#otherwise i dont have talent mats

[homoeroticvillain]

im so hyped for scara banner that its unhealthy

[dirt-cup-draco]

"If anything happened to her I'll kill you, Yen." with Geralt x reader please

This doesn’t follow a particular timeline and it’s just sort of my brain spewing but I hope you like it! 

You’d been aiding Geralt for some time. He had been reluctant at first. He didn’t need a sidekick but you were a talented enough witch. You had a soul too. You didn’t crave unimaginable power nor did you thirst for blood. You used your knowledge to aid and nothing else. You were the best person he had known in some time. Selfless. Loving. Giving. He didn’t deserve you one bit, not even as a friend. Yet he felt he couldn’t let you go. He cherished you, or he hoped he did. 

The both of you had your fair share of fights. He was stubborn and you were easily hurt. Geralt knew how to make his words hurt though. He didn’t pull punches. He was constantly trying to drive away the good things in his life. It was something you and Jaskier had bonded over. Both of you knew he cared, both of you had been a victim to his tempers. 

Just the night before, you two had gotten into a foolish fight and Geralt wasn’t proud of how things had gone.

“I’m simply saying you should be careful around her...” You had muttered, eyes glancing to Yennefer as she smirked into a drink. You knew she could hear you, but you didn’t care. You didn’t trust her and in your opinion, Geralt was too caught up by the wrong head to realize that she posed more danger than he should be getting into.

“I’m careful. We all are. I don’t trust her either but she isn’t going to kill us while we sleep Y/N,” Geralt said moodily. 

“You trust her enough to fuck her,” 

“That has nothing to do with this,” He’d said, eyes burning and narrowed at you as your bottom lip went out into a pout. 

“My point is that you’re so busy thinking about getting laid you don’t realize that she might not be the sort of person you want to be in company of,” You’d tried reasoning but you knew it was a lost cause. 

“Maybe you aren’t the company I should be in if you go around making accusations simply because she gets attention for being beautiful and you dont!” Geralt had roared finally, tired of the conversation. He watched your eyes go wide for a second before he saw them go dull. You had erected a wall so quickly he barely had time to register your emotions. That’s how he knew it hurt. 

“Wait- I didnt mean it,” He sighed, hand going to rub at his face in exasperation. 

“Goodnight Geralt,” You had said instead of continuing the conversation. You had rushed to your room, wiping away your frustrated tears before they could fall.

By the morning you had been gone. At first he had believed that you had up and left with no reason to come back. You’d had enough of Geralt of Rivia. But your things were still in the room you had rented and Jaskier had been looking jumpy all morning while Yennefer was looking far too pleased. 

Jaskier had been the first to cave, admitting he had seen you earlier that morning and that Yennefer had been talking to you about the wraith that the witcher was after. Something had been said about impressing Geralt, of all things. How could you think you needed to seek his approval, especially by doing something so insanely stupid?

Yennefer had chased you into the arms of danger yet he hadn’t been there to keep you level headed. He had angered you the night before, wounded your pride. He should have known something like this would happen. 

“If anything happened to her, I will kill you, Yen,” Geralt growled, hand gripping Yennefer’s fragile throat as she grinned in delight but he couldn’t find himself to care. He was disgusted by the sight of her currently. All she was was a pretty face and a wicked soul. You were so much more than that and he had been a fool not to realize sooner.

“Oh please,” Yennefer gasped, craning her neck in an attempt to get out of his grip. With every passing second Geralt was getting more frustrated, more worried, and every second his grip around her throat was getting tighter. She couldn’t breath properly and it was beginning to get uncomfortable. Her eyes flashed a dangerous purple as she wiggled out of his grip. “Y/N is fine, and if she isn’t, it’s her own damned fault for being weak.”

Geralt tensed considerably more and his shoulders were tense. He towered over Yennefer with a threatening glare. “She is not weak,” He hissed, “She never has been. And if you think she is then you are far more misguided than I thought you were Yennefer,” Her name was spat out like poision from his lips. He felt sick. Falling under her spell and her vicious beauty. Yennefer was corrupted and wicked and terrifying. She was rage and hatred and vengeance. He had so easily fallen victim to it. Taking his own troubles and letting them get caught up in her whirlwind of pain.

He couldn’t help but let out a heavy sigh, the fight leaving him as his shoulders sagged. He stepped away, releasing Yen’s throat as she gasped for her first full breath in some minutes. Geralt’s worry was getting the better of him. You were nothing like Yennefer, nothing like him for that matter. Your heart was gold and your smile was sunshine. You had experienced pain, far more than your fair share yet you weren’t spiteful. You let it mature you instead of letting it destroy and distort you. You became better than what your circumstances had tried to make you into.

And here you were, trying to prove something to him by taking on that blasted wraith by yourself. He snapped out of his upset stupor. You were out there, in danger and he was feeding Yennefer’s cat fights by staying. Without another word he was storming out of the inn and throwing his leg over Roach’s saddle. 

Not halfways to his destination however he was met by a familiar sight. You were slumped heavily over your horse, hair matted to your head. Your clothes torn. He called your name and watched as you slowly lifted your head, eyes squinting and falling shut with the effort it had taken to open them in the first place. 

Geralt felt a lump in his throat as he noticed that blood caked underneath your nails and smeared across your face. There was a fresh wound that was dripping crimson blood onto your bare shoulder. He dismounted Roach quickly and your horse halted before him and you groaned at the sudden stop. 

“Y/N...you fucking fool. What were you thinking?” He said but there was only concern in  his voice. 

“Trying to prove,” You rasped, letting him pull you from your horse with gentle but sturdy hands, “that I don’t need to be beautiful, I just need to be better than that bitch, maybe then you’ll notice me,” You admitted. You weren’t thinking clearly. You’d hit your head quite a few times. Been through hell with that damned beast. “I did it Geralt,” You said once more before falling limp in his arms.

He took you back to the inn quickly and when Yennefer met him at the door he made sure to put her in her place. That blasted woman wouldn’t be sticking around any longer, his attention was on you now. You needed him. You were important to him. You were good to him and he had been wretched to you. Maybe Yennefer was now the scapegoat of his frustrations but he did feel relieved when she disappeared from his sight. Jaskier had come to check on you shortly after, reporting that the witch had indeed left. 

You were thankfully, going to be alright. Geralt stayed with you and refused to move. When you woke, he was there with a lukewarm glass of water and furrowed brows. 

“Explain,” He demanded and you winced as you sat up enough to sip at the drink he had given you. 

“Got anything stronger?” You requested and once the alcohol was in your hand you sighed. 

“I just figured I could take care of it myself. I believe in my abilities and if I didn’t think I had a chance I wouldn’t have gone, but I was successful so why are we talking about this?” You asked, exhaustion lacing your words.

“Because what you did was pure idiocy, Jaskier has more brains than you,” 

“Ah, back to insulting again, are we?” You commented. “So lets see, Yennefer has more beauty and Jaskier has more brains so I’m what? Useless to you?” 

“No-” Geralt rushed to get out as he realized once again he was causing more damage than good. Your voice was bitter but your eyes were sad, downcast. 

“It’s fine, I’ll get over it. It did hurt though, what you said last night. I know I”m not the prettiest thing to ever walk the earth and I don’t care about that anyway, but I felt like I needed to do something to get your head out of your ass. I’m worth something Geralt and I don’t like when you make me feel otherwise,” 

At your admission his hand was engulfing yours. You were comforted by the lazy strokes of his thumb across your knuckles. “You are worth much more than anyone has ever given you credit for.... It was cruel of me to make you feel like you weren’t wanted or needed. You’re my...friend, Y/N.” He nearly grimaced at the word but it brought a small smile to your lips.

“A friend. Was that so hard to say?” You teased. 

“Yes, no shut up or I’ll regret it,” He seethed but you gripped his hand tighter, kissing his knuckles. 

“Just try to remember that I may be tough but I’m not invincible Geralt, I care about you and when you say things that make me feel like you don’t care, I take it to heart,” 

“I do care,” Geralt grumbled, pressing a kiss to your bruised temple. “A lot, actually. I was terrified when Jaskier told me where you left to. I saw red, blamed Yen for it and grabbed her by the throat, made her leave... I do care.” 

“I know now,” You smiled letting your eyes close again as sleep approached. You had taken quite the beating and now that you and Geralt were in a good place again you were ready to rest some more. 

[kaebedom-me]

ffs im sorry for submitting here but tumblr wont let me send asks and i wanna get this out before my brainrot perishes fbgdhgdff

to the wl1 nonnie thats struggling!! idk if this would help much but i relied heavily on the elemental reactions up until ar38!! (with all my characters being like,,,,, lvl14~lvl20 ffs) if you find you're dying from the hilis, then healers are good to have on the team- hydro + cryo is a GODSEND in not getting your characters bonked and sucrose is hella for cc! and she does decent dmg too, especially if you pair her ulti with elementals!

i usually dont have a set team for my plays but i would always have a healer on hand because i know i'd perish otherwise lolol so here's my team recommendation!! healer (this could be noelle or barbs, whichever is built more!), kaeya, a hydro character (so either barbs or xingqui) and sucrose (for her cc abilities! it'll help with the bonking uwu) additionally you can have fischl! her elemental skill deals constant element damage as long as oz is on the field so elemental reactions go boom hehe!

and you should focus on building a decent dps first after you get the elementals in place! get decent weapons and artis that boost atks or have elemental masteries! and dont forget to lvl up their talents if you've ascended them!! it helps up the stats!!

also also!! if you're in asia server, i'll be happy to help you bonk and build with whatever knowledge i was handed by my friends!! i'm not too much of a pro myself but my friends were godsend in helping me get the mats i need for my children so i'd be happy to help in anyway i can!! uwu - build-a-bob nonnie (am i on non in submissions? probably not pFT)

[prof-peach]

I've got a rather strange situation on my hands and was wondering if you could help. I use Ground type pokemon as I hike in the desert frequently. I've been raising a pair of Cubone together to help get my exploration and guide team set up for when I help groups of newbies learn the ropes. I was very excited when they both decided to evolve. Then I suddenly learned one of the lads was an Alolan Cubone. Long story short, what do I need to do to prepare a Ground focused house for a Ghost/Fire?

Oh boy have you got a task on your hands! What an unusual situation, one must have had Alolan heritage, rather exciting! 

well, the good news is they do have a lot of similarities, they will be fine in the house and so long as you’ve trained them well, which sounds like you have, they shouldn’t cause too much trouble. Now they’ve evolved, make sure to encourage them to work together, and not feed behaviour that could lead to them becoming competitive. Alolan Marowak can be notoriously egotistical, and sometime this can be its downfall, it can become aggressive towards others if it doesn’t get its own way or win at something. Team building exercises are key, and expressing to them that they are both excellent at different things will reassure them that fighting over small issues isn’t necessary. If they have a problem, they should feel safe enough to come to you and try to explain it, and that violence isn’t the answer. This species though very good natured on average, can grow to have some severe character traits. Nurturing their mental well-being is important, so be encouraging and task them to do things that can show off their individual skills and talents. That way everyone wins, both literally and figuratively. 

Now, as for your home, you may want to invest in a fire blanket, water based extinguisher, and check all your smoke detectors work. That’s basic 101 fire type rules. Everyone with a fire type should do this, no matter how well trained or calm the Pokémon is. It’s just far safer this way. 

As a ghost type they have some ties to spiritual energies, and can rejuvenate this off of places of worship. This can be a small alter you set up in the house, a corner that’s quiet, where they can light some incense, perhaps you or your team mates will place cool rocks they find there, or use it to home a small jar with some native grass or flower in it. Some people like to put photos of their loved ones here. It’s on your shoulders that you make sure this space means something to everyone in the house, or at least you and your Alolan buddy. In using this space you are charging it with the energy that keeps ghost types well balanced, strong and healthy. You should try to take five minutes to contemplate your day with a drink, sit and call your family or friends to chat and catch up, or just take five minutes to actively focus on something on that small alter space. You do not have to be religious, but if that helps, by all means set it up. As an example, some people like to put the small alter facing towards them where they would place a prayer mat. A lit candle or tentative thought towards a religion will also produce energy for any ghostly partners. It is a strange science, ghost specialists have a lot of my respect, I fear I don’t know much of the facts behind how it all works. I know what works to fix symptoms, and how to make things comfortable and happy, that’s as far as it goes haha.

Your Marowak will appreciate that you took the time to make it this space. Without it we find that ghost types can begin to draw energy off of their human partners, and team mates, exhausting the targets. Though it is less prominent with your Pokémon’s species, it’s still there and will wear you down eventually. 

Training should be varied to suit their battle style, though as a cubone they’ll have certain moves and techniques unique to them, and these are inherited into their larger evolution. You will know what’s right, they may develop a good ranged attack or get up close and personal in battle, but training should be altered especially in double battles. With fire powers you can combine some really cool attacks, and excellent defences to boot! Have fun, mix it up, and dont worry too much. Kanto marowak can withstand some heat so even if an attack grazes them, it won’t be detrimental to their well-being. Keep some burn heals on you though, just in case. 

Otherwise? Just keep them from swampy areas, their feet can get fungal infections quite easily when wet for a long time. 

I hope this helps you all on your way to being a happy healthy family, good luck out there!

[yahoo-puck-daddy-blog]

What We Learned: Is anybody better than the Maple Leafs?

The Maple Leafs look awfully dangerous right now. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

After literal years of speculation and expectation, John Tavares is a Toronto Maple Leaf.

This is a seismic shift in a division that already had two of the best teams in the league, and a conference that’s home to the winners of the last three Stanley Cups. Make no mistake, there hasn’t been a bigger free agent signing in the NHL since Zdeno Chara left Ottawa for Boston, and the impact Tavares will have in more or less immediately making the Leafs a contender is probably even greater.

Let’s even forget that Tavares left money on the table and took a true-hometown discount to sign with the Leafs, because that’s not material this season. And frankly, it probably isn’t material beyond that because if you look at that CapFriendly page, they dont have a huge amount of commitments beyond 2018-19. Yeah, their RFAs are gonna be expensive to re-sign, but they’ll have plenty of cap space to deal with most of those concerns, especially if you can get everyone to do the buy-in on the hometown discounts a la Golden State, as Steph Curry and Kevin Durant both took significantly less money to keep that super-team together.

Anyway, I’m just gonna say it: The Leafs might be the Cup favorites right now.

I know I know: “But what about that defense!” I get it, but look, the Leafs’ D situation probably took a pretty big step forward just with the loss of Roman Polak, let alone the continued maturation of, say, 23-year-olds Connor Carrick and Morgan Rielly. You can’t always trust Mike Babcock to do the best possible deployments of talent but if Nikita Zaitsev and Ron Hainsey get a decent reduction in their run-out and the actual most talented defenders on the team are all playing 20ish minutes, I can see this team taking a step toward being Cup-competitive in a way that it perhaps was not last season.

More to the point, though, the extent to which running Tavares-Matthews-Kadri-whoever down the middle is going to help this team make that step even bigger is significant. There’s an argument to be made that the Leafs shouldn’t even run out a fourth center at all, because those three guys combined deserve to be playing a combined 60 minutes a night. You wanna say it’s like 21 or 22 for Tavares versus top talent with plenty of time on the first unit, and some PK duties. About the same or a little less for Matthews against second lines, plus first-unit power play. Then the rest for Kadri on the second PP unit plus the kill.

Put another way, Matthews and Kadri combined to play only about 35 minutes a night last season and the Leafs got some pretty good mileage out of it, so add Tavares’s 21 or so to that and you only need a fourth-line center for about four minutes a night. What’s the point.

That gives you flexibility to either dress seven defensemen (which I think is smart for any team) or a kind of “flex” forward if necessary, at whatever position you need him.

The other issue for the Leafs, as mentioned above, is that the Atlantic might now have three of the five best teams in the league (the other two being Nashville and Winnipeg in the Central).

It’s reasonable to argue that because of the divisional playoff format, the Leafs’ path to the Cup is probably the most difficult in the league, and the same is true of both Boston and Tampa. To even get to the Eastern Conference Final, they will have to play two top-five teams. Not easy. And it’s not hard to love what both Boston and Tampa will ice this year. But can either of those teams even come close to matching up against that 1-2-3 down the middle? Nope.

Now, obviously both the Bolts and Bruins have better defenses, but the Penguins and Capitals both had kinda middling defenses and won the Cup. More to the point, the Leafs will probably be spending like 55 percent of the game in the attacking end so to the extent that defense matters in the playoffs, they’re going to use their guys to retrieve the puck and stretch the ice rather than actually do as much stay-at-home stuff except situationally.

It’s fair to say that neither Nikita Zaitsev (and yikes that’s not a good contract) or Ron Hainsey (also not a good contract but a less-bad one certainly) won’t be the guys who can do that but you gotta play to your strengths and Babcock probably won’t be allowed to play 22 minutes a night anymore. Or at least, you’d hope so.

Even if you don’t think the Leafs should be considered a prohibitive favorite to win the Cup — I’d argue they’re at least third as of this writing — you have to understand the extent to which they gain even more flexibility going forward. There are a lot of old guys whose contracts come off the books next summer and after 2019-20, and Kyle Dubas can probably find someone to take Matt Martin at $2.5 million given what Ryan Reaves is getting these days. That is, if you really need to free up that little money.

So what the Leafs have done here, is given themselves two No. 1 centers, and you really can’t overstate how valuable having two guys this good is in the NHL. Especially as Matthews and the various other very young wingers continue to mature. Even if you think Tavares starts declining hard in the back half of this contract, they’ve effectively purchased four or five years of extreme Cup-competitiveness.

The pressure’s on, sure, but it’s Toronto and the pressure’s always on, even when you suck. Tavares knew what he was signing up for, obviously, but he also knew what it takes to win from having suffered with the lack of it for so long.

There’s no better way to win the Cup than by getting a ton of talent and now, especially up front, pretty much no one in the league has as much as Toronto.

What We Learned

Anaheim Ducks: When you have a roster this good, you gotta stand pat!

Arizona Coyotes: Adding a guy like Grabner, who’s gonna be 31 on Oct. 5, is something to watch because he’s a speed guy and it’s hard to maintain speed when you’re old and stuff like that. Three years is a lot even if you think his poor career underlyings are overshadowed by his ability to create chances on the rush.

Boston Bruins: I like Jaro Halak as a backup to Tuukka Rask a lot, in theory, but the Bruins’ first few moves of the free agency period were… adding Islanders and Hurricanes. Maybe not the best strategy.

Buffalo Sabres: The Sabres added Carter Hutton as their backup, giving them three Lowell guys for next season. Please note the 2017 Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins also had three Lowell guys. Might not be a coincidence.

Calgary Flames: The Flames really seem to have improved their forward depth, which was always their big problem, but that goaltending situation ain’t getting better. Not sure what’s gonna happen here but I’m not optimistic either.

Carolina Hurricanes: Petr Mrazek getting another chance as a potential 1b with the Hurricanes is a relatively safe bet. And if it doesn’t work out, well, it’s not like this club isn’t familiar with bad goaltending.

Chicago: Giving Cam Ward a full no-trade is redundant. Cam Ward’s save percentage is a no-trade. But hey, if you get a chance to add a guy who is a 20-year-old plus a 19-year-old in 39-year-old Chris Kunitz, that’s the kind of youth movement this team needs.

Colorado Avalanche: Looks like the Avs were all about adding okayish depth guys like Ian Cole and Matt Calvert and that’s fine, if you ask me! Not sure they can count on another playoff appearance with this roster as-is but I guess MacKinnon could have another titanic year.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Little happening for Columbus at the start of July here. Wonder if they’re waiting for some movement with Panarin or something.

Dallas Stars: Intriguing add in Val Nichushkin. Be interested to see what he brings to the table. But here’s something that’s more interesting: How did Roman Polak get a raise?

Detroit Red Wings: The Red Wings adding all these veterans on short-term deals is like, “Well, who cares because it’s one year and they can probably trade them”

Edmonton Oilers: Tobias Rieder is an interesting player. I’m saying “interesting” a lot today but it’s this wasn’t a great UFA class and guys who Have Upside or are otherwise in the Cody Franson All-Stars group of guys whose underlyings make them seem better than the eye test or their scoring numbers do. The deal here is a pretty good gamble, though.

Florida Panthers: I think Michael Hutchinson probably has something to add for this team. I don’t know how much that actually helps in terms of making them any good, but I’m still a bit of a believer.

Los Angeles Kings: I’m gonna have a Kings take in the next day or two on here but this Drew Doughty contract, hoo boy. He’ll be 30-plus for all but like 2 of its 96 months. Way too much money.

Minnesota Wild: Adding a bunch of Leadership guys is gonna be what gets this team over the top –  just kidding.

Montreal Canadiens: That’s a really nice gamble on Xavier Ouellet. I like that deal a ton as a bet on a guy who posted good underlyings with a crap team. He might be able to do that again this season!

Nashville Predators: Yeah they just didn’t need to do anything, so not doing anything of note in the past week is totally reasonable.

New Jersey Devils: An Eddie Lack bounce-back season would be nice but I’m not holding my breath.

New York Islanders: The speed with which Islanders fans went from Needing Tavares to saying, “Actually he’s not even as good as Mat Barzal and the kids will add more than enough goals to make up for his absence.” Deluded.

New York Rangers: Nothing worth doing for a team in their position, so have fun out there.

Ottawa Senators: The revelation in the Ottawa media that the Senators are almost a quarter of a billion dollars in debt is… something else. I guess I’m not surprised but how is it that much? That seems impossible.

Philadelphia Flyers: That James van Riemsdyk contract is defensible but I’m not sure where this team thinks it’s headed. They’re trading Wayne Simmonds real soon here. Maybe it already happened by the time you read this.

Pittsburgh Penguins: The Jack Johnson contract is instantly one of the absolute worst in the league. It’s indescribably bad. Five years for a healthy-scratched a guy who will be three months from his 32nd birthday at the start of the season is, like, what the hell man.

San Jose Sharks: Now it seems like freeing up all that cap space was maybe not advisable. Missed out on Kovalchuk and missed out on Tavares, the latter despite reportedly bidding an extra $2 million AAV per year. Anyway, that’s too much money for Logan Couture.

St. Louis Blues: I pretty much like both David Perron and Tyler Bozak as middle-six guys and I think the money is one of those things that isn’t avoidable. However, I’m not sure where these adds get a team like this, that’s firmly third-best in its own division on a real good day.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Good price for Ryan McDonagh even if he’ll be 30 when the deal starts. Hard to be cynical about this deal for now though, but they might have some more irons in the fire for a brand-name talent (via trade, obviously), and that’s scary.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Underrated aspect of this is Dubas stealing a franchise player from Lamoriello. Very funny, to me.

Vancouver Canucks: I mean if the price of adding Antoine Roussel and Jay Beagle (a combined 12 goals and 32 assists last year) is four years and $6 million, well, you gotta do it.

Vegas Golden Knights: I have to say I literally laughed out loud at the Ryan Reaves contract. I can’t wrap my head around that one. He’s terrible. Like the Stastny deal though.

Washington Capitals: I love that Michal Kempny deal. He was a top-pairing guy for the Cup run and got just $2.5 million for five years. Not bad at all.

Winnipeg Jets: Sucks to clear a bunch of cap space to sign someone and then have him go to the team that beat you in the Conference Final. But hey, that’s hockey baby!!!!

Gold Star Award

Tavares is getting so much of his $77 million in bonuses. Hilarious.

Minus of the Weekend

Just because the cap went up a lot doesn’t mean you have to give fourth-line guys $2 million. Just saying.

Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Week

User “HailMcJesus” is trying to get out of a jam.

To Edmonton:

Christian Fischer

To Arizona: Milan Lucic, 2019 1st

Signoff

Seymour, the house is on fire!

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)