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griffintail · 4 years ago

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The First Day

Summary: Your first day on the server.

Pairing: Wilbur Soot x F! Reader

Warnings: Swearing

A/N: This is a story I was working on in my free time for like the longest time and it's still not finished and it's so long. God knows how many parts this will be. I need a title for this story too. I'll think of one separately and it will have it's own masterlist if people like it.

SO! Without further ado, here you are because I was bored!

Oh and (Y/U/N) means YOUR USERNAME.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wilbur logged on to the Dream SMP. He didn’t have anything to do there, it was just a place to run around and build for him at the moment.

He had built his “ball” not far from Tommy’s base, maybe he could build something else…He wasn’t quite sure yet. Just as before, Tommy begged for his attention and chuckled at the boy’s antics quietly. As he was going to find a space to build a new name joined the server.

(Y/U/N) joined the game

He frowned. He’s never heard that name before. Someone must have though because Dream didn’t let just anyone on the server. He’d look into them later.

He was once more about to go to work when there was a new message in chat.

<(Y/U/N)> There are new people on today. \o/ Hello, Mr. Soot and Mr. Innit.

He chuckled as he read the message deciding to give them a response, smirking at Tommy’s probably rage.

<WilburSoot> Hello there! :)

<(Y/U/N)> May I know your coords?

<WilburSoot> You may

He gave the newcomer he coordinates, deciding to stick around the ball as he had as Tommy messaged him with renewed hope. A figure that wasn’t Tommy climbed up to Wilbur. The character was a female skin in a plaid jacket that was open with a plaid shirt and blue jeans to match, wearing a gray beanie on blonde hair.

<(Y/U/N)> Hi! I’m new and wanted to give you a gift.

She threw a flower, a poppy specifically, at him and when he picked it up, he noticed it was named.

From (Y/U/N) to WilburSoot

<WilburSoot> Why thank you Ms. (Y/U/N).

<Tommyinnit> WOMAN!?

<(Y/U/N)> No problem good day!

<(Y/U/N)> Mr. Innit! May I have your coords?

<Tommyinnit> No I will not give a woman my coordinates!!

<(Y/U/N)> :(

And now was the time to respond to Tommy. Wilbur logged onto the discord and joined Tommy in his call.

“Wilbur!”

“Now Tommy, that’s not how you talk to a lady.” Wilbur jokingly scolded him. “Apologize to her.”

“I am not going to apologize to a woman!”

“Tommy,” Wilbur warned. “Don’t make me block you.”

He heard Tommy sigh exasperated and typed in chat.

<Tommyinnit> I’m sorry

<(Y/U/N)> :) It’s ok. I wish to give you a gift! Coords pls?

<WilburSoot> He lives in those fences right across from here

“Good, thank you, Tommy.”

“Will you talk to me now?” Tommy asked with a huff.

“Sure.”

He first went into his ball as the girl sprinted over to Tommy’s place. He put the flower in a chest before following after her as he listened to Tommy talk.

“Why the hell did she give me a flower?” Tommy questioned as Wilbur was halfway to Tommy’s.

<Tommyinnit> Why the hell did you give me a flower?

<(Y/U/N)> I’m new and I just want to give you a welcome gift!

<(Y/U/N)> I need to work on my house. Good day, Mr. Soot and Mr. Innit!

She sprinted away towards the community house. Wilbur stopped next to Tommy as he was holding a red tulip.

“Wha…What was that?” Tommy asked Wilbur.

“She told you, now what do you want to do?”

The new girl had left before Tommy’s stream ended and after Tommy’s stream and he left, Wilbur decided to look up who the new person was. Looking up the name, he got a Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch account. On her Twitch there was a new video streamed today titled “Let’s not be homeless! (DreamSMP)”. She had a decent amount of followers on her Twitch and her YouTube channel, she had half a million subscribers. On her Twitter, there was a picture of a dog with its face pressed against the camera that had taken it. There was a tweet from not long ago with a full picture of the same dog next to a desk.

-------

(Y/U/N) @(Y/U/N)

He wouldn’t leave me alone all stream! I love my good boy but a girl needs her space!

-------

Wilbur gave a quiet chuckle before liking the post and giving her a follow. Maybe he’d meet more of her…

-------

Wilbur logged into the server once more to work on his project to come with Tommy. There were a few people online, Tubbo, Ponk, and Fundy. He didn’t bother them though, giving greetings back when given before getting to work. As he did, he got a notification from his phone that someone was live and glanced over. (Y/U/N) was live.

Curious, he pulled up her stream and decided to leave it on in the background.

“Hello, magical people! We’re going to be jumping back onto the SMP! My house looks so dull and I wanna find wolves.”

Wilbur caught her accent immediately, American, definitely.

“What do you mean there’s three people I haven’t met! I don’t have experience chat! Don’t say that!”

(Y/U/N) joined the game

“Fudge there’s three people I haven’t met. Firetrucks, uhhhh, I need to give them their flowers but I can’t name them!”

<(Y/U/N)> Hello new fellows! \o/

<Tubbo_> Hello! o/

“I like that one.” She laughed. “He definitely deserves a flower. Oh, Mr. Soot’s online. Maybe he can help…”

Wilbur looked over to see her typing a message in chat to him and as he looked over, he realized there was no webcam. She must not like to show her face.

(Y/U/N) whispers to WilburSoot: Hi Mr. Soot! I’m in a predicament. May I ask for some of your EXP levels to name three flowers?

He chuckled as he typed back to her.

WilburSoot whispers to (Y/U/N): I have a few I can spare. I’ll be heading over to the ball to meet you. Just bring the anvil and flowers.

“He’s a lifesaver chat!” She cheered. “We found a good one!”

He laughed as he made his way over to his ball.

(Y/U/N) whispers to WilburSoot: You’re a lifesaver! I and the chat thank you!

She came sprinting over a few moments after he got there and she placed the anvil down and threw to him a dandelion, an orange tulip, and an allium.

(Y/U/N) whispers to WilburSoot: The dandelion for Tubbo, the tulip for Fundy, and allium for Ponk.

WilburSoot whispers to (Y/U/N): Ok :)

He named the flowers the same as she had named his as she took the chance of waiting to read out her subs and donations. As he named the last flower, he saw he had a spare daisy in his inventory. She was giving them flowers; he should give one back.

To (Y/U/N) From WilburSoot

He threw all the flowers back over as she was reading a donation.

“Ah! Flowers! Time to hunt down the people!”

(Y/U/N) whispers to WilburSoot: Thank you! I owe you one!

WilburSoot whispers to (Y/U/N): Any time!

She picked up the anvil before sprinting off into the distance and he went back towards his build.

<(Y/U/N)> Mr. Tubbo! Hello! I’m new and wish to give you a present!

<Tubbo_> Thank you!!

It was a moment before a new message popped up in chat.

<(Y/U/N)> Hello Mr. Fundy! I have a gift for you!

<ItsFundy> Ah thank you very much!

Wilbur found it rather interesting as he watched the chat about how she used titles to talk to others. It was rather formal.

“What do you mean there’s an extra flower? I only gave Mr. Soot three. Ok, ok, I’ll look.” She told her chat. “I thought I taught you guys better.” He looked over as she looked through her inventory, hovering over the extra flower he had given her. “Oh! He gave me a flower back! No one’s ever given me a flower back! Two years of giving flowers to people on servers and Mr. Soot beats them all!”

So, this was a regular bit she did. He was surprised though to hear that he was the only one to give her a flower back, blushing lightly at her off-hand compliment.

<(Y/U/N)> Mr. Soot! Thank you for MY gift! :)

<WilburSoot> It was no problem. :)

“Now back on track! To Ponk’s!”

Wilbur tuned out the in-game chat as he worked, looking towards his phone though when he heard his name.

“Do I watch Mr. Soot? Well yes, I’ve watched a few of his videos with Jschlatt and I’ve listened to his music video, uh…The Internet Ruined Me! That’s the one.”

Wilbur blushed lightly once more. She had watched some of his videos and his music?

“Do you watch anyone else on the server? Yeah, I watch a few of the guys like Sir Dream, George, and Sapnap. I watched one or two videos of Mr. Innit’s and Tubbo’s creation. But I have to be here with you too chat! I don’t have time to watch everyone!”

Wilbur finished building, about to log off for the day but stopped and opened in-game chat.

<WilburSoot> Good bye Ms. (Y/U/N)!

“And he’s saying bye to me! Why didn’t we meet him sooner chat?!”

<(Y/U/N)> Goodbye Mr. Soot! :)

“I am not simping chat! I thought I taught all of you better!”

Wilbur laughed as he turned off the stream. She was certainly a character.

#mcyt x reader #mcyt imagine #mcyt fanfiction #wilbur soot x reader #dreamsmp x reader

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venus-says · 5 years ago

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Aikatsu on Parade! Episode 19

Sadly this episode didn’t make a medetaitai miracle.

I really got nothing to say about this episode. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I'll give them that, still this episode was pretty much useless and I got there's nothing to comment about.

The performances in this episode felt the more random than they ever did for On Parade and that's a problem. But seeing the campaign girls interacting together was pretty cool, if you follow the arcade game you know that for the first On Parade update Raki got a coord inspired by the campaign girls (Aoi, Rola, and Mio) and I always wished we would've gotten an episode like this because of it, I feel like this episode was kinda what I wanted for the campaign girls but sadly this had to share time with the Valentine's day special and Raki didn't even wear her special coord and in the end it came as just a very bland episode.

But there were a few a nice moments like Alicia and Lily bonding over shaved ice, and they even threw Penne there to do a fun cameo that I really enjoyed, and I liked having a node to the latest Valentine episode we got in the franchise that was probably my favorite Valentine episode so far (or at least the one I remember the most because there was little to none romantic interaction on it).

Oh, they also had a montage with all the terrible straight ships they tried to sell in these past years, but I really couldn't care less about it.

And that's pretty much it, I milked my thoughts as much as I could so that this could become a post because I really don't have a single thing to say about it. But I'm excited for next week, the local idol plot seems that it'll serve as a spotlight for the shafted idols from Akari Gen and a lot of the background characters and that's something that interests me a lot. I also have a sliver of hope that they will use this opportunity to bring the characters from the Aikatsu Japan Tour they had in the arcade, I know this will probably never happen but I'm dumb and I still have hope for this franchise despite it kicking me in the face and telling me there's no salvation every week, but gosh, I sure would love to see them bringing the Hawaiian girl to the show for the first time. Anyway, if you have anything to comment please feel free to do it, I'll go daydream about the perfect Aikatsu world that sadly will never happen outside my head. Wow, this got dark really fast, I'm sorry. XD I'll see y'all later. o/

#Aikatsu on Parade!#aikatsu

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8bitcat · 7 years ago

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Graduation

@lets-play-pripara i’ve had this brewing in my head since you changed hikari’s hairstyle

---

It was a big change. Of course it would be.

Hikari sat there, staring at herself in the mirror, silver hair flowing down behind her. On her vanity sat all kinds of things. It was rather messy, really. She didn’t have time to clean it up. All kinds of makeup she was promoting, ridiculous gimmicky products, and just assorted trash.

But all the junk on the surface before her formed a sort of clean halo around two tacky-looking ribbons. Covered in polka dots, refusing to go with any outfit. It was just like her, in a way. Bold. Always doing her own thing, and giving 110% with it.

She’d had these for ages now. Absolutely forever. How old was she when she first got them? Young. Really young. God, those days were hell. But that didn’t matter now. As far as she was concerned, the Hikari of the now was who she was. And that’s who she had always been.

Oh, but if she could convince herself of that.

In a way, the ribbons were something that pulled her through life. A rope she clung to as she was dragged through the muck and the mire, hoping, believing, praying that something would be on the other side. And she didn’t know. That was the scariest part.

But here she was. A Divine Idol. She and NightLight were plastered on magazines, billboard ads, every single day was booked with TV appearances and lives galore. It was like being a real world idol all over again.

She wondered what defined being a “real world idol”. She didn’t change much upon entering PriPara. Sure, she’d made a few alterations. Tried some things. She was particularly a big fan of the new beauty mark on her cheek. But her ribbons...

That’s right. Her ribbons. The whole reason she was sitting here. The ribbons made her who she was. Tacky as they were, they were hers. They what made her feel like...Hikari. They were always there for her-

Right?

No, not anymore. Well, that wasn’t completely true. She loved the ribbons for all they had given her. And of course, she made them look good. She made everything look good! But...now they only served to remind her of a past. A past of yelling and screaming and hurting and crying and...ugh.

Hikari got up from the vanity. She was spending too much time thinking about this. She had things to do. She spun on her heel back to face the vanity-and twitched at the dotted fabric. Maybe today she’d wear her hair down. Always good to have a change of pace now and then, right?

She stuffed the ribbons into her pocket, and hurried out the door.

---

“You’re just like a pile of sand. Slip through my grasp, I just can’t-”

“My face is burning up, so let’s start turning up-”

“It’s like my body is not in my control.”

Hikari finished the performance with a pose, coord still glowing. She had done a small solo performance to tease NightLight’s new album “Morning/Noon/Night”, and after that would be a short Q&A, and then she could have an hour to herself before the next gig.

Everything went smoothly, as always. She had this type of stuff down to a science at this point. Blah blah blah, I love my fans, blah blah blah, inspired by whosie whatsit, a new kind of blah blah blah feel.

“So, Hikari, would you mind telling us why you wore your hair down today?”

Hikari froze. She wasn’t expecting that. And it was a perfectly innocent question. Her braided pigtails were unique to her. That was her Look. It was reasonable to ask. But it felt so...acidic. She looked at the Meganee before her. Her face was plastered with the same cheerful, warm smile. Why did it look so menacing.

Hikari choked.

“U-Uhm, w-well, y-you, uh, y-you know.” She coughed lightly, already sweating. Was it hot in here? “I-I’m t-trying t-t-t-t-t-to, uhm, f-fi-er...I-I th-thought mayb-be I-I’d try someth-th-thing n-new?” Calm down, Hikari. Don’t freak out. Not yet. Meganee’s face went from her stock “happy” to her stock “mild concern”.

“Hmmm? Are you feeling well, Hikari?” The audience chatter seemed to dissolve into concerned murmurs, which did nothing to serve her nerves. Oh God. Oh God. Keep it cool, Hikari. Just relax. Breathe normally. That’s not normally. THAT’S NOT NORMALLY.

“U-Uhm, y-yes, I-I’m fine. I-I’m s-sorry, I-I d-didn’t g-get much s-s-s-s-sleep l-last ni-ight.” She continued to stumble, forcing a smile and a small laugh. Well, it wasn’t a COMPLETE lie. But that seemed to throw Meganee off the scent trail. Or at least she made Hikari THINK she’d been thrown off. But her face returned to the calm smile it always was, and that’s all that mattered.

“Oh! I’m sorry to hear that. But you’ll be able to get plenty of sleep after the show, because we are out of time! Join us next week when we have the hottest unit on the block, Wonder Cafe, come in to tell us what the difference between ‘furry’ and ‘kemono’ is!” Hikari sighed with relief as Meganee began the ending spiel. The audience erupted into applause when the ‘applause’ sign appeared, Hikari waved and bowed, and then returned backstage.

She practically collapsed in her chair, as Meganee came around to powder her face. Her Idol Watch buzzed, and she looked down to see what was up. It was the group chat.

midnightluna: hey? are you okay? i just saw you on the show, and you seemed a little off. everything alright?

Hikari smiled, appreciative of her friend. She began to type, when another speech bubble appeared.

superduperfunsunsunshine: yeh yeh, hikari-chwaaaan! :3 :D :O r u okaaaaaay? we wan 2 make sherbert that ur totes fine!!! <3 <3 <3

Hikari raised a silver eyebrow. She never quite got the hang of understanding how Hinode texted. But it was cute.

apollo13: Yeah guys, I’m fine. Thanks. I really appreciate it.

midnightluna: ok, if you say so. just make sure you take it easy if you don’t feel well. remember the time hinode ate an entire wedding cake before joining the pripara triathalon?

apollo13: She threw up on my shoes. My Brilliant Prince Limited Edition 2015 4th Collection PR Boots.

superduperfunsunsunshine: u guis r meen!!!!! >:C

Hikari laughed, closing the watch and putting it back in her pocket. Her fingers brushed something. Oh right. The ribbons. Ugh, they were chasing her. She stared at herself in the vanity mirror that was nothing like the one at home (mostly due to a distinct lack of clutter). Well, if she was going to put them in, now was the time.

She sighed, figuring “trying a new look” could wait for another day. She raised the ribbon up, taking a strand of her hair and-

Mud.

The flashback bolted through her mind. The day she got the ribbons. They day she got pushed in the mud. Something that clung to her for better and for worse. Was she tearing up. Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it. She stuffed the ribbons back in her pocket and wiped her tears before anyone could see.

She had to get out. And that’s exactly what she did, ghosting her way through the crowds of Meganees and other idols and out into PriPara Town prior.

She had to get out.

---

Well, that would never work. Hikari poked her head out from the bushes. A bunch of idols were doing a photoshoot RIGHT in front of the gate. All she wanted was to run home, turn off all the lights, and hide under the blankets and maybe cry for an hour. She stormed off in frustration, still taking the stealthy route. But now she was ANGRY and stealthy.

She found herself in a small garden. Which, in PriPara, was not anything new. PriPara was 90% plant life at this point. It was empty, thank God. At least here, maybe she could get some time alone with her thoughts. Which was actually probably definitely a bad idea but hey everyone has their coping mechanisms shut up.

It was pretty peaceful here, actually. The sound of trickling water from a babbling brook just out of sight. Little flowers blooming here and there. It was nice, serene even. Hikari found herself walking over to a small apple tree in the corner. Her foot gently bumped against the tree, an apple wobbling precariously. And with a gentle ‘snap’, it fell from its branch, right onto the head of the gardener who had been tending to the small area.

“UGYAH!” She shrieked in pain as the apple came down on her head, appearing from seemingly nowhere. Hikari did the rational thing, which was, of course, to scream as well. Which only made the pink-haired gardener shriek even louder. Which in return, scared Hikari even more, and this just devolved into a full minute of exchanging screams.

“Uuuu...uuu...that super duper mega hurt, da vinci...” Fingers reached up, to rub the bump that formed under the pink head of hair.

“I-I’m so sorry! I-I really didn’t mean to-” Hikari started, leaning down to check if the person was okay. Something felt oddly familiar, but the moment they turned around, Hikari saw it. “UGYO-!?”

“Hmmm?” Ajimi Kigi turned around to face Hikari, and her eyes immediately lit up. “Mama mia, that’s a spicy meatball! Hikarin, Hikarin, the super-duper mega ultra kirakirariiiiin! A modern day Monet, the apple of my eye! It’s been so long, da vinci~!” She immediately leapt into all out yelling mode, bouncing left and right and to and fro around Hikari, who was really not in the mood for any of this.

“K-Kigi-san, hello.” Hikari blushed, a bit overwhelmed by all this. Ajimi got real up close and personal very quickly, and Hikari forced her hands to her sides to keep from pushing her away.

“Hello, da vinci? This is much more than hello! This is hurrah, hail, howdy, and hallelujah! Sweet Andy Warhol, you’re positively Popping with radiance!” Kigi sang. “It seems like just yesterday, you were all muddied up like a broken Baroque!” Hikari flinched.

“Uhm-”

“Hmm, Hikyarin? Why aren’t you wearing your ribbons, da vinci?” Hikari clenched a fist. “Were they not Post-Modernist enough? Did they get all Yves Klein’d? Don’t worry, Kigi always has ribbons galore! I’ve got everything you could ever need from Acrylic to Zoetrope! And of course, how could I forget-”

“Maybe I just didn’t want them, okay!?”

Time seemed to stop for a moment. Then two moments. The air turned icy cold, as Hikari seethed with freezing rage. She reached into her pocket, and raised the ribbons up into the air.

“Maybe I don’t need your dumb ribbons anymore! I don’t! They’re ugly and tacky and they don’t go with anything! They’re such a problem! Nobody likes them!”

Ajimi said nothing, but Hikari had plenty to say.

“Oh, so what? The helped me through a tough time!? But now I can’t even look at them without thinking back to everything I had to go through with them! I hate those stupid ribbons! They’re nothing but a symbol of everything I don’t want to be! They’re not me anymore! I don’t need them! I don’t want them! I don’t ever want to see those stupid God damn ribbons ever again because I’m Hikari Amanogawa! Not whatever anyone used to think I was, and not whatever I will be! Nothing else matters but the me that is now!”

Hikari took in one big breath, and screamed to the sky, throwing the ribbons to the ground.

“I’M HIKARI AMANOGAWA!!”

And time started to move again. Mostly with the massive amounts of birds Hikari just scared with that scream. Everything was silent for a moment. Even the water seemed to cease it’s trickle. A realization began to wash over her, and she turned around to face Ajimi.

“O-Oh my God, I’m so sorry-”

She started, but Ajimi raised a finger to her lips. She reached out, running her fingers through Hikari’s long, flowing silver hair. And she smiled.

“Hikari Amanogawa, huh? That’s very Hikari, da vinci.” She laughed. Ajimi strolled past her, picking up the ribbons, dusting the mud off of them. She laughed again.

“You know, it’s performance art, da vinci. When I first met you, you were crying in a mud puddle and didn’t know what to do with yourself. You were...Baroque, as it were. Or maybe rather Gutai.” She paused thoughtfully. “I gave you these ribbons because I thought you needed them...and I guess you did.” Ajimi turned to face Hikari.

“But you don’t need them any more, Hikarinrin. You’ve blossomed and matured into the beautiful young woman you were always meant to be.” Ajimi walked up and placed the ribbons back in Hikari’s hands. “You’re not tied up by these ribbons anymore, Hikari.”

“Even after everything that’s happened, is happening, and will happen. You’re still you.”

Ajimi walked past her, heading for the entrance to the garden. Hikari turned around, and opened her mouth to speak. But Ajimi had already bounced off to some other place. She stared down at the ribbons in her hands.

“I’m still me, huh?”

“I’ll always be me.”

“...”

“I’m Hikari Amanogawa.”

---

“Fuwaaaah! Oh man, what a daaaay.” Luna sighed, collapsing onto the couch in her Pripartment. Hinode smiled, seemingly still a bundle of energy.

“Oh, I thought today was fun!” She smiled, sitting down on the nearest chair.

“Fun, sure. Exhausting, also.” Luna flipped open the Idol Watch, staring at it. “Hmmm, Hikari hasn’t responded to any of our shenanigans in the group chat.”

“Hmmm?” Immediately, Hinode grew worried, as she tended to do. “I hope she’s okay...”

“Hikari’s a strong girl. She’ll be fine. Remember when she placed higher than me at the PriPara Song Festival and I pushed her out of a two-story window?”

“But she wasn’t okay. She broke like two ribs.”

“Two ribs she survived breaking.” Luna tried to make it sound like it was less terrible than it was. In reality, Luna had apologized a minimum of 400 times, brought her as many flowers as her allergies would allow, and was at her bedside 24/7. Even though it was just two broken ribs. “...Maybe I should give her a call, though.”

“No need.” A familiar voice came from the doorway. “Did somebody order fried chicken?”

“I didn’t order but I’d like some.” Luna announced, not looking up from the couch.

“...And a completely new hairstyle!” Hikari walked in, doing a dramatic pose. Hinode’s jaw dropped. Luna didn’t move.

“What. What does it look like.” She said flatly, checking for the newest King of DanPri news. Hinode said nothing, letting the teacup she had picked up shatter on the ground.

“...” Hikari walked out of the room, and then walked back in, posing once more. “And a completely new hairstyle!”

Luna finally rolled over, turning to see the new Hikari. And Luna’s jaw dropped as well.

Hikari’s hair was shorter, but not short. Her characteristic braids were now two small pigtails that sat on her shoulders. It framed her face very nicely, and both made her cuter and gave her a bit more of a mature look. She just looked so much more...like herself.

“Well?” Hikari tapped her foot. She had strolled in here all confident. She did not come here for shocked and baffled gazes. Unless they were baffled in a positive way. Luna sat up a bit, and smiled.

“It’s very...Hikari.”

“Is that a good thing?” Hikari raised an eyebrow. Luna simply laughed.

“Oh, leave her alone.” Hinode scolded Luna, and turned back to Hikari. “But she’s right. It does look very Hikari. It looks like you.”

Hikari stopped for a moment, lowering the bag of fried chicken in her hand. She started tearing up, almost immediately.

“R-really?”

“W-wha-!? Hikari, why are you crying!?” Luna and Hinode immediately rushed to her side, but Hikari couldn’t hide a smile.

“I-I just...” She sniffled. “I-I’m Hikari Amanogawa...”

Neither of them knew what that meant, but they just went in for the hug anyways. Hikari reciprocated, squeezing them tight.

“I love you guys...”

“We love you too, Hikari.”

#glompy says things #pripara #THIS. WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO TURN OUT THAT LONG

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theliberaltony · 5 years ago

Link

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

After a recent spate of hirings and firings, the NFL is in the midst of a coaching diversity crisis. Fewer than 10 percent of the NFL’s head coaches are black — even though about 60 percent of the league’s players are. Not one of the five new head coaches hired after the 2019 NFL regular season is black. The NFL has the same number of black head coaches going into the 2020 season — three — that it had in 2003, when anger about the lack of diversity resulted in the league adopting the so-called Rooney Rule, which requires at least one person of color to be interviewed for all head coaching openings.

So why isn’t the NFL hiring more black head coaches? We think it’s safe to assume that the league doesn’t have a secret policy to employ as few black coaches as possible. It’s more likely that there is something systemic within the NFL that results in the whiteness of the coaching hires. (Saying the issues are systemic doesn’t rule out the role of unconscious racial biases.)

To explore this issue, we looked closely at the resumes of the 32 current NFL head coaches, a group that includes 28 white coaches; Washington’s Ron Rivera, who is Latino; and Brian Flores of the Miami Dolphins, Anthony Lynn of the Los Angeles Chargers and Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers, all of whom are black. A big part of that research involved measuring what the head coaches tended to do in any given year of their life — finding patterns along the path to the top that might explain the whiteness of the current group of coaches, and give us ideas about how to increase its racial diversity. Using data from Pro-Football-Reference.com and a little of our own research, here’s a breakdown for what share of current NFL coaches were doing what job, at what age:1

Generally speaking, the climb up the coaching ladder often goes like this:

Early 20s: Your playing career comes to an end. (Most head coaches played in college, but few played beyond that.) At this point, many coaches latch on in college as an entry-level graduate assistant.

Mid-20s: You move up to become a higher-level assistant in college football.

Late 20s: Either stay in college and advance toward the coordinator level, or (more likely) become a lower-level assistant — such as a “quality control” coach — on an NFL team.

Early 30s: Become an NFL position coach (say, wide receivers or defensive line).

Late 30s/Early 40s: You are promoted to an NFL coordinator.

Mid-40s: Become an NFL head coach.

At each step of the way, we found places where there isn’t a truly level playing field between either current or prospective black coaches and their white counterparts. So here are our five ways the NFL could create a process that is likely to result in more black coaches being hired.2 We have ordered these steps from those we are most confident in to those that hit the issues more indirectly:

1. Diversify the ranks of offensive and defensive coordinators.

Of the 32 current head coaches, the vast majority previously served as either the offensive coordinator (15) or defensive coordinator (10) of an NFL team. That makes intuitive sense — the coordinators are generally the top coaches on a team below the head coach, often responsible for calling the plays for the team’s offense or defense. NFL teams generally don’t hire the head coaches of college teams — unless they’ve already served as an NFL coordinator. Among head coaches from the 2019 season, only six3 were ever a head coach in college at all, and only one of those (Kliff Kingsbury) got his first NFL head coaching job without any previous pro coordinating experience.4

So the hiring pool is usually just offensive and defensive coordinators. Of course, the frustration among critics of the NFL’s hiring approaches was probably heightened by the fact that two of the five newly hired coaches, Carolina’s Matt Rhule and the New York Giants’s Joe Judge, had not served as offensive or defensive coordinators at the pro level. Judge was the special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach for the New England Patriots, while Rhule was the head coach at Baylor University.

That line-cutting by coaches like Ruhle and Judge is one problem, and here’s another: Even among the NFL’s coordinator ranks, there aren’t a lot of black coaches.5 Some teams are still finalizing their coaching staffs for 2020, but as of right now, of the 61 offensive and defensive coordinator positions,6 there are two black offensive coordinators, nine black defensive coordinators and one Arab American defensive coordinator. So if the coordinator group is 80 percent white, and it’s the group head coaches are almost entirely pulled from, then it is inevitably going to lead to mostly white head-coaching hires.

And even when a coordinator checks all the boxes as a potential head coach, he can’t always land the job. Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, who is black, leads one of the NFL’s best offenses, so he seems like a logical hire for a head coaching position. But the knock on him, according to some in the league, is that head coach Andy Reid calls the plays for the Chiefs — so Bieniemy is essentially an offensive coordinator in name only. Reid himself emphasizes that Bienemy plays a huge role in Kansas City’s offense. The Rooney Rule may help get Bieniemy in the room with the people (read: white men) who will decide if he becomes a head coach — but it’s not enough to get him the job.

This coordinator problem is well-known within NFL circles. But it may be hard to fix easily, for two reasons.NFL head coaches regularly get fired after two to four seasons — and many aren’t immediately hired back into head-coaching roles. So a lot of newly hired head coaches play it safe and pick people who have already worked as coordinators. That’s how you end up with a bloc of mostly white men who seem to be in the running for every open coordinator job, as opposed to new people getting these posts.

2. Make sure the path to becoming coordinator or a head coach isn’t about connections and nepotism.

As we mentioned earlier, there is a commonly tread path to the top among the 32 current head coaches. But there are also several places where a potential coach can stop advancing. We don’t have any real data on this group, but there are hundreds of people working for various college football programs across the country. The big question is: Who gets to make that initial jump to the NFL — and how? And then, who moves from lower-level assistant roles to become a position coach, which usually feeds into coordinator slots? At each of those junctures in a coaching career, special connections can have an outsize role in whether you are allowed to move up, or how quickly you do so.

For instance, several of the young, white, male head coaches had family connections to the NFL coaching world, likely helping them make their entrance into the league. The grandfather of Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay had been a head coach and executive in the NFL. McVay’s first job came in part through family connections. Then-Tampa Bay head coach Jon Gruden, who had long known the McVay family, hired Sean as a low-level assistant. McVay didn’t work as a college coach at all.

The benefits of connections are most obvious in the case of San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan, whose father, Mike, was a longtime head coach in the NFL. Shanahan became the wide receivers coach for the Houston Texans at age 26, just four seasons after his playing career ended at the University of Texas. Houston’s head coach at the time, Gary Kubiak, had been a longtime offensive coordinator for Mike Shanahan.

Speaking of the elder Shanahan, four current NFL coaches, including his son Kyle, worked as assistants to Mike during his 20 seasons as a head coach. Eight of the NFL’s other 30 coaches were one-time assistants to either New England’s Bill Belichick or Kansas City’s Andy Reid, who are generally considered among the league’s best coaches. It’s not that Belichick, Reid or Shanahan’s networks don’t include black coaches — Flores worked for Belichick, Lynn for Shanahan. But the fact that about 40 percent of the league’s head coaches are connected by three men suggests that a fairly narrow network is being tapped.

In fact, this network issue may have given an overly rosy impression of the NFL’s coaching diversity in a previous era. Five of the most recent black head coaches had once worked for Tony Dungy, the longtime former coach of Tampa Bay and Indianapolis. Dungy is black. Perhaps one reason for the relative lack of black coaches is the absence of more feeder systems for them — but we would argue that more comprehensive diversity efforts should supplant connection-based systems.

3. Give a real first chance to black coaches — and perhaps a second one, too.

Black head coaches are over-represented7 on one list: head coaches who have fired after only a single season in the job. Since 2000, 11 coaches have been dismissed after a single season, and three of them are black. But black coaches are under-represented in a second group: NFL coaches given a second or third head coaching post. According to data from Arizona State’s Global Sport Education and Research Lab, 29.5 percent of newly hired white head coaches between the 2009 and 2018 seasons had been the head coach of another team, while just 8.3 percent of coaches of color fit the same description. Although no fan base is excited by the prospect of hiring another team’s castoff coach, recycling coaches is a fact of NFL life. And by virtue of seldom being hired to begin with, then rehired less often as well, black coaches have been excluded from that part of the coaching ecosystem.

Seven of the NFL’s current head coaches were previously head coaches for another team and were fired or forced out of that job. No black coaches are in that group, which includes six white coaches and Rivera.

We are dealing with a fairly small sample size (there have been only 25 black head coaches in NFL history, including interim coaches), so we are reluctant to suggest broadly that the NFL fires black coaches too quickly and is unwilling to give them a second chance. But we think this issue is worth raising. Some of the current NFL coaches generally perceived as the best (like Belichick and Reid) were fired from their first head coaching jobs. And it’s considered hard for an NFL head coach to turn a team around in a single year.

4. Be open to older coaches.

Only four of the league’s 32 coaches were older than 50 when they got their first NFL head-coaching jobs.8 (A few others got their first head coaching jobs pre-50 and then were hired at other places post-50.) What does that tell us? It’s hard to prove this, but we suspect that age dynamics common in other fields (basically the perception that younger people have fresher ideas and are more innovative) are playing out in the NFL as well. And the NFL’s pattern of hiring younger coaches has probably created a post-facto explanation for this — essentially, the unstated assumption may be that if a coach has not gotten a head-coaching gig by 50, he isn’t good enough for one.

Here’s the thing — there is no evidence that older people don’t have the energy to coach or aren’t good at it. Thirteen of the league’s coaches are 55 or over, with six in their 60s, including Reid, whose team just made it to the Super Bowl. We haven’t done a comprehensive look at how many black assistants coaches are over 50. But this is an obvious place where the pool of potential coaching candidates is being limited in a way that doesn’t make much sense.

5. Make sure having played in the NFL isn’t a negative credential — and consider if it should be a positive one.

Underlying the entire discussion of coaching diversity in the NFL is the unstated but implied assumption that the majority-black NFL player base is not getting promoted upwards to management roles. But that’s not quite right — although most coaches played in college, only nine of the league’s 32 head coaches were in the NFL.9 So it’s not as if lots of white ex-NFL players are being chosen as coaches either. (The nine who played include seven white coaches — five of them quarterbacks — plus Lynn and Rivera.) So if the real coaching pool is not ex-NFL players, but just men in America, the percentage of black coaches in the NFL (9 percent) is basically on par with the percentage of black Americans (13 percent). And it’s not as if we have any evidence that ex-players are better coaches — Belichick and Reid never played a down in the NFL, nor did Shanahan, whose team also made it to this year’s Super Bowl. So perhaps we shouldn’t compare the demographics of the league’s coaches with its players.

But there’s also reason to be wary of this demographic breakdown, in part by looking at other sports. The NBA has a similar dynamic to the NFL — about 75 percent of NBA players are African American, compared with 20 percent of the league’s coaches. And like the NFL, a clear majority of NBA head coaches (20 of 30) did not play in the league.

But in the National Hockey League, 22 of 31 head coaches are former NHL players. In Major League Baseball, 22 of the 29 managers have played in the big leagues. Around 90 percent of hockey players are white, as are all 31 coaches. As of 2018, about 60 percent of baseball players are white, 30 percent Latino, 8 percent black, 2 percent Asian. The managers are about 75 percent white, 14 percent Latino.

So in America’s two major sports where white players are the majority and there are few black players, former players tend to become top coaches. In America’s two major sports where black players are clearly in the majority, former players tend not to become top coaches. There may be some differences between these sports that we can’t capture here. Perhaps baseball and hockey teams are making a mistake by apparently requiring their head coaches to have played in the league. But it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that owners and team executives in the NBA and the NFL, who are overwhelmingly white, have either consciously or unconsciously devalued coaches who played professionally. And in some ways, this devaluation of NFL and NBA playing experience frees up owners and executives to hire other white men as coaches, particularly white men within their professional circles.

The devaluing of players as potential coaches plays out in another important way. Remember that the typical NFL head coach gets his first posting before turning 50. If you make it to the NFL, though, you are playing football when nonplayers have already started their coaching careers. If you are a good player, you might be playing into your 30s, when other people your age are becoming coordinators. By the time you retire from the game, you could be approaching 40 years old, and perhaps you have a family. If you were a fairly good player, you might also have enough money to not really need to work again — and you might not be interested in spending more time paying your dues by working your way up from the bottom of the coaching world.

Longtime veteran players can expedite the process some; Tennessee head coach Mike Vrabel essentially took this route over the course of just seven seasons, and former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett was in charge of a team within six years of retiring as an NFL QB. But as a counter-example, Lynn toiled as an assistant and coordinator for 17 seasons between retiring as a player at age 32 in 2000 and getting hired as the Chargers’ coach at age 48 in 2017. (McVay, who didn’t play in the pros, was already a head coach by the time he reached the age at which Lynn retired as a player!) Clearly, the league needs to do more to allow playing experience to apply towards a post-retirement career in coaching.

Diversifying the ranks of coaches is not going to be easy for the NFL. The coaching world is an unmeritocratic system, with a lot of advantages going to white people who are tied into that system. But the mostly white people who control that system have probably convinced themselves that it is a meritocracy.

The story with candidates like Bieniemy is probably a bit more complicated than the NFL simply being biased against black coaches. Bieniemy isn’t from a family plugged into the NFL, is an ex-player, became an NFL offensive coordinator when he was 48 and is now 50. We’re not sure if Bieniemy would be a great head coach — it’s virtually impossible to predict that. But race aside, he’s different from the kinds of people who currently get hired as NFL coaches — and one way for the NFL to diversify its coaches will be for it to diversify its criteria, allowing more people who don’t fit the traditional mold of a head coach to have a legitimate chance at the job. Those changes can’t just start at the top — they need to happen every step of the way.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Perry Bacon Jr. and Neil Paine

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venus-says · 5 years ago

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Aikatsu on Parade! Episode 11

This episode let me speechless, not for the reasons this phrase may evoke at first glance.

This was probably the mildest episode Aikatsu ever had, and that's why I debated for so long if I should make a post for it this week or if I should wait and post 11 and 12 together. But I hit a creative block while writing the Prichan post so I decided to make this very quick to see if I get the creative juices flowing on my brain again.

This episode didn't have a lot going on for it, it was more or less just fanservice to lead up to the next episode.

As I see it there are two things that hurt this episode. The first one is how short this New World Fest arc will be, and the second one is how early in the story this event is happening. And the saddest thing about it is that there was no way for them to avoid this problem since I believe this arc was rushed because Mizuki's VA will be out of the country in 2020 and that's something they can do nothing about.

In the ideal world, this would be the season-end event, it would last about 4-5 episodes, and we would have an entire episode to focus on each one of the schools rather than having to squish them up. But we're not in the ideal world so...

But what we got wasn't bad, this festival has a very cool concept and the way they divided the themes was pretty cool too.

Star Harmony could've been a little more original and have the Dance Stage rather than the collab one, especially when they have Maika who specializes in dance when Neo Venus Ark has no one, but I like that they didn't forget about Minami and included her there in the montage even though she's such a minor character. It was also good to see that they didn't forget Haruka exists and included her as well and didn't let her cameo last episode be her only appearance in this series (though, apparently, they forgot she's an S4 member because she was wearing a normal coord rather than a brand coord - but then again, look at Ako... Stars universe has a lot of problems).

I like that they've put Yozora and Mizuki as the heads of the Moon Stage in Four Stars, "moon" isn't the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Yozora but her name means "night sky" so it's something unexpected but that also makes total sense to have her there. If I have a complaint here is that no one highlighted that Kaguya is back from the States, but we got to see those beautiful campaign coords that were released in the arcade (even though it was only on a still image).

The Rock Stage at Dream Academy got me a little sad, you know? I think I got my hopes way too high from the last week when I saw Seira and Rola in the preview and I really wanted to see they perform together - I think a Seira X Rola duet of either Sweet Sp!ce or Miracle Force Magic would've been amazing, heck since this seemed to be organized as a Rock Festival a performance with Seira, Rola, and Tsubasa would've been incredible, sadly we didn't get any of that and Rola and Seira interaction was reduced to just a silly fight about who's more "ROCK" than the other. The thing that got me more disappointed was the fact we didn't get a cameo of the best character, Elizabeth III, in that little cafeteria/restaurant where Noel was serving Yume, Akari, and Raki. Like, c'mon guys, wake up!

I still don't understand why Starlight doesn't have a specialized stage, I think they could pull off a fashion stage very well, after all, they have both Ran and Hinaki there that could organize things, but if they sacrificed that for us to have the most unexpected stage ever with they bringing More Than True back I think I'm okay with. I was never too keen on MoTru's presence in the OG series, and I would rather see my girls even if it was just on a montage, but that was a very cool move they did and I also appreciate that even though they reused the animation of their performance the audio they used was the newer version of Kiss of the Alice Blue that has Naoto's VA singing - which to me is the superior version of this bop. It also gives me a motive to laugh at M4 who hasn't appeared so far and I hope they never do because I hate them with passion, thank you very much. c:

The big event of the episode was, as expected, Akari and Yume's stage. They once again gave a new unit name for them, and once again were very original with it, but it was cool. I don't really buy that they got so fluttered that they NEEDED to perform as a group, I'm also terrified that they confirmed the Stars' crossover IS canon because it has lots of continuity issues there, but their song is very good and the stage was very pretty too. It bugged me that the aura of their LPR's didn't appear right away in that performance, especially when Yume got hers to appear right away when he performed Stardom! with Mio, but that's also fine it was a good effect to have it appear in the chorus as well so.

I think that's all I have for this one, as I said, the frustration here comes because of the potential this had rather than a bad execution or anything, it was an enjoyable episode and I guess that's what matters in the end. So what did you think of this episode? Drop your thoughts on the comments and let's keep talking (even though there's not a whole lot to talk about this time around). I'll get back to my Prichan review now, see you all later. o/

#Aikatsu on Parade!#aikatsu

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venus-says · 5 years ago

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Aikatsu! Episodes 169-173

We’re almost there.

Back for more OGkatsu! This will probably be the shortest of these posts because not a lot happened here which is understandable since the tour has already ended and there's no way for them to make the SQC be 10 episodes long so, it's only natural that we would have this "cooling off" time.

The first episode of his batch is also my favorite of this time. This episode follows Hinaki as she tries to get her new PR for he SQC, but the highlight of this episode was actually Mikuru! I mean, yeah Hinaki is the focus and she's the one who shines the most, but the person who was catching my attention wasn't her, but Mikuru. Hinaki and Mikuru interacting was lovely, don't get me wrong, but the way Mikuru was so active in his episode, and she was being on top of her game giving the best suggestions ever, and we actually got to see a new side of her that wasn't explored as much during season 2 and this served o crown his episode as my favorite from the ones I watched today. Also, I love the Street Art coord and Hello Hello so, this episode had many positive things going for it.

Sadly, Episode 170 ruined the momentum and was very underwhelming. Again, I don't care for Akari and Sena's relationship so this episode loses all it's flare to me since the main conflicts are centered around this same relationship that I could care less. I know they tried to set this as an episode to show that Akari has a smile that inspires people, but the way they've done wasn't the best IMO. I think if they had shown Akari being an inspiration for a fan or some other person she meets somehow, and Sena watching that and then having the spark to finish Akari's PR would've been a better way to showcase that, and it would make for a more interesting episode.

And it seems like we're on the rollercoaster again because the next episode is also pretty good, I wouldn't say it was as good as 169, but it was still a joy to watch. I feel like Madoka and Rin's friendship wasn't showcased at its best on season 3 and we didn't have a lot of episodes that would focus on that, so seeing this one made me very happy and pleased because it was something I was wanting for quite some time. Is not to say this episode doesn't have flaws, I think we didn't have a lot of Madoka and Rin on his episode and to me it was a bad decision because I would rather see more of them instead of having short inserts from other characters, I'm also kinda iffy about this Madoka birthday thing because you would think this would've been a bigger deal than it was here, and also, I don't know if this is a problem only with the episode I have downloaded but they messed up either on the performance or the recording because in the audio I was hearing Madoka sing but on-screen Rin was the one moving her mouth and vice-versa. But even with all these problems, this episode was still lovely, Madoka and Rin are adorable together, the decision of putting them to sing Friend was perfect, and they've actually used the message I thought they were trying to sell on Episode 168 by showing that even if they're separated a lot they're still best friends.

I have mixed feelings about Episode 172, I think what they were trying to do was nice, but the execution was the most boring ever, Istg as I was watching the episode I thought I was already very close to the end but hen I checked the time and I was still in the first half and I was "Oh God, please take me out of here". And I think it's pretty obvious they didn't have this episode better planned out and they really didn't have a single thing to say because by the end we had a mash-up of cut performances followed by a full stage and was the most awkward thing ever. I expected his episode to be about DreAca's world tour that is advertised on the OP, and I really wish we had got that because this episode as it is is just a joke, they didn't even put Noelle to perform, CMON.

Wrapping things up is the "pre-show" for the SQC, and if the intention was to get me hyped they failed completely because, again, this was very underwhelming. I thought that a possible WM comeback would have a better build-up for it, but this one was just flat, and that's literally all I have to say about this one.

Now as a final comment, something this batch has done and I appreciate immensely is with the worldbuilding, we see characters from the past and we see how they've grown, what they've been up to, and to me this is perfect. Seeing how other characters developed themselves is amazing because it makes this world feel alive, it makes us feel that even though we're not following these characters they're still active and following their dream, achieving their goals, and growing more and more and I think this is extremely necessary, you know? So, bonus points for this very good aspect.

OGkatsu is ending tomorrow and I'm already gloomy about it. Anyway, I better be going because I have a full packed day tomorrow. Bye-bi~

#Aikatsu!#aikatsu

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