#also yes i know achilles is spelled wrong but that's how i spelled it when i made him up and that's just his name now

[idiotarsonist]

I want to start posting more stuff about my ocs and I decided I'd start with some piccrews I already made. From top to bottom they're Achillies, Holly, Luke, Mordecai, Roxie, and Victoire. I also have a post here with some more info about each of them, although I want to talk about them more too. And maybe post some art but we'll see if I actually get around to doing that.

Edit: the pictures are super big and it annoyed me so they're under the read more now!

[writer-and-artist27]

Untimely Reunion

Summary: No one but the only Master in Chaldea’s staff could really make sense of the new Berserker Servant. He was much larger than any other Heroic Spirit, but the machinery and horse-like body showed he wasn’t a figure from Proper Human History. The last thing anyone expected was for him to be an Achilles’ Heel to their newest Crypter enemy.

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Note: This was inspired by my pulling of Xiang Yu in the gacha before even starting Lostbelt 3’s story. I had him in my party when first fighting Akuta Hinako and her Saber Servant, so I wanted to cover a possible version of how the fight would’ve gone had Xiang Yu saw our opponent with his own eyes.

Consider this to take place after all my other FGO oneshots, with MASSIVE HEAVY spoilers for Lostbelt 3: SIN. Also, CW for heavy angst and the occasional use of language. This has been unedited and written on a passing muse’s whims.

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Saber had leapt back into the fields of wheat, panting after taking two Noble Phantasms head on. Hinako clenched her teeth, tempted to bite the fingernail on her thumb. Of course he’d be weak. Those two attacks were stronger than anticipated.

Hell, Chaldea was more powerful than Hinako anticipated. From using a swimsuit version of what appeared to be the King of Knights (what the hell) together with the hero known for slaying Karna in a tag-team combo formation, no wonder Chaldea had defeated Ophelia and Kadoc. Vy, even when poisoned, was still alive and going strong, staring at Hinako with a determined look in her bespectacled eyes. Gao Changgong’s condition, from the sweat dotting his neck to the awkward way he was holding his sword, clearly showed that Hinako had brought the battle to Chaldea far too soon.

Goddammit.

“Is that all?” Vy said in an uncharacteristically gentle voice, standing to Mash’s right side as she clenched her right fist. All three of her Command Spells glowed in the sunlight, exuding confidence as her eyebrows narrowed. “Because if you want to keep fighting, Hinako-san, I can do this all day. Poison or not.”

Hinako did her best to not huff, channeling all her disgust and anger into returning Vy’s gaze. “Take your win for now, Chaldea. I underestimated you,” she said instead, shaking her head. “Saber.”

Gao Changgong stood to attention. “Yes, Master.”

“We’re retreating.” We need to come up with a better plan so that the Emperor does not deem me unworthy…

“Of course, Master.”

The last thing Hinako expected before Saber could run and grab her was that voice.

“YU MEI-REN!”

Every single drop of her blood froze. No. No. No one on Chaldea’s side should know that name. Hinako had discarded that name eons ago. Right now, Hinako was still—

Wait. Kadoc had mentioned that Vy had summoned a Lostbelt Servant before his Lostbelt had fallen. Scathach-Skadi, the Lostbelt King of Scandinavia — she had gone about cursing Kadoc and his Servant the entire time before Russia’s Tree of Emptiness was cut down, contrasting the gentle demeanor she seemed to have according to Ophelia. So... could it be? Could Vy really have that kind of luck again?

Against Gao Changgong’s urgent cry of, “Master!”, Hinako turned her head and found herself staring into green eyes.

The figure was tall and hulking just like his counterpart in this Lostbelt, but exuding power and gentleness that she couldn’t mistake for anyone else.

Vy had stepped to the side of the large Servant, her own brown eyes wide past her glasses as she murmured, “Berserker…?” in a respectful and shocked tone.

“My wife,” Xiang Yu whispered softly, one of his hooves making a heap of dirt in the field they were in as he stepped forward. “Even after all these years, I still can recognize you, Yu Mei-ren, new clothes or not. My only consort, the only woman I ever loved. But my wife, what are you doing? And…” The hulking Servant paused, his gaze going over to Saber before his eyes widened, his glowing green maw dropping for a moment in surprise. “Gao Su too?”

“No…” Saber whispered weakly. He must have recognized the severity of the situation too. “Why are you with them? I could have sworn that you were still with—”

With us.

Hinako felt tears start to bud in the corners of her eyes. She had only seen the Lostbelt version of him mere seconds ago. But now, seeing this version of him, at Vy’s side, better armed, far stronger and more majestic… “Lord Xiang Yu.”

The Berserker Servant smiled wryly at her, his green eyes soft in spite of his opposing figure. “My wife. I see you are still wandering.”

“Wha—”  

Mash Kyrielight was looking between all three of them with growing shock, her jaw slowly dropping before she turned to Vy. “M-Master, what is going on? Why is he calling Akuta—”

“I-I don’t know,” Vy’s voice came out wispy in the reply. “Berserker just moved forward on his own, and…” She put a hand over her heart, pressing her palm against her Winter Mystic Code. “It feels like he knows her somehow.”

Sherlock Holmes had a hand to his chin, already looking like he was deducing what was going on. Bastard.

“Yu Mei-ren, you are not the kind of person to go along with a crusade that would doom everything,” Xiang Yu continued, not minding the side chatter as his hooves went about tapping the ground underneath him in a familiar melancholic tune. “I remember you being so much kinder than that. Why are you assisting the enemy?”

Hinako was shivering. “But, but, Xiang Yu, it was for…” The shock was slowly turning to anger. Why? Why why why, why? Why couldn’t she have summoned someone else? Why did the last Master of Chaldea have to summon him— “VY!”

Vy jumped about a centimeter into the air, all attention having gone back to her. “What?”

“How—” Hinako grit her teeth. “How dare you!?”

“How dare I what?” Vy filled in with the slightest bit of sarcasm, giving Hinako an incredulous look. “How dare I live? How dare I summon Berserker? You realize you helped in destroying the world I’m currently trying to save, right? Not to mention that one of your fellow allies/cronies poisoned me? Kinda not in the mood for—”

“SAVE YOUR BULLSHIT!” Spittle flew out of Hinako’s mouth just as Saber rose to take her into his arms, his grip shaky and frantic. Vy fell silent as she stared back at Hinako in surprise. “To summon him and use him for your own gains, you’re a monster! HOW DARE YOU USE HIM AGAINST ME!”

“Er, I have no clue what you’re talking about,” Vy added in a quieter voice, barely hitting the inflections of a deadpan. “I just summoned him two days ago.”

So before Chaldea had even entered China. GODDAMMIT.

“Yu Mei-ren…” Xiang Yu said softly. “You’re wrong. I willingly came to her, not in the manner of what you are thinking—”

“Silence, pretender. Do not call me by that name.” 

The Berserker flinched, but still took to drawing one of his swords and holding it protectively in front of Vy. Hinako bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to taste iron. Whywhywhywhy, why. It shouldn’t have been like this.

Lord Xiang Yu wasn’t supposed to be drawing one of his weapons on her—

“Master,” Saber said urgently, his one hand on her shoulders clenching tightly. “We have to go.”  

“Yu—”

“E-Enough of this.” Hinako forced herself to look away, burying her face into the front of Gao Changgong’s clothes. She already knew that if she looked at that Servant any longer, she would be tempted to cry. “Even if you look like him, you are nothing but an imposter of someone I know. Saber, we’re retreating. NOW.”

“As… As you wish, Master,” he said hesitantly, tightening his grip on Hinako’s figure. “May… May we meet again, Lord Xia— Berserker.”

Hinako held back a scream of anguish once Saber took the first leap away from those fields.

[lo-55]

Shattered Chains of Fate Ch. 7

Fourteen Days to Conspiracy

Ichigo sits by the river again. The day is dawning, pink in the east.

He can’t see the sword any longer, not since he stumbled back into his body from his inside. His inner word, Zangetsu had called it.

Even still, he can feel it’s phantom weight, familiar and comforting in his palm. It feels like all he has to do is wrap his fingers around it and pull and the sword would be in his hand, gleaming and ready to swing, to block, to guard him.  Holding Zangetsu had felt like coming home.

Despite that, it had also felt like there was something missing. Like his other hand was empty.

Was that what Diarmund had felt whenever he put one of his swords or spears down?

He could  hear all of Achille’s dumbass bisexual jokes at his expense.

Ichigo leaned back on the damp grass, drawing in steady breaths, one after another. Up the incline he could see people waiting for him. Elmelloi, and a happily familiar face and pale hair.

Waver Velvet, or Lord Elmelloi II and his apprentice, a phenomenal mage and prodigy Flat Escardos. Waver had said there was something strange about the town, and now Ichigo has to wonder if he’s not partially to blame. Because of his fight with Uryu and massive monster had tried to crush the city. Because of him and Rukia some high class shinigami had come to visit and started causing trouble.

Ichigo wants to help. Really, he does.  He likes Waver even if he is grumpy. He’s one of the few people Ichigo knows who’s just as shit at actual magic as he is. Waver, like Ichigo, makes due with other means.

He’s an alchemist, and a detective. With no magic lineage to fall back on, and no innate talent for mage craft he uses outside forces to get things done. He draws his power from ores and reagents and uses reason to puzzle out what the best course of action is. Without the ability to fight head on Waver relies on other people for combat, and merely acts as their guide and support.

The one thing Waver truly excels at is teaching.

It takes him no more than a glance to understand how a spell is cast, and minutes to figure out how to teach someone with the right type of circuits how to use it as well. And how to strengthen and improve it.

Waver cannot perform his own magecraft, but he can strengthen and support others.

He, above all others, is one person who understands Ichigo’s abilities.

They are peas in a pod, and it’s almost scary.

Ichigo lifts himself up from the banks of the river and picks his way up to the pair. Flat is as exuberant as ever. Even in snow, surrounded by recovered corpses of Chealdeas, he’d been delighted to be there.

What a weirdo.

“Hey,” Ichigo raises his hand to them. Waver grunts. His long red scarf shifts when the wind changes direction. The breeze comes with the smell of smoke and cardamom.

“Ichigo. You disappeared.”

“Sorry,” he’s not, “Something came up. I’ll be gone for about a month.”

Waver scowls at him.”We need you here. We’re investigating changes of ley lines around the city.  Your city. And you know how I feel about this place.”

Yes, he does. Ichigo’s never gotten the full story, but he knows ten years ago something happened that left Waver embittered to the entire country. The fact that he’s standing on japanese soil in the first place is frankly bewildering.

Ichigo doesn’t say so out loud.

“A friend of mine needs help,” he says instead. “So I’m sorry, but I need to go to her first. I appreciate your help with the house, but this is important to me.”

Waver frowns at him, and even Flat’s smile tilts sideways, like he’s not sure he understands. Ichigo doubts that he does. This child is a freaky innocence that isn’t innocent at all. Somehow he can look at pain and suffering and still thing its ‘cool’.

Ichigo does not envy Waver.

Waver must know Ichigo well, for he looks at him and his stubborn jaw and his hard eyes and he grunts irritably.

“Fine then. There’s no changing your mind,” he knows. “We’ll handle this matter. You help your friend.”

“Not like I needed your permission anyways,” Ichigo points out, but it’s not really angry. For all he’s a cantankerous old guy in the body of a man not even thirty Waver is good natured and nurturing in his own way. Even when he was summoned a servant (and Ichigo still doesn’t understand how exactly that happened) he’d been the same. Maybe that’s why Ichigo is so biased towards him.

“Good luck,” Waver says instead of anything else.

Ichigo nods to him, ruffles Flat’s hair, and makes his way to the Urahara shop as promised.

*

By the time he comes too, Ichigo feels less like a mage and more like a pile of recently tenderized meat.

The sky is burning pink and purple and night air is slow to fade to day. There’s dew settled into his bangs that glistens when the newborn sunlight hits it.

It would be lovely, if it wasn’t for the fact that ichigo could barely lift his head to shake the moisture off.

It’s a bone deep ache.

A lightness in his body that makes him feel like if he isn’t careful he’s going to go flying off into the sky, an empty void of a man.

Mash’s worried face poked in from the side of his vision.

“Master?” her voice is terribly soft, tumultuous with worry. Worry for him.

Ichigo pushes himself up slowly, only his own pride and stubbornness keeping him from falling right down back into the dirt.

Mash rushes to him to help, and her strong arms around him help to ground him back down. He still feels drained and hollow, but the warm hands that hold him steady are a help. They make his body feel more reel. And less like he’s not tethered to reality.

“Hey Mash. How long was I out?” He can’t quite remember what happened. There was a swarm of demons, and Kyo couldn’t handle all of them. Ichigo had-

What exactly had he done again?

Right, he’d shoved all of his reishi into Kyo, so he could cast a spell and destroy the monsters that had been coming at them. Where is Kyo, anyhow? Where are any of the others?

“Mash?” Ichigo asks, touching her side. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Oh,” Mash slowly lets him go, looking off to the side. “We got a cart to carry you in, since we can’t really stop right now. We’re in that now, and the others are laying down outside.”

Ichigo looks down to see that it’s not dirt he would have fallen into, but a scratchy brown blanket.

“How long was I out?”

“The rest of the day and all of the night. About eighteen hours in total. Nightingale wasn’t happy,” Mash grimaced. “She couldn't do anything to help you. No one could.”

Mash suddenly scowls at him and tightens her hold to the point of pain. “You could have been hurt! Master, you need to stop being so reckless!”

Another voice joins in. “Master is awake?!”

The cart rocks and Ichigo finds himself being shaken back and forth by hand so strong they could break his shoulders. “What did you do that for! You could have died! You fool!”

“Me-du-sa. Can’t. Breath.” Ichigo choked. She didn’t loosen her hold but she did stop shaking him so he could catch his breath. He put his hand on her elbows and looked at those ethereal golden eyes. “Sorry. I’m not going anywhere, promise. I just got overzealous. Are you okay?”

“Are we-?!” she bristled. “We’re fine! You were the one that almost shoved your soul out of your body!”

Ichigo blinks at her.

“I did what?”

“You almost shoved all of your reiryoku, your spirit energy, into me.”

Ichigo looks to the side, where Kyo is perched on the edge of the wagon. His dark eyes are fathomless, searching for something in Ichigo that Ichigo isn’t sure he has. There’s a light in them too, one that Ichigo can’t for the life of him decipher.

(Years later he will recognize it as hope.)

“Okay,” Ichigo takes Medusa’s hands from his shoulders and guides her to sit next to him. She looks into the seemingly empty air, but they are all beyond questioning him when he talks to nothing. “It still worked, didn’t it?”

Kyo’s brows furrow minutely. “It did… It was still reckless. I’ve never seen someone do something so utterly foolish in my life. You could have more than died. You could have destroyed your own soul doing that. Feeding your energy into spirit beings is dangerous, there is a reason it isn’t done. Even these heroic spirits contracted to you are a risk. Whether drawing on your life energy or your spirit energy, you put yourself in tremendous danger.”

“I know,” Ichigo tells him truthfully. Kyo is closer than he ever has been, like some wall he’d set up is starting to crumble. His mask is cracking. “I know it’s dangerous. Everything we do is dangerous, but if I don’t do it then everything will end. Everyone will die. All of my friends, all of my family will be gone. I can’t fight on my own. All I can do is strengthen others, even if I have to pay a price for that I will.”

“That’s very noble but-”

“Don’t make me into a saint,” Ichigo cut him off swiftly. “I’m not. If you want one of those you’re in the wrong singularity. I’m doing this because I want my sisters back. I’m doing this because I want to stop fighting and go home already. Every motivation I have is entirely selfish, Kyo.”

Medusa smacked the back of his head.

“Hey!”

“He may make you into a saint but you make yourself a sinner!” She snapped. “In Fuyuki we were on opposite sides of a war. You should have killed me. Even if we weren’t enemies I was, am, darkened by the cursed mud of a corrupted grail. In stead you told me to stop being a lunatic and poured your power into me, so I could stand at your side. You trusted me with your back when I could have easily stabbed it.”

“Medusa-”

“No! You may not be a saint like Jeanne but you’re a good, stupid man!”

Ichigo is so stunned by the fact that Medusa of all people has called him a good man that he doesn’t even notice the fact that she has heard Kyo as well.

It tops as one of the weirdest days of his lives.

* *

Ichigo finally finds himself standing in front of the Urahara shop, the old sign hanging above the doorway. It’s out of the way, stuffed between two towering modern buildings. If one didn’t know what they were looking for they would never find it. It was just an old shop tha hadn’t been converted yet. They’re not common but they’re also not so out of place that anyone would bat an eye if they happened to see it while out and about.

It’s exactly how mages run things and not for the first time does Ichigo wonder just what in the world it is that Urahara is. A mage? A shinigami? Something between? Ichigo can’t get a good read on him, but to be fair he hasn’t really been looking.

He knows his half hidden eyes and he knows he’s willing to help Rukia and help Ichigo. That’s enough for him for now.

He raises his hand and knocks firmly on the door. On the third knock the door slides open, revealing the tall man from before. Tessai.

Ichigo can’t get a good read on him. His glasses bar him from seeing his eyes and the eyes are the window to the soul. Never the less, Ichigo can still see his strength. A hundred times stronger than Ichigo, and now that he’s of a clearer mind when he looked past the man to Urahara he realizes that he’s stronger still.

They aren’t as strong as someone born in the Age of Gods, but they’re at least on par with weaker servants.

How had he missed that before?

Whatever. It doesn’t matter now.

“Hey. I’m here for my training.”

They let him inside. Underneath the shop there happens to be a massive chamber, stretching out in all directions. A mockery of the sky spreads across the ceiling, painted with fluffy clouds that almost seem to move across the sky.

Whoever this man is, he’s not a mage. A mage would never have something so cheerful in their home. Mages were creatures of darkness and shadow. Lonely beings of solitude.

Urahara was no such thing.

He had children, for one thing, and his assistant (husband?) seemed utterly devoted to him. He did not have the cold air of a mage obsessed only with legacy and the enhancement of his crest. No. For all Urahara reminded him of Merlin, he was certainly not a mage.

“So. What do we do first?” Ichigo asks, turning his sights from the sky to the man in front of him. His hat shadows most of his face, save the strange smile beneath that darkness.

“First, we would need to return your shinigami powers to you-”

“Yeah. I already did that part. What’s next.”

Ichigo was treated to the sight of Urahara tilting his head and blinking rapidly at him. It’s the only real sign of surprise on his face.

“You… already did that?” he repeated. He lifted his cane, exposing the flaming skull on the underside, and drives it into Ichigo’s chest.

Ichigo pops out the other side, in a familiar shihakusho with a sword strapped to his back. Zangetsu is actually less of a sword and more of a giant cleaver as long as his body. The curve of the red mark that sits above his heart just barely crests over the white folds of his clothes  

Urahara’s mouth opens but no sound comes out for a few long seconds. Ichigo scowls at him.

“You said I needed to get my shinigami powers and I did. Now hurry up already. We’ve only got ten days before I have to go save Rukia. So what’s next, huh?”

Urahara recovers (not very) gracefully, clears his throat and stands straight.

“I see. So you managed to do that all on your own.”

“Not really,” Ichigo isn’t one to brag, or take undue credit. He touches Zangetsu’s hilt lightly, fingers running across the bandages. “Zangetsu helped me out.”

“You know his name as well? Then I suppose we can skip three whole lessons.”

Ichigo doesn’t like the sudden, calculating look in Urahara’s eyes, but he can’t say anything about it. He understands he’s just done something expected, but doesn’t he always? He’s used to the staring, to the incredulousness of people who are just meeting him.

He misses the familiar presence at his side, at his back. Guarding and guiding him. But with Zangetsu in hand the void where his friends had once been is lessened, even if it’s not entirely gone.

Zangetsu has always been with him. That’s what he’s said, isn’t it?

“Then we’ll move on. Ichigo, your first task is to knock this hat off my head.”

“...huh?” Seriously? What kind of bullshit is this?

Ichigo squinted at him while Urahara drew a sword from his cane and pointed it towards him. A straight blade, thin and deadly he can feel the barely restrained bloodlust from here.

“Awaken, Benihime.”

The air sings with danger and a thrill shoots up Ichigo’s spine. Red light flickers, bloody and dangerous, across the blade until what’s left is no cane but the unmistakable sight of a zanpakuto. The hamon is straight, the tip is sharp and straight instead of tapered.

“There’s no timelimit. So try as hard as you can to knock this hat off with your sword.”

“That sounds like a good way to loose an eye, and if you do I can’t fix that,” Ichigo warns even as he pulls his sword from his back. The ribbon flutters off, wrapping drawing back to reveal the deadly curve beneath. It’s not the type of sword ichigo is used to holding. He’s used to something shorter, but the blade is as light as his own arm in his grasp. Is’t a part of him, he knows for certain. His instincts flare and he dodges just in time, avoiding a strike that leaves a deep gauge in the rock behind him.

“You should really be worrying about yourself,” Urahara says. His voice is deceptively soft, his smile is just as mild, and the shadow of his hat hides his eyes.

As if that would hide from Ichigo the singing his sword does for his blood.

“Fine,” Ichigo adjusts his grip, bounces on the balls of his feet and swings.

Their swords come together in a clash of metal against metal and power against power. Ichigo is raw strength poured forth and an unbending will, straight forwards and unyielding.

Urahara is swift and sharp and takes jabs at any opening, no matter how small. He is powerful, stronger than Ichigo, and when he’d released his sword that strength had more than doubled. There’s no doubt that he could go toe to toe with Diarmuid.

That’s fine. Ichigo meets him blow for blow.

He doesn’t run. He won’t wear scars of shame upon his back. He can’t go backwards now, not when he’s set his sights on his goal. Not when Rukia needs him.

Even with all that, he’s not winning.

He may not run but he’s being force back, further and further with Urahara taking every inch given for his own, eating the ground as he cuts at Ichigo’s defenses.

Ichigo keeps an eye on his unused hand. He knows these men are tricky. He knows shinigami can use kido, and he won’t be taken by surprise again.

Urahara shifts his stance and Ichigo lunges for the opening. Too late he realizes it’s a trap.

He takes a hard blow to his side, and blood drips down into the white fabric beneath the black.

Ichigo jumps back, a hand on his side, and hisses with the pain. It’s shallow. Not even enough to pierce into anything important. When he looks to Urahara he sees not the man but a predator stalking towards him. He’s not even close to running out of energy. Neither of them are, but now Urahara has drawn first blood.

Ichigo remembers red. He remembers the red of Fuyuki, the terror of the grail and the fallen kings. He remembers the blind desperation of the fight with Lev, and barely keeping Olga Marie from being dragged into the red earth. Red was raw destruction, blood and death.

Ichigo is beyond being afraid of it.

“Zangetsu,” the name comes to his lips. Zangetsu. He’s always known it. He’s always had this sword at his back, and now a phantom hand lays upon his shoulder. His partner. His weapon. The means by which he will protect all he loves.

“Forget fear,”  his words echo, and a second hand touches his on the hilt, “  Look forward. Walk forth. Never stop. If you look back you are lost. If you are afraid you’ll die. Swear, Ichigo.”  

He does.

“I’ll never run. I’ll never be afraid. Even if I have to tear the heavens apart, I will win! Zangetsu!”

Power swirls around his sword, Zangetsu squeezes his shoulder and falls into the blade, still crossed with Benihime. They sing together, a song of the hunt and a refusal to die. A cat and the moon, Ichigo pushes everything he has into the sword. Into Zangetsu. He trusts him.

Silver light rips out of the blade. He can see the moment of Urahara’s briefest panic and the last-second switch of his sword. From offense to defense, but it’s not enough to save his hat from the wave of raw energy that shreds from Zangetsu.

Ichigo catches the hat as it falls to the ground, a good sized chunk now missing.

He can’t help the grin that splits his face when he sees the land past Urahara’s red barrier has been torn into a fissure that stretches all the way out to the seemingly endless walls of the room, and cracks it’s way up towards the ceiling.

He lays Zangetsu back along his back and walks over to Urahara, twirling his hat around one finger. It feels good. Fighting with his own power, nothing has never compared to that. Nothing ever will.

Ichigo eyes the cracks and crumbling edges of the red shield Urahara has erected to guard himself, and eyes the sword in his hand. The bloodlust isn’t gone, but there’s something else in it. Ichigo touches that blade, drawing Urahara’s attention away from the new canyon in his basement. The touch is all Ichigo needs for a proper reading. Confusion, curiosity, and off all things hope.

There’s definitely something weird going on here.

Urahara pulls his sword back from ichigo delicately and sheathes her again. “You should be careful,” Urahara warns. “Benihime isn’t nice.”

If zanpakuto reflect the soul of their wielder, does that mean Urahara is also ‘not nice’?

Ichigo hands him his hat. “I think I passed your little test.”

Up close, Urahara isn’t nearly as old as Ichigo first thought he was. He almost looks young, somewhere in his later twenties. Most questions, no more answers and no time to ask them.

“I’d say you did,” Urahara takes it from him, futility knocking dust away from it. “Ichigo, you are one scary kid.”

* * *

“Do you know where you are?”

“Are you going to ask me that every time?”

Ichigo isn’t surprised to see where he is tonight. There’d been a creeping dread that had begun crawling up his throat the closer and closer they came to the day he was to leave.

Merlin toys with a strand of Ichigo’s hair. It’s finally grown past his shoulders these days, and Merlin seems to take some small pleasure in the tactile sensation.

If Ichigo was trapped at the edge of the world for over 1500 years he’d probably be starved for new sensations himself. Or even something as simple as the presence of someone familiar.

He is reminded again that he has sworn to free Merlin from his prison, even if he has no idea how he’s going to do that. He’ll figure it out.

“Perhaps. It’s consistent if nothing else.”

“Everything here is consistent,” Ichigo retorted. “You’ll stop once you get tired of Westworld.”

“Maybe I’ll start with the Game of Thrones references then,” Merlin teased. Ichigo shot him a scowl.

Merlin laughed it off easily.

“Okay, something else then. In the meantime, how has your training been going?”

“My training? It’s fine. It’s mostly been Urahara fighting me. He hasn’t taught me much of anything, but I’m catching up to speed with my new sword at least.”

“Ah yes. And how does he fight?”

“Urahara? I dunno. Sometimes he moves like Kojirou, sometimes like Mordred.”

“Those are very different fighting styles,” Merlin mused, tapping his fingers along his staff. Ichigo nods his agreement.

“It is. More than anyone though, he reminded me of Okada,”  and you .

“A man slayer?” Merlin pretended to startle. “A man equally capable of saber and assassin techniques. What a terrifying concept.”

Merlin didn’t know the half of it.

“Do you fear him?”

Ichigo paused. “Huh? No. I probably should but… he doesn’t mean to hurt me, or my friends.”

“My, my. You always have had a knack for judging people.”

“Don’t make it sound like I’m some kind of mind reader,” Ichigo groans, falling back into the flowers that perpetually bloom aroun Merlin. It really is a very pretty prison.

His gaze wanders to Merlin’s staff.

“Those ribbons,” he says suddenly. “Are they soul ribbons?”

“Hmm?” Merlin follows his gaze and delights. “Aha! No, not quite but they are very close. They’re designed to keep my staff from being stolen or abused. I suppose, in some ways, they’re the essence or the soul of my staff. They work a bit like command seals.”

Merlin was being weirdly forthcoming.

That only happened when it was something Ichigo really needed to know. Why would he need to know that much about Merlin's fancy magic stick?

If he tries to ask, he’ll just be brushed off, so he doesn’t. Instead he engages Merlin in a game of twenty questions, to pass the time until he must leave again.

“Are you worried?” Merlin asks abruptly, breaking their game and starting a new one called ‘try to get Ichigo to talk about his feelings’.

“Why would I be?” Ichigo replies, narrowing his eyes.

Merlin holds up his hands placatingly. “This will be the first time you go alone into something like that. I would think you would be frightened.”

“I’m not alone,” Ichigo says evenly. “I have my zanpakuto, Zangetsu. Besides. This way I don’t have to be so careful. I won’t be leading anyone except for myself, and anyone who inevitably joins along while I’m there.”

“Your charisma is the stuff of legends.”

“I’m not charismatic!” Ichigo argues, scowling again. “People just like to glue themselves to me, it’s not my fault.”

Merlin laughs and Ichigo shifts uncomfortably in his seat, crushing more flowers around him. They’re replaced in second by yet more.

“Will I see you while I’m in the soul society?” Ichigo asks, peering at his friend.

Merlin considers this. “Most likely not. It’s a different world, and the realm of the dead at that. I don’t think I can reach you there.” There’s sadness hidden in his eyes. Ichigo scowls at him for a long moment before he gives in and hugs the grand mage.

Merlin stiffens in his grasp, his air leaving his lungs for the long seconds before Ichigo starts to fade away, back where he’s come from.

If he doesn’t come back, he won’t have Merlin doubting their friendship.

* * * *

Seven days. Seven days, and Ichigo is on his way out of the house.

There had been a festival earlier, and he’d wanted to go with his sisters and give them one last memory, before he potentially ran off and got himself killed on a rescue mission for a girl they didn’t even remember exists.

The fireworks stopped him.

He’s already on edge, already gearing up for a fight, for an infiltration (for a war). He doesn’t want to know what the sound of the sky cracking open and lights and fire roaring over his head will do to him at a time like this.

Instead he’d waited for them, and tucked them in when they’d been too exhausted for anything else. He left breakfast in the fridge so Yuzu didn’t have to worry about it in the morning, and when Urahara’s creepy ass blood message came through the window he switched bodies with Kon and was on his way.

Along the way, he bumps into Orihime.

And at Urahara shop Chad is waiting.

Uryu shows up last and when the door opens he grabs Urahara by the collar and drags him inside. The door shuts soundly behind them.

Ichigo spins them around and shoves Urahara against the wall, baring his teeth at the man. “What the hell are they doing here?!”

Urahara is completely unaffected, and it kind of pisses him off.

“What do you mean? They’re you’re friends, they’re here to help you. Isn’t that obvious?”

“Yeah, I know what they came. I wanna know why you let them?! I’m not letting them come along. They’ll be in danger. I’m not taking them with me!”

“Then what was your plan?” Urahara asks, his playful voice overturned with one that Ichigo has never heard. Dark and serious, with the same edge as his blade. The hat tilts and Ichigo can see his eyes. Old, and intelligent. He’s reminded, once more, of Merlin.

“They’re not strong enough for this,” Ichigo insists. “I would have made friends while I was there to help me. At least three.” Usually closer to ten or twelve.

“That’s the most naive thing I’ve ever heard. Why would anyone turn their backs on their home, on their captains and friends, to help a stranger like you?”

Ichigo bristles. “I don’t know.” But they always do, for some reason. “Rukia has to have friends. I can’t be the only one who thinks this is wrong and people will fight for what’s right if you push them to it-”

Urahara catches his hands and pushes him back. “You can’t rely on a strategy like that. You can’t count on peoples ‘better natures’ or you’ll always be disappointed. Your friends have come to help you, and they are stronger than you’d expect. Likely they’ll be the ones you can rely on. Do you understand?”

Ichigo narrows his eyes at Urahara. “I’m relying on you, aren’t I?”

The air crackles with tension between them, until the door slides open and his friends step inside. They freeze at the picture; Ichigo looming over Urahara, who’s got pinned to the wall.

“Uh.” Says Ichigo eloquently.

“Oh dear!” Cries Urahara, snapping his fan in front of his grinning face. “Whatever shall we do, now that we’ve been caught. Oh Ichig -ow!”

Ichigo elbows him in the side and lets him go. Fine. They were already here, and Ichigo can see their own stubbornness. Chad and Uryu aren't going anywhere, and Ichigo knows even Orihime can fight. He’d been there when Tatsuki was training her. Even with her ability, her personality will be the biggest problem.

Already he feels himself shifting. This is no longer just about him. This is the team he’s been given, and he reads over their strength as best he can. It’s not as clear as a servant, but he’s working on it.

Chad he knows is a brawler, brute strength and fierce dependability. Close rang, and he’s got an insane pain tolerance and durability. He can tell by looking, Chad is stronger now than he was even a week ago. Fine.

Uryu is an archer, through and through. Long rang, he’ll be at a disadvantage if they have to fight up close and personal. He also knows basic first aid. He’s maybe the best person to counter Ichigo, to bring with him. The biggest problem might be his hatred for shinigami. People do stupid, impulsive things when they’re filled with animosity.

  Your anger keeps you warm now, but it will leave you cold in your grave.  

Orihime.

“Orihime,” he speaks to her for the first time, startling her out of whatever daydream she’d been having. “What exactly can you do?”

“Huh? Oh well I guess I’m pretty good at math, and I get good grades in gym class too. I won a volleyball game last year and-”

“I think he means your powers,” Chad corrects quietly. Powers. Good god, what have they gotten themselves into?

“Well?” Ichigo presses. Orihime touches her hair clips, the ones she always wears.

“Well um. I can make barriers that bounce things off of them. And I can shoot Tsubaki at people like a laser light beam. And I can heal too!”

Ichigo doesn’t know who or what a Tsubaki is. He doesn’t know what powers Chad has.

Fuck he hates this.

But healing and shielding are something he can work with too. That’ll make Orihime their third tier, a support class.

Damn it.

And damn Urahara for not telling him about this!

“You need to calm down,” says someone new. Ichigo looks down, and finds the cat from before peering up at him. Golden eyes, and black fur.

“...Oh. You’re  Urahara’s familiar.”

The cat shakes her head. The masculine voice throws him off for a minute.

“No. I am Yoruichi. Kisuke is just an old friend of mine, and asked me to train your friends. The only person here who might have a familiar would be you, Ichigo.”

“I see,” Ichigo says. He looked at the other three, stronger than he’d ever seen them but so inexperienced. He doesn’t want to bring them to this. He doesn’t want them to have the paranoia, the nightmares, the noose around their neck that comes with constant fighting and desperate attempts to win. But there’s no going back now. They’ll follow no matter what he says.

Ichigo bows shortly to the cat.

“Thank you for helping them, then, Yoruichi.”

The feline preens and licks at her paw. “Don’t thank me yet. Thank me when we get back with Rukia.”

“Right…”

He still doesn’t know exactly what he’ll do once she’s safe with them. Probably he’ll have to call in one of those favors from the clock tower. So be it.

“Okay,” he shot one last look at Urahara. “Let’s go.”

Urahara leads him down into the training grounds. The fissure Ichigo had created has been fixed by now, leaving the ground flat and dusty once more. There are conspicuous stitches across the ‘sky’. Everyone else is to busy marvelling to comment.

Tessai goes to get a large square of hollow stone set up in the corner, while Ichigo’s friends watch on. He can feel Urahara come to stand behind him. He’s good, but he’s no King of Assassins.

“You seem to be thinking awfully hard there, Ichigo,” Urahara says. If he expect Ichigo to jump, he’s disappointed.

Ichigo presses his lips into a line before he answers.

“It’s heavy,” He says at last.

“Heavy?”

“The weight of their lives.”

Urahara is silent when Ichigo leaves him behind to stand at Chad’s side.

* * * * *

Ichigo is confined to the cart for the rest of the day, regardless of how he’s feeling or how stubborn he is. No one can outstubborn Florence Nightingale. Not that even Ichigo is stupid enough to try. Not after Medusa offered to chain him to the cart if he didn’t behave himself for her.

He was at the mercy of the nurse. Rama looked smug at the fact that it was finally someone other than him that she was fussing over. When Nightingale’s back was turned Ichigo made sure to flip him off.

The only person who rides with him is Kyo, his legs cross with a his sword in his lap.

Ichigo eyes is speculatively.

“Why don’t you draw your sword when you fight?” he asks at last.

Kyo looks up at him, his brown eyes startled. “Well,” he considers his words, “Mine is not a sword for combat.”

“...what the fuck does that mean?”

“My sword, this zanpakuto, is capricious, and not always friendly towards those that are even my allies. My Kido serves me well enough, and if I’m honest I try to keep her abilities a secret.”

“Oh,” Ichigo says, looking down at the sword. He can’t help being curious. Kyo is such a walled off person, even if he pretends to be friendly.

“It isn’t that I don’t trust you,” Kyo says suddenly. “You’ve proved that you’ll go to great lengths to help me, even if it to save your own skin. And whatever you say, I can tell you’re loyal and your morals are rigid.”

“It’s fine,” Ichigo waves his hand in dismissal. “If you don’t want to tell me, don’t.”

“Ichigo…”

“It’s fine,” he says ago. “You’re not in the wrong. Everyone has secrets, and you’ll only know us until we return to our own time. In 2018.”

“I’ll still be around then, if I’m not killed,” Kyo tells him swiftly. “Shinigami age much slower than humans. At least a tenth as fast, if not slower than even that.”

“That’s great,” Ichigo says, “But honestly it won’t matter if you’re alive or dead. Truth is, you won’t remember us.”

“What?” Kyo’s brows furrow and he sits up straighter.

“You’ll forget about all of this,” Ichigo says again, “When we set the world to right, everything that we’ve done here will be erased from history. Including your memory. There’s nothing we can do for it. We’ve seen it in people we knew before. We met Nero when she was still alive, but as a servant she’s forgotten all about us. The same will happen to you.”

“No,” Kyo shakes his head, narrows his eyes. “No. I won’t! And if I do, you must remind me!”

“How would I do that?” Ichigo asks, leaning back lazily. The idea makes his chest clench and ache. No one will ever remember him or Mash. They aren’t in this for glory. They won’t find any. All that will happen if they succeed is he will return to his family and Mash will return to Chaldeas.

“Find me. Tell me.”

“Tell you? Tell you that I’m a time traveller and I met you two hundred years ago but you can’t remember because we stopped the apocalypse?”

He doesn’t say aloud that if they fail it won't matter. Kyo won’t remember them because Kyo won’t even exist anymore.

Kyo narrows his eyes in thought. He runs his fingers through his curly hair, brushing it away from his face where a single strand likes to fall nearly to his chin.

Finally, he snaps his fingers.

“I’ll tell you something no one else knows,” he announces abruptly. He leans forwards, grasps Ichigo’s hand and brings it to his blade before he whispers into his ear a truth that Ichigo will not fully comprehend for centuries.

Not until he stands on a cliff and looks upon his once friend, flanked by a man with silver hair and a person whose eyes are hidden with thick glass.

* * * * * *

[pseudoneiiric]

 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝟑 - 𝟓 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄 rules : repost, don’t reblog.

brutus | the buttress

something wicked this way comes / and as i set to face it, i’m unsure, should i embrace it, should i run? / what motivates me - hatred or is it love? / what’s more wrong: that i too wish to be great or my mother wished she’d had a son? / and even if i can’t be the one, maybe i could at least help make way for him until the day that he comes / maybe my name could also be known / that i helped return good to the people / and restored greatness to rome

the other side | woodkid

i heard a whisper on my shoulder / pretending life is worth the fight / o can you hear the song of thunder / when fear strangles a soldier’s pride / and on the surface of the waters / will dance reflections of the fire in the night / i remember cheering from towers / a face is smiling in the light / i remember the bells, the flowers / those days are dying in the dark / boy i was shaped for the fury / now i pay the price / of the human race’s vice / and i was promised / the glorious ending of a knight / but the crown is out of sight

i can’t believe my heart | susan egan

i’ve always thought that men were slime / and every guy i’ve met has proved me right / until tonight / just when i thought i had it figured / that life’s a game you cannot win / he comes in and changes all the rules / what i’ve been taught, i learned the hard way / that life and love are never just / and if you trust, you’re just one of the fools / and now i can’t believe my heart / is saying don’t resist him / that i’ve been on my guard too long / i can’t believe my heart / surrendered when i kissed him / and told me all i thought i knew / as sad but true, is wrong

closure | taylor swift

it’s been a long time / and seeing the shape of your name / still spells out pain / it wasn’t right / the way it all went down / looks like you know that now / yes, i got your letter / yes, i’m doing better / it cut deep to know ya / right to the bone / yes, i got your letter / yes, i’m doing better / i know that it’s over / i don’t need your “closure” / your “closure” / don’t treat me like some situation that needs to be handled / i’m fine with my spite / and my tears / and my beers and my candles / i can feel you smoothing me over

achilles come down | gang of youths

you want the acclaim, the mother of mothers / (it's not worth it, achilles) / more poignant than fame or the taste of another / (don't listen, achilles) / but be real and just jump, you dense motherfucker / (you're worth more, achilles) / you will not be more than a rat in the gutter / (so much more than a rat) / you want my opinion, my opinion you've got / (no one asked your opinion) / you asked for my counsel, i gave you my thoughts / (no one asked for your thoughts) / be done with this now and jump off the roof / (be done with this now and get off the roof) / can you hear me, achilles? i'm talking to you [ ... ] throw yourself into the unknown / with pace and a fury defiant / clothe yourself in beauty untold / and see life as a means to a triumph / today of all days, see / how the most dangerous thing is to love / how you will heal and you'll rise above / crowned by an overture bold and beyond / ah, it's more courageous to overcome

Tagged by @thefabulouslindalinda (at my request <3) Tagging @valuehope @actstogether​ @thefabulouslindalinda​ (uno reverse cards you) @highroll​ @frimaerke​ @lenchi​ @rookievil​​

[skywardsoul]

Dianakko Week 2019

It’s time for @dianakko-week day 4! Sorry about posting this one so late! I still had to finish it up, and I had a bit of a busy day! 

After a long day at work, Akko is looking forward to a rare dinner spent with her girlfriend. Things don't exactly turn out the way she was expecting.

Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20391742/chapters/48476456

Read on FF.Net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13372417/4/Dianakko-Week-2019

Akko let out a tired sigh as she made her way up to the door of her home. She felt herself fight back a yawn as she fumbled with her keys. If there was one thing she wished she could go back in time and tell tiny Akko, it was that there was a lot of boring, tiring work that went into being a stage performer. It’s not like she didn’t love her job. There wasn’t anything in the world Akko would trade for her career as Shining Star. It was just that no matter how exciting the fans, the cheers and the bright lights were, meeting clients with her agent, discussing financing with her team, and long nights on the road were exhausting. Akko saw it nothing short of a miracle that she actually got out of tonight's meeting before 7:00. Not to mention, today was Diana’s day off. She wouldn’t be stuffed in her office at the hospital. She would be home, and waiting for her.

Akko couldn’t help but smile at that fact. It meant that for the first time in over a week, her and Diana would be able to eat dinner together. Like, really eat together. No hastily ordered take out because Akko didn’t have time to cook. No leaving food to be reheated because Diana wouldn’t be home till late. No sir, tonight, they were going to have a proper dinner, together, homecooked, and on time! Akko smiled, her earlier fatigue forgotten. She couldn’t afford to be tired anymore! Her girlfriend awaited her arrival, and would almost certainly be hungry. 

Diana was far from a lazy person and almost certainly would have already had dinner waiting for her...if she had any idea how to cook. It seemed that, by Diana’s own admission, living in a high class home left her rather lacking in her culinary skills. Growing up, Diana had insisted that she help with most of her chores, not wanting to be a burden. One thing that she was fine leaving up to the staff however, was cooking. Diana had told her that fire scared her as a kid, so she was never too keen on being near a stove, or anywhere in the kitchen for that matter. By the time she had outgrown the fear, she had gotten so used to having people prepare her food it had just become second nature.

Akko could tell not being able to cook bothered Diana, so she had tried teaching her...it simply ended in utter disaster. Akko tried to start simple, teaching  Diana how to make miso soup using an old recipe her grandfather had given her. It didn’t take a lot of steps, used relatively few ingredients, and Akko knew it like the back of her hand. What could go wrong? A lot. A lot could. For someone so knowledgeable about the intricacies of magic and spell casting, it was surprising how easily Diana overlooked details when following a recipe. Akko didn’t remember exactly what happened, but she did remember Diana’s panicked expression as she frantically reached for her wand extinguishing the flames that had engulfed her pot. If Akko had to hazard a guess, Diana’s struggles in the kitchen were still being impacted by her fear. Sure Diana wasn’t afraid of the fire anymore, but Akko had a sneaking suspicion that the very act of being in the kitchen and working with a stove frighten her girlfriend, at least on some level. She hadn’t really brought this possibility with Diana yet, but it was low priority. Diana was a busy woman and had plenty of other things to worry about other than her inability to cook. 

Having finally found her key to the door, Akko opened it, and entered her home.

“Tadaima!” Akko called as she stepped past the threshold and hung her coat up on the wall.

Despite having had a rather large budget when house hunting, Diana had insisted that the home be modest. Akko had thought that growing up in a mansion would mean Diana was used to a lot of space, but that couldn’t be anything less than true. Hell, when Diana had first asked her to move in with her, Akko had thought she meant into Cavendish manor. Diana simply made a face when Akko had told her.

“We’ll visit the manor often. After all it was my mother’s home,” Diana had said. “But at most it will be a… ‘vacation home,’ of sorts,” she added curtly.

So their house ended up on the smaller end. Well, small compared to a mansion. It still had two floors, a guest room, 3 bathrooms, a fairly spacious living room, and a full sized kitchen. It was certainly bigger than the house Akko grew up in. It wasn’t decorated to fancily or anything either. They owned the occasional nice thing, like the vase that sat on their mantle, or the couch by the fireplace, but for the most part the house was covered in more home decor. Pictures of family and friends sat wherever there was space and Akko would be damned if any house of hers didn’t have Shiny Chariot memorabilia at least somewhere. Yes, it really was a great house...well when it wasn’t full of smoke at least.

Akko had even noticed the smoke at first until an all too familiar smell hit her nose. Something was burning, or at the very least had been burning. Akko would be the first to admit she wasn’t the brightest when it comes to common sense, but it didn’t take a genius to put this puzzle together. She had a girlfriend who was horribly inept at cooking, a rare time in which said girlfriend was home and Akko wasn’t, and large amounts of smoke billowing out their kitchen.

“Aww geez Diana…” Akko said, a bit of her fatigue from earlier returning.

“Akko!? Is that you!?” Came Diana’s voice from the kitchen. 

There were several loud bangs and a curse word or two before Diana appeared in the kitchen doorway. Her hair was disheveled, bangs covering parts of her face in that way they do when Diana was stressed. She was also quite sweaty and obviously nervous as she wrung her hands in front of her and tried to avoid looking back over her shoulder.

“H-hello Akko,” Diana said with a waver in her voice. “I didn’t hear you come in. Okaeri.”

“Yeah, I’d be surprised if you could hear anything,” Akko said eyeing her girlfriend with concern. “You, uh, want to tell me what happened in there?” Akko pointed over Diana’s shoulder and into the kitchen.

Akko watched as the weird, forced smile that Diana had been wearing dropped off her girlfriend’s face. She put her head in her hands.

“Oh Akko, it was nothing short of a disaster!” Diana said as she started to cry. “I, I thought since you’re always the one preparing such lovely meals, and that we’d be home together for dinner tonight, I’d try and...” Diana trailed off as Akko moved to wrap her in a hug.

“Shhhh,” Akko whispered as she softly ran her hand through her girlfriend’s hair. “It’s okay Diana.”

“No it is not. I Hate feeling like the pampered rich girl that can’t cook her own food! I wanted to prove that it’s not what I am, that I could make us dinner if I really tried,” Diana said, burying her face against Akko’s shoulder. “All I did was make a fool of myself. I feel like a bloody idiot.”

Akko frowned. Now that she wasn’t going to stand for. She could handle a ruined dinner and a (most likely) destroyed kitchen, but she wasn’t about to stand here and let her girlfriend bad mouth herself.

“Don’t be like that Diana! What you were trying to do was really sweet!” Akko said encouragingly, tilting up Diana’s face by her chin. “Even though you know you, uh, ‘struggle,’ in the kitchen you still tried to make something, just so I didn’t have to. That’s like a one hundred percent classic awesome girlfriend move.”

“Do awesome girlfriends typically screw it all up?” Diana asked bitterly.

“No, but even awesomer one’s don’t let it get them down when the do,” Akko countered.

She paused to wipe a tear from Diana’s face before continuing.

“Diana, do you know how many times I used to blow myself up practicing magic? How many times I set things on fire? How many stitches I had to get in our first year at Luna Nova alone?”

Diana giggled, moving to rest her forehead against Akko’s.

“More than I can count,” she replied.

“Exactly! And I kept trying anyway! So if you really feel like you want to try and learn to cook, you could ruin a thousand dinners and destroy a million kitchens and I wouldn’t care! And neither should you!

For a moment, Diana was silent. Then, with the trademark Cavendish sarcasm that Akko knew and loved, she responded,

“Really? A million?”

“Yes, a million,” Akko responded confidently. “Just try don’t try and make that a goal,” she added.

The two women took a much needed moment to laugh and for Diana to regain her composure. Once their laughter died down, Akko decided that her girlfriend could really use a kiss, and considering how long it lasted, Diana agreed.

When they broke apart, Akko couldn’t help herself from asking. “So what did you try and make anyway?” she asked.

Diana visibly cringed a bit. “Well, I thought I would try and prepare us some stir fry rice and beef. As you already know, the online internet video I found was not as helpful as I would have hoped.”

Akko laughed a bit internally at Diana’s use of “online internet video.” Technology was Diana’s other major Achilles heel, but one to tackle for another day.

“Thankfully I was able to catch the fire rather quickly,” Diana continued. “We, may need new smoke alarms however...I may have blasted them in my panic. I didn’t know how to shut them off.”

Yup, for another day. Suddenly Akko realized something.

“Hey wait a minute. If you were making stir fry does that mean you-”

“Used the wok your mother sent you from home? Yes...I did.”

Akko realized she must have looked as terrified as she felt because Diana quickly added

“But, I used a spell to repair the fire damage!”

Akko breathed a sigh of relief. 

“All there is left to do now is clean up and repair the rest of the kitchen,” Diana said.

Just then, Akko’s stomach growled. Man was she hungrier than she realized.

“Sounds like a plan, but can we do it after we eat something?”

“Well I doubt you’ll be able to make anything in that mess.

Akko turned to her girlfriend with a smile. “Pizza then?”

“Pizza sounds lovely,” Diana said, leaning over to give Akko another kiss.

[a-lilacsong]

Elena of Avalor Live text reaction: Giant Steps

I enjoy reading other people's posts where they watch episodes of shows and write reactions to things in the episode while they're still watching it. So I decided to make one for this new episode: Giant Steps. 

Reaction starts under the cut (Spoilers for the episode since this is a reaction)

She needs a crew 

Wait has she gone to Australia 

Also I love that fish on the wall 

To bad it wouldn't be able to sing most likely

Is that a wanted poster for the bat on the wall?

And it looks like she's selling Esteban’s hat as well 

oooooh I think I feel a song coming on

 also the letter text is so clear I could probably translate this

if I felt like it 

Man, Elena is a fast writer 

I really like the accordion in this song but so far it's been pretty casual 

I don't know, I guess I was just expecting a big old villain song 

What a cute parrot! Naomi should get a parrot

Oh that's a sword for a second I thought it could be a chainsaw 

Don't mind him that's just casual Joe, casually showing off his casual sword to his casual friends Casually 

Wow there's a lot of lens flares in this song, was it directed by JJ Abrams?

Maybe it's not even a big threat Naomi's coming to warn them about, maybe she's just going to come back to say hi at this point, she seems like she's really missing Elena 

This is why she needs a crew, then she wouldn't be lonely 

Having a good cry together?! All of the hurt comfort and angst fanfiction possibilities! 

Oh look there's the not-Ash little girl 

yes the Elena and Naomi feels are strong with this one 

Ship does not rhyme with fate! this is the second time a line hasn't rhymed and it bugs me 

And she's broke

Maybe she should have asked for some money along with a ship eh?

The Bat Wanted poster Is hilarious 

And so starts her career as a bounty hunter 

“So how much gold are you giving for his capture?” “heaps of it.” “But how much gold exactly?” “HEAPS. OF. IT.”

Yeah when you just draw bags of money on the poster it's probably a scam 

Naomi unrolls the wanted poster, Me: *Gasps out loud* They all look so good!

 I wonder if you captured those three along with the bat if they give you an extra gold for that or if they just only give you a reward for the bat

You probably wouldn't get any gold though cuz it's probably a scam

Sudden zoom in on the poster while there's a bell in the background like what

 reminds me how they always always seem to do that during dramatic moments in Star Trek

What's in the bag a knife, a phaser, or is she just giving her the bag 

Maybe a special knockout powder?

Oh cool it's one of those endless Space Bags 

also what a cute red bird 

This episodes giving lots of birds 

But the Winged being I want to see most is Chatana

Oh look she sells harpoons! What does the store not have?

The necklace, of course she wants the necklace, I was thinking about was oddly noticeable with Naomi wearing two necklaces so of course she's going to have to give one away

Will she give it to her, Probably

Yep now she has the Magic Bag

And she got the take the wanted poster as well?! Wow !

It's not illegal to take down wanted posters?

Boy there is probably some kid out there who has fifty wanted posters just up decorating their room because they are very well drawn 

I mean if I lived in that world and knew I couldn't get punished for it I would totally have a few of them up 

Ash and Chatana just look so snug in their pictures, when why was Esteban just looks so innocent compared to them 

Wait so ash gave Chatana the diadem off screen? okay...

I've been waiting months for this, yes, YES team Ash team Ash team Ash YES!

Now I finally get to see more of Chatana

 I will finally get to see what her personality is really like yes

~~ but now I have to eat supper so intermission

Sarah give me spoilers Darn it ~~

 Anyway

 the bat can shape-shift!? wow I always thought that Esteban’s teleportation powers would take them to Vestrella but I was wrong

Of course they're seen immediately, probably because of Ash’s yelling

Wait if you Caught the Jaquin babies, what would you do with them Esteban?

He seems better at this villain stuff than I thought 

Also both Ash and Chatana seem way too confident about this 

I'm predicting it will be their Achilles heel 

Bold of Mateo to assume that she would be looking for her friend instead of the villains 

Probably spied on Naomi before 

It seems Mateo's more Curious boy Then I thought he's willing to spy on someone if they're a friend 

And she's right there, she probably ran past Armando and everyone else that's why they didn't get it notified of her arrival 

Like she always does 

Yay clumsy Mateo

And he didn't drop it!

No one expected you back this soon Naomi not even the audience 

Lesbians lesbians lesbians 

It's great other than the crippling loneliness 

Mateo asks the kind of questions that I asked on tumblr ask blogs anonymously 

“Ancient at least I thought she was ancient '' if she said that to Chatana’s face which you take it as a compliment or an insult I wonder?

Also continuity!

And of course she's only going to bring Gabe because he is the only guard She Knows by name 

Sarcasm aside though I'm glad that these four will get to have another adventure together 

They are the Ultimate Adventure team 

Well Isabel is always welcome on it 

But it is illegal for her to try to fight Esteban 

Or Witness Elena seriously killing him 

Wait is she going because she wants to be with Elena 

Or to get the prize money 

Probably both 

I sure hope Elena doesn't feel betrayed if Naomi tries to get that prize money I mean she has to make a living somehow 

Yes Elena, the team 

It is the only team strong enough to defeat the evil team 

Oh boy every time Chatana walks she looks like she's on a Runway! She is so poised and confident looking 

Also it seems that they have gotten past that cloaking spell 

And Esteban gets smacked in the face

They just love you using him for slapstick don't they?

I just love it how bat says casually that they're being watched 

And Ash and Chatana flip out like they're about to be caught by the thought police 

Okay, Esteban is hilarious 

*Ash Eyeroll*

I wonder who has done more eye rolls in the series Ash or Esteban?

And she blocked it again, I guess it wears off over time?

SOME kind of cloaking spell!? it looks like the same one they were using before!

I sure hope Philly wasn't conscious with Chatana all those years

She CAN fly!

And we finally get to see her make a monster and it's so cool!!!

Spiders spiders everywhere!

Flying spider tornado!

Ash and Esteban’s reactions are valid

BABY spider Eagles! that changes everything 

Now that means that they're really cute 

I would still be distracted by them though

Esteban sass 

Ash threats

If they weren't so evil they make a great sitcom team 

~~~break to watch final episode of Pride and Prejudice with my family~~

Gabe makes yet another strategy which will be most likely ignored or never brought up again 

Points for trying, Captain 

Oh good, that’s just webs, thought it was something else for a moment 

Down they go, too bad she can't use levaloop with that sceptre and they're going to have a hard Landing 

Woo he didn't use levaloop he's learning new spells 

Yay team Ash back views! I've been needing these for artistic purposes 

Did Phili just spit fire Let me back that up 

Wow I think he did

Awww,  “Little one”

They must train together a lot, Ash just needs to give Esteban a look and he does what they need 

That's the same unlocking spell as before

 do the Maruveians only have one kind of lock spell

Also wait did Chatana teach that to Ash at some point?

Because she certainly didn't use that on the gate before to unlock Chatana...

Oh nice unlocking effects 

some...BODY ONCE TOLD ME

MAMA <--May I also mention that my theory was right 

Wait all of Chatana's creatures are locked up here?

I guess there are the Sunbird jars 

True she was captured, (much better excuse than Pink Diamond’s)

And here is Esteban, the king of sucking up 

In a way, Kizin Reminds me of Sarah

He Likes the tall funny man 

Good recovery Esteban, you didn't make any snide comment that time 

And now everyone else sucks up 

Except Phili 

Chatana smile 

Kizin has other friends? AWW, he Just wants to help his friends! 

Ash has done nothing other than that spell so far except yell and complain to others

And there goes a bat

We will probably get him later... or maybe we will just leave him

Oh look will team Avalor attack him immediately or will they try and reason with him first 

If you needed more guards why didn't you just grab them in the first place 

I know Migs and Skyler are Guardians but couldn't you have gotten another Guardian to go and get reinforcements? 

Elena never planned ahead for things

Gabe the running LOL 

So you're going to just attack him instead of reasoning with him? okay 

I think that trip wire might be a little high Naomi

Wait Shouldn't Elena and Mateo wait on the other side of the tripwire so that they can surround Kizim just in case 

Naomi tie the tripwire you won't be strong enough to hold it up yourself 

Or maybe you will you are pretty strong 

Hey look there's the bat

No Naomi, no Naomi no tie the rope Naomi, and then go after him 

Tell Elena of your financial troubles don't risk it all 

(to quote Ash:) foolish child....

Looks like the bats in the bag 

Also why was he attacking ships in the first place, for the LOLs?

More Gabe running 

*Sigh* should have tied it...

She hurt him he hurt her 

Very good, Gabe protect 

See Don't Use Magic on Kizim, use Magic on yourself 

Oh yeah use the wizard to unlock the pots

And then an extra 

You know it seems like every episode where Elena could do a lot more she gets injured and then another character has to save the day 

It happened in the episode with the merman Prince 

Naomi just sort of stands there and watches 

Okay that scene is funnier in context than it is in the trailer 

First aid! Someone actually knows how to do first aid!

Mateo disobeyed a plan and now Naomi disobeyed the plan

When will they learn that disobeying plans always leads to bad things 

Sorry Princess I'm broke 

And Too Proud to Beg 

Okay, this is a complicated situation, on one hand Naomi is a big help in defeating villains on the other, why don't they just get a royal guard who is good with a lasso? 

I mean there are definitely some personal emotions running here 

But also it might have been better to wait to become a Captain until after the villains had been caught

I just think this might be both their faults

Although running out to the bat and not tying the Rope yeah

Little scared Mateo noise

I thought it was just going to run head-on into a wall 

LOL if one man can't do it get the other guy to do it

Gabe with magic well that would be interesting…

Well yeah, he's normally there 

Wait he's not going to attack Keatamos is he?

Gabe and Matteo wouldn't allow that 

“Hello friends” awww

Uh-oh is right, that many shaking pots is never good 

And now they're here to save the day 

When you forget you have an injury 

Although she Naomi should have felt the arm first to see how the sling should be set 

He likes one cousin and dislikes the other

Wait magic wands are handed?

Don't worry that Blaze probably didn't hit the wood that's everywhere around here 

How would releasing the bat help, I feel like he'd be on Kizim's side 

Couldn't you have just caught him in the bag with the bat still inside 

Actually no, the bat would get squished 

Well Gabe, you are bringing the burn today

Esteban reacts to waiting for things the same way I do 

Esteban knows he's the universe is punching bag 

Ash facepalm 

Chatana does care 

And Phili never will 

OOOOh Other allies!??!

It just seems like the Delgados inexplicably know about every different darkforce and possible magic thing there is 

She is angsting, Naomi, Which she always does alone 

Wow her arm is in a cast

Couldn't they just fix it with magic?

Does no one in this world know a healing spell? 

Actually that wouldn't surprise me.

Get a room you two! Oh, you do have a room 

now kiss 

They love each other 

You know you can hire your own ship crew at some point right?

I mean Captains classically command other crew members.

Wait is she coming back to the council

No Naomi don't ruin your life with politics! 

Get out while you still can! 

Wait, Naomi doesn't know she was replaced 

Well it would be easier on Julio if he didn't have two jobs… 

Which is the responsible thing to do 

She lives to serve 

Hugs 

Every episode with Chatana so far has had Elena Naomi angst 

That's the end of my reaction.

~~~~~

So here's my Mini review. Overall I liked the episode, sure the big conflicts could have been avoided if people actually talked with each other about their feelings first before the disasters, but that happens so often in TV shows I'm almost used to it. I loved seeing the villain force again (especially Chatana). Hopefully we will see them again soon. I wonder what job Naomi will get now, (Maybe being the minister of ships)?

[empty-dream]

Me Watching Fate/Apocrypha ep 22

Remember that Naruto vs Pain best worst fight scene? Where everybody’s making crazy ass face and noodle-y stances? This is not on that scale, but it’s still this.

*Agrius!Atalanta bites Jeanne* Jeanne: “BAD KITTY! BAD KITTY!!”

Karna you’re too polite for your own good

WASN’T EXPECTING CAULES POPPING OUT HERE AND NOW BUT OKAY VERY WELCOME

But how does he come in here again? Did he just step down from his plane? Is that even possible?

Sieg: “Wait, you want to save your original master?” Caules: “Yeah they don’t have command spells anymore what’s the point?” Karna: “Because I want to. Is that weird?” Both: “Well, it’s saintly as fuck, for one thing.”

Seeing Caules negotiating is always intriguing thing for me.

CAULES TO THE RESCUE! And his unfastened collar :))

I have a question what is the exact mechanism of saving these former red masters??

Sieg: “If attacking Jeanne is your master’s order then why go after me instead?” Karna: “I have this promise with Siegfried to fight to the death and I will give up everything to do that.” Sieg: “Ooooooookay I don’t know whether to be awed or scared.”

I like the music it’s so full of pride.

And here we have another type-moon male protagonist swearing to protect the female protagonist who is stronger than him

Granted at this point Sieg is just loaded with tons of eleventh hour superpower and probably kinda more powerful than many other servants but the point kinda still stands?

Back at episode 22 of My Cat from Hell

It’s been almost 3 years and I still don’t understand why Agrius Metamorphosis has to morph into that kind of suit? Isn’t this like the prototype of Dangerous Beast?

Agrius!Atalanta evolution! Sexy-boar-beast-with-batsy-wings-and-dark-arrow-Agrius Atalanta.

Welp, people has always been like that – people. Past present and future, the nature of people hasn’t changed that much.

Jeanne: “The end never justifies the means!!!” Agrius!Atalanta: “Fuck that!!!”

Wow I like how this fight isn’t too dark and I can see what they’re doing and the viewpoint is good.

WOW she rips off her own wing o_o

I’m bracing for another luminosite eternelle but GREEN LIGHT SOARING THROUGH YESSS

IT’S MOTHERFUCKING ACHILLES HERE YOU ARE FINALLY

Achilles: “Go, Jeanne. It’s sis’ and my problem now.” Jeanne: “I fucking knew it something’s up with you two.”

I’m kinda bummed A-1 doesn’t make it explicit that Achilles really does regret not picking up the clues and just letting Atalanta goes out of control.

His face looks like a boy shyly apologizing for breaking a neighbor’s window.

Why is Semiramis so beautiful and dignified here??

Jeanne: “You seriously believe in Shirou’s humanity salvation plan?” Semiramis: “Yeah, he even told me I’d rule the world after the salvation” Jeanne: “You fucking liar. Nobody’s ruling nobody if it’s truly salvation and you just sound like a certain golden Babylonian asshole king.”

Jeanne: “So how does he plan to do it?” Semiramis: “Well, tbh, I dunno.” Jeanne: “Are you fucking kidding me”

Wow this is so vivid. Does A-1 use color play to balance the noodle figures?

How to fight nukes by Sieg!Fried: Slash the nukes apart.

I.. I do not have any words for this fight, it’s vivid and flashy and powerful.

Though I’m wondering will Mamaramis be mad that their children are destroying her fortress with nukes and lavas?

I like Karna’s armors

TASTE THE EYEBEAMS! -Karna

The eyebeams cuts Sieg!Fried’s beautiful wild long hair THAT’S CLOSE AND ALSO A CRIME

Karna can you stop praising your enemies every time you fight? My heart is going to explode

Oh shit oh shit he’s going to VASAVI SHAKTI

Karna: “What’s your name?” Sieg!Fried: “Sieg!” Karna: “Wonderful name” Me: It’s a bit uncreative but it’s made up of honor and gratitude and now that you’re saying it’s wonderful then wonderful it is.

I LOST MY SHIT WHEN I WATCHED KARNA GOING DIVA IT WAS MIDNIGHT

The look of approval between Sieg!Fried and Karna is a blessing in itself

Move, Clarent Blood Arthur vs Balmung, it’s time for the new best clash: Vasavi Shakti vs Balmung

It’s the third time he uses the command spell right? Cause I can hear Jeanne’s Sieg sense tingling with exasperation.

Sieg!Fried: “Even this is not enough-“ Astolfo: “A SHIELD DELIVERY EXPRESS COMING THROUGHHHHHHH!!!!”

Astolfo: “Are you seriously giving me your shield noble phantasm?? You’re crazy.” Achilles: “I don’t need it anymore and beside it’s my promise to sensei.” Astolfo: “Oh okay. You’re still crazy tho.”

Sometimes I wonder if at this point Achilles is ready to give everything even his life to stop Atalanta because that damn shield is too strong to be given away just like that.

Manly screaming Astolfo is something I never thought I’d need in my life

Ain’t no shield like using a world containing your life as one.

Astolfo: “Wow I didn’t expect using a shield would cause an entire trippy journey into Achilles’s entire life, isn’t this breach of privacy?” Achilles somewhere: “It’s called Achilles Cosmos what exactly did you expect from it?”

Wow wowowo the sudden creation Greek architecture buildings is just… wow. Even Karna is amazed.

The scene when Sieg!Fried and Karna race to grab Balmung is an extreme version of when two people race to grab the last pizza.

When in fight, do NOT only bring one sword! -Sieg!Fried

If this entire fight was not Sieg!Fried vs Karna but only Sieg using Siegfried’s power vs Karna, would there still be anyone who would watch this?

Karna: “Sorry for dragging you with my ego” Sieg: “No, sorry I win through Astolfo’s sudden help” Karna: “No, Astolfo’s your servant and your power. It’s still a fair fight.” Sieg: “Holy crap you are like the greatest person in this world”

I wanna bet at some point Sieg’s like ‘Why do all these heroes have enough time to talk about lots of things when they’re one and half foot into the grave?’

Karna: “Jeanne will be in danger if she finds Shakespeare.” Sieg: “Alright thanks for the info gotta go bye!” Karna: “That was fast.“

Remember when honor and chivalry in war is no good as it will only meet betrayal? No, Fate/Apocrypha isn’t about that.

Karna would die alone if he was a dick but no he wasn’t a dick and Astolfo gets that so he was willing to chat and honor him before Karna fades away.

Karna: “I believe I hardly did anything worthy of a Servant” Me: HOLY SHIT KARNA STAHP YOUR HUMILITY IS KILLING MEE

Goodbye, my kind, hero of charity.

AND HERE I THOUGHT I’D EAT MY SHOE BECAUSE THEY’D SHIFT ACHILLES VS ATALANTA TO THE NEXT EP BUT NOPE THANK GOD

Yes people, the ultimate reason why I keep up with Apocrypha is because I want to see Achilles vs Atalanta and the known result of it

I found almost nothing until today about the fight beside that one line in beastlair forum and an online translated side material and I live with only those for years SO YEAH JUDGE ME I DON’T CARE

Wow the music is so catchy

You know A-1, you can use those 3 seconds for other more important actions on scene instead of Atalanta’s panties.

On a different note, here we are seeing a rider who fights more like a lancer versus an archer who fights more like a berserker

Ow he stabs her. It hurts :(

OW her arrows come back and stabs him. It hurts too :((

Aw yis he’s cradling her, I imagined this for like 3 years and it actually is like this.

NO NONONONO NOT THIS SAD SOUNDTRACK

I’d pay for Atalanta and Achilles to have another 3 seconds to talk more.

Why is Atalanta the one crying? Pretty sure in the novel it’s Achilles who’s crying. It’s even explicitly states in the side material that it’s his very tears and heroic naivety that makes Atalanta feel a bit better in the end.

The English sub makes it sounds like she was fine falling into corruption whereas I’m kinda sure (even tho my Japanese skill is zero) she’d mean she was fine with him stopping her. Correct me if I’m wrong tho.

It kinda hurts that she disappears before he does like I imagined that they’d disappear together, I know there is the battle continuation excuse but.. He has to watch her die and isn’t that painful?

Not gonna lie. Regardless of how short their exchange is and the inaccuracy of who’s crying, I’m loving the detail of this scene. Like how he barely yet still holds her in his arms, how the blood drips on her, how he sighs a little and embraces her as soon as she wakes up as herself, how his head slightly moves as she leans closer, how she weakly caresses his cheek, leaving bloodstains, and he just closes his eyes, and how she finally disappears then he follows- Oh my it looks like I just wrote an entire fanfiction

Isn’t it funny that I ship them for fun since he hits on her which is from vol 1 and then somehow it ends up in tragedy?

Tfw you care too much of a side couple (that isn’t really a couple) way more than the actual main couple

And now all of you understand why those two are on the credit together and why it gives me feels right of the bat

Maybe Achilles’s last words were the ones he wanted to, or should have, say back at episode 19, before Atalanta fell into madness. If he did, would this not happen?

Oh shit I’m weak to when-the-ending-song-is-played-without-the-usual-credit

Holy shit I just read the actual english lyrics of the entire song and my god isn’t this too fitting for this episode??? I’m grossly sobbing.

Goodbye, my pure huntress and brave warrior.

I love when Karna’s spear completely disappears as the song ends.

As of this update, I have replayed Achilles vs Atalanta for 100 times

Semiramis: “I’m waiting for someone else, actually.” Jeanne: “Who?” Semiramis: “That damn brat who rams an airplane into my home” Jeanne: “PFFT.”

The suspicious bitch face look that Jeanne gives as she’s running to the other side of the throne room is what I’m living for

As far as Fate/Apocrypha goes, this episode is the best in terms of everything.

And my long-awaited Achilles vs Atalanta finally comes. A certain op gives a translation over that scene from the novel and as expected, it’s a thousand times more beautiful and sadder. Thank you op. I’m in peace right now.  

*Glancing harshly at DW* Yo, THE REST OF APOCRYPHA SERVANTS WHEN?? We have a ton of people to reunite

NEXT: Hang on kids we got a train to Orleans

[bestfriendforhire]

Entry 364

 “What are you three doing?” I asked after Babette opened the door.

 Heloise and Achille were kneeling on the ground, looking as if they were praying.  Knowing this wasn’t a common practice for the descendants of Slayers, I felt more than a little confused.

 “Preparing to die.” she told me as I stepped into Achille’s room.

 “What?  Why?” I questioned, shocked that she had been completely serious.

 Looking confused, Heloise asked “You didn’t feel that?”

 “Feel what?”

 Achille, staring at my eyes from where he was kneeling on the floor, said, “That immense power…”

 “Around an hour ago, we all felt like some deity was about to step inside and swat us out of existence.” explained Babette.

 “What?  No.  I was just decorating.  There was no deific entity involved.  You three need to loosen up.  Despite the numerous strong individuals here, no one wants to kill you.  You’re safe.” I insisted.

 The three silently stared at me.

 Babette was the first one to find her voice, saying, “You seriously want us to believe that overwhelming magic was just you decorating?”

 “Look outside of your room.  The entire mansion and yard is decorated for Mila’s birthday party, which will be starting soon.  Please, get ready.” I told them.  “Oh.  Each of you has a new outfit prepared in your respective closets.  I thought you might want to dress up for the party.  If not, that’s your choice.  Yes, I created them there when I was decorating.”

 Honestly, I had simply been too aware of their small wardrobes and added a few things on instinct, but they didn’t need to know my help was accidental in this case.

 Achille, who had opened his closet with a spell, pointed and exclaimed “There really is something there!  How?  I was here the whole time.”

 “Raine could have casually waltzed in here, cleaned, redecorated, patted you on the head, and left without you seeing her.  Alma or I could have easily slipped the clothes in there with magic without you noticing.  There’s a fey who’s virtually undetectable that likes to sneak out of the forest occasionally.  She could slip in here without a problem.  Emma could ask the wood to move out of the way from the other side of the wall and set your clothes in from there.  Cosette… well, she probably would’ve messed with you a bit.  The point is that the collective abilities here are fantastic.  Since you get to be a part of it, try to enjoy it!  We’re having a party.  Get ready!”

 “Okay, boss.  Whatever you say, but… fey, really?” questioned Babette.

 “Yes, I’ll make sure to introduce you three tomorrow if you’re interested.  Oh.  If you haven’t been told yet, don’t go into the forest without me.  You’ll die before you make it past the second tree.  If Emma’s watching the yard, she’ll save you before you get too close, but the forest is completely off limits without being accompanied.  Actually, Mila would probably catch where you were headed first.  I’m going to check on the others, so hurry and join us.  This should be a fun day!” I exclaimed with a smile.

 Leaving the bewildered trio, I jogged over to Dejon’s door and knocked.

 “Hi.” he stated from his seat after Mila opened the door for him.  He was reading a thick, leather-bound book.

 “You did get the memo about the party, correct?” I questioned.

 He nodded and said, “I just want to finish this chapter.  I should have time, right?”

 “No rush.” I promised.  “Just thought I’d check to be sure.  Partying isn’t mandatory, but I think you could enjoy it.  There should be interesting people to meet as well.”

 “I’ll join the party.  Thank you, James.” he replied, smiling slightly.

 “Enjoy your book.” I told him, shutting the door behind me.  “Mila, is anyone else seeming to need encouragement?”

 “No, master.  Jemal has Kayla in hand, Iris is nearly here, and the rest are either ready or nearly there.” she informed me.

 “Excellent.  Have you decided what to wear yet?” I inquired.

 “Spoilers, master.” she teased.

 “I’ll take that to mean you have.” I replied with a smile.  Then I jogged to the foyer in case any guests appeared.  Mila wasn’t allowed to be answering the door at her own party.  Noticing that Emma was frozen in the air when I arrived, I looked around to find Aaliyah or Carl.

 “Boo!” exclaimed Aaliyah, falling at me from above.

 I caught her and said, “So terrifying… so terrifying…”

 “As your secretary, I thought I should notify you of a slight error in your thoughts.”

 “Oh?  What is that?”

 “Given that my daughter knows people throughout the universe, I felt the need to expand your house for a day.  This isn’t the only main entrance at the moment.”

 “Oooh…” I replied, wondering what the current layout would be like.  Then, I knew.  “Thank you.  That will certainly help.”

 “I also took the liberty of arranging the extraterrestrial entertainment.  I only intended to have you handling Earth from the start.  A mommy needs to do her part.” she insisted.

 “You’ll get no arguments from me.  Any hints at who’s arriving on my end?” I questioned.

 “Fiiine.  Clients, city officials, et cetera.  The usual rabble.  Your parents will be here in three minutes.  Also, you forgot to warn the new hires not to use magic, but Mila will take care of it for you.” she stated, giving me a look that might seem firm on a less adorable face.

 “Oops.  Thank you, Aaliyah.  You’re still the best secretary ever.  Is Mila really interested in having all of these people here?”

 Aaliyah shrugged and told me “Not particularly, but having them adds to the support behind laws that will be passed regarding artificial intelligence over the next several decades.  A future president will be here, you know.”

 “I do now.  I’m sure your daughter will make a grand impression.”

 Grinning and nodding, Aaliyah said, “I know.”  Then she kissed my forehead.  “Popping back over to help my daddy get ready.  He’s been fussing over the artificial womb, still worried that something might go wrong with it.” she explained with a grin.  She winked and vanished.

 Time resumed, and I saw that Emma had been dancing.

 She noticed me, smiled broadly, and exclaimed “Man-slave!  Ready to get this party started!?”

 “You know it.” I replied, taking her hand and joining her for a dance.  I knew my parents wouldn’t be remotely surprised by me dancing before guests arrived.  I probably wouldn’t get much of a chance later.

 Right on time, they were there, letting themselves inside.  Mother quickly excused herself to go see Dani.  Father volunteered to help me man the doors.  One of Mila’s bodies arrived minutes later, wearing a beautiful gown fit for a princess.

 Father hesitated only a little before saying, “Mila, you look lovely.”

 I could see the slight tension leave his shoulders when she smiled and thanked him.  Telling Mila apart from Alma could be difficult at a glance.

 In under ten minutes, the other guests started arriving.  Brandon and Jarod had volunteered to direct parking in place of Mila.  Emma had joined the rest of her band on stage in the ballroom half an hour into the party, providing live music that wasn’t quite of this world.  I noticed Dani’s influence in the music.  Hopefully, they knew a few covers as well.  No one would believe the girls had only been practicing a few weeks.  With staff from the Intergalactic House of Awesome Sauce filling in as servers, everything progressed smoothly.

 An hour into the party, Mila took to the stage with four of her bodies ― each in a different dress ― and welcomed everyone.  During her speech, she also reminded everyone that she wasn’t human while emphasizing the importance of her kind in our future.  In conclusion, she thanked everyone and encouraged them to enjoy the party.

 Throughout the party, I made appearances in the other sections of the house to mingle with the extraterrestrial guests.  One of Mila’s bodies made an appearance in each one, wearing attire suitable for the galaxy.  Realizing that her first birthday would be represented earlier in certain galaxies than others, I came to the conclusion that I was stepping through time as well.  The feeling wasn’t at all new save for the oddity of my house being duplicated, yet connected.  By the end of the night, I was simply happy that I managed to find my way back to Earth without asking for help.

[redconfidential-blog]

After The Outsider, I felt a little lost. That one book reminded me of how much I love to read, and so I went awandering and ended up in the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, at the time his wayward daughter; Circe was born.

As usual, I didn’t read any synopsis and I have never read any Madeline Miller book till now, so I had no expectations. However, I googled the book title and discovered Circe was a witch of Greek mythology. Unlike other popular Greek gods, I had never heard of Circe. I’ve been a huge fan of Greek mythology from my gaming days with Age of Empire (any gamers here?). In addition, this book had good ratings and the covering so exquisitely designed, I was sold.

Circe was a strange child, lacking any notable power, despite being a goddess. She was not street-smart, cunning or beautiful and so was ignored by her father, unwanted and despised by her nymph mother and siblings, and remained largely unknown. Circe struggled to navigate her world, understand the politics required to thrive in it and make a name for herself.

In her loneliness, she fell in love with a fisherman Glaucos and makes him a god using her herbs, with hopes that he will then be able to marry her. But he betrays her to marry a nymph, Scylla. In revenge for Scylla’s gloating and Glauco’s dismissal, using her herbs, she turns the beautiful Scylla into a six-headed monster with ten legs.

To get her father’s attention, Circe confesses these actions and is punished; sent on exile on the island of Aiaia for all eternity. However, she finds that her “prison island” sets her free. On her island, she cultivates her herbs and hones her talent for portions and spells to become the most powerful witch, feared by even the gods. She will also come in contact with some of the most respected deities and famous heroes of the time, including Odysseus, King of Ithaca, with whom she has a son.

“Most gods and mortals have lives that are tied to nothing; they tangle and wend now here, now there, according to no set plan. But then there are those who wear their destinies like nooses, whose lives run straight as planks, however they try to twist. It is these that our prophets may see.”

Released in April 2018, this book is a sequel to The Song of Achilles which I haven’t read, however, it is perfectly enjoyable by itself. It’s a small book, with about 394 pages so it took only about 2 days to read. This story is told in first person, and I enjoyed Circe’s narration of it. Madeline Miller is such a brilliant storyteller, fleshing out the character so much, it felt like Circe was alive and very relatable. This made what would have been a boring old tale a really enjoyable experience.

First, I like that Circe is a different kind of heroine, nothing as confident or powerful as we often see. She was as uncertain and fallible as she was brave in so many relatable ways, especially in managing her relationships and her personal ambitions. She was emotional and irrational as she was daring and adventurous, following her heart even when she knew that the consequences might be unpleasant. I feel like I watched her grow and find herself; from a desperate girl to a defiant resolute woman.

Next, like most women she was foolish in love, doing the dumbest things. I swear when she was about to put the flower sap in Glaucos mouth and make him a god, I was screaming “Don’t do it! Listen to your grandmother!”. I felt her desperation, hope, despair, loneliness, longing for Glaucos affection, and anger towards Scylla. It made me want to just hug her. I haven’t felt this way about a character since Arya Stark in The Song of Fire and Ice.

In my opinion, Circe was incredibly naive in dealing with men. Perhaps I am very aware of my mortality and that’s why immediately the men had eaten and drank and proceed to call her “Sweet”, I knew they were up to no good and it was time to work that magic spell. But she waited a little too long and was raped, so brace yourself. Yes, this book has some sexual content, nothing too lewd but include bestiality, will you?

However, Circe learnt fast and as you probably already know, turning those and other dangerous men into squealing pigs in her pen was the most hilarious vengeance.

I did not go easy to motherhood. I faced it as soldiers face their enemies, girded and braced, sword up against the coming blows. Yet all my preparations were not enough.

I admire her sincerity about motherhood and single parenting, especially with a difficult child. Her courage to challenge Athena, goddess of strategic warfare and determination that her son will not die is remarkable. This book is honest in its telling that you won’t always like the people you love or the things they do, but you’ll find a way to love them anyway.

This book also affirms my summation that solitude is important for personal development. It is easier to find yourself and discover what you are capable of when there of no distractions or random unsolicited opinions of who you should be or what you should do with your life.

Strength isn’t always an outward physical display, it can also be a silent inward force, a small desire to do better as a person, to give the little you have to the people who need it, to persevere in your own struggle and to right your wrongs.

In all, it’s a brilliant, action-packed story about love; self-love, maternal love and the love between friends and family. It’s about healing and personal development. Madeline provides a refreshing take on old familiar stories, weaving together so many including the story of Troy with Achilles, King Leonidas of Sparta and his wife Helen, Jason and the Argonauts and the golden fleece (I watched that as a child). I really hope someone makes a action sci-fi movie of this book, it will be epic.

If you are interested in mythology or perhaps history, you should read this book!

Have you read Circe by Madeline Miller? Let me know what you think in the comments! As always, thank you for reading! *** Liked this post? Do share it on your social media wall, timeline or feed. Want blog updates and promotions in your inbox? Sign Up Now

Book Review: Circe by Madeline Miller After The Outsider, I felt a little lost. That one book reminded me of how much I love to read, and so I went awandering and ended up in the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, at the time his wayward daughter; Circe was born.

[newstwitter-blog]

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/03/22/washington-post-making-sense-of-the-redskins-free-agent-signings-thus-far-18/

Washington Post: Making sense of the Redskins’ free agent signings thus far

What’s the Redskins defensive line going to look like with the departure of Chris Baker? (Photo by Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post)

Things have reached a crawl on the Redskins’ free agency front. The next major move likely will not come until the draft.

For now, while continuing to monitor any free agent signings that could trickle in, and potential draft prospect evaluations, we examine the moves that have taken place thus far.

We also look ahead at what could still happen between now and the draft.

Thanks, as always, for taking part, and keep those questions coming.

Email them to me at mike.jones@washpost.com with the subject line of “Mailbag question,” and we’ll do it all over again next Tuesday.

  Please help us to understand how the free agent signings of Terrell McClain and Stacy McGee compensate for the loss of Chris Baker and improve the overall defensive front?  McGee has been a rotational player in Oakland and McLain does not appear to be a huge upgrade as an insider pass rusher.  Second, D.J. Swearinger has some good skills as a safety but not regarded as strong in coverage.  How does Swearinger compliment Su’a Cravens? Does the Redskins brain trust really think they can go another year with a combination of DeAngelo Hall and Will Blackmon at free safety?  I was surprised they didn’t go after a true free safety in free agency.

— Rob Shapiro, N. Potomac, Md.

Chris Baker was popular with the fans because of his personality, but Redskins coaches, officials and even some teammates were just lukewarm on him. The team’s talent evaluators and coaches weren’t always happy with Baker’s work ethic, and they felt like he needed to make more of a consistent impact. The Redskins hope that McClain represents an upgrade over Baker, although McClain hadn’t been a full-time starter until last year. McGee is viewed as a strong run-stopper, but his skills as a pass-rusher are debatable. The Redskins believe he can play end and give them an upgrade over Ricky Jean Francois as a pass-rusher. But many people around the NFL think McGee would be better as a nose tackle, taking on double-teams and creating opportunities for teammates. We’ll see how this plays out. Washington hasn’t had good luck at all with free agent defensive signings of late because they’re always trying to find bargain deals.

The safety situation is very interesting. You’re right, the scouting report on Swearinger is that he’s better suited as a strong safety. He can play some free, but he’s better in the box. You never know, though, the Redskins could experiment with him at free safety. They could try Swearinger at free with Cravens at strong, and then shift Cravens out and Swearinger to strong and DeAngelo Hall or Will Blackmon to free on passing downs. The Redskins have high hopes for Cravens, but I think the jury is still very much out on him. His sophomore season at USC, he played a hybrid role of strong safety/outside linebacker and earned all-conference honors. But some within the organization still feel they need to see more of him in coverage on the NFL level before they’re completely comfortable with him as a full-time safety. So, we could see some creative parings initially.

  Let’s say Kirk does get traded.  At what point would you think it would be the most likely to occur?

Before draft

During Draft

After Draft

— Rob Fox, Lincolnton, N.C.

If the Redskins do decide to trade Kirk Cousins — and at this point, there’s no indication that they plan to — such a move would probably come just before the draft. That’s when a team that’s in need of a quarterback and unsure that they could find a prospect they absolutely love in the draft would be ready to pull the trigger and give up multiple draft picks. Such a deal wouldn’t likely take place during the draft, and after the draft doesn’t make much sense because by that point, Washington has less leverage and teams could just wait to go after Cousins in free agency in 2018.

  We spent the last couple of offseasons drooling over the prospect of Junior Galette rushing opposing QBs, only to feel absolutely miserable after his back to back Achilles’ tendon injuries. What is his health and contract status now? Is it a deliberate move by the team to keep his latest comeback effort somewhat under the radar?

— Csaba Szabo, London

The Redskins and Galette are going to give it another shot this year. He will play on a one-year, reworked deal that features a $775,000 base salary and $25,000 roster bonus. At this point, I don’t know that the expectations are very high. It’s hard enough to come back from one Achilles’ tendon tear, let alone two. Galette hasn’t played a down of football since 2014. It remains to be seen if he has the same amount of explosiveness that made him a dominant pass-rusher for the Saints. Galette continues to train in hopes of taking the field with his teammates by the start of training camp, if not sooner.

  As a huge Redskins fan since I was 7 years old in 1993, all I know is failure. I can’t help but imagine Josh Doctson blowing out an Achilles’ tendon in camp, Jordan Reed or Jamison Crowder getting overused/injured by week four, Terrelle Pryor getting shut down every game by the opposing top corner, and Kirk Cousins looking REALLY bad very early this season. Hopefully I’m wrong, but if the offense is as horrendous as I fear, what could we get in return for Cousins in a midseason trade? And are there any stud QBs coming out of the draft in 2018 that we end up throwing the season for? (Sorry for being so depressing)

— Mike Garza, San Antonio, Texas

You do indeed imagine worst case scenarios! I don’t think things would get that bad. I know it’s the Redskins, but that’s a bit extreme. If Cousins isn’t playing well midseason, however, I don’t think you can expect much of a trade market. Who wants to take on a $24 million salary for a guy that’s playing terribly? They’d rather wait for the offseason when they could get him for less. USC’s Sam Darnold, Wyoming’s Josh Allen, and UCLA’s Josh Rosen are expected to highlight the 2018 quarterback draft class. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Redskins draft a quarterback this year and play him behind Cousins and McCoy this year.

  1.) Did the Redskins keep Kirk Olivadotti (not sure about spelling) on the staff?  2.) In your opinion, what is it going to take to get the Redskins all the way back being consistent and competing for Super Bowls?

— Kevin Roberts

Yes, Kirk Olivadotti remains on staff as the inside linebackers coach. He’s well-respected both by ownership, management, Jay Gruden and the players.

Man, it’s going to take a lot for the Redskins to get back to reaching the playoffs consistently, let alone contending for Super Bowls. This defense is not a championship-level unit. They need more aggressive and disruptive defensive linemen, more impactful pass-rushers, game-changing defensive backs. The Redskins probably need greater consistency in the rushing department as well. I think Rob Kelley will continue to grow, and Washington’s line is solid, although the left guard position could possibly use some work. The Redskins also need a long-term solution at quarterback. They have a talented quarterback, but don’t want to pay him what he’s worth, and he’s not budging either, so they probably need to find another guy. Good luck with that. It took all this time to find Kirk Cousins, and they still don’t fully appreciate him. So, unfortunately, this team isn’t anywhere close to Super Bowl ready.

  As it stands today assuming the Skins are paying Kirk his franchise tag price … What is the current cap situation? How much is left to spend? Do you think they will renegotiate Hall if he comes back?

 — Bryce Beckmann

Right now, all that matters is the top 51 salaries, and so for now, the Redskins have roughly $16.5 million in cap space, and that’s with Cousins’s $24 million already accounted for. The Redskins have yet to make a move on D-Hall’s contract. He’s owed $5.062 million for this season. But it wouldn’t be surprising to see them try to lower his base salary and convert the difference to money that can be earned back through incentives.

  The Redskins haven’t won a playoff game in 12 years and just put together their first back-to-back winning seasons (barely) in two decades. The team is a constant source of embarrassment and dysfunction and inexplicable defeat. It’s not as if all of us are going to suddenly stop being fans, but how can we let Dan Snyder know that enough is enough beyond whining on Twitter? What legitimate outlet do Skins fans have to notify this incompetent owner that we can’t take it anymore? I honestly want to know how we can responsibly fight back. 

— Brandon Katz

You could try writing letters, you can organize marches and all that. But the only way the fan base is going to get Snyder’s attention is to stop buying tickets and merchandise. Remember that late-2013 game when the Redskins hosted the Chiefs and there were so few fans attending that there wasn’t even the slightest bit of a delay on the roads to the stadium all the way up until kickoff? That’s when Snyder realized he needed to move on from Mike Shanahan. Empty seats in the stadium always get owners’ attention, because really, it’s all about making money.

  This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link

[miketellszagz-blog]

NBA All-Star Voting Recommendations

Every year, the NBA allows fans to vote on which players they want to see play in the NBA All-Star game. Every year, I write the commissioner a strongly worded letter saying that this is a bad idea, because I am the only one with enough NBA expertise and basketball know-how to determine which players are the best & which players are the rest. Here is a copy of that letter & Adam Silver’s reply: TO: adamsilver@nba.govSUBJ: Voting Concerns Dear Adam, It has come to my attention that u are allowing fans to vote on which players get to start in the all-star game. This is a bad idea, as I am the only person with the NBA expertise & basketball know-how to determine which players are the best & which players are the rest. I urge u to see the error of ur ways & close the NBA voting portal & agree with me that I am the only person with the NBA expertise & basketball know-how to determine which players are the best & which players are the rest. I met Boogie Cousins once & he was very tall. Love, MikeNBA Insider/Blog OwnerMTZAWHITNBA&HWFAI His reply:FROM: mailer-daemon@googlemail.comSUBJ: Message Failure Delivery to the following domains has failed permanently: <adamsilver@nba.gov>. DNS Error. Address domain invalid. Could not complete delivery. We know u never met Boogie u liar. Domain name not found. So, it seems that the fan vote will continue despite my best effort. There have been 2 changes to all-star voting this year. 1. Players can now vote on the All-Star game, and the player vote will count for 25% of the ballot. FEELS: I fully expect players to attempt to sabotage the opposing conference’s team in hilarious ways. Suppose (as I do every night before I go to bed) that you are a player for the Detroit Pistons who’s getting some all-star votes. You don’t want the Western Conference All-Stars to be good, because then you’ll look dumb getting dunked on in the all-star game. So, instead of voting for the best Western Conference Players, you just vote for all the Phoenix Suns, because the Phoenix Suns are terrible. Too many conflicts of interests imo. 2. You can just vote for any ten players you want, instead of having the vote broken down by position and conference. FEELS: Great! I historically only voted for 4 Eastern Conference players (because the Eastern Conference is bad) & wrote in Barry Bonds as the last spot. Now, I can vote for the 10 players I love the most, regardless of position or team or even active NBA status. 

So, here are the 10 players you should be voting to the 2017 NBA All-Star Game. 1. Boogie Cousins: Boogie Cousins has promised to drop an R&B album if he starts the all-star game this year. There is nothing you or I or anyone has wanted more in this world than a Boogie Cousins R&B album. Vote Boogie. 

 2 & 3. Vince Carter& Demarre Carroll: my favorite players & therefore your favorite players. Vote Vince Carter because Vince Carter is the man. He’s 39 and still dunking like the Air Canada sponsorship never expired. Vote Demarre Carroll because Demarre Carroll is a long time MTZ fan favorite. The dude doesn’t have an Achilles! 

4.  Michael Gbinije: Clearly deserves some sort of recognition for knocking Dayton out of March Madness last year. He’s only averaging a half-point a game this year, but I expect that to go up next year when Scoochie, Charles Cooke & Kendall Pollard take the league by storm. 

5. Giannis Antetokounmpo: Giannis is doing wonderful basketball things, but people are ignoring this because his name is hard to pronounce & impossible to remember how to spell. Well, no more. Today is the day you learn how to pronounce “Giannis Antetokounmpo,” Zagz. To start, “Giannis” is pronounced “Yawn-iss.” You will remember this because Giannis is a Greek form of the name John, and John is a boring name. Thus, Yawnis. Second, Antetokounmpo. The easy way to remember this is that all of it of it is spelled wrong. Let’s break it down by syllables, starting with Ant. Nt is pronounced as a D, but there’s no D in Greek, so they cheated, and used nt, which does not sound like D at all, but, whatever. So the first syllable is Ad. Then, the E is in the wrong spot. The “eto” is pronounced “toe.” So, Ah-deh-toe. Anteto is Ah det toe. The M is silent. I don’t know why. Ignore the M. Ah-deh-toe-koun. Ah-deh-toe-koon. Then, lastly, the p is pronounced as a b. I’m assuming it was a typo. “Ah-deh-toe-koon-bo.” Easy. Yawniss Ahdehtoekoonbo. Impress your friends and family with this newfound knowledge. And vote for Yawniss. I’m not teaching you how to spell it tho bc even I don’t know. 

6. Chris Bosh: you gotta feel sad for him because he’s never going to play basketball again, and he loves to play basketball. (Secret NBA insider tip: Bosh may play basketball in a limited capacity next year, even though he will die if he tries too hard. You see, the NBA has very specific rules relating to player injury & health status. If Bosh doesn’t play at all this year (he won’t), the Heat can release him & his current salary won’t count against the cap ever again. [They still have to pay him, it just doesn’t count as player salary.] This would not only help the Heat be able to sign more players moving forward, but also keeps the Heat from paying the repeatedly-over-the-cap luxury tax. BUT, once released, any other team can pick him up. AND, if he plays at least 20 more games for another team, his entire salary counts again towards the Heat’s cap. He’s signed for 22 million a year through 2020, which is a huge chunk of cash to pay someone not on your team. The Heat would also have to pay a big-ass fine for this, because the rule assumes, if Bosh can play 20 games for someone else so soon, the original team is cutting Bosh jut to circumvent the cap.  The kicker is, the rule doesn’t specify minutes, just that Bosh must play 20 games. So, if you’re Chris Bosh, and you’re mad at the Heat for ending your career against your will, there’s nothing to stop you from signing with another team that hates the Heat (Mavs, Magic, Hornets), running around for 1 minute in the garbage time of 20 games, and dicking the Heat over for 3 years. Which would be super petty & immediately make Chris Bosh an all-time MTZ Fan Favorite)

7. Paul Millsap: why not

8, 9, 10: Russy Westbrook, James Harden, Kevin Durant: Yes, yes, yes. I know. James & Kevin are not MTZ fan favorites & I’ve told you to root against them many, many times. But. How funny would it be if the three former Oklahoma Thunder teammates were all starting All-Stars together. I’d never stop laughing. Plus, it’ll make a very great ending for the 30 for 30 on these three that’s gonna come out in twenty years. It’ll probably be called “Thunder University,” the name Durant coined for them (& poor Serge Ibaka) back in 2012 when they were all young & fun & together still. The documentary will end with a shot of them all on the court at the same time during the All-Star game, with the Sam Presti voiceover, “we just never could have predicted he would get so good, so fast.” Then credits would roll. So vote Russy/Harden/Durant to allow this to happen.

[newstwitter-blog]

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/03/22/washington-post-making-sense-of-the-redskins-free-agent-signings-thus-far-17/

Washington Post: Making sense of the Redskins’ free agent signings thus far

What’s the Redskins defensive line going to look like with the departure of Chris Baker? (Photo by Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post)

Things have reached a crawl on the Redskins’ free agency front. The next major move likely will not come until the draft.

For now, while continuing to monitor any free agent signings that could trickle in, and potential draft prospect evaluations, we examine the moves that have taken place thus far.

We also look ahead at what could still happen between now and the draft.

Thanks, as always, for taking part, and keep those questions coming.

Email them to me at mike.jones@washpost.com with the subject line of “Mailbag question,” and we’ll do it all over again next Tuesday.

  Please help us to understand how the free agent signings of Terrell McClain and Stacy McGee compensate for the loss of Chris Baker and improve the overall defensive front?  McGee has been a rotational player in Oakland and McLain does not appear to be a huge upgrade as an insider pass rusher.  Second, D.J. Swearinger has some good skills as a safety but not regarded as strong in coverage.  How does Swearinger compliment Su’a Cravens? Does the Redskins brain trust really think they can go another year with a combination of DeAngelo Hall and Will Blackmon at free safety?  I was surprised they didn’t go after a true free safety in free agency.

— Rob Shapiro, N. Potomac, Md.

Chris Baker was popular with the fans because of his personality, but Redskins coaches, officials and even some teammates were just lukewarm on him. The team’s talent evaluators and coaches weren’t always happy with Baker’s work ethic, and they felt like he needed to make more of a consistent impact. The Redskins hope that McClain represents an upgrade over Baker, although McClain hadn’t been a full-time starter until last year. McGee is viewed as a strong run-stopper, but his skills as a pass-rusher are debatable. The Redskins believe he can play end and give them an upgrade over Ricky Jean Francois as a pass-rusher. But many people around the NFL think McGee would be better as a nose tackle, taking on double-teams and creating opportunities for teammates. We’ll see how this plays out. Washington hasn’t had good luck at all with free agent defensive signings of late because they’re always trying to find bargain deals.

The safety situation is very interesting. You’re right, the scouting report on Swearinger is that he’s better suited as a strong safety. He can play some free, but he’s better in the box. You never know, though, the Redskins could experiment with him at free safety. They could try Swearinger at free with Cravens at strong, and then shift Cravens out and Swearinger to strong and DeAngelo Hall or Will Blackmon to free on passing downs. The Redskins have high hopes for Cravens, but I think the jury is still very much out on him. His sophomore season at USC, he played a hybrid role of strong safety/outside linebacker and earned all-conference honors. But some within the organization still feel they need to see more of him in coverage on the NFL level before they’re completely comfortable with him as a full-time safety. So, we could see some creative parings initially.

  Let’s say Kirk does get traded.  At what point would you think it would be the most likely to occur?

Before draft

During Draft

After Draft

— Rob Fox, Lincolnton, N.C.

If the Redskins do decide to trade Kirk Cousins — and at this point, there’s no indication that they plan to — such a move would probably come just before the draft. That’s when a team that’s in need of a quarterback and unsure that they could find a prospect they absolutely love in the draft would be ready to pull the trigger and give up multiple draft picks. Such a deal wouldn’t likely take place during the draft, and after the draft doesn’t make much sense because by that point, Washington has less leverage and teams could just wait to go after Cousins in free agency in 2018.

  We spent the last couple of offseasons drooling over the prospect of Junior Galette rushing opposing QBs, only to feel absolutely miserable after his back to back Achilles’ tendon injuries. What is his health and contract status now? Is it a deliberate move by the team to keep his latest comeback effort somewhat under the radar?

— Csaba Szabo, London

The Redskins and Galette are going to give it another shot this year. He will play on a one-year, reworked deal that features a $775,000 base salary and $25,000 roster bonus. At this point, I don’t know that the expectations are very high. It’s hard enough to come back from one Achilles’ tendon tear, let alone two. Galette hasn’t played a down of football since 2014. It remains to be seen if he has the same amount of explosiveness that made him a dominant pass-rusher for the Saints. Galette continues to train in hopes of taking the field with his teammates by the start of training camp, if not sooner.

  As a huge Redskins fan since I was 7 years old in 1993, all I know is failure. I can’t help but imagine Josh Doctson blowing out an Achilles’ tendon in camp, Jordan Reed or Jamison Crowder getting overused/injured by week four, Terrelle Pryor getting shut down every game by the opposing top corner, and Kirk Cousins looking REALLY bad very early this season. Hopefully I’m wrong, but if the offense is as horrendous as I fear, what could we get in return for Cousins in a midseason trade? And are there any stud QBs coming out of the draft in 2018 that we end up throwing the season for? (Sorry for being so depressing)

— Mike Garza, San Antonio, Texas

You do indeed imagine worst case scenarios! I don’t think things would get that bad. I know it’s the Redskins, but that’s a bit extreme. If Cousins isn’t playing well midseason, however, I don’t think you can expect much of a trade market. Who wants to take on a $24 million salary for a guy that’s playing terribly? They’d rather wait for the offseason when they could get him for less. USC’s Sam Darnold, Wyoming’s Josh Allen, and UCLA’s Josh Rosen are expected to highlight the 2018 quarterback draft class. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Redskins draft a quarterback this year and play him behind Cousins and McCoy this year.

  1.) Did the Redskins keep Kirk Olivadotti (not sure about spelling) on the staff?  2.) In your opinion, what is it going to take to get the Redskins all the way back being consistent and competing for Super Bowls?

— Kevin Roberts

Yes, Kirk Olivadotti remains on staff as the inside linebackers coach. He’s well-respected both by ownership, management, Jay Gruden and the players.

Man, it’s going to take a lot for the Redskins to get back to reaching the playoffs consistently, let alone contending for Super Bowls. This defense is not a championship-level unit. They need more aggressive and disruptive defensive linemen, more impactful pass-rushers, game-changing defensive backs. The Redskins probably need greater consistency in the rushing department as well. I think Rob Kelley will continue to grow, and Washington’s line is solid, although the left guard position could possibly use some work. The Redskins also need a long-term solution at quarterback. They have a talented quarterback, but don’t want to pay him what he’s worth, and he’s not budging either, so they probably need to find another guy. Good luck with that. It took all this time to find Kirk Cousins, and they still don’t fully appreciate him. So, unfortunately, this team isn’t anywhere close to Super Bowl ready.

  As it stands today assuming the Skins are paying Kirk his franchise tag price … What is the current cap situation? How much is left to spend? Do you think they will renegotiate Hall if he comes back?

 — Bryce Beckmann

Right now, all that matters is the top 51 salaries, and so for now, the Redskins have roughly $16.5 million in cap space, and that’s with Cousins’s $24 million already accounted for. The Redskins have yet to make a move on D-Hall’s contract. He’s owed $5.062 million for this season. But it wouldn’t be surprising to see them try to lower his base salary and convert the difference to money that can be earned back through incentives.

  The Redskins haven’t won a playoff game in 12 years and just put together their first back-to-back winning seasons (barely) in two decades. The team is a constant source of embarrassment and dysfunction and inexplicable defeat. It’s not as if all of us are going to suddenly stop being fans, but how can we let Dan Snyder know that enough is enough beyond whining on Twitter? What legitimate outlet do Skins fans have to notify this incompetent owner that we can’t take it anymore? I honestly want to know how we can responsibly fight back. 

— Brandon Katz

You could try writing letters, you can organize marches and all that. But the only way the fan base is going to get Snyder’s attention is to stop buying tickets and merchandise. Remember that late-2013 game when the Redskins hosted the Chiefs and there were so few fans attending that there wasn’t even the slightest bit of a delay on the roads to the stadium all the way up until kickoff? That’s when Snyder realized he needed to move on from Mike Shanahan. Empty seats in the stadium always get owners’ attention, because really, it’s all about making money.

  This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link

[newstwitter-blog]

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/03/22/washington-post-making-sense-of-the-redskins-free-agent-signings-thus-far-14/

Washington Post: Making sense of the Redskins’ free agent signings thus far

What’s the Redskins defensive line going to look like with the departure of Chris Baker? (Photo by Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post)

Things have reached a crawl on the Redskins’ free agency front. The next major move likely will not come until the draft.

For now, while continuing to monitor any free agent signings that could trickle in, and potential draft prospect evaluations, we examine the moves that have taken place thus far.

We also look ahead at what could still happen between now and the draft.

Thanks, as always, for taking part, and keep those questions coming.

Email them to me at mike.jones@washpost.com with the subject line of “Mailbag question,” and we’ll do it all over again next Tuesday.

  Please help us to understand how the free agent signings of Terrell McClain and Stacy McGee compensate for the loss of Chris Baker and improve the overall defensive front?  McGee has been a rotational player in Oakland and McLain does not appear to be a huge upgrade as an insider pass rusher.  Second, D.J. Swearinger has some good skills as a safety but not regarded as strong in coverage.  How does Swearinger compliment Su’a Cravens? Does the Redskins brain trust really think they can go another year with a combination of DeAngelo Hall and Will Blackmon at free safety?  I was surprised they didn’t go after a true free safety in free agency.

— Rob Shapiro, N. Potomac, Md.

Chris Baker was popular with the fans because of his personality, but Redskins coaches, officials and even some teammates were just lukewarm on him. The team’s talent evaluators and coaches weren’t always happy with Baker’s work ethic, and they felt like he needed to make more of a consistent impact. The Redskins hope that McClain represents an upgrade over Baker, although McClain hadn’t been a full-time starter until last year. McGee is viewed as a strong run-stopper, but his skills as a pass-rusher are debatable. The Redskins believe he can play end and give them an upgrade over Ricky Jean Francois as a pass-rusher. But many people around the NFL think McGee would be better as a nose tackle, taking on double-teams and creating opportunities for teammates. We’ll see how this plays out. Washington hasn’t had good luck at all with free agent defensive signings of late because they’re always trying to find bargain deals.

The safety situation is very interesting. You’re right, the scouting report on Swearinger is that he’s better suited as a strong safety. He can play some free, but he’s better in the box. You never know, though, the Redskins could experiment with him at free safety. They could try Swearinger at free with Cravens at strong, and then shift Cravens out and Swearinger to strong and DeAngelo Hall or Will Blackmon to free on passing downs. The Redskins have high hopes for Cravens, but I think the jury is still very much out on him. His sophomore season at USC, he played a hybrid role of strong safety/outside linebacker and earned all-conference honors. But some within the organization still feel they need to see more of him in coverage on the NFL level before they’re completely comfortable with him as a full-time safety. So, we could see some creative parings initially.

  Let’s say Kirk does get traded.  At what point would you think it would be the most likely to occur?

Before draft

During Draft

After Draft

— Rob Fox, Lincolnton, N.C.

If the Redskins do decide to trade Kirk Cousins — and at this point, there’s no indication that they plan to — such a move would probably come just before the draft. That’s when a team that’s in need of a quarterback and unsure that they could find a prospect they absolutely love in the draft would be ready to pull the trigger and give up multiple draft picks. Such a deal wouldn’t likely take place during the draft, and after the draft doesn’t make much sense because by that point, Washington has less leverage and teams could just wait to go after Cousins in free agency in 2018.

  We spent the last couple of offseasons drooling over the prospect of Junior Galette rushing opposing QBs, only to feel absolutely miserable after his back to back Achilles’ tendon injuries. What is his health and contract status now? Is it a deliberate move by the team to keep his latest comeback effort somewhat under the radar?

— Csaba Szabo, London

The Redskins and Galette are going to give it another shot this year. He will play on a one-year, reworked deal that features a $775,000 base salary and $25,000 roster bonus. At this point, I don’t know that the expectations are very high. It’s hard enough to come back from one Achilles’ tendon tear, let alone two. Galette hasn’t played a down of football since 2014. It remains to be seen if he has the same amount of explosiveness that made him a dominant pass-rusher for the Saints. Galette continues to train in hopes of taking the field with his teammates by the start of training camp, if not sooner.

  As a huge Redskins fan since I was 7 years old in 1993, all I know is failure. I can’t help but imagine Josh Doctson blowing out an Achilles’ tendon in camp, Jordan Reed or Jamison Crowder getting overused/injured by week four, Terrelle Pryor getting shut down every game by the opposing top corner, and Kirk Cousins looking REALLY bad very early this season. Hopefully I’m wrong, but if the offense is as horrendous as I fear, what could we get in return for Cousins in a midseason trade? And are there any stud QBs coming out of the draft in 2018 that we end up throwing the season for? (Sorry for being so depressing)

— Mike Garza, San Antonio, Texas

You do indeed imagine worst case scenarios! I don’t think things would get that bad. I know it’s the Redskins, but that’s a bit extreme. If Cousins isn’t playing well midseason, however, I don’t think you can expect much of a trade market. Who wants to take on a $24 million salary for a guy that’s playing terribly? They’d rather wait for the offseason when they could get him for less. USC’s Sam Darnold, Wyoming’s Josh Allen, and UCLA’s Josh Rosen are expected to highlight the 2018 quarterback draft class. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Redskins draft a quarterback this year and play him behind Cousins and McCoy this year.

  1.) Did the Redskins keep Kirk Olivadotti (not sure about spelling) on the staff?  2.) In your opinion, what is it going to take to get the Redskins all the way back being consistent and competing for Super Bowls?

— Kevin Roberts

Yes, Kirk Olivadotti remains on staff as the inside linebackers coach. He’s well-respected both by ownership, management, Jay Gruden and the players.

Man, it’s going to take a lot for the Redskins to get back to reaching the playoffs consistently, let alone contending for Super Bowls. This defense is not a championship-level unit. They need more aggressive and disruptive defensive linemen, more impactful pass-rushers, game-changing defensive backs. The Redskins probably need greater consistency in the rushing department as well. I think Rob Kelley will continue to grow, and Washington’s line is solid, although the left guard position could possibly use some work. The Redskins also need a long-term solution at quarterback. They have a talented quarterback, but don’t want to pay him what he’s worth, and he’s not budging either, so they probably need to find another guy. Good luck with that. It took all this time to find Kirk Cousins, and they still don’t fully appreciate him. So, unfortunately, this team isn’t anywhere close to Super Bowl ready.

  As it stands today assuming the Skins are paying Kirk his franchise tag price … What is the current cap situation? How much is left to spend? Do you think they will renegotiate Hall if he comes back?

 — Bryce Beckmann

Right now, all that matters is the top 51 salaries, and so for now, the Redskins have roughly $16.5 million in cap space, and that’s with Cousins’s $24 million already accounted for. The Redskins have yet to make a move on D-Hall’s contract. He’s owed $5.062 million for this season. But it wouldn’t be surprising to see them try to lower his base salary and convert the difference to money that can be earned back through incentives.

  The Redskins haven’t won a playoff game in 12 years and just put together their first back-to-back winning seasons (barely) in two decades. The team is a constant source of embarrassment and dysfunction and inexplicable defeat. It’s not as if all of us are going to suddenly stop being fans, but how can we let Dan Snyder know that enough is enough beyond whining on Twitter? What legitimate outlet do Skins fans have to notify this incompetent owner that we can’t take it anymore? I honestly want to know how we can responsibly fight back. 

— Brandon Katz

You could try writing letters, you can organize marches and all that. But the only way the fan base is going to get Snyder’s attention is to stop buying tickets and merchandise. Remember that late-2013 game when the Redskins hosted the Chiefs and there were so few fans attending that there wasn’t even the slightest bit of a delay on the roads to the stadium all the way up until kickoff? That’s when Snyder realized he needed to move on from Mike Shanahan. Empty seats in the stadium always get owners’ attention, because really, it’s all about making money.

  This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link

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Washington Post: Making sense of the Redskins’ free agent signings thus far

What’s the Redskins defensive line going to look like with the departure of Chris Baker? (Photo by Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post)

Things have reached a crawl on the Redskins’ free agency front. The next major move likely will not come until the draft.

For now, while continuing to monitor any free agent signings that could trickle in, and potential draft prospect evaluations, we examine the moves that have taken place thus far.

We also look ahead at what could still happen between now and the draft.

Thanks, as always, for taking part, and keep those questions coming.

Email them to me at mike.jones@washpost.com with the subject line of “Mailbag question,” and we’ll do it all over again next Tuesday.

  Please help us to understand how the free agent signings of Terrell McClain and Stacy McGee compensate for the loss of Chris Baker and improve the overall defensive front?  McGee has been a rotational player in Oakland and McLain does not appear to be a huge upgrade as an insider pass rusher.  Second, D.J. Swearinger has some good skills as a safety but not regarded as strong in coverage.  How does Swearinger compliment Su’a Cravens? Does the Redskins brain trust really think they can go another year with a combination of DeAngelo Hall and Will Blackmon at free safety?  I was surprised they didn’t go after a true free safety in free agency.

— Rob Shapiro, N. Potomac, Md.

Chris Baker was popular with the fans because of his personality, but Redskins coaches, officials and even some teammates were just lukewarm on him. The team’s talent evaluators and coaches weren’t always happy with Baker’s work ethic, and they felt like he needed to make more of a consistent impact. The Redskins hope that McClain represents an upgrade over Baker, although McClain hadn’t been a full-time starter until last year. McGee is viewed as a strong run-stopper, but his skills as a pass-rusher are debatable. The Redskins believe he can play end and give them an upgrade over Ricky Jean Francois as a pass-rusher. But many people around the NFL think McGee would be better as a nose tackle, taking on double-teams and creating opportunities for teammates. We’ll see how this plays out. Washington hasn’t had good luck at all with free agent defensive signings of late because they’re always trying to find bargain deals.

The safety situation is very interesting. You’re right, the scouting report on Swearinger is that he’s better suited as a strong safety. He can play some free, but he’s better in the box. You never know, though, the Redskins could experiment with him at free safety. They could try Swearinger at free with Cravens at strong, and then shift Cravens out and Swearinger to strong and DeAngelo Hall or Will Blackmon to free on passing downs. The Redskins have high hopes for Cravens, but I think the jury is still very much out on him. His sophomore season at USC, he played a hybrid role of strong safety/outside linebacker and earned all-conference honors. But some within the organization still feel they need to see more of him in coverage on the NFL level before they’re completely comfortable with him as a full-time safety. So, we could see some creative parings initially.

  Let’s say Kirk does get traded.  At what point would you think it would be the most likely to occur?

Before draft

During Draft

After Draft

— Rob Fox, Lincolnton, N.C.

If the Redskins do decide to trade Kirk Cousins — and at this point, there’s no indication that they plan to — such a move would probably come just before the draft. That’s when a team that’s in need of a quarterback and unsure that they could find a prospect they absolutely love in the draft would be ready to pull the trigger and give up multiple draft picks. Such a deal wouldn’t likely take place during the draft, and after the draft doesn’t make much sense because by that point, Washington has less leverage and teams could just wait to go after Cousins in free agency in 2018.

  We spent the last couple of offseasons drooling over the prospect of Junior Galette rushing opposing QBs, only to feel absolutely miserable after his back to back Achilles’ tendon injuries. What is his health and contract status now? Is it a deliberate move by the team to keep his latest comeback effort somewhat under the radar?

— Csaba Szabo, London

The Redskins and Galette are going to give it another shot this year. He will play on a one-year, reworked deal that features a $775,000 base salary and $25,000 roster bonus. At this point, I don’t know that the expectations are very high. It’s hard enough to come back from one Achilles’ tendon tear, let alone two. Galette hasn’t played a down of football since 2014. It remains to be seen if he has the same amount of explosiveness that made him a dominant pass-rusher for the Saints. Galette continues to train in hopes of taking the field with his teammates by the start of training camp, if not sooner.

  As a huge Redskins fan since I was 7 years old in 1993, all I know is failure. I can’t help but imagine Josh Doctson blowing out an Achilles’ tendon in camp, Jordan Reed or Jamison Crowder getting overused/injured by week four, Terrelle Pryor getting shut down every game by the opposing top corner, and Kirk Cousins looking REALLY bad very early this season. Hopefully I’m wrong, but if the offense is as horrendous as I fear, what could we get in return for Cousins in a midseason trade? And are there any stud QBs coming out of the draft in 2018 that we end up throwing the season for? (Sorry for being so depressing)

— Mike Garza, San Antonio, Texas

You do indeed imagine worst case scenarios! I don’t think things would get that bad. I know it’s the Redskins, but that’s a bit extreme. If Cousins isn’t playing well midseason, however, I don’t think you can expect much of a trade market. Who wants to take on a $24 million salary for a guy that’s playing terribly? They’d rather wait for the offseason when they could get him for less. USC’s Sam Darnold, Wyoming’s Josh Allen, and UCLA’s Josh Rosen are expected to highlight the 2018 quarterback draft class. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Redskins draft a quarterback this year and play him behind Cousins and McCoy this year.

  1.) Did the Redskins keep Kirk Olivadotti (not sure about spelling) on the staff?  2.) In your opinion, what is it going to take to get the Redskins all the way back being consistent and competing for Super Bowls?

— Kevin Roberts

Yes, Kirk Olivadotti remains on staff as the inside linebackers coach. He’s well-respected both by ownership, management, Jay Gruden and the players.

Man, it’s going to take a lot for the Redskins to get back to reaching the playoffs consistently, let alone contending for Super Bowls. This defense is not a championship-level unit. They need more aggressive and disruptive defensive linemen, more impactful pass-rushers, game-changing defensive backs. The Redskins probably need greater consistency in the rushing department as well. I think Rob Kelley will continue to grow, and Washington’s line is solid, although the left guard position could possibly use some work. The Redskins also need a long-term solution at quarterback. They have a talented quarterback, but don’t want to pay him what he’s worth, and he’s not budging either, so they probably need to find another guy. Good luck with that. It took all this time to find Kirk Cousins, and they still don’t fully appreciate him. So, unfortunately, this team isn’t anywhere close to Super Bowl ready.

  As it stands today assuming the Skins are paying Kirk his franchise tag price … What is the current cap situation? How much is left to spend? Do you think they will renegotiate Hall if he comes back?

 — Bryce Beckmann

Right now, all that matters is the top 51 salaries, and so for now, the Redskins have roughly $16.5 million in cap space, and that’s with Cousins’s $24 million already accounted for. The Redskins have yet to make a move on D-Hall’s contract. He’s owed $5.062 million for this season. But it wouldn’t be surprising to see them try to lower his base salary and convert the difference to money that can be earned back through incentives.

  The Redskins haven’t won a playoff game in 12 years and just put together their first back-to-back winning seasons (barely) in two decades. The team is a constant source of embarrassment and dysfunction and inexplicable defeat. It’s not as if all of us are going to suddenly stop being fans, but how can we let Dan Snyder know that enough is enough beyond whining on Twitter? What legitimate outlet do Skins fans have to notify this incompetent owner that we can’t take it anymore? I honestly want to know how we can responsibly fight back. 

— Brandon Katz

You could try writing letters, you can organize marches and all that. But the only way the fan base is going to get Snyder’s attention is to stop buying tickets and merchandise. Remember that late-2013 game when the Redskins hosted the Chiefs and there were so few fans attending that there wasn’t even the slightest bit of a delay on the roads to the stadium all the way up until kickoff? That’s when Snyder realized he needed to move on from Mike Shanahan. Empty seats in the stadium always get owners’ attention, because really, it’s all about making money.

  This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link

[newstwitter-blog]

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/03/22/washington-post-making-sense-of-the-redskins-free-agent-signings-thus-far-12/

Washington Post: Making sense of the Redskins’ free agent signings thus far

What’s the Redskins defensive line going to look like with the departure of Chris Baker? (Photo by Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post)

Things have reached a crawl on the Redskins’ free agency front. The next major move likely will not come until the draft.

For now, while continuing to monitor any free agent signings that could trickle in, and potential draft prospect evaluations, we examine the moves that have taken place thus far.

We also look ahead at what could still happen between now and the draft.

Thanks, as always, for taking part, and keep those questions coming.

Email them to me at mike.jones@washpost.com with the subject line of “Mailbag question,” and we’ll do it all over again next Tuesday.

  Please help us to understand how the free agent signings of Terrell McClain and Stacy McGee compensate for the loss of Chris Baker and improve the overall defensive front?  McGee has been a rotational player in Oakland and McLain does not appear to be a huge upgrade as an insider pass rusher.  Second, D.J. Swearinger has some good skills as a safety but not regarded as strong in coverage.  How does Swearinger compliment Su’a Cravens? Does the Redskins brain trust really think they can go another year with a combination of DeAngelo Hall and Will Blackmon at free safety?  I was surprised they didn’t go after a true free safety in free agency.

— Rob Shapiro, N. Potomac, Md.

Chris Baker was popular with the fans because of his personality, but Redskins coaches, officials and even some teammates were just lukewarm on him. The team’s talent evaluators and coaches weren’t always happy with Baker’s work ethic, and they felt like he needed to make more of a consistent impact. The Redskins hope that McClain represents an upgrade over Baker, although McClain hadn’t been a full-time starter until last year. McGee is viewed as a strong run-stopper, but his skills as a pass-rusher are debatable. The Redskins believe he can play end and give them an upgrade over Ricky Jean Francois as a pass-rusher. But many people around the NFL think McGee would be better as a nose tackle, taking on double-teams and creating opportunities for teammates. We’ll see how this plays out. Washington hasn’t had good luck at all with free agent defensive signings of late because they’re always trying to find bargain deals.

The safety situation is very interesting. You’re right, the scouting report on Swearinger is that he’s better suited as a strong safety. He can play some free, but he’s better in the box. You never know, though, the Redskins could experiment with him at free safety. They could try Swearinger at free with Cravens at strong, and then shift Cravens out and Swearinger to strong and DeAngelo Hall or Will Blackmon to free on passing downs. The Redskins have high hopes for Cravens, but I think the jury is still very much out on him. His sophomore season at USC, he played a hybrid role of strong safety/outside linebacker and earned all-conference honors. But some within the organization still feel they need to see more of him in coverage on the NFL level before they’re completely comfortable with him as a full-time safety. So, we could see some creative parings initially.

  Let’s say Kirk does get traded.  At what point would you think it would be the most likely to occur?

Before draft

During Draft

After Draft

— Rob Fox, Lincolnton, N.C.

If the Redskins do decide to trade Kirk Cousins — and at this point, there’s no indication that they plan to — such a move would probably come just before the draft. That’s when a team that’s in need of a quarterback and unsure that they could find a prospect they absolutely love in the draft would be ready to pull the trigger and give up multiple draft picks. Such a deal wouldn’t likely take place during the draft, and after the draft doesn’t make much sense because by that point, Washington has less leverage and teams could just wait to go after Cousins in free agency in 2018.

  We spent the last couple of offseasons drooling over the prospect of Junior Galette rushing opposing QBs, only to feel absolutely miserable after his back to back Achilles’ tendon injuries. What is his health and contract status now? Is it a deliberate move by the team to keep his latest comeback effort somewhat under the radar?

— Csaba Szabo, London

The Redskins and Galette are going to give it another shot this year. He will play on a one-year, reworked deal that features a $775,000 base salary and $25,000 roster bonus. At this point, I don’t know that the expectations are very high. It’s hard enough to come back from one Achilles’ tendon tear, let alone two. Galette hasn’t played a down of football since 2014. It remains to be seen if he has the same amount of explosiveness that made him a dominant pass-rusher for the Saints. Galette continues to train in hopes of taking the field with his teammates by the start of training camp, if not sooner.

  As a huge Redskins fan since I was 7 years old in 1993, all I know is failure. I can’t help but imagine Josh Doctson blowing out an Achilles’ tendon in camp, Jordan Reed or Jamison Crowder getting overused/injured by week four, Terrelle Pryor getting shut down every game by the opposing top corner, and Kirk Cousins looking REALLY bad very early this season. Hopefully I’m wrong, but if the offense is as horrendous as I fear, what could we get in return for Cousins in a midseason trade? And are there any stud QBs coming out of the draft in 2018 that we end up throwing the season for? (Sorry for being so depressing)

— Mike Garza, San Antonio, Texas

You do indeed imagine worst case scenarios! I don’t think things would get that bad. I know it’s the Redskins, but that’s a bit extreme. If Cousins isn’t playing well midseason, however, I don’t think you can expect much of a trade market. Who wants to take on a $24 million salary for a guy that’s playing terribly? They’d rather wait for the offseason when they could get him for less. USC’s Sam Darnold, Wyoming’s Josh Allen, and UCLA’s Josh Rosen are expected to highlight the 2018 quarterback draft class. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Redskins draft a quarterback this year and play him behind Cousins and McCoy this year.

  1.) Did the Redskins keep Kirk Olivadotti (not sure about spelling) on the staff?  2.) In your opinion, what is it going to take to get the Redskins all the way back being consistent and competing for Super Bowls?

— Kevin Roberts

Yes, Kirk Olivadotti remains on staff as the inside linebackers coach. He’s well-respected both by ownership, management, Jay Gruden and the players.

Man, it’s going to take a lot for the Redskins to get back to reaching the playoffs consistently, let alone contending for Super Bowls. This defense is not a championship-level unit. They need more aggressive and disruptive defensive linemen, more impactful pass-rushers, game-changing defensive backs. The Redskins probably need greater consistency in the rushing department as well. I think Rob Kelley will continue to grow, and Washington’s line is solid, although the left guard position could possibly use some work. The Redskins also need a long-term solution at quarterback. They have a talented quarterback, but don’t want to pay him what he’s worth, and he’s not budging either, so they probably need to find another guy. Good luck with that. It took all this time to find Kirk Cousins, and they still don’t fully appreciate him. So, unfortunately, this team isn’t anywhere close to Super Bowl ready.

  As it stands today assuming the Skins are paying Kirk his franchise tag price … What is the current cap situation? How much is left to spend? Do you think they will renegotiate Hall if he comes back?

 — Bryce Beckmann

Right now, all that matters is the top 51 salaries, and so for now, the Redskins have roughly $16.5 million in cap space, and that’s with Cousins’s $24 million already accounted for. The Redskins have yet to make a move on D-Hall’s contract. He’s owed $5.062 million for this season. But it wouldn’t be surprising to see them try to lower his base salary and convert the difference to money that can be earned back through incentives.

  The Redskins haven’t won a playoff game in 12 years and just put together their first back-to-back winning seasons (barely) in two decades. The team is a constant source of embarrassment and dysfunction and inexplicable defeat. It’s not as if all of us are going to suddenly stop being fans, but how can we let Dan Snyder know that enough is enough beyond whining on Twitter? What legitimate outlet do Skins fans have to notify this incompetent owner that we can’t take it anymore? I honestly want to know how we can responsibly fight back. 

— Brandon Katz

You could try writing letters, you can organize marches and all that. But the only way the fan base is going to get Snyder’s attention is to stop buying tickets and merchandise. Remember that late-2013 game when the Redskins hosted the Chiefs and there were so few fans attending that there wasn’t even the slightest bit of a delay on the roads to the stadium all the way up until kickoff? That’s when Snyder realized he needed to move on from Mike Shanahan. Empty seats in the stadium always get owners’ attention, because really, it’s all about making money.

  This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link

[newstwitter-blog]

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/03/22/washington-post-making-sense-of-the-redskins-free-agent-signings-thus-far-11/

Washington Post: Making sense of the Redskins’ free agent signings thus far

What’s the Redskins defensive line going to look like with the departure of Chris Baker? (Photo by Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post)

Things have reached a crawl on the Redskins’ free agency front. The next major move likely will not come until the draft.

For now, while continuing to monitor any free agent signings that could trickle in, and potential draft prospect evaluations, we examine the moves that have taken place thus far.

We also look ahead at what could still happen between now and the draft.

Thanks, as always, for taking part, and keep those questions coming.

Email them to me at mike.jones@washpost.com with the subject line of “Mailbag question,” and we’ll do it all over again next Tuesday.

  Please help us to understand how the free agent signings of Terrell McClain and Stacy McGee compensate for the loss of Chris Baker and improve the overall defensive front?  McGee has been a rotational player in Oakland and McLain does not appear to be a huge upgrade as an insider pass rusher.  Second, D.J. Swearinger has some good skills as a safety but not regarded as strong in coverage.  How does Swearinger compliment Su’a Cravens? Does the Redskins brain trust really think they can go another year with a combination of DeAngelo Hall and Will Blackmon at free safety?  I was surprised they didn’t go after a true free safety in free agency.

— Rob Shapiro, N. Potomac, Md.

Chris Baker was popular with the fans because of his personality, but Redskins coaches, officials and even some teammates were just lukewarm on him. The team’s talent evaluators and coaches weren’t always happy with Baker’s work ethic, and they felt like he needed to make more of a consistent impact. The Redskins hope that McClain represents an upgrade over Baker, although McClain hadn’t been a full-time starter until last year. McGee is viewed as a strong run-stopper, but his skills as a pass-rusher are debatable. The Redskins believe he can play end and give them an upgrade over Ricky Jean Francois as a pass-rusher. But many people around the NFL think McGee would be better as a nose tackle, taking on double-teams and creating opportunities for teammates. We’ll see how this plays out. Washington hasn’t had good luck at all with free agent defensive signings of late because they’re always trying to find bargain deals.

The safety situation is very interesting. You’re right, the scouting report on Swearinger is that he’s better suited as a strong safety. He can play some free, but he’s better in the box. You never know, though, the Redskins could experiment with him at free safety. They could try Swearinger at free with Cravens at strong, and then shift Cravens out and Swearinger to strong and DeAngelo Hall or Will Blackmon to free on passing downs. The Redskins have high hopes for Cravens, but I think the jury is still very much out on him. His sophomore season at USC, he played a hybrid role of strong safety/outside linebacker and earned all-conference honors. But some within the organization still feel they need to see more of him in coverage on the NFL level before they’re completely comfortable with him as a full-time safety. So, we could see some creative parings initially.

  Let’s say Kirk does get traded.  At what point would you think it would be the most likely to occur?

Before draft

During Draft

After Draft

— Rob Fox, Lincolnton, N.C.

If the Redskins do decide to trade Kirk Cousins — and at this point, there’s no indication that they plan to — such a move would probably come just before the draft. That’s when a team that’s in need of a quarterback and unsure that they could find a prospect they absolutely love in the draft would be ready to pull the trigger and give up multiple draft picks. Such a deal wouldn’t likely take place during the draft, and after the draft doesn’t make much sense because by that point, Washington has less leverage and teams could just wait to go after Cousins in free agency in 2018.

  We spent the last couple of offseasons drooling over the prospect of Junior Galette rushing opposing QBs, only to feel absolutely miserable after his back to back Achilles’ tendon injuries. What is his health and contract status now? Is it a deliberate move by the team to keep his latest comeback effort somewhat under the radar?

— Csaba Szabo, London

The Redskins and Galette are going to give it another shot this year. He will play on a one-year, reworked deal that features a $775,000 base salary and $25,000 roster bonus. At this point, I don’t know that the expectations are very high. It’s hard enough to come back from one Achilles’ tendon tear, let alone two. Galette hasn’t played a down of football since 2014. It remains to be seen if he has the same amount of explosiveness that made him a dominant pass-rusher for the Saints. Galette continues to train in hopes of taking the field with his teammates by the start of training camp, if not sooner.

  As a huge Redskins fan since I was 7 years old in 1993, all I know is failure. I can’t help but imagine Josh Doctson blowing out an Achilles’ tendon in camp, Jordan Reed or Jamison Crowder getting overused/injured by week four, Terrelle Pryor getting shut down every game by the opposing top corner, and Kirk Cousins looking REALLY bad very early this season. Hopefully I’m wrong, but if the offense is as horrendous as I fear, what could we get in return for Cousins in a midseason trade? And are there any stud QBs coming out of the draft in 2018 that we end up throwing the season for? (Sorry for being so depressing)

— Mike Garza, San Antonio, Texas

You do indeed imagine worst case scenarios! I don’t think things would get that bad. I know it’s the Redskins, but that’s a bit extreme. If Cousins isn’t playing well midseason, however, I don’t think you can expect much of a trade market. Who wants to take on a $24 million salary for a guy that’s playing terribly? They’d rather wait for the offseason when they could get him for less. USC’s Sam Darnold, Wyoming’s Josh Allen, and UCLA’s Josh Rosen are expected to highlight the 2018 quarterback draft class. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Redskins draft a quarterback this year and play him behind Cousins and McCoy this year.

  1.) Did the Redskins keep Kirk Olivadotti (not sure about spelling) on the staff?  2.) In your opinion, what is it going to take to get the Redskins all the way back being consistent and competing for Super Bowls?

— Kevin Roberts

Yes, Kirk Olivadotti remains on staff as the inside linebackers coach. He’s well-respected both by ownership, management, Jay Gruden and the players.

Man, it’s going to take a lot for the Redskins to get back to reaching the playoffs consistently, let alone contending for Super Bowls. This defense is not a championship-level unit. They need more aggressive and disruptive defensive linemen, more impactful pass-rushers, game-changing defensive backs. The Redskins probably need greater consistency in the rushing department as well. I think Rob Kelley will continue to grow, and Washington’s line is solid, although the left guard position could possibly use some work. The Redskins also need a long-term solution at quarterback. They have a talented quarterback, but don’t want to pay him what he’s worth, and he’s not budging either, so they probably need to find another guy. Good luck with that. It took all this time to find Kirk Cousins, and they still don’t fully appreciate him. So, unfortunately, this team isn’t anywhere close to Super Bowl ready.

  As it stands today assuming the Skins are paying Kirk his franchise tag price … What is the current cap situation? How much is left to spend? Do you think they will renegotiate Hall if he comes back?

 — Bryce Beckmann

Right now, all that matters is the top 51 salaries, and so for now, the Redskins have roughly $16.5 million in cap space, and that’s with Cousins’s $24 million already accounted for. The Redskins have yet to make a move on D-Hall’s contract. He’s owed $5.062 million for this season. But it wouldn’t be surprising to see them try to lower his base salary and convert the difference to money that can be earned back through incentives.

  The Redskins haven’t won a playoff game in 12 years and just put together their first back-to-back winning seasons (barely) in two decades. The team is a constant source of embarrassment and dysfunction and inexplicable defeat. It’s not as if all of us are going to suddenly stop being fans, but how can we let Dan Snyder know that enough is enough beyond whining on Twitter? What legitimate outlet do Skins fans have to notify this incompetent owner that we can’t take it anymore? I honestly want to know how we can responsibly fight back. 

— Brandon Katz

You could try writing letters, you can organize marches and all that. But the only way the fan base is going to get Snyder’s attention is to stop buying tickets and merchandise. Remember that late-2013 game when the Redskins hosted the Chiefs and there were so few fans attending that there wasn’t even the slightest bit of a delay on the roads to the stadium all the way up until kickoff? That’s when Snyder realized he needed to move on from Mike Shanahan. Empty seats in the stadium always get owners’ attention, because really, it’s all about making money.

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