#rahm

My main problem with Jackson is that he has incredibly little screen time. Like he’s built up to be such an important character but in long run leads to nothing. Sure, there is the race with Cruz, but it really doesn’t give us any insight on who he is as a person aside from what we already know. He’s cocky and arrogant.

Which leads to my second problem with him; he’s kinda just like Lightning McQueen in the first movie. A rookie who is in over his head. Which just feels a little lazy to me since it’s just kinda the repeat of what they’ve done before. Just now he’s being portrayed as the bad guy.

His entire being is kinda confusing as well, because @kei-maki mentioned something. NASCAR actually lowered the speed of how fast cars could go. (Please note I’m not an a nascar expert, I just heard this from her.) And sure, you could say that it’s unfair to compare real life with a fictional kids movie to talking cars, but I feel like that would be somewhat relevant in a way. If faster cars are more prone to crashes, wouldn’t that also be a problem in their world too?

I feel like they would want to prevent that.

I have a couple more problems with Storm but I feel as though I should read the book first to say my peace on them. Though, I can say what I bring up here is relevant to my rewrite.

I kinda want to make Jackson more— nuanced. I don’t want him to be a complete asshole as he is portrayed in the movies. Making him more so serious and blunt would make a little more sense.

And, instead of the cars getting faster, they’re getting smarter. Maybe fancy adjustments here and there, but nothing out of the realm that would get others hurt. And since this is a newer generation, Lightning is starting to fall behind, like he does in Cars 3.

Though, I would like to make Jackson a little bit of an older model. So he’s kinda in between Lightning’s era and the new era. That’s why he’s finding it difficult to find his place in racing. And— since he is an older model, he was built to go faster before the rules changed. So he needed some adjustments. I’m still working that part out but you get what I mean.

Rahm also achieved another rarity for a US Open winner; he was the pretournament betting favorite at 9 ½ to 1. Second place finisher Louis Oosthuizen was at 50 to 1, the same as my pick Mickelson who had a disappointing weekend to finish 11 over par in in a tie for 62nd place.

Speaking of Lefty, much of the pre-championship media attention was his adding a TaylorMade 300 Mini Driver to his bag of all Callaway clubs. Mickelson said he thought of it as a 2-wood and would be helpful keeping tee shots in the firm and fast fairways. Evidently it was not enough since he finished T-51 in driving accuracy.

Many older guys were pulling for the leader after the first two rounds Englishman Richard Bland who faltered over the weekend, as did many bigger names. The 48-year-old scored 70-67 Thursday-Friday and is obviously not a gym-rat. Bland is however a stalwart on the European Tour where he won for the first time after 20 years and 478 starts at this year’s Betfred British Masters.

Has everyone had enough of the so-called “feud” between Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau? One friend had an apt word to describe it, silliness though maybe not as silly as the idiot who dashed onto the 13th fairway Sunday and hit two shots before being run down by security.

Tiger Woods declined the chance to be one of NBC’s talking heads at the scene of his 91-hole victory in the 2008 US Open. Too bad for fans but understandable as he is recovering from his auto accident and has always been guarded in his media exposure except of course after those resulting from behavioral lapses.

NBC did a credible job on the telecast but please, please, please put a Sticky Note in front of the commentators from Dan Hicks and Paul Azinger downwards as a reminder to not tell us what a player is thinking…they don’t know and can’t know so just keep quiet. It is an arrogant insult to the audience saying anything about the thoughts racing through a competitor’s mind.

And in case you missed all the screen time given Mike Davis this was his swan song as CEO Mike Davis of the USGA. Davis is retiring from the job and being replaced by LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan.

Anyway, Mani! He’s a tiefling merchant who doubled as the group's pack mule. His travelling companions were Benny the gnome archeologist and Rahm the goliath Vagabond. 

I had a great time with my friends but unfortunately our DM dipped mid campaign and I haven’t played for some time.

Here’s the character background/motivation piece I had to submit for anyone who’s into that kind of stuff. It’s sloppy but it gets the job done lol

—-

Fear is a powerful motivator. Fear of failure and death, fear of beasts and blood or the fear of being known; Manok Rhodara has molded his entire life around fleeing it.

Born into a small family of laborers in a very large city, he spent his younger years watching his parents trapped in the endless cycle of poverty. They’d toil away with seemingly no end in sight yet he still longed for something greater. Nevermind the nobles that paraded around in their carriages adorned with jewels, the simple merchant walking the streets with a full belly and spare coin was something he could wrap his brain around. His elder sister Nefaria had mocked him for his ambitions, but he kept his head down and did his best to observe the shopworkers he admired, emulating them in his precious free time.

Dreaming and doing are two different things however. His mother, a talented painter, had never successfully sold a single painting. Manok would watch her weep in their room after a day of fruitless peddling; tears muddying the beautiful discarded landscape. No one wants to sully homes with the work of an impoverished devil kin. He held out hope that the world outside the city walls didn’t hold these grudges. A fateful afternoon with his father would quickly extinguish these thoughts though.

He had so often felt the stares of disdain from the other races that he rarely acknowledged them anymore but that day he remembered them feeling particularly sharp. As they strolled through the city making their usual stops to resupply, Manok pleaded with his father to visit the local jewelers. The shopkeep was a shrewd elf who had recently lost his apprentice and Manok was confident he could wrangle a position if he could just get his foot in the door. 

Relenting, his father agreed on the condition that they never step foot in the store again if the master rejected him. Though unimpressed, the shopkeeper miraculously agreed to start training him as an errand boy after some smooth talking and a bit of pitiful begging (until he could find a “suitable” replacement he’d said). In the owner’s words, “Put a hat on and you could pass for an elf. If you keep that tail hidden and your mouth shut you might have a chance at doing this right.”.

An unusual victory was quickly dashed by an unusual misfortune as an insidious bystander took advantage of the irregular pair, swiping a handful of gems and planting a few on his father. It wasn’t long before the situation quickly devolved into a heated shouting match with police in tow and that was all it took to throw his family’s life out of kilter.

The remaining Rhodaras were scrutinized by the law after his father was branded a thief and thrown in prison. Stall owners rejected their goods and they were banned from many parts of the city. The places they could walk freely, judgmental eyes followed their every move and attempted to imprison them over minor insurrections. His sister swore revenge while his mother fell into a deep depression. Confused and scared for his life, Manok did the only thing he felt he could do. Run. So he did.

He ran for weeks and weeks stowing away on boats and picking through trash. In the forests he drank rainwater and foraged familiar plants and bark he could recognize from the markets back home. He didn’t know the full extent of his travels until he was much older but he had trekked an entire continent away to the Forest Islet.

It was there deep in the woods untouched by man, that he stumbled upon a grand weeping cherry and the fae within it: Punella. It had been decades since a sentient soul had wandered their way into her mystical grotto and even longer since she had formed a pact. A glance at his sniveling face was all it took for her to pity the boy enough to reveal her form and administer her guardian test. Three simple trials to expose his true nature. He was reserved, studious, observant and very afraid but when the kind-hearted dryad offered her guidance, he recognized a great opportunity and never looked back.

He would maintain responsibility for her grotto and in exchange for his dedication she would grant him knowledge, magic and, most crucial of all, companionship. He spent the following years learning the arts of crafting and deception while honing his hunting skills. By the time he could truly call himself ‘self-reliant’ he was nearly 17 and his thirst for knowledge was full throttle. 

His favorite of all was illusory magic, creating baubles and trinkets to decorate his camp and make him smile. What started as a hobby grew into something marketable and it wasn’t long before he was imbuing attractive charms into delicate crafts he made from the surrounding forest. Even his patron was impressed.

The woods had their own charm, but camping in a shabby hut he pieced together haphazardly had gotten old long ago. To really make a change, he’d need materials he couldn’t find surrounded by the trees. For materials he’d need someone to supply them and….. money. After some gentle encouragement, he hatched a plan to try his hand at the market once. 

Once he mustered up the confidence to venture out, he traded pelts for books. Many, many books. He spent months pouring over encyclopedias and cultural commentaries. The main subject of his study was covering elves. He knew some of their mannerisms from his time in the city but his end goal would have him immersed in their lifestyle. His time in the city taught him that tieflings are easy victims and if he was finally getting the chance to delve into the world of commerce, he was going to do it right. He didn’t need to be perfect immediately but he had to appear legitimate enough to sell enough junk to build an adequate home.

With that, the life of Manok Rhodara was snuffed out and the adventure of Manolari Nym began. Despite spending his early teens isolated in the woods, he was able to appear warm and personable to the closest neighboring townsfolk. It wasn’t long until he developed a rapport with the local craftsman and was regularly completing projects with them during his trips out from the woods. He would never stay long and his mysterious nature prompted some rumors but somehow, impossibly, the world he’d dreamed of was within his grasp.

On cold nights he thought back on his time with his family and wondered what he could have done differently. He remembered the despair and panic; He remembered how he abandoned them to escape it. But he was happy now. His days with Punella were carefree and her gentle presence was a gift. The guilt could be aching, but Mani was willing to live that and far greater if it meant keeping what they had built together.