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unitedbydevils · 11 months

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The case for Sofyan Amrabat

Manchester United actually seem to have their arse in gear this transfer window - a good sign in the days post-Woodward but something we were unsure of given one good window prior doesn't prove a football management team is competent.

Mason Mount has already been signed and handed the no7 shirt. The signing of André Onana to replace David De Gea looks set to be completed in the next 2-3 days, Zion Suzuki has popped up out of nowhere which is almost certainly a sign he's coming in, and the Hojlund rumours are still going on - with Mason Greenwood potentially a loanee going the other way.

These are all good signings for positions in dire need, but the one position we're possibly ignoring is another defensive/holding midfielder. Manchester United are HEAVILY reliant on Casemiro to be the calm pivot player in the middle of the pitch orchestrating the recycling of the ball through the red ranks.

United's form with Casemiro out suspended or injured last year was notably worse, and in the words of Darren Bent: "When he's not there, you notice a big difference".

Casemiro's form built up nicely throughout the season but he's not shy of a strong - or rash - tackle, and that comes with risk. United lack an able substitute for his position and role, and for a team looking to solidify its top four position in a league with Arsenal, Newcastle, Chelsea, and Liverpool all vying for the spots, as well as trying to close the gap on treble-winning neighbours Man City... you can't be that vulnerable in squad depth.

Fred and McTominay are both no8s, if not perhaps a 10 in McTominay's case. Fred is a shuttle player. High energy, good intent, but crap at tackling and complicated play. McTominay is strong, has good stamina, can score a tidy goal, but his awareness and positioning lack.

Mount is a new, flexible signing but he's a box to box midfielder at most for defensive actions. He's a pressing attacking player. Instead, United need to sign an actual CDM - or someone roughly in that mould.

This is where Sofyan Amrabat makes so much sense. Aside being very much affordable, Amrabat had a stellar world cup and Europa Conference League. He plays short, safe, and is a hyper vigilant midfielder. He's not one to play a teammate into a bad spot, or land them in trouble with a hospital pass, and his awareness counters the hard presses of better teams. Aside being a good rotation with Casemiro, this could also be a good partnership WITH him behind Bruno/Mount in tougher games like Anfield or the Etihad.

His statistics show that Casemiro's more capable of winning the ball back, but given his very high pass completion rate - 98% of which were forward passes! - I do wonder if that stat is skewed by the fact he's in possession and retaining it more than most and more than we are currently, so we're not seeing the tackling.

Ultimately our top 2 priorities are GK and CF, even if we did get Mount in already. That was just a surprise opportunity. Could we do a deal for Amrabat? For sure. 100% he'd want to come, we know ETH likes him, but we're yet to sell anyone and generate additional funds. If we can sell Elanga, Fred, Maguire, Henderson, Bailly, Telles... then we can look at extra signings like Amrabat.

I really hope we do make a move here because we'd be stupid to rely on Casemiro staying disciplined or the emerging Kobbie Mainoo who can play most CM positions but it still a super raw talent. We need an Amrabat, or perhaps Florentino Luís or Lavia.

Somebody to help share the burden has to be the next objective after concluding deals for Onana and a striker, and the sequence of transfers and the pace of them - especially considering the imminent pre-season tour - will be a test of United's new management and whether the club really is back from its banter era.

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embraceyourdestiny · 2 years

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On today’s episode of “the kingdom hearts thought that I can’t get out of my brain”

I’m playing kh1 to take notes and a moment really struck me in the tutorial. Wakka says “Riku’s good at pretty much everything. Even you’re no match for him.”

“Even you” ? Such language implies a different meaning than what I think was intended. “Even you” is a way of saying “even with as skilled as you are, you’re no match for Riku.”

So does that mean Sora was actually pretty good at stuff but it just wasn’t enough compared to Riku?

If Wakka was to say Sora didn’t stand a chance against Riku and he left him in the dust, better language would’ve been “There’s no way you could surpass Riku” or “No matter what you do, Riku’s gonna beat you” or something to that affect but even you really doesn’t convey the idea that Sora is supremely bad at everything.

And that kinda makes sense, right? As the series goes on we see two things surrounding Sora; Sora hailed as a hero and Sora’s shortcomings. Sora is extremely talented when it comes to the keyblade. Literally no one is as proficient as he. This boy learned grand tier magic like like three weeks and he learned how to transform his keyblade after one battle with Lingering Will. In KH1 he picked up magic and battle so easily and though he was clumsy he was by no means bad and was an extremely good fighter by the end of the game.

Fighting is just one example but if we equate that to the games the kids play on the island, mainly sparring, Sora was probably pretty damn good at it, but compared to Riku he was just average. Sora was neck and neck with Riku, making him leagues better than everyone else, but when he’s stacked up against “everyone’s favorite” Riku, suddenly his skills don’t look so impressive.

(What’s interesting though is that Sora is absolutely a better keyblade wielder than Riku. Riku is not as versatile. Riku doesn’t not have a good battle wit. Riku can’t make his way out of any situation entirely on his own. He has raw strength and a strong power but Sora is the one who battled almost nonstop for 3 years and gained a lot of experience because of it. Riku only became a Master because he took a test correctly, not because he was a better keyblade wielder than Sora. I would imagine as kids it was the same, Sora could dodge his way out of anything but when Riku came at him with brute force he couldn’t stand a chance one on one)

And to Sora’s “shortcomings.” Honestly, besides clumsiness and silly moments he really isn’t bad at anything but he has unfair standards and responsibilities put on him so when he “messes up” it’s catastrophic. And because the results are so bad, Sora thinks he’s bad when most of the time it’s something out of his control.

Looking back at kh1, Sora knew he was good at using the keyblade. That’s why he gets sassy with Riku when he says he’ll take care of it. His cool pose after he destroyed the soldier; “Leave it to who?” It’s the only time we’ve seen Sora get big about his abilities which is really sad but shows that even he knew he was good at it. Now though, not so much.

Just thought it was a really interesting detail. Sora isn’t bad, but he’s unfairly compared to Riku while having unfair standards set to him and even if by all means he actually is better than Riku everyone is looking at the wrong stuff when they compare them.

#og #kingdom hearts analysis #character studies #character study #analysis #character analysis #relationship analysis #sorta #Soriku #kingdom hearts #kh #sora kh #riku kh

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dalekofchaos · 3 years

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My hopes for WWE & AEW in 2021 and things I hope changes for WWE and AEW in 2021

Hopes

WWE

Roman Reigns stays dominant and reigns supreme as the Tribal Chief

Keith Lee wins the Royal Rumble, joins The Hurt Business and brings the WWE Champion to the Hurt Business

Naomi returns and joins The Hurt Business and dethrones Asuka to take home the gold

The Hurt Business DOMINATES Raw

Bianca Belair wins the Royal Rumble and dethrones Sasha Banks at Wrestlemania

The Riott Squad win the Women’s Tag Team Champions

Unify the men’s Tag Team Championships

Unveil a new Title and give us WWE’s very first Television Championship. It should be styled similar to the NWA and WCW’s TV belts, but on the sideplates it should include USA and Fox on the plates. Shelton Benjamin or Ricochet should be the TV Championship

Big E reigns supreme as Intercontinental Champion and finally gets to face Roman for the Universal Championship at Wrestlemania 38

Rhea Ripley gets called up and goes to Smackdown

Mercedes Martinez dethrones Io Shirai and becomes NXT Women’s Champion

Karrion Kross reclaims the NXT Championship

Anyone but Johnny Sameface as NXT North American Champion

Queen Of The Ring. The amount of female talent available on Raw, SmackDown, NXT and NXT UK is quite something. It's clear that this is the richest women's division in WWE history. They really should do something with all those workers. The 'Mae Young Classic' tourneys have been fine, but people would trip over themselves to see a fully-fledged 'Queen Of The Ring' epic staged across multiple nights. If booked correctly, this tournament could help establish a new contender for top titles. If she isn't Champion by then(though she should be) the perfect person to become Queen Of The Ring would be Bianca Belair! Bianca Belair would have unparalleled credibility for her 'StrongEST, FastEST, ToughEST' mantra if she whipped a bevy of skilled workers to become the first 'Queen'. WWE could also get creative by linking the event in with Charlotte Flair's nickname and spinning off into a feud between her and the winner afterwards.

Form Full-Time Female Tag-Teams and keep them around. The Women’s Tag Team DIvision is a mess. Keep creating makeshift Tag Teams and breaking up established tag teams and your tag team division is dead. The current champs and their predecessors haven't even been "proper" full-time duos - Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler were shoved together awkwardly in the summer, and they've since been replaced by the unlikely Asuka and Charlotte Flair combo. This cannot be allowed to continue. It's damning that WWE don't have more fully-formed pairings ready to go. The Riott Squad are perhaps the only actual twosome who are presented as a tight-knit collective weekly. Other than that, who is there? Considering the belts have been around for a few years now, that's unacceptable. The IIconics split, so did Sasha Banks and Bayley, and the scene is littered by 'odd couple' tandems like Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke, Lacey Evans and Peyton Royce, and Billie Kay teaming with the likes of Natalya or Tamina when it suits.

Ensure NXT is treated like a proper third brand rather than a quasi-development league for Raw and SmackDown. NXT has been on USA Network for over a year now, but it's still very much behind both Raw and SmackDown as a priority. Need proof? Look at the way Keith Lee was handled when he was "called up" after SummerSlam 2020. The former NXT Champ had to start all over again, and he's had several teething problems on Monday nights. It'd be nice to see WWE move away from positioning NXT as a 'feeder' for the other two shows. Changing someone's gimmick when they leave makes the brand look less-than, and there's simply no need for that anymore; NXT should be an equal to Raw and SmackDown, not a development league. Sadly, it still comes across as that. Lee's stop/start plight and the (mis)fortunes of others like Aleister Black and Ricochet should be a lesson to WWE. Some workers are better off rocking the black and yellow, not the red or blue.

AEW

Darby Allin becomes AEW World Heavyweight Champion

Adam Page costs Kenny the title and Page gets revenge and DESTROYS Kenny

MJF destroys the inner circle from within and when Jericho realizes what just happened, that’s when MJF and Wardlow destroys Jericho

Which is when we get a Sammy Guevara babyface turn and we get MJF vs Sammy

Arn Anderson turns on Cody

AEW’s Four Horsemen is formed. MJF, Shawn Spears and FTR with Tully and Arn managing as the JJ DIllon mouthpieces

Darby Allin and MJF feud for the title

The Women’s Division is improved. The girls get more time to shine on Dynamite. Your champion actually appears(shocking, I know) and build feuds and stories for your women’s division. There’s still some time to do what’s right for your women’s division, but the only thing that remains to be seen, does the powers that be of AEW even care?

Get a new title design for the Women’s Championship. It looks like a toy for a child. It’s plastic, not gold. It should be as big and beautifully designed as the men’s titles. It should be as big as the NWA’s title or even the WWE’s title. The title is symbolic as to how AEW treats it’s own women’s division and that needs to change with a fresh new design.

Sign Thunder Rosa. It may not fix everything with the women’s division, but it gives you your needed star power. Tony Khan should be begging on his hands and knees to sign Thunder Rosa in 2021 after her time with the NWA is up, his women’s division is getting their asses kicked by what his EVP refers to as a “developmental brand”

If you can’t sign Thunder Rosa. My solution is Push Anna Jay and Britt Baker as the top face and heel of the women’s division and either of them dethrone Shida.

Changes

WWE

Leave whatever that monstrosity of a creative team they have for RAW is. Let the Wrestlers dictate what they want their characters to be. Ditch the scripted promos. Let promos feel organic and real. Let the wrestlers be characters who feel real and genuine. Get rid of a “Creative” that isn't creative and let the wrestlers be creative and let them be free of terrible creative.

Get rid of the Gimmick PPV. WWE has ruined gimmick matches by turning them into themed PPVs. none of these matches are organic or special anymore. The matches themselves are great but are booked to fit a theme of a pay-per-view, when they should be used organically at the height of feuds. no one cares about the name of PPVs, so i don’t understand why WWE does this. the only one that actually works is MITB, because it makes sense as storylines reset after Mania.

Scrap the Brand Warfare/Brand Supremacy. WWE should scrap the tired brand warfare format at Survivor Series and move away from Raw vs. SmackDown completely. Booking around a calendar has become company law in WWE over the past decade or so. Perhaps McMahon always formatted things this way really, but it's more glaring now that gimmick bouts like Elimination Chamber, Hell In A Cell and Money In The Bank have their own pay-per-views. Survivor Series, with it's played out Raw vs. SmackDown vibes, also needs a rethink. "Brand warfare" is boring now, and it has been for several years. Although 2020's event was fun, it's nonetheless true that the month-long build to Survivors feels like a repetitive slog fans are forced to sit through every November. Hopefully, 2021 will change that. It is possible to book traditional elimination bouts without some sort of false show loyalty - WWE did this almost every single year until the first brand split in 2002. Their over-reliance on Raw vs. SmackDown is plain lazy. Survivor Series should be revolved around great rivalries between stables/factions. It’s really not that hard. Or at the very least if there IS a Smackdown vs Raw themed Survivor Series, at least add a damn reward. Give the brand a head start in the Rumble,, give the winners of the match number one contenders for their brand’s respective titles or ANYTHING better than just “brand supremacy lol”

Get rid of the 24/7 title. It has run it’s course. R-Truth is funny, but even he can’t make it work anymore.

Stop. Breaking. Up. Tag Teams. Stop killing your Tag Team Division. For the love of god just stop!

Cut Akira Tozawa’s ninja bullshit. It’s not funny, it’s annoying

Kill Retribution. It’s complete garbage. It has been consistently terrible ever since Retribution began. Mustafa Ali cannot save Retribution, he’s trying but no one can save it.

Stop the 50/50 booking

Stop rewarding Nia Jax, the living botch machine for injuring her fellow wrestlers

Stop pushing Lars Sullivan. Absolutely no one wants him.

They should cut raw to 2 hours because 3 hours is unbearable

Stop the overreliance of part time wrestlers. I don’t want to see Goldberg being pushed at the expense of today’s talent and I don’t want to see Goldberg period. I don’t want to see Brock Lesnar return at the expense of today’s talent. I don’t want to see Legends return. Push your current fucking wrestlers and make stars. You idiots!

Do not rush Becky Lynch back to the ring, she just had a baby. I read the reports that Vince wants Becky back by Wrestlemania. That is a terrible decision

Stop killing pushes because Vince changed his mind

Enough with “creative has nothing for you” if your “creative” has nothing for a certain wrestler, then they are not creative. Either let the wrestlers appear on the show or release them if you don’t want them anymore, it’s simple as that.

Do. Not. Put. The. Title. On. Goldberg. Goldberg should not have beaten Bray Wyatt's 'Fiend' for the Universal Title at Super ShowDown in February - that was a huge mistake, one that set Bray back and felt totally unnecessary. In 2021, WWE should outright avoid any temptation to repeat the trick and give ol' Billy another go-around with one of the top titles. If anything, Goldberg's only purpose should be to play victim for a quick Roman Reigns squash. Get through that elusive match then turn Bill into a company ambassador. He doesn't need to pretend it's still 1998 all these years on.

AEW

Leave the overabundance of spots just for the sake of spots and enough with the false finishes. Jim Ross was right, like it or not, the spots for the sake of spots and the false finishes need to end. This is my major problem with AEW and why I can’t stand The Elite in general. Everyone just needs to get their shit in. Everything looks fake. No one can look strong or credible and we have to see garbage Indy wrestlers and the spot monkeys make everything look fake and phony. The champions never look credible and everyone is on the level of job guys. This needs to change

Stop leaving your Women’s Champion off the show. It is downright insulting how dirty they are doing Hikaru Shida. She deserves as much time to shine as the other champions deserve.

Stop putting the NWA Women’s Champion as more of a priority than your own Women’s Champion

Enough with Brandi. Why is the women’s division given absolutely 0 screentime and barely anytime to develop their stories, but Brandi is ALWAYS THERE! Everything has to be about her. When a feud between Cody and Shaq was close to happening, of course it had to be about her. She’s turned heel/face as much time as the Big Show. I’ve grown tired of Brandi Rhodes. Stop shoving that attention whore down our throats. WE GET IT! You wanna be Stephanie so bad!

Enough with Cody’s big dramatic midlife crisis entrances. We get it, you wanna be Triple H SO BAD!

Stop the petty bullshit shots at WWE. It was fun at first, but it’s getting annoying. This is Eric Bischoff giving away the results and “That’ll put butts in the seats” level of petty bullshit. AEW had the fucking nerve to tweet a fan’s post saying they did a better tribute for Brodie Lee than WWE. HE JUST DIED! AND YOU ARE MAKING IT ABOUT YOUR FUCKING RIVALRY? GROW THE FUCK UP!

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alsparaarchive · 3 years

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𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝑰𝒕 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅 / Alex & Sid

Date: July 5, 2015 Location: Vancouver Rooftop Bar; The World Cup Celebration

Summary: The first time they ever met.

Date Started: January 31, 2021 Date Completed: still in progress

Sidney He was still somewhere in the middle of getting the confetti that had somehow wedged itself into his right earlobe loose, when Gino had snuck in around him; two girls tucked underneath both his arms, and said something about a party? And, since Sid was still half-deafened by half-an-inch of coloured paper he was forced to lean back in and get the Russian to repeat himself. “Did you say a party?” It was confirmed with a nod and a grin that could’ve taken out the two women still standing beside his friend… “Okay… sure.” The brunette had been hesitant to say yes... First, this was Gino... the Russian had a history of getting the boys to go to parties with him only to find out that once they got there it was just a couple of girls, a couch, and a whole lot of trouble just waiting to happen. Second, his recent break-up with Kathy still felt… raw. Which he knew was why Gino and Kris had him in Vancouver right now watching the Women’s World Cup… distraction was key, right? Not something that either one of them had ever said directly to his face or anything, but the tickets that had presented themselves at exactly that time and to a sport he’d never really had an affinity for, definitely had. And yet… somehow… Gino had kept him from backing out… which was saying a lot of the Russian’s powers of persuasion and probably also a lot about why the Cold War had taken so damn long to come to an end. There was a long line out the restaurant door, but Gino said he had the gold ticket… which had Kris asking if he meant the golden ticket? Gino nodded—making Sidney laugh despite the fact he hated doing the line cut thing, but it wasn’t like they were taking up seats in the restaurant anyway. No, apparently there was some private thing happening on the roof top with their invitees tonight. The deal was, somehow Gino had scored himself an invite to the USA Women’s Soccer Team’s celebratory party via Twitter. Which of course had Sidney from the moment he’d found out till the moment he’d walked up the stairs and sighted a couple of the girls’ he’d seen on the big jumbo screen earlier, doubting. /Sorry Gino/. Suddenly, it was like most eyes in the room were on them as Sidney offered up a big of wave and Gino held out his arms and said USA, USA, USAAAAAA… and okay, it was bad. It was really bad, but at least the atmosphere had cracked, and the bouncers weren’t making any sort of headway towards them… still… Sidney couldn’t help but feel out of place as he walked over to the bar and asked for a drink… bumping shoulders with a girl as he did… “uh, sorry…” he stopped. He recognised her. You didn’t have to be a big soccer fan to recognise the face of Alex Morgan… “maybe I should be buying you a drink…” okay that had come out bad… he internally and externally cringed… “I mean for your big win today…”

Alex The aftermath of winning the World Cup was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, not only for Alex but all her teammates it seemed and almost none of them were on the same ride all ebbing and flowing at different times. There was the high of winning sure but coming to terms with the fact that it was over and finally being able to breathe a sigh of relief after how emotionally and physically taxing the journey had been made for a very strange experience the forward couldn't have possibly prepared herself for. She didn't know what she wanted to do more, party or sleep — for days! "Oh no, baby horse, you're coming!" Her teammate, mentor, and current roommate insisted when Alex even so much as hinted at the idea. She knew she would ultimately end up going but damn was that bed calling her name. "Yeah, yeah," was all she replied with while giving the blonde a smirk Abby could only see through the younger girl's reflection in the mirror as she brushed out her damp hair after showering a little bit earlier to get all the beer and champagne from the celebration in the locker room out of her hair. One of Alex's favorite part about being on the USWNT was how completely badass all the women were and how they could go from being a sweaty mess on the pitch to looking like a million dollars at the drop of a hat. Everyone looked stunning, dressed to the nines as they rolled up to the five star Vancouver rooftop bar that promised to be the perfect backdrop to a crazy evening. She was only on her second French martini when she heard some ruckus going on by the entrance, a man's voice cheering them on but she barely paid it half a mind as she was too busy being amused by Kelley challenging one of the bartenders to a game of beer pong. Only she could somehow finesse her way into getting him to push two tables together and craft the perfect makeshift set up. The defender would go on and on about how she could take out all the guys at the frat parties she went to back in college and now was her time to shine to prove (mostly to herself) that she still had it. Alex only stayed because she somehow got roped into being Kelley's partner while Chaney paired with the bartender. She wanted a chill night, no competitions, but when faced with one there was no way she was going to back down, she WAS Alex Morgan after all. To no surprise they won the first round and in a desperate attempt to get out of playing the second she grabbed their teammate Sidney who just happened to be walking by. "You play, I need to pee," was her lame excuse but at least it worked. It was that time of night where everyone was still on their way to getting drunk so no one was too crazy yet but Alex knew the line would be crossed very soon and she was making bets in her mind on who would be the first to get there as she waited for the bartender from the bar at the other end of the place to make her drink. "Oh —" was her original reaction to being bumped, bringing her mind back from wherever it had managed to go off to. An eyebrow cocked at his words as she tried but failed to let the smirk take over her features. "How very generous of you to offer to pay for me at an open bar," the striker chuckled playfully. It took her a moment in the dim lighting but she finally recognized him and while it was a nice surprise she had no idea how he managed to get himself here, to this party of all places but she figured he was Canadian and must be a fan or something. Who was going to say no to letting Sidney Crosby in the door? He was probably even more of a big deal here then in the states so it made sense, at least in her mind. "Thank you, though... for the sentiment anyway." Her hand was soon occupied by her martini glass and she wasted no time in taking a sip. "So tell me, what's the great Sidney Crosby's poison of choice?"

Sidney For those who knew him, Sidney Crosby was a bit of an anomaly. Unlike most who’d come up through the usual college/junior league pipeline at such a young age to only later be spat out by either the league or themselves for ‘poor’ behaviour choices, the twenty-eight-year-old had remained tied to his past and the straight and narrow upbringing that had come along with it. A lot of journalists had it pinned down to growing up in Nova Scotia, where the population never quite teetered pass 30,000. Or even his father—who’d had his own history with the league. What they all eventually worked out though was Sidney just wasn’t what they’d expected him to be. Young, talented … sure… but the guy that was also going to give them all some sort of titillating headline… no. What Sidney was… was hockey. There wasn’t a moment on or off the ice he wasn’t thinking or breathing hockey. So, when he’d been forced into a bit of a set-up by a couple of friends and met Kathy… things had unexpectedly taken a turn for the young brunette. It was just… one minute there was a hockey and then there was… hockey and her and it had been a lot. His sister Taylor had told him ‘that’s love,’ which was pretty weird because he was almost certain it wasn’t love… at least not yet, but she’d always been a little weird. A comment that had earned him a hit by one of his mother’s handstitched patch work pillows… thanks Taylor. It had taken Sidney a whole year to work out that she was probably right. The words escaping him one night across the dinner table while the two had been picking olives out of a garden salad the two had just ordered with a family size pizza. His stomach had done something that someone less logical might’ve compared to a somersault when Kathy eyes had widened, and her hand had found his neck and pulled him towards her… and for a moment there Sidney had honestly thought that would be it. That would be everything he’d ever need in life, Kathy and hockey… but as the years started to go by and his friends, teammates and family started to expand their families, Sidney realised he wanted more. Kids had never really been a topic of discussion for the two… they’d been young and busy and maybe it was wrong to assume that Kathy would just want them whenever he did. First, she’d pointed out that they weren’t even married yet... which Sidney hadn’t quite got, because wasn’t that all implied with the question? That marriage was part of the package too. Which had really upset her, because after nearly nine years this was how he was going to propose. It was all down here from there and before Sidney even realised what had happened it was just hockey and no Kathy again. There had been a few attempts to make amends and even a couple of goes at trying again... but in the end it was over. All nine years of it. Which is a lot in numbers. One hundred and eight months, four hundred and sixty-nine weeks, three thousand and eighty-five days… it’s a lot and despite Geno and Kris’ best efforts to cheer him up, Sidney was still not-quite feeling it… At least until he found himself next to FIFA World Cup champion Alex Morgan and suddenly there was something to smile about, because right of course the bar was an open one tonight… despite it… Sidney leaned forward, getting the barkeeper’s attention and ordering whatever Alex appeared to be drinking tonight… his hand reaching into his pocket to pull out a twenty and slipping it into the ‘tip jar.’ A smile on his face as he let it fall out of his fingers… “drink bought…” Her question had him debating a little. He’d originally slid up ready to order ‘just’ a beer, but now that he was here and consciously aware that this was a celebration, he settled with a whiskey straight, “what did you have me pegged as? An Apple Martini kind of guy?” He knew a lot of shit got talked about him. He was emotional… passionate... which had its critics. Some of it got to him… most of it didn’t. “What’s got you so hooked on those…” Whatever she was drinking gave off a fruity aroma. Definitely not something he’d usually drink, but the night was a warm one and something about the whole thing was mildly tempting… though thinking about it, if Gino saw him drinking up some pink cocktail… he’d never live it down. He could hear the Russian’s loud laughs echoing across the patio, but where the giant’s exact location was amongst everyone else was still a mystery… besides Sidney wasn’t exactly thinking of leaving his spot at the bar anytime soon. Though, maybe he’d trapped Alex here with his lame gesture to ‘buy’ her drink and all these questions about fruit cocktails when where all she really wanted to be was out there with her teammates on the makeshift dance floor. “Hey, sorry… if you need to go…”

Alex The brunette tilted her head in gratitude with a smile once the second drink was on the bar in front of her and the twenty had fallen into the tip jar. She didn't really know how to take it but she figured just accepting it and not making a big deal was the best way to go. Alex sat there, taking another sip of her martini, silently berating the butterflies in her stomach that she hadn't felt if not since college then honestly, never. She was married, newly, freshly married, the instantaneous spark and magnetism to the man next to her was completely inappropriate and yet there she was taking a step closer to him, closing what seemed to be too big of a gap for two people engaged in conversation. She had never been one to stray from any relationship but especially not the one she was eight years deep and now fully committed to. The striker had gone through what felt like everything with Servando by her side; He saw her career grow from the very beginning of when she started to become a big deal in college. He spent countless nights helping her study before a big test or running drills before a big game. It was easy to do life with him, she enjoyed it, but even at their most passionate she never felt that SPARK everyone talked about and chalked it up to being nothing but superficial and fictional anyway. Love was about friendship, the kind of bond you didn't want to let go of, (right?) and Servando fulfilled those requirements to a T. Alex had her passion and it was soccer, in her mind that's really all she needed, finding that in a man had never been a priority. "Are you making fun of my martini?" she teased after he mocked being an apple martini kind of guy. "No... whiskey. You have yet to surprise me, Crosby." Even she could barely recognize the flirty tone in her voice, which caused yet another sip of her drink. Hopefully he'd just think she was eager to celebrate her win, not that she was someone who drank her alcohol a bit too fast. "Oh, these? My sister got me hooked on them a few years ago, they're great for when you're out and want to pace yourself but still have something delicious. I was tempted to stick to the champagne but I refuse to be the first one wasted and miss out on all the amusement of watching everyone else get there first." The soccer player laughed a little at her own words. Her eyes scanned the crowd for a moment before her green-blue hues were right back on him. "No, don't worry. You're actually saving me from a very grueling game of beer pong. Kel's over there trying to relive her glory days. I think your friend might've taken over the poor bartender's spot." This team was nothing if not a good time, she was sure he would discover that in no time. "Not your thing either? Or am I the one keeping you? Either way..." Alex sat her glass back down on the bar and carefully slid it over in his direction, "you're not getting away without trying it." Her head motioned to the drink waiting to see if he would take the bait.

Sidney He laughed at her accusation. His hand lifting up in apology as he took a sip from his glass, only lowering it once she’d pointed out just how unoriginal he was for his own drink of choice tonight. It was weird but he was slightly mad at himself now, for not going against the grain earlier and ordering one of whatever she was having. Somehow ‘surprising’ Alex Morgan seemed appealing right now. Which was weird because he’d only been standing there beside her for less than ten minutes and it seemed strange to care so much about something like that… He supposed it had been years since he’d slid up next to a pretty girl at a bar and allowed himself to look… and it wasn’t even like he was doing that, right? Right. It was just— he was at a party (somewhat uninvited) and he was being friendly. That’s what this was. “Sorry to disappoint…” his smile twitched up as he watched her start talking about the drink her fingers were currently wrapped around. He heard a few buzz words that would’ve allowed him to stitch together a proper reply if she’d expected it once she was finished, but really, he’d just been watching her talk and get excited about something like a drink and he couldn’t help but think it was all kind of cute really. Here was ‘the’ Alex Morgan the girl he’d just watched own it on the soccer pitch and here she also was rambling about some drink she’d come accustom to ordering… yeah, champagne has a way of getting you to do some pretty outrageous things too…” he thought about the first time he’d filled the Stanley cup with it and drunk more than he’d ever had in his life. That had been a night. His head getting cloudy just thinking about it—though maybe that was less about the champagne and more about the fact that Alex had just said that he, Sidney Crosby, was saving the USA superstar from some game of beer pong? He looked across to where she’d mentioned it was going on... seeing not just Gino, but Kris there and two teammates from Alex’s team on either side of them and the table… of course. The twenty-eight-year-old was about as interested in the commotion happening over there as he was in the weather back home in Nova Scotia… turning his attention back to Alex instead and smiling when she passed her drink along the bar towards him. It didn’t have to travel very far, somehow without even realising he’d been doing it, he’d closed a lot of the previous space that had once existed between them… “well since you’ve had a few drinks now… I know you’re not secretly moonlighting as a Philly fan with the goal to poison me tonight, so…” he scooped it up. The glass dwarfing in his hands as he did… “mmm…” he could’ve avoided the lipstick and drank from the other side, but instead he stuck his mouth on top and took his sip. The hit was instant. The fruity taste covering most of his tongue, but the hint of her lipstick was there too… “yeah, so that’s not too bad…” he lowered the glass, sliding it back over towards her, before doing the same with his own glass… “your turn.” The thing about whiskey if you got the expensive stuff the taste had different notes to it. Something Alex might not have realised and something he decided to add to convince her, “I’m sure you’ve tried whiskey, but this one… this one is really good…” The thing was, he was pretty sure he just wanted her to drink from his glass in order to leave that tell-tale sign of lipstick behind that went ahead and reminded him with every next sip he had coming his way that she’d been there… which was insane. He knew that. He wasn’t crazy. He just… didn’t care.

#( Alex & Sid: 001. )

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oliivverwood · 5 years

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winner takes it all

ten times marcus and oliver faced one another

Marcus and Oliver were not friends. Even that was such a painful understatement, to even use Marcus, Oliver and friends in the same sentence. It's just the way it was, the way it had to be, and the way it was going to be.

Marcus first faced Oliver on the pitch. A spindly bag of bones, on the opposite end of the field, guarding the goals from Marcus, who was stocky and tall for a second year. The Slytherin would have laughed, had he not seen the manic glint of determination and passion and obsession for the sport that Marcus had only seen in his own eyes when looking into a mirror.

Marcus wasn't able to shake his hand after the game. Oliver Wood had been struck by a wayward bludger, courtesy of Bole, and was carted off when it had been realised that he'd been knocked out cold. He wasn't sure if he wanted to shake his hand anyways.

ii.

The last Slytherin and Gryffindor game of Marcus's school years was bittersweet.

They had lost.

Marcus had watched as the Gryffindor team had crowded Potter, who held up the snitch, an obvious gloat, to the pleasure of the cheering red and gold stands. Then, the team turned their attention to Oliver, and the Weasley twins lifted him up on their shoulders for a lap of the pitch, because Oliver Wood was a great captain, a great player, and deserved a great send off.

Marcus, somehow, couldn't find it in him to be angry about the result of the game, seeing tears stream down Oliver's face like that, gleefully holding up the cup and blissfully unaware of the ugly feeling that was latching itself to Marcus's heart. He'd had his chance with the quaffle, head to head with his rival and he'd failed.

Marcus remembered what he had first thought of Oliver, all those years ago- how they were alike in the way that they loved quidditch first, and everything else came after.

iii.

The day Marcus had shook Oliver's hand on the pitch, Montrose versus Puddlemere, it had felt like they'd gone back to the beginning again. Back to fifth year, when they'd both been appointed captains, the closest the two had ever been. Now, they'd been elected as captains in the big leagues, an unacknowledged dream that was shared between the two.

There was a nostalgia that came with the familiar game of the two of them trying to break the bones in each others hands, minutes before they faced off. If Marcus closed his eyes, he could imagine the green and silver clashing with the red and gold on the bleachers, the smell of the Scottish countryside-- hell, he could even hear Lee Jordan's commentary if he thought about it hard enough . When he finished the handshake roughly, he thought he saw the corner of Oliver's lip quirk up.

They had a show, of course, Marcus's jaw-dropping, calculated skill against Oliver's unbridled, raw talented passion. Slytherin versus Gryffindor. Chaser versus Keeper. Marcus versus Oliver.

It always came down to the two of them, really.

iv.

The World Cup Stadium was unlike anything Marcus had ever experienced before.

One of the record youngest ever appointed to the English National Team, the nerves he felt when flying the introductory lap around the stadium had been indescribable. The lights were blindingly bright, the stands cheering and stomping with all the volume of a baby Mandrake. His blood rushed with adrenaline, seeing some familiar faces in the crowd as he whizzed by.

And then Scotland came, to do their lap.

And there he was.

The World Cup Final, the pot of gold at the end of Marcus's grueling, long, seemingly endless rainbow of training, working out, and lacking a social life.

Of course Oliver was there, because Oliver was always there.

The whistle blew. The crowds roared. Marcus glanced across the pitch, eyeing the figure clad in purple, an obstacle.

He kicked off.

'Terence is a good friend.' Marcus had chanted to himself, in his mind. 'Terence wouldn't let me sit through a terrible dinner with another boring date.'

Under the delusional premise of finding their dear friend, Marcus, love, his friends had taken to setting him up on blind dates. Adrian, Draco and Cassius had all chosen abysmally, each date ending on Marcus giving them a fake floo number and praying he'd never see them again.

Terence was a good friend. He would pick wisely.

(If he knew what was good for him.)

So Marcus sat, in the quiet restaurant, silent only because it wasn't proper if customers spoke too loudly.

To say he was shocked when Oliver Wood appeared in front of him- hair still damp at the ends from a recent shower, smelling too much of grass and leather and too little cheap deodorant- was a garish understatement.

"Flint." He said, lightly, as if this wasn't fucking with Marcus's head at all, as if this was expected. He sat down and drank the wine that was in Marcus's glass in one swallow.

'Terence is nasty friend. Terence is a horrible friend-'

vi.

Terence had been a good friend, Marcus realised almost entirely too late.

Exactly year after that fateful meeting, Marcus and Oliver were sitting in the same restaurant, facing each other, and bickering.

They were a couple that bickered. Worse than Malfoy and Potter. Worse than Terence and Adrian.

But nobody took care or notice, because it was quite obvious that--while Oliver snapped at Marcus about player stats and took his hand, and Marcus flicked Oliver's forehead and kissed it better right after--they were sickeningly in love.

Oliver had decided to splurge tonight, their one year anniversary, and bought some fancy champagne. It was much too bubbly for Marcus and much too sweet for Oliver but they drank it all anyways till their heads and a pleasant buzz and they were unfortunately not allowed to apparate home on their own.

Terence was a good friend, Marcus had realised, because the former had come to pick them up from the restaurant at 10 at night and took them home. He may have tucked them in fondly, but that would remain a secret Terence would take to the grave.

vii.

Real fights with Oliver were agonising.

Snarls, glares and raised voices would be a result of a furious tension between the two. Over serious things, like future plans, that Marcus thought about too much, and Oliver didn't think about at all.

Marcus faced Oliver in their kitchen and scowled, while the other man yelled about Merlin-Knows-What and flailed his arms about like a fucking nut. His Scottish brogue always got thicker, to the point that his speech became a garbled stream of nonsense, and Marcus couldn't get a word in at all. It wasn't for lack of trying. Normally, by the end of their fights, both would scream unintelligibly just to make a point, until one of them pushed the other and snogged them senseless.

They always went too far. That's how it was with Marcus and Oliver--zero to a hundred and never an in-between. That's what made them great athletes.

In moments like these, Marcus wished he knew how to calm down, but when it came to Oliver, he could only see red.

viii.

Marcus had come back to the school twice after he graduated.

Once, to fight in the battle, dragging the dead from the debris and settling them in the Great Hall.

The second time, with Oliver. He wouldn't reveal to Marcus why he'd taken them there, and why they were on the pitch. Even so, Marcus appreciated being there--the place where he first fell in love with a sport.

It was evening, the sun setting on the horizon and washing the field and the school in a pale orange light. Marcus could hear the faint chattering of the students eating supper in the Great Hall. His heartstrings jerked at the memories of his time at Hogwarts.

When Oliver got down on one knee, pulling a velvet box out of his pocket, it tipped Marcus over the edge- and he hadn't cried since the war ended, but now he let go.

"Yes, you prick." Was all that Marcus was able to get out, through hiccups and coughs. Oliver laughed at him.

ix.

The celebrity matches were always fun, Marcus thought. It made him feel like a student again, playing quidditch with his old rivals, Lee Jordan commentating to the horror of McGonagall.

"Oh, how times have changed since our days, folks!" Lee rumbled into the microphone. "Once notorious rivals Flint and Wood, our team captains today, announced their engagement yesterday."

Terence hooted from the stands. Of course, he hooted.

Lee continued to chatter about their engagement, about Draco and Harry's honeymoon arrangements, how Angelina and Viktor Krum were getting on. Marcus tuned it out, watching Oliver Wood floating on his broom on the other end of the pitch.

He saw him looking. He winked.

Yes, Marcus loved the annual charity matches. It felt like he was back at the start, doing it all over again.

On a normal day, Marcus would laugh uproariously at the sight of his friends crying. Each one of his teammates, from school, from Montrose, from England, were sitting in Flint Manor, tears streaming down their face. Terence had sniffled through half a pack of tissues, while Harry Potter had used the rest.

But today was not a normal day, and Marcus was crying too, while Oliver choked through his speech while casting a spell over the ring he'd put on Marcus's finger. He swore loudly when he'd begun to cry, to the amusement of his friends and family.

"I love you." Marcus said at the end of his speech. When they finally sealed the deal with a kiss, something inside of Marcus clicked, slid into place, and he felt like his entire life, against Oliver Wood and with him, had lead to this moment.

#hp #text #flintwood #oliver wood #flintwoodnet #hprarepairnet #marcus flint #flintwood fic #slytherdornet #slytherin #hprarepair #quidditch #my writing #quidditchleaguenet #drabble

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losangelesvalorant · 4 years

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interesting things from tactical crouch’s interview w fusion assistant coach chrisTFer on 1/21

christfer talks abt hero bans, why fusion underperformed in s2, and why their roster is what it is. ill update this post w the youtube link once its out

On hero bans

Christfer thinks hero bans would change EVERYTHING, every team would have to be able to think on the fly, strong ingame leadership, makes coaches' jobs a lot harder, have to practice every hero on every map. you'd have to coach fundamentals into players a lot more and more focus on quickly IDing win conditions and the enemy gameplan. very seriously hopes they aren't gonna drop it this season

if the goal is to have genuine diversity in hero pool, bans is the way to achieve that, but christfer thinks itll fuck up the competitiveness, level of play will go down. but any aspect that helps spectators is better for league overall

volamel thinks hero bans will excite and drive the audience bc banning players specific heroes would be hype as fuck. lotta strategy, lots of analysis. however he's skeptical bc if it happens midseason it's gonna fuck over coaches

christfer thinks if theyre gonna do it they gotta do it today. there's no other good time

yiska thinks it would be bad to implement it midseason bc the # of games teams play across the season is sooo spread out. teams have different amts of games every month

on why fusion underperformed in s2

Internally, fusion was kinda "naive" coming into s2, thought they were the 2nd best team and acted as if they were 2nd best. rarely felt happiness after scrims bc theyre "supposed" to be winning all the scrims. losing scrims also was hugely negative for the same reason

smaller roster makes it harder to kick people into gear, so lack of motivation was a big thing. they were just waiting for goats to die

thought goats wouldnt continue into s2, stage 4 was where they finally got motivation, fusion never completely understood the goats style of play or the fundamentals goats taught teams, they lost games they shouldnt have as a result. Not one big issue, lots of small issues

fusion held themselves to such high expectations that when they failed them and weren't enjoying the game as much so morale fell. (paraphrased) "as long as my players enjoy playing the game, it makes my job easier"

Christfer says fusion changed a lot for playins, changed coaching structure, overwhelmingly positive result. best theyd looked all season

shanghai had very particular strengths on certain maps. fusion was winning brawl comps vs brawl comps. got nervous and dropped maps they were supposed to take, but theyd given away too many of "their" maps to be able to lose shanghai's maps.

felt like they hit the ground running on playins, but other teams levelled up across playins and christfer believed other teams wouldve developed more than they would have

even if coaching wasnt problem if team is in a slump you need new coaches to re-fire everyone up, which is what happened w fusion.

on carpe and sado

carpe was able to play heroes he excelled at in s1, in s2 zarya was entirely different in elements of what makes a player good at the hero. carpe holds himself to a very, very high standard and playing zarya killed his morale because he wasn't so good at it. christfer considers it a failing of himself as a coach that he didn't help carpe work through that more

nobody on the team is worried about carpe’s performance. Christfer confirmed carpe wont play if he isnt up to standard (in response to reddit worrying abt how long his contract is and how much sway he has over coaches)

christfer is very upset about how people treat sado. sado is the "single nicest person you will ever meet." every single player/coach had 1 on 1s with tucker, everyone said they wanted to keep playing with sado. yiska emphasized how important it is that every player on the team wanted to keep playing sado bc for example eqo and carpe want to win more than anything and if they thought sado was the problem they absolutely wouldve said so

Other teams came to fusion wanting to sign sado

christfer said sado wasnt the greatest main tank player last year, but playing rein in a "dysfunctional" team makes the rein player look bad.

christfer thinks this is the "season of sado." has complete faith in him

the complaints abt sado’s rein "[he] can understand," says to remember sado had never played pro before s1. he doesn't have as much competitive exp which hits him hard but he's grown wildly in the last year.

sado's ability to hit every halt at the right time is incredible. compares him to alarm in how good his instincts are. excellent player in a team environment, kinda a big brother to some of the players on the team, sado is very important to the team

christfer agrees that if meta shifts and sado is sick, theres a problem, but says this is not a problem unique to fusion

on fusion’s new acquisitions

heesu surprised christfer the most. he’s “very, very, very very, very good.” hungry to learn, easy to talk to, they got a very good deal and christfer is surprised more teams didn't try to get him

heesu has a lot of respect for carpe, heesu said its a + for him to work under carpe

theyre trying to scrim w heesu daily, sounds like they intend to play him if the opportunity presents itself. excellent signing theyre very happy abt

the point of the chipsa signing was that they didnt need a 5th dps, their lineup is already perfect, they had to find someone that "made sense" from many levels. wanted a specialist. Christfer thinks chipsa understands the raw mechanics of doom better than any owl players, thinks he could legit play in a doom meta. also thinks chipsa could teach eqo doom in a doom meta. chipsa provides advertisement, no need for scrimming with him. if the situation is right he can play and if he's not playing he provides income, publicity, etc. christfer again restated he was originally against the signing. when tucker explained why hed be signed, christfer came around to the idea

having 2 way players is a headache in christfers opinion, so that was another reason why they didnt pick up a contenders player instead of chipsa.

chipsa has not had a scrim yet because he’s not in philly bc visa stuff, but christfer did not clarify whether or not he will scrim.

of all players signed, funnyastro was by far the most in demand. they had to fight for him, almost every team wanted him. he's a "sponge" where he remembers whatever coaches tell him, incredibly coachable, very mature for his age, needs to adjust his playstyle a bit to fit into the team (bc he's going for plays he shouldnt sometimes) but if they can "tune him back" a bit hes great. want to find a middle ground bc astro's ability to kill everything and doing his job (brought up moth as the "glue guy" who enables everyone by doing his job perfectly)

alarm has insane awareness, has natural affinity for positioning, understands ovw instinctively. zero attitude issues, the nicest/perfect teammate. "the whole package."

yiska said ivy has a "special type of character," quickly clarified that it’s not a “problematic” character, but needs a dif type of coaching (christfer agreed)

thinks things got difficult for ivy on toronto bc he was moving roles so much, kdg puts a lot of stock into him, a lot of kr players do too. people from toronto think ivy is insane mechanically. volamel thinks ivy should have been toronto's standout

fury wasnt signed bc of bad synergy btween sado and poko. poko wasnt the problem. fusion is very serious abt winning everything and fury is a statement of that intent. fury/poko cover every base

on new coaches

Christfer really respects seita and kdg, happy to have gotten them. has worked w both of them in the past, considers kdg similar to crusty. they signed kdg like the second he became available, christfer asked for him specifically.

seita will stay remote

yiska says mobydik is nuts in terms of game knowledge. Christfer agreed, says he thinks abt the game in a very unique way, outside of the box

misc

Fusion has a system where all 3 supports are rotating in the current meta. nobody is benched. had main support play bap originally when bootcamping, but theres places u can play 2 flex sups, so fusion has a lot of flexibility. who plays depends on situations where you can always play zen/bap vs where you might have to flex to lucio

Christfer thinks main sups doing calling/single caller system is a bit outdated and more of a western concept, trying to build comm system where everyone communicates, everyone calls their own ults. can have ingame leaders, but wants everyone to call what they need to call. in this meta everyone has to make the plays and call their own ults bc its split second and only the person w the ult can see the optimal situation

Christfer thinks the positions where you need stability in ovw is main tank and main support. subbing dps players in and out is fine but you need consistency at mt and ms.

really really think they dont need to fill their last roster spot

Christfer calls this season a "rebuild season" for fusion. if they dont do well this year christfer thinks it would be the fault of the coaches. too much talent to fuck it up.

not taking home a title is not exactly a failure, but anything within the top 4 fusion is happy with

#notes #these r barely edited so if theyre incomprehensible thats why

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ty-talks-comics · 5 years

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Best of Marvel: Week of August 7th, 2019

Best of this Week: Absolute Carnage #1 - Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin and Clayton Cowles

God is Here.

The seeds have been sown all over the Marvel Universe for the re-emergence of Carnage in a big way for months. He’s had single back-up pages in The Avengers, Black Cat, Captain Marvel, Immortal Hulk and many others portending his arrival and the sheer amount of people and creatures that are now within his thrall. Everything is coming to a head and it is absolutely terrifying.

The book begins with Eddie Brock recalling the events of everything Donny Cates has written since he took over the character.and other past events that have ultimately shaped what will soon happen. Eddie tells his son Dylan, who doesn’t know that Eddie is his father, about Knull, the God of the Symbiotes, and how he’s being kept asleep by the planet of symbiotes surrounding him. The only way for Knull to be woken up is if someone collected enough symbiote pieces and DNA to reconnect to the hive mind and if Knull is reawakened, he will begin spreading a new age of darkness across the cosmos.

Eddie references the fights against the Dragon of Knull in the beginning of his run, but also talks about the other people who have held the Symbiote or symbiotes. He pulls so much history out in so few sentences, along with a stellar double page spread by Stegman that one might be convinced to check out other great stories just to see how deep the rabbit hole goes. Characters from Maximum Carnage are shown, heroes that may have been changed during Venomized and of course Captain America, The Thing and Wolverine from the amazing Carnage USA.

After Eddie recounts the danger that the two are in, they see that Eddie is a wanted man after killing many inmates at Ryker’s Island. Of course Eddie was never there and after suspecting that they’re being followed, Eddie tells Dylan that they need to make a break for it and they run away from their tail into the subway. Unfortunately for them, Cletus Kasady was lying in wait and pushes them onto the tracks, only for them to be saved by their tail; Venom.

Eddie re-bonds with the symbiote after derailing the train and a new and terrifying Carnage confronts them. Stegman wastes not a single stroke in making Carnage look like a menacing force of pure psychotic evil. His teeth are jagged, his limbs are gangly with “skin” that looks like it’s constantly dripping with blood an his ribcage and spine are exposed, but covered in the same material. He could almost be considered skeletal if not for the pumping veins all around him. This is a Monster Carnage, even more terrifying than 2015’s Carnage series and many times more powerful.

Carnage, like most children of other symbiotes, has always been stronger than Venom. Though, with enough force and maybe some help, Carnage has always been defeated one way or another, but not this time. Kasady beats the ever living hell out of Venom, smacking him in the face and smashing him into the ground. He gets right on the cusp of killing him before Eddie grabs the third rail of the subway line and electrocutes the both of them, a temporary victory so that he and Dylan can escape. The symbiote puts Eddie into something of a coma while he heals the body and takes them to the one person that can help.

In a little diner where they think it’s safe, Eddie, Dylan and Spider-Man talk about what’s been going on. Spider-Man is taken aback and annoyingly jokes to Eddie about all of this being out of his league before a news report is shown depicting a mass grave of people that have had their spines ripped out, likely for the Symbiote DNA or Codices (plural for Codex) as Eddie calls them. After some chumps try to rob the diner, Spider-Man takes them out handedly while formulating a plan with Eddie, saying that Reed Richards could have made a machine to help remove the Codex from anyone that has ever been attached to a symbiote, but he would have needed to start long ago.

We then cut to The Maker, the Reed Richards from the Ultimate Universe that has taken up residence in the 616 Universe, as he’s actually been working on such a machine for use on Flash Thompson. The Maker’s goals and those of his employers are unknown and that makes for horrifying implications because there is no way that he is up to any sort of good at all and makes it clear that he too is trying to reunite the symbiotes.

Spider-Man shows up with Normie Osborn as the first possible test subject, but doesn’t want it to be used until he knows that it’s safe. Maker moans that if he has to be so sure, then he should find someone else with a codex, someone dangerous that Carnage may in fact go after next. Peter and Eddie get the same thought: Norman Osborn.

Norman had used the Carnage symbiote to become the Red Goblin not too long ago and after his defeat at the hands of Spider-Man, lost his mind and gained the memories and personality of Cletus Kasady. Things go to hell in a handbasket very quickly as John Jameson, the guard who let them into Ravencroft also known as the Man-Wolf, reveals himself as another of Carnage’s infected puppets.

Mayer then coats the book in an intense and overbearing red hue, signaling nothing but danger as Carnage throws pieces of himself into each cell. There are elements of body horror as he pulls these tiny bits of himself out of his chest and they burrow into the victims. Kasady’s mouth and eyes also seem to drip with his symbiote form as he and the other barrel down on Venom and Spider-Man. A giant and beautiful brawl ensues with the infected ripping and tearing at the pair. The mass of bodies overwhelm and Eddie almost begins to kill before being reigned in by Spider-Man. Unfortunately Spider-Man gets caught by Carnage.

It was around here that I had the realization that Pete and Cletus haven’t actually clashed in YEARS. Maybe as far back as 2011’s Carnage USA was the last time the two fought, so to see Pete finally see him again with half of his mask gone, there’s a small bit of fear in his body language. This is doubled as Carnage throws Spider-Man into Norman’s cell door, breaking it open to reveal a deranged Norman who appears to have been slicing himself with a piece of glass in his cell. With the combination of the bright red of his blood juxtaposed against the darkness of his cell, Norman stands out, not as the cunning genius that we knew him, but as another victim of Carnage and he smiles with mad glee.

Absolute Carnage #1 absolutely lives up to the hype that has been built for it. This story can expand so far and with the tie-ins that have been announced, I’m actually very excited. Carnage has been scary, but this is on a whole new level for him. You never quite know who is one of his thralls! Hell, John Jamson appeared to be completely normal until the trigger was pulled in him and turned him into another monster. Carnage has always been a problem for the larger Marvel universe whenever people have had to fight him individually. Deadpool had a hard time fighting him. Captain America, Wolverine, Hawkeye and the Thing almost died fighting him. Even when he was temporarily a good guy during AXIS, he was still horrifically dangerous.

With new god-like abilities, lack of weaknesses and unimaginable unpredictability, what can anyone do?

Ryan Stegman’s art needs to be absolutely praised as well. His lines are crisp and heavy in an almost perfect way. He manages to give things a darkness and depth to them that makes everything feel absolutely brutal, disgusting and weighty. He can capture faces of absolute terror, rage and every wonderful expression that Venom makes. Personally I love how emotive he makes Spider-Man’s mask with the eyes widening and shrinking with his surprise or incredulity. He also has a talent for spreads as there are about three really good ones that really shows his skill for depth of field. Venom and Spider-Man also look incredibly strong. We all know that I love muscular art and all of their muscles are accentuated through their costumes. Spider-Man has his lithe and athletic body and Venom is nothing but raw strength and I love it.

Absolute Carnage hit every correct note. There was violence, horror and even a little bit of family drama. The stakes are very high and while not on the same scale as War of the Realms, the sheer amount of murders caused and their horrifying nature is more than enough to be concerned about. Donny Cates looks like he’s going to do it again with his first big Marvel event (I think, I don’t really remember) and bring us all to another level of badass storytelling.

High recommend.

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I have never been more interested in Moira MacTaggert than I am right now.

Runner Up: House of X #2 - Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, Marte Garcia and Clayton Cowles

I've always seen Moira as just another supporter of mutants that tragically had their life ended because of The Brotherhood's evil schemes. I loved that she supported Charles dreams and wanted to help mutants, but never actually knew that she herself was a mutant. She's always had something of a tumultuous history and this issue of House of X expands on that in the most amazing way and shows how important she truly has been in the advancement of the lives of mutant kind this entire time.

In her first life, Moira MacTaggert lived a fairly normal existence. She went to school, married, had kids and died at the rope old age of 78. Soon after, she woke in her mother's womb, capable of remembering everything that she had done in the past life. It was strange and she couldn't let on what she knew, but she knew that she was special somehow. It wasn't until she saw Charles Xavier on the news that it all clicked for her. When he said the word mutant, everything changed for her. She went to try and meet him, only for her plane to crash, ending that life.

In her third life, she dedicated herself to biology and sought out a cure for the X-Gene, achieving as much only for it to go horribly wrong when Mystique and Destiny, a character who died in Fall of the Mutants (1988) and was last seen in Necrosha (2010), appear and murder all of her fellow scientists. Destiny tells Moira that she knows what her abilities are and that if she continues down a path that could lead to the extinction of mutants, Destiny will always be there to stop her. She tells her that the only path to stop this cycle of reincarnation is to do whatever she can to help mutant kind.

As a reminder, Destiny has Pyro slowly burn Moira alive so that she never forgets what it will be like to die at her hands.

From here, Moira becomes a radical, leading lives that take her away from Xavier's dream and push her further into darkness. Everything becomes a lesson in repeating the past, however. At first she lives the normal life and history that we already know. Forming a school for gifted youth, the schism between Magneto and Charles, The X-Men and eventually Charles' and mutantkind's death at the hands of Sentinels.

In the life after that, she shows Charles her past lives and turns him into a radical, managing to take over America before Sentinels kill them again. The next sees her kill the Trask family line, only for someone else to design Sentinels instead. She aligns with Magneto or Apocalypse in different lives, all reaching similar or even worse endings.

Eventually, she realizes that there's only one path that she hasn't truly tried: Embracing the dream and making it real. This is the House of X timeline.

We've seen Moira passively protect mutants, but never engaged with Charles in a way that could truly help him. With knowledge of past events, the two can find a path forward that would not only save mutants, but propel their evolution farther. I believe that's why Charles has sought to UNITE everyone. Apocalypse, Magneto, Mystique, Mister Sinister, all of mutantkind under one banner to make the lives of all better. It's certainly a dream, but Moira MacTaggert is the linchpin that makes that dream a reality.

She's always been one of the X-Men's smartest and loyal friends. With her help, her genius behind Charles' vision there's no way that the House of X can fall. It's very telling that every path that utilizes violence or tries to eradicate one side has always lead to ruin. It's even more telling that even the peaceful path requires some bit of strong arming, but if that's what it takes to get humans to stop killing mutants, then it really doesn't matter. Charles will have peace between the two sides and Moira is more than willing to embrace this beautiful new path.

#comics #marvel #marvel comics #absolute carnage #carnage #venom #eddie brock #cletus kasady #spider man #donny cates #ryan stegman #jp meyer #house of x #x men #moira mactaggert #charles xavier #jonathan hickman #pepe larraz #marte gracia

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wrestlingisfake · 5 years

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WWE Fake Rankings, 9/30

Men’s heavyweight singles division - babyfaces

Seth Rollins (WWE universal champion)

Roman Reigns

Kofi Kingston (WWE world heavyweight champion)

Daniel Bryan

Braun Strowman

Ricochet

Aleister Black

The Miz

Ali

Chad Gable

Men’s heavyweight singles division - heels

AJ Styles (WWE United States champion)

Erick Rowan

Shinsuke Nakamura (WWE intercontinental champion)

Baron Corbin

Samoa Joe

Andrade

Cesaro

Unranked: Cedric Alexander, Drake Maverick, EC3, Mike Kanellis, R-Truth, Rusev, Shelton Benjamin

The top men’s feuds in WWE right now are Rollins vs. Bray Wyatt, Reigns & Bryan vs. Rowan & Luke Harper, Kingston vs. Brock Lesnar, and Kevin Owens vs. Shane McMahon. But you wouldn’t know it looking at this list, since Wyatt, Owens, and Harper haven’t wrestled in over a month, and Lesnar and Shane are part-timers.

The names to watch this fall are Ricochet, Ali, Gable, and Corbin, since it’s clear those are the guys they’re really trying to build up. It remains to be seen, though, whether those pushes get hamstrung by haphazard booking or the pressure to sacrifice them for a ratings stunt. If/when Wyatt and Lesnar win the top titles, I don’t foresee any of those guys rising through the ranks to be the Next Big Thing that topples them.

Men’s heavyweight tag team division - babyfaces

Xavier Woods & Big E

The Viking Raiders - Ivar & Erik

Heavy Machinery - Otis & Tucker

Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder

Lucha House Party - Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado

Men’s heavyweight tag team division - heels

Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode (Raw tag team champions)

The Revival - Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder (Smackdown tag team champion)

Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson

The B-Team - Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel

The Usos have been MIA for a couple of months and Lucha House Party is barely teaming on Raw anymore, so we’ve basically got eight teams. So when they split the rosters again in a couple of weeks, Raw and Smackdown will each get one championship team, one top-ranked contender team, and one team that never wins in big matches, and one joke team. That’s the problem with the brand split--dividing the rosters exposes how few real stars they can make.

Women’s singles division - babyfaces

Becky Lynch (Raw women’s champion)

Charlotte Flair

Natalya

Carmella (WWE 24/7 champion)

Ember Moon

Dana Brooke

Women’s singles division - heels

Sasha Banks

Bayley (Smackdown women’s champion)

Lacey Evans

Women’s tag team divison - babyfaces

Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross (WWE women’s tag team champions)

Kabuki Warriors - Asuka & Kairi Sane

Women’s tag team division - heels

Fire & Desire - Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville

At this point I think literally every babyface in the women’s roster except Ember, Asuka, and Kairi is just a heel that started getting cheered because they were fighting a bigger asshole. Like, I frequently have to remind myself Becky, Charlotte, Sasha, and Bayley aren’t all on the same side, because they’re all basically doing the same “chip on my shoulder because I have to take what I deserve” bit.

There are a bunch of women on the bench right now and I don’t know why. I’d rather see them used as jobbers to put over the women listed above than not use them at all. I’ll give them credit for booking the top women’s feuds more like men’s storylines than, say, five years ago. But to elevate the whole division you need to flesh out the midcard. All the big US groups want their top women to be headliners but still treat the women’s divisions as a small sideshow, like WWE’s cruiserweights. The first national-level promotion to aggressively deepen their women’s roster to achieve parity with the men is going to have a major advantage heading into the 2020s. WWE has a massive head start on this but is just letting that go to waste.

No TV or PPV matches in 30 days: Aiden English, Akam, Apollo Crews, Billie Kay, Bray Wyatt, Buddy Murphy, Epico Colon, Eric Young, Heath Slater, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, Kalisto, Kevin Owens, Konnor, Lana, Liv Morgan, Luke Harper, Matt Hardy, Mojo Rawley, Naomi, No Way Jose, Peyton Royce, Primo Colon, Rezar, Sami Zayn, Sarah Logan, Sheamus, Sin Cara, Tamina, Titus O’Neil, Viktor, Zelina Vega

It’s getting to the point that you could almost start a decent major-league promotion just using the talent on WWE’s bench. Some of these folks are undoubtedly being held in reserve for big splashy returns this fall, and it’ll be interesting to see which ones. As for the others...I'd feel real bad for ‘em, but I have to assume they’re getting paid pretty damn well to sit in catering, so more power to ‘em I guess.

Part-timers: Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, Shane McMahon

Semi-retired: Goldberg, Kane, Triple H, the Undertaker

These are the guys you can count on to at least come in for Wrestlemania and the Saudi shows. I finally had to pull Big Show and John Cena from these lists, because if Show’s absence from big Saudi paydays indicates that he’s essentially retired, and the shooting schedule of the Suicide Squad sequel is probably going to keep Cena out of the ring for a long time.

Inactive

Alicia Fox (”indefinite leave”)

Bobby Lashley (elbow - bone spurs)

Drew McIntyre (unspecified injury)

Elias (ankle - fracture)

Finn Balor (personal leave)

Jason Jordan (hand - nerve damage)

Jeff Hardy (knee - PCL tear)

Jinder Mahal (right knee - patellar tendon tear)

Lars Sullivan (knee - unspecified injury)

Maryse (maternity leave)

Mickie James (knee - ACL tear)

Nia Jax (both knees - ACL tear)

Ronda Rousey (personal leave)

Ruby Riott (both shoulders - unspecified injuries)

I haven’t kept up on these injury reports, so I’m not sure who can be expected back anytime soon. The only difference-makers here, though, are Lashley, Balor, Jeff Hardy, Rousey, and maybe Sullivan.

#wwe #fake rankings

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beingallelite · 5 years

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On January 1, 2019, the rumors and rumblings that had been seizing wrestling fandom for months were confirmed. The Young Bucks and Cody Rhodes had teamed with investor Tony Khan to found All Elite Wrestling. The new organization was designed to be the first major professional wrestling league to take on the monster monopoly that is WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. Hype for the new organization soon took the wrestling world by storm and “AEW!” became a preferred chant for WWE fans disgruntled by lackluster matches.

But in a landscape that’s been dominated for decades by the leviathan nature of WWE, can All Elite Wrestling make any sort of impact on the sport? Where does the team behind the venture — President and CEO Tony Khan and EVPs Matt and Nick Jackson (aka the Young Bucks), Cody Rhodes, and Kenny Omega — see the core audience? And will AEW be able to truly allot wrestlers the creative freedom and professional support they’ve been craving?

So far, AEW has been testing the waters with a number of pay-per-view events like Double or Nothing, Fyter Fest, and Fight for the Fallen. While Double or Nothing sold out all of its approximately 11,000 tickets in about 30 minutes, the company decided to stream the latter two for free on B/R Live. It was a risky choice, but one AEW President and CEO Tony Khan stands by.

“In terms of putting shows out there for free, we took a bath financially on that and I took a big hit, and I was willing to do it as a company because I believed in our brand of wrestling,” Khan told Decider during a sit-down interview following All Elite Wrestling’s very first presentation at TCA press tour. Cody Rhodes, Chief Brand Officer Brandi Rhodes, and a number of in-ring talent were on hand that day to treat journalists to their first look at AEW’s upcoming weekly TNT show. Khan explained that his “dream” was to get AEW to the level “where WCW was.”

“There hasn’t been a legitimate other company [besides WWE] presenting weekly, high quality wrestling, and never before was HD available,” Khan said, explaining he had every confidence that once AEW’s weekly show premieres on TNT on October 2, “the revenue streams are going to be huge.”

Right now WWE produces two weekly live primetime shows, RAW and Smackdown, that combined amount to five hours of wrestling per week. That’s not counting other WWE weekly offerings such as NXT, 205 Live, off-screen house shows, or their near-monthly pay-per-view events. In contrast, AEW is only going to be crafting one two-hour-long show a week for TNT, and Khan said this is by design.

“We’re basing the company to be way more wrestler-friendly and in terms of the scheduling, because we’re not going to have a constant touring of five nights a week or anything like that, six nights a week never,” Khan said. “And really focusing on that and building the big events, big pay-per-views and streaming specials.”

In addition to allowing wrestlers time to physically rest up and mentally relax, The Young Bucks (aka Nick and Matt Jackson) argued that this far-less grueling schedule gives AEW a creative edge.

“Our characters won’t be over-saturated. That’s a problem for the current product for mainstream wrestling right now. You see wrestlers way too often, way too many times, and you become fatigued with that character and that superstar, and they lose that superstardom,” Nick Jackson said.

“[There’s] just time for things to breathe,” Matt Jackson said. “Everything is so overexposed right now.”

“It’s not about forcing everybody into the show to do one dumb segment just to show them in the show. We’re not going to drag people in and make them travel,” Khan said.

Matt Jackson concurred. “I don’t think everybody has to be on the show every week, necessarily. Like if they’re not needed like Tony said, maybe they stay home that week. Or we just give them a little bit in the back. Sometimes it’s just too much. But if we give them a little bit of flavor every week or every other week I think it would be fine. I really do.”

“We already have a lot of wrestlers in our contracts, so we don’t need to have them weekly. So some wrestlers might not even be on them every single week of the year,” Nick Jackson said. “So a lot of people are going to have great schedules that are way better than any wrestling company in the world.”

During AEW’s panel that day, Brandi Rhodes touted the diversity of talent on the roster, noting that more than half of the panelists they’d assembled that day were women. Khan wouldn’t confirm that AEW’s female roster would be given equal air-time to their male counterparts — “It depends on the week” — but he did say he thought AEW had some of the best female wrestlers in the world. In particular, he touted New Japan Pro-Wrestling alum Kenny Omega’s talent in scouting new joshi talent for AEW.

“It’s a different style,” Omega said, of joshi, a type of women’s wrestling from Japan. “It’s more artistic. It’s more beautiful, but yet it’s still strong, and yet it’s still very diverse.”

“I really think the joshi that Kenny scouted out could our be our generation’s luchadores because the luchadores and the lucha style became very prevalent through wrestling on TNT weekly in the 90s,” Khan said. “And now, almost twenty-five years later, the joshi could come in and just blow people away. I mean they have on our shows and it’s happening.”

Already AEW has begun pushing joshi talent like Aja Kong and Hikaru Shida. The two star were featured a six-woman tag team match on Double or Nothing. While Shida is officially signed to the AEW roster, Omega teased that there were still some stars he hadn’t introduced yet. “I haven’t shown all my cards yet,” he said with a smile.

“Person-by-person we’re developing a roster that can do everything the guys can do, and in a lot of cases, they’re doing a lot of things that the guys can’t do, or aren’t doing,” Omega said. “That’s why, for me, even though I’m proud of my own career and I’m still looking to do big things in my own career, but I’m most proud of that division and I’m most prideful.”

Khan, Omega, and the Young Bucks told Decider that they’re also committed to making sure that all the wrestlers have the opportunity to perform their best, while also being as safe as possible. When asked if wrestlers would be told that specific moves would be reserved for stars, Khan said that the bigger concern was safety.

“I feel very strongly that I want to take care of the talent and I want to protect these guys and girls and everybody,” Khan said.

“That being said, we’re not going to tell the talent like, ‘Don’t do this cool dive just because we don’t want you to do it.’ We’re going to say, ‘Hey, do the coolest things you can do.’ You’re very limited in other places,” Nick Jackson said. “All of our wrestlers are going to do a ton of stuff and we’re not going to limit them for what they can do and their abilities to do.”

Omega even added that they’ve been also studying their pay-per-views to make sure the talent isn’t leaning too hard on the same moves again and again. “For the first three shows or whatever, we had a couple of oversights where guys were doing too much of one thing or another or whatever, but now after the show we’ll always sit down and watch the show back and we’ll see, ‘Ah, I got to catch that next time. And oh, I got to catch that this time,'” Omega said. “Even last time, the Fight for the Fallen, we were more on top of our game.”

Fight for the Fallen was the last pay-per-view event AEW produced and it was one of the two events fans can still stream for free on B/R Live. So far, Khan couldn’t confirm if the weekly TNT shows would be available to stream for free, nor could he comment on the possibility that TNT’s parent company WarnerMedia might fold AEW content into its upcoming streaming service HBO Max. However, everyone could confirm that they see the Young Bucks’ YouTube channel, Being the Elite, as a key pillar of the company.

“What Nick does putting Being the Elite together every week and what Matt does both on and off the camera it’s so huge,” Khan said. “With Being the Elite you’ll see some of the most innovative stuff, but it’s going to be very different then the weekly TV show. But that’s by design and I want to keep it that way so you’ll have outlets to see different things.”

“I think the reason why Nick and I have had big successes is because we’re very self aware and we have that meta style. We’re in on the joke, right? If someone’s talking about us, we know they’re talking about it. We survey everything. We know everything. If people are talking, we’ve heard the talk. We’ve heard the chatter. And it’s better not to ignore the things. It’s better to at least address the elephant in the room and talk about it,” Matt Jackson said, adding he prefers to address fans via Being the Elite rather than Twitter.

“I think that’s the best way to comment on something like that is to do it through art like that, though,” he said. “Whereas so many people just take to a tweet. You could just look at a tweet and you could turn it and twist it ten different ways, right?”

The next two big dates for AEW will be August 31 and October 2. At the end of the month, the organization will put on All Out, its last pay-per-view event before they begin airing nationally. “I know we are committed to doing pay-per-views, but not doing too many, doing the right amount,” Khan said. “Again we’re trying to follow up Double or Nothing with a great show on August 31st and live up to our pay-per-views being worth the money.” Then October 2, 2019 marks AEW’s big debut on TNT. Details about that inaugural show are still being hashed out, but it’s already been announced that the very first AEW Women’s Worlds Championship will be crowned then, confirming that AEW’s team are indeed betting big on their ladies. In fact, All Elite Wrestling is betting big all around and hoping that there’s space in the market for a weekly wrestling show that’s designed to be wrestler-friendly and wrestling fan-worthy.

#all elite wrestling #aew #article #decider #posted on: 8.5.19

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mollymauk-teafleak · 6 years

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my heart is hitting the ground (Chapter One)

An urban fantasy/college Widomauk AU! Many many many thanks to the wonderful @minky-for-short for getting me into this podcast in the first place and workshopping this fic with me. Also enormous thanks to the amazingly talented @rabdoidal whose fantastic art this fic is based on but I could honestly write a multi-chapter fic on every bit of fan art he’s ever done, it’s all that great.

Please consider reblogging and leaving me some feedback!

Ao3 | Ko-fi

Caleb Widoghast isn't the kind of guy who blows off studying and goes out a lot. He isn't the kind of guy to get too drunk at the gig for some college band he's never heard of. He isn't the kind of guy to fall hopelessly in love with the tiefling singer of said band and flirt with him after way too much whiskey.

Caleb Widoghast wakes up to find that, last night, he did exactly that. And now he has to deal with the fallout.

The night before came back to Caleb in pieces, each one worse than the last.

The dry mouth. The pounding headache. The fact that he was still wearing jeans under the covers but no shirt at all. The ringing ears.

He moaned and pushed the hair back from his forehead, wrinkling his nose at the almost immediate reek of whiskey. Why the hell was he drinking whiskey, he never…

And then the last piece fell into place. And Caleb seriously considered diving back down underneath his blankets and never emerging again.

“Good morning!”

Of course, no knock preceded his bedroom door flinging open with a bang that made his eardrums throb, the only person it could be was Nott and courtesy wasn’t her strong suit. They’d known each other too long for that.

“I am…struggling to see what’s good about it,” Caleb groaned, pulling a face as the sound that came out of him sounded more like the last gasps of a dying squeaky toy.

Nott smirked at him from the cavernous hood of her sweatshirt, “M’kay, before you ask, let’s just do this all in one. Yes, you did get horrendously drunk. Yes, it was bad. And yes, Beau has video.”

Caleb slumped back into the tangled mess of his bedding, whimpering pathetically, “That’s it. I’m done with civilisation. I’m going to live in the woods and be a hermit and never speak to another person ever again. They will tell tales of me…”

Nott snorted, scrambling up on the end of his bed, “Aw, don’t be so dramatic. Beau had a few herself, it’s all shaky, you can barely see anything,” she took a sip of her tea, “Jester’s the one that got the really good shot…”

Caleb moaned again, louder as if making a point, dragging one of the pillows over his head.

His roommate couldn’t contain her giggles, though she tried to discreetly direct it into her mug, “The night wasn’t a total waste. You really seemed like you were having fun after about the third whiskey and coke. And you were really digging the band…”

Caleb threw his arm from his protective nest of blankets, accusatorily, “No! No, we are not talking about that!”

Nott held up her hands, “Hey, we all thought it was adorable! The way you kept ordering drinks so you could stand closer to the stage, I don’t think you ever heard a word anyone said…we knew you liked that kinda grungy, indie shit but we didn’t know you liked it that much!”

“Nott, I swear, I will kick you off this bed,” Caleb tried to snarl but it came out as more of a whimper, “Can you please take pity on me and make me some coffee?”

“Wish I could, big guy, but we’re all out,” the young goblin shrugged regretfully, “I think you used the last of it to get you through your last deadline.”

Caleb gave another miserable, frustrated groan, now at the world at large rather than Nott. That was just typical.

“Fine…fine, I’ll go get some,” he mumbled, trying to make his head stop throbbing long enough for him to tell up from down and roll out of bed, “Fresh air. it’ll be good for me. I think.”

“There ya go, positive attitude,” Nott grinned her ear to ear smile, hopping lightly back to the floor, somehow not spilling a single drop of tea to the carpet or, at least, what of it was visible beneath the piles of clothes and notebooks.

Her large ears pricked up as Caleb’s phone gave an annoyingly bright chirp, her smile turning playful and crooked, “If you need a refresher on what happened that night, I bet that’s it.”

Caleb frowned, pawing on his dresser until he found his phone, squinting blearily at it. Sure enough, there was a flurry of messages from his friends, a few pictures that seemed to show nothing but blurs and vague shapes that maybe could be him twirling around lampposts and trying to climb up onto a table. And a video. A few videos actually.

He felt his heart twist with that familiar and unpleasant acid of embarrassment as he studied the thumbnail of the first one. The purple tiefling, the singer, in all his colourful and coiffed glory, somehow still looking as drop dead gorgeous as he had the night before, even when recreated in blocky pixels. He was leaning against a large stacked speaker, an unmistakeably bemused expression on his face while some bedraggled, stooped hobo looking guy clung to a table for balance beside him. Caleb pinched the bridge of his nose and tossed the phone over his shoulder (though he was tempted to aim for the window) as it sunk in that it was him.

He hadn’t meant to go over and actually talk to the guy. He’d been perfectly content staying squeezed in between Fjord and Beau, subtly drooling and moony eyed over the front man who alternated between yelling his expletive filled song titles over the clamour of the close, smoky darkness of the bar and singing in a rough, low growl that had done things to Caleb that he really wasn’t ready to admit to. That would have been a perfect plan, maybe he’d daydream about him for a few weeks and months after before accepting that the tiefling was so far out of his league that it wasn’t even funny and sinking back into school work and vague loneliness.

But Caleb had found himself drifting back to the bar, where the view of the singer (Mollymauk, that was his name, Caleb wasn’t likely to forget it any time soon) with the spotlight hitting his exquisitely tattooed chest just right, looked like something from a goddamn renaissance painting. Instead of his usual half pints of what his friends insisted were pretentious hipster beers, Caleb had found himself ordering jack and cokes, eventually graduating to straight whiskeys after a while, hoping that the singer might notice and think him some cool cowboy type rather than the nervous exchange student in rumpled flannel that he was, who could launch into a full-on lecture about the benefits of different brewing techniques if given the slightest nudge.

Caleb blamed the whiskeys and the urging of his friends for the incredibly bad decision that followed the end of the set. He didn’t remember his words exactly, he just remembered a powerful need to go and tell this Mollymauk of the beautiful voice and extravagant dress sense just how much he’d loved his music. And he really had. He’d loved the rawness of it, the clever twists in the lyrics that sent the song suddenly careening in a direction no one would have guessed. He loved its simplicity, just that voice echoing through the underground bar and a simple guitar accompaniment from a very tall woman who’d had Beau staring in a very similar way to Caleb (he wondered why she wasn’t getting any shit for that…and then quickly realised it was probably because she hadn’t made a colossal ass of herself afterwards and because Beau getting heart eyes over a woman she’d only just met was nothing new). Caleb had never, ever found any music that had spoken to him like this stuff did; it make him feel less alone, less broken, less of an outsider. It had been a stronger magic to him than anything he read about in his schoolbooks and he’d fallen for it, hard and devastatingly.

All that would have been a great thing to tell Mollymauk, when Caleb had come staggering over from his table to where the tiefling was packing away his microphone. Unfortunately, what had come tumbling out of his mouth, as far as he could remember, was something about his music being so good that it had ‘given him a boner in his heart’.

Caleb thanked every god he’d ever heard of that he didn’t remember Mollymauk’s reaction, feeling a sickness in his stomach that had nothing to do with his hangover.

“Did you get the one of you doing Singing in the Rain in German?” Nott chirped happily, still in the doorway, swaying in her sweatshirt so long it brushed her knees, the one she always wore, “I never knew you had such a good voice.”

Caleb grumbled at her, glaring with bleary eyes, waving his hand dismissively, “Go. I need to shower…why do I need to shower so bad?”

“Oh,” Nott shrugged, “Probably because you climbed into the dumpster thinking it was the cab.”

Caleb dragged his hand through his long hair, which had taken on the consistency of a reddish brown, greasy birds nest, “Do us all a favour, Nott, and just leave me in the gutter next time. This was an absolute disaster.”

His roommate gave him a look he didn’t understand before disappearing around the corner, “Are you sure?” she called behind her.

That look and those words continued to confuse Caleb until he was in the bathroom, wondering if he should just burn his clothes and have done with it, when he caught sight of his own reflection above the sink. Not a pretty sight on any day and even less now in Caleb’s opinion, but his aching eyes were distracted. By the series of numbers written on his forehead in a flourishing hand, in thick black Sharpie.

Ah. Now Caleb remembered pressing the pen into Mollymauk’s hand, asking him to write his number on his head so he wouldn’t forget it. The wizard slumped, letting his head knock against the cold porcelain of the sink.

Being a forest hermit was sounding more and more tempting every second.

#critical role #cr #widomauk #widowmauk #caleb widowghast #mollymauk tealeaf #nott the brave #jester #fjord #caleb/molly #modern au #urban fantasy au #college au

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junker-town · 3 years

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NBA mock draft 2021: Latest rumors and buzz for final first round projection

Here’s the latest on the 2021 NBA Draft.

The 2021 NBA Draft is finally here. After a full year of evaluating this class, the next generation of NBA players are about to learn where they will begin their careers. You can watch the 2021 NBA Draft at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, ESPN and the ESPN App.

We did our first mock draft for this class the day after the 2020 NBA Draft. There have been some big risers and fallers since then. International players like Josh Giddey and Alperen Şengün have emerged as likely lottery picks after great seasons in pro leagues overseas. Certain college players didn’t quite meet expectations. The end result is a 2021 draft class that feels extremely talented within the top-four and then becomes something of a grab bag throughout the rest of the lottery.

This mock draft is based off what we’re hearing ahead of draft night. We have already published our top-30 big board player rankings, and in-depth profiles of first round picks Sharife Cooper, Ayo Dosunmu, and Giddey. We also profiled Cade Cunningham almost two years ago to the day as he started his journey to become the No. 1 overall pick.

Here’s how we see the first round playing out:

The top four of the NBA draft appears to be locked in

Cade Cunningham was widely projected to be the No. 1 pick coming into the year. He maintained that status with a tremendous freshman season at Oklahoma State. While there have been rumors the Rockets and Thunder tried to trade up to No. 1 — as well as rumors Detroit has yet to fully commit to Cunningham — he’s obvious choice at the top. Anything else would be shocking.

While we have a preference for Evan Mobley as the No. 2 overall pick in this draft (more on our top-30 big board here), the Rockets seem zeroed in on Jalen Green. There’s certainly an argument for Green as the safer pick. He could flirt with being a 30-point-per-game scorer at his peak.

The Cavaliers should be doing backflips that Mobley is still available at No. 3. He’s a wonderful fit next to Darius Garland, Isaac Okoro, and (if he isn’t traded) Collin Sexton. We think he can play the four next to Jarrett Allen early in his career while also unlocking lineup flexibility when he slides to the five. Mobley has the highest defensive ceiling of any player in this class, and while he’s not hardwired to score, his passing skill and shooting potential will make him an effective offensive player.

The Raptors have reportedly been considering Scottie Barnes at No. 4, but it’s hard to imagine them passing on Jalen Suggs. Suggs is less of a heliocentric star and more of an overqualified complementary piece in the backcourt, but he’s a well-rounded player who should be a plus on both ends of the floor. He’s the last player in this draft class who feels likely to one day compete for All-Star bids.

The Magic appear to be settled on Scottie Barnes at No. 5

The level of talent in this draft drops another tier starting with the fifth pick. The Magic were seen to have two options when they landed at this spot in the lottery: G League Ignite forward Jonathan Kuminga and Florida State forward Scottie Barnes. It appears Barnes will win out.

Barnes is a Florida kid who played his entire high school career in the state. He fits the Magic’s longstanding history of favoring players who are, well, long. Barnes’ 7’3 wingspan and elite motor help make him one of the best defensive prospects in this class. His creation ability as a passer is the most enticing part of his offensive game, but he’ll have to improve as an outside shooter. Barnes feels more likely than Kuminga to make an immediate contribution.

The Thunder are a true wild card at No. 6

The Thunder reportedly made a strong offer for the Pistons No. 1 pick, with some speculating they included star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the package. It wasn’t enough for Detroit. If they stick at No. 6, the Thunder will have a ton of interesting options. Given their history of favoring players with impressive physical tools who are still raw, Kuminga feels like the most likely option.

The Thunder appear to have no interest in winning until they get a shot at drafting 7’3 French phenom Victor Wembanyama in 2023. By that time, Kuminga could be ready to contribute at a high level. One of the youngest players in this class, Kuminga is a big 6’8 wing who showed off poor shooting touch in the G League, but has all the tools to eventually be the type of two-way foward teams covet. He just feels more likely to be OKC’s selection given their history than someone like UConn sophomore James Bouknight, who has also been getting buzz.

The Warriors have two lottery picks and plenty of options

Golden State picks at No. 7 and No. 14 in the lottery. Their top option should be a trade for immediate help with Steph Curry coming off a near MVP season, Draymond Green still playing at an All-Defense level, and Klay Thompson finally returning after two years missed because of injury. It’s just hard to find a deal out there that feels worth it for both sides.

The most likely option is the Warriors making two picks on draft night. We would have a preference for two players in this spot: Franz Wagner and and Josh Giddey. Wagner feels like the most overall talent on the board (we have him ranked No. 5 in this class) because he’s the best bet to shoot of the big forwards while still offering potentially elite defense. Giddey is a 6’8 Australian playmaker who could offer redemption after the Warriors foolishly decided to pass on LaMelo Ball last year.

Golden State could also consider Baylor’s Davion Mitchell, Kuminga, and UConn’s James Bouknight. We’ll give Bouknight the edge here given the recent buzz. His scoring ability is seen as a known quantity in a draft that doesn’t offer many outside of the top-four. It’s not our favorite pick personally, but Bouknight’s instant offense and endless motion in the halfcourt could be a nice fit in Steve Kerr’s offense.

The Memphis Grizzlies are reportedly looking to trade up again

The Grizzlies already made a move from No. 17 to No. 10 after completing their deal with the New Orleans Pelicans. They reportedly want to move up again. Memphis is said to have two targets: Giddey and Wagner. It’s likely they need to move up to get Wagner, who is widely projected to go No. 9 overall to the Sacramento Kings.

We’ll guess Wagner doesn’t make it to the Kings’ pick. The Grizzlies may trade up to No. 7 with Golden State or No. 8 with Orlando to get their guy. It’s also possible the Warriors or Magic just take Wagner with their own pick.

Where will Alperen Şengün get drafted?

The big man put up incredible production in the Turkish league at 18 years old to force his way into the lottery conversation. He doesn’t have ideal tools for an NBA center, lacking ideal measurables, quickness on the perimeter defensively, and three-point range on his jump shot. At a certain point, though, Şengün’s production will be too tempting to pass on.

Sacramento at No. 9, Charlotte at No. 11, and San Antonio at No. 12 feel like the most likely options. He’d also be a solid pick for the Warriors if he slides all the way to No. 14.

3 ‘old,’ tall shooters could crash the top-15

Corey Kispert is well known to basketball fans after a starring role on a Gonzaga team that fell one win short of an undefeated season in the national championship game. Virginia’s Trey Murphy III and Oregon’s Chris Duarte were lesser known names during the college season who have gotten plenty of buzz in the pre-draft process. All three are on the older side in a draft class largely filled with freshmen. All three have a chance to go in the top-15 of this draft because of their skill as three-point shooters.

Kispert or Duarte feel like an obvious selection for the Warriors at No. 14. Murphy is getting buzz at No. 15 to the Washington Wizards. The back-end of the lottery is still anyone’s guess, but at this point it would be a surprise if any of the three slipped out of the top-20.

2 big sleepers in the 2021 NBA Draft

Sharife Cooper is the best playmaker in the draft after Cade Cunningham. He has an ultra-quick first step, an endless combination of dribble moves, and the best vision and passing ability in this class. Cooper is held back by his lack of size (6’1, 180 pounds) and unrefined three-point shot, but we think he’s a top-10 overall talent in this class. The Knicks at No. 19 or No. 21, and the Houston Rockets at No. 23 and No. 24 feel like wonderful landing spots.

Jaden Springer is the youngest American player in the draft. He’s also one of the best on-ball defenders. While didn’t get to show everything he could do offensively on a Tennessee team that provided little spacing around him, it feels wild that he’s projected to slip outside of the top-20. The Knicks, Rockets, Suns, and Jazz would be nice fits for Springer late in the draft, but we’d take him much earlier than that.

The Knicks could trade up in the 2021 NBA Draft

New York picks at No. 19 and No. 21 coming off a surprising season that saw them grab the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference in their first year under Tom Thibodeau. The prevailing logic is the Knicks will take a guard and a shooting wing with these two selections.

In our mock, the Knicks take the ‘best available player’ with their first pick with mega-athletic guard Keon Johnson dropping. They also take Kentucky big man Isaiah Jackson, who is a CAA client and has ties to assistant coach Kenny Payne, who used to work for John Calipari and the Wildcats.

It also wouldn’t be a surprise if the Knicks moved up, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks reported. The Hornets could be an option at No. 11. It makes sense after Chicago Thibodeau’s Bulls once traded the No. 16 and No. 19 picks to move up for Doug McDermott. Kispert, Murphy, or Durate feel like targets for New York if they trade up.

2021 NBA Draft date, time, and channel

Here’s how you can watch the 2021 NBA Draft.

Date: Thursday, July 29

Time: 8 p.m. ET

Channel: ABC, ESPN

Stream: ESPN App.

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insidethegiftbasket · 3 years

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Albert Abreu

I’ll be honest and up front—I really don’t know much about Abreu. Unlike some of our prospects, like Clarke, Gil, Siegler, or Jasson, he is just one of the many guys that had slipped past my radar under the assumption that I would learn who he was when he made the ML roster. I guess that is the one thing that I really knew about Abreu before doing research for this post—that he was held in high enough regard that I could safely assume that he would be an actual Yankee at some point in the near future. Well, that future was apparently last year I just don’t remember it happening. Albert Abreu made his Major League debut in September 2020 and is apparently poised to be on the short list of guys that we could and maybe should see up from AA/AAA at some point this year, even if it’s another September call up.

Also in my research, I learned one other key thing about Albert Abreu, 25-year-old right-hander from the Dominican Republic—he has range. The kid has range.

Here’s “Pensive”.

And “Intimidating”.

And here’s “School Picture Day”.

Like I said, the kid’s got range.

A Minor History

Excluding the 1 appearance he had with the big club last year, Abreu has, to this point, been a career minor leaguer.

Those are not the most exciting numbers.

We’re looking at a guy who posted an ERA above 4 in 100 AA innings while walking far too many people and not making the most of his opportunity. He’s also giving up a ton of fly balls, and with an HR/FB% of 8.7% to go along with an overall 36.9% FB% in 2019, that meant quite a few balls found their way to new ownership somewhere in the stands. Maybe there’s still some development to be had.

Abreu was ranked as our #3 prospect for a while, right there along with Florial, and both have seemed to have taken similar career paths in that they can’t make improvements on what raw talent they have. This isn’t a knock on Abreu as a person—sometimes people just can’t push past that plateau. For every Major Leaguer that takes the diamond, there’s a dozen that never make it out of the minors for any real amount of time, or at all.

Maybe some pressure to succeed now that he’s 25 and really running out of time to make an ML impact for the Yankees will be the motivation he needs. It’s entirely possible. It’s happened before.

Anything for ’21?

He barely registers on the predictions at the ML level, and his AAA predictions are not that forgiving either. Based on what we’re seeing here, it sure seems like the best bet for Abreu in 2021 is to remain stuck in the minors through his age-25 season. That’s a sad thing to say about someone that was once ranked as our #3 prospect and someone trying to make a career as a major league baseball player.

I don’t want to hate on the kid, but when the most optimistic ML prediction for your year is, “Bad, but he only pitches in 3 games” there is still a lot of road left ahead of you.

The Realistic Pessimistic Prediction

He comes up for some innings before September due to injuries and basically gives us the innings he’s predicted to give us, namely bad ones, and not that many of them. That ZiPS projection terrifies me as a possibility because it can only happen if we lose multiple starters for the season. ZiPS is suggesting that Abreu is going to have to like, actually pitch for us. Please no.

The Absurdist Optimistic Prediction

He finally learns how to pitch better in AAA and makes himself a worthwhile option. He comes up in September after a good year in AAA and pitches well in a few appearances with the expanded rosters and earns himself some goodwill and trust to possibly make the actual team in 2022—probably out of the bullpen—and his career really gets going from there.

Evan’s Official I Really Didn’t Know This Guy Gift Basket Prediction

I don’t know.

I’ll predict that he sees 5 appearances in September, and isn’t bad, but isn’t great either and I repost this article almost exactly as written in a year from now.

Join us tomorrow when Sam takes you Inside the Gift Basket on everyone’s favorite BUC, Kyle Higashioka, The Home Run Stroka!

#New York Yankees #Yankees #MLB #Breakdown #Baseball #Albert Abreu

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baker-mayfield · 7 years

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Just Keep Breathing - Seth Rollins

A/N: Hi, yes. I was bored. Like totally bored and I figured I should give the imagine writing life a try. So here is my first ever imagine and i hope that it doesn't suck. I honestly wrote this in the middle of the night because Rollins got me all bothered and he's 100% yummy. I recommend him to everyone. If enough people like it, I'll probably continue it because.... Why not? I'm honestly sorry for any errors and rambles....Oh, and for how fucking long this is....

WORDS: 2.4K

WARNINGS: angst, cheating, and maybe swearing?

I was happy in NXT. Honestly, I could have retired there and I would have been perfectly fine. After two years of seeing my friends come and go, and moving onto bigger and not so bigger things on the main shows- anyone would think that I would be ready to move on.

To have my time in the spotlight. It seemed like that’s what the fans were waiting for. But somehow, Vince never felt I was ready to be called up. I liked to think that they didn’t know what to do with me. I was a smaller girl. Almost as small as Alexa Bliss. I started out as an announcer backstage, then I moved onto be a valet… Then, they finally gave me a chance to work in the right. Being a WWE wrestler was everything I dreamed of. I wanted to be like Lita but as loved as Trish Stratus. I wanted to make history like Mae Young. Because of my small size, it was hard for them to know what to do with me. That’s why they haven’t moved me to the main roster. I just knew it. They already have Alexa Bliss as the small girl on RAW, they didn’t need another shorty on the main show.

…. Okay, I’m lying. Not about my beginnings, but why I haven’t moved up. They’ve begged me to come to the main show. Even before Alexa Bliss was drafted to Smackdown. Each time, I would tell them, “No. I wasn’t ready” or “No, I really want to fight with the new girl”. Every time they asked, I had a new lie. It wasn’t my fault, it was because of him. He was the man that ran the place, and he was the one man I couldn’t go face to face with. I haven’t seen him in close to five years. Crazy, I know. I stayed in NXT that long because of a guy. I think Hunter knew the reason, but he had always danced around it. To avoid me breaking down as usual. As far as everyone was concerned, I was happy on NXT and I was happy putting over the new talent that came in the busy.

I’ve had Sasha, Charlotte, Becky and even Bailey try to convince me to join them on the main roster. I’ve been there for years, they’ll say. There was nothing left to accomplish. Well, that was right. But as long as The Man was there, I was never going to the main show full time. The closest I got to the main show was when Seth was gone with his first injury. I made my main show debut just enough to help Sasha Banks when she needed to even the playing field with the Bella Twins. Luckily that only lasted from December until April. As soon as the storyline was done, I begged to go back to NXT. It didn’t matter what Dean or Roman would say- I was ready to go back to where I knew I was safe

Now, you’re probably asking why ‘why do I not like Seth Rollins?’ You’re wrong. I don’t dislike Seth Rollins, I hated him

I was ready for the ride to the top with him. In a few years, he was going to be WWE World Heavyweight Champion and I would be the Women’s Champion. We had it all planned out. I couldn’t tell you how we started to date. It started with friendly competitions in his hotel room. I would play him in Madden, WWE games, poker. You name it. We even traveled together, and it go to the point where people thought we were dating before we were actually dating. He was my best friend. It was HIS idea to try out a relationship. Everyone was ‘for’ the idea of us being official. The way we followed each other around backstage and joked, we neither to bang or something. Our relationship survived a lot. He was being an NXT champion and I was going from job to job backstage because Hunter was clueless as to where I would be the right fit. It survived when The Shield debut and it survived when Seth turned on Roman and Dean.

No matter where I was, I was always the supportive girlfriend. Not supportive enough at least.

Seth had won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and he had changed. I didn’t notice it, but everyone else did. He was way more self centered. I didn’t notice the change. As caring as Seth was, he was always the cockiest guy ever. When we finally had time to spend time together, it felt like he was miles away. The conversation would feel dry. During my ‘congrats’ dinner for becoming the NXT Women’s Champion, he was way more interested in his phone. I figured it was my fault that he didn’t care. I was still in NXT and he was in the big league. It was like he was out of my league. Which he was. He was fighting in front of thousands on a weekly basis and I was fighting… Well, I was fighting at Full Sail University. He never said anything, so I never suspected anything.

Boy was I wrong. I was so so so SO wrong about us and our situation. I had some time to spend with him. He promised to make it up to me since he was being distant. I thought maybe this was our chance to fix everything that have went wrong. After all, we’ve been dating for close to three years. We debuted in NXT around the same time. We’ve been through thick and thin while we were on the show. It sounded stupid that our relationship could handle a little space just because I was on NXT and he was always on the main event of Raw.

I got my hair done just the way that he liked it. I even made sure to pack the lingerie that he loved. Hell, I packed his favorite perfume. All just for a good time with my boyfriend. I was stupid to think my boyfriend could be main eventing on Raw and wait around for his girlfriend who was on NXT.

We had dinner plans that night. A nice romantic dinner. Seth was in the shower as I was sliding on my dress. His favorite dress, may I add. I have received his attention so many times in this dress. I was sure I could do it again tonight. Then his phone vibrated. He had never told me that I couldn’t look at his phone. There was barely anything to look at. It was just the picture of us kissing. The picture was taken minutes after he had become Mr. Money in the Bank. Then there were his usual boring notifications. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Emails… and when I looked at the most recent notification, it was a text message from an unknown sender. It wasn’t the fact that the person wasn’t saved in his contact that freaked me out… Seth had a habit of waiting until the last moment to add people to his contacts. It was the fact that the only notification was that the person had texted him. There was no text preview. That should’ve been a sign to look away.

Yet, I couldn’t stop looking. He never hid his text previews. Not even from me. Since I heard the water in the shower still running, I typed in his passcode to his phone. I was biting nervously on my lip as I went to his text messages. I clicked on the number and read what the person had to say.

“Am I seeing you tonight? You don’t have to see your girlfriend. We both know that I’m more than enough company for you.”

“Does she know that you don’t love her anymore?”

“I bet you she doesn’t treat you the way that a champion should be treated. She’s so below you, she’s a total waste of your time.”

My heart dropped and I had to call Becky, who was my best friend. When she didn’t answer, I felt my whole world collapse. Maybe I was reading too much into it. Who am I kidding, I was reading exactly what Seth had felt about me.

As I scrolled up, the conversation have been going on a few months after he had won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Just when he sent her why he was sticking with me, the messages scrolled all the way back to the bottom. She had sent him a nude. Just then, I wanted to puke. She was gorgeous. Tall, beautiful, and blonde. I looked down at myself and had to fight back the tears. I didn’t look like her. Seth didn’t love me. All those times, he thought I was beautiful- he was lying.

It felt like years has went by. His phone was hot in my hands and my eyes were both burning and blurry from the tears. I didn’t hear Seth get out of the shower either. He was blasting whatever the band of the day was and he was singing along. I didn’t snap out of it until he called my name. I was frozen. I would’ve been one of those girls that would’ve went through their nights acting like nothing was wrong, but that would’ve hurt. I probably would kill him because the texts and her would be going through my mind all during dinner.

Seth called my name again and I just let the water works go. There was a huge lump in my throat and I couldn’t talk. He stepped closer to me and saw what I was looking at. It was quiet for a moment until he talked.

“Y/N…..” Seth said softly as he grabbed his phone from me. Well, he tried to. I was holding onto it too tightly.

“No, Seth. I get it. I’m just wasting your time when you could be with anyone else in this goddamn world.” I finally let go of his phone and I just looked at him. “I can’t believe you’re mad at me because I’m living my dream in NXT and you’re on RAW. That’s not fair! I wanted to make it there myself, not because I’m sleeping with Seth freakin’ Rollins.” I cried out while wiping a tear. It was scary having this argument with him.

We argued before but it was over stupid things. Stupid things like where to go to dinner, who’s turn is it to pick a movie, who’s turn is it to drive…. It was stuff that can be settled in minutes. This couldn’t be handled in minutes and it couldn’t be handled in hours. It could barely be settled in months. He was cheating, and he couldn’t lie and say that he wasn’t.

“I… I didn’t mean to. I get lonely on the road and-“ he kept going on and on with his excuses. Like an idiot, I nodded my head. I listened to him, hoping to find some truth in there and I couldn’t. I knew that he thought she was hotter than me. I saw it in the texts. I knew that he wasn’t happy with me, once again- I saw it in the texts. There was nothing he could say to exactly ease my mind.

I stood up and left his house. I haven’t looked back since. I only came back when I knew he was gone and that was just to get the things that I held dear to my heart and my clothes. I didn’t want him to have any memory of me or any of my stuff. He broke my heart, and he didn’t deserve to look at my things.

That was almost two years ago. To this day, I wanted nothing to do with the main roster. I avoided all call ups. It was to the point that I was wondering why exactly they begging for me to be called up. Each time, I was going to say no. Seth have tried to call and text me. He even called and texted Becky. Becky was a good friend and told him that I didn’t want to talk to him. If I did want to talk to him, she promised him that I will call him. Have I called him? Nope, never. I had no intent.

It was minutes after Takeover: Brooklyn III. I had just lost my NXT Women’s Championship and if no one could tell, I was frustrated. Actually, I wanted to cry. But after crying for months because of Seth, I didn’t have enough tears in me anymore. I was over him, but crying for months on end took a lot of work

I had grabbed a towel to dry my face off with… That’s when Hunter approached me and congratulated on a good match. I looked at him weirdly while listening to him compliment my skills. That’s when I knew where this was heading.

“No, I’m not getting moved up to the main roster. Nope. I have to get my title back and I have a rematch clause. You can’t just-” I was speaking at 100 words per minute. But Hunter stopped me.

Triple H sighed and he knew exactly where this was going. But instead of walking away this time, he just stood there. He placed a hand on my shoulder, and patiently tried to put the words together. “You don’t have a choice this time. Vince wants you. It’s either go to the main roster or be fired.” Hunter explained to me and my mouth dropped. Vince was actually willing to fire me just because I didn’t want to go to the main roster? I was hurt. But I nodded my head and I agreed to go. Not that I had much of a choice this time. “Thank you. But I have to tell you… You’re going to RAW.” And with that, I would have rather be fired than work on RAW. I stomped my foot and walked away. I wasn’t crying. I wasn’t going to cry. I insisted as I got back to my locker room.

I’m going to RAW, I thought. It didn’t feel like it was real. I wish I wasn’t. But I had 24 hours to prepare myself for the run in that was going to change my life. I was going to make my debut at Summerslam. Great. Of all damn places. If it wasn’t a mixed show, I wouldn’t have been nervous. Hell, if Seth wasn’t there- I would’ve felt better. But, he was going to be there. There wasn’t enough places in the Barclay Arena to hide from him in. I didn’t plan on this happening. Hell, going to Smackdown would be 100% better. But no. I have to prepare myself all over again.

#wwe imagines #seth rollins fanfic #wwe #let's see how this goes #imagines #seth rollins imagines #seth rollins

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lettersofsanthi · 7 years

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a letter to marco asensio

Dear Marco Asensio,

I don’t watch La Liga religiously— I barely watch a full ninety minutes. Honestly, I prefer the rigid and raw style of the Premier League.

Oh, but you, Sir, you make me want to watch La Liga. You remind me how stylistic and gorgeous Spanish football truly is. There’s no rubbish with you, is there? It’s just ‘I’ve come here to do my job, so I will do my job.’ Goodness me do you deify football— you’re one of those few players that serve to be justifications for the seemingly insane exaltation of this sport.

Atop all of that praise, you’re simply twenty-one years of age. I’m baffled; I have been baffled. Oh, divine footballing being, please promise me you ought not to burn out come the end of this season? Promise me that Marco Asensio’s talent ought to flourish in the future, beyond Real Madrid (if need be), throughout his international career?

I beg you remain this calm, most of all. I beg you don’t hype up your being too much, yet exalt yourself as needed— we should all take a moment to give credit where credit is due. I’m not saying don’t accept a raise or ask to stay benched— because I’m in favour of both more monetary gratitude and playing time, but — I’m saying, promise me your cool-kid serenity shall remain on and off the pitch.

Real Madrid, Spanish National Team, fans, friends, family, critics, pundits, the lot of you, let the man play football because he is ravishing at it.

I foresee a Ballon D’or or two someday, but then again, who doesn’t? I can’t say I see a World Cup winner (although my heart hopes to witness it), but I see a great World Cup tale. I see all of us, sitting with our grandchildren one day, telling them the great story of how we watched the game on a big screen with a few mates, of which some we don’t see today, and of how Asensio deserved glory (and I don’t believe in entitlement), and how he didn’t get it. We’ll tell them how he fought and fought and fought, and how he lost. Why? Because the best have always had an obstacle that that had to knock them down, the final hurdle, before they can rise way above it, and way above the rest.  

So, in one of my most metaphysical letters, here’s to the gorgeous footballing being that is Marco Asensio, and here’s to the failures I beg you encounter on your way to pure and utter success and glory, for you are a man that has the tools and desire to obtain such. Onwards and upwards, beautiful. Believe you me, I’ll be sitting quietly, just as you do going about your phenomenal games, and watch, in awe, as you ascend and become a star: one of the greatest footballers that have ever been in being, a footballer that will trademark his generation, an almost-built warrior.

yours in sole excitement and awe,

Santhi

#marco asensio #Real Madrid #football

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truesportsfan · 4 years

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How The Chiefs And Niners Became The Last NFL Teams Standing

sara.ziegler (Sara Ziegler, sports editor): And just like that, we’ve got ourselves a Super Bowl.

It would have been hard for the conference championship games to match the chaos of the first two rounds of playoff action — though about 10 minutes into the Kansas City-Tennessee game, I thought the Titans might actually take out the No. 2 seed (along with the Nos. 1 and 3 they had already dispatched). But Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs rallied again. What stood out to you guys about that game?

Salfino (Michael Salfino, FiveThirtyEight contributor): That the Titans, stealing a line from “The Untouchables,” brought a knife to a gun fight.

joshua.hermsmeyer (Josh Hermsmeyer, NFL analyst): That Derrick Henry is basically just a guy, and that Mahomes is not just a guy.

neil (Neil Paine, senior sportswriter): Too much K.C. offense, too much Mahomes.

Salfino: Mahomes now has 11 TDs and 0 picks in the postseason. He has the highest QB rating in postseason history since the merger.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Two moments stood out to me in particular:

One was the Titans’ last drive right before the half. They needed to run clock, and it was Henry time. They got predictable and had to give the ball back to Mahomes before the half (he scored), and then K.C. got the ball again after halftime.

The other was the third-and-1 where holding was called, and Henry still got stuffed.

neil: In general, the Chiefs were able to slow down the Titan running game like no team really has recently. Tennessee’s rushing expected points added in the game was -0.1 compared with average. That stopped a streak of nine straight games where they had been positive, and often significantly so.

Salfino: When it came to stopping Henry, the Chiefs, who allowed 4.9 yards per rush during the regular season, just threw numbers at the problem. Remember, a team with a top QB like the Chiefs should be built to stop the pass, not the run. They don’t care about stopping the run because they are generally playing ahead. But Sunday, the Chiefs did. They committed to it.

You can do that against the run and it works. You can’t really throw numbers at the problem of stopping the QB.

neil: Of course, K.C. did do some Andy Reid-ish things late in the game to try to let the Titans back into it…

sara.ziegler: Clock management just shouldn’t be so hard.

neil: Mahomes is so good that bad clock management can’t thwart his Super Bowl aspirations.

Salfino: Mahomes bailed Reid out of horrible clock management with 20 seconds to go in the half by running in that TD.

That was classic Reid.

neil: And then late in the game they just refused to either: a) force Tennessee to stay in bounds to run clock, or b) not stop the clock when they had the ball.

sara.ziegler: I get that teams built to pass sometimes keep passing in end-of-game situations just because it’s what they do best. But man, they really kept stopping the clock!

neil: Luckily they got that defensive pass interference call!

Salfino: I thought the game was over as soon as the Chiefs went up double digits. Everything after that was garbage time.

neil: Certainly that took the Titans away from their run-heavy focus and made Ryan Tannehill more than a caretaker.

sara.ziegler: What did you guys think of how Tannehill played?

joshua.hermsmeyer: I thought he played well. They went back to their strength, the play-action (0.41 EPA per play-action pass play), and he kept them in the game at the very least.

Salfino: Tannehill was OK. Not as good as his rating. He could not make a play to stop the Chiefs momentum.

neil: He did his best — and man did he take some licks at times.

sara.ziegler:

neil:

sara.ziegler: That was maybe my favorite moment of the game, tbh.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Momentum is a hard thing to stop, considering it’s impossible to measure or define.

I thought Tannehill’s QBR of 74 accurately reflected his play. And his QBR of 86 on play-action passes was very good.

Salfino: It’s interesting with Tannehill and the Titans. We reflexively say after a run like the Titans had, “They’ll be back.” No, they won’t.

Tannehill is a free agent — I’m fairly certain he’ll be back, but do you give him a long-term deal at franchise money or just franchise him for $30 million (or whatever) in 2020? I opt for the latter. That’s almost a guarantee you don’t have Tannehill in 2021 though.

sara.ziegler: So was this just lightning in a bottle for them, Mike?

Salfino: The Titans have two football freaks on offense in Henry and A.J. Brown who have really no other physical comparables. But the defense is bad. They don’t have a high draft pick. They have no long-term plan that I can see at QB unless you believe Tannehill is good. (I do not.) And their approach to football is antediluvian.

neil: “Antediluvian”!

LOL

joshua.hermsmeyer: The pre-flood games were lit.

neil: Noah was BIG on smash-mouth football.

Salfino: I learned that word from Josh.

When he’s flaming the “run to win” Twitter trolls.

neil: To be fair, there was one team that Ran to Win on Sunday … but I am sure we will get to the Niners soon enough.

Salfino: Do you guys think that Mahomes would have been great no matter where he landed, or that he landed in the perfect place (or both)?

joshua.hermsmeyer: I think he landed in a good spot, but there’s no denying that he’s a special talent.

But my take is that every QB, if he’s any good, is a system QB.

Salfino: I just have a hard time assessing true skill level in football as opposed to baseball, which is so pure in this regard. It’s more tools in football, I guess. Mahomes sure has them.

sara.ziegler: A little website I like to follow told me that Mahomes had a pretty ideal situation to start out in.

joshua.hermsmeyer: That guy Neil seems to know his stuff. Sharp fellow.

neil: LOL

I think it’s fair to say he has exceeded expectations, though, even given his coaching and supporting cast.

sara.ziegler: I’m pretty sure Mahomes’s path to greatness all started with his early experience around the Minnesota Twins clubhouse:

neil: Yesssss

Or his Little League World Series experience (hat-tip to designer Emily Scherer for this find):

Salfino: Um…

neil: This is how good Mahomes is. Not even the Mets’ curse can stop him.

sara.ziegler: LOL

So let’s move on to the NFC game … which was decidedly less exciting.

neil: Pretty exciting for San Francisco fans, at least.

sara.ziegler: Well, sure.

neil: And Aaron Rodgers haters.

sara.ziegler: And Packer haters.

neil: LOL, jinx.

Salfino: The 1972 Dolphins are always so touchy about their place in history and about people remembering them. But this is really the postseason of the 1972 Dolphins. Or that era’s Dolphins teams. The Titans started it, and then the people who want that style of football just latched on to the Niners. San Francisco had the third-fewest passing attempts (eight) in a postseason game since the merger. Miami had the others. Note that all but one team with fewer than 15 attempts won their games. (Just don’t throw the ball, and you’ll win!)

sara.ziegler: Jimmy Garoppolo with just six completions was definitely my favorite stat of the day.

neil: And Raheem Mostert had the second-most rushing yards by anybody in a playoff game ever!

So much history (that Green Bay was on the receiving end of).

Salfino: You need to find a back who can run to the Super Bowl either at the top of the draft or on the punt coverage team after he’s been cut a half-dozen times. Take your pick.

neil:

joshua.hermsmeyer: I had no dog in the fight, but the game was an object lesson in the old football saw that you have to stop the run to win. Mostert averaged 10 yards per carry on his first 19 attempts. That’s far too many long run plays. It looked like high school ball out there.

neil: The Packer run defense had zero answers for it.

Salfino: I don’t remember a team running that often and that easily ever. There was almost no resistance. I guess we have to credit the Niners’ scheme and blocking.

sara.ziegler: I’m a little confused about how that happened, though. The Packers were bad against the run during the regular season, but not the worst in the league, by any means. Football Outsiders had their run defense at 23rd in Defense-adjusted Value Over Average.

Salfino: Kyle Shanahan is a chip off the old block — Mike Shanahan was finding running backs in the recycling bin with the Broncos and turning them into All-Pros, even after Terrell Davis (a sixth-round pick who also made his bones on special teams).

Someone told me once that defense doesn’t matter. Offense controls outcomes.

joshua.hermsmeyer: The why is always hard without a lot of tape study. But it sure seemed like Shanahan saw a structural flaw in the Green Bay defense and exploited it again and again.

Salfino: How many times have the Packers faced a fullback and a tight end who can block like George Kittle? This is what is tricky about defensive stats, seriously.

neil: And it bears mentioning that the Packers are sort of built this way deliberately. No team spent a higher share of the cap on offense this year, and it’s not even close.

A lot of that is tied up in Rodgers’s massive contract as well. But Rodgers and the offense couldn’t really get rolling at all when the game was still in reach.

(The many turnovers didn’t help.)

sara.ziegler: That has to worry Packer fans long-term. We’ve talked about Rodgers’s “eliteness,” but is he kind of done?

Salfino: Rodgers gave hope to the people who still believe in the greatness — which has objectively faded since 2014 — with a bunch of garbage-time numbers.

neil: Well, he did statistically outplay Jimmy G in the raw numbers, LOL.

(Obviously those numbers are very misleading for the reason you said, Mike.)

joshua.hermsmeyer: Rodgers was average all season long. I think he’s a player you can win with, and might still have sparks of greatness left. Think late-career John Elway as the very top range of outcomes, if the entire team is reshaped around a different philosophy.

Like, imagine Rodgers in a system that asked him to make the throws Tannehill was asked to make this season.

Salfino: I will say it again: Rodgers has ironically turned into Alex Smith, his lifetime nemesis from back in the 2005 draft.

sara.ziegler: Can I just rant for a second about that dumb narrative about Rodgers seeking revenge on the Niners for not taking him No. 1? It’s not like every other team was lining up to take him as their first pick either. He fell to No. 24, for Pete’s sake!

neil: Also, it was 15 years ago. Get over it already.

sara.ziegler: ^^^ THIS

Salfino: The Niners always kick Rodgers’s ass in the postseason, too.

neil: By running the ball down the Packers’ throats, usually.

ESPN’s Stats & Information Group had a stat where San Francisco has averaged 258.3 rushing yards and three rushing TDs per game in three playoff wins vs. Rodgers.

Salfino: Well, there was that Colin Kaepernick game where he ran for about 1,000 and threw for 1,000.

neil: Right.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Coming back to more recent history, I have another thought on the Niners game: It was smart of the 49ers to hide Jimmy G. I think they should continue to do so in the Super Bowl, if they can.

Salfino: But they won’t be able to, Josh. I’m sure you agree.

Mahomes doesn’t let you run to win.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Yes, they won’t. And I think it’s why K.C. will win, and probably pretty easily.

neil: This is low-key one of the biggest QB mismatches in Super Bowl history.

Salfino: I think the spread should be 5. It was 2.5. Now it’s 1.5. All the retired head coach money coming in on the Niners.

neil: (We say K.C. -3.5, for what it’s worth.)

joshua.hermsmeyer: Richard Sherman is not going to be able to run with Tyreek Hill.

Salfino: Darrelle Revis doesn’t think so. Tyreek is going to have a huge game — 200 yards, I predict. He’s going to break the way the Niners prefer to play defense. Or Travis Kelce will have about 150. Pick your poison.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Right, if you go to a zone scheme with safety help for Sherman, then Kelce could be a big problem underneath.

sara.ziegler: Will the Niner pass rush affect Mahomes? He had all day long to throw on Sunday — I can’t imagine that will continue against Nick Bosa and Co.

Salfino: Mahomes’s sack rate is the most underrated thing about his game. It was 3.4 percent this year and down from 2018. It’s 2.8 percent for this postseason. Yes, the Niners have the best rush the Chiefs will have faced, but Mahomes won’t be getting sacked 10 percent of the time or so, which would swing this game to the Niners, IMO. I’d expect 5 percent — so two or three sacks.

joshua.hermsmeyer: The Niners get above-average pressure with just their front four, so I think Mahomes will not be too comfortable. But we saw at the end of the half vs. the Titans what he’s capable of if you let him loose running as well.

Salfino: Mahomes is such a decisive runner for someone who does not run a lot. He had 53 rushing yards in each of the past two games, and he has only exceeded that number twice in his career in the regular season.

sara.ziegler: What other matchups in the Super Bowl are you guys excited to see?

neil: I will say that K.C.’s run defense is suspect, even after they performed a lot better against Tennessee. That might play into San Francisco’s strengths some.

The Chiefs ranked 29th in rushing defense DVOA this season.

Salfino: The 49ers could hurt the Chiefs in the passing game if they cross them up by being more aggressive and designing their game plan to score 30 points, which I think is essential for them to win. If they think they are going to ride their defense and running game to victory, they are sadly mistaken. I’m assuming Shanahan is too smart to think that, though.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Early on, the Niners offensive line vs. the Chiefs run defense should be telling. San Francisco will need that to be another home run, much like the Green Bay game.

Salfino: But Neil, don’t you discount their season ranking given how they just shut down Henry, who was supposedly unstoppable? I just believe that if you want to stop the run badly enough, you can.

neil: So will the key to the Super Bowl be whether Garoppolo is better than Tannehill???

joshua.hermsmeyer: I think that’s the question!

neil: (Um … is he?)

(LOL)

Salfino: I think Garoppolo is better than Tannehill, but I have very low confidence in the accuracy of that opinion.

Deebo Samuel and George Kittle are very serious weapons, though. I think the Niners forgot Manny Sanders was on the team yesterday. But he’s fine.

sara.ziegler: When Kittle was on the stage at the end, holding the trophy, I was like, “Oh, yeah — him!”

LOL

Salfino: Kittle did have 17 targets in the loss to Atlanta. That seems impossible now. Both the targets and the losing to Atlanta.

sara.ziegler:

joshua.hermsmeyer:

sara.ziegler: Oh, no.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Kittle is all that’s good and wonderful about football.

sara.ziegler: So let’s wrap up our final Slack chat of the season (not including our live blog the night of the Super Bowl) with our predictions.

Are you three all taking the Chiefs???

joshua.hermsmeyer: Yes!

Salfino: Chiefs 34, Niners 17.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Wow, even a score.

sara.ziegler: You think the Niners are going to give up roughly the same number of points as the Titans, but score less?

Salfino: I’m 5-5 in the playoffs now! Feeling it!

neil: I’m gonna be a little more conservative than Mike. Chiefs 24, Niners 21.

joshua.hermsmeyer: 28-13

sara.ziegler: Neil stays true to the model, to the very end.

Salfino: Hahaha

neil: Ehhhh, my O/U of 45 now feels a bit low. Can I make it 27-24? LOL

sara.ziegler: Nope

neil: Awww

sara.ziegler: OK, fine.

Salfino: 27.5-24.

neil: Ooooh

I like how somebody on the FOX pregame picked a half-point margin. I think it was Howie.

They were like, YOU CAN’T DO THAT!

Salfino: I think this game is going to be very tribal. There is a football philosophy on the line for the old-school types. So I bet that, as was the case with the Titans, ex-players and coaches will pick the Niners in the game.

sara.ziegler: All right, I can’t let us all have the same picks.

So I have to take the Niners.

neil: It helps that you also took them in our Hot Takedown Super Bowl Draft episode! (Many, many weeks ago!)

sara.ziegler: Very true — gotta stick with my teams to the bitter end.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Nice work!

sara.ziegler: 49ers 29, Chiefs 28.

Salfino: Niners win on a 2-point conversion in the final seconds.

neil: Running it in, naturally.

sara.ziegler: But really, I just want a good game. We deserve a good game for the Super Bowl.

I’m like Rob Lowe out here, just rooting for everyone:

neil: “Go League! Protect the Shield! Wooo!”

Check out our latest NFL predictions.

source https://truesportsfan.com/football/how-the-chiefs-and-niners-became-the-last-nfl-teams-standing/

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