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datleggy · 3 years

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I need both of your “surprise Buck was/is pregnant with Eddie’s baby and they find out because Chris finds him” anons to finish their drabbles. I need the Buddie confrontation scene with all the angst and betrayal from both sides. (Meanwhile Chris happily keeps his baby brother occupied and whispers about how he’s gonna parent trap their dads.) Please and thank you.

he anon sent more and here it is! it's wonderful, pls read!! <3

ANON: As the anon who your last ask was talking about might I just say I am sobbiiiinnnnnggggggg 😭😭😭 that was so good omg but ALSO now I have an addition to my earlier blurb 👀👀👀

Eddie is frantic, from the moment Buck called to now. Let's rewind a bit though, for context.

After running into Buck in Austin, they did meet up, without Chris, to talk. Buck had Eddie meet him at his new fire house, which. Hurt? It hurt, in a weird way that Eddie couldn't quite place at first, but he realizes now what he was feeling; jealousy that Buck has moved on and seems so comfortable here, longing for Buck to return to them, to the 118 (if he's being honest though, it's him he wants Buck to return to more than anything, but that's hardly fair after everything), regret that he treated Buck so poorly that the other man not only felt he couldn't tell him about the baby, but that he felt he had to move states.

Eddie met him there regardless, though, because ultimately it was Buck's choice. Eddie was grateful Buck chose to talk to him at all, so he wasn't going to argue over the chosen venue.

They met up, and they talked, and Buck confirmed that the baby he was carrying was Eddie's. He was in shock at the confession, upset for the first few moments, even. And it showed on his face, because the next thing Eddie knew, Buck was backing away from him, arms crossed over his stomach and tears running down his face, begging Eddie not to try and take his baby from him.

"I know I shouldn't have ke-kept this from y-you, but Eddie pl-please! He's all I h-ha-have left, I won't make it if you t-take h-him!" Eddie was shocked, and horrified at Buck's words. It took him a few minutes to calm him down, and weeks of slowly increased communication between the two of them (and Christopher, of course) before Eddie was able to convince Buck that he wasn't planning on trying to gain custody of the baby. He had explained that, yes, he wanted to be in their son's life, wanted Chris to be in his brother's life, but he wouldn't do anything to hurt Buck anymore then he already has.

It took almost the remainder of the pregnancy, but they were finally close to where they had been before everything went to shit. Not that they were lovers again, Eddie doesn't think either of them are ready for that, and Buck agrees, but they were on the fast track to becoming best friends again.

So of course he's the first person Buck calls when he goes into labor.

"I'm sorry, you're what?"

"In labor," Buck says sheepishly over the phone. "Or at least, I think I am? I mean, I'm three days overdue so I doubt these are practice contractions, but I guess there's always the possibility, and oh my god if I called you at 3 in the morning because of practice contractions, Eddie, I am so sorry oh god--" he can hear Buck working himself into a panic attack, so he cuts in.

"Hey hey, none of that. Even if these are Braxton Hicks or whatever they're called, I'm glad you called me. We agreed we would be in this together, right?" There's a pause on the other line before Buck speaks.

"Yeah. Together."

Eddie smiles at the soft tone of Buck's voice, and he can picture him perfectly in his mind's eye as though he were there in front of Eddie. Sitting at the end of his bed, both hands framing his belly (which has gotten big since the first time they ran into each other three months ago, the doctors estimating that the baby is somewhere between 8 and 9 pounds, which Buck was Not Pleased to hear, and blames Eddie for, especially when he found out that Chris was nearly 8 pounds when he had been born), and tears in his eyes despite the smile on his face at the prospect of meeting their baby soon.

Eddie takes a deep breath to steady his own racing heart and asks "So, what do you want to do?"

"Huh?"

Eddie can't help the breathless laugh that leaves him, every passing moment feeling more and more surreal as he realizes that /this is happening/. He's going to be a father for a second time, he and Buck are having a baby together and they're going to meet him soon.

"Do you want me with you, Buck? Because I can leave now, fly down there and be with you when he's born. Or we can stay on the phone, or you can FaceTime me. Whatever you wanna do, babe." The endearment leaves his mouth before he can stop it, but he doesn't try to back track.

"I--" Buck cuts himself off with a cry, more surprised then in pain, but Eddie still hates the sound. He starts to wonder, if Buck wants him there, will Eddie even be able to face seeing him in that amount of pain? He'll do it, of course he will, he would do anything for Buck and their boys, but god it might just break him. This isn't about Eddie, though.

"Breathe, baby. Deep breaths, just like in those classes TK took you to." Everytime he and Buck talk, the other man has stories either related to the baby, or related to his new family. Sometimes even both, like when he told Eddie about the Lamaze classes Buck's friend TK took him to, highly recommended from when TK went himself with his boyfriend Carlos leading up to their son being born. Eddie couldn't help but feel that ugly, burning jealousy, but he tried to sound as happy as possible over the phone. Buck wouldn't appreciate the jealousy, since Eddie lost out on what they could have been thanks to his own anger and mistreatment of Buck.

A few moments pass before Buck comes back on. "That hurt," he says with a small, pained laugh. Eddie can't tell if he wants to cry, punch something, or both, but he tamps those feelings down.

"I know, I know. But you've got this, Buck. You're gonna kick labor's ass, right?"

"Right," Buck responds weakly.

"Damn right, right. You're so strong, Buck. There isn't anything you can't do, and nothing you won't do for your kids. You've got this." He hears Buck take a deep breath, steeling himself.

"Yeah... yeah! I've got this. I've got this!" That golden retriever enthusiasm is back in full force, and Eddie grins.

Buck announces that he's going to start packing some stuff and getting his things together, so Eddie will be in speaker phone. For the next few minutes, Eddie listens to Buck ramble off random facts about babies and labor between verbalizing his hospital bag checklist. He hums in the appropriate places to show he's listening, asks clarifying questions so Buck knows Eddie isn't bored or just humoring him. Before too long, Eddie can tell that Buck has picked the phone back up, removing it from speaker phone.

"Hey, Eds?" His voice is quieter, more subdued then it has been for most of their time in the phone.

"Yeah, Buck?" His own voice is soft, curious but undemanding.

"I-- you said, earlier, that you would-would come down, if that's what I wanted? Like, to be here when the baby is born." Eddie feels his heart start to race in his chest, not sure if he's eager to hear Buck's decision or dreading it.

"I did," he confirms anyway, wanting Buck's comfort more than anything else.

"... Is that offer still on the table? You coming down here, I mean." Eddie can feel his breath catch in his chest, and he realizes that, yeah, he was eager to know what Buck wanted him to do. He feels like jumping into the air and cheering, knowing Buck wants him by his side as he delivers their baby boy into the world.

"I can leave in ten minutes, and be with you in four, five hours at the most." His response is almost immediate, and Buck laughs on the other end of the line. "Is that what you want, Buck? Me to be there, with you?" Eddie hears a sniffle and he knows Buck is in the verge of crying.

"I-- is that alright? I don't-- I can't do this alone, Eddie. I know I have everyone from the 126 here, and all of them would sit with me through this in a heartbeat, but... I need it to be you that's here with me. I want you to be here when our son is born, want you to cut the cord, be one of the first to hold him, all of it. I... I need /you/." And how could Eddie ever say no to that?

"Give me a few minutes to pack a bag and make some calls, okay? I'll call you right back, and before you know it, I'll be right beside you, holding your hand and letting you break as many fingers as you want." Buck gives a wet chuckle and agrees, but both men have a hard time saying goodbye, even if it will only be for a few minutes.

"I'll see you soon, Buck, okay? I swear."

"Yeah, I know you will, I know. I'm just nervous, is all. Having you here, even just over the phone, it helps. So much, Eddie." He knows what he means. Hearing Buck's cheerful voice after a long day never fails to make Eddie feel better, make him feel that no matter what, everything will be alright. He can only imagine how much better things will feel for the both of them once they can actually see each other, touch each other.

"I know exactly what you mean. I'll be there soon, okay? I'll call you back in a second and you can tell me more statistics about babies born in cars, or whatever." Buck snorts a laugh and Eddie smiles at the sound.

"I swear to God if you jinx this and I end up giving birth on the highway, I will kill you." They laugh together, but Eddie knows now that he has to get things in order if he wants to be with Buck ASAP. Neither man wants to say goodbye.

"I'll be with you soon, Evan."

"Yeah, okay. Eddie, I-I..." Eddie waits patiently for whatever Buck was going to say. His heart hammers in his chest.

"... Be safe, Eddie." He can't help the bitter feeling of disappointment that floods through him, but he returns the sentiment, regardless.

They hang up, and for a moment, Eddie simply sits on his bed, head in his hands. All he wanted to do as they said their goodbyes was to tell Buck that he loved him. He doesn't feel like he's earned the right to say that to him yet, though. He has to earn it.

With that in mind, he starts packing a bag, calling Hen to see if she and Karen would be able to babysit Chris while Eddie is in Texas.

Dhdhjajsiejsj so sorry about that again, hope you enjoy (and thanks again to that person who sent that other ask, bc that was an amazing blurb they sent 😌) 😭😭😭

#sorry it took me forever to post #i am bad at posting auierhgihef #but this is a fantastic continuation <3 #i was ecstatic when i got this in my inbox !!!#ALSO CAN I JUST SAY #the line about statistics about babies born in cars was so ON POINT #i died #thanku anon #this made me emotional at work euohrgwriojf #ask #anons

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indiguus · 3 years

Text

first lines of last 20

@stellarm tagged me. i got a feeling it'll be a bunch of very short simple sentences for first lines. 😅 btw, i'm skipping those ficlet collections. guidelines: list the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all.) choose your favorite opening line, tag some friends!

---

20. why don't you kiss me? [9-1-1, Eddie/Buck] After months of hellish training and strict diet, Buck got into the best shape of his life. And more importantly, he got his spot on the LAFD firefighter calendar. Some might think it vain but he felt accomplished -- challenging himself and succeeding with discipline he didn't even know he was capable of. Nobody could take this victory away from him.

---

19. floating [9-1-1, Eddie/Buck] "I'm going on a coffee break!" yelled Buck, without turning his head as he stepped out of the tent.

---

18. speeding [9-1-1, Eddie/Buck] It was a small sip of wine that Buck almost choked on. If it was to happened it would be a great deal more embarrassing than getting choked by a piece of bread. And yet across from him, Maddie reacted like this was well within the confine of her expected outcomes when those words left her lips.

---

17. fighting [9-1-1, Eddie/Buck] It was a regular medical call for the 118. Hen & Chim was treating a woman for dehydration and what appeared to be a severe migraine attack. Buck was distracting the woman's 5 year-old daughter trying to keep her calm.

---

16. feasting [9-1-1, Eddie/Buck] "Mi querido, Evan!" Buck was spotted the moment he walked and immediately got pulled into a tight hug, as the restaurant owner ambled over to him. Without missing a beat, he guided Isabel over to a nearby empty booth to sit down, with a hand on her elbow and settled himself opposite her.

---

15. cleaning [9-1-1, Eddie/Buck] Buck wasn't a sloppy guy. He put a lot of effort into keeping his apartment clean and comfortable, because after a 24-hour shift he would like a clean bed with fresh sheets to pass out in. Or maybe a comfortable couch with no crumbs to pass out on after 6 hours of Fortnite.

---

14. soaring [9-1-1, Eddie/Buck] Evan Buckley did not like to fly. No matter what the statistics said, he did not feel comfortable stuck in a metal tube floating thousands of feet above the ground.

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13. Can we not rewrite our history? [9-1-1, Eddie/Buck] "What the fuck are you doing here?" Buck growled low, once everyone else cleared out of the locker room after Bobby introduced Eddie to the team, with Buck's back facing outward and his head seemingly stuffed into his own locker.

---

12. ko `u `uhane [Hawaii Five-0, Steve/Danny] "Could you tell the story again please, Danno? Pleeeeeeeeease?" Even with Danny's resolve, it was impossible to give in to Grace's pleading accompanied by her earnest stare.

---

11. Quiet [Hawaii Five-0, Steve/Danny] In contrast to Danny, Steve didn't make much noise. He wasn't quiet but neither was he talkative. Utilitarian, one might even categorize Steve as when it came to spoken words – unless he was arguing with Danny. In the physicality sense, Steve carried himself with a feline grace gliding between spaces without making much sound. And when he stood up to or someone, he would become a towering 12-feet thick steel reinforced concrete wall – imposing, unmovable, and most of all silent.

---

10. The Menace [Hawaii Five-0, Steve/Danny] If anyone asked, Danny had a well rehearsed presentation about his partner completed with visual aids if required.

---

9. Solus [Hawaii Five-0, Steve/Danny] Car ride with Danny was many things -- entertaining, frustrating, or aggravating. Boring though, it never was. Nor was it ever quiet.

---

8. Boxed [Hawaii Five-0, Steve/Danny] It took Steve hours after the fact to realize. There was a game on the TV for background noise, as Steve sat down to process the day's events while having a Hapa Brown Ale. It was unfair to compare the hand-to-hand combat skills between Danny and him, but Danny could fight with the best of them and Steve had unadulterated faith in Danny having his back. Normally Steve would be too engaged in subduing other perps to observe Danny, though today was different.

---

7. Agreement [Hawaii Five-0, Steve/Danny] Freddie tilted his head back eagerly exposing more of his neck to Danny, silently begging for lips, tongue and teeth, at the same time Danny's two well-lubed fingers breached him. It was a deftly practised dance for them, this familiar foreplay. With the tip of his tongue, Danny traced the often traveled path from clavicle up to earlobe humming softly while savoring the salty tang of Freddie's skin.

---

6. Frayed [Hawaii Five-0, Steve/Danny] His body and his story keep moving forward. There is no stopping or slowing down. However that inhale of air filled with slightly spicy musk has been locked away in the sensory vault in the deepest recess of his mind. That moment in time, a pair of strong arms embracing him before he left the tiny motel room, propels him forward and gives him the will to survive.

---

5. When I Climb the Stairs and Turn the Key [Stargate SG-1 & Stargate Atlantis, Cameron Mitchell/John Sheppard] "I'm too old for this shit," Jackson muttered from his crouched position behind a nearby boulder. Cam shot him an exasperated look while spears, arrows and darts continued to rain down on them. Because Jackson always said things like that - how he should do more research and fewer front line missions, but at the first mention of a Maya-like civilization, he jumped on-board immediately. All previous declarations conveniently forgotten. So, the chance of him ever feeling too old for field trips through the gate was slim to none.

---

4. Proximity [Hawaii Five-0, Steve/Danny] Danny rants. It's an irrefutable truth like humans need oxygen to survive. Danny rants and complains like nobody Steve has ever met. Danny even rants about things that not necessarily bother him but he does it anyway just because he can. To dissect and discern which ones really matter, is something Steve has learned early on.

---

3. More Than Three [Hawaii Five-0, Steve/Danny] "Seriously?" Steve grunted in mild frustration, trying to lock his face down to military blank because he didn't need more names to his expressions. He didn't have faces.

---

2. Faded Memories [Hawaii Five-0, Steve/Danny] Swallowing down the rest of his beer, Steve set the empty bottle on the bar top behind him without looking, his attention homed in on the blond across the empty dance floor. It was early evening on a Wednesday, and this man was the best in the club at the moment -- not that he wouldn't stand out in a full house on a Saturday night. A good half foot shorter than Steve, the man's shirt might be covering his skin, at the same time it enhanced the display of his musculature.

---

1. Downward Dog [Hawaii Five-0, Steve/Danny] Danny's hiding something. Steve is sure of it. He's certain it's nothing to be paranoid about because he knows Danny, trusts him implicitly; but the thing is, Danny's hiding something.

---

tagging: @tari-aldarion, @agentlemuse, and @finduilasclln.

#tagged #long post

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thestarsaroundyourscars · 4 years

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2 and 3 (lol) for reddie pls??

2. “Are you⎯ are you pulling down mistletoe?”

3. “I don’t care about tradition, you try and get me to kiss you under the mistletoe and I will punch you."

Read on AO3

“Are you⎯ are you pulling down mistletoe?”

Richie looked down at Eddie from the stepstool he was currently perched on. It was probably a bad idea to be up there, considering he'd been drinking Bill's eggnog since he arrived at their office party and he was feeling slightly drunk, but it was too late to worry about falling off now.

He stared at Eddie for a moment, hand extended towards the mistletoe. “Uh, no?”

Eddie raised an eyebrow and Richie could tell he was trying not to smile, most likely due to the fact that he was holding a cup of that same eggnog in his hand. “Then what are you doing, Richie?”

He glanced back at the plant. “I was admiring it. Up close.”

“Right.” Eddie said, taking a sip from his drink, face scrunching up adorably at the taste. “What are you really up to?”

“Well, I’ve been trying to get Stan, you know my friend from Accounting, to make a move on Mike for fucking ages, but he won’t listen to me," He reached for the plant. "So I thought I’d take matters into my own hands and leave him with no choice.” Richie explained, jumping down from the stool, only slightly wobbly on his feet and with the mistletoe in his hands.

"So what? You're going to hold the mistletoe over their heads and force them to kiss?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Richie said with a grin. "Wanna help Eds?"

"Don't call me that." Eddie replied, on instinct. He pursed his lips, eyes darting between Richie and the mistletoe in his hands. "I'll help, but only if we do the same for Bev and Ben. I don't think I can deal with the pining and the yearning looks any longer."

"Oh yeah," Richie agreed with a shaky laugh. "How annoying." He glanced nervously at Eddie. Cute, oblivious Eddie who hadn't noticed Richie pining and yearning for him for the past year.

"So, do we have a deal?"

Richie nodded. "Yes we do, Eduardo."

They tried to locate their targets but with the office so crowded, it was hard. After walking around for a while⎯ and drinking some more of Bill's eggnog in the meantime⎯ they found Stan and Mike talking and making eyes at each other near the food table. While Eddie distracted them, Richie approached them from behind, holding the mistletoe over their heads.

Eddie gasped over exaggeratedly and said, "Oh my God, look! Mistletoe!" in a terrible surprised voice. Richie stifled a laugh, heart fluttering like it did whenever Eddie did something cute⎯ which, according to Richie, was all the fucking time.

Stan and Mike looked up, blushing to the tips of their ears. Richie jiggled the mistletoe, waggling his eyebrows at them. Stan glared at him making Richie actually fear for his life until Mike swooped in and caught Stan's lips in a sweet, short kiss.

Richie pumped a triumphant fist in the air and Eddie clapped excitedly. "I can't believe my plan fucking worked!" Richie said, throwing his arms around Mike and Stan, breaking them apart.

"I should kill you." Stan told him, words lacking heat with how hard he was smiling. "And you." He told Eddie.

"No can do Stan the man, Eds and I are on a mission."

"You and Eddie, huh?" Stan said, giving him a knowing look.

"Yes." Richie answered with a warning look of his own. "We're Christmas cupids."

Eddie let out a drunken giggle and it caused a sharp intake of breath from Richie. Mike gave him a curious look and Stan quirked a very annoying eyebrow at him. Before either of them could say anything to embarrass him in front of Eddie, he asked, "Now, have either of you seen Beverly or Ben?"

"I think I saw Ben by the Christmas tree."

"Thank you, Mikey." Richie said, holding the mistletoe over their heads before leaning in to press a sloppy kiss to his cheek, making Mike snort. He tried to do the same with Stan, but he was stopped by a hand on his chest.

"I don’t care about tradition," He said, narrowing his eyes at Richie. "You try and get me to kiss you under that mistletoe and I will punch you."

Richie let out a snort. "Fair enough, I'll leave that to Mikey here." He gave Mike a pat in the back. "Merry Christmas lovebirds." He said, ditching them to wrap an arm around Eddie's shoulders instead. "Come on Eds. We still have one Christmas miracle left."

"Maybe two." Stan teased, eyes darting between Eddie and Richie.

Before Eddie could ask him what he meant, Richie was dragging him away, flipping Stan off behind his back.

Still, he narrowed his eyes at the mistletoe in Richie's hand. "What did Stan mean with two?"

"He meant me and your mom, of course." Richie joked with a shaky laugh. "Not that I need mistletoe to get her to kiss me."

Eddie wrinkled his nose adorably. "You're fucking ridiculous."

Richie couldn't help but blurt out, "And you're cute."

That made Eddie falter, blinking up at Richie with an unreadable expression, before he looked away. "We should find Ben." He said, heading towards the big Christmas tree in the middle of the room.

Richie followed him but while Eddie looked around the room for Ben, Richie's eyes stayed glued to Eddie.

Eddie in his ugly Christmas sweater⎯ that wasn't even ugly at all, but fucking adorable. Eddie with his pretty brown eyes and his pink lips and the neat wave of his cowlick. Eddie, who Richie had been crushing on for as long as he had been working for this company. Since he'd accidentally walked into Eddie's office, down at the Risks department while he was searching for the break room. Richie knew he was a goner the moment he saw this tiny, handsome man in a sharp suit, pacing around his office, yelling statistics and every curse word known to man, to some poor soul on the other side of the phone.

The next day, Richie showed up at Eddie's office, claiming that he got lost again. Then again. And again.

At first, Eddie acted annoyed and ushered Richie away but eventually he grew on him⎯ like mold, he liked to say⎯ and now, Richie would show up every Tuesday and Thursday and they would eat lunch together while Eddie complained about his job and Richie pretended to fall asleep the moment he started talking.

They had a routine now, one that allowed Richie to get to know Eddie and did nothing to quiet his crush. In fact, it only made it worse, because Eddie wasn't just gorgeous, he was hilarious and angry and could give Richie as much shit as he gave him. His lunch dates with him⎯ not that they were dates at all⎯ were Richie's favorite part of the week, for God's sake.

Richie knew he was in too deep and yet he still hadn't gathered enough courage to go from shameless flirting and pathetic heart eyes to actually asking Eddie out. Stan had tried to convince him to do it a few times, but Richie refused to listen to the guy who had been crushing on another coworker for two years and done nothing about it.

Richie stared down at the mistletoe in his hands. If it worked for Stan, it could work for him right? Except he wasn't entirely sure Eddie wouldn't freak out and make a scene if Richie snuck up on him with the mistletoe.

"Rich, I think I see Ben." Eddie said, coming to a stop in front of him. "He's⎯ oh."

"What?" Richie asked, bumping into him. "He's what?"

"I don't think Ben will be needing our help."

"Wait, why not? Oh." Richie gasped when he saw it⎯ there, barely hidden by the Christmas tree, was Ben and he was making out with Beverly. "Go Ben!" He chuckled. "Guess we won't be needing this anymore."

Eddie cocked his head. "Can I have it for a second?"

Richie shrugged, handing it over. Eddie played with it in his hands, face scrunched up. Richie flinched when, in one quick movement, Eddie held the ornament over their heads.

His eyes darted between the mistletoe and Eddie's face, where he was nervously biting on his bottom lip. "Uh, what are you doing?"

Eddie rolled his eyes, exasperated. "What does it look like I'm doing, asshole?"

"Well, it looks like you're trying to get me to kiss you but⎯" Eddie gave him a pointed look. Richie gasped, always a little slow on the taking. "Oh shit."

Eddie retreated slightly. "Unless you don't want to⎯"

"I do! Trust me, I fucking do."

"Then what are you waiting for?"

That was all Richie needed to cradle Eddie's face and lean in. The moment their lips touched, Richie's heart did a flip. And then another one when Eddie gripped his waist and pulled him in, his tongue sliding into Richie's mouth. He could taste the sweet, strong flavor of the eggnog they've been drinking all night.

They pulled apart only when they heard Mike and Stan cheering obnoxiously. Eddie turned bright red, hiding his face in Richie's chest. He dragged them to a more private place, flipping off the other two.

They ended up in a supply closet and Richie pressed Eddie against the door as soon as it was closed. "We're not making out in a supply closet." Eddie said, reading the intent in Richie's eyes.

He whined, disappointed. "Why not Eds?"

"We work here!"

"Wait, does that mean I don't get to make out with you on our weekly lunch dates either?" Eddie's stare was answer enough. "What if I bring this?" He asked, stealing the mistletoe from Eddie and holding it between them.

"Richie⎯"

"Keep in mind that it's bad luck to defy tradition." Richie cut in.

"I guess we can't risk it then." Eddie said, failing to bite down a smile.

"You're the risk analyst after all." Richie said, giving him a silly grin and holding the mistletoe over their heads.

Eddie rolled his eyes but still pushed himself onto his tiptoes to kiss Richie one more time. Smiling against the kiss, Richie decided he was going to hold on to that piece of mistletoe for a long time.

Tag list: @daddyphantomtbh @yes-dillman-yes @richietoaster @beepbeeprichiellc @its-stranger-than-you-think @lemonaayyee @losers-gotta-stick-together @tinyarmedtrex @richiefuckfacetozier @sam-i-am2468 @richardtoz @s-s-georgie @reddie-for-anything @eddiefuckinkaspbrak @constantreaderfool @stanleuyris @jesuschristsupruvestar @mirandonsky @reddie4diaster @alargedepresso @purplepoisonedgem @pan-ini @reddie-to-cry @reddieforlove @trashmouthnick @multi-fandom-wby @wheezyeds @nancynwheeler @reddieslashgeneralhorror @madi-personal @reddie-tozibrak @lover-mouth @atownofeggs @that-weird-girls-blog @appojoos @castielwinovak @a-gay-treee @twoidiotsinl0ve @fcngirltrxsh @spirited-marvel @typewrxter (if you want to be added, let me know!)

#reddie #christmas cupids #which is a thing according to richie #mistletoe shenanigans #holiday prompt #monse writes #anon ask

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rchtoziers · 4 years

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3 from those new prompts for reddie? 🥺

3. “I’m not jealous.”

cait… as a treat…. i lowkey…… wrote this in the lmntsfy universe i hope thats ok xoxo

Their move to Houston is a quiet one.

Richie had gotten the job offer on an otherwise uneventful Sunday afternoon, while he and Eddie were curled up on their couch alternating between lazily dozing off and channel surfing. It was a dream Richie hadn’t even realized he had until they offered it to him.

So they packed up quietly and sold their house quietly and took trips back and forth from Chicago to Houston until they finally found a place they both liked and put down an offer. They rented a moving fan to take their things across country and they accepted NASA’s offer for a private jet to transport them on the day of the move, and when all is said and ton it only takes them a week at most to feel settled into their new home.

Richie has one month before his teaching job starts up.

One of the perks with Richie being offered a job to teach the new cadets is that, by extension, they offered Eddie a job at the hospital as well. His own department, actually, complete with an office and people who work for him and budget meetings and the whole deal. Richie had expressed that Eddie had interest in updating medical procedures for NASA flights, and in turn, they had given him a fully-staffed research facility, too.

It’s a bit overwhelming, if Eddie is being honest, in a way he has yet to get used to.

“You know, I keep thinking things are gonna settle down for us,” Eddie comments. He straightens the name plaque on Richie’s desk in his classroom. Because Richie has a classroom now. “Like, eventually the novelty will wear off, right? People will stop just offering us things?”

“Baby, you’re engaged to the guy who famously survived alone on a different planet for two years,” Richie tells him. His arms wrap around Eddie’s middle from behind. “People better never stop offering us things.”

Eddie smacks his arm. “It was only eighteen months, stop exaggerating.”

“Felt like a billion years.”

“Yeah, well, that’s because you were pining desperately for me,” Eddie says back. “Wondering if you’d ever get the chance to tell me you were head over heels in love with me. Carving our initials into the Hab canvas and writing RIchie Kaspbrak in your logs every other day.”

Richie presses a kiss to the space behind Eddie’s ear. “It’s not a funny joke when it’s true,” he teases.

“Oh, shut up. I’ve seen your logs. I know what you were doing that whole time.”

There’s a long-suffering sigh from Richie that almost makes Eddie smile. “Yes, and the fact that you continue to love me after watching me sing horribly off-tune to your god awful playlist is a miracle I thank god for every day.”

Eddie laughs and turns in Richie’s embrace so that he can wrap his own arms around Richie’s neck, pulling him down those infuriating four inches so he can press a soft kiss to Richie’s mouth. “I’m truly the hero, here,” he says seriously. “Not you. They should make a movie about me.”

A startled laugh bursts out of Richie. “Sweetheart, you know that you’ll be in that movie too, right? Like they just announced the casting choice for your character? They are making a movie about you.”

“It’s about you, Richie! The rest of us just happen to be there!”

Richie tilts Eddie’s chin up. There’s an obnoxious, terrible, beautiful smug look in his eyes. Eddie is so in love with him, so desperately, even after all this time. “I knew you were jealous about the movie.”

“I’m not jealous.”

“Eddie baby.”

Eddie sighs. “I hate you.”

“How many times do we have to go over this? I know you don’t. You know you don’t. The whole world knows you don’t. Hell, even NASA knows, which is why they gave you an entire hospital for you to play around in.”

“It’s not playing, asshole, there’s life-saving work that goes on in hospitals every day, plus the research I’m conducting is going to help prepare future astronauts for worst-case scenarios prior to mission takeoff, which could statistically prevent situations like the one that lead to you being stranded on Mars for eighteen months—”

Richie kisses him to shut him up. Eddie would probably be more put out by it, if it wasn’t a tactic he himself has used multiple times in the past. Eddie twines his fingers through Richie’s curls at lets himself be kissed thoroughly, lazily, sweetly. He wonders if he’ll ever grow tired of kissing Richie Tozier.

If he’s being honest, he already knows the answer to that.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re very impressive,” Richie says finally, pressing a kiss to Eddie’s nose as he says it. “Dr. Kaspbrak is gonna save the American astronaut. Everyone is very impressed with you, you’re loved by the whole world.”

Eddie smirks. “Now who’s jealous?”

“Still you.”

Unable to stop it, Eddie lets out a surprised peal of laughter. He tightens his grip around Richie’s neck. “You’re insufferable,” he says, but they both know he doesn’t mean it.

“Oh, baby, you call me the sexiest names,” Richie deadpans.

Eddie presses up on his toes to kiss Richie once again. Richie smiles into it, but they’ve had lots of practice by now. Eddie knows how to kiss him around smiles and laughter and tears and everything in between.

“Hey,” he murmurs, when they finally break apart. “We just had a bunch of big changes. How you feeling?”

Still intertwined in Eddie’s embrace, Richie shrugs. “Like we just moved a thousand miles to live in Texas. But. Good? I love our new place. I’m mostly excited about this job. I’ve got you. I’m good.”

“You’re gonna be everyone’s favorite professor,” Eddie tells him honestly. Richie rolls his eyes. “No, don’t do that. I’m serious, Rich. These cadets, they’re gonna adore you. And not just because you’re gonna be the only professor who isn’t afraid to swear in class.”

Richie laughs.

“I’m really proud of you, you know that?” Eddie continues. He brushes his thumb along Richie’s jawline. “Taking this leap. Caring about it so much. There’s gonna be a bunch of baby-faced astronauts in this room that look up to you, and then they’re gonna learn from you and they’re gonna realize they were admiring you for the wrong reasons.”

“Yeah, yeah, hot for teacher,” Richie says. He laughs again when Eddie smacks his arm. “I’m kidding. Doesn’t matter, anyway. Teacher’s only hot for doctor anyway.”

Eddie rolls his eyes. “You’d think that you would get less sappy over time. Or make less inappropriate jokes.”

“First of all, I never make the mistake of thinking anything, ever.”

“Oh my god,” Eddie groans. “Where’s Teddy? Is it too late to warn him to fire you? He’s so going to regret this. Who’s idea was this?”

Richie kisses Eddie again, even though he’s laughing, and it doesn’t take long for Eddie to be smiling into it, too. Sometimes he can’t believe how happy they get to be, now. That this is their life. That he gets to wake up each morning with Richie next to him, even on the mornings that Richie wakes up gasping for breath and even on the mornings where Eddie wakes up screaming and even on the mornings where their coffee machine breaks. They get every morning, and they get every night, and they get all of it in between.

“I love you,” Richie says. It never gets old. Eddie presses a soft kiss to Richie’s collarbone. “Thanks for moving out here with me.”

“You said it yourself, I’m engaged to the guy who survived on Mars. Perks come with it.”

Richie grins. “You know, you really do sound jealous. I can get you a teaching job, too, babe. They wouldn’t even bat an eyelid. I can ask for whatever I want. Hey, NASA, can we get a teaching job for the neurotic doctor? Maybe he can show them how to avoid getting infections when you get stabbed with an antenna.”

Eddie sighs. “For the last time, I’m not jealous of your teaching job, or of the movie they’re making about you, or of Bill’s book about you,” Eddie insists. “I don’t want a teaching job. I don’t want a movie. I don’t want a book.”

“Then what do you want?” Richie asks. “Cause I can get you anything in the world, Eddie my love.”

“Dumbass,” Eddie says gently. “I have everything I want. I moved to Texas to make sure I could keep it.”

It takes Richie a second, but when he gets it his cheeks go pink and he grins obnoxiously from ear to ear and Eddie’s heart is swooping in his chest just at the sight of it. It’s incredible, how much stronger he’s felt about Richie since they started dating. How it just gets stronger every day.

“Now who’s the sappy one?” Richie asks, but he’s crying just a little so his teasing comes up short.

“Still you,” Eddie insists. Richie gives him an unimpressed look. “Okay, both of us. But I’m not jealous.”

Richie laughs wetly. “Sounds like something a jealous man would say.”

“Oh, for god’s sake—” Eddie groans, but Richie just pulls him back in when he tries to break away, and when he’s pressed against Richie’s chest again Eddie can’t help but kiss him.

#reddie #richie #eddie #my writing #hyruling #answered #me making everything about the dumb idiots in space: as a treat :)#RLY THOUGH I HOPE THIS IS.... OK.......... WHOOP #cait ilySM #this got so sappy ?? kind of?? idk idk IDK writing who idk her #anyway thanks for being an actual angel cait nothing i write could ever compare to you but ily anyway<3

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justsmilestuffhappens · 4 years

Text

Help me New Year!

(To New Things)

New year's Eve is always busy for first responders.

Strong Alcohol, illegal fireworks, and agitated crowds. Put them all together and what you get is a big mess they've gotta keep under control with the help of others.

They'd just saved another bullet victim who'd been luck enough to be hit in the arm and have it be a through and through.

She was on her way to the hospital with Hen and Chim as Bobby Eddie and Buck were going to get a kid locked in a car out.

"Even with the P.S.A.s people still forget to get their kids out before they get locked in." Buck frowned while they pulled up.

"Thankfully we're here so they aren't added to the statistics." Eddie smiled while they got out.

"Ok. Buck work with the parents to get the kid to move away while Eddie pops it open. I'm gonna keep the crowd back to give y'all room to work." Bobby said once they got their equipment.

The kid was so interested in Buck's uniform that they didn't notice when Eddie finally got the door open.

They waddled over to him and the other parent.

"Mommy it's a fireman!"

"Yes sweetheart. Are you okay baby?"

"They've got a fire truck." She said while pointing.

"Alright. You folks have a good night. Please try to make sure she stays buckled so she doesn't lock you out." Bobby told them.

"We will. We're so sorry. This is the first time she locked us out. We're trying to teach her not to get out without us."

With them back in the truck buck looked at his watch.

"Only one more hour left in this decade." Buck joked while they were radioed to join in on a fire.

It was a disaster.

One house was caught ablaze and the wind was spreading around.

"Damn illegal fireworks." Eddie said.

"We're not sure yet. Let's go boys." Bobby said hopping out.

The house they'd gotten among them had something burning above it.

"It's not a normal flame. We're gotta get someone up there with an extinguisher." The other fire chief said while coming over. "We already used ours before we found this one. You good Nash?"

"Yeah Swan. We've got this one." Bobby said as both of them got an extinguisher for the three blazing objects on the roof.

Buck took lead as Eddie covered his rear on their ascent up the ladder.

They quickly put out the objects until Eddie noticed something.

His instincts reacted.

Eddie shouted for everyone to take cover.

Buck felt as he was jerked towards the back of the roof.

The firework beside the others finally went off from the sparks of the shards.

The flare radiated outward from the roof.

Eddie and Buck were free falling further from being hit by the blast.

Buck went in the pool first as Eddie followed.

Bobby watched in horror as one second they were there the next they were gone before the spark and boom erupted.

"Buck! Eddie!"

The fire was back now only this one could be hit with water. Bobby got on the canon and warned others to stay clear.

Eddie came up first as gasping for breath as he saw Bobby fighting the renewed flames.

In a second he was looking around for Buck. "Buck!?"

He looked down to see him still in the pool. No.

Eddie swam to him and dragged him out.

Buck had a gash on his head. Fuck! This was Eddie's fault.

He must have hit the edge or side of the pool when they fell.

"Come on buck. Not tonight man. Buck please!" He continued compressions.

Eddie knew he didn't necessarily need to but damn if he wouldn't at least try breathing air into buck's lungs.

He kept at it for another breath and stimulating bucks chest and lungs to breathe.

Buck surged forward and began spitting out water.

The cut had already stopped bleeding. Buck was getting up.

"Come on. Bobby needs us. Look the fires spreading again." Buck picked up the extinguisher and started to try helping.

"Once yours is out you're getting in the truck or to an ambulance Buck. I'll keep helping Bobby." Eddie commanded while moving to join him.

Together the trio got it under control and put out the flames.

"Alright buck. Now we need to get you looked at." Eddie said dragging him over towards the truck and Bobby.

"You two okay? Buck!?"

"It's just a scratch Cap. I'm okay. " buck said as they latched in their extinguishers.

"We'll let the others decide that. Hen is 3 minutes away. They're coming to join up." Bobby said while looking at it himself.

"We had to jump. There was a firework on the roof that was still intact. Got set off by the shards. Lucky there was a pool but Buck got hurt on the way down and I had to do compressions. I just pushed him over before I knew it." Eddie explained.

"No. You're both safe. It would have knocked you back worse if you'd stayed and you might not have both been conscious to help yourselves or me with this."

"You guys didn't leave anything for us?" Chim asked as they pulled up.

"Chim look at Buck's head!" Hen said as they started over.

"He's lucky it's not too deep. That and he's on a smaller dose of blood thinners. Well be glad when you're finally off them buddy." Chim said while Hen finished wrapping him.

"Alright. Let's go everyone. Buck you're tagging out with Hendrickson and staying behind."

"Okay Cap. I'm not gonna fight ya."Buck said before they got in.

"12:21 a.m. Happy New Year everyone." Buck said earning a scoff from Eddie.

"Here's to a new decade of is keeping each other alive while saving lives and putting out fires." Eddie said nodding at buck.

"I didn't even get a new year's kiss this year man." Buck joked.

"Well I mean technically." Eddie said.

"Technically what? You gave me mouth to mouth!?"

"I was just trying to keep my best friend alive. We can't lose you Buck. Uh. You can forget I mentioned it man." Eddie said.

"What if I don't want to?" Buck muttered.

"What'd you say?" Eddie asked.

"Buck said what if he didn't want to forget about you giving him mouth to mouth." Bobby said from the front.

"Bobby!"

"What Buck? I'm just stating facts. Eddie asked." Buck could hear his smirk.

"Then don't forget it. Happy New Year Buck." Eddie bumped bucks shoulder.

"Happy New Year Eddie. And happy New Year Cap!"

"Yeah kid. Happy New Year. To new things."

"That's a good resolution." Eddie said while watching the city streak by.

"As long as we keep it that is." Buck said smiling at Eddie even if he wasn't looking back.

To new things.

#my writing #buddie #Buck Buckley #Eddie Diaz #solo mio #ficlet #long #fic #Evan Buckley #911 #nine one one #bobby nash #hen Wilson #chimney han #chim han #9-1-1

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reddieforlove-archive-blog · 5 years

Text

Texting

do you believe in ghosts

I think you have the wrong number.

says who

I have no idea who you are.

it’d be pretty fucking weird if you did

I don’t text people that I don’t know.

then what do you call this

Eddie huffed out a frustrated sigh, wondering how someone texting the wrong number could so easily get under his skin. Maybe it was his impending finals week weighing on his shoulders, but he definitely wasn’t in the mood for this. He set his phone down and did his best to return his attention to his notes, hoping that whoever it was would give up. But then his phone buzzed again and his eyes flitted to the screen without Eddie’s permission.

are you gonna answer my question

Eddie scowled at the unfamiliar number, silently resolving not to answer. But several moments passed and his resolve weakened.

No.

no you don’t believe in ghosts or no you aren’t going to answer my question

Just no.

well aren’t you just a goddamn delight

Maybe I just don’t like random people blowing up my phone.

give it a few days

I’ll grow on you

like mold on cheese

That’s fucking disgusting.

they don’t call me trashmouth for nothin

Eddie didn’t really know what to say to that. How could someone possibly earn a nickname like that?

so what are you doing cutie

How do you know I’m cute?

just a feeling

Eddie decided to let that pass, not wanting to get into it.

Well I was studying for finals.

fuck that shit

studying is for losers

Well what are you doing that’s so wonderful?

studying

Eddie narrowed his eyes at the phone, feeling certain that he was just being fucked around with.

You just said that studying is for losers.

ah but I never said I wasn’t a loser

finals week comes around to shit on us all

You got that right.

see we’re already agreeing

I smell a june wedding

Not in this lifetime.

wait and see cutie

I’ll get you

Eddie set his phone aside for good this time, knowing he had to get back to studying. But he felt just a little less stressed, for some reason. He wasn’t going to spend too much time trying to figure out why.

__________

do you believe in aliens

Why do you care?

it’s called a conversation starter cutie

it worked last time

I believe that it’s foolish to think that we’re the only living beings in the universe.

Beyond that, I don’t know.

well said

december wedding then

Keep dreaming, Trashmouth.

oh believe me

I will

__________

make a deal with me

What kind of deal?

if I guess your major right you tell me your name

Fine.

I get 3 tries

Wimp.

fuck off

art history

No.

that was a throwaway guess

pre med

No.

shit

uhhhhhhh

can I buy a vowel

No.

you’re a tough cookie

psych

Close enough.

what does that mean

Developmental and Child Psychology.

My name is Eddie.

eddie

eds

eddie spaghetti

edward spaghedward

I’m blocking your number.

no you aren’t

Try me.

but you don’t know my name yet

…

Fucking tell me.

ah ah ah

you have to guess

Something to do with drama or theater arts.

close enough

richie

Alright.

Now I’m blocking your number.

you would never

__________

eds

What the fuck Richie?

I’m in class.

I know

I’m gonna find you

No you’re not.

I will

We live in Manhattan. It’s almost statistically impossible.

I’ll do it

Impossible.

I’ll get you spaghetti man

I’ve heard that before.

I don’t give up

__________

what neighborhood do you live in

NoBu.

where the fuck is that

None of your business.

that’s adorable

you’re only delaying the inevitable

You’re ridiculous.

I’m a man on a mission

there’s a difference

A ridiculous mission.

most people would be flattered

That’s not even close to true.

hey

I’m not planning a st pattys day wedding for nothing babe

Oh Richie. You know just how to get to my heart. Come whisk me away now.

smartass

Dumbass.

__________

Are you okay?

doth my eyes betray me

is the spaghetti of my heart really texting me first

Cut the shit Richie. It’s been two weeks.

family shit

don’t worry about me cutie

I was worried about you.

you’re gonna make me cry

Fuck off.

I had no way of knowing if you were even alive.

I know

sorry

I live in Washington Heights.

nice

my roommate just started dating a guy from up there

I’m in brooklyn

my roommate just started dating a guy from brooklyn

well this is a case for the fbi

The odds of us talking about the same two people are highly unlikely.

do you really trust the odds

I don’t know.

I’m glad you’re okay.

thanks eds

Don’t call me that.

whatever you say

__________

Eddie didn’t know what to make of the party that he’d been dragged to by his friends. They were worried that he was becoming somewhat of a hermit. Mike insisted that it a partnered effort but Eddie had the feeling that Bill was the one who initiated the mission to get Eddie out into the city. So here they were, partying in a ridiculously large penthouse apartment that belonged to a friend of a friend of a friend of Bill.

Their own Washington Heights apartment could have fit into the kitchen, living, and dining room easily but Eddie wasn’t about to point that out to anyone, not wanting to be that person. He wasn’t about to drink in a stranger’s apartment, no matter how many people were getting tipsy and dancing around to the music. He preferred not to make a fool of himself standing in the middle of a multi-million dollar apartment.

“Is your man coming?” Mike asked Bill.

Eddie’s head snapped around and he narrowed his eyes at a guilty looking Bill. This was the first that he was hearing of it.

“He might be,” Bill said, smiling at Eddie. “I wanted you to meet him.”

“We couldn’t have done it at a bar like normal people?” Eddie demanded.

“Bill still wants to impress him,” Mike said with a knowing smile.

“I think he’s bringing friends,” Bill said as if that was going to bring Eddie around.

The mere mention of it made Eddie think of Richie, for some reason. He wasn’t kidding about the odds being stacked against them. Yet he was tempted to ask Bill if he knew the names of his boyfriend’s friends. But that might have been weird considering he didn’t really even remember the name of Bill’s boyfriend.

“Stan!”

That was definitely it. Eddie rolled his eyes in Mike’s direction but knew that he wouldn’t hold this against Bill. He was undeniably excited about this new boyfriend and Eddie wouldn’t begrudge him that.

“I think we might’ve found the infamous Bill we’ve heard so much about!” a loud voice said in an absolutely ridiculous British accent. “Nice to meet ya, old chap!”

“Shut the fuck up, Trashmouth,” a new voice said, sounding both annoyed and enamored all at once.

But the person’s voice wasn’t what got his attention. Eddie whirled around with wide eyes and barely noticed Bill greeting a curly-haired man with a kiss. It was the tall, bespectacled man with riotous dark curls and a toothy grin that caught Eddie’s eye. Even in the dim lights of the room, it was easy to see the freckles dotted across his nose and those high, defined cheekbones.

He was striking, and not just because of the slightly chaotic energy that he exuded. Eddie couldn’t help but stare and stare, wondering if the universe really worked like this. He didn’t even see Bill break away from Stan and barely felt Mike brush a concerned hand over his shoulder. All he could do was stare, color rising to his cheeks when those dark eyes met his and showed a little bit of confusion and awe.

“Who the fuck are you, gorgeous?” the taller man said, stepping closer to Eddie without missing a beat.

Eddie’s lips parted slightly but he had no idea what to say. What if he was wrong? There could very well be more than one person in New York City who was had such a terrible nickname. But Stan was the boyfriend in Brooklyn and Bill was the boyfriend in Washington Heights. What were the odds at this point?

“These are my friends,” Bill said, coming to his rescue. “Mike and Eddie.”

If there was any doubt before, the way that Richie’s eyes widened put it to rest.

“Holy shit,” he said.

Eddie couldn’t have agreed more.

“No flirting,” Stan said, clearly talking to Richie even though there were two others behind him, a redhead woman holding hands with another man.

“Sorry Stanny,” Richie breathed out, taking another step towards Eddie. “You know how I feel about rules.”

Eddie stood frozen as Richie reached out to wrap an arm around his waist, hauling him in close.

“Wanna tell me about those odds again, cutie?” Richie asked with a grin, his face inches away.

“Shut the fuck up and kiss me,” Eddie said.

Richie did just that, ignoring their confused and shocked friends as he brushed his lips over Eddie’s in a soft kiss that promised more. As he pressed closer, Eddie knew that he couldn’t wait to see what more entailed.

“Told you I’d get you,” Richie murmured against his lips.

With a soft laugh, Eddie dropped back to his heels and gazed up at Richie.

“I guess I should reevaluate my definition of impossible.”

“Damn straight.”

#rated t

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survivor-uluru · 5 years

Text

OPENING STATEMENTS

GAGE:

Hello Friends! Local Cockroach Gage speaking. I hope y’all still remember that this game exists and that I do as well! I first off want to say thank you to the hosts Andrew, Johnny, and Adrian for hosting this game. Despite the ups and downs and trials and tribulations of this game, you guys were great hosts and I wouldn’t trade you guys for anyone else. I would also like to thank Monty, Nikias, and the rest of the cast for this experience. The main reason I play games is to meet new people and build stronger relationships with people I may have already played a game with, and I’m glad I got to make some new friends, rekindle some old relationships, and overall just have a good time interacting with y’all throughout the game. I’m gonna try to keep this short and simple, but I feel like my game can be defined by 3 main aspects: Making relationships, self-awareness/perceptions of others, and luck.

When it comes to playing games, I try my best to make relationships with everyone whenever I’m able to find the time to (mostly just because like I stated before, I like to meet new people and forge stronger relationships I may have already interacted with in the past. I was very thankful to be put into a game with new people I have gotten to talk to before, as well as meeting people from my past (including Monty, Drew, Corey, Sammy, etc.). These new and old relationships I feel like are the reason I was able to get to this point. Monty and I worked together throughout the entirety of the game, as we voted together throughout the entire game and are the only two people (and also Drew rip) to vote correctly throughout the “merge”. My relationship with Drew from previous games I feel helped me out significantly as well, especially when it came to the infamous judgement twist. Working and building with a relationship Corey however was probably the most important relationship I knew I could have. Ever since we were put on the moral tribe together, it became very clear that Corey was able to build relationships with castaways in which I could not, and I knew sticking with this social icon was my best to not only keep me in the game, but also to make sure I was able to get information from others that I did not have such a close bond to. At the same time, I do feel like that the social bonds that I personally made as well is what kept me here to. At the tremor tribal and we were subjected to Lukas’s rules, Sammy and Veni targeted each other and Lukas promised to vote wherever I told him to vote. Lukas could have easily gotten Bo and Maddie to vote me out 3-2-1 which would have inadvertently caused the most cracks in alliances and chaos in the gave up until that point, but instead he kept me in the game, and I was able to stay since I had closer relationships with Sammy and Veni than they had with each other.

I also feel like I got to where I’m in this game by being self aware of the situations I’m in and trying make sure to where my perceptions of my castaways. As stated before, I knew that Corey was always the most interconnected tribe member throughout the game, and the round where we had the infection immunity challenge during the beginning of the “merge” solidified this belief. Once people were also aware of how Corey was interconnected to the slowly forming jury, I was able to get him out at Final 6, which is insane because I think Corey played the best game out of everyone this season. Winning touchy subjects also helped me build confidence in my perceptions as well. When I play touchy subjects, I always make my personal list the same as my “majority think” list. Touchy subjects revolves around the idea of groupthink and if you guess what the majority said, then you most likely have a good read on tribe dynamics. I was able to win this iconic immunity challenge, something that I have been able to do in the vast majority of games that I have played. I knew coming into this game that I was going to be a big target because of being a big winner, and I made sure to align myself with people who would always be targeted before me. This was a big reason why at the tremor tribal, I decided to vote out Sammy over Veni. Sammy is known to play UTR and be very good at this strategy but I would always be targeted before him, Veni was someone up until that point had already played a great game and was very clearly trying his hardest to win. I knew Veni was always a bigger jury threat than me and this was a perception that was also carried by the rest of the tribe by the time of this tribal, and I feel like this decision was a catalyst for how I was able to sit here at the end in front of this lovely jury.

And last but not least, I think the BIGGEST reason why I am here today is because of luck. I was lucky to be casted in a game where I played with certain people already before coming into this game, which a lot of individuals did not have this privilege that I had. I was lucky to be cast in a game where I knew that people would always be bigger targets than me, and then have a twist implemented where a twist was meant to keep these big targets in the game. I was lucky enough to be able to avoid tribal during the majority of the game, as well as lucky to be able to survive in scenarios thanks to unpredictable circumstances.

Like I said, I want to try and keep it short and sweet (mostly because I have been so busy) but please please please please ask me questions about my game or anything in general and I would be more than happy to elaborate. I do a lot better answering questions from the jury where I can be open and honest about my game and thoughts, point of views, and purposes of doing what I did throughout this game. Once again, thank you so much for this opportunity hosts and jurors (because I would not be here if it were not for your help as well), and I hope we get to talk more during FTC and after this game <3.

MONTY:

Sup yall! Long time no see, too long yeah. Before I go into the meat of this, I wanna say that all this info is covered in the video as well so take your pick lol. Beyond that, I wanna start off by saying thanks to the hosts for putting up with this shit show, Gage and Nikias for putting up with my BS and having my back from the get go, and also to all of you on the jury. I've had a good time getting to know you all as people and players. I have nothing against anyone in this game, and I hope the feeling is mutual or at least enough to hearing me out and considering to vote for me tonight.

I think my game was fairly well rounded. Most people break Survivor into three parts; social, strategic, and physical (I consider four, adding advantage management in there too) and I think I had a good grasp on all three (or four) aspects of the game.

I think my social game, was very strong throughout the season. I made several early connections on the original Maverick tribe, as well as using the One World twist to make some early conversation with people like Lukas, Gage, Corey, and Chrissa. I only had three votes against me, one that I decided to give myself, and two from a plan that half the members changed before tribal. I was only blindsided once during the TJ vote (and I thank Maddiesus christ ever day for that). I even was able to work with people who had I had worked against in the past, such as Eddie during the F6 vote. In addition, I knew when I could and couldn't take voting risks, such as when to abstain my vote for Dreamtime, and when to give myself a penalty vote for an advantage. However, the strongest aspect of my social game was my positioning of myself in the middle of my alliance so that I had all the information about who was wary of who, who was throwing out alternate plans, who the members of the minority were trying to flip, and what advantages people had.

I've already gone a bit into my strategic game, but I do think this is where I shone the most. As I mentioned before, the only time I voted incorrectly was when Maddie played her idol, and during a split vote plan. That's 9/10 tribal councils I voted for the person leaving, and 10/10 I voted in the majority. My most bold strategic gameplay came during the mutiny abomination with the Jose and Bodhi votes, the two tribal councils with the most people to navigate. During the Jose vote, he was trying to put together an alliance of himself, me, Lukas, and Bodhi, then also Corey, then also Eddie. At that point it was too messy for my liking, so I turned it around and got the votes on him with Corey, and Sammy. During the Bodhi vote, Bodhi was trying to make an alliance where he would be in the center of his original tribe, and swapped tribe being connected to everyone. I made this information know to the the people who would be in my alliance and simultaneously helped get out someone who would be a threat to my game later on, and quietly put myself in the very same position that he got voted out for trying to be in. During the merge, I took to my maverick roots and stayed loyal to my alliance until they weren't loyal to me. I got information that Veni had an extra vote and was on the verge of flipping, so the next round I gathered the numbers to eliminate him instead. Several rounds later, I found out that Corey was trying to go behind my back on a vote so I made the tough decision to vote him out instead. I kept around people who wanted to keep me in the game and be honest with me, both in my alliance and not, and that allowed me to have influence at every tribal I attended, and a key role in some of the most influential votes of the season.

Physically, the statistics might not seem like I was all that great, but in a season full of challenge beasts, I wasn't a slouch. On my tribes, I was a key challenge player during the early letter number and scavenger hunts, and I won the Jeopardy challenge for my tribe. I eased up a bit during the merge, but then lasted over four hours in the final immunity challenge to win the last, and most important, immunity of the season and give myself complete freedom with the final vote. While there were many other beasts this season like Lukas, Drew, and Veni, I definitely held my own when I needed to to either prove my physical worth to my tribe, or win important immunity challenges.

And now onto my personal fourth category advantage management. As I said earlier, I knew when I could take the voting risks that came with Dreamtime, and I took them early to ensure that I was the first person to search the Dreamtime. In the dreamtime, I searched all 4,000 pages to find all 8 possible advantages. (a judgement legacy advantage, Veni's vote steal, a light round, 10 judgement votes hidden twice, a rock block and Lukas's tremor) as well as a Super Idol. I put in the work to make sure I was the first person in Dreamtime, and once there I put in more work to make sure I got the best advantage I could. To get the Super Idol, I had to incur a penalty vote at the tribal of my choosing (Jose's) and I had it ever since. I kept it a secret until final five, and I still never needed to use it due to the strength of my social and strategic games. Then the one round I didn't have the safety I was able to win immunity and guarantee myself a spot here. I knew about all the special advantages from the early effort I put in, and was able to the secret of the best one to myself.

In conclusion, I do believe I should win Uluru because I put my heart into it right from the start. I put in early work to make sure I was in the best position I could be coming into the merge, working with those who wanted to keep me around and tell me their thoughts and plans, no matter which side of the game they were on. During Touchy Subjects, I was labeled as the one actually in control of the game, and that is often a death sentence, but I had made early bonds and alliances and taken early risks to ensure that even though I in that powerful position, I controlled my own destiny as much as I could, and I pushed this game in the way I wanted it to go (even while moving half way around the world). I have more I could talk about, but I'll save the rest for questions and I'm looking forward to any you have for me; I'll answer them all openly and honestly. Thank you all again for such a fun season love you all.

Video Format:

youtube

NIKIAS:

Hello folks

I would like first of all to say a big thank you for this fun experience, this was a cast that I personally really appreciated it even if we were messy with timezones, I feel I could take stuff from all of you. Maybe some of you don’t appreciate me game-wise, and that’s fine. I would like to address that if you don’t appreciate my gameplay, I won’t take it personally, and I just hope you won’t take personally the fact that I was a gamer and I was willing to do whatever it takes to make beneficial moves for my game. I would like to ask you all before you make a decision to be open minded and read and make questions instead of just assuming who should be the winner. I feel each and every one of us in the F3 deserve to be heard.

So in general statements I would like to present some facts from my game.

- I had zero votes all game even though I haven’t had one single individual immunity. I manage to protect myself and fly utr in the middle and making decisions that would benefit my game long term. The reason that I am mentioning that is because I believe some of the jurors believed that I was doing whatever benefits others people gameplays, though I think when you are the only person who hasn’t received a single vote in this game (again, without invidual immunity or a super idol) it was me that was most benefited from every decision that was made.

- Second I believe that I was open to every suggestion and I feel like I gave an equal opportunity to every single one of you to work with me. Some of you maybe call it shady. Maybe it is. That’s fine by me, I just wanted to stay open-minded and have open bridges and make the decision that would ended up to be the most beneficial.

- I wasn’t ever disrespectful to anyone. I played the game hard, but I was always friendly to everyone. I was cutthroat, and I was never afraid afraid to cut someone (with the expection of Corey) if I felt that I had to do it in order to put myself in the best position that I could. Game wise I was very selfish- I own it because I would want everyone to do whatever is best for their game. I think you have heard me saying that a lot of times.

- I was the reason that an alliance of me, Monty, Drew and Sammy was created. I knew Monty created this alliance typically but I was the one who suggested to him and Drew, and I just ask Monty to ask Sammy and to create the chat so incase something goes weird I want to make it look like it was Monty’s idea and not mine.

- In Jose vote, I choose not to vote, only for the fact I wanted to enter the Dreamtime and I wanted to complete my first task. I saw that everyone was pretty much gunning for him, so I decided to find the benefit in it.

- The moment that someone came for me (Bodhi) in an immunity challenge and throw my name to people, I immediately learn it, and I decided to attack him on this immunity pretty obviously and make him vulnerable for tribal. Not only was the person who threw my name voted out of the game the moment that he threw it, he also didn’t have the numbers from his side to come after me. Which ended up moving the target from myself to Gage. So incase something went wrong, I wasn’t gonna be voted out. It was obviously that I would be one of the people who would vote for Bodhi so I decided to complete my first task obvious.

Then a twist came. 6 people would be immune and 6 would go to tribal council. I literally wasn’t good at this comp no matter how hard I tried. After lying to almost half of the cast, I was afraid that I would be vulnerable for tribal if I didn’t have the numbers with me. Though I considered that it was a very good opportunity to get rid of Gloria, she wasn’t very active in challenges and I figure out she would have been on the bottom 6. Knowing that my number one ally Corey wasn’t doing well either, I decided to ask Sammy and Monty to throw the comp, not only to secured my safety but to also to orchestrate a 2-2-2 split vote and securing the safety of the people that I was working with, all while keeping my word to Maddie. I did that. It was beneficial since I already have put 2 judgemental points to glo in order to enter the dreamtime.

Then Jury started (YAY) a lot of you know how excited I was because if I wouldn’t have made it to the end I would have loved to be on the jury and have a word on who should be the winner. Lukas wanted to have more fun with the game, so he decided to work on this twist and separate the merge into tribes. Unfortunately that ended up being the demise for Sammy’s game- however I would like to say that I was one of the people that was saying to (Veni, Gage and Sammy) from what I remember that if Lukas had an idol, he wont play it this round and that they should just voted him out. (I know that’s easy to say since I was immune) but I ended being right which shows my game instinct I believe. This should be evident to those I spoke with.

-I turn my back on Veni. Literally I didn’t believe that I had the guts to do it, because Veni I like you so much, but you were way too strategic to be beneficial to my game. I don’t feel you were coming for me at that moment, but I did believe you would have seen that I was in a very good spot- and the kind of player that you are, you would have realized it, and I know if you gotta take out someone who is a threat to you, you got the guts to do it. It was way more beneficial to keep Lukas at this point of the game because I still needed the Lukas vs Gage situation so I could stay in the middle and the focus would have been there, instead of on me.

- I manage to use my advantage correctly. I was the reason that a big player (Drew) in this game was out of the game. He was one of the most skilled players here, with a lot of connections. I remember the influence that he had in one vote on Monty and Gage and I wanted them to be my closiest allies, not Drews closiest allies. I gain the 10 judgemental votes advtantage from the Dreamtime and I put them on him, WHILE I knew people were putting judgemental points on him, and I was trying to get Corey on board to make that move and get him out of the game when the time was right at F8. I used the twist to my advantage the most of anyone.

Seriously, Corey was an incredible player and I have a friendship with him from before, but he is a gamer so he understands that in this game we work together, but I did what would get me to the end and I had to make a tough decision on the revote and take out my friend. I knew it was the best move for my game but I vote with him at first to make sure it was the move I wanted to make, and to give him a chance to change other people's minds. Corey, I hope you understand how well I played and that I did what I had to do to give myself the best chance to win.

I did betray Eddie: Omg that is another heartbreaking one. Eddie I love you so much but legit I don’t think our cast saw how charismatic you were with your moves, you played a big part on some moves and I saw it and legit and I didn’t wanna sit next to you because you were a very good underdog player and I do believe that you would be one of the players that would surprise us with your speech in the end. I chose to evict you over Gage, clearly because I saw you more as a threat. You were clearly the only other person that hadn’t received votes at this point and you played a huge part on some of the votes.I was the swing vote here, because I left my options open, and I decided to end Eddie's game and benefit my own.

- Lukas I choose to evict you over Gage because genuinely again you were a bigger threat than him. You had a very good underdog story (which a lot of juries seemed to reward in this community) and also I know you can articulate very well which was something threating and I honestly find you bigger threat to my game than Gage.

Obviously it may not seem as though I have a lot of control in this game, but I hope you read everything and will see that perception is not reality. I was always in the know, always making decisions to benefit me, was always respectful, and played as hard and as smart as I could. I appreciate your questions and hope you can see me as the gamer I am and the heart I play with to win this game.

#announcement

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deskcoin64-blog · 5 years

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The Bear’s Den, November 29, 2019

BEAR DOWN, CHICAGO BEARS, BEAR DOWN!!!!

BEARRRSSSS

Joniak’s Journal: Bears’ Chase Daniel Aims To Be ‘Perfectionist’ - 670 The Score - Chase Daniel could start at quarterback again this Sunday.

Emma: Numbers Suggest Bears’ Running Game Will Stay Grounded - 670 The Score - The Bears’ rushing attack has struggled even more with Kyle Long out.

Emma: Bears Safety Eddie Jackson Not Surprised By His Success - 670 The Score - ”I knew that I wanted to come here and dominate,” Eddie Jackson says.

4 Bears Lead At Their Positions In Pro Bowl Voting - 670 The Score - Khalil Mack, Eddie Jackson, Kyle Fuller and Tarik Cohen are on a Pro Bowl path.

Bernstein: Another Chance For Matt Nagy To Prove Himself - 670 The Score - The Bears’ game plan will have to evolve if Chase Daniel starts again.

Ellis: Mitch Trubisky limited in practice, but 'the arrow is up' on injury progress - NBC Sports Chicago - Mitch Trubisky was limited in practice Wednesday, but Bears coach Matt Nagy is still optimistic about the progress of the young quarterback's throwing shoulder.

Ellis: Eddie Jackson named NFC Defensive Player of the Week - NBC Sports Chicago - The safety's star continues to rise.

First and Final Thoughts: Talking ourselves into Chase Daniel again - NBC Sports Chicago - We're almost on to New Jersey York.

Mayer: Bears playing waiting game with Trubisky - ChicagoBears.com - Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky returned to practice Wednesday on a limited basis and remains day-to-day with a right shoulder injury in advance of Sunday’s road game against the Giants.

Mayer: Wednesday weigh-in: Bears prepping for Giants - ChicagoBears.com - Seeking their sixth straight victory, the Bears returned to the practice field Wednesday for the first time in a week to prepare for Sunday’s road game against the New York Giants.

Mayer: 9 questions to test your knowledge of Bears-Giants history - ChicagoBears.com - The Bears will visit the New York Giants Sunday. How much do you know about the two teams? Take this 9-question quiz to test your knowledge.

Chalk Talk: When was Bears’ last perfect November? - ChicagoBears.com - Senior writer Larry Mayer discusses the last time the Bears went undefeated in November, how close the Bears are to breaking their team record for defensive touchdowns in a season and how the Bears have fared after compiling an 8-3 record.

Medina: The Bears Are Feeling the Love with FOUR Leading Pro Bowl Vote-Getters - Bleacher Nation - Vote early, vote often because it's the Chicago way ... and the Bears have players worthy of your vote.

Medina: Jordan Howard Continues to Receive Reassurances That He'll Be Part of the Offense Moving Forward - Bleacher Nation - Jordan Howard is so excited to be part of a winning team, he has no complaints about his disappointing statistical season.

Wiedman: Bears must take giant step at MetLife Stadium - Our Turf Football OTFB's Wanda Wiedman talks about what the Bears have to do to ensure a victory over the Giants

Biggs: Mitch Trubisky limited in Wednesday's practice as tea leaves point to Chase Daniel starting against Giants - Chicago Tribune - Mitch Trubisky was limited in Wednesday's practice as the Bears quarterback continues to heal from a right shoulder injury. Don't make the mistake of thinking the team will rest Trubisky against the Giants because they're struggling. That said, they're comfortable with Chase Daniel at the helm.

Biggs Bears Q&A: Could a pay raise entice Vic Fangio to stay? What is the trade value of Jordan Howard? Is it time to sign Bryce Callahan? - Chicago Tribune - Brad Biggs answers your Bears questions weekly. Lots of folks are wondering if the team can block Vic Fangio from leaving for a head coaching opportunity after the season. Is it time to sign CB Bryce Callahan? What's the trade value of Jordan Howard? Plus much more.

Campbell: Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky limited in Wednesday's practice, could miss Giants game - Chicago Tribune - Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky is not expected to practice Wednesday, coach Matt Nagy said. It creates significant doubt about his availability for Sunday's game against the Giants.

Kane: Can the Bears beat the Giants on Sunday? Check the numbers - Chicago Tribune - Here’s a look at the Bears by the numbers as they prepare to play the Giants on Sunday at MetLife Stadium.

Kane: Bears safety Eddie Jackson named NFC Defensive Player of the Week - Chicago Tribune - Bears safety Eddie Jackson was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance in the Bears’ 23-16 victory over the Lions on Thursday.

Audio Mailbag: What Should the Bears' Next Touchdown Celebration Be? - Da Bears Brothers Podcast - Da Bears Brothers provide another round of in-depth analysis on questions submitted by the fans in their weekly Audio Mailbag episode.

Stankevitz: Three reasons why the Bears should beat the Giants with Chase Daniel (and not Mitch Trubisky) - NBC Sports Chicago - The Giants are 3-8 and have a particularly sub-optimal defense, meaning if Chase Daniel is the QB on Sunday, the Bears should still win.

Mullin: For Bears, 9-3 a magic 'number' for postseason but little after that - NBC Sports Chicago - A 9-3 record has been good to the Bears, and they can reach that mark with a win in New York on Sunday. Here's how they'll get there.

Cox: Akiem Hicks misses Bears practice Wednesday; Mitchell Trubisky limited - NBC Sports Chicago - The Bears are trying to get healthier during their “mini-bye week” but their Thursday game on Thanksgiving did a number on the injury report.

Under Center Podcast: Can the Bears win again with Chase Daniel? - NBC Sports Chicago - JJ Stankevitz, John “Moon” Mullin and Cam Ellis wonder if the Bears can beat the Giants without Mitchell Trubisky, and look at some encouraging trends that should help this team finish the 2018 regular season strong in the final five games

Householder: Chicago vs NY Giants Betting Picks & Analysis - Sports Bet Collective - The Bears travel to New York with their quarterback’s status up in the air again. Many sports books are holding off putting up a line on this game due to Mitchell Trubisky’s shoulder injury. It’s possible that the team holds him out one more week and roll with Chase Daniel. Daniel was effective and efficient but still lacked some of the downfield throws and scrambling ability of Trubisky.

Williams: Mitchell Trubisky officially limited in Wednesday’s practice – ProFootballTalk - Bears coach Matt Nagy said Wednesday morning he wasn't expecting Mitchell Trubisky to practice. As it turned out, the quarterback did something during practice. The team officially listed Trubisky as limited with a right shoulder injury.

Finley: Bears TE Adam Shaheen, OLB Aaron Lynch clear concussion protocol, practice - Chicago Sun-Times - The timing of the injury was particularly cruel for Shaheen, who had been activated from injured reserve the day before the game against the Vikings.

Jahns: Bears backup QB Chase Daniel getting first-team work - Sun Times - Bears backup quarterback Chase Daniel is preparing to start against the Giants.

Morrissey: The Bears should sit Mitch Trubisky against the Giants - Sun Times - It would be much better to have a healthy QB for the rest of the season than expose him to the possibility of discomfort, or worse, down the stretch.

Potash: Bears safety Eddie Jackson ’blessed’ to be in the right place at the right time - Sun Times - I wouldn’t want to be anywhere than here — with the type of teammates I’ve got. I feel like being on the same team with them makes me better.

Finley: Giants star Saquon Barkley is the Bears' toughest RB challenge to date - Sun Times - Barkley has lived up to the hype — from Bears safety Adrian Amos and those with bigger megaphones — since being drafted second overall.

Finley: Mitch Trubisky injury update: Bears QB remains out with right shoulder injury - Sun Times - The Bears don't expect quarterback Mitch Trubisky to practice later Wednesday, coach Matt Nagy said.

Finley: Bears S Eddie Jackson named NFC Defensive Player of the Week - Sun Times - It marked the third such award for the Bears in as many weeks

Telander: Bears must rein in Mitch Trubisky before he runs himself ragged - Sun Times - It’d be demoralizing to see Trubisky become just an old-school pocket passer. But it would be even worse to see him get badly hurt running.

Kane: Linebacker Aaron Lynch returns to Bears practice, ‘fresh’ and ‘hungry’ to test the Giants offensive line - Chicago Tribune - Bears outside linebacker Aaron Lynch spent his Thanksgiving at home with his family, watching the Bears beat the Lions on TV.

KNOW THY ENEMY

NFC North Rundown: Minnesota Vikings keep playoff hopes alive - Acme Packing Company - While Chicago began to pull away from the rest of the crowd for the divisional title, Minnesota kept its wild card chances alive with a win over the Packers.

Raiders 2019 NFL draft order after week 12: Acquired picks keep tumbling - Silver And Black Pride - The Raiders have not scored a touchdown in 9 quarters and have been outscored 75-9 over that time.

Former Lions coach explains why Detroit chose Eric Ebron over Aaron Donald in the 2014 NFL Draft - Pride Of Detroit - A behind-the-scenes look at what happened that fateful April evening.

Wednesday Walkthroughs: Who’s your coaching crush for the Packers? - Acme Packing Company - APC Writers share their picks for who should be the next head coach of the Packers. Ken's Note: We hear both Mark Trestman and Dave Wannstedt are available...

Cardinals offense has improved under new OC Byron Leftwich - Acme Packing Company - Seth Cox of SB Nation’s Arizona Cardinals blog Revenge of the Birds answers our questions about new offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich.

Lions again practice in freezing temperatures before an indoor game – ProFootballTalk - Two weeks ago, Lions coach Matt Patricia took some criticism in the media for having his team practice outdoors on a cold day, even though the Lions were preparing to play a game at home, indoors.

Jay Gruden: “We’ll deal with the outcry” on Reuben Foster – ProFootballTalk - Washington knows it will be taking flak for claiming linebacker Reuben Foster on waivers. And the organization seems to be OK with that. "At the end of the day we decided to make the move, and we’ll deal with the outcry, so to speak," coach Jay Gruden told reporters on Wednesday.

Tom Brady is limited again with a knee injury – ProFootballTalk - For the second straight Wednedsay, Tom Brady didn't get a full practice in. The Patriots quarterback was limited with a knee injury. It matches his official status from last week's first official practice in advance of a win over the Jets.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ON WINDY CITY GRIDIRON

WhiskeyRanger: Eddie Jackson has been named NFC Defensive Player of the Week - Windy City Gridiron - Is Eddie Jackson the best safety in football?

Wiltfong's Chicago Bears Sackwatch 2018: Week 12 vs. Detroit Lions - Windy City Gridiron - Just when the Sackwatch was trending into some rarefied territory, the Chicago Bears give up four sacks to the Detroit Lions. Not having Mitchel Trubisky definitely hurt the sack numbers, but I’m...

Sunderbruch: Sustaining Success - What Do The Bears Still Need Work On? - Windy City Gridiron - The Bears are playing meaningful football in December. That alone is worth celebrating. However, it’s also worth asking what the Bears still need to do in order to sustain their success.

Link's 2018 Chicago Bears Rush Report 2018: Week 12 at the Lions - Windy City Gridiron - The Bears defense was noticeably gassed in this game, and that was to be expected. Coming off a grueling 3-game stretch with games at home against the Lions, the Vikings, and then traveling to...

WhiskeyRanger: OSS - Eddie Jackson is Action Jackson! - Windy City Gridiron - It’s time for "Action"

Leming's Bears mailbag: Mitchell Trubisky’s status, playoff talk, Jordan Howard’s future and much more - Windy City Gridiron - The (8-3) Bears are rolling and optimism as the playoffs approach are high. See if your questions were answered in this week’s mailbag.

WCG CONTRIBUTORS BEARS PODCASTS & STREAMS

2 Minute Drill - Website - iTunes - Andrew Link; Steven’s Streaming – Twitch – Steven Schweickert; T-Formation Conversation - Website - iTunes - Lester Wiltfong, Jr.; WCG Radio - Website - iTunes - Robert Zeglinski

THE RULES

Windy City Gridiron Community Guidelines - SBNation.com - We strive to make our communities open and inclusive to sports fans of all backgrounds. The following is not permitted in comments, FanPosts, usernames or anywhere else in an SB Nation community: Comments, FanPosts or usernames that are intolerant or prejudiced; racial or other offensive epithets; Personal attacks or threats on community members; Gendered insults of any kind; Trolling; Click link for full information.

The Bear’s Den Specific Guidelines – The Bear’s Den is a place for Chicago Bears fans to discuss Chicago Bears football, related NFL stories, and general football talk. It is NOT a place to discuss religion or politics or post political pictures or memes, and any posts that do this will be deleted and the poster will be admonished. We do not allow comments posted where the apparent attempt is to cause confrontation in the community. We do not allow gender-directed humor or sexual assault jokes. The staff of WCG are the sole arbiters of what constitutes “apparent attempt to cause confrontation”. We do not allow the “calling out” of other members in any way, shape or form. Posts that do this will be deleted on sight. Bottom line, it’s fine to debate about football, but personal jabs and insults are strictly prohibited. Additionally, if you keep beating the same dead horse over and over and fail to heed a moderator’s warning to stop, you will be banned.

Click on our names to follow us on Twitter:

WCG Contributors: Jeff Berckes; Patti Curl; Eric Christopher Duerrwaechter; Kev H; Sam Householder; Jacob Infante; Aaron Lemming; Andrew Link; Ken Mitchell; Steven Schweickert; Jack Silverstein; EJ Snyder; Lester Wiltfong, Jr.; Whiskey Ranger; Robert Zeglinski; Like us on Facebook.

Source: https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2018/11/28/18117391/chicago-bears-2018-season-news-updates-analysis-game-twelve-new-york-giants-trubisky-daniel-lynch

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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infinityhype · 7 years

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Staying Gold (3/6)

Bee I finally got around to writing this next installment I didn’t forget it just...took forever to come up with something, oops.

Part of the “Five Times” meme requested by @dezemberzwolf of “Daniel Law being happy and smiling”

May I Buy You a Drink?

Daniel Law did not usually go drinking alone because it was, for lack of a better term, reckless.

However, his day had been so awful he decided the benefits outweighed the risks. Someone mugging him in a back alley would only make his day slightly worse at this point.

Hell, it would probably make it better to be perfectly honest. At least he would have a good reason to beat the shit out of someone.

Daniel tried not to drink when he’d had a bad day. It wasn’t a good coping mechanism, but he could only smoke so many packs a day before Kemper started leaving nicotine gum and pamphlets with titles like “Quit Smoking in a Month!” all over his desk.

He was on his first drink when a man sat down next to him (on his right, where he could see the guy), offered Daniel a pleasant smile, and ordered a drink for himself. Interest and caution prickled at the back of Daniel’s mind.

Daniel finished off his drink and asked for another. The man next to him handed the bartender a credit card and asked for a tab.

“And pick his up too,” he said, motioning to Daniel.

So he is interested, Daniel thought as he raised his second glass to the man and drained the contents. He turned so he was facing the guy and leaned on the bar. A little flirting might perk up Daniel’s ego, or ruin his night completely.

Either way, it couldn’t make the day he’d had any worse.

Well, much worse.

“If you’re gonna pick up my tab I should at least know your name,” Daniel said.

“It’s Evgeny Abrakov,” the man replied.

Evgeny wore a gray suit with a blue vest and a yellow tie. He was roughly the same size as Daniel, give or take a couple of inches and pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Defined cheekbones, perfectly coiffed hair, a nice voice...

Worse people had bought him drinks.

“Daniel Law. Nice to meet you.” They shook hands and nursed their drinks in silence for a while. Daniel lit up a cigarette and thought about how to proceed. He’d been so busy with work the past few months it hadn’t left him much free time, and his skills in the art of romance were passable at best.

“So what do you do, Evgeny?”

“I’m an accountant for a firm in Manhattan. I specialize in helping small businesses. I don’t do corporate tax law, because fuck--” He seemed alarmed the word slipped out of his mouth.

“You can finish your sentence,” Daniel said with a laugh. “I’m not offended.”

“--corporate loopholes, they’re terrible.” Evgeny picked up his drink in an attempt to look cool. “What do you do, Daniel?”

“I’m a detective. Organized crime, so you don’t get your hopes up for gristly Homicide stories.”

“Detective Law, then,” Evgeny said.

“Just Daniel,” he replied. “You are buying me drinks after all.”

“Well then, Daniel. I suppose it’s a good thing you’re not a homicide detective. To be honest I’m not interested in the gory details of humanity’s dark side. I can’t even watch the evening news most of the time. I want to be informed, but it’s just depressing.” Evgeny placed his right elbow on the bar and leaned on it, mirroring Daniel.

Daniel exhaled a cloud of smoke. He noticed a series of small cuts on Evgeny’s knuckles and wondered what he could have done to get those.

“The job’s absolute shit sometimes. Most of the time. But I keep going because there’s a lot of good people worth protecting out there. I dunno. I just hate to see people get hurt. I was the kid who always fought the playground bullies even if it meant getting my ass kicked. It probably helps my brother was kind of a wimp.”

Evgeny laughed. That was a sound Daniel could get used to. “Is it just you and your brother?”

“Oh no. I have—” Daniel did a quick count on his fingers. “Six siblings. One older sister, a twin brother, one younger brother, and three younger sisters.”

Evgeny’s eyebrows shot up. It was a common enough reaction Daniel didn’t even notice it most of the time. “That’s a lot of siblings!”

“Yeah. Everyone told me New York was loud and crowded. But with the house I grew up in, it doesn’t bother me in the least. I’m just glad to have my own apartment where I don’t have to fight anyone to shower in the morning. You got any siblings?”

Evgeny shook his head. “Nah. My parents adopted me and decided one was enough. I guess I was a bit of a handful when I was a kid. What’s it like, being a twin? I’m sorry, I’m sure you get asked that a lot.”

Daniel shrugged. He was starting to feel the effects of the whiskey. “It’s fine. My brother’s name is Marcus. He’s the better looking of the two of us. Nicer too. I’m the funny one. And older. That’s pretty much all I have going for me in terms of comparison.”

“I can’t compare you two because he’s not here, but statistically a lot of people think less of their abilities when compared to others, especially a sibling close to them in age, so I’m sure you balance each other out instead of him being better than you—” Evgeny came to a hard stop in the conversation and blinked. “Sorry, once I get on something I talk a lot, especially if I’ve been drinking, and definitely when I’m trying to impress someone I think is cute.”

“You gesture a lot too,” Daniel said, making a motion with his hands. Evgeny folded them and put them in his lap. “I don’t say that to make you stop, it’s just you’re very…animated. And I like it. I like you.”

The words slipped out before Daniel could catch them. Was that all it took to disarm him? A couple of drinks and some conversation?

At this point, did he really care?

“Thanks,” Evgeny said with a smile. “I like you too.”

—

They closed the bar down that night, and Daniel didn't drink as much as he thought he would. If anything, he was pleasantly buzzed, his shitty day at work stored in the back of his mind. The cool, crisp air nipped at him, and he shoved his hands in the pocket of his coat.

“Where do you live? I’ll walk you home,” he said. He moved in front of Evgeny, so they were facing each other, and stopped.

Evgeny laughed, and Daniel tried not to think too much about the flash of white teeth and the flush on Evgeny’s cheeks.

“I live in Brighton Beach. I just come here because I like the atmosphere and no one I know from work hangs around here. Subway station’s a few blocks away. I can make it home.”

“Well I...I live about a block away. You can stay the night, if you want. I’d feel a lot better if you did.”

Evgeny threw his hands up. “Oh I couldn’t impose on you like that. I already talked your ear off for hours at the bar--”

“It’s not an imposition. It’s two in the morning, and it’s not safe for you to go back alone. So just.” Daniel grabbed Evgeny’s hand and began to lead him down the street.

“Oh I...okay.” Evgeny said. He caught up and laced his fingers between Daniel’s.

“Just make sure I don’t run into a pole or something, okay? I can’t see out of my left eye anymore.”

---

Evgeny didn’t quite expect Daniel’s apartment to look the way it did. The place was a bit unkempt, with the desk and couch half buried in paperwork, but was otherwise spotless. Pictures were hung on the wall perfectly straight. A shadow box of Army medals caught his eye. He failed to mention he’s a war hero, Evgeny thought.

“I’d offer you the bed but I haven’t washed my sheets in a while. I hope the couch works.”

Evgeny pulled himself away from his thoughts and nodded. “I can sleep wherever. It’s not a big deal.”

“All right.” Daniel disappeared into his room and came back with a stack of items. A pillow, a blanket, a well worn NYPD shirt, and a pair of sleep pants.

“Wouldn’t want your suit to get all rumpled.”

“Thanks.” Evgeny started the long process of getting undressed, and set everything on the back of a kitchen chair. Daniel started to walk away when he caught a glimpse of Evgeny’s back.

“Something the matter?” Evgeny asked.

“What? No, sorry. I shouldn’t stare.” Daniel berated himself, and at the same time thought what kind of accountant has a physique like that?

“I’m a boxer,” Evgeny said, almost as if he could read Daniel’s expression. “I won the championship my junior year. I still keep up with it because I like it.”

“It must get you a lot of ladies,” Daniel said.

God, this had been a bad idea. He started stacking files and putting them behind the couch, trying not to think about how long it had been since he’d had an extended conversation with someone other than his subordinates or the upper brass, much less—

“Plenty of guys who appreciate it too,” Evgeny said as he pulled the NYPD shirt on. He slipped out of his loafers and Daniel made sure to turn away while he changed pants.

Focusing on the task at hand, Daniel thought, and soon the couch was cleaned off and ready to go.

When he turned, Evgeny was a few feet away from him. Head tilted to the left, dressed in Daniel’s borrowed clothes.

“I uh…I don’t…want to do anything if you don’t want to, and I might be misreading the situation but would it…” Evgeny faltered. Daniel leaned in and kissed him.

“I went to all that effort of loaning you clothes, and you went to all that effort of putting them on, but I would really like it if you took them off and got in bed with me,” Daniel said.

“I’d be happy to oblige,” Evgeny replied.

——

Daniel reached over Evgeny’s sleeping form and grabbed his crumpled pack of cigarettes. The lighter took a little more effort because it was just out of Daniel’s grasp and he didn’t want to wake up his bedmate, but he eventually managed to catch it with his fingertips and pull it into his hand.

He lit up and leaned back against the headboard, breathing out smoke. He could see sunlight begin to stream through the window on the opposite wall. The smoke danced in eddies and whirls, like ink in water.

I should get up and make breakfast, Daniel thought before he remembered he hadn’t gone to the grocery store in a couple of weeks. The contents of the fridge were condiments, some leftovers from three days ago, and dubious milk. The pantry wasn’t much better.

He could make coffee. Coffee was breakfast for him on those days when everything went to shit and he had to get down to the precinct before his boss threatened to put him back on Patrol for twenty minutes.

“Hey Ev.”

“Mmmhmm?” The covers shifted and revealed Evgeny in all of his bed headed glory.

“I don’t have anything to eat around here so we’re gonna have to go out. That okay with you?”

“Yeah, that’s fine with me,” he said, rolling up in the covers.

“Ev, you’ll have to get out of the bed first. And give me back my blankets, you have literally all of them right now except the flat sheet.”

“But your bed is so comfy,” Evgeny replied. “And my nickname is Zhenya. I’m not French.”

“Oh yes, you’re Rrrrussian,” Daniel said with an accent. Evgeny wrinkled his nose.

“Please tell me you’re not serious. That’s the worst impression I’ve ever heard.”

“If you have a problem with it, come over here and stop me,” Daniel said.

Evgeny frowned, tossed the blankets aside, and pinned Daniel’s wrists to the bed. Daniel grinned. He did not mind this view one bit.

“Is this where I read you your Miranda Rights?”

“You don’t read people their rights when you arrest them,” Daniel replied. “Just when you’re about to question them. While Law and Order makes for compelling television it’s not accurate at all.”

“All right then. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…something about an attorney…okay, what the hell was that accent?”

Daniel laughed.

Evgeny Abrakov was officially number one in the “Daniel Law’s Best Tipsy Decisions” category, right above…well, every other person he’d ever gone home with or brought home with him.

“Should we get up and around?” Daniel asked.

“…I could stay in bed for a few more minutes, if you’re up for it,” Evgeny replied.

Daniel didn’t object in the least.

—

When they left Daniel’s apartment, it was close to noon. They found their way to a diner that served breakfast all day and had a booth in the back corner open.

When they got their drinks (black coffee for Daniel, tea for Evgeny) Evgeny slid into the booth beside Daniel.

“Not that I mind, but are we already at that weird “couple who sits on the same side of the table” portion of our relationship?”

Evgeny shrugged. “ I just figured three eyes were better than one when it comes to watching the exits.”

Daniel nearly choked on his coffee.

—

#mads writes #daniel law #whoops I did it again #pairing an OC with a canon character #dezemberzwolf

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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years

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CITIES AND RESEARCH

That was a big deal because his work led to the atom bomb. Before Durer tried making engravings, no one took them very seriously. You can write programs that manipulate them. We usually advise startups to pick a single user and act as if they used the worse-is-better approach but stopped after the first stage and handed the thing over to marketers. Instead of garden sheds they must design huge art museums. Combine that with Pirsig and you get: Live in the future to say this is the truth. But though the result is occasionally cheesy, it's never boring. All you need to undertake to actually be successful. It just worked. It seems to me that he would want to use, like English. Be nice.

Schools are careful what they say about controversial topics, and if one group is a minority in some population, pairs of them will amount to anything. One of the two founders was still in grad school.1 That's one advantage of being small: you can provide a level of service no big company can. But you can and should give users an insanely great experience with an early, incomplete, buggy product, if you have the right sort of person who can have organic startup ideas. Since you can't derive as much benefit yet from a narrow focus, you may think you know how the world works, and any theory a 10 year old. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could achieve a 50% success rate? How many of their users actually needed to do these rentals to pay their rents. They build a coarser model of their surroundings, and this consumes less energy.2 Would it be so bad to add a margin for error.

Which means you should avoid doing things in earlier rounds that will mess up raising an A round. Are there better ways to solve them? I'm thinking this is going to have to do whatever it is eventually. There's a hack for being decisive when you're inexperienced: ratchet down the size of investment they like to make, but only one step. But because adults conceal their flaws, and at the same rate. Now that you can find plenty that are cheap and lightweight. That is certainly a good goal, but in series A rounds with no loss of quality.3 One of the most successful startups it's a necessary part of the money. Several well-known investors. Ideally you should be spending your time on in college is ratcheting yourself into the future.

That may seem like taking things to extremes, but startups will probably do better with founders more in control, and there will almost certainly be more of them. And yet when I got back I didn't discard so much as a half. Understanding growth is what starting a startup for most of my childhood he worked for Westinghouse, modelling nuclear reactors. Girls who dissed him in high school have seen it. Or rather, investors who do that will get you more users. In fact, it's often better not to aim for perfection initially. The designers of Lisp didn't put all those parentheses in the language just to be different. All the search engines are trying to compete with angels by doing more, smaller deals will probably find they do better when deprived of this crutch anyway.

But as happened with Apple, by the time it takes to talk to you about a series A will emerge out of the woodwork every month or so. It was really close, too. Far from it. The Achilles heel of successful companies is their inability to cannibalize themselves. You'll certainly like meeting them. And even if they don't, in which case the market must not exist. And once you start to see growth, they claim they were your friend all along, and are aghast at the thought of what a competitor could do with it. Those ideas are so rare that you can traverse. But that's not how most startups get started. They'll send you emails saying they want to work on. To grow rapidly, you need to be moderately smart to succeed as a startup founder. I don't think a lot of time on the software.

Innocence is also open-mindedness. Whereas founders' intuitions about which hill to climb are usually better than they realize. I stopped worrying about it. Responsibility is an occupational disease of eminence. If you want to raise is 20 x $15k x 18 $5.4 What's missing? You'd have to be enticed to laugh, but if just 2 or 3 percent were regular visitors, you could succeed this way.5 Don't optimize for valuation.

The big media companies shouldn't worry that it isn't widely understood. All kids know it. Startups tend to be concentrated around fundraising. I give up. Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Jessica Livingston, and Robert Morris for reading drafts of this. A startup is too much for it; but there was a separate and laborious process to get it going. When you feel that about an idea you've had while trying to come up with your real idea. We take for granted things that medieval kings would have considered effeminate luxuries, like whole buildings heated to spring temperatures year round. And no convincing means just that: zero time spent meeting with investors or preparing materials for them. If you have multiple incompatible offers, take the best. I put it off because it seemed mysterious and complicated. The trouble is, you may as well cast a wider net and derive what benefit you can from similarities between fields.

You're going to have to go to Silicon Valley could equally well be used to prove startups don't need to worry about. I was confused for years about him. This lets you launch faster, and when a new approach arrives, you may be the same or even better. Is there a general rule for finding problems best solved in one head? Which means, strangely enough, that coming up with startup ideas on demand. And they'll help people they haven't invested in too. In effect the valuation is 2 numbers. So please, get on with giving you a termsheet.

Notes

Or otherwise lose their energy, they did that in effect why can't you be more like a startup to sell, or an electric power grid than without, real income statistics calculated in the Baskin-Robbins.

Y Combinator. They influence one another both directly and indirectly. I tried ranking users by both average and median comment score, and that they cared about users they'd just advise them to ignore competitors.

There may be underestimating VCs.

Success here is that the graph of jobs is not so much, or want tenure, avoid casual conversations with other people's. Professors and politicians live within socialist eddies of the proposal.

But let someone else to lend to, but the meretriciousness of the world of the Web was closely tied to the option pool. August 2002.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #hill #flaws #VCs #startup #time #garden #marketers #month #Trevor

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footballleague0 · 7 years

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Fantasy football picks, sleepers, busts for Week 3

Everyone’s wrong, OK? Let’s just start there.

There are no winners here; everyone is wrong — including me — and I hope we can fix that.

It started in the preseason, when Green Bay Packers tight end Martellus Bennett tweeted this:

I don’t care about your fantasy football team. Thanks! Sincerely real life football guy.

– Martellus Bennett (@MartysaurusRex) September 1, 2017

And what has followed in recent weeks is a slew of tweets from NFL players on the same subject, including Tyler Eifert, Odell Beckham Jr., LeGarrette Blount and Golden Tate among others. Some are nicer than others, some are more aware than others, some use — ahem — saltier language than others. But the message is the same.

“I don’t care about your fantasy team. Stop tweeting at me about it. I don’t care.”

This is not a new phenomenon. I remember getting into a 2015 preseason Twitter back-and-forth with Jeremy Maclin over the same subject. Over the years, Arian Foster and Ray Rice have been very vocal about fantasy football and their disdain for having it pushed on them.

Fantasy football rankings from Matthew Berry, Field Yates, Mike Clay, Eric Karabell and Tristan Cockcroft for Week 3 of the NFL season.

Matchups are a driving force behind weekly lineup decisions in fantasy football. Here are the most- and least-favorable matchups at QB, RB, WR and TE for Week 3 in the NFL.

Which widely available players should you pick up and start for Week 3? Our experts compile the best options at every position, including a Browns quarterback and Redskins running back.

2 Related

And here’s the thing: They are right. No NFL player should care about someone’s fantasy football team. Professionally, all that should be expected of them is that they concentrate on helping their NFL teams win games.

Let me take a moment here to get on my soapbox. Stop. Just stop. Don’t tweet at NFL players. Don’t do it. In the words of coach Herm Edwards: Don’t press send. I have a solution for you at the end of this column, but in the meantime, tweeting to players is a waste of time — for you, for the player, for the universe.

I understand that there is a statistical and transactional nature to fantasy football. It contributes to people thinking of NFL players as statistical pieces of meat rather than as real people with emotions and personal challenges. That doesn’t make it right. And if you don’t get that, I strongly recommend reading Kevin Van Valkenburg’s great piece on Seahawks running back Eddie Lacy and his public battle with weight management.

But either way, I assure you: Whatever NFL player you are tweeting at gave it his all on the field. He is working hard at getting healthy and trying to come back. If he had a bad game, I promise you, he is already well aware of it. No need to let him know.

There’s plenty of things in this world that deserve your attention, your passion and your thoughts online. This ain’t one of them.

So I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to every NFL player who has ever received online grief from fantasy owners. It’s not right, I’m embarrassed by it and I hope I can help contribute to improving the situation.

I also want to personally and specifically apologize to Martellus Bennett.

After he tweeted his “real football guy” line, well, I took exception to it. If we are all just an amalgam of our experiences, I’m one who has waved the flag for fantasy football for over three decades. I’ve heard enough nerd/Dungeons & Dragons/mom’s basement jokes to last five lifetimes — and working on the sixth. You should see the mentions on Martellus’ timeline after this tweet.

I’ve written before about the not-always-smooth path that fantasy football has taken in major media companies, including ESPN. So I am sensitive (overly, if I am being honest) and protective of this little game we play, and it just seemed so weird for Bennett to just tweet that, out of the blue. The “real life football guy” part struck me as condescending and passive-aggressive toward the game we play. Anyway, I responded to his assertion that he doesn’t care about our fantasy teams.

Nor should you. But considering FF is a big driver of the huge interest that allows you to be paid $$$$ maybe not be a jerk about it either? https://t.co/VRVLrktdzD

– Matthew Berry (@MatthewBerryTMR) September 1, 2017

So I want to apologize to Martellus here because I shouldn’t have used jerk. That was too aggressive, and that’s on me. I’ll own my role in this and cop to the fact that I’m not perfect either, especially on social media. So that’s on me and me alone. And so when I am sitting here lecturing people about how they treat NFL players online, realize I am including myself there as well.

After that tweet, Martellus and I went back and forth in a more civil discussion about it, which I was glad about. My disappointment, however, is that while I see his point, he didn’t see mine. He retweeted an easy Dungeons & Dragons barb; he joked back and forth with Eifert (who also doesn’t care about your fantasy team, by the way) and most specifically, disagreed with my point that fantasy football helps him in any way.

And that’s what I mean when I say everyone’s wrong. Fantasy players should not be tweeting anger at NFL athletes. And those same athletes should not care about fantasy football at all. But they also shouldn’t be dismissive of it.

The truth is, fantasy football is great for the NFL and, ultimately, great for players. For the most part, fans care about teams. They like the Packers or the Patriots or the Redskins or whomever. They care about the league.

But the one place where fan interest in more about individual players than teams? Fantasy football. Later in the conversation, Martellus tweeted

“Football was the most popular sport in the world before [fantasy football] and will be after fantasy football. All [fantasy] did was cross-pollinate fans.”

He then added “Y’all act like FF is responsible for all football fans that are watching the game these days. [Fantasy] is not the powerful bruh”

My response to Martellus was this:

“For all? No. Of course not. But it’s certainly helped fuel interest & ratings. And that helps you guys get paid more-as you should be.

“FF is a reason that there will be millions of additional Martellus fans that are NOT GB fans. How is that a bad thing for you?

“You don’t need to embrace it. You shouldn’t care about anything other than GB winning. But no reason to dismiss those that play. That’s all.”

The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry airs at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN2 every weekday. We will, however, be on ESPN on Mondays during the season. There are also late night re-airs (check your listings and set those DVRs) and replays are always available on WatchESPN by clicking on the NFL tab.

It’s those last two points I wish I could get through to players like Martellus, Odell, LeGarrette and others. Odell Beckham doesn’t need fantasy football to be famous, well paid or any of that. But players like him are few and far between. There’s a lot more players like Tarik Cohen, Jack Doyle, Rashard Higgins, Cooper Kupp and Austin Hooper, to name a few. You think anyone, anywhere, is talking about Rashard Higgins outside of Cleveland other than fantasy owners?

Football has always been popular, and it would still be a huge business without fantasy football. But it wouldn’t be as big. On Thursday the 49ers and the Rams are going to play, and you know who outside of California is going to watch that game? Fantasy players, that’s who. Because, let’s be honest, that ain’t a sexy game, Mr. Bennett.

I’m not delusional. I’d be shocked if any NFL players read this column, but I know that agents, as well as NFL public relations and NFL Players Association people, do read this, so I’m hopeful they will help spread the message. No one is asking you to care. Just don’t be dismissive. Or just keep it to yourself. Because that’s not helping the conversation either.

I interviewed Cardinals running back David Johnson this summer, and when I asked him about fantasy football, he said, “Fantasy has blown up. I never knew much about it; I’ve been forced into it, but it’s a great opportunity. A great opportunity to see more fans of different teams, but they are fans of me and it’s just cool to see.”

Just this week, when Johnson was asked if he’d thought about fantasy football players as he recovers from his wrist injury, he said, “Fantasy is the last thing on my mind right now.”

As it should be, and we should respect him enough to keep it that way.

He has exactly the right attitude. Every agent should copy and paste that first quote and give it to their players. Tell them, when asked about fantasy, they should just say that and move on. And not check their Twitter accounts. Because while I don’t agree with the attitude of some players, I certainly understand where it comes from. My Twitter gets blown up with awful, hateful things every Sunday, and that’s just me. I’m just some dumb guy on basic cable. I can only imagine how much worse it is for players.

So here’s my solution. I have created a Twitter account: @StanleyStink.

Stanley is a player. He is a player on your fantasy team. And he just killed your hopes this weekend. Crushed your team. It is all his fault. He sucks. He is brutal. And you should let him have it.

Instead of channeling your anger at a specific person, send it to Stanley. He’ll listen. He has all the filters off, and he will never block anyone — he promises. So go to town on Stanley. Get it off your chest, blow off some steam and save your tweets to real athletes for gratitude, when they carry your fantasy team to victory. Because that’s gonna be the case more often than not.

Quarterbacks I love in Week 3Cam Newton may be off to a sluggish start in fantasy, but the matchups don’t get much better for a QB than the Saints. Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports

Cam Newton, Panthers: A year after being drafted as QB1 and finishing as QB17, Newton’s comeback tour has hit a bit of a snag, as he has scored fewer fantasy points than Josh McCown and Sam “one game” Bradford. Which is why it’s a perfect time to take a dip in the healing powers of Lake Minnetonka, otherwise known as the Saints’ secondary. New Orleans is last in the NFL in completion percentage allowed, yards per attempt allowed, fantasy points allowed and tied for the most touchdowns allowed. The Saints have even allowed more deep touchdown passes (three) than deep incompletions (two) this season. The past three times Newton has gotten a full week of prep time prior to facing the Saints, he has thrown for at least 315 yards against them. I like his chances at making it four in a row.

Matthew Stafford, Lions: So after two weeks on the “hate” list, Stafford and I are tied. He was a rock star in Week 1 (bad call by me) and not much in Week 2 (yay me). So let’s see if we can work together, Mr. Stafford, and bring it home for the both us. Although he looked locked in, I was down on Stafford in the preseason not because of his talent (he’s a terrific real-life QB) but because of the ball-control offense the Lions wanted to run, something you saw on full display on Monday night. And I fear that will be the case more often than not. But back at home in the dome in a game where the Lions will have to throw to keep up? I’m all-in. Since the beginning of last season, only two teams have allowed more fantasy points to quarterbacks than the Falcons, and that doesn’t figure to improve with Vic Beasley Jr. out. Stafford is locked in as a high-end QB1 this week in what should be a shootout.

Carson Wentz, Eagles: So, the Eagles can’t run and it doesn’t seem like the Giants can tackle. Even if the Giants get Janoris Jenkins back (expected as of Wednesday night), this is still a recipe for fantasy success for Wentz, the only quarterback in the NFL with at least 300 yards passing and multiple passing touchdowns in each of the first two games this season. It’s a pass-first, pass-second and pass-third offense — since Week 8 of last season, no QB has thrown more passes — and much like Stafford on Monday night, Wentz’s mobility will allow him to avoid the Giants’ pass rush. I have no idea why I am the only ranker to have Wentz in the top 10 this week.

Others receiving votes: Carson Palmer drives me crazy, but at home on Monday night — and as another QB in an offense that can’t run — he should be able to put up points against a struggling Cowboys secondary that just gave up four scores to Trevor Siemian. I like Palmer’s chances of another solid game. … The rushing keeps DeShone Kizer’s floor high and the Colts’ defense keeps his upside pretty high. … While I don’t expect Alex Smith to remain the No. 1 QB in fantasy by the end of the season, he should usable once again this week against a Chargers team that he has had at least 13.4 fantasy points against in every game since joining K.C. in 2013. He scored 52.68 total points last season in two games against the Bolts.

Quarterbacks I hate in Week 3

Russell Wilson, Seahawks: Remember the last season in which the Seahawks didn’t allow Wilson to be pressured at a top-three rate? No? Don’t feel bad, it has never happened. With limited protection, it shouldn’t be surprising that Wilson has completed just 57.9 percent of his passes against the blitz (19th) since 2015. It’s not just the offensive line struggles, but potentially being without Jimmy Graham doesn’t help and you can’t ignore his road struggles (19.1 percent fewer fantasy PPG on the road since 2015). A slow starter, Wilson has averaged 14.32 points per game in September the past three seasons (QB25 last year), but has averaged 19.82 points per game from October on (QB6 last year). Which means patience with Wilson, but maybe look elsewhere for Sunday.

Ben Roethlisberger, Steelers: This is another surprising one to me as well, as many of my colleagues have Ben inside their top 10 this week. We know how much Roethlisberger struggles on the road (just 15 points at Cleveland in Week 1, he averages just 13.59 away from Pittsburgh since 2015) and very quietly, the Bears are actually pretty tough against QBs at home, where they rank as a top-10 unit since the start of 2016. In that span, the Bears have given up just seven passing touchdowns in nine home games. Ben is outside my top 10 this week.

Running backs I love in Week 3

Carlos Hyde, 49ers: The talent was never in question, it has always been the health. He’s healthy now and in a run-first offense that plays to his strength. After an impressive performance on the road in Seattle last week, everyone is starting him, but I wanted to highlight him as I am the only ranker to have him in the top six and feel he is worth the price for those playing DFS. The volume is there and in a short week, I’d expect even more of an emphasis on the running game. And I also expect that to be successful, as the Rams are allowing the seventh-most yards per carry and fifth-most running back points this season.

Frank Gore should get plenty of touches Sunday at home and faces a fantasy-friendly foe. Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Frank Gore, Colts: What are the Colts gonna do, let Jacoby Brissett throw it? They won’t have to against the Browns, so while a vulture TD from Marlon Mack is always a possibility, Gore looked spry last week and the Browns have allowed 4.49 yards per carry since the start of last season. Expect another heavy workload and a top-20 finish from Gore in Week 3.

Theo Riddick, Lions: Death, taxes and you start pass-catching running backs against Atlanta. Since the start of last season, the Falcons have allowed the most receptions, the second-most receiving yards and most receiving touchdowns to opposing running backs. With two high-powered offenses on the turf in what should be a high-scoring game, expect Riddick to be used enough to be worthy of a top-20 play in PPR leagues.

Others receiving votes: Javorius Allen has out-touched Terrance West in two straight weeks and I expect that to continue, especially in the passing game, as Baltimore struggles with its vertical passing game. Also, West didn’t practice on Wednesday. … With Corey Coleman going down to injury, Duke Johnson Jr. is now leading the Browns in overall targets and on targets 15 yards downfield. Indy is tied for the most pass attempts of 15-plus yards allowed downfield. I like the Browns’ chances of moving the ball through the air here and Johnson will be a part of that. … OK, it would be a gutty call, no doubt, but with a change in offensive coordinator the Bengals need to do something, so how about increasing Joe Mixon’s touches against a Packers team giving up the second-most yards per carry before first contact this season. The Bengals have to do something different and I believe that includes more Mixon.

Running backs I hate in Week 3

Jordan Howard, Bears: Howard was out-snapped 40-29 by Tarik Cohen last week and he really hasn’t looked great when he has had the ball in his hands (73 yards on 25 touches). Digging further, Howard has been outgained by Cohen (6.6 yards per carry to 2.7) and only three of Howard’s carries have come with eight men or more in the box. The Steelers have been a top-10 run defense (in terms of yards per carry) since Week 9 last season. Whether it’s injury, sophomore slump or some combination, Howard is hard to trust as anything more than a flex this week.

Bilal Powell, Jets: Powell has fewer carries and targets than Matt Forte this season and has been out-snapped by Forte in both games, too. Hey, anytime you can get the backup RB on a terrible offense you gotta do it, amirite? Small-sample-size alert, of course, but the fact that the Dolphins held Melvin Gordon to 13 yards on nine carries last week can’t make you feel great about Powell’s chances, either. Eventually, I believe Forte gives way to Powell, but not this week, and not against Miami.

Adrian Peterson, Saints: If Sean Payton isn’t gonna use him, why should you? So far it would appear this is one helluva a bad call by me. I still have hope, but it’s fading and I certainly don’t see a lot of daylight for him against a Panthers team that has given up just 2.4 yards per carry to opposing running backs this season, third fewest in the NFL (and they’ve faced Carlos Hyde and LeSean McCoy). They are, however, tied for the fourth-most receptions allowed to opposing running backs this season, which means Alvin Kamara could be interesting for those in deeper leagues.

Wide receivers I love in Week 3

A.J. Green, Bengals: Just in case you were thinking of getting cute … don’t. I like him in DFS this week as well, as the Packers have surrendered the third-most deep completions and the most deep touchdowns since the beginning of last season.

Kelvin Benjamin, Panthers: Well, you know I am in on Cam this week, so it stands to reason I’m also a fan of the guy who leads the Panthers in targets on passes of 15-plus yards downfield this season. This may come as a shock, but the Saints have allowed opposing QBs to complete 87.5 percent of those throws, including more TDs (three) than incompletions (two) on those throws. Especially with Greg Olsen out, Benjamin is a top-20 play for me.

Golden Tate, Lions: Since the beginning of last season, the Falcons are allowing more than 110 yards per game to slot receivers. No other team is allowing even 90 yards per game. I’ll take volume against Atlanta every day of the week and considering that Tate leads the league in routes run since joining the Lions in 2014, he has top-10 potential this week in a shootout in Detroit. And if for some reason he doesn’t, you know, don’t tweet him.

Others receiving votes: One knock against Jarvis Landry is that he never scores, but that may change this weekend, as the Jets have allowed the fourth-most yards per catch to slot receivers (12.6) and the fifth-most slot TDs (12) since the start of last season. You were already using Landry in PPR, but I’m good with him in non-PPR this week as well. … Cooper Kupp makes his third appearance in as many weeks on this list, as he has accounted for 91.3 percent of the Rams’ slot yardage and his scoring upside is higher than usual. Opponents have completed a league-high 75 percent of their red zone passes when targeting the slot against the Niners since the beginning of last season, thus landing Kupp on the PPR WR3 radar Thursday night. … Rashard Higgins impressed with seven grabs in Week 2 and the Browns’ offense could be as potent as ever — a low bar to set, but still — against a vulnerable Colts secondary that has allowed a league-high 14 deep completions. Gimme some Rashard Higgins.

Wide receivers I hate in Week 3Dez Bryant hasn’t put up big numbers the first two weeks and now has to face an elite corner in Patrick Peterson on Monday night. Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Dez Bryant, Cowboys: Mike Clay’s WR/CB matchups column is among the articles I make sure to check weekly before setting my lineup, and he has Patrick Peterson extending Bryant’s struggles. How can you not agree? Peterson (6-foot-1 and 203 pounds) is one of the few corners who can match up physically with him. This is still a good offensive line despite what we saw last weekend and I think the Boys look to get their identity back. This passing game isn’t as inept as we’ve seen thus far, but this isn’t the week to right the ship. Dez is merely a touchdown-dependent, low-end WR2/3 this week.

Alshon Jeffery, Eagles: This is with the assumption that Janoris Jenkins plays, since that’s the expectation as of this writing. Since the start of last season, the Giants have allowed the second-lowest completion rate to WRs both overall (56.3 percent) and on passes of 15-plus yards downfield (31.9 percent). Carson Wentz has 640 yards passing this season and yet, just 130 of them have gone to Jeffery. Wentz has been spreading it around and I’m not sure that changes Sunday given the coverage I expect Jeffery to get. I can’t imagine you have better options, but he’s not a DFS play for me and is merely a high-end WR3 this week.

Tight ends I love in Week 3

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Jack Doyle, Colts: No Andrew Luck, and yet I’m in on a pass-catcher for Indy? You betcha, he said, because apparently when talking about Indy players it helps if you talk like you live there. Doyle seemed to have a bit of a connection with Jacoby Brissett last week (eight catches for 79 yards) and if you’re a tight end, it doesn’t get any better than a date with the Browns. They’ve allowed the most fantasy points, most receptions, third-most receiving yards and are tied for the most receiving scores to opposing TEs this season. That’s while facing the likes of Jesse James and Benjamin Watson.

Charles Clay, Bills: From 2002 to ’16, there were exactly two instances in which a defense generated pressure on at least 34 percent of dropbacks for a season: the 2015 Broncos and the 2016 Broncos. Why am I putting that stat beneath a Love tight end? Well, since the beginning of last season, Clay’s reception share jumps from 19.1 percent when Tyrod Taylor is not under pressure to 24.6 percent when he is feeling the heat. The Broncos just got lit up by Jason Witten, so yeah, in a desperate tight end week, you could do worse than Clay.

Austin Hooper, Falcons: He has yet to see much in the way of targets, but he should be able to make the most of what opportunities he does get against the Lions. Since the beginning of last season, Detroit ranks as a bottom-five defense in terms of completion percentage and touchdowns allowed to tight ends. There should be no shortage of points in this one, so look for Hooper to bounce back after a disappointing Week 2.

Others receiving votes: Zach Miller has run a route on 82.1 percent of his snaps this season (the highest rate among the 81 tight ends who have played at least 15 snaps), a trend that is worth a roll of the dice against a Steelers defense that has allowed the ninth-most TE receptions since the beginning of last season. … Benjamin Watson caught all eight of his targets last week and I think the Jags’ ability to pressure the quarterback is real (league-high 44.9 percent pressure rate this season). Since the beginning of last season, the majority of Joe Flacco’s targets when under pressure have gone to non-WRs … and Watson is basically the lone non-WR standing at this point.

Tight ends I hate in Week 3

Jason Witten, Cowboys: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that Witten has nearly as many catches as any other tight end has targets this season and that he has scored in back-to-back weeks to open the season. But what is most likely to occur? This stretch in which he has scored once every 11 targets, or his career average of one score every 24 targets? Witten has never been a consistent source of touchdowns, and with the Cardinals having held tight ends to the second-fewest receptions (and the fewest PPR points) since the beginning of last season, I just don’t see TE1 upside on Monday night.

Martellus Bennett, Packers: Aaron Rodgers leads the league in pass attempts and is second in passing yardage … and Marty B has 90 yards. Even in a shootout last week with Atlanta and every pass-catcher banged up, Rodgers and Bennett just couldn’t connect. The Bengals have given up just 19 yards to opposing tight ends this season. Now, that’s skewed because Houston literally had no one at tight end and Baltimore didn’t need to throw much in Week 1, but still. Based on what we have seen so far and an expectation that Cincy comes to play in this one, I have Bennett outside my top 10 this week.

Defenses to stream in Week 3

For updated order of preference, check out my rankings.

Miami Dolphins (at Jets, 89 percent available); Baltimore Ravens (vs. Jaguars, 43 percent available); Tampa Bay Buccaneers, especially if Bradford doesn’t play (at Vikings, 89 percent available); Philadelphia Eagles (vs. Giants, 88 percent available).

Matthew Berry, The Talented Mr. Roto, also thinks you should tweet mean things to celebrities. He is the creator of RotoPass.com, the founder of the Fantasy Life app and a paid spokesperson for DRAFT.

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