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weekendwarriorblog · 4 years ago

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The Weekend Warrior 4/23/21: MORTAL KOMBAT, DEMON SLAYER, TOGETHER TOGETHER, STREET GANG, SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS

Ugh. Trying to maintain this column as a weekly entity during the final few weeks of the longest Oscar season ever has been really hard, and I’m not sure that will change once the Oscars are over either, because I look at the number of movies being released both theatrically and streaming over the next few weeks, and it makes my head hurt. Sorry for the kvetching, it just is what it is.

There are two big theatrical releases this weekend, Warner Bros’ MORTAL KOMBAT and DEMON SLAYER THE MOVIE: MUGEN TRAIN from FUNImation Entertainment, both which have already been released internationally. I also probably won’t be able to watch or review either before this column gets posted.

Mortal Kombat seems like the easiest sell being that it’s based on the popular Midway Games video game franchise introduced in the early ‘90s that led to a series of films, books, comics and you name it. It was a very popular fighting game that had over a dozen iterations including one in which MK characters fought against DC superheroes.

The very first Mortal Kombat movies opened in 1995, right amidst MK-mania, and it was directed by one Paul W.S. Anderson, his very first movie in a long line of video game-related movies, including a number of Resident Evil and the recent Monster Hunter. There are a lot of people who love those games, and yes, even people who love that and other movies, but to others, who may have been too old to get into the games when they came out, the whole thing about different fighters fighting each other just looks kind of studio. Even though I’m interested to see what producer James Wan brings to this reboot, I just don’t have much interest otherwise.

Unfortunately, and this is pretty daunting, Warner Bros. wasn’t sending out screeners to critics until Wednesday with a review embargo for Thursday night at 7pm, which is never a good sign, and yet, it continues Warner Bros. continuing the trend of being one of the only studios that screeners EVERY movie to film critics rather than just making them pay to see it on Thursday night or Friday. I hope to watch it and maybe add something Thursday night, time-permitting. Not sure you heard but the Oscars are Sunday.

As far as box office, Mortal Kombat opens on Friday but also premieres on HBO Max, and I’m not sure there will be as much urge to see MK on the largest screen possible, as there was with Godzilla vs. Kong. Because of that, I think the cap for this one over the three-day weekend is about $10 million but not much more and probably more frontloaded to Friday than we’ve seen in some time.

Mini-Review: As you can imagine from my statement above, I don’t hold the Mortal Kombat games or other iterations in any particular high esteem, so I’m basically jumping into this movie, directed by Simon McQuoid, just as a movie and not necessarily as a video game movie.

It starts off promising enough like a samurai movie with a flashback where we watch Hiroyuki Sanada’s hero sees his wife and son be killed by Joe Taslim’s character that will later become Sub-Zero. The general principle seems to be that there’s a world where people from other worlds fight each other to gain complete control. The hero is Lewis Tan’s MMA fighter Cole Young, presumably a popular character from the game? He is also soon attacked by Sub-Zero presumably because he’s marked with a dragon tattoo that deems him a champion of these fights, but he needs to find someone named Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) to help him get to the “Mortal Kombat.” At the same time, he meets the movie’s most entertaining character, Kane,

played by Australian actor Josh Lawson, mainly because he swears constantly and cracks wise -- he’s a bit like Wolverine, actually, and he’s actually the best part of the movie.

Otherwise, everyone and everything is always so deadly serious that everyone else we meet just doesn’t have much impact, because frankly, none of these names or characters mean jack shit to me. Sure, some of them sound vaguely familiar but I was more interested in the great Asian actors who turn up including Tadanobu Asano’s Lord Raiden, who is gonna claim Earth if its champions lose at Mortal Kombat. And Sub-Zero basically just shows up and tries to kill everyone.

As with far too many action movies, the action itself is great, the writing and acting not so much.

As it goes along, things become more epic and fantasy-driven but that also makes the dialogue seem even worse. Similarly, the fight choreography is pretty great, but the movie still leans way too heavily on visual FX to keep it more interesting for anyone not too interested in MMA… like myself. When all else fails, they can show off Sub-Zero’s cool ice powers every chance possible as well as the other’s powers, but some of them (like Lord Raiden) just made me think of this as a rip-off of the great Big Trouble in Little China.

The thing is I’m not a fan of the video game nor of MMA, so Mortal Kombat really doesn’t have much to offer me. The whole thing just seems very silly, just like almost everything from the ‘90s. (How’s THAT for a bad take?)

That said, I thought the final battle was great, and I enjoyed some of the gorier aspects of the fights, too, and it all leads to my favorite part, which is the three-way fight between Cole, Sub-Zero, and… actually I’m not sure if it’s a spoiler or not, but it’s a pretty cool fight that almost makes up for some of the dumber characters introduced earlier on. (LIke that guy with four arms. I know he’s a character in the games, but I didn’t even care enough to look up his name.)

It’s perfectly fine that they decided to go Rated R with the movie since most of the nostalgia for this movie and franchise will be towards older guys, but at times, the CG blood is so hinky it feels like the decision to go R-rated was made well after it was filmed.

Even though I went in with the lowest of expectations, I still found most of Mortal Kombat kinda trite and boring, maybe something I’d appreciate more as a teenager but not so much as a grown adult. But what do you expect for a movie based on a video game that’s just a bunch of “cool fights”?

Rating: 5.5/10

And yet, Demon Slayer could be the surprise breakout of the weekend, considering the theatrical success FUNimation has had with theatrical releases of the My Hero Academia movies into theaters in 2018 and 2020, and the hugely successful Dragon Ball Super: Brolly, which grossed $31 million domestically after a surprise $20.2 million in its first five days in roughly 1,200 movies. In fact, it made $7 million its opening Wednesday in January 2019, and FUNimation is hoping that Demon Slayer will have a similar success by opening it for a single day (Thursday) in IMAX theaters before Mortal Kombat takes over on Friday.

Demon Slayer has already grossed $383.7 million internationally compared to Mortal Kombat’s $10.7 million, and you cannot ignore the huge popularity that anime has seen over the past few decades. In fact, a bunch of screenings for Demon Slayer in NYC have already sold out, although you have to bear in mind that these are 25% capacity theaters. Even so, I still think this can make $4 to 5 million on Thursday and another $7 to 8 million over the weekend, depending on the number of theaters. Yes, it will be quite frontloaded, and I’m not sure what the cap is on theaters and how that will affect how it does over the weekend, but expect a big Thursday and a more moderate weekend but one that might give both Mortal Kombat and Godzilla vs. Kong a run for the top of the box office.

Also hitting theaters before streaming on Netflix (on April 30) is THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES, the new animated movie produced by Chris Miller and Philip Lord, following their Oscar win for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s a little weird to open a new animated movies, presumably in select theaters, when such a hugely anticipated animated movie like Demon Slayer is opening, but Netflix won’t

The movie itself is directed by Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe, and it involves a family named the Mitchells, whose eldest daughter Katie (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) is leaving home for college, so her father (voiced by Danny McBride) decides that he’s going to drive her there and use it as the chance for a cross-country family trip. Meanwhile, it’s set up how the world becomes overrun with robots when a tech giant creates a new personal assistant.

I wasn’t sure whether I’d like this even though I’m generally a fan of all of Lord/Miller’s animated movies including both Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movies. It took me a little time to get into the family and the general premise. In some ways it reminded me of Edgar Wright’s The World’s End where it’s trying to merge these two disparate genres, but when they actually merge, it just doesn’t work as well as it may have seemed on paper. That worry is soon expunged, because Rianda finds ways to integrate the two ideas over time.

On the trip, the Mitchells run into their perfect family neighbors, the Poseys -- voiced by Krissy Teigen, John Legend and Charlyne Yi -- and you’d think they might be a bigger part of the movie then they actually are. I’m not sure I would have liked doing the family-vs.-family thing so soon after last year’s Croods movie, but I did love the dynamics of the Mitchells being a very relatable imperfect family with Danny McBride being particularly great voicing the family patriarch. It even has a really touching Pixar’s Up moment of Katie’s father watching old home movies of them together when she was younger.

In general, the filmmakers have assembled a pretty amazing voice cast that includes Conan O’Brien, Olivia Colman, Fred Armisen and Beck Bennett. Actually the weirdest voice choice is Katie’s younger brother Aaron, voiced by Rianda himself, and it sounds like a strange older man trying to be a kid, so it doesn’t work as well as others.

What I genuinely liked about Mitchells vs. the Machines is that it doesn’t go out of its way to talk down to overly sensitive kiddies or skimp on the action while also including elements that parents will enjoy as well, and to me, that’s the ideal of a family film.

While some might feel that The Mitchells vs. the Machines is fairly standard animated fare, it ends up being a fun cross between National Lampoon’s Vacation (cleaned up for the kiddies) with Will Smith’s I, Robot, actually, and yet, it somehow does work. It’s a shame that it’s really not getting a theatrical release except to be awards-eligible.

Next, we have two really great movies I saw at Sundance this year and really enjoyed immensely…

So as I mentioned, I first saw Nikole Beckwith’s TOGETHER TOGETHER (Bleecker Street), starring Ed Helms and Patti Harrison, at Sundance, and it was one of my favorite movies there with Helms playing a middle-aged single guy named Matt, who hires the much-younger Anna (Harrison) to be his surrogate, because he wants a baby. It’s a tough relationship thrown together due to each of their respective necessities.

Part of what drives the movie is how different Matt and Anna are, him being quite inappropriate with his suggestions and requests but not really having a working knowledge of female anatomy, pregnancy, delivery etc, but being really eager to raise a child and having the money that Anna clearly does not.

While I was familiar with Helms from The Office, The Hangover, etc. I really didn’t know Patti Harrison at all. Apparently, she’s a stand-up comic who hasn’t done a ton of acting, comedic or otherwise. That’s pretty amazing when you watch this movie and see her dry sardonic wit playing well against Helms’ generally lovable doofus. What I also didn’t realize and frankly, I don’t really see this as something even worth mentioning, is that she’s a trans woman playing a clearly CIS part, and she kills it. I certainly wouldn’t have known nor did it really affect my enjoyment of the movie, yet it still seems like such a brave statement on the part of the director and Harrison herself. The thing is that Harrison isn't just a terrific actress in her own right, but she brings out aspects of Helms that I never thought I would ever possibly see. (If it isn't obvious, I'm not the biggest fan of Helms.)

The movie has a great sense of humor, as it gets the most out of this awkward duo and then throws so many great supporting actors into the cast around them that it’s almost impossible not to enjoy the laughs. There’s the testy Sonogram tech, played by Sufe Bradshaw from Veep, who tries to maintain her composure and bite her tongue, but you can tell she’s having none of it. Others who show up, including Tig Notero, Norah Dunn and Fred Melamed. Just when you least expect it, Anna Conkle from Pen15, shows up as one of those delivery gurus that make the two of them feel even more awkward.

What’s nice is that this never turns into the typical meet cute rom-com that some might be expecting, as Beckwith’s film is more about friendship and companionship and being there for another, and the lack of that romantic spark even as chemistry develops between them is what makes this film so enjoyably unique. Beckwith’s sense of humor combined with her dynamic duo stars makes Together Together the best comedy about pregnancy probably since Knocked Up.

Another great Sundance movie and actually one of my two favorite recent documentaries AND one of the best movies I’ve seen this year is… you know what? I haven’t done this for a while so this is this week’s “CHOSEN ONE”!! (Fanfare)

(Photo courtesy: Robert Fuhring/Courtesy Sesame Workshop)

Marilyn (Mad Hot Ballroom) Agrilo’s STREET GANG: HOW WE GOT TO SESAME STREET (Screen Media/HBO Documentaries) is a fantastic doc about the long-running and popular PBS kids show that’s every bit as good as Morgan Neville’s Mr. Rogers doc, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Which was robbed of an Oscar nomination a few years back.

Let me make something clear on the day I’m writing this, April 21, 2021, that this is my favorite movie of the year, the only one I’ve already given a 10/10, and the end of the year might come around, and I have a feeling it will still be my #1.

You see, I was raised a Sesame Street kid. It’s not like I didn’t read or play outside or not get the attention of my parents or family, but there was so much of my happy, young life that I could attribute to my time watching Sesame Street, and when you watch Marily Agrilo’s amazing doc, it all comes rushing back. There is stuff in this movie that I haven’t seen in maybe 50 years but that I clearly remember laughing at, and there’s stuff that got into the mind of a young Ed that influenced my love of humor and music and just outright insanity. Sure, I loved The Muppet Show, too, but it was a different experience, so to watch a movie about the show with all sorts of stuff I had never seen or knew, that’s what makes Street Gang such a brilliant documentary, and easily one of the best we’ll see this year. Of that I have no doubt.

From the very origins of the show with Joan Cooney developing a show that will be entertaining and educational to the kids being plopped down in front of the TV in the ‘60s and ‘70s, so they can learn something, it’s just 1:46 of straight-up wonderment.

Besides getting to see a lot of the beloved actors/characters from the show and many of the surviving players like Carol Spinney aka Big Bird/Oscar, you can see how this show tried to create something that wasn’t just constantly advertising to young minds.

More than anything, the show is a love letter to the bromance between Jim Henson and Frank Oz, and you get to see so many of their bits and outtakes that make their Muppets like Burt and Ernie and Grover and, of course, Kermit, so beloved by kids that even cynical adults like myself would revert childhood just thinking about them. Then on top of that there’s the wonderful music and songs of Christopher Cerf and Joe Raposo and others, songs that would permeate the mainstream populace and be remembered for decades.

The movie is just a tribute to the joy of childhood and learning to love and sing and dance and just have fun and not worry about the world. I’m not sure if kids these days have anything like that.

It also gets quite sad, and I’m not embarrassed to say that in the sequence that covers the death of Mr. Hooper, I was outright bawling, and a few minutes later, when Jim Henson dies in 1990, I completely lost it. That’s how much this show meant to me and to so many people over the decades, and Brava to Ms. Agrilo for creating just the perfect document to everything that Sesame Street brought to so many people’s lives. This is easily the best documentary this year, and woe be to any Academy that doesn’t remember it at year’s end.

The other fantastic doc out this week, though I actually got to see it last year, is Lisa Rovner’s SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS (Metrograph Pictures), which will play at the Metrograph, both on demand and part of its Digital Live Screenings (available to join for just $5 a month!). This is an endlessly fascinating doc that looks at the women of electronic music and the early days of synthesizers and synthesis and some of the female pioneers. It’s narrated by Laurie Anderson, which couldn’t be the more perfect combination.

The movie covers the likes of Suzanne Cianni; Forbidden Planet composers Louis and Bebe Barron, who created the first all-electronic score for that movie; the amazing Wendy Carlos, who electronically scored one of my favorite movies of all time, Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange; Delia Derbyshire, who was also the subject of Caroline Catz’s short, Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and Legendary Tapes, which tragically, I missed when it premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March. Derbyshire was also famous for creating the iconic theme to “Doctor Who” while working at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the '60s. Others who appear in the movie, either via archival footage or more recent interviews are Pauline Oliveros and Laurie Spiegel, who I was less familiar with.

The point is that as someone who was a fantastic for electronic music and synthesizers from a very early age and for someone who feels he’s very familiar with all angles of music, I learned a lot from watching Rovner’s film, and I enjoyed it just as much a second time, because the footage assembled proves what amazing work these women were doing and rarely if ever getting the credit for what they brought to electronic music, something that still resonates with the kids today who love things like EDM.

An endlessly fascinating film with so much great music and footage, Sisters with Transistors can be watched exclusively through the Metrograph’s Live Screening series, so don’t miss it!

Hitting Shudder this week is Chris Baugh’s BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL (Shudder), which I didn’t get a chance to watch before writing this week’s column, but Shudder in general has been knocking it out of the park with the amazing horror movies it’s been releasing on a weekly basis. This one involves a quarelling father and son on a road who must survive the night when they awaken an ancient Irish vampire.

Also hitting theaters and streamers and digital this week:

THE MARIJUANA CONSPIRACY (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

MY WONDERFUL WANDA (Zeitgeist Films)

WET SEASON (Strand Releasing)

CRESTONE (Utopia)

VANQUISH (Lionsgate)

BLOODTHIRSTY (Brainstorm)

SASQUATCH (Hulu)

SHADOW AND BONE (Netflix)

And that wraps up this week. Next week? No idea… I know there’s stuff coming out but I probably won’t think about it until after THE OSCARS!!!! On Sunday.

#movies #mortalkombat #demonslayer #weekendwarrior #reviews #sisters with transistors #togethertogether #mitchellsvsmachines #streaming

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vernonfielding · 5 years ago

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You feel brave little cub-cub

Welcome to my totally self-indulgent, insane and ridiculous Season 7 Countdown Project! For the month of January, I’m planning to post one missing scene fic a day. Yes, that’s 31 stories. I don’t know what possessed me to do this, except it seemed like a fun idea? And I like absurd challenges?

Anyway, on to the first fic! Only 30 more to go!

Summary: Amy and Jake decide to finish the Worst Date Ever after ending their stakeout and catching the bad guys. Takes place during The Bet. (Read on AO3.)

It’s well after 11 by the time they make it back to the precinct and hand their perps off to processing, and Amy is that particular kind of late-night punchy that comes from lack of sleep, physical and mental fatigue and the rush of having just made two arrests that weren’t even on her radar a few hours ago.

So that’s why she turns to Jake and says, “You have 38 minutes left on your date. Where are we going next?”

Jake just stares at her all agog and says, dumbly, “What now?”

Amy glances at her watch and snickers, then shoves it up in Jake’s face. “Thirty-seven minutes now, loser. Look, I just want to make sure we finish this thing so you’re not holding it over my head forever that I bailed early.”

That’s not entirely true – in that, it’s not her reasoning, though now that she thinks about it, that would be such a Jake move. The thing is, she can’t deny, at least to herself, that she kind of wants to see where else this worst-date-ever will go. She’s not quite ready for the night to end.

Jake’s eyes go wide and he nods slowly. She can practically see the gears spinning in his head. She’s sure he’s running over his horrible schedule of events for the night, and his mouth curls up in a look that Amy can only identify as glee. The look gives her a moment of doubt and she takes a half-step back, but Jake’s hands are up, catching her by the elbows.

His eyes are sparkling, his whole face is glowing, and Amy takes in a shuddery breath.

“Come with me,” he says, and wrenches her toward the elevator.

+++

He doesn’t make her put on the dress again, which, thank God. He refuses to even entertain her questions on the 10-minute drive to their next – and final, she presumes – stop for the night: a brick-faced walkup in Bedford. Jake parks in a passenger drop-off zone right in front and rings up at the lobby door and gives his name when a man answers. They’re buzzed in right away. Amy shivers in the blast of heat when they walk inside.

Jake takes them up a flight of stairs and down a beige-painted hallway, and he knocks on a door at the end, three sharp raps with his knuckles. He gives her an exaggerated wink and the very definition of a beaming grin, so big and joyful Amy doesn’t even try to fight her own in response.

The door cracks open and bald man with more face piercings than Amy can count says, “Quick, inside.” He shoves the door closed behind them and turns about 18 locks.

“Jake-”

“I know, so cool, right?”

“This is so not cool,” Amy hisses at him.

The apartment is empty aside from a single beat-up couch pushed against the half wall beneath the kitchen counter. The walls are covered in disturbing scratches and gouges and what Amy’s pretty sure are patches of old dried blood. The bald man has disappeared.

“If you brought me to a murder apartment for a date, I will kill you.” Amy says, eyeing the majorly locked front door and wondering if there are any other exits. Jake turns and beams at her again and Amy adds, “I am serious, Peralta.”

Then a door back beyond the kitchen swings open and the bald man walks toward them, and in one hand he’s holding a leash. And at the end of the leash-

“Oh my God. Is that-” She cuts herself off, blinking fast as the room takes on a surreal, shimmery quality.

“Yes, Amy Santiago,” Jake says, going down on his knees to greet the approaching animal. “That is a tiger cub.”

+++

“This can’t be legal,” Amy says, for like the fifth time. The tiger cub is curled up in her lap and purring while Jake feeds it from a bottle. It’s seriously the most adorable thing she’s seen in her life, and she has a lot of pretty cute nieces and nephews.

“Yeah, I rented it on the darknet,” Jake says.

He coos at the cub and it blinks its eyes open lazily and rests one fuzzy paw on Jake’s hand holding the bottle. Amy melts.

She’s stroking the tiger’s back, scritching her fingers through its so-soft fur. After eating, the bald-headed handler says, watching them from the kitchen as he sips at a beer, the tiger will want to play for awhile.

They spend two hours with the cub, whom Jake names Goliath (Bald Man is weirdly secretive about the tiger’s real name). Amy rolls around with it on the carpet that smells like stale cigarettes, and Jake rocks it in his arms like a baby, and they both end up with shallow scratches all up and down their arms and tiger saliva in their hair. The tiger makes these grunting, labored crying sounds when it plays, something between a cat’s meow and a baby’s whimper, and Amy knows she’s going to be looking up tiger cub videos on YouTube the next day just to hear it again.

When the bald man finally says their time is up, and lifts the snoozing cub out of Amy’s hands by pinching it at the back of the neck like a mother would (Amy supposes – another thing she’s going to have to look up), it’s hours past the end of their date. Amy’s knees pop as she stands, and Jake stretches his arms up over his head and bends side to side, groaning at the pull of muscles.

He gives her a soft, guarded smile before leading the way out of the apartment and back to the car.

They don’t talk at first, and Jake weirdly doesn’t touch the radio, just lets it play whatever station he had it on before. Some pop song Amy doesn’t recognize crackles over the cheap speakers.

“That was amazing,” she says, as Jake merges into the late-night traffic on Myrtle. He’s looking in the rearview mirror, but she catches his gaze flirt over to her.

“Yeah, it kind of was,” Jake says, voice gone thoughtful, like he’s surprised even himself.

“And seriously illegal,” Amy adds.

“Oh, so illegal.”

They both laugh, and the silence that follows is gentle and easy.

Jake flicks the radio to something she still doesn’t recognize and Amy stares out the passenger window, at the red and orange lights bouncing off rain-slicked streets. She’s thinking that she’s glad she’s not allergic to cats. And that she hopes Bald Man takes good care of that tiger cub (and also that she should definitely report him to animal control in the morning).

And she’s also thinking that this worst-date-ever has been one of the better dates of her life.

“Why a tiger cub?” she says as Jake turns onto her street.

Jake doesn’t answer right away, just pulls next to a fire hydrant right in front of her building. Both his hands are on the steering wheel, thumbs tapping some rhythmless beat.

Finally he shrugs. “I guess I was just inspired.”

“Inspired,” Amy repeats, and he looks at her and nods.

The air in his car has gone charged, and Amy swallows hard.

“By me,” she says.

Jake’s face goes flushed with surprise and it takes her a moment to realize he’s flustered, and he says quickly, “No, what? No. By the bet. I was inspired by the bet, Santiago.”

“Okay,” Amy says, hands up. She thinks maybe she should feel offended but she’s not. “Well- thank you. I mean, for not making tonight too horrible.”

“Oh trust me, I had so much more terrible stuff planned, but-” He stops and lifts his hands in defeat. “Crime’s gotta come first.”

“I think you might want to reconsider that phrasing, but sure,” Amy says with a chuckle.

She reaches for the handle and pushes the door open with her shoulder, because it always gets stuck. She’s halfway out when she feels Jake’s hand on her upper arm and she turns back to him.

“Thanks for being a good sport,” he says. He’s leaning across the seats toward her, and his face is in shadow.

Amy shrugs. “You won.”

“I guess I did,” Jake says.

He lets go of her arm with a goodnight, and he stays idling at the curb until after Amy’s closed the lobby door behind her.

End Notes:

The FANTASTIC @fezzle is taking on the absurdly large job of beta-ing all of these stories. She also totally supported my craziness in planning this thing and gave me prompts and didn’t laugh at my planning spreadsheet even once. I love her so.

The rules of my countdown project are: All fics must be canon-compliant missing scenes, and at least 1,000 words.

Jake/Amy fics will dominate, but I’m deliberately diversifying. All of the main characters will have at least one POV fic. And several secondary/one-off characters will get POV fics too.

The titles will all come from The Lonely Island’s Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience. This...works shockingly well. The title for this fic is from Let’s Bash (and specifically Andy’s amazing baseball teams frap).

Look, do we know that Jake and Amy hung out with a tiger cub at the end of their date? We do not. But do we know that they didn’t? WE DO NOT.

I will happily take prompts!! Seriously, please send me prompts. If there’s ever been a missing scene you’re dying to read, now’s the time to request it. Or you can really challenge me and give me something super weird (just, no Cheddar or Sgt. Peanut Butter POV). My asks are wide open!

#b99 fic #b99 season 7 countdown project #jake/amy #pre-relationship #missing scene #the bet

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quincyamarikwa5 · 3 years ago

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Is The MLS Only “Checking The Box” When It Comes To Black People & Diversity Of The League?

The #AskASocerPro show is a Live video podcast where 11 year MLS vet and Mental Strength Coach Quincy Amarikwa dives into the mentalities of highly successful individuals both on and off the pitch. In this weeks episode Quincy Amarikwa discussed about What is the MSL Mentality, Why You Need A Perfect Soccer Subscription and more.

Time Stamps

0:00-3:24 What is the MSL Mentality? Welcome To EP 103 Of The #AskASoccerPro Show!

3:25-4:48 Why You Need A Perfect Soccer Subscription!

5:02-6:17 Did You Catch EP 102 With Chris Odoi?

7:47-9:47 Quincy Is Keeping Fit This Offseason At #AmarikwaAcres

9:52-13:23 The MSL Mentality Is Thriving Within Our Community!

13:24-14:49 Perfect Soccer Internship Opportunities!

16:17-17:30 @timmypig14 Joins The #AskASoccerPro Show

17:35- 19:45 @timmypig14’s Biggest Takeaways From The MSL Mentality

19:46-23:14 @Timmypig14 Breaks Down Why She Feels She’s Underrated

23:40-26:46 @Timmypig14 Shoots Her Shot!

31:08-35:00 Quincy’s Thoughts On The MLS During Black History Month 2021

35:01-36:06 What would happen if the CBA between the MLS and MLSPA didn’t come to terms?

36:41-38:38 Is The MLS Only “Checking The Box” When It Comes To Black People & Diversity Of The League?

38:40-40:11 Seeing The Long Term Impact Come To Life!

42:52-47:20 Advice For An Upcoming Pro Trial? @anders….

48:00-49:01 Impacts of COVID and the CBA on the soccer market.

56:17-58:46 What Does Quincy’s 2021 Soccer Future Look Like?

59:40-62:29 How To Bring The MSL Into Your Life!

If you would like to listen to the episode:

If you would like to watch the episode:

If you would like to read the interview:

*Transcript is unedited and machine-generated. There will be errors. For further clarity please refer to the audio or video.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:00:00):

We're all here to ride the MSL waves. You've mentioned the strength lead. I'd like to welcome you to another episode of the hashtag ask eight soccer pro [inaudible]

Quincy Amarikwa (00:00:11):

No Timmy pig, Joe Jackson, what's Pippi pop in. He know what it is, who has to have his throw a goat legend of a man up on the screen that MSL increased football. What's going on a [inaudible], um, M and UFC fan page dropping in what's. Wha what's up, everybody. Have you see everybody joining in tuning in here today is going to be a good episode. I think episode one Oh three hashtag has a second first show. So as everybody's joining in, um, uh, polka junior said, I completely forgot about today's show, but luckily I set three monitor. Yo, shout out, push notification, gang. Love that. Messy getting woke. You guys know what it is. All right. So as everybody is, uh, dialing in here, tuning in here, what's going on, Nate? Um, it is another episode of the hashtag ask a soccer pro show. Oh, episode one Oh three.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:01:21):

I'm your host. 12 year pro MLS cup champion, MLS comeback player of the year, UC Davis hall of fame member, black players for change founder and MSL coach coinci America. Now, what is the MSL? You might be asking yourself? Well, a lot of the MSL army knows about that. MSL lesion knows what that's all about, but that's what we're here to discuss. Every Thursday, 6:00 PM, PST 9:00 PM EST on the app. Perfect. Underscore soccer, Instagram account, the mental strength league. You guys know what it is, I'm in your head, right? For those of you who are just tuning into this frequency, it is a game of mental 40 chess. One where you're either aware or wait. You're either aware and an active participant, or you are a pawn in the game sitting in plate because no one it is. So what is the MSL? It is the mindset you need to accomplish your goals.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:02:15):

Why should you have this mindset? So you can learn how to learn, why learn, how to learn. You may then be asking yourself well that's so you can know when and how you are stopping yourself from achieving your goals and what to do about it. And the ultimate question is when does this mindset start? The moment you decide to take responsibility for where you are, even if where you are, isn't your fault and put forth a plan to learn what you need to, to continue forward. So if you are ready for two days episode, I'm gonna need you guys to start spamming that heart button and dropping them on in your head. Emojis. If you guys are down with the MSL and, uh, those of you who are new, who are down to get down in the MSL, go ahead and drop them. I'm in your head, emojis and spam that hard button and a drop down below, or drop in the comments and stuff.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:03:03):

What you're excited about for today's episode, um, what you took away from last week, where you're calling in from where you guys are located. I threw a whole bunch of stuff out there. So you do what speaks to you in this moment, drop whatever you're feeling down in there while I move on to today's sponsor. Cause you guys know what it is now. We out here extra official with it. So, uh, today's episode of the hashtag S soccer pro show is brought to you by perfect soccer. You know what it is the number one platform to talk to learn from and work with pro soccer players. Sign up for your perfect soccer subscription today [email protected] slash subscription. You guys see that pin below. It is the ultimate soccer package. There's so much dope stuff that I won't even just go to. Perfect soccer skills.com/subscription. Check it out.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:03:54):

You got a personalized trainings, uh, custom websites with editing services, highlight tapes, how to promote yourself. All of our books, training centers, tools, resources, videos, uh, individual trainings, personal, uh, private zoom meetings, all with that soccer subscription and ultimate discount coach says, sweet, sweet merge. Like this merged like this. You know what I mean? And more, and we're adding more to it every single day. So the subscription only gets better with time because you guys know an investment in perfect soccer is an investment in yourself. A perfect soccer subscription is for youth players to prose coaches and parents get access to everything you need on your soccer journey with your perfect soccer subscription. So you guys please head over to perfect soccer skills.com/subscription and purchase yourself your perfect soccer subscription. If you haven't already, uh, Emilio said legendary sponsor, flame emojis. You already know what it is, but we're going to, we're going to have a great F episode today because as you guys know, we're, we're, we're, we've changed up the flow of the show a little bit.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:05:02):

We've been doing, uh, having a guest and last week episode one Oh two, we had, uh, Chris [inaudible], uh, my formal former teammate, MSL, mentee, current MSL, mentee, and, uh, most, uh, recent, recent perfect soccer intern, uh, joining last week, share a bit of his story, his path to the professional ranks, how he overcame cancer and his just overall mentality shift as a result of that and learning about the MSL. So if for those of you who didn't, uh, have a chance to listen to last week's episode, I highly recommend you catch the replay, uh, published over on perfect soccer skills.com. And for those of you who were in last week, what, uh, what were kind of your takeaways, uh, have, has anyone watched the rewatch, the replay, um, reprocessed self-reflected on that and, um, yeah. Uh, I'm, I'm wanting to do like a traditional MSL episode like today.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:06:00):

So episode one Oh three, where we, uh, we talked to the audience, we hear where you guys are at, what you took away from last week, guest episode, any person, any questions you have for me, uh, today, as well as I think we'll also begin Timmy pig, we'll be making a quick little appearance here for a couple of minutes, uh, for, for those of you who follow, obviously you follow the account, but you're keeping up to date. Connor manages the account day to day, and he's been, uh, sending out a couple of questions, uh, to the audience. And one of the questions that was sent out was tell us someone who is, um, underrated. And, uh, I liked Timmy pig, 14, the answer. So, uh, we'll have her on here in a, in a bit to, uh, share, share her answer and why that's the case.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:06:51):

So it should be a good one, should be a good one today and, uh, drop your questions in the box. If you've got any, and we'll do a bit of everything. We'll riff, give you guys some updates as to what's going on and, uh, all that good stuff. See Donna joined in what's what's going on, Donna Popa Jr said the mental strength, lead leak, flame emojis and the frequency. Yes, he is Emilio dropping them in your head. Uh, uh, I'm in here at emojis, uh, Umar doing the same path to pro soccer with three heart emojis. No, I'm loving, loving the engagement scene, everybody here.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:07:36):

Um, let's see. Let's see,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:07:42):

I see you guys dropping some stuff down there. I'll also give you guys kind of an update for those of you. Who've been following my personal account, Quincy Mariko account. You guys will know that we, uh, we purchased some land and we've got America acres jumping off, but that also doesn't mean,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:08:00):

Uh huh.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:08:03):

So getting into farming and ag, but that also doesn't mean we're not still staying prepared because you got to stay ready. So you don't have to get ready for the upcoming soccer season. I'm officially in my, what is this? So I'm, I'm in free agency and this will be my 13th year pro

Quincy Amarikwa (00:08:23):

If we

Quincy Amarikwa (00:08:25):

Ended up securing another contract here. So, um, gotta be getting that training in I'll know if you guys have been watching and the boys have been joining in as well too. So getting a lot of plyo work out here on, uh, America acres. So what have you guys been doing to keep it

Quincy Amarikwa (00:08:45):

In shape? Um, and have you been,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:08:51):

You guys have been following me. I sit here, my little one doing his thing. So I've been doing a lot of, uh, bounding work, plyo work. You see the little ones they're practicing, having some fun as well to you. Legs are still a little bit, I'm gonna lie. Legs are a little tired from

Quincy Amarikwa (00:09:08):

That work from yesterday's training.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:09:13):

But yeah, I'm planning on building kind of like a, a training, like a mini training facility with a weights, a wall full school and all that. So I'm looking forward to that. So I'll keep you guys, if you guys aren't already, um, if you guys aren't already following my personal and seeing what's been going on over there, don't miss out on some of that good wholesome content. All right. So let's see, uh, loving everyone spam that heart button appreciate that. Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:09:49):

Let's get into it. So,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:09:52):

Uh, Popa junior said, what I got from last week shows that you must not give up no matter what life throws at you, that is he solid and true takeaway. Um, so always good to connect with Chris and just see his progress. Um, especially coming back from, you know,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:10:12):

Something like cancer, right? It's no joke,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:10:18):

But he's got that long-term winners mindset. You guys know what it is. Uh, okay. Umar said when y'all spoke about the time sheets, that helped remind me how important and how important time management is with training. That is, that is a, that's a true shout. I, I think, I think you can tend to get so caught up in the new trend, the new craze, the new training program or whatever that, uh, you tend to forget. It's kind of time-tested things or what works and what's most effective. And that time management process, she in training is

Quincy Amarikwa (00:11:01):

Wow.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:11:01):

Provide a lot of dope content, resources and training in, um, on the perfect soccer platform and in the perfect soccer team members area. Um, you'll be hard pressed to find one, if there's only one thing that you could take in utilizing use that we provide, like, if you're saying, Hey, gun to your head, you got to just only one. I would say probably the most valuable one that would translate into the most success across everything in your life is the time management worksheet. So definitely sign up for your perfect soccer subscription and, uh, get yourself that, uh, right away. Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:11:38):

Because it's,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:11:41):

It's so many things wrapped up into one that it's simple enough to do, but it's kind of like the 10 pushup challenge, like as time goes on, it's really hard to do simple things well over a long duration of, and uh, if you can kind of master that, you're, you're the master of your, of your universe, you

Quincy Amarikwa (00:11:59):

Know what I mean? Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:12:01):

But that's a good shout Umar. I

Quincy Amarikwa (00:12:03):

Agree. Uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:12:06):

Joe Jackson, uh, Joe Jackson, that said, I liked the lesson to start planning ahead for after your career, because you never know when it could end, like he found out when he had to battle cancer. That's correct. Right. I think the thing that is most difficult for players to come to terms with, or to grasp is whether you have a 13 year career or a three-day career or no career, like almost a career, your career will end eventually one day. So, uh, the practical thing to do would be in your free time, cause you got a lot of it or your extra time, uh, spend some of it and by span, I mean invest some of that in planning for post-career. What do you want to do? What, what, what interests you, what, what industry would you like to be part of, uh, would you like to stay in soccer? Um, if so, how can you stay close to the game, um, who are people you can connect with along the way that can help you in that process and how can you, how can you develop skill sets so that you can, you can be a value add to the game and the community for, for a long time, not just, um, someone who's taking advantage of the current situation. Right.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:13:16):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:13:17):

Yeah, and I think that's really what our, you know, the perfect soccer internship program, um, is going to further help facilitate. We've been basically kind of like doing a beta that for like last year, like maybe like two years now.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:13:29):

Um, but, uh, yeah, dialed in

Quincy Amarikwa (00:13:36):

And with that, the onboarding process is flames. And I think, uh, for those of you who might be interested in an internship opportunity, we'll hopefully be posting some of that here. Soon. We could use some help on the social media side of stuff, community management, uh, engagement, uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:13:53):

Just making

Quincy Amarikwa (00:13:54):

Sure, making sure we're not, we, we provide so much value and give so much information that sometimes it can, it can be overwhelming and people can get lost. So community members are huge,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:14:04):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:14:05):

Are huge in helping us make sure that we're, we're making the content as digestible as possible, easiest to navigate as possible. So if you're interested in, you know, gaining some experience on that side and building that resume and building your network, cause you know, your network is your net worth, make sure to reach out, to contact the perfect soccer skills.com and uh, obviously be on the lookout for only ultimately kind of post those internship opportunities. I'm seeing some of you guys spend in that heart button. So,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:14:39):

Um, that'll be, that's good to see, um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:14:45):

Joe Jackson pushup challenge versus sir.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:14:48):

Yeah. He's him. The he's getting that upper, uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:14:52):

Dialed in a Nunez A's coinci time. You know, that is Chris what's happening brother. Welcome. Welcome. Uh, let's see. All right. So if you guys got any questions, go to drop them in the Oh, okay. There we go. Okay. So those are, uh, okay. These are people that responded in terms of who they feel are underrated. We've got some of those there now. Let's see. So you guys already know like fall on the, what do you call it? Feed your Jordan what's going on and McNasty welcome. Okay. So let's see. Timmy, Timmy P is N remember that when you get to college offers to, if you were to get injured, would you like that place beyond soccer? Can you plan beyond your career? Correct. Timmy's talking about team pig is talking about vision and having it. So you got it there, but that is a, that is a good point. And it's a good transition. And to have you on so we can, we can talk a bit about who you believe is extremely underrated.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:16:19):

Hello? Hello.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:16:21):

What's going on? How are you doing good. How are you? I'm good. I'm excited. I'm excited for this. Cause uh, uh, Connor had Connor had, uh, posted who's most underrated. Right? And he got, he got some answers and he said, uh, he said, Tammy pig said, she's the most? She said, she's the most underrated. I said, you know what? I love that energy. We need to have her on. And uh, if you got to state, state her case and let us know where she's coming from. Cause I, I liked that. And uh, maybe, uh, give us a little bit of background. What's your name? Where are you? Where are you from? How long have you been following the perfect soccer brand for and um, yeah, let's, uh, let's kind of break down, uh, your answer cause I liked it.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:17:05):

All right. Sounds good. So my name is Hannah. Um, I'm originally from Maryland, right, right out of DC. So I've followed DC United growing up. Um, big fan there. I'm in North Carolina now for college go to Campbell university, uh, junior. So that's what life is looking like right now. I do club soccer here, president, you know, get all that figured out for women's team. Yeah,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:17:33):

No, I'm okay. I love that. So, um, okay. So how long have you been following the perfect soccer brand for? Like how did you find out about us and what made you follow?

Quincy Amarikwa (00:17:43):

Um, well, so, okay. I originally met you after the game against LA galaxy at Aldi field. And I was like, okay, this guy's pretty cool. Right. Um, did a little bit of looking into it. I really been following the brand for about a little over a year now. Uh, really like last December is when I really got into the brand. So awhile,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:18:08):

I like that. Okay. So what's what stood out most to you. What have you, what is, what's your biggest takeaway from everything so far in,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:18:15):

Um, one of my big takeaways, like you said, um, is taking responsibility for where you're at at this moment, whether it's your fault or not, and owning where you're at and making that plan to get where you want to be. That one's huge for me because, you know, especially with COVID and everything, everyone's in a different place than what they expected. And it's not always that person's fault, but it's your job to get to a better place.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:18:43):

Okay. I love okay. I love that. That's that that's an MSL mindset you're coming at us with right now. Okay. So, all right. So speaking to that, where, where is it that you want to go? What's your goal? Where, what, what are you shooting for and um, what do you think you are needing to do to get there

Quincy Amarikwa (00:19:04):

Right now? Um, like I said, I'm in college, I'm majoring in special education. And my big goal right now is to get my licensure and start teaching. And of course COVID knock that out, mess things up. Cause we can't be in schools. We can't student teach. So for me, it's really the big plan of working on what I can do to still be involved with schools. What I can do to pass all my licensure tests, how I need to study, how I need to take responsibility for what I'm going to do and what I'm going to put forward to get where I need to be.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:19:38):

I love that. So. Okay. So, uh, I like that. We're gonna, we'll probably revisit that. Right. So I wanna, I wanna tie it into, uh, the question we had thrown out on the account, um, which was his missing underrated, right. To which you had answered yourself. Right. And okay. And why is, so why is that? You gotta, you gotta state your case, uh, share with us in the audience. Me, why, why you believe that's the case and, and, um, what, what your plan is, uh, to, to, to make that no longer the case in the future.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:20:18):

So I actually, when we get those little questions, you know, every week, every couple of days, whatever, I put some thought into them before I answer it. And I was like, you know, who's the most underrated, you know, women's soccer player right now. And originally when you think underrated, your mind goes to skill level first, because you think a good player is just skill and that's not trauma. Like, you know what, you can be underrated in the mindset and the vision that you bring to your team. And I feel like that's what I bring to my team. Not only just on the field, but to the people around me, I'm like, I have that ML, NFL mindset, like, you know, given the pep talks, letting people, helping people get to their goals and like sharing that wisdom that we learned from the show every week. It's like, I'm not just underrated on the field and what I can do with the ball. It's who I am, what I'm doing, what I'm saying, what I'm putting forth.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:21:08):

I like that that's confidence. And you're not able to say some stuff like that unless you're really doing the work, uh, when nobody's looking right. So, okay. I like that. And that's why when I, when I saw that answer, come in, I said, okay, we need to, let's see, let's see if she's about that action or if, or where she's at on that. So what do you, what do you feel is your, your biggest attribute? You know, you said, um, underrated, mentally, right. Mentality is something that's hard to see necessarily maybe in the short term, but results speak for itself over time. Right. But, uh, that, that takes time and it, sometimes it takes a real long time for people to see. Um, and a lot of people give up along the way. So what, what do you feel is unique uniquely? Um, what's unique to you? What's, what's that skillset what's that what's, that I'm losing, I'm not speaking the right word, but like to you, what, what do you define that to be for yourself? What is that

Quincy Amarikwa (00:22:08):

For me? I think I have, or I know I have good long-term planning and long-term vision, so I'm not just going to do what's good for me and my team in the moment I'm going to look forward at what, where we need to get and the steps to get there longterm.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:22:25):

Okay. And have you always had that skill set as that's something you've been developing over time? Like when, when did you really start leaning into that?

Quincy Amarikwa (00:22:35):

Um, I think I've always been good at looking ahead, but really the past, the past year with COVID, um, and not being able to do everything as we've always done and looking forward. So you know, where we want to be eventually playing games again and you know, what skill level we're going to need to be at and just how we're going to get there. Um, COVID has really helped me with all that planning and figuring out, you know, everything doesn't look right now, how we want it to look, but if we can create a vision for the future and a goal, we can work on getting there,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:23:10):

Love that. No, that's good. And the audience members are loving that as well to judge our dropped a bunch of I'm in your head emojis, um, uh, said solid answer, Whoa. A bunch of clap hands. Cause they're like in that, um, hashtag facts, uh, Kendall Cox had said perfect soccer lifestyle, uh, three heart emojis. Yeah. Everyone's loving, loving the energy and the, and the mindset and the mentality. And, um, you know, I'm glad we, I'm glad you, you able to hop l and share a little bit about that. So, okay. What is something I could do be of help. So is there any questions that you have, uh, ideas that you've been thinking of? Like what, what a, where are you, where are you at with all that?

Quincy Amarikwa (00:23:56):

Ooh, I don't know. I didn't come with a question prepared this week. Normally I have something in mind, something to drop.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:24:02):

There you go see a few to the future plan and I caught ya.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:24:05):

I know you did. We'll see. Cause my head was like, Oh, I'm hopping on today. Let me, you know, let me know what I'm going to go for. And now you turn it around on me. And you asked for a question, man. I don't know. I don't know. You know, you know how you can help. I've got this. You can keep me in mind for that internship position.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:24:28):

Okay. There we go. I like that. Okay. That's that's that's good transition. Okay. Um, what do you, what do you think your skill set is? Like what, what, what interests you most, what would you want to be involved in? Like what division do you already have an idea of, uh, where you wanted to gain some experience?

Quincy Amarikwa (00:24:47):

I would love to do like media stuff and kind of community outreach, you know, hear from everybody, get what they want from us. Hope, bring it back so we can make it better for the users, for the fans.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:25:02):

I like that. Okay. That's good. Cause I was talking with Serena about that in terms of like needing more needing to do a better job. Uh, so we talk about it, right? Self honesty for me when I'm reflecting on stuff, I go, okay, I need to be doing a better job of, of the community outreach of managing that. I think when, when I was first starting out and building the brand, you kind of, you do everything, uh, your, your customer support, your customer, your, your, your follow-up, your, you know, you're the janitor, you're cleaning things, you're technical, all of that. Um, but as you start to grow, you got to recognize when you got to delegate and elevate, right. And, and you guys know the core value here. Teamwork makes the dream work. So I liked that and I, we are going to make that happen. So I, 100% want to get you onboarded as an intern and in the community outreach department and division. So, um, yeah, no, I liked that. That was, that was good. See, now you caught me cause I go, Oh, okay. That's a good day.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:26:03):

That would be great.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:26:06):

Yeah, of course. So what we'll do here is, um, send, uh, okay. Uh, send an email to [email protected]. So we've got your contact information and then I'm going to connect you with Haley. She's our chief cultural officer, and she's been helping us refine the whole onboarding process. And we'll get you onboarded as an intern. We've got like some, uh, um, some onboarding training you go through. And then, uh, we have a interview to figure out what works, where, where you'd like to fit, but it already sounds like, you know where that is. So we'll be able to kind of move forward with that. Great, straightforward, dope. Um, Emilio's dropping fire emojis. Uh, Kendall said, uh, look at you, purpose driven, purpose driven, um, and then Pagosa, the MSM mindset is such a positive mindset. No, I love, I love that. Uh, Hannah, I appreciate you one, uh, following the brand and, uh, being willing to jump on here on the live and share a bit of your experience. And I'm also looking forward to having you join as a perfect soccer intern. So

Quincy Amarikwa (00:27:13):

Great. Thanks for having me.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:27:15):

Of course. Um, uh, maybe what we'll have to have a check-in after you've, uh, been working with us for a little while and get your updates and you can let the people know, uh, the good, the bad and, uh, and everything.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:27:29):

Of course, of course. Cell phone is honesty.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:27:33):

Love that. All right. Thanks. I'll speak to you soon.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:27:36):

All right. Thanks. Bye.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:27:42):

Okay. Of that. Look at that. We've got another perfect soccer intern. Shout out, Hannah. See you guys spamming that heart button. The community grows. Um, Oh, that's really dope. Shout out Connor. Um, an OJI perfect soccer intern. Um, for coming up with the question and, and, um, and big shout out to Hannah for throwing her name in the hat, you know, that only comes with building that confidence over time and doing the work to be ready when your opportunity comes, you guys know what it is. You gotta stay ready, so you don't have to get ready. And Hannah was ready. Um, let's see. POBA had said, well, I'm here. I'm here. Look like, uh, it looks like I'm stuck in Jamaica for now until I come back. And I've been given an opportunity to sign up with the inner sports management to get an opportunity, to get a trial at a pro level part one.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:28:46):

Well, being in Jamaica is not too, not a bad shot. I would assume them whether it's pretty nice over there, but congratulations on signing with your management team. I hope you get an opportunity here soon. Uh, Kendall said that was super fun. Yeah, no, that was dope. I was like, uh, having some time with the community and having you guys join in and share your experiences, especially, um, what you've taken away from the brand and the show over time, you know, we've been doing NASA soccer show for almost like over what, two years now. And perfect soccer started in 2013. So was that year or year eight? Yeah, my math serves me right. Um, platform grows and I'm, I'm glad to hear that you guys are getting a lot of, um, uh, value out it, a lot of positive, positive vibes, a positive community. And, um, with Hannah's help here, we'll, uh, we'll further, we'll further refine and increase our community outreach.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:29:54):

So that's dope. Let's see.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:29:58):

So if you guys got any questions, drop them in the question box here. Um, so we can get to them.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:30:08):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:30:14):

Can I say 105 episodes? No, I think we're episode one of three today's episode. One to three.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:30:19):

Oh, let me see. Double check. Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:30:27):

ISA said, I love your videos, heart emoji. Thank you very much. I appreciate the, I appreciate the support and you watch it and,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:30:36):

Uh, being a follower, um, he could see what I was doing here. I'll look it up in our Slack channel.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:30:44):

No. Yeah. So episode yeah, episode one or two last week with, um, with Chris [inaudible] and then we've got episode one Oh three today with Hannah,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:30:56):

Um, stopping by, uh, see what else we've got here.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:31:10):

I mean, it also, I mean, what's also going on it's, uh, black history month. Um, we've been seeing, uh, MLS has been doing a lot more this time around

Quincy Amarikwa (00:31:22):

Aye.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:31:25):

I'm seeing a lot more posted on their accounts and highlighting a lot of, a lot of players and,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:31:35):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:31:38):

With the recent completion and ratification of the CBA, uh, the MLS we'll get back to play. I think what was it? April 17th or April 14th is the official start date. There's still quite a, still a little bit of time. Are we? January? February,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:31:56):

March, April may vary.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:31:59):

But the rest of February, March and April, There's a little bit of time is who's who's looking forward to the MLS season. And um, what are you going to, what are you going to be focused on and doing now until then? It's still, still a little bit of time before things get back going. Okay.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:32:32):

Sorry. Today it's been a long day.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:32:37):

Uh, portable said it's my birthday month. My next week. Oh, well happy early birthday.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:32:43):

Okay.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:32:45):

The Bronx blues said what's up. What's going on? Um, shout out from we're from New York city FC, shout out Sean Johnson,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:32:55):

The captain, uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:33:01):

Uh, Joe Jackson had said, hopefully that that's more long-term than just because of what has been happening the last year. Hopefully that's more long-term uh, I, I, with relation to what I feel like I might've said something and now I'm blanking on what you're saying. You're hoping is more longer.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:33:20):

Sure.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:33:24):

Judge. I said, uh, seeing Wando lift a cup, that's what I'm excited for the season. Hey, advance. Got it. I think the trophy he got was some supporters' shield, right? Like 2012 or something. Was it 2012? 13? It was during like the bash brothers era. Oh, G Oh G MLS. Good times. I loved that time. I'm biased because that's my time. But also because I think it was like the best time, because it was, I think it was just like a great blend of great players, but great personalities and people just enjoying it and having a good time and like making it more entertainment than,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:34:10):

You know,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:34:12):

Football. Like I get it, like it's important. You want to win games and championships and playoffs and stuff. You can do that and have fun. And I think like that era did a good job of, of getting, getting the work done, but also having fun and, and making it, uh, I mean, entertainment, the entertainment factor I think was different than, than it is now, but maybe that's just old man talking old young man talking.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:34:45):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:34:48):

Yeah, Joe Jenkinson, MLS is doing more for black history month. Yeah, they are. I mean, it's not too hard for them to do much more. They haven't really done anything in the past, but the fact that they're doing it now is a, is a good sign. Um, I think positive,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:35:03):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:35:05):

Uh, the Bronx said, I can't imagine if the MLS season was positive if they didn't reach a CBA agreement. Yeah. Um, that was like the third renegotiation of the CBA in 18 months. Something like that. Those are no, like, that's no simple task. There's like a lot goes into that. Um, it seems like the MLS PA uh, learn their lesson from the last, the, the original CBA signing that, but not ratifying it before the league ultimately backed out. And then through in their force majeure clause and a bunch of other little things that wouldn't have necessarily, uh, gotten passed, had it not been for the lack of the ratification of the CVA, which just means like, making it official, like, uh, you know, crossing all the T's dotted, all the I's. Um, This one seemed like the deal got done and ratified within like 48 hours. So,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:36:08):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:36:13):

Let's see, Joseph don't get me started with the bash roads. Good times is bringing those guys out of retirement. Just, just for like, just to sub on the last minute of every game. I think they could do that. Right. That's the word there? They've got four substitutions now. Right. That's like the new rule. So there you go. Uh, yeah, that's what I meant. Hopefully they're doing more for black history month and that long-term rather than just Oh. Of what has been happening in the last year. So, uh, I know. Okay. I follow you. Yeah. And I agree. Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:36:57):

Yeah,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:36:57):

I, and I, and it's also difficult because you're saying like, okay, they're just doing it because it's relevant and necessary. Is that, is that something that they're going to be doing regularly here moving forward? Or is this just kind of to check some boxes here in the short term? Um, I'd like to think that those boxes will have to be checked for the longterm. So regardless of if it's just to check boxes now or, or, or because it's popular, I think it's part of the process now. So, um, I think that's important. Uh, the league has spent a lot of time, effort and energy, uh, marketing and pushing the message that it is an inclusive, diverse league. And, um, you know, really hangs their hat on that, but the data doesn't necessarily substantiate that. So I think it's important that, you know, the mechanisms are put in place to hold, hold the league accountable for all the things that it, that it makes public statements of and knowing that, you know, knowing that it takes time to actually execute on those things. And if you say so many things so often, sometimes it can be hard to keep track of all of it and hold people accountable, but that's what we're here for. So no worries about that. The perfect soccer community, the three S's of self-awareness self honesty, self initiative, self accountability, we're here upgrading the,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:38:26):

The, uh, the,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:38:29):

The soccer IQ of America, America one live at a

Quincy Amarikwa (00:38:36):

Time. Let's see. Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:38:48):

Just said Ray, for a funny story. So seeing the team chemistry was very motivating in terms of getting me through a third ACL surgery, especially the cam from Lenny and Gordo. So I got a custom Jersey, I'm assuming you got a custom Jersey. Oh, with them on it. That's dope. That's, that's a cool story. That's cool. A year, right?

Quincy Amarikwa (00:39:08):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:39:11):

That entertainment factor, that fun factor in the, those guys, you know, if that helped you get through, uh, your third ACL surgery, I mean, they were doing, they're doing meaningful, impactful work that, uh, That people can just see for the first time. Now that's pretty dope. You think about that. Speaking of, um, Hannah's, um, talking about long-term vision and long-term goals and making those decisions in the short term that people don't necessarily see, but we can see the long-term impact. So J J a J J one, two, three,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:39:49):

Uh, S uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:39:52):

Is given the, the bash brothers a solid shout out for helping him through a difficult, difficult time. So we're all connected. Everybody. I love that. That's a dope story. And that's what the perfect soccer platform's here for to kind of share those stories, those experiences. Um, it's a beautiful thing. Uh, S the S the E S T E B a N C underscore 14 said, what a coincidence LOL just saw the video of you trolling LA galaxy. Uh, where'd you see the video, uh, when was that and trolling or teaching them, teaching them valuable life lessons and MSL mentality, uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:40:43):

Skills controls

Quincy Amarikwa (00:40:46):

Another way of saying it, but that's, that's one way, but,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:40:50):

Um, but love that, um, let's see, which

Quincy Amarikwa (00:41:07):

The Bronx blue said, are you in a car? LOL? Yes, I'm in a car. So I'm on my I'm on my land and my land. I don't have the greatest service out here, but I've got one little spot on the land where I get solid service. So I drive out over to it and you guys know what it is. Every Thursday, 6:00 PM, PST 9:00 PM EST. We go live on the account, break down the MSL, talk to the community, uh, share these experiences. Um, and we'd make it work. We figure out what it is we need to do to make it work. And we make it work. No excuses, no excuses play like a champion.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:41:44):

Uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:41:45):

Yeah. Right. If it works, it works. Yup.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:41:50):

Yo uh, Pocus said it is what it is. Yes. So, I mean like

Quincy Amarikwa (00:42:08):

MLS has just been there hasn't been any for awhile and it's still going to be a little bit of time until that comes back. What's, uh, what's keeping your guys's attention. Like what's new, you, uh, learn in something new reading, new books, watching new, anything like what's, what's the deal. Joe Jackson said, adapter dime in your head emoji.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:42:32):

That's right. That's right. Uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:42:37):

As the said, uh, came up on my YouTube feed. Also watched your highlights on the MLS channel. Great stuff, man. Uh, thanks, man. I appreciate that. Unders under sticks it, I have an open trout for a professional team this Saturday. Is there any advice you have for this scenario?

Quincy Amarikwa (00:43:01):

Um, let's see. Well, yeah,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:43:06):

If you've done your research and, and you know about the organization, the coach, the staff, and like what they're looking for,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:43:15):

Um, stick to it.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:43:17):

You, what, you know, you're good at, don't try to do what you think they want you to do. If that isn't what you're already good at or trained for,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:43:29):

Or, or

Quincy Amarikwa (00:43:33):

Yeah. Specialized in. So I'll make it super simple. So like simplified, but like, so the concept is understood. So let's say you're, you have really good, long dirt, long, uh, long distance endurance. So you have really high stamina and you show up and you see, they really need sprinters. Don't change your game from a long stamina person to trying to sprint on that day, do what you're good at and what you do, because you might not get your opportunity there. But someone there might see your quality as a long-term endurance, stamina, sprinter, and speak highly of you for your next opportunity, as opposed to, if you jump ship and try to be a sprinter and you, that's not what you're optimized for. That's not what you're good at. You'll look bad as a spiritual you'll be thought of as a sprinter. And now maybe those other connections and people aren't even making like there, a lot of this is a lot of the game is how people perceive you and how they speak about you to others.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:44:37):

So if they see you on the day and you have a horrible session and you don't do well and you didn't do well, not because you're not a good player, but because you, you know, you started playing, you started trying to play to the moment. Well, you know, people who don't know, you might not give you that benefit of doubt and might not see that. So if someone else asks about you, they only have that frame of reference to speak about you and really quickly your brand and your name and your opportunities can become a non-existent. So that would be my advice,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:45:12):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:45:15):

Have that long-term view. I think everything's coming down a longterm vision, right? Know what you're good at commit to what you're good at, develop your craft at what you're were good at and, um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:45:28):

Remain committed to it.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:45:30):

And, um, try to create that long-term plan and vision and slow and steady wins the race. But you got to believe that I believe enough to, to commit to doing the work, even when you can't see results of the work that you're doing yet. I mean, that can always, they can get hard to remember and stick to you. Um, uh, I'm speaking to myself just as much as I'm speaking to you guys, when, when I'm, when I'm sharing this advice or sharing my thoughts or approach or how I think about it because, um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:46:02):

You know,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:46:03):

Got to practice. What I preach, uh, today was today was a tough day for me, right? And, and tough days are just part are part of it. They are not fun when they happen. And you, you tried, you, you got your ways of getting through them and moving through them as quickly as possible, but it's also important to recognize them and be grateful for them.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:46:26):

Um, because you know,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:46:32):

It tends to be the difficult times that help build your character and define who you want to be. So I'm speaking to long-term vision that can be difficult and difficult times realizing that that difficult time, this difficult moment will be something that you should hope to reflect back on in the future and be grateful for because it, it gave you an insight and experience a perspective that allowed you to get to where you want to be. Um, so if you can see that as a result in the future, bring that into now. So realize that, realize that in the moment and, um, pull yourself out.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:47:17):

And that's me talking myself through, pull myself out of a tough day. Um, our times our most valuable, we don't know how much have we, we've got, and we want to be grateful, um, for every minute, every second of it, but we can forget that because we're human, we make mistakes, but through making mistakes, if we choose, we can learn from those mistakes. Um, but yeah, those good questions, good luck at your trout. I hope, um, hope you get what you need from it. Uh, the rock said New York city FC, hasn't signed anyone. I think everyone's just trying to figure out how to get the CBE done. And if we're going to have a season, and then from there, you know, who do you sign and how, and when, like, that's been an interesting, like this last two years, obviously it's been interesting. Um, the whole free agency, you know, uh, just the whole soccer market has just kind of been flipped upside down. And like, this process has completely like,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:48:38):

Mm,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:48:39):

Foreign. But I think that also creates opportunity a lot of opportunities. So we'll see. I'm optimistic.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:48:46):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:48:49):

Let's see. David Goggins said can't hurt me. Such a good book. Oh, okay. David Goggins can't hurt me. Not, he said that that's the name of his book. Can't hurt me. It's such a good book. I haven't, I haven't read that. I've heard a lot of people speak about him. So, um, uh, speaking of someone who told me about it, I think it was Ben Ben Olson. So episode 100, if you guys didn't check episode 100 replays up on perfect separate skills.com with my former, uh, D uh, my former coach and former DC United coach Ben Olson, um, he had, he had sent me something about David Goggins saying that I had reminded him. I think it's like that day at practice, we had that edit, reminded him of, uh, reminded me of him. So, like I said, I've been hearing that, so I need to go and check out some of his stuff. See what he's all about? Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:49:49):

Uh, yes. Okay. Uh, the community saying good luck with the tryout Anders. Uh, we look forward to the update next week. Yeah, that'd be dope. Uh, Oh, he's and he's from New York. So there we go. Okay. We've got a lot of East coast, new Yorkers, um, on the live, uh, today, uh, uh, Esther said get a Mohawk and paint it red. You'll stand out that way. Yeah. That's, that's a way to do it. Make sure your make sure you're, uh, you're fit and you're ready to go because a lot of attention is going to be on you. So make sure you, uh, over-deliver does like we do here on the perfect soccer platform over deliver, leave every exchange haven't given more than you received. Okay.

Quincy Amarikwa(00:50:30):

Um, let's see,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:50:35):

Uh, under, under said thank you. That is a point I had in mind. I'm trying to play my game and not fall into any temptations or other people's ideas. There you go. Good. So yeah, remain focused on that, man.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:50:49):

Uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:50:51):

Ryan said I wanted a chance to show my football. I'm your fan here in Brazil? Yo, shut up Brazil. I feel like we're getting more followers from Brazil as well. T joining in, um, joining the community. Uh, yeah. Well, you get yourself a perfect soccer subscription and you can, um, you can showcase your skills on your, uh, custom perfect cyber skills.com URL link to promote yourself to coaches and

Quincy Amarikwa (00:51:16):

In agents. Let's see.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:51:24):

And we got, we got like five more minutes here before we'll call it, uh, an evening. So if you guys get any more questions, drop them in the, either in the chat or

Quincy Amarikwa (00:51:35):

In the, you call it in the feed.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:51:40):

No, what I was looking for, I felt like it was trying to look for something,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:51:47):

Just

Quincy Amarikwa (00:51:47):

Getting stuff together, like doing a little bit too much, you know, you guys know it is, I've been doing a little bit too much and trying to, I've been trying to dial back and really, uh, focusing on Things that I want to spend my time doing and, and removing the things that I don't want to be doing.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:07):

Um, more quickly.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:11):

I think sometimes I take too long to, um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:15):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:16):

Drop things. I know I probably should, but,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:19):

Um, uh, I'm, uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:22):

I'm like a romantic when it comes to, um, my optimism. I just want more, a little bit more. It can be difficult with long-term winners mindset and being committed to things for longterm. Um, one of your blind spots is knowing when, when it's time to move on to something else or to pivot.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:41):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:42):

There's positive and negative to it.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:45):

And, uh, you know,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:48):

Focused on trying to get better at it every day. I'm seeing, uh, the Bronx spam, that

Quincy Amarikwa(00:52:52):

Heart button, um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:53:00):

Uh, Jesse, I gotta head out same plant tomorrow cake cake, but your team go, uh, Brock said, what time did the live start? You know, come on, man, come on, man. Every Thursday, 6:00 PM, PST 9:00 PM EST on the app. Perfect. Underscore soccer, Instagram account. That's when the, the ASCA soccer pro show live.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:53:25):

Um, he

Quincy Amarikwa (00:53:26):

Said, next time I can promote the stream on my story, because I obviously have nothing else to post. There you go. You got a teamwork, makes the dream work. We got to start building the community more so we can just, we can make it more cross-promotional and, um, everyone can become aware of everybody else's niche, content, um, uh, area of expertise, you know? Um, Oh, thinking of that. Okay. So a new perfect soccer, perfect soccer order just came through. Let's see. Let's see what that individual just ordered. Okay. So Xavier just got himself. Ooh. Okay. He got a perfect soccer.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:54:11):

I got a perfect soccer, sweat, uh, weather sweater. I'm trying to hold on, make sure to showcases shipping information. So it came through, I don't know that one just came through three days ago. Okay. This one, now that was ex-Navy. Okay. Xavier ordered something three days ago. Let's see what we got here. Okay. I think this is the first order of the men's joggers. So should a minute, a minute ago. Can I flip it? Yeah. Okay. So MSL all over men's joggers. I can't really see it too much. Just came in. Thank you for the order one, uh, Texas, appreciate that. Um, you know, like I said, you guys were adding weight, uh, way more products to the store. Lots of merchants. And if you guys have any ideas, design ideas and stuff that you want made or created, we'll get those done and added to, uh, add it to the store ASAP.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:55:19):

Uh, but like I was saying, yeah, like cross-promoting each other, um, sharing what each other's specialties and, and, um, and passions are for the game. Cause like you said, like there, I think there's just a couple of new Yorkers joined in on the live tonight, another aware of the Bronx and the Bronx blues. And I'm aware that the Bronx, Bronx blues has a, uh, a stream. So there you go. That's a community. You guys know what it is. Your network is your net worth teamwork equals dreamwork. And as I say that John Hollinger joins in because John knows teamwork equals dreamwork. Um, Yoshi said, yo, Quincy, I've got training right now, but just wanted to stop by and say, what's up. Hey, thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it. Even if you guys can only pop in for a quick hot second, I, I value your time and appreciate you spending some time here with me.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:56:18):

Um, John said, how's the club search going for 20, 21, to be honest, uh, I haven't been going full on it yet, mainly because there wasn't any like set date. And usually because there's no one, there's no set date, a lot of clubs and organizations are just kind of like spinning their wheels in limbo because they're not going to give you any definitive answers because they don't have one. I'm not saying like that's the best or the smartest way to go about doing it, but Hey, everyone has their own way of doing stuff. So now that that's kind of in place and there's more clarity around that. Um, and with the experience that I had of just realizing like the results of last year, a lot of clubs reassessed their entire business model structure, um, reassessed, how they bring in players. And if you've guys have been noticing like the average age of players that they're bringing in and signing are definitely much, much younger, which is okay in many, many regards.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:57:19):

And I understand why a lot of them are thinking that, but what they're missing out in on is you definitely need your O G veterans to properly teach these youngsters how to be good pros and how to develop into, uh, reaching their fullest potential. Because a lot of players have a lot of potential. Right. But, um, is one thing execution is another. And, um, I think, uh, the most forward thinking clubs will snatch up veteran talent soon. Yeah. And if they don't, then I don't think they're very forward-thinking and they will struggle. And I'm just saying that because it's true. And you guys already know the truth is true, whether you believe it or not, just like we told everyone 2020 is about the vision we've been saying. We had been saying that well before the pandemic was a thing and anyone knew about it. Well before 2020, one's about the frequincy, the frequincy, uh, in my free agency, 2021, the frequincy while we're dialed in, who you think is going to be riding that forward, thinking wave a smart organization that can recognize high value assets. That's who let's see. Let's see. Yeah. We'll start wrapping it up here.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:59:01):

He had, John said, teamwork makes the dream work. Seeing everyone's spamming that hard by them loving that, uh, Brock said, I should get all my fellow New York city FC fans to read these streams, come join, come join. We'd love to have you, um, love to have you. And uh, you got to get out there advocating for advocating and promoting, and I'm telling people to make sure they're paying attention to my boy. Sean Johnson mans is about to make waves here. Uh, let's see, uh, Joe Jackson said, I know we're almost done here again. Quincy just want to say great. Live, always love it and have a great weekend or have a great week. Thank you very much, Joe. I appreciate that right back out, right back into my brother. You know, so that's, that's a wrap. We'll wrap it up there, everybody. I appreciate you joining in for, uh, episode one Oh three of the hashtag ask a soccer pro show. The Brock said, Sean Johnson, that is correct. Uh, who you guys are, what 2021 is about to bring some will say they did. They couldn't see it coming. No one could predict that. But those who are down in the MSL know that that is not true.

Quincy Amarikwa (01:00:25):

Uh, uh, w we need to get an MSL group chat on IgG. Uh, I know we got a Facebook group. Yeah. Like I said, community outreach, yo, shout out Hannah, bringing her on with the intern, um, as an intern to help with that. Cause I need, I need a lot of help with the community management of our Instagram groups or Facebook groups and stuff. Cause those are great ideas. I, I love them. Um, I just don't have the, I don't have the bandwidth to properly dedicate the time and attention necessary to, uh, facilitate like the day to day. But if you guys are down for that and helping me build that out, um, please send me a send, uh, send an email to [email protected]. Yeah. If you guys are down to help with community management and kind of tying these things together and for the, long-term not just like a, you know, I'm due for a week or two weeks, I'm talking about like, even if we're just doing it like once a week or once every other week for the next like six months, at least so we can get an idea of it makes sense.

Quincy Amarikwa (01:01:28):

And people like it and they participate then, uh, send an email, let me know you want to be an intern and we'll kind of get that process going. Um, cause I need help with that. I need to help with a lot of stuff. Everyone I'm going gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I need help with a lot of things. So if you guys are open to helping, I'm open to receiving help. So, uh, thanks again to everybody who joined in. I appreciate all the questions, all the positive vibes and um, yeah. Uh, see everybody same time, same place next week, just in case the Bronx forgot it's 6:00 PM. PST 9:00 PM EST every Thursday on the app. Perfect. Underscore soccer, Instagram account. And as always everybody, you know what it is, I mean, you had later.

0 notes

bloodthirstymoonstone · 7 years ago

Text

Walter in FE Heroes

So I’ve been toying around with the idea of making a mock-up of how Walter would function in Heroes, since that’s the verse most of his interactions happen in. For comparison’s sake, let’s take a look at Valter’s max stats.

Hp: 42

Atk: 32 (50 with Cursed Lance equipped)

Spd: 31 (33 with Cursed Lance equipped)

Def: 34

Res: 19

This adds up to the pretty average BST total of 158 with his weapon unequipped.

As for Walter, his stats would be...

Hp: 33

Atk: 17

Spd: 22

Def: 7

Res: 45

This would add up to the paltry BST of 124 -- the lowest, by far, in the entire game. He also has the lowest attack stat in the game, beating Azama who has 21 atk, and he has the lowest def in the game, beating Delthea and Lucius, who both have 13. However, he would have the highest Res stat by far in the game, handily beating Halloween Henry and Winter Tharja, who have 36.

Would that be enough to make him viable? Probably not.

His weapon would be a legendary, non inheritable tome called “Worn Fire Tome”. It would have 3 Mt (which is actually a point less than the regular fire spell you could go back and equip him with), and the weapon description would be “+1 cooldown charge. 33% chance 0 damage will be done to opponent”.

Like Halloween Henry and Winter Tharja, he will be an armored magic user, which might make him slightly more useful since he won’t be limited to special summons. If someone equipped the highest spell available to him -- Bolganone (which has 9 Mt), it would bump his attack up to 26. And with hone armor, he could get up to 32 Atk. Still not a lot, but enough to chip the paint off of some low res units, which might be handy for armor emblem.

The skills available to him right off the bat would be:

Support: Ardent Sacrifice

A: Close Def 3

B: Watersweep 3 (learnable at 4 stars)

Watersweep seems like a pretty good skill for him to have, but since you have to be faster than your target for it to kick in, it would probably only be useful against Winter Tharja, Sophia, and maybe -Spd variations of normal Henry, normal Leo, Reinhardt, and adult Tiki. That’s literally it.

And with Def as bad as his, Close Def 3 would only maybe be useful against dragons. Bumping 7 def up to 13 would be basically useless, not to mention most units also outspeed him. Chances are, he’d just get foddered for his skills, seeing as they’re both somewhat rare and he can learn Watersweep 3 at such a low rarity.

So I’m sure most of you are probably asking, “Munstone, WYD??? Why would you literally make a character that’s this useless, that’s basically only usable as a fodder unit?” Well, the answer is that it’s basically the point of his entire character. He’s frail, he’s slow, and he’s bad at basically everything, but he tries his hardest. For those who have the patience of a saint, they can actually help him achieve pretty impressive heights!

His Res is beastly -- so high, that even blue tome users and dragons would probably struggle against him unless they’re packing some significant heat (Odin would be practically worthless against him, despite the weapon triangle advantage, outspeeding him and having access to Moonbow). If you gave him Glacies, he’d do a whopping 36 damage with the bonus alone, which would give him incredible nuking potential. He could easily kill most frail mages with that special, and even some of the less chucky physical units like Kagero, Summer Tiki and Gaius, and Innes. Assuming he doesn’t die to them first.

And then you get to the weapon refinery. Amazingly, “Worn Fire Tome” isn’t just a joke weapon designed to just troll players. If there’s someone out there patient enough to send him through hundreds of battles, for 1,200 SP (three times the normal amount), 200 Divine Dew, and 500 Arena Medals, you can refine it into the weapon “Shining Bolganone”.

It would have 14 Mt, just like other legendary tomes, and its weapon description would be, “+1 cooldown charge. If user’s health is 100%, attack, speed, and defense are doubled. Does not include weapon might or buffs. Unit takes 4 damage after combat.”

So, just to reiterate, that means his stats would increase to

Hp: 33

Atk: 34

Speed: 44

Def: 14 (still pathetic)

Res: 45

This would put his BST at 170, which puts him just under Amelia, overall. Which is terrifying.

But wait! There’s more. Shining Bolganone prevents the weapon’s might or any field buffs from getting doubled, BUT THAT’S NOT THE CASE FOR SKILLS. Yes. You could slap Life or Death on this guy, which would bump his base attack to 44 and his speed to 54, at the cost of lowering his Def to 4 and Res 40 (which is still plenty).

If you gave him Bold Fighter along with it, he would raze entire countries. And that’s not even factoring in IVs. So a +Atk LoD Walter could get to 50 BASE atk. A +Spd LoD Walter could get to 60 BASE speed. Alternatively, you could give a +Def Walter Fortress Defense, which would lower his base attack to 28, but would raise his defense to a chunky 30 for one turn!

Also, yes, seals also get doubled.

(Decided to get rid of the “Skills get doubled as well” thing because I kind of forgot to take into account that merges will probably be easy to come by for a 3 star unit. There’s no way even I’m insane enough to put a unit with like 80 base possible speed in the game. Slight exaggeration, but you get me--)

(Merges will count towards the multiplication factor since they ARE technically a part of the BST. But skills and seals will NOT be. The doubled effect will be calculated before any of those get taken in effect.)

Yes, this makes Walter ridiculously broken, but only for one turn. The player would have to ensure he stays healthy and be sure to shuffle him out of danger zones since there would be no way for him to net a kill after the first phase of combat. And even then, it would be up to the player to get him to that point, anyway. They would have to endure the dull slog of leveling him up past a 3 or 4 star unit and have to endure relentless grinding to even get the weapon upgrade, and even more grinding to get him to the point where skills could come into play. So I think it’s fair.

I think the beauty of him would be the fact that he’s simultaneously the most broken and the most useless units in the game. That’s how I try to play him. He’s bad at everything not because he doesn’t have potential, but because his life has beaten him down to the point where he doesn’t think there’s anything worth saving. If he was around people that were encouraging and allowed him to grow on his own terms, he’d grow almost exponentially.

Comparing that to Valter, who’s definitely not a bad unit by any means, but who is more of a well rounded, jack-of-all-trades, Walter would be a heavily specialized unit that can only do one job, but who can do it exceptionally well. That’s because he’d be taking subjects that actually interest him. But that’s a story for another day.

#fe heroes #fire emblem heroes #some of my math might be off #but i think i did okay with it #mega meta #walter meta #walter post #meta post

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writingformeandyou · 7 years ago

Text

My OC

I FINALLY DID MY OC SUCKAS!

I decided to use mew-poo’s 100 OC asks, so thank you mew-poo!

I swear, I’m not stealing them!

Name: Veil Hagen Halvorsen (To cover, pasture, and guardian)

Home: Einn-Berg (Alone mountain)

1. What do they smell like?

A lot of lotion from Bath & Body Works (anything marshmallow or pumpkin), some sweat, and very faintly her past meal.

2. What is their voice like? It’s a mix between Yellow Diamond (Steven Universe) and Amethyst (Steven Universe)

3. What is their biggest motivator? Her village elder. He always made her feel safe and aided

4. What is their most embarrassing memory? Veil one time decided to be a show off to the other children in the marketplace by doing a flip in full armor. She did the flip correctly, but she ended up plummeting into the fountain filled with dirty well water.

5. How do they deal with/react to pain? She gets angry but will also cry, promptly getting angry again and try not to cry as she tends to her wounds.

6. What do they like to wear? Veil likes to wear longer clothes if she’s not in her armor. She lives in the cold, so it makes a lot of sense. Trenchcoats coming down to her ankles, turtlenecks, joggers, etc.

7. Which of their relationships have impacted them most positively? It was all of her relationships in general. All of her boyfriends and girlfriends all had the ‘I don’t give a shit’ attitude and it rubbed off on her. She grew stronger from these and she never cared much about negativity pointed towards her.

8. What’s the weirdest thing they’ve ever eaten? She ate an entire Naga head one time, eyes, brain and all. Her father brought it home after a large hunt and she was the only one brave enough to eat it amoungst her large family.

9. Describe the way that they sleep. She sprawls out across her mattress, drools a lot, kicks, punches, mutters, the whole shabang.

10. What is their favorite food/kind of food? She enjoys a lot of meat and a lot of sweet things. Mostly sweet things. She can make a bakery hide in shame.

11. What do they feel most insecure about? She tends to feel a little bad about her weight. Like I mentioned, she loved sweet things, so she would feel a little bad about herself if her armor had to be reforged. Also her anger issues. She’s brash and aggressive and sassy, so he doesn’t like it if people jump to conclusions and think she’s just an asshole all the time (like some anons out there, I wonder who they are :o )

12. How do they like to dress? Long clothes, even in the heat. Fuck Lestallum’s officers asking and begging her to change into shorts or something. Long clothes are life. She also has some clothes that are hide and fur. She has a nice cloak made of white coeurl fur and bleached behemoth hide she likes to wear.

13. How do they react to feelings of guilt? She stays quiet and lulls over what made her feel guilty. She stays in the darkest and coldest armor she can put on, especially her helm.

14. How do they react to/deal with betrayal? She gets pissed. She will smash apart anything she can get her hands on and smash anything apart. She screams, roars, and growls while breaking down into a pit of tears.

15. What is their greatest achievement? She became the general of her village’s army, always leading her people on hunts and forages.

16. What are they like when they’ve gotten too little sleep? Grumpy and will sleep anywhere. Even on the backside of a Magi-tek engine. The stereotypical black circles show up on her eyes and the grumpiness literally is written on her face in tired wrinkles.

17. What are they like when they’re drunk? She spills the whole entire factory of beans. You wanna know everything but magically didn’t say a word? Veil will become that old viking who tells you the whole tales of woe. She also slurs and finds fake trees sad.

18. What kind of music do they enjoy? Viking music and metal music.

19. Are they right or left handed? Ambidextrous.

20. Fears? Bugs, uncontrolled fire, dolls, some supernatural creatures i.e. werewolves.

21. Favorite kind of weather? Snow.

22. Favorite color? Icy colors.

23. Do they collect anything? Armor and weapons. She also somehow accumulated a whole stash of teeth from kills.

24. Do they prefer either hot or cold weather more? Cold. She despises the heat.

25. What is their eye color? They change between gray and hazel.

26. What is their race/ethnicity? Northern European.

27. Hair color? Dyed a light lilac.

28. Are they happy where they are currently? Yes.

29. Are they a morning person? No, Veil likes afternoon where everything is alive.

30. Sunrise or sunset? Sunset, because she anticipates the next day.

31. Are they more messy or more organized? Messy, but that is how she stays organized. Whatever she needs, it magically surfaces.

32. Pet peeves? People who get on her about her accent (she gained an accent from talking to an amature jeweler), perfectionists, those who click their gauntlets against metal, people who don’t wash off blood from kills.

33. Do they own any objects of significant personal importance? Her battleaxe she recieved from the elder before he died.

34. Least favorite food? Anything with fish (for the exception of shrimp and prawns).

35. Least favorite color? Pink and yellow.

36. Least favorite smell? Animal feces.

37. When was the last time they cried? During the funeral of the village elder. She had to burn him herself because she was asked.

38. Were they with anybody the last time they cried? The whole village of course.

39. Tell us about one of the times they got injured? She decided to do a local hunt that was closest to the village. Her village never communicates with the outside world, so she basically is the most modern. She decided to take on a quest that had the most amount of gil which turned out to be three behemoths. As she killed the smallest ones, the largest one manages to scratch open her cheek when her helm feel off. She almost went blind in her left eyes.

40. Do they have any scars? Obviously, the scratch marks from the behemoth. It goes from tthe right side of her nose to the lower half of her neck with another claw mark going under her chin and merging in. Otherwise she has brn marks from when her skin came into contact with heated objects or simply dropping a torch on herself or small scratches from hunts or fights.

41. Do they struggle with any mental health issues? Anxiety and psychosis depression.

42. Do they have any bad habits? She bites on her knuckles a lot.

43. Why might someone dislike them? She’s brash and can come off as rude.

44. Why might someone love them? She’s really cuddly and sweet to those that don’t piss her off.

45. Do they believe in ghosts? Yes.

46. Is there anyone they would trust with their lives? The elder, but he’s dead.

47. Are they romantically interested in anyone? No, but she wants to be.

48. Are they dating/married to anyone? No, but she wouldn’t mind.

49. Do they like surprises? Depends on the surprise. A festival? Yeah. Her mother dying from a werewolf attack? Not really.

50. When is their birthday? June 21, the summer solstice.

51. How do they usually celebrate their birthday? A festival is always thrown on someone’s birthday. For hers, since it is in summer, it celebrated by the whole village setting oil drenched metal suns on fire, a lot of firey objects, and a lot of meat.

52. Do they have any family? A deceased mother, a paranoid father who was thrown in jail for being thought of as a werewolf, nine brothers (in order of age: Valdus - 22, Farkas - 19, Mass - 18, Bjor & Reger - 17, Halvard & Halvdan - 16, Kilmar - 15, Alois - 10) and six sisters (in order of age: Veil - 23, Adelaide - 19, Leandra - 18, Selda - 17, Hildred & Gladys - 15 and Blondine - 10). Don’t get me started on the amount of aunts and uncles and cousins she has. She is the oldest sibling.

53. Are they close to their family? Yes. Mainly with her younger sister Adelaide.

54. What is their MBTI type? INFP - Idealistic, loyal to their values and to people who are important to them.

55. What is their zodiac sign? Gemini - The Twins.

56. What Hogwarts House would they be in? Gryffindor.

57. What D&D alignment are they? Chaotic Good

58. Do they ever have nightmares? If so, what about? Yes. It is about an attack on the village when she is not there or finding out that something slaughtered her family.

59. What are their views on death? She sees it as a place to either stay in the clouds and drink mead all day or to start over.

60. What is something that they’re sure to laugh at? Aimals doing something adorable.

61. When bored, how do they pass time? She plays with the fingers of her gauntlets or runs her fingers along the horns of her helm. Sometimes she hums songs under her breath.

62. Do they enjoy being outside? Yes.

63. Do they have an accent? She has a mix between a New England accent and a Norse accent. It sounds good actually.

64. Upon seeing a slice of chocolate cake, what is their first reaction? If it’s someone else’s, she’ll leave it alone. But if it a sibling’s or a cousin’s, fair game.

65. If they knew they were going to die, what would they do/say? She’ll take it on head first.

66. How do they feel about sex? She doesn’t care much about it, mainly because she doesn’t think about it. If it happens, it happens.

67. What is their sexuality? Pansexual - The sexual attraction to a person of any sex or gender.

68. Do they become squeamish at the sight of blood? No.

69. Is there anything that they find really gross? Flatuence and vomit.

70. Which TV Trope(s) best describes them? Jerk With A Heart Of Gold One Woman Army Deadpan Snarker Big Sister Badass Girl

71. Do they enjoy helping people? Very much.

72. Are they allergic to anything? Cinnamon (rip), pollen, dandelions, dogs.

73. Do they have a pet? A pigmy goat named Lítill Fótr (Little Foot)

74. Are they quick to anger? What are they like when they loose their temper? Very.

75. How patient are they? It depends on the subject

76. Are they good at cooking? Very.

77. Favorite insult? Do they insult people often? ‘You’re the biggest person here, bitch!’ “I thought I was, until you walked in with that nose of yours.” Or “You remind me of one of those Russian dolls: You’re full of yourself.”

78. How do they act when they’re particularly happy? She’s kinder and always has a small smile on her face.

79. What do they do when they learn about other people’s fears? If it is her family, she will go through everything to use it against them. If it is someone else, she will do everything in her power to protect them from their fear.

80. Are they trustworthy? Very.

81. Do they try to hide their emotions? Are they good at it? It depends. If she’s pissed, curious or depressed it shows. Everything else it barely shows.

82. Do they exercise regularly? The only exercise she gets is when she goes on hunts. Otherwise, she’s lazy.

83. Are they comfortable with the way they look? Mostly, until you get to her height (5 feet) and her stomach & waist region.

84. What are some physical features that they find attractive on people? Height (tallness). Strong jawlines. Big hands.

85. What kind of personalities do they find attractive? Brash yet kind.

86. Do they like sweet foods? VERY MUCH!

87. What is their age? 23 years olds.

88. Are they tall or short or somewhere in between? Short.

89. Do they wear glasses or contacts? None.

90. Do they consider themselves attractive? She finds herself at least 75% attractive.

91. What is their sense of humor like? She uses truth in her humor unless it comes to insults.

92. What mood are they most often in? Mellow.

93. What kinds of things anger them? Some outsiders, those who try to steal from her, picking on her and her family, bringing up her parents, etc.

94. Outlook on life? You focus on yourself first, then worry about others. It can be a cruel place if you do’t figure things out first.

95. What kind of things make them sad/depressed? War, death to those who didn’t deserve it, plaugues.

96. What is their greatest weakness? Paranoia.

97. What is their greatest strength? Loyalty.

98. Something that they regret? Not being at home when her mother was slaughtered.

99. Biggest accomplishment? Becoming the general of the village’s army.

100. Create your own! - What does she look like? 5 feet tall, chubby, long and messy lilac dyed hair that goes past her waist, sharp gray/hazel eyes, a small nose, plush pale pink lips, thick eyebrows, broad shoulders, big breasts, pale olive skin, small ears, thick legs, small feet (about a size 6), a tattoo of Shiva on her back, a nice-sized booty.

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nyhne · 7 years ago

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92 things about roshon (with selected illustrations)

Tagged by @lordsardine thanks bab! C:

LAST:

1. Drink: water; I’ve been drinking out of a mason jar since I got to DC because the kitchen was so dirty that I couldn’t find any glasses and now the habit’s just stuck 2. Phone call: hohooo this morning with my mom and it was not!! a happy phone call!! 3. Text message: (counting Fb Messenger in this) “nice nice”

4. Song you listened to: Currently listening to my ‘Lollipop’ Pandora station after not having access to Pandora for the past year bc Germany, so right now it’s playing Be My Baby by the Ronettes 5. Time you cried: ho hooooooooooooooooooooooooo this morning!!!

HAVE YOU: 6. Dated someone twice: lol haven’t really dated someone once so 7. Kissed someone and regretted it: yeah 8. Been cheated on: see number 6 9. Lost someone special: dying-wise, yeah, but in terms of like...losing someone metaphorically-speaking then definitely 10. Been depressed: probably not actual depression 11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: yeah and personally I think if you’re an alcohol drinker, then you should go through this experience once in your life. hopefully not in an extremely damaging way, but it is something ‘everybody’ should experience, so to speak

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS: 12-14: red, blue, golden yellow or yellow-orange

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU: 15. Made new friends: ye c: 16. Fallen out of love: nah 17. Laughed until you cried: definitely 18. Found out someone was talking about you: I don’t think so but I don’t doubt that it happens lol 19. Met someone who changed you: much definitely! 20. Found out who your friends are: hmm, I would phrase it more as, did some more reflecting on some of my relations with folks but I don’t mean that in an evaluative sense, more just that folks change (very much including myself) and we all go through different parts of our lives that may or may not match with other folks we used to be close to 21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: lol no

GENERAL: 22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: probably 95%? I think there are a handful of people I’ve never met face to face, but they’d all be folks I know through other people or are technically related to me 23. Do you have any pets: my very fluffy cat Humanity!!

24. Do you want to change your name: As much as it’d break my mom’s heart, I don’t actually feel a big connection to my (actual) name. But while part of me would love to officially go by Roshon, another part of me doesn’t just because I want to keep my “real life” and “internet life” (lol sorry I feel like that dates me in terms of internet history) separate and that feels too risky on possibly merging them. 25. What did you do for your last Birthday: lol it was pretty much same as usual but in Berlin 26. What time did you wake up: around 7:30? Actually slept until my alarm today because roommate stayed over at a friend’s and I was exhausted yesterday so even the sun didn’t get me up 27. What were you doing at midnight last night: probably sleeping to be honest 28. Name something you can’t wait for: can’t really think of anything too big or in the future right now so I guess I’ll just say that I’m looking forward to my actual supervisor coming back on Wednesday- she was out all of last week and I really like her 29. When was the last time you saw your mom: idk whenever I left Colorado 30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: alright let’s skip the sad stuff for now and just say height 31. What are you listening to right now: wait didn’t they already have this question? right now my Pandora station is playing its namesake, The Chordettes’ Lollipop 32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: I have an uncle named Tom, and then I’ve known a few in college. Most recently one was in my study abroad program (coincidentally, the same one I had German class with sophomore year) 33. Something that is getting on your nerves: one of the interns at work; I think she has a bit of a superior attitude towards to those she perceives as being (usually intellectually) below her 34. Most visited website: tumblr, facebook, youtube, twitter in phases, and ao3

LOST QUESTIONS. I JUST PUT IN RANDOM INFO ABOUT ME 35. Mole/s: I don’t think so? like moles are a lot more...physical, right? 36. Mark/s: Well if I don’t have moles, I do have lots of little...beauty marks, I guess? bottom-left corner of lip, top-right corner of lip, under left eye, a smattering of paler ones around that one, and then lots of others all over my body; scars from cat scratches, scars from other stuff, surgery scar on left forearm 37. Childhood dream: idk what my actual childhood dream was, but definitely when I was more like preteen/early teen it was to be a chef lol 38. Hair color: asian inkwell ““““black”““ 39. Long or short hair: I always think of it medium-length, but I think it might actually be kinda long relatively speaking; it’s a bit past chest length 40. Do you have a crush on someone: nah 41. What do you like about yourself: that for the most part, I’m pretty good at actually limiting or restraining myself from stuff like spending money or eating things I don’t need to 42. Piercings: six; the two cartilage pretty much stay in all the time, the ones on my right ear go from big to small but I change out my two main lobe piercings on occasion, otherwise this is my “normal wear”

43. Blood type: I actually have no idea it’s probably recorded somewhere though 44. Nickname: the rosh 45. Relationship status: single and not-necessarily-ready-to-mingle-but-also-desperately-seeking-companionship 46. Zodiac: libra 47. Pronouns: alright this one gets complicated: I actually really like the idea of going without pronouns (if it can be avoided), but the only name I’d want folks to call me if they’re going pronounless is Roshon, which as said before is something that I contradictingly do not really want to do with folks I know “in real life.” So if it’s online, just Roshon is fine! They/them or she/her if you gotta. “In real life,” I honestly don’t care what pronouns are used, but I don’t necessarily tout that, so most people just use she/her and that’s okay. But yeah. Ultimately don’t care too much. Would probably prefer just Roshon or they/them if I could have it my way though c: (and don’t feel bad if you’ve been using she/hers or whatever for years, this is something I’m still figuring out and a lot of these (non-binding) “decisions” have only really come about within the last year. 48. Favorite TV Show: Brooklyn Nine Nine, uhhhh idk I was enjoying Project Runway when it was on Netflix. Parks and Rec? Steven Universe??

49. Tattoos: five at the moment! numbered in the order I got them: 1. is, if you’re familiar with my online character, Roshon, is the “identifying marking!” It’s an upsidedown fermata. got it right when I turned 18 and it’s the tattoo I’ve probably put the most thought it and is still the most dear to me. it’s the one that feels the most “natural” on my body, like it could just be another birthmark or whatever. that one’s on my inner left elbow; 2. this guy’s on my inner right forearm and I got it the summer before sophomore year. mostly inspired because I saw lots of moth tattoos I liked and I like the symbolism and stuff so I decided to get one; 3. my “dumb pinecone tattoo” which I say with a lot of affection because this one also symbolically means a lot to me. pinecone is supposed to be based off of ponderosa pines from Colorado, and it’s a play on the symbol in alchemy for ‘earth.’ on the back of my right calf, gotten at the end of my sophomore year; 4. gotten a bit spontaneously in Berlin at a studio’s special flash event, but this is honestly one of my favorites. also probably my favorite tattoo artist I’ve worked with. right under my left clavicle; 5. also gotten a bit spontaneously because a (relatively well-known) stick ‘n’ poke artist I’ve been following for years and love the work of happened to be guest artisting in Berlin (usually she works in remote Canada lol) so I got one of her flash pieces that’s a hand holding blades of grass. on my upper left arm

50. Right or left hand: right-handed 51. Surgery: wisdom teeth, and then the scar removal surgery on my arm 52. Hair dyed in different color: lol in like, freshman year of high school or whatever I got a part of the front part of my hair dyed red, but because I didn’t bleach it first (was too stubborn) it barely showed up. but I swear that even to this day I still see traces of it?? might be imagining that 53. Sport: nothing officially, just jog for exercise/pleasure 55. Vacation: probably anywhere in france 56. Pair of trainers: idk I like my current pair of running shoes but probably need new ones at this point

MORE GENERAL: 57. Eating: haven’t eaten dinner yet, but my friend is very nicely bringing me Indian food from the restaurant she works at because she knows I had a poopy day 58. Drinking: water 59. I’m about to: I guess meet up with my friend? 61. Waiting for: see above 62. Want: to be happy 63. Get married: not really big on marriage as an idea or practice 64. Career: honestly idk anymore, I am enjoying museum work but I’m enjoying being in the education/visitors department a lot more than I thought I would

WHICH IS BETTER 65. Hugs or kisses: hugs definitely, I’m a very physical connection person 66. Lips or eyes: eyes 67. Shorter or taller: taller 68. Older or younger: older 70. Nice arms or nice stomach: arms to be honest 71. Sensitive or loud: uhhhhhh 72. Hook up or relationship: relationship i guess 73. Troublemaker or hesitant: hesitant?

HAVE YOU EVER: 74. Kissed a Stranger: I guess? 75. Drank hard liquor: yeah 76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: I’m not sure if I’ve ever “lost” contact lenses, more like forcefully throw them away when I get done with wearing them late at night and possibly when drunk so possibly at inopportune moments 77. Turned someone down: I think? 78. Sex on the first date: nah 79. Broken someone’s heart: idk 80. Had your heart broken: eh 81. Been arrested: nah 82. Cried when someone died: not really 83. Fallen for a friend: yes

DO YOU BELIEVE IN: 84. Yourself: eh sometimes 85. Miracles: nah 86. Love at first sight: eh 87. Santa Claus: not really 88. Kiss on the first date: idk man

OTHER: 90. Current best friend name: don’t uh, really like using the label ‘best friend’ 91. Eye color: asian brown lol 92. Favorite movie: idk Pacific Rim is pretty high up there

Thanks for reading through all that if you did lol idk if @gummyboots @erengelion or @ebooleant want to take it for a spin?

#lol awkwardly scribbled those in bed and now I think my back died #person behind the posts #thanks again c:

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blighted-cinda · 8 years ago

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Okay so my friend and I were discussing the timeline between Origins and DA2

And what the frick-frack-paddy-whack-give-a-dog-a-bone is hAPPENING????

I know tons of people have gone through just how impossible it is that Anders ended up in Kirkwall by the time Hawke meets him, but let's go through the main points, and THEN I'll explain my ridiculous headcanon of how the heck he did it.

Okay, first off: TIMELINE

- The wiki lists 9:30 Dragon as the beginning of the Blight, so let's assume it starts right at the beginning: the first day of Verimensis/Wintersmarch (also the holiday First Day) 9:30.

- It also lists 9:31 as the defeat of Archdemon Urthemiel, and the Warden canonically defeated the Blight within a year, so let's say the Blight ended after exactly a year, on First Day in 9:31, and Hawke's year of servitude ended a negligible amount of time afterwards.

- The events of Awakening begin six months afterward, putting the attack on Vigil's Keep on the First of Solis/Solace: Anders is at the Keep on this day. - It's unclear exactly how long Awakening takes in-universe, but the general consensus seems to be six months, putting the death of the Mother on First Day 9:32, meaning Anders is still with the Warden-Commander at the beginning of 9:32. This ALREADY puts the timeline out the window because the wiki lists the Deep Roads Expedition as occurring in 9:31, and Anders is recruited by Hawke by this point.

Even assuming Anders lost his cat and left the Keep IMMEDIATELY after the Mother's death, the EARLIEST he could have been in Kirkwall at all, let alone a well-known healer, is halfway through Wintersmarch 9:32, by which point the expedition would be almost if not totally finished.

So... teleportation??

NOPE STRAP INTO THE CRAZY TRAIN KIDDOS

Two words: Duplicate. Anders.

I KNOW, I KNOW, JUST BEAR WITH ME

Let's take a look at a few epilogue possibilities in Awakening:

Anders

Anders will remain with the Grey Wardens to train the Order's next generation of mages. When he is called by the Circle of Magi to deliver a lecture on the nature of the Architect - much to the templars' dismay -, he tells the Commander of the Grey that his time with the Wardens is over. However, not two months later, he returns and the Wardens remain his home and lasting companions.

If left to defend the Keep, Anders will be hailed a hero by the few survivors of Vigil's Keep by using his magic to hold off hundreds of darkspawn. He gets invited by the men to engage in a drinking contest. He loses.

If Anders' companion quest is not complete, he will be captured again when he resigns from the Wardens (whenever he did in the first option, which seems like a few months at least). With his phylactery secure, he is unable to evade the templars. After two subsequent escape attempts, he vanishes for a third and final time.

If left to defend the Keep without enough upgrades to it, he is found dead with an arrow through his neck with hundreds of darkspawn dead in a circle around him; none were touched with a blade, but all were felled by magic.

Justice

(I'll leave some unfinished after they refute DA2's version)

Justice serves with the Order for many years, keeping in touch with Kristoff's wife, Aura, during his stay...

...he will serve the Order for many years, fighting darkspawn resistance pockets...

Once the darkspawn threat was ended, Justice left the Grey Wardens to pursue other injustices. Years later he appeared on the doorstep of Kristoff's widow and, smiling, simply dropped dead...

...Justice will fight valiantly, but, before the victory horn is sounded, a darkspawn sword removes Kristoff's head. It is unknown whether the spirit perishes or simply departs...

...Justice will stand in the ruins of Vigil's Keep looking in to the sun and saying "Now I know what to do." The ghost then disappears leaving behind the rotten body of Kristoff...

...Justice is killed by the Warden. It is unknown whether the spirit survived...

A mysterious figure in Grey Warden armor is occasionally seen in the marsh, erecting gravestones to honor villagers of old...

So Anders either "dies" (which I believe is explained away in DA2), escapes (there is no way he escaped three times in a short enough timeframe to get to Kirkwall) or remains with the Wardens, and Justice stays with the Wardens, loses Kristoff's body during Awakening, runs off with his body, or stays in the Blackmarsh and never travels with Anders. They CANNOT have merged and left for Kirkwall by the time Hawke's expedition leaves, if ever, in at least several if not most worldstates that might be imported.

Now we COULD just say that the devs changed their minds and rewrote the timeline and the Awakening epilogues aren't really canon and Awakening was shorter than six months and Anders just got to Kirkwall really fast.

BUT THAT'S NO FUN SO LET'S MAKE A REALLY CONVOLUTED EXPLANATION AND TRY TO PROVE IT WAS ALL INTENTIONAL

My theory:

When the Commander's party (which we'll assume contained Anders) escapes the Fade in Blackmarsh, the magic at work drew spirits towards the point of the escape. Spirits tend to imprint and alter based on their surroundings, so what if the spirits were affected by the magic at just the moment they were adapting and then pulled through with the party? And WHAT IF they were affected in such a way that they FULLY imprinted on the minds of the party, making DUPLICATES (or at least very close copies) of the party's minds? And then, when taking on forms in the physical world, they each unknowingly took on the forms of the member they imprinted on, creating full copies, body and mind, of the companions?

The escape happens in the Baroness's courtyard, returning the minds of Party1 to their bodies in Kristoff's clearing. The SPIRITS (Party2) are not limited to those bodies, and so are pulled through in the courtyard. It's possible that, since time is not a concept in the Fade, Party2 didn't actually take form until AFTER Party1 had left Blackmarsh. They may have known they were duplicates, or they may not have, but eventually they would have figured it out. And Justice2, with the memories of at least one spirit, might have guessed that the forms were not stable and would eventually disappear. SO, depending on the personality of each companion, the duplicates might have sought out Party1 (especially the Warden), and since they knew they would disappear anyway within months or years or whatever, they took the place of the originals. They would know that Person2 would vanish within months or years, giving Person1 enough time to go off on their own without being tracked. But Cinda, there’s no way the Warden would/could just disa-

...A few years later, the Warden vanishes...

...After a number of years, however, neither she nor Alistair were seen again...

...But some years later the Warden vanishes...

...But a few years later, the Warden vanishes, and nobody knows why...

...he never returns to Vigil's Keep again...

...might simply just vanish for reasons unknown...

Etc. etc. The Warden vanishes in pretty much every epilogue. Key word: vanishes. How does the Hero of Amaranthine, Commander of the Grey, likely the Hero of Ferelden, and possibly the fucking king or queen just up and vanish?? Unless that’s exactly what they did - they literally vanished. At least, the duplicate Warden did, possibly being able to go back into the Fade. The original, however, was long gone, using the extra time to head off on other adventures without being tracked.

But Anders2, he wouldn’t want to switch. Why would he want to go back to the Wardens and the Templars? He’s like “oh I’m finally free!!” because the Wardens and Templars both think he’s at the Keep, AND his phylactery (if not destroyed) probably wouldn’t track a spirit in Anders’s shape, so he could not be tracked. But he knows he’ll vanish, so that’s one of the reasons he merges with Justice2 - they think it might stabilize them both for a time and give them the time they need to get justice for the mages. So Kirkwall Anders is the duplicate, which explains the timeline (he left before the end of Awakening) and maybe some of the personality changes that can’t be explained just by Justice, like the really weird flirting things.

The spirits are both still degrading, so even at the beginning his mind is already under some psychosis, which only gets worse and more unstable as the years go on. So by the time the Chantry happens, Anders2 is in full on degradation. He knows that he’ll disappear soon, so he needs to do something BIG - no more one-drop-at-a-time stuff, he needs to make a STATEMENT. So in his psychosis and desperation, he decides on the Chantry. All while Anders1 (who is still snarky and hates Templars, but is not nearly as much of an asshole as Anders2 - Anders1 would probably want to open that clinic if he could) is living or rotting in his epilogue.

B O O M

Okay, that’s enough conspiracy theorizing for one day. Thank you. *gets down off of soapbox*

#dragon age #dragon age 2 #dragon age awakening #anders

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soccerball112 · 3 years ago

Text

Is The MLS Only “Checking The Box” When It Comes To Black People & Diversity Of The League?

Time Stamps

0:00-3:24 What is the MSL Mentality? Welcome To EP 103 Of The #AskASoccerPro Show!

3:25-4:48 Why You Need A Perfect Soccer Subscription!

5:02-6:17 Did You Catch EP 102 With Chris Odoi?

7:47-9:47 Quincy Is Keeping Fit This Offseason At #AmarikwaAcres

9:52-13:23 The MSL Mentality Is Thriving Within Our Community!

13:24-14:49 Perfect Soccer Internship Opportunities!

16:17-17:30 @timmypig14 Joins The #AskASoccerPro Show

17:35- 19:45 @timmypig14’s Biggest Takeaways From The MSL Mentality

19:46-23:14 @Timmypig14 Breaks Down Why She Feels She’s Underrated

23:40-26:46 @Timmypig14 Shoots Her Shot!

31:08-35:00 Quincy’s Thoughts On The MLS During Black History Month 2021

35:01-36:06 What would happen if the CBA between the MLS and MLSPA didn’t come to terms?

36:41-38:38 Is The MLS Only “Checking The Box” When It Comes To Black People & Diversity Of The League?

38:40-40:11 Seeing The Long Term Impact Come To Life!

42:52-47:20 Advice For An Upcoming Pro Trial? @anders….

48:00-49:01 Impacts of COVID and the CBA on the soccer market.

56:17-58:46 What Does Quincy’s 2021 Soccer Future Look Like?

59:40-62:29 How To Bring The MSL Into Your Life!

If you would like to listen to the episode:

If you would like to watch the episode:

If you would like to read the interview:

*Transcript is unedited and machine-generated. There will be errors. For further clarity please refer to the audio or video.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:00:00):

We're all here to ride the MSL waves. You've mentioned the strength lead. I'd like to welcome you to another episode of the hashtag ask eight soccer pro [inaudible]

Quincy Amarikwa (00:00:11):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:01:21):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:02:15):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:03:03):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:03:54):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:05:02):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:06:00):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:06:51):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:07:36):

Um, let's see. Let's see,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:07:42):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:08:00):

Uh huh.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:08:03):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:08:23):

If we

Quincy Amarikwa (00:08:25):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:08:45):

In shape? Um, and have you been,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:08:51):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:09:08):

That work from yesterday's training.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:09:13):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:09:49):

Let's get into it. So,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:09:52):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:10:12):

Something like cancer, right? It's no joke,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:10:18):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:11:01):

Wow.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:11:01):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:11:38):

Because it's,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:11:41):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:11:59):

Know what I mean? Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:12:01):

But that's a good shout Umar. I

Quincy Amarikwa (00:12:03):

Agree. Uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:12:06):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:13:16):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:13:17):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:13:29):

Um, but, uh, yeah, dialed in

Quincy Amarikwa (00:13:36):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:13:53):

Just making

Quincy Amarikwa (00:13:54):

Sure, making sure we're not, we, we provide so much value and give so much information that sometimes it can, it can be overwhelming and people can get lost. So community members are huge,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:14:04):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:14:05):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:14:39):

Um, that'll be, that's good to see, um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:14:45):

Joe Jackson pushup challenge versus sir.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:14:48):

Yeah. He's him. The he's getting that upper, uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:14:52):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:16:19):

Hello? Hello.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:16:21):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:17:05):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:17:33):

No, I'm okay. I love that. So, um, okay. So how long have you been following the perfect soccer brand for? Like how did you find out about us and what made you follow?

Quincy Amarikwa (00:17:43):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:18:08):

I like that. Okay. So what's what stood out most to you. What have you, what is, what's your biggest takeaway from everything so far in,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:18:15):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:18:43):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:19:04):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:19:38):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:20:18):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:21:08):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:22:08):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:22:25):

Okay. And have you always had that skill set as that's something you've been developing over time? Like when, when did you really start leaning into that?

Quincy Amarikwa (00:22:35):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:23:10):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:23:56):

Ooh, I don't know. I didn't come with a question prepared this week. Normally I have something in mind, something to drop.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:24:02):

There you go see a few to the future plan and I caught ya.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:24:05):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:24:28):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:24:47):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:25:02):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:26:03):

That would be great.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:26:06):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:27:13):

Great. Thanks for having me.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:27:15):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:27:29):

Of course, of course. Cell phone is honesty.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:27:33):

Love that. All right. Thanks. I'll speak to you soon.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:27:36):

All right. Thanks. Bye.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:27:42):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:28:46):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:29:54):

So that's dope. Let's see.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:29:58):

So if you guys got any questions, drop them in the question box here. Um, so we can get to them.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:30:08):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:30:14):

Can I say 105 episodes? No, I think we're episode one of three today's episode. One to three.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:30:19):

Oh, let me see. Double check. Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:30:27):

ISA said, I love your videos, heart emoji. Thank you very much. I appreciate the, I appreciate the support and you watch it and,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:30:36):

Uh, being a follower, um, he could see what I was doing here. I'll look it up in our Slack channel.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:30:44):

No. Yeah. So episode yeah, episode one or two last week with, um, with Chris [inaudible] and then we've got episode one Oh three today with Hannah,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:30:56):

Um, stopping by, uh, see what else we've got here.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:31:10):

I mean, it also, I mean, what's also going on it's, uh, black history month. Um, we've been seeing, uh, MLS has been doing a lot more this time around

Quincy Amarikwa (00:31:22):

Aye.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:31:25):

I'm seeing a lot more posted on their accounts and highlighting a lot of, a lot of players and,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:31:35):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:31:38):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:31:56):

March, April may vary.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:31:59):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:32:32):

Sorry. Today it's been a long day.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:32:37):

Uh, portable said it's my birthday month. My next week. Oh, well happy early birthday.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:32:43):

Okay.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:32:45):

The Bronx blues said what's up. What's going on? Um, shout out from we're from New York city FC, shout out Sean Johnson,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:32:55):

The captain, uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:33:01):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:33:20):

Sure.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:33:24):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:34:10):

You know,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:34:12):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:34:45):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:34:48):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:35:03):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:35:05):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:36:08):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:36:13):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:36:57):

Yeah,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:36:57):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:38:26):

The, uh, the,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:38:29):

The soccer IQ of America, America one live at a

Quincy Amarikwa (00:38:36):

Time. Let's see. Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:38:48):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:39:08):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:39:11):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:39:49):

Uh, S uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:39:52):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:40:43):

Skills controls

Quincy Amarikwa (00:40:46):

Another way of saying it, but that's, that's one way, but,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:40:50):

Um, but love that, um, let's see, which

Quincy Amarikwa (00:41:07):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:41:44):

Uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:41:45):

Yeah. Right. If it works, it works. Yup.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:41:50):

Yo uh, Pocus said it is what it is. Yes. So, I mean like

Quincy Amarikwa (00:42:08):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:42:32):

That's right. That's right. Uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:42:37):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:43:01):

Um, let's see. Well, yeah,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:43:06):

If you've done your research and, and you know about the organization, the coach, the staff, and like what they're looking for,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:43:15):

Um, stick to it.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:43:17):

You, what, you know, you're good at, don't try to do what you think they want you to do. If that isn't what you're already good at or trained for,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:43:29):

Or, or

Quincy Amarikwa (00:43:33):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:44:37):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:45:12):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:45:15):

Have that long-term view. I think everything's coming down a longterm vision, right? Know what you're good at commit to what you're good at, develop your craft at what you're were good at and, um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:45:28):

Remain committed to it.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:45:30):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:46:02):

You know,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:46:03):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:46:26):

Um, because you know,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:46:32):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:47:17):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:48:38):

Mm,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:48:39):

Foreign. But I think that also creates opportunity a lot of opportunities. So we'll see. I'm optimistic.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:48:46):

Um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:48:49):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:49:49):

Quincy Amarikwa(00:50:30):

Um, let's see,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:50:35):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:50:49):

Uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:50:51):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:51:16):

In agents. Let's see.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:51:24):

And we got, we got like five more minutes here before we'll call it, uh, an evening. So if you guys get any more questions, drop them in the, either in the chat or

Quincy Amarikwa (00:51:35):

In the, you call it in the feed.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:51:40):

No, what I was looking for, I felt like it was trying to look for something,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:51:47):

Just

Quincy Amarikwa (00:51:47):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:07):

Um, more quickly.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:11):

I think sometimes I take too long to, um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:15):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:16):

Drop things. I know I probably should, but,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:19):

Um, uh, I'm, uh,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:22):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:41):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:42):

There's positive and negative to it.

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:45):

And, uh, you know,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:52:48):

Focused on trying to get better at it every day. I'm seeing, uh, the Bronx spam, that

Quincy Amarikwa(00:52:52):

Heart button, um,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:53:00):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:53:25):

Um, he

Quincy Amarikwa (00:53:26):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:54:11):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:55:19):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:56:18):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:57:19):

Quincy Amarikwa (00:59:01):

Quincy Amarikwa (01:00:25):

Quincy Amarikwa (01:01:28):

0 notes

candidateofloyalty · 5 years ago

Text

2019 Fic Retrospective

I saw a number of people doing this, and since I’m always up for talking about my own writing, I decided to imitate them. Admittedly, I’m a bit late, but since I didn’t have computer access for a decent part of this week I think it’s justified.

Apparently I wrote 55k words of fic this year? Given that I spent half the year out of the country, that is higher than I expected. I guess suddenly allowing a podcast to become my entire personality is a powerful motivator.

1/31

The Clock Strikes Midnight, Fire Emblem Echoes, 3.5k words

The prince is throwing a ball to find a spouse, and Faye just knows that this is her chance to make her dreams come true. There's no time for her to worry about the messenger who brought her the news, not when she can finally live out her fairytale.

My birthday gift for star, this time only posted one day after their birthday. Someday I will figure out this timing thing. They wanted a Cinderella AU, and as someone who read approximately 5 million fractured fairytale novels in high school, I had an immediate idea of where I wanted to take the plot. I’m pretty pleased with how this one came out, especially since I never actually played Echoes. It’s also one of my rare fics where the title isn’t a song lyric.

2/14

Sacred Simplicity, Dangan Ronpa, 900 words

Sakura and Aoi meet up for their weekly donut date, but Sakura's mind is elsewhere.

I can’t believe it took a fic exchange to get me to write Sakuraoi. The request was cute and I had a good time, though. I’m always a fan of the concept of Hope’s Peak practical exams. The whole premise of the franchise is that these kids have crazy skills, so let them use them.

3/3

My Fantasies from Long Ago, Persona 4, 5.2k words

While walking home from work, Yosuke is hit on the head by a mysterious cat-dog-thing. This is the least weird thing that happens to him over the course of the next 24 hours.

Apparently I had a lot of outside sources of inspiration this year. I guess that’s what all fanfic is, but even so. This AU is from kawaii-bunny-mel, and is ridiculously fun to write. This one sticks pretty close to the source material, since I intended it as an introduction to the AU. I wrote most of it on trains while cross-referencing the original episode. As it turns out, writing is much faster when you don’t have to worry about pacing or coming up with original events.

5/4

The Present You's Daydreams, Persona 4, 7.2k words

Yosuke's been doing magical girl temp work for about a month, and it's pretty much the best thing that's ever happened to him, even if it does mean having a weird bear roommate. Then Souji invites him to a party, and Yosuke has to face something even scarier than magical enemies: social interaction.

The second part of the BAPC AU, and the one where I went off and did my own thing. As much as I love the source material, I wanted to fit the rest of the IT in somewhere, and there are like 6 characters in the entirety of BAPC. Really, though, a significant amount of this fic was an excuse to have Yosuke use his customer-service voice on a dragon. I’d also meant for this to be the one where they got together, or at least showed mutual interest, and then Yosuke went and made things awkward. I don’t know what I expected. I got to write Hamuko being cryptic at Souji, though, which was even better.

5/19

Dazzling Blue Sky on the Window, Persona 3, 3.9k words

After Erebus, Metis is prepared to vanish, but Igor suggests another option.

This one was my birthday present to myself. You might wonder what that means when all of my fic is incredibly self-indulgent to begin with, and the answer is merging two universes and saving my favorite minor character in the process. It was only after the fact that I realized how much projection was involved. It’s fine.

6/16

Bright-Eyed, Tireless One, The Adventure Zone, 2.2k words

Minerva is here, physically present, and Duck's so glad to see her. The only question is what to do with her. They've got enough people hidden in the Amnesty Lodge basement as it is. (Immediately post Episode 28)

I caught up to Amnesty right after episode 28 was released, which is what we in the writing business call good timing. I immediately wrote this in a haze of love for Minerva and have not thought about it since. I think episode 30 confirms it as canon, though.

7/8

Not So Nec-Romantic, Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun, 1.7k words

Nene's been studying to join the Healers' Guild for years, and it's finally time for her admissions test. It doesn't quite go as planned.

Star egged me on to write this and then wrote their own, funnier take on an RPG AU, which would have been rude if it weren’t for the fact that I got to read the better fic without having to write it. My favorite part of this fic is Mitsuba and Kou charging in from their epic fantasy quest without noticing that they’ve landing in the middle of a comedy of errors. I kind of want to write what they were actually up to but also it’s funnier this way.

8/25

Open Seas and Ways Of Life I've Forgotten, Friends at the Table, 3.5k words

Cass is adjusting just fine to life on their own, thank you.

They'd be doing even better if their new teammate wasn't so eerily reminiscent of their sibling, but that's all right. They're definitely coping.

And here we hit the fatt tipping point of my year. The Kingdom Game was probably the point where I fully devoted myself to this show, and a large part of that was the ability to conspiracy-board all of Sokrates’ influences on Cass’ personality. I have not stopped thinking about the Pelagios siblings since.

9/29

Not the Only Ones Pretending, Friends at the Table, 1.2k words

It sounds so nice, in theory. Mako's just running into an old friend while going out for fried chicken. But even though the Chime has broken up, two of them in the same place can still throw the simplest of missions into chaos.

I wrote this in an hour after listening to the penultimate episode of Counter/weight because the Orth-Mako scene ended right where things got good, to my mind. I just wanted to know more about how the Chime interacted after the timeskip. This also marks the start of me defaulting to Mako’s POV in every other Counter/weight fic I write.

10/14

A Magic That Won't Go Cold, Friends at the Table, 4.5k words

Jacqui doesn't normally like being sent on bodyguard jobs, but then, she's not normally working for Joypark darling Aria Joie.

I’ll just come up with a fun Jacria AU to think about in my spare time, I thought to myself. There’s a lot to explore with an Aria who never left Joypark. I can come up with some neat bullet points and it will be a good time. Then I started connecting the bullet points and at that point I had an entire outline for a fic. It’s what they deserve.

10/18

Questions Ricochet Like Broken Satellites, Friends at the Table, 2k words

Kobus' entire life had been pointless, but for once, they could see exactly what they needed to do. Then Vicuna pulled them out of Liberty and Grace.

I could not tell you why I latched onto Kobus so hard, but that didn’t stop me from doubling the size of their ao3 tag in a month. This fic ended up pretty depressing, which is ironic since the whole point was to give them a happier ending than they got in canon, but at least they’re alive at the end of it.

11/4

Detect My Sudden Existence on Your Sonar, Friends at the Table, 3.1k words

AuDy didn't intend for the rest of the Chime to move in with them. They didn't object when it happened, though.

I had a lot of trouble trying to write from AuDy’s perspective but I’m pleased with the end result. Maybe next I’ll figure out how to do pacing and/or tonal consistency. I do like the Cass stuff at the end but I think my favorite scene from this fic is everyone helping Aria unpack her stuff and being goofy.

11/11

Telling Dreams from One Another, Friends at the Table, 1.3k words

Mako shows up on Kobus' doorstep holding a Divine, and doesn't even have the decency to bring fried chicken.

This started because I kept thinking about how Kobus’ form of Ambition would have been Faith and how close that comes to Loyalty, and then the more I wrote the more I liked the dynamic between Kobus and the younger Makos. A lot of it can be summed up as Mako being the mid-twenties upperclassman who looks at the freshman and goes “oh look, a baby” much to the freshman’s annoyance, except instead of being in college they’re both secret agents raised as weapons since they can remember. It isn’t addressed in the fic but I imagine this ends with Kobus following Mako back to Kesh and ending up with eight identical older siblings.

11/24

Find Out What Broke Me Soon Enough, Friends at the Table, 1.9k words

Kobus is still reeling from their failed attack on Grace, but when Aria Joie asks for their help, they can't think of a good reason to refuse.

Continuing the theme of “what if Kobus had friends,” I like the idea of Aria being worried about Righteousness consuming her and going to the one person she knows of who’s successfully stepped away from a Divine. Like the last fic in the series, I tried very hard to give Kobus a happy ending and they categorically refused. As it turns out, when you’ve been raised to see yourself as a sacrifice for the greater good, it’s hard to find other ways to make a difference, and Aria doesn’t know them well enough to push it. One day I will find the right combination of characters and circumstances to let Kobus rest.

12/7

Take Our Time 'Cause It Feels Like We're Dying, Friends at the Table, 1.7k words

When Cass coughed up the first flower petal, all they could do was stare at it in disbelief.

Yes, I know, hanahaki. I am surprised at myself too. I was just thinking about what it would take to get me invested in hanahaki and because of who I am as a person my brain immediately applied that to Counter/weight. I know where I’m going with it but I want to finish F&M before continuing, so keep an eye out maybe in February. Also, doing this retrospective made me realize that this is the second time I’ve used a line from this song as a title for a Counter/weight fic. Whoops.

12/17

The Movements of My Mind, Friends at the Table, 1k words

On his way back to Auniq for the negotiations, Throndir stops by the cave where he met Kindrali.

My first non Counter/weight fatt fic, and once again it is introspection about a Dre character, because without realizing it I ended up with a favorite player. I just like coming up with in-universe explanations for things that were probably mistakes on their part, and I’m always interested in how the Kindrali connection works. Even if I am now incapable of thinking of Kindrali without going “I wonder what day he remembers??”

12/25

Fantasy and Microchips, Friends at the Table, 9.2k words

Five times Mako hacks things accidentally because of Cass, and one time it's intentional.

The year ended as it began, with me taking someone else’s AU and writing a fic about it. In this case, it’s a comic done by drowzydruzy on twitter. I looked at it, went “that’s pretty funny, maybe I could write a fic about it,” and then two chapters in I realized how to exploit it for angst and pretty much didn’t stop. The trickiest part so far has been making Rigor references without getting too heavy-handed. I’m halfway through writing the last chapter now, so naturally I’m procrastinating by doing this meme. It’s actually a meta-narrative about defeating Rigor by not being too beholden to your own projects, or something.

#ignore me #fic retrospective #this will only interest me but i had to talk about my thoughts on a kobus-mako relationship somewhere

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legit-scam-review · 6 years ago

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QuadrigaCX Is Filing for Creditor Protection Amid Liquidity Crisis, Community Remains Largely Skeptical

Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX is in hot water: Following the sudden death of its 30-year-old founder, Gerald Cotten, the exchange has allegedly lost access to its cold wallets, where most of the funds were stored.

Now, the exchange has taken to court to avoid the collapse, but some community members suggest that QuadrigaCX’s cold wallets never existed.

Canada’s largest crypto exchange with a complex history

QuadrigaCX was launched in December 2013 and operated from Vancouver, British Columbia. The digital assets exchange was founded by Gerald Cotten and Michael Patryn. Prior to that, Cotten was a director at the Vancouver Bitcoin Co-op, a voluntary association of local cryptocurrency enthusiasts, of which Patryn was also an active member.

According to Cotten, QuadrigaCX was established against the backdrop of scarce crypto services in Canada. In February 2015, he said on a Decentral Talk Live podcast:

“It was just so hard to buy Bitcoin in Canada. You couldn’t hook up your bank account anywhere. It was just such a challenge.”

In 2015, QuadrigaCX became the country’s largest crypto exchange, with around $37.4 million traded on their platform — according to the company, it had acquired around 60 percent of the market share by November that year.

QuadrigaCX is also reportedly the first crypto platform in Canada to be granted a money services business (MSB) license from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FinTRAC), the domestic financial regulator responsible for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures. As Cotten told Straight in a February 2014 interview, his exchange was focused on compliance:

“We’re quite proactive when it comes to regulations. We don’t want to break the law. We want to fully comply, and we actually more than comply with what the current laws are.”

In March 2015, Quadriga Fintech — the exchange’s parent company — announced its plans to go public and be listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) via a reverse initial public offering (IPO). The firm reportedly planned to acquire a shell company called Whiteside Capital Corporation for that purpose.

Despite going through the easier route of a reverse IPO — which includes less paperwork — Quadriga Fintech still had to be audited. Cotten claimed at the time that he was “excited to be able to provide an unparalleled level of transparency by merging legacy financial audits with innovative blockchain technology.”

There has been no update on the IPO plans from Quadriga since then, and the firm was never listed on the CSE. In May 2015, however, Patryn revealed that his company was selling over-the-counter (OTC) shares for Bitcoin (BTC).

In March 2016, the British Columbia Securities Commision (BCSC) barred QuadrigaCX from selling securities after slapping it with a cease trade order (CTO) for not submitting annual audited financial statements for the fiscal year that ended Oct. 31, 2015.

About a week before getting hit with the CTO, Quadriga’s directors Anthony Milewski and Lovie Horner resigned. Then, soon after the order was issued, Bill Filtness, the director, and Natasha Tsai, the chief financial officer, also quit the company, leaving Patryn and Cotten as the only executives in Quadriga.

However, In March 2018, Quadriga’s official Reddit account commented that Patryn was “an early [sic] who left the company more than two years ago.” Although that checks out with his LinkedIn account showing that he left the firm in February 2016, Patryn’s resignation from Quadriga was never announced. Reddit users have several times linked Patryn to a convicted money launderer named Omar Dhanani. Quadriga has denied this accusation, calling it “nonsense”.

Cotten highlighted security as one of the main priorities of his business. According to a CNBC article published in May 2014, QuadrigaCX held the majority of its assets in cold wallets — which are secured by digital security keys in order to protect them from hacking and theft — had advanced encryption, custom operating systems and software, and a partnership with CloudFlare, a large company in the United States that provides DDoS protection.

Nonetheless, Quadriga CX had experienced at least one major security breach in the past. In June 2017, the exchange announced that it had lost 67,317.25 ETH (around $14 million, at the time) due to a “technical glitch.”

Legal fight with the CIBC and Cotten’s sudden death

In 2018, the exchange entered a prolonged legal fight with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). The bank reportedly froze five accounts belonging to Quadriga’s payment processor, Costodian Inc., and its owner, Jose Reyes. Combined, they contained around $19.6 million, according to reports. The CIBC suspended the accounts after failing to identify the owner of those funds.

The CIBC requested the Ontario Superior Court to withhold the funds and determine whether they belong to Costodian, the exchange or the users who deposited the funds. Further, in November 2018, the court ruled in favor of the bank, agreeing that the owner of the funds was not clearly established. As a result, the CIBC was obliged to pass the funds over to the Accountant of the Superior Court in order to identify the owner of the money. Meanwhile, Quadriga users continued to actively report withdrawal issues, while massive complaints started to arise earlier in 2018.

On Jan. 14, 2019, Cotten’s wife, Jennifer Robertson, announced that her husband, CEO at Quadriga, has suddenly died. According to Robertson’s statement, Cotten, who was 30 at the time, perished “due to complications with Crohn’s disease” on Dec. 9, 2018 while travelling in India. Being Cotten’s estate executor, she also recommended to appoint Aaron Matthews, head of operations at Quadriga, as interim president and CEO.

Gerry Cotten. Image source: Facebook

The platform continued to accept funds for weeks after Cotten’s death. According to The Globe and Mail, on Jan. 25, Robertson, who says she was not involved in the business while her husband was alive, filed an application to hold an emergency meeting to appoint board directors at the exchange. On Jan. 28, the board allegedly decided to shut down QuadrigaCX’s website. The official announcement claimed that the platform went offline due to maintenance issues.

Several days later, on Jan. 31, QuadrigaCX filed for creditor protection in compliance with the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) at the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. The CCAA is a federal act that allows financially challenged companies to avoid bankruptcy by restructuring their business and getting protection from its creditors. A company must owe to creditors in excess of $5 million to be eligible to apply for the CCAA.

According to the affidavit filed by Robertson, Cotten was solely responsible for the wallets and corresponding keys to 190 million Canadian dollars ($145 million) in digital assets. Accordingly, after he died, those funds went missing, and the exchange has been unable to retrieve those keys.

As a result, the exchange claims to have only CA$375,000 ($286,000) in cash, while it owes CA$260 million ($198,435,000) to as many as 115,000 of its customers, and hence is facing a liquidity crisis.

Will the money ever be reclaimed? Some claim that there was no money in the first place

According to the affidavit, Cotten normally ran the business from his personal laptop. While Robertson still has physical access to the device, she claims that she is unable to open it. She wrote in the document:

“The laptop computer from which Gerry carried out the companies’ business is encrypted and I do not know the password or recovery key. Despite repeated and diligent searches, I have not been able to find them written down anywhere.”

Robertson also says that she hired someone to try to access the funds, but that the expert has so far not been able to do so.

Meanwhile, Robertson faces a backlash from the QuadrigaCX users on social media, who mostly took to Twitter and Reddit to question whether Cotten is actually dead. As per The Globe and Mail, the CCAA filings include a statement of death issued by J.A. Snow Funeral House in Halifax.

Moreover, Robertson’s affidavit states that there have also been threats made against her: “Slanderous comments have been made against me and sent through Facebook messenger to my entire contact list.” Robertson is reportedly funding the creditor protection motion herself, and a preliminary hearing has been set for Feb. 5.

Quadriga aims to appoint Big Four audit company Ernst & Young as an independent third party to monitor their CCAA hearings, and the court is expected to release its decision on Feb. 5 as well. So far, Ernst & Young has reportedly concluded that “Quadriga was unable to access the cold wallets and/or discovered that the cold wallets contained minimal cryptocurrency units.”

Taylor Monahan, former developer of Ethereum (ETH) wallet interface MyEtherWallet (MEW) who now runs the MyCrypto project, told Cointelegraph that she finds the situation where excessive amounts of digital assets are locked out because they were controlled by one person “beyond absurd”:

“The fact that a person controlling millions of customer assets didn’t have any sort of backup in place, gave no one else access, and didn’t leave any information regarding these accounts with anyone is beyond absurd. If this is indeed the truth, any number of outside factors could have resulted in the loss of access to those customer funds, like fire, flood, misplacing the single piece of paper, etc.”

Ideally, Monahan adds, the cold storage wallet should be a multi-signature one, where the keys that control the individual accounts are kept secure and in multiple physically separate locations:

“Just like a company has a bank account with multiple signers, the cold storage would be controlled in that fashion and perhaps by the same people. Depending on the size of the operation, it would likely be the CEO, possibly the CTO, perhaps a board member or CFO type person, or another trusted party. Even if a company were to choose not to utilize multi-signature wallets for whatever reason, there should always be multiple backups in physically distinct locations.”

Monahan has also been analyzing ETH wallet addresses attributed to QuadrigaCX. Based on preliminary results of her study, she suggests that QuadrigaCX might not have any ETH cold wallets at all:

“Based on what I’ve seen with their other main Ethereum wallets, I haven’t found any signs of a cold wallet. We can see large amounts of ETH move between their known ‘hot’ wallets. We see large amounts of ETH being moved temporarily to a variety of addresses before quickly being sent onto an exchange. But we don’t see any significant amount of funds being moved to something that resembles ‘cold’ storage.”

Other research, published on cryptocurrency portal Zerononcense Blog, also suggests that QuadrigaCX never had cold storage, per se. The report’s authors claim that they used “only 100% verified transactions with the exchange,” but admit that the findings may not be wholly accurate. The first of six summary findings in the report states:

“It appears that there are no identifiable cold wallet reserves for QuadrigaCX.”

According to the research, the exchange likely only had cryptocurrency reserves of under $100 million. The report also contains alleged evidence that shows a party had access to the company’s wallets after Cotten died, reportedly making several outgoing transactions since Dec. 9.

“It does not appear that QuadrigaCX has lost access to their Bitcoin holdings.”

Further suspicions center around QuadrigaCX using customer deposits to pay customer obligations. Thus, the research notes that a comparison of QuadrigaCX’s withdrawal practices to those of other established crypto exchanges — such as Coinbase, Bittrex and Binance — shows that the “movement of bitcoins to satisfy customer demand is highly unorthodox and extremely inefficient for any legitimate exchange.”

The article will be updated with the results of a preliminary hearing regarding Quadriga’s CCAA, being held on Feb. 5, which are expected to be published soon. First reports from the court indicate that QuadrigaCX might be sold to refund the customers — learn more here. The police have not issued any comment regarding the incident so far.