#he is leagues above most of my guys in terms of handling his issues and hes doing pretty okay actually!

[frutavel]

"I hate you for always saving me from myself

I hate you for always choosing me and not someone else

I hate you for always pulling me back from the edge

I hate you for every kind word you ever said"

[sleepy-writes-stuff]

DP X DC WRITING PROMPT #1

(I don't know if someone has already written this idea yet. If someone has tho please give me the info/link so I can read it. 👀

This might be the only prompt I do, because my brain likes to keep my creativity behind bars a majority of the time. That and anxiety. I've never done a post like this before. Also, most of my knowledge is from DP not DC. Please forgive me if I get something wrong.)

(#) = Notes at the end of post

(*) = Just me building off of other ideas.

short prompt #1 →

short prompt #2 →

✦

Lair of Mystery

The House of Mystery is Danny's lair or vacation lair(1) and ever since he outlived his friends and family(2), he's been coming to the House of Mystery whenever he needs a break from his kingly duties. Since it's the Infinite Realms, the HoM exists in every universe, but due to it not always being in the form of a literal house and difficult for outsiders to enter, it's never found. At least until now.

One day when he goes to the lair after (insert amount of time) he finds that the Justice League Dark have set up in his home. Initially, the JLD attack him but Danny puts a stop to that fast. It's his house, he can control anything inside it which includes anyone he deems an intruder. An interrogation more or less takes place, both parties are confused by the others presence, both sides get answers and are shocked by them. Danny because the JLD are a subdivision of a superhero agency that specializes in magic/the occult and the JLD because they've literally been using the house of a very powerful monarch without even knowing it.

Danny isn't angry the JLD are inside his house once he gets over the surprise. In fact, he's rather happy to have company of the non-ghost variety and is curious about their world full of superheroes and aliens. He comes to a decision. He will let the JLD continue to use his house as a base of operations if they are willing to agree to a few terms.

1. No one is to touch or use any artifacts they may find inside the HoM without his explicit permission. Some things are too dangerous for human hands to hold.

2. They seek him out of there is anything of the dead/occult variety threatening their world that they are unable to handle by themselves. (The JLD are shocked to learn of the King's past as a young hero as his explanation for this term. He misses those times and helping the JLD will also be another way to fulfill his obsession besides him being King.)

3. They spend time with him. Being the ruler of an infinitely expanding dimension gets pretty overwhelming and lonely at times. Even he needs a break. On top of missing his hero days, he misses the simpler times of being just a regular guy.

The JLD easily agree to his terms. From then on, they peacefully coexist in the HoM for many years to come. Danny is happier than he's been in a long time and so are the JLD because he's a wonderful host and has actually helped them with a few of their personal issues. Danny, having seen straight through his Captain Marvel form, gave Billy a fully furnished bedroom fit for a growing teenager and hidden from the others in the house. Danny and Billy hang out and play video games whenever they need to unwind with someone their age(3) with no secrets between them.

Danny helps Constantine with his soul contracts, seeing how they are fraying his soul and aging him prematurely. They have an easy camaraderie and sometimes share a bottle of whiskey together(4). Etc.

All is good.

Until some world ending threat of the dead/occult variety really does happen and the JLD call for Danny's help. He goes to them in full regalia with chainmail, breastplate with his hero symbol emblazoned on it, billowing, fur-collared purple cape with the cosmos displayed on the interior, a black crown incased in ice above his head with a sword of ghost ice in the hand that wears the newly dubbed Ring of (Peace?)(5). He doesn't even have to do anything. His presence alone is enough to intimidate the world ending threat into complete submission and is easily sent back into the Infinite Realms to face judgement for attacking the Living Realm.

This is how he's introduced to the rest of the Justice League. It's your choice on how they react and what happens beyond this point if you decide to take it further.

✦

This is entirely up for grabs and I wanna read whatever's written.

Notes:

(1) Your choice if it's his original lair or a vacation one depending on if you count Pariah's old castle as Danny's lair or not.

(2) Your choice if any of his friends or family members turn into ghosts.

(3) Danny is able to change the age of his form to an extent, an ability he inherited from his mentor, Clockwork. He uses it when he feels it would make it easier for other people to relate to him. He also has an eldritch form that he doesn't like to use in front of others unless he absolutely has to. You can leave any part of this detail out if you want to. I just thought it would be kinda cool and also a more subtle way of showing how powerful he is now.

(4) He is technically an adult (read several hundred years old) so he can partake if he wants to. Refer to note above this one.

(5) Should the function and name of the Ring of Rage change due to Danny being King or not? Your choice!

(*) Also, I read the House of Mystery is in a place called the Dreaming, a realm ruled by Morpheus the god of sleep and dreams. If this is truly the case, would it be plausible to say that Nocturne is just another one of Morpheus' forms? Would that mean the House of Mystery is in Nocturne's territory? If so, are Danny and Nocturne friends now? 👀

(*) the Dreaming is part of the Infinite Realms.

[whetstonefires]

Do you think the DC fandom maybe, Infantilizes Tim a little too much? Like for a rich kid character who's main trauma for a long time was a getting left home alone too much there's an oddly amount of meta abt how much how much his parents hurt him~ compared to, y'know the two poor characters who grew up with physically abusive dad's+druggie mom's, or the two that were raised assassin cult's, etc

…well, yeah, I do kind of think that? His whole schtick for so long was being too old for his age in ways that didn’t sacrifice his jokey, relatable teenager energies. It’s weird how little of that we see anymore, sometimes.

And then DC broke him and discarded him and he’s sort of awkwardly hanging around getting reimagined as more woobie with every fan generation. It is weird!

But tbh I do get it. And I think the reason his parents’ failure of him and his vulnerability get played up so much, and Jason and Steph’s sufferings (while used a lot for things like motivation and context) not dwelt on quite so much in the same lugubrious style, are kind of the same reason.

Which is that canon didn’t commit to it. Jason and Steph’s experiences with bad parenting were foregrounded and retconned more dramatically awful several times. (There’s some definite classism in how that was approached imo, and I’m never budging on being mad about DC retconning out Catherine being sick and then ignoring her forever in all Jason characterization because a drug death invalidates a person ig, great message during the opioid crisis guys.)

They engaged and coped with it–Steph (and Cass, our #1 canon batfam parental abuse victim) pretty directly, Jason a little less so because of the dubious and fluctuating canon status of most of the content more specific than ‘poverty, homelessness, theft, parental drugs and crime in there somewhere,’ so most of his parent issues have been focused on Bruce. He sure has dug into them tho. 😂 Rarely well or productively, thanks DC, but it’s explicitly part of his character, is my point.

Whereas upper-middle-class Tim was always treated by the narrative as fortunate and unharmed by his experiences with his parents. Even though they were clearly behaving badly in several ways, and Tim showed signs of being harmed by it.

Tim outside of immediate moments of frustration always was of the opinion he was Fine, and Very Fortunate Actually.

Therefore a huge chunk of the numerous everyone who’s got parent-related mental and emotional harm, but has struggled to have that validated and hasn’t responded with a lot of anger toward the parent, identifies with Tim. The only one who’s never really lashed out at his parents for fucking up with him. The one who still needs it explored, because canon ultimately didn’t.

[editing post to put in a readmore because lol it’s long, post otherwise unchanged]

(Dick obviously didn’t ever have any Issues with the Graysons, but he Angry Teenagered at Bruce so hard it changed Bruce’s characterization permanently, rip.)

The things Jason, Steph, and Cass have been through are dramatic, obvious, and fit stereotypes because that’s what they’re based on.

That’s important content to have, but because it’s right out there in your face even people who identify with it quite a lot are less likely to feel the need to work all the way through it again in fanworks. That part’s there. It’s text.

(Well actually Jason having been physically abused kind of wasn’t? I think? It was mostly assumed on the basis of stereotyping and Jason’s not caring about the man much even as he felt possessive of information about his death, which is valid. I don’t actually know what’s up with Willis now, Lobdell did some weird shit that lacked emotional resonance or staying power because he’s Lobdell and has no soul.

Cass’ wandering years are also ludicrously underdeveloped. But very very few comics fans or writers can personally relate to being amazing child warriors with no grasp of language living feral under bridges. That part of her life is consistently represented in terms of absences, in terms of its deviation from the norm and the deficits of normality it left her with, which is typical but unfortunate.) 

-

The interesting things to do with these characters are often informed by the bad stuff in their childhoods, but there’s relatively rarely that much more to say about the fact that those things were bad. They know they’re bad. They’ve had a lot of on-panel rage about it, as discussed above. Steph and Cass both beat the shit out of their dads.

Jason is, in fandom especially, a sort of Platonic ideal of a kid who’s mad about his bad childhood and really bad at figuring out where to point that rage.

(Damian is a whole other kettle of fish, because he’s been lumbered by so many detailed retcons coming so fast no two people can seem to construct compatible models of what his early childhood was like, and even more because he’s still ‘a child’ enough that he’s necessarily in a different stage of processing than someone who’s officially only a few years older than him at this point, but still functionally 8 and also 20 years older, and whose parents are no longer in the picture to continue screwing up.

Also there’s no question that if he brings up an abusive thing the League did, he will be validated by his current environment about his realization that it was in fact bad. There’s a lot of fic on that theme! But it doesn’t have the same tone precisely because it is usually understood that that support will be there if he wants it. Realizing that his previous context contained things that were wrong keeps being made the focus of his arc.)

The badness of Tim’s childhood, on the other hand, was mainly in subtext. Even when we were clearly meant to understand Jack was fucking up, like when he canceled plans with Tim at the last minute to go on a date with Tim’s stepmother, or that infamous time he came to apologize for not being a great parent and got mad Tim was distracted by a crisis on TV so he flew into a rage and took the TV and smashed it and was like ‘that’ll teach you,’ it wasn’t leaned into.

The story didn’t treat Jack as a minor villain to be overcome but like a sort of environmental hazard of childhood, like homework, to be endured and coped with. Tim said things like ‘it’s fine’ and ‘at least he left the computer.’

(And like. It’s not about having a TV and computer in his room. It’s about not letting a child have boundaries, pointedly not respecting a child’s possessions, creating an emotionally insecure environment, punishing minor infractions in proportion to their momentary impact on your own ego, physically lashing out at a proxy for the child…)

Rather like Tom King later didn’t understand about the punching from Bruce, whoever did that story (probably Dixon? I don’t care enough to check) did not understand how serious a case of bad parenting that scene was. That is most definitely textbook abusive behavior. (It’s a hell of a lot more common abusive behavior than being a lame supervillain or shooting you when you screw up, and a lot more specific than ‘was a thug, might have hit me, dead now.’)

And Tim was never allowed to be mad at his parents about it. It was fine. He needed to be ignored so he had the freedom to be Robin. He deserved his dad being mad at him because he was keeping secrets. He complained too much, although objectively he did not.

The universe punished him for ‘complaining,’ more than once. We cut straight from him shunting aside his disappointment that his postcard from his parents was just to say they weren’t coming home yet after all with ‘if it will stop all the fights they’ve been having lately it’s more than fine’ to them getting kidnapped.

He agreed not to come on the rescue mission. His mom never made it home, and his dad was in a coma for a while. And then ultimately Jack died as a result of Tim’s decision to be Robin, immediately after finally deciding to accept it.

So Tim walks around feeling a huge burden of responsibility for his parents’ deaths, and completely unable to process any hurt they did him as real or valid, especially in comparison with the far more blatant awfulness other people have been through, and canon is clearly never going to address it. Or even acknowledge it properly.

Let me repeat that because it’s kind of my main point:

People are fixated on getting Tim’s emotional abuse validated because that’s an incredibly important step in recovering from emotional abuse, and it’s one canon consistently denied him.

How ‘bad’ things are ‘in comparison to’ problems other people have is a bad and unhealthy way to engage with trauma. Okay? That’s just a really harmful framework to apply to pain.

It’s also a way that both Tim and people with experiences similar to Tim’s are encouraged to engage with their own experiences, compounding the existing problems.

So. Not a form of relatable DC was ever actually aiming for when they tried so hard (and pretty effectively) to make him a relatable character as Robin, but an enduring one for a lot of fans.

-

So Tim’s childhood is a natural target for fanworks in a different way than the traumas that have been made explicit and taken seriously by the text. And then a lot of that got compounded by the way the introduction of Damian as Robin was handled, and the lack of resolution that got. And his current status as not quite having a place in the family anymore.

So between the level of projection encouraged by that context and how relatively difficult to access Tim’s Robin run has become ten years after the fact, this has led to a lot of fanworks on these themes that are based mostly on other fanworks, and stray further and further from the original content.

So at this point there’s an entire wing of Tim’s fandom wherein this side of him has expanded enormously, and he primarily exists to suffer, frequently in ways that 1) escalate to a point that is inarguably ‘valid’ and hard to dismiss and 2) set him up to rebound from it in whatever way the writer finds emotionally satisfying or useful–being ultimately cared for and reassured by people who value him (the most infantilizing option but like, popular for obvious reasons), or unveiling his brilliant scheme that was causing him to pretend to be passive in the face of mistreatment, or turning around and using his genius ninja skills to wrest power back from his abusers, or just laying down some sick burns about being treated fairly.

But not that many of the last one, because that’s mostly done with other batfam members.

Tim’s become a vehicle for a lot of vicarious coping that Steph and Jason just aren’t appropriate for, because they get angry and they get even. And those are stories that exist already, so there’s less scope for telling your own.

And because Jason’s reaction pattern is ultimately so masculine (i’ll make them all sorry! with my guns! blam blam!) while Tim’s is pretty gender-neutral, the demographics of fanfic mean that the bulk of the people using Tim vicariously in this manner are female-aligned, which has over time feminized this archetype of him a lot. Sometimes in ways I find really uncomfortable, like there’s a lot of forced pregnancy stuff which activates my panic buttons. x.x

But, ultimately, it’s fandom. People are going to do what they’re going to do, DC in their perpetual fail has hung Tim out to dry in narrative terms, and I’d rather the people who are using Tim for victimization narratives over the people who can’t dismiss or discredit him fast enough now that his position has been filled. 🤷‍♀️ What we gonna do? Fave’s in an awkward spot. DC hates us. This is the life in this comic book pit. XD

-

Also if you’re the same anon who left me a callout about op of that weird Steph post in my inbox, or if you aren’t @ that person, 1) I refuse to get involved so I’m not answering that ask 2) those aren’t even particularly dramatic fandom crimes? That’s pretty normal? That’s just…Caring Too Much About Ships And Disagreeing With Me.

Do I also feel those opinions are kinda bad? Yeah. But I disagree with everyone about something. Chill.

[himbeaux-on-ice]

Sorry! Lehner had around a 10 minute rant today about how he feels like the NHL lied to the players about loosening up the restrictions placed on teams and forced teams to get the Covid Vaccine. ESPN and the New York Post released an article about it today.

(this is a follow-up on this ask)

Ah okay, I found a TSN article about it, which covers the fact that he also apologized for some of his remarks (mainly comparing the restrictions to being “like prison” which is a bit cringe when you’re a millionaire in a free hotel, yeah), and also significantly clarified some of the intent behind what he was trying to say at the presser:

I’m gonna put my full thoughts this under a cut because it’s ended up running pretty long and rambly, but tl;dr: after considering his more precisely clarified points here and with the perspective I know he’s coming from, I can honestly see and empathize with what Lehner seems to be expressing here about how the NHL has chosen to handle player vaccinations and informing them about what that means for the restrictions on their lives, and I actually don’t disagree with his criticisms overall. Some of the phrasing could have been better, but he’s acknowledged that too.

All in all, it sounds like the NHL may have done a poor job of honestly managing expectations around what vaccine rollout would mean for the extra restrictions placed on the players and their families with each team, and that they’re also up to some version of their usual NHL schtick of prioritizing some platonic ideal of Competitive Parity (remember “the Vancouver Canucks will play a 56 game season”, anyone?) above all else, even when that is no longer realistic and/or comes at the expense of the short-term and long-term mental and physical wellbeing of the players. Classic NHL.

Right, so, long thoughts are down here. Also gonna copy the majority of his comments directly because I think it’s worthwhile for people to read exactly what he said:

"As I’m frustrated like a lot of people in the world right now everything didn’t come out of today’s press in the right way," Lehner wrote. "Main point is that we need to start take the mental health important as well In this situation. It has a huge impact on everyone in society right now. To put competitive edge before well being of people's lives is wrong. As I said, people are struggling with many different things mentally and we need to consider that, as well. Then, being lied to makes it worse."

I love hockey and the league has done a lot of good things," Lehner continued. "But this missed the mark. My bad to say it’s like prison and I apologize, but with mental health issues that are developing in the world, it develops problems mentally. We will see exactly how this affects everything with time. I don’t mean to offend anyone. I hope we can all work together to help people that suffer through mental help from this going forward. I’ve heard how a lot of people are doing through this as people talk to me about it."

During his briefing, Lehner said that the league has misled the players about how vaccination will lead to the loosening of restrictions.

"They told me yesterday that they're surveying all of the teams to see who has taken the vaccine and who has not taken the vaccine and they're not going to change the rules for us as players until all of the teams have a fair [amount] of [vaccinated players] at the same time, so there's not a competitive edge," Lehner said. "And that made me go crazy, to be honest."

Lehner said the league is failing to look at its players as people first and lied to them about taking the vaccine.

"These are human lives and people are struggling with this stuff a lot in society and we are humans just as everyone else," Lehner said. "So there's a twofold problem for me here - the first one is we got promised something to take something that not necessarily everyone wanted. So that was lie - a blatant lie. Second, to put competitive edge over human lives in terms of going back - and I'm not saying we're going out to a party or whatever, but we had a meeting when the season started, at the beginning of camp, that pretty much told us we can't go outside of our house, can't do anything, can't go to the grocery store, can do nothing on the road. You can take a meal out of the meal room and go sit up in your room, don't be with your teammates, don't do this, don't do that. Nobody thinks about the mental impact."

The Gothenburg, Sweden native says his peers are struggling through this pandemic season.

"I know people will say, 'Oh, you're millionaires' and this and that or 'What about these guys?' but we care about that, too, man," Lehner said. "No matter what people think, this is a society problem. But when government, corporations, NHL, whoever are taking decisions in terms of irrelevant things like competitive edge over the human being? It's not okay."

It seems pretty clear to me from this article that his main issue isn’t really with getting the vaccine or being required to do so (my understanding is that it is still opt-in for all players, not mandatory. It’s that he doesn’t view the League as having provided players with a realistic expectation ahead of time for how being vaccinated would or would not change their daily reality. That they were led to believe that getting vaccinated would lead to things that didn’t end up happening, and therefore weren’t empowered to make an informed choice about when to get vaccinated.

The way he describes it, the League was not clear enough ahead of time about the fact that individual players being vaccinated would not make them individually exempt from league-wide restrictions, and this created a feeling of false hope about what getting vaccinated would mean in terms of not just having to stay in your house or hotel room literally all the time. If you were looking forward to getting vaccinated because you were led to believe it would mean finally not having to live in that isolated, mentally draining environment all the time, and then only found out at the last minute or after the fact that no, you actually still have to keep following all these rules that are making your life so isolated and difficult, that’s gotta be pretty emotionally jarring. If you were a player who was a little unsure about getting vaccinated quite yet (for whatever reason, including possibly being in a risk group for side-effects or just not wanting to get waylaid for a week with the smile symptoms it induces during a crucial stretch of games), but decided it was worth it for the tradeoff of getting back to a life that was less of a strain on your mental health, and then got told AFTER you made that decision and got the shot that no, that tradeoff isn’t happening the way you were made to expect it to, I think it would understandably piss you off.

It also sounds like part of what he has taken issue with is that, from the sounds of it rather than ease internal restrictions on a team-by-team basis as determined by each team’s vaccination rates (which would mean that if for example the Wild had 95% of their team vaccinated, the Wild only the Wild would get to start living a life with slightly less restrictions), the League is instead opting to say “no, we’re only going to ease the rules for EVERYONE at the same time once all teams have reached similar numbers of vaccinated players and staff to ea other, because we would see having different rules for different teams as giving some of them an unfair competitive edge”.

Lehner takes umbrage with this approach, because he thinks that focusing solely on “competitive edge” by making more-vaccinated teams keep having to live incredibly isolated lives (even isolated from vaccinated teammates) is a case of the League prioritizing parity over the toll that barely being able to interact with other people or leave their houses is taking on players’ mental health. And I can really really understand his point here. We have all seen what quarantine has done to our individual mental health, and even if they are millionaires, those impacts also exist for the players.

I actually just recently re-read the Athletic piece about the intense mental health and addiction struggles Lehner has gone through and done the incredibly difficult work of getting help for in the last five years. This man has fought incredibly hard and done a massive amount of therapy and other work to sort out his head, deal with his demons, and get himself to a place where he can cope and wants to be alive. That kind of recovery journey is a battle which will continue for the rest of your life and requires constant maintenance practices (again, speaking from experience). He also spent most of this season not even getting to be around the team at all, stuck at home recovering from a concussion (which usually involves doing frustratingly little and waiting around impatiently in dimly lit rooms for your brain to heal). And now, upon returning to the team, road games mean more time spent sitting in a room trying not to be bored out of your skull, while possibly also having to have some limits on things like screen time as a post-concussion precaution.

Imagine being somebody like him, who has spent a lot of time working very hard to build up a lifestyle and a system of coping mechanisms in recent years which have allowed him to live a healthier and happier life, to then be thrown back into an isolated and highly restricted new lifestyle where probably at least half of all those habits and norms and support systems are taken out of reach, that has to be incredibly difficult (I’ve experienced something similar myself this year). Especially when you haven’t been able to even go and be with the team in the dressing room, or probably even do anything with your family that classes above “mildly strenuous”, because you’re out for six weeks recovering from a concussion, which is its own mental and physical health battle. And then, you are apparently given the impression from the League that “hey, if you’re willing to get vaccinated, that will lead to you being able to return to some semblance of a life that is less taxing on your psyche”, and you agreed to do so even if you were perhaps cautious about getting the vaccine before, because you’d rather accept whatever risk comes with the shot than gamble on keeping your sanity together for however much longer this isolation drags on, only to then find out that “actually no, even if your team and staff is entirely vaccinated you still have to spend most of your time sitting alone in rooms trying not to sink into a spiral of dangerous depression until other teams in other states with different vaccination programs are also immunized to similar levels, and our only real reasoning for holding that mental relief out of reach is mostly based on ‘competitive parity’”.

Yeah, I absolutely understand why he would feel very frustrated and even betrayed by that course of action! For Lehner, it’s not about competitive edges or the game on the ice, it’s about having made the decision to get vaccinated at this time with the understanding that it would allow access to an at least slightly less mentally taxing lifestyle, only to find out later that the League seemingly never intended to follow through on providing that despite you holding up your end of the deal. And it sounds like he is speaking for a number of other players beyond just himself who are also struggling with their mental health in these conditions. Even if he himself is managing to cope because of what he’s learned in his recovery, he would certainly be well-positioned to recognize signs in the people around him that they are struggling in ways that may be similar to what he went though before, and know how dire that can spiral into being.

Look, I don’t think Robin Lehner ever expected to be allowed to go out and lick people’s eyeballs or wander the supermarket maskless once vaccinated, but you heard the description of how intensely restrictive the NHL’s rules for players off-ice lives during COVID are. They are far more intense than the rules being enforced for non-NHL individuals in many of the same cities and states, because the NHL is trying to bring risk as close to zero as possible. And if you were a player told that being vaccinated was going to reduce contagion risks enough to mean that right away the NHL would finally let you and your teammates from “can’t go anywhere or see anyone, eat your dinner in your hotel room and try not to be depressed about it” to “you can go to the store with a mask on. you can eat meals with your also-vaccinated teammates. you can visit your parents or siblings while social-distancing/masking. you can spend free time around other people and/or in more public spaces without being chaperoned constantly by team staff. you can sit next to your also-vaccinated teammates on the plane/bus. you can hang out with them in their room”, and THEN later were told “sorry, we’re not actually going to let you do that yet. not for COVID reasons but rather because we worry not being totally miserable shut-ins will give you a competitive edge over that team in another state who aren’t getting vaccinated as quickly”. That has to feel like a slap in the face in terms of how much the league actually cares about your well-being or about being honest in its role in your personal medical decisions. Perhaps when he says “forced” he is expressing a feeling of being stuck between choosing “either get vaccinated or let your mental health keep degrading in isolation”, only to find out that making the deal doesn’t get you the relief you were promised.

Idk I feel like I’m repeating myself a lot here trying to circle in on my precise point bc my brain is a little scrambled today, but like. If the players made their decisions to consent to vaccination (at this time, with whatever version of the shot was offered, under whatever circumstances they may have going on personally or medically) based on one understanding of the situation, and then NHL really said “lol NOPE actually that was a false premise” and changed things after the fact, that’s kinda an informed consent issue and I think he’s right to call it fucked up! And everything he says about how mentally taxing such a super-isolated lifestyle is honestly only repeats worries I myself had right from the moment the “stay in your hotel room alone” rule was announced — that the League may be underestimating the toll (especially with some of the long road trips this season) that forcing players to live in total isolation like that was going to have on individual wellbeing and team morale.

Robin’s comments this morning could have been put better, but as somebody who has ADHD and who knows about bipolar disorder, I know emotions for folks with brains like ours can run fast and intense and sometimes lead to not always planning out every word as precisely and you might later have liked to once that moment has passed. The fact that he apologized for the less tactful part of the comment and sought to clarify his words tells me he’s thought a lot about this and wasn’t happy with how he expressed his thoughts initially. Also, while his English is very good, you can sometimes forget it isn’t his first language, Swedish is — some thoughts don’t translate exactly as they sounded in your head. That said, also Robin Lehner one of the more outspoken NHL players about mental health issues in recent years, and he also doesn’t seem like the type of guy to mince his words or tiptoe around a point — I’m not surprised he’s the person expressing these concerns about mental health, and I’m not surprised he was a bit blunt about it either lol.

All in all, it sounds like the NHL did a poor job of managing expectations around what vaccine rollout would mean for the players and their families, and that they’re also up to their usual NHL schtick of prioritizing some platonic ideal of Competitive Parity (remember “the Vancouver Canucks will play a 56 game season”, anyone?) above all else, even when that is no longer realistic and/or comes at the expense of the short-term and long-term mental and physical wellbeing of the players. Classic NHL.

(also: the New York Post is a right-leaning sensationalist rag 90% of the time. take all spin it puts on things with a grain of salt)

[codenamesazanka]

I know this is a really vague thing to ask, but do you have any tips for writing Shigaraki? I know Echodrops made a whole meta about fanon Shigaraki vs canon Shigaraki but do you personally have anything in particular you'd want to mention yourself about the portrayal of Shigaraki in fanfics?

(Here’s the link to @echodrops‘s post! It’s really, really good, and helped me figure out Shigaraki a lot in the first place. thank you!)

oooh! Not at all a vague thing, this is a great question. I started all this meta because I wanted to figure out how to write Shigaraki as well. A word of caution tho, because this would be my personal interpretation of Shigaraki, though I’ll try to use as much manga examples as I can. As always, super long post. 

Note: images are edited to fit exact quotes to relevant and reasonable sized images, instead of a whole manga page

Here’s some hand man characteristics/traits that I think are overlooked:

Shigaraki Tomura, in his beliefs/values, has a tendency for all-or-nothing thinking, to be extreme in his actions. In all three of his incarnations - the oneshot Tenko, the draft Sazanka, and this current one - a core of the character is 1) finding something flawed/bad/had hurt him somehow 2) completely loathing it 3) vowing to destroy it. 

Tenko despised samurai and their warring, and wishes to rid the world of swords. Sazanka is on a quest to kill quirk-users with quirks he deems too dangerous for society. And Shigaraki has decided that the Heroes and justice system is a farce, and is out to destroy it. 

Kinda fitting for a guy with his quirk - he either doesn’t destroy something, or destroys it completely. The moment he makes his decision, it’s fast and permanent. 

For Shigaraki, murder is murder, destruction is destruction, violence is violence, no matter how you dress it up. That’s why he couldn’t see the difference between him and Stain. That’s why he can’t see that Bakugou, as aggressive and vicious as he is, still wants to be a good guy. 

Now this is my take, but I think his mindset is: Because All Might can’t save everyone, he’s a fake, he’s trash; because everyone will say they condemn murder yet go about their lives carefree even though they know logically someone is out there getting killed, morality and justice is an illusion; because justice is so fragile and flimsy, I will expose it and destroy it. 

Not in any goodwill or for a better society, mind you. He just hates it. 

He also has no illusions about himself or his actions, he knows he’s evil.

Shigaraki is a lot more sarcastic and sardonic than usually portrayed in fanon. He’s very rude and can be foul mouthed, but the real insult comes from his tone and behavior. He condescendingly calls Eraserhead cool. He calls Stain the ‘Great Senpai of scoundrels’. He points out to Overhaul how a wakagashira/underboss like him should be more polite. Just about half of everything he says is dripping with mockery, and he’s very breezy and irreverent. So a bit less ‘I hate you, fuck off’, and more cheek.

Adding to that, if I’m reading my Japanese right, Shigaraki can change how he addresses people depending on the person and situation. His default speech is rude, but he’ll talk somewhat (barely) politely-ish if needed; it’s just it’s very obvious he’s not taking it seriously. 

Related, I feel like Shigaraki says a lot of things he doesn’t really believe. He tries out concepts, half-heartedly, on a whim. There’s that infamous speech at USJ about Heroes and Villains both using violence - which does seem to have some semblance to the actual ‘two sides of the same coin’ that even Best Jeanist talks about. 

And here’s him considering Stain’s effects on heroes, with gusto, before ditching it.

I know it’s Smash!, but here’s him reciting some sort of pseudo education philosophy he picked up somewhere??? to Kurogiri to get out of exercise. 

He’s a total smartass 

Of course, this brings up the question, is he genuine in his speech to Bakugou, or to Toga and Twice? 

 Like Echodrop notes, he can be in a good mood. He can be (seem?) happy, he can smile, he will acknowledge when someone does a good job of something. 

Sure, it’s got a manic edge to it, it’s probably not coming from a place of good, fluffy, innocent feelings, but he can laugh, enjoy the moment, be psyched about something. 

I really like this scene because he actually giggles a bit. He squeezes Midoriya, and he really does seem excited for a chat. 

He’s quick to go back to being default cranky tho. Quick to enjoy, quick to get irked.  

Shigaraki is a weirdo and I love him.

 My boy is smart. Really, Shigaraki is smarter than he looks. In the Ultra Archive, his profile lists his intelligence as ‘A’, ranking him above most characters, including Midoriya. I get that Deku’s whole thing is being the strategizing main character, but Shigaraki’s just as analytical. Even the Smash! Comic points this out. 

His room is filled with books, so either he reads a lot or he hoards them to look smart. I think it’s the former. Well, it’s not mutually exclusive, I should know.

He thinks and reflects and questions. He was super pissed about Stain, but he realized Stain was right and tried to figure out why. He went on a walk to calm down and just ruminate. He sought out Midoriya just to get second opinion. Afterwards, he quickly sees the bigger picture and realizes the issue is systemic and he’s gotta attack the structure. Of course, kinda shaky on the specific details and it’s not endgame long term, but still impressive. 

There’s a lot of Villain!Deku fanfics - and I like them a lot! - that turns Deku into the criminal mastermind or makes him the brains behind Shigaraki’s operations. Which is fair, Deku could totally be one! And also a lot of fics where Shigaraki is dismissed, with everything he does being AFO’s machinations. Again, fair. But Canon Shigaraki is AFO’s successor and leads the League for a reason.

This also means, I think, that Shigaraki isn’t as clueless to the fact that All For One is manipulating him. This point is entirely debatable, though. All I have to back this is how Shigaraki wondered if he was lied to in the USJ.

Even tho he’s facepalm crusty boi neet, Shigaraki is still a very dangerous S-ranked villain. I feel like sometimes people forget this. 

 He’s not that childish. He can be immature, he’s still learning the ropes of being a supervillain, he’s got an irritable and sullen disposition, but he’s not a five-year-old. He’s also not completely unhinged. 

When things don’t go his way, his first response usually isn’t to shriek or whine or immediately snap. He’s got a clear head and a good sense of what he can and can’t do. Kurogiri is down, All Might escaped their grasp, but Nomu’s still active? Cool, we got this. It’s only when Nomu gets team-rocket-ed that he panics. Stain stabs him? Doesn’t start a fight right there and then, asks Master for some Nomu, is patient enough to wait until he decides he really can’t stand Stain, then finally gives the go ahead for a rampage. 

Shigaraki knew from the start he can’t handle All Might. That’s Nomu’s job. As much as he hates All Might, he doesn’t jump at the chance to kill the hero personally. He’s not ruled by impulse or easy distractions, not really. And he will back down if Kurogiri reasons with him - see accepting Stain as a party member, see letting Toga and Dabi live. And after he got his motivation, he’s been very restraint since. 

He doesn’t immediately destroy his things in anger - we only see him destroy only few items pre-mall talk. He decays binoculars, a photo of Deku, maybe a newspaper, all quiet and deliberate. Kurogiri’s bar is intact and clean, despite being the long-time hang out spot of the destructive Shigaraki Tomura. Would he decay a controller after losing a game? Maybe, but also just as likely maybe not. 

Shigaraki will complain and bitch and sulk and hold a grudge, tho, yeah. He will lose it after a series of stressors/things gone wrong. He can be moody, cruel and sadistic, bloodthirsty and mayhem-loving. But he’s got himself under control more often than not. 

Finally, video games: My biggest pet peeve about portrayal of Shigaraki in fanfics: He’s super obsessed with video games, to the point that he plays them all day long, and he can’t stop using video game slang for everything - or so a lot of the fandom believes. 

I’ve pointed out before that we’re more likely to see him reading the newspaper and we’ve never actually seen him use a console ever in manga or anime. True, he likens scenarios to games frequently, but not all the time - the USJ fight was when he did that the most, then in his other appearances only once or twice during the whole scene (Doesn’t want Stain as a ‘party member’, none at all when meeting Dabi or Toga and then at the mall, camp arc has him seeing himself playing a Sim instead of an RPG, calls All Might ‘last boss’ during the raid, then nothing for his next appearances). At least not out loud. As fun as it is to imagine him as a geeky gamer, and he is, but he does more than just that. 

I think Shigaraki uses video games and media to create mental scripts for himself to understand/interact with the world, but it serves as a skeleton. He fleshes it out, always adding to that mental model to create a more complex one. He calls his change of strategy as playing a Sim game, but it’s a good analogy that works for him, and we see how layered his plan is - dealing a blow to UA that works whether the Vanguard succeed or not, kidnapping Bakugou and Ragdoll, in order to bring about the media and public criticism of UA/heroes, and had it not been for the raid, something would’ve happen to Bakugou that would’ve demoralized everyone. 

He def is grounded in reality enough to know what he’s doing is more than just a game. 

And that’s all I got for now! There might be a part two. idk, but I hope this was helpful! 

[sebeth]

Crisis On Infinite Earths #1

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

  I loathe reboots. That said, Crisis on Infinite Earths is my all-time favorite “big event” comic book series. The art, the writing, the character moments, the long term-impact - no other “big event” from any company has come close to achieving the levels of success of Crisis.

I re-read this series annually.  And I continue to love it.  Each re-read seems to add more detail to the story.

Let’s dive into DC’s original Multiverse.

We begin with a recap of the creation of the Mutliverse: “In the beginning there was only one. A single black infinitude. But the light grew, and the infinitude shuddered and the darkness finally screamed, as much in pain as in relief. For in that instant, a Multiverse was born. A Multiverse of worlds vibrating and replicating…and a Multiverse that should have been one, became many.”

We switch to Pariah - possibly the most emo, pessimistic character in comics.

“How longer must I suffer for my sins…before I may be spared the witnessing of these horrors?”  - You were an extremely naughty boy if your punishment is to witness death and destruction over and over.

Earth-3, the home of the Crime Syndicate, is in its final death throes.  The Crime Syndicate, despite being villains, are doing their best to halt the destruction.  

Ultraman is fierce in these pages: “I’ve changed the course of mighty oceans, don’t tell me my super-strength can’t save my adopted planet.”

The above-quote proves that while Ultraman may be a villain, he is still a Superman.

Alexander Luthor, the sole super hero on this planet, is also attempting to save the planet.  Alexander witnesses the death of Superwoman. Luthor heads home to spend his final moments with Lois Lane.  

Lois: “Alexander, I think I can die peacefully, knowing I’m with you. But our son is so young. He’s been cheated of living and knowing love. Alex, must he perish too?”

Luthor and Lois send their infant son to Earth-1.   The Luthor baby’s ship is very similar in appearance to the rocket that transported baby Kal-El to earth.

“This is a prototype, large enough for only one. We will die, but our son shall live.”

Power Ring and Ultraman are the final remaining members of the Crime Syndicate. The duo realizes there is nothing left to do.  

Ultraman goes out like a boss: “What I have done all my life.  I fight to the very end!”

Once again proof that, at his core, Ultraman was a Superman.

Lois and Alexander share a final embrace: “Lois, our time together has been all too brief, but you’ve given me a love this old scientist never thought he’d know.”

“And you’ve given me more love than I had any right to expect. My husband. I love you!”

 Luthor’s son lands on the abandoned satellite headquarters of the Justice League.

The Monitor wants the Luthor child.  Good thing Alexander sent him to Earth-1 instead of letting him die on Earth-3.

The Monitor sends the Harbinger to assemble his team:  King Solovar of Earth-1′s Gorilla City, Dawnstar from the 30th century, Firebrand from 1940′s Earth 2, Blue Beetle from the Charlton Earth, Psycho-Pirate from present day Earth 2, Arion of Atlantis from 45,000 years ago, and Firestorm and Killer Frost from present day Earth 1.    

An few notes during the search:

The Harbinger duplicate searching for Arion is possessed by a shadowy figure.

Harbinger approaches Roger Hayden, the current Psycho-Pirate, in an asylum: Hayden urges Harbinger to “Find Halstead – the first Psycho-Pirate. He was better’n me. He knew how to handle all those emotions…Why don’t you just leave me alone? I don’t want to. You’ll give me those headaches all over again. You don’t know what it’s like, do you? The psycho-pirate affects emotions in others but those emotions hurt me. Please, go away…I’m not well.”

Harbinger slaps the Medusa Mask on Hayden and spirits him out of the institution.

All of Harbinger’s “recruitment” scenes were essentially abductions but the Psycho-Pirate’s is noteworthy because you have a mentally ill man being kidnapped over his protests.

One last note of the recruitment scenes – Firestorm and Killer Frost are enemies. The Psycho-Pirate uses his abilities to cause Killer Frost to fall in love with Firestorm so she will accompany the group: “You feel love now, Killer Frost, don’t you? Love for man, love for earth, and especially love for your enemy.”

Firestorm is uncomfortable with the situation. Me too.

We go to the Monitor’s headquarters where the above-mentioned figures are waiting.  Also in residence are Earth 1′s Geo-Force, Cyborg, Psimon, Doctor Polaris, Green Lantern (John Stewart) along with present day Earth-2′s Superman and Obsidian.  I’m assuming these guys were recruited during “Crisis” tie-in issues.

This is a very odd group. It’s easy to see why some were chosen - Arion, Superman, Green Lantern, and Firestorm are obvious for their power levels, Dawnstar is the best tracker in the DC Universe, and Obsidian’s abilities give him an edge against the Anti-Monitor’s shadow demons.  The others are not so obvious at first glance.  

Monitor ruminates to himself: “Already another Earth has perished and five heroes I needed are gone. Thus I’ve dispatched your replicants to seek out others as replacements.”

We’re never told the name of the Earth or of the five deceased heroes.  There is no editor’s footnote telling us to check out “issue #” so I don’t think it happened in a tie-in.  Crisis happened in the 1980’s and editors were all over footnotes urging you to buy “Issue # of Title X” to discover the full details of an event.

The five deceased heroes remain a mystery – who died and who were the replacements?

I’m fairly confident in stating Dawnstar was an original intended recipient – the depth and scope of her tracking abilities is unique in the DC universe. As for the others…who knows?

The heroes and villains await on the station.  Most are keeping to themselves with a few exceptions. Killer Frost is lovey-dovey with Firestorm much to his dismay. Geo-Force and Cyborg are standing next to each other.

Superman and Obsidian are conversing. Both heroes are from the same Earth. Firebrand is also from Earth 2 but originates in the World War II era: “I know Obsidian. The Squadron recently met him and his friends but Superman looks so old, hardly the Man of Steel I know so well. Well, I guess everybody ages.”

I love Obsidian staying close to Superman. Not only is Clark from Obsidian’s home planet, but Clark began his heroic career shortly before World War II and has worked for decades with Obsidian’s father, the original Green Lantern. It makes logical sense for Obsidian to be glued to Superman’s side.

Psimon attempts a truce with his “dear friends” Cyborg and Geo-Force. Cyborg tells him to shove it.

King Solivar keeps to himself: “The humans stare at me then turn away. My presence here is uncomforting to them. Unlike us apes, they have not yet learned to look beyond the form to the soul that lives inside.”

Solivar’s must be feeling insecure. Dawnstar is from the 31st century and John Stewart is a Green Lantern – diverse life forms are nothing new to them. Superman’s been around the block and seen many unusual life forms. Cyborg has a teammate that can turn into any alien form so I don’t see Victor being phased by a sentient ape.

Psimon warns of an impending attack – cue the shadow demons and a big fight at the Monitor’s base.  A few heroes have a bit of luck against the demons but are on the ropes until the Monitor releases an extremely intense light burst.  

Solivar saves Dawnstar and Dawny responds with “You’re an ape, but you can talk!”

This is the one bit that felt out of character.  Dawnstar wouldn’t be fazed by a talking ape. 31st Century people – she’s seen way more unusual things than a talking ape.

“And now, let me properly introduce myself.  I am…the Monitor.  And I have summoned you here because your universes are about to die!” - What a drama queen!

Final thoughts:

Nice set-up issue.  It achieved what would take 3 to 6 issues in modern times.

Gorgeous art by George Perez.

Pariah is annoying.

I loved that the Crime Syndicate (of all people) went out as heroes.

Harbinger was much more powerful in her debut.  Compare this to the Superman/Batman issue where she’s killed off-panel by a Doomsday clone.

Considering light is the Shadow Demon’s main weakness, I’m surprised the Monitor didn’t recruit the first Dr. Light.  Light is scum but that didn’t stop the Monitor from recruiting Psimon, Killer Frost, the Psycho-Pirate and Doctor Polaris.

I really miss pre-New 52 DC. Firebrand!  All-Star Squadron!  Obsidian!  Older Earth-2 Superman!\

Rest In Peace:

Earth-3

The Crime Syndicate

Alexander Luthor

Lois Lane Luthor

[junker-town]

Western Illinois, Year 36, 2042-2043

There’s only five seasons left in our College Hoops 2K8 sim, and we still need two national titles to tie John Wooden’s record.

Welcome back to our simulated dynasty with the Western Illinois Leathernecks in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this project + spoiler-free links to previous seasons here. Check out the introduction to this series from early April for full context. As a reminder, we simulate every game in this series and only control the recruiting and coaching strategies. Dynasty mode runs for 40 years.

Before we pick up with the Leathernecks at the start of Year 36, here’s a recap of everything that happened last season:

Coming off a devastating buzzer-breater loss in the Elite Eight to Florida State the year before, Western Illinois returned only two starters but had four seniors in the starting lineup. We held our own against a difficult non-conference schedule and went unbeaten in the Summit League again to earn our automatic bid to the NCAA tournament at 27-4 overall.

We earned a No. 8 seed to the NCAA tournament and beat NC State in the first round, Seton Hall in the round of 32, Nevada in the Sweet 16, and South Carolina in the Elite Eight, and then lost to Wisconsin in the Final Four.

We recruited for four scholarships and landed four players: No. 6 center Brody Munoz, four-star shooting guard Bernie Doyle, four-star small forward Floyd Keller, and three-star power forward Oscar Fray.

Here’s a first look at our roster for Year 36:

(As mentioned at the bottom of the Year 35 post, these ratings are from the start of our NCAA tournament run because it’s the only clean screenshot we have. The accurate beginning of the year ratings are listed below)

Our goal is to surpass John Wooden for the most championships in college basketball history before the series ends after Year 40. We have eight national championships to Wooden’s 10, and we only have five seasons left before the game forces us to hang it up.

If we win national title No. 9 this year, we’re going to have to do it without any seniors on the roster. On the flip side, our redshirt juniors who were once ranked as the No. 5 recruiting class in the country now fully enter the spotlight. We begin the year ranked as No. 23 in the preseason polls.

Let’s meet the starters:

PG Arvydas Hardy, 91 overall, redshirt junior: Hardy is the second highest-rated recruit in program history (No. 12 overall), and it’s time for him to become a star. The 6’4 point guard is a great three-point shooter (A- rating) and has A ratings in ball handling and passing. He’s capable of stockpiling a ton of points quickly when he gets hot, but his tournament run last year ended on a huge bummer: a 5-point performance on 2-of-10 shooting in our Final Four loss to Wisconsin. This man needs redemption. Projected lottery pick out of Mesa, AZ with C- potential.

SG Augustine Bruthelieus, 88 overall, redshirt sophomore: Bru earned big minutes off the bench for us on our tournament run last year, and now steps into the starting lineup as a well-rounded 6’5 guard. While he only has a mid-70s rating in three-point shooting, Bru is a physical defensive guard who can also handle and pass the ball well for a two. We’re already thinking about putting him at point and Hardy at the two during stretches in the NCAA tournament. Former No. 42 overall recruit out of San Diego with C+ potential.

SF Reece Mascoll, 91 overall, redshirt junior: I really feel like Mascoll has a chance to go down as an all-time great alongside Hardy. A massive 6’9, 250-pound wing, Mascoll is a pretty good three-point shooter (75 rating) who is a load to handle in the paint. He can seamlessly switch to the four and provide matchup issues at whatever position he’s playing: he’s too big for threes, and too quick for fours. He was a consistent double-digit scorer off the bench for us last season, and now we gets a chance to be a star. Former No. 40 overall recruit out of Riverside, CA with C potential. Projected lottery pick.

PF Al Reece, 86 overall, redshirt junior: We’re excited to have a gigantic 7’1, 266-pound power forward like Reece to help us fortify the paint on both ends. Reece is an aggressive offensive player who will let his jump shot fly even if he isn’t the most skilled shooter. Where Reece is really good is as a shot blocker, where his high-80s rating is the best on the team. We love that he can slide to the five in a pinch, and should tower over his matchup regardless of what position he’s playing. Former No. 138 overall recruit from Glendale, AZ with C- potential.

C Felipe Hopes, 89 overall, redshirt junior: Hopes had the highest potential rating (B+) of any member of his recruiting class, and feels like a lock to leave for the NBA draft after this season. We’re just hoping to get one great tournament run out of him. While he’s not too big at 6’11, Hopes is super quick, shows impressive aggression as an inside scorer, and can hit the glass and defend the paint at an above-average level. Former No. 139 overall recruit (No. 8 center) out of Federal Way, WA. Projected lottery pick.

Hopes, Hardy, and Mascoll all could leave for the NBA after this year. We really need to make this season count.

We’re going to have a nine-man rotation with four guys off the bench. Our sixth man will be redshirt sophomore shooting guard Jerald Elliott (86 overall), a quality three-point shooter at 6’6 who looks like he can play 1-3. We have three redshirt freshmen debuting in the rotation after him. Ketshner Evertsen is a 6’8 shooting guard who we’re sliding to the three. Cam Kately is a 6’6 point guard with developing shooting ability. We also have 7’2 center D.J. Foster out of Chicago who will be our lone big off the bench.

We are also welcoming four new freshmen to the team. All of them will redshirt. This is the last recruiting class in school history that will have the potential to stay all five years.

SG Bernie Doyle, No. 36 overall prospect: 76 overall, C potential. Has already grown an inch to 6’8. I’m thrilled to see he already has a 78 rating in three-point shooting.

SF Floyd Keller, No. 101 overall recruit: 76 overall, C+ potential. 80 rating in three-point shooting.

C Brody Munoz, No. 169 overall recruit: 74 overall, B potential. Has already grown an inch to 6’11.

PF Oscar Fray, No. 118 overall recruit: 74 overall, C potential.

With no seniors, we have no scholarships to recruit for this year. This is going to be a quick regular season. Let’s hope it gives way to a long tournament run.

How did the non-conference slate go?

We started the season 8-0 and climbed as high as No. 11 in the polls. Our season-opening streak included wins vs. Michigan, Valparaiso, South Florida, Stanford, and Texas A&M. Then we ran into No. 25 Indiana and lost a heartbreaker, 67-66.

Our next game was against an 10-1 Colorado State team, and damn, we lost that one, too:

Then we had No. 8 Wisconsin, the team that smoked us in the Final Four last year. We won, 87-83, behind 19 points and 10 rebounds from Hopes, 17 points from Reece, and 15 points from Mascoll. Big dub, and suddenly this team is starting to feel special.

We beat Illinois by one the next game behind 19 points from Mascoll, and the 13 and 10 from big Al Reece. We beat Cal next behind 24 points and 12 rebounds from Felipe Hopes. We’re 11-1 as we enter the Summit League play, let’s go!

Can we go undefeated in the Summit League once again?

Uh, what the hell?

After running up a 19-2 record, we faced an 11-9 UMKC team that handed us our first defeat in conference season in what feels like 10 years (someone can check the records for me if they want and drop the exact number in the comments). I honestly can’t believe that happened.

Surely, it can’t happen again, right?

Oh my god. Oral Roberts entered at 5-20 overall, and upset us 62-57. Only Hopes and Foster scored in double-figures, and both only had 10 points. I am stunned. Are we going to lose in the Summit League tournament?

Thankfully not. Despite a close game in the final against UMKC again, we won and punched our automatic bid to the big dance. We’ll be entering the tournament at 28-4 on the year.

Before we sim to the tournament, let’s check out our end of season stats:

Hopes was as good as we hoped: 15.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, and more than an assist, block, and steal per game. Mascoll was excellent too, averaging 14.2 points per game and hopefully setting the stage for a big tournament run. Reece was also awesome with averages of 13.8 points and 6.5 boards per game. Hardy was a little underwhelming, but maybe that will work out in our favor: he’s dropped from a projected lottery pick to a projected first rounder. Mascoll has suffered the same fall, while Hopes remains a lottery pick.

It feels like this is the final run for Hopes, but Mascoll and Hardy could go either way in terms of returning for their senior seasons or turning pro. This isn’t the time to think about next year, though. Let’s go win a damn ship.

2043 NCAA tournament

We’re a No. 7 seed in the NCAA tournament, and draw a matchup against No. 10 seed Colorado State. Yes, the same Colorado State team that beat us in the regular season.

We enter the tournament rated as a 98 overall, while the Rams are a 90 overall.

Before we get to the tournament rematch, let’s take a look at our roster:

While our starters didn’t improve a ton during the season, our bench did. I’m feeling pretty good about the prospect of getting Ketshner Evertsen and Foster and Kately some minutes. Elliott is practically our sixth starter as a 90 overall.

Ultimately, this run feels like it’s going to come down to the four juniors — and especially Hardy and Mascoll. Can they take the next step and become all-time greats within the program like former legends Wilky Henry, Nic Cummings, and Billy Assell? I think they have the talent to do it.

We need revenge on Colorado State to start off this run. Not gonna lie, I’m a little nervous.

As always, we’re watching a simulated game between the computer. I’m not controlling the Leathernecks. Let’s go!

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Win, 92-80! We’re going to the round of 32.

Man, that was not as easy as I would have liked for a first round game. Colorado State was leading most of the first half, but we entered the break with a three-point lead after Ketshner Evertsen beat the halftime buzzer.

Shner was the breakout player of this game, and legitimately looked like a future star in his first NCAA tournament game. He finished with a team-high 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting. A 6’8 natural shooting guard who we’ve moved to the wing, Shner has the size and shooting to be a big time weapon for us. Can’t wait to see what he does next.

Bruthelieus (16 points despite 1-of-5 three-point shooting) and Mascoll (15 points on 5-of-15 shooting) didn’t have their best shooting nights but still contributed to the win with timely scoring. All three of our bigs — juniors Al Reece and Felipe Hopes and freshman D.J. Foster — looked huge and great and each finished with 10 points.

Hardy was not good — six points on 1-of-7 shooting — but did finish with 10 assists. I really expected him to be a takeover scorer, but I’d be okay with him turning into a passing savant, too. Just need a few shots to fall next time.

The win sets up a round of 32 matchup with No. 2 seed UNLV

UNLV enters at 28-4 and rated as a 96 overall. We’re 29-4 and enter at 98 overall.

This looks like it’s going to be a super tough game. The Runnin’ Rebels are a legit No. 2 seed with great senior guards and some big wings on the roster. We’re really going to need our front court to show them who’s boss.

Sweet 16 on the line. I need a dub. Let’s go!

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Win, 90-88! We are back in the Sweet 16.

Wow, that one was close. UNLV dominated early by forcing us into nine turnovers in the first half. We went with our own full court press in the second half to wrestle away the lead, but it was still a one-point game with under two minutes left. Hardy shook free for a layup late to put us up three, and from there Hardy and Bru knocked down enough free throws to ice the win. I was straight sweating in those final minutes. Thank gosh we were clutch from the line, going 21-of-23 on the night.

I thought Hopes absolutely kicked ass, finishing with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and four steals. An absolutely tenacious performance on both ends of the floor — that’s why that man is a lottery pick. Bru was solid again with 18 points and four assists. Hardy finished with 16 points and four assists and did a nice job taking care of the ball late after some early turnover troubles.

Mascoll only had 11 points, but he had some big plays. First, this three-point at the halftime buzzer gave us the momentum we needed going into the break:

While he didn’t have his best shooting night, Mascoll has always been at his best rumbling his way to the basket. The jumbo forward also had our best dunk of the night:

Foster gave us really good minutes off the bench, too. As for Shner, he led us in scoring in the first half with eight points and then didn’t score again. Is it possible to hit the rookie wall in the second round of the NCAA tournament?

The win sets up a Sweet 16 matchup with No. 3 seed NC State

Our run to the Final Four last season started with a first round victory over the Wolf Pack. I’m sure they want nothing more than to knock us out this year.

NC State enters at 27-6 overall and rated as a 94. We’re 30-4 and rated as a 98.

We need a win here to continue to hunt for national title No. 9. Let’s go!

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***

***

Loss, 107-104. A shocking and completely heartbreaking defeat to end our season early.

NC State controlled the game in the first half as Hardy (two fouls) and Bru (three fouls) both had to be pulled for long stretches because of foul trouble. We eventually took the lead and fought to keep it over the final 111 minutes.

With 2:30 left, the ball found Hardy for a quick catch-and-shoot three, and he drained it to put us up five. It was his sixth three-pointer of the game and gave him 20 points on the night. This is the type of performance we’ve been waiting for since he entered the program:

Unfortunately, we didn’t score after that the rest of the night.

We just couldn’t buy a bucket down the stretch, with Mascoll and Hardy both missing wide open shots that likely would have given us the win down the stretch. We did have one more chance with under four seconds left on the clock, but Shner’s three fell just short.

I honestly can’t believe we lost that game. We don’t choke down the stretch like that often, but maybe that’s what happens when you have a team without any seniors.

Every tournament loss hurts at this part of the dynasty, and this one feels like it’s going to eat away at us. The one thing that’s keeping me going right now is that we should have a great team next year, depending Hardy and Mascoll’s draft decisions. We may have found a future star in the 6’8 redshirt freshmen Everstsen, who went off for 22 points on 6-of-12 shooting from three in defeat. It was an incredible performance and has me so excited for his future:

Foster is going to be a great replacement for Hopes as a 7’2 center. I think big Al Reece should be in for a productive senior year, too.

This loss stings horribly, but I know we will be back.

Offseason

Florida wins the national title

HARDY AND MASCOLL ARE BACK! We lose Felipe Hopes to the NBA draft, but everyone else is returning. We’re going to be absolutely loaded next year.

My career record now sits at 1,042-199

We have no scholarships to recruit for, so this is going to be a quick offseason. Let’s set our schedule for next year:

Creighton, NIT Season Tip-Off, Illinois State, Hofstra, @ UConn, Bradley, @ NC State, @ Kentucky, DePaul, Golden Bear Classic

Year 37

Here’s a first look at the roster for Year 37:

We start the year at No. 3 in the preseason polls.

This should be one of the deepest and most talented teams we’ve ever had. Let’s go win No. 9.

We’re going to be streaming the NCAA tournament in Year 37 on Sunday, April 25 at 8 p.m. ET on my Twitch channel.

Watch Western Illinois’ Year 37 tournament run

What: Western Illinois’ Year 37 NCAA tournament run

When: Sunday, April 18 at 8 p.m. ET.

Where: My Twitch stream

For email updates on this series, subscribe here.

[sierraraj]

PROJECT 2: DISCOVERY

I chose Jenny Han’s famous “to all the boys I've loved before” as our redesign of a dust jacket book. 

What is missing from the samples?

The covers are missing the very element of the term “love.” Like when you look at the book cover you just see the main character — Lara Jean but you don’t see the main love interest — Peter Kavinsky despite the title saying “P.S. I Still Love You” , it doesn’t demonstrate who her love is directed to, on the cover. 

Keywords to recall storyline:

Trust 

Innocence 

True Love 

Tough Choices 

Heartbreak 

Lies / Truth 

Characters in the story:

Lara Jean

Half Korean and half American high schooler, Lara Jean is someone who you might consider as an invisible person, at her hight school. One thing to know and remember about her is that she likes writing love letters when she has a crush, but has always kept it a secret. Thats what the first part of the series was all about until her letters got sent out by her little sister and about 4 guys got the letter and her life (in her head) was over. P.S. I Still Love You is second part of series where she gets with her high school crush and her school’s heartthrob, Peter Kavinsky. Since Peter is the type who’s way out of her league she develops trust issues with him when he starts to become friendly with Lara’s ex-best friend who also happens to be his ex-girlfriend and from there their trust and love gets put to the test.

Peter Kavinsky 

High school heat throb, jock, party, every girl’s dream boy basically. While being the school’s most handsome and popular guy Peter was sweet, considerate, and passionate. However at the beginning he used Lara Jean to get back his ex-girlfriend, Jen. While they were both okay with this, on a school trip they both end up falling for each other without knowing it. Well she did but he didn’t. Peter is someone who did make a lot of mistakes but always felt remorse and sorry about his actions which made the audience fall for him even more. He wasn’t a jerk but he could be at times, unintentionally.

Josh

Lara Jean’s sister’s boyfriend (in the first book) was one of Lara jean’s former loves or another of one of Lara Jean’s love letter recipients. Josh was one of the guys who were innocent, smart, loyal, kind-hearted and compassionate. However, being Margot’s (Lara Jean’s older sister) boyfriend it was hard for both Lara Jean and Josh. This was because when the letters got sent out, he got is and had no idea what to do but to confront Lara Jean. This caused a lot of tension for everyone. But Josh stayed the sweet guy he is and let her decided whether she wanted to be with Peter or him.

Lucas

Another one of Lara Jean’s lovers who later on came out as gay and told Lara Jean all about it. Lucas is someone who’s just adorable, sweet, intelligent (nerdy)and a loyal friend. It was when Lara Jean had encountered Lucas’s letter had been sent out to him and he came up and told her that she realized all of them were out! 

Jhon Ambrose McClaren

He wasn’t much of an important character at first , however he became important in the second part of the series. Being Lara Jean’s second most important and hardcore crush John was a very talented, kind hearted, generous, sweet, loyal, and simplistic individual. Lara Jean felt more relatable with him as with Peter she was exposed to more extroverted activities like partying and socializing. However, with John, while volunteering at an old age home, she became closer to him as they had a lot more intimate moments with one another as he liked the same things as her like reading, enjoying the simple things, planning, organizing and all those things. He always handled himself maturely with utmost grace and patience

My main focus is the second book, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before P.S. I Still Love You. 

Moments before, during or after climax : 

Before the climax

Lara Jean Covey’s high school sets up a volunteer program; while her now boyfriend, Peter Kavinsky, goes to volunteer with his friends she decides to go to Belleview Retirement Home instead. And that’s when she meets the books second love interest John Ambrose McClaren

During the climax

She starts reminiscing with John all the good times they had together as kids. She starts getting close with him while Peter is hanging around with Jen, his ex. As she starts having family issues similar to his and needs a shoulder to cry on. While Peter deals with that Lara Jean has no clue and starts to doubt him and their relationship. She gets jealous and starts to think he’s lying to her 

Lara Jean gets to know John Ambrose had feelings for her since the beginning but never had it in him to tell her. He confesses his love to her but even though she feels the same she doesn’t believe that he’s the one for her

After the climax

Towards the end where John confesses his love to Lara Jean but she realizes he isn’t the one for her, they’re at a dance that’s being held at the retirement home. She leaves him out snow and goes to drive to Peter’s place but she finds herself at the entrance of Bellview where Peter is waiting for her and then walks up to her and confesses that she is the love of his life and tells her that he remembers that she hates driving in snow. The get back with each other and now know that no matter the struggle they will get through it, together.

The vernacular at the time of the story: what was popular in the culture at the time (signs, typography, trends..)

The book demonstrates that this was taken in a very modern time, 21 century to be exact. It’s a modern day, cliche, high school romcom, kinda love story. 

At the time being cool, athletic, pretty, rich and all that was the popular thing. Kids who were from middle class families, not “pretty enough” and popular were picked on and bullied by what we call nowadays “the plastics” or the mean girls. 

The typography used for the the film and the book’s poster is Have Heart. It is a brush scrip with two hand-made fonts and some washes. 

Unrelated Book Covers

the above images are my inspirations for the dust jacket for my book! The first group of images attracted me as they’re straightforward, make good use of beautiful, natural typography that are structured and have a sense of hierarchy promoting legibility and readability. The use of silhouettes and feel of hand drawn sketches is what mainly attracted me  to them. These and and the last to images of book covers really inspired me. 

Since my book is basically a teenage romance novel I would like to include 3 of the main characters, Lara Jean, John Ambrose McClaren and Peter Kavinsky, on my dust jacket in any way possible. On Jenny Han’s cover its mostly Lara Jean whose portrayed on all 3 covers of the series. I would like to change it up and include all of them in ways like whether its a creative artsy sketch or in the forms of silhouette with the use of a red and white colour scheme. 

THESE ARE MY SKETCHES 

[fmlfpl]

Lineup Lamentations - GW5

Our Transfers, Captains, and Starting 11s for the week!

—

WALSH ON WILDCARD

TRANSFERS:

OUT: wildcard

IN: wildcard

Sucks to not have a fun WC pod...but couldn't let that get in the way of keeping my diabolical team for this gameweek.

Waking up on Friday and seeing the news around town the writing was on the wall. A couple hours later and the team sort of picked itself. Obviously this weekend has a high likelihood of being a complete mess after the IB and so I tried to choose players with the medium/long term in mind.

GK:

Ryan (cry)

Sticking with Ryan here and trying to do that thing where I just keep the GK instead of fuck off after being bad to chase points from someone who is "better" only to see Ryan start to bank points.

Not keen on shooting myself in the foot here, and although Brighton aren't set up to defend and park...what team with a 4.5 gk does?

DEF:

Lamptea (cry)

Cheap defense incoming.

Doubling up on defense against my team...vomit. Surely this won't come off, but the small boy attacks a lot as long as he figures out how to stay fit is a decent shout for attacking points in any game he starts. Whether he is still standing past 60...another question entirely. Feels like good value, though, and a solid attacking defender so glad to be in on the party if not a little late to it after he's risen twice.

Dallas (WOL)

Not the biggest feels for cleans from Leeds basically ever but he's another good attacking fullback kinda quasi OOP guy with good underlying stats so we'll give him a shot. Don't really know shit about anything with who has a good defense yet so trying to just spread it around and see what sticks. Rotate them and play fixtures. At least he's fun and it'll be more fun to own a Leeds player from now on watching their games. Ayling was in consideration but Dallas seems a bit better stats and shit so just going with that.

Konsa (lei)

Great fixture, amazing actual unreal fixture so clean prob good here. I was looking at Targett but I hate him and he doesn't attack so Konsa seemed a better shout from pod partner when we were discussing it. Having a share of Villa defense seems good as they look good and he's pretty dangerous on set pieces. Another cheap rotational cog who will go in and out of the xi.

MID:

Pulisic (SOU)

Biggest punt in the xi the American is back in. Playing around and talking to pod partner solidified just as a pick that could be a big gainer for me on WC here. We know what he does and now that he is allegedly fit he should go back to shitting points as per. Direct and always in dangerous positions with ridiculous stats he performs like a double digit player not like an 8.3m one. Hoping he can be good in spite of Franklin. Seems like a good fixture for him getting to attack Soton's left side....let's go.

Salah & Mane (eve)

Mo remains and is joined by friend Mane. Pretty straightforward here - Mane looked really good every game so far and Mo is Mo. In a season with many questions and few answers, this is a dead cert. Great players on the best team. Dunno what in hell will happen against Everton but this isn't a short term play.

Son (WHU)

Not completely over the moon in love with this pick but it is.....obvious. Son always performs in FPL no matter who the manager is or what the situation of life is. When he's fit, he gets points. Obviously he's not gonna score 4 and hit triple returns often, but he's just a great player. Being utilized sorta kinda OOP to boot, adding Bale soon will only make them better. At 9m he seems a safe pair of hands.

Sterling (ARS)

Notice a theme here? 5 known quantities and huge dongers in midfield. I know I'm missing out on some value picks in the 6-7m range, but I feel fine with that. City are a bit upside down world at the moment but Raz is still Raz. Can hat on any given week, just like the other four midfielders in my team currently. I still back Pep to get them right and Raz can score goals even when they're wrong. A steady great guy who I know what I'll get.

FWD:

Calvert-Lewin (LIV)

DCL stays. Obvious monster, great guy. Tough fixture but whatevs. Everton going well and fortunate to have only one game per week with Europe starting up this week. Should keep being good.

Brewster (FUL)

There's certainly a chance he doesn't start but I'll run that risk. As you all know I'm big on Brewster as a starter and structured my WC team as such. If he falls on his face after a month or so I'll just double swap him out with one of my mids for a couple of new friends. If not and he looks like he'll tick, then I can keep my massive huge midfield and it'll be so great and fun.

BENCH:

Steele, Walker-Peters, Fredericks, Davis

KWP and Fredericks make up the rest of my defensive five rotation.

KWP is kinda playing wing and Fredericks was looking good with good attacking stats and such. West Ham look good so having a piece there seems good for the long term...and I'm a little bit sorta kinda nervous about Masuaku long term keeping his place.

Soton are a good team, and so just feels fine-ish to get him. I was looking at Ward...but fuck me Joel Ward like. If I had a better idea who was starting CB for us I probably would've gone there as KWP is by far my least favorite of the five I am on but I can see that he's a reasonable FPL pick and good rotational piece.

I should be able to find 3 from these 5 each week without too much of an issue, so we'll see how it goes. I honestly can't remember the last time I did this....maybe 3 or 4 years ago. Throwback to the old days of 5x4.5 defense here we go.

Davis is just a ded guy out there at 4.4m last on the bench. Not too big of a deal to carry a blank player to me and he is low key the only other fit striker on the Villa books so if something happens to Watkins...you never know.

CAP:

Pulisic (SOU)

Time to punt.

Pod partner gave me the courage and in a week where there is no standout that I like why not punt and have fun? I've got myself covered with the other guys, mostly, anyways so we'll see how it goes. Hopefully he starts :D

—

ALON

TRANSFERS:

OUT: De Bruyne

IN: Grealish

Short term plan is turning Kev, Foden, and VVD to Jack (done), Mo, and another semi-premium defender I feel confident holding long term maybe Semedo or something like that.

I was thinking of prepping for a Werner to Kun move but I don’t see that as being just one week away so I might have time there before jumping on Kun.

I really wanted to have 2 FT next week after this clusterfuck week followed by UCL so here I am... Jack has a fantastic fixture Leicester are really a fucked up mess with all their injuries and Jack / Villa are flying. His move to LW and the upgrades throughout the team really has me buzzing for him as a FPL asset. Following it.

GK:

Martinez (lei)

Great fixture. Leicester are an aforementioned fucking disaster right now and very injured and Villa are looking great. Very cleanable come on you Villains.

DEF:

Lamptey (cry)

Good clean fixture but the young boy is still knocked and I’m worried about his health. Come on Tariq really need to trust you going forwards.

van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold (eve)

Not expecting a clean here but also could be a grindy 0-0. Ancelotti has done well vs. the reds last couple years so I don’t feel great about it but also still VVD and Trent are the best so... ya know... not all bad.

MID:

Sterling and Foden (ARS)

Kev out in theory makes Foden more likely to start? I can hope at least...

Raz is great I’m not worried about him, and while Arsenal are doing better defensively it’s still a big ask to shut this City side down. Though no Kev and no #9 is troublesome for City.

Grealish (lei)

My thoughts are above in the transfer section but yeah Jack is putting up humongous superstar numbers and looking it too up there at LW. Keep it up Jack. Could be a guy I keep all season.

Rodriguez (LIV)

Obviously really tough matchup but Hamez is just unbelievable so you set and forget him. Also a lot better to be at Goodison instead of Anfield so I could see Everton getting something and if they do then that usually goes through Hamez.

FWD:

Calvert-Lewin (LIV)

DCL is great doesn’t really require words at this point.

Wood (wba)

Wood to Brewster was definitely in my thoughts this week but I think you cannot ever transfer out an attacker playing against West Brom or Fulham this season that’s just pure blasphemy.

Werner (SOU)

Two weeks of not following shit definitely made me feel better about owning Timo then before. Chelsea are getting their superstar wingers back soon and they’ll be way too much firepower for most teams in the league to handle. On paper this should be a great fixture for pace in behind Southampton’s really shitty defenders and high line. Come on Timo.

CAP:

Werner (SOU)

Cap gave me a headache this week and it came down to a coinflip between Jack and Timo.

I honestly think Jack is probably a little more likely to get any return like an assist or even a clean point+assist type of little ding dong but I think Timo is more likely to haul points in what could be a very back and forth high scoring match.

Brace+ type of haul is what I’m gunning for with my cap soooo yeah here we go. Sorry to the guy who asked on Friday My Life about capping Timo... Here I am.

[yahoo-roto-arcade-blog]

Closing Time: What's a Mike Trout owner to do?

Closing Time is not designed to be an injury-focused blog, but we go where the stories go. And when the best baseball player in the world gets injured, it’s a forced lede for us. Mike Trout owners, we feel your pain.

As you likely saw over the weekend, Trout jammed his thumb on a head-first slide Sunday at Miami. Monday, the other shoe dropped — he has a torn ulnar collateral ligament, needs surgery, and will be out 6-8 weeks.

[Fantasy Football is open! Sign up now]

Even in an injury-ravaged season like 2017, fantasy owners have every reason to feel blindsided. Durability has been a key part of Trout’s game through the years. He’s averaged 158 games a year over the last four seasons, never needed a DL stint before now. Trout’s built like a tank, well-equipped to handle the wear-and-tear of the grind. Sunday’s injury tells you more about the foolishness of head-first sliding than anything else.

Trout was the consensus No. 1 pick in the Yahoo game this year, and to this point he’s still graded as the No. 1 stat-grabber: .337-36-16-36-10. That’s something that rarely ever happens. When you make that first pick, you’re merely hoping for a great season, a cornerstone — expecting the player to actually outscore everyone else is an unrealistic ask.

So what’s a Trout owner to do? Play the position. Evaluate your team, your short-term and long-term goals. Calibrate the league context. In other words, do the things we already do on a daily fantasy basis.

The first matter of business is picking up an outfielder. Obviously you’re not going to find some magical replacement, but depending on your league size, maybe you can get some of those numbers back. Here’s a shopping list:

— Very Shallow Leagues: Dexter Fowler (55 percent) is back at the top of what still could be a fun St. Louis lineup . . . Aaron Hicks (54 percent) has category juice, a discerning eye, a prospect pedigree, and is needed to play while Jacoby Ellsbury heals . . . Brandon Drury (45 percent) can help in four categories, enjoys a deep lineup and fun park, covers three positions . . . Hernan Perez (43 percent) hasn’t run like last year, but he plays most of the time and covers four spots . . . The Dodgers are using Chris Taylor (41 percent) more often than not, and he’s off to a tidy .312-20-6-19-1 start . . . Josh Bell (40 percent) took a step back in May, but his power and patience still have me intrigued.

— In Medium Leagues: Any piece of the Houston offense looks fun to me, including Carlos Beltran (39 percent) . . . Melky Cabrera (36 percent) has started to hit; he posted a .268-17-5-23 line in May . . . Cameron Maybin (35 percent) is running wild, though he’ll miss Trout’s presence in the lineup . . . Hunter Renfroe (29 percent) quietly posted an .895 OPS in May, and he’s hit five home runs in each of the first two months . . . We promoted Jayson Werth (29 percent) in the Yahoo collaborative every week, and yet he goes largely unclaimed. Deep lineup, variety of skills . . . Max Kepler (28 percent) can be especially fun if you just take the platoon-advantage work: .282/.371/.500, five homers, three steals.

— In Deeper Leagues: Kevin Kiermaier (18 percent) has started to hit, and stole five bases in May . . . Tommy Pham (seven percent) has forced his way into the Cardinals lineup, with a nice run of 69 at-bats (.333-13-5-14-4). Randal Grichuk isn’t in the way for now, sent to Triple-A . . . Reflectively we want to run from the Royals offense, but note Whit Merrifield (five percent) perked up in May (.308-14-5-10-4) . . . Matt Adams (nine percent) is the Braves first baseman while Freddie Freeman rehabs. The Atlanta park looks like a favorable place to hit . . . Michael Taylor (four percent) worries us with contact issues, but so far so good (.274 average, some category juice).

No, there’s not a blossoming superstar in the mix. That’s not how these things work. You lose a Trout, you’ve going to feel it. At least take solace in the fact that your opponents are getting ripped by injuries, too.

Trout owners could also consider trading him, liquidating the asset. Sometimes this move is dismissed out of hand by fantasy pundits, which makes zero sense to me. Trout has name-brand recognition and a track record that sells itself. Shouldn’t you at least calibrate how your opponents feel about his comeback? Maybe someone in your league will carry more optimism than you will.

[Why do we call Lance McCuller’s a sell-high? Listen in]

Keep in mind, the Angels are a team miles away from contention. The club wants Trout to return quickly and all that, but it’s not like the urgency of a playoff race is driving the timetable. Trout still has his entire career to think about. And maybe it will take some time for him to get back up to full throttle.

Obviously this isn’t a “sell at any cost” recommendation. Just do what any reasonable and measured person does in these types of spots, consider every alternative. If I owned Trout anywhere — and because I didn’t do well in the draft lottery, I do not — I’d let my league mates know he was available. Heck, my entire roster is in play at any time, because having untouchables doesn’t make sense. You never know what type of heavy overpayment someone might be willing to assemble.

• I don’t know what Alex Avila is having for breakfast these days, but pour me a bowl of it, too.

You might remember Avila’s salad days — he was a star back in 2011, posting a .295-19-82 line. His game fell apart over the next few years, and he was backup for Detroit and Chicago in 2015 and 2016.

No idea where it came from, but every Alex Avila at-bat is a work of art. He’s a craftsman. Spitting on borderline pitches, using park.

— scott pianowski (@scott_pianowski) May 22, 2017

Avila returned to Detroit this year — swapping his old 13 for a new 31 — and initially he was just a backup catcher and infield fill-in. A familiar city to start his 30-something seasons. Alas, a hot start and some Tigers injuries elsewhere have pushed Avila into more playing time than expected, with juicy results: .323/.447/.591, six homers, 21 walks in 93 at-bats.

Avila’s batting eye isn’t a new thing — as Dave Cameron of Fangraphs pointed out, Avila’s plate discipline has been outstanding for several years. Avila’s ridiculous .453 BABIP sticks out, though he’s driving those results to some extent (28.8 percent line-drive rate and 57.4 percent hard-hit rate, both well above league average).

James McCann, Detroit’s regular starting catcher, is currently on the DL. It’s a hand-laceration injury, not something that should need an extended recovery. Nonetheless, Avila has turned into an auto-play for two-catcher formats, and I’m even rolling him out in a few leagues that require a single backstop. The at-bats have been that pretty, and the position has been a fantasy wasteland. Let’s take production where we see it, and when we can get it.

• If Trout was the injury of Monday, Hunter Strickland was the insult. San Francisco’s combustible reliever decided to throw a heater at Bryce Harper’s midsection, an obvious retaliation for a couple of moon-shot homers Harper cranked off Strickland in previous playoff meetings.

A gloriously-absurd brawl ensued.  Harper, for some reason, sucks at throwing his helmet. How come Buster Posey didn’t enter the mix? (Makes you wonder how Posey and Strickland get along these days.)

In honor of Bryce Harper’s helmet toss. 5 worst throws near mound pic.twitter.com/Ak7w1qz9jO

— Batting Stance Guy (@BattingStanceG) May 29, 2017

Harper is obviously headed for a suspension, it’s just a matter of when it falls, how many days it is, and how Harper decides to approach it. Strickland will be suspended too, not that fantasy owners need an answer for that.

[dreams-of-atlantis]

@mageknight14​ This way we don’t inundate OP with tags about a conversation they aren’t apart of.

Read more’d for the rest of my followers convenience bc this is going to get long

I’m going  to go point by point, bc I don’t disagree with everything you said.

Well, for the Penny thing, to be fair, no one really knew her all the well besides Ruby, plus Jaune actually brings up Penny, acknowledging that Ruby has lost her and Pyrrha as well. Also, in Volume 3, when Penny died, we see the other members of Team RWBY reacting to her death.

First, yes V3 a very good job of showing everyone’s shock at Penny’s death. I won’t argue that because that was very well done.

But for Jaune to only bring up Penny and Pyrrha as they relate to anyone besides him once is not very good or accurate for showing how young minds react to death, trauma, and crisis. Granted, I’m no child psychology expert, bt I’ve been through enough when I was a teenager to know at least how I reacted and it was months before I could stop bringing it up and how it hurt everyone around me. Brutal stuff, man.

There’s also the fact that Ruby spends almost all the time talking about Pyrrha comforting Jaune. Which, yes, it makes a little bit of sense because Jaune would naturally be closer to her as a result of their partnership and being on the same team and all. But something you have to remember is that Jaune didn’t watch Pyrrha die.

Ruby did. And everyone there knows it.

Also the fact that neither Nora nor Ren even seem to be mourning the loss of their teammate strikes me as a bit odd. Ren’s issues get addressed as him just being anxious and upset because they were near his family home, not because he just watched yet another home get destroyed by Grimm or because he lost a friend. Nora didn’t seem to react to anything at all, except Ren which, again, isn’t exactly what I would expect.

Especially given the circumstances we see her in during the flashback. It would make a certain amount of sense that she would also be obviously on edge if she knew they were nearing her childhood home, but the only thing she does is reach out to comfort Ren. She doesn’t seem like she’s reaching out because she herself is scared of what could be there. She seems like she’s reaching out because she’s afraid of what Ren will do. Which makes sense, yes. But why isn’t she showing any signs of her own struggle?

Plus, in Volume 3, Ruby and Jaune actually help Pyrrha with her guilt over Penny, saying that it wasn’t her fault and that it was Cinder who caused it. Ren and Nora were also there to hear it as well.

Yes, but that was in Volume three. I was specifically referring to Volume four. Jaune handled things very well in the final episodes of Volume three, I will never deny that. Something to keep in mind; however, was how fast everything was happening in Volume three. Pyrrha’s introduction to the Maidens couldn’t have been more than a few days before the finale.

Jaune was more worried about keeping his team alive than dealing with the trauma that had just occurred, and so he told Pyrrha what he needed to in order to get her up and get her moving again. He did very well in that aspect and I will always applaud him for it.

But in Volume four a lot more time has passed. He can more calmly look at what happened and figure out how he feels. Keep in mind that he has no idea that Emerald was making Pyrrha see things. He has no idea that there are strings on Penny’s swords. He has no idea that it really wasn’t her fault. And more importantly:

Neither does Ruby.

All they saw was Pyrrha use her semblance and--to their eyes--literally rip Penny apart. That seems like it would be difficult to reconcile. Yes, they know Pyrrha isn’t the kind of person to kill people like that. But they also saw it happen with their own two eyes.

Just like what happened with Yang during her fight with Mercury. Nobody knows what Yang really saw, they just know what they saw her do. And it can be very difficult to reconcile the fact that someone killed someone else, even when you know that the killer normally wouldn’t be like that.

The fact of the matter was that she is. And we don’t see Jaune, Nora, Ren, or even Ruby struggling to come to terms with that.

Also, Jaune actually wanted the team to stick together when Nora suggested for them to split up, only to let them go when Nora insists for her and Ren to press on.

Yes. Yes he did. A++ on that one. Jaune instantly realized that in order to stay alive, they needed to stick together. And Jaune has never been the kind of guy to leave someone behind when there is a possibility of saving them.

Honestly my problem with that particular sequence of events doesn’t lie with Jaune. It lies with Ren. Ask me, and I’ll go into a dissertation as to why.

Also, in Volume 4, Team RNJR were WAY out of Tyrian’s league. Nothing they did can hurt him or possibly stop him and if it weren’t for Qrow coming in to save them, they wouldn’t have survived. I see that more as Jaune lamenting how he’s couldn’t help out his friend yet again.

Here again you make a very valid point. It was obvious from the get-go that there was no way RNJR was going to be able to take Tyrian in a fight. And I will whole-heartedly agree that Jaune realized that there was nothing he would be able to do.

But I disagree that it makes sense for him to still do nothing. Why? Because we’ve seen this exact same situation happen before.

In Volume one, Ruby was trapped by the Deathstalker with no apparent means of getting loose. Everyone was too far away to make a difference,and it didn’t look like any of them could take it on at the time.

But Yang rushed forward anyway. Even when her path became blocked by feathers, she still reached out, she still tried to at least look like she wanted to help her sister, even though there was no possible way for her to do so.

And here again we have someone we know cares deeply for Ruby in a position where all they can do is watch. Combine that with still reeling from the loss of someone else that they couldn’t prevent and I don’t see how Jaune didn’t try to react. Even if he knew he was going to be too slow, it doesn’t make sense for his character for him to not at least try.

Jaune is too good of a guy to just stand by and let someone get hurt, even if he doesn’t think there’s anything he can really do. We see that in Volume one as well. In the fight against the Deathstalker, he sees Pyrrha, Ren, and Blake facing off against the monster and he--knowing that he has no training and probably will get himself killed going over there--makes mention of the fact that they need help. “Aw man, we’ve got to get over there!”

And that was when he had no clue who those people were. Why would a guy like that just turn his head and grit his teeth when a friend is mortal danger? It makes no sense to me.

Plus, we actually see him letting go of his dislike of Qrow in order to help him get out of the way of the Nuckelavee’s attack.

I’ll argue that he doesn’t actually hate Qrow exactly. He’s just angry that Pyrrha died and is lashing out. A++ writing on that front. It’s believable and makes sense that he would do it.

Also the fact that he made sure Qrow was out of the line of fire is yet another reason why I don’t like the above point.

Also, we have an entire backstory episode dedicated to Ren and Nora and the finale has Ren finishing off the Nuckelavee. Not Jaune. Ren.

tbh I don’t like the way this entire volume was written and presented but that’s not what this rant was about.

Like I said in the original response, I’m not mad at Jaune’s writing. I’m mad at everyone else’s writing and how most of it seemed to center around him.

The finale brought a certain sense of closure to Ren’s story and that was great. But I don’t think we got enough on Nora. The only thing I could glean from the flashbacks was “she’s the dirty orphan child none of the other kids liked” and that’s not a whole lot to go on. Speaking of not getting much to go on:

We didn’t actually get much about Ren this season, though we did get more than the last three seasons combined. We know that:

Ren’s parents moved out of Mistral to a town

His father was Hanzo, apparently.

His mother was only introduced to be killed off

His father gave him moral support???? Sort of??? And then got killed off.

He found Nora

He rallied Nora

And then what????

That’s it. We know nothing about what his life was like before that tragedy, we know nothing about how Ren and Nora survived since their village was torched, we’ve got nothing that shows us how, when, or why he transitioned from this eager little boy to this always calm, slightly sarcastic nerd boy that we love.

Granted, I’ll give you part of the reason for why being that his village was murdered by Grimm but even so. You’d think there was a little bit of growth besides that point.

[junker-town]

So, is Josh Allen good now or what?

Bills quarterback Josh Allen has made some improvements in his second year in the NFL.

After a big game against the Cowboys, it’s time to find out if Josh Allen is proving his doubters wrong.

If you had a low opinion of Josh Allen going into the 2018 NFL Draft, we wouldn’t blame you. The numbers didn’t paint him as a first-rounder, and a few games into his rookie season, the Bills quarterback didn’t look like one, either.

His accuracy was all over the place last year, when he completed a league-worst 52.8 percent of his passes. He also tossed 12 interceptions, two more than his touchdown pass total. His rookie season showcased not much else but a strong ability to run. He finished second among quarterbacks in rushing with 631 yards, trailing only Lamar Jackson.

What the Bills needed from Allen was for his arm to catch up with his legs. This season, that has started to happen.

Allen has the Bills sitting at 9-3 (helped mightily by the league’s third-ranked defense), they’re coming off their first signature win of the season against the Cowboys. That game also saw the quintessential Josh Allen moment — a nearly blown fourth-down sneak where he refused to go down. On fourth-and-1 in a tie game, Allen fumbled and then somehow averted disaster with his athleticism, saving what would become a scoring drive after nearly blowing the whole dang thing.

It was arguably the turning point of the game, but was it a good play or not? Is Josh Allen a good quarterback or not? That’s what we’re here to find out.

So let’s take a look at his strengths and flaws as they make a run at the postseason.

Here’s what Josh Allen is doing well

Allen is a different breed of quarterback just based on running style alone. He can make people miss, but unlike guys like Lamar Jackson and Deshaun Watson, when Allen runs he is typically the one to initiate contact. If Jackson runs around a defender, then Allen tries to plow through that same defender. It works a lot of the time, but it could make him more exposed to injuries.

That doesn’t mean he can’t avoid tackles, though. Like this run below, from the Bills’ Week 11 win over the Dolphins:

The Bills really sold out on this fake, to the point where no fewer than six Miami defenders bought into stopping the running back. Instead, Allen showed off his running ability, including his ridiculous acceleration. That play wound up being a 36-yard gain.

When he throws, I was absolutely struck by the velocity on his passes, especially when he’s on the run. Allen has an effortless release that constantly delivers beautiful bullets.

Observe another play against the Dolphins:

Of note, Allen clearly went through his reads on the throw. A common criticism before the draft and throughout his rookie season was that he simply didn’t get his eyes around the whole field. He’s much more patient with that this year, and delivered that strike to John Brown.

Let’s keep it focused on his arm. Here’s a throw from the Cowboys game:

Third down with 10 yards to go from his own end zone? Yeah, this is a recipe for disaster. But instead of rushing a play and making a mistake, he went through his reads, calmly staying in the pocket before rolling out.

He didn’t run — like he probably would have as a rookie — and fired off another laser pass to his receiver, resulting in a first down and then some. There are so many ways that play can go wrong, and the Allen from a year ago probably doesn’t make that same throw.

Now, let’s look at my favorite Allen pass yet:

He read the zone after escaping the pocket to avoid the pass rush, took it to the line of scrimmage, then threw an off-balance pass to Cole Beasley, who ran a great route to get to the hole in the zone. When mobile quarterbacks throw on the run, there is a tendency to overcompensate and put a little too much air under the ball, but it hasn’t been a problem for Allen.

Here’s what Allen struggles with still

Allen has to be able to find the right balance of run vs. pass. While his ability to run is there, his decision-making can be questionable.

Most of Allen’s struggles involve him using his considerable arm strength or running skills at the wrong times. His instincts aren’t exactly on par with, for example, Jackson. When he gets pressured or behind on a play, he tends to make mistakes. A lot of them. Rookie mistakes.

Let’s start with a look at some plays from the Bills��� Week 13 win in Dallas.

Above is an example of Allen eluding the pass rush and electing to run the ball. However, it was a third-and-long situation, and Allen was well short of the first-down marker.

The way to fix that is easy: avoid the rush and then reset your eyes downfield. Well, it’s not easy per se, but it is ideally what you want out of your quarterback. Allen had no real chance of picking up all 13 yards on the ground, and after he evaded the first Cowboys defender, he had time and was still behind the line of scrimmage. He even had an underneath option on the right side who stood a much better chance of getting the first down.

He also made some mistakes with his arm in that game, though he managed to not throw an interception. One of his worst passes is below:

Allen, like many young quarterbacks, has a tendency to lock into his top read. He sees single coverage and flings the ball that way too often. He doesn’t yet have the touch on his deep balls, especially down the sideline, to beat the one-on-one coverage — at least not without a game-breaking wide receiver like DeAndre Hopkins or Odell Beckham Jr. (Allen has better weapons now than he did as a rookie, but Brown and Beasley aren’t exactly in that category.)

In the play above, Allen had three receivers past the first-down marker, but he locked in on the sideline option and it was nearly intercepted as a result.

Speaking of intercepted ...

Going back a week to a win over the Broncos — a game where Allen played pretty well overall — we find a pretty bad interception. While Allen has a rocket for an arm, here that worked to his disadvantage. His pass sailed right over the head of his receiver and the two guys covering him, only to be easily picked off by deep safety Justin Simmons.

I don’t think Allen ever saw that safety, which is an issue because he had plenty of time to throw the ball. A couple more seconds of letting that play develop, and the Bills might have gotten a large gain out of it. Instead, it was an interception.

Allen’s worst game of the year came against the Patriots in Week 4, in which he threw three interceptions. Let’s look at one of the three:

This was the worst of his three picks against New England. I like Allen’s ability to heave the ball downfield with such a compressed throwing motion on the run, but again, it’s his decision-making that hurt him.

Allen got out of the pocket to escape the rush and tossed the ball downfield, where he had two receivers. The problem: there also happened to be three Patriots defenders. One of those defenders made a big play by getting his feet down in bounds.

Allen’s second interception in that game was one that fell woefully short of his target, a contrast to the overthrown pick against the Broncos. There is a concern with his touch, especially on passes down the sideline. Allen has only completed 10 of 44 passes thrown 20-plus yards this season, or 22.7 percent, per Next Gen Stats.

Since throwing three interceptions against New England, though, Allen has bounced back. He has just two picks in his last eight games.

Allen has excelled when he runs the ball, fires bullet passes with precision outside the pocket, and in general, I think he handles the pass rush well. Most of his issues stem from costly mistakes.

But my main takeaway from watching a lot of film is that he’s developed as a passer much more than most would give him credit for. The naysayers weren’t necessarily wrong — Allen still has games when he just can’t move the ball through the air, and that inconsistency is the biggest thing working against him right now.

You can see Allen’s improvement as a passer on the stat sheet.

Allen as a rookie (12 games): 52.8 completion percentage, 10 TDs, 12 INTs, 6.5 yards per attempt, 67.9 passer rating

Allen in 2019 (12 games): 61.5 completion percentage, 16 TDs, 8 INTs, 7.1 yards per attempt, 88.3 passer rating

Allen has shown this season that he’s trending in the right direction. He has the arm talent and the leg talent, even if the mental aspect needs some work. Still, he’s closer to a good quarterback than he is to a bad quarterback.

If anything, he’s much better than his doubters predicted. That bodes well for the immediate future of the Bills, who are suddenly competing for playoff seeding after finishing 6-10 just a year ago. If Allen continues to improve, the long-term future is bright for Buffalo, too.

[prettypaprika]

2016 Year in Fic

This year I wrote a lot (especially for me!) and wanted to take the opportunity to look back and see just exactly what I spent all that time doing…

STATS Fics: 14 Word Count: 91,174 (give or take)

Fandoms: 8 Star Wars: The Force Awakens: 4 Original: 4 (Although two of which were fake superhero, so not completely original) Misc: 6

Ships: 10 different ships m/m: 6 f/f: 2 m/f: 2 gen: 1 most written character: Poe Dameron and Finn most written ship: Poe/Finn (shocker) OVERALL:

Did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted? In terms of words, absolutely! I’m a little bit in awe of just how many words I wrote this year, although I ended up doing two long fics for exchanges that pushed up the number. In terms of stories, less. Last year, I think I wrote 11 or 12 fics and thought I would write a lot more this year. But, I think that my most productive period last year was October/November and this year I was packing and moving during those two months, which really cut into my ability to write.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January? Gen in Over the Garden Wall--I hadn’t even heard of this wonderful, amazing show in January. I think it’s also been years since I wrote anything truly gen, so that was definitely a surprise.

What’s your own favorite story of the year? I think that my Charlie/Adam Mighty Ducks fic, “@thatduckingcharlie” is my favorite. It evolved very naturally from a fake twitter quote about one of the characters to a whole story told through twitter. I had so much fun writing it and trying to figure out how tell a story from snippets of a public life. I also really enjoyed writing the two stories set in a rip-off superhero world, mainly because of all the bad jokes I got to make in those stories. My s2b2 story was also a blast–I took a lot of inspiration and spirit from one of my favorite movies, The Thin Man, and tried to translate that into a fun slash 1930s occult mystery.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I like to think that I took some risks this year--I tried to diversify my style as well as write stories outside of my usual repertoire. I think that non-romance focused stories as still hard for me, but something that I’d like to keep working on. 

Do you have any fanfic goals for 2017? Maybe to finish and publish some of my random WIPs that are hiding on my computer. Survive the big bang that I signed up for. I would also like to write the original story that I spent about three months researching this year but wasn’t able to write in time for the s2b2 issue it would have been for. Write more in general!

Did you meet your goals from last year? No clue. Knowing me, I probably set goals that aren’t able to be easily measured and so would deem myself has having failed them.

BEST AND WORST:

My best story of the year: Stylistically, probably “@thatduckingcharlie” since it was told from an interesting perspective. Technically, I would probably say “Mystery in the Adirondacks”, which I wrote for s2b2′s October issue. I wanted to evoke the banter and gaiety of The Thin Man, because it’s a film that I’ve always thought had fantastic dialogue and atmosphere. At times it was difficult to convey that luminosity on paper, but, I think that the end product turned out well and I had an amazing artist, @beili, working with me who did breathtaking illustrations. 

My most popular story of the year: Kudos-wise, it’s “Barks and Recreation” for sure (it also wins in bookmarks). Kudos/hits ratio, I think it’s “Drowning in Our Blood” mainly because it’s in a super tiny fandom.

Story of mine that is most under-appreciated by the universe: “The Violators” which was a story I wrote for the Trick or Treat challenge that featured a superhero and supervillain that fall in love without knowing who the other when they first meet playing rec league hockey. Mainly, this was a story that I cracked myself up writing as I created ridiculous fake superheroes and supervillains. I also gave a lot of blood, sweat and tears for “This Story Does Not End With A Kiss” which was a modern retelling of the fairytale Kate Crackernuts, but it’s definitely a super tiny fandom, so I didn’t expect much attention.

Most fun story to write: Probably “@thatduckingcharlie”, because of the coming up with twitter handles and figuring out how to convey fights and confessions of love without outright saying anything was explicitly happening. Coming up with the dialogue in “Mystery in the Adirondacks” was also a blast.

Story with the single sexiest moment: Toss-up between “The Priestess of Divinity” featuring dubious consent between a priestess possessed by a god and the priestess’ loyal knight and “Mystery in the Adirondacks” with Hank and Jack finally getting together after having UST for the entire fic.

Most “oh um.... uh ok....” story: Probably the closest that I got was “The Priestess of Divinity” featuring dub con all around, divine possession during sex, a threesome and...more!

Story that shifted my perceptions of the characters: This is a hard one...how I think about characters constantly changes throughout every story I write. I think that “The Woods Are Lovely, Dark and Deep” definitely changed my perception and understanding of how Over the Garden Wall functioned as a show and how difficult it is to balance between whimsicality, appropriateness for kids but also depth and darkness. Buuuut, I suppose the answer to the actual question asked would be “Yo Helga!” because it gave me a chance to explore Helga as a character not just in Hey Arnold! but also how her experiences would continue to affect her as an adult.

Biggest disappointment: Not getting to write my epic slash story set in the 70s about two actors in New York. I really wanted to write it in time for the December issue of s2b2 but training for a triathlon in the summer and moving in the fall decimated my free time.

Biggest surprise: Deciding to write two treats for the Trick or Treat Exchange (after not signing up) and writing for the October issue of s2b2. On a whim, I decided to write those stories all around the same time period and they were done fairly quickly.

Most unintentionally telling story: “The Woods are Lovely, Dark and Deep” definitely echoes some of the uncertainty that I feel in my own life, including my reluctance to change paths.

WIPs

untitled joseph liebgott/david webster big bang fic Joe followed David in and they both stood there for a few seconds in the entrance, awkwardly measuring each other up. Joe had been a skinny guy back in the day, army rations persistently unhelpful, but now he’d evened out a bit, muscle thicker in his arms and chest, making him less lanky and more wiry. He was paler than he’d been in the war; with a faint scar up above his left eyebrow and he was exactly as David had dreamed the other night. The resemblance was so complete, it took David’s breath away for one heart-hammering second. untitled dan/blair pregnancy fic Blair turned back to Dan and began taking off her coat to drape over a chair. “Well, you said that you wouldn’t move back to New York, so you only left me with one option.”

“One option—” Dan started and then stopped abruptly. Blair was wearing a very fashionable print wrap dress with black kitten heels. Dan would hazard a guess that the dress was probably Marc Jacobs or Gucci. The shoes, Alexander McQueen. But even clearer than Blair’s continued sartorial achievements was the fact that Blair was definitely, most certainly pregnant.

“Eleanor is embarrassed beyond belief that her only daughter is having a child out of wedlock. She is also no longer speaking to me since I refuse to tell her who the father is. Serena has promised to come out and help when I’m due, but I can’t exactly crash with her and her husband in Chicago,” Blair said, pronouncing Chicago like it was a bad word. To Blair, it probably was. 

untitled femslash mermaid story (based on this picture) When she'd been a young mermaid, every time that Adriane had gotten in trouble from skipping classes to hang out with the kelpies or learning to smoke from the selkies, her father would threaten to send her up one of the rivers where there were plenty of humans. "If you keep this up," he used to say. "They'll find you and skin you for your pelt and you'll deserve it."

untitled 28 days later fic The refugee camp is fucking depressing, which says a lot after having survived a rage virus pandemic. There are only a few hundred people in the camp. They’re told that several thousand people have been rescued since the United Kingdom and Ireland were quarantined and that the search is still ongoing, but the facts are pretty plain: tens of millions of people—entire villages, cities, metropolitan areas have been wiped out. Out of the seventy or so million people living in Great Britain and Ireland, maybe only seven or eight million remain.

On their second day in the camp, they find out that Hannah apparently has some distant family in Canada. The immigration officer comes to speak to Jim, Selena and Hannah in barely accented English about sending Hannah to live with her family, Hannah flatly says that she’ll kill herself if they separate her from Jim and Selena.

 “Jim and Selena are the only family that I have left,” Hannah says. “I’m not going anywhere without them except in a body bag.” 

untitled cinderella fic In the glimpses the woman-child had taken of her dance partner throughout the evening, a spectator watch a spark begin to deepen. It was one thing to abstractly know that such a life of luxury and wealth existed, but to have a taste—to have an intoxicating glimpse of lust and richness—there was no return from that knowledge.

Although the woman-child could not have identified the flame beginning to burn within her, her observer could. It was the deepest longing, the start of a desire that would go to the very core of the woman-child’s soul. A desire that, once it had taken root, would accept water at any cost so that it could grow.

RECS!

AT THE SAME STARS by spicyshimmy -- (Star Trek) Kirk/Spock with a Tarsus IV divergence. Such Great Heights by softlyforgotten - (HP) Draco/Harry EWE where Draco has a dragon. A Year and a Day in Old Theradane by Scott Lynch -- (Original) Amazing fantasy universe heist! Sixteen Days in September by Tevere -- (GenKill) Nate/Brad AU set during the 1999 East Timorese crisis The King’s Road by Tsukizubon Saruko -- (Original) Femslash utterly fantastic story of the kidnap and ransom of a noble daughter got a million ugly words for what you are by spock -- (Slow West) Silas/Payne pre-canon

(i make no guarantees regarding when these were written, only when I read them)

[winfieldjcseemanja06insuran-blog]

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Armchair Analyst: Your complete guide to the Week 32 MLS slate

October 5, 20181:01PM EDT

Only three full weekends (and one partial weekend) left in the 2018 regular season. Here we go:

Saturday Slate

Montreal Impact vs. Columbus Crew SC 3 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Montreal are going to bunker – it’s what they do, and it’s what they’re best at. But their bunker can be blown up by clever attackers working between the (wildly compressed) lines, as Toronto FC showed last month and as D.C. United showed last week:

Federico Higuain is a much different type of No. 10 than Lucho Acosta. Acosta’s an almost pure attacker who has little to do with organizing the game, while Higuain’s role is about 180 degrees from that. He moves and organizes and is in charge of system maintenance rather than pure chance creation.

That means it comes down to the Columbus wingers, both of whom dive inside and hit gaps that the passing of Higuain and Wil Trapp create.

So once again, it comes down to this: If Justin Meram and Pedro Santos produce, Crew SC are among the best of the best in this league. If they don’t, they’re a fourth place team in the conference.

As for Montreal, if the defense holds and they pick up the full three points, they buy themselves another week of life against D.C. United’s resurgence. But they need that win – a draw won’t do.

Atlanta United vs. New England Revolution 3:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

The “flat-track bullies” question has come roaring back to life for Atlanta United, and the numbers make it easy to see why:

Against teams with 50 or more points this season: #RBNY 6-1-1 (18 GF, 5 GA)#ATLUND 1-4-2 (11 GF, 13 GA) #MLS

— Dylan Butler (@Dylan_Butler) October 1, 2018

That question won’t be answered this week. What will be answered – at least in part – is “how will the Five Stripes handle another super-intense, super-physical pressing team?” The Revs have been a horror show for months in terms of actually going out there and getting results, but they still try to play hard, fast and relentless pressing soccer. They commit a ton of fouls and accrue a ton of yellows. They try to make every single play into a 50/50.

Atlanta couldn’t handle that last week (against a much better team, but still). In a lot of ways it’s probably a good thing to just get back on that horse.

Toronto FC vs. Vancouver Whitecaps 5 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

The only real question in this one is whether TFC will give Sebastian Giovinco the weekend off ahead of his Italy return (they should, even if he wants to play). There are no playoff implications here – there’s no realistic path into the postseason for either of these teams.

Philadelphia Union vs. Minnesota United FC 7:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

What Philly did last weekend in Columbus remains one of the most underappreciated outings of the year by anyone:

Fifth game in 15 days

Second road game that week

Three days after losing a final

At an Eastern Conference team above them in the standings

Playing a rotated squad

All of that and they got themselves a lockdown scoreless draw that keeps open the real, honest-to-goodness hope of a home Knockout Round game to start the playoffs. Hell, if the Union take care of business in these next two home games, then their Decision Day trip to the Bronx could end up being for third place in the East.

But they have to take care of business, and against Minnesota that means keeping track of Darwin Quintero. More than anything, you can’t let him get on the ball and drive through the middle of the field, because when he does that, your defense gets compressed:

Philly have been really good this year at not allowing opposing playmakers to rearrange them like that (Higuain couldn’t do it last week). It’s a fundamental thing that’s a big part of their identity, and it’s unlikely they’ll forget about it at this point in the season. But it’s probably a good reminder to have about what the field’s most valuable real estate is.

FC Dallas vs. Orlando City 8 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Dallas are still top of the Western Conference, but it’s been a month since they scored a goal from open play. New No. 10 Maxi Urruti has created three chances from open play in that time, and it seems pretty clear that the rest of 2018, from an FC Dallas point of view, is going to be about efforting the opposition into some sort of submission. They have a ton of guys who will run themselves into the ground and haven’t really been using the guys that can pass – at least, not the attacking guys – and so far, so good.

There is a new question up top, of course, as Cristian Colman tore his ACL this week and is done until 2019. That could open the door for Dom Badji, who had a promising first 45 minutes with FCD but hasn’t really been the same since Ozzie Alonso stomped his foot, or perhaps Tesho Akindele will get another shot at being a No. 9. Both of them put the ball in the net more than Colman, so there’s at least some positives to the trade-off.

But really, the overall point is that the Orlando City defense is where teams with questions have gone to get answers all season long. Dallas should be fine here (and if they’re not, then they will hear about it in my Sunday night column). 

Sporting KC vs. LA Galaxy 8:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Here’s my colleague Bobby Warshaw on SKC:

I think SKC is the best team in the West, and the 3rd best in the league. The way they move the ball, the way they create chances, their ability to lock down defensively (when they’re focused). They are one of a few teams in the league that consistently control games. But they’ve been dropping points, specifically against playoff teams. They play well, they look like the better team, then they end up tying or losing. And I don’t know how to explain it, or whether they will stop doing it.

Sporting have fallen relatively flat over the past two weeks after an unusually torrid August and early September. That’s typically when SKC’s season falls apart, but instead in 2018 they won six of seven – five by shutout – before hitting a couple of bumps in the road the last two weeks.

The last 20 minutes against RSL last weekend, though, looked better. And I’ll point to an obvious reason why:

Nemeth (70 mins.) – 1 SOG, 0 key passes, 14 touches Rubio (20 mins.) – 2 SOG, 1 key pass, 12 touches #SportingKC

— Nathan Martin (@NMthenoise) October 1, 2018

Diego Rubio’s not going to keep up his insane scoring rate, which is unsustainable. But he’s been lively and precise in the final third pretty much every time he’s been on the field since May. They looked something much more like their old selves once he got out there, and while it wasn’t enough to get the win, it’s enough to remind the rest of the West of just how good this SKC attack has been when it’s whole.

And that will likely be the test for the newly reconstituted Galaxy backline. Forget all the Zlatan stuff – he’s remarkable and that should be well understood by now. What really matters for LA is that they’ve gone out and pitched two straight shutouts, and done so by exhibiting a collective buy-in when out of possession.

What I mean by that is simple and uncomplicated, as is their scheme: When they lose possession, they push up and get as close as possible to the nearest opponent. It’s not a “high press” in the same way that we see the Red Bulls high pressing, but the principle is the same.

Bobby, however, sees potential issues:

I’m not sure what to make of the Galaxy. The Seattle win was impressive, but the Vancouver victory was tough to gauge. They scored on two penalties and a horrible defensive mistake(s), and didn’t exactly carry the game. The defensive intensity has been nice to see, but it’s unclear whether it will work on SKC – they have one of the most composed center backs under pressure (Besler) and maybe the most composed defensive mid under pressure (Ilie) so SKC might find a lot of space beyond Galaxy’s first wave of pressure.

If SKC are going to punish LA, that’s where and when it will happen.

This is the keystone game for a lot of the weekend, by the way. If LA somehow get a win, it makes things much, much more interesting for RSL, Portland and Seattle.

Colorado Rapids vs. LAFC 9 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Things are bleak in Commerce City:

Last 6 games, #Rapids96 have lost every game & have been outscored 19 to 1. Similar Rapids six game runs: 2014: 0-4-2, outscored 19 to 6. 2007: 1-5-0, outscored 11 to 3. 2001: 0-4-2, outscored 14 to 8. … In other words, by GF-GA, this is the worst 6 gm run in team history.

— Mark Asher Goodman (@soccer_rabbi) October 1, 2018

This is another chance for Bob Bradley to figure out if Carlos Vela and Adama Diomande can develop any sort of chemistry in attack.

Real Salt Lake vs. Portland Timbers 9:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

And here is the other truly ginormous game of the weekend – provided that the Galaxy win (again: not a result I’d bet on, but still). If RSL lose at home here, and the Galaxy win, RSL are suddenly in seventh place and below the playoff line. If Portland lose, they stay above the line – but only by a single point, and given how they’re playing, the abyss probably awaits.

So this one’s big. And the result will hinge upon one big thing:

Portland still rely upon their fullbacks in order to get width into the attack. That makes sense – lots of teams do this. Their best chance in last week’s dour scoreless home draw against Dallas came from right back Zarek Valentin pushing up:

But it also leaves them vulnerable when the ball’s turned over in bad spots, and means they have a hard time cutting crosses out. Teams have gotten tons of good looks against the Timbers from the wings lately.

Now, RSL are not a get-it-wide-and-cross-a-ton team, but they are a team that nonetheless generates a bunch of their attacks from their wide play. If the Portland fullbacks push too far upfield, look for the RSL wingers to run this game.

The other area to focus on is (duh) central midfield. Sporting didn’t get the win last week, but they put RSL under constant pressure and forced more than just a few dangerous turnovers out of Kyle Beckerman and Sunny. Those types of midfield turnovers are what gave the Timbers the runway they needed back in spring and summer when they went on a 15-game unbeaten run (which now seems very long ago indeed). 

San Jose Earthquakes vs. New York Red Bulls 10:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

If this past weekend’s huge result over Atlanta is going to matter at all in the grand scheme of things, RBNY need to fly across the country and win this game. The Quakes have been better under Steve Ralston – they’ve played some pretty, effective soccer, using the ball through the midfield and getting their wingers into positions where they can make plays. But many of the same problems that doomed Mikael Stahre have cropped up over Ralston’s 270 minutes, and RBNY should be well-equipped to punish any sort of carelessness at the back and in goal.

Look for San Jose’s deeper-lying midfielders to try to play a lot of long diagonals over the RBNY press. If the Quakes are going to find room, that’s where it will be.

Sunday Matinee

D.C. United vs. Chicago Fire 1 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Let’s take a minute to appreciate the work Wayne Rooney and Acosta have been doing together for United:

That’s what the Fire have to stop. Period.

Monday Night Special

Seattle Sounders vs. Houston Dynamo 10:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Seattle had one of their best performances of the season last weekend, and much of it ran through Nicolas Lodeiro:

The build up to the Sounders first goal on Saturday was something else. Lodeiro had six touches on the goal, five passes, a shot and the assist…oh, and he also managed to take out @CristianRoldan pic.twitter.com/6d371hVu4e

— Sounder At Heart (@sounderatheart) October 2, 2018

His ability to pop up anywhere when Seattle are on the ball is what gives the Sounders their shape, and what makes him so hard to stop. Watch that clip again, and imagine you’re the defensive midfielder whose job it is to organize against all of that. What do you do?

We’ll find out what Juan David Cabezas’s answer is on Monday night. Do not sleep on the Dynamo – their season’s over, but they’re a much better team with him on the field, and they’d be only too happy to ruin Seattle’s year given what happened in 2017’s playoffs.

One More Thing to Ponder

You hear that? That is the sound of inevitability.

Happy weekending, everybody.

Series: 

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Armchair Analyst: Your complete guide to the Week 32 MLS slate was originally published on 365 Football