#we better get a season two for a league of their own or so help me amazon

[duckuwu]

sitting here thinking of how grateful I am to have had two shows where the plot and the cast/ptb genuinely cared about their fans. being loving in their storytelling, even in dealing with upsetting things, only served to enhance the story. treating viewers and fans with respect in how the narratives were told helped to enhance the story.

it's a serious business, but it's also not. if your story revolves around characters genuinely loving and supporting and uplifting each other it's amazing. but to also realize that it's okay to allow people to enjoy things you might not intended, and support the fans who do so with so much love in their hearts? phenomenal.

I got to have two shows at the same time revolving around women, queer women, where it didn't revolve around their sex lives or backstabbing or [insert all the usual negatively framed stories/shows we usually get from a mostly women (especially queer women) show]. No shock value needed nor added. Just people finding their family, and changing the world because of it.

I'm talking specifically about getting to have A League of Their Own and Motherland Fort Salem "airing" at the same time. Both shows are relatively groundbreaking in the way they did things, their tonality, their 'everyone is queer until proven otherwise' stances. That the cast and narrative was comprised of not just white people. Their overall message of love and hope and that we're stronger together.

I don't need to talk more about ALOTO, everyone seems to get it. lol

I wish MFS had the resources and time to tell the story they wanted to tell, it definitely was hurt (narratively) by having to fit it all into short episodes in short seasons, but as a whole it was such a beautiful world to be gifted with. A lush, vibrant, reality with plenty to explore, with all these amazing women, with an open minded society where queer wasn't queer it was the norm. How they kept making sure to remind us that the rl societal norms didn't apply. It's about their coven, they're all connected, they're all allowed to love whomever and however. Sex wasn't taboo, in fact it was a resource. I love that, in this final season, they took great care in providing tender shippy moments for ALL the pairings in the fandom. That the cast was all for supporting ALL the ships because they got it. They got that it was all about love and loving each other and giving love and support. (As a (generally) non-canon shipper it's so damn NICE to be respected (and supported) by the cast. Also nice that the leads themselves were a united front, they were the coven they played.)

To get to have these two shows at the same time fills my heart with such joy, and hope for the future. We're just getting started, baby, and it's going to be amazing one day... One day it won't be profound to be treated with love and respect, one day it'll just be the norm. (I mean, it's pretty amazing now, to have these two at the same time.)

It's nice to know, for sure, that there ARE people with the power to make these shows who GET it. It's nice to know that there will only be more and more who get it from here.

[billybob598]

Someone Like That (Leah Williamson x Reader)

Ok, hi everyone! This is my first fic, so please give me any feedback good or bad! I'm gonna try to get another one out in a couple days as well. Enjoy!

Word Count: 1.7K (I think)

Leah watches with baited breath as you dive to stop yet another shot. She gets her head back in the game quick enough to clear the ball out of bounds. You scramble back onto your feet.

“Come on Arsenal, we have to close the ball down quicker!” Everyone just gives you a small nod in acknowledgment. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a hand reach out for a high-five. When you make eye contact with Leah she gives you a grin, you return it as you slap her hand. 

As the game against Bayern continues on, you cannot but watch in awe at everything Leah does. When she assists Frida with that cheeky chop pass you almost ran across the field to hug her. But you didn’t, mostly because that’s a long way to run for a goalkeeper. When the final whistle blows you sink to your knees with a sense of relief. 

“Oh my God, Y/N!” You look up to see Leah heading straight for you. As she opens up her arms to you, you can’t help but be mesmerised at how gorgeous she looked. Even after playing 90 minutes of gruelling football. It’s only when she gives you a concerned look that you snap back to reality and give her the hug she’s been waiting for. 

“You played amazing today, y'know,” you mumbled into her neck.

“I know,” she says with a smirk. You quickly shove her away with an unimpressed look. “Ok, ok, sorry,” Leah watches fondly as you roll your eyes at her before starting to walk around the stadium, thanking the fans. 

Katie and Jen watch the interaction shaking their heads.

“When are they going to realise they’re in love with each other?” Katie asks, slightly frustrated. Ever since you had joined Arsenal two years ago the pair of you had been crushing over each other, neither wanting to make the first move. It was actually quite annoying for the rest of the team, watching you guys dance around your feelings. Of course, there were multiple bets going on about when you were going to get together and who was going to make the first move. 

“I don’t know, they might never,” Jen says with a light shrug.

“Well, we can’t let that happen,” Jen looks at Katie, mildly surprised by her statement.

“Why not?”

“Because I’ve got 10 pounds on them getting together before the end of the season,” Katie replies. 

A couple days later, there was a team bonding night at Viv and Beth’s. You weren’t particularly fond of social interaction. It was weird, why would you go watch a movie at someone else's house and have to share snacks when you can just watch that same movie at your own place while having all the snacks to yourself? As you approach the door you hear a shout from behind you. 

“Oi! Y/L/N!” You're not surprised when you turn around to Katie jogging to catch up with you.

“What do you want?” You don’t intend to sound so annoyed but it just slips out.

“What’s got your knickers in a bunch?”

“Sorry, sorry, what’s up?” You say with a sigh.

“Actually, I think I might know why you’re so moody lately,” there’s a hint of mischief in her voice and you don’t like it at all. You gesture for her to continue as you both stop outside of the door. “Does it have anything to do with a certain English blonde who might also be the captain?” Your eyes widen as she continues speaking, “I mean everyone knows you're in love with her and that she’s in love with you so, it would really be better if you fessed up before the end of the season. For everyone.” 

“Wait, wait did you say Leah was in love with me?” 

“Yeah. It’s pretty obvious.”

“No, no way. There’s no way someone like that likes me. I mean, she’s way out of my league,” you scoff. 

Katie laughs, “Okay, Y/N, I know you don’t think very highly of yourself, but you’re actually kinda hot.” The look of bewilderment on your face has the Irish woman chuckling to herself as she knocks on the door. As it swings open you’re met with the rather grumpy looking Viv. 

“Catch yourself on, Viv, neither you or Y/N look very happy to be bonding,” Katie says, rather loudly. Viv gives you a soft smile before letting the pair of you in. 

“Not that happy to be doing this either?” Viv whispers into your ear. She gets her answer when you give her a look of “are you kidding, look at me.” 

As the night progresses, you are actually enjoying yourself. There were a lot of games and laughing. Despite this, you can’t get your previous conversation with Katie out of your head. Did Leah actually like you? Should you make a move? No, that’s a bad idea, there’s no way Leah frickin’ Williamson likes you. Because of this you expertly avoid Leah all night. The captain can’t act like this doesn’t hurt her a little bit. She tries to rack her brain about what she possibly could have done to offend you. Beth had been giving her sympathetic looks every time she tried to talk to you and you completely shut her down. Leah was starting to get angry, she hadn’t done anything. Not anything she could remember, anyways. So, as Beth started to usher people out of the house, sensing Viv’s social battery depleting, Leah watched with irritation as you got into your car and drove away. No words being spoken between you and her the entire night. She jumps when a hand lands on her shoulder, turning around to see an apologetic looking Beth behind her. 

“It’s okay Leah, maybe she just wasn’t feeling well or something,” her friend says.

“Yeah, maybe,” Leah huffs out. 

“You have to tell her about your feelings,” Beth reasons, trying her damndest to get her friend and teammate to finally tell you that she was in love with you. Walking to her car, Leah whispers to herself, “There’s no way someone like that, likes me.”

The entire drive home and the entire time she’s getting ready for bed, Leah’s thoughts are on you. Did you actually like her? Should she tell you? No, that’s a bad idea. Is it? Before she has time to second guess herself, Leah grabs her car keys and starts making the drive to your flat. It isn’t until she’s standing outside your door that she realises how terrible of an idea it actually is. She’s just about to turn and walk away, when the door opens. You look up startled by the blonde’s presence, “Leah! What are you doing here?”

Leah feels a blush creeping up her neck as she responds, “Um, I came by too, y’know, like talk or something.” Or something? God she was such an idiot sometimes. Now it’s your turn to blush as you open the door to her, motioning for her to come in. 

“S-Sure, come in,” you reply nervously. The second Leah fully enters your flat she’s engulfed by your scent. “Do you wanna sit or something?” You try your best not to stop your hand from shaking from nerves. Leah sees this and all she wanted to do was take your hand in hers and hold you until you stopped shaking. But, she couldn’t do that, not yet, not when she wasn’t sure if you were mad at her or not. The pair of you fidget nervously for a couple seconds in an awkward silence. Finally Leah breaks it,

“Are you mad at me or something?”

“What? No, why would I be?” Your confused face sets something off inside Leah.

“You didn’t speak to me at all tonight, you didn’t even want to sit beside me!” She has no idea why her voice raised so quickly, she has no idea why she’s so mad at you. The look of hurt that comes across your face makes her want to go die in a hole.You mumble something incoherent. “What did you say?” You take a deep breath before meeting her eyes. God, you could just get lost in those blue eyes forever.

“I don’t know why I was ignoring you,” You say unshakily.

“You don’t know?” Leah replies, clearly not satisfied with that answer, “You don’t know or do you not want to tell me?” The hard glare she has on her face is enough to send your eyes back down to the floor, suddenly finding the hole in your sock very interesting. “Answer me Y/N,” it sounds like a command. Then, after a beat, she uses a much softer tone, almost like she’s begging you, “Please, answer me Y/N.”

“Because…” 

“Because…?” The silence is deafening. Leah decides she has finally had enough and slowly starts to turn and walk away when you say in a very loud and clear voice,

“Because I love you for God sake! I love how much passion you have for football. I love how you and your mum are like best friends. I love how whenever there are kids around you make it your mission to play with them. I love how intense and serious you look on the pitch. I love how you are insanely clingy when you're tired or drunk. I love how your tongue always sticks out a little when you’re doing your sudoku’s. I love everything about you, big and small. Sometimes I feel like I love you more than I love myself. Because I fucking love you, Leah,” your voice gets quieter at the end of your confession. Leah freezes, not saying anything for a couple seconds. You take this as her answer, shoulders sagging as you mumble out a quiet apology. Your cheeks flushed with embarrassment. This night was officially the worst.

Just as you start to turn away Leah grabs your hand, pulling you into a searing kiss. It takes you a second to fully register what’s happening, but when you do you immediately kiss her back. After air becomes a necessity you pull away, leaning your foreheads together. 

“I love you too,” Leah whispers against your lips.

“Yeah, I think I got it,” you say with a giggle. Leah rolls her eyes and pushes you away. 

“No, no come back,” you plead with her, slowly connecting your lips as you pull her closer to you. “Do you wanna stay here tonight?” All Leah does in response is hum against your lips with a smile.

You definitely were happier than you’d been in a long time, and so was Katie a couple days later after realizing she was ten pounds richer.

[geekgirles]

I'm actually quite proud of Armand right now. Openly admitting to Amalia the reason their relationship was always strained was because he'd always been jealous of her and her relationship with their father is such a great character moment for him.

One thing season 4 is definitely delivering is some much needed depth and exploration of the Sadida Royal family. And I find myself fascinated (not only because Amalia is my favourite character and I have a soft spot for her people).

Personally, Armand is a character I have a lot of trouble having a clear stance on. I don't hate him, and it's true his motives become clear and even understandable once you give them some thought, it's just that Ankama does a wonderful job at making him both outwardly dislikable given his abrasive personality and some of his most questionable actions.

For example, season 3 Armand and season 4 Armand are almost like night and day. Maybe it is indeed that his new role as king has forced him to be more responsible and emotionally mature, but the vibes between L'assamblée and Falling Down are completely different.

In season 3 he just oozed contempt for his sister, and his actions towards her reeked of ulterior motives. The fact that Aurora has been described as manipulative (even her hairstyle is meant to hint at her true nature) and was purposely placed in between the two siblings as a visual nod to how she's keeping them apart doesn't help matters.

Which is another factor to take into account: Aurora's character and the role she plays in the siblings' deteriorating bond.

Even if so far she seems to genuinely love Armand, I really can't bring myself to trust Aurora. Not only because of all the behind-the-scenes facts I already mentioned, but because her actions are just sketchy and clearly veered to the betterment of the Osamodas rather than the Sadida.

First of all, her contempt for Amalia is genuine and she legitimately seems to be planning to send her away to keep her from interfering with her plans. After all, this is literally what she had to say about her sister-in-law:

"Ne vous en faîtes pas mon prince, nous finirons bien par redresser cette mauvaise herbe."

Translation: "Don't worry, my prince, we'll get this weed straightened out in the end."

(I haven't watched the English dub, so my apologies if the translation doesn't match the official version).

There's also the fact that, despite being the new Sadida Queen, her intentions in season 3 clearly laid in the benefit of her own kingdom, the Osamodas. Such is reflected in her choice of suitors for Amalia:

She intended for Amalia to marry Ashdur, her own cousin, thus, strengthening the Osamodas' hold over Sadida politics. In fact, it becomes quite clear Aurora's choice in suitors, only supported by Amalia implying back then her sister-in-law had already tried the same thing with her brothers, was much less about the future of the Sadida Kingdom and more about the Osamodas' sake.

After all, while arranged marriages between royal families isn't anything new, usually the sensible and even most strategic thing to do is for rulers to"spread" their children and marry them into different families around the world. That is exactly what Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabela of Castile did with their own children, they married them off to the royal families of England, Portugal, and Austria.

With that in mind, having both Sheran Sharm children marry Osamodas royalty just seems dumb, doesn't it? It all comes to show Aurora is more concerned over solidifying her power over the Sadida Kingdom than its actual well-being.

Which is why I'm still going to keep my guard up regarding her character until the season ends. After all, we still have 9 more episodes where everything can go up in flames.

But going back to Armand, even though he is in love with his wife, his treatment of Amalia in L'assamblée is leagues better than it was in season 3. Unlike most of his appearances and his interactions with his sister, where he kept treating her like a child who didn't know any better (what she just so happened to accuse him of when presented with Ashtur, as a matter of fact), here not only does he finally open up to his sister about his insecurities and his reasoning for his behaviour towards her, but he offers her support in the wake of their father's passing and even invites her to attend the assembly with him.

He is entrusting her with responsibilities befitting a queen, not a child.

Their relationship is finally healing.

As I said earlier, despite the undeniable depth behind his character, it's difficult to really side with Armand in plenty of occasions. Not only because of his difficult personality and flaws, but because it is so much easier to sympathise with Amalia.

And I'm not talking exclusively about the fact that, as one of the main characters, we've been by her side throughout everything, witnessing her true selfless, responsible, and brave self, but the fact that her position within her own family certainly tugs at our heartstrings.

Amalia is the youngest sibling, the princess. For all the sheltering and privileges that can get her, it also became her gilded cage. And for the most part, not even her family was a safe haven.

Queen Sheran Sharm died when Amalia was probably still a kid, whereas Armand was most likely already a teenager. As King Oakheart revealed back when he explained to Amalia it had been Armand who insisted they let her go, the queen's death shook their entire family, making the king and prince unintentionally turn their backs on Amalia during a time she needed as much affection as possible. And so, her royal duties became stifling, her royal upbringing unbearable. Thus is the reason for her wanderlust.

And then we have Armand's reason for not always being fair to her: jealousy. He resented her for being Oakheart's favourite, despite constantly going off to adventures while he remained in the kingdom by his side. Now, as I said, this was a great character moment for Armand, one that also belies his character development. However, it doesn't change the fact that, while easier to relate and sympathise with him, we still sympathise with Amalia more or have been doing so for far longer because we knew the effect this had had on her.

We all have been someone's scapegoat to their frustrations with a third person, we have all been treated unfairly by someone who, for whatever reason, couldn't solve their own issues with the person they had problems with in the first place and took it out on us. This is the crux of Armand and Amalia's strained relationship: for years, Armand took his frustrations and insecurities out on Amalia instead of having an honest conversation with their father.

That's why it's easier to sympathise with Amalia, because we know that, deep down, for all her flaws, she was never at fault for how their relationship turned out. Because we can understand her frustration and pain when, even with their dying father, Armand still chose to listen to his wife over her and try to marry her off instead of being there for each other when they both needed most. As Amalia called him out for before leaving with Yugo, he still chose politics over family. Everything involving Armand and Aurora is about politics.

But now that they are at least beginning to rebuild their relationship, I sincerely hope things get better for them. Unless their original intentions back in 2017 have changed, I seriously fear Ankama will still use Aurora to complicate things further between these two.

Please, Ankama, I'm literally begging you. They're all the family they each have left, don't let their relationship be ruined forever.

[an0ther1]

Two Is Always Better Than One pt.1

Leah x Alessia

A/N: This is a little excerpt from my AO3 series. Need your help though. Need name suggestions for a pair of puppies. Non footballer names and think one is constantly getting into trouble and the other is trying to stop them.

“At least we got our ticket into Champions League next year.” Alessia said as she cleaned out her locker. “That’s what I came here for. And we got the FA Cup. Considering where we were at the start of the season, I’m really proud of us.”

“Yeah, and we finished the season with almost everyone healthy again too, aside from Lia. Got lucky her knee wasn’t more serious. Couldn’t say that this time last year.” Leah answered as she pulled things off the shelves of her own locker to put into her bag.

“I really did want to play in Paris, but-” Alessia turned around. “Everyone is going to get a proper rest. And with all the trophies we’re going to win next year and the Euros, who knows when we will get that again.” She put the last of her things into her duffle and zipped it up before walking over to Leah and wrapping her arms around her girlfriend from behind. “Proper rest means proper holiday. Just the 2 of us, a beach, maybe a private villa.” She started kissing the back of Leah’s neck.

“Save it for the villa Russo!”

Alessia spun around. “Piss off McCabe. We all saw that mark on Caitlin’s neck that wasn’t there when we got here this mornin’. I mean really, we just came for the end of season talks”

“Poor girl bruises easy.” Katie shrugged. “So is that what yous have planned for the time off?”

“After we take care of a few things.” Leah said as she zipped up her bag. “Which we do need to get going. We have to be somewhere in an hour.”

“We do?”

“Another house to look at? How many have you seen now? 20? 30?” Katie asked as she picked up her own bag.

“It has only been 10. But no. We are not looking at a house today.” Leah threw her bag over her shoulder.

“Good. I’m still gutted we didn’t get the house on Fishpool. I think we need to take a break from looking.” Alessia said as she went back over to retrieve her bag.

“You put in on a place on Fishpool? Never said nothin’”

“It was waaaaay more house than we needed. Far too big.” Leah started to explain.

“But the garden was beautiful. And the extra bedrooms meant Ella could stay over when she came down and Keira and G all at the same time. Or my family and yours. There was enough room for everyone. And a gated drive so no one would have to park on the road. It was perfect.” Alessia huffed out.

“I know love. But it just wasn’t meant to be. The agent said there might be another one on that road going up soon and we would be able to get first look when it does.” Leah wrapped an arm around Alessia as she walked back over to her. “Come on, we really do need to get going. We’ll give you a ring for dinner soon, Macca.” She said as she started to gently push Alessia along.

“Sounds good Le.” Katie replied with a wink.

Alessia looked at Katie and then her girlfriend. But Leah’s face didn’t give any indication as to why Katie had winked at her so she ignored it. “What are we going to do for dinner tonight? We haven’t been to the shop in a bit and I don’t really want to do that and cook tonight.” She asked as they left the locker room.

Leah dropped her arm off Alessia to grab her hand instead. “I was thinking we might go out and try something new.”

“Oh, where?”

“No idea.” Leah shrugged. “See what we find.”

The pair dropped their bags into the boot of Leah’s car. “So where are we going?” Alessia asked as she slid into the passenger seat. “You never actually said.” The striker opened Spotify and hit play as Leah started the car. “And why did Katie wink at you?”

“Does anyone know why Macca does most of the things she does?” Leah shrugged. “And where we’re going is a surprise. But it won’t take us long to get there.”

Alessia eyed Leah suspiciously but didn’t push. The couple sang along with the music playing through the stereo for the next 10 minutes before Alessia recognized the area. “Lee. Babe.” Alessia turned in her seat towards Leah. “When I said I didn’t want to look at any more houses for a bit I meant it. And I REALLY don’t want to look at another Fishpool house. I need time to get over the first one.”

“We aren’t looking at another house.”

“Then why are we here? This street is literally just houses.” The passenger pointed out the window. “Lee. No, I don’t even want to drive by it. Just turn around here. Lee, are you listening?” Alessia turned abruptly in her seat. “I was really excited about that one. I could picture us having parties in the garden, our friends bringing their dogs over to play with ours. I didn’t think not getting a house would be this shitty.” She grumbled.

They passed by several houses in silence before Leah reached around the center console and grabbed Alessia’s hand. “I’m sorry Less. Even though I thought the house was far too big and more than we needed, I felt the same way. The garden is amazing. And you had a point about being able to have our friends all come and stay with us at the same time, or family.”

“Lee.”

“Mmm?”

“If you feel the same way that I do about not getting it, why are you pulling into the drive?” Alessia straightened in her seat.

Leah didn’t say anything and just cut the engine. And then she got out of the car without a word. Alessia scrambled to unbuckle and follow. “Lee. What are we doing here?” Alessia yell whispered over the top of the car as she jumped out. “LEAH! Are you listening? Are we even allowed to be here?”

Leah didn’t answer. She just calmly walked around the front of the car to Alessia and gently grabbed her hand, pulling the younger woman along.

“Leah, love.” Alessia pulled back her hand slightly but didn’t stop Leah from leading her around the side of the house. “I don’t need to see the gar-” Alessia did stop. “Why is Amanda here?”

“Well.” Leah turned back towards Alessia, pulling her girlfriend by the hand closer to her. “The estate agent is the one with the papers we need to sign.”

“Lee.” Alessia’s eyes widened as she gasped. “Papers?”

Leah stepped closer to Alessia, dropping their joined hands in favor of wrapping her arms around her waist. “Yes. The papers for our new house. Something happened with the other buyers and the deal fell through.” She smiled brightly. “It’s ours, love.” She gave the taller woman a quick kiss. “Now come on, we’re going to be late.”

Alessia pushed Leah’s shoulder. “Shut it.” She grabbed her elbow and pulled her back. “How long have you known about this?”

Leah leaned in until she could count every eyelash surrounding Alessia’s bright blue eyes. “About 2 weeks.” She snuck in another quick kiss before the other blonde pulled away.

“2 WEEKS?! Lee, we lost out on the house 17 days ago!” Alessia said with a look of total disbelief.

Leah tilted her head back and forth. “Okay, so maybe it was 16 days. But who’s counting.” She shrugged.

“LEAH CATHRINE!”

“Come on. We don’t want to keep Amanda waiting.” Leah grabbed Alessia’s hand again and started pulling her to the back of the house where Amanda was sitting on the built-in patio set, large stack of papers and pen in hand.

“Afternoon ladies.” The estate agent said brightly. “Should we get started on this?” She lifted the papers. “It might take a while.”

45 minutes later, Amanda had gone over and explained everything that was covered in the documents, most of which went over the heads of the blonde couple. They crossed every T and dotted every I on every line that had a bright highlighter tab next to it. “I don’t think if you combined all of our football contracts over the years that we have signed, they would be even half of that.” She worked out a cramp in her hand. “I haven’t done that much writing since Uni.”

“That wasn’t that long ago love.”

Alessia elbowed Leah.

“Alright ladies. I’ll get you a copy of this in the next few days, but.” Amanda restacked the pages neatly before placing them in her bag. She then dug into the pocket of her blazer. “These are yours.” She leaned forward and handed the couple a set of keys. “Congratulations.”

Before Leah could do anything, Alessia snatched the keys from the estate agent and jumped up. “Thanks Amanda!” She said over her shoulder as she took off for the nearest door into the house.

“Thank you Amanda, truly.” Leah stood up and hugged the agent.

“My pleasure. I would say reach out when you’re ready for your next one, but as a Gooner, I never want that to happen.”

“It won’t if I have anything to say about it. But I’ll ring you when we have the housewarming party.” Leah turned towards the house. “I better get in there.”

When Leah made it inside, Alessia was nowhere to be seen. She walked through the kitchen, into the open living area and down the hall. She peeked into one of the guest bedrooms, then another, until she got to the last room on the first floor. There were large floor to ceiling windows on one wall that looked out into the garden. The property was so vast that even though the neighbors were fairly close on either side of the house, not a single building could be seen from this room. The garden just continued on forever it seemed.

“Imagine all of our medals and trophies in here. Photos from the Euros on the wall, the FA Cup, World Cup, and everything else we still have to win.” The striker turned around where she was standing in front of the windows to look at Leah in the doorway. “Imagine standing in here, in this light and seeing everything we have accomplished together in this room.”

“In our home.” Leah slowly made her way over to Alessia. She had just reached her girlfriend.

“IS SOMEONE GOING TO GIVE US A TOUR OR IS IT A SELF GUIDED KIND OF THING.” Someone yelled from somewhere else in the house.

“Bloody hell.” Alessia yelped.

“Looks like the girls are here.”

“Did they alllll know about this before me?” Alessia questioned with a raised eyebrow.

Leah leaned her head against Alessia’s chest. “Maybe?” She mumbled.

Alessia chuckled as she wrapped her arms around Leah’s shoulders. “I want to be mad at you for keeping this from me.”

“LESS! LEAH! YOU TWO BETTER NOT BE SHAGGIN’ ALREADY! AT LEAST GET SOME FURNITURE FIRST!” Katie yelled down the hall.

The couple both laughed. “Mmm. That’s one way you can make it up to me for keeping this a secret for so long. But thank you Lee.” Alessia leaned back and moved her hands to either side of Leah’s face. “I can’t wait to make this a real home with you.” She gave her girlfriend a tender kiss.

“BLOODY HELL! YOU TWO BETTER HAVE CLOTHES ON!”

Leah’s shoulders shook. “Come on. We better get out there.”

[captainsophiestark]

Destroy All Comers

Jason Todd x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for my Year of Olympians and part of a bigger challenge being run by @yearofcreation2023​! It features a ton of other awesome creators and runs all year, so go check it out!

Fandom: DC

Prompt: Athena; Wisdom and Warfare

Summary: When Y/N's regular co-coach, Dick Grayson, is called away during an important period in the 8th grade girls' basketball season, Jason Todd has to step in and take his place.

Word Count: 3,124

Category: Fluff, Humor

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

Jason's POV

"Why do I have to do it?"

"Because you're the only one available to take my place! Besides, you might actually have fun doing it once you give it a try."

I huffed and crossed my arms. Grayson had a mission overseas coming up, and he'd asked me to take his place. Not as Blüdhaven's vigilante, oh no. As the co-coach for a kid's basketball league.

It was dead last on the list of things I cared about or wanted to do. But Grayson had recently helped me out with a problem of my own, and he'd made it very clear he wasn't above calling in that favor.

"C'mon, Jay. It's only two weeks. Ten practices and one tournament, that's all you have to get through."

I sighed heavily through my nose and stared at the ceiling for a few long beats. Then, I dropped my eyes back to Dick, keeping my expression completely unimpressed.

"Fine. But you better not get hurt on this stupid mission, because I'm not covering for you a single second past that tournament."

****************

Y/N's POV

"Alright, great work! Let's take five for water and then get into our layup drills!"

I smiled and clapped a few of the girls on the back as they headed off the court to their bags on the sidelines. Coaching my little niece's basketball team was one of my absolute favorite activities, and I'd been doing it since they were first graders. Now, this was their last year before high school, and we all wanted to go out on a high note. We had a tournament in two weeks that would help set us up nicely for the end of the season if it went well for us.

Every single one of us was absolutely locked in.

Every one of us, of course, except my co-coach.

Dick Grayson, my new best friend since we'd started volunteering together at our family members' school (my niece and his little brother) and I'd managed to rope him into helping me with my niece's basketball team, was my usual co-coach. Unfortunately, he apparently had a big commitment out of town that he couldn't get out of, so he'd be missing the tournament and two weeks leading up to it. I'd been a little upset, and then mostly just teased him for a 'lack of commitment' I knew he didn't actually have before promising to keep him updated on everything. His replacement, however, I was starting to have a real problem with.

Dick told me he'd convinced one of his brothers to fill in for him this week, just so I wouldn't be left wrangling a bunch of thirteen and fourteen year-olds alone. Dick had spoken very highly of him, but he was currently half an hour late to his first practice, and I was starting to get a bad feeling that he'd be more of a hindrance than a help.

Just as the thought floated through my mind, I heard the doors to the gym swing open. I looked up to see a tall, muscle-y guy with a leather jacket stride through the door. Dick had told me they weren't biological brothers, but even with the white streak in this guy's otherwise jet black hair, I knew he was Dick's brother. He came to a stop in front of me, and I might've been a little thrown off by his good looks if I wasn't also so pissed.

"Coach Y/N, I take it?" he asked, holding out a hand for me to shake. I just scowled back at him.

"Yeah. And you're Mr. Thirty Minutes Late To Practice."

The guy–definitely Jason Todd, since he didn't correct me–narrowed his eyes slightly as he dropped his hand back to his side.

"Yeah, sorry. It was kind of a rough night."

I took a second to breathe in deeply, then let the breath out through my nose. This guy was Dick's brother, after all, and for all I knew he might've had a perfectly good reason for being late. I made myself meet his eyes and forced down some of the impatience I'd been feeling.

"Jason. It's good to meet you. Thank you for volunteering while Dick's gone." He nodded and shifted on his feet, looking a little uncomfortable. I sighed. "How much do you know about basketball?"

"Some," he said with a shrug. "I played for a little while when I was really young, and I watch it sometimes now, but that's it."

"Alright. Well, for today, I'm just going to have you run the girls through some simple drills like defensive slides and foot fires while I work on plays and some specific moves with the other half. Deal?"

"Sure."

I turned to share the new plan with the girls, but stopped and turned back again after a few steps. Jason still slouched a few feet away from me looking disgruntled.

"Listen, Jason? I really do appreciate the help, but... the girls and I take this very seriously. If you can't do that for the next two weeks... I think we might be better off without you."

I turned before Jason could really even react, not particularly interested in a comeback. The girls were waiting for me, after all, done with their water break and ready to get back into the action.

We split off into separate groups for the next hour, Jason running drills the girls probably could've done on their own while I worked with a few at a time on more position-specific drills. Finally, with half an hour left, we took one more break before it would be time to spend the last half hour scrimaging. I stood off to one side mentally making the first two groups of five, but stopped my mental planning when Jason wandered over to me, looking more than a little tired.

"How you holding up?" I asked, only half trying to conceal a smile and laugh. Jason huffed.

"They're insane," he said, slumping against the wall next to me and crossing his arms. "They interrupted me five times in the first drill to tell me I was explaining it wrong. And they were mean about it, too!"

I didn't even bother trying to hide my smile this time. "Yeah, I wasn't kidding when I said they took this seriously. It helps to have another adult in their area when I'm doing other stuff, but... they could probably run those drills themselves."

Jason gave a thoughtful hum, but didn't say anything else. I gave him a second and finished making the first set of teams in my head, then stepped to the middle of the court and clapped my hands.

"Alright girls! Let's get this scrimmage going!"

We flew through the last half hour of practice, all of the girls in excellent form. Jason kept watching, seeming much more interested and engaged than before, but he didn't chime in with anything. For the last two minutes, we practiced wild half-court shots "just in case" (and mostly for fun), then huddled up at center court as the parents started to arrive.

"Alright, great practice today everybody, as usual," I said. Even though it was the end of practice, no one looked like they were itching to go; everyone stayed laser-focus locked on me. "Now that today is over, we officially have nine practices left before our tournament next weekend. That means nine practices to get as good as we can possibly get."

The girls hooted and hollered, and our captain, Angie, chimed in.

"And to get ready to destroy all comers!"

The other girls cheered for her statement, and I grinned.

"Damned right. You girls are incredible, and should already be so proud of how far we've come. The other teams aren't gonna know what hit 'em next weekend!"

A chorus of "yeah!"s.

"Good! Now, what team?"

"Wildcats!"

"What team?"

"Wildcats!"

"Wildcats!"

"Destroy all comers!"

"Alright! We'll see you girls tomorrow!"

They all cheered, wished me a good night, and wandered off to find their parents. I watched them go with a smile as Jason wandered up to my side.

"That's not how I remember the High School Musical cheer going."

I shrugged. "Our mascot's the wildcats, but we're our own entity. Our own, slightly more cutthroat entity."

"I like it."

I finally turned to look at Jason and found him already staring at me with a mischievous smile.

"Listen, I know I wasn't very helpful today," he started. I snorted, but gave him a small smile so he knew I was mostly teasing. "But, if you'll let me... I have a couple ideas that might help over the next few weeks."

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? What did you have in mind?"

****************

"Okay girls, lean into the contact! Stand your ground, really let your opponent push into you and push right back!"

I smiled as I watched Jason work with the girls. For our second practice together, he'd come early to walk me through a more detailed plan of some ideas he'd had. Like Dick, he had better experience than me with physical training and the best way to help other people strengthen themselves and specific areas. Unlike Dick, he'd immediately leaned into my more ruthless energy, and had come up with a new strategy we were in the middle of implementing.

Within a few seconds, Group A–the offensive group–stepped away from their partners. Group B, the defenders, stumbled and, in some cases, even fell. Jason beamed around at all of them.

"Great work, that's exactly what we want. Ref can't call you for anything, and the other team'll think a little harder before laying all over you in the paint again."

The girls' feral grins were response enough to tell me how they felt about that new strategy. I couldn't help mirroring their expressions as they went to get water and I went to stand by Jason.

"Nice work," I said. Jason turned to grin at me, and my heart skipped a beat in a way it never did when I coached with Dick. "I've gotta say, day one was rough, but I love the energy you've been bringing since."

"What, you're telling me Dick didn't bring the scorched-Earth energy?" he joked. I chuckled, shrugging at the thought of my usual partner being paired with the phrase "scorched-Earth".

"Dick came up with some absolutely insane yet somehow effective strategic trick plays," I said. "He's always a positive, encouraging energy, especially when the rest of us get a little too intense. But yeah, his usual role is the balance to our bloodthirstiness."

Jason nodded. "Sounds like him. Usually, at least."

I squinted a little at that as Jason stared off at the far wall, but then he shook his head and turned back to me. Slowly, a grin spread across his face, and I swear it was contagious as I mirrored him. Then, he spoke.

"I'm planning on bringing a slightly different energy to the team."

****************

"Alright girls, this is it!" I cried, staring around at the huddle of intense, focused faces around me. "We win this, and we not only win the tournament, but we're set up with the number one seed for the postseason. You've played amazing so far, and nobody can take that away from you. Keep it up for the rest of this game, and let's finish this thing!"

Everyone nodded as I spoke, an excited fire flickering in every person's eyes. After two weeks of practice and some new strategies from Jason, we'd spent Saturday carving through our early opponents like they were nothing. Now, after a long Sunday, we'd battled our way to the championship game. We'd gone into halftime tied, and the next two quarters would be everything for us.

If Dick were here, he would've referenced the "Sixteen Minutes" song from High School Musical, since that's how much game time we had left. But he wasn't here, and Jason and I both had different things on our minds.

"We're tied, which means we can take this as a fresh start," I continued. "Go out there and outplay them for the next two quarters, and it's ours. Leave it all on the floor and show them just who they're messing with."

The girls cheered, and I glanced up at Jason.

"Coach? Anything to add?"

"Yeah. I've only been here two weeks, but that was enough to realize that this team is full of the toughest, scariest competitors I've ever seen. So go out there, show no mercy, and crush anybody that tries to stand in your way!"

The girls and I all roared in approval, and Jason's feral grin fit right in with all of us. It was hard to believe he'd really only been here two weeks; he seemed like part of the team that'd always been here.

The buzzer sounded behind us, signaling it was time to retake the court.

"Alright girls, let's do this!" I shouted. "What team?"

"Wildcats!" screamed everyone, Jason included, at the top of their lungs.

"What team?"

"Wildcats!"

"Wildcats!"

"Destroy all comers!"

The girls clapped as our starters headed out onto the floor and Jason and I shifted to stand next to each other at the front of the bench, just off the court.

"See the looks we just got from the opposing team?" asked Jason with a grin. Behind him, the other players and coaches were still giving us side-eye and concerned looks. I smiled.

"Oh yeah. The intimidation mind game is half the reason for that cheer."

"Nice."

Jason and I fist-bumped, and then turned our attention back to the game as it got underway. One way or another, this was it.

Despite the intimidation to start the second half, the other team put up a great fight. It wasn't easy, but our girls managed to persevere. Jason went wild whenever one of them used a move he'd taught, and we both spent the game screaming from the sidelines with encouragement, play calls, and just a bit of extreme, "destroy all comers" mindset. In the end, we won by eight. All our girls rushed the court, screaming and celebrating, then tamped it down long enough to be good sports and go through handshakes with the other team. Afterwards, we all gathered in a corner of the gym to do a debrief before the celebrations continued.

"Alright, I'll keep this short since I see your parents waiting to join in the celebration," I said, grinning around at my team. "You guys played amazing. You should be so, so proud of yourselves. I know I'm crazy proud of you. You worked your butts off, put it all out on the floor, and won the tournament! We've still got plenty of work ahead of us before the season's over, but that's a problem for later. For now, celebrate! Celebrate yourselves, this victory, and everything we've accomplished as a team."

The girls smiled and nodded through my speech, and when I finished, they paused before going off to their celebrations to each give me a tight hug. Then, one by one, they did the same to Jason. A few of the girls who'd used his moves thanked him for his help, and most of them paused to tell him they'd miss him. I just watched as Jason's face went from shocked, to slightly uncomfortable, to a bit of a frown.

He waved the last girl off, watching them go. Slowly, I sidled up to him, watching our team meet up with their friends and parents. I gave him a second, then sighed.

"I need to call Dick," I said. "I promised him I'd let him know how the tournament came out, like, seven times before he left, he was so upset to miss it."

Jason just gave a little noncommittal "hm" without looking at me. I watched him for a second, still staring after our team, then continued.

"You know... a lot of teams in our league have three coaches, not just two." Jason snapped his head around to look at me with wide eyes. "I don't want you to feel like you have to, but... I think the girls seriously love you, and it looks like you had fun. I'm sure Dick wouldn't mind if you wanted to... stick around?"

Slowly, his expression morphed into a smile, and his eyes slid from me back to where the girls were high-fiving and reliving the weekend. He stood a little straighter, his smile widening, and then he turned back to me with a glint in his eye. Not for the first time since I started working with him, my heart skipped a beat.

"I've got a question before I agree," he said. I raised an eyebrow and nodded for him to continue. "Is there any rule about coaches asking each other on dates?"

Now it was Jason's turn to watch with a grin while I managed a shocked expression. After a few seconds, a smile started tugging at my lips as I processed his words. Before I could answer, he held up his hands and continued.

"I'm asking, of course, to see if I need to wait until the end of the season. Grayson may be good at the peppiness and creative trick plays, but clearly this team thrives with coaches as ruthless as them."

I beamed at him, my heart floating in my chest. "Fortunately for us, there's no rule against coaches going on dates. The girls are gonna be merciless teasing us about it though. They were relentless for weeks when Dick first joined the team, and we weren't actually dating."

Jason smiled and took a step closer to me.

"I think we can handle them."

"Mmm, I'm not sure you're right, but I'm willing to do it anyway."

"You wanna go get drinks now? Celebrate a little for our first date?"

"I'm in." He held out his hand to me and I took it, then held up my phone with my other hand. "Just let me call Dick before we go."

Jason nodded, and I dialed Dick's number on FaceTime. Jason leaned over my shoulder, our arms linked together and a massive grin on his face. The phone rang for a long time, then finally, Dick's face appeared on screen. He looked a little tired and rumpled, but he smiled when he saw us.

"Hey guys! How'd it go?"

"We won!" I shouted.

"You've got a new co-coach, Dickie Bird!" shouted Jason at the same time.

Dick laughed, then beamed back at both of us through the camera. "That's great! Jay, I'm glad you ended up loving it as much as I thought you might."

Jason grinned. "Yeah, well, before I started you forgot to mention the cutthroat team energy."

Dick grimaced a little as Jason went on, probably realizing he now had TWO insane co-coaches to try to balance out, but I just smiled. For the rest of this season, I'd be working with my favorite kids in the world, my best friend, and a possible new boyfriend.

No one else in the league was going to stand a chance.

[alexbkrieger13]

M's newest column

Ive been thinking this week about Fifa’s plans to expand the Club World Cup and create a Women’s Club World Cup and wondering where the welfare of players ranks in their priorities.

At a time when we’re seeing so many serious injuries to top women players I found it alarming that they did not consult the leagues or the players. Instead, Fifa president Gianni Infantino just announced it out of the blue.

Fifpro, the players’ union, were right to complain about the lack of consultation. I’m all for new ideas but you have to think about the players. If you just add more and more games, there’ll come a time when it just becomes too much.

From my personal viewpoint, if Chelsea were to win the Champions League, I’d love to get the chance to play the best teams from other continents. I can also see the benefit of making the game less Eurocentric. However, you have to talk to the players’ union first.

As for a 32-team tournament for the men, the loading is already extreme for them and I’m intrigued to see how they cope when the Premier League returns on Boxing Day, just a week after the World Cup final and two weeks after England’s quarter-final exit.

When I think back to last summer after the Euro, it took me at least a week for my mind to stop playing back the images of all I’d experienced. For us, there was the trauma of losing a semi-final 4-0 and feeling humiliated. Emotionally that was tough and for three days I lay on a sunbed and tried to read a book but I just could not focus on the letters.

My head was still in the tournament, processing all I’d been through, and I needed at least 10 days to start feeling enthused about the new season. Then, when I went back into Chelsea, I had issues with tendinopathy – inflammation in my hamstring and achilles, which is the product of overloading. Every footballer has it somewhere once they reach a certain age, yet it was clear to me my body was struggling.

I’ve got friends in the Sweden national team who tell me they are still feeling fatigued from the Euro and the news this week about Vivianne Miedema’s ACL rupture – less than a month after Beth Mead suffered the same injury – only accentuates the need to give more serious thought to player welfare in the women’s game.

This isn’t just about Fifa either. We have so much to improve on regarding knowledge of women’s bodies and loading. At Chelsea we’re lucky as we have a big squad and they’re very good at monitoring load and thinking about physical and mental welfare.

However, only a handful of women’s clubs have it like this; few others can afford it. Before I came to Chelsea, I’d never worked with full-time physios, for example.

It’s just my hypothesis but I wonder whether women players might be less fragile if we’d received better medical attention early in our careers. It doesn’t help that all the research has been based on men’s bodies.

More women-specific research is required to understand how to train and load us. At Chelsea we’ve just taken part in a study by a woman who is scanning the feet of female footballers and collecting data about their foot shape, and this is what we need more of before Fifa start adding even more games.

I would also question the timing of women’s tournaments, which tend to run until late in the summer. Next year’s World Cup will start on 20 July and end on 20 August. It means you get a few weeks off before the tournament but you end up wanting to stay fit and doing some training on your own. It’s afterwards when you need the break and, as I’ve mentioned above, I don’t think two weeks is enough.

Ultimately, there are moments when your body says “enough” and I say this from personal experience. I look back to December last year when I suffered an ankle injury in a Champions League game at Wolfsburg, which ruled me out for three months.

In hindsight, I’m not surprised at all as I remember the way I felt in that period, just trying to get through games. With Sweden I’d got to the final of the Olympics the previous August but hadn’t had enough time to recover and then we had the challenge of the inaugural group stage of the Champions League, which meant more travel and more tough games.

I was tired and moody and just thinking, “When’s the break coming?”. I really feel my injury came as a result of that. I jumped and landed badly and damaged ligaments as well as sustaining bone bruising and a small fracture. It felt to me that my brain was simply too tired.

A year on, sadly, it’s my partner Pernille’s turn to be injured. Thankfully it wasn’t an ACL in her case but she had an operation on her hamstring last month and in the first few weeks afterwards needed help with everything, including putting on her socks and shoes. This is the personal cost that players face and it’s sad to see a loved one like that – yet another reason, therefore, why I feel so passionate about protecting my fellow players.

[lokiondisneyplus]

How Marvel officially added McDonalds to the MCU

On the very last day of filming on the first season of the Marvel Disney+ TV series Loki, executive producer Kevin Wright sat on the steps of The Citadel at the End of Time with costar Sophia Di Martino (Sylvie), and they started to chat about what might be next for her character. Not in any official script capacity, just as fans of the story they’d just finished filming. 

“This character had been on a decades-long, maybe centuries-long revenge mission, and the classic trope of those stories is that it’s all-consuming and she’s not thinking about what comes next,” says Wright. “Now she has this moment of opportunity, where is she going to go?”

Di Martino thought about it for a moment, and said, “She’d probably be pretty hungry.

There are more than 13,000 McDonald’s across the United States right here in 2023, and untold more across the multiverse. In a new campaign launched this week, the fast-feeder gave Marvel and Loki fans a peek at its own cameo in the series’ upcoming second season, set to launch on October 6.

“As Featured In” is the Golden Arches latest Famous Orders meal campaign and, instead of being tied to a particular artist or character, it celebrates all the instances in TV and movies that McDonald’s has appeared or been mentioned by characters: Friends, The Office, Seinfeld, Space Jam, Coming to America, and many, many more. But at the center of the campaign is Loki, one that hasn’t even happened yet, which is probably appropriate for a show that revolves around the multiverse and many different timelines. 

The meal itself—a choice of a 10-piece Chicken McNuggets, Quarter Pounder with Cheese, or Big Mac, with medium fries, a Loki-branded Sweet ‘N’ Sour Sauce, and a medium soda—is, like the Famous Meals before it, nothing all that special, but that has always been the point. The genius of Famous Orders is that it drives customers to McDonald’s core menu items rather than a limited-time stunt. There is, of course, also a merch collaboration, this time with streetwear darling Palace Skateboards. The packaging features QR codes that customers can scan to get fun Loki content and buy pieces from the Palace collaboration.

Long after his conversation with Di Martino on the Citadel set steps, Wright and his team were developing season two, and they were finding it difficult to pick up a new Sylvie storyline. She had just killed He Who Remains in season one, where does she go? 

“When we stayed in the view of character, this woman who went on the run as a child, had been running through time, a fugitive of time, living in apocalypses, never being able to relax or slow down, the novelty of walking into a 1980s McDonald’s looked appealing,” say Wright. “You play a Little League game and go to McDonald’s. You go to a kid’s birthday party at McDonald’s. Someone like Sylvie would never have experienced that, and would be really taken by that.”

Marvel Studios has been a brand partnerships factory since Iron Man first ate a Whopper in 2008. Typically these things happen when there is a finished script, and producers go through it with the studio’s brand partnerships team to see where opportunities may be. A car chase, you say? What brand of car should we use? Maybe an Audi?

But this latest collaboration happened in reverse. A 1982 McDonald’s was specifically written into the script, so Wright approached Marvel’s partnerships people to talk to the brand about helping them out with the details. “I was worried that McDonald’s would think we wanted to do something ironic or make fun of them,” says Wright. “But we were selling an earnest story, a love letter to nostalgia through a character’s eyes who will see all of the novelty and joy of it.”

He needn’t have worried. “When I pitched it, our internal team said, ‘Uh, you realize we have a partnership with McDonald’s already, right? The fact we’re going to them wanting to do something makes it even better.”

Around that same time mid-last year, McDonald’s marketing execs were on a tour of sorts, meeting with content creators and creative teams at studios like Disney about the brand’s interest in participating in cultural moments beyond the typical product tie-in. That’s when the call from Marvel about Loki came in.

“We tend to embrace things like this,” says McDonald’s global chief marketing officer Morgan Flatley, “which we feel can be an opportunity for us to learn, especially because we felt that between Marvel and Loki, there was a real willingness to take their rabid fandom and mix it with a fan truth around McDonald’s and bring them together.”

The fan truth Flatley refers to is of McDonald’s as a congenial gathering place, a common experience for so many people. “Sylvie’s storyline perfectly aligned with how we think about our brand in terms of providing comfort and familiarity,” says Flatley. Familiarity is the key to the emotion of nostalgia and shelter that Wright was aiming for in the story.

That same familiarity is indicative of a brand so ubiquitous, it’s become a cultural touchpoint. Hence all the McDonald’s references in TV and movies. There’s a reason McDowell’s works as such a big bit in the classic comedy Coming to America. We all get it.

That all sounds great, but many brands get nervous or overprotective when they aren’t in full control of the creative. Not that long ago, McDonald’s was among them. The success of Famous Orders, allowing artists and partners like Cactus Plant Flea Market to play with its brand logos and characters, and the passionate response from fans—along with the sold-out merch and boosted sales—has given Flatley and the brand more confidence than ever in what she calls “sharing the pen.”

“I’ve become a big believer that if we lean into the right kind of creators in the right cultural phenomenon, and loosen some of our control on the brand, magic will happen,” says Flatley. “A few years ago, I don’t know that we would have felt as comfortable handing over key aspects of our brand to be part of a storyline like this, but today we’re really aware of the authenticity of our brand and the role that it can play.”

Wright is very familiar with the pitfalls of ill-conceived brand partnerships, and the impact they can have. “Wayne’s World was making fun of this stuff 30 years ago,” says Wright. “When it’s done poorly, it looks like business not driven by story. I don’t think that was ever a concern for us, mainly because we knew it was being driven by our story, and the more McDonald’s partnered with us, the better we were able to service the story.”

Multiversal marketing? Let’s see McDowell’s try that.

[veryace-ficrecs]

Trent/Ted Lasso Fic Recs

This list will include all ratings and tags, so read at your own discretion! :)  

Part 2 here

if the years are all gone by marcaskane (commanderdameron) - Rated T

Nearly two decades before Rebecca Welton hires Ted Lasso as AFC Richmond's new manager, Trent Crimm spends a semester abroad in the midwestern United States. Everything unfolds a little bit differently from there. 

Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered by mardia - Rated E

Ted Lasso: Schrodinger's Witch.

Or, the one where AFC Richmond are leading the Premier League table, and Trent Crimm and the rest of the British press are slowly losing their minds as a result.

 i don't joke about crushing balls by orphan_account - Rated T

The sight is so bizarre, so out of place that for a minute, Roy’s not sure what he’s looking at. Trent (Crimm, the Independent) looks just as shocked as Roy feels. He’s wrapped in a fuzzy blanket, stupid hair ridiculously mussed, and he’s holding a mug of steaming coffee. 

turn and face the strange by rockinhamburger - Rated M

Trent is writing a book, so he's in the room, generally, whilst [AFC Richmond's magical season] fucking happens. 

The Hair and the Whole Vibe by TheWitchsCat - Not Rated

Ted notices Trent Crimm's hair and it's all downhill from there. An exploration of their relationship as it moves from casual to not. Romance and pining and fluff and soft smut for these sweet boys. 

'cause all i want to do is by punk_rock_yuppie - Rated T

Trent didn’t even pause to say good morning, which has become an indelible part of their morning routine (if you ask Ted) since he joined Richmond under the guise of writing a tell-all book.

Clearly, something is very wrong

orange marmalade by arrowxsun - Rated T

or: Trent Crimm comes home to find Ted Lasso waiting for him

“Sorry I’m late mum, traffic was hell and—oh”

Ted Lasso was right in front of him, wearing the apron Trent’s mum got him for Christmas. Trent couldn’t tear his eyes away.

“You’re not my mum” he said.

Wow. That was. Wow. He was a writer, a pretty renowned one for fuck’s sake, couldn’t he come up with something better?

Today wasn’t really Trent Crimm’s day.

Ted Lasso smiling at him like that sure wasn’t helping.

Pen Names and Pining by I_wouldnt_be_one_of_them - Rated M

Trent is a fan of cosy mystery novels. His favorite author is Dora Lariat, a Midwestern American who has recently moved to London and writes themes ranging from baking to football. For some reason Ted Lasso seems very interested by this fact. 

semaphore by trentcrimminallybeautiful (biDEMONium) - Rated T

Four bracelets and thirteen mugs later, Colin might have finally gotten the hint. Because it was directly pointed out by a crowd of himbos, but you know, still! We got there! Right?! Right?! 

PRE-ORDER NOW by spqr - Rated M

“I can’t send this to the publisher,” his agent announces, before Trent can even say hello. “Are you serious, Trent? If this is some sort of joke, I don’t get it—”

“It’s not a joke,” he says levelly, pouring himself a second scotch. “I’m being professional, that’s all. If I wrote a book about my mother I’d have to disclose she was my mother.”

 “Interestingly, the identity of your mother would not fetch quite so many headlines as you being in hopeless gay love with a Premier League manager—”

“No need for the ‘gay’ part,” Trent tells her. “Just ‘hopeless love’ will do, thanks.”

Lies, Damned Lies, and Lies to Journalists by gutterandthestars - Rated T

"It’s bad," says Rebecca, "because Trent Crimm is a very good journalist and knows you just bullshitted him right to his face. Which means..."

“He doesn’t believe I had food poisoning?”

“That’s highly likely,” agrees Rebecca. “And that means….”

“Means you’re fucked,” says Roy, appearing in the doorway. “Because now he’s not writing a story that reads ‘Richmond Coach Shits Himself’, he’s investigating a story he assumes is so embarrassing it’s worth your while to try and cover it up by pretending you shit yourself. And since that is already pretty fucking embarrassing, he’s thinks he’s onto something big.”

===

A little exploration of how this could have panned out, and why. With eventual kissing!

Season 2 Episode 9 comes on on Friday - I'm clutching my emotions tightly.

A day in the life by GrantaireandHisBottle - Rated T

‘I saw you with a man bun once, it really suits ya. Your hair in general is very nice but the man bun is twelve out of ten. Just saying!’

Trent blinks. ‘Thank you?’

‘You’re welcome,’ the golden retriever personification in Lasso nods and walks back to his own desk. Trent casts a glance at Beard’s empty chair, almost hoping to see some silent explanation of what the hell this was about.

Drawn Sunflowers by ItsClydeBitches - Rated T

This just in, his mind whispered, tone both exacerbated and snide. Local ex-journalist enamored with middle-aged man writing in a journal. Can his life get any more pathetic? Tune in at 11:00 to find out!

Fuck, but he shouldn’t have drank last night. Coming out to Colin had been bad enough. Pairing that with alcohol, mere hours before he’d spend the day in an enclosed space with Ted Lasso, was stupidity, plain and simple.

Still, nothing to do but shoulder ahead. So Trent cleared his throat, wincing at how rough his voice was.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Boxes by BrilliantlyHorrid - Rated T

“Excuse me, Coach Lasso, could I have a word?” Trent asked, tamping down the butterflies in his belly as Ted Lasso gave him his full attention.

Ted put his thumb and pointer finger under his chin for a moment thoughtfully before snapping his fingers and pointing at Trent.

“Archipelago."

Takes place after 3x07

***

Colin and Trent come out to the team. It goes well but things get weird.

off the handle by trentcrimminallybeautiful (biDEMONium) - Rated T   

Ted lets himself be angry, kisses the man of his dreams, accidentally makes said man of his dreams cry, acquires a boyfriend, and smashes some shit with Trent Crimm in a parking lot at 3 am. Not in that order. No one ask where Coach Beard got those mugs.

(The man of his dreams, the acquired boyfriend, and Trent Crimm all happen to be the same person. This is a surprise to no one but Ted and Trent Crimm himself.)

Tasteful Treasures by speccygeekgrrl - Rated G

Trent hoards the myriad facts he's learned about Ted safely in his mind, where no one can see just how deep his fascination runs. Those facts spawn theories, including one that Trent puts to the test: how much of Ted's hatred of tea is because no one's bothered to dress it up to his taste? 

 i'll lend it to you if you treat it tenderly by premortem - Rated T

“I knew,” Trent began cautiously, “that after the… incident, the one I stitched together on that godforsaken flash drive, that the sign had to have been carefully repaired and hung back up very deliberately to keep anyone from finding out what had happened. I knew that it worked for months, which probably required someone keeping an eye on it to make sure one half wasn’t slipping. I knew that someone had to have already known the sign was torn in order to put it back up, and I knew that you didn’t react with as much shock or hurt as I’d expected when we showed you the tapes.”

Ted’s eyes refused to meet his. They were focused on a spot of sauce on the floor, which he was scraping at with the toe of his sneaker as if that could fix the blemish. It was nothing short of painful to watch Ted fold into himself like this. But Trent had committed almost all the way to this confrontation; at this point, he had no choice but to drop the other shoe and get it over with.

“And I, um. I saw the security footage of you spending hours to make sure it seemed perfect,” he finished with a shuddered exhale.  “Would you like to comment?”

The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret by laiqualaurelote - Rated T

“Ted,” he says, mouth dry.

“Trent,” says Ted.

“Is this a date?” says Trent stupidly.

“Trent Crimm, bringing that heat.” Ted still hasn’t withdrawn his hand.

They’re standing in the street outside Ted’s flat where any tosser in Richmond could gawk at them. Trent hasn’t blanked so hard since his first press conference at Man United, where Alex Ferguson insulted his hair. His mouth, trained by years of journalistic habit, says on autopilot: “Follow-up question.”

In 48 hours, Trent Crimm lands a scoop, implodes his career and makes some drastic life decisions. And then there's the aftermath. And Ted, of course.

Winning Over Journalists by PrincessAmonRae - Rated G

"I violated journalistic integrity."

"Not why you resigned, I know that part, I meant why did you violate journalistic integrity?" Trent is briefly flummoxed and muses on the fact that this has turned into a true role reversal. "You're a good journalist Trent and you wouldn't have tossed that away for nothing. Not just outta respect."

"Well fuck." Trent reaches up to pinch the bridge of his nose before resigning himself to the embarrassment he is about to endure. "I had hoped your stubborn American politeness would have allowed us to dance around this issue."

All the Time in the World by one_true_houselight - Rated T

Ted has a heart attack, and Trent is the only one there.

[footballandfics]

Beautiful moment

you are pregnant, on your last month but you weren't due until two weeks from now.

you and your husband yassine are so excited, you have been married for three years and last year you finally decided to take this step in your life.

today he has a match, very important one, it decided if his team could advance to the champion league next season or not.

you wanted to be there and support him however, neither you or yassine wanted to take any risks with your pregnancy so you are just going to support him from home.

you have been on your own since the morning feeling uncomfortable as always since your belly grown but today it was way too much.

you called your mom to tell her to come to your house feeling afraid that you'll be due on your own and then not knowing what to do since this is your first born.

while you're waiting for her to arrive, still in the morning and your husband traveling to the next city for his game, you don't want for your boy to arrive to the world without his day being close and present.

when your mother get to the house it felt impossible to move , walking became harder and harder, you open the door and she helps you immediately to sit down and relax.

"i'm feeling like today is the day" you tell her and holding her hand, she looks at you worried and feeling your stress.

"it's okay it might be a moment and it'll pass" you shake your head, "it's been two hour i don't think it's just a passing moment, mom can you bring the back right next to my bed just in case".

"what about yassine? do you want me to call him?" she asks you and caresses you forehead.

"no it might be just a false alarm like you said and he has a important game i don't want him to miss it" you think about it, you might not be in labor so you don't want him to be stressed or miss the game.

your mother comes after putting the bag in her car and helps you to get up and you feel everything ten times worse and stronger.

after half an hour you do get to the hospital, they rush to the room doing what they're suppose to do and it looks like you are in labor, getting you ready, you don't know how much time has passed but you feel getting closer and closer to meet your little child.

your family are here waiting outside the room, only your mom next to you holding your hand trying to ease you pain a little bit while reminding you to take a breath every now and then.

"that's it, few pushes and the baby is out" the doctor tells you and five minutes later you do hear his cries and feel a bit of relief that this is over, you wished yassine was with you but it's okay it turned that way, you were two weeks earlier than expected.

holding your baby for a bit before the nurse takes him away, he was so beautiful like an angel, so tiny and with tears in your eyes you kiss him and give him back to the nurse.

moving you to a different room so you could relax and sleep after long hours in pain, you do sleep for a bit but you get woken up when you feel someone kissing your forehead and cheeks.

"hey beautiful" you open your eyes to see yassine looking at you smiling a bit, you hug him "hey handsome".

"how are you feeling?" he's caressing your face and kisses you softly.

"better, did you see him?" you ask him about your son.

"no i wanted to see you first, why didn't call me?" he sits next to you on the bed after you moved a bit for him .

"you have a big game and i wasn't sure today is the day, how the game went?" you remembered the game .

"we won" you hug him again, he deserve only the best and playing in the champion league is something every player dream.

your mother enters and the nurse follows behind with your baby, "somebody wants to say hi" she hands him to you, both of you and his father fall in love with him.

"he's so beautiful" yassine says while looking at him unbelieving that he finally meeting his son.

"do you want to hold him?"

"absolutely" you hand him to yassine carefully and look at them both, falling in love for your husband over again, seeing him kiss your child as softly as possible and he can't move his eyes away.

"i'm sorry i wasn't here at time, i can't believe i messed this and he looks just like you" yassine says to both of you.

"it's okay there's a life of time ahead of us to see" you reassure your husband, kissing his arm that holds your son and he kisses your forehead.

"thank you for the best moment of my life".

[pedripics]

Barça's Little Buddha - Champions Journal Issue 16

Sometimes it's not just what you say, but how you say it, and as Graham Hunter discovers, Barcelona wonder kid Pedri is as cool, calm and collected in conversation as he is on the pitch.

For everyone involved, the atmosphere of a TV interview at the training ground of a major football club is usually at the rarefied end of the scale. This one is with Pedro González López - better known as Pedri - so it's important that everything is spot on. In truth, the empty room we've been given is functional and dull - two things we don't want the interview to be. However, there's nothing dull about the activity taking place: there's a whirl of moving parts and participants, busy constructing the 'studio' where part of this interview will be filmed. It's an intricate, intense and necessarily efficient business. A cameraman, two cameras worth tens of thousands of pounds, a producer, spotlights, backdrops, microphones, three club press officers, an interviewer (me) and ... the player.

Pedri appears to be in the eye of this hurricane of activity, unruffled and unperturbed. It makes a great metaphor for how Pedri plays - what it looks like when rivals fret and flock around him, trying to shackle his elegant imposition of intelligence upon Europe's football fields. But, right now, accompanying that preternatural calm is a gently amused smile. It is neither sardonic nor condescending; rather, it is the smile of someone who is deeply self-assured. And importantly, it reaches his eyes.

"My first club in Tenerife, Tegueste, were big on values. They instilled in us the idea that we shouldn't get angry during matches or argue with the referee - there's no point. They also taught us to have fun. Now, these days I do get angry occasionally. That's normal. But the self-discipline to stay calm and to do better next time you're on the ball can make the difference."

Not to overdo the theme, but Pedri's self-possession also helped him govern the emotions of moving to the Camp Nou in 2020. Just over two and a half years before, he'd been on trial at Real Madrid's Valdebebas training ground, which was a miserable experience: it was snowy, training was disrupted and those in charge told him he wasn't yet at their level. So, turning up at Barcelona with the impression that he might be put under contract only to be immediately loaned out meant guarantees were in short supply.

"When my family and I arrived at our hotel, I made a deliberate effort to stay calm. I knew that, at any time, the club might tell me they weren't going to sign me."

He was 16, small and slight, joining a great club in great turmoil. At the time of signing, he had only started for Las Palmas, in the second division, three times. After completing his first full senior season with the Canary Islanders, the best option that staying put at Barcelona seemed to offer was joining Barça B. But that's not what happened.

"The day Ronald Koeman told me that I could stay with his first team, that I might get a few minutes, was a huge shock - I really didn't expect it. The surprise opportunity filled me with determination to keep training hard, to compete fiercely and to immediately try to grab as much playing time as possible."

From his Barcelona debut (September 2020 against Villarreal) until the end of that season, Pedri played 73 times for club and country. He scored his first Champions League goal at 17; at 18 he won Spain's Copa del Rey and was named in the EURO 2020 team of the tournament (he also won the Young Player award for good measure). And now, aged 20, he has won his first Liga title.

No offence to the great sides that Pedri has faced across Europe, but his most ferocious rival so far might still be his own grandmom. The González family run an eatery in Tenerife and, as a kid, Pedri, his brother and mates would move the tables and chairs to play 2v2 football. One time, a wayward shot smashed a glass lantern; Grandma González was so furious that she tried to burst the ball with a knife. You soon learn tight control after a fright like that. So, is Pedri's ability to be surrounded by four or five opponents but skip free with the ball innate, or was it learned in the family restaurant?

"It's a bit of both. I was able to do some things like that when I was younger, and it's down to the work with all the coaches. But certain things stick with you and often you do things naturally, without thinking."

Champions League defenders, you have been warned: the boy's a natural.

[muthaz-rapapa]

Hirogaru Sky Final Impressions (5/5)

Honestly, what were they going to do with those two weeks after 48 episodes? Have us wait until WonPre's broadcast? Yea right, lol

So the 20th installment of Precure is now officially finished and it feels both great and a little bit sad to say that since the bar has been readjusted quite high, we will probably need the 25th anniversary to get another season as awesome and well-written as HiroPre. [/harsh]

But that will be for something to worry about in the next five years.

So first, that finale!

Pretty much 5(ish) of the 6 last episodes was a whole arc dedicated to the most engaging lore Precure has ever given us to date.

Cure Noble is definitely entering the league of legacy Cures and perhaps as the one with the best story as well. How she went from princess-sovereign to becoming the very first Precure (in this universe, anyways) to helping pave a way for peace with her nemesis to laying out the foundation for the Cures who will succeed her in the future.

Yeap, Ellee-chan may have gotten a nice age-up bonus so that we can see her embrace her destiny and actually converse in something other than baby talk.

But it's more accurate to say that Ellee-chan/Cure Majesty's character arc is really Princess Elleelain/Cure Noble's instead.

Which is totally fine with me. Not only was Elleelain super interesting as a hero/protagonist in her own era but Kaiserin was...dear god.

Dear god, when have we gotten a twist that was this good and this dark by the series' standards? I felt we haven't touched this level of grim writing since Heartcatch and that was my first Precure season ever.

But seriously, it's impossible not to sympathize with Kaiserin and appreciate how much she contributed to the plot as well as this season's message that power is not what makes a hero, but the strength of one's heart that does.

Even her traitorous tutor, Skearhead, said she had what it took to become a hero (and maybe even Precure? oooh~), which just makes her fall into darkness more tragic.

But thankfully, she never lost her kindness and compassion, which was what ultimately allowed her to not only be saved but her wounds to finally heal after hundreds of years of suffering from the pain of betrayal Skearhead had inflicted on her.

And that her generals, who all turned over a new leaf, came back to the Undergu Empire to loyally serve her and make sure she isn't alone...

Good! This is so satisfying, I couldn't have asked for anything better! Kaiserin deserves her happiness after all she's been through!

But of course, that's not all because no Precure finale is complete without the last episodes dishing out the best combat scenes of the entire season and did it deliver, alright.

Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-HUH!

The animation was absolutely stellar and not so overdone that it'd look more gaudy than cool. coughDeliPaPrecough

Moreover, the teamwork is what really sold the animation. As it should because Precure is all about that team effort brought on by personal growth, not a one-man show.

I loved how Wing, representing wisdom, was the one everyone trusted to get that barrier back up because it is a mechanism that he researched and developed to help everyone. It proves that boys don't need to fit into a specific mold of masculinity or genius to be a hero because in the end, those things don't matter. It's being true to yourself, your beliefs and your dreams and what you choose to do with those abilities that counts.

I loved how Butterfly, who is physically the strongest in the group, always takes on the tougher tasks such as facing the army of tedious mooks to let those younger than her forge a path ahead. She never forgets her responsibility as an adult to protect the kids but she also encourages them to move forward because she fully believes in them like a good adult would.

I loved how Majesty comes to understand that though she's meant to inherit Cure Noble's will and power and position as Skyland's princess, it's not her destiny to inherit Elleelain's loneliness. And the whole reason that she started out as a baby but was able to grow and become Precure was because she was surrounded by the right people who brought out that potential in her. For Ellee-chan, being with her friends and fighting alongside them was the bigger, more important destiny than her duty was.

Finally, the star duo of the show.

Sky was given stronger MC vibes than the other cast members but you can't deny that she wouldn't have gotten this far without Prism by her side.

Sora's idea of what it means to be hero expanded a lot because she became friends with Mashiro.

She has come to treasure Mashiro so much that when she was on the brink of losing her best friend, she let Skearhead corrupt her in order to have enough power to save that best friend. She was willing to sacrifice herself for someone important to her, which in a way, can be seen as an act of heroism (but only as a last resort, plz do not attempt).

And even then, Sky kept resisting from being taken over. Prism didn't even flinch when Sky aimed a punch at her. That's how much Mashiro believes in Sora, in the hero that Sora is. That even if Sora accepted darkness into herself to do the right thing, she won't ever let that darkness consume her into doing the wrong thing.

And the fact that it was Prism who had the ability to not only purify Sky but also heal Kaiserin's centuries-old wound. She's come a long way herself from the girl who used to think she was talentless, who didn't believe she had anything special going for her.

"You are good as you are now, Mashiro-san."

What Sora said was true until the very end. Mashiro didn't ever need to change. She was already good enough and she was always going to become even better than how she started out because she was always being inspired and supported by those around her and challenging herself to do things she initially hesitated on doing.

Now she's continually drawing new stories, even winning an award for one. Even her Prism Shot evolved and multiplied as an attack and it's all because she learned to believe in herself because all her friends believed in her.

This is essentially what sets Precure apart from the others, what makes it the major name it is in modern day mahou shoujo.

I cannot begin to describe how glad I am that the staff at Toei reinforced those aspects of friendship as well as the celebration of individualism in a milestone year. But I can definitely say with confidence that we can expect to see more well into the franchise's 30th anniversary as long they don't forget these two very crucial things.

As for me, I think this will be the last time I blog Precure on a "regular" basis.

I'll still continue to watch cuz hey, there's no reason for me to stop yet.

(and all the more reason to not stop if Satoru and Daifuku become the next two male Cures in WonPre OMGI'MSOGONNAJINXTHISAREN'TIBWUAHAHAHAHA!!!)

But my priorities have shifted so I gotta tend to those foremost. And as much as I enjoy the show, I feel like I'm always saying the same stuff over and over again anyway, just in different variations of it.

(also, something about WonPre tells me the next four years will be filled with hit-or-miss seasons so meh, I'd rather just follow it leisurely than get too invested and then disappointed)

On another note, I do have some personal rankings that I'd like to post some day. I was going to do it for the 20th anniversary but didn't have time to cuz life got way too hectic and busy but yea, eventually I'll have them up.

Just for fun, y'know.

Ok, that is all.

Thank you, my hero girls and boy! You made this season so wonderful hahahaha, good luck, WonPre for me and I can't be grateful enough for it.

Thank you for a beautiful anniversary! Let's aim for the next!

25th year with 100+ Precure!

Let's gooooooooooooo!!!

[ladymarycrawley]

Would you still love me the same - John Stones

Request: Can we have a John fic where he hasn’t played that great but you just comfort him like it’s okay, it’s your first game of the season 🥺💙

Warning: some sexual innuendos but most of all fluffy

Tag list: @masonxomount @chelsealover @stonesyy​​

Newcastle - Manchester City didn't go as smoothly as planned: in the first half the Premier League champions were losing 2 - 1 but then, thanks to two goals by Bernardo and Erling, they succeeded in getting a draw, ending up 3 -3.

That also happened to be John's first game of the season and he surely expected a better result to kick off the new season.

Despite he sounded calm and positive during the Instagram story he recorded for City where he thanked the fans for the support, hoping to get 3 points in the next game, he felt frustrated as he couldn't help the team in the way he wanted to and show Pep he deserved his place in the starting line-up.

You were at home, waiting for his comeback, ready to spend the rest of the night comforting him. A good, warm bath that's what he needed, with his favourite bath salts, jasmine and vanilla candles lit up at the angles of the tub, giving the room the perfect light for such a romantic and relaxing moment.

"I'm home" His sad and serious voice announced he was finally home, followed by your front door slamming shut.

"Babe?" He raised his eyebrows as you weren't waiting for him on the sofa as you'd usually do on match days. 

"Upstairs!"

John followed the sound of your voice, leaving his backpack at the entrance of your shared house and climbed the stairs that would have taken him to you.

You welcomed him home with the softest smile on your lips, getting on your tiptoes to wrap your arms around his neck. The disappointment was still visible on his face as he didn't do the slightest effort to put a smile on his face. He held your body against his by placing your hands on your hips.

"You know I love you so much?"

John huffed looking at some unspecified point on the wall and sighed loudly. 

"I played so poorly today and then -"

"Shh, that's okay" You whispered, brushing your index finger over his pulpy lips. "I have the best surprise waiting for you" You got back on your feet to move to the side so he could have a look at the bathroom fully prepared for him.

John was a bit hesitant but entered the semi-dark room, smiling when he saw the tub full of soap bubbles and the candles on it.

"Do you like it?" You hugged him from behind, his larger hand covering your smaller ones.

"That's so cool but you didn't have to"

"Only the best to cheer my gorgeous boyfriend up"

"You're so cheesy today" He giggled.

"I just hate seeing you like that…seize the moment cause you know I won't be a cheesy girlfriend for too long"

John smiled and helped you taking your t-shirt off, before discarding his own clothes.

He entered the tub first, releasing a satisfied moan as soon as his body came in contact with the warm water. You smiled watching as he closed his eyes for a moment, leaning his head backwards, the candle light reflecting on his perfect curls.

"Come here"

You took off your underwear and joined him, sitting in front of him.

"What are you doing there? Come here"

You'd usually sit between his legs but that time you wanted him to fully relax without being too clingy so you sat opposite him, on the other end of the tub.

"You're the one who needs to be taken care of so you should come to me"

John groaned and closed his eyes once again. He always looked so good but even more so when he was relaxed and peaceful.

You teased him by propping your feet against his toned chest, you knew he'd have grabbed them and placed them down on his thighs.

"Have you seen the game?"

"Yes"

"And what do you think?"

"It doesn't matter what I think" You opened up your eyes and crawled towards him. "It's only the first game of the season and it's okay you didn't play as good as you would have liked to. You need to get minutes under your belt so you can improve and be the best centre-back in the world, cause I know you can do that. I believe in you" As you kept on talking, you straddled him, your hands gently travelling over his facial features.

"The best in the world, really?" He sniggered.

"Well, maybe the best in the UK" 

He smiled and kissed your forehead. "Thank you. You should come and talk to Pep"

"I really should, I'd be like hey baldy, why don't you put my boyfriend on the pitch more? He deserves it plus he looks so hot he could beat the opponents thanks to his beauty only"

John laughed and blushed, squeezing your hips in his hands. "Better if you don't talk to him"

You laughed too, kissing him on the lips.

His fingers were firmly placed on your sides, brushing your lower back up and down. Your hands were keeping his head in place against yours, as the kiss was getting deeper and deeper making you moan directly in his mouth. 

When you got up from him it was just to share some more caresses somewhere else over your bodies and to wash each other up, your mouths following the path that had just been traced by the spongein the most sensual yet gentle manner.

When your lips parted you nuzzled in his neck as John would lay lingering kisses over your neck, shoulder and behind your ear. 

Those silent cuddles were your favourite part, where you didn't have to say a word to show how much you loved each other because those soft touches would speak for themselves.

"Love?"

Later on, after having dried each other up and dressed into something cozy, you went to prepare some dinner while John relaxed on the sofa.

He was surely talking to someone from his family or to Kyle even but you knew something wasn't right as you heard him recording a voice note with the saddest voice: he was thinking about the game he had that day once again. 

"Mhh?"

"Would you mind coming here?"

He got up from the sofa and stood closer to you, near the stove.

The frown that wrinkled his face the moment he came back home appeared again the moment he stood there, scrolling through his phone rather absentmindedly, clearly reading some mean comments or jokes about his performance. 

You sighed, seeing him like that made you feel miserable, powerless. 

"Who were you talking to?"

"Kyle. We were just discussing about some comments people did"

"What did I tell you about those comments?" 

"Not to read them but it's nearly impossible, they're all over the web"

"Baby, you know they don't mean anything, those are just comments made by some frustrated people who think they have the right to judge you, they don't care about you. Or better, they care about you only when you win or deliver a good performance"

He hugged you from behind, laying his chin on your head, a thing he would usually like to do to make you notice how much shorter you were compared to him; at that moment he also wanted to feel you closer and that was a good way to show his need to you.

"Babe"

"You're the baby one here"

You giggled, stroking his hand placed on your tummy.

"I said babe, not baby"

"I love you" John happened to say those words first rarely so every time he did your heart skipped a beat.

"I love you more" You smiled, bringing your left hand to brush his forearm wrapped around your figure.

"I'm hungry" He muttered, biting on your shoulder playfully.

"I'm not on the menu"

"Why not? You're my favourite dish"

"Can I have a taste?"

You rolled your eyes blushing, as he moved his head to the side to take in your reaction

A grin was plastered on his lips as you tried to look away, focusing on the pot before you in an unsuccesful attempt not to hide your reaction from him.

"You already did"

"Not really, cockwarming doesn't count"

Your face turned crimson, feeling a bit hot too.

John started giggling, leaving a kiss on your temple.

"You're so cute when you act all shy and embarrassed"

"Stop it" You smiled, batting his hands away from your body.

John left one final kiss on your head, in the spot behind your ear, before leaving you.

"Y/N?"

"Mhh?"

"Would you still love me even after scoring an own goal?"

In that very moment he looked like a big, sweet child and that was so endearing, the most precious soul that deserved all the love and protection you could grant him. Seeing him like that, snatched your heart a smile that soon moved up to your lips.

"Even more"

That night you realised how lucky you got with him by your side and you couldn’t stop thinking about that, as you laid awake watching him asleep: his eyelashes tickling his cheeks, his plumpy lips touching, the quiet snores coming from them. He looked like an angel that God decided to gift you with and you couldn’t be more grateful.

Your smile grew wider and you covered his hand with yours.

You would have liked to let your fingers run all over his bare back but you feared you might have woken him up so you just stayed there still, admiring him.

He hummed and moved in his sleep to let his arm around you, his left hand softly grabbing your boob as a way to feel you near, to know you were still there no matter what. The contact of his hot palm against your hotter skin was the feeling he loved the most, that calmed him instantly.

All was good.

[lesbian-gnf-archive]

My full, unfiltered review of episode 1 of GnLoss:

To preface this, I did not watch it for any ill intent if anyone thinks I did. I watched it because I love horror and had been casually interested since the concept was announced two years ago. I went into this hoping for something to entertain me and was unfortunately disappointed, and this is all my own subjective opinion. If you genuinely liked it I'm happy for you

To start with some of the things I did like, I liked when the camera was higher quality and the effects of when R.anb.oo walked through the door into the green room, or especially when they were on the beach. I liked the look of it, especially with the lone door. I found the effect of the fabric wall when Charlie was pushing against it to give a bit of a spooky look (though this enjoyment ended quickly when the camera showed how the effect was made and it was immediately made into a joke. This wouldn't have been as much of a problem to me if the rest of the episode wasn't like this as well), and I laughed a couple of times when Charlie told a joke. I also liked the very final scene, again when Ra.nbo.o goes through the door and the camera is higher quality and then they get sedated, cool shot 👍

Other than that, the only word I can think of when I look back on it is boring. I felt that it lacked any substance or comedy or horror. And to be very clear, I am the number one defender for stories that use the first episode/season/act to establish the characters and setting more. Like I am completely okay with that because I'm someone who values the characters in a story more than the story itself, if I care about the characters I can live with a mediocre story, but I can't live with a great story if I can't stand/don't care for the characters. So I am completely fine with that, but the problem with gnlss is that it barely establishes any of that.

I'm watching this story and I don't care who these characters are or what happens to them or what they do. You can trade any of the characters out with any other one and it would still be the same for me. And it's especially a problem with Ra.nbo.o, our protagonist, because the audience is meant to care that he doesn't get hurt, like we physically have to care enough to make the right choices but he has absolutely no personality and you could change him for a brick wall and get the same character.

And one of the most glaring issues with it is obviously the quality. I've seen lots of people say that it was done on purpose, but if that's the case then it needs to be so bad that it's obviously on purpose. It's like if you draw a straight line without a ruler, it will almost always come out crooked and sloppy, but when someone sees that they will automatically think you tried to make a straight line and failed. Which is why if you're doing it on purpose, you make the line squiggly because then people will glance at it and know that it was on purpose. It's the same thing with the acting, Charlie did his best but he did not have any help when trying to work with Sn.ee.g or Ra.nbo.o and their very flat performances, R being especially guilty of not using the very first and basic rule of improv: to say "yes, and". And it's especially disappointing because I was never expecting professional acting from twitch streamers at all, but I know that R can do better because while it wasn't amazing their lore streams were leagues above their acting in this. And again, over and over again I see "it's bad on purpose" but that can only be used as an excuse so many times.

If everything is mediocre and the only excuse is "it's on purpose" then all you did is make something mediocre. I've also seen some people say that what they did was impressive given their resources they had, but this show was funded by an entire company, created by a millionaire, and has been in the works for two years. This isn't a small indie project created by one person, it has a budget and it used it all on a mask that you can't even hear him out of. The constant change in camera quality when switching between live stuff and pre recorded stuff was extremely jarring, and only made it more glaringly obvious how poorly shot the live sections were, I really wish they stayed with the higher quality or at the very least kept it consistent.

And to top it off, it's just not what it had been promo'd as. The promos set expectations that were so far from what we got that I can't believe these are meant to be the same projects. If I watched it with no knowledge that it was meant to be a horror project then I would have no idea, the fact that I could not tell you the actual genre of it within the first (and from what Ra.nbo.o is describing the next episode is gonna be, the second as well) is a problem. If they didn't want the first episode to be focused on horror, that's fine, but there still needs to be something there. Like, the very first scene could have been a scary compilation of vague clips showing what happened to him and how he got in the house, and if executed well could then blend fine into the goofy story. It's also just. Painfully unfunny. You can tell they're trying to tell jokes and to make it funny, so it hurts more when you don't even crack a smile until an hour in.

I was hoping the second episode would go more into the lore or horror, but Ra.nbo.o has said that this next one is meant to be sillier which is incredibly disappointing and will most likely cause a huge tone problem for the third episode if 2/3s of your horror series is unfunny comedy.

[canirove]

Best friends… forever? | Chapter 15

Author’s note: Half way there 👀

Previous chapter | Next chapter

Masterlist

“Remind me again why I said yes to this?” Mila asks her agent.

“Because it is a great opportunity. One doesn’t get a Women’s Health cover, and on her own country, every day.”

“Yeah, yeah…” she sighs.

After a really tough beginning of the season where they’ve had to play against the best teams on the league, and somehow coming out alive from it, her agent had presented her this deal, suggesting that it was a good way to relax and forget about it all. Mila had always enjoyed photoshoots and had lots of fun doing them, but this one was different. She wouldn’t be posing on her own, she would have a partner. And that partner was Rúben.

The Portuguese issues of Women’s and Mens’ Health had decided that they wanted them both on their covers. Each of them would have an individual one, but also a shared one, and she couldn’t say no to it when everyone knew they were best friends. What excuse will she give them, that she couldn’t do it because they were falling in love with each other and things had gotten awkward between them?

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

“Ok, so this is how it is going to work” the photographer says. “We will start with Rúben while you Mila get ready since it takes you a bit longer, and then while he changes, we’ll take your photos. We’ll mix you both so you are ready and feeling more relaxed for the photos together.”

“Sounds good” Rúben says.

“Ok” Mila mutters.

When they met at the studio, they somehow managed to make it look as if they had seen each other the day before, no one suspecting that it actually had been weeks, and that they had only spoken through texts messages. Because not even their agents knew what was going on between them.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

“How is it possible that she looks even more hot now than before the summer?” Rúben’s agent whispers to him while they watch Mila work in front of the camera. She had always been a natural, and watching her move was almost hypnotizing.

“Careful with what you say.”

“Sorry, sorry” his agent laughs. “You know I’ve always fancied her. But sadly, she doesn’t feel the same.”

“Yeah” Rúben whispers, his eyes following every move Mila makes and thinking that it is actually true. She looks way hotter than the last time he saw her for more than just a few minutes, and he wouldn’t mind help her taking off the few clothes she was currently wearing.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

“God, summer suits Rúben” Mila’s agent says to her while they watch him pose. It had been a while since she had seen him topless, and he may look even better than she remembered. “Do you know if he is seeing anyone?”

“What?”

“I don’t know, I thought I may shoot my shot” her agent shrugs. “I wonder if that’s the way he looks at you when is about to…” but Mila doesn’t hear the rest. She is too focused on the way he is tying up his joggers, on how low they are on his hips, on the way he is looking at the camera. He had looked at her like that before, and just the thought of it was making her feel very hot despite only wearing a crop top and a pair of shorts.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

“Mila, I’m gonna need you to move closer” the photographer says. “Yes, that’s perfect.”

They had been shooting together for just a couple of minutes, but they both couldn’t wait for it to be over. Being this close, wearing barely any clothes, and touching the other, was torture.

“Rúben, put your hand on her waist. A bit lower… Good.”

“You ok?” Rúben whispers.

“Fine” Mila says. Though she wasn’t. She could feel her skin burning under his touch, the temptation to touch him back being almost unbearable. “You?”

“Good” he says, trying not to focus too much on how close her leg was to his, on how if he moved his fingers just a tiny bit, he could touch her butt.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

“That was wonderful. The chemistry between you two is amazing” the photographer says once he has finally finished. “Now we are gonna have a very difficult time trying to pick which photos will make the cut.”

“Sorry about that” Rúben chuckles.

“Is there anywhere where I could shower?” Mila asks, looking for an excuse to leave. “I need to get rid of all this make up, I’m not used to it.”

“Oh, yes” the photographer says. “Lottie, could you please show Mila the bathroom?”

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

“Rúben!”

“I am so sorry, Mila. I saw your agent leave and thought you had already finished showering.”

“She had to leave for a meeting. But I’m done, I just have to take off the make up on my face. You can shower if you want.”

“You don’t mind if we share?”

“We’ve seen everything that is to see, so” she shrugs, Rúben’s eyes not being able to stop looking at the way the tiny towel she is wearing moves up her legs, being too close to show more than it should.

“Ok then” he says, clearing his throat and closing the door behind him.

Once Rúben is inside the shower, Mila can’t help but look at him on the mirror’s reflection. The shower’s screen is completely clear, it doesn’t hide anything while you are inside, and she can see the way the muscles on his back are moving, whishing that she could run her fingers over them while he… “Ok, focus” she whispers to herself before washing her face with very cold water.

While he showers, Rúben can’t stop thinking about Mila wearing that tiny towel, on the fact that she is behind him. Slowly, he turns around just a bit to see her. She is leaning against the sink to see herself better on the mirror, the towel going up and showing enough of her butt to make him want to get out of the shower, move behind her and… “Ok, focus” he says to himself, turning around and opening the cold water.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

“Everything alright?” Rúben asks Mila when they leave the studio.

“Yeah… It’s just that Ella is having a last minute date with Joe at her house tonight, and I can’t go back.”

“You can always come back home” he shrugs.

“You don’t have plans today?”

“Nope. Just eat something and watch tv.”

“Ok. I actually need to pick up some clothes, it is starting to get a bit chilly.”

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

"Rúben, where do you keep the extra tooth… Oh my God! Rúben!"

"What the fuck, Mila?"

"Jesus Christ, what are you doing?"

"What are you doing?" he says, covering himself with a pillow. "This is my room, you should have knocked before coming in."

"I'm sorry, I just never do it and I didn't expect to find you doing... That" Mila says, her face burning.

"What did you want?"

"Just... I just... Do you need a hand?" she asks him, completely forgetting why she had come to his room.

"A hand? What are you... Oh" Rúben says, his eyes growing wide when he realizes what Mila just implied.

"I'm sorry, I don't know why I said that. I should probably go" she says, starting to close the door.

"You said that because after today's shoot and that encounter in the bathroom, you are as horny and turned on as I am."

"I'm not..." But she is. She is very horny and turned on, and she can't stop thinking about him and his body on hers.

"You are not..." he smirks.

"Fine, yes. That's why I offered to help you with what you were doing. We clearly were going to relieve ourselves on our own, so why don't do it together?" she shrugs.

"I thought you were still figuring out things, that that’s why you are staying with Ella."

“And I am, but…”

“But?”

“But if I don’t get this out of my system, I won't be able to focus on what matters, so we better do something about it."

"Ok. So you give me a hand, and I give you..."

"Whatever you fancy as long as I get what I want."

"I'll think about it while you give me that hand" he miles.

"Oh please, stop saying that. It was embarrassing enough when I said it, I don't need to hear it again and again."

"Sorry" Rúben chuckles. "Take off your clothes, you'll be more comfortable."

"You can also stop covering yourself with the pillow” Mila says, closing the door behind her and starting to undress. “No need to hide anymore."

"We’ve seen everything that is to see” he says, quoting her own words from earlier today. "Come here. If you keep standing there looking beautiful and naked, I don't know how long I'll last."

"So demanding" she smirks, her eyes focused on his as she kneels at the end of the bed, slowly moving towards him.

"If you tease me, I'll tease you."

"I don't mind" she replies, moving her hands up his thigs, his body tensing.

"That's what you say now. But once it's my turn, you will definitely complain like I am doing right now."

"I won't."

"You..." but he isn't able to finish that sentence, a moan scaping his lips the moment Mila touches him.

[atopvisenyashill]

Dances of the dragons; what are things you like about the story in the show and book.

Well clearly I’m very fond of Rhaenyra and her little family. Something I really like exploring in fiction is ~blended families~ having been born into one myself and I find it fascinating especially in the pseudo-medieval context of a song of ice and fire. The complexity of balancing this family with what the world at large considers proper, of protecting this family when it's very existence is a threat to the established order of things.

I also really love the whole Aegon/Sunfyre and Baela/Moondancer stand off. I think the narrative aspects of it are amazing and it fits their characters so well. Baela being purposefully kept out of the war, kept even from defending Dragonstone, going off on this long shot stand off against the leader of the enemy faction and then she fails. I think what is often forgotten about Baela in this instance is that her amazing bravery is worth nothing in the end. Aegon still takes Dragonstone, Rhaenyra is still murdered, and worst of all, Moondancer dies and Sunfyre is mortally wounded. All she does is help kill two more dragons, help kill the power of her own family, sacrificing her own beloved dragon, her own agency later in life, for nothing not even a temporary win. Then you have Aegon as Sunfyre's only rider, Sunfyre feeling Aegon's distress and sacrificing his own life to come save Aegon, taking not one but two life ending crashes to the ground all for love of Aegon, and then just dying and leaving Aegon such a mess he's dragging Baela out and threatening to become a kinslayer with his own two hands in front of the entirety of King's Landing. The moment Sunfyre dies, Aegon is dead. They are too connected in a way many of the other bonds are not. It's not just like Vhagar or Caraxes mindlessly going into death because it's what their riders want from them; no, Sunfyre seeks death out in a vain attempt to save his rider, after Aegon goes through deliberate pains to separate himself from Sunfyre to spare Sunfyre the same fate as Vhagar, Caraxes, Arrax, or Meleys.

Also that final confrontation between Aegon and Rhaenyra - that i hope you died / you first, you are the elder exchange - is soooooo good. The way Aegon traumatizes the Younger the way Helaena and Jaehaera were, completely screwing over his own heir in his rage, and Rhaenyra's body isn't even safe from being sexually abused when she's dead.....George was cooking here.

As for the show, I think the casting is leaps and bounds better than the main show. I think probably the weakest links on the cast are (I'm about to get tomatoes thrown at me here) Ewan, Emily, and Sonoya but I don't think any of them are bad by any stretch. Emily does some amazing work showing Alicent's despair and anxiety and intelligence. I would put her on the same level as Maisie in the original show - she needs some time to find her feet as an actor but you can see her growing and changing as an artist and performer before your eyes. Sonoya has a bit of a lackluster script to work with (it's hard to adapt Mysaria, she's just a bunch of awful ~far east~ stereotypes rolled into one upsetting character) and she's also clearly struggling around her accent. I'm hoping she'll pull a Peter Dinklage next season and get used to the accent. Ewan is also here I guess (*kanye shrug* I think he looks too old and little Aemond was leagues better, sue me!!). But everyone else is just on their mark constantly, elevating the script with their own ideas or acting choices. And what I'll give Condal, Hess, and Miguel is that they also let the actors have a say in the characters. In my opinion, the best shows always include actor input. Three of my favorite shows in fact - Leverage, Battlestar Galactica, and Farscape - all include rather long arcs for several characters that came because the actors said "can we dig into what motivates my character more? i wrote out a backstory if you're interested" or "i'm not sure my character would react that way, i think it would go this way" and the writers listened and let them be part of the writing. I love to drag these writers for all the best ideas coming from the actors but I find it commendable that instead of plugging their ears to minor pushback like D&D did, they said "damn tom, olivia, this carriage scene is so much better the way you're doing it, go crazy" or "hey matt you're doing some great acting here, tell us what you're thinking, let's dig in" and emma has talked extensively about how they let them really dig into gender performance as they wrote the character.

Maybe that doesn't seem like a big compliment but, at the risk of sounding too cheesy, I think art is a conversation ya kno?! It's a push and pull between the performers, the writers, the cinematographers, the special effects, as well as the viewer. When you see art as a dictatorship, it stifles what you're saying. But when you bring in fresh eyes, when you collaborate, I think you are more likely to have a much more polished, much more beautiful end product. And I think in allowing like, Emily Carrey the ability to read her own queerness into Alicent and then portray that on screen made for an Alicent that feels so much more real than if Emily was forced to simply read the words on the page without emotionally connecting to it! Look at how Stephen Dillane and the guy who played Barristan were clearly phoning it in because they weren't listened to! Look at how clearly annoyed Gwendoline and Nikolaj were at the ending there because they didn't like how the plot was going! When the artists are involved in the making of their own craft, it's just better!

(but what about Rhys, you say, didn't you once say he had negative charisma? yes, yes he does, i think he's wildly overrated as an actor and i don't understand the appeal but i think otto himself is also devoid of charisma so rhys fits!! i am a hater sorry!!!)

Anyways, yes, I love Rhaenyra and Aegon because I love deranged gay older sister - violent beefy young brother duos from hell with all my heart, I love Baela the Burnt with all my heart, and I love all the actors and the collaborative nature of HOTD.

[oeldeservesthenorris]

“My best years are behind me.” Erik Johnson knows what he is at this point of his career. But the Flyers will need him -- and fellow veteran Marc Staal -- if they are going to get into the playoffs.

NOT ENOUGH CRYING EMOJIS FOR THIS ARTICLE

TAMPA, Fla. — If nothing else, Erik Johnson is self-aware. The newly acquired Philadelphia Flyers defenseman, after morning skate at Amalie Arena on Saturday, admitted he hasn’t had the greatest season as part of a disappointing Buffalo Sabres squad. And, even though his getting dealt offers him a fresh start with a new club, the 35-year-old is not suddenly going to turn the clock back a decade.

“It was really tough being 13 years in Colorado and then coming to a new team. I don’t think I really played my best hockey,” said Johnson, who signed a one-year contract with the Sabres in the offseason after spending the majority of his career with the Avalanche.

“My best years are behind me.”

The Flyers know that too, of course. Their acquisition of Johnson on Friday just before the NHL trade deadline, though, serves two purposes: It provides immediate help for what is both an inexperienced and banged-up blue line, and potentially enhances the team culture that both coach John Tortorella and general manager Danny Briere have labeled as the foundation of their rebuild.

His first game was one to forget, as the Flyers were run out of the building 7-0 by the Tampa Bay Lightning in a game that will primarily be remembered for Tortorella’s ejection midway through the first period and his refusal to leave the bench right away.

And the game was abnormal even before it started. The Flyers were forced to dress just five defensemen after Egor Zamula came down with an illness and Adam Ginning, reassigned to the AHL on Friday, was unable to make it back from the Philadelphia area in time due to weather-related flight delays, according to a team source.

In other words, it’s probably not all that advisable to form any broad conclusions from that game about how Johnson will or won’t contribute down the stretch. He was on the ice for Nick Paul’s power-play goal that made it 2-0 and maybe could have been harder around the net. He was also a bit flat-footed on Conor Sheary’s wrist shot from the high slot that made it 3-0, but Flyers goalie Samuel Ersson could have been better on both of those two scores, as well. He finished with a minus-1 rating in 19:57 of ice time, with two shots on goal and six hits.

And it’s not like anyone else on the Flyers was all that effective on Saturday either, as they got behind 4-0 midway through the first period.

“We’re usually a pretty decisive team,” assistant coach Brad Shaw, filling in for Tortorella, said after the game. “We’re usually setting the tone and playing a specific game and I thought we let them get to their game really quickly. …  Just never seemed to get our footing.”

The Flyers are fortunate in that they’ll have a chance to quickly put the brutal loss behind them when they host the league’s second-worst team, the San Jose Sharks, on Tuesday. One of the primary reasons they have managed to stay in the playoff race this season is because of their ability to quickly respond to poor efforts.

Still, they’re a bit of a different team now that they’ve lost Sean Walker, with his ability to help break the puck out of their own end and play that fast transition game that’s led to so much of the Flyers’ offense.

Johnson isn’t that type of player, and neither is another veteran who’s being relied on to play big minutes — Marc Staal, who skated in just 17 of the Flyers’ first 51 games and has now been thrust back into nightly duty with Jamie Drysdale, Rasmus Ristolainen and Nick Seeler still all on the shelf.

The Flyers seemed to realize they need to play differently in at least one of their two games after the Walker deal: They put forth an impressive, buttoned-up defensive performance in their 2-1 win in Florida on Thursday with rookies Ginning and Ronnie Attard making their respective season debuts on the blue line.

Part of the reason why they held the high-powered Panthers offense to just one goal was, according to Staal, everyone on the ice playing together as a five-man unit.

“Realizing the position we were in with some new guys coming in. I think our forwards — they always do a great job of being pretty aware defensively and playing as five,” Staal said. “We really focused on that before the game. … Just good structurally to get that one.”

Staal’s ice time has been steadily rising. He skated a season-high 19:10 on Saturday. And although he’s certainly not the fleetest of foot anymore at age 37, he has a positive expected goals percentage of 54.2 according to Natural Stat Trick, and at five-on-five has been on the ice for an even 12 goals for and 12 against.

Getting into a rhythm after being a frequent healthy scratch has helped.

“For sure. It’s definitely tough not playing when you’re used to being in the lineup every night your whole career so that was an adjustment,” he said. “Stayed positive and kept working and obviously getting an opportunity now and we’re playing really important games and it’s exciting for me to be back in and try to help this team win. … I’m starting to feel better on the ice, getting my legs and timing back more where I’m used to.”

When he signed a one-year deal in the offseason, the prevailing notion at the time was that Staal would be a prime candidate to get moved for, say, a mid-round draft pick ahead of the trade deadline. But Staal said on Saturday that it was always his intention to stay with the Flyers for the season, and now part of what has become a close group, he’s thrilled to be sticking around for the playoff chase.

“Been around these guys since September, I’ve definitely grown to enjoy this room and these guys and what we’re doing here,” Staal said. “Leaving really wasn’t a thought I had. You’ve just got to get in, you know? Get in the playoffs and see what happens. You never know.”

Staal knows that well as part of last season’s eighth-seeded Panthers who advanced to the Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Vegas Golden Knights.

The Flyers have to get there first, though. And in order to do that, both Johnson and Staal are going to have to play a role.

“You check your ego at the door, it’s about winning and it’s about building the culture and continuing to go on a big playoff push here,” Johnson said. “What I just told them was I’m here for whatever you need from me, here to be a good teammate, and do whatever I can for the guys.”