CrazyCaityCat

It’s been a bit of an odd one so far the last little bit for me with my hockey player. Caitlyn Catowize has not been scoring, at all. She’s been getting the odd assist here or there, but that’s it. I’m in a bit of a lull with her to be honest. I’d take a week off I think, if I could lol. The Phily Reapers have been winning, and we are heading for the playoffs, that much seems certain. I’m not sure how to rank how good or bad we are though. I know we seem to play about even with Mexico, so hopefully that’s a good sign?
I have plans for the continuation of my role playing story for Caitlyn. I will get back to it soon. I just haven’t much felt like I’ve had the energy to write this week. I’m not sure why, that’s an unusual state of being for me. I pretty much always want to write usually. I’ve been dealing with a few things in my personal life, nothing bad at the moment thankfully, just things that require a lot more of my attention than I’m used to devoting to things, I guess. I’m hoping that after this week a lot of them will have settled down to a more casual, sustainable pace. Work, volunteering, parenting, tutoring, day to day responsibilities, hobbies it’s all grown a bit more intense than usual.

Then there was the situation with the Eslby Agency. I had to resign from the agency in protest recently. I’ll not get into details too much, I’ll just say that some people, who are in positions of power, should be doing more than they are. I felt bad because I couldn’t seem to explain the situation satisfactorily, yet I felt it was something I needed to do. Ah well.

Recently, I was very glad to see the gender inclusion initiative which arose as a response to a user, fishy, coming out to the community as non-binary. I loved this so much! I wish I’d seen the coming out thread when it was reasonable to comment on it, and not 8 days later. I applaud them for having the massive amount of courage to do what they did. As I’m transgender myself I felt incredibly welcomed and included when I saw the initiative and was able to choose my pronouns for my forum profile. I felt even more wonderful when I saw that no one was being negative, combative, or even contrary in the inclusion initiative thread. It was nothing but supportive, wonderful, thankful voices. When I first joined sim leagues I feared that they would be dens of toxic masculinity and machismo. I have never been so glad to be wrong about anything in my life. Luckily I’ve been either outright accepted, or else politely treated by everyone I’ve come into contact with in sim leagues thus far and the VHL is no exception.

I’m very much looking forward to the draft coming up soon. I can’t wait to see what teams are taking an interest in me, where I might end up. It’s going to be a ton of fun I’m sure. I can hardly wait.
 
 
534 Words  

It’s been a bit of an odd one so far the last little bit for me with my hockey player. Caitlyn Catowize has not been scoring, at all. She’s been getting the odd assist here or there, but that’s it. I’m in a bit of a lull with her to be honest. I’d take a week off I think, if I could lol. The Phily Reapers have been winning, and we are heading for the playoffs, that much seems certain. I’m not sure how to rank how good or bad we are though. I know we seem to play about even with Mexico, so hopefully that’s a good sign?
I have plans for the continuation of my role playing story for Caitlyn. I will get back to it soon. I just haven’t much felt like I’ve had the energy to write this week. I’m not sure why, that’s an unusual state of being for me. I pretty much always want to write usually. I’ve been dealing with a few things in my personal life, nothing bad at the moment thankfully, just things that require a lot more of my attention than I’m used to devoting to things, I guess. I’m hoping that after this week a lot of them will have settled down to a more casual, sustainable pace. Work, volunteering, parenting, tutoring, day to day responsibilities, hobbies it’s all grown a bit more intense than usual.

Then there was the situation with the Eslby Agency. I had to resign from the agency in protest recently. I’ll not get into details too much, I’ll just say that some people, who are in positions of power, should be doing more than they are. I felt bad because I couldn’t seem to explain the situation satisfactorily, yet I felt it was something I needed to do. Ah well.

Recently, I was very glad to see the gender inclusion initiative which arose as a response to a user, fishy, coming out to the community as non-binary. I loved this so much! I wish I’d seen the coming out thread when it was reasonable to comment on it, and not 8 days later. I applaud them for having the massive amount of courage to do what they did. As I’m transgender myself I felt incredibly welcomed and included when I saw the initiative and was able to choose my pronouns for my forum profile. I felt even more wonderful when I saw that no one was being negative, combative, or even contrary in the inclusion initiative thread. It was nothing but supportive, wonderful, thankful voices. When I first joined sim leagues I feared that they would be dens of toxic masculinity and machismo. I have never been so glad to be wrong about anything in my life. Luckily I’ve been either outright accepted, or else politely treated by everyone I’ve come into contact with in sim leagues thus far and the VHL is no exception.

I’m very much looking forward to the draft coming up soon. I can’t wait to see what teams are taking an interest in me, where I might end up. It’s going to be a ton of fun I’m sure. I can hardly wait.
 
 
534 Words  

Thank you, this makes me feel included in a way that few things can do.

I'm quite happy to be a first round pick. I'd be quite happier to have higher point totals as well, I'm working on it now that I'm on the third line haha.

1. I hope that the chances would be 100%. I don't see how we don't make the playoffs at this point. How we do when we get there is another question. We are unproven. We've got to step up and show that we can perform on that stage.
 
2. I think he's great, and he's been on a tear as you've mentioned. It's been a real boost to the team. Having a guy that you can count on to give you that kind of performance night in and night out is something you just can't replace, and the opposition can't account for.
 
3. I'm holding up great! I love the cold weather! It's my favorite time of year, hands down.
 
4. I mean, there are changes all over the place so it's no surprise that we should have changes for us as well right? We have to wear masks on the bus, we have to wear masks when we do get the chance to fly. For the most part we are pretty sequestered naturally, just do to us being athletes so that helps a bit.

5. I suppose if I had to pick a second sport it'd be speed skating. Something still on the ice, where I could still go ahead and fly around at top speed. That would be pretty cool now that I think about it. Still, hockey is always going to be #1 for me.
 
6. I don't need to prepare differently for anyone. I prepare for every opponent to the absolute best of my abilities. I will never be caught napping so to speak by an opponent. If I suck, it's because I suck, not because I didn't prepare.

Hey, so let's not mock someone for a situation we know nothing about maybe? @gorlab

Anyway, Emi, I hope you find a situation that suits you. You ought not be stuck in a situation where you are not happy.

Hey, so let's not mock someone for a situation we know nothing about maybe? @gorlab

Anyway, Emi, I hope you find a situation that suits you. You ought not be stuck in a situation where you are not happy.

I'm mocking beaviss about the situation that I do know about - his player handing in a transfer request publicly. 
 
So let's not virtue signal on a forum community we know nothing about maybe? 

Hey! Good lookin out! Thanks for the shoutout! I love these articles anyway but this was even better.
 
We in Philly are determined to catch Mexico City and win the cup!

Ha thanks, that was right before I went to sleep, I obviously needed it.

She tried to work up her nerve. She had to say something. She had to warn someone, anyone on the team. The equipment had been sabotaged. When she came in before the game the next day it was obvious that the hockey sticks had very thin, almost undetectable, slices cut into them. They would break, they would all break, with very little use. They would have a hard time winning the game if all their sticks were malfunctioning all game. So, she’d been trying to work up the nerve to say something. The problem was she was sure that if she did then the blackmailers would blame her for having done so. They’d probably exact some terrible price for her having the guts to go against them. What the hell was she going to do? As she was paralyzed by indecision game time grew closer and closer. When the time came to suit up, she did so and said nothing. When the time came to have the pregame huddle she joined in and she said nothing. When the time came for the coaches speech, she said nothing. When the time came to walk down the tunnel she did so and she still said nothing. When Jacob’s stick broke during warm-ups he thought it was weird but no one thought much of it. Caitlyn was beside herself though. This was it, her last chance to say something. She just…couldn’t. She was too afraid of what *they* would do.
 
As the game against Halifax started it quickly became obvious that something was wrong. Stick after stick went flying in half. The players quickly became aware that something was wrong and started grumbling, then outright yelling at the equipment manager. Caitlyn wanted to say it wasn’t his fault, to say it all must have been some act of sabotage, surely they wouldn’t then immediately suspect she knew something right? Yeah…right. She kept her mouth shut. The equipment manager did what they could, bringing out the backup sticks, which also broke. They had nothing they could do. The players were told to just be as gentle as they could with the sticks and do the best they could with what they had. To be fair they did quite well considering, but the 21st were just too much for them given the disadvantage of sabotaged equipment. The ended up losing the game 5-4, by the last half of the 3rd period they were completely out of sticks and were skating around with nothing in their hands. It was a complete joke. The fans were booing. The players were pissed off. The coach was screaming at the equipment manager, who was damn near crying in his helplessness.
 
By the end of the game Caitlyn felt more miserable than she had in years. She left the facility behind with half the arena still screaming about the sticks. As she walked to her car a man came out of the shadows and held up his hands to indicate he wasn’t a threat. This of course put her more on guard than if he’d done just about anything else. He told her she’d done well to keep her mouth shut, that they’d been watching to see if she could be trusted and that if she’d said something she’d have had real trouble. Then he faded away back into the shadows. Caitlyn got into her car and cried. She just cried, she couldn’t do anything else at this point. She was helpless. How long until they asked her to do this again? What was she going to do next time? This was only going to get worse. The worst part was now she was even further in the trap too. They didn’t have to even tell her but the fact was that if she chose to speak up next time then it would be used against her that she didn’t speak up this time. It would be a lose/lose situation for her. Now that she’d kept silent they had her even more firmly in their grasp.
 
The next game they had a new equipment manager. Caitlyn felt miserable still, perhaps even more so. The team were still pissed off, still wondering who had done that to them. Questions were being asked, supposedly a VHLM investigation was going to be started to figure out how this had happened. Caitlyn wondered if there were cameras in the facility, wondered if the fact that she’d left the door wide open would have been recorded. There was nothing she could do to defend herself if that was the case. She’d be shit out of luck, they’d probably ban her from hockey if she got caught with this business. The mood in the locker room was so low that it was no surprise that they lost the next game too. They played okay but just couldn’t put it all together to beat a really good team in Miami. Just too much distraction to play at their best.
 
By the time they got to Minnesota they had shaken most of the bad juju and were looking like their normal selves in the locker room. For the most part it seemed that the team blamed the equipment failure on the other equipment manager and now that the equipment hadn’t broken in the Miami game they were feeling good again. They went out on the ice and dominated once again, got an easy W. Caitlyn still felt terrible but her mood improved slightly after the game, that is until she got to the locker room. When she got to the locker room there were men in suits there that she didn’t recognize and the coach was talking with them. After a few minutes he made an announcement to the team. They were VHLM investigators and they would be interviewing players and team personnel. They were to cooperate fully with the investigation or they would be cut from the team immediately, per the team owner. There was no negotiating on this point. Caitlyn froze when she heard this. The rest of the team didn’t seem to mind, they went about changing as normal but this was the trap closing in on Caitlyn. What the hell was she supposed to do now? They’d be asking questions. All they had to do was find out she was the last one there that night and she’d be cooked.
 
She changed in a hurry, trying to be the first one out of the arena and on the bus. As she was getting on the team bus she got a call, when she answered she recognized the voice as the blackmailer. Her anger and fear immediately burst out of her and, because she was the only one on the bus, she let it out and yelled at him about how she was utterly fucked now, that he’d totally ruined her career, how they were going to kick her out of hockey. When she had finished he asked if she felt better. This of course pissed her off more but she saw a few other teammates heading to the bus so she couldn’t say do anything but tell him to fuck off and hang up. She immediately got another call. She answered and it was him again, she wanted to hang up again but truthfully she was afraid to do it a second time. He told her not to worry so much, that they’d already handled the investigation. That all she had to do when they came to her was to answer their questions as he instructed her to. Then he gave her some bullshit answers to give. She made sure to memorize them though, because they might be the only thing to save her life at this point. Basically, she was to tell them that she was the last one to leave that night, but she had gone back in after she’d left, as she’d forgotten something, and had retrieved it, then when she was leaving the second time she’d seen the former equipment manager still in the parking lot waiting around for her to leave.  When she had driven away she’d seen him go into the facility.
 
Caitlyn felt awful having to throw the man under the bus, he’d never been anything but professional. Yet, it was him or her at this point, that left her very little choice. She could feel terrible about it later, she’d be afforded that opportunity for the rest of her life in fact, but for now, for now she had to lie like her life depended on it, because it just might. What use was she to these blackmailers if she wasn’t in the VHLM after all? Would they really allow her to live with how much she owed them if she had no way to pay it back? She doubted it. So when the VHLM investigators got on the bus with the team to continue their interrogations Caitlyn felt a bit trepidatious but otherwise confident in what she was going to say. When they got to her she lied, straight faced and looking straight at them, without flinching or hemming and hawing. She was good at telling lies. She didn’t want to be but she was. Too much training from her mother she supposed. When they finished questioning her they got on the phone back to whoever they answered to and spoke in excited whispers, it seems that what she had said was exactly what they wanted to hear. The rest of the bus ride Caitlyn felt a mixture of misery and elation. She’d probably just destroyed someone elses life, and saved her own at the same time.
 
Part 9 here:
 
 
1612 words  

She tried to work up her nerve. She had to say something. She had to warn someone, anyone on the team. The equipment had been sabotaged. When she came in before the game the next day it was obvious that the hockey sticks had very thin, almost undetectable, slices cut into them. They would break, they would all break, with very little use. They would have a hard time winning the game if all their sticks were malfunctioning all game. So, she’d been trying to work up the nerve to say something. The problem was she was sure that if she did then the blackmailers would blame her for having done so. They’d probably exact some terrible price for her having the guts to go against them. What the hell was she going to do? As she was paralyzed by indecision game time grew closer and closer. When the time came to suit up, she did so and said nothing. When the time came to have the pregame huddle she joined in and she said nothing. When the time came for the coaches speech, she said nothing. When the time came to walk down the tunnel she did so and she still said nothing. When Jacob’s stick broke during warm-ups he thought it was weird but no one thought much of it. Caitlyn was beside herself though. This was it, her last chance to say something. She just…couldn’t. She was too afraid of what *they* would do.
 
As the game against Halifax started it quickly became obvious that something was wrong. Stick after stick went flying in half. The players quickly became aware that something was wrong and started grumbling, then outright yelling at the equipment manager. Caitlyn wanted to say it wasn’t his fault, to say it all must have been some act of sabotage, surely they wouldn’t then immediately suspect she knew something right? Yeah…right. She kept her mouth shut. The equipment manager did what they could, bringing out the backup sticks, which also broke. They had nothing they could do. The players were told to just be as gentle as they could with the sticks and do the best they could with what they had. To be fair they did quite well considering, but the 21st were just too much for them given the disadvantage of sabotaged equipment. The ended up losing the game 5-4, by the last half of the 3rd period they were completely out of sticks and were skating around with nothing in their hands. It was a complete joke. The fans were booing. The players were pissed off. The coach was screaming at the equipment manager, who was damn near crying in his helplessness.
 
By the end of the game Caitlyn felt more miserable than she had in years. She left the facility behind with half the arena still screaming about the sticks. As she walked to her car a man came out of the shadows and held up his hands to indicate he wasn’t a threat. This of course put her more on guard than if he’d done just about anything else. He told her she’d done well to keep her mouth shut, that they’d been watching to see if she could be trusted and that if she’d said something she’d have had real trouble. Then he faded away back into the shadows. Caitlyn got into her car and cried. She just cried, she couldn’t do anything else at this point. She was helpless. How long until they asked her to do this again? What was she going to do next time? This was only going to get worse. The worst part was now she was even further in the trap too. They didn’t have to even tell her but the fact was that if she chose to speak up next time then it would be used against her that she didn’t speak up this time. It would be a lose/lose situation for her. Now that she’d kept silent they had her even more firmly in their grasp.
 
The next game they had a new equipment manager. Caitlyn felt miserable still, perhaps even more so. The team were still pissed off, still wondering who had done that to them. Questions were being asked, supposedly a VHLM investigation was going to be started to figure out how this had happened. Caitlyn wondered if there were cameras in the facility, wondered if the fact that she’d left the door wide open would have been recorded. There was nothing she could do to defend herself if that was the case. She’d be shit out of luck, they’d probably ban her from hockey if she got caught with this business. The mood in the locker room was so low that it was no surprise that they lost the next game too. They played okay but just couldn’t put it all together to beat a really good team in Miami. Just too much distraction to play at their best.
 
By the time they got to Minnesota they had shaken most of the bad juju and were looking like their normal selves in the locker room. For the most part it seemed that the team blamed the equipment failure on the other equipment manager and now that the equipment hadn’t broken in the Miami game they were feeling good again. They went out on the ice and dominated once again, got an easy W. Caitlyn still felt terrible but her mood improved slightly after the game, that is until she got to the locker room. When she got to the locker room there were men in suits there that she didn’t recognize and the coach was talking with them. After a few minutes he made an announcement to the team. They were VHLM investigators and they would be interviewing players and team personnel. They were to cooperate fully with the investigation or they would be cut from the team immediately, per the team owner. There was no negotiating on this point. Caitlyn froze when she heard this. The rest of the team didn’t seem to mind, they went about changing as normal but this was the trap closing in on Caitlyn. What the hell was she supposed to do now? They’d be asking questions. All they had to do was find out she was the last one there that night and she’d be cooked.
 
She changed in a hurry, trying to be the first one out of the arena and on the bus. As she was getting on the team bus she got a call, when she answered she recognized the voice as the blackmailer. Her anger and fear immediately burst out of her and, because she was the only one on the bus, she let it out and yelled at him about how she was utterly fucked now, that he’d totally ruined her career, how they were going to kick her out of hockey. When she had finished he asked if she felt better. This of course pissed her off more but she saw a few other teammates heading to the bus so she couldn’t say do anything but tell him to fuck off and hang up. She immediately got another call. She answered and it was him again, she wanted to hang up again but truthfully she was afraid to do it a second time. He told her not to worry so much, that they’d already handled the investigation. That all she had to do when they came to her was to answer their questions as he instructed her to. Then he gave her some bullshit answers to give. She made sure to memorize them though, because they might be the only thing to save her life at this point. Basically, she was to tell them that she was the last one to leave that night, but she had gone back in after she’d left, as she’d forgotten something, and had retrieved it, then when she was leaving the second time she’d seen the former equipment manager still in the parking lot waiting around for her to leave.  When she had driven away she’d seen him go into the facility.
 
Caitlyn felt awful having to throw the man under the bus, he’d never been anything but professional. Yet, it was him or her at this point, that left her very little choice. She could feel terrible about it later, she’d be afforded that opportunity for the rest of her life in fact, but for now, for now she had to lie like her life depended on it, because it just might. What use was she to these blackmailers if she wasn’t in the VHLM after all? Would they really allow her to live with how much she owed them if she had no way to pay it back? She doubted it. So when the VHLM investigators got on the bus with the team to continue their interrogations Caitlyn felt a bit trepidatious but otherwise confident in what she was going to say. When they got to her she lied, straight faced and looking straight at them, without flinching or hemming and hawing. She was good at telling lies. She didn’t want to be but she was. Too much training from her mother she supposed. When they finished questioning her they got on the phone back to whoever they answered to and spoke in excited whispers, it seems that what she had said was exactly what they wanted to hear. The rest of the bus ride Caitlyn felt a mixture of misery and elation. She’d probably just destroyed someone elses life, and saved her own at the same time.
 
Part 9 here:
 
 
1612 words  

She tried to work up her nerve. She had to say something. She had to warn someone, anyone on the team. The equipment had been sabotaged. When she came in before the game the next day it was obvious that the hockey sticks had very thin, almost undetectable, slices cut into them. They would break, they would all break, with very little use. They would have a hard time winning the game if all their sticks were malfunctioning all game. So, she’d been trying to work up the nerve to say something. The problem was she was sure that if she did then the blackmailers would blame her for having done so. They’d probably exact some terrible price for her having the guts to go against them. What the hell was she going to do? As she was paralyzed by indecision game time grew closer and closer. When the time came to suit up, she did so and said nothing. When the time came to have the pregame huddle she joined in and she said nothing. When the time came for the coaches speech, she said nothing. When the time came to walk down the tunnel she did so and she still said nothing. When Jacob’s stick broke during warm-ups he thought it was weird but no one thought much of it. Caitlyn was beside herself though. This was it, her last chance to say something. She just…couldn’t. She was too afraid of what *they* would do.
 
As the game against Halifax started it quickly became obvious that something was wrong. Stick after stick went flying in half. The players quickly became aware that something was wrong and started grumbling, then outright yelling at the equipment manager. Caitlyn wanted to say it wasn’t his fault, to say it all must have been some act of sabotage, surely they wouldn’t then immediately suspect she knew something right? Yeah…right. She kept her mouth shut. The equipment manager did what they could, bringing out the backup sticks, which also broke. They had nothing they could do. The players were told to just be as gentle as they could with the sticks and do the best they could with what they had. To be fair they did quite well considering, but the 21st were just too much for them given the disadvantage of sabotaged equipment. The ended up losing the game 5-4, by the last half of the 3rd period they were completely out of sticks and were skating around with nothing in their hands. It was a complete joke. The fans were booing. The players were pissed off. The coach was screaming at the equipment manager, who was damn near crying in his helplessness.
 
By the end of the game Caitlyn felt more miserable than she had in years. She left the facility behind with half the arena still screaming about the sticks. As she walked to her car a man came out of the shadows and held up his hands to indicate he wasn’t a threat. This of course put her more on guard than if he’d done just about anything else. He told her she’d done well to keep her mouth shut, that they’d been watching to see if she could be trusted and that if she’d said something she’d have had real trouble. Then he faded away back into the shadows. Caitlyn got into her car and cried. She just cried, she couldn’t do anything else at this point. She was helpless. How long until they asked her to do this again? What was she going to do next time? This was only going to get worse. The worst part was now she was even further in the trap too. They didn’t have to even tell her but the fact was that if she chose to speak up next time then it would be used against her that she didn’t speak up this time. It would be a lose/lose situation for her. Now that she’d kept silent they had her even more firmly in their grasp.
 
The next game they had a new equipment manager. Caitlyn felt miserable still, perhaps even more so. The team were still pissed off, still wondering who had done that to them. Questions were being asked, supposedly a VHLM investigation was going to be started to figure out how this had happened. Caitlyn wondered if there were cameras in the facility, wondered if the fact that she’d left the door wide open would have been recorded. There was nothing she could do to defend herself if that was the case. She’d be shit out of luck, they’d probably ban her from hockey if she got caught with this business. The mood in the locker room was so low that it was no surprise that they lost the next game too. They played okay but just couldn’t put it all together to beat a really good team in Miami. Just too much distraction to play at their best.
 
By the time they got to Minnesota they had shaken most of the bad juju and were looking like their normal selves in the locker room. For the most part it seemed that the team blamed the equipment failure on the other equipment manager and now that the equipment hadn’t broken in the Miami game they were feeling good again. They went out on the ice and dominated once again, got an easy W. Caitlyn still felt terrible but her mood improved slightly after the game, that is until she got to the locker room. When she got to the locker room there were men in suits there that she didn’t recognize and the coach was talking with them. After a few minutes he made an announcement to the team. They were VHLM investigators and they would be interviewing players and team personnel. They were to cooperate fully with the investigation or they would be cut from the team immediately, per the team owner. There was no negotiating on this point. Caitlyn froze when she heard this. The rest of the team didn’t seem to mind, they went about changing as normal but this was the trap closing in on Caitlyn. What the hell was she supposed to do now? They’d be asking questions. All they had to do was find out she was the last one there that night and she’d be cooked.
 
She changed in a hurry, trying to be the first one out of the arena and on the bus. As she was getting on the team bus she got a call, when she answered she recognized the voice as the blackmailer. Her anger and fear immediately burst out of her and, because she was the only one on the bus, she let it out and yelled at him about how she was utterly fucked now, that he’d totally ruined her career, how they were going to kick her out of hockey. When she had finished he asked if she felt better. This of course pissed her off more but she saw a few other teammates heading to the bus so she couldn’t say do anything but tell him to fuck off and hang up. She immediately got another call. She answered and it was him again, she wanted to hang up again but truthfully she was afraid to do it a second time. He told her not to worry so much, that they’d already handled the investigation. That all she had to do when they came to her was to answer their questions as he instructed her to. Then he gave her some bullshit answers to give. She made sure to memorize them though, because they might be the only thing to save her life at this point. Basically, she was to tell them that she was the last one to leave that night, but she had gone back in after she’d left, as she’d forgotten something, and had retrieved it, then when she was leaving the second time she’d seen the former equipment manager still in the parking lot waiting around for her to leave.  When she had driven away she’d seen him go into the facility.
 
Caitlyn felt awful having to throw the man under the bus, he’d never been anything but professional. Yet, it was him or her at this point, that left her very little choice. She could feel terrible about it later, she’d be afforded that opportunity for the rest of her life in fact, but for now, for now she had to lie like her life depended on it, because it just might. What use was she to these blackmailers if she wasn’t in the VHLM after all? Would they really allow her to live with how much she owed them if she had no way to pay it back? She doubted it. So when the VHLM investigators got on the bus with the team to continue their interrogations Caitlyn felt a bit trepidatious but otherwise confident in what she was going to say. When they got to her she lied, straight faced and looking straight at them, without flinching or hemming and hawing. She was good at telling lies. She didn’t want to be but she was. Too much training from her mother she supposed. When they finished questioning her they got on the phone back to whoever they answered to and spoke in excited whispers, it seems that what she had said was exactly what they wanted to hear. The rest of the bus ride Caitlyn felt a mixture of misery and elation. She’d probably just destroyed someone elses life, and saved her own at the same time.
 
Part 9 here:
 
 
1612 words  

Thanks for the mention

So, things had been quiet. She had been enjoying herself, enjoying her team, enjoying being with her teammates. Of course it was only a matter of time before *they* came around asking for something. She got a call, it was just an anonymous voice on the other end of the line. She was to be the last person to leave practice tomorrow, and she was to leave the door open to the practice facility as she left. Then the other person hung up. She didn’t even have a chance to ask questions. Not that it mattered, she understood what was expected of her. She was to do as she was told or whatever fate was to befall her was going to be much, much worse than the alternative of what they were planning to do to the Reapers practice facility.
 
 As she went to practice the next day she was a nervous wreck. The team was undefeated, things were going great, what the hell were these bastards going to do to us now? She tried to keep focus during practice but judging by how often the coaches were yelling at her, she failed pretty spectacularly. This did on the other hand provide the excuse she needed when the practice needed for her to stay on the ice. When the coaches were getting ready to leave she assured them she’d lock up and they could go ahead, she needed the extra practice. A few of them shook their heads but they did leave as a group. As soon as she was sure she was the last person in the building Caitlyn left the ice, got changed, and left the building, making sure to leave the door very obviously open.
 
She waited in her car to see what was going to happen, it didn’t take long. Two men with a tool of some sort went into the open door about 5 minutes after she left the building. They were inside for a long time, Caitlyn thought it was about an hour, and then they came out again, with nothing in their hands except the tool that they came in with. Caitlyn was curious what they had been up to but when they looked in her direction and saluted she knew that they knew she’d been seen and had no way that she’d be able to check. They closed the facility and scurried off into the night. Caitlyn had no choice but to head home. What on earth had they been up to? What could they have done? They must have sabotaged something right? She thought herself a pretty clever girl, but she couldn’t quite figure out what their motive had been. Why sabotage the Reapers equipment, because that had to have been what they messed with.
 
Then it hit her all of a sudden and she felt stupid for not realizing it sooner. Gambling. An undefeated team going against an underdog? If all their equipment suddenly malfunctioned during the game then they’d be in real trouble trying to do much of anything in the game. What the hell was she going to do? Maybe she could warn the team? Surely the modifications the men had made wouldn’t have been obvious, but she could surely find them. But what if they had modified all the equipment, not just the stuff for tomorrow’s game? If she did that though and they did win the game and her mysterious blackmailers lost a ton of money that they’d bet against the Reapers would they blame her? Probably… so what the hell was she supposed to do? Caitlyn sat up sleepless that night, really unsure of what to do.
 
Part 8 Here: 
 
 
 
 
612 words  

The Philadelphia Reapers are killing it so far.  They sport a gaudy 7 - 0 record with a +21 goal differential.  Granted that about 10% of the regularly scheduled games have been played and, as in all sports, anything can happen.
 
The Reapers are led by the 3 most efficient point production players in the league after 7 games:
 
Robert Bouchard 17 points
Darius Marimoto 14 points
Addison McLaren 13 points
 
McLaren also likes a physical game having delivered 30 hits which ranks him second (by one hit) in the league.
 
This all-star trio are backed up by Jacob Carson, in his second season with the Reapers, has, in seven games, a Goals Against Average of 2.14 which is the best in the league of any goalie having played 6+ games.  Tom Eagles has also contributed from the defense corps notching a respectable 9 points over the same time period.
 
Another contributing factor to the Reapers early season success is their depth 14 of the 18 skaters on the Reapers lineup have at least one point. A particularly scary proposition for opposing teams as they try to defend this juggernaut.
 
Should these trends continue, the Reapers will continue to be the team to beat and the odds on favorite to win it all.
 
213 words
 

 
 

Caitlyn sat  in the green room for the draft thoroughly depressed. She was going to be drafted by a team, she was going to realize her dream of playing in the VHL. Yet, she couldn’t be happy. She was being held hostage by a debt owed to…well, she didn’t actually know who, but they were dangerous. Thanks to her mom she was trapped and being blackmailed to do…well, she didn’t know what yet. Damn it! She thought. What a fucked up situation to find yourself in. On the cusp of realizing your dream just to have it poisoned by your mother. The phone in her hand rang. As she answered she put on the mask, the “I’m happy to be here and a well adjusted member of society” mask. It was the GM for the Philadelphia Reapers. They were drafting her. She thanked him for the opportunity and promised to live up to his expectations, to work hard and make him proud. He congratulated her on being picked and said that the future was looking bright and promised her that the organization would support her as best it could.
 
Caitlyn joined a chat group with her new teammates that night and got to know them over the next few days. Always though, that specter of what she would be asked to do was hanging over her. Whose trust would she be asked to betray? Who would she be forced to hurt? She hated this. She wondered if she would ever be able to escape this trap she’d found herself in.
 
Part 6 here: 
 
 
 
260 Words  

Caitlyn Catowize had been a surprise star for her high school team. She was a speedster who always seemed to find a way to put the puck into the goal when she was around the net. Despite her small her size, or perhaps because of it, she managed to compete with the boys quite well. She would use her agility to make most hits glancing blows rather than the massive hits that the boys expected when they went to check her into the boards. She would use her speed also to simply race past anyone trying to chase her down. She scored 70 points as a sophomore and was the team leader in goals. As a senior the team made an admirable but ultimately futile attempt to go deep into the state D1 championship bracket. They were eliminated in the second round by a team that had much more talent than hers, though Caitlyn did manage to score a goal against what was considered one of the top High School goalies in the country.
 
In college she again took some time to adjust to the speed and size of the boys she was competing against. She managed to get even faster though and even better at avoiding them on the ice. After a couple of tough years on the team just barely holding her own and managing to keep a spot on the team Caitlyn finally showed what she was able to do as a Junior, scoring 58 points with 39 goals. This thrust her into the spotlight a bit, making her an actual prospect on the national stage. Suddenly VHLM teams were scouting her, asking her about all kinds of things. She felt really uncomfortable answering some of their questions but did her best to deflect when they touched on things that she didn’t want to talk about. As a senior an event happened with her Mother that caused Caitlyn to drop out of college and move to Europe to hide out for awhile. This caused her to miss the draft for the VHLM. When she felt comfortable enough to come back she did manage to find a team to sign her to a free agent contract for the remainder of the season.
 
She joined the Halifax 21st for a run in the playoffs. She didn’t get a lot of playtime in the playoffs and didn’t manage to prove that she could do much, mostly skating up and down the ice without consequence on the 4th line. The Halifax 21st suffered a disappointing loss to an underdog and had an early exit from the playoffs. She had improved greatly in her time with the 21st. Working with the coaches there had been a huge bonus to her game. Her defense had become incredibly good in her time with them. She hoped that if nothing else that would help impress the scouts for the upcoming draft, her second chance at a career in hockey.
 
494 words  

Caitlyn was preparing for the draft. She had worked out for several teams. She had been interviewed by so many scouts she had forgotten just what questions she had answered for which teams. She didn’t forget how many times she’d had to steer the questions away from why she’d gone to Europe and dropped out of college though. They all wanted answers, she could understand that. She really did understand that they would be concerned why she’d suddenly had such a massive change in her life, and if it was possible it was going to happen again. Truth was is that it was possible that it was going to happen again. She didn’t know how to avoid it happening again, especially now that her name was out there in the public like this. It was only a matter of time before her mother found her again. She couldn’t answer straight the questions the scouts were answering, they simply wouldn’t be able to understand.
 
The truth is that Caitlyn’s mother, Phyllis, was not a woman that was easy to understand. She could seem so normal when you met her. In fact almost anyone who met her ended up liking her. If she had something to sell you, you can bet you would end up buying it, even if you weren’t in the market, even if you couldn’t really afford it. Phyllis you see was a master manipulator. She could sell you air as though the concept of breathing was foreign to you, and you’d thank her for having been so smart as to have enlightened you. She was also someone that Caitlyn knew, from personal experience, had no ability to feel genuine emotion. She could pretend well enough, she was an excellent actress, but had no ability to feel it for real. Caitlyn knew that she had never been loved by her mother; she had simply been a tool for her mother to use in various schemes and plots to advance her social status, her wealth, and her plans.
 
Thinking back to her senior year, Caitlyn remembered the day that her Mother had shown up at her dorm room. Caitlyn had already made it clear to her mother she did not wish to see her anymore, she had no wish for a relationship. When she opened her dorm room door and saw her mother standing there she was immediately appalled. Why was she there? How had she known which dorm room she was in? Caitlyn understood a split second of thinking later, of course she’d manipulated someone to get the dorm room out of them, and of course, she wanted something. Caitlyn demanded that her mother leave immediately, she tried to remind her that she had said she didn’t want anything to do with her. Phyllis simply walked into her dorm room, ignoring her daughter’s outrage.
 
Phyllis informed her daughter that she had come to let her know that a plan she had to make some money had gone awry. She had been selling some people some stakes in a company, and then selling others the same stake in that same company for the same amount. She had done this to a few dozen people and had now planned to disappear. She did, however, want to let her daughter know that since she had put the company in Caitlyn’s name that she would have an awful lot of very angry people looking for stakes in the company that she supposedly owned coming to claim what they were owed. Caitlyn was dumbstruck. This was beyond the absurd. Not only had her mother done something beyond stupid, again. She’d sold her only daughter out in the process. Caitlyn was screwed. How was she supposed to deal with this? She started to demand that her mother give the money back, that she fix it and ensure that this did not blow back onto Caitlyn when she’d had nothing to do with it. While Caitlyn was yelling at her Phyllis simply walked out of the dorm room, she just left the campus and acted like it was not her problem anymore. Caitlyn tried to follow her but knew that if she tried to physically stop her that her mother would not hesitate to call the police so she had no recourse but to let her go. When she got back to her dorm room she didn’t at first know what to do. She sat thinking for a couple of hours  before she decided that she had no choice but to get the police involved.
 
It turned out, however, that Phyllis had convinced a lawyer to set up the company and the paperwork appeared to be in order from what the police could see from their investigation that lasted all of about 4 days. Caitlyn couldn’t believe it. What was she going to do when these people found her? She didn’t have long to wait. About a week later the calls started. Angry phone calls from people who claimed to own a portion of a company that didn’t exist. She tried to explain that she didn’t own a company, that it was a scam that had been run by someone else, she didn’t want to say it was her mother that was involved as they’d still blame her, but that didn’t seem to get through to them. They just seemed to get angrier. She expected that they’d threaten to sue her, like a reasonable human being would do when they had been scammed out of money. Instead they issued vague threats and hung up, one after another. She began to get really afraid after that. Who the hell were these people that her mother had made these deals with? Phyllis wouldn’t sell her out to a bunch of dangerous people right? Right? Fuck, Caitlyn knew she would if it was worth it to her. Especially since Caitlyn had cut off ties with her. Since she’d no longer be of use as a social symbol of “family” she’d only be of use in other ways, ways like this. That meant that her mother, not actually caring about her, would be absolutely willing to sell her out to dangerous types.
 
3 days after the threatening calls Caitlyn discovered her car in the student parking lot of her college had been utterly destroyed and set on fire. It had been beaten with what looked like baseball bats, pipes, and crowbars. Then someone had set it on fire. This had been done when no one had been around and there were no cameras in the lot, so there was no way to determine who had done it. Caitlyn knew though, she was in real danger now. She got a ride from a friend and headed straight to her dorm. She packed a suitcase, bought a ticket to Sweden on her phone and called for an Uber to the airport. She was going to be taking a good long break from things. It was her only option at this point. These weren’t the sort to sue, she just had to let them forget she existed.
 
Part 4 here: 
 
1184 words using this for weeks ending 11/8 and 11/15  

Riley has often been asked by interviewers; "If Ice Hockey wasn't the big dream? What would you be doing instead?" Riley, of course, replies with "This is absurd, I do love Ice Hockey and I couldn't even begin to think about working a day job." Then she will pause for a moment with her finger to her chin, thoughtfully continuing. "That being said, I do think that I would make a good bodyguard, using some of the transferable skills that I have picked up whilst being the assistant general manager for the Halifax 21st." This will give the interviewers an inquisitive expression. "And what do you mean by that Riley?" They will ask. "I always have to look out for my Team Mate Rick Osman in the locker room, I have to make sure that no one bullies him and if that is that case, I must kill them." The interviewers will look on in shock. "Funny thing is," Riley continued, "This week I accidentally killed Dolant instead of Dil, but that meant that I was being the bully, so I had to kill myself. That's why I'm talking to you now in my ghost form!"
The interviewers find it hard to compose themselves having been given this information but they have to finish up the news segment. "Well there you have it folks, player Riley Couture who is about to move up to the VHL doesn't even have a body to play with anymore, good luck to her out there on the Ice, she will desperately need it." 

Caitlyn loved the ice, since as long as she could remember the freedom of being on the ice and the flow of her body as she raced from one end of the rink to another. Her parents had tried to interest her in figure skating but she had absolutely refused. She wanted to play a sport, not dance around. When she joined a hockey team she was initially looked down upon because she was a girl and no one thought that she could keep up. When she quickly demonstrated that she was the fastest player on the team, however, she made a name for herself. It took some time to adjust, as one would imagine.
 
The checking part of hockey didn’t come naturally to her, and she wasn’t the best puck handler either. She worked at it though and soon was able to keep up with the boys. Proving that she had what it took to play for a high school team, or a college team, took even more effort and no small amount of skill. Her natural speed was a huge factor in her being able to advance to each new level and find a way to fit in. She was able to bulk up and put on enough weight to not be pushed around quite as easily as she got into her late teens. Today she bides her time, waiting to be drafted onto a team in the minors and determine her future.
 
Part 2: