#(this is the fall villareals all The villareals for me. i could never change them i don't have the heart) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

joycabpad · 8 days

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Official Sherlock And Co Adventures In Audio By Rd.john Watson Shirt One day, I had a Official Sherlock And Co Adventures In Audio By Rd.john Watson Shirt , and I lay down in my recliner. As time went by, I may have dozed off just a bit. I only recall that I was suddenly aware that on my chest and lap, all four of our cats had very quietly gotten up onto me and had lain down up against each other and now were just purring very softly.

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The gnomes are of various sizes–most of them much smaller than human beings, though some of them have the New York Yankees Fanatics Branded Start Spreading The News Bring It T Shirt of changing their stature at will. This is the result of the extreme mobility of the element in which they function. Concerning them the Abbé de Villars wrote: “The earth is filled well nigh to its center with Gnomes, people of slight stature, who are the guardians of treasures, minerals and precious stones. They are ingenious, friends of man, and easy to govern.” Not all authorities agree concerning the amiable disposition of the gnomes. Many state that they are of a tricky and malicious nature, difficult to manage, and treacherous. Writers agree, however, that when their confidence is won they are faithful and true. The philosophers and initiates of the ancient world were instructed concerning these mysterious little people and were taught how to communicate with them and gain their cooperation in undertakings of importance. The magi were always warned, however, never to betray the trust of the elementals, for if they did, the invisible creatures, working through the subjective nature of man, could cause them endless sorrow and probably ultimate destruction. So long as the mystic served others, the gnomes would serve him, but if he sought to use their aid selfishly to gain temporal power they would turn upon him with unrelenting fury. The same was true if he sought to deceive them.

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I hope not because that’s the way I’ve done it ever since leaving my parents’ house at 17. We always had the Colton Cowser The Milkman Shirt Christmas Day opening growing up, but that’s in part because our grandparents were there too. Once on my own, for some reason it seemed to make more sense (to me) to have a nice dinner and open the presents on Christmas eve. That left Christmas day to do whatever. Not much was open when I was younger, so it could be a day of quiet, relaxation and reflection. Some of my friends always did it on Christmas eve … especially as I recall my Catholic friends. Often they went to Midnight Mass and also had services on Christmas day. My church had a midnight service, but they more or less suggested adults only. And unless Christmas happened to be Sunday, there was no Christmas day service.

Official unethical Threads I Support Single Moms Shirt Now the site keeping her alive had developed an Official unethical Threads I Support Single Moms Shirt. A sort of little balloon in the artery just waiting to burst. Hospital records show the doctors and nurses were aware of it. Though they had no answer when I asked why they did nothing about it. Imagine an artery and vein both bleeding at the same time. Niagra Falls held at bay by a flimsy pressure dressing applied before bed. I later described it as a “lake of blood”. And it happened at night. When we were asleep. It was my worst nightmare realized.

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enkisstories · 5 years

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The android cemetery (Chapter 5)

Daniel was already at home and out of uniform when Gavin entered the two-story apartment. The android was lounging on the couch in the floor/downstairs living room combo. He wore a short-sleeved button-up shirt in red and blue jeans, a welcome break from his preferred upper-class butler’s style. There was a bit of a snob in Gavin’s boyfriend, a trait the man had never expected to find himself drawn to. But attraction obviously followed its own rules, especially if one of the attracted in question didn’t even have hormones.

Daniel was holding his phone in one hand and tickling Loki, Gavin’s blue-point ragdoll cat, under the chin with the other. Another cat, a black Somali-mix called Thor, was lazing stretched out on the couch. The tom made sure not to touch the android. Thor accepted, even demanded, the occasional petting from Daniel, but he would not purr for the still somewhat new family member. Only after Gavin had closed the door behind himself did Thor jump down and proceeded to circle his returned “mama”’s legs. There was no competition from the other tom for now. Yes, viewed in this light that new biped had something going for it. The more time Loki spent with it, the more time there was for just Thor and Mama! Gavin’s lips formed a silent “Phone - who?”. The answer came in the form of Morse-code from Daniel’s LED: “Emmas-stop-therapist”.

Ah, right, Emma Phillips. That was something new. Not just was a new boyfriend living in the apartment, along with Daniel Gavin had acquired an extended family. Before Daniel it had only ever been himself, his cats and the parents at the holidays. There had not been a shortage of sex, but as the man had explained to Daniel last year, beings friends wasn’t a prerequisite for that. Boyfriends were a hassle anyway, because sometimes they turned out crime lord Jacques Villareal’s right-hand men and tried to shoot Gavin. Admittedly that had happened only once, but it still stung years later, because for the first time since college Gavin had actually harbored feelings for that one.

Of course there had always been Tina Chen and both of them had fully expected to end up together out of habit, because it wasn’t fun to be all alone when you were old and with only a slim pension, because androids had forced you out of employment. But here Gavin Reed was, in a steady relationship, and Daniel had promised to help Tina find a boyfriend of her own.

Gavin slipped out of shoes and jacket. Tip-toeing around Thor he went to the kitchen and opened the fridge. It contained mostly fresh ingredients nowadays instead of a pinned-on list of food delivery services across the city: Seafood for the organics and thirium sherbet for Daniel. For all their efficiency, androids were not perpetuum mobiles. Once a month they had to replenish their lifeblood. Many deviants, especially those who were openly living among humans, had adopted to the practice of consuming smaller doses during regular mealtimes. Daniel had tried that, too, but realized that he enjoyed watching his human eat a lot more than doing it himself. And of course there were those times when he was fed up with humanity and would gulp down the blue blood right out of the bottle to prove a point. Gavin got a can of beer from the fridge and a strip of bubble gum from a basket on top of it. Then he returned to the living room where Daniel had just finished his conversation. The man slumped down on the couch opposite to his partner and teased Loki with the bubble gum. Just when the cat jumped for it, Gavin tossed the strip towards Daniel, then caught Loki and put him on the floor gently. You absolutely didn’t want a cat on the sofa when you were about to cuddle feet to feet with your partner. In fact, you absolutely, positively did not want a cat with you when you were presenting your naked toes anywhere and for any reason.

Gavin then flicked open the beer. For a few precious minutes he let the world do its own thing. There was beer and tickles and the cats bouncing over each other on the floor and Daniel forming shapes out of his bubblegum that other than him only Gandalf had managed with his smoke pipe in the first Lord of the Rings movie. This was home, this was bliss, this was life going Gavin’s way for once. He had laid claim on what he had wanted and would not give it back anytime soon!

Eventually there was no more beer and the gum had went to a place where it would be the maid’s problem tomorrow. They smiled at each other.

“To quote Emma: Stupid therapist and her ideas”, Daniel remarked, referring to the talk he just had. “I swear, if she knew who I really was she’d want me to tell Emma!”

“Kid’s got to step in line”, Gavin replied. “’cuzz Captain Allen already called dibs on that.”

“The sucker did what?!”

Whatever peeve Daniel had with the therapist was forgotten over the news. Gavin recounted what had transpired at the DPD, finishing with: “Yumiko gave me funny looks all the time. She suspects I butchered the archive android for your new skin module.”

“Considering what you took out of there when all you needed was a bloody broom I wouldn’t put that past you, either!” Daniel said, laughing with that raspy industrial noise androids produced at such an occasion. It made him sound like a chain smoker. “But I wouldn’t worry overmuch. My files are in order. Everything’s there: no irregularities at first initialization, delivery to the cyberlife store, sold to my first owners, then you buying me from them after a year, then getting lended to the DPD and finally our accident on Lake Erie followed by the android museum buying me and putting me back in shape.”

“I dunno… I said on occasion that I found you in the trash.”

“That might not be a contradiction. My first owner might not have liked you grabbing for free what he had just thrown away and charged you.”

“I would have hit him, had he tried that!”

Daniel winked when he replied: “Maybe you beat him out of his senses, but the resulting hospital bill would not show up in my file, right?” He flung himself forward and into the other’s arms. “You know that between the two of us I am the good guy!”

That claim caused them both to laugh. They kissed, then laughed some more and then Daniel tried to caress Gavin’s nose with his. He was met with an unwilling “Unh!”. Maybe it was the plastic nose feeling weird, maybe it was the childishness of the act or something else entirely, but Gavin hated it. Daniel adjusted his position for them to end up sitting in each other’s lap, forehead to forehead, arms around the other’s shoulders.

“The Underground Airline’s best hacker doctored my file”, Daniel said reassuringly after letting some time pass. “The very best.”

Gavin sighed. It wasn’t a sound of pleasure.

“What?”

The human grabbed his partner. He pushed Daniel backwards a little, stared him into the eyes as if looking for some sense to be found in the space behind them and when he could locate none barked:

“Your “very best” is a gaming bot, for fuck’s sake! It can make mistakes!”

Daniel shook his head. “I know that’s what she initialized as. But now Yuki is tracking the author’s keyboard strokes as the woman writes the intermediate chapters for Beasts of Fire.”

To Daniel’s surprise Gavin displayed no sense of wonder at that feat. Instead he was looking as if he was about to get flayed alive.

“But doesn’t that mean Yuki has to read that stuff?” the human uttered. “Why would any sane soul want to do that?”

Daniel playfully hit Gavin.

“Your taste in literature is abominable!”

Equally playfully dodging the “assault” Gavin replied: “I do not have a taste in literature!”

“I noticed”, Daniel laughed.

They were sitting next to each other on the couch now, the wall-high balcony window in their back and the new TV on the wall right in front of them. Gavin bent forward, elbows on his knees, head tucked between his fists. Daniel to the contrary leaned back and placed his feet onto the couch table.

“Okay”, Gavin started again, “let’s say everything is in order as far as Dean is concerned. So what did Super Smash Sister do with Daniel’s file? Did she leave it as is, creating two androids with the same DNA, or did she delete it? Well?”

Daniel jerked forward. His gaze met Gavin’s as the other was raising his head and while the human shot him an angry “See? Told you!” expression, Daniel’s own slowly changed to one of terror.

There was no need to answer the last question. Since there was no more PL600 down in the archive, Yuki Villareal would simply have deleted the accompanying file. Probably the whole case file, too. While humans who remembered Daniel having been there were all around the DPD!

“Yuki hasn’t… she wouldn’t…” Daniel sputtered.

“Of course she would! Yuki also had to hack Camp Five’s security, all in one night! And for that stunt there were no Hank and Connor to help out with passcodes. With a real challenge ahead of it, the little gold farming bot went the easy route in your case!”

“Yes.” Daniel slowly sacked towards his partner, who slung his arms around the android and hugged him tight. “Yes, you’re probably right.”

The Underground Airline’s hacker had been in a hurry due to some real minor stuff like Daniel, Gavin and Markus having had a shootout in the backyard of Brindleton Bay’s movie theatre...

“It’s all Markus’s fault!” Gavin claimed. “Idiot homeschooled arts major…”

“Well, what do you expect? He’s Connor’s great-something grandfather! Think of everything that’s weird about Connor and then remember that he is the improved Markus!”

“Yeah.” Gavin nodded. “That explains a lot, actually.”

Daniel picked up a cat at random. He put it on both their laps and started stroking. After a while the furball started tearing into Gavin’s upper leg with dedication.

“I shouldn’t have said that about Connor”, Daniel mused. “He’s dedicated… loyal… By right I should fall head over heels for him, but… eww.”

“Eww, plastic prick”, Gavin agreed.

“But he’s also my friend”, Daniel insisted. “Now. Yours, too.”

“No way!”

“I was right about the five of us becoming a team, I’m right about this, too.”

“Whatever. Let’s focus on the missing PL600. We need a replacement and quickly!”

The moment he had said it, Gavin cursed himself for having voiced his thoughts. The easiest solution to their dilemma would be to buy a pre-owned PL600 on e-bay, switch it off, shoot it a few times, drop it off a roof, run its legs over with the family car and put the resulting mess into the archive quietly. And of course Daniel was well aware of that, because he said: “You are not thinking of what I think you are!”

Gavin could have slapped himself that moment. His too quick trap be damned! Had the detective just kept it shut, he could have gone through with the plan tonight, using an urgent call from work as an excuse. Daniel and Tina would have went to the basketball game the trio had planned to watch, while he’d corrected his mistake from one and a half years ago. But that door was closing even as Gavin had spotted it in the corridor.

“Does it matter what I think, if I don’t go through with it?” he growled.

Disturbed in his bliss Loki jumped off the couch. He proceeded to claw away on it to regain his mental balance, only to get his claws detached from the fabric by the two bipeds. The cat turned once around itself and then decided to chase Thor onto the windowsill.

“‘sides”, Gavin followed through, “people say I look like Kamski. If roles were reversed and you needed a dead Gavin, you’d beat in Kamski’s skull and sell him to Allen as me!”

“I guess so”, Daniel had to admit. “Unlike PL600s there’s only two of you, though.”

“Moot point. You don’t want me to make use of all those PL600s. Come to think of it…” Gavin’s face brightened when what he perceived a near-genius idea came to him. So, basically what he thought of all his ideas. ”What if it was already dead?” the man whispered.

“What do you mean?”

“Think old androids! The hand-me-downs, or the ones destroyed in accidents, any android that cannot get sold or gifted away anymore or whose owner is simply too lazy to consider any form of re-use – where do you think they all end up?”

“Ugh.”

“Exactly!”

Both of them voiced it simultaneously, one sounding appalled, the other triumphant: “The solid waste landfill!”

#non sims #sims4 dbh partfive #detroit become human #sims4danielgavin

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protierras · 5 years

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igglemouse · 7 years

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Still Loading...

I think I will release the one Carnage post I have for today, just so I can say I posted something!

More below since this post became kind of long I guess...

Good news though! The epilogue posts will be coming and then the actual gen 5 posts!

Also, there are some things changing for gen 5. It is more story focused and less just gameplay things...it is still a lot of gameplay though! Also, sims are now stuck in their worlds. Before Carla could visit Skyler whenever, but now a Sim that lives in a world lives in that world and maybe the other world is a flight away?

It’s a little thing that is a big thing. It does not mean that the heirs will never meet each other. I just did it so that the heirs have more of their own story. So that not everyone who needed to get into shape goes to Skyler for example (as it worked in gen 4 when Solana and Carla asked her for help) but instead I’d use a new sim and character for that kind of scenario...

To further explain...the worlds are split up. Windenburg, Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, and San Myshuno, Newcrest are all main worlds. Forgotten Hollow is a sub world for Windenburg (think of it being an hours or two drive away) and Magnolia Promenade sucks so I just use it to mark character sims (For example, Hubert Fournier and other sims so that the game doesn’t mess with them) as played...and still use it for that reason lol. Granite Falls I’d love to use...but it’s just a vacation world for now.

Aurelia has moved to San Myshuno and Ramona both live in San Myshuno now so they will interact with each other.

Daria lives in Windenburg.

Wilfried still lives in Oasis Springs.

Newcrest and Willows Creek just won’t be used too much for Gen 5 (unless a sim moves there) and all the cousins and heirs that were not picked have also been assigned a town. So Lourdes and Angel Villareal have moved to Windenburg (since the other Villareals are there and to give Daria some company since her sister has moved away!) and Wilfried’s siblings have also stayed in Oasis Springs and you’ll find out why in the Epilogue posts! The rest of them you’ll see here and there!

For example, Summer Gowers now lives in San Myshuno. She was a wildcard, daughter of Marquez Gowers who some of you will know as Carlotta’s brother and so she’s the cousin of Aurelia. All of the wildcards will go up for download along with the heirs that were not picked! Just give me time for that I suppose!

Happy Simming!

#stuff #queue resumes soon!

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animeindoblog-blog · 6 years

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Grancrest Senki – 08

New Post has been published on https://animeindo.org/blog/2018/02/25/grancrest-senki-08/

Grancrest Senki – 08

「会議は踊る」 (Kaigi wa Odoru) “The Congress Dances”

So close to happily ever after.

Of the two halves of this episode, the romance of Marrine and Alexis was clearly the stronger. Not the one with the most potential—it was a standard star-crossed lovers tale, Romeo and Juliet without the suicide (though there’s still time)—but it was the better executed. That’s because while it was standard, they hit all the beats well, and they did one thing unexpectedly well: Alexis is actually a good guy. Partially as compared to this boorish ass, but he’s a good person in his own right—kind, soft-spoken, and with an idealistic outlook that’s backed up by a coherent philosophy of leadership. His philosophy might be wrong, or at least ahead of its time—they live in a world of iron and blood, with no United Nations or bias toward diplomacy to hash disagreements out—but it’s certainly attractive. I can’t blame Marrine for falling for him. Add on how he pursues Marrine a bit too aggressively at first—and his love at first sight line definitely reeked of playboy, not a good move—but when she gave him a clear no later on he agreed to back off … I mean, most men in our enlightened modern age don’t do that! (If you think that last comment was partially sarcastic, you are correct.) That first half isn’t going to win any awards, but it was executed well with an element that elevated. I’ll take it.

The second half wasn’t nearly so good. The council session at times reminded me of the Round Table Conference of Log Horizon fame, but it lacked a crucial ingredient: how to inject drama into an all-talking scene. The Round Table Conference scenes watched more like a battle than many of the actual battles in Log Horizon, complete with surprising turnarounds and finishing moves. The flow of Grancrest Senki’s council scene is all in Villar’s favor—until suddenly it’s not. As best I can tell, the tide was turned when Alexis tried to cede leadership of the Union to Villar, which forced Villar to refuse because of his Kreische blood (I guess), after which Dawson pounced and pushed for Alexis’ preferred method of peace, likely because Dawson knew that the Alliance would refuse and would probably attack Altirk. Dawson is using the Alliance to eliminate one of his internal enemies, making the classic geopolitical mistake of letting your disagreements extend beyond your country’s/alliance’s borders, even while it’s actually a savvy political move (just one that’s liable to haunt him in the end, when he needs someone to defend him and Altirk is gone).

The problem is that the drama was lacking during the scene, and I had to piece some of this together later (and I’m still not sure precisely why Villar’s Kreische blood matters, rulers were always marrying into each other’s families during time periods like this). A few extra lines to give an immediate reaction—Siluca provided some of this, but not enough—would have helped, like a sports announcer providing analysis on the play-by-play. Or really just stage the scene so that it’s not so flat. The result was a weak scene that played more puzzling than decisive, not helped by all the nameless nobles who never do anything other than say “No objection.” Coulda been better.

At least something didn’t go Theo’s way this time, since Altirk is liable to feel the business end of Marrine’s hammer. Which will probably just give opportunities for more Theo heroics, but I’m cool with that, gotta get those somewhere. Oh, expect I guess Rossini got expelled from the Union, but that was a foregone conclusion. Heh, got kicked out in two lines of dialogue, like the footnote he is. Screw you, Pederico!

Random thoughts:

Rant time: Marrine’s reason for backing out of the marriage is shit. So what if people are against your marriage, and willing to kill for it? When they kill someone, you mourn, and find the perpetrators if you can, but you do NOT let them change what you were going to do. You don’t let it stop you. It’s the same with terrorism—if they bomb the cafe, you rebuild the cafe just like it was. You make it clear: they do not matter. They are not important. They can cause pain, destruction, and death, but that cannot break you, and they cannot change you. As soon as you let these people change you, it’s over—they’ve won.

That said, the above is a very relatable mistake. It took a long time for human society to recognize this as the right response—and then only some societies some of the time. Mostly we still fuck it up. It’s a very human mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. (And also granted, a ruler has to worry about what will keep them in power. It could be that their marriage would lead to them being deposed and executed. But if you believe it to be the right course, do it anyway. They apparently did before. They just faltered at the last step.)

I highly approve of Alexis’ method of not-charity. Instead he’s tricking them (incentivizing them) into learning something they may enjoy, and which may enrich their lives. I’m totally down with that.

“I don’t know how long it will take, but I promise to come for you.” That’s the crucial line. That’s what Marrine is doing, even now.

My SECOND novel, Freelance Heroics, is available now! (Now in print!) (Also available: Firesign #1 Wage Slave Rebellion.) Sign up for my email list for updates. At stephenwgee.com, the latest post: Book 3 Progress Report.

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junker-town · 7 years

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The 5 stages of a surprise contender

The Brewers, Twins, and Rockies are all in first place. Here’s how things will progress from here.

It’s almost June. The Brewers and Cubs are playing a series that people care about. It’s almost June. The Brewers and Cubs are playing a series that people care about. It’s almost ...

Sorry. Got stuck. As one does when the topic of a high-octane Brewers offense is brought up. But it’s okay to be a little discombooberated when thinking about the surprise contenders around baseball. The Twins are in first. The Rockies are already 10 games over .500. And the Brewers are going into Wrigley Field, trying to stay atop the division. It’s almost June, in case you haven’t noticed.

This series is an important one for the Brewers, not just for the obvious reasons, but because it could mark the metamorphosis of their status as a surprise contender. The journey from surprise contender to completely normal postseason team is a long one, and it’s fraught with danger. It’s still early for the Brewers, Twins, and Rockies, and you can tell because people are incapable of writing about them without including the words “it’s still early.” That can change soon. That should change soon if they’re for real.

Here, then, are the five stages of a surprise contender:

1. Spring optimism

This is a gentle stage that everyone can enjoy. Do you remember the desert zephyrs blowing through your hair, whispering things like, “Ryan Schmipf is going to hit 40 homers?” No. No, you don’t. But it happened to Padres fans. The period was brief, but the spell was real. Everyone gets to daydream about being a surprise contenders, except for the people following expected contenders, who get to dream about that.

When it comes to the Brewers, I’ll confess to getting their hopes up in February.

Of all the lineups in baseball, this is the one that seems like it would be the easiest to justify retroactively in August if the Brewers are doing better than expected. Of course they’re a strong lineup, we’ll think. It was so obvious the whole time.

It’s hard to believe that’s the only prediction or prognostication that I’ve made all year, don’t bother looking for any others, but sometimes you get lucky. And the Brewers can hit. We’re all pretty comfortable with this idea. Just wait until Jonathan Villar or Orlando Arcia starts hitting, too.

Last year the Rockies’ ability to find a mostly homegrown rotation was one of the better overlooked stories of the season. What if they were effective in 2017, with the lineup staying just as potent? Well, buddy, take a few moments in March to think about it.

It all made so much sense in the spring.

2. “It’s still early”

On the one hand, this is the correct position. Let’s check in with a headline from a year ago:

Dreaming of a Cubs-White Sox World Series? You should be

This might be the perfect headline for the it’s-still-early faction. Last year at this time, people cared about the White Sox. The team sure fixed that for them.

On the other hand, do you know what it would look like if the team in question was really better than expected? Kind of like the Brewers right now. Lots of wins. Surprising improvements. Picking which surprise contenders are real reminds me of picking out which hitters are legitimately better in clutch situations: They exist, but you can’t tell with the naked eye and anecdotal evidence.

The worst part is that while you’re bleating about sample sizes, you’re also waiting for evidence that everything is a mirage. A five-game losing streak is more than enough evidence, even if a five-game stretch is ... a small sample. Doesn’t matter. The first time the team suffers through a losing jag, it’ll be because they shouldn’t have been there in the first place. It was still early, after all.

Except some teams never have that losing jag. They just keep winning and move on to the next stage.

3. The deadline deal

The Brewers are rolling now, sure, but can you name two of their starters? If you can, there’s a chance that some of them are the bad starters. And pay special attention to their bullpen, which has seven relievers with a BB/9 over 4. They’re just as likely to walk the bases loaded as strike out the side, and that doesn’t seem like something that’s sustainable on a contending team.

If the Brewers make it through this gauntlet, though, they’ll have the opportunity to speed up their rebuilding timetable and exchange young players or prospects for starting pitchers and relievers. Would Johnny Cueto look good and irritate the rest of the NL Central? Oh, and how. What about Jose Quintana? What about both, with Joakim Soria and Alex Colome mixed in somewhere? They could burn through all of it, or they could add R.A. Dickey and cross their fingers.

Either way, there’s a chance that the surprise contender will be a deeper, stronger team in a couple months, even if the trade that helped them get there was short-sighted and ill-advised.

You’re reading this because of the 1997 Giants, who featured Barry Bonds and 24 other guys who were supposed to finish in last place. A little luck and unexpected success later, and they were willing to trade some of their best prospects in a monster deadline deal. Suddenly, they weren’t the same team that was supposed to win 70 games. They were that team plus an improved Jeff Kent plus an improved leadoff situation plus a frontline starter plus a reliever who threw 100 mph back when that was a rarity. They were a better team than the surprise contender because you got to take the new data (Jeff Kent is good?) and slap them together with the new players to form new expectations.

4. The surge or fade

Baseball is a long season, everyone. And of the Brewers, Twins, or Rockies, at least one of them will tumble down the same hill as the White Sox. Maybe two of them. Maybe all three. Unless they all start winning. Oh, the permutations!

Note that we’re talking about a post-deadline surge or fade. Anything before then would fall under the “it’s-still-early” category.

The fading will make young children feel sad. I hope you’re happy.

5. Everything is normal, nothing to see here

When I started writing about baseball nationally in 2011, the Orioles, Royals, and Pirates had combined to finish twice since the millennium started. That was 30 combined seasons, with just two of them winning more games than they lost (and never making the postseason, of course.)

Then the Orioles were good. Surprise! And the Royals. Surprise! Then they were suddenly playing in the ALCS against each other, and it was completely normal. The Pirates are perhaps the saddest team in baseball (for multiple reasons), but not because of their inherent Piratesitude, but because expectations were so high in the first place. Everyone just expects these teams to contend, to the point where if they struggle, that’s the bigger news.

For the extreme example, check out the Astros, who had one of the worst stretches in baseball history. People freaked out when they saw this Sports Illustrated cover:

This Week's Cover: @astros Your 2017 World Series Champshttp://t.co/ikbbeb2Cxh by @SI_BenReiter http://pic.twitter.com/OY1v0Yei8S

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) June 25, 2014

To the point where it seemed like it was something a contrarian writer had to justify. Now we’re pretty danged used to the idea of the Astros contending. They might win 100 games. It’s completely normal, and it’s weird that people back in 2014 thought it was weird that the 2017 Astros might contend. It’s a real weird-off.

The stage the Brewers, Twins, and Rockies are in right now? It’s still early, of course. They have several road trips, several series against tough teams between them and the next stage. There are cautionary tales everywhere you look; there are examples of sustained success, too. Occasionally, though, the surprise contenders become the contenders, and everyone will stop qualifying their descriptions. They’ll be accepted as one of the normal teams.

All you want in baseball is to be one of the normal teams. These three might be on their way.

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enkisstories · 5 years

Text

The android cemetery (Ch. 26)

The trio enters the beach, two pairs of feet made of flesh and bone, one of plastic. The snow scrunches below their soles as they walk. It is pure white, untouched, pristine. The wind has given it a wavelike texture, like an ocean that you can walk on. Silence hangs over the beach. The world’s hectic is far away. Out here everything is calm, serene. In short, this is a place that has waited for somebody entirely else than these people! Tina picks up a handful of snow.

“Not much to work with, but serviceable.”

At this point Gavin shook his head in irritation. How different from how he usually heard it had Tina’s voice sounded in the video! But of course it would. Daniel’s acoustic module was different from natural hearing. Connor’s hearing was probably even more different and strange. Definitely strange! Gavin had never given that much thought. He knew he should feel appalled, but what he did instead was hugging Daniel tighter. What would his own voice sound like through his partner’s ears, the man wondered?

*Splash!*

The first snowball lands with precision, albeit less force than a human could have put behind it. And this is the only reason Daniel has dared toss it: Without his weighted gloves the former household android’s hands couldn’t seriously harm anybody even if Daniel wanted to. But his manual dexterity is near super-human and his agility considerate.

Tina: “Whoa, Sardines! Gavin’s not joking when he calls you “killer android”!”

A short hesitation, just long enough for Gavin to “revenge” Tina with a surprise shot. His next throw misses.

Daniel: “Just you wait! I’ll get even!”

The next snowball hits Gavin in the chest. Daniel dances across the beach now, dodging snowballs and returning the favor. A heavy baggage drops, to be buried in the sand under the snow. Until this moment the deviant hadn’t been sure if this little “wargame” would not trigger some sort of killer reflex. Not even when the two humans gang up on him or when Tina goes to her knees for a moment does Daniel experience anything different than a playful mood.

Can he trust these humans? Probably not. They may yet backstab him some day. But one thing Daniel is sure of now: If nobody else, he can at least trust himself again.

“Now that’s a kind thought about the man you had just kissed for the first time!” Gavin snorted.

“What thought?”

“Me backstabbing you!”

“Well, I was kinda right, wasn’t I? Given what happened two weeks later… wait, did I say that out loud? The part about trusting you and Tina?”

Only now Daniel realized that he had commented the scene the whole time. Not the Daniel standing here in the apartment, but his older self from January. His thoughts from the past had turned into a narration that accompanied his memory-video now.

“What’s happening?” the deviant gasped. “That’s not what I wanted to show you! That’s not what I wanted to happen!”

The screen flickered, then the snowball fight faded out, to get replaced by different scene: A black cat wearing a collar of green climbed onto Gavin’s lap. Daniel watched as the cat licked his partner’s face. The image blurred, then new scenes followed the ones before in quick succession. Sounds and images, some heartwarming, others disturbing, but many of them too short to make anything out of them. There was something about… salmon grind on sliced bread?

“Nooooo! Not that!” Daniel cried. “That’s private!”

Connor noticed Gavin lick his lips. The particular way the human was looking told Connor that Gavin’s thoughts were not food-motivated, but connected to another kind of hunger. Not in the least interested in the erotic application of salmon breadspread (or anything erotic in regard to Gavin Reed) the android shouted: “Yes! Let’s keep that private! Very private!”

Daniel tried to disconnect from the TV. Jacking out took what felt like an eternity and even afterwards what had been uploaded already was still running its course.

Suddenly the onlookers saw Daniel looking downwards into Connor’s eyes. One eye, more precisely. The other was dead. The deviant hunter was asking questions… something about a place called Jericho…

Emma screamed and the scene changed again. A dark sky… blood in Daniel’s face… the cityscape tumbling over, no, that was himself, falling. Falling…

“And that particular gem I only ever showed Connor!” Daniel whispered.

“Well, this is how memories work for humans”, a visibly shaken Jason Graff said. “Via associations. We cannot shape them into a family movie and obviously a deviant’s brain works exactly the same.”

“So I cannot lie in this mode?”

Jason nodded. Having worked in the Humanization department for years, his grasp on general android coding was a bit rusty, but this was what he felt right at home at. Professional interest had also allowed the man to realize that he was dealing with one, maybe two, deviants here, but just file the discovery as another fact to work with instead of freaking out.

“Worse”, Jason said, “you cannot keep anything private. An interrogator might say “relax” and the next thing he sees is your last lovenight with Mr. Reed here.”

“Shit…” Daniel muttered. He covered his eyes while the TV screen was running the last of the uploaded material for all to see:

It has come down to it. Two days left of 2039 and then we will have seen the last of Detroit for a month. It will be good to see something different, even though the reason for us leaving is… less than flattering. But here we are, still understaffed and not even a PM700 is left idle in the charging boxes.

Gavin: “No chance but to take you with me today into a city where a mystery android killer’s on the loose…”

Not much of a mystery, Daniel thinks. The android killer is another android. The thought is sickening. Even if Brandon is killing his kin on the Villareal mob’s behalf, as they suspect, it is a fact that he has joined the syndicate out of his free deviant will, knowing full well what he was getting into. Gavin spits on the pavement, then draws a pistol.

Gavin: “Take this! And if you see a suspicious LED, shoot before asking! The gun probably doesn’t outrange Brandon’s sending range, so take it out before it can even think of initiating contact!”

Daniel accepts the pistol without thinking at first. Then he remembers getting handed a similar one by Lieutenant Anderson three months ago, when they had rescued Connor from the vice-mayor’s home. Daniel hadn’t used the weapon, not even on Connor. Alright, he had tried using it on Connor, but only to wound, of course!

Or had he?

Back in fall the android had been little more than a talking household appliance indeed, still shocked into submission and dropping the occasional sarcastic comment at best. Ever since, Daniel has re-won his former confidence. And it dawns to him that holding a gun again is probably a very bad idea. Because what will stay his hand this time, now that his fears have left him?

Daniel: “Take it back, please! I couldn’t accept a weapon even if I was a human! I’m just an auxiliary, no officer.”

Gavin: “Pfft! At this rate you’re going to make Captain before I’ll be Sergeant! Did you know our beloved inspector bitch sent Hank and me each a certificate for exemplary success in android training? So today we’re going to practice walking the neighborhood without killing people, acting patrol officer Phillips!”

Daniel: “No! I can’t… really not! Damn you, Gavin, couldn’t you at least have given me an empty one?! Take it back! Take it back, take it back, take it back!”

But exactly that Gavin cannot do, even if he had wanted. There is no telling if not some reflex might kick in, causing Daniel to shoot at the human who attempts to disarm him. They all have noticed Daniel wince when Gavin suggested paintball as a teambuilding project the day before. The prospect of holding a weapon, even a toy, is frightening Daniel for good reason. With his weighted gloves the household android can hit as hard as a human. With a firearm, to the contrary, he is vastly superior. And with his temper you never know what might happen.

The way the android is shivering, the most likely outcome is an outdoors lamp in the second floor needing to be replaced within the next two minutes.

Standing… Staring…

Then a quick action and then an android head sinking down on the detective’s shoulder.

Gavin: “Congrats, Sardines, you shot the perennial dandelion. I agree it was loitering there in a provocative fashion.”

Daniel: “I cannot do this… Please don’t make me!”

Gavin: “If I step aside, you’ll fall.”

Daniel: (no reaction) Gavin: (steps aside)

Daniel (falling): “Damn you!”

Sitting… still staring, but decidedly not each other.

Gavin: “I’ve talked to my parents and to Hank, yes, to Hank! And we agreed that you’ve come a long way already. Not the whole distance, though. You want to belong, but that goes two ways. We need to be able to trust you, too. And inevitably there’d have come the day to take it to the test. Today seems as good as any other. Come on, man up!”

Daniel: “Hear, hear! It must be dawn - the apes in the jungle start clamoring!”

Gavin: “I don’t have time for your insults - I dropped my pocket calculator!”

Daniel: “Right… about that…”

Daniel wriggles out of the embrace and rams his fist hard into Gavin’s stomach. Then he sits upright and watches with satisfaction how the human is cringing, still holding the officer’s pistol loosely in the other hand.

Eventually they grab each other’s hands and stand up again.

Gavin: “I’ll tick “correctly judging the appropriate level of violence” off your list of lessons.”

Daniel: “Looks like it. Got a holster to go with the gun?”

Gavin: “Yep. Here! - Oh, and one more thing: when the Andersons ask how it went, you tell them we had an enlightening talk consisting of reasoning, respect and all that other mature crap!”

“So that’s how it happened? But you told us you had an enlightening talk cons…” Connor started to protest back in the present. When he saw Daniel and Gavin grin, he stopped. “Ah. Right. I see. Suckers.”

On the android’s lap an eggshell-colored cat with a blueish grey mask was kneading his legs while wearing a world-removed expression. Nobody had noticed it making itself comfortable there, not even Connor. Sometime during the video the android had realized that he was stroking something and just continued doing so. Loki purred, but stopped whenever he realized what he was doing.

“We are even now, Con’”, Daniel claimed. “Next to lie to the other pays a thirium sherbet.”

And that was it. They had reached a point where they were seriously considering sitting down together and having that sherbet, even throw in a blue smurf ice cream for Hank, Tina and Gavin, none of which had exactly made their life easy in 2038. But everything they had achieved might still get invalidated by a single phone call of Mr. Graff’s. Emma and the androids turned towards the CyberLife employee. Tense, disdainful, even daring him to give them a reason to slap him. Violence was still an option, Jason realized. The deviants certainly were not choir boys and neither were their human allies preaching sunshine and photosynthesis. But even if the worst would come to pass, it would be the result of a conscious decision, not because some lines of code had corrupted and were forcing the android into a killing spree.

That much Jason understood now.

#non sims #sims4 dbh partfive #detroit become human #sims4danielgavin

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