#in hindsight i know exactly what i should have said but i didn't say any of it

[lakemichigans]

[adventuringblind]

Drive With You Forever

Chapter 12.1: More group texts

Max Verstappen x Charles Leclerc x Lando Norris x Reader x Oscar Piastri

Chapter summary: some more chaotic group texts for your enjoyment

Warnings: Sexual innuendo and utter chaos

Notes: My notes are screaming at me to stop

Previous <-

Masterlist

Oscar the Unfazed

Y/N: Lando, I swear on your favorite McLaren hoodie that if you don't fix this right now, I will not hesitate to break your bones.

Maxy: care to share with the group?

Lan: I may have sent a few messages to Oscar from her phone 🫣

Charlie: and you did this why?

Lan: Because I want my girlfriend and my teammate to get along?

Y/N: Lies and slander

Y/N: it's fine now though

Y/N: he said thanks for the compliment

Lan: That's it?

Charlie: wdym that it? What did you say?!

Y/N: he called Oscar the 'epotime of male physique'

Maxy: lan...

Maxy: you out yourself in these situations and now I have to do something about it

Charlie: I have so many ideas after the stunt he pulled with Carlos yesterday

Lan: before I get my ass whooped can we all agree that Oscar is unfazed by everything???

We should start a band

Lan: So here me out

Lan: we should start a band

Maxy: I have no musical talent

Y/N: Charlie would be sore from carrying us

Oscar: I can play the kazoo

Charlie: I forgot he's here now

Charlie: genuinely panicked

Oscar: I feel so loved -_-

Charlie: What would we be called anyway?

Y/N: Charlie and the untalented

Lan: the music man plus friends

Maxy: Charles and the Ferrari strategist

Oscar: why that one?

Maxy: Because similar to them, we also would not be helping Charles in any way

Oscar's first post race celebration

Y/N: I feel like at this rate Max is going to get a complex

Y/N: And it's not fair. I don't even get to join in anymore :(

Charlie: But you like being told what to do? So Max winning is a good thing, no?

Lan: He makes a point

Lan: Last time I placed higher then them you cried

Maxy: We all cried because you tease for to long

Oscar: I've been informed I'm invited to whatever this is?

Charlie: 👀

Charlie: did Lando explain?

Oscar: Indeed, he did ;)

Maxy: whatever he told you is a lie

Maxy: he's not innocent

Oscar: as I've found

Y/N: 🫢

Charlie: oh please share, Chéri

Oscar: I think you underestimate me

Oscar: I may be the youngest, but I am certainly not fazed by Lando

Y/N: Did you actually manage to make him behave???

Y/N: Oscar has my respect

Lan: It's not what you think it is

Maxy: and here I thought those marks were from us

Maxy: Nice work Oscar

Y/N: Lan... there's three of them now

Lan: means triple the fun ;)

Oscar and Daniel

Oscar: I have a question

Lan: yes?

Oscar: Does Daniel know?

Charlie: unfortunately yes

Charlie: he lacks any kind of boundaries

Maxy: If he touches you, I'm obligated to throw punches

Oscar: Do I want to know what happened?

Y/N: Max and Charlie traumatized him

Maxy: well deserved mind you

Maxy: he ignored boundaries and hurt Land and Y/N

Oscar: ohhhhh

Oscar: Lando mentioned this once

Oscar: I remember it vividly because he didn't say all the details, but I got mildly protective

Lan: It was his quartet awakening

Lan: if we're not careful we're going to get the entire grid

Charlie: Absolutely not

Maxy: Daniel is a no

Y/N: good thing he's not on the grid then 👀

Y/N: For now at least

Maxy: WHAT DO YOU KNOW??

True Crime

Lan: I'm scared

Charlie: why? Did the cats get mad at you again?

Lan: No

Lan: Y/N and Oscar are watching a true crime documentary and it's scary

Maxy: we're living with a superhero

Maxy: I promised Charles we'd have dinner tonight

Maxy: well be home in a couple of hours so play nice until then

Y/N: Lan, in hindsight, this helps protect us if you think about it

Oscar: exactly because we'll know what to look for

Oscar: and how to hide a body

Someone is late

Maxy: the jet was supposed to take off ten minutes ago

Maxy: explain to me why Y/N and Charles are the only ones here

Lan: uh.... Oscar overslept

Lan: definitely no other reason

Y/N: you stayed in Oscar's room last night

Y/N: did you nit wake him up?

Lan: but he looks so peaceful

Os: I'm litterally awake

Os: don't pin this on me

Charlie: somone better explain

Maxy: at this point I don't care

Maxy: just get here or I'm leaving you two behind

Os: it's Landos fault

Os: Someone decided to try something ridiculous

Charlie: what else is new?

Maxy: estimated time then? Do you two need help?

Os: with help maybe 10 minutes. Without help then possible another hour

Y/N: I saw you two just now and Lando I don't understand how you managed to bend like that

Y/N: you're so lucky I lobe you

Maxy: next time please pull stupid stunts when we're home

I'm still learning

Y/N: when were you guys going to tell me that school lasts all day?

Y/N: I wish I could've gone to school

Os: I won't speak for everybody, but my school was good aside from the part where I wanted to do anything else

Lan: it's not as good as you might think

Charlie: Most of us didn't go to regular school or had to drop out

Maxy: Seb used to make me and Y/N do some sort of educational activity together

Maxy: So I'd say my school was great later on.

Os: Wait, did you not go to school Y/N?

Y/N: Did I not tell you guys?

Y/N: I didn't leave my property for 15 years

Max: she was really clueless

Charlie: Actually, how did you learn? Like to read and write and do math?

Y/N: As much as I hate him, my dad is incredibly smart

Maxy: no your dad is evil

Lan: try disturbed

Charlie: should be burned at the stake

Os: slowly cut up into tiny peices

Y/N: you guys are scaring me...

Sweatshirt roulette

Maxy: remember how we said we weren’t going to put Oscar in a compromising situation?

Charlie: Yes

Y/N: Yes

Lan: Yes

Os: Yes

Maxy: then why on earth have the lovely papaya duo swapped sweatshirts?

Lan:…………..

Os: in out defense our sweatshirts are practically the same

Y/N: aren’t you four in the driver briefing??

Charlie: Yes and Logan has been snickering behind them nonstop

Lan: I was wondering why it smelled different

Os: and you didn’t say anything?

Lan: Idk maybe you slept in it or something?

Maxy: Logan whispered something… tell me what it was -_-

Os: He started singing the Pokémon theme song

Os: Then he said I’ve been caught

Lewis & Seb

Lewis: Can you come get the kids? they are being chaotic again and its scaring me

Seb: Your an Adult

Seb: Just tell them to stop

Lewis: Max is chasing Daniel through the paddock

Lewis: Nvm

Lewis: He caught him and is dragging him off somewhere.

Seb: Not surprising

Lewis: that’s concerning…

Lewis: I swear they are like hormonal teenagers

Lewis: And your daughter is collecting drivers like Pokémon.

Seb: and you weren’t like that at their age?

Seb: I remember a few times where I caught you doing things

Lewis: I thought you said you’d never bring that up!

Seb: Yet here we are

Seb: complain about them again, and I won't hesitate to tell all five exactly what you were like

~

Next ->

@styles-sunflower @purplephantomwolf @boiohboii @reblog-princess-blog @jjsprobablywrong @jayda12 @faithm120601 @eugene-emt-roe @lpab @yaaadii @80sloverry @spongebeck3101 @eviethetheatrefreak @chanshintien @vellicora @hollie911 @pretty-little-bunny382728

[crossdressingdeath]

You know, thinking about it, I was wrong before. Nico has more reason to trust Hades than Percy does Poseidon at the time of the incident in TLO!

If you think about it, Percy's only evidence that Nico should've known it was a trap is that "[Nico] know[s] what [Hades]'s like", but... Nico's view of Hades would be much different from Percy's. Remember, Nico has a room in the palace at this time; Hades couldn't send him to his room the way he does later if he didn't have a room to be sent to. He's been living there! Hades allows him to live there! At this point Nico doesn't know that Hades used to visit him, Maria and Bianca regularly or that he actively stepped in to protect Nico and Bianca from Zeus and keep them safe until the time of Titan's Curse, but he does know that Hades is letting him live in his palace. Gods don't do that. Percy has to nearly die to even get a brief visit to Poseidon's palace, and he very openly knows that Poseidon wouldn't have claimed him to begin with if he didn't need him. Not to mention Poseidon has that whole thing where he explicitly tells Percy he wishes he didn't exist, which... is the sort of thing that's gonna have a negative impact on how you view your dad.

So when Percy says that Nico knows what Hades is like, what he's saying is basically... "The Underworld is evil and Hades is evil, how could you not know that," which is kind of an incredibly shitty thing to say to the child of Hades living in the Underworld? I mean, it is kind of just "You shouldn't trust your father because I think he's evil and the Underworld is evil", if I was Nico I'd be very concerned about what Percy thought of me when he started spouting that shit. Anyway, while Hades is far from a good father at this point in the series Nico still knows him as the father who is letting him live in his palace because he has nowhere to go, stepping well outside the usual bounds of gods interacting with their kids in the process. Hell, unless I've forgotten something (possible), it's entirely possible that by this point in the timeline Hades has already told Nico about Camp Jupiter (which would show a huge amount of faith in him, again above and beyond any other godly parent). Hades can be kind of a dick because all gods are dicks to their kids, but Nico has no particular reason not to trust him! Especially given Nico has exactly zero other adults in his life offering him any support and at this point in the timeline he doesn't remember his mother, so Hades is basically all he's got and he has no points of comparison other than his also-a-child sister who kinda sorta abandoned him (not going into her reasoning here but it was A Thing that would probably influence the way Nico thought about... caregivers, I guess, for lack of a better term to describe the twelve year old put in charge of her little brother) and Minos (who is... Minos. Enough said). It makes sense that when Hades says "Do this small thing for me and I'll tell you about your mother" Nico believes him, because while Hades has been awful to Nico at times there's no evidence that he's ever lied to him. Why should Nico doubt his father who gave him a place to stay when he had nothing and no one just because that father happens to be Hades and the place to stay happens to be the Underworld?

...Also in hindsight knowing just how much Hades spoils Nico (for a godly parent at least) in the future makes the "You know what Hades is like" thing kind of hilarious. Ah yes, the guy who gives Nico a place to stay when he has nowhere to go despite gods Not Doing That, tells him at least some of the gods' most guarded secrets and essentially takes it on faith that he'll keep his mouth shut, lets him get away with breaking the law that the dead stay dead without even a slap on the wrist, promises him a place in the palace when he eventually dies (which may or may not imply that Hades intends to make Nico a god when he bites it, but it's certainly not normal procedure for Underworld kids), tells him to his face he deserves everything, and backs up that claim by fulfilling his wishes with no payment required or debt accrued just because Nico asked if Hades thinking he deserved everything meant he'd do so (because Nico is a little shit, we love to see it) despite Hades claiming that wasn't actually what he meant. Why would Nico trust that guy? (I know, I know, it's not proof of anything at this point because most of that hasn't happened yet. But it is funny how completely Percy's claim that Nico should distrust his dad is eventually proved wrong by Hades spoiling his kid rotten.)

[notafraidofredyellowandblue]

2 cts..

Thought i had (because i read on some social media that the Till distancing himself from the band that Schneider mentioned, started with him taking on the 'Lindemann' project and from that got separate management, separate circle of people, separate 'bubble' (as Schneider called it)):

i often saw Emigrate and Lindemann as two similar projects, both Richard and Till taking the chance to do something that they weren't able to do with Rammstein.

Well, looking at it now, i think Emigrate actually saved Rammstein in a way (Flake even said as much in a podcast, about how Richard is so prolific and produces so many ideas, that they wouldn't fit in one band and that's what the solo project was for). Richard loves Emigrate as the 'interesting new girlfriend', but always talks about Rammstein as 'the mothership', 'the wife', 'the relationship', 'the marriage' and he has set clear boundaries for himself with Emigrate, like not playing live. Emigrate eventually took the tension off of Rammstein for him and imo that took the tension off of the others as well. After the latest Rammstein album Zeit, Richard even forgot fo mention in interviews that 'it would be the last', something he always did before 🌺

Till's things he can't do in Rammstein are the extremes, in pain, sex, darkness. The Rammstein democracy and quality control always knows exactly where to reign him in (not just in lyrics and performance (remember Schneider looking very uncomfortable when Till bashed his head against a stagelight every show in Heirate Mich?), but when they met up more often, i wouldn't be surprised if they commented on other stuff as well (there are some real meddlers in that band 🌺). It may have felt good to not be on the leash in Lindemann and i think Peter Tagtgren and him worked well together from a 'creation' point of view, but Peter probably didn't intend to put in a quality control on Till. And Till's new circle certainly wasn't into reigning him in, they only encouraged the extremes. Imo Till is very bad at setting boundaries for himself, and easily influenced when indulged (i think Paul even said as much in a making of once, in slightly different words). Ofcourse it feels nice if people don't argue with you all the time, and there are people who manage to arrange everything you come up with and make it happen...but that doesn't mean it's good for you. And when Till started mixing the two, by at a Lindemann concert showing the infamous BJ video set (either real or staged) at a Rammstein show, and everybody in his circle probably thought that was great...in hindsight that might have been a pivotal point.

It's a shame that it has come to where we are now, it probably wouldn't have happened if someone would have been able to put their foot down sooner. But with Till's people only indulging him, and the foot-put-downers at a distance... imo this was a situation waiting to happen.

Just my thoughts, but if i'm right, than i would say that where Emigrate saved Rammstein, Till's solowork almost destroyed it.

Almost, but not completely.

Because i honestly feel that the Rammstein democracy is still the best way for the 6 of them to work and shine. And I hope all 6 of them are doing their best to make it happen 🌺

(Ps. i don't mean this as an 'excuse' post in any way, we are talking about adults here, who should accept consequence for the actions they do or omit)

[thatdogmagic]

So, there's some posting going around, and after being alerted to what exactly is being made public, it's pretty clear I can't go with my initial inclination which is 'leave this alone.'

First things first:

a) I'm not going to fight any accusations of having done something potentially racist. I'm a white person raised very white; when I was made aware that the default ways I was responding to things were reading very poorly in the context of a white person and a black person, I apologized. No matter how I feel about what's happening *currently*, I still am sorry about it. I really hadn't thought of how it would come off until I saw it in hindsight.

I can't say for sure what all is being referenced aside from that instance. I'm not going to be the best judge, for the reasons mentioned above. The best I can do is absorb, apologize, keep learning to be better, and continue to chip away at the boneheaded 40yo white person shit.

b) re: ableism, the sad irony of the screengrab posted is that I was having an autistic meltdown at the time (which, no, is not an excuse). Use of the r-slur, in reference to myself, is a very sure sign I'm in the middle of one, reaching for an impact word and choosing a really terrible one. Like the verbal equivalent of hitting yourself, giving voice to what are, yes, at root, ableist thoughts that live in my head about my own diagnosis. I can and do get very frustrated with my autism sometimes, especially when I 'fail' to learn fast enough to manage it (read: fail to prevent a meltdown).

I'm also genuinely sorry people had to see that, both people in the chat and now, everywhere. I did, yes, delete it because I hated it being there, and I didn't want especially that to be the footprint I left on the server, if it was ever repurposed/the channels weren't recycled (brief note on that later).

Anyway yeah it's something I really need to work on. And it's disheartening to see it cherrypicked when everyone there was aware of the context, but yea; if you see some really wild shit from screencaps, please keep in mind that a lot of it has already been extremely cherrypicked/context is going to be missing. If the whole conversation isn't present, ask to see it.

That's the heaviest stuff that needed addressing.

The accusations of character theft are another thing, because that involves Ependa, and a conversation I had personally with Jackal that was settled amicably a year ago. Or so I thought.

It's the one conversation I did think to save in its entirety, because I just-- had a feeling it might end up being in the cherrypicked pile, or removed from the record entirely. I didn't expect to have to need it this soon, but here we are.

So here it is, in its entirety:

All of that is true, on my end. I was the one who told Ependa to go with a darker complexion on Lacey, and it really didn't quite occur to me at the time that it'd be much of an issue. It should have. The characters are distinct to me in a variety of ways, but as said in the screengrabs, it's a small pond. Past that, if there was more we could do to differentiate then it wasn't discussed with either of us, and we were both open to making further alterations as-needed.

This is not the first time this conversation has been had among werewolf creators, fwiw, or the first time we've had to chat amongst ourselves about potential crossover. I've had to have a similar talk with another artist I know and respect because there were a few too many similarities going on with a set of pieces I was already working on.

Ependa had to recently have that conversation with Trashasaurus (which I'm paraphrasing a Ependa's request), re: commissions that had requested a character that had taken a lot of visual inspiration from both Lin and Toska. She'd noticed Toska's traits and vibe and wasn't entirely comfortable with it, and upon learning they had been requested asked Trashasaurus not to take on those commissions anymore. Trashasaurus agreed and that seemed to be the end of it, save to drop some warning about the 'Lacey talk' which-- well. See above. That's it, in its entirety.

If Ependa wants to post the logs of her conversation, she can, but I'll leave that up to her.

So, that's the heart of the matter at the moment.

It's yet another fallout of yet another failed project by yet another group of artists. It's a tale as old as time, and I would've really loved to have not given it fuel, but the r-slur thing backed me into a corner and needed to be addressed. And if that was being addressed, then others things needed to be addressed, too.

The thing about character theft, though-- yeah, IDK. If there was a problem, there was a year to solve it, and the offer made to post publicly about the oops/acknowledge it right there in that moment was genuine. So far as anyone knew, this had all been settled, and any time it was brought up after there were a million assurances that it wasn't an issue.

Last: I deleted my presence on the server because I a) wasn't sure if it was going to be repurposed and wanted a lot of very personal conversations/old images removed if that happened, b) was frankly concerned about something like this happening; cherrypicked conversations getting tossed up online if things got any worse. I used undiscord, which deletes chronologically, because deleting everything is easier than finding specific conversations/image files.

Because the worst of the fights happened last, well. Yeah it's gonna look like I'm deleting the worst parts first.

I also wouldn't have willingly agreed to be on a server using third party logging software/deleted message retrieval plugins, either, had I known that was in play, but that's a 'live and learn' moment for me, unfortunately.

Anyway that's it, that's all. I can't tell anyone how to think or feel about any of this. I'll be here and will continue to post art, though, for those who still feel like sticking around.

[batsplat]

On the one hand I definitely agree that Marc’s absence doesn’t take anything away from titles won but on the other I would absolutely understand if Joan and Fabio especially (Pecco less, I think… the bike… they all know about Honda beginning to fail, right? At some point ig you could say even a pre-Jerez Marc Marquez wouldn’t have ridden that to a championship and it is in Pecco’s best interest to put that point into 2022) would forever consider their titles borrowed off “luck” because I also think everyone ASSUMING if Jerez didn’t happen, Marc would have won 2020 and likely also 2021 isn’t exactly wrong. He won 3 whole races in 2021 (however he did that), that’s more than anyone else but Pecco and Fabio who finished second and first… as Max said, if is a stupid concept in sport, but the if in question is not a regular “if”, and the whole grid knows it. Hell, we are all aware that had Jerez been simply milder instead of the horror it became, Marc’s achievements would look different at this time… So that’s definitely very interesting to me, that any winning done in Marc’s continued absence from the top seems asterisked by the riders’ own attitudes. That him being on that Ducati this year helps, even a little, to alleviate a bitterness that seemed settled whenever he missed a race. It’s a true win only if you beat Marquez, because Marquez is the one to beat. I wonder if that’s what 2010 felt like to the then-grid, when Vale broke his leg… that winning didn’t even count properly, bc Valentino was not there to make it real.

yeah, listen, if marc had been uninjured in 2020, he would have won the title. I'm not arguing that bit, I'm saying it doesn't matter. marc's injury wasn't some kind of freak accident... it was unfortunate, but it was also unsurprising, and his comeback going wrong even more so. this is what you have to remember about sports but especially motorcycle racing: you are placing heavy demands on your body, and sometimes the excess demands are directly correlated to your success. in this post, there's some quotes from 2019 about how 'lucky' marc is... because he was crashing so so much outside of races to find the limit of the bike - and yet it didn't hurt his results (obviously he was still injured a lot, yearly off-season surgeries and all that). this was part of his approach and it was obviously a very successful one. and in some ways it is also one that was necessitated by the characteristics of that honda, which at this stage only he could tame... but it is true that if a lot of other riders crashed at that rate, they would've been considerably worse off, and it was a part of the process that allowed him to be so successful. and it did already make a lot of people very uneasy at the time, because it felt like eventually it just... had to go wrong. it's also worth noting that... yes, marc's achievements would look different if the injury hadn't been that bad. but the initial injury wasn't 'that bad' relatively speaking - it was his decision to come back that really fucked him over. I strongly believe he shouldn't have been allowed to race, but it was still his decision, and it was part of a tradition of ridiculously fast injury comebacks that had also helped make him so successful in past years (though fwiw this one immediately felt like a bad idea, zero hindsight needed I promise you). so let's put it like this: if you keep putting your body under incredible strain even by motogp standards to reach the level of success you do, and eventually your luck runs out, eventually you land badly on the wrong side of the risk/reward calculation... then how is it fair to say your competitors should be handed asterisks in your absence?

in 2018-19 everybody (including valentino) expected that marc would surpass valentino's titles. few expected him to last at the top of the sport for as long as valentino did. valentino during his prime crashed far far more rarely than marc did and was battering his body considerably less... for marc, there was always the question of how long this could last. he was punishing his body for his particular brand of brilliance, but this always had to be a trade-off. it wouldn't have been surprising if his career had ended through injury, though of course how 2020 played out still ended up being a shock. but!! at the end of the day, even without marc's particularly risky style of racing, you wouldn't need an asterisk. the comparison to 2010 is an interesting one, because you can tell that jorge was at times extremely eager and determined to stress that he wasn't just benefiting from valentino's absence. in the dorna-produced docu for his title, he emphasises that he was already leading the points when valentino broke his leg at the fourth race of the season... which is true, but a) valentino also wasn't leading the championship in the early stages of the two previous years either, and b) valentino was already managing injury. the eruption of that icelandic volcano meant motegi had to be rescheduled, which gave valentino the opportunity to go and get his shoulder injured in a motocross accident (again, for the question of training risk/reward see the post I linked to above). it was this injury that quite probably caused the next one... and troubled him more in late 2010 and early 2011 than the leg did. it also set off the chain of events that allowed jorge to gain ascendancy internally in yamaha, which is part of the reason why valentino decided to go to ducati and essentially took himself out of title contention for... well, two ducati years, and another year where he still wasn't quite up to speed on the yamaha. stop the volcano from erupting and motogp quite plausibly looks very different for the next few years

the question of whether valentino wins the 2010 title without injury is far more open than whether marc would've won 2020, but at worst you have to call it about 50/50 - and even with the troublesome shoulder valentino was getting the better of their actual wheel-to-wheel fights in late 2010. so that title fight too was severely influenced by one rider's bad luck, one that you can't even trace back to a particularly risky riding style... but on the other hand, eventually everyone's luck runs out, and valentino had been relatively lucky for a long time. he was also getting older, which in itself will affect recovery time. this is how athletes' competitive life cycles go, right - yes, you might lose your physical edge, yes, you might struggle to find the same fire, but you have also demanded a lot from your body for a very long time and eventually you pay the price. eventually, every athlete's era has to end... and unfortunately in grand prix motorcycle racing, a lot of the time that era ends with injury. schwantz and rainey were long-time rivals, with rainey winning three consecutive titles at the start of the nineties. in 1993, they were again locked in a title fight - until rainey crashed and was left in a wheelchair, his career ended and the title handed to schwantz. that was schwantz's only title, but he's still considered one of the greats of the sport. doohan and criville were teammates when doohan was dominant, and it took doohan's career-ending injury during the third race of the 1999 season for crivi to finally win the title. kenny roberts jr won the title in the following season in what was a chaotic year not dissimilar to 2020... from the young star who wasn't quite ready to put together a title charge to the underdogs at suzuki eventually claiming the big prize. this is how it goes... what a champion needs on their side as much as anything else is luck. jorge wasn't crashing as much as marc was in 2013, and yet somehow he ended up with the broken collarbone at assen that severely damaged his title chances - because sometimes, it only takes one crash for it all to go wrong. does that mean marc is an undeserving title winner in 2013? of course it doesn't!

in the case of 2020, when it became increasingly clear marc would not be winning this title, it's not like everyone's minds immediately went to mir. the favourites were dovi, fabio, vinales... the thing is, right, it was an absolute mess of a season (that was also of course seriously impacted by the pandemic), but someone had to be the one to take advantage. the suzuki was a well-settled package and mir after a strong rookie season was the one to put in the consistent results to claim the title. he was already highly rated going into motogp, and he was absolutely seen as a potential star of the future. for his sake and his reputation within the sport, of course it would've been preferable to win a more emphatic title... and in some ways, his 2021 on a lagging suzuki is more impressive than the 2020 title. it's an incredible shame how his career has gone since then, mostly not through his own fault, and you still want to hope he'll have the opportunity to dispel a few more doubts - both from the fans and quite possibly himself. then again, hayden won two races in 2006, kenny roberts jr three in 2000... at the end of the day, the main thing new fans know now is that they were champions, and so it will one day be for mir too. moving on to 2021, it's worth remembering that by then the honda was already a bad bike. yes, marc would undoubtedly have been the title favourite - but two of his three wins that year were at his specialist circuits that also still suited the honda, basically the places where he could win with his eyes closed. at the very least, you have to believe 2021 would have had a proper title fight and wouldn't just have been a stroll in the park for marc - yes, quite probably he would have prevailed anyway, but it's really not so cut and dry

THAT BEING SAID. I do agree with much of this ask! it is interesting that it's asterisked in the riders' minds! but it shouldn't be - that's the devil talking, you need to stand up for yourself and ignore all the doubters and get on with it. jorge had enough self confidence and stubborn belief in his own ability that this discourse in 2010 did nothing but piss him off. in 2007, casey was incredibly sick of people talking down his title because of how good the ducati was that year and the tyre difference between him and valentino. yes, casey was on the better package that year, and valentino did clearly benefit from switching tyres in 2008. does that in any way detract from casey's title? no! it doesn't!! he was right to be annoyed - imbalances are part of the game, and casey was very good that year. he deserved that title! valentino also faced the bike merchant allegations in spades of course, but young champions are particularly vulnerable to this kind of discourse. they're less established in the sport, more likely to attract detractors who are determined to prove they can't live up to the legends of the past... after 2006, everybody more or less agreed that it was a bit of a lucky title, but hayden was so popular and people were so pleased for him that it was just treated as a feel-good story - which it wasn't in the same way with surly young casey. no matter! who cares what people think! if your opponent has a bad day, you need to take the opportunity presented to you and press home the advantage. if your opponent has a bad year, even better. no sitting around worrying whether history is going to take your accomplishments seriously... it's like hayden said at assen 2006 when valentino broke his right hand and left ankle. from the oxley reference book: '[valentino] finished the race in eighth, which put him 46 points behind hayden. "when that rossi guy is down, you gotta jump on him!" he grinned'. brutal, but that's the game

also, I'll say it: I reckon both joan and fabio have probably had their fair share of bad luck to compensate by now. enough

[ar3ndoesarson]

Anytime he goes away

Hello, long time no see. This is probably going to be a bigger project (both because I have so much planned and because I'm struggling with realizing my plans for this fic).

I based this title off of "Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers.

Hope you enjoy :^)

"I still don't get why they went like 'Yup mhm these bright-ass neon lights are exactly what our patients should have to look at on a daily basis." Lance looks up at the ceiling lamps and nods his head dramatically. "I mean if I had to lie in that bed all day, staring at this monstrosity of a light source I'd probably also develop a depression!"

"Lance I thought you're here to keep me company? Or would you rather spend your day arguing about design choices of a goddamn hospital?" "It's not just a design choice, it's a health hazard, Keith!" Lance jumps up from his chair and points at the lamps like Keith wouldn't know what he was even talking about. Like he didn't have to stare at said lamps for the last week.

Keith had been brought a few days ago, six to be exact. Lance had counted because six days seemed like a long time to keep someone because they had fainted. But then again he didn't know why Keith had fainted.

"You wanna go grab a snack? I'm starviiinng" the blue Pladin said slumping down in his chair. "Sure" Keith said whilst shrugging his shoulders. He kind of looked forward to getting out of his bed, because it meant he would have something else to look at than a boring white wall. And because it meant Lance came to visit.

Lance stared whilst Keith sat up from his bed and grabbed his IV pole for support to get up. Apparently they had to do some testing on Keith or whatever, nothing to worry, he had said and dismissed the topic with a shrug when Lance had asked about it.

The paladins made their way through the corridors with idle chit chat (half of it being Lance going on about how dull and dreary the whole hospital looked, to which Keith would reply that it was designed to be practical, not look pretty).

They made their way to the hospitals cafeteria, an alcove in the wall. It was still painted an unnatural white, but a few windows and cute seating areas across the space managed to make the room look actually a bit cozy. Once inside, they ordered and sat down at a table to wait for their food. From where he sat, Lance could see outside the alcove into the rather busy hallway they'd come from. A few nurses walked past, looking rather stressed. One of them turned their head looking in Lances direction. He gave a quick nod but got only a confused glare back.

A few minutes passed and they finally got their food, when the nurse from before reappeared and made their way to the two former paladins. "Keith, what are you doing here?" they asked. His head shot up in surprise, he hadn't even noticed the nurse until now. "Uh... I'm eating?". The nurse shook their head and then; "Come with me for a second, will you?".

Without any questions the black haired boy got up and followed the nurse a few steps away. Lance couldn't make out what they were saying, but it seemed like Keith was being scolded. He pointed his gaze to the ground for the most part, only once raising his head and taking up a defensive stance. If Lance could make it out right, it almost looked like he was afraid for just a second. Just as Keith turned to walk back to their table the nurse called after him one more time. "You know just as well as I, that you shouldn't."

When Keith sat back down, he didn't talk about it, and Lance didn't ask.

In hindsight he should've.

[jelzorz]

140.

The cut comes from a cutlass. The pirates that attack their ship on the Sea of the Outcast are wily, Rayla will admit—wily enough to get the better of her and land a hit on her arm but certainly not wily enough to get away with it. It's a tricky fight, but they manage. Tidebound advantage or not, Callum is too skilled a mage, and Rayla too skilled an assassin, and Soren too skilled a Crownguard to let them get far. In the aftermath of it, the deck is a mess and everyone's a little battered, but it's nothing they can't handle, and Rayla quietly, surreptitiously, hides the cut on her arm because they've got enough to deal with at the moment without another injury to add to the list.

(It's nothing to worry about anyway, just a scratch, and in any case, she doesn't know why Callum—why anyone—would care).

In hindsight, she should have just said something. The fever that's starting can't mean anything good.

"Hey, are you okay?" That's Callum. Typical Callum. Always worrying over her which is exactly why she'd kept her mouth shut.

"'M fine," says Rayla, but she stumbles over her own feet as her vision starts to narrow. It's so cold. It's supposed to be Summer.

"You don't look fine."

"Shows what you know," she mutters stupidly. "This is how I normally look."

Callum frowns at her. "You don't normally look like you're about to pass out," he says sharply. "C'mere." He catches her hand before she can protest and Rayla yelps, pain flaring up her arm. Callum's frown only grows sterner, and he yanks up her sleeve and scowls at the shoddy patch job she'd done on her arm. "Rayla, what the hell?"

"It's only a scratch," says Rayla, although her voice sounds whiny and weak in her ears. "Just leave it, I'm fine."

"Are you serious?"

"Seriously." Rayla tries to grin to prove it, but her knees buckle beneath her and the world spins out.

*

She wakes later to Callum, rolls of bandages in hand, sullen scowl pulling downwards at his lips. She's still shivering, even with her outerwear stripped off, even with Callum's wind dome whirling around them to bring her temperature down. Vaguely, she notices Ezran, Zym, and Soren standing over her, worried frowns on their faces, but it's Callum she zeroes in on.

"You're not fine," he snaps.

"I'm mostly fine."

"Rayla."

Rayla ducks her head shamefully. "I'm a little not fine." Then, queitly, she adds, "I just didn't want you to worry."

"Well, I'm worried now," grumbles Callum. "You have to stop doing this."

"Doing what?"

"Acting like you don't matter. You do matter. You matter to me."

A pause. Rayla blinks blearily at him, unsure if he's really looking at her like that or if it's just her fever-addled brain. There's so much in his face: so much anger, so much concern, so much... She's too afraid to say love.

She hesitates. "You still..."

"I still what?"

Rayla swallows. She looks away. "You still care about me."

Callum pauses, his eyes hard but still somehow affectionate, the truth more obvious there than in anywhere else. "Yeah," he says. "I do."

[damagedintellect]

Craig Tucker x Fem!reader

💌 Craig Tucker is a mother fucker: Chapter 3  💌  

Summary:  You want to say that it wasn't your fault buuuuuut it kinda was. You didn't think much of it as you casted your joke vote for the "Hottest guy in school" and in hindsight you should never listen to Clyde but it was pretty funny at the time. Craig just wanted a peaceful junior year and you can't blame him for that however waking up the morning after a party, in his bed, being told that you two were dating wasn't exactly your definition of peaceful either.

Notes:  I was always too scared of the fandom to post it back in the day but I wrote this before Creek was made canon so let's just say Craig is bi for my sake because I've had a huge crush on him since forever. My S/O pointed out that Craig is just Trafalgar Law but with a guinea pig instead of a polar bear and I haven't been the same since I have a type and it's them.

💌 Word count: 3,185 💌  <= Previous | Chapter 4 =>

The alarm was going off but Craig didn't have the energy to turn it off, his entire body felt heavy and he didn't want to move. He forced himself to open his eyes, frowning as he patted around for the phone turning the alarm off. His throat felt sore, despite him not yelling the day prior and he felt hot and cold at the same time. Craig tried to take a deep breath but he couldn't he ended up coughing instead. Closing his eyes he sank back into the blankets.

"Fuck"

He quickly sent a text to Clyde and attempted to go back to sleep. He could practically hear (Y/n) say "Who's the dumbass now, I thought I told you not to get sick." in that annoying cadence she uses when talking to him. Thinking about it made his head hurt and sent a shiver down his spine, maybe he should put his jacket on or get another blanket or something. He tried to stand up. His body didn't want to but it did so anyway however he couldn't find his jacket. He cursed himself again forgetting that he gave it to (Y/n). His head has been a mess lately because of her. Craig wanted to go check if there was any medicine in the house but he was already annoyed. He didn't have the patience to check and opted to go back to sleep.

---

Bebe had asked if you wanted a ride to school since you barely made it on time yesterday. You accepted it just as long as she didn't drag you to another girls club meeting. She promised she wouldn't but she was just so giddy about it you felt like she was lying to you. You still had a few minutes before she would get to your house. You laid on your bed holding up Craig's jacket. You were half tempted to wear it today but then again maybe it's better if you don't, in fact you should probably give it back. You sniffed the jacket once more, you had washed it last night since it was super wet when you got home. You felt bad that you made him go jacketless and you should have given it back then but it wouldn't have done him much good anyways. Honestly you wondered if he even had another jacket. You've only ever seen him wear this one and with good reason it was hella comfortable but still. Your phone rang and you shoved his jacket in your backpack as you put your shoes on and walked out the door.

As soon as you got in the car Bebe was giggling giving you this weird look. "Can I help you?" you questioned her as she smiled "Sooooo~"

"So?"

"Craig took you home yesterday didn't he! I heard he gave you his jacket, what happened, I need details women!" you frowned, word really does go around fast. You wondered if this was the reason she wanted to give you a ride "He didn't really give me his jacket per say. It's more like I stole it from him and he didn't care." Bebe kept her eyes on the road but snickered "That's not what I heard." she said in a sing song tune. You rolled your eyes at her these goddamn rumors are going to be the end of you, you swear "Yeah okay, well what did you hear?" you paused only a little curious "You know what on second thought maybe it's better I don't know." You stare outside the window. Either way you're probably dead Craig was going to yell at you again. Not that it mattered or more over not that you cared. "Whatever the case he walked me home and that was it end of story. We didn't even talk much on the way home." As Bebe pulled into the school parking lot she turned to you. "(Y/n) that guy you have a crush on it's Craig isn't it?" You inhaled so fast you choked coughing a bit. She should know by now your indifference to Craig.

"Excuse me? Fuck no, are you serious?" Bebe sighed at your answer and parked the car. "I figured you'd say that." You got out of her car and both walked into the school ignoring the looks you got from people "Why ask then? Don't tell me you're starting to believe the rumors." As you walked through the main hall you saw Clyde leaning on the wall next to Bebe's locker.

"I mean, you haven't told me who it is so it could be anybody, but if you must know" Bebe only pushed past you to hug Clyde "I asked because Clyde and I are finally an item and I thought a double date would have been cute." She kissed him on the cheek and you clapped "Wow, and here I thought I was going to be the middleman forever." They both smiled awkwardly at you recalling all the countless times they both had asked you to play wing man for them. It seemed like all that was worth it, they looked really happy together. Bebe nudged you playfully "Now it's your turn you have to get a boyfriend too sorry (Y/n), I don't make the rules."

"Oh haha" You sighed "Unfortunately I don't see that happening anytime soon. At least not while everyone thinks I'm dating Craig." you looked up to see Wendy and Stan walking together. Stan noticed you out of the corner of his eye. You made eye contact and waved as they made their way over to you. "Morning." you didn't know who to address first so you panicked and ended up saying the first thing that came into your mind.

"How're you feeling (Y/n)? It looked pretty bad yesterday" Stan said looking concerned. Just like yesterday you tense up and stutter "I-I-I yeah, I'm okay. It's not the first time I've fallen this year." you laugh awkwardly as Wendy put two and two together "Oh my god that was you? I heard Craig had to carry some poor girl to the nurses office!" you slump looking at the floor "hehe ah yup that, that was me." you said flatly as she put a hand on your shoulder "Hey at least you two are getting along this year, a lot of people think you're dating."

"Yeah no, we're really not. I'm as single as ever." putting your hand up in defense. Bebe laughs as she pinches your cheeks "Such a shame the number one hottest girl in the school's single." Stan smiled in disbelief "Really? That's surprising but then again I'm one to talk." Wendy laughed adding "I'm sure with your new title you could get anyone you wanted." You scratched the back of your neck and wondered if that was true. You looked up at Stan. Maybe you should just ask if he'd like to hang out sometime. After all you guys are friends right? You sure hoped he thought you were a friend. You were about to open your mouth to say something and the first bell rang "We should probably get going, Stan." Wendy said as he nodded turning back to make eye contact "It's reassuring to see that you're okay (Y/n)" they waved you all off as you, Bebe and Clyde also walked to your first class. "You hear that (Y/n), you defs could have any guy you wanted."

"Sure" you said sarcastically watching Stan walk away. It's not like there was anything wrong with being single, it just seems nice. You guys walked into class and sat down at your table.

You looked at the empty chair and at the clock. Seems like Craig was skipping first period again. Clyde and Bebe were already flirting with each other and you felt like a third wheel. You wanted something like that or maybe something less lovey dovey. The class started and the teacher started taking attendance. When Craig's name was called Clyde answered "Out sick" and you stared in his direction. You knew Craig would get sick in the rain without his jacket.

"I fucken called it" you whisper under your breath. Clyde looked at you and blinked "What?"

"I told him he'd get sick, but he didn't listen." You rest your head on the table "I should give him back his jacket." You slumped feeling guilty. Clyde's eyes widened, "You still have his jacket?" You ignored him still thinking about how Craig is sick and it's kind of your fault. "Maybe I should bring him some soup." You look at the clock again class wouldn't be over for a while, but you could probably hit a farmers market or something and make him some good soup and not just something from a can. "Hey do you guys want to skip school?" Clyde stopped what he was doing, it wasn't like you to skip class.

"I thought you'd never ask? I think we're finally rubbing off on you." Bebe cheered in excitement it wasn't everyday that you chose to break the rules. Clyde leaned back with his hands resting behind his head "Where do you wanna go?" You looked out the window "A few places" you didn't want to say no matter what they're going to get the wrong idea. Clyde sighs "Eh good enough for me." with that you all waited for class to end.

As soon as the bell rang you all walked to the main hall. During the passing period it was very easy to slip away considering there were so many students traversing the halls. This was the first time you've made an effort to skip class and to your surprise no one was caught. Once you got to the parking lot you made it to Clyde's truck "So where too first?"

"Where ever the nearest store is." You mentally made a list while Bebe plugged her phone into the aux cord. "So we're def going to Craig's right (Y/n)."

"Shut up, I feel bad okay!" There were a few beats of silence before they both started laughing "I totally called it! You guys are dating!"

"I already told you no we're not. I just don't want to be in debt." Clyde turned to you "Yeah sure you keep telling yourselves that. One day you're gonna realize it and it's going to hit you hard." You rolled your eyes, as if. "I keep telling you guys I have a crush on someone else but go off I guess." Bebe pats your head "Well maybe we'd believe you if, hmmmm, I don't know you told us who it was." you sighed maybe you should just tell them.

"Fine!" you took a deep breath "I like Stan, now you can stop bringing it up." They both went quiet as Clyde pulled into the parking lot. "Well shit." He said as he parked the car. They both looked in your direction "Yeah no kidding" you grunted rolling your eyes at them as you grab your wallet out of your bag and left the vehicle. At this point you didn't care who knew. With all the rumors about you and Craig, you would be shocked to even get a date with someone.

You walked into the store and grabbed a basket. They followed you in and Bebe hugged you from behind "I understand why you didn't want to tell me now." You scoffed "No shit, now hand me 3 potatoes" she pouts at your response but does as she was asked. "Clyde and I promise we won't tell anybody." Clyde nods "Yeah pinky swear if I have too."

"I figured you guys wouldn't. I mostly told you because I don't have a chance at all." you put some more produce in the basket. "I mean you never know until you ask him." Bebe was right but with the way he hangs around Wendy you doubt it. "My main concern is Wendy."

"Fair enough but, you're already giving up if you don't do anything."

You guys finished up the shopping buying celery, carrots, potatoes, elbow pasta, chicken breast, chicken stock and some evaporated milk. You bought enough for all four of you to eat. Given that you guys were going to skip lunch anyhow, Clyde and Bebe even gave you some cash for their portions. Which was nice of them but they didn't have too you would have cooked for them regardless. "So what off to Craig's" Clyde asked just to make sure "I guess so." He pulled out of the store parking lot and made his way to the Tucker residence. A few minutes later you arrived at Craig's house.

Apparently Clyde knew where the hide a key was and let you all in. He said that Craig wouldn't even notice as long as he was in his room considering it was upstairs. Clyde went to go check on Craig to possibly distract him if need be while You and Bebe made your way to the kitchen. She was curious and wanted to watch you cook.

"I didn't know you could cook, I think that's hot." You shrugged continuing to chop everything up, already tossing the chicken in the frying pan. "My parents aren't around much. We tend to move around often so they're always busy working, but I enjoy cooking it's not that big of a deal." You set up a pot to boil the noodles at the same time. You set the cooked chicken aside for the moment while grabbing the bowl you put all the vegetables in. Using the same pan you used for the chicken, you saute the vegetables in the sweet juices that remained at the bottom of the pan. You had also taken some butter from the fridge which you hoped was okay. Clyde came back down shortly after "Something smells really good." You had just finished putting everything in the pot as Clyde walked in the kitchen "Now we let it simmer for 20 minutes." They both applaud you before you started on the dishes. After you were done he took you guys upstairs. There were pictures on the wall from when Craig was a kid. Most if not all of them he was giving the bird. The ones that caught your eye were of the soccer and baseball teams. You never really pegged him as the sports kind of person but then again there was probably a lot you didn't know about Craig.

"He's out like a light, he's a pretty heavy sleeper. I tried to wake him and still nothing." He opened his door. Craig's room was less cluttered than you imagined it would be. You wouldn't consider him to be a neat freak but everything seemed so organized and clean. Clyde dug through his bag and pulled out his switch "In the meantime, you guys wanna play Mariokart?." You and Bebe grinned at him.

---

"THAT IS BS!!! HOW'D YOU GET A BLUE SHELL IN SECOND PLACE!!!"

"I am R N Gesus." Bebe was proud of her random luck and Clyde couldn't help but smile at the blonde "You're lucky I love you."

Craig heard voices, he wanted to continue sleeping and for a second he thought the voices were part of some weird dream. But this wasn't a dream he opened his eyes when he realized who those voices belong to. He frowned when he saw Clyde and Bebe kissing. He didn't say anything just quietly watched. "This might as well be happening" he thought to himself. He was happy for his best friend. Clyde and Bebe have been beating around the bush since the 4th grade but did they really have to do this in his room. He heard another set of footsteps and looked to the door as it opened.

You walked in holding a tray of the soup you made earlier and saw Bebe and Clyde making out. You grimaced "Really in front of my soup." They paid no mind to your comment and just continued. They only jumped when they heard a voice from behind them.

"What the fuck are you guys doing here?" Craig managed to say before he was hit with a coughing fit. "Not that I told ya so but, I told ya so." You handed him the tray and sat in his desk chair "I made you soup." Craig didn't question it and just accepted it. He was grateful he had good friends even though he'd never admit you were his friend. He enjoyed your constant bickering too much. You had traded places with Clyde for the next race and he sat on the bed with Craig.

"Clyde how many times have I told you, you're not allowed to use the hide a key" Clyde smiled sheepishly knowing he wasn't supposed too but he thought it would be funny, and it was. It was really funny and seeing Craig's reaction was worth it. It's not like they were going to be missing anything on the third day of school.

"What else was I supposed to do? My best friend was sick." he over exaggerated his expressions swooning and clutching his chest before ending his little scene crossing his arms "You probably didn't even take any medicine." he was right but Craig just flipped him off taking a bite of the soup. He physically perked up, it was good, he turned to look at you. You and Bebe were still on the second lap of the race. "It's good." he said knowing you weren't paying attention. He continued eating as Clyde sat beside him "I know right (Y/n)'s a pretty good cook." He paused watching the race before adding "It was her idea by the way, to skip class to come over." Craig looked over at you and then back to Clyde, he wasn't buying it. Clyde literally makes any excuse he can to skip class.

"Why?"

"Something about being guilty for taking your jacket or some shit." You and Bebe finished the race and you handed the joycon over to Clyde. You only heard the last half of the conversation "That reminds me I still have it." You rummaged through your backpack and pulled out his jacket tossing it to him. Craig set the soup aside for a moment grabbing the jacket, something seemed different. He shoved his face in the jacket and took in a deep breath, "What did you do to it? It smells weird." he kept sniffing the jacket and you raised an eyebrow "I washed it. Why, does it smell clean."

"The fuck? Why would you wash it?"

"Because it's a jacket Craig, it was wet." you stare blankly at him as Bebe and Clyde to turn over "Dude, do you not wash your jacket?" Craig shrugged taking another bite of the soup "It's not like I sweat in it enough to make it stink. Why would I wash it if it doesn't smell like anything." Clyde didn't know how to respond to him just pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You sick fuck."

[vro0m]

“Yeah if it affects your mental health I do think you should take a step back because that's a bit much. This is just a stupid little sport. It doesn't actually has any effect on your life. It should just be a nice little hobby. If it doesn't bring you joy don't partake.”

I know I'm late to the discussion, but I was just now reading this and just wanted to say yes.

I am autistic, and consequently, it's really easy for me to get so wrapped up in hobbies to the point where it impacts my mental health. There was a time when I was getting physically sick to my stomach over the stress of worrying if the driver I support would qualify well, if he would be involved in a first lap accident, how the fandom would react if things didn't go well, etc. Like my mental health was suffering to the point that my physical health was as well all over this sport that ultimately will have no bearing on my life or future.

And it was actually really hard to take a step back. Like I said before, autistic, and I really think that does impact my interest level in things? I would always say y'know, okay, this sport is upsetting me, so I'm just not going to watch any sessions this week. My brain would be so preoccupied with how the drivers I like were doing and how the fandom was reacting to it even when I wasn't watching and was trying to do other things. This was something that took a big effort on my part and frankly involved a lot of feelings of anxiety to even take a step back, but I'm glad I did reach a point where I was able to.

Now, I'm not as unhealthily obsessed with F1 anymore. I have other hobbies - sometimes I prioritize them over F1. I have a job where I'm regularly scheduled to work during F1 sessions, and I can enjoy my job without my thoughts being consumed with F1 and F1 fandom things. I do still watch the races, even if I have to watch a replay later, and I'll even watch FP sessions and qualifying if I have the time. But I'm not as stressed now. It's something I can get enjoyment from now, even if the final results of a race don't quite exactly match what I would have liked to see.

For me, I think taking a step back from the fandom side is what made the difference. I don't feel the need to be online 24/7 defending my drivers against trolls (and I don't mean valid criticisms based off current performance, but you know. the ones who try to discredit a driver's entire career over one bad weekend, for example). If they have a bad quali, it's a few minutes of disappointment for me now instead of something I'm agonizing over for days because I'm reading tons of takes in the fandom full of recency bias (which isn't even “the fandom's” fault, like I recognize in hindsight I was the not-so-smart one reading things that I already knew would upset me).

Idk where I was going with this, but I do think sometimes taking a step back can lead to finding a healthy enjoyment of F1 and the teams/drivers you support if you ever do find it impacting your mental or physical health. I've definitely started enjoying it more since I stepped back from the fandom side of things especially.

Hey thanks for sharing! Either you and I talked before or it was someone else but I do remember a discussion about a very similar situation.

Anyway that's exactly the type of things I was referring to earlier. I'm glad you get to truly enjoy it now, in a peaceful, joyful way. Hobbies shouldn't get (overly) stressful.

[lake-archive]

Track 14 - Speak Up!

While this chapter itself contains no content warnings, it is part of a bigger work which contains various content warnings! Read at your own discretion!

AO3 Link

Fandom: Hypnosis Mic

Character: Ann Wolff (OC), Ichijiku Kadenokoji

Synposis: Ann thinks back on last night.... How she keeps up with it. She has no focus lately as a result and thus Ichijiku forces Ann to speak up. 

Track 13 - Track List - Track 15

One slap… A quick slap… Ann had tainted her hands, didn't she? After all, she did it. She finally did it. The last straw which got her to lift up her hand and deliver a slap across his face. He had not expected it, at all, let alone her yelling. And yet, after he had overcome his shock he had started yelling at Ann. “ What the hell is wrong with you!? Don’t just smack me like that! ” 

And with that the argument had started. Though a bit into it Ann had noticed what she had done, becoming quiet. She apologized over and over yet her boyfriend didn’t seem to have any of it. He was just continuing to yell at her before throwing her off the couch. “ Leave! I don’t want to see your face here! But don’t think this is over yet! ” And that was how the night had ended.

Right in the morning however he had texted her again. ‘ I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you like that. I was just a bit tired. Sorry. Can we talk about this later? Ah, just tell me when you have time. I know that you’re busy. Love you! ’

It was not unexpected. The two had an argument before where he just threw her out. And then shortly after he would just send that text. How he didn’t mean for this to happen and that he was not feeling well. He’d be ready to talk about it with her. But now it had an awful taste. But at the same time she was confused… What if he meant it? What if there was something? Should she go? It would just be talking, right? Ah, what should she do? Not like she could tell anyone about— 

“The window is not your desk!” A voice would bring Ann out of her own thoughts however. Said voice was loud and the tone as strict as ever. Thus the brunette flinched and turned around in an instant, spotting her supervisor in front of her. 

“M… Ma’m! I’m sorry! I will resume work right a—” She was about to say in a panic, about to grab one of the papers yet her arm had been grabbed, as if being held back at this point. Ann had been surprised, not expecting this from anyone… Kadenokoji was the very last person on top of that. 

It forced Ann to look up, to see the serious gaze of her supervisor. Yeah, her gaze was as stern as ever… And yet it also seemed a little softer than usual, to Ann’s own surprise. “What is going on?” The tall woman even asked.

“Eh? N… Nothing Ma’m! I—” Ann wanted to answer yet was not allowed to finish that answer.

“Don’t think I’m stupid! You’ve been spacing out all day long!” She began, a little loud. She was yelling and yet it was not anger, far from it. “There’s something bothering you, isn’t there!? Speak up!” 

“I—”

“I won’t allow you to leave your seat until you tell me!” It was forceful, a little pushy. And yet… It wasn’t as if Ann minded, oddly enough. She was surprised, sure, but maybe this was something she… Needed? From Kadenokoji nonetheless… Yet would it make sense? After all, the two just worked together. But here Kadenokoji was, as if forcing Ann to speak up. No, that was exactly what was going on.

And even with that, she hesitated. Could Ann really tell the other woman? She was considering… Until she remembered. That time… When he apologized… In hindsight it had thrown the younger woman off, confusing her to no end. But that might be because… This was the first time she had been taken seriously, by anyone. Or so it felt like. Does that even make sense? Well, it was what this felt like… So maybe… It would be safe to say Kadenokoji. Not like Ann could move away to begin with until she opened up anyway. 

She then turned back, trying to face Kadenokoji. She had to. She should. “There… Yeah, something is going on.” Ann finally admitted, then noticing the grip lightening, eventually her arm being let go of.

“Go on…” The older woman said, her voice turning softer. At least it wasn’t as strict as it usually would be. It was almost as if there was a hint of concern. Ah, no way. That was wishful thinking! … Right? 

And yet, Kadenokoji seemed to wait, remaining silent until Ann would speak up again. And she did, yet it took a bit of strength to even say it out loud. “It’s… About my boyfriend.”

One of the other woman’s eyebrows rose, gaze a little sharper when hearing it. “Boyfriend?”

“Yeah… It’s just—”

“What did he do!?” Was the immediate reaction, making Ann flinch on the spot. Even worse, Kadenokoji slammed her hands against the desk ,enough to make the papers jump up for a moment, a few flying down the desk. 

“P… Please Ma’m! Calm down! I didn’t even say what he did yet… Maybe it won’t sound so—”

“Then explain! I shall be the judge of that!”

“He… Well…”

Ann had not expected to open up to anyone about this and yet, she told Kadenokoji everything. Kadenokoji of all people – How Ann’s own boyfriend dismisses her concerns and how overly touchy he is, to the point it becomes uncomfortable. How she tries to open up yet he doesn’t seem to care. And also about that night… Yeah, that night, when she slapped him.

And with every word coming from Ann’s lips Kadenokoji seemed to become more and more unsettled. In fact, she seemed to become furious when hearing this. It was no secret that  the Deputy Prime Minister was not the fondest of men, that she could sound extremely harsh towards them. And yet, it would take a lot to get her this riled up. It had reached a point where she literally slammed her hands against the desk yet again, this time in the form of fists. 

“That’s not even a pig… That’s total scum!” Was the first thing she said after some time. She was furious, something unsettling for Ann.

“P… Please. Calm down. You only know my si—”

“Are you telling me to not take something like this seriously!?” She interrupted.

“N… No! Bu—”

“Listen up, you should stop dismissing your own concerns already!” A slap in the face. Or it may as well have been. “Quit keeping up with this already! If you want to make it somewhere you should stop apologizing and defending literal scum! If this thing doesn’t take you seriously, you should show him what a piece of trash he is!”

“Huh? Bu—”

“No buts! A word of advice, not just as your supervisor… Leave his sorryass already.” 

And a moment of silence. The words Ann didn’t want to hear and yet… They were words she had just heard. And maybe… She had to hear them… 

It was then when Kadenokoji finally turned away. “ Resume your work.” She sighed, heading for the door… But no exiting before turning back to Ann, at least enough that the young woman was probably in the sight of the older one. “And stop playing pretend already. It’s doing you more harm than good.”

And then she left Ann by herself.

Track 13 - Track List - Track 15

[like-rain-or-confetti]

REQUEST: Rogue having a panic attack and S/O trying to comfort them but not exactly knowing what to do?

Top Five

Okay so I tried to write this as best I could but as someone who has panic attacks on the regular, this is tiptoeing on a line. So its going to focus more on the confusion of how to help and the solution rather than the panic itself.😬

The Riddler: He backed you against the wall and you hit your head hard but the pain was an after thought as the Riddler crumbled before your very eyes. It was probably the most terrifying thing you had ever seen. He didn't finish his sentences. He yelled at himself. He begged and pleaded with no one. He couldn't breathe as tears streamed down his face. All the while, you had no clue what to do. No clue how to help him. You gasped sharply as he fell to his knees before you. You quickly followed suit. "Edward!" You pleaded. Although not much came to mind beyond his name. He shoulders shook with his cries. He buried his face into his hands. "Fuck, Edward come here!" You said quickly pulling him to rest his head in your lap. The man was so broken down that he allowed it, arms wrapped around your torso as he cried into your thigh. You hushed him softly. "You're alright. I-I'm here." You rubbed his shoulders and back. "I love you so much, Eddie. You're my whole world. Just breathe. We'll get through this. You're stronger than all of this." You continued to talk to him as he slowly settled to nothing but sniffles. He didn't let go. Not even for a second. He didn't say a word.

Scarecrow: "Jonathan, you just ran off is everything- what's wrong?" You asked as your eyes widened. You had never seen him so distressed. "Well, I believe i-it's a panic attack." He stammered, bent forward and trying to wrap his suit jacket around him tighter. "Oh o-okay, what do we do?" You asked urgently. "H-How do I help? Should I leave you alone-?" "No." He said quickly with a shake of his head. "No. I don't need alone, I need-" He cut himself off breathlessly before reaching out to you. "Come here." "Jonathan, what am I doi-?" "I need you to hold me. Tight. As tight as you can." Jonathan managed out as a sob escaped him. "I don't think I've ever seen you cry." "Well there's a first for everything isn't there?" He sobbed. You pulled him into you and squeezed him. He continued to sob. "Are you sure about this? It seems like it's making you worse." You said slowly, moving to let go and he shook his head. "Don't let go!" He cried out. You retightened your hold. "I'm not used to physical contact like this b-but it works for me. It's...it's something I never got growing up so ironically enough it...calms me down after a minute." You were silent for a moment, head against his shoulder. "I was thinking more of a sedative but this'll do." You said quietly. He seemed to find some humour in that. "First thing I thought of. For once I don't have any." He replied and you chuckled. "I don't know, in hindsight, how often do I get to do this for long periods of time?" You grinned. "Atleast it's benefiting one of us." He groaned.

Two-Face: You heard him cry out and came running. He was stood in the middle of the room almost doubled over, hyperventilating and tears running down his face. "Shit! Okay, what do I do!? What helps!?" He reached out for you. "You! You help!" He managed out. "Oh, okay!" You said loudly as you were pulled towards him. He hugged you tightly. You felt him hyperventilate against you. "I-I'm here! I've got you. Here, head on my shoulder not against it. It'll make it easier to breathe." You said quickly as you rubbed his back. "You're completely safe. Deep breaths. Take as long as you need. We'll get through it together, you and me, right? We always get through it together. I'll never let you be alone again. Either of you. I love you both so much!" "We don't know what happened-" Harv' managed out. "It doesn't matter babe, what matters is that you're safe and I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere, alright? We'll ride this out together." You answered.

Black Mask: "Okay, we've got this, Roman. Nod or shake your head alright? Yes or no. Do you need help?" Slowly and stiffly, Roman nodded. "Okay, good! Do you want to talk about it right now?" Roman shook his head, his hands squeezing tighter. "Okay, last question, do you need to be alone?" You asked. He nodded. You nodded. "You've got it, babe. I'll be right outside the door, okay? I'm gonna make sure you get some time alone and when you're ready. You're ready. Take all the time you need." You sat against the wall beside the door outside. You heard a lot of yelling and things being thrown against walls and breaking. After half an hour, the door creaked open. "Hey, babe." You said quietly. "Want me to come in?" Roman took your hand and tugged you to stand and into the room. "Ready to talk?" You asked carefully. He said nothing but hugged you to him.

Mad Hatter: He was confused, uncertain of his surroundings. Uncertain of what was real. On days like these, that was too much. You looked at the uncontrollably sobbing man helplessly at first. You didn't know how to help him and found his distress very upsetting but he needed you. So you sat him down and pulled his head into your lap.his hand squeezed your knee tightly as he cried. Another reminder of his suffering. You held him, quietly offering words of reassurance. "I love you so much, Jervis." Your voice quivered. You were at a loss, wanting to take his pain away but couldn't see how to achieve that. You wondered if you should call someone but who? Instead, you stroked his hair and swallowed back your tears. "Just breathe for me, sweetie. You can do it. It'll help. You'll feel better soon. This will pass. You're safe and you'll feel so much better when this passes."

[galaxysharks]

Season 4 Scene prompt. Cause I realized I only have like 4 days to be proven wrong.

Seb is sitting at one of the lunch tables outside. Maddox walks up and sits next to him.

Maddox: hey... Getting some air? Sebastian, right?

Seb: yeah, sort of. And you're Maddox? You sang at the camp dance. You have a beautiful voice.

Maddox: my voice? Have you heard yourself? But yeah, sorry I didn't introduce myself properly, I was a little distracted.

Seb: no worries, Carlos said your girlfriend kind of caught you off guard.

Maddox: ex, actually, but yeah, Madison got a call from Jet and decided to make the drive and I wasn't really prepared for it.

Seb: Ex? But I thought the night was going well? You looked so happy at the end of the dance.

Maddox: I was! And it did. But me and Madison are in different places right now. I miss her, and I think she misses me, but not as much as she misses having someone, you know? And in hindsight I don't think I like how she handled being with me sometimes.

Seb: What happened?

Maddox: when we were together, I never really talked to people one-on-one, you know? She always needed to be nearby so I wouldn't 'mess things up' or 'overinform on everything'. I know she meant well, and she was just trying to look out for me, but it made me feel.... I don't know, like I was destined to ruin conversations and friendships that I made on my own. Truth be told, it felt like that when I first met you guys too. I couldn't say anything right, I even slept in my office for two days so I wouldn't bother them more.

Seb: I'm so sorry that any of us ever made you feel like you couldn't stay in your bunk!

Maddox: No! no, it was all me. I just got in my head and..... Anyway, the wildcats showed me that people can like me and want me around, even if I'm not leading a camp game, even with my issues. I made more progress in two weeks than the last 12 years combined. It's why my parents wanted us to come here. At the end of the night I was way more excited about being friends with all of you than I was having Madison back. I guess I just felt it was time to say goodbye.

Seb: hmm...... Hey Maddox? How do you know when it's time to say goodbye. Or how can you tell if someone is outgrowing you?

Maddox: this about Carlos and that awful trailer?

Seb: I know nothing happened, but what if someone else makes him happier? He could go anywhere with anyone he wanted. And I'm just here.

Maddox: listen, I haven't known you two for very long, but I can say this, Carlos didn't exactly take to camp right away, but nothing lit up his world like when he would talk about you. At dinner, the only good things he had to say about the place was that it reminded him of being with you at the farm. The doc was exciting, sure, but you made his week. I outgrew my need to hide behind Madison, but I don't think Carlos has ever hidden anything a day in his life, and last I checked he seemed pretty intent on proving just how much he wants you near him.

Seb:..... Thank you, Maddox. You're really good at making people feel better.

Maddox: thank you, you are literally the only person who thinks so.

Seb: I should go talk to Carlos.

[simstryingtheirbestok]

Periodically, all the rest of that day after the ceremony was over, either Taslin or I would turn to the other and say, "I can't believe it!"

"I don't know why I can't believe it," I added wryly. "We sure as heck put in the work."

"God, I know, right?" Taslin yawned.

"Maybe it's because--aren't we the first in our family to go to college, Taz?"

"Not exactly," my sister said. "Dad has his degree. Fine Arts."

"Oh, that's right."

"But other than Dad, I think we probably are?"

"That's what I was thinking," I said. "I know Mom said Grandma didn't go. And Grandma was a best-selling author, so that's probably why Mom didn't see any need to go."

"That, and I think she wanted to make a name for herself in the art world as soon as possible," agreed Taslin. "I'm glad I don't have that kind of pressure hanging over my head!"

"No," I said slyly, "you have an entirely different kind of pressure hanging over your head."

My sister laughed.

"I really did forget, you know," she said. "I completely forgot I'd asked Ahmed to go steady. We weren't running into each other that often while we were back home, and then Skip just kind of swept in and--"

I took a deep breath.

"Taz, there's something I have to tell you about Skip."

She cocked one eyebrow at me, but didn't say anything. I took that as a sign to go ahead.

"He's, uh... he's written me a couple of love letters," I said, embarrassed. If I weren't so green, I'd have turned scarlet.

Taslin sighed. She was quiet for a moment, obviously considering what to say.

"Awkward for you, I'll bet," she said finally. "Ugh! I'm so sorry."

"Sorry for what? You didn't do anything!"

"Just, sorry in general. Sorry I brought him around so much. Sorry he put you in that position."

"Sure, but you didn't put me in any position, unless you were ghostwriting the letters for him," I pointed out.

Taslin sighed again.

"I guess... I guess I'm only really surprised that he'd be so dumb as to think you wouldn't tell me. What a dipshit!"

"No kidding," I agreed.

"But that he'd have trouble being faithful... I'm not really too surprised by that. People did try to warn me. And he was sometimes a little too cagey about where he'd been, why he hadn't called--"

"So there were signs."

"Oh, tons," Taslin said, almost cheerfully. "Especially now that I think about it. Hindsight's 20/20, right? Yeah. There were definitely signs. But who wants to look at those when you're in love? Well," she amended, "maybe not love. Lots and lots of lust, though!"

We both giggled at that.

"You didn't ask for my advice--" I began.

"Indeed I did not."

"But I don't think you should tell Ahmed. Don't do the big dramatic 'confess to cheating' thing. Just chalk it up to a college fling and forget about it."

"I don't like unsolicited advice, Tierney," my sister began reprovingly, "but... I think you're probably right. It will only hurt him, and for what? For Skip? Who's Skip?"

"Chip? I have no idea who you're talking about," I said.

"But I'm telling you, I don't know anyone named Pip!" Taz said, in such a believable tone of outrage that I could only crack up.

That made Taslin crack up.

"I've got it," she said once she had her breath back. "I'm going to change his name in my phone to Dip. Mr. Dip Shit."

"Nooooo!" I howled, laughing again.

"Yes!" she said triumphantly. "That way, if he calls, I'll know not to answer. And if Ahmed happens to see it, I can tell him it's just some loser who was hopelessly obsessed with me at school. A loser whose real name I have long since forgotten."

"Then why would he be in your phone at all?"

"We had to work on a project together. The professor wouldn't let us pick our partners."

"Perfect," I said admiringly.

"Thank you," Taslin said. "I do have a degree in Communications, you know."

"I can believe it."

[fideidefenswhore]

How do we know that COA was offered her daughter made bona fides and kept princess? When was this?

It was an offer made by Henry alongside Campeggio when he was there before the trial, that her acceptance of the offer meant the trial could be foregone ....

We (Wolsey and Campeggio) are agreed in opinion to test the mind of the Queen, and to persuade her to consent to the separation, and to enter the profession of some religion. For this purpose his Lordship promised me the assistance of himself and all the prelates of the kingdom, and the favor of the King, and that the Queen shall have any honorable conditions which she demands, retain her station as Queen*, and not lose anything except "l'uso della persona del Re," which he (Wolsey) says she has lost for many years; allowing her her dowry, rents, ornaments, and assignments for her support, and many other things; especially that the succession of the kingdom for the present shall be established in her daughter, by the ordinance and consent of all the estates, in case there should never be any legitimate male heir. 

....(although, actually I don't exactly remember, that might have just been one stage of the offer...another might have been that her absence from the trial would ensure a result in Henry's favor; as we know she refused to attend after her speech and it did not, so whether or not that was true...Campeggio had a decretal comission to declare the marriage valid or invalid at Blackfriars and didn't, so in some sense they both got played, although Catherine only in hindsight...ironically, she would later vehemently complain about the severe injustice of the delay in any resolution, but she was the one that had interceded for that delay**, demanding the case only be tried in Rome). Even her counsel at the time, before becoming as contumacious as he did (Bishop Fisher), advised her to take this 'deal', as it were. Off the cuff, I don't remember every reference made to it, Chapuys some months later does also mention (very conditional) 'offers' made to her, but the dispatch is frustratingly vague:

Meanwhile the Queen is daily assailed by people making her all manner of offers, if she will only consent to the divorce; but she remains as firm as ever [...]

In 1533 Chapuys reports Catherine as having said she was willing to take the 'offer' made to her by the King's council three years ago, that then she had thought it was a feint to induce her to accept demotion, but she would accept it now. He does not specify what this offer was, I remember I went back to the sources of when Henry's council visited and argued with her and it was not clear then, either, but I always wondered if that was what she was alluding to. If so it was too late at that point; Henry had decided that the issue of any union that contravened divine law was irrevocably illegitimate (although technically, he would not manage to garner Parliamentary assent for this notion until three years later, he only managed it by implication in 1534), and he believed that was what it was.

Often apologia of Catherine's stance in the late 1520s has been, why should she have even considered that inducement, how was it even presented as an 'offer', even if the papacy had annulled the marriage, Mary would be bona fides regardless, etc. It was presented as an offer, inducement, compromise of sorts because in England that was not the legal precedent (ie, an offer made on behalf of her daughter that was not guaranteed otherwise):

"[Henry VIII] now argued she would would be barred by illegitimacy. This contention puzzled continental contemporaries because elsewhere in western Europe those children born to couples who in good faith believed themselves validly married were treated as legitimate. Nevertheless, Henry was right. After a period of some uncertainty, by the late fourteenth century England had opted out of the bona fides principle. As Sir John Baker notes, 'succession problems were usually debated in legal terms and in accordance with the common law canons of inheritance.' A successful challenge to his marriage would thus automatically bastardise Mary and leave Henry no direct heir... [although] Mary could have been legitimated by statute." - JF Hadwin, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History

*One assumes this meant only a ceremonial title of some sort, ie Dowager Queen of England, as her sister-in-law was still referred to as Queen of France.

**Probably not anticipating resolution would not take place for another four years, but...still.

[rivalsforlife]

I finished the new persona 5 tactica game and its dlc in 7 days which is faster than most people with their priorities in order, so I am ahead of all of my friends and therefore am going to dump all my spoilery opinions here.

The gameplay was fun (I played on easy mode because I am a baby) and I liked making triangles. that was definitely the most satisfying part of the game when I could make triangles and wipe out every enemy on the board at once. I felt like a god. I liked seeing these characters again, I like them, I like getting little insights into their lives.

I can't say that the story was """objectively""" bad but it did a lot of things that just kind of irritated me / felt sloppy / holy shit this is some of the worst Women Writing in a franchise I wouldn't say has particularly stellar Women Writing.

To begin with, I will list off my predictions going into this game based off of trailers:

-This is obviously taking place inside this toshiro guy's brain and/or he's the one who is causing all of this.

-all the villains are going to be Evil People In His Life

-first boss Marie is going to be his wife/fiancee, but it's some kind of political marriage type deal. second boss is going to be some kind of mentor/boss. probably run into a character that is going to be his teacher at some point when the school arc hits

-erina is based on a real person in his life as well who was involved in whatever sort of rebellion toshiro did outside of all this.

This is practically exactly what happens in the game, with the exception that I got the second boss's identity wrong (he's the father, which in hindsight I should've guessed from the start - instead I guessed as soon as Toshiro brought up that his father arranged his marriage).

It might be my fault for watching the trailers before playing but in my defense this game is extremely predictable. Like I said, I guessed the second boss's identity before he even showed up in the game. I think it became pretty apparent this was toshiro's fault early into the game.

uh what else. first kingdom I didn't love much because it felt very repetitive and like it went on for too long. as I wrote in discord after finishing it:

toshiro and erina are both fine but a lot of it is like. extremely predictable and blatant about it. like I could guess marie's whole deal from the trailers so it's a lot of "yeah we know. yeah we know" and it feels weird how the phantom thieves haven't yet at all guessed that toshiro is the cause of this when it feels like that's deefinitely how they're going to end up. a lot of the early segments felt repetitive (toshiro "oh no we should run away why would we risk getting hurt" erina "but we have to stand up for what is right!" toshiro "!" repeat endlessly until close to the end of the kingdom). and I definitely did not enjoy marie as a villain, she's so cartoonishly evil that it just kind of got to the point of exhaustion. comparing her as a first-game villain to someone like kamoshida for example, both are horrible people, but seeing kamoshida in real life and his actions in real life and how it was affecting everyone, despite him being fairly one-dimensional as a villain, made him an extremely hateable but very effective villain. I did not feel any of that for marie I was just sick of her. I'm hoping the game steps it up a bit moving forward bc I think the "not seeing the villains in reality aside from a few brief glimpses" thing might be rough on that aspect

I played the DLC after the first kingdom, which was a mistake because they have the same credits as the full game meaning I got spoiled on Yuki being related to him somehow. I thought she was a sister, maybe, until the moment toshiro brought up that his mom was dead, and then it was pretty obvious but it took the game FOREVER to actually state this.

Yuki's writing is where I really started to lose it because her character trait is Mother. There's nothing else. I actually laughed a bit when she jumped in front of that beam to protect toshiro because literally where else could it possibly be going. at this time I declared her "the most fridged persona character ever". this was, perhaps, naive.

THIRD KINGDOM. the introduction of eri natsuhara who dragged erina down with her. we have now completed the "bitch wife - mother - manic pixie dream girl" trifecta of shitty female character writing tropes. And I don't think it would bother me quite so much if they didn't go for all three in the same game and none of those three seemed to have any amount of motivation outside of toshiro.

Like again I'm not going to claim that persona has ever had stellar female character writing, but they typically at least manage to have the characters have some amount of traits outside of whatever guy they're associated with...? They have some characters I really like (Futaba, Yukari, Mitsuru as examples off the top of my head) and most at least have some part of their character arc as an individual one.

I guess the closest I could compare Eri's whole thing to is Aigis, but Aigis at least had a good part of her character arc independent, tying into the overall "meaning of life" theme, trying to figure out her own purpose and soul and ending up on "wanting to protect the protagonist" isn't bad because the game is about friends giving you the meaning of life. aigis contributes a lot thematically and I think her character arc makes sense. at least in my view.

I did not see any reason for Eri to be the supportive character to Toshiro's whole deal, but she's like "I'm going to help you achieve your dreams!!" when her own dreams and goals took a hard sideline in the plot. We know basically nothing about what Eri's done in the presumably decades between the high school events and the events of this game. The game really tried pushing the "sometimes, if you fight back... people get hurt!" but it was much more of an emphasis on "toshiro is sad that eri got hurt" and much less "how is Eri actually suffering from this other than in hospital wearing bandages". we know she lost her will to fight but the girl literally just got hit by a train so who can blame her for that, we don't know how or why she regained it, I especially don't like that she made the whole thing about "I'll catch up to you one day!". Did she get to graduate? What's her career like? What's the extent of her injuries and how do they impact her day-to-day life? We know Toshiro got shunned by everyone but did Eri have her social circle decimated as well, especially since Toshiro apparently never talked to her again??

It's like the focus on Eri's injuries was a) she lost her will to fight :( b) Toshiro is sad about it and they won't be able to fight together anymore :( and not the things about how it's impacted her life outside of Toshiro. I think that would've been nice to see more.

And the thing I especially didn't like about how they wrote Eri is that her character dragged down Erina, who was pretty good throughout the first arc, fell kinda into the background in the second arc, and then in arc 3 just got pretty much merged with Eri and suddenly her sole purpose was to protect Toshiro's heart -- nothing about the people she was trying to protect in the first arc or really anything other than a few allusions to an ongoing identity crisis over not being a real person. I will admit that her turning into a Persona was the first time I was genuinely caught off guard in this game.

(Sidenote: It was so obvious throughout the third arc that the ruler would be Shadow-ish Toshiro that the red herring they were pulling with nakabachi was completely insufferable.)

Anyways I get that this wasn't an Erina Game it's a Toshiro Game but it's just the combination of a bunch of weird writing decisions that really got to me in this case and at a certain point it was like doing a bingo for "shitty women writing". Eri is both the Inspiration For Toshiro's Rebellious Spirit who also Sees His Potential and Wants To Help Him Achieve His Dreams and then is later The Poor Defenseless Victim And Her Being Hurt Causes Toshiro To Lose His Way But Still Inspires Him To Be Better, and she's also The Woman Who Broke His Heart And Spirit And Is The Cause Of His Suffering But He Doesn't Regret The Time They Spent Together... it's just a weird checklist and it got tiring for me. I don't mind some of these things if it wasn't also in conjunction with Yuki's sole personality being Mother and Marie's sole personality being Bitch Wife Only Marrying Me For My Status.

idk maybe I'll feel better about it as time passes but at a certain point it was like my god are we really still doing this.

anyways what else. the DLC! I enjoyed the DLC overall. I really liked Guernica and Luca's whole thing. I think it was mostly held back by the fact that neither Akechi or Sumire were their normal selves and you couldn't fully allude to their Problems. Akechi kind of did nothing even if bullying him was fun. Sumire got a few good moments. I found it especially weird that Akechi didn't pick up on anything being up with "Kasumi", especially when at one point Luca literally calls her "Kasumi" in front of everyone, and especially when he should have picked up on something being weird when Sumire was talking about her sister since to the best of my knowledge japanese doesn't have an age-neutral "sister" word so she would have been saying "younger sister" when she meant "older sister". but I'd be interested in checking the original out to see if they got away with it some other way.

(I do find Akechi's one weird "let me guess, you're a god" comment extremely funny though. Is it meant to imply he's dealt with gods before this because I don't think he should have. I think Akechi got too much knowledge of how persona games work for a second.)

I really think Akechi could've been an interesting addition to the main game considering the plot is centered around the guy who is rumored to be becoming prime minister after Shido, but I figured out pretty quick that they couldn't put him in here because he would just have too much knowledge about the current political state and would be able to deduce at least most of the second arc very quickly. at least half this game apparently operates on idiot plot or in one memorable case "yeah I thought something was off but apparently decided not to say anything about it until now". so back to purgatory with you, akechi.

oh one last thing. in the main story. why the fuck were the phantom thieves there?? I get how the whole thing got constructed for toshiro but there was no reason for the thieves to get called into this, because the god wouldn't want them there and (unlike the dlc) toshiro wouldn't have called for them, unless maybe it was subconscious, but they really don't even attempt at giving a half-assed explanation so I am still completely lost on that.

anyways overall like I said I had fun but a lot of this felt sloppy. sometimes I feel bad about my writing skills but then I remember how incredibly unsubtle persona is and feel better about myself. I really wish erina could have driven the plot on her own right and not just for toshiro's sake. that's kind of the part I feel bitterest about at this point.