#manny answers sorta kinda | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

princessjaqulinechess1031 · 5 years ago

Text

Family Reunion

Characters: Varian, Juliet (OC), Hector

Description: Varian Wry is not pleased when one snarky vegetarian (his wife) meets the other snark vegetarian (his uncle) in his life.

Notes: Is this in anyway possible in canon, for Hector and Varian to have this relationship? Probably not. Enjoy anyway. Also, Varian and Juliet would both be 24/15-ish at this point. This photo below also has like nothing to do with the story but I really like The Look it has.

Varian Wry hadn’t seen one Hector del Bosque in thirteen years, yet, somehow Varian wasn’t surprised when he came home to see Hector sitting at his kitchen table, sipping tea. Hector had seemingly decided to forego the aging process, as he looked exactly the same as he did when Varian was twelve; scrawny with thick dark hair and crazed yellow-green eyes.

If Varian hadn’t of known who Vector was, he would have been frightened by his sudden appearance in his kitchen. But Varian did know Hector. And while Varian knew Hector was formidable in battle, Varian has also seen Hector cry over a bunny because it was too cute.

“You’re lucky Juliet didn’t get here first,” Varian said, not bothering with a greeting. He also didn’t bother to mention who Juliet was, despite the two never meeting. Hector has his ways of knowing things.

Hector took a sip of his tea and shifted in his wooden chair.

“I am still miffed I did not receive a wedding invitation,” Hector said conversely, as if they were in the middle of their last conversation and thirteen years had not passed. “After all I have done for you.”

Varian ignored that the amount of things Hector had done for him amounted to zero and took a seat across from him.

“It’s hard to send an invitation to ‘My Kinda-Sorta-Uncle That Lives With Two Bearcats and A Rhino In A Haunted Tree’. Not sure how to address it.”

Hector narrowed his eyes. “Quirin would have found a way.”

“Well, I’m Varian, and it was my wedding, so I could invite whoever I damn well please.”

Hector snickered but did not smile because he did not smile.

“Where’s your lovely bride anyway?” Hector asked. “I can’t wait to meet the girl who managed to make you look up for five seconds.”

Varian sighed. “She said something about helping a cow give birth this morning before running out. That was about....say, five or six hours ago. She’ll be back shortly.” Varian leaned forward, scrunching his brow together. He wasn’t sure if he should ask if Hector wanted something, because it was completely in character for Hector to show up randomly but also with a motive.

“Relax your worried face,” Hector said. “You’ll get wrinkles. End up looking like your aunt Adira.” Varian just rubbed at his temple. This was going to be a long visit, he could tell. “I’m just stopping by. I was in the area, thought I’d stop and see you’re new Mrs. Wry.”

New? Him and Juliet were twenty-five, they’ve been married for three years. The marriage wasn’t old, but it wasn’t new either.

Hector flicked one of his own braids and stood, leaving his teacup behind on the table.

“Where’s the Mini Ones of You?”

Varian felt a deep part of him groan.

“You mean children, Uncle Hector?” Varian said. “Me and Juliet don’t have any yet.”

Hector hummed thoughtfully and then turned back around to Varian.

“Is it true she’s some kind of an animal whisperer?” Hector said. Varian nodded slowly. Juliet’s abilities were no secret and Hector had been quite a spymaster back in the days before Varian lived. Hector would know even if they hid it.

“And before you ask, no, we don’t know how she does it.”

If this affected Hector, he didn’t show it.

“Interesting,” Hector said, “I can’t wait to meet her.” If Varian didn’t know better, he would say Hector looked almost excited.

Varian heard the front door slam open and shut, and Varian quickly stood.

“Well, here’s your chance.”

“Varian?” she called out.

“In the kitchen!”

“Okay!” He heard her feet start to shuffle towards the kitchen as she kept yelling. “Sorry it took so long! Manny was grateful for all the help and tried to get me to take some meat from a pig he just killed, and I know you like ham, but taking meat after delivering a cow just seemed wrong. So I picked some apples, I thought we could make pie instead, since I know you like that.”

Hector turned to Varian, raising a brow.

“Pie?” Hector asked. Varian sighed.

“She really likes pie,” he said. Ever since she discovered it at eighteen, she had been crazy about it. And she was pretty good at making it, actually. Her apple pie, especially, was great. Varian was always excited when she said she was going to make one, and the news she planned to actually made the day seem a little brighter.

“Then you won’t believe who I ran into!” Juliet said, pulling into the kitchen with a basket full of shiny green apples. “Cosette’s grandbunnies! They’re so cute, they look just like her—“

Juliet stopped suddenly, eyes finding Hector. Her eyes were wide, mouth open in surprise and confusion, feelings she didn’t bother to hide. Not that he could blame her. Hector was quite a character.

The closest thing that Hector could make to a smile crossed his face.

“You must be Juliet, Varian’s wife,” Hector said. “I’m Hector, his uncle. I’m sure Varian must have told you about me.”

Juliet twirled to face Varian head on.

“Uncle?” Juliet said. “But I thought you said your dad was an only child.”

Varian bit his lip. “Long story.”

Hector’s brow raised subtly and he crossed his arms.

“You didn’t tell her about me?” Hector asked. “Some kind of nephew you are.”

Varian could feel a headache building, and he wished he didn’t keep the medicine in the basement lab. Then he could take some and not be tempted to disappear and leave Juliet alone with Hector. It had only been five minutes, and he was already so tempted to do so.

“It just never came up,” Varian said. “We’ve got lives of our own.”

“Apparently so,” Hector said thoughtfully. He picked up there salt-shaker, like he was inspecting it and then put it back down with a simple nod. Varian didn’t ask.

“Adira sends a message,” Hector said. Varian gave a small smile. He rather liked Adira, at least she acted more reasonable than the man before him. “She says to please give Quirin grandkids so he’ll stop talking about wanting them in his letters.”

Varian felt his insides die and his cheeks burn red. Of course that would be what Adira sends to say. He took back what he thought about liking her. Juliet just smiled and put down her basket on the counter.

“Tell Adira is that it’s not for a lack of trying Quirin doesn’t have them yet.” If Varian could die twice, he did it, because Juliet really just said that. Of all things.

“Jules!”

“What?” Juliet asked. “We’re trying to have a baby. There’s nothing shameful about it. In the animal kingdom, it’s pretty much a known and accepted truth amongst mates that the two are trying for mates.”

Hector nodded. “She’s right.”

Juliet smiled brightly. “I like him.”

And then Varian died a third time.

Because of course Juliet liked Hector. Of course she did.

“Hector do you like pie?” Juliet asked. Hector shook his head.

“No. It’s disgusting,” Hector said. Juliet’s smile didn’t waver.

“Too bad,” Juliet said. “Because if you stay for dinner, I’m making pie for dessert so eat it or weep.”

Hector smiled — not smirked or snickered — he smiled.

“I like her.”

^^^

“Out of Hector and Adira, you had to like Hector?” Varian asked, cutting carrots at the kitchen table. Juliet smiled sweetly at him from where she was mixing the stew in a pot.

“‘Rian, last time I saw Adira was when we were fifteen, and she threatened me with a sword,” Juliet said.

“Yeah, she does that,” Varian said. Threats were how Adira showed affection Varian sometimes thought.

“Naturally I’m going to like the one who doesn’t do that more.”

Varian finished with the carrots and brought them over to Juliet.

“But he’s just so...weird,” Varian said. Juliet chuckled softly and threw the carrots in the soup.

“Honey, isn’t that pot calling the kettle black?” Juliet said. Varian titled his head in confusion.

“Since when have you started using common phrases?” Varian asked. Juliet rolled her eyes and kept stirring.

“Since I realized the potential it has for sarcasm,” Juliet said. She motioned towards the table, where an onion sat, ready to be peeled for the soup. “Now, can you please peel the onion? It’s the last thing we need for the soup.”

“Why are we making soup anyway?” Varian asked. “Neither of us particularly like it.”

“Because we have guests,” Juliet said. “We have to make sure they’re well-fed.” Oh, right. In addition to Hector, Juliet had suggested inviting Quirin over for some kind of makeshift family reunion. Which meant soup, because it was the only thing besides pie and sandwiches that either knew how to make worth anything.

“Besides, I’ve been craving some carrot soup,” Juliet said. Varian picked up the onion but turned back to her.

“You hate carrot soup,” Varian said. “We only make it for guests. Why would you be craving that?” Juliet seemed surprised too at the revelation but then but her lip nervously. She twirled the spoon around and didn’t answer. Varian decided to let her suspicious behavior go.

“Where’s Ruddiger?” Varian asked instead. Juliet shrugged.

“Disappeared into the forest after we picked apples,” Juliet said. “Said something about telling the others the apples were in season.”

Onion now peeled, he brought it too her.

“Ruddiger?” Varian said. “Focus on apples, who would have guessed?”

Juliet clicked her tongue in annoyance and took the onion from him.

“I hope your uncle doesn’t mind vegetarian food, love,” Juliet said. Varian smiled and hugged her shoulders from behind.

“No, he too has embraced your joyless way of life,” Varian said. Juliet turned back to give him an seething look and Varian chuckled, kissing her cheek once. “I’m kidding Jules, you know I don’t care about you being a vegetarian. But Hector is one too, for real. He won’t care.”

Juliet hummed to herself and hugged one arm around her stomach. Juliet seemed like she was going to say something else when Hector appeared in the doorway of the kitchen again, Dad by his side.

Dad smiled at them, wearily but kind all the same. Time hadn’t been the kindest to Dad — his hair was more gray than brown, and his wrinkles were beginning to be too numerous to ignore. And next to the seemingly ageless Hector, it was easier to see. Yet, somehow, it hadn’t diminished the respect he could receive just by his arrival. Dad carried himself strong and sturdy, just like always, like a grand, old lion. Time hadn’t been kind, but Dad seemed ready to fight it’s unjust affects.

“Hello son, Juliet,” Dad said. Varian grinned and let go of his wife, walking to greet them.

“I see you’ve caught up with Uncle Hector,” Varian said. Hector beamed wickedly and walked over to the chair he had occupied earlier.

“Yes, Hector, you can take a seat,” Juliet said, crossing her arms. Hector seemed one step removed form surprised, and raised a brow. “Varian, can you please help Hector set the table while I finish the soup?”

Varian helped pull Hector from his chair and led him to where they kept bowls. Hector seemed more than a little confused.

“Why doesn’t Quirin have to help?” Hector asked like a five year old.

“Because he’s my father,” Varian said simply.

“And he didn’t just take a seat, Mister Rude,” Juliet said. Dad laughed and moved deeper into the kitchen.

“I can help set the table, it’s not a problem,” Dad said. Varian dug through a cabinet for spoons as Hector set out the bowls with a scowl.

“Quirin,” Juliet said, “you’re fine. Just take a seat. Consider it a reward for not barging into our house when we’re not here.”

“Oh, Varian told you about that,” Hector said dully. Varian put down the spoons and turned to Hector with a raised brow.

“Did you think I wouldn’t tell her?” Varian asked.

“If you were a good nephew, no, you wouldn’t have told her.”

#tangled #tangled the series #tts #disney #rapunzel's tangled adventure #tts varian #varian #hector #tts hector #oc #tangled oc #juliet oc #varian x oc #fanfic #disney fanfic

6 notes · View notes

thesportssoundoff · 6 years ago

Text

“Still Trying To Figure It Out” UFC on ESPN Debut

Joey

Feb 10th, 2019

Sometimes a card is just weird. Sometimes you're presented a show that you just kind of can't figure out and this ESPN debut card from Arizona seems to fall into that mix. On paper, this is a really good card. The main card has a big boy headliner featuring a former UFC champion and a rejuvenated hype train that everybody will care about, the rest of the main card is all action fights on paper and the prelims are well matched and put together. You've got some damn good fights at bantamweight, some fun stuff at strawweight, some relevant 145ers and a big boy main event. Despite all that, I still don't have a great grip on how good this card is or whether it's a fools gold. It was in JULY (so not even eight months ago really) where Francis Ngannou threw nothing for fifteen minutes vs Derrick Lewis and Cain has been gone so long that it's worth remembering that we didn't have two weight classes (women's flyweight AND featherweight) the last time he fought. Debuts can be tricky so Kron vs Caceres could be awful, Felder vs Vick has no reason to not be fun but I've been hoodwinked before and the rest of the card can be hit or miss as well. There's also probably not one real stand out co-main event which doesn't help some folks but personally I think this is one of those rare cares (in today's MMA scene at least) where there's enough good up and down to create the illusion of a deep stacked card. I'm with it, let's see if anybody ELSE is with it along with me.

Fights: 13

Debuts: Kron Gracie

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 1 (Lauren Murphy OUT, Andrea Lee IN vs Ashlee Evans Smith)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 10 (Francis Ngannou, Cain Velasquez, Andre Fili, Jimmie Rivera, Paul Felder, James Vick, Cynthia Calvillo, Alex Caceres, Jessica Penne, Renan Barao)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 3 (Renan Barao, Jessica Penne, Jodie Esquibel)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 6 (Alexandra Albu, Vicente Luque, Aljamain Sterling, Manny Bermudez, Scott Holtzman, Aleksandra Albu)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2017 (in the UFC): 27-15

Francis Ngannou- 4-2 Cain Velasquez- 0-0 Paul Felder- 3-1 James Vick- 4-1 Courtney Casey- 2-2 Cynthia Calvillo- 4-1 Alex Caceres- 2-2 Kron Gracie- 0-0 Andre Fili- 2-2 Myles Jury- 2-2 Vicente Luque- 3-1 Bryan Barberena- 2-1

Fights By Weight Class (yearly number here):

Women’s Strawweight- 3 (4) Bantamweight- 3 (7) Lightweight- 2 (9) Women’s Flyweight- 1 (5) Heavyweight- 1 (3) Featherweight- 2 (5) Welterweight- 1 (6)

Middleweight- (4) Flyweight- (4) Light Heavyweight- (3)

2019’s Records We Keepin Track Of:

Debuting Fighters (2-10): Kron Gracie

Short Notice Fighters (1-4): Andrea Lee

Second Fight (10-2): Andrea Lee, Benito Lopez

Cage Corrosion (Fighters who have not fought within a year of the date of the fight) (3-1): Cain Velasquez, Alexandra Albu, Jessica Penne, Benito Lopez

Undefeated Fighters (3-7): Kron Gracie, Alexandra Albu

Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization (0-1): Nik Lentz, Renan Barao

Weight Class Jumpers (Fighters competing outside of the weight class of their last fight even if they’re returning BACK to their “normal weight class”) (4-4): Paul Felder

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- Who is under MORE pressure? Is it Cain Velasquez or is it Francis Ngannou? Cain's been gone for over two years now, has battled injury after injury after injury and had a few out of the cage squabbles with the UFC. It's worth remembering that Cain has fought just twice since the end of 2013 and even those two performances come with a ton of caveats (Travis Browne was cooked, the Werdum fight was at high altitude after a year and change off). On the other hand, Ngannou's 2018 couldn't of been more complicated. He started the year having brief flashes in a blow out loss vs Stipe Miocic where his takedown defense and cardio were "exposed" for five rounds. Even if you could forgive Ngannou for being a touch too green for a major title fight (which he had earned), the Derrick Lewis performance was unforgivable. He came out scared vs Lewis and for fifteen minutes, they put on the worst fight in the history of mixed martial arts. JUST when you might be ready to cash out on Ngannou, he blitzed and finished Curtis Blaydes in China in November. I don't know which fighter is under more pressure to perform at this point.

2- Does Ngannou get a title shot if he beats Cain? Could Francis Ngannou vs Daniel Cormier headline in April or June?

3- Last year fighters who took a year off or more between fights started the year at an ugly 1-8 while this year, small sample size and all, are 3-1. Can Cain keep those good vibes going or nah?

4- The best division in MMA nobody seems to give any sort of a shit about rolls onward as bantamweight has three damn good fights on this card. Unfortunately all of those fights are on the televised prelims (or ESPN+ for that matter) so here we are. Alex Caceres vs Kron Gracie had to be on the main card :/ We can begin with Aljamain Sterling vs Jimmie Rivera; a stupendous fight between fighters with similar strengths and weaknesses. Sterling finished Cody Stamman last time out while Jimmie Rivera cruised to a decision win over Jon Dodson. Both guys can commiserate over Marlon Moraes blow out first round losses. Benito Lopez vs Manny Bermudez is an A+ fight featuring two really different undefeated prospects. Lopez is super raw but exciting while Bermudez is a bit less raw but comes with the one stop shop finishing ability on the ground (as well as some developing pop on the feet). Lastly you have the kinda sorta really sad return of Renan Barao who has lost every bit of his uniqueness/athleticism at this point. Just no point for him to be fighting at 135 lbs anymore.

5- Any Kron Gracie opinions? I got none. Lack any sort of answers here.

6- Paul Felder vs James Vick is an interesting fight that's hard to care about unfortunately due to the fact that this division is such a messy state. James Vick had his four fight winning streak snapped violently at the hands of Justin Gaethje which is rough when you consider how hard and long it took Vick to get himself into a main event spot. Vick remains a dude who always seems one bad shot away from getting rocked, wobbled and finished despite his immense array of skills. Conversely Paul Felder had HIS modest three fight winning streak snapped when he went up in weight to face off against Mike Perry on short notice. Sandwiched in between that and the start of 2018, Felder had a fight taken from him at UFC 223, lost the opportunity to potentially fight for a title and ALSO lost a fight with James Vick potentially in a co-main event spot. Felder's really strong at 155 lbs and he's matured a little bit, picking his spots a bit clearer after being a dude who just loved to do spinning shit over and over. The winner is one of those dudes who gets to hang around the bottom half of the top 10 a bit longer.

7- Courtney Casey vs Cynthia Calvillo is a really good fight that could be the quintessential showcase bout for Cynthia Calvillo if it hangs around on the ground for a while. I'd almost say this fight is co-main worthy but Courtney Casey seems like she's 0-10 on UFC main cards.

8- Imagine having a dude like Vicente Luque and opting to have him fight friggin' Bryan Barberena. A rankings fight that doesn't make a single lick of sense.

9- I am really really excited to see the fight between Scott Holtzman and Nick Lentz. Holtzman has been getting better with each performance and while he's still super flawed and has at least one stretch per fight where he puts himself in a bad spot, there's some serious strides being made by Holtzman. His domination of Alan Patrick last time out should at the very least open some doors on whether or not he still has more upside hidden somewhere. 155 lbs continues to be a very loaded division as more dudes have late breakouts.

10- Not gonna lie I totally thought Jessica Penne got cut at some point.

11- That two year run with Barao at the helm of the division from like 2012 to 2014 was kinda cool, riiiight?

12- First card of the year with no 205 lb fight on it. I'm disappointed!

#MMA #UFC #Fight Night #Ngannou #Velasquez

6 notes · View notes

rattotheimperialcheesegod · 3 years ago

Note

and then audrey yells over that kiwi asking what all that was about, saying she thought all the spirit realms stopped corrupting after they used the song and she, she goes slient...

miriam finishes her sentence "yes after we used the wandersong and after you died, well..atleast we thought you died..."

kiwi looks at miriam in a sorta angry face knowing that audreys death was senstive topic and miriam annoyingly apologizes and looks to the side in a pout

its quiet for a moment until kiwi breaks it by saying they should leave

the three attend ash and violas wedding looking abit more dapper with the best audrey could do is wear a spare bowtie

the wedding bouquet is thrown and it actually land in miriams lap and she doesnt notice at first until she sees audrey holding in her laughter and kiwi is snickering as they point to miriams lap and miriam freaks out as she looks down and shoves it over onto kiwis lap

next the dances happens and ash and viola are dances

kiwi and miriam talk in private as audrey stays off to the side

she gets abit gloomy

she felt abit out of place here

everyones so happy and has so much life in them

she..she was the one 5 years ago who which was gonna end all that....

then suddenly manny comes over to her

saying hello in his funky jazzy way

she akwardly says hi not expecting to greeted by anyone here

he asks how she likes the wedding and she just answers "heh..i..i never been to one before..so..its uh..nice??" manny chuckles and leans on the wall

"yeah..it is nice..i normally dont like weddings...i always was the groom of them after all! heh!"

audrey looks at manny in confusion

"your married?" she asks

manny laughs out loud "oh eyas no! i mean like..once...or twice...or three times at best"

audrey gets surpised "THREE???"

audrey smiles alittle "how did you get divorced three times?? were you some kinda charmer back then?"

manny chuckles "yeah! im a drummer after! girls love musicans~.°•☆!"

audrey laughs "ohoho! were you taller too?"

manny grins "ohoho! you think your a funny gal! hehehe.."

audrey smiles

"gosh you really cheered me up....er..uh"

"manny, my name is manny" he says in response

audrey looks back at him "oh! your manny! your the drummer of viola and ashs band, no wonder your here!"

"yup! i mean, why would i miss my daughters wedding?" manny says

audreys eyebrows ruffle in confusion

"wha..what?"

"who.."

"one of them is your..."

manny chuckles "my daughter! yknow! the one dancing with her new spouse"

audrey takes in what he says for a moment

"...."

"VIOLAS YOUR DAUGHTER?!"

manny grins "surpising! i know! i wouldnt believe me either!"

"im so glad she found someone after all this time"

"shes always hated me after her mom died, she blamed it all on me" he sheds a tear of happiness

"my little girl grown so much!"

audrey looks out at viola and ash dancing happly and smiles

"yeah..i guess so..."

the night ends with audrey waking up to bells from the dock

audrey realizes that kiwi and miriam are gone and same as their stuff

audrey quickly gets outta the hotel bed she was in and runs to the docks

and sees that miriam and kiwi are on the dock talking to the coffee pirates

out of breathe she tumbles onto the dock in front of the two

"oh! audrey! your awake! heh!" kiwi says as they look down

"ugh! i thought you would stay in the hotel and out of our buisness.." miriam says after kiwi

audrey out of breathe while standing up "buisness? what buisness??"

kiwi is about to say something until miriam interupts them "me and kiwi are setting up a boat reservation with the coffee pirates for later today do after we go to the dream realm to check on the dream queen"

kiwi speaks up "we can come with the pirates to get a rid for the next nexus!"

miriam nods "we do have a job after all! the whole wind overseer was a big deal! we pretty much say a entire realm fall apart! and i and kiwi need to deal with it! that means!"

miriam grabs audreys shoulders and starts to push her back to delphi "you can stay here and let the big guys do the big work! you can...work at the candy shop or something like that..."

audrey turns around and pushes miriam away abit

"WHAT!? your just pushing me aside?? why?? i can help!"

miriam grunts "and how can you help?? you have no powers! your just a clutsy little person"

audrey clenchs her teeth and tiny red sparks go out of her "i..im not clutsy..."

miriam "really now..?"

"your boot is in a barrel right now"

audrey looks down and tries to wiggle her foot out of the barrel

kiwi pipes in and pulls miriam to the side "come on miriam! you've been so harsh since shes been here..i know...audrey isnt the best person...at times...but! she simply wants to help! i see that this is a good change!"

miriam sighs and smiles alittle "...as much as i wanna just kick her into the water and have her stay here....i cant say no to you kiwi..."

miriam turns over to audrey "ok ok...you..audrey...."

she grunts "you can come along with us..."

audrey is seen dumping water and fish out of her boot "really?..heh uh! great!"

miriam snarls and gets up in audreys face "dont think im gonna like you through..."

kiwi pulls miriam away abit and smiles at audrey

**please ask for more i cant just keep on reblogging on this post**

[asks you about more sequel au] No prob! I didn’t really thought about act 1 so that’s interesting! Also, Ash and Viola are married!! So cool! Plus the Guardians’ new power sounds interesting in the future. :) And if you wanna you could answer about act 2 here!

oh of course!

well in act 2 they find out the wind fairy is hurt

Corrupting!

and that the wind overseer is competely gone

the fairy is in shock and only aswer to kiwi in a few words of "the world..is..ending..." and "please...save..us.."

in which kiwi sets the fairy down in fear as it starts to corrupt more and more and even the surrounding castle corrupts too

all three of them rush out of there as the castle grows spikes of dark cloud to block their path

but as they finally escape the rest of the area corrupts and falls apart with black clouds...

miriam then as to summon a broom and has audrey hang onto kiwi as they try to get to the entrance of the falling apart wind realm as they do

kiwi points out that theres sounds of terror in the dream realm

kiwi yelling that they need to go there

miriam quickly pointing out they need to get out of there if they wanna get into another mess

as they yell

audrey points out the enterance and yells at miriam to take a large left

which miriam doesnt listen to at first but kiwi tells her to listen and miriam sighs mumbling under her breathe saying "eya help me, i cant believe im listening to our worst enemy"

and uses her magic to blast them through all the clouds and to the enterance

and they all stumble into the cave as the enterance closes behind them

11 notes · View notes

niennavalier · 5 years ago

Text

Okay folks, so I know the post I made like, a couple hours ago cause I like music is pretty light, but basically, I’ve been writing something that I need to send in an email for future stuff and it’s making the whole “end of undergrad” thing really frustrating and scary. So I’m ranting through it all below; don’t feel obligated to read, I just throw stuff in this void of a site cause typing can be cathartic.

I mean, no idea where to start but I’m real fucking frustrated with a ton of stuff. So let’s just start at the beginning I guess. Not throwing shade at my parents - they’re lovely people, despite arguments that happen cause of course that happens - but...the Asian parent stereotype is definitely a thing. I figure I’m lucky not to have it as extreme as other people do, but still. It’s largely just an unspoken-turned-internalized kind of thing, but I just feel like I’ve always been expected to do science or just STEM in general. And it’s not entirely a bad thing - I still love science and it’s still really cool and you really can’t convince me otherwise - but it still just feels like an expectation. Like that’s what I’m “supposed” to do, and like it’s the “safe” option for the future. Do undergrad, go to grad school, get a job in industry or whatever cause to my knowledge, going into STEM fields tends not to be quite as bad cause it’s growing and has more openings to get into it. And I’m already not a super daring person; sure, risk is part of life, but unnecessary risk that’ll have some huge effect on my future just...I dunno, that feels like too much. And maybe that’s kind of on my parents. Not because I don’t want to disappoint them by going into a different field - that’s honestly not my biggest concern - but I ended up kinda being the “math/science kid” and even after I’d discovered creative writing, they were always the ones telling me to put that on the backburner. Just do studies, go into science, do research and then write on the side if there’s time.

And like...I get it to an extent. It’s definitely the “safer” option. But just...the more I think about it, the more it grates on me. The longer I’ve been doing undergrad, the more I realize that’s just not what I want. I don’t wanna have to cut out writing and always put it to the side and constantly think of it as “the background thing”. Whenever I’m not actively doing homework - whenever I’m just walking down the street or about to fall asleep - I’m not thinking about science. I’m thinking about my characters and writing techniques and how the fuck I’m gonna build out my world in D&D. Which, on that actually, D&D has been the most confusing thing to me. Cause playing has just made me realize how much I love storytelling. I love crafting worlds and characters and plotlines and seeing how people react to them. It’s just fun. I really don’t have any explanation beyond that. But coming to that realization now confuses me so fucking much, because now it feels like that door is closing, in a way. Because I have basically no official structure or connections to even try to get into that sort of thing.

And that’s honestly the most frustrating thing, cause now it feels like I’ve just been doing everything wrong. I haven’t been taking writing classes here, cause everything else has always had to come first, and I haven’t been putting as much time into writing any actual, big work of any kind because then I just feel bad that I’m not doing the stuff I’m supposed to be doing for classes or clubs or whatever the fuck else is going on at the time. So it basically just feels like I’ve gotten nowhere. The one kind of saving grace I’ve found is being a part of our scientific journal on campus. Because that’s honestly been such a nice complement to both parts of me; I still get to talk about science and learn new cool stuff that’s going on, but I also get to write and think about language and words and all of that stuff. But even there, I’ve looked a bit into applying for a few programs that skew into that field (higher degree programs for science communication or that kind of thing) but then sometimes they want people with research experience and letters of rec which I just...don’t really have. I did a bit of research but it fell apart at the beginning of this semester cause of miscommunications, and all the clubs I’ve been a part of are all student run, so I don’t have a bunch of connections to professors or grad students or anything. So I just...feel stuck, I guess. Like I just went about a bunch of college completely wrong.

Granted, yes, I know that college isn’t the end of things and plenty of people find their way later in life. And that’s comforting, and frankly, I’ve cited that to other friends who have needed my support. But it still just...isn’t taking away the feeling in the moment. Like I’m at some super important crossroads and the one route that I can take is one that I know won’t make me happy (research and grad school etc), while the ones I’m more interested in are the ones I haven’t prepared for properly. Like the things I’m interested in are ones where I just don’t have the network to get into. And again, I know it’s fine to figure things out later, cause I’ve only existed for two decades, but it just really doesn’t help when you have parents breathing down your neck about the finances and “what are you gonna do” “why did you do a chemistry degree if you’re not gonna go to grad school” “what about the money where’s that gonna come from”. Like, I get their concerns, but I wish I had answers to this shit, too. Trust me.

Honestly? This whole thing just makes me wish I’d been more daring. I mean...I don’t even know how relevant this particular point is, but there’s this video on Youtube of Manny Jacinto and Tan France just having a conversation, and they talk about that familial expectation and how hard it is to go against that and...I dunno, I guess I just sorta wish I’d done that. I wanna be that person that follows their dream and gets to be successful in it, and it’s just rough knowing that I’m gonna have to be a real adult soon, while also realizing I know even less than I did before. Just...everything is really frustrating and I don’t know what to do anymore and it just feels like it would’ve been nice for me to realize all of this shit earlier.

I know this hasn’t really gone anywhere, but I gotta get these thoughts out of my head. I don’t wanna lay this all out on my roommates cause they’ve been stressed and I’ve basically been their sounding board recently, but having to write a couple paragraphs regarding me being interested in science communication has just brought a lot of thoughts to my head. And they’ve basically just gotten bigger and louder for the past couple hours so...yeah. Rant over for now; maybe someday you’ll all end up hearing about my other complains about the school system and society and stuff

#from the mind of niennavalier #feel free to ignore #life is just rough #oh and i have a meeting in half an hour that i officially am Not in the mood for #im just leaving as early as possible cause I both have shit to finish and honestly now just isn't the time

0 notes

madpicks · 8 years ago

Photo

New Post has been published on https://www.madpicks.com/sports/mlb/unwritten-rules-throwing-manny-machados-danged-head/

The unwritten rules of throwing at Manny Machado’s danged head

Over the weekend, Manny Machado viciously spiked Dustin Pedroia, coming up high on a slide and intentionally filling an opponent’s calf with sharpened metal. It was unacceptable, and frontier justice needed to be taken.

Over the weekend, Machado was nearly concussed or killed because of an accidental slide a couple days before. It was an unintentional slide and he immediately, clearly showed remorse for it, but Matt Barnes decided that throwing a baseball at his head was the only rational response.

Over the weekend, a bunch of dumb baseball things happened and a bunch of dumb baseball men had dumb baseball reactions.

Which version is true? Oh, it’s a regular Rashomon over here, and we’ll have to get to the bottom of it. Also Zach Britton was saying things that somehow made people sympathetic to the Red Sox, somehow, which is some deft sleight-of-hand.

Start at the beginning:

Act I: The slide

In which an undead Ty Cobb clambers out of his cobbhole to tear your ears off for calling this a vicious slide.

An ideal slide? Oh goodness, no. It was clearly a bad slide, the kind that can get people hurt. Which it did. I can understand why Pedroia would be mad. I can understand why the Red Sox would be mad.

Still, it was an understandable slide. Machado started it late, but not out of malice. It was late enough to disrupt Pedroia, in theory, but not late enough to run afoul of the new rules about sliding into second base. Two years ago, the appropriate slide wouldn’t have worried Pedroia with spikes; the real danger would have come with Machado’s entire body, and it would have been totally acceptable.

However, because Machado is a large baseball man, his late slide took him into the base with serious force, and he was in danger of crumpling his ankle.

You can see in the GIF that it was a last-second decision, and that as soon as Machado can control his body, he avoids driving through Pedroia. A good rule of thumb is that if you have to zapruder the film, you can probably let it go with a few choice words the next time the guy is on first.

Several Red Sox players and coaches were going over the Machado slide into Pedroia frame by frame in the visitors’ clubhouse.

— Brian MacPherson (@brianmacp) April 22, 2017

If you think I’m in the tank for Machado, note that he’s not a stranger to these unwritten-rules articles, and he’s been called a dillweed because of it. He has a reputation that almost certainly played into this, in part because the Red Sox are sick of playing against him for about 40 different reasons, even if one of those reasons is absolutely about him being a wondrous baseball genie. Machado’s the guy who threw a bat at another player. So he could be the guy who spiked another player on purpose.

Still, I’m pretty sure that it was an accident, and while the Red Sox have the right to be mad, it’s more in the sense of, “Hey, control your body better, you oaf.” Here, listen to Dustin Pedroia agree with me.

What’s the appropriate punishment for a player sliding recklessly but within the written rules? I’ll tell you what it isn’t …

Act II: Vengeance is a dish served coawwww jeez, I didn’t mean to throw it there

Before we get to Barnes, note that Eduardo Rodriguez tried to solve this the inning before.

That’s it. That’s your chance. It’s over. This is close to the appropriate response, too. Throw three pitches kinda sorta at him to let the world know you haven’t forgotten about the slide, and move on. The worst unwritten rule that was broken in the series was the one that goes something like, “Don’t look like a dingus because you can’t hit someone you’re trying to,” and yet it was accidentally the most reasonable response to what Machado did.

Then Barnes did the absolute worst thing a major league pitcher can do.

No. No, no, no, no.

That is how Manny Machado becomes a Wikipedia page in 2079 that a young baseball nerd stumbles upon instead of a Hall of Famer he already knew about. Think of all the ways that could have gone wrong. Manny Machado, unable to deal with the dizziness and constant ringing in his ears, will miss the remainder of the season. Manny Machado, who underwent surgery to relieve swelling in his brain, is still in critical condition. Manny Machado, after struggling for years to return from his injuries, retired today at the age of 26.

And you know that doesn’t even include the worst-case scenario.

What did Barnes have to say about it?

I would never, ever intentionally throw at somebody’s head. That’s kind of a line that you don’t cross. I’m sorry that it kind of ended up that high, and fortunately it did not hit him.

I absolutely, 100-percent believe him. He didn’t go up there thinking, “Gonna hit this dude in the head and see if he can eat solid foods after that.”

That’s the whole point, though. My job, here, is to point out the silliness from the outside. It’s absurd from my couch, and I know some players might think that disqualifies me from weighing in. But I’m someone who stopped playing baseball in my teens because once the big-ass kids started throwing 80 and 90 mph, I was scared of the ball, and I couldn’t hit anything. That makes me supremely qualified to discuss this. I’m an expert in those-things-hurt-dammitology.

It helps to add the appropriate finish to Barnes’ sentence. “I’m sorry that it kind of ended up that high … and almost killed him.” It was an accident, but if every pitcher could throw exactly where he wanted to, every game would be a 19-inning, 1-0 game. Pitchers can kind of throw it where they want, but the difference between throwing at a butt and throwing at a head is releasing the ball a fraction of a second later. Unless you’re throwing at A.J. Pierzynski and it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins, but seriously, folks.

If the response to an unwritten rule is to do something that might kill another player, it’s an unjustified response. Which means baseball can figure out something better. The tradition isn’t working. The old-school mentality of “hit him in the keister, where it won’t hurt” tries to straddle a line, and it works most of the time, but the risk isn’t worth the reward.

Apply this to the real world. I carry a pocket knife around — for the tweezers and toothpick, you know — so imagine if my response to someone knocking me down on the street because they were in a hurry was to open the pocket knife and wing it at them. It’s a small knife, so even if it went into the flesh, it wouldn’t require more than a couple of stitches. More likely, the butt end would hit them, and they would say ow, or I’d miss them entirely.

I would be arrested, of course, because throwing something with the intent to hurt and potential to kill isn’t an appropriate response to anything other than an immediate, serious threat. That’s how the world has worked for hundreds of years, and it’s a pretty good system.

Now imagine that the pocket knife somehow hit the magic spot and nicked a jugular, or maybe it’s dirty (what with the tweezers and toothpick and all) and the cut caused an infection that became life-threatening.

ME: I’m sorry that it kind of ended up that high, your honor.

JUDGE: Oh, yeah, well, it happens.

Nope. I would go to jail for years. And I’m not rich, so it would be real jail! I’m too delicate for that, so I don’t throw my pocket knife.

For some reason, though, baseball is in a weird bubble where this stuff has been codified and passed down from generation to generation. It takes someone screwing up like Matt Barnes to remember that, oh, right, pitchers can screw up when they’re trying to retaliate, and it invalidates the whole system.

Two different Red Sox players used four different pitches to try to hit Manny Machado in the legs or butt, and they missed with all four. That means that throwing pitches at a batter’s legs or butt isn’t a functional system. Think of something new. This one is too dumb, too dangerous.

Maybe the catcher can carry an extremely large spider in a jar and shake it on the batter when he isn’t looking. Help me out with suggestions that don’t involve projectiles, people.

Act III: Zach Britton blames Dustin Pedroia

I went longer on the last section than I wanted to, so I’ll be quick here. Orioles closer Zach Britton said that Pedroia could have stopped the whole thing before it happened by telling his clubhouse not to retaliate. That’s probably true!

That doesn’t mean it’s Pedroia’s fault. Everyone in baseball is caught up in the weird disconnection from reality. Even Britton in the same damned interview:

“I think you should have the ability to control the ball enough if you want to hit somebody. You do it in their body,” Britton said.

Yeah, well, it doesn’t always work like that, which is the problem. Britton threw 10 wild pitches last year. He tried to execute a specific pitch in a specific location, and because that’s really hard, there were 10 instances of him missing badly enough that it couldn’t be caught by a major league catcher.

If the same mistake happens when Britton is trying to “do it in their body,” he could kill someone, too.

The answer is to stop throwing baseballs on people on purpose. “Tradition” isn’t a synonym for “good thing,” and some traditions are incredibly shortsighted and awful. It takes Manny Machado almost bleeding out of his ears to remind us that this is one of them.

#manny machado #MLB

0 notes

junker-town · 8 years ago

Text

The unwritten rules of throwing at Manny Machado’s danged head

There are written rules, of course, as there usually are. There’s also common sense.

Over the weekend, a bunch of dumb baseball things happened and a bunch of dumb baseball men had dumb baseball reactions.

Start at the beginning:

Act I: The slide

In which an undead Ty Cobb clambers out of his cobbhole to tear your ears off for calling this a vicious slide.

An ideal slide? Oh goodness, no. It was clearly a bad slide, the kind that can get people hurt. Which it did. I can understand why Pedroia would be mad. I can understand why the Red Sox would be mad.

However, because Machado is a large baseball man, his late slide took him into the base with serious force, and he was in danger of crumpling his ankle.

Several Red Sox players and coaches were going over the Machado slide into Pedroia frame by frame in the visitors' clubhouse.

— Brian MacPherson (@brianmacp) April 22, 2017

What’s the appropriate punishment for a player sliding recklessly but within the written rules? I’ll tell you what it isn’t ...

Act II: Vengeance is a dish served coawwww jeez, I didn’t mean to throw it there

Before we get to Barnes, note that Eduardo Rodriguez tried to solve this the inning before.

Then Barnes did the absolute worst thing a major league pitcher can do.

No. No, no, no, no.

And you know that doesn’t even include the worst-case scenario.

What did Barnes have to say about it?

I would never, ever intentionally throw at somebody’s head. That’s kind of a line that you don’t cross. I’m sorry that it kind of ended up that high, and fortunately it did not hit him.

I absolutely, 100-percent believe him. He didn’t go up there thinking, “Gonna hit this dude in the head and see if he can eat solid foods after that.”

It helps to add the appropriate finish to Barnes’ sentence. “I’m sorry that it kind of ended up that high ... and almost killed him.” It was an accident, but if every pitcher could throw exactly where he wanted to, every game would be a 19-inning, 1-0 game. Pitchers can kind of throw it where they want, but the difference between throwing at a butt and throwing at a head is releasing the ball a fraction of a second later. Unless you’re throwing at A.J. Pierzynski and it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins, but seriously, folks.

ME: I’m sorry that it kind of ended up that high, your honor.

JUDGE: Oh, yeah, well, it happens.

Nope. I would go to jail for years. And I’m not rich, so it would be real jail! I’m too delicate for that, so I don’t throw my pocket knife.

Maybe the catcher can carry an extremely large spider in a jar and shake it on the batter when he isn’t looking. Help me out with suggestions that don’t involve projectiles, people.

Act III: Zach Britton blames Dustin Pedroia

That doesn’t mean it’s Pedroia’s fault. Everyone in baseball is caught up in the weird disconnection from reality. Even Britton in the same damned interview:

“I think you should have the ability to control the ball enough if you want to hit somebody. You do it in their body,” Britton said.

If the same mistake happens when Britton is trying to “do it in their body,” he could kill someone, too.

0 notes