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arabzian · 1 year

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NANAMI KENTO X CAMGIRL!READER

synopsis: you are a camgirl who speaks daily to nanami, you are his absolute favourite and he spends a lot of his money and time on you. One day, he wanna see you in real life to spoil you more…

tags: prostitution, dom nanami, sub reader, blowjob, oral f receiving, a lot of cum, graphic description, dumbification. Nanami is 30 years old.

! The reader is 100% consent in this fanfic + English isn’t my first language so sorry…!

- He was a regular on this kind of site. The blond felt extremely lonely, and chatting with multiple girls in the same evening could indeed make him forget his loneliness for a night...only to feel even lonelier the next day.

- Nevertheless, when he came across your profile, he felt something of an emotional response. It's impossible for him to explain it rationally, but he'd been attracted by your pouty face and the cuteness of your profile description.

- After spending several days sending him sulphurous photos of you in all possible angles and positions. And also, after having him spend a lot of money. Nanami was ready to empty his entire bank account just to see you one night.

- You accepted. Now dressed in a long dress showcasing your beautiful womanly body, you were sitting in an Uber, heading to the address of the hotel that the thirty-years-old man indicated to you.

- When you arrived in front of the hotel, you were absolutely amazed by the beauty and grandeur of the place. You even wondered if you had the wrong address.

- You looked inside the hotel before receiving a notification on your phone.

Nanamin: I'm right behind you.

- You turned around to fall on the figure of a tall blond in a suit, his shoulders were wide and he looked impassive. Nanami seemed so stoic to you that for the first time in your entire life, you were intimidated by a client.

"Hi…," you greeted, shyly.

”You are so pretty… Did you have a good ride? Have you eaten yet?

- You answered with silence because you only nodded negatively to his last sentence.

- A sketch of a smile appeared on his lips, he didn't expect you to be so reserved. After all, you're a cam girl so he expected you to act with self-confidence in real life.

- But none of that. You were actually a little shy. And of course, he was even more surprised by your beauty. You're even more beautiful in real life.

- After inviting you to a luxurious restaurant in the city, where you had no idea how to pronounce the dishes on the menu, you were back at the hotel.

- The room was even more impressive than you imagined. Nanami smiled at the astonishment on your face and announced that he was going to take a shower.

- You nod your head and once you hear the shower water, you're comfortable on the bed. You took off your dress to unveil a lace lingerie set.

- In order to keep the effect of surprise, you put on the hotel bathrobe without closing it and you tried not to let the anxiety take over you.

”Calm down, he finds you sublime in the photos, he will also love you in reality”. Will you whisper to yourself.

- Nanami came out of the shower still soaked, a strong masculine smell emerged from him and the simple towel that he had around his waist revealed the musculature of his body.

- Oh, you only wanted one thing: that he would make you forget your first name.

”You're absolutely beautiful, I don't even know where to start,” he whispered as he gazed down at you.

- You noticed the nascent boner under his towel.

- He joined you on the bed and started kissing you. You sat on him and perpetuated the kiss. You kissed him all over his face, it was embarrassing to admit, but he attracted you so much that you couldn't stop.

- He laugh with tenderness after your butterfly kisses.

”Nanami, please stick your tongue out.“

- He obeys and you started sucking his tongue. He wanted to explode inside because he liked it so much.

- Then the blond man came down from the bed to kneel before you. He kissed your feet covered with the material of your knee socks.

- He licked the soles of your feet, kissed your toes, you felt worshipped like a goddess.

A man was on his knees before you kissing your feet. What a wonderful feeling.

- He went up his kisses to the inside of your thighs and then began to forage your femininity.

- His tongue played with you, he knew exactly where to press with his tongue to give you pleasure.

- Soon, you'll be pulling on his blonde hair as he gets more and more intense with your poor little pussy.

- He was torturing you with his fingers and his tongue, he was so focused that he could feel your breath getting jerky and your body shaking.

- When you gasped his first name, he anchored his gaze in yours and began to accelerate his movements so that you groaned his first name even louder.

”Nanamin...” you called desperately. ”I will...”

Before you could even finish your sentence, you ejaculated in his mouth. Now with the trickling jaw of your cyprine, he let go a mocking laugh.

' " It seems that the lady is quite sensitive.”

You blush with shame after he teased you, amused by your reactions, he thinks he's gonna have fun tonight.

Nanami put your thighs down perpendicular to his. He put his dick between your thighs covered by your socks and began to masturbate against your thighs.

You kiss each other while he enjoyed rubbing against the material in your socks.

”You are so good for me.” He groans.

Honestly, you loved what he did to you and he paid a lot of money just to be with you.

At that point, Nanami had the absolute green light on your body. He could do anything and everything to you and you knew you'd like it because it's Nanami.

You had absolutely no boundaries when it comes to him. He was so muscular, rich and good at sex. Nanami literally had a hold on you since you spoke to each other on the internet.

He drained a thick, hot liquid on your thighs. In a flash, he laid you down on the bed.

You were on your back and he was on top of you, his intense erection was facing you.

"Now, be a good girl, okay baby?"

You had absolutely the biggest kinks for pet names. You nodded meekly, patiently waiting for him to break you in half.

"We're going to play a little game."

He leaned to the ground and grabbed his tie. He began to tie your two wrists above your head with his tie.

You notice his big thing twitching when he looks at you. Completely vulnerable and at his mercy.

The fact of being tied up in this way highlighted your chest.

Your bra wasn't even a bra. It was ridiculously small and just covered your nipples.

Nanami was very sensitive to fabrics, he wanted to feel everything.

Always dressed in your bra that looked like a bikini top, nanami placed himself correctly on top of you and he began to place his dick between your breasts.

Your breasts were hugging and squeezing perfectly his dick which was already wet because of the pre-cum.

After masturbating with your thighs earlier, he was now masturbating between your breasts.

He passed his tip under each of the fabrics of your bra, feeling your nipples harden and appreciating the contact with the material of the fabric.

To be so much under someone's control, and on top of that, to hear Nanami moaning and using you the way he wanted made you so horny it was ridiculous.

Like a reflex, you opened your mouth wide by sticking out your tongue and he took the opportunity to suddenly penetrate your mouth with his dick.

You gasped with surprise when you opened your eyes wide. You looked at him with confused eyebrows as he smiled with satisfaction at seeing the shape of his dick through your cheek.

Always tied and helpless, you had his semen on your thighs, on your chest and soon in your mouth.

He held your head tightly and kept going back and forth in your mouth.

He waved his hips sometimes fast and sometimes slow and you could feel every inch of it on your tongue.

You felt your pussy get numb and wet.

Nanami went deeper and deeper and laughed at your facial expression. Oh, you liked it and it showed.

He started to moan too and under the excitement of the moment, he pushed his dick into the bottom of your throat.

The shape of his cock was visible from the outside. We could clearly see his dick in your throat.

He stood there for a second, moaning how good you were.

Without warning, he came into your mouth, you opened your eyes with surprise while trying to moan.

He put your hand in your hair like you were a dog.

"Good girl."

He withdrew from your mouth and all his semen trickled down on your jaw.

”Now we can start the serious stuff.”

You were trying to catch your breath, it's true that it was only the foreplay but you were already starting to look like nothing.

Always tied with his tie, you couldn't protest when he spread your thighs and rubbed his dick against your clit.

”I remember the texts. I know you prefer it from behind, but I don't know if I should give you this favor...”

You almost cry when you heard him say that. You wanted it from all your being and all he did was being mean to you.

Tears peaked at the corner of your eyes, you were trying to move to protest but the fact that you were tied up didn't help.

' Nanami, you such a meanie... I hate you!”, you whimper capriciously.

”I love you too.”

He smiles when he can't help but think you were so lovely even though you were covered in his sperm.

He wanted to see you a little more... Then he stopped rubbing up against you to penetrate you.

His big, wide dick finally penetrated into your poor, sore little pussy. The thickness of your lips would squeeze him so hard that he let go of a whimper as he entered.

His dick remained tight between your walls. It was so warm and welcoming. He felt at home there.

He pulled you by the arms while he waved his hips into you.

Your chest bounced every time he moved, and it seemed to you that the walls of the room were becoming abstract.

Nanami was going absolutely feral on you. You deserved all this so much.

He took advantage of the position to straddle you and suck your breasts. Little hickeys were born there.

"Nanamin," you almost called crying. ”Stop I'm sensitive here...”

He continued to suck you even harder while screwing you even faster.

Drool was starting to flow from your jaw.

Without warning, he changed your position and took you in a doggy.

You felt everything so deeply, and he did too. He grabbed one arm for him to look at your face. The sight on your ass, your back and now on your tearful face made him want to make you pregnant.

”Nanamin let go of me...

He didn't answer you, and instead he grabbed your other arm.

Now he was blowing your back by pulling you by both arms.

Your chest was levitating above the mattress and your back was so arching that nanami was going to break you in half.

”You're such a little slut, I love you so much.”

You weren't thinking anymore. You only had one thing in mind: his dick.

Nanami ejaculate into you without warning. He had the biggest breeding kink ever.

As his sperm poured into you, he grunted like an animal.

You were trying to catch your breath, but before you knew what he had just done, he put you against him.

With your back against his muscular torso, his arm raising your legs to gain better access to your pussy, he continued to penetrate you.

He was a monster. How could a man with such a closed face and such a strict posture be like that in bed?

If he continued like that, he'd get you pregnant.

You would have liked to tell him, but you couldn't even talk anymore. Apart from stammering his first name, crying and drooling, everything that came out of your mouth was literally incomprehensible.

”I am going to take so much care of you”, he whispers in your ears while you were crying in distress.

All positions passed through and all places in the room as well.

Right now, you had your breasts glued to the window while he ripped you from behind.

Your breasts were compressed against the window, normally it would have hurt you but in your case when it comes to sex: pain is pleasure.

Nanami grabbed you then and threw you against the table. With your belly against the table and your ass highlighted, he actually seemed to like it in doggy style more than you did.

Suddenly, as you were reaching your climax, he withdrew from you. You opened your mouth of surprise and he took the opportunity to stick his big dick full of pre-cum in your mouth.

You didn't have time to figure out what was going on when he cum into your mouth.

He threw his head back and let go of a sigh of relief.

”This is so good...”

While you still have his dick in your mouth, he looked at you.

"Hey princess, would you mind cleaning me up?"

Without understanding how or why you did that, you obey him.

Kneeling in front of him, you sucked his dick. No, sucking wasn't strong enough to describe what you were doing. You sucked the soul out of him completely, you swallowed his dick and swallowed every drop of his liquid.

While your mouth was moving so vigorously, Nanami had his hand gently resting on your head.

He grabbed his phone, which was right on the table where he had just fucked you.

He opened his paypal app and made a transfer of about 5,000 dollars in your account.

And it wasn't over, he was planning to stay with you tomorrow and take you shopping and buy you absolutely everything you wanted.

You fully deserved it, he was absolutely obsessed with you. You were his little princess.

psa: I love him so so much omg

#nanami kento headcanons #nanami kento smut #nanami headcanons #nanami kento #nanami kento imagine #nanami x reader #black reader #nanami x black!reader #nanami smut

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666writingcafe · 4 months

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Jealousy?

"Would you mind answering a question for me?" Barbatos asks me once we've exchanged pleasantries and settled down in the parlor.

"Depends on the question." A faint smile crosses his lips.

"I was just wondering how you could choose to associate yourself with Solomon." The irritation in his voice is rather evident, and I'm reminded of the staredown the two men engaged in a couple days ago.

"What do you have against him?" I sound a bit too defensive for my liking. I'm not trying to pick a fight with Barbatos; I simply want to know why he seems to detest the sorcerer so much.

He sighs before replying,

"Perhaps the version of Solomon that accompanied you here has cleaned up his act--and good for him if he has--but the one I know is fiendish, a blight upon the world, and destruction incarnate. He throws anyone he can under the bus if it meant avoiding trouble for himself. Being here for an extended period of time may cause your sorcerer to revert back to old habits, and I don't want to see you get hurt."

"Why? You hardly know me."

"You're right." He pauses. "I'm not sure, really. I mean, you seem like a good, honest person, but what do I know? Maybe you're just as bad as him, and I shouldn't have even bothered taking you under my wing." While coming from a practical place, his words do sting.

"And yet you did." Barbatos sighs again.

"And yet I did," he repeats, taking a sip of his tea. "The decision came from a gut feeling I had, and those rarely fail me. I just hope that you don't prove me wrong."

My turn to drink some tea.

I'm not used to Barbatos being this open about his emotions, especially while he's on duty. Perhaps time has granted him the ability to remain calm and composed when he's on the clock, but still. It'll be a bit before I get used to this particular attitude of his.

"Are you ready for your first lesson?" he asks, pulling me out of my head and back to the present moment. It takes me a second to remember exactly why I'm over at the castle today in the first place, but once I do, I quickly nod my head.

"Good. We'll start with a fairly basic anatomy topic: pheromones." Interesting place to start. Is he finally going to let me ask the question I had about Lucifer?

"In a lot of ways, demons bear a closer resemblance to animals than to humans," he continues. "While their strength in the latter is fairly minimal, the former uses them as a effective method of communication. Our pheromones can tell others what we're feeling as well as mark our territory, among other things.

"Demons have a baseline scent that's present no matter what they do. For example, I smell like mint, and Lord Diavolo like old leather. Different pheromones will bring out specific notes of the baseline scent. Positive emotions tend to make it sweeter, while negative emotions bring out its bitter and sour side. If those emotions are tied to one of the seven sins, then the scent becomes more potent, sometimes to the point of being nauseating to anyone that happens to catch a whiff.

"Am I making sense to you so far?" I nod my head. I don't have any questions yet, but I have a feeling that even if I did, Barbatos wouldn't let me ask any of them just yet.

"Now, Lucifer and his brothers have stayed in the castle for the last couple months, and in that time, I've picked up on all of their scents. Lucifer had one of the more pungent ones. Understandably so, since he's probably the most emotionally scarred from the war, but it got to the point where I couldn't be around him for longer than a few minutes. And making some of my favorite dishes proved to be impossible after a while, for even the smallest amount of nutmeg would make my stomach turn.

"But the moment you returned his credit card to him, Lucifer's scent noticeably shifted. For once, he actually smelled pleasant. And then it became stronger. By the time he left my side, I was craving a giant slice of coffee cake." At this point, he stops talking, allowing me to finally speak.

"So, you're telling me that my simple nice gesture was enough to turn him on?"

"It would appear that way, yes." Unbelievable. "If I pointed it out at the time, though, Solomon probably would have run after Lucifer to tease him about it, and that would most definitely piss Lucifer off. Plus, he would adamantly denied feeling that way at all, and given his initial behavior towards you, I didn't want to see you upset by him completely disregarding your kindness."

As I mull over Barbatos' words, I'm suddenly reminded of a specific moment. One where Lucifer had his mouth covered with a handkerchief, looking like he was about to throw up.

I wonder...

"If it's not too much trouble, would you mind telling me what I smell like?" I ask, causing Barbatos to smile.

"Not at all. In fact, I was just getting ready to ask you if you wanted to know, so this works out great." He sets his tea down on a nearby table and gets up, walking around and stopping behind the chair I'm sitting in. I momentarily feel part of his face on top of my head as he audibly sniffs. I'm sure that if someone walked past us right now, they'd be weirded out by what they saw.

Or maybe not. I don't know if intentionally smelling someone like this is standard demon behavior. Maybe it is, and I'm overthinking it.

"Vanilla buttercream frosting," Barbatos announces. Somehow, that doesn't surprise me. It at least explains a few things, if nothing else. Frosting can get overwhelmingly sweet.

"That might actually work," he mutters to himself as he sits back down.

"What would?" Barbatos finishes his tea before clasping his hands in front of him.

"There's a creature on the grounds that needs tamed. He's both ferocious and extremely dangerous, so Lord Diavolo had me put a spell on him to prevent anyone from coming into contact with him. If I told you how to undo the spell, would you like to take a stab at it?"

"What makes you think I'd be successful?"

"You don't smell threatening."

"No; I smell like a goddamn dessert. The creature will probably think I'm food and try to eat me."

"And if that's the case, I'll bail you out." He pauses. "There are creatures like this one that are very selective about who they will submit to, and I believe that you fit this particular one's criteria. Plus, you'll earn the title "Ruler of the Underworld", and you can use that as a way to get people to quit treating the brothers like shit." I find myself snorting in amusement.

"Like a mere title is going to make people change their entire ideology."

"People can think whatever they like. They just have to learn to keep some of those thoughts to themselves or else face severe consequences." The grin on his face is lowkey terrifying. I don't know if I want to be on the wrong end of that smile.

So, I end up agreeing to take on the responsibility of taming this creature.

Taglist: @lost-in-time-wanderer, @fuzztacular, @dianedancer18, @sweetbrier2908, @flare-love, @completelyshatteredbrokenmschf, @thunderlightning351, @l3v1chan, @anxious-chick, @5mary5, @expressionless-fr

#obey me shall we date #obey me nightbringer #obey me mc #obey me barbatos #obey me lucifer #this is one of at least a few examples of me flipping the roles of different characters to create a sort of mirror universe #i just think it would be interesting

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charles-leclerc-official · 3 months

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2024 Canada Grand Prix Race Analysis

On the surface the Canadian grand prix appeared more complex than it was. With mixed weather and teams gambling on several different strategies things came down to skill and speed in the end. With skill being what brought home Max’s 60th career victory.

While Max was celebrating Ferrari was having the team's worst race of the season.

So let’s unravel what happened at the Canadian grand Prix.

The thing to know about this race and really the entire weekend was that it was dictated by weather. Rain was in the forecast all days of running on track and this impacted every single team, some positively some negatively.

Overall this was probably the worst race for just about every team on the grid in various ways. I will explain more, but there were serious issues at the front and back of the field and in all top teams. Put simply this race was a mess.

Table of Contents Ferrari - Timeline and strategy - Charles: mechanical issues and data analysis - Carlos Red Bull - Max - Sergio - Team problem Mercedes - George - Lewis Mclaren - Lando - Oscar: data analysis Williams Haas Concluding Thoughts

Ferrari

Ferrari’s race and entire weekend can be summed up quite simply: bad luck, a few bad gambles, and mechanical issues. It felt like everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. A perfect storm of all the wrong things.

The real questions are, what exactly went wrong? And how much is the team responsible? Because the failures this weekend mostly fall on the team not our drivers.

On paper it may appear that Ferrari messed up, with bad strategy calls and just the usual “clown show”. However, taking a closer look it wasn’t quite as severe as all that. There were some calls that were not great. A lot came down to mechanical issues and some gambles that didn’t pay off. The strategy was made to look worse by the conditions. Do not get me wrong, it was the worst we’ve seen all year, but in a year of near perfect strategy that isn’t saying much. It wasn’t perfect, but it also was far from outright bad. There are a few key mistakes the team made, and also some things they are being unfairly criticized for.

Charles qualified P11 and did not finish the race, Carlos qualified P12 and did not finish the race.

To understand what happened I am going to walk through the weekend, because this all started in free practice.

Free Practice

The first thing to know is that Canada resurfaced the track, so the surface was much smoother than we were expecting. This didn't suit the Ferrari as well, and suited other cars better.

The first two free practice sessions were heavily affected by rain. This was where conditions were mixed but did allow for some dry running.

FP2 was where the rain was much heavier in the second half. Charles and Carlos each did a stint on the medium tyres and then another on the intermediate tyres.

FP3 was the driest session and this is when the team focussed the most on qualifying runs for both drivers.

While the team did get runs in during all sessions, a lot of running time was lost due to rain. And also waiting out traffic as the track was busy when conditions did permit for running.

One important thing that was learned during free practice was that the SF-24 was struggling for grip on the track. This was due to the resurfacing of the track, with very little rubber laid down, it made things very slick for the car. The rest came down to setup, but the track surface was probably the main culprit for lackluster running in dry conditions.

This is where I want to point out an issue I have noticed with the team, that has now impacted two races.

After seeing things this weekend I can say that so far this season Ferrari’s weakest point is that the team really does not seem to adapt well to losing a free practice session. They don’t seem to have a good plan to effectively edit their testing program to get the car where it needs to be. We saw a very similar issue in Japan, and it was worse here. Notice how Japan was the team’s second worst qualifying session. They really seem to need that time to get the settings on the car right. But in Canada as in Japan weather was expected to impact running. So it’s really on the team to figure out how to prioritize things better during free practice. Because we see the results not being there in qualifying when this happens, and we see both our drivers frustrated and feeling like they didn’t get enough done.

Based on the way Ferrari operated during free practice and the areas they were targeting(figuring out brake balances in certain corners, doing more inter runs) I believe they were very confident in qualifying being more impacted by rain. The slowness and odd behavior during FP3 would be explained in part if Ferrari were running a setup geared for wet conditions while things were dry. Which tells me they were really counting on it raining during qualifying. This was the first bad gamble of the weekend.

Qualifying

Charles qualified P11 and Carlos qualified P12. This was the worst qualifying result for both drivers.

As stated above, I am pretty sure Ferrari believed that rain was going to impact qualifying. I think they spent more time during free practice trying to prepare their cars for that.

However, it did not rain during qualifying. This started Ferrari off on the wrong foot. I don’t think the setup was optimized for fully dry conditions. So Ferrari gambled on it raining, and it didn’t. I don’t think this was a bad gamble. Weather is unpredictable and the chances of rain were very high. If it had rained I don’t think Ferrari would have been top 3, there were still other issues, but I think Charles and Carlos would have been in Q3.

So I attribute this to bad luck.

The second issue during qualifying, and this was the bigger one, was the judgment on the soft tyres in Q2. One set of soft new tyres would be used for Q2. This is fine, it was important to save 2 sets for Q3 where things would be most competitive. The gamble came into play when Ferrari had to chose whether to start the session on old softs from Q1 and then pit for new for the second flying lap attempt, or to start on new and do the second lap attempt on used softs. Ferrari chose to start Q2 on a new set of softs. They did this because they believed rain would impact the second half of Q2. Again, they weren’t wrong to believe this, the sky was getting darker by the minute and all metrics pointed to rain at any point. So this was again a gamble, and again, it didn’t pay off. Because it didn’t rain, and with the way things were running better laps would have been possible later in the session. But by that time they were on the used softs.

One thing the team could have done was pit for new softs late in the session when they realized this, however that would have left only one set for Q3, and it would have been a different type of gamble.

I will note that this same tyre management was used by Mclaren, so it wasn’t actually a bad call. I think this in particular highlights that the setup was also a crucial part in the failure during qualifying. It likely would have benefited Ferrari to be on new rubber at the end given they were struggling.

So qualifying was a mix of poor car setup, and a series of gambles that didn’t pay off. I don’t think any of these gambles were strictly bad, they made sense at the time. One thing to take away is that this qualifying was not grossly mismanaged, and this just shows how weather and a new track surface can really impact these little things.

I think that with new rubber at the end of the session Charles and Carlos likely would have made it to Q3. They probably wouldn’t have been top 5, but they would have at least been starting in the points.

After qualifying, without mechanical issue Charles likely would have finished in the points, possibly up to 5th. The race pace was actually there, he pointed this out himself. It was also reflected in the data we did get from longer runs during free practice. The race pace was on par with Mercedes and better than Red Bull(note this is without knowing all factors the other teams were operating under during free practice). Unfortunately he never got to capitalize on that, by the time the mechanical issue was fixed his race was all but over.

The Race

Charles

Charles' race was dictated entirely by a mechanical issue. It’s been the topic of a lot of speculation. What exactly went wrong? Should the car have been retired? Was there even a chance to climb back up the field?

I think I have some answers.

Right from the race start it was clear there was something off with Charles’ car. It was losing a lot of power on the straights and he was fighting to stay ahead. This was an obvious mechanical issue with the car. His race engineer talked him through a lot of adjustments to see if the problem could be solved through wheel settings. It didn’t, the problem got worse and with each lap Charles was losing over a second of pace. That was unsustainable.

At first it seemed to be a straightforward power unit problem. However after troubleshooting the team had their doubts. During his second pit stop on lap 28 his team did a full electronic restart of the controls in his car. That seemed to clear up the issue. However the pitstop needed to do this restart took 47 seconds, and given he’d already been losing places due to lacking power before, when he came out of the pits he was dead last and was lapped soon after. At that point his race was unrecoverable. The car’s pace was actually solid, and was not far off the top 3 cars(closest to George) but a lap down it was essentially impossible to make up places. The team tried to recover a little by gambling on the hards to try to get more speed, but the rain started immediately(the choice to try the hards was Charles’ and the choice to also go back to the inters was also Charles’ choice) so this was another weather gamble that did not work in Ferrari’s favor.

The decision was made to retire the car, there isn’t a point in running not in the points in a car that should be scoring points, when you are a lap down, in a race with mixed conditions that would mean the chances of the car sustaining damage are high.

The team managed as best they could and the communication was pretty good. Emotions were running high on both sides, but that is to be expected. Ferrari gave Charles control over what he wanted to do. The only possible issue was them encouraging him to stay out on the hards after it had started to rain. This was mostly because if he pit for inters that was going to end his race, the hards were already a last ditch effort to try to find some extra pace to get back up in the pack. But the rain really messed this up. It was a fine gamble, and it was the best choice to retire the car.

Since the race we have learned that the cause of the mechanical issue for Charles was not the power unit itself, but rather the control unit and sensors connected to that component. Ferrari reported sensor issues at Imola, and Monaco(Charles had to do an engine swap during FP sessions to get it sorted) They have found that there is a problem where sensors are throwing false positives, reporting a problem when there is no problem. Changing the power unit seems to solve the problem. However this isn’t a long term solution.

I think that there is something wrong with the connection between sensors and the control unit. Since the team have said the control unit and associated sensors(Ferrari have not been more specific) I believe this means that the sensors in question are most likely the ones that accept driver input(ie accelerating) rather than monitoring sensors(ones that would relay tyre temperature). The second most likely option would be sensors connected to the power unit. But the problem is not the sensors themselves, rather the connections between the sensors and the CU. This would explain the loss of power Charles experienced if the car simply was not responding correctly to his inputs. This is further supported by the inputs Bryan was walking Charles through also did not work.

So the sensors are likely fine, the control unit is fine, but the connection between the two is not.

Why does changing the power unit seemingly solve the problem(at least temporarily)? There are a few possible explanations, it may be that during a switch the sensor gets cleaned re-positioned correctly etc. A hard reset on electronics can interrupt faulty feedback and set a clean slate. It clears the RAM and so things start off before there was a problem. It's a temporary fix. And it would come back if there is a sensor problem because eventually a false positive will get thrown again and then the team is right back where they started.

This leads into what happened this race. There was a serious problem, Charles was losing a lot of power, and this again makes me suspect it’s a sensor associated with some crucial feedback from the power unit. So after trying to troubleshoot to see if there was actually a problem and they were unable to find evidence of a physical issue Ferrari decided to do the last resort which was a full reset on the car. This is not ideal because it takes time, and during a race that was time Charles just didn’t have. However the reset did seem to clear up the issue. This happens with electronic problems because if there is a part or sensor that is giving bad information, a reset clears the RAM and all the old codes are gone, so the system is no longer operating under the assumption something is wrong.

To solve this problem Ferrari are going to have to do some serious trouble shooting for the connection between the control unit, the sensors and the power unit. It seems like each time this comes up they get a little closer to identifying the issue.

One good takeaway from all of this is it does seem like there aren’t any fatal flaws with any of Charles’ PUs, and that is good because we were getting concerned about him likely having to take a penalty sometime this season if he needed a fifth. At this point it’s looking less likely, but I would not rule it out.

Data Analysis

Charles' data is clearly compromised by the problems he encountered. And we can look at the data to find out just how much he was impacted by the CU problem.

Here is a look at Charles' best lap prior to the electrical reset in the pits(RED) and his best lap after the problem was fixed(WHITE)

For three periods during the earlier lap he had DRS open, which is the only reason he was even close, without DRS he would have been even further off in speed. And he had no DRS in use on the later lap. So the problem being solved made him faster than before even when he was using DRS. It also allowed him to take corners better.

To really put it into perspective I chose Max's best inter lap from that second stint as well to compare.

Here the difference is clearer, where Charles top speeds were lacking before and then after he was actually faster. These laps are from different times and are subject to slightly different track conditions. The main thing to highlight is that change in top speed, and how after Charles was achieving competitive speeds. Unfortunately by that time it was too late. These are good speeds, but they are not "make up an entire lap and climb back into the points" speeds.

Now I want to compare Charles' and Carlos' pace. There are a lot of variables that were constantly changing so do keep that in mind.

*Note: because of the nature of this race and the lower lap times on inters F1 tempo read almost all early laps as "outliers" so I had to show those as well, the slower laps here are from the safety car and pitstops.

The most notable thing is that even with a serious problem Charles was on pace with his teammate who did not have the same issue. This tells me two things. 1. Charles was driving exceptionally. 2. The car setup likely played a greater role in the non-competitive pace. Also being stuck in the midfield likely did not help either Carlos or Charles.

Overall, I was very impressed with Charles performance this race. He was overtaking, driving in mixed conditions, while taking directions from Bryan and changing the settings on his car literally every lap to troubleshoot the power issue he was having. He was running the same race as everyone else while also trying to reprogram his car. I can’t believe he was keeping up and was doing so without any serious errors while his attention was severely split. Not only that his pace was the same or better than his teammate who did not have the same mechanical issue, but he was overtaking. This was actually one of the best drives of the race, and it was masked by the car problems.

Carlos

One of the biggest questions was what happened to Carlos’ pace and speed. He didn’t have the same mechanical problems as Charles so why wasn’t he much faster? Well I suspect that one factor is he is still running on his second PU, and I believe we will see that changed before the Spanish GP. Both Ferrari cars were not there in terms of performance this weekend, and I think that was for various reasons. I won’t attribute all of his issues to that, as it’s a guess on my part, though it seems it’s about time for the replacement there, even if there are no issues, the mileage may warrant it.

Edit: Carlos also took minor damage to his front wing and floor early in the race when he made contact with Valtteri, this most certainly also affected his overall speed and pace.

Also the car setup not being optimal likely would affect Carlos more than Charles as since upgrades Charles has been ahead in extracting speed out of the car. The fact that they were close tells me that this was a setup issue and not really a serious failure on the part of the driver.

Carlos ran a very standard race, relaying good info back to the pitwall and managing well under the mixed conditions. He wasn’t doing much in the way of climbing, stuck in the mid-field mess with a car that was not all there this weekend.

His race ended when he made an attempt to pass Alex on lap 53. He made contact and both cars lost grip and spun out. This probably happened because he lost traction due to the damp track. This incident was his fault, the footage is pretty clear on this. The move was risky in the mixed conditions. He took responsibility and that is what we like to see from drivers when things like this happen. I get the need to take a risk. It was really the only way to try to salvage Ferrari’s race. After a long race of very few errors one cost him his race. So given that the conditions were tough I am not too concerned about this. It’s a disappointing result for sure, but a lot of drivers were making errors, it’s just unfortunate his led to a DNF.

I will say I am actually very pleased with the teamwork this weekend when facing very difficult conditions. The communication was there, things were transparent. Carlos was relaying helpful info back to the pitwall for Charles. And afterwards the team as a whole was very transparent and informative about what happened. This felt so different from seasons past. Tempers and tensions ran high, but that was out of frustration for the situation not the team. It’s easy to confuse those. Bryan was doing great, one of the communication blips we saw was when he was trying to hide how much pace was being lost in a strategic attempt to stay in the game, but Charles knew it was already too late. The team wasn’t perfect this weekend. But seeing them go through a lot of things going wrong and this being the result made me feel even more confident in the team overall. We have a team that communicates and owns their mistakes. That is a positive. It was good to see how the team handled everything going wrong, and I am not displeased with the outcome on that front. It’s easy to make the new team look good when things are going smoothly, but this weekend showed a stark difference in this new team and management compared to years past.

Furthermore I am very pleased with the transparency from the team, from Fred to the drivers, on what went wrong and what can be done to improve. This is a really good sign, and I liked that Charles and Carlos were able to say what they wanted. It was helpful in understanding this weekend, and continuing to build trust in the team even with a poor result.

Ferrari really looked a lot worse this weekend because of continued bad gambles on weather conditions. That is very unlucky and there isn't a way to avoid that. The rest was due to the mechanical failure on Charles' car, and one error from Carlos.

One highlight was that Ferrari had the fastest pitstop, so our pit crew were pulling their weight for our drivers who were dealing with rough conditions.

Not a good race result but also I think there were some positive showings from the team and this doesn't look like it's exposed anything fundamentally wrong with the operation.

Red Bull

Now while Red Bull won the race, and Max had a really great drive the team had a lot of problems this weekend. Before I talk about the team issues we will look at Max's win, how it came about and his main competitors this race.

Max

Given the weather being a significant factor, this race was not going to be won by speed, but rather the driver near the front who was the most consistent and made the fewest errors, and it should come as no surprise that the driver who won was the most consistent and made the fewest errors.

This was probably Max’s best race this year in terms of him showing his skill on track and why he’s really the best and the one to beat. He had some luck, but the win was most certainly due to his superior driving, ability to control the cars behind and of course lack of error in mixed conditions. It was not a perfect race from him, but he won based on the fact he made the fewest mistakes of all the cars at the front, and that really came down to his skill behind the wheel.

There are very few instances where you can see Max lose grip even a little. He was so smooth in keeping on the racing line, and also keeping control if his wheels deviated from the line.

Also he did set a very good qualifying lap, the same as the time George got for pole, even though Max didn’t start on pole he did set the same time so he was just as fast.

It really was his consistency in these ever changing and mixed conditions that won him the race. I’d call this his best drive of the season.

Data Analysis

I am going to cover Max, George, and Lando’s race data here as comparing the top three was the real story behind this race and Max’s win, it made the most sense to have it all together.

This race was not one where I am as concerned with pure speed, because in the rain that matters less than racecraft and control over the car. Given most drivers struggle to some extent in the rain mistakes are bound to happen.

A look at the top 3's final stints, this was when the race was won or lost. All cars were close, and everyone was looking quick. Here it's very clear Lando did not have the speed to catch Max those final ten laps. He was consistently off. Max was actually the one on the oldest tyres too. Only by a few laps, and George had the newest, so the other two were not slower due to tyre age. The interesting thing here was George was faster than Max on a few laps(He was on the newest tyres at this point). He really did have great speed this race, but you can see where the error he made cost him the place.

Now let's look at the full race between these three.

*Note: again I had to include all outlier laps to show the full race perspective

Lando was only faster in the second half of his first stint. I suspect that something about specific track grip and conditions then was in his favor. After that his pace was the same or slower. So he was not going to be keeping that lead he had. He didn’t have the speed, and he certainly didn’t have the consistency.

George was faster, and I state later that this was George’s race to lose and he lost it, almost entirely due to his own errors. He was right on that competitive pace all race. Pretty much identical to Max, which after their qualifying that did not come as a surprise. What cost him were several errors where he lost grip. I indicated them with arrows, you you can see the laps where he lost control stand out on their own.

It was that final error that sealed George's fate. He was speeding up, he had the pace to make an attempt at closing that gap, and he lost it.

While Lando had more micro errors, a few points of lost grip, wiggling on the track etc. George had bigger errors. And his final one likely cost him P2 and possibly the win. He was faster, he had the speed to be able to at the very least catch Lando, he had fresher tyres, but it was lap 64 where he lost grip and went off that cost him. Without that he very likely would have been able to catch Lando in those final laps. Catching Max was more of a long shot but he might have been able to get within striking distance.

Max won not because he gained track position due to a safety car, there was a lot of race left and a few more pitstops to be had, as well as another safety car for all those cars to catch up to him again. He won because he was in control on that track as the conditions changed, he didn’t need to be fastest(though make no mistake he was fast) he just needed to put in consistent laps times and defend, and he did just that.

Red Bull and Sergio

Now Red Bull had a very serious problem. One I find to be very concerning in terms of “strategy” as well as safety. And this is the fault of neither of their drivers, who were simply doing their jobs, this was a problem behind the pitwall.

When Checo spun out on lap 52 he was told by the team to drive the car back to the pits. Checo lost control of the car and spun when he got the right side off the racing line and his hard tyres hit the wet on the track. This caused him to spin, with his rear wing crashing into the wall and being severely damaged.

He drove back to the pits under team orders.

This order from the team to drive back to the pits was concerning for 2 reasons:

Safety, both Checo’s safety and the safety of every other car on track. His rear wing had been severely damaged and was spreading debris. Other drivers noted this and were concerned by this as well.

Red Bull admitted both over comms and when investigated by the stewards that the reason for this order was to prevent another safety car from being called out. At this point Max had the lead of the race and another safety car at this point would not have been good for him(at least this was the team’s belief).

Here is the rule that the team admitted they broke. Checo had significant damage. Which means he needed to stay off the track. Red Bull told him to re-take the track and run all the way back to the pits while his rear wing was severely damaged. Checo was already off the track, so the only thing he needed to do was wait and the marshals would have helped under a safety car to get his car taken care of.

This was a choice made to try to make gains for Max, at Checo’s expense and really the potential expense of every other driver on the field(including Max, he was not immune to getting a puncture from debris either) This lack of concern for driver safety is unacceptable from the team. The team was fined and Checo will have to serve a starting grid penalty next race through no real fault of his own. The team truly failed both their drivers with this call in my opinion, Checo paid the steeper price but this could have ended badly for Max’s race as well.

The most confusing part of this to me is why they needed Checo to come back to the pits. There was an escape lane off the track right where Checo spun off, all he needed to do was turn left. And there was another track exit at turn 8. Why did he need to progress around the entire lap back to the pits spreading debris? Why they didn’t tell him to just drive there to get off the track completely is beyond me. It would have probably just been a temporary yellow flag then. Would that not have also avoided a safety car like they wanted? It just made this whole thing feel like more of an unnecessary risk. I don’t think it was directly malicious on the team’s part, it was just really stupid and unnecessarily risky. Again, this was also risky to Max’s race, he could have gotten a puncture from this and that most assuredly would have cost him the race.

The team admitted to breaking the rules in an attempt to secure a race result for their driver. This should carry a much stiffer penalty for the team than a 25,000 euro fine and a grid penalty. I’d increase the fine substantially so that it really actually hurt the team and they feel real consequences. This was the team’s fault so I think the team as a whole should be punished rather than singling out a driver. The best way is through a bigger fine, then the drivers don’t pay the price

Truly the worst display we’ve seen from any team all year in terms of how they chose to handle things. This cannot happen again. And the thing is that this isn’t speculation. Red Bull have admitted that they knew in the moment that Checo’s damage would be safety car worthy, and ordered him to return anyway, also forgoing the option to take track exits before the pitlane. They admitted that the reason for making him return was to avoid the safety car being brought out.

I have seen this compared to “crashgate” or some other form of race fixing. This is truly an insane comparison. Race fixing is a serious accusation and it requires forethought. This was just the team trying to weasel out of a bad situation and intentionally breaking the rules to do it, they were reacting to something that happened, not planning to create a situation that would win them the race. This wasn’t race fixing. We need to make sure that accusation means something and this wasn’t it.

Furthermore, the assessment from the team that this was necessary to keep Max in the lead was I think a misjudgement. If the safety car had come out would Max have been guaranteed to lose the lead? I am not convinced. With the safety car I am fairly confident Max would have kept the lead, but we might have seen Mclaren fall behind the Mercedes faster. Max’s driving having the fewest errors(after Lewis) is what was going to keep him ahead.

And the funny thing is that we don’t even have to speculate because the safety car did come out literally a lap later after Carlos and Alex collided. The field backed up to Max, the Mercedes cars were able to pit, and Max stayed in front. So that shows a few things. 1. That the safety car is not what won Max the race, and 2. A safety car at that point in the race was not going to compromise Max’s race to the point he lost position.

Tis is on the team. Checo made a mistake, and Max did nothing wrong. The drivers were just doing their jobs. My harshness is meant to be directed at the team behind the pitwall, not the drivers in this situation.

It’s just unfortunate that something like this kind of shadows things for the team when they should be celebrating another win, and a milestone for Max.

Mercedes

Somehow this was Mercedes best result but one of their most mixed performances. George qualified on pole, and Lewis P7. George finished third, bringing home Mercedes first GP podium of the year, and Lewis came in P4. These are the team's best finishing results and best qualifying results, so on paper a very good weekend for the team. However things during the race and behind the scenes were not so great.

George

This was George’s race to lose. He qualified on pole. He had a car with the pace and speed to win. And it was due to several large errors on his part that he lost those places both to Max and Lando. Furthermore his craft in defending against Lando left a lot to be desired. He’s usually a much better driver. But this weekend George really defeated himself. He had some very good moments, but considering he had the ingredients for a win this weekend P3 is not a good final outcome.

I will highlight that he did have some good overtakes and his speed was quite good. And of course that qualifying lap was his best driving all year. However he lost control of the car at multiple key moments(most notably on lap 64), and also failed to defend effectively against Lando.

Lewis

Lewis had a very interesting race. During the GP he looked the most competitive he’s been all year. Moving quickly up the field, applying pressure to Oscar and eventually getting past him, getting past George for a few laps. Gaining 3 places in mixed conditions through overtaking skill was really a good showing from him. He really showed that no matter the car he’s in he will be competitive in the rain.

Given the way he was racing I think had he had a better qualifying result he’d have been far more competitive than George at the front. He is always solid in the rain and he likely would have made fewer mistakes and been able to control the pace of the cars behind better.

Lewis’ qualifying was really impacted by poor tyre warming. He mentioned that his garage didn’t have his tyres warmed up to the correct temperature so he was out on cooler tyres from the start. Given the pace we saw from him during the race I do believe this was the case, because he clearly had very similar speed to George in that car. In fact he was faster than George during free practice sessions(not that those are always indicative of true pace) So that does explain his significantly different qualifying results. Which is a shame because both Mercedes starting at the front would have been a very different race.

Now onto the issue Mercedes had.

The first would be not getting Lewis’ tyres prepped correctly for qualifying. There isn’t anything he can do about that, he has to work with what he’s given and he was given something that wasn’t going to be able to compete at the front in qualifying.

Second, the issue of allowing George and Lewis to race. While I understand that yes sometimes this is fine on a team. It really felt like it was unexpected to Lewis, especially after he’d shown he can take places, while George had mostly lost them. I am not sure strategically it was best to risk having the drivers go wheel to wheel especially on a track with changing traction. I get that George was on the faster tyres and they wanted George to have the chance to take his places back since he did start on pole, but at that point in the race it was extremely unlikely. So it just felt unnecessary. I think revealed a little bit of tension in the team. Which not good to see the first weekend they are looking really competitive.

A quick look at the final bit of the race between George and Lewis.

Lewis was doing amazing on those hard tyres, speed wise he was not even significantly far off his teammate who was on mediums. This is why George was able to catch Lewis and overtake him though, he was on newer rubber and softer rubber so he had the speed advantage. Lewis wasn't going to be able to catch him once he passed.

So good results for Mercedes, however errors cost them higher places, and I think that management in the garages also was very mixed.

Mclaren

This was not a great race for Mclaren. On paper their results look good, but this race had several poor strategy calls as well as quite a few errors from their lead driver. They were in contention for the win. And yes, the safety car aided Max, however Mclaren defeated themselves both behind the pitwall and on the track more than anything.

Lando

Lando showed what I suspected. That yes in a fast car he can overtake cars which are not on pace, however when it comes to really applying pressure and racing in mixed conditions his performance starts to wane. As well as when the pace is essentially equal as we saw in the later half of this race he isn't making gains. He was pretty good at first but as the race progressed he was being caught out by the mixed track conditions as well as not able to handle pressure from behind cost him his places.

He was in a fast car, but his driving was riddled with mistakes, the car kept him at the front but he missed quite a few overtake opportunities because he was too aggressive on the throttle, wasn’t finding the grip, and just getting sloppy. None of that was the best we’ve seen from him. In another race those kinds of things would have been more costly. Luckily for Lando other drivers were making more errors.

His main competition this race was George. Who was fast, but due to several errors that cost him time lost places. His final placement was as much due to poorer driving on the part of his main competition(George) rather than a really competitive showing from him. That is a part of the sport, good on him for capitalizing on that.

And yes the first safety car backed up the field and allowed Max to retake the front. However, there was a second safety car where Lando was placed to catch up to Max. He had the chance to overtake there again and couldn’t do it.

But this isn’t all on Lando. Mclaren made some bad strategy calls that put Lando on new tyres and losing places in the pits at the wrong time. He stayed out an extra lap during the safety car, I think the team wanted to see if he could keep track position. The result put him on the back foot and allowed him to be undercut by Max on newer tyres, because he did have to pit the next lap. If he hadn't he would have been worse off and lost even more places. I think this was just the team being reluctant to give up track position, but it was just a bad pit call under the safety car conditions that neutralized the lead Lando had built. So I am not sure what they were going for or why they believed Max was not going to re-take the lead given the circumstances.

To be clear the timing allowed for Lando to be able to pit, the team could have gotten him there, this wasn't a case of the safety car placement preventing that. The team needed to make that call quickly, and they didn't. These are the kinds of things that make the difference when competing at the front. Mclaren have not had the best season so far as far at pit stop timing goes, the results have been mixed. So the team really failed him on that. He would have been much better positioned the rest of the race had they pit at the right time.

Lando made mistakes and his competitive pace was there, but it wasn't that extra speed from the beginning for most of the race. He cannot account for the team misjudging things like that. He doesn’t have the same perspective they do.

He talked about his amazing pace but then that first safety car being what ended his race. But his pace the rest of the race didn't reflect that earlier pace. And there was another safety car where he was positioned to be able to catch Max. It's not like he was stuck on older tyres the rest of the race and Max created an insurmountable lead. And what happened to that amazing pace from earlier? I think he didn't manage the continuously changing track conditions as well and that would explain why his pace was still good, but no that significantly faster pace we saw near the beginning. So his argument about that one safety car being what cost them the race really falls apart.

Overall very mixed performance from Lando. There were some good moments, but the lows were costly, and we got a look at how he handles pressure from behind as well as if he can catch Max in equal conditions and the answer was no.

Oscar

Oscar again had a similar story to Lando in the sense that Mclaren strategy did him no favors.

Oscar had really good pace most of the race and was matching his teammate competitively and this was while he was in dirty air from Lando. The interesting thing was on lap 61 when Mclaren asked Oscar if he thought he’d be able to take Max at the front.

Lando was not making any progress at shortening the gap to Max at this point, and Oscar's pace was more competitive at this point. The numbers don't reflect this directly but the circumstance does. Lando had clean air, Oscar didn't and Oscar was still on pace with Lando. So from Mclaren's perspective Oscar was looking better for a proper fight.

I was actually surprised to hear this from Mclaren as I was so certain they would not really give this kind of opportunity to Oscar if Lando was ahead. Strategy wise it made sense to try to push the faster car ahead. However when under pressure from a car that was less than a second behind and faster. The choice not to swap here is what really determined the rest of Oscar’s race because then Mclaren really went ahead in making sure their full support was going to Lando to help him stay at the front of the field, with Oscar’s job being to keep George back(and we saw how that went) it was almost inevitable that George would pass.

As interested as I was in this question from Mclaren, I again think they had the timing wrong. Oscar was under so much pressure from George, he almost got overtaken twice the lap they asked that. That was not the time to ask. And also to consider the move at that point was too risky.

Furthermore this would have been a bad call, they were too quick to judge the pace. They asked Oscar this on lap 61. The previous lap was after the warmup from the pits, and that lap looked like Max and Oscar and Lando were matched on pace, with Oscar and Lando slightly ahead.

Here you can see that after the pit outlap on lap 60 that is the one lap this final stint where the Mclaren cars were faster than Max, by 2+ tenths. However after that Max pulled away. The Mclaren cars were in the low 1:16 area and Max was pulling consistent 1:15s. They literally were making this call off the one lap the times converged thinking it was indicative of the pace for the rest of the stint.

Max pulled ahead with significantly better pace. Lando wasn't going to catch him and neither was Oscar. Mclaren would have ordered this based on the one singular lap they were faster than Max that last stint and it likely would have cost them both places to the Mercedes. This was a bad data interpretation and possible strategy that Oscar saved them from.

Here is a look at that same data in graph form to really visualize where the times came together and where Max pulled away.

I think this was actually pretty shrewd on Oscar's part. If he’d fumbled that swap by even a half second(or even less) both Mercedes likely would have ended up ahead of the Mclarens. We saw he was not able to hold Lewis back forever. And so he was actually better on the strategy than Mcalren who were more concerned about pace, but his choice made it so Lando could keep attempting to put pressure on Max, rather than having to contend with George and Lewis coming from behind. He very likely prevented a Mercedes 2-3 with this choice. So I was really impressed with his maturity and strategic mind when under pressure like this.

Probably Oscar's best performance on track and in terms of strategy. Really impressed me on a few fronts. Mclaren I don’t think were seeing as much of the big picture, or really wanted to take that gamble. I will hand it to them, they did ask their driver his opinion and went with his choice. But I think that considering a swap there was kind of crazy seeing how much pressure Oscar was under, Lewis was barely outside of DRS and he was at some points.

A look at Oscar and Lando's pace in the final stints. Lando was faster most laps. Oscar did well this race, however by the end the tyres seemed to be getting to him again, especially having to do a lot of defense and being in more dirty air compared to Lando. Also remember that Oscar was in dirty air for way more of this race than Lando and that is also reflected in those final laps.

Good race result for both Mclaren cars, but this race had a few very odd strategy calls that likely cost both drivers, or would have cost them more if they'd acted on them.

Williams

Williams somehow managed to have their best and worst weekend at the same time. Best because this was the best performance they have seen from their car and both their drivers in qualifying all year with Alex qualifying P10 and Logan in P13.

Not only that, Alex had probably the most impressive move of the entire race where he overtook both Yuki and Daniel. That move was impressive because not only was it a double overtake in a trickier spot on the track. He needed to leave the racing line to do it, getting his tyres on a wetter part of the track. He maintained perfect control. You can see the other two cars he passed wiggle when they left in similar wet patches during that pass. Just some truly impressive racecraft and control on Alex’s part.

Unfortunately William’s saw both drivers DNF. Logan lost control of his car and was unable to recover it, bringing out that first safety car.

Alex DNFed after Carlos tried to pass on lap 53 and made contact, taking them both out of the race.

Logan was at fault for his DNF. He struggles in the rain and he paid the price.

Alex unfortunately lost the most as he was having his best race of the season and was taken out through no fault of his own.

Mixed results. However I think that this race did show that the Williams upgrades have given pace to the car and the team does stand a good chance of scoring more points. Alex especially seems to be more and more comfortable in the car every race. I was wondering if Monaco would be a one-off for the team, it seems it wasn’t and Williams may be on an upward trajectory with their car’s performance.

Haas

Haas really stole the show at the start of the race with their choice to start both their drivers on wet tyres instead of intermediate like the rest of the field. The rain at the start of the race was not expected to last, so starting on wets was a gamble, and it paid off incredibly on that front. Kevin climbed from P14 to P4 in a matter of a few laps because of the better grip he had.

Nico similarly climbed the field, and lasted even longer on the wets.

The reasoning behind this strategic gamble was to try to climb the field early to gain much higher track positions, and then try to hold as many of those as possible for the rest of the race, acting on the assumption they would get passed by a few cars. If it had worked as intended then it likely would have been a points finish for both drivers.

This was also Kevin and Nico's best driving of the year. Kevin passed so many cars with very low visibility, and Nico extended the grip of the wets as long as he could.

However Haas shot themselves in the foot when they were unprepared for Kevin’s pitstop for inters, and that lost him almost all the positions gained on the wets. They finished just outside the points, so this very likely would have made the difference.

Haas had a good strategy, it’s a shame we didn’t get to see it pay off. Both drivers did well this weekend.

Kevin started P14 and finished P12, while Nico started P17 and finished P11.

Final Thoughts

Since this was a rain race I want to give credit to the drivers who really showed their skill in the wet. First Max, for his consistency, then to Alex for some really impressive moves in wet conditions, to Kevin for a really impressive climb up the field with very low visibility, and to Lewis who gained places continuously throughout the race. I will also give an honorable mention to Charles because he was driving in those same conditions, not losing pace to his teammate, overtaking, all while changing settings on his car every single lap to solve a mechanical issue. We saw some really high quality driving this race.

On the teams front this race was interesting as all top teams made some pretty serious errors when it came to strategy, from consistently getting the weather wrong to intentionally breaking the rules this was kind of a mess.

Interesting race, one to forget as a Ferrari fan, but we learned a lot.

That's all I've got. See you next time we go racing in Spain!

#lucis race analysis #canadian gp 2024 #long post #scuderia ferrari #charles leclerc

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dorkgelic · 2 years

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Planets in the 1st house

What does it mean when a planet is in the 1st house?

Planets in the 1st can be like a second ascendant or rising, especially if they’re very close to the ascendant. The closer the planet is, the more prominent it can be. Whichever planet in the 1st house that you have can influence how you see the world, your appearance, the way people see us, and our self-image.

Before I started, I just wanted to let you know that genetics also play a part into physical appearances so not everything said will be accurate about that. And, some of this can also go for your rising sign, not all of it.

(Dark mode recommended)

Sun in the 1st house:

This placement specifically really needs to learn how to put themselves first. That’s kind of like their goal in life. They really just have to take pride in being themselves. If they can’t stand up for themselves, they have to learn how to however, if they’re too headstrong they have to stop and think before they do anything that they may regret later on. People with this placement have a very strong will and are quite determined. They are usually more positive than negative depending on the whole chart, and can appear very confident to others because that’s just what comes naturally to them which can actually just inspire others to be confident as well. They really do spread their energy around. They are leaders. Even though they appear confident most of the time, they can also have ups and downs with their confidence. On one day, they can feel very full of themselves in terms of confidence and on another day, they might just have the opposite effect. Colors that are bright fit them perfectly, especially yellow, gold, or orange. Very glamorous fashion styles are also common with this placement. They can have average to taller heights, strong/lean/healthy bodies, poor eyesight sometimes, very charming face - even if they’re not considered physically attractive, nice-looking noses, medium to wide forehead, beautiful eyebrows, and glistening eyes. Honestly, they make themselves happy and these people often have some sort of skincare regime or self care routine that they like to do. Whether it’s getting their 8 hours of sleep, or making sure they eat clean… they’ll get it done. However, they can be a bit pretentious and outspoken at times, as well as a bit self-centered or cocky. This is only if the placement is underdeveloped though!! :)

Celebrities with Sun in the 1st house: Scarlett Johansson, Elon Musk, Grace Kelly, and Demi Lovato.

Moon in the 1st house:

People with their Moon in the first house are typically very sensitive to their surroundings and to other people. Their emotions are very strong and powerful. They are prone to many emotions, especially sad ones just because of how in tune they are which can be a burden but also an advantage and a gift if handled properly. Mood swings are very much present, pretty noticeable/visible ones too. They can be super moody and sensitive. You can see when they’re having like a bad day, the expression is just on their faces. Ignoring emotions is basically impossible for this placement because even if they’re fine most of the time, there is a period where their emotions just keep coming out & they just have to be dealt with or else it won’t be fixed. People usually feel safe around these individuals, they have a very comforting energy that just makes even the most repressed type of people feel comfortable to express themselves. Every time the moon sign changes (every 2 days) they might take on the attributes of that specific moon sign. They can also try to avoid tough emotions, but like I said before, this doesn’t work. They really do also like to be noticed for their talents. Even if it’s a small remark, it’s still nice for them to know. They have more rounder/squarer shaped faces, big/small almond eyes that just stare into your soul, average foreheads, thinner to medium eyebrows that flat or low arched, and short to medium heights. Very intuitive type of people as well. They are usually very direct with their emotions and like to face things head on, but sometimes they might overthink about this and if it’s the right decision. I think these are individuals who can really master their emotion if they put effort into it, and can even help others with their emotions too.

Celebrities with Moon in the 1st house: Madonna, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, and Bella Hadid.

Mercury in the 1st house:

Younger/youthful looking faces. Pretty eyelashes. Whether they’re long or short doesn’t matter. Their hair usually has some nice texture, and it can be slightly wavy even if it’s straight. Very nice features that are portioned just right. Some of these individuals can look androgynous. There’s a very slick and sharp look to their features as well. They’re very curious and are eager to learn about new things and topics. They have like eyes everywhere and know what certain people are doing and if they’re not doing them correctly, they may try to fix it or help them do it correctly. They’re also pretty nosy. They like getting involved in conversations to prove their logic, even if they were not originally apart of the conversation. They can also just come off as like rude, just with their picky looks even if they don’t truly mean to be rude. Listening is a skill these people need to develop in my opinion. Of course, it may already be developed though:) they usually tend to be direct when they’re communicating, and they don’t like when people lie to them. In other peoples perspectives, they look like someone who approaches the world in a logical and educated way. People usually also view them as smart, even if they’re not. They have the type of appearance where you don’t have to question them because they’re the person that knows best. Really good at observing as well. They’re more intuitive than people give them credit for. The bad part of this placement is that they can be overly worried and think too much about stuff, overthinking is common. Honestly, they can probably talk about a lot of things for ages. Speaking is their natural talent though. They have beautiful voices too! They’re very ahead of others in terms of thinking, but if Mercury is afflicted then they usually use this power for evil.

Celebrities with Mercury in the 1st house: Selena Gomez, Elon Musk, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Gigi Hadid.

Venus in the 1st house:

Such lovely people. Can literally charm anyone with their personality or looks. They make people feel dazed, honestly. These people are usually involved in some type of self-care or self-love routine of some sort and they like things pleasing to the eye, or just aesthetically pleasing. They can be creative when expressing themselves, and they just always look good. They’ll never go out without looking good. Their outfits & makeup are also genuinely the best they have good taste. They themselves just make the outfit work because they’re so beautiful. The look in their eyes is simply majestic, and they usually have nice facial features that are put together perfectly. Their features can be delicate & gentle. More of a slim, shorter type of nose build and they look good with any shade of pink lipstick. Their eyebrows can be a bit raised or just leveled correctly. They can also love experimenting with styles, they’re very adventurous when it comes to this. These people can see multiple side of things, they carry so much compassion and love for others which is so recognizable. Alluring & polite. They attract many people when they show these traits and it often makes them well-liked or popular. Graceful stares. Some undeveloped people with this placement can become to vain and too caught up with themselves though. And temperamental/moody, sometimes of which is uncalled for completely which gets other people in bad moods. For these individuals, other people not liking them can also be a problem too. They might ignore them or resent them for this reason as well, it’s kind of like they need validation. Can sometimes be possessive or selfish too, maybe without meaning to be.

Celebrities with Venus in the 1st house: Angelina Jolie, Beyoncé, Audrey Hepburn, and Jungkook.

Mars in the 1st house:

They give off a lot of Mars energy, so they may appear more masculine in their personality or just in their physical look. This isn’t always the case though. They’re always very hot-headed, ambitious, driven, and passionate. Like I said, they’re very driven so they really will go after what they want. Whether it’s an opportunity or a job, doesn’t matter. They also don’t think about consequences or about how their actions might affect other people, probably the child that got into trouble a lot because of this too. Which may just hurt themselves more than anyone else honestly. They can be very active &amp use their body daily. Some of these people like working out or just moving around. Also, they’re the type of people who are strong-willed & mentally strong. But they aren’t usually able to hide their anger well, and when they’re mad, their first instinct can be to damage something or just get physical. I see many celebrities with Mars in their first house &amp they wear red a lot, it looks good on them too. Especially the females. In terms of appearance, they look very hot &amp not in a simple way either but in a big, bold way. Eyeliner + smoky eye fits them perfectly. They can also put a lot of their energy into themselves, like many people with this placement do a lot of things for themselves, whether they realize it or not. There is something striking about their appearance, specifically their face. It’s something people notice the quickest. They have defined/great cheekbones and a more square shaped face. Their eyes look good when in both a defensive &amp cheerful expression. These individuals can also come off as intimidating to some, but that’s only because people can feel how big their energy is &amp they know that Mars in the 1st house natives don’t take shit from anyone.

Celebrities with Mars in the 1st house: Taylor Swift, Megan Fox, Brad Pitt, and Blake Lively.

Jupiter in the 1st house:

Such lucky people. It’s like they have almost no karma. Can be very confident, and can start many projects/events/etc with ease. Their personality’s are very big, they take risk in many things. They can make money by doing something with their body like being an athlete. These people are also competitive, but they’re successful competitors. Honestly, very full of light, curiosity and optimism. Such cheerful smiles & playful little looks to them. They don’t look intimidating personality-wise, but sometimes they can appear physically intimidating just because of how “cool” or “unique” they appear. Almond eyes, medium lips, relaxed-arched eyebrows, captivating stares, and some type of wavy hair is all common here. They’re honestly blessed with good luck in terms of their looks. These individuals are extremely soulful deep down inside. They tend to leave lasting impressions, they make other people curious about them. However, to other people, they can appear more as bossy or arrogant just because of their self-confidence. And some other people might feel threatened instead because of their charisma. This placement is really enthusiastic in terms of friendships, they will cheer them on as long as they can, vouch for them, encourage them, etc. They can also look really cultured. Maybe they’re very involved in their culture, or they find it very interesting. Can be blunt, they know how to tell people the truth instead of what they want to hear. They know how to say a lot in a little sentence. Instead of dealing with their trauma this placement can actually just ignore it and keep moving/adapting so that they don’t have to deal with it anymore. Last thing I’m gonna say is that they do have a prominent intuition, they can really get messages from the universe.

Celebrities with Jupiter in the 1st house: Rihanna, Harry Styles, Kristen Stewart, and Whitney Houston.

Saturn in the 1st house:

In terms of physical appearance: prominent bone structure, composed look, high cheekbones, shocking, stern/daring eyes, medium noses, meaningful beauty, appear older when they’re younger and younger when they’re older they age backwards. They might struggle with their looks, or with how they present themselves to the world. They want to look a specific way. Body dysmorphia could be common. They have strong/dominating demeanors and personalities. They get more attractive as they age, it’s quite noticiable too and can accumulate power later on in life. When they were younger, they could’ve been in the shadow of someone older. They can take themselves very seriously & have a lot of self respect as well as discipline. They never really feel like anyone understands them. Usually more introverted. They can be afraid to express themselves, and have a fear of being left out or not being involved in something. They still do value being independent though. These people don’t want anyone to catch them when they’re not being responsible or serious, so I think that this could be the reason for why they’re so consistent with it. They probably think they carry a lot of responsibility, and yeah, that may be the case. To be honest, they need to learn how to let go &amp have fun:) advice for this placement would be to not let other people influence how you feel about yourself or your self-image and don’t be too hard on yourself we all make mistakes. People who mess with them will get karma sooner or later in this life, or the next. These individuals really do want to feel important and accomplished but they never feel like they’re getting quite the amount of attention they deserve.

Celebrities with Saturn in the 1st house: Princess Diana, Lana Del Rey, Jared Leto, and J.K. Rowling.

Uranus in the 1st house:

Unique builds, medium-thinner noses, strong & straight nose bridges, nice lips, attractive and well built faces with odd placements or unusual looks. They dress differently than others, change styles frequently, they look smart, and they like to live life the way they want to live it. These are the type of people to get bored easily, change jobs constantly, and do things on impulse. They can seem detached from life of relationships and it looks like they’re just not completely there. They don’t get things done in usual ways either, it may even seem like they’re not doing anything when they really are. These are the type of people who shock others with their ideas, etc. They definitely do like trying new things, they aren’t scared about if it will work out or not. They like to be different. These individuals make people feel like they can be themselves and accepted, as well as included! They’re the type of people not to let anyone miss out on group projects or group activities because they know how it feels like to be excluded from a group. Such great friends. They look super good in blue, no matter the shade. It makes their eyes/hair pop out. There may be times in life where other people make fun of them or bully them, only because this is a lesson to get them to truly love and accept themselves for who they are. They like being unexpected, and quite frankly, you never know what to expect. Very interesting type of personality’s though, many people look up to them & others just want to copy them. They have many friends and could possibly be involved in many friend groups or just groups in general. They give off hippie type of energy too!

Celebrities with Uranus in the 1st house: Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ariana Grande, and Kurt Cobain.

Neptune in the 1st house:

Such a ethereal and hazy placement. They themselves feel like a dream. They’re the embodiment of illusion. They can be very oblivious to the outside world and are child-like in some ways. They wear rose-colored glasses in some situations. So very alluring, captivating people. They leave people with such pretty illusions of them, kind of like a facade. They have a very visually pleasing and otherworldly appearance, which is why many celebrities/models/etc have this placement. They can also experience many changes in their personalities. They might also have multiple personalities. They can be nice, kind, etc but at other times they may just hate company and may prefer to be alone. These people can also have trouble uncovering the real them, they may not be sure what their real personality is like and this can make them anxious. They have no real direction in life, they’re not sure what to do. Other people can often project their insecurities on them as well without having a reason to. Type of people to prove others wrong. The things they say can come off confusing or just plain, their words are definitely thoroughly thought about. However, they’re also very inspiring and creative individuals. Extremely intuitive too, they can understand other people well & may even get physic messages. Super artistic and imaginative. They themselves can look like art. Whatever they creative is just a masterpiece. I also notice these natives usually have a very familiar look, kind of like deja vu. In terms of appearance, they have meaningful starry eyes, full cheeks, thick or high arched eyebrows, medium-smaller type of noses, sometimes they have like button noses, wide & beautiful smiles, long eyelashes, and round and soft faces.

Celebrities with Neptune in the 1st house: Marilyn Monroe, Ariana Grande, Björk, and Paris Hilton.

Pluto in the 1st house:

Intriguing and mysterious individuals. No one knows why they do what they do, it makes it interesting to figure out. They’re like the puzzle that people want to solve. This can be a hard placement to have though. They want to truly figure out who they are and want to examine and analyze the things that interest them. They may even want to just analyze themselves or other people for fun. They’re very intuitive because of their great ability to read people like books. They can read other peoples emotions, feelings, thoughts, and mannerisms. These people could’ve been raised in a more chaotic environment, there could’ve been things like phycological or mental/physical abuse. Whether they have this or not, it doesn’t matter because these natives have still been through a lot in their life. This gives them a very dark, intimidating aura. They can either repel bad people and attract many haters or attract people who are loving and obsessive. They may get intense responses or reactions from other people and this is because the energy they embody brings out peoples darker sides, whether they want it or not. They go through many transformations throughout their life, both mental and physical. Especially in their appearance, style, etc. For people with this placement, Pluto really runs deep inside them. There’s no escaping. They can also be extremely secretive, not many people know a lot about them, and they prefer it this way too. Their eyes are deep and soulful, their gazes are sharp and intense, they can have high arched eyebrows, intense looking features, unique side profiles, European looking noses, (they look great in dark colors, it really brings out their skin tone) sharp jawlines, wise looks, they can also be more into darker styles.

Celebrities with Pluto in the 1st house: Avril Lavigne, Evan Rachel Wood, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Beyoncé.

Don’t reword, translate, copy, plagiarize or use without credit.

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centrally-unplanned · 4 months

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To continuing being Yglesias-pilled definitely appreciated this point that I don't think marijuana legalization has gone quite the way people thought it was going to go:

Marijuana is, of course, way better a drug than alcohol, but that is different from it being "good". It might be, I am open to that, and to be clear if there was a pill out there just made everyone 20% happier with no downsides almost every one should take that. But evidence is mixed on that, you can definitely argue there are negative effects. And what hasn't happened is weed becoming a replacement for any drugs - all drug use has gone up! Even beyond just alcohol and weed.

And I have to notice that this trend is going right alongside large increases in drug deaths, the fentanyl crisis, etc. Its less weed as "cause" and more as trend indicator of a wider issue in society, which is imo still mysterious (and some of it is just statistical - like yeah an aging society is gonna take more pain meds).

Additionally, a lot of people - this was even the standard opinion! - told everyone pre-legalization that everyone who wanted weed was already smoking it. No one was "really" stopped by the law, so legalizing it was not gonna change anything. This was very blatantly wrong, people on average don't do illegal things! It reminds me of debates on prohibition, where people think it "didn't really stop drinking" - it totally did! Reduced it a lot. Didn't *eliminate* it of course, but that it worked is part of why it was repealed. People wanted to drink, and couldn't nearly as much.

Don't interpret that as being pro-weed criminalization, I am certainly not. Human freedom is human freedom, and certainly enough people are perfectly happy and better off with the drug that it isn't worth throwing people in jail and causing that level of misery to stop it. Just that the way we went about it was essentially stumbling into it, just piecemeal stripping away penalties without any wider social response because the idea was that legalization "wouldn't change anything". I think that premise is ill-founded, and its also part of a wider trend that is probably concerning; even if I am unsure on what positive steps one could take.

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gatheringbones · 7 months

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laura s. brown, from lesbians, weight, and eating: new analyses and perspectives, from lesbian psychologies: explorations and challenges, edited by the boston lesbian psychologies collective, 1987

["Lesbian fat activists, a non-client population, seemed to be women who are comfortable with their lesbianism. My lesbian clients who are fat, although not necessarily activists, seem to be generally unconcerned about their weight and are for the most part physically active women who perceive themselves as healthy and attractive. I have noticed a relationship between healing from homophobia and reduction of negative self-concept where weight is concerned. For example, a lesbian client who entered therapy from a position of great internalized homophobia could not comfortably say the word 'lesbian' and avoided associating with other lesbians. Her weight was greater than average for her height, although within the norms for women in her family: she consciously perceived her fat as one of the indicators of her lesbianism and her undesirability as a person. Therapy focused on issues of internalized homophobia as it affected self-concept and interpersonal functioning. However, a side effect of the therapy was that this woman came to embrace her lesbianism in a more positive manner, she also began to see herself as attractive at her current weight. She changed her hairdo so that her face, which she had previously stigmatized as looking fat, and had tried to hide with her hair, would be more visible. She also purchased clothing in bright colors that she had always liked but had avoided buying for fear of bringing attention to her "fat, unattractive" body. She took up exercise, which she had loved as a girl but abandoned after puberty as her body assumed its (apparently) genetically determined larger size. She became active in the lesbian community and often commented in therapy sessions about her amazement that there were so many attractive women who were also fat. Her relationship with food also changed: she began to be more careful about what she put into her body, and paid better attention to foods that left her feeling uncomfortable and off center, rather than simply to caloric content.

Such anecdotal and clinical observations must be made cautiously because the empirical data is sparse. The trends that I and my colleagues have observed clinically when we consciously attend to the relationship between homophobia and fat oppression are suggestive. They point to some directions that lesbians and therapists, and therapists who work with lesbians, may wish to consider in working with lesbian clients around issues of food, eating, and body image and size.

It is essential for therapists to examine internalized myths of fat oppression as we apply them to ourselves and our clients. Do we, for instance, assume that fat women are fat because they are eating in an out-of-control manner? Do we assume that women who are not fat are not concerned with their weight and are eating in ways that are healthy and functional simply because the result is one of normal size? Do we accept the ego-dystonic nature of a woman's fat as proof of the need to lose weight, or do we ask the same questions that are not asked about so-called ego-dystonic homosexuality as a diagnosis? Do we secretly envy women with bulimia because "they can eat as much as they want and it never shows"? Do we fat-oppress ourselves by shaming ourselves about our own pleasure in food or by engaging in self-punitive actions such as compulsive dieting? Do we fat-oppress fat women by assuming that they want suggestions about diets, or by telling them "I feel fat, too"— pretending empathy with the real-world aspects of discrimination against fat women by virtue of our own participation in the process of fat oppression? When we hear lesbians derided as fat and ugly, do we protest that "we're not all fat," or do we examine carefully the relationship between the devaluation of fat women and the devaluation of lesbians? Until and unless the therapist examines and changes her own internalized fat oppression, she is likely to fat-oppress her clients, in either overt or covert manners.

In re-examining our fat oppressive norms, we must also make the personal connections to our internalized homophobia and from there, to the misogyny that lies at the basis of them both. A woman who nurtures herself with food, and who does so without guilt, shame, and self-hate has challenged a very basic message given women against feeling worthy of love and sustenance. A lesbian who loves herself and her love of other women and does so without guilt, shame, and self-hate breaks another such rule, that of compulsory heterosexuality. A woman who is spending time and energy on her own pleasure by feeding herself lovingly, by using the resources available to her, by taking as much space as her body grows into, is as clearly revolutionary as is the woman who loves, values, and commits her energies to the love of women. It is quite natural and healthy for women to rebel against the woman-hating inherent in both fat-oppression and homophobia. So-called "eating-disordered" women are the most obvious causalities of that battle. The struggle to be able to stay thin enough while still eating enough to satisfy hunger is often manifested in the alternative bouts of bingeing, purging, and laxative abuse found in bulimia, or in the swings between compulsive stuffing and compulsive dieting found in other women who feel too fat."]

#laura s. brown #the boston lesbian psychologies collective #lesbian literature #cw disordered eating #cw weight mention #transcribed

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dialga64bitz · 2 years

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the stubborn optimist. 👓

Character analysis on Streber!

Introduction/disclaimer

So the new Spooky month short has been graced upon us and with that we got the offical characterization of Streber, despite the short only being about a minute long we can still get an idea of his personality and even his interests.

Now because he has only showed up for this short and for only a very small bit in the actual Spooky Month series some of this may lean more towards headcanon and some assumptions based on how Sr Pelo writes his existing characters, which I hope doesn't bother y'all too much.

Also I tend to be bad at spelling and with grammar so please correct me if I mess up-

Now, let's get started...

Section one: Passions of an artist

What's the first thing we notice about Streber in both his initial appearance and from the short? Well his enthusiasm and the obvious joy he takes in his role as a "real vampire". Streber clearly is having fun in his role, smiling and laughing with his actor friends, playing this character for kids and the immersion was number one on his priority in the short, even in Tender Treats he's seen laughing with Skid and Pump and going all in on the exaggerated movements, he takes joy in his job, even going above and beyond with his work. Even when Ethan jokes that this isn't a big deal Streber immediately retorts, light heartedly obviously, but he still takes this very seriously. Why does he do all this? Well, he's an artist, an innovator, someone who takes that extra step. Streber's talent in inventing and acting is an artist job, acting is an obviously one but inventing from a far doesn't seem like an artist job, due to it difficult and sciencey nature, but the desire to create something is art, and that's what Streber wants to make, the artist will create for the happiness of himself and others.

Him being so smart probably helps his creativity in being an artist, which leads into...

Section 2: Streber and his...Streber-ness

Streber's name means "nerd" in German which was most definitely intentional, Sr Pelo has a pattern of giving characters sorta obvious names in relation to their personalities and or physical trait they have. Now does Streber live up to his name? Oh absolutely, he was the inventor of the green screen mirror as seen in Tender Treats, all created as to keep the children immersed in his "real vampire" persona. On the wall we see ideas and blueprints, along with him having the typical "nerdy" attitude that's elevated by high confidence. Inventing is an obvious interest of his which helps Streber be able to create works to make others and himself happy, while it's a slow process he gets joy from it, he may be neurodivergent? He seems very fixated on his work, which is a good thing but it makes a mixed trait of his show alot...

Section 3: Stubborn as- a vampire?

Stubbornness is a very 50/50 trait to have, it either works in your favor or it doesn't, we cannot with confidence which exact role Streber falls into but I believe it works more in his favor than doesn't mostly due to his positive attitude, but that's just an assumption, what's not an assumption is that yes, Streber is very goal minded and won't stop until it's achieved, considering he spent all day working on his invention and wasn't stopping until done, even when told it wasn't a big deal, he still carried on, passion and stubborn is a powerful combo, which will likely effect how Streber will act after losing an arm, he doesn't seem like he's not going to give up so easily.

Final section: The optimists struggle

Despite his cold demeanor near the end, it's not due to him being genuinely upset, he's just an optimist, having confidence in his abilities and a positive look on the future. He refuses to be let down about his invention, in his mind it's going to work out, and he wasn't wrong, the invention did work. Streber is not brought down by negative emotions, he's stressed but clearly still enthusiastic about his green screen mirror, his stubbornness and optimism are pulling him through and likely this is how he's going to pull himself in most situations, is it reckless? Yes. Absolutely, even if he's not running straight into danger he's still a reckless, which is powered by his optimism and furthered by stubbornness.

Hence why he's the "Stubborn optimist"

Ending notes.

I hope you enjoyed this! Sorry if this was a little bit too headcanon-y or seemed like a stretch but Streber just makes me very happy!

As for Streber's role in the story? He could be a huge help in taking down the cult due to his big brain and the fact that he was effected by them due to Bob.

Also tldr; Streber is an reckless artist fueled by his own optimism and inability to back down.

#spooky month #spooky month streber #sm streber #Streber's rehearsal #character analysis #candybats #sr pelo

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etirabys · 1 year

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on jogging

I took up jogging 2.5 months ago. I'm going off the c25k schedule, which slowly ramps you up from couch potato fitness to being able to run a 5k. This was much more effective than just trying to get into jogging by mimicking other, fitter, joggers, which was what I did every previous time I briefly tried to get into jogging. I feel embarrassed for never having thought of this before – it's clear that 'my brain was off' in those times when I went mimicry-running.

One issue that made me get into jogging so ineffectively: I didn't realize how terrible my starting physical fitness was. I used to think I was… like… normal? No athlete, for sure, but I'm a "normal amount of miserable" on hikes (and can complete most of them), I'm an intermediate boulderer, I rarely notice activities I'm gated from because of fitness. But when I started c25k with three partners, none of whom regularly jogged, they were all significantly less winded than I was.

And for the first dang time in my life I explicitly had a thought that went, "I can run 1 minute before my body forces me to stop. My partners can run 3-4 minutes. Some people can run 30 minutes."

Once I actually had any sense of "jogging levels" it was so clear how close to the bottom I was when I started out. That gives me some hope that being much fitter will solve my fatigue problems?

I used to be able to run 1 minute, and now I can run 2. By one (terrible but also kind of reasonable?) metric, I'm twice as fit as I used to be. But a nontrivial fraction of the population can jog 30 consecutive minutes! It seems worth getting to that point to see what that does to my energy levels / cognition.

–

Also: I haven't been sticking to the c25k schedule. I go 1.5 times a week where it expects 3, and I stuck a level between week 2 and week 3 because the 1.5m->3m jump looked insane to me. I've been on that custom level 2.5 for a month. I had a mindblowing conversation with the giant and 81k yesterday where I went, yeah, I've been stuck at week 2.5 because I've felt unready for week 3. And they said, that's probably because you're not going enough.

What do you mean? I asked. I've run about a full session and a half session every week for four weeks. Isn't that the same as 3 full sessions every week for two weeks?

No, they said, surprised I didn't know this. There's an optimal timing. If you'd probably stuck literally to the c25k schedule you probably could have gone from level 2 to 3 in a week.

GYARJRGH? I said. FUSBARIJIJJLK?

(I still disbelieve the literal claim that I can go to level 3 after doing level 2 properly, but I believe them that I would be leveling up a lot faster if I stuck to the schedule)

–

Anyway, some things I'd like to say to my past self, who felt obligated to work out for fatigue issues and then proceeded to exercise very badly because there was such a big ugh field around the topic of exercise:

You do not realize how big the gap between you and even moderately athletic people is. This is good, actually. It means that the correct place to start is easier than you think.

You should try to do it like 3 times a week. Date a jock. There are some on tumblr

Consider starting this when you have positive pressure rather than negative pressure. When you're buckling under multiple joy-sparking projects and want to rise to the challenge, it will be much easier to start & stick to it than when you're an anhedonic lump who has nothing to look forward to, but knows that exercise will in theory make life better in some vague way.

#rambl #c25k

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nohoperadio · 5 months

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I was kind of irritable and low-mood at work today, to the point where--well I don't think I was a dick to anyone, but I was putting noticeably less effort into being positive and agreeable with people than I normally would. I was also putting less effort into being positive in my own, like, internal monologue I guess?

I feel like maybe that sounds tautologous, being less positive inside your head is just what low-mood means right, but I don't think it is actually. In normal circumstances, if there's an unpleasant task to do or some piece of annoying bad luck has occurred or something of that general nature is happening, I'm devoting some portion of my mental energies towards making myself see the situation in a constructive light: try to focus on what can be done instead of dwelling on bad shit that can't be undone, and if I catch myself going over in my mind how this is totally so-and-so's fault and why are they such a dick etc. then I'll tell myself to knock it off and try to move on to a more pleasant train of thought; also tons of smaller mental motions than that, too small to describe. All these pat clichés everyone knows, serenity prayer stuff. It works a good amount of the time, I think I may be uncommonly good at it actually (possibly too good at it in some situations, maybe that's a different selfpost), being calm is usually a thing I can pull off without much trouble, outside of certain (admittedly pretty significant) specific anxiety triggers.

But today I felt like I lacked the emotional energy to do that, and I made an almost conscious decision that I just wasn't going to bother with any of it, so like if I'm doing an unpleasant task I'll just let the thought "ugh this sucks" have the floor for as long as it wants, if someone's being annoying I'll just let myself hate them and not bother reminding myself how they're actually a lovely person most of the time, and so on. And like--this didn't result in a dramatically different day from normal, to be clear. Largely because there wasn't actually that much bad stuff happening, it was a pretty chill day objectively, it's not like I'm constantly having to repress a flood of negative thoughts in my daily life (not lately anyhow!). But it's interesting to me how--when I made that decision, that I wasn't going to try to think positively for the day, I could feel the mental muscles that would normally be in charge of that relaxing. Like there was a certain vigilance that's usually being kept up in my head constantly that was given explicit permission to take a day off, and there was (ironically!) a different kind of calm feeling that came with that, which I don't think I feel very often. There was a peaceful feeling in there, co-existing with the overall bad mood, that was comparable to unclenching a muscle you hadn't noticed you'd been holding tight for a long time.

Why do I find this interesting? Well just on the most abstract level it's an example of how stuff like "mood" isn't one-dimensional: in this example I was experiencing a negative mood, and that meant I couldn't be bothered to maintain a particular way of thinking, and turning off that way of thinking had (among other effects!) an effect that felt positive. A positive feeling that's causally downstream of a negative feeling and wouldn't have emerged without the negativity: there's probably all kinds of counterintuitive little interactions like that going down in our psyches all the time, and probably a much broader variety of different non-overlapping axes along which we can feel good or bad, which we tend to smush all together into an "average" mood that's maybe more of an abstraction than we realize.

On a more concrete, personal level: I don't know, there might be some stuff about how I'm too scared of negativity and could stand to let the impatient disagreeable bitch inside me have a little more air. Maybe some shit like that is something that's true. Yeah idk this is the part of self-analysis where I usually start to get bored.

#selfposting #uninteresting #workposting

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nardos-primetime · 6 months

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An Unedited Ramble for my Villain Mikey AU

TW// Death, Toxicity, SH technically, probably some typos and odd paragraph spacing but that's not a TW is it (this was written by a sleepy man who listened to a song and Got insane inspiration and had to get it out)

Probably prior movie after series ends timeline wise, around where things start breaking down. With all the arguments, Mikey's optimism has started to break down. He's noticing every negative, Donnie's even started getting involved in Leo and Raph's arguments, removing his only safe space. It doesn't help that Donnie and Leo both keep acting like they're in any position to give advice on being "better" than the other ones. Hypocritical, acting like you're above the arguments you start just because Raph is older.

Splinter seems to insist they'll level each other out eventually.

Once again everyone's treating him like a naive child. Y'know, in the past he never asked Splinter for help and this is why. 'Incompetent,' the thought breaks into Mikey's head whenever he sees another argument get ignored by his father. He feels like shit right after. How could he ever think that? How could he ever think something so negative?

He turns to his art, gripping pencils and brushes, pressing the tip of spray paint cans down. But his ideas. They're all so…

Wounded. That's all, they're wounded, he can heal them, they just need time, all this darkness will eventually leave him. He turns to training, something he's been avoiding since his brothers have seemed to split up. He starts normally, than for extra flare he adds his extraordinary skill of bending further than he should, twisting and contorting himself as he sends out his nunchucks towards the training dummies that have grown dusty, since who needs a punching bag when you're fighting your brothers?

If they can't man up, he will. He trains himself. Dummies fall, catch on fire. Not a single time do the others notice his time in there, every day there's another slammed train door, another shout. It becomes art to figure out how he can defeat the faux enemies in front of him.

In actual missions he carries the weight. God knows they won't. They're too busy focusing on each other fault of the time he deals with it because they get a hit in. And Donnie and Leo act like it's a positive.

Raph. Judges. Him.

"Your strategies have gotten more… dangerous, but more effective, Michelangelo! When'd you learn that?"

"He's on fire, naturally."

"Are you okay?"

He freaks out at night. The crackling in his hands when he tried to paint has returned, they tremble until he has those nunchucks back in his hands. He's becoming something scary.

He trains it out.

Pushing his body farther and farther. His thoughts of his brothers and father being so selfish turn against him, visions of swinging the flaming chain around their necks and throwing them down turn into him. The chain around his neck. His eyes blur with tears but he still swings and bends and swings and every fucking battle Leo and Donnie argue like it's their achievement and not his. And not a result of them doing the same shit Splinter did, if not worse.

And Raph looks scared.

So he picks his razzmatazz back up, just to feel a little better amongst his violence. A dance step here, a twirl, a flip. It makes it so much more comfortable.

Rpah watches from the corner of the doorway. He doesn't bother getting Mikey's attention. Mikey wouldn't give it to him.

He doesn't deserve it.

Mikey's hands start glowing, they start burning.

He wants to leave.

One day, in the bathroom mirror he sees himself. He thinks he's lost it. He looks so old but happy. His reflection tries to start a conversation, he speaks like he knows Mikey. Like Mikey's supposed to stay here, like anything good has come out of the Hamato family but mask after mask.

He knows what he's going to do without any preparation. He deals with his problem, tears welling in his eyes as he screams, he's finally ranting as he tries to go somewhere else, anywhere else instinctively putting his arms out.

They tried to stop him and something came out. An explosion. The flesh of his arms peel upwards as he stares.

And he laughs. Because it's funny, it's funny how his brain had lost any positive words to say but once they're gone all he can think of is the good. The fake "good" things.

He steps through the portal. His arms covered in blood, his body held together by spite. He should be dead. Some part of him thinks back to his reflection. Maybe he wasn't crazy.

Maybe there's some Michelangelo's out there still lying to themselves. More good for nothing brothers who continuously drop the ball and hit their little brothers square in the chest.

Each fix burns his hands, flesh falls off his arms in chunks. His fingers are completely covered in bloody bandage until it's time for him to do his thing. He can never man up enough to get the Splinters.

He moves swiftly, confidently yet casually. Twisting himself to the edge of what he can handle as he throws himself around, grinning and smiling, almost flaunting like some things he used to know. Showing his strength in an attempt to protect, overstepping the boundaries of universes themselves to protect someone he doesn't even know, like some thing he used to know.

Michelangelo is all grown up. It's too bad his brothers couldn't do the same. It's too bad he had to do it for them. It's too bad he still has to. It's too bad he has them wandering around whenever he's alone. It's too bad that they act like he's done nothing wrong.

"It's too bad none of this matters."

"Right, Mikey?"

"You'll find us next time, Big guy!"

"There's a good bunch out there, you'll find them."

He always was one for imaginary friends.

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #rise mikey #rottmnt mikey #rise raph #rottmnt raph #rise donnie #rottmnt donnie #rise leo #rottmnt leo #rottmnt au #rottmnt fanfic #i suppose #writings #villain mikey au #broke a million dollar box au

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lgbtlunaverse · 2 years

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Hero vs villain: Jin and Hawks

So, the anime is here, and with it will most likely come the second phase of Hawks Discourse TM, but right now, I am much less interested in anyone's personal opinions on if what Hawks did is right, if twice deserved it, if this would be morally permissable if these characters were somehow real people, etc, and focus on what the NARRATIVE thinks of this fight. And in particular, the visual framing during it.

So, if you hadn't noticed, whatever you yourself think of this situation, the STORY thinks what Hawks did is wrong. Not the characters in the story (Though I must point out, Hawks himself calls Jin a good person even after he killed him and does not think he deserved to die) I mean the story as its own entity with themes and messages.

And the story is not on Hawks' side.

It undercuts Hawks' victory on several accounts. The most important one is giving Toga Jin's blood, effectively undoing Hawks' primary justification for killing him. He wanted to make sure the villains didn't have double, an immensely powerful and dangerous quirk, on their side? Well, too bad, they still do! Congratulations, you played yourself.

But that's the plot, the story's in-universe events making Hawks' actions have more negative effects than positive, thereby painting it as the wrong choice. What I actually want to talk about is framing, specifically the way the fight itself is drawn.

Because this?

This is not how you draw a hero.

And interestingly, once you look at the Hawks vs twice fight in isolation- especially its first stretch before Dabi bursts in- without the larger context of the story behind it, it is drawn and written like a very classic hero vs villain fight where Hawks is the villain and Twice is the hero.

Let me tell you a story, it's probably one you've heard before.

Our Hero has recently made a new ally.

Some of their other allies are still wary of this new friend, because of their past loyalties, but our hero is trusting, perhaps too trusting for their own good. And the side this new ally used to belong to treated them badly! Our hero wants them to find happiness here.

But then one day, there's an ambush. Their home is attacked, their allies and friends are pulled into a battle they're not prepared for, and this happens:

Their new ally has betrayed them. They never truly changed sides, and were feeding information to the opponent the entire time. They isolated the hero with a false promise, and when they got them alone they immediately put a weapon centimeters from their skin. Our hero hasn't even moved yet, doesn't understand what's going on, but they're already fractions of a second away from death.

The ally, turned villain, is framed in shadows, only their narrowed, almost glowing eyes are visible, as they stare unmoved and unflinching at the hero.

Our hero tries to plead, still hoping there's another explanation, but the villain doesn't let them speak. They monologue, monotonely, about what a threat the hero is to their side, how they had to be eliminated. They mock them for not figuring out the ruse, for being so trusting. They tell the hero to surrender.

And our Hero?

Thinks about their friends. About how their caring nature had gotten one of them killed before, and now it has brought them in danger again. They break down in tears. The villain's eyes watch from the darkness, silent and unaffected.

The villain looms over them, still shrouded in darkness, as the hero thinks back on another friend, a mentor figure. Someone that saved them when they needed it most, someone they went through hell to save in return not so long ago. They think back on what they said about trust, and they lament that they failed.

"Well, thanks" the villain says dismissively.

But then.

Some of the shadows that envelop the villain's face fade away, they think back on their real moments with camraderie with the hero.

Not even villains are immune to emotions. They don't dislike our hero, they don't necessarily want to hurt them specifically. In fact, why can't the hero join them? They could do so much together. (And this is classic villain monologue stuff, isn't it? Straight from the golden age of american superhero comics mha loves to pay homage to. Join the other side! And it’s always based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the hero that the villain just can’t grasp, which is.. exactly what happens between jin and keigo.)

The next panel pulls away, and the rumbling outside reminds us, the readers, exactly why the hero can't.

Their friends. Who are still out there, possibly being slaughtered by the villain's side. Friends are everything to our hero, they can't just abandon them. (And this is that misunderstanding. Hawks thinks twic eis the only oen in the league who is capable fo being saved. But you can’t save Jin if you can’t save the league. I won’t get into it here but this is why izuku, shouto, ochako and their respective villains are so important)

So the hero refuses.

It’s of note here what exactly our two sides look like going into this battle. One is crying, in pain and betrayal, ready to sacrifice their life if it give their friends a chance at safety.

The other?

Resigned. Eyes narrowed. Weapons ready to strike. Not showing any emotion on purpose because showing emotion is showing weakness.

And that unevenness, that contrast, persists throughout the fight. Our villains does not move a single inch as they slaughter a dozen clones of their former friend apart. Everything on the page moving, desperate, violent, except for them. They comment on our hero’s skill dryly, not even out of breath.

Generally as readers we sympathise with effort and like conviction, and repression of emotion is seen as a negative trait. Such an obvious difference in visible effort (No doubt thawks is ACTULLY putting in a lot of work to get his feathers to be so fast and precise, this can’t be easy for him. But it LOOKS easy) also creates an underdog narrative, and we tend to naturally root for the underdog.

And then comes the line that sums up this entire fight:

“I could never allow mere sentiment to trip me up,”

Because ultimately, this is not just a fight between two people. It is a fight between human connection and duty. It is a fight between someone who refuses to hurt the ones they love and someone who will. Who is, in fact, doing so right now. Our hero fights because they refuse to give up on people, our villain fights because they already have.

And if you wanted it to be any more obvious, here are the physical manifestations of all our hero’s friends, being mercilessly sliced apart! How’s that for heavyhanded symbolism? Though, really, if you come to a superhero comic for subtlety, you might as well go to the beach to wash out the sand in your clothes.

So we’ve been looking at this fight ignoring the context, that the hero in this scenario is not twice. He is the villain of this story, even if he is not the villain of this story within that story.

For this next page, that context will come crashing back in. So I want to ask you to read these lines while mentally erasing the word “villain” and “hero” from your mind. What do they sound like now?

“Why do you think I prioritize speed when taking my enemies down? Because it’s the ones who don’t give up that I fear the most.”

In not just superhero comics at large, but the shounen action genre specifically, tenacity, hardheadedness, and never giving up on one’s friends are the classic traits of a protagonist. They’re basically staples of the genre. (Hell, deku, the actual protagonist of this very manga, fits into that mold perfectly) Speaking outright of fearing and hating those who never give up, who have genuine conviction they are willing to die for, is something so classically villainous i’d call it cheesy if it was played straight. That’s cartoon villain shit.

Our hero has no time for this speech either, they start to say “Shut-”

-”Up.”

They don’t even get to finish their sentence.

The shadows are back. Notably, our hero is all dressed in black, but their face is illuminated. While the villain’s clothes are all drawn in light colours, but their face is hidden in darkness. Some very nice traditional color symbolism here.

And what are our heroes last words as they face their imminent death?

Their friends, especially the little girl they’ve grown closest too these past months. They know the villain doesn’t care, but it’s more like a need when they tell them that this girl they dismissed is kind, that she took care of them. This girl, that the world can see only a monster in, they have to affirm, even to a person who won’t listen, that she’s good. That she deserves to have someone be willing to die to protect her.

“I’ll be sure to tell the league that.”

Is it mockery? genuine? Do they even care enough about anyone else in the league to bother to follow through, or is this just a casual dismissal?

It doesn’t matter.

They don’t have to.

And if this were one of those classic superhero stories, or an early more traditional shounen, then the arrival of this friend would have spelled the end for the villain. This whole fight has been about he power of human connection in the face of cold and uncaring order. And what better way to end it than by having the hero’s friend prove him right? Especially the one who’s been rude and distant this entire time, who was the other one to bring this ally-turned-enemy into their ranks, who’s been constantly denying that their friends are even their friends to begin with? But they came, in this moment, and that’s what matters.

But this is not a classic story. Twice is not our hero. And this friendship does not save the day.

It ends with a high five

And a stab in the back.

And a girl’s smile fading.

And, no matter what you think of this fight in context, EVERYTHING on the actual pages of the manga depicting the fight itself is trying to tell you that Hawks is doing the wrong thing. That Twice- regardless of his overall morality- is RIGHT to stand by his friends and not give up on them. Even if those friends are villains. Even if he is also a villain. According to the story, Hawks is wrong, and Twice is right.

#bnha #bnha spoilers #bnha season 6 #twice #bubaigawara jin #hawks #takami keigo #bnha meta #story analysis #please don't think i hate hawks because of this he is my blorbo despite the atrocities he's comitted <3 #i emphasize a lot on how unmoved he looks by everything which is of course because he's so used to repressing his emotions #but out of context and therefore to jin it just looks like he doesn't care #which is another great way this fight plays with tropes #it MAKES him look more uncaring and villainous #which is the whole point #that the corrupt system has made this hero indistinguishable from a villain

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hearted-anon · 2 months

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yk how sana write a how skz would wreck changbin thing? can you do one of your own 🥰

How skz would wreck changbin

Words: 3415

Notes: yay

T/w: restraints at seungmin and Jeongin, soft tickles are hyunjin and felix and the rest are rough

Lee: Changbin

Ler(s): Stray Kids

Bangchan:

“Binnie’s annoyed? Hmm?” Chan cooed as he separated himself from the melted pile of Aussie bro, who was too tired to even protest against it anyways. Changbin didn’t reply that little tease, the exhaustion of their long drive having brought his mood down to a negative level, Hyunjin settling for lightly rubbing his knuckles from their intertwined hands; the tallest loved long car rides unfortunately for him.

Chan frowned deeply when he noticed the lack of reply from the younger, watching the scowl that was imprinted on his face while Hyunjin tried to bring his spirits back up. Felix then leapt over to the leader’s ear, whispering a certain plan he had to make the annoyed and tired dwaekki happy again.

The unsuspecting rapper stared off into the blank distance, now what was Lee Know’s car doing that was taking them so long to arrive? Groaning, he was about to lay his head against Hyunjin when hands slipped into his armpits, kneading the already tense muscles firmly. Changbin squealed as cackles began to fall out of his mouth, immediately able to pinpoint whose firm and ruthless hands that was.

“CHAHAHAN! Q-QUHUHUIT IT!” Changbin squealed as the fingers were quick to scribble and scratch all over the sensitive skin of his underarms, shaking his head rapidly in an attempt to dispel the ticklish energy. His back arched, unable to do much in such a vulnerable position, not even able to push the leader away as the entire car seat blocked him. He pulled at his hands, only to be stuck as Hyunjin had his fingers around his, the comforting and frustrating embrace pinning him down effectively.

“Hm..you sure?” Chan taunted, worming his pesky fingers right back up Changbin’s armpits, giggling happily when he got a very shrill squeal of ticklish agony in return. Hyunjin’s heart melted at the sight, feeling slightly evil that he was the one practically restraining poor Changbin, but he could just feel the car’s mood lighten up, and that was enough for him to keep their fingers intertwined; much to the shorter’s dismay.

“YEAHAHAHA! N-NO MOHORE! NO MOREHAHA-!” The boisterous hysterics were cut off as he struggled for air, tears of mirth welling up in his eyes as his neck too began to bloom with a growing blush. The leader slowed his fingers steadily, eventually just rubbing Binnie’s chest in soothing circles while Hyunjin rubbed his back. The rapper melted into a small puddle of residual giggles, twitching every so often.

“Little Changbinnie is happier now~” Chan cooed, just in time as Minho banged on the window gently, smirking when he saw the blank look on Changbin’s face, clearly he knew something was up as the door almost instantly opened. The shorter’s eyes widened when he was met with the cat dad, who wasted no time in carrying him out and into their dorms after a long day out, becoming once again red in the face as the kind gesture; he loved being babied too much to ever ask for it to stop. The rest tagged along behind him, adding to his embarrassment as they pinched his pale red cheeks with soft smiles on their faces.

Little did he know how the rest of the day was about to go…

Lee Know:

Tossing him onto the bed, the cat loomed over the dwaekki menacingly as he flipped the younger over into the soft sheets. A grunt was heard as Changbin’s face hit the fluffy pillows of his bed, another groan when Minho plopped himself onto his knees comfortably. Nothing would’ve prepared him for the shriek he let out when blunt nails ran down the backs of his thighs, the gentle feeling tickling much more than it should’ve.

“Since you teased me at that time for having sensitive thighs, c’mon, tell me, which tickles more?” Minho purred, and it was then that Changbin realised exactly what he was in for; sending a shiver or two down his spine with a heavy breath. The squeal that rang throughout the condo was enough to shatter glasses, one hand grabbing the fat near his behind and kneading into it roughly while the other scribbled ever so gently onto the smooth skin of the back of his thigh.

“AHAHAHA! N-NOHOT THERE NAHAHAT THERE!” Changbin screamed out pleas of mercy faster than lightning as his upper body uselessly flailed around, unable to get the evil bunny off his knees, trapping his legs for endless suffering. Lee Know simply tutted in faux disappointment above him, snickering when the producer pounded his fists on the bed.

“That’s not the right answer…” The older hummed, faking being in deep thought before turning the rapper back over, he didn’t want him to suffocate through all the fun after all. Poor dwaekki had barely any time to breathe before nails yet again scribbled over the pant line of one of his thighs delicately, and the other received a massage-like kneading. The younger absolutely screamed, before howling with laughter as he pushed weakly at the bunny’s hands to no avail, cheeks heating up fairly rapidly.

“PFTTHAHAHAAH! G-GEHEHENTLE- GEHEHEHENTLE!” The producer yelled out in ticklish agony, eyes widening before crinkling into adorable crescents with a pearly white smile spread from ear to ear, ears beginning to get their fair share of blush. Minho smirked at the admission, before gently scribbling all of his nails onto the tops of his thighs ever so tenderly, earning another scream that shook the entire bed. Seeing that maybe the poor guy couldn’t take it anymore, trembling and shaking quietly on the bed with tiny beads of tears in the crevice of his eyes, the bunny let up, not without a tiny raspberry on the stomach to make him squirm helplessly with silent hysterics.

“So cute~ Baby bunny can’t handle it, gentle hm?” Lee Know snickered, pulling the tired rapper into his arms before wiping away at the tears of laughter that were threatening to fall. Despite his giggles dying down with heavy breaths, Changbin found his neck too, was red with flush. It wasn’t fair, how did he know exactly how to make him a mess?

“Ahaha…s-so cruehehehel..” The soft pant came from the little spoon, before quietening down with soft snores, completely worn out by the two hyungs who had torn him down to absolutely pieces without an ounce of mercy, purring when a hand entangled into his scalp and scratched, massaged and threaded through it calmly.

Maybe he was becoming more like his older bunny.,.

Hyunjin:

Hyunjin could practically squeal as he walked into the older’s room, black curly hair covering over his eyes with a blanket that was practically falling off his body. His chest rose with every deep breath he took, fingers curled around the pillow tenderly where a missing Minho was supposed to be; lips parted to exhale calmly. The sight made the artist melt, wanting to capture the moment in his heart forever before laying down beside the sleeping bunny, he was so tiny!

“Wake up, binnie ah~” Hyunjin whispered into Changbin’s ear, wrapping long arms around the warm and very much huggable torso; maybe more of indulging in the warmth that followed instead of actually waking the older up. Sensing a presence that had come to encircle him, the dwaekki nuzzled his head into Hyunjin’s chest, making his heart want to explode from the feeling; he was sure he was meant to be older than this man.

“Five more minutes- wahahahait!” The older squeaked when nails skittered along his sides, gently squeezing and pinching up the smooth skin as giggles poured from his mouth. Laughter came out in soft and breathless bursts, Changbin hiccuping whenever Hyunjin would trail towards his stomach, just to pull away; it was too early for this…

“Wait for what? Wait for you to giggle so cutely, hm?” The ferret cooed, basking in the way the dwaekki’s cheeks heated up rapidly from his little compliment. His hands roamed under his shirt, onto Changbin’s stomach where he scratched, poked and kneaded the skin with a soft smile, chin resting atop Binnie’s head like he had found a soft patch of grass to relax it.

“Noho- N-Not cuhuhute!” Changbin hiccuped, squirming like a fish out of water when hands went for his stomach, having put on more weight after the recent ‘promise’ in the skz code with a threat from a certain chick. The well kept nails were driving him absolutely insane, but couldn’t do anything about it in his exhaustion from Minho’s antics.

“Yes cute~ Tell me you’re cute.” Hyunjin demanded, placing his nose underneath the older’s ear before nuzzling and rubbing against it, earning panicked giggles and frequent squeaks. The rapper melted into a puddle of soft laughter, heart swelling at how gentle the dancer was towards him, it just genuinely meant he could never take what he dished out to others.

“I-I’m cuhuhute! P-Plehehease!” The dwaekki whined, taking in deep breaths when the delicate touches came to a stop, squealing loudly when Hyunjin blew into his ear as one last assurance he had gotten what he wanted. His ears to his neck were a deep shade of red, making the ferret crawl over just to coo at the adorable sight through the short breaths he was taking for a break.

Maybe he should fall asleep near Hyunjin more often…

Han Jisung:

“Hyung~ I want attention~” Jisung whined in an exaggerated high pitched voice, tugging on the older’s sleeve while he found the beats to some new tracks they were planning to release soon. Han had been feeling particularly bored that day, having disturbed almost every member in the dorms, having cleaned up his already spotless room and even watched three seasons of anime! Even so, nothing could quell the desperate need to have someone at least pay attention to him.

“Not now, stop bothering me!” Changbin huffed, flinging off the younger’s arm with annoyance. Maybe he had been grumpy because a certain ferret had made his face so red that even now, it still had the cherry but pale red hue to it, but he had no intention of letting it out on the poor quokka. His eyes widened as he was shot off like a pest, whimpering like a kicked puppy before curling up on the couch sullenly.

“Hey, I’m sorry…” The rapper apologised before swirling his chair around to face the pouting ace, pausing the up-tone beats that contrasted the downcast aura that spreaded throughout the studio. Crawling over onto the plush couch, he pulled Jisung up like a fish bait that had been used up, laying the quokka’s head onto his lap. Staring up at the older with glistening eyes, Han immediately jumped at the affection he was craving for, snuggling his head onto the pillow-like thigh.

“S-Stop that!” The younger’s head snapped up at the strain in the dwaekki’s voice, watching his cheeks begin to bloom a pale red. Curiosity grabbing onto him, he rubbed his stubble, where he refused to shave because he liked looking more manly for a change, against the older’s stomach. As expected, another squeal left the dwaekki’s mouth, before his teeth chomped onto his lower lip to prevent laughter from slipping out.

“Oh? I thought you were sorry? Now you’re pushing me away?” Jisung taunted, a knowing smirk on his face as he basked in his hyung’s weakness. What a little brat. Reluctantly, poor Binnie was forced to retract his hands, principals having him in a chokehold to keep to his word of not bothering whatever the mischievous kid was up to on his lap. Grabbing the chubby sides, he squeezed in a gentle rhythm, earning snorts and deep chuckles as Changbin struggled not to push the younger away.

“P-Plehehehease it reheheally tickles!” The rapper begged pleadingly, eyes beginning to crinkle from the giggles he was letting out. Unfortunately, it just caused Han to coo over him even more, compliments flowing from him like a rap beat that he could jam to, effectively reddening the shorter to be a live action tomato.

“Does it really? It really tickles? Then how about this?” The ace pretended to think for a moment, before slipping his head under the tank top and blowing a long raspberry, nuzzling his head into the soft and pudgy skin to rub that rough and very much intense stubble across the skin. The older screamed, immediately failing to stick to his morals as he pushed at the head under his thin tank top; news flash: it didn’t work, and never will.

“STAHAHAHAP! I CAHAHAN’T I CAN’T!” Desperate begging was flung and bounced across the walls of the studio as the dwaekki struggled to keep himself composed, feeling much deja vu; why was he being tickled so much today? His stamina grew weaker with each raspberry, screaming and cackling his head off like he was going to die here.

“Okay, you overdramatic baby.” Jisung snickered while leaving the tummy alone, even though he would’ve much preferred to wreck it till it was a pale pink. But he knew that this was already his fourth wrecking, Changbin’s energy quickly deflating like a balloon much to his both horror and satisfaction.

“Aha…s-so ticklish..” Changbin panted, wiping off his sweat like he had just ran three marathons in a row, chest heaving in and out with soft breaths.

“Cutie, let’s get to practise hyung, don’t wanna be late~!”

Lee Felix:

Practice had gone by in a flash, and before the rapper knew it, he was on the ground, face flat as he tried to even catch his breath; he’d have to beg the entertainment for a break later. A small grunt came from him when a blonde chick laid himself atop the dwaekki, staring up at what he came to know as the Felix species. Very cute but deadly was written all over that angelic face.

“Hyung! Are you tired? Need some water? I can help with a massage~” Changbin barely had a fraction of a second to react before hands were on his back, kneading the knots out in soothing circles. Flattening himself like a pancake, the questions that bombarded him went in one ear and out the other, only groans and twitches of his aching body when Felix hit a sore spot.

“Mmh..s-so good…wahahaha!” All was going great till tiny fingers pinched at his spine, making him arch his back into the wooden floor. He could just feel the members’ eyes on him as he squirmed beneath the brownie boy, the whispered sweet words making him internally curse his group, was this planned or something.

“I know, my massages are great, relax~” Felix boasted, swiping a singular finger quickly up the older’s back to hear a squeak; he was going to bury his grave with Changbin’s laughter one day. Worst of all, the sensations that tingled through his spine felt so good, making him simply lay on the floor like a cat, rumbling with giggles like a purr.

“Lix! P-Plehehehease! Nohohot here!” The shorter tried his best to protest, but when the small fingers wormed his way onto his lower back, tracing circles and soft shapes, he knew he was sold. All thoughts of even trying to fight the Aussie flew out of the window, resorting to giggling freely in front of the members; who watched in awe, Felix simply had magic hands.

“So cute, can’t even fight me hm?” Felix’s breath brushed against Binnie’s ear as he whispered ever so softly, earning a snort from underneath the brownie boy. Once what was the strongest in Stray Kids now was a puddle under the younger, reduced to heaps of giggles and hiccups in front of his members; how embarrassing…

“Our turn now!” Came the sudden shouts of the maknaes in the background, who had frowns practically pasted onto their faces. They had waited and plotted for hours, and Felix could have another time with his dear hyung. Snatching up Changbin like they were worker ants who had found food, they marched off into Jeongin’s room, leaving a tiny Changbin very flustered.

He was so getting it now…

Seungmin and Jeongin:

“We finally have you to ourselves, we have everything planned~” The duo chanted musically, like a ritual as they grabbed and tied Changbin’s hands above his head with a spare sweater from the youngest’s room. He was known for being a hoodie thief anyway. Poor Binnie could only watch with wide eyes and trembling arms as he was being prepared like a feast for the evil vocalists, who were grinning ever so innocently down at him.

“Wahahait wait plehehease!” Changbin felt like he had been begging the entire day by now, but never once was he granted mercy from the fingers of his members that dared to terrorise his poor body, poor, sensitive body. He shrieked in absolute shock when the maknae took his seat happily on his ankles, pulling at the hem of each sock softly. Panicked, he began to babble and beg, before squealing when his shirt was thrown up by the puppy; he was met with silence to his pleads.

“G-Guhuhuys please! I’ll do ahahahnything!” The oldest of the trio babbled, watching Seungmin take a seat on his hips while Jeongin teasingly took off his socks, exposing his bare soles to the cold air of his room. Nervous giggles and pleas fell from his lips as fingers wiggled over his underarms and his feet, filling him with a dreaded anticipation that made his heart pound.

And even when those fingers came down, the duo were quiet as a mouse.

“ARGHAHAHAHA! NO GUHUHUYS!” Came the crying squeal as nails scribbled up and down his arches quickly and delicately, along with another pair of hands kneaded into the hollows of his armpits, reducing him into a bout of hysterical laughter. Seungmin smirked as he stared into his flustered hyung, whereas Jeongin opted for giggling along with him.

“No, what? We’ve been waiting all day for this!” Seungmin chirped enthusiastically, smiling warmly when the bed frame creaked in agony from the sharp tugs.

“Don’t you love your maknaes? You want us to go away?” Jeongin chimed in, turning around for a brief moment to flash the oldest here his signature puppy eyes. Stupid guilt tripping, Binnie thought before falling back into boisterous cackles when the fox’s nails scraped right under his toes, earning another shrill yell of ticklish agony.

“NOHOHO MORE! GUHUHUYS P-PLEASE!” Changbin whined through booming laughter, grateful that it was confined to the room of the youngest. He felt himself vibrating onto the ticklish agony, unable to protect his ever so sensitive underarms from the puppy’s paws, and curling his feet wouldn’t work against the evil fox where they shared a sadistic pleasure for wrecking the big but soft boy.

“One last finale~” With that, the torture stopped for a moment, tears of mirth in the corners of the rapper’s eyes as he wheezed for air, body flinching automatically from the sensations that fried his brain. The vocalists gathered around his tummy, waiting until the blush that was practically imprinted onto his face to pale just a slight bit before blowing as hard as they could on the sides of his stomach, a hand each on his armpits and his thighs.

“OHOHO MY GAHAHA-! G-GUYS!” The words that the rapper spewed were barely coherent anymore, the scream he let out had the members rushing in almost in an instant. When they discovered the poor rapper with his legs and arms trembling from the fingers, stomach quivering in absolute joy and anguish from the laughter that had gone pin drop silent, they tore the vocalists off his bare waist, watching as his entire shirt collar was stained in tears just from two people blowing a singular raspberry.

It felt like a hundred hours in hell anyway to Binnie.

“Cutie~” Chan cooed, snuggling the dwaekki in a big cuddle as the rest untied his arms, settling for a group bundle of hugs for the worn out rapper. Twitching and scarcely clinging onto his consciousness to stay awake, a soft ‘thank you’ came from his mouth, a mere sign instead of an actual voice before he succumbed to his exhaustion, thankful for the absolute happiness he had gained for today; the rest of the members snuggling up to their favourite teddy bear.

Changbin was seen the next day cancelling his schedules for lack of voice and for ‘personal reasons’, refusing to elaborate when he got compliments on the blush he had on for the next few days.

#..?#lee changbin #ler skz #ler bangchan #ler know #ler minho #ler hyunjin #ler han #ler Jisung #ler felix #ler seungmin #ler Jeongin #skz tickle #stray kids tickle #kpop tickle #this took so long #ler chan

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avonne-writes · 3 months

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hi! In a post about the relationship troubles fake and John have when they first start college you mentioned their sex life kinda falls off, that they don’t have sex as often, or that it feels off when they do. I would love to hear more about that,and how it effects them, Especially because they don’t talk about it so their minds just run

Thank you for the question! 💕 I'm not sure where to start so I'll just put this in bullet points 😄 I hope this makes sense, I’m sure I missed some explanations but I tried to summarize it.

Before college, their sex life was obviously limited because they didn’t have that much privacy and Gale refused to take Bucky to his place. So it was a mix of very careful and quiet non-penetrative sex if they weren't alone in the house and excited experimentation whenever they had time alone, usually during school holidays.

Basically, they had some habits together but in their new circumstances, these habits change. That means another transition period, on top of everything else. This is not a bad thing at all, but there are so many changes they need to navigate that the stress accumulates.

An example: whereas previously, they always tried to be super quiet, they can be as loud as they want now because they rent a small one-bedroom flat together. Except, Gale finds himself unable to stop holding back. He’s anxious about making possibly embarrassing sounds, especially because he realizes that Bucky has stopped holding back and yet he still isn’t very loud.

Then, of course, all their other issues have a negative effect on their sex life.

Getting used to college can be exhausting, so it's also natural that in the first semester, they don’t want to have sex as often as in the next one.

In this AU, they're not the kind of couple who get hot for each other if they're fighting. Gale can hold a grudge for a long time, but even if he doesn’t, after a fight, he usually feels drained and sad, which rarely leads to any kind of opportunity for sex.

Plus, Gale is anxious that he’s not enough for Bucky because "Bucky could have anyone and why would he settle for his first, he probably thinks that's boring." This idea makes Gale tense, hence the sex feeling off.

Meanwhile, Bucky notices Gale's tension and distraction, but he thinks it's because Gale is falling out of love with him. We know that Bucky always dreaded this moment, the - in his mind - inevitable drifting apart once high school is over. This makes Bucky anxious too, which makes him clingy, and that's enough to make the sex feel off from his side too.

So there's a whole lot of external stress and a self-feeding cycle of undiscussed uncertainties. They all exacerbate each other.

In addition, their new friends don’t help either, because they all think this relationship won't survive anyway and both Bucky and Gale would benefit from a new partner.

Thankfully, we know that this isn’t what happens.

Yes, it’s a rough patch, yes, it’s stressful, but as soon as they finally align again and all their discordant pieces slot back into harmony, sex gets better again. And this is an instant thing actually. Instant, because their sex life was affected mostly by their disharmony and not other things that are slower to heal.

They have a huge fight in which everything comes out, and it's just what they needed because they finally acknowledge all their issues but also share the fact that they both still want the other. That’s all it takes to turn the negative spiral into the first steps of revovery.

They make up and reach a hopeful, positive and relieved state that night, and they have makeup sex.

It’s the first time that they both feel that it's not teenage experimentation anymore. It’s more serious and mature, and when they say I love you, it feels deeper than ever before.

From then on, they get the same relieved-happy-loved feeling from physical intimacy and, well, let’s just say they make up for all the sex they missed in their first semester.

It keeps getting better in the next months, and it's during this period in their lives that they develop that deep and steady intimacy that makes them act like a married couple long before they even tie the knot.

♡♡♡

#mota #buck x bucky #clegan #gale cleven #john egan #anon #hs au #bedroom headcanons

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theresattrpgforthat · 6 months

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Hello! My play group has recently begun a PF2e game and we're enjoying it, but as an almost-forever-GM running one-shots looking for The Next Big Game to run I'm definitely noticing a trend of "a small run of bad rolls has decided you lose" that stands in contrast to a more subjectively "forgiving" system like Cypher or Quest. I know any dice-based game can theoretically end up with the dice deciding "you lose tonight," but it got me to thinking about that feeling in trying new systems. We definitely love mechanics in play - i.e. I'm not strictly looking for diceless systems, but they're not off the table either - so I'd love to hear about games you like and think are on the forgiving side of the spectrum with regards to bad luck streaks. Thank you!

THEME: “Forgiving” Games.

Hello friend, I love these kinds of games a lot. Here's a few outside of Numenera, which you already seem to know about. I tried to stick with games that have some longevity, although I'm not sure how long you can play Our Haunt as a campaign.

Vaesen, by Free League Publishing.

Welcome to the Mythic North – northern Europe of the nineteenth century, but not as we know it today. A land where the myths are real. A cold reach covered by vast forests, its few cities lonely beacons of industry and enlightenment – a new civilization dawning. But in the countryside, the old ways still hold sway. There, people know what lurks in the dark. They know to fear it.

Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying is written by Nils Hintze and based on the work of Swedish illustrator and author Johan Egerkrans. Vaesen presents a dark Gothic setting steeped in Nordic folklore and the old myths of Scandinavia. The game mechanics utilize an adapted version of the award-winning Year Zero Engine.

Vaesen allows players to do something called pushing the roll, although you can only do it once per any given action. You will roll a number of six-sided dice according to a skill + attribute combination, and aim to roll 6’s, which are successes. Pushing the roll allows you to re-roll any dice that did not come up as a 6, thus giving you a second chance - or a chance to be more effective, if you need more than one 6 to do what you want to do.

Since Vaesen is a horror game, however, this push doesn’t come without a cost. Choosing to Push a roll means that your character will have to take on a condition, which is represented as either a Physical or Mental injury or affliction. Take too many in the same category, and your character becomes Broken, thus requiring immediate medical attention. Conditions can be healed and cured, so how deadly your game is depends on how little (or much) rest time your characters have in between encounters.

Genesys, by Edge Studio.

Face down a dragon as a brave knight, hack into a corporate security system as an elite runner, set sail in your airship. Unlimited adventure awaits you in Genesys, a new roleplaying system designed for a variety of settings and limited only by your imagination.

The Genesys experience begins with the Genesys Core Rulebook, which features an explanation of the innovative narrative dice system and core mechanics of the game, an overview of five different settings in which to place campaigns, and advice for Game Masters to craft a myriad of adventures with unparalleled freedom.

So I’d really like to recommend the Star Wars RPG that spearheaded this system, but as far as I understand it’s getting harder and harder to get a hold of. The core system, however, is still available on DriveThruRPG, and I really like how it handles dice rolls. The Genesys system uses a custom set of dice that have three different levels of results: advantage/threat, success/failure, and triumph/despair. These symbols typically cancel each-other out. Both positive and negative dice have a number of different symbols on their faces, and rolling more successes for example, means you’re not going to have less advantages, while rolling a higher number of threats will lead to less failures.

This means that the two most common rolls you will get will be Success with a Threat and Failure with an Advantage. Therefore each roll has both a positive and negative result. If you end up rolling extra-special dice, you might end up with a Triumph and/or a Despair, which happen regardless of any other rolls. So you could have a Failure with an Advantage and a Triumph - which might mean that maybe you don’t unlock that door, but maybe you hear someone coming and duck into a hidey-hole before they show up - and they turn out to be an ally.

Genesys is a toolkit that you can use to make your own game, but if you want a setting to go with it, you might want to check out Realms of Terrinoth (Fantasy), Keyforge: Secrets of the Crucible (gonzo sci-fantasy), or Shadow of the Beanstalk (cyberpunk).

Masks: A New Generation, by Magpie Games.

Halcyon City has had more than its fair share of superheroes, superteams, supervillains, and everything in between. Your team of young supers must forge your own path amidst the pressures of a world full of people telling you what to do and who to be, and kick some butt along the way!

Masks: A New Generation is a superhero tabletop roleplaying game full of action, youthful angst, and dazzling bravery. Take on the roles of members of the latest generation of superheroes, young adults trying to figure out who they are and what kind of heroes they want to be.

MASKS is well-known and for a good reason. It’s an excellent introduction to the PbtA framework, and contains a lot of solid advice for the person who’s running the game. One of the core pieces of advice that you can take from this game to others in the same system-family is that of Soft and Hard moves. When a PC rolls a 6 or less, the ball is in your court, but as the GM, it’s up to you how bad the character fails. Soft and Hard moves are a key part of this.

While a straight-up failure may be needed once in a while, sometimes all you need to do is telegraph danger, and give your players another chance to try a different approach. This is called a Soft Move. You might place the characters in an eerie atmosphere but give them a chance to act, or present them with an NPC asking difficult questions, but give them space to answer. You might not even require them to roll at all - if you think that the hero should be able to do something, they’ll do it.

Finally, since Masks is about teenage superheroes, death isn’t really on the table. What’s at stake is their self-image, and that is reflected in the emotional damage the characters take. This chance to wrestle with why they truly are might even be something welcome for the players to dig into - I know me and my friends sometimes found moments of interpersonal conflict to be the most rewarding.

Endeavour, by Armiger Games.

You are an officer aboard the Interstellar Confederation Ship Endeavour. Your mission is to explore the galaxy. You will travel deep into uncharted space where you will encounter strange phenomena, make first contact with alien civilizations, and help those in need.

This is an optimistic-science fiction game. It is a game about a future in which humanity has progressed beyond the kinds of internecine conflicts that plague modern society. Advanced technology is common and has created a post-scarcity society throughout the Interstellar Confederation.

Stories in Endeavour generally involve some kind of moral quandary. Moreover, the futuristic setting acts as lens through which we can view contemporary social issues. The best such stories are fundamentally about the difficult choices the crew are asked to make and how they are affected by their experiences.

Endeavour is a play-set for AGON, a game about Greek Heroes setting out to make a name for themselves. You need AGON to play, but the rules for both these games take a very unique approach to solving problems.

Almost every conflict present in Endeavour is a collaborative Challenge. This means that any time an obstacle presents itself, the group has a chance to face it as a team. Facing Challenges as a team increases chances of success in two ways: in one way, since each player might be participating, there is a higher chance that one person or another rolls a high enough number to pass the challenge. However, players can also choose to aid each-other, foregoing a chance to gain Distinction but improving another player’s chance at success.

Our Haunt, by Rae Nedjadi.

We are ghosts. We are in a house we don't recognize. We have a handful of memories, and these memories are brief moments and flashes of barely something. The Living are nearby, and they encroach on our space, making their demands. Worse, there is a Thing in the Walls. It is ancient, inhuman. Hungry, yearning. Angry.

But this is Our Haunt now. This is our home, and we only have each other as family. If we take care of each other, good things will happen. We just know it.

Our Haunt uses a diceless system called Belonging Outside Belonging, or No Dice, No Masters. This can be GM-less, but it doesn’t have to be - and I definitely recommend checking other games that use this system if you want to control the level of failure.

BoB games use a token-based economy, where following certain prompts on your character sheet will give your character the ability to use other abilities listed on their character sheet. This creates a rhythm, between moves that invite interesting interactions or complications, and moves that push the story forward, or allow you to do something special.

Each playbook usually also has special moves that the character can do for free, that neither earn nor spend a token. Because the use of tokens is up to the players, failure will only happen when you decide it happens, and every failure banks a potential success, so even if Our Haunt isn’t what you’re looking for tone-wise, I definitely recommend checking out other Belonging outside Belonging games.

Slugblaster, by Wilkie’s Candy Lab.

In the small town of Hillview, teenage hoverboarders sneak into other dimensions to explore, film tricks, go viral, and get away from the problems at home. It’s dangerous. It’s stupid. It’s got parent groups in a panic. And it’s the coolest thing ever.

This is Slugblaster. A table-top rpg about teenagehood, giant bugs, circuit-bent rayguns, and trying to be cool.

Forged in the Dark games allow you to succeed at least partially on a result of a 4 or higher, so you’re much more likely to succeed with a cost than straight up fail, and even if you do take some kind of consequence, that consequence can always be thrown off by using something called a Resistance Roll. The original system, Blades in the Dark, still felt pretty brutal if you played it as written. However, Mikey Hamm, the designer for Slugblaster, wanted to make a game about teenagers hoverboarding across dimensions, not hardened criminals surviving in a brutal city, so he made some key changes.

Kids in Slugblaster may take “slams”, but no damage is permanent. Staying in another dimension too long may trigger an unpleasant experience called peelback, but it doesn’t kill you, and if you log a bunch of doom (the game’s Stress equivalent), you don’t take a permanent condition - you worry your folks, or have to spend your extra free time doing homework. At its core, Slugblaster’s biggest threat is losing your status - you’re not really in physical danger.

Other Games to Check Out

Wanderhome, by Jay Dragon.

Spectaculars, by Scratchpad Publishing.

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #dnd #asks #forgiving games

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