and while I think Bisping's among the most entertaining personalities in the sport, he's never been a particularly big box office draw. I guess this all boils down to the squeaky wheel getting the grease once again, as Bisping has basically asked for the St. Pierre fight whenever he's had a public platform to do so, and much like the Dan Henderson fight, it seems management has eventually decided to let him call his shot. This also throws a wrench into the middleweight division, which already had a backlog of contenders after Bisping/Henderson, and I'm kind of of two minds: on the one hand, it is complete bullshit that guys like Yoel Romero and Jacare Souza have to wait things out for Bisping to fight a retiring non-contender and a career welterweight, but on the other, the pro wrestling fan in me does kind of love the storyline of Bisping dodging legitimate opponent after legitimate opponent and building to him finally getting his comeuppance. But it's just like, there were much better options for St. Pierre here, and if Bisping's such a draw, you'd think they'd try to get another fight out of him before late 2017. It's really unclear now when the fight is going to be - one would think it's a natural for UFC 213 over UFC's big July weekend in Vegas, but word is already out that GSP won't be ready by then; and UFC's September pay-per-view date in Canada is apparently out, since Dana White has already said the fight won't take place in St. Pierre's native country. So, I guess it'll be in Vegas at some date to be determined. *So, Cris Cyborg actually got her retroactive TUE, and is amazingly free and clear to fight, per USADA. While Cyborg didn't actually bother to disclose any of the drugs she was taking until she was actually notified of the failed test, USADA ruled that the treatment she was receiving was in fact the standard care for her depression issues, and that outweighed the fact that those drugs are banned out of competition. Okay then. I'd imagine similar stuff to this has happened in the past, and at the very least there probably should've been a brief suspension since she didn't disclose any of this beforehand, but...yeah. It's not like we figured she wasn't on the juice anyway, so I guess we'll just go on with our lives as she fights in a division that doesn't really exist. *Speaking of USADA, a few changes are going into effect on April 1st when it comes to UFC's drug testing policy. Essentially, the main change will close the loophole that basically prevented once-cut fighters like Ben Saunders and Angela Hill from returning to UFC on short notice - now, rather than a mandatory four-month drug testing window for anyone returning to UFC, it'll be six months, but only apply to those who left UFC involuntarily. So, essentially, if you're cut, you're free to be re-signed and return, but if you retire, you'll theoretically have to re-enter the drug testing pool for half a year before allowed to fight again. Also, the "in-competition" window will now be considered closed after a fighter's post-fight drug test; this basically clears up the controversy that happened at UFC 202, where Nate Diaz was smoking cannabis oil after his drug test, but nobody seemed to be sure if he was technically still "in competition" at the time. *A few years back, a Zuffa presentation to investors infamously said that their goal was "Global Fucking Domination" - and it looks like for the first time in a while, UFC's starting to roll that back, at least financially. Off the huge cuts a few weeks back, a few more fighters have left the promotion, and in an interesting bit of synergy, they're all doing so because of better opportunities back home. The big one is flyweight contender Kyoji Horiguchi, who was reportedly set to be a free agent, and did indeed sign with RIZIN in his native Japan shortly after that leaked out. As one of the best Japanese fighters in the world, Horiguchi figured to get a big offer from whatever Japanese company was willing to pay him, and despite Horiguchi being a young, exciting fighter near the top of a thin division, they didn't see the offer as worth matching. One would think this would've been a problem in the past, but it really hasn't been, and part of that has been UFC being fairly proactive as far as letting fighters not even reach free agency; but that's one of the side effects of corroding the goodwill between fighters and management, whether it be the Reebok deal or just UFC's management style in general - guys are going to be willing to see if there are greener pastures. Similarly, the promotion surprisingly cut light heavyweight contender Nikita Krylov, who was another rising young talent in a thin division, albeit one coming off a loss. But this wound up being a case of UFC being proactive in the completely other direction - Krylov had apparently made it clear he was going to sign with a promotion in Russia once his UFC deal was done, and with one fight remaining on his deal, UFC just decided to cut him loose. Krylov's already signed with Fight Nights, and it's unsurprising that he'd get a big deal with the promotion - long story short, MMA promotions have become a way for Russian oligarchs to basically try and curry favor with the national government, and Krylov, as a Russian-sympathetic Ukrainian with a high UFC profile, is a big get. And lastly, while he's nowhere near as big a name as the other two, Korean fighter Dongi Yang also asked for and was granted his release to join Korean start-up promotion Gleamon FC. Yang was somewhat surprisingly brought back for a second UFC run when UFC ran Seoul in November of 2015, but he had trouble getting booked since - his only other slated fight was against Ryan Janes on the Manila card which wound up getting scrapped. So it's somewhat unsurprising that Yang decided to go somewhere where he could actually fight, but it's also a sign of the times that guys are willing to ask for their release from the biggest promotion in the world. *On the plus side, after Dana White said he was done with the promotion, UFC did in fact wind up re-signing top light heavyweight prospect Misha Cirkunov. When White said that negotiations had fallen apart, it seemed like WME-IMG cheaping out once again, but then word got around that UFC had actually made Cirkunov a pretty competitive offer in line with what you'd expect a rising young fighter with some promotional upside to get. Cirkunov looked poised to be one of UFC's Canadian stars going forward after a big win over Nikita Krylov in his adopted hometown of Toronto, so it's nice to see that at least in one case, everyone came to their senses. *Bellator gonna Bellator, as nothing went right for the promotion at Bellator 172. The card was slated to be headlined by Fedor Emilianenko returning to face Matt Mitrione, but that fight got called off hours before the event was slated to start, as Mitrione suddenly came down with a case of kidney stones. After some scrambling for a replacement - with Chael Sonnen apparently being one of the options - Bellator just ran out of time to get a deal done, and the card went on with local favorite and UFC vet Josh Thomson facing Patricky Pitbull in the main event. Bellator has been building for a fight between Thomson and lightweight champion Michael Chandler for a while now, so, of course, Patricky knocked Thomson out in the second round, becoming the first man to finish Thomson since Yves Edwards all the way back in 2004. And the other big UFC veteran on the card was also a complete bust, as Josh Koscheck finally made his Bellator debut...only to get knocked out by Mauricio Alonso, a Brazilian journeyman pretty much signed as a showcase opponent for Koscheck. Koscheck's chin is completely done at this point, and I really hope he retires, to be quite frank about it. *And as seemingly always, we end things with a note on a drug test or a suspension, as Tom Lawlor has been suspended for two years after a failed test for ostarine. Lawlor, who's been a fan favorite for years running now, has pretty much stopped just short of saying he's retired, as he'll be 35 by the time he can fight again and seemed close to ending his career due to injuries anyways. Lawlor's test failure was a surprising once, since he's been a pretty vocal anti-steroid voice for years running, and he's been pretty open about the fact that he has no idea how the ostarine got in his system. But, well, that's not an excuse, so a two-year suspension it is. ------ BOOKINGS: *Well, the big news is the GSP/Bisping fight mentioned above, but UFC also added a bunch of interesting stuff to the slate over the last two weeks, the highlight of which is probably them really stacking up the UFC 211 card in Dallas this May. Already announced for the card were two big heavyweight fights, the main event title fight between Stipe Miocic and Junior dos Santos, as well as a tilt between Fabricio Werdum and Ben Rothwell, and it looks like they've filled out the rest of the main card. After some rumors of the fight taking place on a few different cards, the expected Joanna Jedrzejczyk/Jessica Andrade strawweight title fight, which should be a good one, will co-main the card here, and somewhat surprisingly, Demian Maia and Jorge Masvidal will square off in what might be a #1 contender's fight at welterweight. After tapping out Carlos Condit and making it look easy last August, Maia, somewhat rightfully, was sitting out waiting for a title shot, though there was some talk that he could face Donald Cerrone in a fight to crown the top contender. But with Masvidal beating Cerrone, well, it looks like he's taking Cowboy's spot. Weirdly, the Maia/Masvidal fight was initially rumored to be taking place on the Nashville card, which threw into question exactly what was going on, since Cub Swanson and Artem Lobov were already announced as the main event for that card. But the bout eventually landed in Dallas, and it's unclear what that means for the Eddie Alvarez/Dustin Poirier fight that was also expected for that card, but hasn't officially been announced. If it's indeed at UFC 211, that's a pretty ridiculously stacked main card, but one wonders if Maia/Masvidal heading there means it's being moved to a different date - after all, that Fox show from Kansas City still needs a main event... *UFC was expected to run Copenhagen for the promotion's debut in Denmark over Memorial Day weekend, but it looks like those plans are off - but UFC will still be making its way to Scandinavia, as May 28th will mark their return to Stockholm, Sweden. And we have a main event - unsurprisingly, the card will be headlined by Sweden's own Alexander Gustafsson, this time taking on Glover Teixeira. UFC tried to make the bout once before, in June of 2015, but things fell through due to injury and that card instead saw Joanna Jedrzejczyk beat the piss out of Jessica Penne in her first title defense. They also added a few other bouts featuring Swedish fighters, as Magnus Cedenblad will take on Chris Camozzi, and Jack Hermansson will take on Alex Nicholson, both at middleweight. There was also the brief rumor of top heavyweight prospect Francis Ngannou taking on Stefan Struve, but Struve ended those rumors in short order, as he's apparently still recovering from surgery. That does seem to be a slated fight for sometime later in the year, though, which makes one wonder exactly why UFC seems to hate Stefan Struve. *Some other fun fights are taking place, so let's run through them. UFC 212, the Aldo/Holloway card in Brazil, got a fun main card fight, as the rumored Claudia Gadelha/Karolina Kowalkiewicz bout between Joanna Jedrzejczyk's toughest tests to date will take place there. UFC 210 in Buffalo added some interesting fights, even if the main card isn't particularly stacked - after a one-off attempt to make lightweight, Thiago Alves heads back up to welterweight to face Patrick Cote. And two New Yorkers get to fight on the card - top lightweight prospect Gregor Gillespie takes on Andrew Holbrook, and Bellator vet Desmond Green makes his UFC debut against Josh Emmett. Nashville added three fights to a card that's shaping up nicely - John Dodson and Eddie Wineland square off in what should be a fun as hell bantamweight fight, native Tennesseean Ovince St. Preux takes on Marcos Rogerio de Lima in a fight St. Preux badly needs to win, and Cindy Dandois makes her UFC debut against fellow grappler Alexis Davis. Belgium's Dandois has been a pretty solid featherweight in Invicta, so one would think they'd sign her to join a division that needs, you know, fighters, but nope - this one will see Dandois cut down to 135, which she's also fought at in the past. And while the Fox card in Kansas City still needs a main events, some solid fights got added, headlined by Jeremy Stephens taking on featherweight prospect Renato Moicano. Stephens had been rumored to take on Gilbert Melendez on this card, but Moicano's a fine replacement violence-wise, even if he doesn't have the name value. Talented lightweights Rashid Magomedov and Bobby Green will square off, veteran grapplers Nathan Coy and Zak Cummings will take each other on, and in what might be the most interesting fight of them all, uber-prospect Tom Duquesnoy makes his UFC debut against Patrick Williams. And to wrap things up, UFC 211 also added one more fight, between TUF: Latin America alums Enrique Barzola and Gabriel Benitez. *And lastly, UFC added two more events to the schedule. UFC 214 got moved up a week, as UFC will now head to Anaheim on July 29th. And the company announced their return to Singapore for a card on June 17th - no fights have been announced, outside of the expected debut of top Chinese fighter Guan Wang, as UFC is suddenly trying to promote Chinese talent again. Hopefully it goes better this time around. ----- ROSTER CUTS: 1) Kyoji Horiguchi (18-2 overall, 7-1 UFC, last fought 11/19/16, W vs. Ali Bagautinov): As mentioned above, Horiguchi is the most surprising name UFC has let get away in recent memory, since he's an exciting, young fighter that still has a bunch of upside while being a top contender in a thin division. It was kind of absurd that Horiguchi got a title shot when he did, in April of 2015, coming off of wins against Darrell Montague, Jon Delos Reyes, and Louis Gaudinot, but options were scarce, and UFC just decided to throw a talented prospect to the wolves. Horiguchi was unsurprisingly outclassed there, but he's continued to improve and looked excellent in his last fight over top veteran Ali Bagautinov, even mixing in some clinchwork and grappling to go with his typical powerful striking style. That fight was the last on his contract, and as possibly the best Japanese fighter in the world, Horiguchi must've known the big offers were coming, and he signed with RIZIN pretty much right after becoming a free agent. He's already slated for a fight in April, and honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if RIZIN soon had a flyweight division roughly the same level as UFC's, Johnson aside. 2) Nikita Krylov (21-5 overall, 6-3 UFC, last fought 12/10/16, L vs. Misha Cirkunov): Farewell to Nikita Krylov, owner of one of the most bizarre UFC careers in recent memory. The Ukrainian came into UFC as a pudgy, 21-year old heavyweight with an undefeated record (because his losses had mysteriously not yet been reported), and put on an instant classic in his UFC debut against Soa Palelei for all the wrong reasons, as the two giants just tired immediately and then just sort of flopped around at half-speed until Palelei won after Krylov essentially got too tired to defend himself. That earned Krylov instant cult favorite status among the MMA hardcores, and his subsequent two fights just helped that right along - Krylov came out of nowhere to uncork a head-kick knockout of Walt Harris in just 25 seconds, but then cut down to 205 and got immediately tapped out by Ovince St. Preux with a basic choke. That seemingly established Krylov as a joke for the rest of his career, but then he suddenly went ahead and became an actual prospect, further trimming down and becoming a weird fighter who wasn't all that good, but was ridiculously tough and aggressive and had just enough of an idea of what he was doing to put away his opponents. Krylov then faced off with Misha Cirkunov in a rare prospect-versus-prospect fight at light heavyweight, and finally found his match in another top-tier athlete who was able to weather the storm and take advantage of the openings Krylov provided, eventually clamping on a choke for the submission. Cirkunov's future was still fairly bright, so it was a surprise when UFC cut him, until it came out that Krylov only had one fight left on his deal, and made it apparent he was going to sign back in Russia. And indeed, Krylov signed with Fight Nights shortly thereafter. 3) Valerie Letourneau (8-6 overall, 3-3 UFC, last fought 12/10/16, L vs. Viviane Pereira): Letourneau confirmed her release from UFC on social media, and she had a weird run - frankly, I'm still unclear if she was actually all that good. Letourneau was a bit of a surprise choice for a late-notice slot on a card in 2014 - while the Montreal native is a pioneer in Canadian women's MMA, her lone UFC exposure was a loss on TUF to Roxanne Modafferi, whose career seemed all but over at that point. But Letourneau got a debut win in a fairly trash fight over Elizabeth Phillips, and then surprisingly made the cut down to strawweight, where she looked absolutely brutal and drained on the scale. Still, she made weight for another win over Jessica Rakoczy - in another fight where neither woman looked all that good - and then scored a win over Maryna Moroz where Letourneau's game suddenly looked fairly impressive. Still, it was a shock when she was chosen to fight Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the strawweight title after that win - the thought was seemingly, since this was the big Rousey/Holm show, that Letourneau would be a solid opponent for Jedrzejczyk to have a showcase win over. But to her credit, Letourneau managed to hang in there for all five rounds, which was far from expected, and seemingly had cemented herself as a top-ten or so strawweight. And then the wheels fell off. Letourneau faced Joanne Calderwood in a one-off flyweight fight and had a competitive loss, albeit one where Letourneau struggled with an ill-fitting top and then got knocked out, and once UFC decided not to add Letourneau's natural division, it was back down to 115, where she drained herself once again, but still missed weight against Viviane Pereira. And that Pereira fight wound up being absolutely awful - Letourneau had a comical size advantage, but was too drained to do anything with it, and the result was just a terrible fight where nobody really deserved to win. After that performance, I kind of don't blame UFC for cutting Letourneau, and hopefully she can now fight somewhere where she can be at flyweight, and not put herself through such a rough weight cut. 4) Dongi Yang (13-3 overall, 2-3 UFC, last fought 11/28/15, W vs. Jake Collier): As mentioned above, Yang requested his release after basically not being booked, instead choosing to latch on with a new promotion in his native Korea. In his initial UFC run from 2010 through 2012, Yang was one of those mid-tier guys who had a bad record due to some tough matchmaking, as UFC decided to keep feeding him to what were then top prospects like Court McGee and Brad Tavares. But he was still a surprising signing when UFC decided to hold an event in Korea, since in the intervening three and a half years, Yang had only fought twice. But he got a win in that return fight over Jake Collier, and then...nothing. UFC didn't run Asia in all of 2016, and Yang's lone booking was on a card in Manila that wound up getting scrapped. ----- UPCOMING UFC SHOWS: 3/11 - UFC Fight Night 106 - Fortaleza, Brazil - Vitor Belfort vs. Kelvin Gastelum, Edson Barboza vs. Beneil Dariush, Mauricio Rua vs. Gian Villante 3/18 - UFC Fight Night 107 - London, England - Corey Anderson vs. Jimi Manuwa, Alan Jouban vs. Gunnar Nelson 4/8 - UFC 210 - Buffalo, NY - Daniel Cormier ( c ) vs. Anthony Johnson, Gegard Mousasi vs. Chris Weidman 4/15 - UFC on Fox 24 - Kansas City, MO - Rose Namajunas vs. Michelle Waterson, Gilbert Melendez vs. Jeremy Stephens 4/22 - UFC Fight Night 108 - Nashville, TN - Artem Lobov vs. Cub Swanson, Al Iaquinta vs. Diego Sanchez, Sam Alvey vs. Thales Leites 5/13 - UFC 211 - Dallas, TX - Stipe Miocic ( c ) vs. Junior dos Santos, Joanna Jedrzejczyk ( c ) vs. Jessica Andrade, Ben Rothwell vs. Fabricio Werdum, Demian Maia vs. Jorge Masvidal, Eddie Alvarez vs. Dustin Poirier 5/28 - UFC TBA - Stockholm, Sweden - Alexander Gustafsson vs. Glover Teixeira 6/3 - UFC 212 - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil - Jose Aldo (c) vs. Max Holloway (ic), Claudia Gadelha vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz ----- UFC 209 - March 4, 2017 - T-Mobile Arena - Las Vegas, Nevada It's pretty crazy to think that this card essentially marks the one-year anniversary of Nate Diaz's win over Conor McGregor, a fight that helped establish 2016 as pretty much the peak year in UFC history, as well as more or less upend the entire way that the company promotes fights. And while this isn't that level of a card, this show does sort of serve as a tentpole for the beginning third or so of 2017, as this features two of the best fights that UFC can put on at the moment. And they actually did a pretty solid job of loading this card up - pretty much every fight on this card should be fun, and frankly, UFC's matchmaking has been excellent lately, as even the fights that may not be that great to watch (Evans/Kelly, maybe Bektic/Elkins) are really interesting fights to see where certain guys stand at the moment. After a rough two months to start the year, it looks like UFC is finally shaking out of their doldrums, and this card is really kickstarting that into motion. Whee. MAIN CARD (Pay-Per-View - 10:00 PM ET): Welterweight Championship: ( C ) Tyron Woodley vs. (#1) Stephen Thompson Interim Lightweight Championship: (#1) Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. (#2) Tony Ferguson Middleweight: Rashad Evans vs. Daniel Kelly Lightweight: David Teymur vs. Lando Vannata Heavyweight: (#3) Alistair Overeem vs. (#8) Mark Hunt PRELIMINARY CARD (Fox Sports 1 - 8:00 PM ET): Heavyweight: Luis Henrique vs. Marcin Tybura Featherweight: (#13) Mirsad Bektic vs. (#14) Darren Elkins Bantamweight: (#15) Iuri Alcantara vs. Luke Sanders Heavyweight: Mark Godbeer vs. Daniel Spitz PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass - 6:30 PM ET): Light Heavyweight: Paul Craig vs. Tyson Pedro Women's Strawweight: Cynthia Calvillo vs. Amanda Cooper Bantamweight: Albert Morales vs. Andre Soukhamthath THE RUNDOWN: Tyron Woodley (16-3-1 overall, 6-2-1 UFC, 8-1 Strikeforce) vs. Stephen Thompson (13-1-1 overall, 8-1-1 UFC): UFC 205 will rightfully be best remembered for Conor McGregor becoming UFC's first simultaneous two-weight champion, or for being the promotion's big debut in Madison Square Garden, but the best fight of the night was the welterweight title bout, a majority draw between champion Tyron Woodley and challenger Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson. It took a bit to get going, but it was a pretty great, back and forth affair; for being a fairly stout wrestler going against a highly decorated kickboxer, Woodley did an excellent job of hanging with Thompson on the feet, and had the best moments of either fighter in a one-sided round four, where Woodley pretty much beat Thompson pillar to post and clamped on a tight guillotine that Thompson was lucky to survive. And as it turns out, Woodley needed that one-sided fourth round, as even though many thought Woodley won the fight (and, to be fair, a bunch also had it for Thompson), that 10-8 round was enough to tie it on two out of the three scorecards. So, of course, a draw necessitates a rematch, and UFC runs it back here, about four months later. Even though the draw was probably frustrating, the first Thompson fight was the sort of great bout and great performance that Woodley seemingly needed to be taken seriously as welterweight champion; before this, Woodley was sort of seen as an unworthy title-holder, who had some high-profile failures, beaten some weaker names, and then basically just waited things out until he got a title shot, as more interesting fighters were booked in other fights. And when Woodley knocked out Robbie Lawler in fairly sudden fashion once he got his shot, Woodley was just sort of seen as a boring spoiler in the division, and most assumed Thompson would be able to take the title from him and move on to more fun, violent things. But as mentioned above, Woodley held his own, and given that consensus has seemingly crystallized that he probably got the better of things in the first fight, it's nice to see him now taken seriously as one of the top welterweights in the world, even if he seems to be filling the role of well-spoken, somewhat cocky, black athlete that irrationally arises the ire of parts of the fanbase that Rashad Evans used to fill. And that's made for a solid contrast against Thompson, who's pretty much as white-bread as they come, as a karate practitioner from South Carolina. These two really do make for an excellent matchup in terms of frame and style - again, Woodley's a short, compact wrestler who's learned how to leverage the knockout power in his fists, and he has a ridiculous ability to cover distance in a short amount of time when going for that finish. Woodley also tends to use a weird strategy where he actually starts to back himself up against the cage, seemingly in the hopes that his opponents will open themselves up for either a takedown or an overhand, and you can see why many thought Thompson would just pick him apart in his first fight. Thompson's done an excellent job of rounding himself out where other karate guys have faltered, leveraging his long frame into some excellent distance management, keeping active, and improving his takedown defense to the point that he can - typically - keep fights where he's most comfortable. Appropriately enough, given that it was a draw, their first fight has given a lot of insight as to how those styles will interact, but not so much in terms of who will actually win it this time around. Woodley, as mentioned, did a much better job on the feet than anyone probably could've expected, but Thompson should still figure to have the advantage there. And while Thompson could easily finish the fight with a well-placed kick, again, it was Woodley that came the closest to finishing things a few times both on the feet and on the ground. I really don't see anything less than a back and forth war, but I do always tend to favor wrestlers, since they can control where the fight takes place, and for that reason, I'll take Woodley to win a decision, since he had some success taking things to the ground in the first fight, and that should be able to serve as a safety valve, if not a way to just outright win the fight, as needed. Still, it's an excellent rematch of a fight that was surprisingly fun and helped establish Woodley's title reign, so hopefully whatever the result is, it sets things up so that we can get a trilogy fight in the coming years. Khabib Nurmagomedov (24-0 overall, 8-0 UFC) vs. Tony Ferguson (22-3 overall, 12-1 UFC): With all due respect to the main event, which is an excellent fight in its own right, I think people are most excited about this fight, which is one of the best UFC can put on at the moment - in fact, it's apparently the first fight between two guys each riding an eight-fight UFC win streak. And while it's somewhat ridiculous that they're fighting for an interim belt, I don't think anyone will complain about this being a five round fight; and as an added bonus, that belt theoretically acts as a golden ticket for the winner to face Conor McGregor, which should be a hell of a fight either way. Khabib Nurmagomedov's sort of loomed over the lightweight division as an uncrowned champion for a few years now - one of the first fighters to come into UFC of this recent wave of Dagestanis, Nurmagomedov has pretty much been the best, destroying opposition with his ridiculously stifling wrestling; hell, in his fight against Abel Trujillo, Nurmagomedov managed to hit a UFC-record twenty-one takedowns, despite it only being a three-round fight. Honestly, looking back on Nurmagomedov's first five fights, you could've made the case that his competition was rather weak, as a lot of his early opponents started trending south right after they faced Khabib - but all that's moot, since he really became a contender in fight number six, against future division champ Rafael dos Anjos. Both Nurmagomedov and dos Anjos were riding five-fight win streaks, and the winner seemed set to be a title contender if they weren't already, which made it all the more impressive when Nurmagomedov just stifled dos Anjos like he had every previous opponent. But while dos Anjos rebounded from that loss to start another five-fight win streak that led him to the UFC championship, Nurmagomedov instead headed into surgery, as he tore up his knee over the summer of 2014. And as mentioned before, once dos Anjos won the title, Nurmagomedov's presence just loomed over the division, since by proxy, he figured to be the actual best lightweight in the world, but was just too hurt to compete. After a few teases of a return - the last of which was actually against Ferguson - Nurmagomedov finally came back in April of last year against late replacement Darrell Horcher, after another attempt to re-book the Ferguson fight fell through. And after taking about a round to shake off two years of rust, Nurmagomedov just simply picked up where he left off, dominating Horcher and setting his sights on lightweight gold. Khabib took out another contender, this time Michael Johnson, at UFC 205, and provided one of the best out-of-the-cage highlights of the night, stirring the mostly Irish crowd into a frenzy as he called Conor McGregor a chicken, and then talked about how he was going to make said chicken tap and win lightweight gold. Great stuff. But for everything Nurmagomedov has done, Ferguson has pretty much been right there with him, right down to beating dos Anjos in a hell of a five round fight just a week before Nurmagomedov's win over Johnson. Ferguson won season 13 of TUF back in 2011 and reeled off three quick wins, but after a flat loss to Johnson where it turned out that Ferguson had broken his arm, Ferguson was pretty much out of sight, out of mind for a good year and a half while he recovered. And when he came back at the tail end of 2013, Ferguson seemingly was starting over from scratch, working his way slowly up the ladder, against a lot of the same people Nurmagomedov faced, in fact. But while Nurmagomedov wins with just hard-nosed, straight-ahead wrestling, Ferguson instead does so with style; Ferguson is lanky for a lightweight, and he uses that frame to great effect, just sort of bouncing around everywhere, pecking away from distance, and occasionally doing some crazy things with movement, like doing a weird ninja roll or striking from an unorthodox angle. And his grappling game is fairly similar - despite having a background in wrestling, Ferguson never really uses it, instead choosing to hop on all sorts of chokes, particularly a D'Arce that has become a bit of a signature after his crazy win over Edson Barboza. And it's that contrast in styles that makes this a ridiculously fun fight on paper, even past the talent of both guys; Nurmagomedov has never faced someone as dangerous and active as Ferguson, while a hard-charging Russian who just wants to cut through the shit and take Ferguson down is probably his toughest test yet. Honestly, for being such a fascinating fight on paper, this seems to be a pretty binary fight, and we'll probably figure out how it's going to go within the first few minutes, since it really comes down to if Khabib can catch Ferguson or he can't. We saw it briefly in the Johnson fight before Khabib took over, but Nurmagomedov's striking still isn't all that great, and is pretty much just a means to an end of getting close to take his opponent down and maul them. That could be a huge problem against someone with one-hitter quitter knockout power, like, say, McGregor, but despite being having some power, I don't really think of Ferguson as that type of guy. But what Ferguson is is evasive, and even worse for Khabib, Ferguson also seems to have one of the best gas tanks in MMA; he just always fights at a ridiculous pace, and if doing so for five rounds against Rafael dos Anjos at the elevation of Mexico City doesn't tire him out, a fight with Nurmagomedov probably won't. Unless, of course, Nurmagomedov just takes over and out-wrestles Ferguson to wear him out, but at that point, the question of if Ferguson can keep avoiding him is moot. I could see a scenario where Ferguson just pecks at Nurmagomedov from outside and then takes over as the Russian tires out, but honestly, I have the feeling it's only going to take one takedown for Nurmagomedov to take over the fight, and things should go downhill for Ferguson after that, since once Khabib gets into a groove, pretty much every fight to date has been over. So I'll take Khabib via decision, with a chance of a late finish if Nurmagomedov is able to take over early enough in the fight, but I do expect some trouble before the Russian figures things out and gets his hands on Ferguson. Either way, though, woohoo, what a fight. And I can't wait for the winner to face McGregor. Rashad Evans (19-5-1 overall, 14-5-1 UFC) vs. Daniel Kelly (12-1 overall, 5-1 UFC): While I'm happy that Dan Kelly has somehow had enough success to get such a big fight, it is kind of sad that it's come to this to see if Rashad Evans has anything left. Evans was never really been the biggest star, but he's been a UFC stalwart for over a decade, became UFC light heavyweight champion, and gave us some of the better rivalries in the history of the sport with Quinton Jackson and Jon Jones. But, for all intents and purposes, Evans's dominant win over Chael Sonnen in late 2013 was pretty much the end of his high-level career, or so it seems. Slated for a fight against Daniel Cormier that would've put the winner firmly in the title picture, Evans went down with a knee injury that was supposed to only keep him out for a month or so, but instead turned into a two-year ordeal of surgeries. And once Evans finally returned against Ryan Bader, he looked pretty much done - Evans went from 34 to 36-years old during his layoff and showed every year of it, just looking slow, getting out-struck by Bader, and not even having much success implementing his reliable wrestling game. And things went even worse in an attempted rebound fight against Glover Teixeira, as Evans did even less before getting obliterated via knockout in just under two minutes. And so Evans turned to the last resort of the fading fighter - changing weight classes, in this case cutting down to middleweight, though getting a fight booked at 185 became a bit of an ordeal itself. Thanks to privacy laws, it's unclear exactly what happened, but some sort of medical issue that Evans has apparently had throughout his entire career got flagged by the New York commission right before Evans was slated to fight at UFC 205. So his bout against Tim Kennedy was shifted a few weeks later, to UFC 206, only for Ontario to basically follow suit and refuse to clear Evans. But thankfully, there's always Nevada, so Evans can finally make his middleweight debut against, of all people, Australia's Dan Kelly, one of the unlikelier success stories of the last few years. A four-time Olympian in judo, Kelly didn't really take up MMA until he was 35 years old, and when he showed little on a Canada/Australia season of TUF a little over a year later, that figured to be that. But UFC was in full global expansion mode, signed Kelly to a contract anyways, and after two ugly wins over lower-level foes, Sam Alvey destroyed him under a minute and seemingly put an end to a fun little story to those who bothered to watch UFC's Australian shows. But then things took a bit of a crazy turn - after knocking off prospect Steve Montgomery, Kelly suddenly became a going concern in the middleweight division, scoring a come-from-behind finish over top prospect Antonio Carlos Junior in one of the bigger upsets of 2016, and then taking out solid vet Chris Camozzi on UFC's most recent card down under. It's a wonder to behold, as Kelly, who's been an underdog in all six of his UFC fights, just continues to win - he's kind of plodding and creaky on the feet, often wearing a giant knee brace, but he just bites down on his mouthpiece, wades in with some wild punches, and just hopes he can get close to his opponent. And to his credit, when he does, age goes out the window, and judo takes over, as Kelly just uses a combination of technique and sheer dad strength to take over his foes and just beat the piss out of them as they wonder how exactly this all happened. Amazingly, given all of Evans's accomplishments and given that Kelly's pretty much mostly been a curio during his UFC career, this is a somewhat hard fight to call, given that it's unclear exactly what Evans has left, as well as questions about how he'll look at a new weight class. If Evans was more of a finisher, I wouldn't have much of a problem picking him - Kelly tends to wear down his opponents through sheer tenacity, and Alvey showed that if you can just blast him early, you can score a quick knockout before tiring out. And hey, maybe Evans is just enough more of a powerhouse at middleweight to make that happen. But I could easily see a fight where Evans has some success early, tires due to the weight cut, and, once again, Kelly takes over the late stretches of a fight over an exhausted opponent to steal another win. But I kind of have to take Evans to win a decision - he has the size, the veteran wiles, and enough of a wrestling background that one should hope he should be able to neutralize Kelly, if not just outbox him for three rounds to keep him at bay. Still, to come full circle, as much as I love Dan Kelly's unlikely success, it's still sort of sad that it's come to this. David Teymur (5-1 overall, 2-0 UFC) vs. Lando Vannata (9-1 overall, 1-1 UFC): When Michael Chiesa was forced to back out of a main event against Tony Ferguson, and newcomer "Groovy" Lando Vannata stepped in, it was viewed as a bit of a disappointment, but instead, it may have been a launching pad for someone who may become a future star. First of all, the fight itself wound up being absolutely awesome - Ferguson seemingly finally met his match and faced someone with enough swagger as he has, as Vannata just sort of let things flow, played the evasion game on defense, and hit enough crazy counter-shots to actually have Ferguson briefly on the ropes before succumbing to a second-round submission. And rather than wind up as some one-hit wonder, Vannata instead followed that up by taking out John Makdessi with possibly the most aesthetically pleasing knockout of 2016, a walk-off spinning wheel kick that dropped Makdessi like a bird being shot out of the sky and established Vannata as a prospect to watch. Rather than rush Vannata back against high-level competition, UFC instead did a fascinating lateral move here, matching Vannata up against Swedish striking prospect David Teymur. Teymur wasn't particularly memorable on the McGregor/Faber season of TUF, but he's looked good since making it to the UFC roster proper, knocking out castmate Martin Svensson and then doing the same to newcomer Jason Novelli, both in rather brutal fashion. Like Vannata, Teymur hasn't shown much outside of dynamic, violent striking skill, but hey, that's more than enough to make you someone people want to see. This could be a bit of a tricky matchup for Vannata, but frankly, he's looked the better of the two and done so against much tougher competition. So while Vannata could dick around and get himself knocked out, and while I could see Teymur going fairly well early on as both guys feel the other out, I'll say Vannata eventually hits a groove (pun not intended, I swear) and scores a second round knockout. Alistair Overeem (41-15 [1] overall, 6-4 UFC, 4-0 Strikeforce, 7-7 PRIDE) vs. Mark Hunt (12-10-1 [1] overall, 7-4-1 [1] UFC, 5-3 PRIDE): It's an interesting fight between two late-career heavyweights, but UFC pretty much has to be screwing with Mark Hunt at this point by booking him against Alistair Overeem. Hunt's sudden career resurgence in UFC was a ridiculous one - even though he was pretty much just a super-heavyweight oddity, Hunt refused to be bought out of his PRIDE contract, and after a quick submission loss to Sean McCorkle, Hunt suddenly flashed some takedown defense and rode knockout after knockout all the way to an interim title shot. And since, he's been a fairly reliable hand - while a one-sided loss to Stipe Miocic pretty much confirmed a title won't be in his future, Hunt's been someone UFC can feature on a lot of shows in Australia or his native New Zealand, and he'll probably give you a fun as hell brawl and a knockout while doing it. But one of the sidebars of Hunt's career is that his opponents keep failing drug tests - Antonio Silva did so after their 2013 war, and Hunt's last two opponents did so, as Frank Mir flunked a drug test after the fight, and, well, then there was the whole Brock Lesnar mess. Lesnar came out of retirement to face Hunt at UFC 200, but UFC waived a mandatory four-month drug testing period to get Lesnar on the card, which caused the conspiracy theories to fly after Lesnar pissed hot following a surprising win over Hunt. Hunt, for his part, refused to fight unless UFC would guarantee him that he would receive his opponent's purse if they failed a drug test, and then sued the company; and while that lawsuit is still going on, Hunt basically needed the money and decided to take a fight that, of course, is against Overeem, one of the sport's most notorious drug cheats. Overeem exploded from a reedy light heavyweight to an absolute monster of a heavyweight over the course of his career, which mostly took place in Japan and other areas without drug testing, and whenever the Dutchman was prompted about the change, he'd knowingly give the credit to a diet of horse meat. Sure, horse meat. When UFC finally brought Overeem over from Strikeforce to debut against Lesnar, getting a drug test was, unsurprisingly, a bit of a hassle - Overeem just wound up getting a conditional license without having to pass one, as he submitted two samples that, for various reasons, weren't able to be tested, and pretty much waited out the clock. But the Nevada commission was finally able to catch him with a surprise drug test at a press conference, and Overeem finally pissed hot now that he didn't have any notice, which kept him out of action for all of 2012. And when Overeem returned, he was obviously a much diminished fighter without his horse meat - there was still some violent offense, but once opponents were able to weather the storm, Overeem would gas out and was pretty much a sitting duck for knockouts at the hands of guys like Antonio Silva, Travis Browne, and Ben Rothwell. But Overeem turned to Jackson-Wink in a last ditch effort to save his career, and the Albuquerque camp worked wonders, reinventing Overeem's game from a power striker to sort a combination outside boxer and grappler that was able to both leverage his physical gifts as well as keep his suddenly diminished chin safe. And Overeem rode that change to a four-fight win streak and a title shot, even though he fell short in a crazy brawl against Stipe Miocic. I really hope this fight is fun - if it stays on the feet, it's a really awesome battle of former top-flight kickboxers, pitting Overeem's athleticism against Hunt's durability. But in fights against one-dimensional opponents, Overeem has shown a willingness to just take things to the ground and play it safe, and I fear that's what happens here. Lesnar showed that while Hunt's takedown defense is much improved, and Hunt's short, squat body type makes him hard to take down, it can be done, and I see this fight playing out a lot like this one, with Overeem taking things to the ground and just keeping them there, much to the chagrin of the crowd. That said, there's still a chance at any moment that Overeem could just get lamped, and I'd love to be wrong just for entertainment's sake, but my pick is Overeem by fairly one-sided, disappointing decision. Luis Henrique (10-2 [1] overall, 2-1 UFC) vs. Marcin Tybura (14-2 overall, 1-1 UFC): Let's try this again. Much like Rashad Evans above, a minor medical issue made a skittish New York commission refuse to clear Luis Henrique, so rather than being on UFC 208, this fight will instead take place at 209. Henrique's an interesting talent - the Brazilian started his UFC run by getting his head knocked off by Francis Ngannou, but he's rebounded quite well, using aggression and wrestling to pretty much overwhelm some lower-level giants of the division, scoring submission wins over Dmitrii Smoliakov and Christian Colombo. Add in the fact that Henrique is somehow just 23 years old in a division where 30 is considered young, and the sky is pretty much the limit. But for now he has an interesting test in Poland's Marcin Tybura, who's in pretty much the opposite situation, coming in as a fully-formed vet. Despite coming in with a really solid regional record, Tybura disappointed in his UFC debut against Tim Johnson, where he pretty much got out-wrestled, but he rebounded in a huge way with a beautiful head kick knockout of Viktor Pesta. That Johnson fight, though, is representative of what I think might be Tybura's big problem in the UFC; while he's a skilled fighter, he's just not particularly large for a UFC heavyweight, and the company is basically filled with the biggest, toughest guys from every smaller promotion. Against another mid-sized heavyweight like Pesta, Tybura styled out, and what makes this interesting is that Henrique is somewhere in the middle - he's not quite cutting to 265 like some guys, but he's fairly big, and just wrestles like an absolute powerhouse. I'll lean towards the side of saying that Henrique's physicality winds up being too much for Tybura, and that the Brazilian wins a wrestling-heavy decision with a chance of a finish. Still, if Tybura can neutralize that wrestling game, his experience and striking skill might actually make Henrique a sitting duck. And that's really why UFC matchmaking has been wonderful lately - while I favor one guy, there's a chance the other could just as easily make that pick look stupid - ah, the wonders of this sport. Mirsad Bektic (11-0 overall, 4-0 UFC) vs. Darren Elkins (21-5 overall, 11-4 UFC): Mirsad Bektic was topping prospect lists in fairly short order after coming onto the MMA scene - a Bosnian refugee whose family fled to Germany and eventually wound up into Nebraska, Bektic is a top-flight athlete and an explosive wrestler who's quickly picking up the striking game, which, well, adds up to pretty much everything you'd want. He's still there to be hit a bit, but that hasn't really come close to hurting him yet, particularly when he can rush into a takedown at the first sign of danger. After beating some low-level competition, UFC finally looked ready to push Bektic up the ranks by matching him up against Tatsuya Kawajiri, but Bektic wound up tearing his ACL and missing the greater part of 2016. But when Bektic made his return at UFC 204 this past October, he pretty surprisingly picked up right where he left off and showed little, if any, rust, running through Russell Doane for a first-round finish. The one knock on Bektic at this point is his weak competition in the UFC - outside of Chas Skelly, everyone else is either out of the UFC or about to be - and this fight is going to fix that in a big way, as Darren Elkins is a perennially tough out. Since about 2012, Elkins has been a prospect-killer supreme; the Indiana native's game isn't pretty, but it works, as he just sort of goes after takedowns and gets his opponents to the mat through sheer force of will, basically staying on them and preventing them from getting any offense in. Elkins has lost enough fights to guys like Chad Mendes and Jeremy Stephens that a title run almost definitely isn't in the future, but Elkins can hang with pretty much anyone outside of the elite. Frankly, this fight really comes down to whose wrestling is better, and while Bektic has been a prodigy to date, we have yet to see him against someone who'll probably just ignore the hype, charge forward, and try to put him on his back. Elkins is currently about a three-to-one underdog, which seems wide to me, since while Bektic's offensive wrestling game is frightening and vicious, offensive and defensive wrestling seem to be two different skillsets, and again, there's always the chance that Elkins can put his opponent on their back first. But while there's way more upset potential than seemingly expected, I'll favor Bektic to take the decision - even after the ACL tear, Bektic's athleticism still seems otherwordly, and the Bosnian also should have the better striking to work with. But, that said, I don't really think it'll be a mauling like a lot of Bektic's other wins - this should be a pretty solid fight that sets Bektic up for bigger and better things. Iuri Alcantara (34-7 [1] overall, 8-4 [1] UFC, 1-0 WEC) vs. Luke Sanders (11-0 overall, 1-0 UFC, 1-0 Strikeforce): Well, Iuri Alcantara's back at the gatekeeper game, as Luke Sanders finally gets to follow up on an impressive debut and fight at his natural weight class. Alcantara's pretty much been a top-fifteen mainstay since cutting down to bantamweight in 2013, as he's won a great majority of his fights, and even in his losses, he's pretty much always put up a game performance as a jack of all trades, master of none. And it's that skill set that has pretty much made Alcantara UFC's go-to prospect test at 135, as a great part of his career in recent years has been spent fighting guys coming off impressive debuts. Jimmie Rivera outclassed Alcantara about a year ago as part of his rise up the division, which led some to think Alcantara's best days might be behind him, but the Brazilian followed up by blowing the doors off of Brad Pickett, so Alcantara seems to be far from done. This time around, Alcantara's test is Tennessee's Luke Sanders, who was a top prospect on the radar for a while before getting the late call-up from UFC last January. There, Sanders fought up a weight class and got a surprisingly quick win over Maximo Blanco and established himself as a name to watch...before dropping off the radar after not being booked for over a year. Anyway, Sanders is a similarly well-rounded guy who's good everywhere, but with no particular standout skill, which makes for an interesting fight, since it's unclear who should have the advantage where in each aspect of the fight. I could just flip a coin, but I'll actually slightly favor Sanders to win a decision, just because he seems more active and I trust him to win more rounds. Still, this figures to be a nip-tuck fight, and should either establish Sanders as yet another rising young bantamweight, or keep Alcantara as the big veteran test in the division. Mark Godbeer (11-3 overall, 0-1 UFC, 0-1 Bellator) vs. Daniel Spitz (5-0 overall): Heavyweights! British vet Mark "The Hand of" Godbeer made his UFC debut this past November, and, welp, it didn't go well at all, as what figured to be a striking match against Justin Ledet turned into Ledet getting an unlikely first-round submission. So Godbeer, who's pretty much a one-dimensional kickboxer, tries to rebound here against newcomer Daniel Spitz. Spitz is a former Washington State lineman training at Sikjitsu, the same team that's churned out Julianna Pena and Michael Chiesa, and gaining a rep as a camp where the coaching is pretty dumb (choosing not to focus on things like altitude and defense), but where you can become a pretty solid submission expert. The only fight of Spitz's that's really out there is against "Cabbage" Correira of all people, and while Spitz does look decent when it goes to the ground, most of the fight is spent with Spitz using his giant frame - at 6'7", he's a tall dude - to just sort of peck away and keep Correira at bay with single strikes. I think Spitz has a shot if he gets it to the ground - and Godbeer's grappling defense looked bad enough against Ledet that he just might be able to - but if this remains on the feet, Spitz just looks way too slow and defensively open for Godbeer to not just track him down and crack him. So my pick is Godbeer by first-round knockout, with the caveat that this is low-level heavyweights, and pretty much anything can happen. Paul Craig (9-0 overall, 1-0 UFC) vs. Tyson Pedro (5-0 overall, 1-0 UFC): It remains to be seen exactly what the hell UFC is doing with the light heavyweight division as they continue to let good talent walk, but on the plus side, this is a real interesting fight between two prospects coming off impressive debuts. Four first names enter. Only two will survive. Scotland's Paul Craig made a memorable debut this past December - the "Bearjew" nickname alone was probably enough, but Craig used an impressive wrestling and submission game to put away rising prospect Henrique da Silva within two rounds, and then gave a charming post-fight interview in an often-incomprehensible brogue. And, well, the debut also went pretty similar for Australia's Tyson Pedro - facing Khalil Rountree in his home country, Pedro ate some strikes early on, but got Rountree to the ground in short order, earning the tap to go to 5-0 with five first round finishes. It's an interesting fight since, well, both guys are pretty similar fighters, which is particularly fascinating since you rarely see submission experts in the higher weight classes. Either guy could easily win this, but I'll favor Craig to take over the fight and earn, let's say, a second round submission, mostly since Pedro's faced way weaker competition, both pre-UFC and when comparing da Silva and Rountree. Cynthia Calvillo (3-0 overall) vs. Amanda Cooper (2-2 overall, 1-1 UFC, 0-1 Invicta): UFC threw together two fights at the bottom of this card to help fill it out, and this does feel sort of thrown together, since both women are fairly unproven. Amanda Bobby Cooper didn't really impress in her lone Invicta fight, but she still managed to make it to the finals of TUF 23 before getting dominated by Tatiana Suarez. Cooper rebounded with her first UFC win over the since-retired Anna Elmose, but the whole package is just sort of...eh; Cooper's a solid enough boxer, but still sort of a sloppy grappler who gets herself into bad positions, which is probably trouble against the debuting Cynthia Calvillo. Calvillo probably sets some sort of record as far as a normal prospect goes, as she just started her pro MMA career this past August, so she's making her UFC debut about six months after officially starting. But the Team Alpha Male product has an amateur career going back to 2012 that includes a big win over current top prospect Aspen Ladd, who's actually the woman that beat Cooper in that aforementioned Invicta fight. Calvillo's film shows about what you'd expect from a raw Alpha Male fighter - the striking is still a work in progress, but she looks like a natural wrestler who's comfortable going for chokes or just mounting and beating the piss out of overmatched competition. Cooper's almost surely her toughest test to date, particularly on the feet, but given that I've never really been impressed by Cooper, I feel comfortable saying Calvillo can impose her game and get, let's say, a second-round stoppage on the ground. Albert Morales (6-1-1 overall, 0-1-1 UFC, 2-0 Bellator) vs. Andre Soukhamthath (11-3 overall): The second of two fights thrown on this card at the last minute, this one should be a barn-burner. Albert Morales has had a weird, brief UFC career thus far - the Californian was a ridiculously raw prospect when UFC scooped him up last year, and after a debut against Alejandro Perez that was called a draw thanks to some iffy refereeing, Morales was thrown in against top bantamweight Thomas Almeida in what wound up being a rebound fight for Almeida. UFC matchmaking has gotten better in terms of handling prospects, but Morales is a reminder that sometimes they don't really seem to have a plan in mind. But this is finally a well-matched fight against the debuting Andre Soukhamthath, a Laotian-American from New England who's been training at Combat Club, which is essentially the former Blackzilians. Soukhamthath really got on the prospect radar with a beautiful knockout knee over Kody Nordby about a year ago, but he's faced a solid slate of competition over the last few years. Both guys are essentially exclusively strikers, so this should be a really fun fight, and it's a hard one to call - Morales definitely has the athleticism advantage, and seems to handle getting in a firefight more, but Soukhamthath seems to be much more technical, has a vicious clinch game in close quarters, and as his last few fights have shown, can put away opponents with a dynamic finish. I favor Morales to take a decision, but this could easily be a narrow split decision type of fight in a good way, where both wind up looking good.

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