#oh wow anon

[baronessblixen]

I love your blog, ive been around it for five years and I love that it stayed the same all this time. ❤️

Thank you so much, anon! Five years! That is a long time to stick around. You must have seen some things on this dash 😁so glad you decided to stay through it all.

[dappersautismcreature]

calling people 'antis' lumps you in by association with some of the most annoying people in existence btw. just call people haters.

wowza my first hate ask :DDDD I feel soooo special

I think you can tell if im the type to use 'anti' like a smiletwt 14 yr old dream stan, spoiler alert, Im not. I call em dsmp antis cause that's what people know them as lmao

[jaylaxies]

innocently*** asking bf hee what his favorite part of your body is and he says your thighs, because "they're soft and squishy"

but rlly he loves how his dick slips right through them when he's fucking your thighs, your tiny whimpers and whines filling his ears

later on in the night when hee has you under him and he's eating you out-the feeling of your cute thighs wrapped around him made him feel like he was in heaven, hungrily eating you out until your small whines became loud moans of his name

his hands grabbing at your thighs and whenever he pulled away for a breath he gave you big bites on your inner thigh, decorating them with his teeth marks until he was satisfied

"i love your thighs, they're cute and soft. kinda wanna feel them around my neck" - if you get it??

he would probably get comfy between your thighs during cuddle sessions-knowing what they'll turn into-his head on your tummy innocently at first but then he starts squeezing your thighs and sliding down to get his taste of your honey ..!

his head between your thighs, the soft flesh rubbing against the sides of his face while your hands were in his hair, whining and pushing his head deeper.

like i totally feel like hee would take pictures of you in a skirt, obv disguising the pictures he takes as cute outfit pics but rlly he zooms into your thighs and when you're not their he thrusts into his hand imagining your thighs were wrapped around him

and would 'accidentally' be doing it on your bed so when you get home you see his cum stain on your pillow or sheet/or sometimes he would use your panties

AND DEFINITELY leave his mess for you to see, your cute little panties covered with his cum.. and when you come to him holding the panties he made a mess on-whining at him he laughs and asks if you want him to finish on your face instead ><

"what? is baby jealous of her panties? c'mere i'll make sure you get some too," and then he fucks your face nicely and when he's gonna cum he pulls out and rubs his tip against your cheeks and lips, covering your cute face in his cum <3

new anon !! ^^

he’d absolutely love to see you looking up at him all dazed, letting him do whatever he wants to you, cause you’re his good fucking doll, letting him use your thighs whenever he’s stressed, letting him eat you out so messily you squirt all over and make him smirk with how beautifully your body reacts to him, he’d eat you out for hours and hours, doesn’t matter if you’re overstimulated, he’s gotta have your cunt all to himself, almost as if your cunt is a drug and he’s addicted to it <3

[sunnydayaoe]

hey ! could you draw liam hfjone by chance? i dont have any specifics, id just like a bit more content of him that isnt necessarily shippy ^_^ ty in advance !1

-⭐️

the guy ever!

[httpiastri]

some more paul and physical touch as his love language headcanons? 🥺🤲

aaaa i love love love paul x physical touch :((

i think that paul is obsessed with physical touch. as in, actually obsessed. as in, he's not able to be in the same room as you without having his hands on you. but not only is it something he craves and feels like he's starving without, but it's also his way of showing you how much he loves you.

he doesn't always like to admit just how down bad he is for you, though. when you've had a bad day, paul's excuse is wanting to comfort you; with you settling in his lap, his hands caressing your thighs as he listens to your rants, the proximity in itself lessening your pain. when you're in a crowded space, paul blames it on needing to keep you safe; with an arm slung around your waist, a hand on your side and his fingers grazing your ribs, he guides you through the mass of people at the festival, just to make sure you don't get lost and no one tries to steal you away (he doesn't know how to explain the fact that he keeps his arm there even when you're out of the crowd, though).

but a lot of the time, he can't be bothered to be shy about his feelings. in the mornings, when you're a mess of yawns and tangled limbs, paul will wrap you in his embrace and never let go, fingers brushing up and down your arms. when a race goes particularly well, he wants nothing more than to lift you up in the air and squeeze you tightly to him. and late at night, when you're wrapped up in blankets together and the movie on the tv is long forgotten, he loves to trace his thumb along your features, down the slope of your nose and over the apple of your cheeks.

but his favorite act of physical touch? hand-holding, 100%. he'll be holding your hand at all times – while sleeping, cooking, driving, eating, walking, cuddling, you name it! there's just no better thing to him than the feeling of your fingers slipping between his, the backside of your hand under his thumb, getting to squeeze your hand in his...

of course, he loves receiving it just as much. nothing beats the tingle that shoots through his body when your fingers thread through his hair, your nails scratch down the back of his neck, or palms glide over his muscular shoulders.

but not only is it in the needy way that he wants your physical affection; your touch really means a lot to him. it's comforting, stabilizing, soothing. and most importantly, it's reassuring, like a physical reminder of how much you love him.

[swiftmitsu]

If you had to pick who would be your favourite sans and who would be your least favourite?

Random question

so.

i think it's clear which of the two is my favourit--

AND I WOULD LIKE TO SAY. it isnt that i dont like Greaser, also it’s hard to pick my least favourite sans, man.

I JUST HATE HIS FFFFREAKING HAIR, DUDE.

i struggled for 30 minutes. just for his HAIR

this is the only Greaser drawing you’re gonna get from me.

[pocketramblr]

Absolutely love your writing for all the AU/5 headcanons asks. Can I ask: AU where Rei cheats on Endeavor with All Might? It happens after AM's injury, so she doesn't recognize him, and he ofc doesn't know that she's married in the first place, much less to whom

you make this very difficult for me by giving me a window of 6 and half years for them to have an affair and for every single moment of that window, Rei is institutionalized. how am i supposed to get them to meet, much less take their clothes off. ok. think. there are other fic writers who specialize in this kind of thing, surely. what would they do....

1- ok so. The fire alarm at the hospital goes off. Rei doesn't know if it's a drill or not, but she's been there for seven years and generally does not need a lot of support during something like this like other patients do, so the nurses wave her out and she stands around outside a bit waiting for the fire alarm to stop and them to go back in. (It isn't a drill, they wouldn't have evacuated everyone if it was, but Rei is on the other side of the building and facing away from seeing any smoke) (This smoke is from a villain attack that All Might is taking care of, though he's only got seconds left of his power to use that day. he quickly rushes off, deflating and stumbling out on the other side of the hospital. Where Rei is.)

2- Rei is like "huh that guy doesnt seem to be in good shape" and kinda waves attention at him, and a nurse who's passing out water to patients and keeping an eye on the road gives Toshinori some too, getting more concerned when he dazedly answers that he's All Might and coughs up blood, but the nurse figures he's concussed since he smells of smoke and must have been closer to the fight, and is just reeling from being able to see the number one hero in person. Then they get distracted and wave Toshi to wait nearby, where Rei offers to chill his water and asks if he's alright, if he breathed in any smoke.

3- They chat and then go back into the hospital as it's un-evacuated together, Rei hanging out in the lobby where he sits as the hospital staff focus on getting everyone else back to their rooms. It pays to be low priority sometimes. Eventually she tells him her name is Rei and that she's in room K18, if he ever wants to visit or call. She doesn't get to talk to anyone except doctors, family visitors, or other paitients, and most of them don't stay nearly as long as she does. It's been seven years, and she's very lonely. Toshinori is lonely too, and when he's out of time for a day and feeling useless with nothing to do, he likes to talk to a friend.

4- Rei has been in the hospital for eight years when it gets physical. At that point, Toshinori knows a bit about her family. She has kids, mentions visits from a son and daughter, and then quietly mentioned when her son turned seventeen- her daughter's already twenty. She's been there for so much of their lives. He asks if she's married, and she admits she isn't sure how to file for divorce in a hospital like she is, if she even can, if she wants to because she'd lose custody, if it matters when she's not raising them anyway. He doesn't ask much more, knows there is a dead child and a baby she says isn't safe with her there. Toshinori never called Nana 'mom' to her face while she was alive, and had a reason for it, and has a similar reason for not asking more, not asking for the other names when he gets Fuyumi and Natsuo's. Yes, the doctors and nurses all know Rei has a boyfriend who visits. they don't say anything. who would they even tell, anyway. I debated the humor of reusing the bit from candlelight shoto that Toshi and Rei could have a kid with a fire quirk, but yeah here? Rei ain't getting pregnant, absolutely not.

5- When Natsuo turns eighteen, Rei does actually file for divorce, or at least tries to get the ball rolling on that. Toshinori's trusted her that her marriage is over in all but name, but he's more at ease with it ended fully. Fuyumi is crushed but burying it all deep inside. Natsuo is like 'what are you talking about. divorce is the most normal possible outcome here.' But anyway, Rei also begins to bring up being discharged- something she never bothered with earlier, when it seemed like she'd never be able to go home while Shoto was there, and never would want to go back anyway. (Her parents are absolutely not an option either so where would she go once discharged? the hospital was her only security.) Toshinori then tells her at this point about his diagnosis, that he's supposed to be terminal, in a way. He doesn't have a lot of time he can give her. Rei says that's ok, she'll take what she can get. She moves in. Fuyumi still goes out to eat with her once a week, though Rei doesn't say she's moved in with a boyfriend, just says she's in a safe place and it's not Fuyumi's job to worry about it, please, let her do that, relax, be her daughter instead of a mother. Natsuo adds her to his cellphone plan and gets her one. Rei doesn't tell Toshinori her ex's identity. Toshinori doesn't tell her about OfA, though she does know he's mentoring a student for heroics and is very proud of him. (Toshinori is a secretary at Might Tower, he's a great mentor. Oh huh, he got a job position at UA at the same time as All Might, she wonders if they carpool.)

+1- OK THE REVEAL so the reveal is. Toshinori gets home from the SF. And Rei almost knocks him out by the door, eyes wide and panicked, asking if he's ok, if Shoto's ok. Toshinori is like "... young todoroki? yeah he's alright? i know his fight with young bakugo looked bad but- Rei???" And that's when it all clicks for him, he's having dozens of horrible realizations at once, all while Rei weeps over her youngest. Toshinori's been a hero for a very, very long time. He's felt hopeless, before. But even then, he's known what needs to be done, he just isn't able to do it. But now? he's at a complete loss with no idea what he should do.

[lesbianlotties]

like i know everyone’s like heliotrope for laura lee (eternal love yada yada yada) but i never made that connection initially bc laura lee seems to be in (mostly) in pastel pinks and yellows and her in heliotrope felt less significant (like the small flowers in her dress during the crash or wtv) but it probably means that lottie pays attention to laura lee more than the average viewer,,,, anyway the real question is has anyone made a whole think piece on laura lee matching lottie’s medication colors in the baptism scene

anon i love you for this

laura lee's style is so important to me actually. starting with the fact that on the pilot she literally wear a yellow. jacket. and i don't know about you but i think they could've made the "super religious girl" wear more subdued/solemn/sober colors and clothes. instead laura lee is so bright. she's cheerful yellow, baby blue, pretty pink! there's something important and gay there, okay?

and now lottie paying attention to the little details about laura lee? yeah! absolutely! she knows the exact name of the shade of purple in the little flowers of one of her dresses. totally normal and platonic behavior there miss matthews!!

now look

this is... this is actually crazy okay? this is insane stuff. this is the kind of thing that will make me lose my mind and i REFUSE to believe this is a coincidence okay?!

it's about lottie needing something or someone to help her deal with her visions, with her mental health, with everything. the pills controlled her visions, laura lee explained them. when lottie lost the pills and thought she would lose herself she found laura lee instead (and lost her too oh my god). the comfort, the relief, the trust she put on laura lee. she used to rely on her medication now she relies on laura lee. the two things that could soothe her mind but in very different ways!! and i'm not exactly saying laura lee was the right answer but it's about the way lottie held onto her in these trying times!!!!

[gods-chosen-emperor]

You once said something along the lines of wanting to be like your father to other players on the field, and even though you look a lot like your mom, sometimes I see the resemblance between you and your father at certain angles, which makes me wonder...

Are you not afraid of potentially aging like milk and looking like him when you're older?

In other words, you're easy to annoy and rile up, dear; you should stop before you get wrinkles and end up like that.

Kaiser's usually shit-eating and confident look immediately drops at the mention of his father... and mother. There's an unreadable look on his face, but one thought circles his mind:

of course he's been worried about potentially looking like him.

tch.

shut up about that, anon.

[compacflt]

can i just say that I'm haunted by the image of Ice wearing "one of Mavericks cheapest rolexes". One because of the mental immage of Maverick being the kind of men who not only owns multiple watches but also Rolex, which is absolutely delightful, because oh the quiet vanity of that. And two because of the implied and groundbreaking (to me) domesticity (and defiance of the not talking/acknowledging the thing between the 2 of them) of wearing another person watch. I'm screaming into the void about your brilliance. So I need to ask, do they do that on purpose (before the mission) in a sort if roundabout way of acknowledging each other presence in their life? What would Mav wear that belongs to Ice (apart from that USNA ring eheh)?

pilots/sailors/doctors etc who do high-level specialized work with their hands tend to really be Watch Guys. and “cheap” rolexes (sub $7k ish) are actually pretty affordable if you’re making >$150k a year and want to treat yourself every fifth christmas or something. source: know several sailors & doctors. ALSO the watch ice is wearing in his famous gay plane photoshoot is actually a rolex. So theres some evidence ice at least is (annoying, ostentatious, bad with money, and) a Watch Guy. Maverick’s also wearing a kickass chronograph in TGM so i think he’s also probably a Watch Guy. also… you know, status symbol, honor, et cetera et cetera…

they probably wear each other’s socks because in-regs socks all look the same and they’re both men so who cares. i also hc that they’ve always worn the same size in shirts so each other’s t-shirts are also free game. and was very confusing at the start of their relationship when trying to figure out whose shirt was whose after a midnight rendezvous. lots of accidental shirt mixups. and, yeah, each other’s watches, because most people only see the status and don’t see the detail, and most people aren’t around both ice and mav enough to recognize that “omg last month adm kazansky was wearing the same omega chronometer capt mitchell is wearing today!! theyre totally together!!!” so if ice buys a new watch and maverick salivates over it, sure he can borrow it, whatever. and i think there’s a scene in wwgattai when maverick wears ice’s pj pants hold up lemme find it

“in bare feet.” now wtf does that mean. that could use a rewrite.

ice also wears mavericks leather jacket when they’re on their baseball date in debriefing. at some point when you live with someone long enough your stuff becomes their stuff which was the point of this graf

thinking about it… trying to decide if they’d wear each other’s cologne. that seems like a little much. no i don’t think so.

[sugarcanehoes]

hear me out...... Doomed yaoi tubscar.

And/or, like, tubbo has an arranged wedding with Tommy (LMAOO) and before tubbo has to say yes, scar gets in and runs away with tubbo in the Woods, and maybe they fuck afterwards.

-👾

i burst out laughing at the arranged wedding LMAO

(warning for cuckolding and scar being a little creepy. maybe. if you squint. he knows how to gaslight suspiciously younger boys into his kinks is all i’m saying)

but i think they should get through with the wedding.

it's what their parents want, right?, and it'll finally make them shut up about toby's seemingly unexisting love life (he just really knows how to keep things on the low), plus tommy is his childhood best friend, so it's fine. toby can survive that.

what he apparently can't survive, though, is the way scar keeps staring at him during the whole ceremony. scar is one of toby's father's closest friends, so of course he has a good seat, a good view, and toby gets hotter under his collar by the second; there isn't a single moment during the wedding in which he glances at scar's direction and scar isn't eyeing him, shamelessly devouring toby's figure, all large shoulders and toned legs, standing charmingly shorter than tommy despite his build.

"you can now kiss," and toby can feel scar's eyes burning the back of his skull as he leans forward and pecks tommy's mouth.

"that was a beautiful ceremony," scar says, wheeling closer to toby when everyone is too busy celebrating and drinking. toby is pretty sure he saw tommy - his husband - take off his tie and wrap it around harry's neck at some point.

toby lets out an unimpressed chuckle, "no, it wasn't. this fucking sucks," and sips on his third or fourth glass of champagne.

scar snickers, putting a warm palm on the small of toby's back, and toby's legs threaten to give out. "at least there's a honeymoon to look up to, hm? where are the lovebirds going?"

"nowhere," toby creaks out, looking down for the first time since the conversation started, just now seeing the everlasting smirk on scar's face. scar's eyebrows arch in interest, prompting toby to continue, and toby would be damned if he didn't follow what scar wanted him to do, "our parents just rented a cabin in the middle of the forest for three days. it's, like, fifteen minutes from here. nothing much."

"sounds good. relaxing, even," scar sneaks his hand to toby's waist, pulling him a bit closer, "i think being alone in the woods is exactly the type of honeymoon a newlywed couple wants."

"as if," toby chuckles, downing more champagne, "we'll probably just play videogames and sleep. we don't really see each other like that."

scar glances over the group of people laughing and dancing just a few meters away. it's not hard to find tommy, partly because of his height, partly because of his intense stare, something that borders a glare and pierces right through scar's head, something that mixes a boiling anger with a twist of uncertainty.

oh, yeah; good thing scar is double their age. toby might've never noticed, but scar sees right through both of them.

they might just need a little... push. and scar's more than willing to be the one to do so.

so when it's time for the couple to finally end the night and head for the cabin, scar gently offers himself to go with them, just to make sure everything at the rented cabin is fine, we don't want our freshly married angels to be stressed on their honeymoon, right? and toby's dad thanks scar over and over for his kindness as scar calls for an uber and follows toby's car to the cabin.

scar is nothing but a sweet talker, and, since they weren't really planning to consummate the wedding, toby invites scar to sleep over. it was late, after all.

"what is your deal?" tommy approaches scar in the living room. faintly, in the background, they can hear toby singing in the shower.

scar smiles, "my deal? what do you mean?"

"you know fucking well what i mean," tommy frowns, "why are you here? why were you groping my husba- my friend earlier?"

scar's smile gets bigger.

"you can say he's your husband, you know. it's the truth."

tommy falters. "uh, yeah, but- but we don't really-"

"see each other like that?" scar interrupts, "yeah, i’ve heard that before. but i find it hard to believe."

tommy blushes. scar pats the empty seat on his side, and tommy sits, eyes wide and unsure.

"what are you afraid of?" scar asks, leaning his face on one hand, staring at tommy directly. tommy gulps and shrugs. "you gotta be careful. if you don't step up, someone's gonna steal toby from you."

"like who?" tommy utters before he can control himself.

scar just smirks.

“maybe that would actually help you,” scar goes on, watching tommy’s expression attentively, from the way his breath quivers to the bite on his lower lip, “seeing your husband with someone else. seeing toby in their arms, lost in pleasure, calling out for their name instead of yours. is that what you want, tommy?”

toby enters the living room, toweling his hair, “are you guys hungry? i think my dad left us some food in the fridge.”

tommy looks at him, then back at scar, and he’s out of breath already, face fully red and golden hairs stuck to his sweaty forehead, and he locks eyes with scar, and scar arches an eyebrow, and tommy licks his lips and nods.

from then on it’s easy, too fucking easy, and toby just needs a bit of talking through to let scar pull him closer and kiss him hungrily, a kiss so different from the single one toby shared with tommy at the wedding that tommy’s stomach sinks - and it’s so good.

when toby kneels down in front of scar, eager to have scar’s cock inside of his mouth, scar pets toby’s hair and says he’s such a good boy, there you go, good boy, toby, all the while staring directly at tommy’s widened eyes. not that tommy doesn’t have his hand down his pants, of course, but he’s not the focus.

and when toby is kissing scar’s face and neck, calling for scar, scar, scar like a prayer, scar is pretty sure he hears tommy groaning softly. toby cums more than once, getting rid of all of his pent-up frustration, moaning and grabbing onto scar like his life depends on it.

and when toby is done, chest heaving in ragged breaths and tears drying down his cheeks, he looks over his shoulder to where tommy is still sitting, with a wet spot on his pants and lips parted, and says, “oh, yeah. i forgot you were there.”

scar doesn’t miss how tommy’s cock jumps. he smirks, pulling toby in for a hug, and toby cuddles him instantly. scar looks at tommy and mouths a satisfied? to him.

tommy gets up silently and heads for the bathroom. scar chuckles under his breath, caressing toby’s back. 

their relationship would never be the same: either they would try and actually live like a married couple, or it would all go to shambles. 

but scar got what he wanted, so he doesn’t really care.

[misc-obeyme]

i have an obsession with barbatos' tail at this point... i imagine he uses it often, mainly just for carrying/grabbing things (ie books, the lil Ds, sheep mc). i can also imagine him moving both ends independently, perhaps using them to bind your wrists.

Oh, anon. I too have an obsession with Barb's tail...

In fact, in this particular smut piece I wrote, Barbatos does use his tail to restrain your wrists. Though I didn't really talk about the two separate ends, that's kind of implied lol.

But I also love the idea that he uses it frequently. It's kind of a thing whenever I'm writing about him in demon form, he always tends to wrap his tail around MC. But I loooove the idea of him using it to do stuff like dust or to carry around lil Ds and so on...

I think he probably can move the two ends independently if he wants to, that seems like it'd make sense to me.

He's just so efficient I think he'd find a way to use it to increase his own productivity. And of course to do things like binding wrists when it suits him lol.

[logicallyblind]

I think there’s something wrong with the fandom’s attitude if you can’t like post your “this is clearly an au I am making a fanfiction concept” without feeling like you have to apologize. Like what are you even apologizing for? Being a fan? Post your heart out let’s all think about how dick would treat little Jason if he interacted with him as 30ish year old NW instead of early 20’s

i’m gonna be so real with you anon this fandom slightly terrifies me lmfao i made a post a couple weeks back talking about an au i was thinking about and when i tell you i was getting full on death threats in my inbox because the characterisation wasn’t in line with the comics or fans just didn’t like the idea to the point where i just deleted it to avoid the trouble 💀💀 so now im just making SURE i make it clear it’s an au shdhdhd

glad you like the concept tho! i think the angsty opportunities post switch back would just be so good because it’s like dick realising just to which degree his relationship and dynamic with bruce effects the family at a greater scale than he’s first realised

but also the angst of jason seeing how dick had changed in the years since the others had joined and coming to the conclusion that dick cared enough about THEM to improve his relationship with bruce but not enough about Jason to do the same (and we’re working with an unreliable narrative here cause insecure 15 year olds do not have clarity of thought about a situation they’re in dhfhd)

and etc etc i might acc transfer my notes on this into another post soon if people are acc in any way interested in it tho!

[batsplat]

Is Valentino Rossi the best rider in 1vs1 battles?

ehhhhh *shrugs* I mean. the best ever? like. who knows. the best in the field most years he was competing in the sport? maybe, I guess?

this is one of those questions where I don't really like giving definitive answers but am more interested in how you'd even go about assessing it? like, what metrics are you looking at, what are the criteria, can you put numbers to it or do you have to be super holistic about it or what. I think the 1 vs 1 is already an interesting distinctions, because that is a little different from just talking about wheel to wheel skill. they're related skill sets, but it's not the exact same

so. to bring in an example with a sample set of races I imagine most people reading this are pretty familiar with. let's say we're comparing valentino and marc in direct combat with each other. let's say we put the races where they're fighting one-on-one for basically the entire race in one box, so assen 2015 and catalunya 2016. let's say we have races where one of them is working their way through the field - and it's all building towards the confrontation between the two of them, so say a qatar 2013, a qatar 2014, an argentina 2015. let's say you have a very intense fight that doesn't last the whole race, like sepang 2015, or an extended 'duel' that is basically a defensive ride without any actual overtakes, like silverstone 2015. now, you may have noticed that from this list, valentino... kinda wins a lot of these? not qatar 2014, plus sepang 2015 is in the 'this cost both riders too much to have a winner' camp, but except for that? it's a strong record for valentino. however! the moment you take away the '1 vs 1' qualifier, suddenly the record looks way kinder to marc - you have a catalunya 2014, a phillip island 2015 and a phillip island 2017 go in his favour, while only assen 2017 is a multi-rider dogfight that involves both of them where valentino ends up taking the win. I do think when you're considering 'rivalries' and how a particular dynamic develops over time, it's worth looking specifically at what's happening in extended one-on-one combat and differentiating that from dogfights! because it is a different vibe, because it matters if you're just focused on one guy. but of course both categories still matter in assessing direct combat... even if there are also different skills involved in those different types of fights. valentino, even very late in his career, was still particularly adept at challenging and outsmarting individual riders, and it's a specific format he clearly did thrive in. so. yeah. both of these general categories are indicative of w2w ability, even if they're not quite the same - either in terms of the skills required or in terms of narrative implications

here's another issue. valentino tends to win the race-deciding extended confrontations against marc, but obviously that too isn't entirely reflective of what happened when they met each other on-track. this is because during their time together in the premier class, marc was winning a lot more races than valentino and generally had more pace than valentino, so a lot of on-track confrontations that marc came on top of where typically one-and-done type situations. overtake and move on, overtake and move on. so while you still have a misano 2014 (valentino overtakes marc and marc eventually crashes while attempting to keep up) or a brno 2014 (another valentino overtake where he pulls clear), you then also have laguna 2013 (the corkscrew move is the end of that battle), le mans 2014 (a single overtake around halfway through the race after which marc easily pulls clear), indy 2014 (an early tussle that eventually becomes more marc domination), motegi 2016 (similar, except here valentino ends up crashing), thailand 2018 (valentino can't keep up the pace once marc has gotten past)... like, we get to a place where we're risking penalising marc for 'being very fast' and not sticking around once he's gotten the overtake done, which does also feel wrong? it's an odd balance - because, again, when we're talking Actual Rivalries then it does matter who is winning an extended battle, psychologically if nothing else. like if that's the bit that mattered the most to the outcome of your race, if that's the bit people will remember years to come, if you invested a lot into winning that fight, of course it does matter. but that's narrative, not skill... is this really a good way of assessing how good someone is at 1 vs 1 duels?

I picked the example of that specific rivalry not just because it's the one most people are most familiar with or because I love engaging in discourse about that rivalry - but because I think direct rivalry comparisons are probably the most straightforward way you can approach trying to figure out who is 'better'... and marc clocks in just behind casey as the one who has the most balanced record against valentino w2w. like, biaggi is basically a walkover, and honestly you don't really have that many extended 1 vs 1 duels except for welkom 2004. and for sete, obviously a great rivalry (and I've always believed you don't need a rivalry of equals for it to be good and fun), but also once you get past that sachsenring 2003 turning point then the balance does go out of the window. I've been thinking about this in relation to a longer ask I've ended up massively overthinking (surely not), but I was kinda startled looking back at just how one-sided valentino's record is against jorge. like, unless I'm forgetting some major battles, the most extended scrap you can point to that jorge won is for his very first premier class win at estoril 2008 - and that's also pretty much settled by around halfway/two thirds through the race. but the actual 1 vs 1's that last much of the race? catalunya 2009? sachsenring 2009? motegi 2010? well.... hm. races that build to a battle like sepang 2010 also go in valentino's favour, and even extended tussles like le mans 2011 and phillip island 2014 are more valentino W's. hell, even various short and sweet battles like jerez and indy 2008, misano 2009, motegi 2015, aragon 2016, sachsenring 2018 generally have valentino come out on top - though in this category there's some exceptions, like qatar 2008, indy 2009 and jerez 2010 that all involved jorge besting valentino in a short direct fight

which raises another problem... we do need to in some way acknowledge that valentino simply ends up in more of these fights than most of his rivals - and as a direct result ends up winning more of them. like, once jorge clicked into title winning form in 2010, most of his wins became 'shoot off the line and win way ahead of everyone else with metronomic consistency'. I'm not saying all his race wins were like that! and he did win some great duels in his time in the premier class, especially against marc. but of course, he did that kind of dominating races a hell of a lot more than valentino did - whose approach to winning races was more 'qualify wherever, amble off the line, get moving around halfway through the race and figure things out from there'. now, I discussed this point a little bit here in the context of 'was valentino still successfully mind gaming the other aliens' - but just to bring it back, valentino was deliberately approaching his races in ways geared primarily towards being able to fight his opponents, even to the level of how he set up his bike:

you see this most extremely with something like laguna 2008, where valentino flat out knew he didn't have the outright pace to win - his entire strategy was built around not being the fastest but being able to fuck with casey. in that situation, he's not got the speed, he's building his entire strategy for the win around wheel-to-wheel disruption. and this, plus the regularly mediocre qualifying and starts, does just mean that statistically speaking he's overtaking more riders in his average win than any of the other aliens are. like, if that's your primary metric, then yes! he's clearly very good at w2w! by extension he's also very good at 1 vs 1 duels! if you're looking at riders who have clocked in more than a certain number of wins and do the maths of average overtakes per win, then, yes, I would imagine he tops that metric. does that make him the best? ... well, again... it does feel like you're risking penalising the better qualifiers and starters for being better qualifiers and starters and not ending up in seventh place at the end of every single first lap

so, you've got 'how they measure up against their direct rivals' and 'average numbers of overtakes' as ways to begin considering w2w ability as well as 1 vs 1 track record. then you get into increasingly nebulous waters... here's another potential metric for w2w skill I quite like: efficiency in overtaking. not naming any names, but there are certain riders who, when attempting to work their way through the field, will just. get stuck. even though they have a clear pace advantage over the rider directly in front of them. leading to incredible amounts of faffing about rather than just getting the overtake done. obviously, valentino does like to engage in some faffing about too, but generally speaking he's only doing that when he's in close proximity to the race leader and can realistically get himself to the front of the pack fairly quickly. he's very efficient when he's actually working his way through the field. of course, this is something marc is similarly excellent at, as he has shown plenty of times this year... which. well. this is where we run headfirst into another problem: this sport has changed a lot over the years and some things are simply not at the same difficulty level as they were in past years. so, sticking with those two, which of these is a 'better' comeback? 2006 sachsenring, where valentino starts tenth on the grid after tyre problems in qualifying, at a track he doesn't really love and in serious championship trouble, but works his way to the front before having to fend off the chasing pack that is coming back at him all the way until the chequered flag? or 2024 sachsenring, where marc starts thirteenth on the grid after having been impeded in q1, at his speciality circuit that he's visiting for the first time on a new bike, and works his way up to p2 despite his fractured rib and finger in an era where overtaking is a lot harder than it was in 2006? well, first of all, congrats to both of them, very nicely done. but secondly, that's kind of the problem, right? while I'm sure prime valentino in this era would also regularly be doing that marc/pedro thing where they make the commentators go 'oh ho ho they said overtaking was impossible in motogp these days!!' - at the end of the day his approach involved some built-in faffing about that was also more feasible back in the day. if we're assessing w2w ability, we do need to make some kind of allowance for era - which also affects how often riders are likely to find themselves in 1 vs 1 duels in the first place

here's another plausible metric: last lap battles. this is ALSO something that is super era-dependent. casey in his whole time in the premier class gets involved in like? about four battles that are still going on in the final lap? there's definitely a few I'm forgetting, especially if they weren't for wins/podium places, but it's definitely not a lot. compare and contrast with how the 2017 to 2019 era played out. everything back then was tyre management, tyre management and more tyre management, and dovi in particular was big on the 'eh let's win this race at the slowest possible pace' thing, where everyone crawled around the track as slowly as they could get away with before pulling the pin a few laps before the end. obviously, the characteristics of that era were a) very beneficial to dovi, in that they rewarded both those who knew how to make those specific tyres work (and his decline in 2020 was largely linked to the changes in tyres) and those who were very good at managing last lap duels, but b) inherently were more likely to produce last lap duels than a few other eras. like, in the alien era, which regularly featured gaps of. idk. seven seconds between the front runners, the characteristics of those bikes (as well as those riders) just meant you had very few battles that lasted that long. so inherently, it's harder to judge riders like, say, casey on how good they are in that kind of situation, not least because you are working with such a tiny sample size. and those battles are a big feature of how we remember 1 vs 1 duels!! people love last lap duels!!

now, yes, obviously valentino's record in 1 vs 1 last lap duels is very strong, and there's really only a few he loses over the course of his entire career. dovi is another strong contender in that particular category if we're just limiting ourselves to riders this century (which we are). (unfortunately, those two kinda took turns to be competitive so we didn't really get much of a direct h2h, but off the top of my head I think it's a pleasing 2-2? dovi takes qatar 2008 and le mans 2011, valentino takes qatar 2015 and argentina 2019. I feel like I'm definitely forgetting something.) but again, you do end up in caveat central with this metric. look at marc, who was reliably finding himself in last lap duels specifically at tracks he and/or the honda were quite poor at - again, ragging on that record too much does feel like you're penalising him for managing to get there in the first place. on the other hand, is it really fair to take too much credit away from dovi in handling those situations - surely, at the point where you're arriving in the last lap together, you're at a stage where both riders have a decent chance of winning? on the third hand, it is worth pointing out that dovi is more often than not in the lead going into those last laps, and is fending off a sort of on-the-edge last gasp 'might as well have a go' marc attack. 'last lap battles' is inherently quite a loose term, and how much should who's leading going in be considered a criterion? does it matter if you actually have an overtake or not? does it matter when in the lap the overtake happens? it's obviously quite an arbitrary category... sete makes a mistake headed into the last lap at sachsenring 2005 that gives valentino the lead, while marc makes a mistake on the penultimate lap of catalunya 2016 that essentially ends his victory challenge towards valentino. how do you compare those?

and at a certain point, you need to get away from the headline numbers and start thinking about what it actually means to be good at 1 vs 1 duels. you get into categories like 'race management' - choosing when best to make your attack, balancing risk and reward, not making risky overtake attempts for no good reason when you could just wait for half a minute longer, making sure not to needlessly fuck your tyres while pushing too hard too early. there's ability to actually execute overtakes, which is a question of race craft, creativity, and also about being able to play the opponent. there's various defensive abilities - somebody like pecco exemplifies this, who is both very hard to initially overtake in part due to his ability on his brakes, but is also adept at immediately re-overtaking (a favourite trick of his mentor too, as it happens). to borrow from another sport's terminology, you can contrast 'conversion' and 'steal' rate - if you have the superior underlying pace at crucial stages of the race, are you actually converting that into your maximum achievable result, or conversely if you have inferior pace, can you steal a result your pace doesn't 'merit'? obviously, you get a massive blot in the copy book every time you fail to convert any kind of result by crashing out or by bagging yourself a severe penalty for your race conduct. what about the psychological dimension? your ability to put pressure on another rider, e.g. by showing them a wheel here or there, to force them into a mistake rather than 'just overtaking' them via pure skill? is reputation and intimidation part of your skill set when it comes to wheel to wheel ability? the off-track 'work' you're doing on the opponent, and the prior weight of their expectations for this fight... your ability to study and analyse riders to pinpoint where they are at their strongest and weakest, while also figuring out where they're going to expect an attack and where they won't - maybe even sucker them into thinking it will come from somewhere differently than it actually does... on sheer weight of his track record, you'd have to say valentino is pretty much peerless in some of these categories. and, yes, some of these skills are weighted quite clearly towards the '1 vs 1' element over the 'multi-rider dogfight' element of w2w skills. they're more about terrorising a specific rival than thriving in the chaos

so. what does all of this mean. what's the actual answer. is valentino the best at 1 vs 1 duels. well. who knows. even if we're ignoring the historical dimension and limiting ourselves just to this century, there's too many confounding factors - from different racing eras within that time span to different individual approaches to racing - to allow us to truly evaluate who the 'best' is. I think the cleanest way to summarise it is... from the great riders this century, valentino is the one who most depends on his 1 vs 1 skills (and w2w skills more broadly). that's his unique selling point in a way you wouldn't say it is for any of the others... the guy who gets closest is dovi - but I still reckon his biggest skill is his tyre management and that was the most important differentiating factor that made him so competitive in 2017-19. his ability to scrap w2w comes second (and is absolutely a constant throughout his career), but really that's the bit that allows him to take advantage of the tyre whispering skills... it lets him finish the job, if you will. whereas with valentino, his brains and cunning broadly speaking and his w2w more specifically - and especially the 1 vs 1 stuff - is like, his x factor. I mean... obviously he's also good at the other things - I called him a mid qualifier but of course it's worth remembering he has 55 career pole positions in the premier class, more than jorge or casey or dani. this is primarily a function of his longevity and all of them are definitely better qualifiers than him, but like. of course he's not slow. it's just that relatively speaking, when compared to the other aliens, he's the one who is winning the least via his actual raw pace. here's one metric for that: in valentino's seven premier class title campaigns, he only has the highest average grid position in only three (and during his super dominant 2002 season, it's joint with biaggi). in three of those title-winning seasons, he's the second best qualifier on average, and in one of them he's only third best. the only other seasons this century where the best qualifier on average doesn't win the title are 2015 (marc just beats jorge, valentino is quite a distant third), 2020 (joan mir icon winning a title with an average grid position of NINE POINT FIVE SEVEN lmaoooooo, only seventh best on the grid), 2022 (fabio is a little ahead of martin and then pecco) and... that's it

which kinda means that... can you say valentino's objectively better at 1 vs 1 battles than the other aliens? well, no. I mean, sure, I do feel fairly happy to say he's better than jorge and especially dani, more *wiggles hand* about casey and marc - because with those two there's enough confounding factors in comparing them to valentino and they've also challenged valentino often enough directly that you can make the alternative case. in the end you do kinda go... well, it's very much a 'all these guys were at their best in very different versions of motogp' thing. what you can say is that for valentino, 1 vs 1 prowess is a bigger part of his game than it is for his fellow aliens. his route to victory both on an individual race level and on a title fight level is built around engaging in a lot of these fights and winning them - and, given how successful he's been, of course you do have to conclude that bit of his game is clearly operating on a high level. so when you compare that to both casey and marc, those two really do have other bits of their games that are more important to their success. fewer of their race victories percentage-wise have been won through 1 vs 1 duels. casey is dominating enough races from the front he's not even doing all that much w2w tussling. marc might be losing plenty of these close duels, but he's relentlessly at the front enough that this consistency is what's giving him titles as much as anything else. whereas valentino's entire approach is tailored towards finding himself in those kinds of direct scraps, winning said scraps, and then using those scraps as a way to demoralise the opposition... unsurprisingly, he's got the biggest sample size of that style of battle and has a very high success rate. who knows if he's the best, but he is the most dependent on that specific skill. and he sure has had a lot of practise at those duels, which I imagine will have gotten him just a little closer to being perfect

[bonesandthebees]

i dont really read your fics anymore, nor do i really pay attention to your blog but i dont think i could ever unsubscribe from your ao3 or unfollow you on here. you were a vital part of my life in middle school and id be damned to not thank you by adding to your follow count.

awww thank you this is sweet! you certainly don't have to keep following me if you're no longer interested in what I post, but I also totally get just sticking around bc you've been following a blog/author for a long time, I've definitely done that myself. even if you don't look at my blog at all I'm still very happy to have you here :)

[averlym]

wow wow wow wow i came here to say it’s jane seymour’s deathday and saw that you have done so much improvement it’s crazy everything looks so lovely and amazing you’re doing great

~ holiday anon

quick portrait i did a while back. lovely reminder to see you again ily holiday anon