#and now it's at 1042. still no new followers. at least that i can see

[batemanofficial]

my follower count keeps rising by single digits but im not getting any new notifications for new followers....ghosts? manifestations of my deluded psyche mayhaps? time will tell

[basedkikuenjoyer]

A Tale of Two Hannya

This is both the capstone to this whole “Case” series and the one I’m least thrilled to write. There’s a big ol flashy Makami in the room for all this recruit talk. Simply put, do you think I’d take the time to lay out an entire case for someone else if I didn’t have an answer for ol’ Yamsey?

Yeah. I do. One of the main reasons I feel like I have something here is that unlike other alternatives, this one can run right through Yamato’s role in the arc. I’m going to keep a lot of it to myself for now. Because there’s little point in pointing out every instance of the same concept. This is a dynamic that could pan out in a lot of shades too. Also, as little as two weeks could prove I’m way off base. It’s not like I have a problem with Pirate Inuyasha being the final recruit, but well...don’t make the mistake of thinking the notion Kiku may end up pulling a surprise is born out of really, really, really liking her and just wanting to make it work. I’ve said before my guess for most of Wano was Speed’s ending with Tama. It’s born out of three observations:

While I can certainly see the hype, I also can’t ignore that many of the big scenes for Yamato do have some hook in there that undercuts a new recruit narrative. Plenty of people have pointed these out independently over the past two years. 

The more I started to understand this element, the more I caught myself using Okiku’s role as a counterpoint. As the arc rolled on, it became harder to ignore how much the two are polar opposites and how frequently they end up having similar scenes perfect for contrast.   

From there, a lingering concept I can’t shake. I can see why an author would make the decision to mask his weapons-grade unassuming, tactful, tenth with a flashy but flawed foil. I could hypothetically see letting a side character with similar themes carry some early weight before introducing the newbie. I can’t see why you’d do that and then have her still be the one more involved with the crew in the back half. Kiku...hasn’t stepped back to nearly the same degree as say, Paulie. Her story is still growing too.

It feels like the misdirection boils down to presenting someone who looks borderline inevitable only as long as you’re looking at him in a vacuum, overlooking major thematic elements like disorder on the Rocks Crew from too many big heads. All the current tension in alliances. Whitebeard’s words on “the type to follow others.” Yamato’s own bumbles and inconsistencies. It’s how he fits into the big picture and where we’re at in the overall story that make me feel right to maintain that skepticism. Even moreso when you have that sweet, refined opposite perfectly set up to run away with the final phase as much as she did the first phase of Wano. Was that sparkler a fuse? Definitely still see the possibility even with recent chapters. I already said I felt vindicated by 1042. 1051?

I mean, the following scene with Jinbei dousing the hype is too easy. Before that though, recall when this blog was starting off in Act 1, long before we ever saw this chapter. I made a few observations pointing out that Kiku had a fun trend of not reacting to the usual Straw Hat weirdness despite ample opportunity and being in the right position to be that girl for those regular arc gags. These contrasts are all over, many in the same chapter.

Then on top of that we have Aramaki’s arrival. Already running long so I won’t dwell. Just...he’s the perfect beat to take all that work Yamato’s done building a bond with Momo, all that deep love for Wano and desire to be loved in return, and have him surpass Oden. Realize the magnitude of this still present threat and that Wano needs a powerful “Guardian” backing Momo. You can still fulfill your dream of going out to sea, but right here right now isn’t the best timing. That’s if we’re playing nice. And I see no reason things would need to go harsh if my hunch here is right... 

...But I find myself frequently being reminded of something when I get into this territory. A pretty famous pair in anime history. Not saying it��s a direct allusion, the dynamic isn’t unique to them, but it’s one some of y’all might recognize that should shed a bit of light on the possibility I see.

Pinkie is the titular character from Revolutionary Girl Utena and red dress is Anthy, the “Rose Bride” and perennial damsel in distress. How many of y’all are familiar with this shoujo classic contemporary with One Piece’s debut? Spoilers ahead I quess. Many have compared Yamato to Utena having this drive to live as a dashing, noble “Prince.” That’s the big hook, it’s what motivates everything. Utena is so cool and hype and this awesome main character! And Anthy? She’s kinda flat. Alright I guess.

Well...until the end. That perception shattered in an instant because you the viewer were being led by the nose the whole time. (Pitting viewer vs. character perceptions...where have I heard that?) With that swift, decisive climax Utena is deconstructed and left as this lesson on the folly, the outright childishness of leaning so hard on chasing an ideal that was ultimately an unhealthy coping mechanism.  And Anthy? Mastermind who was just playing the unassuming, ditzy doormat before girlbossing off on her own adventure at the end. You can’t rewatch Utena after finishing it without seeing how sly Anthy is at pushing things her way the entire, fucking, series. Right under your nose, hidden in plain sight the whole time. But it doesn’t make sense until it’s spelled out at the end. 

I do at least see the potential of spinning Kiku/Yamato into a similar, if way less melodramatic, conclusion. A lot of our journey through Kiku’s arc has been simply pointing out scenes with potential. That fundamental idea that she was introduced showcasing acting ability and is a proper young lady who knows to mind her tongue. Meaning she could always theoretically be doing that in any scene. 

[pretty-setter-bois]

hope

request; Lance scenario, where it’s been many years since Allura died, he meets a new person who gives him hope and he feels himself start to love again?

summay; not all who wander are lost — that’s what you’ve been living by for your entire life, trying to prove to others that it was, in fact, true. but you’ve never proved it to yourself — until him.

word count; 1042 words™

warning; mention of death.

    IT HAD BEEN years since the passing of allura, since the had lions left, since the paladins had split up. they were on far corners of the earth, each helping the earth one day at a time.

lance had tended to his farm with his family, growing the juniberries that reminded him oh-so-much of allura.

he knew it was wrong. to hold on to her like she was alive, like he’d wake up and see her in front of him. he had to move on, but he couldn’t replace her.

it felt like betrayal just to think of it, but to actually do it?

“lance!” veronica yelled. “remember the girl i told you about? the one that’s coming to help us with the juniberries?”

“yeah?”

“she’s coming tomorrow. go go prepare what we need for harvesting season!”

lance groaned, but obliged nonetheless. he understood that his family needed this harvest, as juniberries were becoming quite popular in the market.

what he couldn’t understand, though, why a distant relative was coming all the way to their farm to help.

well, she wasn’t a distant relative, but her and veronica were so close that they considered each other to be sisters. another strange thing  — he’d never met her.

he found the watering cans and the gardening gloves underneath boxes of sylvio and nadia’s old belongings. he set them out in front of the shed, in an empty bucket he’d been using earlier.

the former paladin wiped the sweat that had formed above his brows, and took in the sky around him. it had started to get dark, around the time he’d usually head in to eat dinner with his family.

as his mami placed the food on the dinner table, as veronica teased marco, as his papi laughed at sylvio and nadia’s antics, as his abuelita helped lisa with her kids, he could only think of one thing.

who were you?

    “AH, (Y/N)!” VERONICA called over to you.

you sent her a small wave, and she engulfed you in a large hug.

“ronnie, my stuff.” you chuckled.

half of your suitcases and bags had fallen, the other half hung off of you.

“sorry!” she laughed, and picked up your belongings. “i just haven’t seen you in so long.”

“aw, does the renowned veronica mcclain miss me?”

“in your dreams.” she rolled her eyes playfully. she grabbed your wrist and began to sprint across the fields.

“woah, slow down!” you warned, but she only giggled in response.

you stopped in front of a small den-like home, sun-hat anything but off and bags anything but touching the ground.

oh ronnie, what have you gotten me into this time.

you had to admit, it was quite cute. an ideal home for someone like you, but it was bigger than a house for someone who wanted to stay by them-self for the entirety of their lifetime.

you’d never had any luck in relationships. every guy you’d ever liked had either curved you, gone for your best friend, or disliked you from the start — so you took it upon yourself to never try and get yourself in a relationship.

besides, it was fun being single, right? you didn’t need a man, you could do it all on your own!

“you can rest for today, since you just came all the way from the humanitarian relief organization.”

you nodded your head no.

“huh?!” your bestfriend exclaimed.

“i wanna work now. i didn’t come all the way here to rest!”

“oh, (Y/N).” veronica muttered to herself.

she took you inside, giving you a small tour of her home and re-introducing you to her family.

you’d already met her grandparents, her parents, rachael, lisa, luis, and even recalled seeing nadia and sylvio when they were babies.

“alright, where’s my room?”

“we’re sharing, dummy.” she light-heartedly jabbed at you. “okay, i had to pull a lot of things together to get everyone to agree with this, so you better consider yourself lucky.”

“what do you mean?”

“you’re staying with me, so that means the twins...”

you began to zone out, occasionally paying mind to what veronica said. when you weren’t listening, you were unpacking what you’d brought with you.

“... are lumped in with lisa and luis, but the bed’s too small, so sylvio...”

you took out your clothes from your bags, folded them and then placed them on veronica’s bed.

“... and since marco only has one twin-sized beds in his room, papi went to buy a sleeping bag...”

you continued to fold your clothes, and veronica continued to ramble.

an abrupt knock commenced on veronica’s door and cut her off.

“who is it?” she called out.

“it’s me!” an unrecognizable voice called out in return.

“come in.”

a tall (attractive, even) man walked into veronica’s room. he looked similar to her, but you weren’t going to ask her about it yet.

“mami says it's time for dinner." he stated, closing the door after he left.

"hey, ronnie?"

"yeah, (Y/N)?"

"who's that?"

    DINNER HAD BEEN awkward, in a lowkey way. you and lance had been making a lot of eye contact, only to look away when caught.

at least you knew his name now.

you helped veronica with the dishes, and she informed you that it’s far to late to begin working in the field. you offered an understanding smile in return, and dried the plates she handed to you one by one.

after you’d finished, the two of you spent time with nadia and sylvio. she could tell you were distracted.

“what’s on your mind?” she asked.

“your brother.” you blinked.

“gee, you didn’t have to be so blunt.” she chuckled awkwardly. “what do you think of him?”

“he’s cute.”

veronica facepalmed, before she looked up with a serious facial expression.

“hey... he was in a relationship not too long ago, and he’s still sensitive about it.”

“alright. i wasn’t going to go for him anyway, ronnie. i came here to learn more about juniberries, didn’t i?”

“how ironic...” she muttered, though you didn’t hear it.

“could you repeat that?”

“ah, it was nothing. let’s play a game.”

the siblings instantly perked up, and got up to follow veronica to wherever she’d went, leaving you on the carpet to think.

NOTES ☀♕❣⁂ღ

this might be a series, i haven’t decided yet, but if not, then it’ll be a short multi-part story.

[mechagalaxy]

Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184: Mecha Combat #1042 - December 3349 Rhinoplasty

(By Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184)

Mountain Climbing Mecha Combat #1042

Brought to you by ANN

Highlighting the December 3349 Rhinoplasty

Just after the Ant event, the Gaming authorities decided to have another event featuring a Mech model. This time the Keradon was the chosen model and, unlike in the Ant event, no other Mech models were allowed.

-Unless you fought on K11, there all Mech models were legal.

For me this looked to be another of those events I had better stay away from. After all, having at least one legal Mech is for me more or less a requirement for joining up.

This time however, it seemed few if any on the higher tops had legal Mechs in numbers, so perhaps joining up wasnt such a bad idea after all?

The rules for Mech combat are such that if the defender have no legal Mechs, the attacker wins (even if they have no legal Mechs either)

So a fight could well come to who had the most hatorades and could get the last unopposed win. Of course, any Keradon present in a formation, even a factory fresh one would defeat my forces but….

I went over to the hangar and told Bruno to get a formation ready for the tournament. He cocked his head and told me it could take some time.

Seeing my incredulous expression, he motioned me to follow him to an out of the way part of the hangar.

There, covered by a thick coat of dust, draped in spiderwebs and having lost almost all the luster of its original paint job, was a Mech I had thought we had sold last century.

Fido, the only Keradon I have ever had, was slow in responding when he was turned on, and the stifflegged gait when he was manuvered to one of the repair bays told volumes about the staus of his actuators and lubricant.

But Bruno gathered a gang of older techs and went to work. Since I had nothing to contribute there, it was back to the office and the paperworkmonster for me.

Several hours later a runner was sent to fetch me. Fido had been restored to his former glory, and been given the pick of equipment. He reported ready, so we went to the Mountains.

There we were assigned to K3.

The curse was in effect, only five others had showed up, and none of them had visible Keradons.

A quick strike against an naked opponent, and we were on the slopes. The way further was open.

The top was held by Ales Hasala of the premier Northwind Dragons. He have an impressive string of KotM wins and can field a full Nephilax formation. Here he had brought what looked to be his 35 ton formation along.

Since he had held the top for a long time, I had to assume he had at least one Keradon tucked away in there, probably two and perhaps even more.

Since his licence also was quite a bit higher than mine, his Keradons would also outgun Fido by 49 weapon emplacements to his 41. But he only way to find out was to try….

Ok, this was going to be one of the hardest challenges in my career. Ales did not have just one or two Keradons. He had a full line containing six of them.

The only way we could possibly beat him was to take out all of his Mechs in a single strike, so it was back to the compound for rearmament.

A bit later, Fido had gotten mostly Wide Fork weapons and we returned. The trick now was to a) fire first, b) generate a huge hit, and c) trigger the Wide Fork.

It took more than 50 tries before Fido managed it. Yes we held the top, but by the thinnest of threads, and my supers were all gone. But no immediate counterattack took place. Perhaps none of the other Commanders was present yet? The scramble was after all a bit into the future . But if Hasala returned, the odds of getting the top from him another time was somewhere between slim and none.

But despite it being a pretty long scramble, none of the others attacked us, so when the light flashed we still held the top.

To keep from gnawing off my fingers, I had scanned and recorded the action on all of the tops, so I knew the winners this time had been:

Div 1 355+ (21 Commanders): Sherriff Leary Wretham, Warlock (5h,26m)

2: Jeff Haas

3: Dan Ross

4: Ben Rail

5: Daniel Scott

6: Sal Vezzosi Jr

7: Gary Muenzel

8: Joe Kump

9: Larry Vandervort

10: Robert C Goetz Sr

Div 2 -354 (17 Commanders): Stroker Spot, Slaughter House 5 (8h,16m)

Div 3 -231 (6 Commanders): Sten Hugo Hiller, Star League (1h,23s)

Div 4 -190 (12 Commanders): Ales Tomasek, B.S.L.R. (16h,36m)

Div 5 -150 (22 Commanders): Brian Wilson, Smurf Platoon (4h,40m)

Div 6 -110 (18 Commanders): ANNeditor, HF 110 C.C. 1st A.R. (19h,49m)

Div 7 -84 (15 Commanders): Patrick T Kennon, ***R.V.*** (2h,1m)

Div 8 -62 (15 Commanders): Kalevi Karvinen, Brigade of Patrol Smurfs (6h,2m)

Div 9 -42 (11 Commanders): Tom Condon, The Goonies (2h,19m)

Div 10 -27 (17 Commanders): Draco_Dragon_, Jagdstaffel 2 (1d,1h)

Div 11 -17 (19 Commanders): RiffRaff_, Jagdstafel 1 (10h,28m)

On the 10 highest tops, only the Keradon was legal, but only

1(G)+0+0+1(1S)+3(G,2S)+1(G)+0+2(G,1S)+0+0= Four Golds and four Silvers were awarded to Commanders who had what could have been pure Keradon formations.

Total Contestants: 183

Total medals claimed: 149 (of 165 possible)

Compared to the Red Ant event we just had, the paricipation rose by seventeen Commanders.

But between the curse of K3 and the regular imbalance between the tops, a total of sixteen Bronzes ended unclaimed and were returned for resmelting.

The last half-hour brought no change in who held the tops, and ten of the Golds were held for more than two hours, one of them for more than a day.

Sounds like an extreme case of the haves vs the have nots, although it could also be a lack of fighting spirit. To get a better feel of which, we take a look at the number of medals held for more than 30 minutes in this event:

.............Silvers......Bronzes

Div 1 ....0 of 4.........6 of 10

Div 2 ....3 of 4.........6 of 10

Div 3 ....4 of 4.........1 of 1

Div 4 ....3 of 4.........5 of 7

Div 5 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10

Div 6 ....1 of 4.........4 of 10

Div 7 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10

Div 8 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10

Div 9 ....4 of 4.........6 of 6

Div 10 ..4 of 4.......10 of 10

Div 11 ..4 of 4.......10 of 10

Seven tops without a single medal changing hands point toward little fighting, but on both Mount Olympus and K6 there was fierce fighting for the lesser prizes, and most of the medals on those two tops got redistributed.

This was another of those "no" events. No clans got more than one Gold, no repeat winners and no Gold to any of the unaligned Commanders.

Upcoming event: Quadruple Rainbow Chrono

Here we have a Rainbow event, and the most inclusive of them at that. A Commander may use up to four Mechs from each model (any further Mechs will be treated as a blank space when it comes to fighting in the arena).

It is also a Chrono, so signing up soonest to start scoring points is highly recommended for those who want (good) prizes.

Event ends August 8 between 0000 and 0030 New York Time

[kansascityhappenings]

Joe’s Weather Blog: An update on winter model trends (WED-11/16)

Good afternoon…a later blog that usual. I was dead tired this morning and felt I couldn’t give 100% to this…so I needed a nap…that’s done…now let’s get into it. A reminder, please follow me on twitter for additional more real-time updates. I send a lot of stuff out there including model updates etc that you would find useful as we track this next storm coming into KC. My twitter handle is @fox4wx.

Forecast:

Tonight: Freezing rain/mist/drizzle likely. Roads may become slick in spots. Freezing rain amounts will be very light but a small glaze can still produce headaches. Usually the bigger issues are when temperatures are in the mid-upper 20s. Tonight the low will be closer to 30° so it may not be a widespread sheet of ice out there tomorrow morning.

Thursday: Cloudy skies and cold. Highs again near 35°

Friday: Same…with increasing chances of at least some rain or a wintry mix developing in the later in the day or towards night. Highs in the mid 30s

Discussion:

So one of the reasons why I started the blog the way I did was yesterday and last night I sent out a couple of tweets that this audience (the blog readers) may have been interested in .

Let's take a deeper dive into the snow that's increasingly likely in KC into the weekend. A tool that I referenced last night are ensembles. These are the individual "members" of the American model. pic.twitter.com/kq9TFcMMJ7

— Fox 4 Weather KC (@fox4wx) January 16, 2019

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Click on that twitter because there are some additional thoughts attached to it.

Then last night…I sent this out.

Models are NOT as bullish w/ the snow or the amount of cold as we've seen for the last few days. May be a #speedbump & frankly I'm not surprised. The Pacific is a chaotic MESS of swirls & expecting the data to resolve this correctly is ludicrous from days away. #staythecourse jl pic.twitter.com/JEivmH9eau

— Fox 4 Weather KC (@fox4wx) January 16, 2019

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

It’s easier to get some quick thoughts out via twitter than on the blog.

So the 2nd tweet is really the important one. The Pacific is a mess indeed. One look at the water vapor shots shows this chaos going full on out there via Rutgers University.

The feature to watch is more or less that storm off the coast of CA…although there is some energy coming on the south side of the storm itself that is going to play a factor in this too.

So before we tackle everything let’s go over what I’ve been talking about for the last few days.

I first raised a yellow flag that something could happen FRI>SAT this past Sunday. At the same time on Sunday I said that the game this Sunday would be considerably colder than what we went through last Saturday. Then I started to mention the potential of an accumulating snow in this time frame on Monday. All this still looks likely.

The devil is the details…how much snow and how cold it gets. The cold was always a guarantee. Saturday should feature dropping temperatures all day…and wind chills tanking to sub-zero levels. We may end up in the single digits for temperatures at the end of the day. Sunday’s cold however may not be as brutal. The dump of cold air coming into the area isn’t as cold on the data today as it was a couple of days ago.

Let me show you the temperatures at the surface as a comparison.

1st yesterday’s EURO forecast valid at 6PM Sunday..

  Now today’s forecast…

  Why?

Well strictly looking at the surface…remember yesterday when I showed you the virtually identical surface maps from the DEC 2016 game day with Tennessee and the forecast off the data yesterday. Same strength of the Arctic high building in right on top of the KC Metro area…1042 millibars. Look at the latest forecast map…

The surface air pressure when from about 1042 mbs…to about 1033 mbs. 30.77″ to 30.47″. Still high pressure but an indicator that the colder, denser air isn’t as cold or as dense for this area.

That will cause temperatures at game time to not be around 5° but perhaps be closer to 10-15° or so. Again plenty cold…some 20 to 25° below average which again from days away is still NOT a terrible forecast…just again the devil is in the details.

So perhaps it’s not silly cold..but still darn cold weather we’re talking about. Sub-zero temperatures are still possible Sunday morning as well.

Now onto the snow situation.

The model data will handle some things well and some things poorly. Sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes the one aspect they have trouble with is the actual amount of precipitation that a system can generate and when it comes to snowfall forecasting that’s important.

I see the trends for somewhat lessor snow totals…I see the trends for a big thump of fast accumulating snow then things perhaps end faster. I see all those trends. The thing is I don’t throw in the flag on lessor whatever unless there is a change in the structure of the storm or the track of the storm…and that may be happening.

The EURO data has this storm track about 100 miles farther south of KC. I think in the comments section in the blog yesterday, maybe it was in the main body I said this…

That answer is still valid today.

Yesterday in the blog…I mentioned that I’d be starting at 2-8″ (in the blog and not on the air) for snow accumulations. Why only the blog? Well 1) it’s far to early to get specific accumulations out to the masses. They hear 2-8″ and their is a tendency to hear the number 8!. The point of the blog to to talk about things that I wouldn’t talk about on the air in a more casual and fun way. That’s the way it’s been for over 15 years at least! Just by the fact that you’re reading this means that you perhaps have a more keen interest (whether it be for business reasons…weather aficionado reasons…or are just more curious about the whys and whats) so that’s why you folks get to be more in the “know” as you get to hear the rambling thoughts in my head as opposed to what I can crank out in two to 3 minutes when there are other things going on at the same time…

So where am I today? I think I’d like to trim that top number down by 1-2″ or so…BUT I will say that there continues to be a decent chance of at least several hours of heavy snow combined with 30+ MPH winds Friday night and Saturday morning. IF that can last 4-6 hours…we get the higher end of 2-7″…if it lasts or is lighter we get the much lower end of the 2″ value. It will be blowing everywhere though and with the snow on the ground…many won’t be getting a fair measurement anyway.

It should be snowing pretty darn hard by 12AM Saturday morning…the issue is that it may not snow hard for more than a few hours. It should stick pretty fast though. So IF the snow isn’t lasting as long…it makes getting to that top value harder.

So the cold is coming…although perhaps not as brutal on Sunday afternoon…snow is likely to come…the potential of a few hours of near blizzard conditions are possible, although you may be sleeping when it happens, and sub-zero wind chills will develop on Saturday. You know…that’s really not a bad forecast from 5-6 days away (last weekend).

That doesn’t mean it’s an accurate forecast though…because reality means accuracy BUT saying something x days away and saying almost the same thing x+3 days away is still not too bad.

If it’s raining on Sunday with temperatures in the 30s…we’ll be wrong!

Our feature photo comes from @Cos72…gorgeous!

Joe

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/01/16/joes-weather-blog-an-update-on-winter-model-trends-wed-11-16/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/01/16/joes-weather-blog-an-update-on-winter-model-trends-wed-11-16/