#like this is a game and you just cheated to advance your agency

[chaoticgoodcaptain]

i'm sorry but no way did israel just get preferential treatment by directly choosing in what semi-final of eurovision they will compete

like ukraine is there as well and they did not get this privilege??? and their land is STILL getting bombed??? hello???

[hxlyhead-harpies]

Ivy (R.L.)

Evermore

Pairing: Remus Lupin x Reader

Summary: The reader is trapped in a loveless and neglectful arranged marriage. She hires her old school crush, Remus Lupin, to tutor her son

Warnings: Alcohol, mentions of abuse, the reader is a mother, cheating, angst

Word Count: 4.9k

A/n: i am actually so so proud of this so um i hope you like it

Your life was nothing but a monotonous cycle of sameness, every day identical to the one before. Every day you awoke to a cold and empty bed, your silk sheets barren of who should be a loving husband. And every day you sat by your bay window with a cup of tea, leaving it unsipped until it became cold. You watched your son stumble around the manor, his tiny legs still clumsy like a newborn foal. You painted or read to bide your time, hoping to make the long hours go faster, but they never did. Nearly six years of this routine but no part of you longed to break free from it. 

You had been bred for this life since you had sprung into existence. You came from a prominent pureblood family and you were taught your place early on. You were to be silent and polite and you must not speak unless spoken to. It didn’t matter your intelligence or wit, you were nothing but a commodity with good posture and acceptable table manners. You were a pawn in your father’s chess game, something to be used for business deals and backdoor dealings. Your existence was for the purpose of your father’s advancement in pureblood society and nothing more. 

For a while you had wanted more, to be free and to have agency and choice. Back when you were in school you were exposed to ideas beyond blood supremacy and submission. You let yourself dream of a life away from your family and their ideals, where you could have your own free thought and you could love whom you chose, but the fantasy didn’t last much longer than your third year. 

When you had dared to voice your opinions one day during the summer holiday you were swiftly met with the back of your father’s hand. Your life quickly began to consist of long sleeve jumpers to conceal bruises and nights where your supper was withheld. You quickly resigned to the life you had always been told you’d have. 

You thought about running away and starting a new life away from the toxicity that oozed from the windows of your childhood home. But you were often reminded of what happened to daughters who disobeyed; you’d be subjected to a life of destitution.

So you did as you were told, obliging to the word of your father and keeping your head down. Of course, you still held your own ideas close to your heart; you didn’t believe in the sickening rhetoric that was blood supremacy, but you couldn’t tell anyone that for the sake of your safety. 

You were seventeen when you had gotten betrothed to Humphrey. It was your seventh year at Hogwarts and you had gotten a letter in mid-march informing you of your own engagement. He was your father’s business partner and eleven years your senior. He was cold and serious. Something about the way he had a perpetually raised brow and a scowl made your stomach drop. You had cried yourself to sleep that night, any remnants of your fantasy finally shattering in the clutches of your fiance. 

And now here you sat, six years later, your cup of tea cooling in your hands as your son asked questions you didn’t know the answer to. Every young wizard went through this phase, wondering why the lights would flicker when they were angry or why sometimes they could do things that they didn’t understand. Your son knew that he was a wizard, but his young mind couldn’t quite grasp what that meant. When you were his age, you had a governess who explained these things to you as well as taught you other things like basic arithmetic and history. You desperately wished that you could find someone, maybe a tutor, who could teach your son. 

Your child, Montgomery, was inquisitive and wild. He was named after his great uncle but detested the name, preferring to be playfully called Monty instead. He was born to be the picture of a perfect pureblood son, but he was wild and untamed no matter how hard you tried. You were afraid of how his father would treat him as he grew, and you were desperate to temper him.

That night at dinner you sat at the head of the table, Monty next to you, and your husband at the other end. It often felt as if there was an impossible distance between the two of you, a distance that could never be crossed. You rarely truly felt like his wife, usually only feeling like an employee in your own home. You poked at your meal for a while, chiding your son to eat his vegetables. In the darkness that shrouded your home, Monty was your only source of light. If you were to go on like this it would be for him. You took a deep breath, preparing yourself to raise the question. 

“Would it be alright if we hired a tutor for Monty?” you asked, “I had one when I was his age and I just think that it would be the proper thing to do.” Humphrey sighed and placed down his spoon, it clanking harshly against the rim of his bowl.

“Montgomery,” he corrected harshly. You swallowed thickly and nodded, avoiding his gaze. “And I suppose it would be a good idea,” he said, “We want him to be top of his class when he arrives at Hogwarts.” You nodded quickly, knowing that agreeing with him was the fastest way to get what you wanted. Humphrey thought for a moment before resuming his dinner. 

“You can pick out his tutor, just inform me when his lessons have started,” he said before going back to ignoring your presence. A sense of pride filled you at his words; it was rare you ever had a say in any of the decisions made around the house and the prospect of having a voice sent a shock of happiness down your spine. This single act of agency was not real freedom, but you would revel in pretending that it was. 

You sifted through ads in the Prophet and inquired with other mothers. You were hesitant to call them your friends as they held the same ideals as your husband, but they were the women you’d be forced to have tea with during business meetings. None of the names that came up seemed quite right. As a last resort, you sent an owl to your old professor, Professor McGonagall. She had been your favorite teacher back at school and you still kept in touch occasionally. When you were a teenager McGonagall tried relentlessly to help you see your potential, but you just brushed her off, knowing that you’d never be allowed to have a career once you were married. 

McGonagall’s response was swift, an owl knocking on the library window only a few hours later. 

The letter opened with her usual greeting, her insistence that you call her Minerva and not Professor. She offered up a name that made you pause. 

Remus Lupin. You could understand why she would suggest this name. He had been top of your class in school and a prefect. He had even tutored you once and had proven himself to be quite the teacher. You knew he was more than capable but his name still caused you to pause.

You had been absolutely infatuated with Remus when you were an awkward sixteen year old. He was handsome and smart and he was nothing short of gentle when he spent late nights in the library trying to teach you astronomy. Something about his hazel eyes and boyish smile had made your heart pound in your ears and your palms sweaty. But you never let yourself dwell on your feelings too much; you knew you’d be married shortly after you graduated and your father would not take too kindly to you dating anyone, especially a halfblood. So you had pushed the feelings aside and forced yourself to forget. Yet here you were, years later, and the shape of his name still caused butterflies to erupt in your stomach. 

You wanted so desperately to write back to Minerva and ask for his address, to send him a letter requesting his services, and to let him into your home. But you were afraid of what would happen if you did. You had spent so long trying to push away the stirrings in the back of your mind and ignore any inkling of restlessness. You feared that welcoming this man into your house would only ignite these feelings to a point where you couldn’t avoid them anymore.

But still, Monty needed a tutor and you knew that Remus Lupin was a damn good one. You sent an owl to Minerva asking how to contact him. 

The first day the Remus was meant to come to your house you were a ball of nerves. Monty was excited, yearning to learn and to meet this new person. But you were anxious about seeing him after all these years. You couldn’t be sure that he even remembered you. His time tutoring you had been brief, though you held that short time together close to your heart. 

You found yourself putting on your favorite clothes, feeling desperate to put up a good front, hoping the clothes would mask your unhappiness. The cream shirt and long navy shirt helped you play the role of a doting wife well, just old fashioned enough to make most believe that you agreed with this life. You tied back your hair with a silk ribbon before heading down to the front hall. You had nothing better to do than wait for him.

A heavy knock finally filled the empty halls of your home signaling you to his arrival. You called out for Monty before you walked to the door and opened it gently. 

You shyly looked around the edge of the door, meeting his eyes. It took everything in you to suppress some sort of physical reaction as you took in his appearance. The years had surely treated him well. His hair was longer now, curlier too, and his freckled skin adorned a few new scars. It was snowing lightly outside and snowflakes sat in his bronze curls. But his hazel eyes still shone at you warmly, and his small smile was familiar and dimpled. He looked older of course, slightly taller and with broader shoulders. He was wearing a beige shirt and a dark tie, a satchel slung over his shoulder, and a stack of books under his arm. 

You opened the door wider to allow him inside. “Hello, Mr. Lupin, I’m so glad you could make it,” you said softly, sticking out your hand. He quirked up an eyebrow and adjusted the books before reaching out his hand. His hands were cold and calloused as he placed his hand in yours, the contact sending a wave of warmth through your body. 

“You can call me Remus,” he said with an amused smile, “No need for the formality, it’s not like we haven’t met before.” You laughed softly at his comment, reluctantly pulling your hand away. 

“Of course, I wasn’t sure if you remembered,” you admitted, “May I take your coat?” Remus chuckled before shrugging off his jacket and handing it to you. 

“How could I forget, charms was it?” he asked. You flushed at his comment but hid it by turning to place his coat in the closet on your right. 

“Astronomy,” you corrected. He hummed affirmatively before rocking back and forth on his heels. You composed yourself quickly before you turned back to him. “Let me show you the library,” you said finally. 

The two of you walked down the hall in silence as you made your way to the room you spent most of your time in. You heard him gasp as you pushed open the mahogany doors. The room was magnificent; books lining every wall from floor to ceiling. Your precious bay window let in natural light and the plush carpet muddled your steps as you walked in. There was a table by the window which you had designated for Remus’s lessons. You had placed some books, quills and parchment, and a globe on the surface. 

Remus’s mouth was wide as he took in the room. You shuffled awkwardly towards the table and his eyes finally landed on it. 

“I wasn’t sure what you needed so I just found a few things,” you said, gesturing to the makeshift desk. He gave you that lopsided smile again and your stomach erupted with butterflies. 

“It’s perfect, thank you,” he said. You felt yourself smile widely as you wrung your hands. Since you had gotten married it was rare that you received a compliment. Even as small and insignificant as his words were, you felt the warm caress of approval anyway.

Before you could say anything else Monty tumbled into the room. His shirt was rumpled and messy, half of it untucked. His hair was wild and his cheeks were red. It was clear that he had gotten into some sort of mischief before heading to the library. He barreled towards you and hugged your legs. 

“Hello dear,” you said affectionately, unable to contain the smile on your face as you smoothed down his hair. 

“Mum you will not believe what I found in the garden,” he said breathily, a gleam in his eye. You raised your eyebrows at him.

“You’ll have to tell me later, Mr. Lupin is here,” you said, nodding towards the man. Monty turned towards his tutor and smiled shyly, hiding behind your legs slightly. It was rare that he met new people as he spent most of his days cooped up at home. Remus didn’t seem phased by his shyness, only stepping closer and bending down slightly.

“Hi, Montgomery is it?” he asked softly, offering his hand for Monty to shake. He shook his head furiously before putting his tiny hand in Remus’s.

“My name is Monty,” he said proudly, giving Remus a firm handshake. Remus smiled brilliantly. 

“Okay Monty, you can call me Remus,” he replied. Monty slowly detached himself from your legs, heading towards the table with Remus. He smiled as he hopped up on his chair and spun the globe. You smiled as you watched them interact, Remus ever so gentle and warm. 

“Do you mind if I stay?” you asked suddenly. Remus looked up with raised eyebrows. “I’ll be quiet,” you promised, “I’ll just be reading.” You gestured towards the spot where you usually read. Remus smiled and nodded. You made yourself comfortable and opened your book. But you couldn’t quite focus on the words, your attention captivated only by Remus. 

That night you laid awake next to Humphrey, unable to sleep. Your mind was busy replaying every moment that Remus had been in your house. How enthusiastic he was about teaching and how tenderly he’d answer Monty’s questions. You thought of how he’d look over Monty’s head and give you a goofy smile when Monty would innocently ask a funny question and how he gave you a lingering handshake when he had left. 

Watching Remus teach became how you passed your hours away. You finally indulged yourself and wondered what it would be like if he felt the same as you. You often found yourself imagining a life where you ran away together, stealing Monty away from the virulent environment of your life. You imagined that you’d move to the city, somewhere near the friends he spoke of so fondly, or away to the countryside in a small cottage. Of course, the fantasy was dashed every time he left and you were once again left in your solitude, waiting for your husband to come home and ignore you as usual. You grieved for the relationship that could never be and the life you could never have.

You felt trapped, a feeling you had been trying to suppress for years. But you were married, a binding and final contract, so there was nothing for you to do. It was as if you were a Rapunzel, waiting in her tower. Only your prince never came to save you. Instead, he was your captor and key keeper. 

Your favorite part of your day soon became the stolen minutes before lessons began and the fleeting seconds after they ended. That was when you could be alone with Remus, learning more about him through menial questions in the name of small talk. He was just as sarcastic and full of wit as you remembered, though there was a certain level of softness that hadn’t been present before. 

Every day, as he left you, shook hands, a task that was most likely no longer necessary, but you loved the feeling of your hand in his. Every time your palms touched you wished that he was taking your hand because he wanted to, not just as a formality. 

Remus’s mere existence consumed you, leaving you yearning for every inch of his mind and soul. Your thoughts were full of his smile and his beautiful eyes. You dreamed of running your hands through his hair and resting your head on his chest. You felt yourself falling in love with him slowly and it terrified you. But there was nothing you could do to stop it. It was as if he had planted himself in your mind, the vines of his ivy covering you completely, overrunning your mind, body, and soul. 

About a month into his teaching you arranged a meeting to discuss Monty’s progress. Remus had readily agreed and he appeared at your doorstep promptly. Humphrey was supposed to attend the meeting but he had been pulled away on business. Or at least that was what he told you. Often times when he was away for work he’d come home smelling of another woman. 

You sat in your husband’s office, just you and Remus. The lighting was dim and your breath was quickly becoming bated because suddenly, you weren’t so sure if you had been imagining the tension between the two of you. He fidgeted in the seat across from you, staring at you with those alluring hazel eyes. They were the type of hazel right between green and brown, the perfect sweet spot that made them appear almost yellow. You looked away quickly and cleared your throat. 

“So how is Monty doing?” you asked, placing your hands neatly in your lap. Remus smiled and ran a hand through his hair.

“He’s doing wonderful,” Remus said proudly, “He’s quite inquisitive. He wants to know everything about everything.” You let out a breathy laugh and nodded.

“Yes, he used to bombard me with questions before you started teaching him,” you admitted, “I couldn’t answer half of them.” Remus laughed this time and shifted in his seat, leaning slightly further over the desk.

“I’m sure you had no problem answering. I was honestly surprised when you sent me the letter, I would have assumed that you were teaching him yourself,” he said, “You were always so smart back in school.” You flushed and shook your head. 

“Do you not remember how you had to save me from failing astronomy,” you answered teasingly, the banter between you flowing easily. Remus pulled back and raised an eyebrow at you. 

“If I remember correctly, it never seemed like you needed much help,” he said. You felt your face heat up. In all honesty, you hadn’t needed help with astronomy. You had just wanted to be close to Remus and that was the only way you had known how. 

“No, I needed the help,” you chided, “You just happened to be an excellent teacher.” Remus met your praise with that boyish smile you had fallen for. The two of you fell into easy conversation after that, forgetting your purpose for the meeting in the first place. You knew that you were entering dangerous territory but you couldn’t find it in yourself to care.

That night as he left you walked him to the door. 

“Thank you for meeting with me,” you said softly, a hint of a joke behind your eyes. Remus nodded with a smile, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“Of course,” he said softly, “Goodnight.” His eyes were rounded and earnest, sending the beating of your heart into overdrive. As he turned to leave you found yourself grabbing his sleeve and turning him around. You were unsure of what your intention was but suddenly he was standing so close, his eyes roaming your face and your breath mixing with his. The two of you stood like that for a moment, staring at each other. Finally, you pulled back slightly, diffusing the tension.

“Goodnight,” you whispered back, your voice slightly hoarse. Remus swallowed thickly, before nodding and leaving quickly. 

The next time he came over for a session the two of you acted as if nothing happened. You hoped that this was because you were under the watchful eye of your husband and not because he didn’t return your affections. You worried the entire time that you observed the lesson, chewing at the inside of your cheek. He didn’t even spare you a glance the entire lesson.

Once he and Monty were done you walked him to the door, as usual, dread settling in your stomach. You worried that you had ruined everything. But when you reached the door and slipped your hand in his for your usual handshake, he surprised you by lifting your hand up and pressing a kiss to the back of it. 

Your life soon became waiting for stolen moments with Remus. Tentatively tangling fingers in a hallway before Monty rumbled down the stairs. There was so much you learned about him, but you could tell there was something he was holding back. There was an ever-present sadness in his eyes that made your heart break. He seemed cursed, as if there was something dark lurking underneath the surface. But he never shared too much with you. 

You scheduled your next meeting several weeks later and you waited for it impatiently, longing for moments alone with the man whom you loved. But unfortunately, luck was not on your side. Humphrey, who was supposed to be busy, had decided to join you. So he sat in the big chair while you stood behind him, your head down and your hands clasped behind your back. 

Remus sat uncomfortably in his chair, sneaking glances at you when your husband wasn’t looking. You were aware of how submissive and deferential you must have looked. You had never wanted Remus to see you like this, to see how truly trapped you were. You were afraid he’d pull away and realize that loving you was futile as you had no way to escape the shackles of your marriage. You longed to look into those hazel eyes and pretend that everything would be alright. But instead, your husband placed a rough hand on your arm and told you that it was time for the men to talk. 

You sat in the library and worried, afraid that Humphrey had somehow found out and was trying to confront Remus. But truly, what was there to find out? All there had been were lingering gazes and grazing touches of hands. You hadn’t dared to kiss him or even make it known how you felt. 

But when the meeting was over you watched Humphrey give Remus a cordial handshake and thank him for his services. Remus glanced at you for a split second, but his gaze quickly moved past you as if you weren’t even there. 

You feared that everything had been ruined. That he’d realize that you were too broken and too chained to be loved. But the next moment you had alone with him, he pulled you into a bone-crushing hug, the most contact the two of you had ever shared.

“He can’t treat you like that,” he murmured into your hair. You let out a shaky breath, holding back tears, and pressing a soft kiss to his shoulder. 

“He’s my husband, that’s how it’s supposed to be,” you replied. Remus pulled back and cupped your face. 

“No, it’s not. You deserve to be loved, not manhandled,” he said, his voice filled with a soft determination. You smiled sadly at him. 

“That’s how it’s supposed to be for women like me,” you said softly. Remus leaned forward and pressed his forehead against yours.

“He’s not worthy of you,” he whispered. You closed your eyes and sighed. 

“I don’t have a choice. I never did,” you murmured. 

Tentatively, Remus pressed his lips against yours. The kiss started out soft, his chapped lips moving gently against yours. Your mind was spinning and your legs went weak, this moment feeling like a dream. The way his hand was in your hair, cradling your head, and the way your body was flushed against his felt like something out of a fantasy. But soon, the kiss became more heated and more desperate, Remus’s lips pressed harshly against your mouth. When he finally pulled away you were breathless and dizzy, wishing that you could grab him by the collar and pull him back down. 

“You always have a choice,” he said, his voice gravelly as he whispered in your ear. And with that, he detached himself from your embrace and entered the library. 

As winter slowly turned to spring you spent every waking moment thinking of Remus and how you wished you could be with him instead. Your secret meetings became more frequent, filled with desperate kisses and unspoken confessions. The words often burned at the back of your throat, begging to escape and profess your feelings. You desperately wanted to tell him that you were irrevocably in love with him and you longed to know if he felt the same. But you knew that once those words spilled from your lips you could never take them back and things could never stay the same. But suddenly, you wished that things would finally change. 

You were often kept up at night with the fear that Humphrey would find out. That he’d catch a quick kiss in a darkened hallway or finally notice how Remus’s eyes lingered on you. You knew that if he found out you’d be on the receiving end of some unspeakable punishment. But you feared not only for your safety but the safety of your love as well. Humphrey was a scary man when he was angry, and you dreaded what your husband would do to Remus. 

On a brisk spring night, you sat in the study with Remus, an open bottle of wine on the desk. Humphrey was away on business so you took it upon yourself to schedule another “meeting” with Remus. He now sat at the desk and you stood between his legs, a bright smile stretched across your face. You sipped from your glass, reveling in the taste. It was an expensive bottle that Humphrey had imported from France and you knew that you weren’t supposed to drink it. 

Remus’s hand was settled on your hip as you talked, your faces so close that your lips almost touched as you spoke. You longed for moments like these, where you could bask in his affections unashamedly, without fearing getting caught. 

He brushed a stray hand of hair from your face and you suddenly became more somber, desperately staring into his eyes, your lip trembling slightly. His eyes furrowed as he sensed your mood change. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked softly. 

“Take me away from this place,” you pleaded, “Please.” Remus let out a trembling breath, his expression falling into one similar to yours. 

“You know that I can’t,” he whispered. You shook your head frantically, clutching the front of his shirt in your fists. 

“Yes, you can,” you said, “You, me, and Monty, we can all run away together.” Remus shook his head and looked away.

”No, we can’t,” he breathed. You felt tears pool in your eyes as you tried to convince him.

“Yes, we can! Monty adores you and I-” you took a deep breath, “and I love you.” You looked at him defiantly and unflinching, never surer of any statement in your life. Remus froze and stared at you, his mouth agape. 

“You don’t love me, you can’t,” he replied. 

“I do Remus,” you said softly, your grip on his clothes loosening. 

“You can’t. I’m poor and I’m-” he paused, seemingly trying to gather his words. “I’m ill,” he finally settled upon, “I can’t take care of you.” You cupped his cheek and shook your head. 

“I don’t care about any of that,” you whispered, “And you’d take far better care of me than he does. You already do.” Remus sighed before pressing a burning kiss to your lips. 

“When does Humphrey get back?” he asked as he pulled back. 

“Two days,” you answered. Remus closed his eyes, mulling something over. He finally leaned over, kissing your forehead lightly before speaking. 

“Go pack your bags,” he whispered. You smiled at him before turning to leave the room, ready to grab your and Monty’s essentials. But before you could leave he grabbed your sleeve, spinning you around to face him. Your faces were so close you could feel his breath fan across your face. 

“I love you,” he murmured softly. You simply smiled before grabbing your bags and gently waking Monty, preparing to break out of the tower that confined you. Ready to live the life you had always wanted with the man that you loved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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[telaraneas]

man i have so many words about homestuck but no one to talk to about it with. aimless ramble about classpects under the cut (disclaimer that other people have probably said the same things in much more concise ways, i literally finished homestuck like 3 days ago)

so, the way i actually understand aspects and classes in homestuck is that aspect = themes and class = arc. so, like, class and aspect as i think of them are not assigned as a role to play per se, like, they're not prophetic, they're descriptive. ive been reading a lot of old forum discussions from early act 6 because i crave whatever speculation and live analysis was going on at the time. and back then there was a lot of, for instance, "i wonder what the prince class is supposed to do, since eridan probably fucked it up" and im sitting here with the benefit of living almost a decade later and having read the entire story by that point, and im like, no, see, it's actually impossible to "fail" at your class in my opinion because they're descriptive, not predictive. so whatever a character did by the time homestuck actually ended (...with the caveat that i havent yet read the epilogues or the sequel), that was what they were supposed to do in the game/story, because like. that IS what they did.

like in the same way we have descriptive words for specific character archetypes in fiction, because i do think classpects are basically just That, like, for example, (to go. really really basic) princess peach in the original mario game may be a shitty female character but she's a perfect representation of the damsel in distress archetype. the "damsel in distress" denomination here is descriptive of the role she plays in the story of that game (to the extent it has one), whether or not it was consciously written that way, and it's assigned from the outside looking in at the finished game, not necessarily written from the outset to be that way. eg how inexperienced authors often end up writing what is commonly described as "mary sue" characters, even though most of them do not deliberately set out to write characters like that, obviously. the term "mary sue" here is descriptive, not prescriptive (and ofc the term itself has been dilluted to the point it's barely useful, this was just an example)

so like, an author may set out to write a character in a specific way, or to fill a specific role, and they may succeed or they may not; but a reader analyzing the story will interpret the story as they see fit, and will be the judge of how THEY would describe the characters. ofc interpretations may vary from reader to reader, but generally speaking when it comes to the role a character plays in the story, eg do they have agency, what function do they have towards advancing the plot, what are the dominant themes and ideas of the story and how does this character play into it etc etc will, at least to the individual reader, be informed by the work as a whole, not by the author's intent. the character's actions in the work as a whole as written by the author and interpreted by the reader speak for themselves.

i think i've gotten lost somewhere along the line here. this is all true and part of what i meant to say but i cant figure out how to connect it to my point. which is that i think the classes arent meant so much as rpg classes that dictate what you are capable of doing, so much as they're a descriptive label that sums up the role a character plays in the story. like the time loop stuff, it's not that a character MUST fulfill their role, it's that they already HAVE from the perspective of the finished story taken as a whole.

anyways all of this that ive said about classpects being descriptive and not prescriptive is ignoring the very obvious reality that homestuck itself was not written from the outside looking in, but in fact was often improvised from what i can tell, especially in regards to the arcs and themes of the more minor characters such as the trolls, but ofc it has the benefit that because its author is the one coming up with the classpect system in the first place, it gets to set its own definition. so in effect, the classpects in homestuck are self-descriptive; each title is an intrinsically correct description of the character's arc and themes, in the exact same way that the character's NAME is an intrinsically correct description of what the character is called. i think this is the whole reason why afaik there hasnt actually been explicit descriptions of what most of the classes do, and why there were only like 3 or 4 explicit in-universe descriptions of the classes, because if hussie said that a character's class means exclusively X thing, and then that character goes and does Y instead and never does X, then the story has contradicted itself

but instead, by keeping most of them vague, the classes become inherently self-descriptive. it's impossible to say that character A has failed their role as class B, because character A is part of the definition of class B. self-descriptive

(like how once in the adventure zone travis mentioned being shocked that people online were saying that something his character did was "out of character", to which he answered something to the effect of "what do you MEAN it's out of character, i write the character and he did that!". whatever actions character A takes are, by definition, in-character for character A; if this doesn't sit right with the viewer, they may say that this makes them an incoherent and/or badly written character, but by definition the character IS defined by the actions as written by the author. self-descriptive)

bringing it back to the eridan example, it's impossible for eridan to "fail" at being a prince of hope; eridan IS the prince of hope, and thus, whatever he did IS "what the prince of hope was supposed to do", which in this case meant being someone whose character is defined and tortured by his own hopes, beliefs, and convictions, until he reaches a breaking point and destroys his own aspect not just for himself but for those around him.

without context as to what a prince is "supposed" to do, it's easy to assume he must have failed in his role because of how he very literally destroyed the presence of hope in the part he played of the story, but in-universe the classes are descriptive and not prescriptive: eridan is the prince of hope BECAUSE of the role he played in the story, not in spite of it.

in any case, this whole mess is my way of saying that this is why assigning class and aspect to characters from non-homestuck media is, for me at least, very fun and illuminating! because, while in homestuck they may be self-descriptive, for non-homestuck media they are inherently just descriptive. you just need to analyze the characters, as you, the reader, understand them, and pinpoint their core essence as a character via their character arc and dominant themes. and it can illuminate interesting parallels, trends and contrasts in the story as it exists. it's kind of like a birds eye view character analysis cheat sheet and that makes it very fun dkfnekmf

[bigskydreaming]

For @imashittalkingmushroom who requested some Tim content. Excerpt from one of the seemingly endless WIPs I toil away at in my downtime because me pace myself, in this economy, hah. This one’s called “The Vienna Game” and is Batfam ensemble versus a new rising threat, which Tim has a revelation about here. This part is just a rough draft for the moment, but you get the idea.

THE VIENNA GAME

Chapter Five: Pawn Storm

Barely five minutes after Tim’s head hit his pillow, he sat bolt upright in bed, heart hammering in his throat.

“They’re all connected,” he said, wide-eyed to an empty room. The lack of a response bequeathed by his surroundings was a bit, well, lacking, so he leaped to his feet and raced down to the hall to the Batcave’s nearest access point.

“They’re all connected,” he shouted again as he took the rough-hewn stone stairs three at a time. His words bounced and rattled off the walls of the cave, winging upwards into its darkest recesses and rousing the bats from their nests overhead. They scattered in every direction, deeper into the darkness, as they reacted to his urgency and intensity with shrieking complaints.

If only his actual family could be similarly moved. But no, they had to suck instead.

“Whozit whatzit howzit?” Dick swiveled in his chair, just enough to shoot the younger boy a quizzical eyebrow but not enough to necessitate removing his feet from next to the Batcomputer’s keyboard, where Bruce was currently drilling holes into them with a patented (and thus wholly ineffective) Batglare.

“What is it Lassie? Did Timmy fall down the well again? One bark for yes, two for no,” Jason said brightly. He bent at the waist and braced his hands on his thighs as though actually talking to a dog; it had the unfortunate side-effect of making his stupid brother a stupid firmly planted rock that did little more than shift the merest micro-meter when Tim rolled his eyes and brusquely shouldered past him.

“That doesn’t even make any sense. I’m Timmy,” he said irritably. Too late he realized the trap he’d blearily wandered into as his jackass brother practically cackled with glee. Tim reddened and quickened his pace to the Batcomputer. “Oh shut up.”

Jason swivelled, but whatever his intended follow-up, he abruptly cut off as an apple core arced out of the shadows and bounced off his head. The second eldest pivoted sharply once more and scowled in the direction it’d come from as Tim absently took note of the several other apple cores scattered around Jason’s feet.

“Would you stop that?”

Cassandra, target of his ire, merely contemplated him for a beat before shaking her head. 

“No thank you,” she politely declined, and she bit into a fresh apple with a loud crunch.

“You will be cleaning those up, not Alfred,” their father said, wearily enough Tim got the sense this had been going on for quite some time. His sister just shrugged. 

“Worth it.”

Bruce exercised the better part of valor and shifted his attention back to Tim. “And didn’t you say you were going to bed?”

“I did say that,” Tim said agreeably as he barreled forth unto the Batcomputer. He batted (hah - oh no, the sleep deprivation was real) Dick’s feet aside and rebutted Dick’s injurious expression with an apologetic one of his own; apparently appeased, Dick just lithely shrugged and lifted his linked legs straight off the desk’s surface and then just never stopped. Instead he kept lifting his legs up, up and away until he’d transitioned into a perfect handstand on the seat of the chair, which he then transitioned out of by gracefully flipping over the chair’s back and onto his feet. Because see, Tim’s eldest brother’s middle name was not in fact ‘John,’ it was ‘Just That Extra.’

“I even did that,” Tim continued as he set his fingers to dancing swiftly across the keyboard. “But then I realized something.”

“You look ridiculous when you pop your collar,” Steph said knowingly.

“What? No. Wait, when have I ever done that?”

“Umm, the last time you were drunk, duh.”

Tim paused just long enough to shoot his ex an absolutely baffled look, over where she was lounging bonelessly next to Cass. 

“When was I drunk?”

Steph tilted her head to the side and squinted in thought. “Drunk, concussed....whatever. It was definitely one of those two. I have pictures. They’re not good.”

Perhaps sensing his impending spontaneous combustion, Bruce interceded, raising a hand to quiet the perpetual storm of sibling (and Steph) nonsense.

“What’s this about, Tim?”

“Our newest Rogue, the one we just finally caught last week,” Tim reported, turning his attention back to the Dance of the Keystrokes. “We have a problem.”

Their father frowned. “Desperado? What’s the problem?”

“His name,” Tim said grimly. He finished pulling up the string of files he’d only minutes ago linked together in his own mind. Flashing into existence on the wall to wall screens before them were all the notes the various members of their family had compiled on the new villain in town, as well as a number of other files for a good dozen or so other relatively new or unknown villains scattered across the globe, with these latter documents pulled from the digital archives of various superhero teams and law enforcement agencies worldwide.

Blitz, a speedster located in Southern California, their indistinct form pixelated and blurred virtue of the crackling halo of electrical energy they seemed to wear like a cloak of St. Elmo’s Fire. 

A Filipino man and woman purported to be fraternal twins operating out of a number of hotspots throughout Southeast Asia, with a combined name whose translation from Tagalog roughly amounted to ‘Double Check.’

A young brunette woman seemingly barely out of her teens, with eyes hidden behind an overly large pair of sunglasses, linked to a series of crimes in Argentina and Chile and allegedly going by the name ‘Swindle.’

A black man in his mid to late twenties, moving across the Iberian peninsula, with no reported name given, just a strange adherence to a symbol that appeared to be of a windmill, of all things, and that had local press dubbing him ‘Don Quixote.’

King March, a white man in his late forties to early fifties, with black hair and greying temples and a stern but smug disposition in all the files Interpol had compiled on him due to his frequent appearances as a person of interest throughout Eastern Europe.

A short, acrobatic Latino teleporter who offered up only the name ‘Castle’ in his sporadic run-ins with various hero organizations across the globe. 

Tempo, suspected to originally hail from Sri Lanka, and last sighted in Hong Kong of all places...and by no means the only one of this assortment of individuals engaged in criminal enterprises in a city known for its Batman Inc presence. 

Undermine, a masked man so far content to operate just out of Australia.

Flag Fall, another masked individual largely spotted in the Southeastern U.S.

An unseen person or persons known only by a calling card left in various Saharan regions, identifying them as someone named ‘Tabia.’

And lastly, a mature black woman out of the UK, sporting a wry, enigmatic smile in the only known picture of her, alongside her alleged pseudonym: Zugzwang.

“It was pretty much total coincidence I put it together,” Tim said as his family gathered more closely behind him to survey the assembled files over his shoulder. “I’d come across most these files over the past couple months, just in passing, as I like to familiarize myself with the various players in most Batman Inc. operating cities, and I was just reading this last file before bed, just to kinda wind down, y’know....”

“That sentence makes me so sad I don’t even have the heart to make fun of you,” Jason interrupted. He frowned. “Wait, that implies I have a heart. Hang on, that doesn’t sound right. And is this, what, sympathy I’m feeling right now? Eww, that is not the emotion I ordered. Take it back.”

Tim glared at him briefly, and then foraged on. “Anyway, as I was saying, I happened to be reading this last file before bed, and her name stuck out for me and from there I just started connecting some dots. See, alone, none of these names stand out as particularly significant, but put them together, and what happens?”

“They all have multiple meanings,” Damian said, scowling at the screens with focused intensity. “Mostly innocuous, but they’re also all....hmm. Chess terminology.”

Tim nodded enthusiastically. “Bingo! Ten points to Stabby Smurf.”

He bent over the keyboard again and started pulling up various video files, catching sight of reflections out of the corner of his eye as he did so. Duke seemed to be mouthing “Stabby Smurf” with a kind of horrified awe and Damian himself seemed unable to decide if he was offended or not. Whoops, that part hadn’t been meant to come out aloud. Tim coughed to cover a grimace slash smirk and hastened back to his point. 

“For instance, based on geographical location alone, Flag Fall seems to be an obvious reference to an actual flag, but the term also refers to timed chess matches, when a given player has run out of time to make a move. Swindle isn’t just a term for cheating or fraud, but in chess, refers to when a losing player tricks their opponent into falling for a decoy move that ends the game in a draw instead of a loss. King march is a term for when you advance your king up the board, tempo is a single turn or move, a double check is when two different pieces put an opponent’s king in check simultaneously, and undermining is when you capture a defensive piece of your opponent’s and leave their king undefended.”

He stopped for a breath and Damian quickly stepped into the breach and picked up where he left off, seamlessly following the train of thought. “And Tabia comes from the Arabic for ‘essence,’ but in chess is a key point, specifically a point of departure from which you can perform any number of signature moves. The windmill symbol utilized by this individual in Spain and its surrounding regions most likely then does not reference Don Quixote, but rather a looped series of moves, usually brought upon by a rook and a bishop, which forces an opponent’s king to ‘windmill’ back and forth between just two or three squares in order to keep out of check.”

“And then Blitz of course refers to a specific opening gambit, that can bring about checkmate in four moves or less,” Tim resumed. “And while Castle has so far been assumed to be nothing more than a surname according to various heroes who have encountered him, largely no doubt due to the fact that he doesn’t affect any kind of costume or disguise, when you consider that pretty much all his demonstrations of teleportation utilize a kind of ‘switching’ of two persons’ relative placement in space/time, either as a signature or an actual staple of his power, its far more likely his name is a reference to ‘castling.’ Which of course then just brings us back to Zugzwang, which is a German term that loosely translates to ‘compulsion to move’ and specifically denotes any scenario in chess in which a player has no choice but to move, even though all moves available to them are inevitably going to worsen their position.”

They all took a minute to absorb that then, speed-reading their way through the various files with all the quickness that made it an actual possibility one or more of them might someday make it all the way through a read-through of the entire Wayne Manor Library, even taking into account the minimal time any of them allotted to the having of actual ‘hobbies.’

It was Cass who found something new to seize upon next, though she never once flicked her eyes away from where they tracked the movements of one videoed individual to the next, screen by screen. 

“It’s not just the names,” she reported, scrutinizing each figure intently. “They move alike. When they fight. Its not a lot. But enough that they probably trained together, or at least shared a teacher.”

Tim nodded again. “I thought so too, but I wasn’t sure. I don’t have your eye for that, but it seemed like they might.”

“Reeet, record scratch,” Steph jumped in then. “Not to be all ‘talk nerdy to me, baby,’ since we don’t do that any more and whoops, totally forgot for a second that your dad is legit standing right here, wow, awkwaaaaaard, but for those of us still waiting to buy a vowel, why is this a problem with that Desperado dude specifically?”

“Because we’ve been operating off of the assumption that he chose his name as a more obvious reference to simply being some kind of outlaw,” Bruce said. “But in terms of chess specifically, a desperado piece is any piece that is trapped or in danger, and then sacrifices itself to achieve some kind of maximum damage or compensation that greatly outweighs the loss of itself.”

Steph nodded and pursed her lips. “Cool, cool. Okay so first off, let me just say how glad I am that it was you in specific that decided to follow up on that. Definitely the best of all timelines there, like just so, so absolutely stellar, that. It in no way compounded the awkwardness of the moment or contributed to my pending death by mortification. Secondly, oh, like. Yikes, so that’s not great, huh.”

“No, its not,” Bruce said seriously, with only the barest of twitches in the proximity of those things other people use to smile, aka lips. “If all of this turns out to bear fruit, as I suspect it will, the relative ease with which this Desperado was captured is nothing short of ominous. But luckily, we now have a chance to get ahead of whatever else might be in the works there. Excellent work, Tim.”

Tim squirmed, digging deep into the well of his bodily mastery and various techniques for exerting mind over matter. Don’t blush, don’t blush, you’re a super cool crime-fighting dude, not a total dweeb. “Like I said, it was mostly just dumb luck.”

“Hey now, none of that, Baby Bird,” Dick said, clapping him on the shoulder. “You still had to spot the pattern and connect the dots no matter how circumstantial you feel happening across the first dot was. That’s all you, kiddo.”

“Dick, I’m almost eighteen,” Tim whined. Ugh, his brother was the worst. He was going to be calling him Baby Bird when he was eighty at this point. And there went all his attempts at bodily mastery. Insult was added to injury when he stumbled to the side, then, though that had more to do with Jason hip-checking him out of the way so he could take over at the Batcomputer’s keyboard.

“Hey! What the hell was that for, Jay?”

“Umm, saving your ass, duh,” his other older brother said. Tim narrowed his eyes.

“That tracks how, exactly?”

“You were well on your way to immolation by way of embarrassment thanks to all the attention, so I’m stealing your thunder, double duh. Like I said, saving your ass. You’re welcome,” Jason said distractedly, busy with whatever else he was doing aside from being King of the Assholes.

Correction. That brother was the worst.

“Gee, thanks ever so much,” Tim intoned acidly.

“Don’t mention it, brat.”

Tim was still working on a return volley when Jason found whatever it was he was looking for and called up some more files onscreen.

“Okay, so check it out. Remember back in March, when we caught wind of some ‘new talent’ looking to establish a foothold in the local underground, and once we routed them, the only head honcho we could seemingly trace all of that back to was someone we assumed to be named Cassie or Cassandra based on what little we could decrypt of her communications? So now I’m thinking what if we filled in the gaps there wrong, and her name actually was Caissa?”

Tim looked around, but the name didn’t seem to be ringing any bells for anyone else either. 

“Okay, I’ll bite. Who the hell is Caissa?”

“The fictional regurgitation of some plagiaristic hack from two hundred years ago.”

“Jason,” Bruce sighed. Jason rolled his eyes.

“Fine, whatever. So there’s this poem by this untalented dumbass named William Jones back in the 1700s, about a made-up Greek goddess of chess, named Caissa. But really, its just a rip-off of a much older poem from the 1500s by an Italian dude named Hieronymus Vida, in which the character of Caissa was originally named Scacchia. So I mean, I’m just saying, if this chick was going by the name Scacchia, I would have pegged what that was a reference to right away, because like, I have taste and so I’m way more familiar with the original version than the ode of a derivative hack. But I guess you just can’t count on bad guys to default to the superior take,” he lamented with a mournful sigh.

“But wait, aren’t you a bad guy?” Duke inquired, all bright eyes and fake innocence. Jason shot him A Look.

“Not this week, duh. Keep up.”

“Oh, sorry, my bad. I forgot to look at the calendar again.”

“You’re forgiven,” Jason said magnaminously. “Anyway, might just be a hunch, but worth looking into, I’d say. If her name really was actually Caissa, this Desperado could be working for her, and he might actually just be Round Two.”

Cass nodded. “Makes sense. Also restores my good name. Thanks little brother.”

“Any time, little sister. This mean you’ll stop throwing shit at me now?”

“Nope.”

“I hate you.”

“I know. Keeps me up at night.”

“You’re nocturnal, you bipedal asshat.”

Cass just smirked some more and sashayed away. Then flipped into a handstand and started walking away on her hands because clearly, she’d been spending too much time with Dick.

Which reminded him - Tim turned his attention back to his oldest brother, mortification forgotten or at least put on hold for the moment. 

“Hey, so, a lot of the files noted that several of these people are likely polyglots,” Tim said. “Since Cass thinks they have some kind of shared combat instruction in their background, I’m thinking there’s a chance we could get a better idea of what regions they all might have been in, in order to get that shared instruction, if we could isolate what languages or dialects or even accents they might have in common, y’know? You’ve got the best ear for languages, what do you think?”

Dick nodded thoughtfully as he perused several of the files. “Its a good idea. I’ll get into it. First though, I’ve gotta make a few calls.”

Their father shot him an appraising glance. “Harper?” He asked.

Dick nodded again. “Yeah, Roy, but also Helena and Tiger. Can’t hurt to have all three of them read in on this. Where there’s smoke there’s fire, and where there’s chess, there’s bound to be Checkmate. I’d find it way too big a coincidence if there’s not a connection there somewhere, and if there is one to be found, I’d say those three are our best chance of finding it.”

Bruce made a sour face. Dick arched a challenging eyebrow. Bruce sighed.

“I’m not disagreeing, I just don’t like it.”

Dick laughed. “Well, you don’t like anything, so really we’re all just in awe of your dedication to your Brand, Pops.”

Bruce rolled his eyes and sighed again, before turning his attention back to Tim. “As for you, I think you’ve contributed enough for one night, don’t you? Why don’t you get back to what you were doing before this....what was that again....oh right, getting some sleep?”

Tim made a face of his own. He was way too keyed up now - again - still - to go back to bed now. And again, must he reiterate, he was almost eighteen, helloooooo.

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

“Oh good, I’m so glad that’s what’s catching on as the family motto.”

“Don’t see you going to bed,” Tim sulked in a most mature fashion. The absolute height of maturity. Nay, the apogee, the zenith, we’re talking orbital here.

“Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne,” Jason interrupted in a thunderous facsimile of their father’s impressive baritone. “This is a Do As I Say, Not As I Do household!”

“This from the son who makes an art form out of never doing either,” Bruce said dryly.

Jason shrugged and buffed his nails against his chest, blithely unconcerned. “I go my own way. Its part of my charm.”

“Oh cool,” Duke cut in excitedly. “Are we playing that game again where we just make up our own definitions that have nothing to do with the actual words we say?”

Jason gasped and pressed his palm flat over his heart. “Et tu, Daisy Dukes?”

Duke nodded gravely. “Et mi, Sweeney Todd.”

“Boys,” Bruce said wearily. 

Both stopped and shot him expectant looks.

“What?”

“I actually have no idea, to be honest. It just feels like one of those things I should attempt to say periodically. Never mind. Carry on.”

Jason snorted and rolled his eyes at Duke as the two of them wandered off towards the opposite end of the cave. “As if we were ever going to do otherwise. He’s so weird sometimes, I swear.”

Duke hummed in agreement. “I think its on account of him being an ancient eldritch being.”

“I’m only forty-two,” Bruce called after them, aggrieved. They ignored him.

“Did you know, he was actually there to witness the actual dawn of time,” Jason said. “And yet, wake him up before noon and its like you’ve committed murder. And I would know. I’ve actually murdered people.”

“That’s true, you have.”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 20, 2020

Heather Cox Richardson

The news today remains Trump’s unprecedented attempt to steal an election in which voters chose his opponents, Democratic candidate Joe Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, by close to 6 million votes, so far. A close second to that news is that the leadership of the Republican Party is not standing up to the president, but is instead seemingly willing to let him burn down the country to stay in office.

Never before in our history has a president who has lost by such a convincing amount tried to claw out a win by gaming the system. Biden has not only won the popular vote by more than any challenger of an incumbent since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s win in 1932, but also has won crucial states by large margins. He is ahead by more than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania, almost 160,000 votes in Michigan, and between 11,000 and 34,000 each in Georgia, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada.

And yet, only two Senate Republicans—Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Ben Sasse (R-NE)-- have called Trump out for refusing to accept the results of the election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has simply said he is willing to let the process play out. In the House, only two Republicans have said they oppose Trump’s attempt to steal the election. Kay Granger (R-TX) and Fred Upton (R-MI) said there is no evidence of fraud and it is time to move on.

State leaders, though, have refused to do Trump’s bidding. Today, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, certified Georgia’s vote for Biden. Also today, two top Republicans in the Michigan legislature, whom Trump had invited to the White House apparently to enlist their help in overturning the vote in their state, issued a statement about what happened in their meeting with the president.

Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and Michigan Speaker of the House Lee Chatfield said they used their time with the president to press him for more money to help Michigan fight the coronavirus, which continues to rage across the country.

As for the election, they said “We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors…. Michigan’s certification process should be a deliberate process free from threats and intimidation. Allegations of fraudulent behavior should be taken seriously, thoroughly investigated, and if proven, prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And the candidates who win the most votes win elections and Michigan’s electoral votes.”

Central to Trump’s argument is that Democrats have cheated, even though his own former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Christopher Krebs, said the election was “the most secure in American history,” and “there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” Krebs was the first director of CISA, an independent agency established within the Department of Homeland Security in 2018, and he worked hard to protect the election from foreign intervention despite the fact the president appeared to be angling for just such intervention.

Krebs’s defense of the security of our elections led to Trump firing him—by tweet—with Trump falsely asserting: “[t]he recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud - including dead people voting, Poll Watchers not allowed into polling locations, ‘glitches’ in the voting machines which changed votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more.”

Trump’s attempt to throw out Democratic votes and lay claim to victory in an election that he lost by quite a lot is the culmination of a generation of Republican rhetoric claiming that Democratic votes are illegitimate.

Beginning in 1986, Republican operatives began to talk about cutting down Black voting under a “ballot integrity” initiative in hopes that would depress Democratic votes. They bitterly opposed the Democrats’ expansion of voter registration in 1993 under the “Motor Voter” law, which permitted voter registration at certain state offices. By 1994, losing Republican candidates insisted that their Democratic opponents had won only through “voter fraud,” although voter fraud remains so exceedingly rare as to be virtually non-existent. They fought for voter ID laws that tended to disfranchise Democrats, and immediately after the landmark 2013 Shelby v. Holder decision in which the Supreme Court gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Republican state officials introduced voter ID laws and bills restricting voter registration.

In addition to suppressing Democratic votes, recent Republican leaders also took the manipulative system of gerrymandering to new extremes in order to make sure Democrats could not win power. In 2010, party operatives raised money from corporate donors to make sure that state legislatures would be controlled by Republicans that year, as states redistricted for the following decade. After 2010, Republican controlled the key states of Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio, and Michigan, as well as other, smaller states, and they redrew congressional maps using precise computer models. In the 2012 election, Democrats won the White House decisively, the Senate easily, and won a majority of 1.4 million votes for House candidates. But Republicans came away with a 33-seat majority in the House of Representatives.

Gerrymandering meant that Republicans did not have to attract moderate voters. Instead, Republican candidates had to worry about challenges from further right. Over time, they became more and more extreme. At the same time, without competition, they fielded increasingly weak candidates, who doubled down on inflammatory rhetoric rather than advancing viable policies.

Increasingly, Republicans insisted that Democrats were anti-American “socialists,” a theme Trump picked up and ran with in his 2020 construction of his opponents as “radical left” extremists who would destroy the country. Trump said "I'm not just running against Biden — Sleepy Joe — I'm running against the corrupt media, the big tech giants, the Washington swamp. And the Democrat Party is a part of all of them — every single one of them. They flood your communities with criminal aliens, drugs and crime, while they live behind beautiful gated compounds." When the Democrats won, Trump promptly insisted that Democrats had cheated.

Aside from the outcome of this particular election, this attempt of Republican leaders to delegitimize the Democratic Party is an assault on our democracy. Here’s why:

Democracy requires at least two healthy political parties, so there is always an organized opposition to the party in power. Having a party that stands in opposition to those in power does two things: it enables people to disagree with current leadership while staying loyal to the nation, and it provides a means for oversight of the people running the government.

Until the early 1700s, in Europe, the monarch was the state. Either you were loyal to the king, or you were a traitor. Gradually, though, the British political thinkers from whom Americans drew their inspiration began to object to the policies of the British monarchy while remaining loyal to the government. They developed the idea of a loyal opposition. This was an important development in political thought, because it meant that a person could be loyal to the country (and keep his head firmly on his shoulders) while criticizing government policies.

It also meant that the people in power would have oversight to keep them on the straight and narrow. There’s nothing like opponents watching you for any potential scandal to keep corruption to a minimum.

During the establishment of the early American republic, the Framers of the Constitution briefly imagined that since the colonists had thrown off the king they would no longer need an opposition. But almost immediately—as early as President George Washington’s administration—men who disagreed with Washington’s policies organized their own party under Thomas Jefferson to oppose those in power. Jeffersonians offered to voters an alternative set of policies, and a way to put them into practice without overthrowing the government itself. This recognition of a loyal opposition was key to more than 200 years of peaceful transfers of power.…

until now.

Trump is rejecting the idea that Democrats can legally win an election. As this crisis drags on, more and more of his followers are echoing his insistence that the Democrats could not possibly win except by cheating. There is no evidence to support this claim. Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly admitted as much in court. It is rather a rejection of the possibility that Democrats can legitimately govern.

Our democracy depends on our ability both to criticize our government and to believe that we can legitimately elect a different set of leaders to advance different policies. If we lose the concept of a loyal opposition, we must all declare allegiance to the king.

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[piyex51770-blog]

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If you are paying $ 3,000 for all of this and still not getting good results, this is not a good thing. But here's something you might not know ... Some advertising agencies that hire you as clients get "2 opinions" from reputed marketing consultants (like me) to ensure the success of their clients Can. They will charge you Rs 3,000 for a package deal, then hire you to review everything for an hour and talk about specific changes and strategies according to the marketing consultant.

And advertising agencies and marketing agencies, all controlled by the Internet, operate in a similar way. You see a lot of people talking about internet marketing and internet marketing strategies, but don't really know how to get them into the game. Sure, everyone is talking about video marketing, blogging, YouTube, email marketing, SEO, etc., but if you have tried this basic platform and still don't make the money you want , Then spin your wheels.

And often this is done by many advertising and marketing agencies. Do you know that some companies can also give you fake results? They go out and buy testimonials from somewhere, or they buy fake Facebook and Twitter followers and add them to their account so that they look legitimate. this is fact. I don't do it - because it's a waste of money and the real truth comes from real results, but more than that ... if they don't keep your promises to help them make more money, then they will essentially give you cheat you. Do you agree

The difference between most advertising and Internet marketing agencies is that they use certain technologies that are based on tradition. On the other hand, I rely on a very modern strategy. I'm talking about strategies that work out of the box - no matter what your website looks like, how much traffic you're currently getting, or how much money you're currently making.

If you are currently losing money online, many advertising agencies do not know how to fix this problem and how to fix it. They will present you what they want to hear, pay you, and hope that they can solve your problem. While some agencies charge you a one-time fee, some work on a recurring monthly payment basis. For example, if you hire an SEO firm to manage your search engine rankings, you will have to pay them monthly to do so. And the fee they charge you will be very high.

When it comes to the marketing style that most advertising agencies use, you will see the difference between their style and the style that people will bring you immediate benefits. I personally work under the guise of "instant profit" marketing. There should be no waiting or "finding your name" or exposure marketing for your campaign to work.

If you design a business card and deliver it to 100 new prospects or customers in a month, the business card should immediately turn those prospects into leads and customers. This is an aspect that has an advanced aspect - but many marketing agencies ignore this important marketing tool and only design boring and standard business cards - that won't bring in new business.

While hiring an internet marketing consultant or an advertising agency, there are just a few things to keep in mind as you will either make or lose money at the end of the day.

[bhvonbaseball-blog]

Why Baseball's Hall of Fame Must Stand Firm Against Steroids

From:   B.H.V., a baseball fan in Lawrence, Kansas. To:   HOF Chairman Jane Forbes Clark, HOF Board of Directors, Living HOFers, and Writers who Voted for Clean Sport

Dear Chairman Clark, Thank you for taking time to read my letter.

I’m writing you because I’m deeply concerned about the Baseball Hall of Fame and its continued integrity and relevance.

Known steroid users are approaching imminent induction.

Clean sport is essential, and I fear that these inductions will disgrace, shame, and scuttle our cherished institution.  We also stand to lose the integrity of the game and the reputation of the Hall of Fame.

In this letter I’ll lay out briefly the context, problem, and a possible solution.

CONTEXT During the 2000s baseball had its first major reckoning with the Steroid Era.  The rippling effects of the BALCO investigation, Congressional hearings, and Mitchell Report highlighted and captured that decade’s prevailing outrage from fans, media, and the government.  We believed that baseball’s home run records, batting titles, and MVP awards were earned by clean and legitimate play on the field.  

This outrage prompted reforms including drug-testing and penalties.

It was unthinkable that steroid cheaters one day would reach striking distance of Hall of Fame induction.  But that’s where we stand today.

I am saddened and angered that we’ve reached this point only a decade following investigations which uncovered the truth.

AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS Our Hall of Fame faces the gravest existential crisis in our 84-year history.

Please consider the harm in honoring steroid users alongside existing baseball greats.

Do we want living Hall of Famers skipping induction ceremonies, as Vice Chairman Joe Morgan has asked?  Do we want Induction Weekend turning into a media spectacle and a farce?  This could brew discontent and division among those who cherish baseball.

How can parents warn their children not to take steroids, when steroid cheaters are glorified with plaques in the Hall of Fame Gallery?

Can we condone the Hall of Fame’s fading into cultural irrelevance, as fewer visitors pass through our gates and jeopardize our financial stability?

TELLING BASEBALL’S STORY AND HONORING BASEBALL’S GREATS Steroid apologists advance straw-man arguments including the following:  “Should the Hall of Fame be a museum where we document and tell the story of baseball, or should the Hall of Fame be a shrine where we honor baseball’s greats?”.

To me, this argument is binary, misleading, and dishonest.  It also shirks us of our responsibility to be custodians of the game.

To clarify, the Hall of Fame has two sections.

One section is a museum, which tells baseball’s story.

The other section is a plaque gallery, which honors baseball’s greats.

The museum features un-scrubbed, asterisk-free, and raw numbers.  It showcases equipment and artifacts from players who acquired 762 home runs, seven Cy Young awards, batting titles, MVP honors, and eight-figure contracts. The museum lists records and makes no distinctions between records obtained by steroid use and those earned by hard work.

The museum cannot tell baseball’s complete history by excluding steroid users.  So it includes them.  The museum tells the unvarnished story — good and bad — of a 150-year-old sport.  Virtually no one voices serious complaints about the museum and its exhibits.  The museum provides a showcase for and a narrative about the game.  This is as it should be.

On the other hand, the plaque gallery features players upon whom we bestow honors.  Traditionally, admission to this plaque gallery has been selective.  Admission has been granted after careful deliberation over honorees’ adherence to the spirit and principles of the game.

The plaque gallery is not a shrine, and its honorees are not saints.  Some honorees are highly flawed yet decent individuals.  Other honorees, by today’s standards, are beyond redemption.  These honorees carried out deeds and bore attitudes in conflict with good sport and human decency.  But the mistakes of our forbearers don’t absolve us of the responsibility to get elections right during our time.  Just as we are required to do in our criminal justice system, we are charged to handle HOF elections justly today, even if elections were handled wrongly in the past.

To reiterate, our Hall of Fame does two things: It tells baseball’s story, and it honors baseball’s greats.  This is a tradition worth keeping.

RECENT HALL OF FAME VOTING Since 1936, the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) has handled HOF voting privileges.

Five years ago, the BBWAA gave less than 36% support to steroid cheaters.  Cheaters’ candidacies seemed dead.

Since then, writers have advanced arguments like the straw man argument I mentioned earlier.  Many others have parroted and adopted these arguments to justify voting ‘yes’ for steroid cheaters.  In addition, the larger voter base has turned over, as newer writers acquire voting privileges, and older writers lose voting privileges.

Here’s where we stand:  Baseball’s two most infamous steroid cheaters have attained a supermajority of nearly 60% of BBWAA votes.  They are barreling toward the 75% they need for election.  Weak newcomer classes will debut in 2020 and 2021, and as a result the two steroid cheaters will be elected – soon.

After that, in 2022 a three-time MVP will debut on the ballet.  In the 2013 Biogenesis scandal he confessed steroid abuse to criminal investigators representing the Drug Enforcement Agency.  His 2022 ballot debut will compound the Hall of Fame’s steroid crisis.  Voters, having elected the first two steroid cheaters, will find it difficult to deny this newcomer the same honor.

In all, BBWAA voters have been driving this march toward inducting steroid users.  These voters are driven by groupthink, peer pressure, and false logic.

PRIVILEGE, RESPONSIBILITY, AND RESPECT FOR THE PROCESS For years BBWAA voters have been abusing and disgracing their election privileges.

Some BBWAA voters submit blank protest ballots, lowering voting percentages for all Hall of Fame candidates.  Other BBWAA voters ‘trade horses’ with fellow writers by snubbing surefire HOF candidates in order to boost viability of down-ballot candidates.  Other voters select only one or two candidates, an irresponsible voting practice when recent ballots have featured seven or more deserving candidates.

These BBWAA voters – and there have been many – dishonor HOF voting and make a mockery of the process.

How can we defend continuing this 84-year tradition, of entrusting BBWAA voters with HOF-voting honors and responsibilities?

PROPOSAL:  HALL OF FAME VOTING COMMITTEE We should establish a hall of fame voting committee.  This will align our process with those of other sports’ halls of fame.

This voting committee ought to be large, balanced, and averse to cronyism.  Its mix should include Hall of Famers, executives, and people who study, write about, and broadcast baseball for a living.  

In addition the committee must include analytics experts, who can champion players undervalued by traditional baseball statistics.  In today’s game all 30 MLB teams employ analytics to drive their scouting, drafting, and payroll decisions.  Analytics devotees on the committee can help us re-assess and promote players overlooked by the Hall of Fame.  Already, analytics devotees have championed the causes of Ted Simmons, Lou Whittaker, Kenny Lofton, Billy Wagner, Bert Blyleven, Ron Santo, and Alan Trammell.  Because of these efforts, the latter three players gained long-awaited and well-deserved elections to the HOF.

Committee members must be pledged to clean sport.  The HOF should clarify guidelines regarding steroid use, and it should secure signed commitments from members to weigh steroid use with disfavor.

---------------

Committee voting is far from unprecedented.  The halls of fame for basketball, football, and hockey all vote by committee.  These halls of fame are well-attended and prosperous.  And we have every reason to believe ours will be too.

Today’s active baseball players have high upside and Hall of Fame potential.  These players will provide future committees with viable candidates for future HOF elections.  By following other halls of fame, we will ensure that our Hall of Fame can survive and thrive.  We will continue drawing visitors and flourishing for generations to come.

IN CLOSING Steroid users have stained our game.  Steroid users have obscured and overshadowed accomplishments of clean teammates.  Steroid users have banished clean teammates to languish in minor leagues, because clean players won’t cheat to gain an edge.  Steroid users have perpetrated federal crimes involving FDA-controlled substances.  After all, the U.S. government launched criminal investigations into the BALCO and Biogenesis scandals.

I ask you to act reasonably and as soon as possible.  The longer we wait, the sooner our Hall of Fame will face an existential crisis, a crisis we’ve feared but not openly discussed.

We already might have inducted steroid users.  We don’t know who – if any – they might be, and we can’t annul past mistakes.

But we can address the present.  In going forward we can get it right by our fans and by our game.  As best as we can, we can uphold the ideals of the sport we love.

Again, I sincerely thank you for reading my letter and for taking my suggestions into consideration.

Respectfully yours, B.H.V. in Lawrence, Kansas A fan of America’s greatest team sport

[onlyawfulrpgideas]

Railroading: Express Train Adventures or Leaves on the Plot Line?

“In gaming, the act of forcing a player to "choose to" do something they don't really want to in order to advance the plot according to the wishes or designs of the GM.”

-       UrbanDictionary.com (other, unrelated definitions are available, but you have been warned)

Railroading your players is bad, right? It takes away agency, free choice and immersion in a game of unlimited imagination.

The term “railroading” is so often used in complaint – a negative descriptor applied to a more controlled style of game-mastering, often associated with pre-written modules. In published adventures, this feeling of being driven along down a pre-laid train track is – to a certain extent – necessary to make the game work. If the players are allowed unchecked freedom, it is almost certain that, at some point, their choices will cause events to diverge from the pre-determined story later on.

           Coming to a game where you’ll be running a published module or adventurers league or whatever, expecting to have sandbox levels of freedom is rather unrealistic. Expecting the GM to accommodate your every maverick whim in this situation is, in my opinion, a little bit selfish. There will be inexperienced players who bring these expectations to the table from time to time, but the joy of our social-based game is that it thrives on patience, understanding and learning. In pre-written adventure scenarios, one cannot really hold the GM responsible for “railroading” because the book is railroading them!

           So what does constitute the evil sin of “railroading”? That rather depends where we draw the lines between maintaining a cohesive plot, “railroading” and just being a narrator of your own story. Somewhere on this scale we also encounter the fabled curse of “being a dick”. For now, let’s leave pre-written adventures behind and focus on homebrew campaigns.

           Giving your players the ability to make choices that genuinely influence the world around their characters is a key component of what makes D&D so special. There’s nothing wrong with video game PRGs, but there is only a certain amount of things you can do: parameters that you can’t venture beyond, because the programming isn’t infinite. We all know the three pillars of adventure are one third Exploration, one third Role-playing, one third Combat and one extra quarter of Sheer Craziness. It’s in the moments of zany plans and “you can certainly try’s” that push the limits of game mechanics, where some of our most memorable stories originate.

Letting these events play out and dealing with the consequences is the mark of a good GM: allowing your players creative freedom with their characters. Automatically shooting down unlikely attempts, without even allowing someone to make a roll for it, is a big source of “railroading” complaints. Especially when a GM overrules the description a player gave for their character’s actions, in order to force a desired outcome – whether positive or negative. It robs the player of their satisfaction.

When a player wants their character to do something that is fundamentally impossible and a roll would be pointless, consider allowing a roll to be made anyway. The outcome, of course, is unsuccessful; but it creates an illusion of choice and possibility. Through your description, place emphasis on the characters’ determined attempts to the best of their ability, even in the face of “almost” certain failure. This can do wonders for the players’ perception of the game and we’ll look at this in more depth later.

For now, an example:

When I first started GM-ing at college, I ran a sandbox-y story set on an island separated into a north and south area by an impassable stone wall with an ancient, giant-made portcullis gate in the centre. The logic behind this was that I had two groups whose stories took place on opposite sides of the wall. They could communicate and pass small items to each other through the gate, but not get directly involved in events on the other side (since they played at separate times).

           Eventually the south team decided to try what had been implied to be impossible and bypass the gate. Despite being enchanted and over a foot in diameter, they weren’t going to let them metal bars keep them out. Against the advice of almost every NPC, they requisitioned as many cutting implements as their money could buy and set to work sawing, filing and axe-swinging away at the portcullis.

           Being largely inexperienced, I thought to myself “this is stupid, they know it’s not going to work”. I declined to even narrate the attempt, streamlining the action into a simple statement of “you can’t do it: it’s impossible”. To my surprise, the group were rather quite disappointed, and after the session I had time to ponder why. They knew full well that their attempt was futile, why make the gesture?

           Perhaps the two player groups spoke to each other, I don’t honestly know, but sure enough during the next session, the group on the North side of the gate attempted to do the same. This time, I tried things a little differently.

           Their monk’s player was, frankly, a complete nutcase and this showed through in his monk-turned-pirate character with an extreme stubborn streak. He made his way down to the wall with every saw blade the island could muster and began to cut at the 12-inch-thick metal bars. I decided to let him roll a general strength check, just for the hell of it. Of course, he rolls a natural 20. Now, this was supposed to be an impossible task…

           Without giving an outcome, I asked him how long he would like to spend making the attempt to cut through. He replied “until I drop”. So I had him roll Constitution checks to represent each hour passing, until he had failed three and collapsed from exhaustion. By this point, the table was lost in gales of laughter and cheering him on in the obviously fruitless endeavour. The following morning, the monk awoke where he had passed out, aching all over, surrounded by a heap of blunt saws, to inspect the small, shallow scratch he had made.

           Both outcomes were the same: the gate was impassable and no mundane means could truly penetrate it. But one group left the table feeling cheated, “railroaded”, and the other tells the tale of the scene to this day. While the rolls were being made, they held onto the comically absurd notion that somehow, against all the mounting odds, success was possible and the effort was worthwhile, if foolish. Above all they enjoyed being given the chance to try and lamenting/ridiculing the outcome, even if that chance was only an illusion.

             In more long-term perspectives, “railroading” is used to describe the instances where no matter what the players do, eventually the story catches up with them just the same as if they had done nothing and the party’s efforts are rendered pointless. This can leave a very firm sense of disappointment and dissolution, where the players wonder why they bother to interact with your world at all, if ultimately, you have already pre-destined what is going to happen. There’s nothing wrong with wider events moving on around the characters if they do not have any direct influence, but be wary of nullifying their actions.

           A storytelling technique I’ve learnt and try (as best I can) to incorporate into my GM prep is the “Yeah but, No but” pattern. Having alternate outcomes in mind enables you to give the players scope for influencing your story, while keeping them firmly on the rails of your longer plot.

           Perhaps the PC’s cleverly thwart the villain’s evil scheme too early through some logic you overlooked… YEAH, they succeeded, BUT... the villain is able to escape, or the plan is delayed and not stopped altogether. Our heroes have their victory: they saved the day for now. But they go forward knowing that the danger is far from over.

           Alternatively, they valiantly attempt to stop the villainous plot and fail… NO, they didn’t succeed, BUT… they discover some kind of clue or blessing that will help them be more prepared next time. Even in defeat, the players can take some measure of victory and look forward to the inevitable rematch.

           Either way, the long-term story remains unchanged. The journey to it, however, just got a lot more interesting and gave opportunity for character development – whether that be through revelling in victory, or a hardening of resolve in defeat.

           Almost reminds me of… a railroad.

You have your Main Line: the express route. Full steam ahead down the easiest track from A to B. Everything unfolds just as you planned; the characters behave like archetypal heroes with one goal in mind and the campaign unfolds like a slick action movie. Nothing wrong with that, it’s perfectly fun and rewarding. This is often how some of the more heavily time-depended modules are written.

When time is less of a pressure, you might take your players to a junction or the “points” as we call them here. An opportunity presents itself to switch to another narrative track, taking a different direction to the main plot and exploring something new. No matter how many places you visit on that journey, the route you took still links back up to the main line: the over-arching plot.

Maybe your players take it upon themselves to go in a direction you hadn’t anticipated and explore a branch line. You weren’t as prepared for this, so the track might be a little bit wandering and there might not be quite so many significant things down there, but it’s a nice way to explore the fictional world you have created none the less. Not every bit of the adventure needs to be full pace towards a climatic confrontation.

Some sessions might feel more like a shunting yard. You’ve laced the story with plot hooks that seem obvious to you, but it’s taking the players a while to figure out what it is you want them to do – if indeed you have any specific plans at all. They might deliberate backwards and forwards for a while, exploring smaller avenues of adventure in the hopes that something will fall into place and open up the main line that’s laid ready for them.

Dead ends are a thing. Literally. And I don’t mean making characters just die because you don’t like them.

          “Railroading” your players into failure can make them feel like you are just mean-spirited or don’t want them to have freedom to try. Equally, don’t try too hard to save them from themselves. If they know the stakes and take risks that might prove fatal for their characters, LET THEM. It’s their story as much as yours and if they are willing to put their characters’ lives on the line for their own reasons, LET THEM. Should they put all their effort into hurtling down the tracks towards a set of buffers, try to minimize damage without some contrived deus ex machina that saves them all at the last minute. Unless it makes sense for that to happen and even then, don’t do this more than once. They can always roll a new character if one of them dies or if the whole party is killed… Then that’s an awesome story!

           You and your friends created a world in which to play, characters who brought it to life and who, in the end, chose to risk everything for something bigger than themselves. That’s Epic. The lovingly-detailed world they never got to see doesn’t disappear: it’s still yours and always will be, waiting for the next generation of adventurers to unlock its secrets and plots.

           I think it’s time we gave the “railroad” analogy a new lease of life and a better definition. A length of straight track isn’t a proper railroad – it doesn’t have branches or diversions, tunnels or junctions, sidings or stations.

           As GM’s we are ALWAYS railroading the players. No matter where it is that their adventures take them, whatever choices they make. There should always be options for different routes that connect back to a familiar narrative – however that takes its shape.

[bakudekuficlibrary]

Hey! Could you do a list of fics with the "5 times/1 time" trope? Btw, I love what you are doing here, thanks a lot!

Hi! Thank you! Enjoy 😊

-Ellie

17 Works

The Six Times Midoriya Tried to Seduce Bakugou by Erina ( T | 8,037 | 1/1 )

Bakugou just stares at him as realization dawns him. “Have you been trying to seduce me?”If Midoriya’s hands weren’t busy covering his eyes, he would’ve face palmed.

In which Midoriya suffers, Bakugou suffers(?) and the rest of the agency’s #SeduceBakugou game goes, well, it goes about as well as anyone expects.

SeriesPart 5 of The Misadventures of Explodo-kill Agency

springtime of youth by claimedbydaryl ( E | 25,592 | 6/6 )

Now, Katsuki was capable of at least acknowledging that Izuku was his friend, but Izuku doesn’t think Katsuki knows that their rekindled relationship would entail things like talking, and almost-dates, and unsaid feelings.

(Or, the five times Izuku knew he would never forget the innocent sweetness of their childhood friendship despite all that had happened, and the one time Katsuki realised he had not forgotten it too).

3 Times Katsuki Bakugou was an aggressive cuddler. by SailoLee ( Not Rated | 4,661 | 3/3 )

3 Times Katsuki Bakugou was an aggressive cuddler and the reactions of those around him.

Five Times Deku… One time he didn’t… Except a lot more than that. by Kymopoleia ( G | 4,225 | 1/1 )

Maybe Deku has a habit… He learned it from his mom.

Four Times Bakugou Katsuki Doesn’t Intend to Sleep With Midoriya Izuku (And the One Time that He Does) by kagome_angel ( E | 17,601 | 1/1 )

He hadn’t planned for any of this. He isn’t about to go delving into the ball of yarn that is Midoriya Izuku’s heart; he isn’t equipped to try and untangle and make sense of it all. He isn’t about to try to analyze how he’s feeling about all of this, either.

… How many times can you repeat the same mistake?

Five Times It Wasn’t A Date (+1 Time It Was) by Raehimura ( T | 8,043 | 1/1 )

Despite what their classmates, friends, fellow teachers, and fans say, it wasn’t a date. It was never a date.

Even if they wanted it to be.

Until a tabloid headline forces them to talk.

sugar, we’re going down by kewltie ( G | 4,671+ | 1/6 )

For Class A, Midoriya and Bakugou’s complicated and often confusion relationship has been the focus of intense debates since their first year. To the eyes of the world and everyone around them, their relationship can fall into a few labels: former childhood friends, rival, and now tentatively friends. Now on the cusp of their third year, the class is starting to see a different side to their relationship and it’s one they are all completely stupefied by.

[Or the five times members of Class A catch Bakugou and Midoriya’s off guard and thinks there’s something more to it, and the one time they are right.]

Stupid Love by KingHugin ( M | 18,998+ | 3/8 )

Shouto just wishes his friends would stop doing embarrassing shit and figure it out already.

or the 5+ times shouto witnessed things no man or friend should have to witness.

Basic Instinct by LivingInABox ( M | 3,330+ | 3/6 )

Because time is the catalyst and it is inevitable that they will fall together.

Or: 5 times Katsuki and Izuku had an affair and 1 time it was a proper relationship.

In front of your eyes, it falls from the skies. by tramezzini ( T | 1,556 | 1/1 )

Five times Katsuki witnessed Izuku crying and one time he did something about it.

don’t misunderstand. ( T | 1,025 | 1/1 )

three times that kacchan says his name. one time that he says it, differently.

(katsudeku week: day 1 - teamwork)

5 Times Izuku Came Home And Almost Had An Heart-Attack And 1 Time He Came Home And His Heart Melted by elizabeth_16 ( T | 4,829 | 1/1 )

Five times Izuku Midoriya came home and almost had an heart-attack thanks to hs husband and one time his heart melted (thanks to his husband).

Or: These idiots being married and in love; fluff fluff fluff

Third Time’s the Charm by ukiinas ( G | 1,282 | 1/1 )

Two times in which Katsuki swatted Izuku’s hand away, and one time that he accepted it.

[On Hiatus] Mine by naths ( T | 1,425+ | 1/? )

3 Times Midoriya says or shows Bakugou who he belongs to

“You are mine.”Midoriya replied and settled down on Bakugou´s hips who leaned on his elbows to look up at the other.

Hand stretched out to ruffle through Bakugou´s bed hair.“I am sorry but I can´t give you the file about King Explosion. That one´s mine!”

SeriesPart 2 of kinda villain Izuku AU

Five times Bakugou Katsuki tried to get into Deku’s pants, and the one time he succeeded by Moratorium19 ( T | 766+ | 1/6 )

« Is the smile included in the service? »

The waiter with the nameplate “Bakugou Katsuki” directed him the sourest glare he could muster.

“No,” he gritted out.

“Oh, good. You wouldn’t want to cheat your customers. I’ll take a light coke, a Big Mac without salad and onion rings instead of fries.” Izuku smiled, handing the menu back to the fuming ashen blonde.

“Sir” he bit out with barely restrained fury. “May I remind you that this is not Mc Donalds, but a Michelin star restaurant? Did you even have a look at the menu?”

“…No?”

“You fuckwad,” Bakugou hissed and cussed twice more internally. There went his paycheck.

Welcome To Might Burger, How May I Take Your Order? by TheInternet ( T | 2,017 | 1/1 )

“You work at a burger joint?”

“Yeah, I need something else to do besides train. Do you want a fucking burger or what?”

“Damn dude, I want a number five with extra All Might sauce.”

_

Aka 4 Times Class 2-A Sees Bakudeku Working And 1 Time They Aren’t

[On Hiatus] four plus one equals love by electraheathens ( T | 2,003+ | 6/? )

the four times bakugou didn’t think deku reciprocated his feelings and the one time deku made sure he knew he did.

How are we doing? We have a Submitter Feedback Form for anyone who wants to give us a piece of their mind! Thank you in advance if you complete it. If you have never sent an ask, but want to give us feedback, we have a Follower Feedback Form, too!

[moonwolfhowl]

Well first off, I’m moonwolfhowl on tumblr, kiribaku-some-cute-stuff for my bnha tumblr and nightmoonz on AO3. I’m really excited that you got me and I just want to thank you so much in advance for your hard work and care with this!

Secondly, here are a couple things that I like and dislike, however if you’re not 100% sure on if something isn’t my deal my ask box is open (on tumblr) and anon is turned on.  I’m also doing a break here just cuz it’s a long post

General Things I Really Like:

AUs! No, seriously, every kind of AU

cute, fluff, and hilarity is always welcome

Humor! Especially: sarcasm, witty banter, etc…

A mild amount of angst, but more hurt/comfort

Slow Burn

Bed Sharing from romantic to awkward AF

Fake relationship/dating/marriage you know for a cover/mission/(fill in the blank)

friends to loves

strangers to friends to lovers

Happy Endings!

General Things I REALLY Dislike/Do Not Want:

Character Bashing 

Abuse of any kind

Cheating

Harm to animals

Non-Con/Dub-Con 

Incest

Mpreg

Major Character Death

No UA kiddos!villain/traitor AU

=^__^=

some ridiculous prompts! 

So okay please know that the prompts listed below are just some ideas if you’re stuck, or want a guideline-ish. If you have your own idea please feel free to go with what you had planned! And again, if you have any questions the anonymous option is turned on for my ask box

Ships:

Sero Hanta/Todoroki Shouto

Fake Dating For The Mission!!! They’re in the Pro Hero arena, they’re friends they get on well but fake dating on a mission where they may or may not have had crushes on each other at different points in their lives. 

Tbh you can go crazy with this idea, it can be angsty, it can be ridiculous, it can be both, or what have you! I would not be opposed to them having to share a bed cuuuuuz they’re undercover and it’s a mission and the have to keep their cover which means awkwardly “NOT” XD thinking about each other while trying to sleep.

Prank wars! UA Days

Sero enlists Todoroki on some pranks 

Or Sero and Todoroki living next to each other starts them off as doing small pranks to each other it starts out as all fun and games, but then they move onto daring each other to do dumb things, soft things, sweet things, etc... until they move onto kissing XD

Spin the Bottle/Truth or Dare/7 minutes in heaven UA Days 

lol pretty self explanatory you can incorporate wandering hands if ya want XD

AUs, all the AUs, Coffee Shop Au, Mechanic AU, College AU, Tattoo shop AU, Magical School AU, Quirkless AU, Fantasy AU, Pac Rim AU, legit all the AUs in the world are pretty chill with me

Todoroki Shouto & Todoroki Natsuo

Good Old Fashion sibling teasing and bonding! 

I’d love this to be about them being close! Honestly I would just love them bonding over a bowl of soba with Natsuo teasing TF out of Shouto and while Shouto might be slightly annoyed he loves how normal this feels. If they get into the territory of Natsuo teasing Shouto about who Shouto likes... then I’d prefer Shouto’s crush be Sero, but I’m okay with Momo, or Inasa.

Yaoyorozu Momo/Awase Yousetsu

Pro Hereos doing a mission together!

They can be fake!married or fake!dating for the mission if you’d like (I’m so sorry I’m trash and it’s one of my favorite tropes you absolutely do not have to use it.

They can be on a stealthy mission, or getting recon, what have you. I just wanna see them work together  

That night in summer camp

They talk about the night where Awase threw himself in front of Momo while the Nomu charged at them

This can be while their still in the hospital right after it happened

during the course of their UA days 

anytime really I just kinda want to see how they’d go about talking about it

Costume party!

this could be a masquerade when their adults for a mission 

a regular old quirkless au Masquerade ball 

They can either know each other beforehand or not

Halloween Party UA days, Adults, College AU

For whatever reason they feel like dressing up?

idk this is just something to have fun with.

Sero Hanta/Todoroki Shouto/Yaoyorozu Momo

If fanart: 

maybe a FMAB AU with Todoroki as Mustang, Momo as Hawkeye and Sero as Havoc.

Them just sitting on a couch watching a documentary together.

Them walking in a park drinking Bubble Tea, or hot tea depending on the season

Or honestly just the three of them smiling and laughing?

if fanfiction:

Private detective agency AU

It would be cool if this were a noir kind of detective agency but that’s a heck of a lot of research so something Veronica Mars-ish. 

Momo is the famous PI and Sero and Todoroki 

Can be teens or older

Quirks and/or Quirkless AU is fine

Prince turned Robinhood, Spies, Rogues, Pirates and/or Outlaws AU

Go wild with it

They could be about to pull off a heist

start an adventure

It could be them at a bar talking about their adventures or their next big score, anything. 

[your-dietician]

Sticky substances have more 'direct effect' than steroids

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/sports/sticky-substances-have-more-direct-effect-than-steroids/

Sticky substances have more 'direct effect' than steroids

SAN DIEGO — Former slugger David Segui can’t help but laugh at the irony.

He remembers the public’s outrage learning about the rampant use of steroids in baseball during his career, but now that Major League Baseball is cracking down on pitchers for using illegal foreign substances, the league is being chastised.

“I think pitches using the illegal substances have more of a direct effect on our performance than the steroids,’’ Segui told USA TODAY Sports. “Everybody and their brother were using steroids, but not everyone was breaking the home-run record.’’

There may have been only one Barry Bonds, but with the way pitchers have been dominating and obliterating strikeout records, everyone suddenly had become Nolan Ryan.

“It was a joke the way the pitchers were cheating,’’ San Diego Padres outfielder Tommy Pham says. “Guys were coming back to the dugout all of the time saying, ‘That’s the best slider I’ve ever seen.’ I mean, before the crowds came back, you could actually hear the Spider Tack [traction] off guys’ fingers. I could tell you who was cheating on every team I faced.

“I don’t think people really understand the benefits of it, but we as baseball players do. If your ball is moving more and it’s sharper, that makes it harder to square up. We were playing whiffle ball out there.’’

David Segui with the Expos in 1997.

USA TODAY Sports

Indeed, look at how pitchers’ spin rate has dramatically decreased since June 3, when MLB informed the owners that they were going to begin the crackdown. Spin rates, when controlled for velocity, are at their lowest levels since 2015, according to Statcast.

“We’re already seeing certain guys’ spin rates down by 500 rpm,’’ Pham said. “Their horizontal and vertical movement are less by inches. It’s so [messed up]. Guys made careers out of it.

“These front offices should be mad signing guys to that kind of money, expect a certain thing, and now find out it wasn’t real.’’

Indeed, just like the steroid era. GMs would be furious signing or trading for a player who was using performance-enhancing drugs, only for the players to suddenly play the game clean, either because they were forced to stop with the drug testing or suddenly found morals.

Look at the difference now since June 3. You think it’s a coincidence teams are now averaging 4.59 runs a game, up from 4.36, or that batting averages are up (.244 from .236), OPS is rising .730 from .707) and strikeouts are down (23.3% from 24.2%).

And how about that silly argument by pitchers saying they need substances besides rosin to control their fastballs so they don’t hit batters?

Well, guess what?

Hitters are being hit fewer times now with pitchers being clean, with the percentage of hit batsmen dropping from 1.16 to 1.13 per game.

“That was such a cop-out,’’ said Chicago Cubs All-Star Kris Bryant. “I love that things are kind of going the other way.’’

Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer is checked for foreign substances on June 23.

Orlando Ramirez, USA TODAY Sports

Really, the cheating should have been cleaned up years ago, but everyone refused to enforce it. MLB warned pitchers two years ago to stop using illegal substances. The pitchers were told this spring that baseballs would be routinely confiscated and spin rates closely monitored.

It made no difference, and the cheating only magnified, with one starter telling USA TODAY Sports that his own agent was lobbying his clients to use illegal foreign substances.

“Unfortunately, the enhanced monitoring we implemented at the start of the season has had no impact on the behavior of many pitchers,’’ MLB said in a memo sent to every club. “The information we collected over the first two months of the season shows that the use of foreign substances by pitchers is more prevalent than we anticipated.’’

Simply, it was so out of control, MLB had no choice but to stop it now. If MLB waited until the offseason, it would have been too late.

“From a competitive standpoint, man, it was frustrating,’’ Pham said. “I play the game clean, I’ve never taken anything. I never tried to cheat the game. But most of the pitchers I was facing were cheating. We needed the commissioner to step up. I’ll be curious to see how many guys get busted. They’re going to get embarrassed. I wish MLB hardened it and took away their pay too.

“I know the pitchers aren’t happy about it, but if every batter had a corked bat, these pitchers would be outraged as well.’’

It was like back in the heart of the steroid era when MLB told its players to stop using, and came to an agreement that if at least 5% of the players tested positive for steroids in the spring of 2003, there would be testing the following year.

The players, after being given advance notice they would be tested that spring, and knowing they could start juicing without repercussions once they submitted their urine test, still couldn’t help themselves. They soared past the threshold, and MLB’s random performance-enhancing drug testing program began.

“Guys weren’t even hiding it back then,’’ said Segui, who acknowledged using performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career. “Come on, nobody could figure out when we came back jacked, with 3% body fat, and 20 pounds heavier. Really, you’re telling me you couldn’t tell the difference?

“It’s the same thing with these pitchers, they weren’t hiding what they were doing, either. The spin rates were out of control, and no one cared until it started to affect the game.’’

There’s no reason to blame your star pitchers who no longer are striking out 12 batters a game with a sub 2.00 ERA. Not everyone can be Jacob deGrom. But you can’t blame them for trying, right?

“Why wouldn’t you?’’ Segui says. “That’s an athlete’s mindset. If the speed limit is 40, and they’re not enforcing it, you think people are still going to drive 40?

“I’m not trying to justify it. We knew we were breaking the rules [using steroids]. But if I’m losing every race because I’m not breaking the speed limit, and the guy breaking the rules gets the trophy every time, either you start breaking the speed limit to win the race or get out of racing.’’

If you’re watching Gerrit Cole get $340 million in free agency, and Trevor Bauer getting more than $30 million a year, after their spin rates soared dramatically, what are you going to do?

“People forget that becomes the measuring stick in which you’re measured,’’ Segui said. “If you’re failing miserably in the eyes of analytics, you’re not going to be around very long.

“So, then you have a choice to make. Nobody forces you to make the decision to use Spider Tack or whatever they were using. But if you don’t, you’re going to get left behind.

“People say, ‘How about morality?’

“Come on, when has morality ever been part of professional sports?’’

Ugly in the desert

Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo.

Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports

The most frequently asked question among baseball executives these days is, “Why hasn’t [Arizona Diamondbacks manager] Torey Lovullo been fired?’’

The team is pitiful. They entered Sunday having lost 43 of their last 50 games, including a Major League record 24-game road losing streak. They are on pace to become only the third team in history to lose at least 117 games.

They already are the first team to have a 13-game losing streak and a 17-game losing streak that began this close together since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, according to Jayson Stark of the Athletic.

The D-backs, embarrassed by their play and on the verge of dumping players beginning with infielder Eduardo Escobar to the Chicago White Sox, privately provide three reasons for Lovullo staying on the job.

It’s not his fault the team stinks, already losing eight games this month when they’ve scored five or more runs

He’s on the final year of his contract, anyways, with no talks of an extension.

Why pay two managers at the same time when there’s no human alive who’s capable of stepping in and turning things around?

Around the basepaths

– Please, enough with the silly narrative that St. Louis Cardinals All-Star third baseman Nolan Arenado may opt out of his contract. He loves St. Louis and is staying put. He told friends he wasn’t even going to opt out of his contract if he stayed with the Colorado Rockies, and it certainly isn’t an option now.

Arenado still is owed $179 million by the Cardinals through 2027, with deferred payments that will pay him $3 million a year until he’s the age of 50.

You really think anyone in their right mind would leave that and test free agency?

Not happening.

– There have been nearly 400 different pitchers who checked by Major League Baseball since the enhanced enforcement began. Only two, notably Nationals ace Max Scherzer, complained.

“Honestly, I didn’t mind it,’’ Mets Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom said. “It was quick and it went pretty easy.’’

Said Red Sox manager Alex Cora: “The way deGrom did it, he’s the best pitcher on the planet, and he took no exception. So everybody should follow suit.’’

– It can be a bit confusing in the household of Tampa Bay rookie Wander Franco, who arrived for his major-league debut this week in style, behind the wheel of a $330,000 Rolls Royce.

You see, his dad’s name is also Wander Franco. His oldest brother’s name, the one who once played with the Kansas City Royals, is Wander Javier Franco. And his other brother, who played with the Houston Astros and San Francisco Giants, is Wander Alexander Franco.

Oh, and Franco’s 2-year-old son’s name? Yep, Wander Samuel Franco, Jr.

– The playoff races, as it turns out, promise to be much more intriguing this year without the expanded postseason. If the same postseason rules applied like a year ago, the Giants, Dodgers, Padres, Cubs, Brewers, Mets and perhaps a sub-.500 team would make the National League field. In the American League, the Rays, Red Sox, Yankees, White Sox, Cleveland, Astros, Athletics and the Blue Jays or Mariners would be in.

Now, we’ve got the runner-up in the NL Central fighting with the No. 3 team in the NL West for the final wild-card spot. And in the AL, you’re going to have at least seven powerful teams vying for only five spots: the Astros, Athletics, White Sox, Cleveland, Rays, Red Sox and Yankees.

It could make the July 30 trade deadline a doozy.

– Two of the greatest moves in baseball last year were by the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants for simply tendering $18.9 million qualifying offers to starters Marcus Stroman and Kevin Gausman.

And perhaps they were the luckiest, too, with Stroman and Gausman being the only two players who accepted the offers.

Gausman has been the best pitcher in the National League not named deGrom with his 8-1 record and 1.49 ERA. And Stroman has been a godsend for the Mets’ rotation with his 6-5 record and 2.35 ERA.

– Padres manager Jace Tingler on third baseman Manny Machado’s defensive brilliance: “That’s a bad man. I mean, just an absolute bad man. What he’s able to do defensively, and on the bases, and his baseball IQ. These plays he’s making … it’s unbelievable.”

– The pitching crackdown certainly has had a major impact on the Yankees’ offense. They ranked 13th in the American League, averaged 3.77 runs a game before June 3.

They rank eighth in the league in runs per game, 4.69, since June 3, with 29 homers in their last 15 games entering Saturday. Then again, it’s affected their pitchers, too, particularly closer Aroldis Chapman, whose spin rates have dropped dramatically.

Before June 3: Chapman was yielding a .088 batting average, .213 on-base percentage and .176 slugging percentage. After June 3: .417/.481/.750.

– While everyone else’s offense may stink, check out the Houston Astros.

They outscored the opposition 93-24 during their 11-game winning streak. Their .277 team average is 16 points higher than any team. They have struck out the fewest times. They’ve scored 35 more runs than any team. And they have have four players with an OPS above .900.

“Right now, they’re as good as it gets,’’ Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “I played against the Big Red Machine. We’re not quite the Big Red Machine, but maybe we’re the Orange Wagon or something.’’

– Is there a pitcher who has been more affected by MLB’s crackdown than Red Sox starter Garrett Richards? His spin rate on his curveball has dropped 534 rpm, and his fastball and sliders have each dropped by more than 200 rpm.

The result: In his last three starts, Richards is yielding a 9.82 ERA, lasting just 11 innings.

“It’s changed pretty much everything for me,’’ he said. “This just got brought on us real quick so I’ve only had about a week to work on it. So some guys are figuring it out sooner than others but for me, it’s taken a little bit more time so I’m just trying to figure it out.”

– The craziest part of the Cubs’ combined no-hitter this week against the Dodgers?

The only three people in the stadium who didn’t know the Cubs had a no-hitter working, as it turns out, were the Cubs’ three relievers who came into the game after Zach Davies.

“The whole bullpen had no idea, like completely oblivious,” said Cubs reliever Andrew Chafin, who pitched the eighth inning. “We couldn’t see the scoreboard with the line or whatever at the bottom.”

– Former Boston Red Sox great Dustin Pedroia, after the Red Sox ceremony honoring him Friday night and electing him into their Hall of Fame: “I’m now at peace.’’

– Los Angeles Dodgers esteemed broadcaster Charley Steiner on the haves and have-nots in baseball: “It’s the ghost of Red Klotz,’’ Steiner said, “with the Harlem Globetrotters playing the Washington Generals.’’

There already are four teams that are at least 18 ½ games out of first place without even being at the halfway mark of the season: Arizona Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers and Colorado Rockies.

CC Sabathia weighs in on MLB’s “sticky” situation

CC Sabathia on how Major League Baseball needs to change

SportsPulse, USA TODAY

– Minnesota Twins outfielder Byron Buxton is one of the most talented players in baseball, but that talent has been wasted with his array of injuries, costing him 279 games since 2017.

He has now missed games because of a groin strain, migraines, fractured toe, strained wrist, wrist contusion, concussion, dislocated shoulder, labrum surgery, sprained foot, hip strain and now a fractured hand that will sideline him at least a month.

“This isn’t fair,’’ Twins manager Rocco Baldelli says. “That’s how I feel about the whole thing.”

– Orioles slugger Trey Mancini will participate in the home-run derby, 15 months after having Stage 3 cancerous tumor removed from his colon.

– Keep an eye on Padres starter Blake Snell, who is starting to feel comfortable in San Diego, and vows to have a monster second half.

– There still is not a single TV broadcasting team traveling this year, and several broadcasters predict that they’ll never be on the road again. They’re not sure they are even welcome any longer on team planes, with their seats now being occupied by extra coaches and team’s analytic departments, and no one wants to pick up the extra expense.

– Shohei Ohtani, who has 24 homers this year, has hit only one of his homers while pitching in the same game, but he could still catch Babe Ruth. Ruth had four homers as a pitcher in 1915.

In Ruth’s last appearance as a pitcher on Oct. 1, 1933, he pitched a complete game and homers in the Yankees’ 6-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox.

The record for homers by a pitcher is Wes Ferrell, who had nine homers in 1931 for Cleveland.

– Nationals slugger Kyle Schwarber, who was non-tendered by the Cubs last winter, is playing with a chip on his shoulder to prove them wrong, and everyone else for not showing more interest.

He just hit 13 home runs in the past 14 games for the Nationals, giving him 22 for the season, after hitting only 11 homers in 59 games last season with the Cubs.

The only hitter with a greater two-week streak was Barry Bonds in 2001 when he hit 14 homers in 14 games, to go along with his insane 1.926 OPS.

– The Dodgers have played only 11 games all season with Mookie Betts, Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy in the same lineup.

– Kudos to Atlanta starter Ian Anderson, who became the first native New Yorker to defeat the Mets and Yankees in New York during the same season. Anderson is from Clifton Park, N.Y., about 25 minutes north of Albany.

“Pretty cool,’’ he said.

– Congratulations to Royals outfielder Jarrod Dyson, who reached his 10 years of major-league service this past week. Not bad for a 50th-round draft pick in 2006, the 1,475th player chosen in the draft.

“I’m definitely going to enjoy the milestone for me, getting 10 years,” Dyson said. “Not many big leaguers get 10 years in this game. For me being a 50th-round draft pick, and to get 10 years, is a blessing.”

– The Yankees are the first team to have a no-hitter and turn three triple plays in the same season since 1886 Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers.

– It was strange and uncomfortable for Tigers manager A.J. Hinch to listen to Tigers’ fans booing and taunting Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa this weekend for his role in the infamous cheating scandal. Hinch, of course, was the manager of that Astros team who was caught cheating in 2017 when they won the World Series.

“I understand the league in general, not just Tigers fans, has an opinion,’’ Hinch says. “But I also was in the same dugout with those guys not too long ago. So yeah, it’s uncomfortable.’’

– The Dodgers are expected to finalize plans to visit the White House on their upcoming trip to Washington D.C.

“I’m personally excited if the opportunity presents itself,’’ Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says. “I think our coaches and players are as well. I hope the Vice President, Kamala (Harris), is there. I’d love to meet her as well as the president. It’s an honor.

“Most champions get that opportunity, so it’s something I’ve always dreamed about.”

Source link

[preciousbanshee-blog]

Toon Blast Cheats Guide For New Players

Toon Blast is the brand new casual puzzle game from peak video games. sort of just like the agency’s in advance hit, Toy Blast, it’s all about matching up blocks so as to complete diverse targets. It’s simple but addictive stuff. if you’re simply starting out, you might need a few helpful recommendation on what to do in Toon Blast Cheats.

That’s in which Toon Blast tips, Cheats and strategies comes into play, providing up a bevy of useful hints on the way to achieve this quirky global.

Widespread tips

massive combinations are everything right here. sure, you could use a flow to clear just a few tiles however how about placing things up so you can clean 8 or nine tiles immediately? That’s wherein the huge factors and the maximum green play lie!

in case you combine 5 tiles, you benefit a rocket that can be unleashed to clean a row or column. Even better, in case you integrate 6 blocks, you could create a bomb that clears an area around it. best of all is the disco ball which clears all of one coloration. This calls for 9 or greater suits. continually be running towards these unique tiles.

if you control to mix the tiles in order that two unique tiles are next to every different, there are extra bonuses to be won.

two bombs create a large explosion, even as rockets assist you to clean two strains without delay.

got two disco balls? You’re about to clear the entire board in a single move. properly finished!

paintings on reaching stage 15 as quickly as viable. You release the celebrity Chest through doing so. The celebrity Chest means whenever you accumulate 20 stars, you benefit a unfastened chest containing coins and a booster or .

endure in thoughts though – any stars you accumulated before degree 15 don’t matter toward the big name Chest.

intention for completing degree 20 too. once you accomplish that, you may create or be a part of a team and paintings with different players to share free lives or cash. It’s really worth doing, particularly as lives vanish rapid while things get more difficult.

take note of your objective. each degree has a special goal including clearing a positive variety of 1 color or encouraging geese to drop to the bottom of the display screen. There’s nothing to be gained from wasting movements on something that doesn’t correlate to the goal so don’t do it.

in case you’ve were given movements left over once you finish the goal, every flow turns a random tile right into a rocket. That’s a extraordinary manner of incomes lots of factors on the cease of a stage.

[junker-town]

The White Sox hired Tony La Russa for all the wrong reasons

Photo by Ron Vesely/MLB Photos via Getty Images

A White Sox team on the brink gave into their worst tendencies by hiring Tony La Russa.

Jerry Reinsdorf tried to hire one of his good ole’ boys to lead a young, rising team primed for the game’s modern era once before. The Chicago Bulls were looking for a new head coach months after cashing in a 1.7 percent chance to win the 2008 NBA draft lottery for the pick that would become Derrick Rose. After balking at Mike D’Antoni’s salary demands, Reinsdorf appeared to settle on a man who had held the same position for the franchise decades earlier: Doug Collins.

Just when it appeared Collins and his glacial offensive philosophies would welcome the organization’s new supercharged point guard to the league, Reinsdorf had a change of heart. It’s not that he doubted Collins was the right man for the job; instead, Reinsdorf couldn’t bear the thought of one day having to fire his friend.

“I love Doug Collins,” Reinsdorf told the Chicago Tribune at the time. “It’s not a great thing for friends to jeopardize a relationship for business. And relationships with coaches always end at some point.”

Reinsdorf’s ability to restrain himself from falling back into the comfort of his worst tendencies was perhaps the best hope for the other pro sports team he owns when rumors began circling that the White Sox were interested in 76-year-old Tony La Russa as their next manager. The similarities with Collins were undeniable: both were in charge of Reinsdorf’s teams during the 1980s, both left their franchises in ways that haunted the owner ever since, and both maintained a close friendship with Reinsdorf through the years.

This time, the nightmare scenario of the fanbase Reinsdorf feels so disconnected from actually played out. La Russa is the next manager of the White Sox after agreeing to a multi-year deal on Thursday. He immediately becomes the game’s oldest manager, and takes on his first managerial job since leading the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series in 2011.

There was a time when bringing back La Russa would have been a cause for celebration for White Sox fans. That time passed about 25 years ago. The White Sox have one of the baseball’s most exciting teams after a long and painful rebuilding effort that went 12 seasons without making the playoffs. That pitiful streak finally ended last season as the team’s excellent young talent started to coalesce at the same time. The decision to fire incumbent manager Ricky Renteria was met with jubilation from the fan base earlier this month.

Finally, it felt like the White Sox would be more concerned with winning than profits. Finally, it felt like they were set to hire an accomplished manager at a critical inflection point to take the team from up-and-coming to true contention.

Now so much of the good will the White Sox have spent years building toward suddenly feels tarnished. There are already reports that members of the White Sox organization are concerned about La Russa’s hire. It makes sense. This is why La Russa feels like such a poor hire for Chicago’s South Siders.

La Russa will likely have trouble connecting to the White Sox’s best players

The White Sox have one of the youngest and most diverse rosters in the majors. They are led by 27-year-old shortstop Tim Anderson, the AL batting champion in 2019 who nearly won it again in 2020. In addition to being among baseball’s most electric players, Anderson is also one of its strongest personalities. He bat flips after every big home run, and then defends his right to do so on social media. The joie de vivre he plays the game has made him the team’s beating heart, but it’s easy to see La Russa’s old school approach clashing with the team’s star.

La Russa is no fan of bat flips. When San Diego Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. drew the ire of baseball’s old guard for hitting an awesome grand slam on a 3-0 count earlier this season, La Russa was one of the voices critical of the young superstar:

In the past week, La Russa had conversations with friends in the game who agreed with Tatis’s actions and those who didn’t. La Russa believed Tatis was in the wrong. If Tatis took a strike, La Russa reasoned, he still would have had two pitches to hit. Swinging 3-0, in his line of thinking, was attacking at a moment when the opponent was vulnerable, more for personal reasons than needed team gain.

“It’s just not sportsmanlike,” La Russa said. “The way it was described to me was, it’s team against team. That’s what our sport is, with these very talented individuals matching up. What it isn’t, though, is an exhibition of your talents. You swing 3-0 in that game, and you’re up by seven, you’re trying to drive in more runs.”

La Russa also made troubling comments about Colin Kaepernick’s peaceful protests during the national anthem when he was a member of the San Francisco 49ers. Anderson in particular has been outspoken in the fight for racial equality. The White Sox clubhouse also includes burgeoning young stars like Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert.

How will the players respond to a manager who once said this?

“I would tell [a player protesting the anthem to] sit inside the clubhouse,” La Russa told “The Dan LeBatard Show.” “You’re not going to be out there representing our team and our organization by disrespecting the flag. No, sir, I would not allow it. … If you want to make your statement you make it in the clubhouse, but not out there, you’re not going to show it that way publicly and disrespectfully.”

La Russa said he is not racist at his introductory press conference with the White Sox, which is not even the type of the thing that should need to be clarified.

It’s true that La Russa once handled big personalities in Rickey Henderson and Jose Canseco when he was in Oakland, but that was 25 years ago. At 76 years old, La Russa is the game’s oldest manager by half a decade over Dusty Baker. These should have been legitimate concerns the White Sox vetted inside their clubhouse before making the hire.

The game has changed since so much since La Russa last managed

The fight over the use of advanced statistics in baseball ended a long time ago: those who embraced them won. Leveraging all the information available is a big reason why the Tampa Bay Rays were able to make a World Series run on one of baseball’s smallest budgets. The big market Dodgers’ front office also obviously embraced every bit of information available on their way to a championship.

La Russa doesn’t appear fully against advanced statistics — he was once on the cutting edge of baseball’s use of numbers to make decisions. But that was long ago. He still represents baseball’s old school in many ways. Here’s what he said about the use of advanced numbers in baseball in 2018:

“If you think your info is so strong that it can forecast once the game starts, on how it’s going to flow, how hitters and pitchers are going to react in game situations, then you’re foolish. It’s great stuff until the first pitch is thrown, and then what you have to do is invest in your managers and coaches.”

Perhaps La Russa won’t be an anti-analytics manager, but regardless the game he’s stepping back into next year certainly has changed since the last time he was a big league manager.

La Russa was infamous for his many pitching changes during his years with the A’s and Cardinals, something he won’t be able to do anymore. MLB now has a rule that each pitcher must face at least three batters. This was a common joke after the announcement the White Sox had hired him.

La Russa is 100% going to try to take a reliever out after one batter

— Eric Freeman (@freemaneric) October 29, 2020

It feels like the White Sox went over their general manager’s head

Jerry Reinsdorf is not supposed to be the person making baseball decisions for the White Sox — that’s Rick Hahn’s job. Hahn was promoted to vice president and general manager ahead of the 2013 season, with the team’s long rebuild happening under his watch.

La Russa sure doesn’t seem like a Hahn hire; it’s a Reinsdorf hire all the way. Here’s what Hahn said when the team began looking for a manager after it let go of Renteria.

“The ideal candidate is going to be someone who has experience with a championship organization in recent years,” White Sox General Manager Rick Hahn said. “Recent October experience with a championship organization would be ideal. But we’re going to keep an open mind. Over the next several weeks we’ll diligently pursue who’s on our list and go from there.”

There was no shortage of candidates who fit that description, most notably A.J. Hinch and Alex Cora, two recent World Series-winning managers who were now available after a year-long suspension from the Houston Astros cheating scandal. If the stain from that scandal was too much for the Sox, there were plenty of other rising young managerial options the team could have went with.

Reinsdorf said the hire was not based on his friendship with La Russa, but it’s hard to believe him:

White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement the hiring of Tony La Russa "is not based on friendship or on what happened years ago." pic.twitter.com/awnOEwCiNy

— Chris Emma (@CEmma670) October 29, 2020

It’s possible the White Sox will still be great anyway

The Sox are seen as a rising contender in the American League for a reason. There is so much young talent on this roster, headlined by Anderson, Robert, and Jimenez in the lineup and Lucas Giolito on the pitching staff. This should still be a very good team next season and beyond regardless of who they hired as manager.

What will likely matter more than the manager is who the White Sox sign in free agency. Reinsdorf has had big market Sox playing with one of baseball’s lowest payrolls over the last decade. Part of that can be chalked up to the team’s rebuild, but now the rebuild is over. If the White Sox want to contend they need to get serious about signing big money free agents. Starting pitcher Marcus Stroman and outfielder George Springer are two names who should be on their radar.

Of course, Stroman sure seems like he’s turned off by the hire of La Russa:

Yeah... Stroman ain’t coming here if they hire La Russa. Good job Jerry. pic.twitter.com/3dkL6cTmuQ

— EWS (@everything_sox) October 29, 2020

The Sox ranked No. 20 in payroll last season. Their payroll will be higher next year, but there should still be plenty of room in the budget for another big signing or two. Sox fans have been extremely patient through so many bad seasons. Now is the time to spend and capitalize on all the young talent they have been grooming.

Perhaps La Russa will prove the fans upset about his hiring wrong. He’s a three-time World Series champion and four-time MLB Manager of the Year. He speaks fluent Spanish. If the White Sox win with him or win in spite of him, the emotions of the fan base will certainly be overshadowed by their love of young stars like Anderson and Robert.

We don’t know how the results will play out, but this sure feels like terrible process from the White Sox. The team spent years building towards this moment when a young team was supposed to get serious about trying to compete for a championship. At such a critical juncture, the team’s out of touch owner decided to go over the head of his GM to hire his friend as manager.

When the White Sox should be looking to the future, they went back to their distant past so their owner could feel closure and conciliation for letting La Russa go back in 1986. If the partnership works out well this time around, Reinsdorf will be the only one who isn’t surprised.

[lyannas]

I saw a few people blaming Robert's Rebelion on Brandon and Rickard saying that if only they didn't see Lyanna as a property and actually acknowledge the fact that she's a badass and just let her do what she wants (in this case, elope with Rhaegar). I'm convinced about the part that she should be given the right to choose, but it still sounds a bit…off. Do you think RR would've been prevented if Lyanna was given more credit in her decision?

There is a line between what’s realistic and what’s not, I think. I’m of the mind that Rickard and Brandon both had proprietary feelings toward Lyanna, though not in the same way. Rickard certainly used his children as pawns in his game, and saw them as a means of advancement. Brandon, on the other hand, just reads like the protective, hot headed, hyper masculine older brother. Crown my betrothed sister at Harrenhal? I don’t care if you’re the crown prince, I need people to literally hold me back from kicking your ass. (Allegedly) kidnap and rape my sister? I don’t care if you’re the crown prince, I’ll storm into your own home and tell you to come out and die.

The issue in canon, of course, is that Lyanna was repulsed by Robert’s womanizing and the fact that he had already fathered a bastard and was already preparing herself to be cheated on and dishonored. She expressed those feelings to Ned, which means she might have also expressed them to her father, and she went ignored. Ned simply tried to assure her that Robert would change after his marriage, and Ned really believed it. It seems to me a situation where the men woefully ignored the reservations and protests of a girl who wanted something more.

Choice and agency would have likely changed the outcome completely. Or at the very least, a betrothal to someone who wasn’t infamous for sleeping around might have settled things, kept Lyanna from corresponding with Rhaegar, etc etc. I don’t think Rickard could ever be lax enough to be like “go ahead, take your pick of whoever you like!”. But seeking her consent, at the very least, would have been much more favorable.

I’m not keen to lay this all at one person’s feet. I think there is blame shared among all of these players, and who pushed first is not the best way to measure blame.

[wsmith215]

Cam Newton’s complicated NFL free agency

There were legitimate reasons for it to happen and all kinds of ways to see it coming, but if you were surprised by the Carolina Panthers’ decision to release longtime franchise quarterback Cam Newton in March, you’re surely surprised that he still hasn’t signed somewhere else.

Newton turned 31 on Monday, which is by no means an advanced age for an NFL quarterback. He’s a former league MVP who has taken a team to the Super Bowl and, just two years ago, was having one of the better seasons of his career before shoulder and foot injuries derailed him. On résumé alone, he’d qualify as an upgrade for at least half of the NFL’s teams at the quarterback position.

But none of those teams has signed him, and there has been no indication of any serious interest by any team in doing so. Jameis Winston, cut loose by the Buccaneers in favor of Tom Brady, signed a bargain deal to back up Drew Brees in New Orleans. Andy Dalton, released by the Bengals in favor of Joe Burrow, signed with the Cowboys to back up Dak Prescott. Brian Hoyer (New England), Nick Foles (Chicago) and Newton’s former Carolina backup Kyle Allen (Washington) are among the quarterbacks who’ve been sought and acquired by teams this offseason.

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It makes no sense if you just stacked up “QB Ability” next to “Teams That Could Use a Cam Newton.” He is the prom king who all of a sudden can’t get a date. The Ferrari left alone in the garage while everyone’s out driving Fords. How could you, if you’re the Bears, or the Jaguars, or literally any team in the AFC East, look at your quarterback depth chart right now and not think signing Newton would make you better?

The answer, of course, is that it’s more complicated than that.

If the Cam Newton of 2015 had been released by the Panthers this offseason, he’d have been signed in less than a minute, to a record-breaking quarterback contract, by one of 12 or 15 teams. But this isn’t 2015, and the issues keeping Newton from signing with a team range from the frustratingly rigid to those that are uniquely 2020:

A tricky offseason for health concerns

One of the issues teams cite when discussing the prospect of signing Newton is that there’s no way to know what kind of player they’d be signing. This is a player with as many surgeries as games played over the past 16 months. When teams consider players who are coming off recent surgeries, it becomes especially important to give them physicals. In a case like Newton’s, when you’re talking about a quarterback who has taken 317 more hits than any other since 2011, teams aren’t going to be satisfied with workout videos and third-person medical exams. They’re going to want the doctors they trust, the doctors they’re paying, to check him out with their own eyes. And in the current climate, with the NFL imposing pandemic-related restrictions in line with those in place around the country, in-person physicals are still prohibited.

“You’re certainly not going to sign him sight unseen,” an NFL personnel man said of Newton. “This is a quarterback who has a shoulder injury, right?”

Cam Newton played only two games last season because of a foot injury, and the Panthers released him in March. AP Photo/Brian Blanco

Well … maybe. The shoulder surgery he had following the 2018 season was his second in two years, but the Panthers kept telling everyone all through 2019 that the shoulder was fine and it was his left foot — he underwent surgery to repair a Lisfranc injury in December — that cost him pretty much the entire season. Running has always been a vital part of Newton’s game. No quarterback in NFL history has more games with both a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown than Newton’s 39. If his foot is injured, it stands to reason that he won’t be the same runner he has always been.

“Part of what makes Cam, Cam,” said an official with one NFL team that has been in the veteran quarterback market this offseason, “is that he’s a freak athlete.”

Is he still? And if not, what kind of contract would teams give him? A healthy Newton offers plenty as a passer, but teams are still going to want their own doctors to get a look at that shoulder. And even if the shoulder checks out fine and he can’t run the way he used to run, he’s not “peak” Cam Newton. When you look at it in those terms, it becomes a little bit easier to figure out why a team might prefer a Winston or a Dalton as its backup — especially at the prices for which those two signed.

Which brings us to …

What kind of contract could Newton get?

Newton’s last contract extension with the Panthers, signed in 2015, was a five-year deal worth about $103 million. It sounded big at the time, but by today’s standards, the average of $20.6 million a year is more than reasonable for a starting quarterback — especially one who would win the MVP award a few months after signing it, as Newton did. The reason the Panthers cut him wasn’t purely financial. He’d have cost them $19.1 million in non-guaranteed salary and $21.1 million against their salary cap this year: a bargain for a 31-year-old Newton if he’s healthy. The Panthers moved on because, as we’ve already discussed, they weren’t sure he would be healthy, and because they weren’t planning to extend him as they retool things under new coach Matt Rhule.

Newton’s replacement, Teddy Bridgewater, signed for three years and $63 million with $33 million guaranteed. At this point, though he’s far more accomplished than Bridgewater, Newton would have to count himself extraordinarily lucky to get a similar deal. Given the injury questions, he has no shot at the $25 million-a-year numbers Brady and Philip Rivers received. And forget the $91 million in guarantees the Titans gave Ryan Tannehill. No quarterback who’s signing at this point in the cycle is going to sniff the top of the market.

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There’s a narrative out there that the Panthers did Newton harm by waiting as long as they did to release him — holding onto him through the first wave of free agency and until after the pandemic imposed restrictions on travel and in-person physicals. But league insiders dispute that notion, saying it was easy to figure out that Newton would be available based on the finances, the health questions and the significant coaching staff changes in Carolina. His contract would have been a lot less financially onerous than the Foles contract. There’s no way the Bears traded for Foles and then, a week later, saw that the Panthers cut Newton and said, “Dang it! We should have waited!” Teams knew Newton was an option and they chose different ones, which means he probably was never going to break the bank on this year’s quarterback market.

And the backup QB market, even for veterans, has been all over the map this offseason. Marcus Mariota got $7.5 million guaranteed to back up (compete with?) Derek Carr in Las Vegas. Winston got $1.1 million guaranteed to backup Brees. Dalton got $3 million to back up Prescott. All of those guys can earn more in incentives depending on how much they actually play and how the team performs when they do, but the range of the deals indicates that the appropriate contract for a veteran quarterback looking to build himself back into a starting role is a moving target.

Plus, teams don’t even know how much appetite Newton would even have for a backup job. Which brings us to …

Would Newton accept a backup role?

A large part of Newton’s current problem is that the league is experiencing a bizarre supply-and-demand twist at the quarterback position. It feels as if only a couple of years ago, we were writing stories about a quarterback shortage. Now, after 17 teams have drafted 18 quarterbacks in the first round over the past five years, just about every team feels as if it has its guy. There weren’t a lot of starting quarterback jobs open when this offseason began, and there are fewer now.

There was some industry speculation about Newton to the Chargers, but they like Tyrod Taylor and just drafted Justin Herbert with the sixth pick. Washington made some sense, given that former Panthers coach Ron Rivera is running things there now, but it drafted Dwayne Haskins last year and just signed Allen to back him up. The Patriots say they like Jarrett Stidham and, as of now, don’t have the cap space for Newton. As always, things could change in New England depending on how far Newton’s price drops, but for now, we’re told the Patriots are not planning to go that way. Jacksonville wants to give a real shot to Gardner Minshew, but that’s another team to watch in case things don’t work out with the 2019 sixth-round draft pick.

At this point, there’s no obvious team that would sign Newton and anoint him the starter without conditions. And bringing Newton in as a backup isn’t as easy as it sounds, either, given the way so many NFL teams still view that role.

play

1:51

Stephen A. Smith explains that he would rather see Cam Newton sit out the 2020 season than sign somewhere as a backup.

For example: Newton would fit in Buffalo, where the coach and general manager come from Carolina and starter Josh Allen is a big, mobile quarterback himself. But adding Newton behind a young guy still finding his footing as an NFL starter creates potential issues that organizations and coaching staffs fear. I’m not saying this is specifically the case in Buffalo, but I’m just using the team as a hypothetical example: Bring in Newton as Allen’s backup, and no matter what you say publicly, you’re creating a difficult situation for Allen. Every time he has a bad game, you’ll be dealing with calls from your fan base (and possibly from your own locker room or coaching staff) to start Cam. If you’re developing a young quarterback, teams believe, that’s not necessarily the best way to show you support him.

The same can be said for places like Denver, Cincinnati, Miami, Arizona, both New Yorks and Washington, where teams are trying to build around young guys and want to create as fertile a situation as possible for that young quarterback’s success. Newton, whether you agree or not, is going to be viewed by some teams as a less-than-ideal backup option because of that old NFL buzzword “distraction.” It still exists as an obstacle in situations like this. If Newton’s going to land a backup job right now, it’s probably going to be behind an unassailably secure starter, like the one who’s in front of Winston in New Orleans. So …

What happens now?

The sense among people close to this situation is that Newton is in no rush. His best bet at this point is probably to wait things out and see whether a quarterback situation changes, either because of injury or because Plan A doesn’t appear to be working out. Especially with no in-person practices or minicamps to attend, there’s no compelling rush to get into someone’s facility or program and get a jump on things. Whatever current need there is for backup quarterbacks isn’t going to dry up over the next couple of months, and if he waits, he could find himself with one or more starting opportunities than are currently in front of him.

Where this gets interesting is if the season begins and he still doesn’t have a job. Does Newton, who has made more than $120 million in salary in his career, sit out a portion or all of the regular season while he waits for a team to give him the deal and the role he wants? Does he swallow hard and take a backup job?

All that’s clear is that the landscape for Newton is very different from the one he might have expected when the Panthers first put him on the market. And until that landscape changes, he and the rest of us will continue to marvel at the fact that a quarterback as talented and accomplished as he is can’t find a job.

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