#mia winters defense squad

[rachelfoleyisntdead]

About the re9 "leaks":

"A closing chapter for a few things" This doesn't mean anything. It's definitely not a closing chapter for Chris UNLESS the game takes place post-Shadows of rose. Which I doubt, because Chris would be over 60. This could be a closing chapter for Leon and Ada, but hopefully without Ada's death (Aeon haters can die mad). It could also be a closing chapter for Jill, who we haven't seen in any NEW (not remake) mainline content in a while. I don't see it as a closing chapter for Claire because honestly, Claire doesn't have anything to close. She has no overarching story, no unfinished business or loose ends. She just Shows Up sometimes. I'd like to see Mia and Chris being forced to work together to close the Mold chapter out, and perhaps explain why Mia doesn't have rose in the Village DLC. But I doubt it--when there's a vitriolic reaction to a female character, Capcom just plays into it and panders to it rather than trying to develop the character.

"Both a closing and a beginning" This, again, is too vague to actually mean anything. Hopefully it means that the OG 4 are done-done, and we'll be moving forward with new-ish characters, like the original intention of re6 (til it bombed). Sherry, Jake and Helena did nothing wrong. Bring them back, and Parker and Sheva. (Carlos ILY but you're too old bb, please be retired.)

"New story arcs to come after re9" Note that they said new arcs--this just means they won't be continuing the mold. It doesn't necessarily mean we're getting new characters or Chris is retired. I highly doubt they're giving up Chris. That man isn't getting a break ever.

"Takes the series to new directions" ...this also is too vague to mean anything other than "no more mold". There aren't many more directions to take the series other than psychological horror (since zombies, parasites, cocoons and now mold have been done). That would be the only direction they haven't tried, though they tested the waters in Village. I'd like to see it. This could also just be another vague way of saying "new story arcs".

Highest budget/longest development time/release in 2025 This is the only part that sounds like an actual leak. And it still doesn't mean anything. We've seen plenty of high budget AAA games still suck. It's likely going to be a beautiful game, we know Capcom can make great settings with amazing atmosphere.

[screechthemighty]

Digging through a walkthrough of RE:7 for my second attempt at a speedrun tomorrow (attempt one isn’t going so well so I’m starting over), and friendly reminder that

Mia immediately did everything she could to save Ethan when he was in danger and

She kicked ass doing it

[ajokeformur-ray]

Spending Christmas Eve with Arthur & surprise kiss under mistletoe (headcanon) ☺️🎄

Implied smut at end.

I feel like this is really bad? IDK.

You had been planning your Christmas with Arthur for months.

Nothing and no one were going to stop you from spending the entire holiday with Arthur.

Not even you.

“Y/N, you don’t have to do this for me.” 

Though he was speaking as quietly and as patiently as he usually does, you could tell by the hopeful glint in his eyes and the anxious way that he was toying with the cuffs of his beloved yellow hoodie that Arthur really did want to do all of these things with you.

“Yeah, I do, Arthur.” At his uncertain dart upwards with his eyes do you say, “I want to.”

Whatever your usual Christmas plans are, Arthur wants in on them all, no matter how silly or childish they seem.

When you tell him that you’re deciding to spend the holiday with him, though???

Poor boi loses his mind.

He laughs in disbelief, so hard that he ends up crying.

 He shakes his head, apologising as best as he can, but you just tug him into your arms and you hold him, your fingers stroking easily through his dark locks as you calm him.

His laughing fit only makes you even more sure of your decision. 

You want him to experience every possible tradition, food, activity, game, etc. about Christmas.

Whether you’re religious or not, he wants to do everything with you. All of it. 

Whether you think he’d enjoy it or not is a moot point, because he’s with you and so therefore he would enjoy it.

Arthur loves the music of the season!!!!

You woke up once in the night, not sure of what had woken you, but as you came to you realised that Arthur’s fingers were trailing up and down your arm, his fingers tapping out the beat to the last song which had played on the radio before bed.

You smiled, pulled him closer, and Arthur crooned some lyrics in your ear; his soft voice being just what you needed to lull you back into Morpheus’ embrace, though even a deity can’t protect you as well as Arthur can.

“Arthur, honey, what would you like for Christmas? Not what I want, not what we need for the apartment, what do you want?”

An edge of frustration crept into your voice. 

You had asked him this so many times and you heard his answer in your head before he even said it:

“I already have everything I want.” His intense stare and the happiness on his face says the next word for him, which settles like a blanket of snow between your bodies:

You.

Soon enough, it’s Christmas Eve and you’re really getting into the swing of things now.

You leave out some gingerbread biscuits and mince pies for Father Christmas and his reindeer (you both know nothing’s going to touch them but you want Arthur to get the full experience; he would have missed out on it all when he was a child).

You both go to bed, giddy as children, and your jaw aching with how wide you were smiling as you pulled him into your arms, sleep finding you both quite quickly.

The first thing you decide that you need to show Arthur in the morning, on the big day, was your personal favourite thing about Christmas:

Giving presents!

You hadn’t labelled any of the presents you had gotten him, you had only wrapped them. 

You had already given other people their presents, anyway.

With Arthur out in the living room tidying up the cups and plates and emptying out his ashtrays, it seemed convenient to reach under the bed and pull out all the presents you had gotten for him.

You had wrapped all of them as best as you could, putting so much effort into it that you had even impressed yourself, and now did you take them to the living room, your knees almost bowing under all the weight.

Arthur lingered in the doorway of the kitchen, his green eyes inquisitive.

“Y-Y/N, wh-what are you doing? Shouldn’t you have given those out before today?”

With a truly happy smile on your face did you look over at the absolute love of your life.

“I have.”

You saw that he still didn’t understand and, knowing that he would respond to your next words with painful laughter, did you say, “Arthur, honey, these are yours.”

Three, two, aaaaand - 

Painful laughter ripped forth from Arthur’s throat and you nodded solemnly, crossing the room to comfort him.

You held him tightly through the attack, stroking his dark hair and kissing his temple and you stayed.

When he was calm did you lead him to the gifts you had gotten him. 

You felt bad that you hadn’t gotten him more, but you had already spent too much money this month so it was the best you could do.

Arthur only ever deserved your best.

You got him: a new journal, a proper winter coat, the biggest multipack of cigarettes you could find (even if you disliked the vice, you wouldn’t deny him anything and so with a wrinkled nose had you bought them), more makeup for work (he had literally been scraping the bottom of the barrel this morning, a concerned frown on his face as he looked at the calendar - another two weeks until payday; he couldn’t go that long without Carnival), another clown wig, and - a bright red two piece suit.

To you, it wasn’t anything special and you felt guilty that you couldn’t give him more.

Arthur unwrapped every present slowly, his flat palms tracing over every gift which was cushioned in his bony lap as he undid the tape with spidery fingers. He folded the discarded paper and you knew it’d become pressed in the pages of his new journal as irrefutable proof of this night.

With reverence did Arthur look over everything you got him, his eyes glistening with unshed tears, his cheeks damp with overflowing love as he looked up at you like you were an angel.

His angel.

He told you as much before he kissed you deeply in thanks; his lips so fierce against your own that it made your toes curl in your socks.

Then, he crossed over to the tiny desk in the corner of the room and grabbed his battered brown journal and joke book, flicking to a certain page easily and holding it out to you.

“I couldn’t afford to get you a gift,” He mumbled, embarrassed, the tips of his ears turning the same delicate shade of pink as the one on his cheeks, “But I… here, Y/N.”

You took the journal, seeing Arthur struggling so completely for words made you deeply curious, and your eyes roamed over the page, a blush coming to your own face before you focused on the very first word and read it slowly, savouring the pages upon pages of scribbles, doodles and words; some crossed out, more misspelled and some written with care.

It was all about you - your favourite things were drawn around the corners of the pages, smiley faces and crooked love hearts dotted the pages and acted as punctuation, things you had said to him or done together, things he wanted to do with and to you…. pages upon pages… you counted eighteen before a sealed envelope fell out of the journal.

Quickly did Arthur scoop it up. “T-That’s the journal finished… I - I wanted to write you something, to give you something to open.”

Arthur moved all of his gifts over to the armchair which Penny used to sit in so that you could sit on the sofa, holding the envelope in your hands.

You were getting teary eyed just seeing your name written in Arthur’s writing, and with a slight shake to your hand did you break the seal, Arthur sitting beside you and taking your other hand.

With his other hand did he pull his trick out of his trousers pocket - a piece of mistletoe.

He had refrained from buying a pack of cigarettes in order to buy it fresh and he had kept it in his pocket all day, waiting for the perfect moment.

He watched you read his letter once, twice, three and then four times; your emotions playing out on your face like a film.

He watched as you teared up, smiled, gasped softly or squeezed his hand as you read the letter a fifth time.

“Arthur, I - you - I love you so fucking much”

“I know,” A quiet murmur of truth, “I love you too. You’re my everything.” 

Distracted sufficiently by his letter did Arthur reach his arm up to hold the mistletoe over your heads.

You followed his arm up, up, and smiled.

“You know what my favourite part of Christmas is?”

“What?” You smiled even wider, knowing where this was going.

“Following traditions.”

In a rare bout of confidence which channelled his future self did Arthur claim your lips with his and the rest of the day was spent in a blissful haze of love, lust and everything in between.

The Arthur Fleck/Joker Defense Squad @writings-of-a-gen-z                      @x-avantgarde-x       @insomniabird      @mavalenovaninagavi     @itwasrealenough     @morrisonmercurymalek     @rand0ms-fand0ms     @rafaelina-casillas     @aclownthing        @vivft                  @help-i-am-obssessed      @autumnaffection       @taintednihilist   @vladtoly   @mg-woolf99      @misstgrey92  @that-s-life   @dopey-girl-blogs         @seeking-dreamland      @sweetheart-syndrome      @heartxfdesire @xmusichealsthesoulx       @0callmejude0      @the-one-that-likes-riddles        @hannibalsslut       @folliaght            @freeeshavacadoo         @bingewatchingmylifegoby       @unlovedbyeveryoneandeverything @okamiredfoxx       @sp0okysp0oky  @the-pandorabox      @mardema @jibanyyan        @honeyflvredcoughdrop         @emissarydecksetter @jokerfleckk         @epidendroideae         @chuuntas          @stillmabel       @pumpkinpeyes       @onehystericalqueenposts       @the-jokers-wolf       @nalsswa  @justahyena       @arianatheangelworld  @soullessblondbitch @gothamslittlejester  @twentyonestarrynights  @sirianfromsixties @kissmeclownman    @joker-is-my-hero  @lazyloosah  @lovesickkloxx @ladylovelyluna      @live-love-loki  @clownerybbxx   @tragicarthur    @anmach123      @rommie-chan      @arthurflock     @lucyboytom              @anti-peach       @immortal-bi-bitch    @hearthurfleck      @crazieroutthere      @curlystark     @hailmary-yramliah    @sagyunaro     @playinthedarktillitsgoldenagain     @jokeringcutio      @xenthefox   @mijachula@stcrrynightsinneverlcnd      @cheyennejonas22    @mrjfleck      @pauli1100     @smitten-susie    @actualkey     @callmejokerfleck   @jaylovesbats    @itsforyoubitch      @ridiculousnerd     @killerprotector3579       @soulsdontbreaktheybeeend     @fantasticwinnerclodexpert                  @arthurs-sweater      @pinkie44pie    @tsukiakarinobara      @prettyxlittlexpsychoxprincess   @elodia-gahan   @yours-mia    @rustyt33th     @parkdonghoons      @lady-carnivals-stuff      @hobi-hobi-kyo-kkyu      @jupiturde        @incognitofish      @j-sux      @nothing-but-a-comedy      @tahliamalfoydepp 

[pip-n-flinx]

The Fall of Earth

I decided to start working on a Mass Effect fic. Not sure any of my followers are interested, but I decided to post the WIP here. I’d love constructive criticism if you have any! Preface, I’ve gotten tired of seeing Ashley Williams hate. I just wanted to write something that painted her in a better light than most of the stuff I’ve seen recently. I also want a happy ending for her. Hell, I want a happy ending for all the Mass Effect characters. I just haven’t seen much fan-based content that does her justice IMO.

EDIT: moving it to tumblr I lost some of my formatting as well as bold and italics. It doesn’t read quite as cleanly anymore. Sorry about that!

It was hard being cooped up in this apartment under house arrest. Harder than Shepard would admit to anyone, anyways. There was little to occupy his time. Sure, they provided him a holonet uplink, even occasionally asked what he wanted for dinner. The officers assigned to guard his room were polite, sometimes even stopping to make conversation. It just made it worse. Many of them couldn’t seem to decide if he was still the hero of legend, or if the first human Spectre had been replaced by the husk in the room.

Relieved of duty. He could see it now. It had taken time, but he had begun to agree with them. As far as the Tribunal was concerned he had never died, never been resurrected. They thought he had defected. No one comes back from the dead after all. No one.

They thought he had signed on with Cerberus. They thought he had agreed to be cybernetically implanted. No medical personnel would back that assertion if they got a look at his file, certainly, but it didn’t matter to the Brass.

He was a terrorist. He’d blown up the Alpha relay. He’d sided with a rogue splinter cell headed by a war criminal. And then, inexplicably as far as they were concerned, he had turned himself in, along with a trove of Cerberus tech.

He was concerned what had happened to EDI and Joker. Garrus would be fine, he’d never trucked much with the Turian Hierarchy so far as Shepard could tell. Tali was safely back with her people, though he couldn’t help but be furious at the admirals for trying to exile her. Thane was on his last legs anyway, and he had released Samara to her Justicar duties before returning to Alliance space. Jacob and Miranda “disappeared” three days before they Sol System, but he couldn’t blame them. He certainly didn’t begrudge them the escape pods. But Joker, Edi, and the Engineering team were another matter. An unshackled AI? A ex-military Cerberus pilot? More alliance crew members that had left for Cerberus? He hoped they were treating the crew well.

He watched the shuttles go by outside his window, a few military craft sprinkled among them. New York was a major city, and there was a ton of air traffic. Watching them fly by he wondered if any of them were rushing home to see family after a day of work. Maybe there were doctors and other emergency services personnel rushing to the office to relieve exhausted co-workers. Probably a few people who’d had a drink or two taxiing home. But he could never be sure who was who.

His thoughts inevitably turned back to Ashley. Gunnery Chief Williams as he remembered her. Or just Ash. He’d heard fervor in her voice when they’d met on Horizon. Called him a god, back from the dead. But she was hurting inside, and he was too slow on the uptake. For him, it was a matter of months since they had spoke. But for her, it had been two years. Two years since the commandeered the Normandy. Two years since they saved the citadel together. Two years since he had ordered her into the escape pod without him. Two years since Joker had landed, alone and tormented, to report that Shepard had been spaced before his eyes.

And he had the gall to ask her to join him. But she was Alliance, through and through. They had finally promoted her. She wasn’t going to turn her back on the Alliance then. What’s worse is it was Cerberus. Every Alliance soldier, from the grunts to the brass, had been shaken when he and Ash revealed what Cerberus was doing to MIA Alliance soldiers.

He could tell afterwards he had shaken her faith. Siding with Cerberus had rocked her to her core. It was a bridge too far for her.

But Shepard had an AI designed for cyberwarfare onboard. Besides, he was no slouch on an omni-tool himself. No matter how classified her file was he was going to check in on her. And that was when he had found it. The irony had taken his breath.

Many of the details about the founding of Cerberus were redacted, including the Illusive Man’s real name. But one thing was clear. General Williams had created the organization in the wake of the ground invasion by the Turian forces. The same General Williams who resigned. The same General Williams who began the “Williams Curse.” The same General Williams whose granddaughter had saved the Citadel with him.

And Shepard had to admit, he was proud.

You could argue it was in her upbringing: when he had met Ashley she was bordering on open xenophobia. She had stood up to the Terra-Firma party on the Citadel, but only after working side by side with Tali, Garrus, Wrex and Liara for the better part of several months. Live-fire scenarios tended to breed understanding faster than any immersion course, adrenalin and the squad broke through Ash’s barriers quickly.

You could argue it was in her blood: her grandfather had founded and funded Cerberus himself after being forced to surrender his troops on Shianxi. It wasn’t as if the Alliance had done her many favors. Only Kaiden’s good word and Captain Anderson’s sense of character had raised her out of the ground forces. All this despite and impeccable record and being the sole survivor of her unit on Eden Prime. But she stuck with Alliance in the face of that and in the face of her former CO and lover returning from the dead.

He paused to consider that. He’d lost his unit on Elysium, held the line himself just long enough for reinforcements to arrive. And he’d only done that because the Batarians didn’t expect the Alliance to have sophisticated stealth technology. Ashley had survived an invasion by a force with weapons that shredded shields, and had done so without the benefit of any advanced training. Survived, reported to her reinforcements, and then carried the battle back to the Geth, retaking the spaceport and disarming the nuclear warheads set to blow a quarter of the planet into a nuclear winter.

The Alliance granted him the star of Terra and the title of “Commander.” All Gunnery Chief Williams got was a post on a starship. And barely even that.

To say he admired her was an understatement. That woman could have walked on water and only he and Alenko would have ever noticed. He got the feeling Wrex begrudgingly admired her by the end. Alliance brass still couldn’t see past her Grandfather’s overreach though. And there seemed to be nothing he could do about it.

There was a child, playing with a model fighter down below. Modern blue paint job if his vision wasn’t going. It was another painful reminder that normal life wasn’t coming for him.

Bitter. It hadn’t helped yet, but maybe another month of bitterness would turn that around for him.

The door behind him hissed open.

“Commander.”

“You’re not supposed to call me that anymore James.”

“Not supposed to salute you either. We gotta go, the Defense Committee wants to see you.”

“Sounds important” Shepard said, tossing aside his data pad. To be honest he had forgotten he was holding it. He tried to refocus and bring his mind back to the room, the here and now, where for the first time in weeks he was needed. He followed Vega out of the room, but he was struggling to keep pace.

“What’s going on?”

“Couldn’t say. Just told me they needed you, now.” said the Lieutenant, barely turning his head to check that Shepard was keeping up.

Shepard then noticed a well decorated dress uniform bearing down on them. Not knowing what was going on, Shepard decided to take a play out of Wrex’s handbook.

“Anderson.”

“Admiral.”

“You look good Shepard.” Anderson made a point of shaking his hand before standing the Lieutenant at ease. A curious move. He followed it up with more wit than Shepard had heard since his tribunal: “Maybe a little soft around the edges. How are you holding up since being relieved of duty?”

The admiral strode off, staying just a step ahead of him and setting a brisk pace at odds with his informal greeting.

“It’s not so bad once you get used to the hot food and soft beds.” Shepard quipped back.

“We’ll get it sorted out” Anderson still strode purposefully onwards.

He’d had enough of being strung along. “What’s going on? Why is everyone in such a hurry?”

“Admiral Hackett is mobilizing the fleets. I’m guessing word has made it to Alliance Command,” Anderson finally turned to look Shepard in the eyes. “something big is headed our way.” The Admiral was still striding briskly onwards, now ascending the last set of steps before the committee room.

Shepard, though, had stopped cold. His stomach had fell through the floor.

“The Reapers?” He already knew the answer. He didn’t need to ask. But Anderson was still playing coy. Turning to look back, he gave the official answer even though he seemed to find it distasteful.

“We don’t know. Not for certain”

“What else could it be?”

“If I knew that... “

“You know we’re not ready for them. Not by a long shot.”

“Tell that to the Defense Committee.”

“Unless we’re planning on talking the Reapers to death, the committee is a waste of time”

“They’re just scared.” Anderson cut him off, earning a glare that would have blanched a junior officer. “None of them have seen what you’ve seen,” he continued. “You faced down a Reaper. Hell you spoke to one, then blew the damn thing up!” And there was a fire in his eyes. “You’ve seen how they harvest us. What they plan to do to us… You know more about this enemy than anyone”

The bitterness that had consumed him minutes ago flared back to life. He had warned them. Time and again he had warned them, dammit. So he lashed out.

“That why they grounded me? Took away my ship?”

Anderson rounded on him. “We both know that's not true. When you blew up the Batarian relay, hundreds of thousands of Batarians died!” There was a finger cocked at Shepard now. Reminded him of basic is all it did, and he was no recruit anymore dammit!

“It was that or let the Reapers walk through our backdoor!”

“I know that Shepard. And so does the committee. If it wasn’t for that you’d have been court martialed and left to rot in the brig.”

“That, and your good word” Shepard admitted dejectedly. Still hard to admit the Admiral had a point, but he didn’t want Anderson thinking he hadn’t noticed how light his sentence really was.

“Yeah. I trust you Shepard. And so does the committee.”

“I’m just a soldier Anderson. I’m not a politician.” Shepard hated to admit it, but he didn’t see what he could do now. His warnings had been ignored, and he had only beaten the Reaper forces through thorough planning and his team. The best team. And his team was long gone.

“I don’t need you to be either. I just need you to do whatever the hell it takes to help us stop the  Reapers”

A door hissed open and the orderly stepped forward. “They’re expecting you two Admiral.”

As they rounded the door to the hallway labeled “Courtroom Access” his jailer surprised him. “Good luck in there, Shepard.” He hadn’t known what to make of Lt. Vega, but he was damned if he was going to ignore a fellow officer. He turned to see his arm outstretched, took the hand and shook it. The man was shredded like he lived at the gym, and he tried his best to crush Shepard’s hand. Every young officer seemed to have decided that a firm grip was the first step to getting a grip. It wasn’t true of course, but he humored the LT with a lopsided smile before a voice behind him stopped him cold.

“Anderson.”

“Lieutenant Commander.”

“Shepard?”

He knew that voice. He turned so fast he almost gave himself whiplash. “Ashley?” it was soft enough he wasn’t sure had said it aloud, but she heard him.

And that was it. He was lit with an irrational hope again. It reminded him of the ride through the conduit. Yeah this shit was bad, but he and Ash were playing for the same team again. Lieutenant Commander huh? Damn, turns out the Alliance Brass pulled their heads out of their asses long enough to promote her. Hell itself must have frozen over. Pride swelled up in his chest again.

“Lieutenant Commander, how’d it go in there?” Anderson had interrupted his temporary reverie.

“I can never tell with them. I’m just waiting for orders now.”

Aaaaand Ashley still detested politics. Shepard grinned from ear to ear. He could scarcely believe it was really her. He decided to press his luck and stepped forward.

“Lieutenant Commander?”

“You hadn’t heard?” Anderson replied, clearly not that startled that Shepard was behind the times.

“No. I’m a little out of the loop these days.” But as he said it he could see Williams tense up a bit.

“Sorry Sir. Didn’t mean to keep you out of the loop.”

It’d taken him a moment to parse what seemed odd about her. Gone was the tomboy he had commanded two and a half years ago. Her hair was down, and that outfit couldn’t be within regs even if they had loosened up considerably. She must be too valuable an asset to discipline over little things now. I can’t believe it. She didn’t just break the Williams Curse, she made herself indisposable. How many years of service did it take her to prove her worth to them? I wonder if it was worth it....

“That’s okay. I’m just glad I bumped into you Ash.” He favored her with what he hoped was his best smile. Not full teeth, but heartfelt. He didn’t have a mirror to see if he looked like a damned fool, but it had the intended effect: she smiled back.

“Me too.”

But then the orderly was back, ushering them into the committee room. Anderson was all business. Ashley Williams gave him a smile and a nod and for a second he was a younger man again, stepping forward to become the first human Spectre. Alright then. I can do this.

[jodyedgarus]

The 2018 Brewers Sure Look A Lot Like The 2015 Royals

When the Kansas City Royals made back-to-back World Series in 2014 and 2015 — coming agonizingly close in the former and winning the latter — they launched a thousand think pieces about whether manager Ned Yost’s brand of small ball would spread throughout the game. But then it looked like it might never get the chance: Right after the Royals’ revival, baseball embarked on a record-setting home run explosion, and the appeal of a team built primarily around speed, defense and a lights-out bullpen seemed to wane.1

One of 2018’s top teams is taking a page out of K.C.’s championship playbook anyway. It isn’t just that the Milwaukee Brewers share the same center fielder with those Royals — although another All-Star caliber season from Lorenzo Cain hasn’t exactly hurt the comparison. The Brewers are also leading the NL Central with a strikingly similar combination of fielding, relief pitching and clever base running, even as the advanced metrics remain skeptical. (Sound familiar, Royals fans?) All that’s left is for postseason history to repeat — assuming Kansas City’s winning formula still works in a game that looks very different than it did just a few seasons ago.

Going into the season, the Brewers were not expected to build much on last year’s surprising 86-win performance, despite loading up on players such as Cain and Christian Yelich over the winter. In fact, both the Vegas bookmakers and computer projections such as FanGraphs’ depth charts and Baseball Prospectus’s PECOTA picked Milwaukee to take a step backward, averaging out to about 83 wins for the season with only a meager chance of making the playoffs. In theory, the 2017 Brewers had gotten slightly lucky both in terms of wins and losses — they overshot the record their statistics predicted2 by a couple of games — as well as in career seasons from both batters (Eric Thames, Domingo Santana, Travis Shaw) and pitchers (Jimmy Nelson, Chase Anderson, Corey Knebel). So it wasn’t too hard to argue that a tumble would be on its way this summer.

But remember, Milwaukee wasn’t supposed to be very good last year, either; all it proceeded to do was hang around the NL Central race far longer than anyone in the media — or on the presumptive division-favorite Chicago Cubs — thought possible. The Brewers led the Central well into late July before the Cubs (along with the Diamondbacks and Rockies) overtook them down the stretch. It was a good enough showing to convince general manager David Stearns to accelerate the club’s recent rebuilding project and raise the franchise’s expectations sooner than originally anticipated. And the result has been the best record in the National League through the season’s first two months.

The Brewers aren’t alone in beating projections this year, but what stands out is how they’ve done it. Despite the new firepower in the lineup — and the emergence of hard-hitting first baseman Jesus Aguilar — Milwaukee ranks in the middle of the major league pack in runs scored, with middling numbers for both power and walks. Their starting rotation has also slipped, from ninth in MLB in wins above replacement3 per game in 2017 to 20th this season, with Anderson struggling to replicate last year’s form and Nelson missing the entire season to date because of injury.

Milwaukee is making up for the difference, though, with the majors’ 10th-best base running WAR per game, along with the third-best WAR per game from both defense and relief pitching. It’s a combination of metrics eerily similar to the one Kansas City produced during its own championship run three years ago:

This looks familiar …

MLB-wide ranks in wins above replacement (WAR) per game from each category, 2015 Kansas City Royals vs. 2018 Milwaukee Brewers

MLB Ranks in WAR from… Season Team Win % Batting Base Running Fielding Starters Relievers 2018 Brewers 61.7% 17th 10th 3rd 20th 3rd 2015 Royals 58.6 16th 12th 1st 21st 2nd

Sources: Baseball-Reference.com, Fangraphs.com

On the basepaths, the Brewers have the majors’ most successful rate of taking extra bases, a category the famously aggressive Royals also excelled in. Milwaukee’s ability to track down balls in the field, led by Cain in the outfield and Orlando Arcia at shortstop, easily recalls the rangy Royals of, well, Cain and Alcides Escobar. And with reliever Josh Hader rewriting the all-time strikeout record book (to say nothing of the 0.60 ERA season Jeremy Jeffress is having), the Brewers have been even more unbeatable with a lead in the late innings than the Royals were in their Wade Davis-led heyday. So far this season, Milwaukee is a perfect 27-0 when leading through six innings, making it the only team in baseball that can say it hasn’t blown such a situation yet.

The Brewers’ bullpen has been positively Royals-esque

Best record when leading after six innings, 2014-15 and 2018 seasons

2018 Season 2014-15 Seasons Team Wins Losses Win % Team Wins Losses Win % 1 MIL 27 0 100.0% 1 KC 150 10 93.8% 2 CHC 24 1 96.0 2 SD 108 9 92.3 3 BOS 32 2 94.1 3 MIA 107 9 92.2 4 SF 27 2 93.1 4 CLE 134 13 91.2 5 BAL 13 1 92.9 5 NYY 133 13 91.1 6 ATL 24 2 92.3 6 SF 144 15 90.6 6 PIT 24 2 92.3 7 MIN 113 12 90.4 8 NYY 31 3 91.2 8 LAA 139 15 90.3 9 SD 20 2 90.9 9 STL 140 16 89.7 10 CIN 18 2 90.0 10 PIT 139 16 89.7

Includes postseason for the 2014 and 2015 seasons. Through June 3 for the 2018 season.

Source: ESPN Stats & Information Group

Kansas City combined for a staggering 150-10 mark across those situations in 2014 and 2015, including the postseason, so the Brewers still have some work to do before catching up to their doppleganger. And the Royals comparison isn’t 100 percent perfect — Milwaukee isn’t quite the batting average machine K.C. was, for instance, because the Brewers strike out at a normal clip, not the freakishly low rate Kansas City did at its peak. But the Brew Crew might be the closest thing we’ll get in the homers-and-strikeouts world of 2018 baseball.

Questions also remain about Milwaukee’s place among the pantheon of 2018 contenders. According to The Baseball Gauge, only the Seattle Mariners have gotten luckier this year, in terms of sequencing and winning close games (although the latter can be explained in part by the Brewer bullpen’s aforementioned dominance). After the Brewers dropped two of three to the lowly Chicago White Sox over the weekend,4 our Elo forecast now thinks Milwaukee will go 54-48 over the rest of the season and be caught by the Cubs in the Central before too long — though it does give the Brewers a 67 percent chance of making the playoffs. (That projection is also on the high side; FanGraphs thinks the Brewers will go 48-54 from here on out, with less than a coin flip’s shot at the postseason.)

But that’s just another way in which the Brewers evoke memories of Kansas City’s World Series-era teams. With their unconventional mix of strengths and weaknesses, those Royals squads spent multiple seasons bucking the odds and poking holes in the statistical arguments against them. Maybe now it’s Milwaukee’s turn to do the same.

Check out our latest MLB predictions.

from News About Sports https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-2018-brewers-sure-look-a-lot-like-the-2015-royals/

[rachelfoleyisntdead]

Billy Coen, the only man in resident evil to be falsely accused of war crimes

[rachelfoleyisntdead]

responding like this bc this is a sideblog and tumblr functionality bad

i was very intentional in my wording. i didn't say that ethan didn't have a problem with it, i said it wasn't a dealbreaker for him. bc canonically, it was not. ethan obviously figured out mia lied during re7, but that wasn't enough for him to hate her or even leave her. why? because...

2. saying mia refuses to acknowledge the things she's done wrong is factually incorrect. she does acknowledge them. she tries to make ethan leave when she's lucid and even tries to sacrifice herself to save him. we do not see mia in a lucid state for most of re7, and we believe she is dead for 90% of village. the games do not focus on mia as much as they should (because of the negative reaction of people with shit takes rooted in misogyny), so we do not have enough info on what happened between re7 and village. we don't definitively know if mia got on her knees and confessed all her sins and begged ethan's forgiveness (honestly kinda hope she didn't). but what we DO know is ethan chose to stay with mia, to go into witness protection with her and to have a child with her.

3. please show me a healthy relationship in these games. honest to god, by this standard the closest you get to a healthy romantic relationship is carlos/jill or jake/sherry (only counting confirmed romantic interest, no headcanons), since they don't lie to each other (carlos, jake and sherry all operate under what they actually believe is true as they have been lied to by other people). moreover, i don't need 'healthy relationships' in my media, i need interesting ones!!!! i am not playing these games for relationship advice, I am playing them for entertainment!!!

I don't get why it's such an issue that two men can look at women and love them without demanding total 100% honesty, accept their faults and flaws as parts of them and continue loving them anyway. It doesn't mean they don't know their ladies are lying, it doesn't mean they are precious babygirls who need the fandom to protect them and save them. they are grown ass men with functional brains who make conscious choices to stay with those women for their positive qualities and the love they share.

no offense, but the fact that this immediately got two whole paragraphs of 'but mia liiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeed and that's baaaaaaaaad' is my point. it is not a dealbreaker for ethan, a grown man who does not need a confessional nor atonement from his wife, even though he was most affected by her lies. yall don't need it either!!! go find a male character to demand appropriate atonement from!!!!! yall don't post this shit about luis!!!!!! who did the same damn thing as mia but TWICE!!!!!!!! he did it twice!!!!!!!!! he doesn't get a pass bc he died!!!!!!

honestly, if Ada and Mia lying isn't a dealbreaker for Leon or Ethan, why are yall so concerned about it.

[screechthemighty]

So apparently being in the middle of a Big Life Change means I missed when the Mia Defense Squad Bat Signal was thrown up...my brain cells are all falling asleep at the moment so sorry if this doesn’t make any sense, BUT consider:

While Chris oversaw a lot of the military training Ethan went through post-Dulvey, Ethan got just as many tips from Mia. This was very helpful for poor Ethan; Chris gives me the vibe of being the kind of guy who means well but is intensely stressful to actually learn from (like when [insert parent who was most difficult here] taught you to drive, if you know what I mean). Meanwhile, Mia was a lot more patient and was able to explain some concepts to Ethan in was he better understood (since they’re y’know. Married and all, she knows how his brain works better than Chris does).

She also gave some mildly unhinged self-defense advice that would seem like it was something she learned from the Connections, but actually was just the result of her time as a single young woman in a big city who wasn’t looking to get mugged or worse That conversation lead to the reveal that she had, before Eveline completely turned her brain to scrambled egg, broken several of Lucas’s fingers during an escape attempt. Ethan loved her even more upon hearing that.

[haveievermentioned]

Mia. Winters.

So much of stuff around her is to write her out as evil or dead so Ethan can do other stuff when in game she regretted her actions (which are illegal! I'm not disagreeing!) And tried to fix them!

Like when almost every thing we see Mia do in Canon is either to fix a problem or save her husband (SHE HAD A CHILD WITH ETHAN POST HIM BEING A MOLD ZOMBIE) or some version of both, maybe she is a morally gray person.

So why is it when I looked up Ethan & Leon Friendship fics everything had Mia dead, purely evil, or just erased from the narrative. Ya know, the reason why Ethan found the Baker's in the first place. And when I completed a post Village Mia/Chris fic most of the rest of them either had Mia randomly break up with Ethan to marry Chris and they were a background couple or it was ostensibly an OT3 but she wasn't in the synopsis at all.

not a big fan of how women in re are not allowed to be morally grey and well-liked, while the men get to be every shade of morality AND popular, women have to have perfect morals and correct judgment on everything to be acceptable