#another moment. but. overall it's lovely..... i love the bluejays i love how you only hear them on cloudy early mornings!!!!!!

[intertexts-moving]

gm!!!

[sso-emotree]

The unexpected spy got an upgrade.

Just like a few others in this wonderful AU, I decided Willow’s form needed touching up. Also, here’s an entire Pinterest dedicated to her, and specifically the board I made for the WWAU.

@ssowildwest & @carina-go-lightlee // @daine-s-adventures & @stormiesquall & @sso-bluejay as well ‘cause these guys gave me some ideas I fit into the form.

When I first joined in this AU, Willow had no character. This form was the closest she had to have a character. Since then, I’ve not only gotten very involved in the community, but Willow has grown tremendously. I’m still pleased with the differences between canon and AU, but I figured now since I know her a bit better in canon, I’d tweak this a bit. This does include appearance, but it’s nothing too major. And yes, I did need to be “extra” with the banner.

Name: Willow Northbook

Age: 24

Occupation/Role: She was previously the owner of the General Store and a spy for Dark Corps, but she’s now just an outlaw.

Team Good or Team Evil?: Evil (with some technicalities).

APPEARANCE

Hair/eye/skin: Brunette, mostly kept down and occasionally in a ponytail. Very green eyes. Pale skin.

Build: 5’6”, lean - she has leg muscle from riding often.

Defining Characteristics: She has a scar on her right temple that cuts two lines through her eyebrow from an accident when she was in her teens.

Clothing Style: I suppose it’s just your average western attire? She’ll wear whatever best suits what she’s doing at the time. She’s always prepared.

Signature Look: Willow always keeps a pocket watch on her at all times. It’s always clipped somewhere on her outfit, whether it’s her jacket, an apron, or a belt loop.

Demeanor: Previously, her first impression was that she was a very sweet and trusting person. If she sees anyone from the town now, she will come across very sly and almost sarcastic about what had happened. Now, I think she’s got some more sass to her. More spunk. She, of course, can still act and easily be a liar, but now she’s not as motivated to given the situation.

STORY

Origins: Willow grew up on the wrong side of the law. She followed after her parents, who were always with the wrong crowd. As she grew, she learned to eavesdrop, keep things to herself, and overall has become quite the actor. On Jorvik, Dark Corps found potential in her, and hired her as a spy. After all, she can hide in plain sight. They sent her to New Jorvik to go with the flow and report back with any notable information. // Now, after the showdown with New Jorvik, Willow is on the run. Dark Corps ditched her, leaving her on her own in the West. She was recently captured by Alex Cloudmill, who seems to be treating her rather nicely.

Economic Status: She was part of the middle-class before, but now she’s gearing towards the lower-class because of the fact that she’s on the run so much. She’s had to resort to robbing for money.

Motivations: Willow will ultimately choose money over people. Over the years, she’s learned that no one sticks around long, and it’s not useful getting attached. She thrives off of the adrenaline rush of riding and conflicts, but because of her position for Dark Corps, she had to keep her profile low. When she did that, she had time to reflect and got a sense of a “normal” life. Part of her felt a longing to have some connection to another person, but it was slight, and very deep down. Besides, money is more important… right?

ALLIANCES

Horse Name/Breed/Color/Sex: (Oddly enough, I’m going with this horse again, who I use for AUs and still don’t have in-game.) Koda, a dapple gray paint stallion of the American Paint Horse breed.

Pets: n/a

Partner/Love Interest: Originally, there was none. However, I currently ship canon Willow with both Alex Cloudmill and Jay Ravenshield. Burgie had mentioned an idea of a possible love-triangle, but honestly? I’m not sure which one I prefer. I’d love to see something develop in this area for Willow over time, but at the moment I don’t have much else to say. Surprise me. ;) Or, at the very least, if you have any ideas, let me know! I’m totally down for figuring this out. Other Alliances: At the moment, Willow doesn’t have a single ally. Her rivals are anyone directly involved in the law.

SKILLS

Level of Education: She has a standard education when it comes to academics and such.

Fighting Skills/Style: Willow is fantastic with knives, whether it’s throwing or close hand-to-hand combat. Guns… not so much. She’s had some practice recently while she’s on-the-run, so she’s a bit better than she was originally, but still not great.

Trades and Talents: Willow is an extremely good liar and actor. She also has a very visual memory. It’s rare she needs a map to know where she’s going or how she ended up from one location to another.

MISCELLANEOUS: Willow has never been close to people. The closest she’s ever been to anyone is Koda, her horse. He is her best friend. The only thing that comes above money is Koda. If anything happened to him, it could be a drastic change for Willow. (Possible idea thanks to Sam ;), thank you for that.) She also doesn’t drink often. She didn’t before at all in fear of getting drunk and blowing her cover. Now she’ll do it when she feels she doesn’t need to be too careful.

[rebellingstagnationblog]

“Meet Me Under The Mistletoe” by Dick Robertson (Day 16 of 31)

For @leviprime @teh-bluejay @rubbersoles19 and @raidenraccoon because there’s more GoMax in here. 

These next stories take place a year after “Here Comes Santa Claus”. 

Max stepped aside to allow a waiter to whiz by before continuing across the room.

Gosalyn caught sight of him as he wove through the crowd and smiled. A whole year together and she still caused butterflies to flutter in Max’s stomach whenever she smiled at him. Or looked in his general direction. Or laughed. Or when she did pretty much anything.  

He was totally gone for her.

And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Such a gentleman,” she said, taking the champagne flute he held out to her.

“Well, there are witnesses,” Max said smiling and nodding to Drake, who was standing near the gingerbread house on the other side of the room.

The pastry had been built to resemble St. Canard this year and Drake had been hovering around it all night. He’d probably have notes to give to the baker about intersections and crossroads that were wrong. The angle of Audubon Bay Bridge off by a few degrees. Or any other untold minuscule details that weren’t quite right about Drake’s hometown.

But he didn’t scowl or roll his eyes at Max. Which was progress.

Instead, he just watched the couple for a few moments before turning back to scrutinize the pasty city.

“Ah, I see,” Gosalyn said, her tone light as she smirked up at Max. “So once we’re alone, you’ll make me get my own champagne.”

Max nodded. “It’s like that ‘if you teach a man to fish’ theory. If I give you champagne, you’ll drink for tonight. If I let you find your own champagne, you’ll get to drink it forever.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you.”  

“One of my many good qualities.”

Gosalyn smirked as Max took a sip of his own champagne, glancing around at the festivities.

There weren’t any meet and greet set ups this year. As Scrooge had predicted, the “meet your heroes” event that Max had put together last year had become its own evening shindig. Gizmoduck had been invited along this time, much to Drake’s chagrin. But the evening had gone off without any major catastrophes, and Scrooge had invited Max and Goofy along to his Christmas party as a reward for such a successful night with the heroes.

And speaking of….

“Is Dad with Launchpad?” Max asked, unable to locate Goofy anywhere within the crowd.

Gosalyn nodded. “They went upstairs to look at the tree.”

That made sense. Goofy loved Christmas more than any other holiday and getting to attend the McDuck party as a guest this year instead of as Santa Claus had gotten him so giddy he’d practically been bouncing in his seat as they’d driven in from Spoonerville. He’d gone around the party with energy to rival any child, looking at all the decorations and talking to everybody. Launchpad had taken it upon himself to act as tour guide.

“So, overall, this party is a success,” Max said, smiling down at Gosalyn who raised an eyebrow.

“A little early for that assumption, isn’t it?”

He was about to respond — because a non-scowl from Drake Mallard and his father getting to celebrate Christmas alongside Launchpad McQuack was enough to let him declare this a win — when Scrooge McDuck took one one the mics the carolers had used earlier in the night and said, “Good evening, everyone,” into it.

Gosalyn smirked. “Told you.”

Max drank his champagne to hide his grin. He knew better; Gosalyn was always right.

“I hope you are all enjoying yourselves and I wish to extend you the compliments of the season to each of you.” There were a few murmurs of agreement and returned sentiments from those gathered.

“This year, I wanted to extend a challenge to any of you who might be interested.” He pulled out a large silver star from his pocket, one someone might put atop a Christmas tree. “I will be hiding this somewhere within the ballroom. At seven o’clock, you may begin searching for it. The first one to hand it back to me will get to be my second in command on one of my adventures that I’ll embark on in the New Year.” Scrooge grinned down into the crowd where Webby and his nephews stood collected in a group. “Good luck to those of you who choose to participate and, again, thank you all for coming.”

There was a smattering of applause before everyone turned back to their conversations.

Max, no exception to this, glanced at Gosalyn. “How many people d’you think’ll participate?”

Gosalyn surveyed the crowd. “Maybe half. Scrooge’s adventures are known as much for their danger as they are for their excitement. I think the game is mostly meant for them,” she nodded to Scrooge’s family, all of whom were whispering furiously to one another.

“That mean you won’t try to find it?” Max asked.

Gosalyn took another drink of her champagne. “I never said that.”

A thrill of excitement shot through Max at the thought of getting to see Gosalyn in action. She was very adamant that he not go on any sort of mission with her, but Gosalyn was a badass and he was desperate to see her skills for himself.

He kept an eye on the clock, counting down the minutes and hoping the search for this star would warrant some sort of fancy combat moves from his girlfriend.

At seven o’clock on the dot, about half the party goers began searching the ballroom for the star. Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby scattered across the room and seemed to communicate to one another via hand signals.

Gosalyn swallowed the remainder of her champagne and handed the glass to Max. He glanced at her expectantly.

This was it.

The moment he’d been waiting for.

His girlfriend was gonna sweep the floor with everyone else and find the star and be Scrooge’s second in command—

“I’m going to use the restroom,” she said before heading up the staircase.

Or.

You know.

Not.

“Where did Gosalyn go?” Dewey asked, popping up out of nowhere and causing Max to practically jump out of his skin. He lost his grip on Gosalyn’s empty champagne flute, but managed to snag it out of the air before it shattered on the ground.

“Warn a guy before you do that again, yeah?” Max said.

Dewey shook his head. “Second in command is at stake. I can’t take any prisoners. Gosalyn? Where’d she go?”

Max straightened to his full height. “Bathroom.”  

Dewey nodded and darted away, sending Huey some sort of gesture that had the red-clad duck head for the bar in the back of the room.

Max shook his head and handed the empty champagne flutes to a passing busboy with a smile. He shoved his hands into his pants pockets and watched the crowd of eager would-be adventurers look for this star.

Gosalyn returned and stood beside Max, watching everyone around them.

“You gonna start looking?” he asked.

He wasn’t trying to push her into something she didn’t want to do. He was just….

Excited.

He was freaking excited, okay?

He wanted to see her find the star and kick everyone else’s ass.

Gosalyn glanced up at him, mischief in her eyes. “Scrooge said the winner would be the one to hand him the star. Once they,” she pointed to the nephews and Webby, “go to all the trouble of finding it, I’ll take it from them, hand it to Scrooge, and be the winner.”

“So I’ll finally see you in action?” Max asked, unable to hold back a grin.

Keep it cool, man.

Keep it real cool.

She shrugged. “Maybe. Let’s get something to eat. By the looks of it, this’ll take a while.”

An hour later and no one seemed any closer to finding the star. The people who had been looking had slowly lost interest or had gotten distracted by the festivities.

The only people who continued to search were Scrooge’s family members. They were starting to grow frantic and messy, running into people and checking areas they’d already visited several times over. Gosalyn didn’t do much of anything besides watch the group intently.

Twenty minutes later, the triplets and Webby gathered together in the middle of the dance floor, whispering excitedly and glancing around the room. It looked like something had been stuffed down the front of Louie’s shirt, which didn’t go unnoticed by Gosalyn.

“Show time,” she said, standing up from the chairs she and Max had relaxed into by the fireplace.

“After you’re done kicking ass, meet me over there,” Max pointed on the other side of the fireplace. “Under the mistletoe.”

Gosalyn rolled her eyes. “Sap.”

“Your sap,” he said, completing their customary endearment with a smile.

She returned his smile and ran a hand through his hair. “Kiss for luck?”

“You don’t need it,” he assured her, but pulled her down for a brief kiss all the same.

Gosalyn’s fond smile turned into a knowing grin as she disappeared into the crowd.

Seriously.

Merry Christmas to Max.

[giantsfootball0]

Milwaukee Brewers fans will remember Thursday’s gut-punch loss to Cubs – SweetSpot

If the Milwaukee Brewers end up missing the playoffs by one game, their fans are going to spend all winter having nightmares about Thursday’s ninth inning.

It was a great game at Miller Park against the Chicago Cubs, a game that had that postseason feel, with tension and deeper breaths between pitches and players hanging over the dugout railing and Brewers fans cheering loudly — half enthusiastically, half nervous energy.

With a slim chance at chasing down the Cubs in the NL Central — a four-game series sweep would mean the Brewers move into first place — the series opener was essentially a must-win game for Milwaukee. Win and they would be 2.5 games back with nine left and have a puncher’s chance; lose and they’re 4.5 back.

With an overworked bullpen, the Brewers needed a strong effort from Zach Davies, and he delivered, departing after seven innings with a 2-2 tie. The Brewers scored the go-ahead run in the eighth as Domingo Santana doubled, swiped third against a sleepy Justin Wilson, and then scored as Eric Thames lined a single over the drawn-in second baseman.

Milwaukee Brewers reliever Jeremy Jeffress couldn’t bear to watch after giving up a game-tying single in the ninth inning. Morry Gash/AP Photo

Then came the ninth inning.

Corey Knebel and Anthony Swarzak were unavailable after pitching three days in a row. Josh Hader had pitched twice in three days and thrown 42 pitches. So Craig Counsell had to dig deep into his bullpen. He called on Jeremy Jeffress, the former Brewers closer reacquired at the trade deadline, who had thrown 30 pitches Wednesday.

The inning started with Ian Happ beating out an infield hit. Here’s the play. Note what went wrong:

1. Neil Walker — who had played 64 innings at first in his career — ranged well off first base to field the ball. But look at second baseman Eric Sogard. He was in position to make the play.

2. Jeffress hesitated just a bit coming off the mound. If he gets to first a blink quicker, Happ is out.

3. Happ chugged it down the line. This kid is a terrific athlete.

Still, you have to get the out there. Javier Baez would later tie the game with a two-out, two-strike little grounder up the middle. Just like Knebel’s errant toss to first hurt them in Wednesday’s loss to the Pirates, infield defense was once again painful.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Brewers loaded the bases with one out against Wade Davis. Joe Maddon went to five infielders. Santana struck out on a fastball up and out of the strike zone. Orlando Arcia worked the count to 3-1, took a cutter down the middle and then bounced back to the mound. The Brewers would strand 12 runners. They fanned 11 times (they have the second-most 10-strikeout games in the majors with 78).

You knew what was coming next. Hello, Kris Bryant:

A little kiss from the MVP. pic.twitter.com/UTJCwbr755

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) September 22, 2017

Bryant had actually been terrible in the big moments all season, hitting .162 in late & close situations before this game. I guess he was due. The Brewers fell to 4-10 in extra-inning games. How many similar moments were there in some of those losses? We don’t talk enough about the little things that can decide a baseball game. On this night, they did.

One final note. I’m not going to pound Counsell for not using his best relievers. Nobody pitches four days in a row anymore — it has happened only nine times all season (Edwin Diaz and Jerry Blevins did it twice, plus Jose Alvarez, Peter Moylan, Hansel Robles, Fernando Salas and Nick Vincent). Knebel had thrown 44 pitches over his three outings. Here’s how many those others had thrown in their first three outings:

Alvarez: 26 Blevins: 22 Blevins: 22 Diaz: 42 Diaz: 51 Moylan: 34 Robles: 36 Salas: 15 Vincent: 37

Mariners manager Scott Servais used Diaz twice for a fourth day despite similar pitch totals to Knebel. He’s also the most comparable pitcher to Knebel, a hard-throwing closer. If there was ever a game to use Knebel for a fourth straight game, this would have been it. (To be fair, Jeffress wasn’t hit.)

Anyway, the NL Central race is just about over, but the wild card is still in the play. The Brewers remain a game behind the Rockies. I predict Knebel, Swarzak and Hader will be available if needed Friday.

Wild-card winner of the night. You know how this is going to end, America. Baseball writers, you might as well reserve your World Series hotel rooms in St. Louis right now. The Rockies lost 3-0 to the Padres, the Brewers lost, and the Cardinals are now just 1.5 behind the Rockies for the second wild card.

Wild-card loser of the night. The Angels lost 4-1 to the Indians in an afternoon game, and then the Twins pounded the hapless Tigers 12-1. So the Angels dropped 2.5 behind the Twins and have actually been caught by the Rangers, who completed a three-game sweep of the Mariners. Hmm. Cardinals-Rangers World Series?

Indians win again. I just mentioned that. Francisco Lindor hit a three-run homer in the game, his 32nd, and they’ve won 27 of 28 games, which is an incredible thing to type. Here’s another to look at it:

Ballgame. Tribe 4, Halos 1.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWLWWWWW

Decent.

— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) September 21, 2017

Lindor’s surge during this streak — he has hit .349 with 11 home runs and 27 RBIs — is earning him some MVP talk. I’m going to disagree. The entire season counts. Jose Ramirez has an OBP 30 points higher and slugging percentage 64 points higher with good defensive metrics while playing two positions. Ramirez is still the best MVP candidate on the Indians, although Lindor has maybe climbed into the top five or six overall.

Jose Bautista’s Blue Jays career might be winding down. The Royals beat the Jays 1-0 as Jason Vargas and four relievers combined on a two-hitter. Bautista hit cleanup, as he has been doing since late August but went 0-for-4.

At one point, the fans in right field starting chanting his name, as if their collective will alone could summon some greatness from Bautista. Back in spring training, the popular story was Bautista was poised for a big season, ready to prove everyone who ignored him in free agency had made a mistake. He was forced to take a one-year deal from Toronto.

Instead, he has had a miserable season, hitting .203/.309/.369. Injuries aren’t an excuse, as he has played 148 of the Jays’ 153 games. Manager John Gibbons moved him from second or third in the lineup to leadoff back in late June in an attempt to get going, and then to cleanup. Bautista never did get going. Of 148 qualified hitters, Bautista ranks 139th in wOBA. Once one of the most feared hitters in the game, he has been one of the worst in 2017.

As Dave Cameron wrote a couple days ago on FanGraphs, this could be it for Bautista. He turns 37 in October, will be coming off a bad season and has limited defensive value, and nobody wanted him last offseason. There’s certainly the sense that at the minimum his Blue Jays career is coming to an end:

Gibbons says #BlueJays dugout would love to see another memorable Jose Bautista moment this weekend. “I know everybody’s rooting for him”

— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) September 22, 2017

The Blue Jays wrap up their home schedule this weekend against the Yankees before finishing with a road trip to Boston and New York. Let’s hope he gives Blue Jays fans one final home run.

The post Milwaukee Brewers fans will remember Thursday’s gut-punch loss to Cubs – SweetSpot appeared first on Daily Star Sports.

from https://dailystarsports.com/2017/09/22/milwaukee-brewers-fans-will-remember-thursdays-gut-punch-loss-to-cubs-sweetspot/ from https://dailystarsports.tumblr.com/post/165611496171