#or just sell the whole fc if the price is good enough

[vecnasrevengerp]

welcome home, MAX MAYFIELD (tessa thompson fc)

hope you brought your tissues with you! be sure to check in at home or to your hotel and don’t forget to always look over your shoulder. this is hawkins, after all.

basics

[TESSA THOMPSON, CISWOMAN, SHE/HER] When’s the last time anyone heard anything about [MAX MAYFIELD]? Old friends remember them as [OUTSPOKEN, INDEPENDENT] but also [ALOOF, STUBBORN], no wonder they’re still known as [THE ZOOMER] around town. Today, in 2006, they are [35] and some people say they remind them of [empty liquor bottles in a penthouse apartment, restless sleep, burying oneself in their work, bar fights, power suits, briefcases with combinations, being the angriest person in the room, unresolved trauma, and cologne]. [ro, 22, they/them, mst].

biography

sometimes, when max closes her eyes, she can still hear the snapping of her own bones. in 1986, max mayfield lost everything. she always thought she wanted to escape hawkins and run back to california, but when she was doped up in the hospital trying to understand what her uncle was saying to her, she wanted to scream. they stayed long enough in hawkins for will and el’s funeral, which max was forced to sit in the front row of, thanks to her wheelchair. she distinctly remembers the anger. max couldn’t force herself to cry because she stared at those too-small coffins, she knew it should have been her. what greatness did she have to contribute to the world? nothing like el and will. between them and her, max had no question in her mind that it should’ve been her to perish. 

when the funeral was over, they packed up the trailer and drove back to california. upon arrival, susan immediately entered rehab, and jack had pulled some strings to get max into physical therapy. she missed her entirety of sophomore year fighting with uncle moses, who had gone into medicine. for a long time, max refused to get better. she spit on moses and stayed forcefully in her chair. because maybe if she stayed there long enough, she’d wither away too. she missed hawkins and all of her unresolved relationships, but she couldn’t bring herself to write or call. how could she? the boys must hate her. everyone must hate her. max got it stuck in her head that if not for her, will and el would still be with them. 

eventually, moses worked some magic and by the end of 1987 max was up and walking again. she needed some help from braces for a while, which made her super popular and cool when she started her sophomore year in the fall, but at least she was mobile again. it took her some time to relearn the things like skateboarding, and running, and punching, but she got her fill for the remainder of high school. max never trusted her mom’s sobriety. max never trusted herself. they didn’t have money for therapy or anything, so she coped with everything that happened to her by linking up with the wrong crowd. the drugs helped and selling them at an upped price to the rich kids could really make a difference in her, jack, and her mom’s life. that was, until jack caught her, and put an end to the whole thing. 

for the remainder of high school, max remained angry. she still missed her friends in hawkins. nobody in LA really compared. she couldn’t really explain to them who vecna was or el without getting institutionalized. she was a lighthouse, constantly scanning for something she couldn’t reach. eventually, she gave up on human connection and focused on school. she got good enough grades and a wrote good enough college essay they actually took pity on her and accepted her into fucking stanford. what a wonder. the family went crazy about her being the first to go to college. 

max’s bad habits continued into school. whereas the other freshman were trying to find themselves and their place in the world, max already knew hers and was ready to rise above it. she wasn’t the same after 1986, and that was fine. max didn’t need to be the same, she just needed to be too busy to think about it. that combined with a passion for social justice led her into law. in law school, she made a singular friend in cole montgomery and eventually graduated in 1997. 

it was a while before she started making money. civil law wasn’t exactly the most lucrative place to start out, but she wasn’t in it for the money, she was there to make a difference. which honestly, took a while to do since she kept getting released from firms when she made a fuss about how she was making less than the other white males there. eventually, max struck gold in 2000. there wasn’t a case in the process, but jack had told her about one of his old prison buddies who knew a woman currently incarcerated for killing her rapist. max had one goal: get her out. 

max went kind of crazy honestly. she didn’t sleep while she formed her case, up all night studying the indictment, the details of the incident, and preparing literally any counter argument possible. the re-trial made national news, and from there max mayfield became the go-to woman for civil law. so much so, she was able to start up her own practice with cole where they made it their mission to only hire marginalized populations. 

from there, it seems like life would only get better. sure, max got more money than she knew what to do with, and was constantly busy with work. but she struggled to establish any real connection. she went on dates, had one night stands, and looked for friends whenever she did get to go out, but none of it stuck. max was faced with unimaginable loneliness. it felt like every night she closed her eyes and fell to sleep she was haunted with nightmares of vecna’s lair and other gruesome images. the more she couldn’t shake it, the harder she worked. work was easier than anger, isolation, tears, all of it. 

but in 2006 it came to a halt when she received jonathan’s letter about joyce. max was so overwhelmed, she threw the invitation away at first. so much guilt and fear and outright sadness rushed back, she couldn’t stand to go back to that place. but after a nightmare where she watched joyce’s health decline in detail, it felt like a sign. so, max gave cole her cases, didn’t give him any information, and told him she’d be back when she’d be back. at least, max would pay respects to the woman who had been a mother to her when her own mother wasn’t, but maybe, she’d be able to heal some old wounds.

As an aside, please let us know what your character left behind in the Hawkins High Time Capsule between 1983 (Season 1) - 1986 (Season 4). We’d simply love to know! Please do so even if your character was not canonically in Hawkins or attending Hawkins High during this timeframe.

IN 1983 max mayfield put the hammer she used to build a skate ramp in the hawkins high time capsule. billy had stalked her and her friends in their backyard and eventually broke her best friend’s arm. if he hadn’t ruined the whole thing, max would’ve been really proud of herself. 

IN 1984 max mayfield put the hair clips she wore to the snowball in the hawkins high time capsule. her mom had made her wear them, and she never wanted to wear them ever again. easy solution to get rid of them. 

IN 1985 max mayfield put a picture of her and billy in the hawkins high time capsule. it was worn, stained with tears, and most importantly, billy’s face was scribbled all over with two “x"es on his eyes and profane language written all around him. max had done that before he died of course. 

IN 1986 max mayfield put her counseling files and report cards into the hawkins time capsule. with that, she vowed she’d bury that whole experience with it, but clearly, it didn’t work.

stats.

Please distribute up to fifty points among the following stats! Click here for more detailed instructions on stats.

Athletics (How Athletic are they?) - 2

Burglary (Can they swipe stuff?) - 3 

Contacts (Do they know people with information?) - 1

Deceive (Are they a good liar?) - 3

Drive (like, actual driving ability) - -3 (still)

Empathy (On a scale of 1-10 how much of an empath are they?) - 2

Fight (Do they have hands?) - 3

Investigate (Can they sleuth?) - 1

Lore (Kinda like knowledge) - 1

Medicine (First Aid Essentially) - 1

Navigation (How good are they with a map/getting around?) - 2

Notice (Is your character observant?) - 2

Provoke (Are they a shit stirrer?) - 3

Rapport (Are they charming? Can they do it on command?) - 0

Resourcefulness (MacGyver scale) - 3

Stealth (Are they sneaky?) - 3

Will (Tenacity) - 3

#accepted #max

[placesyoucallhome]

Considering selling the fc large on Mateus, I'm certainly not doing enough with it for it to be necessary. Probably a relo rather than a full fc sell.

Maybe if I meet someone that would want to co-lead or something I might revisit having an rp fc but I can't do that alone, and especially so right now.

#if I could downgrade to a med I would but I think rn I'd rather have a small #or just sell the whole fc if the price is good enough #that might have to be like 700mil though with all the items and ships included #A large is just TOO LARGE

[mountphoenixrp]

We have a returning citizen in Mount Phoenix:

                     Lucas Walker, who is known by no other name;                                      a 30 year old son of Lei King.                                         He is a fighter at The Pits                                  and bartender at Visión / Ilusión.

FC NAME/GROUP: Christian Yu/DPR/Ex C-Clown CHARACTER NAME: Lucas Walker AGE/DATE OF BIRTH: September 6, 1990 | 30 PLACE OF BIRTH: Central, Hong Kong | Sydney, Australia OCCUPATION: Fighter at the Pits and Bartender at Vision HEIGHT: 5'10" | 176cm WEIGHT: 165lbs | 75kg DEFINING FEATURES: He has a large amount of tattoos, his most prominent being his full sleeve on his left arm that leads to a floral piece on his chest and shoulder blade. On the inside of his left bicep is the date 12.12.19 which is the birthdate of his daughter Jasmine. He has a few other small tattoos scattered on his body. His nose is pierced, on the left side and his septum is pierced along with doubles in both his ears.

PERSONALITY: Lucas was exposed to the worst things the world has to offer a child at a very young age. Leaving him a tough exterior and an injured idea of self-worth. He was forced to grow up very quickly and at a young age. Outside he portrays this “pissed at the world”, harsh, unpredictable, man but inside he’s just scarred and bruised from so many things that are always out of his control. His skin is tough but his heart is big, warm, and ready to love. The birth of his daughter kinda snapped him into reality and removed him from the land of self pity and dropped him right in the middle of acting like a responsible adult. He’s still getting the hang of this whole fatherhood thing, trying to act less reckless and uncaged so that he can be there for his daughter.

HISTORY: tw: death, loss, gang violence, gun violence, physical violence, torture, ptsd

Lucas was born in Hong Kong on September 6th, 1990. He was born to a very young woman who was barely 18 and couldn’t even afford to take care of herself let alone a baby. She left him outside of her local hospital after having him secretly at home. There was nothing the staff could do except take him in, take care of him and hand him over to the local orphanage. At six months old, he was adopted by a sweet couple from Sydney, Australia. He lived with them happily until he was eight years old when they were killed in a home invasion, the suspects left him there terrified at what he had witnessed. He was found by his aunt, his mother’s sister and the police left him in her care. Once everything was said and done, Lucas’ aunt was given custody of him and the perpetrators were still at large after almost a year of searching. After this, his aunt became his whole world, a young woman at only 24 now taking care of a nine year old boy full time. The two were each other’s rocks during the entire healing process.

Both sets of his grandparents tried suing for custody of him but, in the end his aunt won out as the best place for him. She didn’t live far from his parents so he didn’t have to change schools or make new friends. His aunt’s friends always questioned why she was willing to take in a primary school aged kid at such a young age but, the two were best friends even before his parent’s murder. She couldn’t imagine anyone else taking care of him or raising him.

As a child, Lucas was quiet and usually kept to himself. Not because he didn’t want to interact with other kids but, because he just enjoyed his alone time. He was quiet in school but insanely smart, yet when teachers tried putting him into more advanced classes he chose to stay with his same age classmates. His aunt Gabrielle tried to get him into sports, music, and the arts but no. He just liked to read on his own, spending time off in his own little world or playing outside in the woods behind their house by himself. Around his tenth birthday things began to go downhill for the dynamic duo. Gabrielle lost her job as the lead secretary of a law firm and she ended up stuck waiting tables at a local 24 hour diner - from 7pm to 4am.

Gabrielle did everything she could to give Lucas the life she felt he deserved after that, doing they best they could when they had to downsize into a small one bedroom apartment and her working more hours to keep food on the table. It was so bad, Gabrielle ended up having to take on a second job after her parents refused to help her saying “she got herself into his mess on her own, she had to get her and the kid out of this mess on her own.” Lucas felt awful watching his aunt struggle to make ends meet and he tried everything he could to help out at home. He kept the apartment clean, babysat their neighbor’s kids, walked dogs, mowed yards, sold newspapers, and just about anything he could as an eleven year old in the rough part of the city they lived in. The only thing he didn’t do was fall in with the gangs that promised to help him and his aunt if he joined up with them…

Eventually by the time was 13 almost 14, doing odd jobs just wasn’t cutting it anymore for him and his aunt wouldn’t let him get a “real job” because it was her responsibility has his guardian to provide for him or whatever. He didn’t understand the pride she held about the subject so he went around her. He started selling homework and test answers at school, stealing petty things and selling them to his classmates for inflated prices, and he even learned how to give stick n poke tattoos for a price. Lucas wasn’t a stupid kid, he just worked with the resources he had. This line of work he got himself into at school eventually lead to him making friends with a couple other kids that belonged to the gang that lived on his block.

Inevitably those friendships lead to him joining the ranks and getting him paid to do things that would probably lead to his aunt murdering him on sight for being an utter imbecile. He was smart though and knew how to get out of things that would get him in over his head. However, by the time he was 16 this group of “friends” are what caused him to discover one of his divine abilities. At first Lucas always just thought that his high pain tolerance was just a cool thing about him, he could get hit and keep going, stub his toe and not feel a thing, get shoulder checked and only stumble without wincing. It wasn’t until he got stabbed for the first time at 16 that he had a realization that what he could do wasn’t normal. He got stitched up and moved right along his day and the gang leader decided to use this to his advantage. Lucas was recruited to the fighting ring, when he got found out.

He didn’t want to do it but, he’d make good money at the underground fighting ring. So he fought, and he did a damn good job at it too. Especially once he found out he could make his opponents keel over in pain that wasn’t physical. Lucas had no idea how he did it or why he could do it but, at this point he was just doing whatever her could to win because if he won he got paid and if he lost he’d get killed. Since beating him up wasn’t an option. Gabrielle was already suspicious of him when he started getting piercings, dying his hair, then getting tattoos but the real cherry on top of her anger was him pulling up to their apartment complex on a second hand motorcycle her got from a fight bet. His aunt went off on him that night and he had no other choice but to come clean about everything. However, he wasn’t the only one with a bombshell to drop…

His aunt admitted that she found his original adoption records when he was younger after the transfer of guardianship was complete and she needed all his documents. Apparently his birth-mother never listed a father on his birth certificate but his birth-father did contact his parents after his adoption. Leaving a letter to give to him when he either turned 18 or “got in trouble”. She’d read it out of curiosity and refused to believe the contents. It sounded crazy to her that his father was some old Chinese god, she only assumed he was on drugs or something and was delusional. Until Lucas admitted to what he could do and even showed her… Those things are just not possible for anyone human.

There was a return address in the letter, somewhere he’d never heard of but he responded anyways. Hoping to get some more guidance or some closure perhaps. Surprisingly, Lucas didn’t freak out with the news. Perhaps in the back of his mind he always had an inkling that he wasn’t the same as everyone else… like he was inhuman. He never received another letter from Lei King but he did receive a map that had a hand drawn picture of an island off the coast of Korea circled. He put the map away and chose to come back to it later.

When he was 18 his world crumbled underneath his feet. The underground fighting ring he was now the star of got busted by the police. The silver lining was that he was found not guilty by the jury of his peers. His defense attorney did well at convincing them that he only did what he did to survive and that he was coerced at a young age by the gang leader. He and many other members of the gang that were manipulated as kids came forward against the leader, landing him in prison for the rest of his life. Lucas didn’t know what to do with this new found freedom other than finish school. Once he was fully graduated he tried to figure out what to do with his life, he didn’t have many skills outside of crime and he honestly hadn’t planned on either being alive by now or not in prison himself. His aunt tried to convince him to go to university but he didn’t want to do that, there wasn’t anything he wanted to get a degree in that he cared about.

Instead, he chose to leave. He left Sydney and went as far as he could, landing him in New York City. He had enough money put away to get him a small apartment there to set up as a “base camp” of sorts. From there he began traveling all over the world, picking up photography and a pursuit of knowledge. On his travels, he met an interesting group of people. Shady people that reminded him very much of his old gang. They were in Scotland when he met them, and they were nice enough so he traveled with them a bit. One night, the “leader” got a bit too drunk and began to spill some secrets, secrets that Lucas just couldn’t stomach.

You see, this group he stumbled upon were the same people that murdered his adopted parents right in from of his eyes as a child - and they were proud of it. When the cocky leader spilled the beans while intoxicated, Lucas steeled himself and held onto that information like a lifeline. He integrated himself with these people slowly, over a few weeks while back packing around Scotland with them. Eventually, Lucas found the perfect time to strike. One night when they were all camping together, Lucas waited until they were all asleep and started them all awake with a gunshot. Over the entirety of the night, Lucas tied up the group, beat them all with only his bare fists, and tortured all of them mentally until they admitted to remembering him as a child. When all was said and done, the group was left mentally broken, unable to properly function as people. He cleaned up his things, called for help, told the police of their crimes and got the hell out of there and out of the country.

After that he went back to New York, cleaned out his apartment and headed back to Sydney. The things he’d just done changed him inside, a dark spot on his soul seemed to only grow bigger. He never told his aunt what he did, or why he was so broken when he finally came home. He hadn’t been home in almost six years and now here he was showing up on her door step, a broken and traumatized man. While he was away his aunt got married to a beautiful and kind woman named Erica. Lucas apologized immensely for missing the wedding, he was in Mongolia at the time he got the invitation and couldn’t get out of the mountains until after the event passed. They were understanding and easily took him into their arms and comforted him.

Now, at 27 years old with no idea what else to do with his life. He started going to therapy but even he didn’t know where to begin to heal from everything that had been nonstop traumatizing in his life. He started working as a bartender to pass the time and make a bit of extra cash, working as a photographer, and doing legal fights here and there. He’s eased into a pretty calm time of his life where he’d finally started to heal. Then to top it all off, he fell in love. It was a passionate and all encompassing kind of love, the kind where they were actively planning their future together, ready to be in it for the long hall. Less than a year together and they were married, it was the happiest they had ever been in their lives. She was an old friend of his and they’d known each other their wholes lives practically. Once they got closer while working together and the bar they both bartended at, that was it. They were head over heels.

They were happily married for almost a year when his wife got pregnant with their little girl in 2018. It was a huge accomplishment for the two of them, going from being the worst examples of humanity as teens to happily married and starting a family together. They were beyond overjoyed and Luke was more than excited to become a father. However, nothing could have prepared them for the struggle his wife would go through while pregnant. Her health continued to decline as the pregnancy went on but, she refused to end it and save herself. Luke begged her to not go through with it, the doctor’s told her she probably wouldn’t survive but she decided to chose her baby over her own health. In the end, on December 12th, 2019 Jasmine Elaina Walker was born, perfectly healthy. As happy as Luke was to hold his baby girl in his arms, nothing prepared him for holding his wife’s hand as she slowly passed away…

It was hard. Hard to act like he wasn’t dying inside everyday because his wife was gone, all while taking care of a newborn and trying not to have a full on breakdown. His aunts were his backbone the first few months as he got back on his feet. His wife’s family was practically nonexistent, leaving him and his aunts alone to raise a baby on their own.

Luke has a very high pain tolerance but the pain of losing his wife was not something his divine abilities could help him with this time…

The first six months of Jasmine’s life was rough, Luke was dealing with both the grief of losing the love of his life while doing everything he could to be there for Jasmine. On the days he just didn’t want to get out of bed, when all he wanted to do was cry, Jasmine was there - always needing her father so he had no time to wallow in his misery. He had to get up, had to get dressed, had to shower, had to function. He had to go to work to keep her fed, to keep buying her diapers, to keep a roof over her head, and to keep her happy and healthy. Of course, his aunts helped out all they could and he couldn’t possibly explain how thankful he is for them. After Jasmine’s first birthday he was cleaning house and he found the map given to him by Lei King when he was a teenager, he did some research and found nothing until he one day got a letter from Hera who was supposedly on the City Council of this island he was skeptical even existed. She spoke to him and told him all about the city just for gods and other demigods like him.

Suddenly, Lucas go this overwhelming desire to go there. He needed to get away from Sydney, he needed to get them out of the house that he bought with his late wife. They needed a fresh start and this island seemed like a good place to give that a try. His aunts were worried about him leaving but, understood why he needed to go and why he needed to get away. They were worried about him obviously but, he got child care set up with Hera before he even moved. Having a barely one year old and becoming a full time single parent scared him but, he knew he could do it. By moving to this new city and finding new people to surround himself with, new places to explore, and new experiences to be had with his little girl. He was both terrified and excited to see what was in store with them on this fancy hidden island.

PANTHEON: Chinese CHILD OF:  Lei King POWERS: He has extremely high pain tolerance and can induce psychogenic pain in others. He also has the ability to call upon the sound of thunder at will. STRENGTHS: Intelligent, Adventurous, Creative WEAKNESSES: Impulsive, Stubborn, Reckless

#kpop rp #krp #christian yu #dpr ian #dpr #mp; welcome

[waterloou]

Welcome to another OC Saturday!!!! Hope y’all have had a great past couple of weeks!!! Today we have an additional fandom to riverdale added: Harry Potter! And it’s also adult week! (Where we showcase older ocs that deserve more love!)

As usual, here’s guidelines and a masterlist of the past oc Saturdays:

OC SATURDAYs

OC SATURDAY MASTERLIST

If y’all ever need to chat about your ocs, need help developing them, need help with an fc, etc, my msgs are always open!

Below are five ocs featured this week, along with most links to the works about them.

ANDY MACDERMOT created by @s-s-southsideserpentine

Blurb:

“So, uh, what was it like growing up with my dad?” Robbie asked his uncle. Ever since Andy Macdermot shows up on the front porch four days ago, Robbie had a lot of questions. Andy wasn’t at all like his older brother, Russell was loud and boisterous, whereas Andy was more of a wallflower. He had a certain quality about him that Robbie couldn’t help but feel drawn to like he was looking at a future version of himself.

“Your dad was….” Andy paused for a moment, running a hand through the wisps of his stringy gray-blonde hair, “He was a lot? Always was the big man on campus, with the prettiest girl on his arm. The polar opposite of what I was” The man laughs, picking absentmindedly at the loose string along the hem of his flannel shirt.

Robbie sits up a little straighter, suddenly taking a bit more interest in the conversation. His dad never did all that much talking about his high school days, and he mentioned his younger brother even less. “Well…what were you like when you were my age then?”

Andy laughs to himself for a moment, like he was suddenly taken aback by the a washing of unpleasant memories about his adolescence. “You know, I wasn’t a cool guy at all. Ever — not like your dad. I was too tall and too skinny; all ears and no discernible personality.” He chuckled and looked over at the corner of the basement where Robbie’s well-worn drum kit sat. “I got really into horror movies and had started using our dad’s camcorder to make these shitty little videos where I melted my old toys with our dad’s blowtorch…classic nerd shit”

Andy is chill, talented, and personable. Go give him some love!

CHARLOTTE ANA NAVERRO created by @potterpumpkins

“A Spanish girl with exceptional sass, a guarded heart, and a penchant for putting fuckboys and Slytherins in their place.”

Quotev profile

So much thought, research, and detail has gone into the creation of Charlotte, and it shows. She’s complex, and shows growth over the years, she’s a character you want to read more and more about! Go give her some love!

CRASH THOMPSON created by @vannahsunshine

Character Introduction

Crash is a lovable, joyous, helpful man. He loves his kids (and best friend) and he’s trying his best. Go give him some love!

DEREK “WHIST” WRIGHT created by @humangrumpycat

Character Intro

Blurb:

'Need some company?'

Uma turns around, her hand clutching her chest.

'Derek,' she sighs. 'Never sneak up on a woman like that again.'

'My bad,' he chuckles with his hands raised. 'I thought you heard me coming.'

She sighs, slowly dropping her arm to her side.

'Everything okay?' Derek asks, stepping closer to Uma.

Uma shrugs, still furious about earlier.

'Why don't we get out of here, go across the street, and get you some good coffee?' he suggests.

'Thank you,' Uma smiles, taking the cup from Derek's hand.

'You know it's no problem,' he states. 'So, what's going on? Why are you so upset, aside from your kids getting hurt?'

'I just got back from the school,' Uma explains. 'Weatherbee wanted to see me.'

Derek furrows his eyebrows.

'Why?'

'Well,' Uma sighs as she drops a sugar cube in her coffee. 'He wasn't exactly thrilled to see the school in such terrible shape, and he wants to punish the ones who are behind it.'

'By doing what?' he scoffs.

'He's talking to the board about "transferring all Southside students" as if he'd do this had been a Northsider,' she complains, stirring hard enough to spill some coffee over the rim.

Derek hums, slowly stirring his coffee.

'You'd think this whole division would die after all these years,' he comments. 'I'm happy Mitchell is nowhere near this crap,' he adds, taking a sip.

'Oh good,' Uma smiles. 'How is he doing?'

'He's in Centerville,' he answers, putting the spoon down.

'He's taking a business class. I've been making some space in my shop for him.'

'Oh, why?' Uma wonders.

'He wants to start a coffee shop,' he smiles. 'He made a deal with Melo's Bakery to sell some of their pastries. For a fair price,' he smirks.

'He wouldn't be your son if he didn't,' Uma jokes.

Whist is a good father and an agreeable man. He’s easy to get along with and he’s got a lot of wit. Go give him some love!!

DOTTIE WALKER created by @worriestothewind

Moodboard

Dottie Walker

Got Your back (drabble)

Dottie x FP moodboard

Take Care of Our Own (fic)

Broken Promise

Tension

It’ll Get Better

Soulmates

All We Get

Asks (1 (2

Wasteland

Checkmate

Drowning

Dottie is such a cool person, and a respectable adult. She handles situations maturely and honestly seems like a good time. Go give her some love!

#ocextravaganzasaturday #ocsaturdays #riverdale oc #other ocs #court oc #vannah oc #laurien oc #logan oc #liz oc #dottie walker #charlotte ana navarro #crash thompson #whist wright #andy macdermot

[vieuxnoyesrp]

       Freya Mikaelson  ⚜  Witch  ⚜   (1000+)  ⚜  The Awakened  ⚜  ESFP

Time and mercy…

For as long as she could remember, Freya had never had a choice. When she looked up at the stars as a child, she didn’t pray for a good harvest, or for time free of her chores to play in the woods. She prayed to her namesake to lift her out of this prison, this torture and take her to Fólkvangr, the Goddess’ meadow where warriors went after they died. She didn’t wish anymore to be returned to her mother. Dahlia had managed to poison any love she held for the woman, the woman who sold her off like any common chattel. But where did that leave her? Surely Freya had fought long enough? Even only as a child, the blood her hands were bathed in seemed to drown her night after night. It didn’t matter though. She did as Dahlia demanded of her, obeyed the edicts of her cult, that nightmare band of sacrilegious shamans, the Cult of Bracken. She slit the throats of animals over a fire, then when Dahlia deemed her ready, the throats of human sacrifices, even without blinking.

She tried to be the daughter Dahlia pretended she was, even called her Mother, though Freya never even once considered her to be such. Freya had no mother and didn’t want one either. Still, for more than six hundred years Freya did as Dahlia bid her, acting as niece, daughter, apprentice, slave, to a woman she came to hate more than the mother who sold her. When she finally broke, there was no moment of clarity, no epiphany. She simply woke one morning and couldn’t bear to feel the sun on her face knowing of the darkness that ate at her soul.

So she ran.

  {the mother we share will never keep our cold hearts from calling.}

It took every trick Dahlia had ever taught her, every clever bit of magic Dahlia thought her too meek to ever use against her. The woman devoted her life to collecting debts owed to her, so was more than proficient at tracking people down. For fifty years, it worked. Then Freya learned of Mary.

Another little girl, just like her, stolen from her mother, her real mother, as payment of a debt, but this time, so young she wouldn’t have any memory of a real family to dream of returning to. She watched from the shadows, making sure Dahlia never saw, as the young girl grew into a dangerously powerful woman, into the daughter Dahlia had never managed to mould Freya into. By the time Freya’s chance had come, Dahlia had already warped her into something twisted, something unnatural, a woman that lived and breathed death like it was the very air that gave her life. In a twisted way, it was, Freya supposed. Still, she tried to show Mary another way, tried to convince her to leave Dahlia as she had, and be each other’s family, each other’s sister in a way they had never truly known, but deserved so deeply. Mary refused, and worse, Mary told.

When Dahlia set a price for Freya’s crime, it was steep: five hundred years of her life. Freya was locked away, banished to limbo, while Dahlia squandered the years that rightfully belonged to her. The years Dahlia had forced Freya to spill blood for. But what Dahlia couldn’t know is that Freya wasn’t asleep during those years, and neither was she alone. Freya learned of a whole new kind of magic, one that neither relied on the dead nor the living for power, but a power that came only from her. It was deeper, and stronger, and more consuming than anything she had ever felt, and a thousand times more difficult to grasp. But she had the company of the Old Gods to guide her and nothing but time to learn.

                                                                      … are out of your reach.

With one hundred and forty-three years left on her sentence, the Old Gods decided she had learned all they had to teach. Freya awoke in a different world, but with the help of the Gods, always their avid student, she quickly learned to understand the magic of electricity, modern travel, the internet. These clever inventions of humanity are now just another tool in her arsenal as she hunts down Dahlia and her macabre nightmare cult. The only thing standing in her way is the family she’s always dreamed of.

Dahlia was careful to keep such rumors from reaching her naive little ears when Freya was under her thumb, but now, almost a thousand years, the Mikaelsons, the Original Family, are just as much monsters as those she hunts, if the legends are to be believed. Klaus Mikaelson, a hybrid, an unholy chimera, seems to be the worst of them all. But Freya can’t help her curiosity, the burning desire to know this family that was stolen from her. No matter how terrible their misdeeds have been, surely they can’t be as bad as the demons Dahlia has created? Freya is torn: does she seek out the family she’s been denied for a millennium? Or does she hunt down the family that enslaved her, betrayed her, and stole life from her? At the end of the day, she’s not sure which family she fears more.

WEB OF CONNECTIONS

Mary Sibley: Freya loved, hated, and pitied Mary in equal parts. Mary was her replacement, as it were, though her adopted sister would never admit to such a thing, her love for their “mother” was simply too inbred. Mary sold Freya out to Dahlia for the crime of dissent, of free will, for the crime of making her own choice for once in her life, and Freya has paid dearly for it. And yet, she can’t quite bring herself to lay the blame entirely at Mary’s feet, no matter how her betrayal hurt. How could Mary think of her as a sister when Dahlia’s twisted make-believe family was built on lies and thievery to begin with? Was Mary a monster, or merely the monster Dahlia had wrought her into?

Jennifer Blake: The woman is practically a child, but the path she has started down is dark indeed. After encountering Jennifer mid-sacrifice, she’s realized that the threat the youngest of Dahlia’s prodigies may be the greatest threat at the moment. Jennifer’s murderous spree must be stopped before the Cult of Bracken can be dealt with. 

Elijah, Klaus, Kol and Rebekah Mikaelson: Unlike the sisters she was given, the family that was taken from her remains a mystery to Freya, a mystery she is desperate to resolve. Despite herself, despite a thousand years of being taught that family meant slitting throats and selling children, she needs to know them. She’s waited centuries for her real family, and while the child in her that was stolen from them so long ago can’t help but hope that they’ll welcome her back with open arms, the way she’s dreamed of for so long, the bitter cynic she’s become fears she’ll be as summarily rejected as she was by their mother. But then again, she’s heard rumors of the way Esther has treated her other children throughout the years, and it seems they all would’ve been better off without the mother they shared.

Alaric Saltzman: Unbeknownst to Freya, Alaric has caught her scent, and has mistaken her for her murderous younger ‘sister’, Jennifer Blake, after catching her psychic signature at the scene of a crime. Though they’re both on the same side, they’ll be going head to head before Freya gets a chance to prove it. And though Freya is confident that she can come out on top of skirmish with a mortal, that doesn’t mean she’ll come out unscathed. 

Sophie Deveraux: Something about the story of this young witch tugs at Freya’s dusty heartstrings. Sophie is not innocent by any means, and what she’s trying to do is dangerous - but ultimately honorable. This kind of sacrifice is not the same as the kind preferred by Bracken. It’s supposed to be healing, renewing. But time, and well-intentioned - but in this case, misguided - interference have taken their toll. She wants to help her complete her ritual, not only to restore the balance the Coven so desperately requires, but to heal the woman who's being suffocated by the demands of the Ancient Ones. She knows all too well what that feels like.

Also mentioned in the following bios: Vincent Griffith (Finn Mikaelson), 

PLOT TEASERS:

She may have been taken in by the Old Gods themselves, but until she gains more experience, she’ll be no match for the oldest witch alive. And that’s a problem, because Mother is coming, and she’s coming soon. 

Unbeknownst to Marcel and the three living Harvest Children, there are others who don’t want the Harvest completed, and they’re willing to risk making an enemy of this lost Mikaelson daughter if it means they get their way.

ON THE SOUNDTRACK OF HER LIFE: BEGGIN FOR THREAD - BANKS (X)

FC: Riley Voelkel, non-negotiable.

FORTUNATELY FOR US, FREYA IS  T A K E N!! | Follow

#Riley Voelkel #Riley Voelkel fc #freya mikaelson rp #freya mikaelson #witches rpg #cast #s: to #t: witch #taken #takenf

[mayyatan]

I received a message about the maya’s birthday live pictures and this is the progress (it’s hard to stay productive being a lazy ass like me). They’re scanned but not ready to be posted, some photoshop work have to be done one by one so please wait a little bit for my upload.

However about this set of photos, there should be 40 scannable photos from the folder set (4) & postcard set (36) in total, but their way of selling those 36 postcards are just so…I don’t know how to say it nicely but to be honest as a customer it’s just so ridiculous I HATED IT. First, you have to pay 1000yen to do a lucky draw once, and each draw you randomly get 1 of 5 different prizes, from the grand prize a giant maya banner thingy, acrylic plastic figurines, jumbo uchiwa fan, the folder set mentioned above to a pack of 3 postcards packed randomly. That means even if you pay enough money and have enough luck to get 12 packs of postcards you still have (big) chances to NOT completing the whole set. I paid more than 20k yen and still no luck on getting more than 21 of them with duplicated cards. Even after a day of purchasing and exchanging cards with other teamers on twitter I still only have 23 of the whole 36 set. I tried my best on collecting them but there’s a limit for me and my bank account.

I’m not even angry or blaming LM.C saying that they’re money thirsty or shit like that but as a oversea teamer always trying to see them in Japan more often with limited budget and loving their printed goods I just feel kind of sad about how thy sell those postcards…Well I know it needs hell a lotta money to keep the whole LM.C runnin’ but I would be happier to get the whole 36 cards at a certain price (I don’t mind if it’s expensive) instead of throwing my money into the lucky draw hole…:/

And another thing why I’ve been this late posting the photo set is that recently I gone through some events and I feel that It’s not fair for the others that I easily share pictures the others have to pay for the FC membership to see. Long story short, if some pictures are FC restricted or related, like goods from a FC limited live, I’m basically not allowed to share them online, they’ve a rule about this. But i’ve done it quite a few times in this blog, people loved them but now I just ask myself should I continue to post them or not? The answer is clearly no but…but….hmmm…maybe this is the last time? I need some more time to figure this out by myself. The photos are still going to be posted later so please wait :)

#lm.c

[junker-town]

The 5 biggest takeaways from the 2020 NWSL Draft

Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images

Portland selected Sophia Smith with the No. 1 pick, but a trade involving a USWNT star was the day’s biggest news.

The 2020 NWSL College Draft produced plenty of drama, with some massive trades finalized mere minutes before proceedings got underway. As everyone settled in, it appeared that the Portland Thorns would pick first, followed by two selections each for Sky Blue FC and the Chicago Red Stars. As expected, Portland selected Stanford forward Sophia Smith to kick off the draft. But then to everyone’s surprise, a series of three trades laid out a new top five: Portland, Portland, Orlando, Washington, Sky Blue.

A flurry of activity sent 21-year-old USWNT star Mallory Pugh from Washington to Sky Blue, forward Rachel Hill from Orlando to Chicago, and a lot of future picks and cash the way of the Red Stars, Spirit and Sky Blue.

Trying to spell out the entire web of trades here would be more confusing than helpful, but I recommend getting started with the final draft order and picks from All For XI. Here are the big storylines and the specifics of what everyone got in the end.

Sky Blue makes big move for Pugh

Last season, Sky Blue FC couldn’t escape bad press. Following revelations that the team provided players with substandard conditions for years, first round draft picks Hailie Mace and Julia Ashley declined to sign for the club. Then-president Tony Novo made a lot of excuses, then left the club not long after. Absolutely everything about Sky Blue’s organization has improved since.

Sky Blue eventually secured adequate training facilities and housing for its players. New general manager Alyse LaHue got to work rebuilding trust among fans, as well as her club’s reputation among players. But as Sky Blue moves into Red Bull Arena — a 25,000 capacity stadium much closer to New York City than their previous digs on the Rutgers campus — the club felt like it needed to make a splash. It pulled that off on Thursday by trading for Pugh.

To get Pugh, Sky Blue first moved down in the draft in exchange for $70,000 in allocation money, according to Jonathan Tannenwald of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Sky Blue then flipped the 4th, 13th and 17th overall picks in the 2020 draft, along with their first round pick in next year’s draft, to get Pugh from Washington.

Freya Coombe, Sky Blue’s new head coach, admitted that the move was just as much about business as it was about soccer.

“The fans love her. We’re excited to have extra [fans] come into the stadium and she’s going to be a big part of that,” Coombe told reporters at the draft. She continued: “[Pugh] is definitely going to be a draw and attraction. Before, we weren’t always getting the spectators from the city to come out and watch the games because of transport. Now there’s a whole mass of fans that want to come.”

Coombe clearly rates Pugh as a player, though.

“Watching her in some of the games for the national team, she’s absolutely set me alight, and I was like, this player is fantastic,” Coombe said. “She’s got such an upside in terms of what she does on the ball, what she sees. She’s so smart.” Coombe adds, “she’s a player we’ve been looking at for a long time. We’ve been chipping away at it.”

If you’re wondering why the Spirit would trade Pugh so readily, it’s because they believe they got an extremely similar player in the draft. With the No. 4 overall pick, Washington selected UCLA forward Ashley Sanchez. Like Pugh, Sanchez starred for the USWNT at youth level before getting called into the senior squad as a teenager. Also like Pugh, she’s a dribbling machine, usually operating on the left wing and cutting in on her stronger right foot. Also also like Pugh, she hasn’t quite maximized her talent yet, and needs to get better as a decision-maker in the final third.

Ultimately, this is a move that makes sense for all parties. Sky Blue gets the best player in the trade, and who will especially help sell season tickets, so it’s hard to criticize the club for paying a steep price. The Spirit don’t get functionally worse, despite taking a bit of a PR hit, and get to add three draft picks for doing so. Pugh, who has just four goals in her last 24 NWSL matches, gets a change of scenery. In a decade, we’ll likely look at this as a trade that worked out for everyone.

Portland steals the show

Sophia Smith was a no-brainer No. 1 overall pick for the Thorns, who thought so much of the 19-year-old attacker that they traded USWNT defender Emily Sonnett to the Orlando Pride to acquire the pick. Smith dominated at youth international level, starred for Stanford during the Cardinal’s national championship run, and has a once-in-a-generation combination of speed and technical ability.

Here, have a little sizzle reel. I promise you’ll be sold on her ability instantly.

No one expected Portland to make a move for the No. 2 overall pick as well, but that’s only because very few people knew how highly Thorns head coach Mark Parsons rated Washington State striker Morgan Weaver. He went to December’s USWNT ID camp to get a closer look at Smith and some of the other draftable talent, and came away with the conclusion that Weaver, who dominated during Wazzu’s Cinderella run as an unseeded team to the College Cup, was easily No. 2 on his board.

Parsons credited general manager Gavin Wilkinson with successfully navigating a convoluted maze of trades to get his coach the player he wanted.

“Gavin Wilkinson gets an A-plus-plus-plus, because he got a deal done 30 minutes before,” Parsons told reporters. “Someone said, ‘Why do you look so chill?’ It’s because our wonderful redhead is running around trying to make us better.”

The trade was completed using a mechanism that didn’t exist two months ago: allocation money. Teams can buy up to $300,000 in allocation money, which can be used to buy down the salary cap impact of star internationals or NWSL Best XI players. It can also be used on operational costs, though the league has not yet specified which uses outside of player salaries are permitted.

Portland, who turns a profit every year, had no problem buying $70,000 of allocation money to trade to the Chicago Red Stars, along with the 15th and 16th overall picks. The Red Stars, who like their current roster and are not profitable, needed the money more than the high pick.

North Carolina Courage head coach Paul Riley was asked about this mechanism in his post-draft presser, and expressed some concern about how teams are able to buy picks.

“My biggest worry about allocation is that some teams are going to buy the first and second picks every year, which is going to change the league completely,” Riley said. “I don’t want that in the future for the league, I think that’s bad, that teams can buy [picks] like the Yankees. Allocation is good to keep the better players, if it’s used for the right thing, but I don’t think we should be using allocation to buy draft picks.”

A rule change will likely be hotly debated next fall, but Portland took advantage of the rules as they’re presently written and signed two of the best young players in the country.

Rory Dames is so good at this

No one is better at manipulating the draft trade market than Chicago Red Stars head coach Rory Dames. His squad finished as runners-up in NWSL despite him trading away enough quality players to accumulate four first round draft picks, and he flipped them for even more value, like that dude who was able to turn a paperclip into a house.

Thanks to a flurry of moves, he ended up with a quality player in Rachel Hill, a reported $85,000 in allocation money, five quality players from this draft, and another 2021 first round pick to add to his collection. The Red Stars now have four first round picks in what is expected to be a loaded 2021 class. Stockpiling those picks also gives Dames assets to trade to potential expansion teams in exchange for a promise to not pick any of his players in an expansion draft, or that he get those players back after they’re selected.

Thursday’s trade with Orlando, in particular, looks like a coup. Hill and cash for the No. 3 overall pick probably would have been a fair trade. Chicago managed to get a first round pick in next year’s potentially better draft to go with it, and moved up from 26th to 19th on Thursday. Dames figured out that Orlando had its eye on a player it wanted desperately, and he got every last drop of value out of that pick.

In addition to making good trades that repeatedly let him turn 75 cents into a dollar, Dames put together a sensible, high-value draft class. Defender Camryn Biegalski, defensive midfielder Zoe Morse and utility player Aerial Chavarin are the type of steady, reliable players who can fill backup roles immediately. Attacking midfielder Ella Stevens and left back Julia Bingham had some notably poor games during their senior seasons, but their best performances stood out above players drafted before them. They’re longer-term projects with very high ceilings. Chicago’s balanced approach makes a lot of sense, and the assets Dames has accumulated give him a ton of options going into a 2021 offseason when a lot of teams will be resigning themselves to losing star players.

I can’t make sense of Orlando

The Orlando Pride sucked last season. They finished dead last with 16 points from 24 games, and an embarrassing minus-29 goal differential. Head coach Marc Skinner and general manager Erik Ustruck are clearly trying to address the team’s problems, and made some aggressive trades, most notably flipping the No. 1 pick in a deal for Sonnett. But Thursday’s moves were perplexing.

As mentioned above, the Pride got poor value out of the deal for the No. 3 pick. But the pick itself was surprising too. Skinner opted for Colorado midfielder Taylor Kornieck, a player who isn’t a stylistic fit for the type of soccer Skinner said he wanted to play last season. He has talked extensively about wanting to play beautiful, artistic soccer, in contrast to the style of soccer most commonly played in the NWSL, which he perceives to be physical and tactically rudimentary. Kornieck, while physically one of the most talented players in the draft class, is statistically one of its worst passers.

But it sounds like Skinner is perhaps changing his tune on how he expects his team to play. Chelsey Bush of The Equalizer asked Skinner what he has learned in his year at the helm in Orlando, and his answer suggested that he is adopting some of the tactics that he bemoaned less than a year ago.

“Sometimes you’re very stubborn in the way that you approach a team, and the way that you want a team to play,” Skinner said. “With the players and pieces that we had last year, I was unable to create what I wanted to create. I’ve had to adapt, and we will have to adapt. We’ll have to encourage the physicality and mentality of this league. The biggest thing that I think will be the difference for the Orlando team this year, there will be a grit and determination to grind out results even if you’re not playing at your best. Any team that wants to be considered to be a playoff team has to have the ability to do that.”

In addition to Kornieck, the Pride drafted a ton of other players who are physically elite, but average or worse technically by current NWSL standards. Defender Konya Plummer, forward Abi Kim and midfielder Chelsee Washington all have the athleticism and tactical intelligence to succeed in NWSL, but they’re not as technically adept other players Orlando could have chosen at the same positions with those picks.

Out of sheer curiosity, I looked up the pass completion % of all of Orlando's draft picks: 63% - Kornieck 80% - Petersen 75% - Plummer 83% - McClernon 76% - Shorts 67% - Kim 71% - Washington (10 games, small sample size alert)

— Chris Henderson (@chris_awk) January 17, 2020

Skinner specifically spoke about Kornieck’s physical qualities when he was asked why he wanted to move up to select her. He compared her to two of the league’s biggest stars.

“I thought that she’s a beast,” Skinner said. “If you look at North Carolina and Portland, that have Sam Mewis and Lindsey Horan, they have an outstanding physical threat, and also the ability to play. To find a player of that stature physically, that has the ability to play, is awesome. If you scout the world for them, there’s not that many.”

There’s a really critical difference between Kornieck and players like Mewis and Horan, however: They’re two of the best passing midfielders in the world, and Kornieck’s passing is currently bad. That’s not to say Kornieck can’t become an elite passing midfielder in the future — Horan wasn’t much of a passer when she first turned pro, for example — but she’s not even in the ballpark at the moment. Skinner seems to fundamentally misunderstand what makes those players great. It’s really not their size.

Skinner appears to have abandoned his principles and done a complete 180-degree turn on his coaching philosophy in under a year. That doesn’t inspire confidence.

3 teams that needed to be aggressive simply weren’t

Utah Royals, Reign FC, and the Houston Dash were either content with what they have, or woefully uncreative in trade negotiations. All of these teams are far from being awful, but they’re equally far from competing for a championship. These are the teams that should be taking big risks. They should have been competing with Portland to get a top pick, or trying to package their picks to get a high quality player. Instead, they did very little.

In order from least to most egregious lack of activity:

Reign FC — Given that the Reign made the playoffs last season despite Megan Rapinoe contributing very little to the team, one could make the case for running it back. They also don’t have a head coach or full-time GM in place following the departure of Vlatko Andonovski and a recent ownership change, so maybe it’s a bad idea to make dramatic moves before a new regime has settled in. But this is also a team that might be a couple trades away from giving their rivals in Portland some problems. Instead, they’re falling farther behind.

Houston Dash — I think you can make a reasonable case for internal improvement for the Dash. Jane Campbell and Rachel Daly are genuinely great players. The Dash had a lot of rookies and second-year players who improved late in the season. Ally Prisock and Haley Hanson, most notably, should make a leap from being good contributors to above-average average starters this season. Kristie Mewis will enter the season fully fit, not in ACL recovery mode. Sofia Huerta is almost certainly better than her 2019 form. And finally, the draft selections of Bridgette Andrzejewski and Chloe Castaneda, a pair of extremely hard working winger-to-fullback conversion projects on either side of the defense, suggests a consistent line of thinking from head coach James Clarkson.

But all that said, the Dash won’t be a playoff team if they don’t add another extremely dynamic attacker. Right now, it’s hard to guess where they’re going to find one.

Utah Royals — Given that Christen Press is at her absolute peak and Becky Sauerbrunn is probably in one of her last years as a world-class center back, the Royals’ lack of movement is indefensible. This is the team that has to be willing to make risky moves and spend money to give their two mega stars a chance to maximize what could be their best chance to compete for a title together. They’ve done nothing to improve on last year’s team. No. 8 overall pick Tziarra King is a massive creative talent, but an extremely raw one that is likely to need a couple of years to become a reliable contributor for a playoff squad. They have just over a month until preseason starts to improve their roster. As of right now, it appears the Royals are squandering a massive opportunity.

[resinoasis]

100 Questions for BJD Owners

Bringing back an old classic!

100 QUESTIONS FOR DOLL OWNERS

1. What is your name and birthdate? --Luna, 2/27

2. How long have you been interested in dolls? --Dolls in general: my whole life! XD BJD’s: about 13 years.

3. How many ball-joint dolls do you have? --Six

4. What is/are the name(s) of your doll(s)? --Lydia, Xander, Douban, Phoenix, Touren, and Ani

5. What type of BJD do you have? --DOD Tender Too and Bee-A, Luts Cutie Delf Mary, Lati Blue Rucas, Fairyland Elf Shiwoo/Soulkid girl hybrid, and BlueFairy Shiny Junior Leila.

6. Do you believe in Fate? --What the heck does that question have to do with dolls? And, um…no.

7. Who is the manufacturer of your doll(s)? Dream of Doll, LatiDoll, Cerberus Project, Fairyland, Souldoll, and BlueFairy

8. What was your first reaction when you saw your BJD for the first time? --MY BABY’S SO BEAUTIFUL!! o(ToT)o

9. Have you shown your doll off at a Doll Show? --Nope. I’ve taken them to a few meet-ups though.

10. Which do you prefer? Commercial BJDs (such as Kyon customed dolls) or Customizing your own BJD? --Customization all the way! I’ve done custom faceups on 3 out of my six dolls—no regrets!

11. How do you feel about Commercial BJDs? --They’re gorgeous!

12. Did you create a personality/background for your doll(s)? If so, describe them! --Sure did. I need to update their bios though and post them here.

13. What type of relationship do you have with your doll (ex. beloved daughter, friend)? --Lydia is my sweet little daughter! The others are kind of just “strays” I picked up, or they’re just involved with Lydia in some way.

14. Does your BJD have a nickname? --Not all of them, but Phoenix calls Xander “Xandie” sometimes (much to his chagrin), and I sometimes call Phoenix “Fifi” just for fun. Touren gets “wolf-kid” every now and then, and Ani is “the puppy”.

15. What special meaning does your doll's name have? --Lydia=Greek for “woman from Persia” or “beauty”, Scheherazade=The clever, beautiful storyteller from The Arabian Nights, Kovaleh=random Farsi surname I found. Xander is short for Alexander (just a name I like), Phoenix comes from her flaming red hair, Douban is named after a physician from the Arabian Nights and his surname al-Razi is after a real Persian doctor, Touren was a name my friend (his previous owner) invented, and Ani is named after a former student of mine named Anna.

16. Does your BJD have a special seat/place in your room? If so, where? --Yup, they all either have their own chair or share the bench.

17. Did you buy a chair specifically for your BJD? --Of course! Poor Ani still needs one though.

18. Does your BJD have accessories of her own? (ex. pets, toys, hairbrush) --Oh goodness, tons…they’re so spoiled!

19. What hard to find items do you wish you could get for your doll? --MSD sized tablets

20. What is the most expensive thing you've bought for your doll? --A DollHeart limited edition “Fer” outfit…y’all know how crazy expensive those are!

21. When you go out, do you take your doll with you? --Not usually, but I have taken them a couple places, and I always take one of them with me on vacations.

22. If so, where have you taken your doll? --To work, to my friends’ work, on vacation, to meet-ups, and to the mall!

23. Is there a regular place you take your doll out to? --Poor dears rarely gets taken anywhere…

24. If you do take your doll out of the house, how do you carry her? (ex. SD violin case, backpack,etc) I usually just carry them in my purse or in the official DOD carrying case.

25. When you do take your doll out, is it easy to do or do you find it's more trouble than it's worth? --I get sooooo paranoid when I take them out, so that’s why I don’t do it often.

26. Does your doll have a friend? Do you think your doll wants a friend? --They’re all friends with each other really, but they have some other friends outside of the house too.

27. If you could build your dream FCS for free, what would it be? --MSD, beauty white pureskin, F-13 head, boy body, 02 legs, 01 feet, 05 hands, optional cat ears, W-85N wig in black (natural), silver 16mm eyes, and custom goth makeup! (Basically another one of my OC’s Ame)

28. What is your favorite optional head? --MSD F-13!

29. What is your least favorite optional head? --MSD F-12…Bleh

30. What type of fantasy head would you like to see produced? --An elephant anthro!

31. What is your favorite wig for your doll? --They all only have one wig each…

32. What made you choose your BJD out of all the various types? --I love Bee-A’s elegant, mature face and her petite body! Plus she was a great price, but I would have gotten her even if she was the same price as the other DOD’s. As for the others they mostly perfectly fit the characters I had imagined them to be. (Except Touren, who was an impulse buy and I figured out his story after I got him)

33. Do you change your BJD's wig often and have you tried styling the wigs? --See #31…

34. How many wigs do you have? --Um, hello? #31??

35. How many shoes do you have for your doll? Does your doll have socks too? --I don’t feel like counting them all, but probably about 15 pairs of shoes between all of them (Xander only has one pair and Ani has two but the rest of them share shoes since they’re all the same size). Lydia and Phoenix share about 5 pairs of stockings.

36. What types of clothing does your doll wear? (name in order of favorite styles) --Lydia: goth, renaissance lady-style, casual, Xander: casual play clothes, Douban: casual and traditional Persian, Phoenix: colorful and frilly, Touren: punk, Ani: cute and playful.

37. Where do you purchase your BJD clothing? --I make most of their clothes myself, but occasionally I’ll buy them clothes from DollHeart or Dollmore.

38. Do you sew clothing for your doll? --Sure do!

39. Do you plan on dressing your doll as an anime character? If so, who? --My dolls have done cosplay before: Touren has dressed up as Sora from No Game No Life, and Douban has dressed as Gackt (okay not an anime character, but still cosplay!)

40. Do you make accessories for you doll? What kinds? --Arm warmers, scarves, belts, hats, hair ribbons, you naaaame it!!

41. Have you made doll items that you plan on selling? --I used to a while back, but I haven’t done it in years.

42. Do you sew/knit/crochet and for how long? --Yes, I’ve been knitting/crocheting for 10 years and sewing for more than twice that long.

43. Is there a type of music that you listen to when you are with your doll? --Not really, whatever I’m in the mood for at the time.

44. Have you ever thought about opening a doll shop? --I did for a while, but I had to focus on other things so I quit.

45. Do you have a specific area in your home where you keep your dolls or customize them? --They live in my home office/crafting room.

46. For how long did you know about BJDs before you actually got your BJD? --I first discovered them a year or two before I finally broke down and bought Lydia, then the others trickled in after her over a span of years.

47. Do you carry your doll around in the house? --Only when I’m showing them off to people, hehehe

48. Is there a special place in your house that you like to sit with your doll? --Sometimes I’ll sit with them while I’m making something for them in my craft room or while watching TV.

49. What are the comments you have heard in regards to your doll, after others have seen it in person? --“SHE’S SO PRETTY!!” or “that’s creepy”

50. Does your doll have their own website? --Do Tumblr and Instagram count? I used to have an actual website for my dolls, but I gave up the domain after a couple years because I wasn’t really maintaining it. Social networks are free, so I have those now.

51. What is the color of your doll(s) eyes now? Also give the size of eyes too.

-- Lydia: 16mm brown, Xander: 14mm violet, Douban: 12mm brown, Phoenix: 14mm light violet, Touren: 14mm brown, Ani: 12mm gold.

52. What is your favorite eye color for your doll(s) and why? --They all just have one pair that they wear permanently.

53. How often do you change the eyes? --See #52

54. How many different pairs of eyes do you have for your doll? --Anyone else noticing a pattern here?

55. Do you believe your doll has a "soul"? --Um, no…They do indeed have “life of their own” but it’s all in my imagination of course!

56. Do you talk to your doll? --Guilty.

57. When talking to your doll, how does she address you? -- Lydia addresses me as “Mama” but the others just call me Luna.

58. How do men react to your doll? --Most men have either thought they were beautiful or just didn’t really care…I have one male friend who can’t sleep in the same room with them though. XD

59. What was your favorite childhood doll growing up and why? --I had a rag doll named “Kachina” that I made when I was 11. I loved playing with her and making clothes for her! I even took her to Lebanon with me.

60. Did you have to sell items from a personal collection to raise money to purchase your doll? --Nope, I just saved money for a while.

61. If so, what did you sell? --Didn’t sell anything

62. How much do you spend on your doll a month? What is the maximum you would spend? --I don’t keep track of monthly spending really…I don’t think it’s out of hand enough to do that…

63. Have you purchased something you regretted later? --Nope

64. Do you like buying clothing sets for your doll? --Nah, I prefer to make their clothes. Especially since Douban and Ani are such odd sizes it’s hard to find ready-made clothes for them.

65. How often do you change your dolls clothing? --Every now and then, or if I make them a new outfit.

66. If you could take your doll anywhere with you in the world, where would that be? --JAPAN!! (I regret not taking any of my resin babies the first time I went, so I want to take at least one of them with me when I go back.) I did take Lydia with me to France, Xander to South Korea, and Ani to Spain.

67. Have you ever done something to your BJD and felt bad about it? (ex. leaving her naked all night, dropping her) --One time Lydia fell while I was taking pictures of her…Scared me to death, but luckily nothing happened.

68. What paint brand do you use on your doll? --Liquitex Acrylics and Faber-Castell chalk pastels.

69. If you were stranded on a deserted island with your doll, what 3 things would you want for your doll to have? --eh??

70. Does your doll have a girlfriend/boyfriend? --Hahaha, this is a fun question…Lydia has been long-distance married to a doll that belongs to a friend of mine for like 10 years now, Pheonix and Touren sort of like each other, and Douban is still single but too focused on his medical career to be interested in girls. Xander and Ani are too young still to be even thinking about such things (I think o x o;;).

71. Does your doll have siblings? --Lydia and Douban have a sibling-like relationship, Xander and Phoenix are actual siblings, and so are Touren and Ani.

72. Will you pierce your doll's ears? --Never!

73. Have you given your doll a manicure? What color? --Yes! Lydia has dark red fingernails, and Phoenix has a rainbow manicure.

74. Did you do the esthetic process on your doll? --Only on Phoenix so far. Xander has also had an elf-ear mod done.

75. If so, are you glad you did? --Yes! I have a special bond with Phoenix because I feel like she’s the most customized out of all my dolls. Xander HAD to be an elf, so no regrets there.

76. If not, why not? --Lydia was already sanded, Douban is tan so I’m afraid to do any sanding on him, and with Touren and Ani I just never got around to it.

77. If you could change anything they did with the BJD body, what would it be? --Umm…more options for hands (jointed fingers <3) and feet.

78. Have you sueded and wired your doll? --Ani was hot-glue sueded when I got her, but I actually removed the sueding because I didn’t like it.

79. If your BJD could be friends with any other BJD, which one would it be? --Hmm…they have quite a few friends already.

80. Do you plan to get more BJDs in the future? --OMG yes…I have 12 more dolls on my wishlist! (yes that means I want to eventually triple my collection)

81. If so, which BJDs? -- You might wanna sit down for this… • Umiko – Minifee Celine A-line Tan girl • Katja and Lexi – Kid Delf Almond BW girls x2 • Tara - Spiritdoll Smart Snowdrop BW girl • Maribel – Minifee Seorin A-line BW girl • Zahara – Littlefee Chiwoo girl • Kiri – Zuzu Delf Corni girl • Ouji – Luts Model Delf Avalanche Brown skin boy, cat ears added • Ame – Luts Model Delf Avalanche White skin boy, cat ears added • Jikai – Bluefairy Tiny Fairy Louis girl • Kairina – Resinsoul Bei White skin girl • QKR 2.0 – Resinsoul Bei Gray skin girl

82. Do you change the paint on your BJDs often? --Not really, Lydia and Douban are the only ones who I have re-done their faceups.

83. What is your BJD’s favorite color? --Lydia: Red, Xander: Green, Douban: White, Phoenix: RAINBOW! Touren: Black, Ani: Pink

84. In general, what is your SD’s mood or look? --Lydia: sweet, gentle mood; cute but deadly look…Xander: up to no good, Douban: professional, Phoenix: crazy colorful, Touren: punk, Ani: playful.

85. Describe your BJD's favorite outfit. --Lydia: crimson DollHeart Fer outfit, Xander: monster hoodie and jeans, Douban: brown striped pants and an open kimono jacket, Phoenix: rainbow wa-loli kimono dress, Touren: black leather pants and grey hoodie, Ani: teddy bear t-shirt and pink shorts.

86. Does your SD have a formal name? What is it? --Lydia Scheherazade Draculesti Kovaleh-Yueh, Alexander Elrond Kotani, Phoenix Zoe Kotani, Douban Ahmed al-Razi, Touren Oukami, and Ani Oukami.

87. Do you have any colored wigs for you SDs? (green or pink) Which ones? --Lydia’s wig has wine red tips and streaks in it…does that count?

88. What BJD would you like to see in the future?

-- At this point in the hobby, I feel like everything’s been done already, but I’d like to see more steampunk themed or android dolls.

89. If you have more than one BJD, do you favor one over the others? --Lately I’ve been paying lots of attention to Ani because she’s my newest doll and is a unique size…she needs a whole new wardrobe just for her!

90. Is your BJD for display only? --I guess you could call them “display mostly” XD I do pose them for pictures/photostories and I’ll pick them up when I show them to people, but most of the time they just sit around in their chairs.

91. Do you have any brand name clothing for your SDs? --Just a few Dollheart things for my MSDs and one 9NineStyle outfit for Ani.

92. Is there any BJDs you regret not buying? --Eh, not especially

93. Do any of your friends own BJDs? --Yup!

94. Do you have BJD get-togethers?

--I used to have friends over to do doll things and make photostories but I haven’t in quite a few years.

95. Have you lied about the true cost of your SD to your family or friends? --Nope, I’m pretty honest about it.

96. Do you think of yourself as being obsessive about your BJD? If so, explain? --I think I was at first, but I’m not nearly as bad as some other people I’ve seen.

97. If the house was on fire, what would you grab first? Your SD, wallet, clothes or no time and save yourself? --I’d probably grab my dolls and laptop (Mah FILES!) first…everything else is replaceable.

98. Did you buy a digital camera only because you wanted to take pictures of your BJD to show off online? --No, I have DSLR but I use it for other things besides just my dolls.

99. If you passed on, who gets your SD? wife/husband/kids/best friend/no one...it goes with me! Explain why! --I’ll give them to a daughter or granddaughter that I know will love them and take good care of them, but if I end up not having any kids, my dolls are going with me to the grave!

100. Do you think you'll ever tire of your BJD? Why/Why not? --Hehehehe…I’ll probably still be extra-possessive over them even when I’m a 90-year old grandmother!

#bjd #bjddoll #bjd questions #bjdquiz #ball jointed doll #doll collector #100 questions #bjdmeme #repost

[netherwar-rpg-blog]

Welcome to the Wardens, Bo! Your application for ROGUE OC has been accepted with an Emilia Clarke FC.

I think we can all honestly say that we are super excited to have a Rogue/Bard in the group! I love how Belladonna is this clever, creative but sly woman - a celebrity in some ways! - and she is as dangerous as she is talented in her cunning ways. There is definitely a playful side to her I think, especially in the RP sample, which will be so interesting to see with the other Wardens! I think her talents with knowing the noble circles and the political pressures in Highwing will be called upon frequently by the Wardens, so she will become an essential source of information at times. She’s wonderfuly described and written; I can’t wait to see how she evolves during the hardships and battles the Wardens will have to endure!

The application can be found under the cut. You have 48 hours to create a roleplay account (cannot be a sideblog) for your character and we will be updating our opening date soon!

O O C - I N F O

Name: Bo

Age: 21

Timezone: CST

Activity Level: On a scale of 1-10, I can be about a 6. With my RPH and my schoolwork, I’m fairly busy. Sometimes there will be times where I’ll have to be gone for a whole day for maybe a jazz band concert or when the play I’m putting on is going on.

Extra: Any flashing gifs? Not necessarily a trigger, but I would prefer them tagged!

C H A R A C T E R - I N F O

T H E - B A S I C S

Name: Belladonna Tabris

Gender: Female

Age: 30

Class: Rogue; Bard

Faceclaim: Emilia Clarke

C H A R A C T E R - D E T A I L S

Nationality: Northern Regions (Siften)

Appearance:

Belladonna is a very aristocratic looking woman. Despite her humble beginnings, she was blessed with clear skin. However, she did have a bit of back acne, so she’s got a few acne scars on her back. As far as scars go, she’s got a small scar on her eyebrow from a stray rock when she was 10, and she’s got a larger scar on her stomach from an assassination attempt later in life. Despite Emilia’s frame, Belladonna is a bit chunkier than Emilia though not by much. She’s not itty bitty, but she’s not as large as her mother.

Personality:

Positive: Clever, Freethinking, Imaginative, Virtuoso, Principled, Realistic (though sometimes pessimistic), Youthful, Undogmatic Negative: Conceited, Criminal, Demanding, Domineering, Haughty, Irritable, Power-hungry, Sly

C H A R A C T E R - B A C K G R O U N D

History:

From the beginning of her life, Belladonna loved to sing. She adored the act of singing, hearing, and learning music just like her own mother. Often, she would sit in taverns with her mother and listen to her sing to the patrons and occasionally steal the coin purses right off of their belts.

Bell’s mother was a bard, and often she would sell secrets to lords and ladies of courts and places where she played. Bell’s mother taught Bell these tricks in due time through her life starting from age 5 (where she would wait for her mother to seduce men so Bell could slip behind them and cut their purses) to age 18 when her mother finally passed away. She taught Bell to woo a man or woman to get information and how to properly eavesdrop in a room full of patrons in a tavern. Many of Bell’s talents are thanks to her lovely mother, someone she still thinks of fondly of today.

Throughout her teenage years, she grew closer to her mother in the small village they lived in. Bell rarely talked to people in her village, opting instead to speak to travelers in the taverns where they would stop to resupply. Most of them told stories of the capital—Sorvin of its beauty. But the place she truly desired to be was Highwing. More than anything in the world, Bell desired to go to Highwing and sing for the King and Queen of Eldris. Her mother would always frown at Bell’s mention of this and move on from whatever they were talking about. Her mother was very vocally against Bell ever doing anything in Highwing or anything away form their small village in Siften. Never meeting her father, Bell assumed it was because her father was from Highwing. Her mother’s wary looks when a traveler would speak to Bell was proof enough. Bell was sure her father had broken her mother’s heart. But, she never learned the truth of that.

One fateful day (on her 18th birthday in fact), her mother was caught stealing and murdered by the man she stole from. Later on that night, Belladonna killed her first man, taking revenge for her mother’s death. When the guard came for her, she left Siften. She ran as far away as she could, all the way to Highwing, dodging the guard to the Siften border and then stealing to eat and live after that. She only got caught a few times when she just starting out, but by the time she got to Highwing, she was getting so much better. She’d leeched talents with her learned observing nature. Her mother taught her from the beginning to watch and learn and then watch and learn again.

She started off singing in local taverns, begging at some, and eventually got discovered by a young noble’s son who was in one of the upper class taverns with his father. She almost didn’t score that gig that night, almost getting flat out rejected for her appearance before she sang for the owner. The young noble demanded his father buy Belladonna for his use and singing, and for the low low price of 7 gold marks. The price of a person can be so fickle sometimes. Desperately in need of money, Bella took the gig, and for 5 years, she sang and tangled with the handsome young noble.

She was free to do as she wished when she wasn’t singing, so she explored the city as much as she could. She had money now, more money than she could believe. She had a salary! She had money to buy real clothes! She experienced a taste of a good life, and she never wanted to let it go. When she had money to actually live, she never wanted to be poor again, and she never wanted to feel helpless again. So, she made connections. She made friends. She got connections between sets, and she became quite the underground hit with most of the nobles. Before she knew it, other nobles were asking to hire her for a few nights (hiring her obviously through her current employers). She was happy, and she was popular.

When her young lord got married, she refused to “sing” for him anymore and used the connections she made over time and began to sing for the Highwing opera house. She sang; she danced. She became quite the soprano. By the time she was 28, she was one of the most sought out singer in the capital. She sang for a whole slew of people, poor and rich. Her face was on every poster and the like. And for 2 years, she was living in the lap of luxury. Golden silks and jewelry dangling from every surface. She was loving it. Until reports of the undead began to surface.

Then, she got worried. Her way of life was threatened! And when the opera house started to decline due to the political climate and the lowered financial glory, Bella knew she had to do something. So, she took the training she’d honed over the years, her roguish ways with a lock and key and headed for a group she knew would be able to help stop the wave of terror that would inevitably reach the capital—The Wardens. So, she headed as fast as she could to where they were rumored to be—Miwor Town—to join up, and she refused to leave until she was accepted. She was, in fact, so insistent that Sally Derry nearly kicked her out for sheer impertinence. But, she was accepted with reluctant gusto.

Reason for joining the Wardens:

Ever the gray area, Belladonna thinks the Wardens can help. If they can fix the whole “undead” thing, then she’s in. She wants to feel safe again, and she wants her life back again where she can just sing and be happy and rich. She’d never been rich before, and she wants that back. With the opera house closing for the time being, she wants to feel safe again, and she knows she can’t without defeating the big evil she used to only sing about.

Desired Connections:

The Stalker: Belladonna met The Stalker on her trip to Highwing, and they rescued her from an attack of wolves. She vaguely remembers them, but by the time she woke up the next morning, they were gone. She regrets never being able to say thank you.

The Leader: Belladonna has seen the Leader at various noble events in the capital. They know of eachother and Belladonna was as surprised

R O L E P L A Y - S A M P L E

Screams and shouts rouse your character from an afternoon nap in the busy town. A rough looking thief is dashing through the crowds, huddling a bag of jewels to his chest, and the soldiers are too far to act. What does your character do?

…Sitting in her dressing room, Bell stared out of the window and out at the streets of Highwing. She yawned quietly and sipped quietly at her tea. It was cold by now, but she didn’t mind, waking from blissful sleep to hear the sounds of the city around her. She gazed out with vibrant and bright eyes towards the streets where she saw a man ducking and running through the streets with a thick sack of gold and such. A few gold crowns slipped from the bag as he bumped into a very large man walking down the marketplace. He muttered a quick apology and continued to run while guards, bringing up the rear, chased after him. Thoroughly interested, she left her room to move through the crowd after him. She followed behind enough to see him actually give the guards the slip. So, he turned towards home, or what he called a home. She watched him finally slip inside and lock the door behind him. Bell glanced around to notice where she was in Highwing and grinned to herself, turning around and marching back to her dressing room.

-

She pulled her hair up out of her face, tying it back with a leather tie. She pulled her hood up to disguise her unique white gold hair and adjusted the black leather bodice she wore. A black silk scarf hid her face as she slipped out into the night where the silent marketplace hung in suspense. Her feet were light as a feather, dancing against the cobblestone of the street all the way to the thief’s house.

Slipping past guards to avoid suspicion (all persons in all black were inevitably found suspicious), Bell made it back to the thief’s house. It was easy to slip inside. Bell made quick work of the lock and slipped inside, tiptoeing across the dirt floor towards the sleeping thief. He looked so peaceful. She grabbed parchment and scribbled out a brief note before searching through nook and cranny for that bag of jewels.

Beneath a pile of hay, she found the sack, filled with rubies and amethysts and emeralds (her favorite). She snatched the bag, leaving one gold crown on the note she’d written.

‘You make a poor thief.

xoxo, a better thief’

-

She crept over a guard, eyes half lidded from lack of sleep. Two bags in her hand, she dropped on at his feet before disappearing into the night. The other bag, she tied to her belt, carrying it back to her dressing room. She’d be damned if she gave up those emeralds to the law. And a few gold crowns… And maybe one or two rubies. The rest, well, she’d return that stolen property. But, she always had her finder’s fee. Besides, the emeralds would look better on her.

#accepted #admin notice

[wtfranjo]

< Mini-sode 95.5.5.5.5.5

“Breathe it in, Stevie!” I shout once again upon seeing my landlord approach the Geen Rook Nie building, with Chappie plodding dutifully along beside him.

“What am I smelling this time?” He asks.

“The smell of change, my friend!” I cry triumphantly. “Change is in the air this Summer, believe you me. Starting with this.” I hand him a brand new Santos FC 2020/21 Home Shirt.

“Ah, cheers bru”, he says, looking impressed. “This the new one, yeah?” I nod, very pleased with myself. He looks at the back. “Couldn’t get me ‘Koala 1’ on the back, no?”

“Give it back”, I say immediately. “We had a deal, bru. I get you a shirt and match tickets, bru, and you memorise Joseph Ekwalla’s name, bru. And he’s obviously not number 1, he’s a pissing midfielder, bru!”

“You’re overusing bru, bru” he grins, putting the shirt on over his old bootleg one. “Very nice”, he says, looking down to admire his new jersey. “So what else has changed?”

Ah, what else indeed.

It won’t surprise you to learn that after all of my whinging about a lot of the Santos players last year, the very first thing on my agenda is clearing out all the dead wood. When Santos fans speak of this Summer in the future they’ll call it The Great Cull of 2020. I try to stay as cold and objective as possible, and promptly transfer list left back Aiden Jenniker, right back Moe, attacking midfielder Sullie and young centre back Lindani Ntombayithethi, along with striker Emil Sambou and centre back Issouf Paro. Taking out of the equation my desire to get those 2 fit again after their respective serious injuries and looking purely at what Emil and Issouf offered us before the Winter Break, they need to go. Neither of them are good enough for the Santos team I want us to be. They’re both on schedule to be fit in time for pre-season anyway so it is without guilt that I offer them around. After all, we’re only allowed 5 foreign players and I might need their spots. The last player I offer around is young number 10 Sakhile Maloka, who spent the second half of last season out on loan at Future Tigers. He’s OK, but to be honest we’ve got better young players coming through so a move will be best for everyone. Sparingly used right winger Saileg Richards will be released with some of the youth players once his contract expires, as I don’t see too much potential in him.

I spend the next few days, while I wait for the Chairman to let me know what kind of budget I’ll have to work with, negotiating offers for Jenniker, Moe and Paro, but all of the interested parties seem to want me to pay the majority of these players’ wages after their move, which makes the whole “move” part kind of pointless doesn’t it. If I wanted to pay their wages I’d bloody keep them wouldn’t I, SuperSport. In the end though I do accept a £32k bid from Maritzburg United for Moe and a £17k bid from Baroka FC for Paro.

It does seem that Moe is quite a popular figure in the dressing room though and within the week I’ve got the makings of a mini-mutiny on my hands with his allies demanding to know why I’m getting rid of him. “Because he’s shit” is my primary argument, but they start being all difficult and in the end I have to tell the rebels to get out and mind their own business.

Speaking of rebels, we have an unconventional contract rebel in my Assistant Manager, or Assistant to the Manager, Keith America. Keith feels that he’s outgrown this tinpot club and wants to move onto pastures new. To be fair, out of all my assistant managers he’s been the most forgettable. Even Roger was an idiot but at least I remember his name. Keith’s been largely irrelevant and I’ve already forgotten about him by the time he’s left the car park. His replacement will be Jakub Kalinkowski from Poland. As well as being the best man for the job, I also think that as a stalwart of Polish football he can teach me a thing or 2 to make me better equipped as a Manager… Like how to stay in Polish football for more than a year without crying yourself to sleep every night.

So what do we need? Taking the players that I’ve transfer listed out of the equation, these are the footballers I consider to be in my thoughts for the new season:

Goalkeepers: Komo, Dino Visser

Defenders: Nathan Gertse, Philani Cele, Gary Havenga, Juno, Siyabonga Zulu

Midfielders: Joseph Ekwalla, Marothi Diale, Sinbad, Gugu Gogotya, Ryan Moon, Karabo Noqazo, Sony Norde, Luke Fanteni, Frans Ndlovu, Sello Japhta, Manqoba Cele

Strikers: Carl Lark, Ernie, Thembinkosi Maluka

Because I’m not sure that I’ve mentioned them before, Karabo Noqazo is a versatile young anti-winger and Frans Ndlovu is a decent young playmaker, both from our academy. So all of the players in the above list are in my thoughts either because they proved themselves worthy last year of making the first team squad (eg Joseph Ekwalla/Carl Lark), they haven’t absolutely infuriated me with their attitude or their ability (Like Moe/Sullie have), or they are fairly happy to be decent backup (eg Dino Visser/Siyabonga Zulu). I like to have a spare player for each position, so by my calculations I need to go out and buy a right back, a left back, at least 1 centre back, preferably 1 or 2 versatile senior attacking players and also a solid second striker, as backup for our front 4 currently consists entirely of academy kids.

And then comes the news I’ve been waiting for. Goolam Allie drops by my office and tells me that our new wage and transfer budgets are £32k per week and £103k respectively. I actually find it quite difficult to see Goolam after that because of the £ signs in my eyes. I reckon I can make that budget work, especially once the fees from my unwanted players come through and their wages are off the books. He does take my feel-good atmosphere down a notch though by adding that he’s had to cancel improvements to the Youth Facilities as we’ve lost about £375k this year. To be fair though I’m not really listening to Goolam at this point. I’m already on my phone, trying to reignite a deal that I desperately tried to close in January – I’m ringing Isaac Sohna’s agent.

It’s a credit to my scouting network that nobody else has picked up Isaac in the last 6 months. His mind and physique could become that of a truly excellent defender, so in my eyes either the other clubs aren’t as familiar with the Cameroonian leagues as my scouts are, or they just don’t see past Isaac’s poor first touch and general technical weaknesses. Isaac accepts my contract as he did in January, but that’s only a tiny part of the battle. We’ll have to wait yet another long month to see whether he’ll get a work permit this time.

So as I did in January, I look for a South African option in case things don’t work out. I like Eliphas Thoahlane and think he was good for us during his loan spell, despite the odd error. I get on the phone to Platinum Stars Manager Danian Wareley and enquire about the availability of the player, whose contract in all fairness was only extended after I tried to nab him on a free 6 months ago. I hang up a few seconds later after Danian informs me that nothing short of £150k will prise Thoahlane away. I think even he knows how ridiculous a price tag that is, so after I calm down I call back and we agree on a year long loan, with the option for us to buy the centre back for £80k. Thoahlane re-signs.

The next thing I know, Moe and Issouf Paro are on their way out with Maritzburg and Baroka respectively. After they’re gone, I enthusiastically accept offers for Jenniker, Sullie and Ntombayithethi. The cull has begun.

I don’t give Sullie a second glance as I wave him a cheery goodbye. He moves to Steenburg United in the 2nd tier. A few days later, Ntombayithethi leaves for Cape Town City. He’s got a decent amount of promise, but I just don’t rate him. The next day though, Aidie Jenniker turns around and flat out refuses to move. He just refuses. This is frustrating news for me as I really want him gone so that I can free up more money for my eventual new signings, but it appears that because of me not wanting to pay most of Aiden’s bloody wage, other interested clubs can’t afford to tempt him away.

Over the next few days a new pitch is laid and bedded in at the Athlone, ready to host the new Santos FC. And also, Jenniker gets another chance to move and he once again refuses. Eventually, with a week of June to go, he does move, following Sullie to Steenburg. I had the bright idea of absolutely ripping them off with my asking price to offset the cost of just conceding and paying a chunk of Aidie’s wage, and it works like a charm.

The next man to be ejected from this great club is Khat. He’s being blasted off into the abyss like the tail section of a rocket, with the rocket in this simile being Santos and the tail section being the ageing Zimbabwean journeyman who’s constantly being played out of position. To be fair to Khat, he did say months ago that he was retiring, but I’m still counting him as cull victim #8.

Sohna’s work permit application is then rejected, which doesn’t entirely shock me, and I appeal the decision as per usual. The next day I’m informed that his work permit application has been rejected once again, and I sign him anyway because life’s too fucking short to be dealing with this every 6 months. Of course he won’t be able to play for us until we do manage to get him a permit, but I’ll loan him out to play a better standard of football than he’s used to (No offence to EPTA) and hopefully he’ll improve and maybe even earn a full call up to the Cameroonian squad, at which point I can probably bring him straight back and get him in my team.

As June ticks over into July and the transfer window opens, all of the players I’ve agreed to sell or release officially move on and Thoahlane and Sohna officially move in. I immediately spread the word that Sohna is available for loan and I’ve never been quite so inundated with phone calls. All in all, we receive loan bids from Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Hungary, Israel, Kazakhstan, Paraguay, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine. Taking into account playing time and the quality of the squad and the league itself, Israeli side Hapoel Ra’anana are the club I choose to take him.

I then take a punt on a couple of attackers that I’ve identified and whose contracts expire in a few months: Augustin Rostand and Ismaïla Diallo. Augustin is a 19 year old full Cameroonian International, having scored twice in 6 appearances for his country. He’s a pacy and strong striker who knows where the net is and is also a set piece specialist, and to top it off he’s got determination to spare. He’s in demand though, with Lierse, Lille, Stade Rennais and Toulouse all interested.

Ismaïla is also a full International with his native Senegal, having played 3 times at the age of 19. He reminds me a little of Isaac Sohna, as he’s not brilliant technically but he has brilliant mental and physical capabilities. Unlike Sohna though he’s an anti-winger who plays on the right. At 6’5″ he’s a handful for opposition full backs and he comes from the Dirk Kuyt school of winger-ing, with exceptional fitness levels, work rate and determination, so he’d certainly add something different on the right.

I’m catching transfer fever at this point, one of the symptoms of which will hopefully turn out to be having a fucking great new squad. I put in a £7k bid for Mandla Masango, a South African who’s spent a couple of weeks on trial with us from Supersport United, and it’s accepted instantly. Mandla’s requested a transfer after only making 8 appearances last season, starting just once, but I reckon he’ll have a place here. He’s exactly what I wanted – An extremely versatile attacker who can play anywhere across midfield or attacking midfield. He’s extremely lightweight and about as good in the air as an aviaphobic ostrich that recently died, but he’s determined and technically very good with some tricks, some pace and a bloody good attitude towards putting in a shift.

While we wait to see if he accepts though, I receive some unwelcome news – Bidvest Wits submit a derisory £115k bid for our star player Joseph Ekwalla. I’m a reasonable man, so instead of outright rejecting the offer I say that he’ll be sold if we receive £1m and half of his next transfer fee. Wits withdraw their offer. Cue the usual rap-rap-rapping on my office door though. Joe is incensed that I didn’t accept the ridiculous offer that Wits coughed up onto the table and he’s adamant that he wants to leave. This puts me in a tricky position as I’ve been hoping since January that he would at some point suddenly want to sign a new contract so that we wouldn’t lose him on a free next year. I think it’s fair to say that Wits’ bid has scuppered that particular dream though, so begrudgingly and with an extremely heavy heart I agree that I’ll sell Joe Ekwalla the next time a bid is made.

Sakhile Maloka is on his way out after I accept a £50k bid from Sundowns, plus the obligatory half of his next fee, and then I set about trying to find a replacement for that snake Ekwalla. I find someone, and if we can pull this off, we might even get an upgrade. Derrick Addo, the boy with the wonkiest afro in African football, is the player I want to bring in. He’s 19 and is a full Ghanaian international, having played 6 times. He’s more of an all round midfielder than Joe and he’s not quite as good a passer, but he’s 6’0″ and well balanced, a good rounded physical presence, a great decision maker and generally a really mature player. He too is out of contract in November, but in an effort to bring him in straight away I submit a £150k bid, which is accepted.

Before Derrick’s even had chance to skim my contract offer, which is extremely generous, his agent gets a phone call. From Genk. For fucks sake. He leaves to consider our offer but I’m not nearly as confident as I was a moment ago.

We need to press on though as we still need to bring in some players, including a right back. Enter Tlou Molekwane. Molekwane is a free agent after being released by Bloem Celtic a few days ago and he’s joined us on trial so that I can take a look at him. Although he’s not that quick at 31 and not that strong in the tackle, I offer him a contract. He’s a spirited hard worker and a decently rounded defender, and even if he isn’t my first choice he’ll be a good character to have in the changing room. Plus, he’s performed very well when called upon by Celtic this season.

The next bid I receive is upwards of £120k for Joseph Ekwalla from Orlando Pirates. After some tough and drawn out negotiations I get them up to £350k and 40% of the profit of Joe’s next sale. If he’s going to be as good as I think he is, that could be a huge windfall for Santos in the future.

Sadly, Ismaïla Diallo rejects our contract and plumps instead for Botoșani in Romania. He would’ve been a good option to have on the right, so I’m pretty disappointed.

We then receive another bid for Joe Ekwalla from those devious bastards at Bidvest Wits, who started this in the first place. They offer more money but with a lesser percentage of his future fee, and Goolam Allie steps in and accepts the bid. I let out a long sigh before launching into a shameful series of expletives, with the main point being that nothing gets my goat more than meddling Chairmen and all he’s doing is cheating himself and the club out of more money in the long run. Allie changes his mind and calls Wits himself to reject the bid. It’s a wise move.

And then finally it’s time to announce our first permanent new signing with a work permit to actually play for us. Tlou Molekwane has joined us for free on a 1 year deal.

But before we can pop the cork out of the champagne we’re brought crashing back down to Earth with the news that Augustin Rostand has rejected us in favour of FC Lorient. It’s fair enough I suppose, but that’s a particularly frustrating one. He’s a brilliant young striker and could’ve done well for us.

Maybe we’ll have more luck with a player that I’ve actually been keeping an eye on since January: Hicham Aidir. Hicham is a 19 year old Moroccan U20 striker currently plying his trade for COD Meknès in his home country, where he scored 13 goals in 19 games last season. He’s a great finisher and an excellent physical specimen, but what really drew my eye to his scouting report is his attitude. He’s very very determined, hard working, team oriented and he’s a bloody great leader. A £40k bid is duly made and a generous contract is offered. Unfortunately though, his agent demands a minimum fee release clause for foreign clubs of £250,000, but as we’d still be making a good profit for a good player I begrudgingly accept.

Orlando Pirates are back again. Not content with having pretty much landed Joseph Ekwalla, they also want young Sakhile Maloka. It’s one of those moments that gives me second thoughts as to whether I should be selling the lad if a club like Orlando want him, but after some thought I negotiate them up to £50k and half of his next fee and accept.

Hapoel Ra’anana have landed themselves a hell of a centre back for the season. Isaac Sohna’s off to Israel to earn himself an International call up and a work permit. Good luck, Isaac.

Next up, we sign Mandla Masango from SuperSport for a paltry £7k. The 30 year old versatile midfielder has excited the fans who see him as one of the best players at the club, so we might have grabbed ourselves a bargain.

Frustratingly though, with every silver lining comes a big black cloud to rain all over my parade. Derrick Addo has agreed to join Genk and I’m getting pretty fucking frustrated in my attempts to bring in young foreign talent.

Sakhile Maloka opts to join Sundowns in the end and I wish him well. He might become a decent player for them and might even earn us a few bob if and when he moves on. Good luck, Sakhile.

The 12th of July is a day that’ll live in infamy in Lansdowne. For me at least. “Fuck off, Joe” day will henceforth be a local holiday on which we remember Joseph Ekwalla, who refused to commit, who refused to honour his contract, and who snubbed the club that put him on the World stage. Sort of. Today he completes his move to Orlando Pirates, so fuck off, Joe. Marothi Diale will be under special instructions to sweep the leg next time we meet.

I just can’t win. I refused to sell Joseph at first and I heard a rap-rap-rapping on my office door. Now I’ve let him go and there’s a rap-rap-rapping on my bloody office door. Many of the squad, including pretty much all of our best players, are unhappy with my decision to let our best midfielder leave, which is probably fair enough. “Never fear” I tell them, smiling and tapping my nose as if I’ve got some sort of plan, “I’ll be replacing Joseph with an even better player”. The players seem excited by that promise, but now I’ve got to actually deliver on it, which as I’ve found out the hard way so far could be more difficult than it sounds. At least the board are happy with my decision to sell Ekwalla though – His sale covers pretty much all of our losses for last season and Goolam and co think that flogging him is a masterstroke.

Anyway, I’ve got a promise to deliver on so there’s no time to dwell on the loss of Ekwalla. I adjust my goggles and dive back into the transfer market, this time for Joël Soumahoro. To put it bluntly, Joël is not Joe. He’s not got the first touch, the passing, the technique, the creativity etc, but he’s still a bloody good young footballer. Primarily a number 10, the 20 year old Ivory Coast U20 International is more in my true mould: Aggressive, determined enough, a good decision maker and team player, and a hard worker. He’s dynamic. If Ekwalla was Pirlo, Soumahoro is Mark Noble. Less glamourous, yes, but can be just as effective in the right team. He’s out of contract at his current Ivorian club, Academie de Foot Amadou Diallo de Djékanou, so I offer him the chance to join a club whose name you can say without having to book a long weekend off work.

While we wait for Joël to make his mind up, the countdown begins on potential new striker Hicham Aidir. While I’m making comparisons, I reckon Hicham can be the Morrocan Alan Shearer and I hope against hope that he gets his work permit. In a month.

Another countdown, this time for the new season, begins when the fixture list is announced. The new look Santos side that I’m struggling to put together will be given a baptism of fire with a trip to our local rivals Ajax Cape Town on the 26th of August. I can’t wait.

A few days later, Soumahoro does agree to join us, which again is great news, but again is tinged by the nagging fear that he won’t be granted a work permit.

Before our trip across town to Ajax CT we’ll play 7 friendlies, starting with our U19’s and our reserves, before building up against lower league South African sides. I don’t manage to arrange any matches against big opposition like I usually like to do though, which is a shame.

Before any of these matches though, we still need players. We’ve brought Thoahlane and Sohna in at centre back, but ideally I’d still like an upgrade, so I launch a £6k bid for another youngster that I’ve had my eye on for a good few months: Mike Kakuba. Mike is my favourite kind of centre back: He’s an absolute wall. The 19 year old, contracted to URA from Uganda, is a full international, already having racked up 11 appearances for Uganda. He’s good defensively, very strong and aggressive, and has some reach in the air, helped by his 6’3″ frame. Also, I could be wrong, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a player with such a fantastic mohawk. My offer is accepted and I offer a contract. I’d love to sign Mike to eventually form a partnership with Isaac Sohna, who could be the Koscielny to Kakuba’s Mertesacker.

It doesn’t take Mike long to agree to join the Santos revolution. Another month-long wait begins.

Bloem Celtics try an ambitious loan bid for last season’s PSL 3rd top scorer Carl Lark, which I laugh away, but it’s Maritzburg United’s £13k bid for Nathan Gertse that causes problems. I reject the bid as I consider Gertse one of my best, most consistent and adaptable defenders, so I think nothing of it really, but rap-rap-fucking-rap goes my office door and in he comes, demanding to be allowed to join the team that finished 1 place below us last season. Bemused, I tell him to fill his boots. I’ve never been in a big believer in keeping players against their will as I don’t really see the point. If they consider their time at a club over then it is; You’ll rarely see them play as well for your club as they have before after that decision’s made. I stick Nathan on the transfer list.

We now need another defender then, so let’s solve that problem immediately, shall we? A £7k bid is duly made for SuperSport United’s versatile South African defender Ayanda Nkili. In truth, there’s nothing too special about Ayanda, but he’s an extremely rounded, and extremely versatile defender to a decent standard, able to play anywhere across defence, as a holding man or a central midfielder. He’s pretty good physically, at 29 is experienced enough to offer us something and is mentally my kind of hard working player. I offer a contract, which I’ve done so many times so far this Summer that I think I’m in danger of giving myself an RSI.

The man that Ayanda is replacing, Nathan Gertse, might really be regretting his decision. 2nd tier side Steenburg United make a bid and I negotiate them up to £30k before accepting. Let this be a lesson to the rest of the squad – The grass is not greener on the other side, the grass is covered in dog shit and fire.

He’d better go though because Ayanda has officially arrived. Already with him and Molekwane we have a lot more quality, experience and mental fortitude in our back line. We just need another left back now.

Here’s a thought though… What if I don’t need to buy another left back? I know the whole Sello Japhta experiment didn’t go swimmingly last season, but I think I want to give him a proper try as a left wing back. If he can fill that gap then we’ll gain another dimension going forwards, but we’ll probably need another winger. It’s time for our friendlies, so he starts at full back against the Under 19’s. All in all it’s a decent first game back. I let most of the unused players play for the U19’s except for Phil Cele and Carl Lark who aren’t fit enough to start, and they give us a decent match that we win 3-1, thanks to goals from Ernie, an own goal and Ryan Moon. Young winger Karabo Noqazo gets the goal for the youngsters.

The clock’s really ticking now that the friendlies have begun. I still think we could use another attacking midfielder so I offer a contract to 19 year old Cameroon International Mouhamadou Ekedi. This deal’s a bit rushed as time’s running out for us to sign foreign players before the transfer window shuts in just over a month, so my scouts don’t know everything about the lad, but he looks like he’s worth rolling the dice for. He’s got a pretty good first touch and fits into my determined, hard working, good decision making mould, as well as being lightning fast and extremely physically fit.

While we wait once again to see whether Ekedi’s going to join, we play out another friendly with a slightly different lineup, but Sello Japhta still at wing back, where I’ve decided he’ll play every single minute he can this pre season to get him comfortable. Again we play a Santos B team and beat them 2-0, a task made easier after Siyabonga Zulu forgets the meaning of the word friendly and scythes down Ryan Moon 25 minutes in, earning himself a red. Moon gets the opening goal a few minutes later and is joined on the score sheet by King Carl a further few minutes on.

Nathan Gertse is substituted for the reserves in the 2nd half, which is the last we’ll see of him in a Santos shirt. It’s a shame really, but when a player’s ambition is to drop down a division for no apparent reason, he’s not a player that I want around. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out, Nathan.

Our next friendly pits us against Mother City, yet another Cape Town football club from the Western Cape Division 3. They’re named after Cape Town itself, thought to be known as The Mother City after the City was described as a Metropolis (Derived from the Greek words metros, meaning mother, and polis, meaning city) in the 30’s, a description that stuck in the public mind. Anyway my boys thump them 5-1, with 2 goals from King Carl added to by Manqoba Cele, Sony Norde and Ryan Moon.

After the match I’m greeted by the news that Ekedi has agreed to join us, which I’ll celebrate or not in exactly 1 month’s time. 2 players that have signed though are Komo and Ernie, whose contracts were due to run out at the end of the upcoming season. They both get 1 year extensions.

And while we’re talking about him, I’ve got a rather unusual bombshell to drop about our young goalkeeper. The time has come to choose my captain and vice captain for the new season, and although I’ve not yet finished bringing players in, I’m not comfortable with giving the armband to someone as soon as they walk through the door anyway and that leaves me with a shortage of proper options. “It may only be for a year”, I tell Komo after calling him into my office after training. “I need a captain that I know, that I trust, and who is going to be in my team every single week, and I don’t think that anyone in my squad wants this club to succeed as much as you do. You’re a local lad, you’re a leader and you’re my captain this season, OK?” Komo just stares at me, then at the armband in my hand, then back at me, and then nods. He takes the armband and goes to leave, but before he gets to the door I call after him “Make me proud, Captain Komo”. He looks back and grins, before heading back towards the changing room.

I drop Phil Cele to vice captain. I’ve decided to keep him around as backup this season but in terms of his captaincy duties last year he really didn’t do very well. Anyway, with Sello Japhta now retraining as a full back I need another left winger, prompting a £35k bid for Yanga Baliso. Yanga plays for 2nd tier side Baroka FC, who signed Issouf Paro at the start of the Summer and is a former South Africa U20 international. Now 23, he’s not yet earned a full International call up but I reckon he can do a job. He’s quick, mentally OK, and he can take a man on and either cross or shoot with some degree of accuracy. The fee is slightly more than I’d like to pay, but he’s the best South African option out there for us. Baroka FC accept and I offer the lad a contract.

I leave him to mull over my offer as we travel to our first away friendly of pre-season against affiliate club Vasco CT. Our centre backs get us the win. Well, both teams’ centre backs really, with Vasco’s Mongalo adding a late own goal to make it 3-1 after a Gary Havenga header and a Juno free kick put us ahead. Juno gets the player of the match award too as he also sets up Havenga’s goal.

After the match I get a call from Bloem Celtic manager Joey Antipas, who wants to take the newly demoted Phil Cele off my hands. I tell him that if he pays £50k he has a deal, so Joey pays £50k. Bang goes the theory about keeping Phil around, I suppose.

And another departure means another signing. As I’ve now got Molekwane and Nkili who are both best suited to playing at right back, I decide to bring in a centre back to join Juno, Thoahlane and Havenga. I make a £3k bid for Orlando Pirates’ experienced South African defender Roscoe Pietersen, which is duly accepted. Roscoe is a good solid centre back and I think would some much needed experience to our centre back ranks. The 3 that we have at the minute are all very young and if we do manage to bring in Mike Kakuba or eventually get a work permit for Isaac Sohna, they’re both very young too. Pietersen is solid defensively, OK on the ball with either foot and a good decision maker, and at 31 he’s certainly got that experience. He also played well for his club when needed last season.

And just like that, Cele leaves and Roscoe “Roscoe” Pietersen signs.

With Phil Cele gone I do need to replace him as vice captain though. As far as I know Komo will play every single match for Santos FC this season so I don’t really think there’s much need for a vice captain, but if he ever isn’t going to play due to injury or suspension it makes sense to have his replacement as his vice captain. Dino Visser takes the vice-armband.

I’m confident of landing left winger Yanga Baliso so I allow Manqoba Cele to be loaned out to affiliate club Zizwe United so that he can get some first team football, successfully and very coincidentally ridding my club of “Cele”s in one fell swoop.

And then comes the hammer blow. Of course. Striker Hicham Aidir’s work permit is rejected. This has been my worst fear all throughout the summer, especially for the last month where I’ve been working under the assumption that I’d sign all of these non South African players to fill up my allowed number of foreign players. I’ve been filling in my squad with South Africans on the assumption that these work permits would actually go through. I appeal against the decision of course, but unusually it’s going to take longer than a day for the big wigs to come up with a decision, which might be a positive thing? I’m really not sure. What I am sure about though is if we can’t get the players that we’re waiting for over the line I think we might find ourselves up a certain creek without a certain tool that could get us out of said creek.

I then get to distract myself though with the selection of our squad numbers, which takes a surprisingly long time, but then we have changed quite a bit already this summer. A personal highlight is Captain Komo’s transition to the big boy jersey – Number 1 for the number 1.

For our next friendly we host First Division side Real Kings at the Athlone and take a narrow 1-0 win, with Sony Norde’s free kick the only thing separating the 2 sides.

But straight after the match, WHAM! Another hammer blow. Attacking midfielder Joël Soumahoro’s work permit has been rejected too. I appeal once again but get the distinct impression that I’m pissing in the wind. Like with Aidir though, the powers that be are really going to drag this decision out, which is just peachy.

The silver lining is Yanga Baliso, the South African left winger who needs no such ridiculous waiting period and can join our beleaguered forward ranks without further ado. Yanga signs and the fans are quite pleased, although they might become less pleased if he turns out to be the last incoming transfer of the window.

Our penultimate friendly is a trip to Stellenbosch to face Stellenbosch FC. We’ve played them before and they always provide tricky opposition so we give a first appearance of the season to Project: Foxy Mk II, having used Project: Meatloaf for all of the other friendlies. We very nearly take the win on a horribly wet and windy day, after lone striker Ernie puts us ahead 10 minutes into the second half. Ayanda Nkili’s 87th minute own goal levels the scores, but to be fair he’d had a solid game up to that point and I’d rather he gets his mistakes out of the way before the Season properly begins. Pleasingly, Sello Japhta picks up the player of the match award for his performance at full back.

But hey, enough about Santos. I’ve been going on and on about Santos all Summer, but what we should really be talking about is ME. ME AND MY ACHIEVEMENTS. Namely, completing my National A Coaching License. It really says a lot about Santos that I’ve been able to complete my National coaching badges as the club’s solid financial footing is what’s made it possible and I really owe the club for that, which is why I should now stop talking about me and go back to talking about Santos, as time’s running out before our first league game and there’s still work to be done.

And then I get the call. The call that makes everything sort of OK, or at least gives us hope. Mike Kakuba’s work permit has gone through. The Ugandan International has the green light to sign for Santos FC and that’s exactly what he does.

And in time for our last friendly too! To finish our pre-season we face loanee Manqoba Cele and his Zizwe United side at the Athlone. As I’ve said, I usually like to finish pre-season with a bit more of a challenge, but it is what it is, and what it is is a 4-0 drubbing. Ryan Moon, Sony Norde and Sinbad all score to add to an own goal by Zizwe’s Dladla. Sinbad and Moon in particular are on fire, and Sony Norde, Roscoe and Mike bloody Kakuba all have brilliant games too.

We still have Aidir, Soumahoro and Ekedi waiting to join us, but with Kakuba’s move fresh hope has been breathed into Santos FC. Hope that we can get the deals done and complete this ridiculous, magnificent Summer of change. They’ll have to wait though, because we’ve got an Old Cape Town Derby to play.

Mini-sode 96.5 >

The Great Cull (Franjo: A Journeyman Story – Ep96) < Mini-sode 95.5.5.5.5.5 “Breathe it in, Stevie!” I shout once again upon seeing my landlord approach the Geen Rook Nie building, with Chappie plodding dutifully along beside him.

#angrense #fc #FC Höllviken #fm 17 #fm 2017 #fm17 #fm2017 #football #football manager #football manager 17 #football manager 2017 #franjo #gieksa #gks katowice #Höllviken #journey #journey man #journeyman #katowice #liechtenstein #man #manager #santos #santos fc #sc angrense #sport clube angrense

[tipsoctopus]

"Destined to be average": Many Spurs fans blast "fraud" who looks "like he's on work experience"

Tottenham Hotspur were cruelly dumped out of the Champions League last night as they struggled to come out on top in their two-legged Round of 16 tie.

It means Jose Mourinho’s side have very little chance of achieving anything of note as they only have pride to play for in the Premier League currently.

Spurs lost 4-0 on aggregate with three goals coming in Germany.

The north Londoners have it all to do as they have now exited all three cup competitions and sit some seven points behind the top four – this may well have been the last time on the elite European stage for quite some time.

Some of the travelling support were furious with the performance of Ryan Sessegnon as he earned a rare start at left-back.

Here’s what has been said…

Sessegnon is actually useless

— ⚪��� (@thfcmourinho_) March 10, 2020

There were people who actually argued that Sessegnon deserved to be in the England squad because he notched some goals in the championship.

Massively overrated. Not good enough defensively to be a left back and not good enough going forward to be a winger. 🤷🏼‍♀️

— Adrian John (@AJ37700304) March 10, 2020

Sessegnon is an absolute nothing player man. Even at Fulham, he always looked destined to be average

— Carlos Remontada (@carlosramrz2) March 10, 2020

Winks and Sessegnon off right now absolutely pathetic from both of them. Tanganga looks well out of his depth too

— Keith🇮🇪 (@Keith_678) March 10, 2020

Halftime thoughts: •We have one good player on the pitch – Lo Celso. •Sessegnon is dreadful. •Sell our whole defence • Get a new goalkeeper. •Winks just isn’t good enough – Getting outmuscled every time.

— Max (@thfcmax___) March 10, 2020

Ryan Sessegnon is a fraud.

— khev (@theyhatekhev) March 10, 2020

There were plenty of words used to describe the young Englishman, including “pathetic” and “useless” whilst one supporter went as far as blasting him for being “overrated”.

A further member of the Spurs faithful called him a “fraud”.

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Per SofaScore, the 19-year-old lost possession 23 times, won none of his 14 duels both on the ground and aerially, and also failed to provide an accurate cross or a successful dribble.

Which is why other fans have been slamming him for looking like a “schoolboy” or someone on “work experience” for the club…

Is it just me or does Sessegnon look like he's on work experience?

— Rob Gray (@bobbyg83) March 10, 2020

Sessegnon looks like a lost schoolboy out there. One hell of a jump Badung up the championship to playing CL football. As for Lloris 🤣🤣🤣🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

— Sausage Roll FC (@MikeCOYSpurs) March 10, 2020

Tanganga and Sessegnon look like two school boys who have won a competition to play a game for spurs

— MoggyN17 (@Mohammed_Mogra) March 10, 2020

Some even slammed the price they paid Fulham for him and the fact that he appears to be a “poor bit of business” and you’re inclined to agree with this viewpoint as it was only his 12th appearance of the entire season.

He may not have many more after such a disastrous showing.

https://twitter.com/Christianjw92/status/1237473572492279814

Ryan Sessegnon was clearly never going to improve the squad. Yet Pochettino thought it was a good idea to sign him for THIRTY MILLION POUNDS

— Poch’s Ghost (@lovespursh8poch) March 10, 2020

Plenty believed he should be playing at a lower level of football with the likes of the Championship and League Two being mentioned.

Sessegnon was even slammed for being a winner of a magazine competition.

Lamela is 💩 Moura is an impact sub Dele is a lazy complaining prat Winks is bang average Sessegnon looks like a Div 4 player Aurier is a shambles & a clown Lloris is finished Toby is old Dier is a cart horse

That’s 9 out of 11#RBLTOT #ChampionsLeague

— Stephen Price (@PVsupercars) March 10, 2020

Sessegnon is a Championship level footballer at best

— Greg Jacobs (@GregJacobs1) March 10, 2020

all I'm seeing is Mourinho slander. yet you've got;

Winks – doing his best Mark Noble impression Lamela – plays like he's dancing on ice Sess – looks like he's won a magazine competition Lloris – I've seen diesel tractors move faster Aurier/Lucas – stealing a living

— loco coco 🤺 (@cremedelacoco) March 10, 2020

Ryan Sessegnon is the worst player I've seen in a Spurs shirt for a long time. I honestly don't think he will make it in the premier league.

— Stav thfc (@kingstav) March 10, 2020

What could’ve been… Can you name the clubs these football legends almost joined?

And in other news, our writers think Spurs are onto a winner with this Vertonghen replacement…

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[365footballorg-blog]

Doyle and Warshaw on your team&#039;s biggest needs as transfer window opens

July 10, 20181:50PM EDT

Matt Doyle and Bobby Warshaw

The summer transfer window is open, which means it’s time to break out the checkbooks and do some shopping – or, since this is MLS, a little bit of trading. And it’s worth remembering, of course, that thanks to the rising cap and an influx of Targeted Allocation Money, MLS GMs have more cash to use than at any prior point in the league’s history.

It’s also worth remembering that spending a lot doesn’t necessarily guarantee a lot. We’ve seen a number of outright failures amongst discretionary TAM signings already (Alfredo Ortuño and Ager Aketxe, come on down!), and there will assuredly be more to come.

This should not surprise anyone. MLS, as a league, is relatively new to the global international transfer game, and there will be a learning curve in terms of identifying and integrating talent. Even good teams with good front offices can struggle with that.

I’ve got the Western Conference teams, and my colleague Bobby Warshaw’s got the East teams.

Atlanta United

“Needs? Lol. What needs?”

Let’s look at the checklist for building a team:

Elite talent: Check. Almiron, Martinez, Villalba, Nagbe, etc etc.

Squad balance: Check. Atlanta can pair their star attackers with disciplined anchors like Jeff Larentowicz and Michael Parkhurst. New addition Eric Remedi adds muscle and athleticism in the middle, as well.

Depth: Check. Atlanta are two deep at every position, and can bring in a starting-caliber player if anyone goes out. Center back might be their weakest position in terms of depth – Miles Robinson is still untested and Chris McCann may or may not be good enough – but I’m a believer that teams should leave room for young players to grow. If Michael Parkhurst or Leandro Gonzalez Pirez get hurt, Robinson might be forced into action. It might damage Atlanta’s chances in 2018, but it would help a key young asset grow, which is important for Atlanta in the long term.

Youth development: The Five Stripes have youth starlets Andrew Carleton, Chris Goslin and George Bello on the roster and more in the academy pipeline.

In other words, Atlanta should be chillin’. Any new parts would be more likely to unbalance the squad than fix any holes.

Chicago Fire

The Fire are a team in limbo. They have star players at the tail end of their peak (though still at a very high level) – Dax McCarty, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Nemanja Nikolic – and then a group of younger guys who have shown potential. The window on the older guys may close before the young’uns ripen to maturity.

Most immediately, the Fire need a central attacking player and a center back. Signing a center mid, however, would take minutes from rookie Mo Adams and second-year pro Brandt Bronico, and a new center back would demote highly-rated rookie Grant Lillard. So do the Fire give Adams, Bronico, Lillard and others minutes and help them develop into elite players? Or do they sign ready-made starters to get the team to the playoffs now?

The Fire would regret missing the Dax-Bastian-Nemanja window, so they should sign both a playmaker and a center back, but only for the right price and at the right age. If those guys aren’t available, they should use McCarty, Schweinsteiger and Nikolic to guide the team to sustainable growth via the young talent.

Colorado Rapids

They just played a 5-4-1 with six center backs on the field at various spots, and exactly zero of their big signings from the last two years have paid off to a degree commensurate with their salaries, and the pipeline of young talent hasn’t been robust, and to be completely honest they have so many questions in this team that I’m not sure where, exactly, they should start looking for answers.

How about a No. 10? A guy who can really, really pass the ball would make this team more fun, at the very least.

Columbus Crew SC

This is the easiest one in the top bunch. Crew SC need a winger who can contribute goals. Their leading goal scorer is Gyasi Zardes with 11; Federico Higuain is second with four. After that, it’s pretty barren. Pedro Santos, Mike Grella and Eduardo Sosa have one goal each, while Christian Martinez and Luis Argudo have yet to score.

Columbus don’t lack for chances or shots – they are seventh in MLS per game in both categories; they simply aren’t scoring when the openings come. It means that, as a whole, Crew SC are next to last in goals scored in the East. It’s already starting to take a toll, as they have lost six of their last nine.

Perhaps one of the wingers will break out and start finishing the chances. Offseason signing Sosa is now healthy and should get a run at winger and provide new flair. Or perhaps he/they won’t and the problem will tank Crew SC’s season. Or perhaps head coach Gregg Berhalter will hedge his bets and find another winger via trade or the transfer market.

D.C. United

It’s tough to judge a team that’s played 12 out of 14 games on the road. Audi Field finally opens this weekend; United’s real season was always going to start as soon as that game came around.

When Sporting Kansas City opened their new stadium in 2011, they had only seven points from their first 11 games. Sporting went on a tear in the second half of the year and won the most points, 51, in their conference that season.

Before D.C. look to add any more players, they need to find out what the team looks like with Wayne Rooney in it. Rooney – like any high-priced player – will take up a lot of air, and the team will largely mold around his presence. And his best position has always been up for debate. Ben Olsen will need to find how the team will play with him, and where Rooney will play within it. From there, they can start to make other decisions about the squad.

They pulled themselves out of the 2017 death spiral and are sitting atop the West – just as they were last year at this time. They’ve also avoided last year’s mistake by selling two players (Mauro Diaz and Anton Nedyalkov) when good offers came in, which should keep the locker room closer to healthy.

The problem is that Diaz has been this team’s best player for four years and they become a vastly different team without him. None of the possible replacements as a No. 10 (Santiago Mosquera, Roland Lamah, Paxton Pomykal) play the position the same way, nor have they been as effective. Another problem is that Kellyn Acosta, who was looking like the league’s breakout star at this point in 2017, is a shadow of the player he was 12 months ago.

It might be time to test the trade market for him. And as for Diaz’s spot, Fernando Clavijo has said they’re looking at bringing in a DP-level replacement.

Houston Dynamo

The Dynamo have sort of silently battled injuries to their two defensive midfielders, Juan David Cabezas and Darwin Ceren, all season long and have had to compensate lately by playing Boniek Garcia at that spot. Add in a leaky defense and it’s something of a miracle they’re still in the playoff race.

A leaky and old defense, I should add. Houston need to go out there and find their own Leandro Gonzalez Pirez or Alex Callens at center back. Get a guy back there who can save them points rather than cost them points, and they’ll be comfortably above the playoff line soon, and for good. They should be active and aggressive to get this done.

My concern going into the season with this group was they wouldn’t have enough ball-winning oomph in central midfield. And there they were on Saturday night, playing Benny Feilhaber and Lee Nguyen as dual d-mids. So what do I know, really?

About the only thing I see on this roster is a need for one more center back – perhaps a left-footer. Other than that this roster is stacked, and their biggest moves have been made.

They’ve spent a ton and my hunch is they would be quite happy to get off at least a couple of those DP contracts (and maybe all three, given that Romain Alessandrini has been only a part-time starter for Sigi Schmid’s team). I’m sure they will listen to offers.

Anything they get from said offers needs to be pumped back into the team, specifically at right back. And even if they don’t get rid of any of the large, under-producing contracts that dot the roster, they should look for a right back anyway

It’s amazing, by the way, how underwhelming Los Dos has been in terms of producing contributors compared to teams like NYRBII, Real Monarchs, TFC2 and Bethlehem Steel. LA have the richest academy talent pool north of the Rio Grande and have been running their USL side longer than anybody, but there’s never been a clear path from there to the first team and it really doesn’t look like that’ll be changing any time soon.

Minnesota United FC

They’re down at 1.06 PPG and have the worst goal differential in the West despite adding a bunch of new pieces in attack, on the wings, at fullback and at central defense. In spite of – because of? – all of that, Bobby Shuttleworth has had to be a hero week after week in order to just keep things respectable.

Fans will point to key players from last year regressing at other spots, and fair enough. But when just about everybody’s taking a step backwards, it suggests there’s something systemic at play here.

MNUFC have the second-highest median salary in the league, by the way. They’re not a high-spending team by any stretch, but their salary outlay is more than people generally realize. And given how futile some of those signings have been, and how stunted the development of most of the young players on the roster has been, it’s difficult to justify going out on the market and spending more.

They should work the phones for some trades, though, for sure.

Montreal Impact

The transfer window comes at a weird time for the Impact. They are on a four-game win streak and have won four of their last five, pushing their way into a playoff spot. But not that long ago it felt like the team should call it a wrap for 2018 and focus on the future. And Remi Garde seemed to be the torch bearer for the idea, declaring just seven weeks ago that his team lacked talent.

The biggest requirement for Montreal is getting a clear picture of where the team stands. Has the squad rallied together and proven they are good enough to contend? If so, it may be detrimental to add someone new and mess with team’s camaraderie. Or, conversely, is the win streak a product of hitting an easy patch of games – Houston’s reserve lineup, Orlando and Colorado – that’s hiding obvious shortcomings? If that, then go get the goods while the playoff opportunity is still there.

Once they figure out who they are, they can make decisions. If they want to add, the first priorities would be a young, steady center back and a pacey center forward to run on the break with Ignacio Piatti.

New England Revolution

The Revs have been a pleasant surprise this year. They press the hell out of teams and have established a clear identity. At the same time, they often get in trouble when teams break the pressure. The Revs have allowed soft goals on balls served into their penalty box.

They could use a no-nonsense center back to clean up the mistakes. But a no-nonsense, mistake-free center back that can also play in a pressing system generally goes for hefty sums on the transfer market.

New York City FC

The Cityzens had one of the most talented, most balanced rosters in MLS, but their best laid plans took a hit in June when starting center midfielder Yangel Herrera went down for the year. Offseason acquisition Ebenezer Ofori has settled well into Herrera’s spot, but he isn’t Herrera and the team hasn’t appeared as ruthless as they once did.

Herrera’s absence also leaves a hole in new head coach Dome Torrent’s potential plans. Torrent has shown a preference in recent years to play with two attack-minded box-to-box midfielders. While at Bayern Munich and Manchester City with Pep Guardiola, they used Arturo Vidal, Thiago Alcantara, Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva in front of a single pivot.

With Herrera out, Torrent doesn’t have that type of player on the roster right now. Should he choose to play thay system, he might need to go shopping.

New York Red Bulls

A week ago, I would have said the Red Bulls should and will stand pat. They have beaten (smashed?) all of the elite teams they’ve faced this year. This past week, though, the club announced that starting winger Florian Valot is out for the year with a knee injury.

The Red Bulls will need to find a replacement for Valot, either as depth to a promoted Alex Muyl or as a starter. The recent departure of Carlos Rivas opens the necessary roster spot. The team could probably also use a reliable goalscorer to support or back up Bradley Wright-Phillips, but I personally hope Derrick Etienne Jr. gets the chance to develop into that player.

Orlando City SC

The Lions mostly need just a deep breath. Orlando have too much talent to be as bad as they’ve been recently. New head coach James O’Connor should provide the emotional reset – and tactical rigidity – the team has needed.

In terms of personnel, the lineup has been sorely missing a right back. Depending on how O’Connor wants to play, they may also need a left back. Regular left back Mohamed El-Munir only subbed on as a winger last game. But Orlando has already spent a lot of resources to assemble this team and they should focus on settling things within the locker room before they try to find new pieces.

Philadelphia Union

The statistical need is obvious, but the positional need isn’t. The Union are last in the East in goals scored. They create chances, they just don’t score them. Their center strikers, CJ Sapong and Corey Burke, only have two goals each. Their big offseason acquisition, winger David Accam, has zero goals and zero assists. It’s a horrible return from attacking players that should put their spots in doubt. But…

Accam scored 14 goals for the Fire last year, and 10 and 9 in the two years before that. Sapong banged home 16 last year. There isn’t anyone in the market at the Union’s price point that would be a better bet for success in MLS in coming weeks than Sapong and Accam.

The Union don’t need a new signing up top, they just need a lucky bounce. It takes one easy goal for an attacker to get his mojo back. The talent is there, they just need to find it again.

Portland Timbers

They’ve already been linked to one move in the upcoming window, with young Argentinian attacker Tomas Conechny said to be heading to Oregon this month. That makes sense, and has the potential to fill an obvious need (a young successor to Diego Valeri, who’s going to enter his mid-30s next year and whose minutes should start being managed).

A more obvious need is a young successor to Diego Chara, who’s also approaching his mid-30s and is indispensable. They have a high-ceiling, young box-to-box midfielder playing at T2 already in Eryk Williamson, though he’s maybe too much of a No. 8 and not enough of a No. 6. So I think they need to find themselves a destroyer to groom.

They should also listen to trade offers for Fanendo Adi.

Real Salt Lake

Nobody’s done a better job of getting answers from within than RSL, who started five Homegrown Players and brought in a sixth off the bench on Saturday night in their 2-0 win over Dallas. When you build high-level producers like that, you don’t have to go crazy when the transfer window opens.

So right now they don’t need a ton, especially since they also get roster answers via their USL team (Nick Besler, in particular, has filled in well at two spots). The overall structure and culture of the franchise means they’re in a good spot to sit tight here unless a can’t-miss prospect falls into their laps.

San Jose Earthquakes

They’ve attempted to address a series of needs by importing a series of players who have seriously underperformed across the backline, midfield and attack. Danny Hoesen’s been good (though he came off injured on Saturday), so there’s at least a silver lining. But he’s been the exception rather than the rule.

They’re trying to fix it early in the window, and have signed veteran CB Guram Kashia from Vitesse Arnhem. Having seen him play a little bit (he was Matt Miazga’s CB partner the past 18 months), I think he’ll be a good addition. I also think they need to add a left back, and need to rethink the goalkeeper position, and need to rethink central midfield, and need to… ok yeah, they’re a team with only two wins all year, and both are against Minnesota. So obviously there’s a lot of work to be done.

Seattle Sounders

They’ve already got one part of the solution coming in the form of Raul Ruidiaz, who really should help – you don’t score that many goals in Liga MX by accident.

He can’t be the only addition, though. Left back has been a constant issue, as has a lack of speed on the flanks. Plus the center-back depth chart, even with Roman Torres presumably returning soonish, is uninspiring and old.

What this team really needs, though, is to clear the books and start again this winter. Which is what I think will happen.

Sporting KC

How much did things change on Saturday night when Ike Opara limped off? I think that’s a damn near existential injury – Opara’s the irreplaceable man on that team, more than Tim Melia or Matt Besler or Graham Zusi or Roger Espinoza or Felipe Gutierrez or Johnny Russell or or or or… And if he’s really, really hurt, for a really long while, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Sporting kick over some stones in search of their own Rod Fanni-type six-month center-back solution.

But you’re not reading this to hear me say that. You’re reading this because you want me to tell you that SKC need to go out and find a No. 9 who will bang home goals. All due respect to Khiry Shelton and Diego Rubio, both of whom have had good moments, but… yup.

The current version of Sporting + a top-tier center forward = MLS Cup contender. Current version of Sporting + a top-tier center forward + a healthy Opara and Gutierrez = MLS Cup favorites, maybe?

Time for them to push their chips in.

Toronto FC

It’s been, well, not quite the season that Toronto had hoped. What they need is obvious – for players to get healthy. But it’s not clear when they will have their full allotment again. Or, more importantly, how sharp they will be when they return.

Victor Vazquez is suffering from a back injury, while Drew Moor and Chris Mavinga have long-term muscular injuries, ailments that tend to linger even when a player returns to the field.

TFC are suffering from the one thing that would destroy any team’s season, even the best of the best. Toronto’s real need is time, but it’ll be up to their competitors in the east to determine how much they will get.

Vancouver Whitecaps FC

It’s weird to watch a ‘Caps team that scores a ton but doesn’t really know how to defend. Part of this is just that they miss Tim Parker, but part of it is also that even when things are going well this team just changes so much, so often.

Remember Nosa? Remember when David Ousted got benched down the stretch for no reason? Remember Russell Teibert starting and playing well earlier this year? Remember the big contract Aly Ghazal got?

I don’t think they should sign or trade anyone. I think they should actually stick with the guys they’ve got and let them build chemistry, and give the overall team a chance to become greater than the sum of its parts. I don’t see a lack of talent when I look at the ‘Caps, I see a lack of cohesion and understanding of how to play together.

Obviously if a good young prospect falls into their laps, get him. Other than that, please stop tinkering.

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Doyle and Warshaw on your team's biggest needs as transfer window opens was originally published on 365 Football

#biggest #Doyle #needs #opens #team&039s #transfer #Warshaw #window

[coleendhindman]

The Reel Deal: What You Need to Get Started Fishing

Photo: Robson Morgan

The Reel Deal: What You Need to Get Started Fishing It all starts with a fish and a worm, or it all ends that way, depending on your perspective. First off though, you need the gear. Gone are the days of a cane pole, a string and a worm. Now we have sonar, synthetic lines and enough man-tied flies to rival Mother Nature. License Required I used to complain because a fishing license doesn’t come with a money back guarantee. You see, I must admit I’m not the world’s best fisherman. Oh, I can fish well enough, it’s the catching part I have yet to master. Sometimes I drown a few worms but that’s about it. When you purchase a fishing license though, you are not just paying for the fish you may catch. You are helping to fund the whole fish and game industry in your respective state. License fees pay for hatcheries that supply fish but they also pay for the rangers who assist you in so many ways. Sure, if he catches you without a license he will write you a ticket but that same ranger may save your life, or at the very least assist you when in need. The money you pay and the people it employs help preserve our outdoors for everyone to enjoy today and tomorrow. Location, Location, Location In Colorado, if you’re casting a line into a body of water, you need a license. In some states such as Florida for example, you don’t need a license if you are fishing from on shore, or a pier or dock that is attached to the shore. If you are on a boat, you need that paper. The thing you need in coastal states like Florida though is a bit of knowledge about what you’re dealing with. Some fish must be released when they are too small, some when they’re too big. Some are in season when some are not. This can get tricky when they have such a variety of fish so you may want to read up on the rules.

Get the Gear I really did start fishing with a cane pole but that was down south and was a long time ago. It may look quaint in the movies and sound good in songs but there are sure better ways to catch fish. In today’s world, there is no reason not to have good gear. Good gear is available for prices ranging from dirt cheap to ridiculous. Amazon lists a Shakespeare Youth Fishing kit for less than ten bucks for a rod and reel set up. You can go a bit higher and get a more adult combo rod and reel for about $40 and up.Take the High Road Steeping it up a notch, you could get a Scott FC Fly Rod from Trident Fly Fishing which is hand made in Montrose, Co. This is for the rod only and it runs $3250 but look at what you get. The blanks are hollow built with stabilized nodes and butt swells, sections are joined with hand- made Hariki nickel silver ferrules, along with Agate guides in hand made silver nickel frames. Now, to be honest, I have no idea what any of that means but it does come with free shipping, so there you go.

Photo: Carl Heyerdahl

Tackle the Problem Now, you have to have a tackle box. This can be store bought or a shoe-box but it carries all your hooks and lures and such. They can be found already stocked with just about everything you could need. You can even start with a kid’s tackle box from a discount store. I not only started with one, I bought one recently for about eight bucks for a last minute camping trip; and you wonder why I can’t catch fish?

Let’s Be Serious For that extra special fisherman who needs a little spice in his life, you can sign up for a package of tackle sent to your home every month from MysteryTackleBox.com. You just pick which price ranging from $14.99-$29.99 and specify just what species you’re fishing for such as: Bass, Walleye, Catfish or Trout and you’re all set. The good folks at Mystery Tackle Box will send you a surprise selection of tackle and lures every month.

Drop Me a Line I didn’t mention bait because once you’re anywhere within miles of any body of water, you can buy bait. They sell worms, salmon eggs and whatever else works in that locale at pretty much any convenience store or gas station nearby. Sure you may have some fancy lures in that kid’s tackle box but worms pretty much work anywhere. Besides all this, the only other thing you could use is a good book to teach you how to really catch fish and if you find out, drop me a line, literally. Michael Ryan

from Stansport Blog http://blog.stansport.com/the-reel-deal-what-you-need-to-get-started-fishing/

[megadarkbouquettidalwavethings]

Virgil van Dijk: Liverpool to sign Southampton defender for world record £75m

Southampton centre-back Virgil van Dijk will join Liverpool when the transfer window re-opens on 1 January in a world record £75m deal.

The Netherlands international had been expected to join the Reds last summer after he handed in a transfer request.

But a move fell through when Liverpool apologised for making an alleged illegal approach for the 26-year-old.

The fee is the most ever paid for a defender – Manchester City paid £52m to Monaco for Benjamin Mendy in July.

Van Dijk said in a statement he was “delighted and honoured” to sign for the Merseyside club and accepted he had had a “difficult last few months” at St Mary’s.

He was left out of Southampton’s squad for their 5-2 Premier League defeat by Tottenham on Tuesday, prompting speculation he was set to leave the club.

“Southampton have agreed a fee that will set a new world record for a defender,” the south coast club confirmed on Wednesday.

The player only signed a new six-year contract last year, having joined the Saints from Celtic for £13m in September 2015.

However, Liverpool’s interest in the summer prompted a transfer request from the player which saw him forced to train alone by manager Mauricio Pellegrino.

He returned to first team action in September, featuring in a win at Crystal Palace.

Van Dijk’s former club Celtic will benefit from the record transfer fee – the Scottish champions are understood to have had a 10% sell-on agreement on any future deal.

Though he will join the club on 1 January, Van Dijk will not be able to register as a player until 2 January so will not be available for Liverpool’s trip to Burnley on Monday.

The Anfield club also announced he will wear the number four shirt.

The Van Dijk fee tops the £48m release clause the Reds have agreed for RB Leipzig midfielder Naby Keita, who will move to Anfield next summer.

‘Proud to join one of biggest clubs in world’ – Van Dijk statement

“Delighted and honoured to have agreed to become a Liverpool FC player. Today is a proud day for me and my family as I join one of the biggest clubs in world football.

“I can’t wait to pull on the famous red shirt for the first time in front of the Kop and will give everything I have to try and help this great club achieve something special in the years to come.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to say thank you to Les Reed, the board, manager, players, fans and everyone at Southampton.

“I will always be indebted to the club for giving me the opportunity to play in the Premier League and despite a difficult last few months, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Saints and have made friends for life at the club.”

Analysis

BBC Sport’s Simon Stone

It has cost Liverpool an additional £15m and half a season, but manager Jurgen Klopp has finally got his man.

Southampton pulled the plug on a proposed £60m deal during the summer, such was their unhappiness at the way they were being railroaded into a transfer.

However, the tell-tale sign Klopp knew who he wanted to address defensive deficiencies and wouldn’t be changing his mind came through the fact Liverpool did not try for an alternative.

After conceding 23 goals in 20 Premier League games so far, Klopp has been reminded often enough he needed to strengthen his defence.

Now he has done it, he will hope his side can retain their attacking brilliance and close the gap to Manchester United and Chelsea and, in time, start to challenge at the very top of the Premier League table.

Liverpool’s desire to sign Van Dijk comes through the size of the fee, which Manchester City – who were also interested – were not prepared to match.

As for Southampton, they have got rid of a player who clearly had no wish to remain on the south coast and generated the funds that will allow them to reinforce a squad that has struggled for the past 12 months and led to speculation manager Mauricio Pellegrino is on dodgy ground.

A world record fee – and £171.5m on Saints players

France full-back Benjamin Mendy moved from Monaco to Manchester City in 2017, with Kyle Walker joining Pep Guardiola’s side from Tottenham in the same year.

David Luiz joined Paris St-Germain from Chelsea in 2014, while John Stones arrived at City from Everton in 2016.

Van Dijk will become the sixth Southampton player signed by Liverpool since 2014 – at a total cost of £171.5m.

The other five to have joined are: Sadio Mane (£34m), Adam Lallana (£25m), Dejan Lovren (£20m), Nathaniel Clyne (£12.5m) and Rickie Lambert (£5m).

‘Crazy money’ – reaction

Ex-England and Southampton striker Alan Shearer on BBC Radio 5 live

Southampton have got one hell of a deal. Van Dijk is a good player, yes, but for £75m? No, he’s not worth it at all.

Southampton could have named any price they wanted. They knew Liverpool were absolutely desperate for a centre-half. Everyone is aware they are desperate – we have seen them come up short several times this season.

When Liverpool try and sign a goalkeeper – which they also desperately need – they will find the same thing.

We’ve been saying it for a number of years now – that transfer fees have gone through the roof – and this one has taken it to another level.

Former Southampton manager Harry Redknapp on 5 live

It seems inevitable for Southampton to lose top players every year. It must be disappointing to see so many players leave. Their scouting system has been good – they tend to sell and make profits but eventually that will back fire. They’re in a relegation battle this season – they’re going to have to scrap.

It’s crazy money for a central defender. When he was at Celtic, a lot didn’t think he was good enough for a top-six club at that time. Southampton took a chance and suddenly his fee has gone through the roof. It’s a crazy fee. Southampton have been good at finding replacements, but whether they can do that again is now the question.

Ex-Southampton defender Francis Benali on 5 live

It has always been on the cards. It was just a case of when and for how much. Virgil has been outstanding at Southampton. I looked at him as a player who could quite literally go to any club in the world. He is that good.

I would say since he came back into the side this season he hasn’t quite been firing on all cylinders and looking quite as good as he was before the injury, but that could be said for the whole side.

Your response on #bbcfootball

Tom McCarron: £75m for Van Dijk? Football has officially gone mad; that’s 1 Gareth Bale or 2 Mohamed Salah’s or 315 Luke Chadwicks

David Jennings: Just got to say… £75m… really?!

Ajay Yadaz: Liverpool signing Virgil van Dijk for £75m tells us something is wrong with modern football. Amazed, gutted, pathetic.

The post Virgil van Dijk: Liverpool to sign Southampton defender for world record £75m appeared first on Breaking News Top News & Latest News Headlines | Reuters.