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The Fandom Portals Podcast
"Welcome to Fandom Portals—the show that explores how your favourite fandoms can help you learn and grow!" 🎙️✨
Each episode, we explore TV, movies, comics, and games to reveal how these worlds and the characters in them help us learn about resilience, courage, friendship, and more.
The Fandom Portals Podcast is hosted by Aaron Davies and Adam Brasher, two friends who are obsessed with fandoms, storytelling, and building a community where passion and positivity come first. From Marvel to Middle-earth, Star Wars to indie comics, we dive deep into the stories you love — and how they help us learn and grow. ✨
The Fandom Portals Podcast
Weekly Round-Up: What Are You Into? – Final Destination, Mission Impossible, Reacher 3 & Vampire Gaming
Episode Summary:
In this bite-sized edition of The Fandom Portals Podcast, Aaron and Brash reveal what they’ve been watching, playing, and loving lately. From the gruesome legacy of Final Destination: Bloodlines to Tom Cruise's relentless sprints in Mission Impossible 8, and a vampire sandbox game that scratches every RPG itch, this episode is all about personal fandom picks. Plus, they tease the next deep-dive episode on the horror-thriller Ready or Not—with a nostalgic nod to The O.C.'s Adam Brody.
Topics:
- Final Destination: Bloodlines – Nostalgia, supernatural tension, and creative kills
- Mission Impossible 8 – High-octane stunts, submarine scenes, and emotional finales
- V Rising – Vampire survival gameplay and castle-building with friends
- Reacher Season 3 – Guilty pleasure TV and a beefed-up Alan Ritchson
- Gaming as adults: asynchronous co-op, crossplay frustrations, and time management
- Preview: Ready or Not deep dive with horror newbie Aaron
Key Takeaways:
- Final Destination: Bloodlines succeeds as a gory callback to the series, with a suspenseful dual-timeline story and a penny that causes chaos.
- Mission Impossible 8 may not be the best in the series, but it’s a stunning send-off for Ethan Hunt’s saga—filled with emotional farewells and intense, dialogue-free tension.
- V Rising combines sandbox freedom, vampire lore, and addictive multiplayer progression—perfect for casual or committed players.
- Reacher Season 3 is comfort TV with a punch—standalone plots, powerhouse performances, and shirtless justice.
- Horror-lite picks like Ready or Not can be a great entry point for those curious but cautious about the genre.
Quotes:
“You don’t see Death, but you see him working—and that’s even more terrifying.”
“There’s a whole half-hour sequence with no dialogue—just soundtrack and tension.”
“He’s 60-something and still outrunning everybody.”
“You can build a castle, turn into a wolf, and fight Dracula with your friends. What more could you want?”
“Reacher is JAG for the streaming era—and I love every second.”
Apple Podcast Tags:
Final Destination, Mission Impossible, Reacher, V Rising, Vampire Games, Horror Movies, Ready or Not, Weekly Roundup, Movie Podcast, Gaming Podcast, Pop Culture, Geek Freaks Network, Fandom Portals Podcast, Samara Weaving, Adam Brody
Contact Us:
Website: https://www.fandomportalspodcast.com/
Instagram: instagram.com/fandomportals/?locale=en
Threads: threads.net/@fandomportals
Email: fandomportals@gmail.com
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/fandomportals
Welcome to the Fandom Portals podcast. Guys, this is a mini episode and it is going to be called what we're Into Right Now, and it is going to be exactly that. We're talking to you about what we are watching, what we are reading, what we are playing, what we recommend for you guys. In the Fandom Portals community, we do offer episodes once every week where we deep dive onto a specific fandom and talk about how it can help us learn and grow, but this is just where we talk about all of the stuff that we've been into, because brash and I actually, we talk a lot before and after episodes, don't we brash?
Speaker 1:we do, we certainly certainly do and we thought you know what, why not record that and send it out there too? Because it's a great way for you guys to get to know us, just like we get to know each other. So, uh, in these little you know what you into. Right now we're going to be starting off with you know what's Aaron been into, and then what brush has been into, and then we're going to recommend something to you guys. And if it's something that you're into, then make sure you contact the fandom portals podcast, which is on all of the social medias at fandom portals, or you can write to us at our email, which is fandom dot com. Tell us what you're into, be good, alright, let's go with you first. Brad, you, what have you been into? What have you been into? What have you been into? That's like something you'd say to Ace yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:What have you been into? What have you been into, what have you been into? That's like something you'd say to Ace yeah, yeah, exactly, what have you been into? What have you been into? What have you been into? What I've been into is a friend of mine actually invited me out to the movies to watch the newest Final Destination Bloodlines Bloodlines. For those who don't know, this will be the sixth installment of this series and for those who don't know, it's about people who die in gruesome ways after they've either had ammunition and saved themselves a bunch of people from death. Death then chases them all down and, one by one, gets what he wants.
Speaker 1:Hmm, Just before we jump in everybody, these will be whatever we talk about here. It'll be spoiler free, so you can listen to this spoiler free. Yes, we will recommend them. We won't spoil anything. We won't spoil anything for anybody, but we encourage you to enjoy them in your own time.
Speaker 2:For those who have watched any of these before, it does have a few nods from past movies, which is what I thought would be great, because in there me and my friend were both like, oh look at that, oh, look at that, and it was really, really nice. But the thing I liked most, I think, about this new Final Destination is that it's actually like there's a mini Final Destination movie and then the main Final Destination movie is that's actually like there's a mini Final Destination movie and then the main Final Destination movie, because it's set in two different time periods. Okay, yep, yeah.
Speaker 2:The main character, stephanie. She's been having nightmares about a catastrophic disaster that happened back in the 60s involving her grandmother, iris, who narrowly had a permission to narrowly escape and save a lot of people from this massive disaster. She's just been having this reoccurring nightmare and then goes back to visit her family to try and find out more about her grandma, because they've been estranged, they've never met. Future of franchises is going to starve.
Speaker 2:It has a whole bunch of elaborate, dispensable deaths that are from just ordinary items and things like some of them just out there and bizarre, like there's one of the deaths I found to be quite hilariously done, but they tied it in so well, because one of the things I think I like most about this uh final destination is you don't get to see death, but you get to he sort of you sort of see him working more, whereas the other ones. But they have those moments where, like they zoom in on something happening in the background, like a screw is getting undone or something like that, or the gas bottle starting to leak and and they're about to light it, or something like that, or the gas bottle is starting to leak and they're about to light it, or something like that. There's a whole sequence of events.
Speaker 1:It's a scene by scene of Chekhov's gun. It's just like we're showing you this for a reason, and it's definitely the reason why so many millennials changed a lot of personal habits, especially whilst driving Load trucks. Yeah, I'm one of those millennials.
Speaker 2:But yeah, they do the same sort of thing, but for me it felt a bit more like you were actually watching the devil, like all the death work, and it made it seem like it was like actually them versus death, Because they talk about death a bit more in this Instead of just being like oh my God, this weird shit's happening. They're full on like no, my god, this weird shit's happening. They're full on like no, it's death after us. We have to beat death. It's sort of like that It'll be a cat and mouse between death and the survivors. One of the movies I always say I don't like it because of how real that, even though some of this death's so crazy and all out there.
Speaker 1:There's a grain of what if in everyone.
Speaker 2:Exactly and you're like oh, so yeah, and then, as you said, like it's made these people change the way they do things. But what I found interesting in this is when you meet Iris. She's actually spent years hiding from death, in a sense, by learning all the little um tricks. So, like the wind chime will start blowing. So she's like oh, something's happening. And she was like she's like always like alert, but things start changing around her and I thought that was a really interesting look at it, because whereas other people, other movies, sort of relied on people having premonitions and having those sort of moments, she's been there for like 80 years.
Speaker 2:Well, not 80 years, like 50 years, and just being like just picking up just the little nuances and just learning how everything works, and I thought that was really good. And Stephanie sort of picks up on that and also starts though she's not as well trained she sort of does the same thing and sort of picks up on that and also starts though she's not as well trained she sort of does the same thing and sort of picks up on little things and like looking around, okay, what things can go wrong. And, yeah, one of the funniest deaths or it's a pretty gruesome death one of the like the funniest ones I found was off of like one of her premonition. Well, one of her like she's like scouting things out, like, um, those uh CSI shows where, like they're like looking at all the clues and piecing all together like numbers or something, and she's like does that and she does all the things and they're like what? That's just dumb. And then like, yeah, it all really good watch and I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:So we won't rate any of the things we we do on these ones, but just, would you recommend it or would you not? I would definitely recommend it, um, for the people who aren't squeamish about. It is pretty gory. Um, like all the rest of them, all of them are pretty gory and this is no exception. So if you don't like the gore, maybe you give us one on this you like if you like. If people don't like gore, then it's, you're not gonna, you're not gonna miss much, but, um, for those who do like the series or do like, um, uh, something a little bit gory, um, yeah, definitely, definitely watch this one, and thank you, mel, for inviting me to movies yeah, I think Final Destination is one of the few horror movies because I'm not a horror guy but there's one of the few horror movie series that I actually watched and kind of enjoyed, because I did like that connection to the supernatural, like this.
Speaker 1:One's got a newer director, zach Lepofsky, who directed the Impossible movie, but the writer of the movie is a very seasoned horror writer, guy Busiek. He has written all different sorts of movies, like Abigail and Scream, and also Ready or Not, which is going to feature on the Phantom Portals podcast as well. So, yeah, it's got some talent behind it and I think, like for this movie as well, what I've been seeing on the line, without giving too many spoilers away, is that it follows very similarly in the accidental nature of all of the deaths that occur, one involving a penny, and that's all I'll say about that.
Speaker 2:I will say, without spoiling anything, that penny is pretty much plays a role throughout the entire movie.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, the reel that I saw was somebody coming outside to have like a drink of coffee right on their outside patio chair and then a penny falls from the sky and lands on the path in front of them and he just stands up and walks inside and it's just like I've seen Final Destination's bloodlines.
Speaker 2:That's exactly how you think of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that one penny caused a lot of issues for a lot of people, but at time of recording this movie, Final Destination's Bloodlines is actually the most popular movie on IMDb right now, which is awesome for a sixth installment for a horror movie franchise. That's pretty good, so I reckon go and give it a watch. Also rated 7.1.
Speaker 2:It's also Tony Todd's last appearance in Final Destination, so he plays William Bobworth, the coroner or the who's the person in the mortician. Yep, yep, the mortician, yeah, mortician. He's been in a fair few of the movies now, so it's his last showing. But yeah, and Richard Hammond, funny guy, always plays a dick. He's fucking good at it, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very good, all right. So go to the movies and watch Final Destination, oh yeah, bloodlines, and you know, once you finish that, let's go on to. You know what I've been into. So I similarly went to the movies, but I went to the movies on my own. I got into the habit of going to the movies on my own because I used to go when I was feeling like I wanted some alone time. And the first time I did it I was just like this is fucking weird. And I sat in the movie and I was watching Creed the very first Creed movie and I got so immersed and sucked in and I was like this is now my favorite thing to do go to the movies on your own, just like get immersed into a world, and just on your own just like get immersed into a world.
Speaker 2:I'm the same, I do the same thing. Yeah, like I'll go to the movie. I'll go to the movies. I'll just go to the movies and they're like oh, do you want to come watch this? I'm like I've never seen it.
Speaker 1:I've seen it. Who'd you go with? No one, no one myself. Yeah, that was pretty much me, and like I.
Speaker 2:actually, I thought you were at home watching the movie. I didn't realize you were watching an actual movie. Yeah, no, and.
Speaker 1:I put it up on our Instagram, as I put everything up on there and I went and watched Mission Impossible, the new Mission Impossible movie. Wow, I have seen most of the Mission Impossible movies. I won't say there are eight of them and I've seen most of them. Yeah, this is the eighth one. Oh, I thought it was going to be like six or five. No, this is the eighth one. I'm pretty sure this is the eighth one.
Speaker 2:I must have seen the first, the second and the third, and now I thought, this one was the fourth One, two, three, four, five, six, seven eight. There's eight, and a TV series that started in 1966.
Speaker 1:And then again in 1988. But I digress. The Mission Impossible series started in 1996 with Tom Cruise and he ends his amazing journey as Agent Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible, the final reckoning, which comes out in 2025, went to see it and the first spoiler free. Obviously the first half an hour to 45 minutes is a lot of mashup scenes and jargon and catch up basically, but after that it kind of gets really really good. So once you get into the actual action of the final reckoning, they're trying to defeat the entity which was the villain from the previous movie, dead Reckoning, and it is basically Ethan Hunt's last hurrah. It is being marketed as his last hurrah into Mission Impossible movies, but Tom Cruise has feverantly said that he is never retiring from acting that's like in his press tours right now and also he kind of needs an outlet for all of his amazing stunt and action work that he does, and this one's no exception. There are two scenes in particular that are just full of action Tension through and through. Like there's a whole half an hour sequence in the middle of the movie that doesn't have any dialogue whatsoever. It relies completely on the soundtrack and the visuals to increase the tension and tell you what's going on. Story wise, and it is my favourite part of the whole entire movie when he starts to go down into a submarine. That's when it starts.
Speaker 1:Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, I definitely recommend going to see this one, just because of the spectacle that these movies are. It's it's visually stunning. I want to see it on the biggest screen that I could, because that's what tom cruise recommended. But I think that this one I wouldn't say it's the best. In my opinion, I wouldn't say it's the best mission impossible movie. That crown will always go in my eyes to number three with Philip Seymour Hoffman, but this one ties very strongly into the events of number three. So I think that it utilizes its past installments very well and I think everybody shows up for pretty good performances here. But it is still very action-heavy. You know what you're getting when you go in there. It's not anything blockbuster-y special, but it is a very entertaining flick Popcorn, all that kind of thing and there is a little bit of vibe of Vin Diesel's family from Fast and the Furious.
Speaker 1:There's a whole he said he doesn't call it family. Tom Cruise calls it a team. Tom Cruise calls it a team. It's always look after your team. That is just spouted so many times and by the end of the movie, the amounts of character monologues that occurred because they knew it was like the goodbye let's drop some emotionally poignant verbiage right here from Tom Cruise and some of the supporting cast as well. So currently sitting at fifth most popular thing on IMDb at time of recording. But yeah, that's what I was into, that's what I went and saw. Couple questions, yeah go for it.
Speaker 2:How long, would you say throughout the entire movie, did Tom Cruise spend running?
Speaker 1:He had three running scenes and some of them were really long, to the point where I was like bro, I was like get a car, Like hijack a car or a bike. You're running past one right now, but man, that guy can run, he's over, he's almost 60. He's 60 something actually. He's 60-something actually.
Speaker 2:He's the same age Even in the Mummy. He ran in the Mummy. Yep, yep.
Speaker 1:Tom.
Speaker 2:Cruise running, tom Cruise running.
Speaker 1:Second question Was Simon Pegg in it? He was yes. He was yes.
Speaker 2:I've seen the trailer, but I didn't see him in the trailer.
Speaker 1:Simon Pegg is in this, returning in his role as Benji Dunn. He's been for 20 years. They couldn't finish it without him Brash, that's what I thought.
Speaker 2:That's because I didn't see him in the trailers. I'm like, oh, that's weird, it's the final one with Simon Pegg, because I think that's the last time I watched. The last Mission Impossible movie I watched was the one where Simon Pegg's first in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You got a few to catch up on. Yeah, my all-time my favorite Mission Impossible will always just be Mission Impossible, I think that's my close second favorite after number three.
Speaker 1:Everybody hates Mission Impossible number two. It has a special place in my heart because it's filmed in Australia and I watched it when I was. I pretty much watched it when it first came out, 1999. 2000,. So I was 10 years old and we got it on DVD and we watched it at home and it was late at night, so I felt like it was special and I could see things in it like the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. So it was probably the first movie that I actually watched where I was like holy crap, that's Australia and it's not like a movie like Kangaroo Jack or Crocodile Dundee. This is actually a Hollywood blockbuster movie set in Australia. That was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I think that without this franchise, tom Cruise will live longer for one, because he's not going to be doing any outlandish stunts, or maybe he'll live for a shorter period of time because he won't be running as much, but he is very fast for a man of his age and, yeah, he definitely runs in this one too. So that's what we were into. That's what we were into. That's what brash and aaron went into for this week, but now we're going to get into our recommendations and this is where we tell you guys what you should go and watch, what you should read, what you should play for this week and also to promo our upcoming episode of the phantom portals podcast for our deep dive. So first off, brash, what do you recommend people watch it?
Speaker 2:they go and see, watch or play so I've this is not new, this is old, but for those who have friends, love a throwback for those who have friends, for those who have friends eating with your friends. I've been playing it solo. It's fine, you have to and splash. I do recommend for people who like video games to give V Rising a go.
Speaker 1:I've watched some streamers play that. That's like a. It sort of looked a little bit like the first Diablo in the way that it plays.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in a way, and you play as a vampire and you build a castle like a big level castle, and you have to go out and farm for materials and kill bosses and kill other people and absorb people's blood so you can stay alive and all these other fun vampire tropes and you get like different. As you kill different bosses you learn new things and you get new powers and if you kill new beasts you can get new beast forms. Like you can kill a white wolf, you can turn into a wolf. You kill a giant rat and you can become a little rat that scurries around. You can kill a giant bear and become a big ass bear. I'm a big ass bear, yeah, a bear. When you fight the big ass bear and kill the big ass bear, you become a bear, which are all fun things. But the thing I enjoy and I want to try and do is it's similar in a way of like Valheim. So you can you can have your own private server. You have a bunch of friends up to like 30 or something high amount all on the server and like there's plots of land everywhere and people can just set up bases on those plots of land.
Speaker 2:It's a huge sandbox game and you set up plots of land.
Speaker 2:There's ones that are actually connecting, so two plots of land is connecting, so you can have two people while on each plot and there's like a little bridge that joins the two plots.
Speaker 2:So you basically have, like, if you're in a team of two, you can have like two people there.
Speaker 2:The thing is like you can have a friendly competition where, um, you everyone like can pair up into pairs of two or something like that, or pairs of three or something like that, and you can, um, have a clan, have different clans, and you can build up your clans and stuff and you can fight each other and attack each other and everything like that. You can go online if you want to, and have PvP and actually versus other people around the world and you try and set your base before you get killed, but it might be a bit hard now because people are already set up. Or you can all just work together, build up your own bases and that and go out and all hunt the same big boss, bad guys and stuff like that until eventually you get to the end and fight Dracula see that just sounds like a great party in game yeah, and the best thing about it too, is you don't all have to be online at the same time.
Speaker 2:You can just jump on at any time. You can go around and get some more resources, build your castle a bit more, go fight your own like some of the bosses yourself, get a few more resources or something, and do other things than that while everyone else is offline, and then, when everyone else comes online, then you can all meet up and do things. You don't have to be on the same time, but you can all just do it casually, and if you all meet up, you all meet up. Sometimes things vary, so you can't always meet up, but you don't need one specific person to be online to play.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like that's the way that those sorts of games need to be now, because I think the main market for games like that is people our age and we all have chores to do and things to do and work during the day and different time zones that we're all navigating around and all that kind of stuff. So life gets busy and, you know, gaming sometimes happens at very odd hours.
Speaker 2:Wondering if it is. I don't think it is, but I wish it was.
Speaker 1:I think it may be crossplay well it games have to be if they're going to be competitive these days yeah surely it'd be crossplay.
Speaker 2:I'm not entirely sure if it is google it. Oh no, yeah, I'm googling now.
Speaker 1:The rising won't have pc ps5 crossplay that sucks, so you can only play it with some of your friends yeah, so you either play on pc, but the good thing at the moment is it's cheap as shit so I think it's like I think it's like 20 bucks on playstation or oh yeah, it's 10 to 30 bucks on playstation and I'm not sure how much it's only like a year or two old, isn't it? It's not too old. Yeah, I remember that coming out.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I think it's something more recently coming out on PlayStation, Same as season A 2022, it released.
Speaker 1:Oh, there you go. Yeah, three years ago About this time, actually. All right, funny how this Men V Rising Awesome. And then my recommendation for this week, guys, is I have dove back into a guilty pleasure of mine, which is the TV show Reacher. Now you might say that I like this show because of its amazing cop drama or the fact that it was written by Lee Child, a really good crime thriller author. But no, I like this because I like to look at Alan Richson's body. Amen, brother, he is a good looking dude and he's put a lot of work into that physique, so you know, kudos to him.
Speaker 1:But he comes back in all of his glory playing the title character, jack Reacher. He is investigating a new crime with brand new characters, with the return of, obviously, francis Neely, his go-to protege every single time. Great team those two. And, yeah, he's gone in there to solve another mystery.
Speaker 1:This one has a little bit of a personal touch. You get to see a little bit of his backstory in terms of where he came from and his actual first protege, because he always kind of takes on somebody that he's second in command. He's go-to guy At the moment it's Neely, but this is the story of the person who was Neely before he had Neely and what happened to that person and how it's affected him in his career and in his life. And the best part about it is there's this character in it called Paulie, and Paulie is played by Olivia Riches and that's a guy. It's huge, he is absolutely massive, he's bigger than Reacher and let's just say, stick around to the end episode, because exactly what you think is going to happen between those two happens between those two. There is a yeah, it's just a really good sort of comfort watch for me and there's not too much sort of. I often equate it to JAG. Do you remember that show, jag?
Speaker 2:Yeah, jag, yeah, it's like midday viewing.
Speaker 1:that was just comfortable and it was like turn your brain off TV. Yeah, so that's what I like about about Reacher I reckon you should go and watch season three of Reacher. And the good thing about Reacher even though this is season three, you don't you really don't need to watch any of the others before you and is kind of a standalone story.
Speaker 2:I saw it. Yeah, the books.
Speaker 1:Exactly Like the Lee Child books. You could pick up book number 12 and you'd be able to read it and have a complete story and not have to worry about the things that come before or after. So there's very few of his books that actually follow through.
Speaker 2:There are things that tie in pass-wise but realistically, if you just want the broad story, you're fine with pretty much reading whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I always see Lee Child as an airport author, so it's one of those ones that you see at the airport often and you pick it up just to read on the flight. Yeah, because that's literally where I read Killing Floor, his first book, so I got into it. So, yeah, that's my recommendation. And last thing that we're going to do on this episode, guys, we're going to do on this episode, guys, we're going to preview the episode to come from the Phantom Portals podcast.
Speaker 1:Brasher and I have dove deep into Ready or Not, made in 2019. It is a movie that stars Samara Weaving, a lovely Australian actress. It is a horror movie, that's right. Everybody, you heard correctly I get into horror this week on the Phantom Portals podcast and you'll have to tune in to see how that went. So, looking forward to it. Horror-esque yes, it's horror, with Different toes in. That's exactly it. That's why we picked this one, because it's horror for Aaron, but it's also horror with a twist for Aaron, because you can't really dive straight into the deep end with something like that. Because, yeah, you'll find out why in our very next episode Also it's also starring Adam Brody Adam.
Speaker 1:Brody from the OC, adam Brody Oof.
Speaker 2:Hey, that's the first one I saw Adam Brody, me too. Hey, he was amazing in that. He was amazing in this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we all learned to fall in love with Adam Brody from the OC Old Seth Cohen. He made all us nerds proud he did. From the OC old Seth Cohen, he made. He made all us nerds proud he did he was. He's actually probably the first millennial nerd played on screen that I was like that's actually what we're like yeah that's kind of like yeah, that's kind of like I'll always.
Speaker 2:I'll always love the scene between Rachel and Marisha, where Rachel's like what was that movie with the two gay guys on the mountain that the boys managed to watch? And she's like, and she's like Lord of the Rings, like that's right.
Speaker 1:That's right. Yeah, I think he said that to me. I did A while back. Yeah, Always.
Speaker 2:That always cracks me up, because everyone's like, oh, everyone thinks you know. Because everyone's like oh, everyone thinks, oh, brokeback Routan. But then she's like Lord of the Rings and she's like that's it.
Speaker 1:It is absolutely well-known through our friend group that I adore Lord of the Rings, so I get sent things like that all the time. But yes, if you haven't already, make sure you go and watch the OC as well, but also Ready or Not? So check out the feed for that. It is coming very, very soon. This is the most recent short episode called what have you been into? What have you been into? What are you into right now? What?
Speaker 2:are you into?
Speaker 1:see ya.
