#this was really an excuse to post the pokemon thing

[differenteagletragedy]

More Our Life headcannons

-- Cove went through a pretty intense Pokemon obsession when he was a kid, like 10 or 11. Played the video games, collected cards, watched the show, everything. He always picks a water starter. Squirtle is his favorite of all time, and he gets a little bummed when he evolves it.

-- During this phase, he wanted to go as Ash for Halloween. He wanted you to do a matching costume and he was Very Excited about it. If you didn't get as into it, he at least made you watch the show with him some.

You: Ok, I'll be Brock/Misty.

Cove: What? No, you'll be Pikachu.

Cove: *smug grin* I choose you.

-- Even if you end up married with a bunch of kids, together for decades, he will still never believe he pulled off that line.

-- If this is too much Pokemon for you, that's ok, this one is for me.

-- BAXTER WITH A BUZZCUT

-- By the time he decided he was done with the black and white hair, he'd been just bleaching the hell out of it for years (it is also my belief that he would literally rather drop dead than have his roots show at this time in his life). He went to his stylist and asked to go all black, but his hair was just fried and that's a whole process, so they convinced him to just buzz it off and start fresh since he doesn't wear his hair super long anyway.

-- He was hesitant, but hoped it might give him a fresh start (it did not). He never kept it that short, but he did feel like a bit of a bad boy while he had it.

-- Derek's parents eventually apologized to him for how much they put on him as a kid. Like a formal, sincere apology. It was intense, everybody cried. He tried to shrug it off at first, saying he didn't mind and it wasn't a big deal, but his parents wouldn't let it go. It was a very cathartic moment for the Suarez family.

-- Cove can't cook or bake, but he can make a mean milkshake.

-- Baxter has a dermatologist that he sees on a very regular basis because he gets nervous about his moles. He always carries sunscreen.

-- I've said before that Derek can fix anything, but seriously, anything. Not just cars or leaky faucets or whatever, like computers and stuff too. If you have something that isn't working, nine times out of ten he can fix it.

[adobe-outdesign]

Pokemon is amazing because it started out being coded with duct tape and prayers by a small team of people. flash forward twenty years and guess what? it's now coded with duct tape and prayers by a medium-sized team of people

[voloswag]

sorry to double post so quickly but I realized I have been Particularly inactive and that is because I have mostly been avoiding tumblr in a vain attempt to avoid pokemon spoilers. but i have scarlet now! I’m so excited to play before gamefreak potentially releases a patch to fix the glitches cus I want to experience those firsthand it sounds like so much fun

[dailyoyo]

Top Ten ggs a Pokepastas Would Happen to

[xxtc-96xx]

just to let folks know...

I've seen some people around who I guess really don't like me, probably hate me honestly, over my story telling or headcanons, and I don't want this to sound like a "pity me" post, rather I think I should reiterate:

I don't want every ask blog to feel like they have to follow my story's rules or headcanons, they are only ideas I follow because I like to, be either flower babies or the mewtwos behaving like cats or whatever else I've said before, those are just for my own versions of the characters. If blogs do want to use them, that's their call of course. I mainly made the flower baby thing as an excuse because being aroace, sex simply makes me uncomfortable to write about...also I'm bad at it

making mewtwo catlike is just something that helped me connect with them, when I see characters like mewtwo I like to find ways to show more sides of them besides badass angry legendary pokemon who rarely smiles

I don't own mewtwo or newtwo, I don't make all the rules for them and I know there are people out there who have deep attachments to mewtwo and do not like what I'm doing with them. Please understand these are just my own iterations, I don't want to come across like I'm ruling the mewtwo blogs with an iron fist, I'm just making stories that I wanted to see with my favourite pokemon ever since having my pokemon spark reignited from childhood

[skrelpson]

Okay probably last Kalospost on main but I love the fact they Game Freak set us up to have us thinking they were going to announce something related to gen 2/5

-They had the second part of the DLC take place in Unova, The 'countdown until Indigo Disk' posts featured Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyreum front and center for the final day, they threw in a bunch of things about how the BB Elite Four were from Unova and how Lacey's related to Clay, etc.

-The start and end the presents with a bunch of Unown

-The Pokemon Sleep ad includes Raikou

-THE POKEMON MASTERS AD FEATURES SILVER OF ALL RIVALS

And in the end they were just fucking with us. Kalos really did come in with the steel chair and I couldn't be happier

And the funniest thing is that Xerneas and Yveltal are one of the few box legendary duos that can't be caught in the Indigo Disk DLC, alongside Zacian/Zamazenta and Dialga/Palkia. The last two make sense, because they were featured prominently in the past two games, but there's no excuse for Xerneas and Yveltal. We should've known something was up smh

[jjinx1998]

xxtc-96xx Callout post

To start I want you to know I didn't want things to have to come to this but after recent developments and discussions from others I cannot ignore what's been going on for years now. This is a problem revolving around the user @xxtc-96xx , the comic Endertale, and the Undertale fandom. I will try to explain what I know and offer proof when I can, but there might be some sloppiness as this is my first real post on Tumblr. If there is any technical issues about this post, please let me know so I can fix it.

Let me start from the beginning. I have been a long time fan of xxtc-96xx since about 2016 (I will refer to them as TC to make it easier). I have enjoyed looking at the art they create for many years, mainly the ones revolving around Endertale.

Endertale is a fan comic that TC made of the game Undertale. It's a very decent story with a pleasant art style. I would recommend it but I cannot and I will get to why. You see TC has suffered from something that just about any creator can relate to, burnout. The most recent comic page being posted in 2021 though there was already a hiatus established before that.

While they made it long clear that they needed to go on break for personal reasons, people wanted to ask for when they will continue it. Some of them calm and reasonable and other's were very much not nice. TC answered them honestly at first.

Then it started to devolve into troll responses or just not answering.

Not just on Tumblr but people kept asking on Deviantart as well. In fact people are still asking today in 2024. It has gotten so frequent that TC felt it necessary to change their profile header to this:

And it has stayed that way for so long I lost track of when it started. To be fair, even I found the frequent questions to be overwhelming and they just like every artist who makes stuff for free is entitled to take a break from their work. However this post isn't a complaint about how long it takes to finish a comic, it's about something that started because of the wait.

See, their original reason to take a break was because they were too busy with personal matters for them to commit to an actual comic. But as their history up to today has shown that's no longer a valid excuse. As time went on they started to show an interest in the Pokemon fandom. specifically the pokemon known as Mewtwo. To make a long story short, what started as small doodles grew into a whole bunch of fancomics and animations. To compare, they have drawn nearly four times as many Pokemon drawings compared to Undertale. Now, it is perfectly fair and acceptable to find an interest in a different fandom. And while I personally prefer Undertale over Pokemon I completely supported their decision to focus on other fandoms and enjoyed what they made. I also understood their issues with the fandom at the time, some people were rather aggressive, rude, or demanding the comic to be completed, a comic that's completely free that they make no profit out of. I even recall one point they tried to unsuccessfully drag a different content creator into this issue as if it would somehow work.

However I started to notice they had a warped perception on the fandom. Rather than blame the few people that harassed them online with constant asks, they believed that the entire fandom as a whole is to blame as declared it all toxic. Something they insist on repeating to all their fans and making them believe their opinion as fact.

Now for the record I am very aware of how toxic this fandom was and can be at times. I was around since the beginning and have seen just about every drama that has come. From the fans harassing you for not doing the pacifist route in the first time playing, people arguing if either Frisk or Chara is a really bad person, arguing over Frisk's and Chara's gender, is genocide the right choice, is Toriel the bad guy or Asgore, and a controversy revolving around a certain creator of the au Glitchtale (the last one TC coincidentally emulates their "Delay work for one week for every ask" and finds it amusing). I know this fandom is not the best but I love it all the same, it's as much a part of my life as it is for TC. I know I am not perfect at showing my interest for Undertale, as this image of a private ask shows.

Or this time I made a obviously joke ask and apparently I didn't realize a lot of people don't understand sarcasm.

Or when I tried to ask this sincere and nonaggressive question, one of the few times TC isn't putting up some kind of attitude.

Or this other ask from me.

At the end of the day this is just a comic. No one has any right to demand them to continue it or make death threats, this is completely unacceptable. However, at the same time this doesn't mean the creator should dehumanize the entire fandom or punish the few that are being respectful. They wait and what do they get, people mocking them and bullying them. That's what I realized in the past week when I engaged in the comments of a few posts. TC allow their fans to bully the fandom.

I tried to be as calm and reasonable as I can and yet I get called out as a toxic fan. And in the end did TC scold everyone else, no, they basically told me to shut up. I overestimated the fans intelligence and if they could handle basic logic, read the comments for yourself to see my point. As someone with Asperger and anger issues, it's a god given miracle I am still trying to maintain my composure within this insanity that has been going on for years. I have spoken with several content creators who asked to remain anonymous about this entire fiasco and we have similar conclusions about TC.

TC has been through a lot of painful and hurtful comments over the years that they did not deserve in the slightest. They are entitled to do whatever they want with their comic and works. Saying a fandom is or isn't toxic is unhelpful as you fundamentally miss the mark on how fandom culture works. As a creator, it is not right to hang this hiatus over people's heads and string them along. TC does not respect their Undertale fans in the slightest and mocks those who is still waiting. They indirectly encourage their other fans to bully and dehumanize the rest.

I held back on making a comment about all this for two reasons. One, TC's fandom terrifies me. They are complete smug hypocrites who spend way too much time on the internet that they don't realize that if they use their words in real life they will get punched in the face for it. Two, despite everything I still believe that TC can change. I like to believe the best in everyone and that there is hope that maybe this time TC will realize they have become the very thing they hate. That hope has faded to cinders. I'm done with TC, my only concern is the people remaining to wait for the comic.

To everyone who is waiting for Endertale and/or following TC because you like their Undertale stuff, leave them and never come back. They do not respect you, they look down on you, they laugh watching you wait, you deserve better than them. Even if they do finish the comic eventually it will not be made out of love or passion.

DO NOT harass and bully them because of my words. I will not tolerate any attempt to do so.

My final words are for TC if they even decide to read this:

TC, I know we are not friends, you made that clear long ago but I was hoping we could've been. You were a huge inspiration for me in the past and was what pushed me to attempt learning about art. I looked up to you and tried to support you when you were feeling down. You are no longer that person.

You do not have the right to condemn an entire fandom as toxic and declare it as a fact of life. It's people like you that keep the fandoms so divided to this day. It's because of people like you I am scared for my life if I ever mention Undertale in public. Your fixation on the sins of the past prevents us from moving forward. I do not excuse what happened but the past is in the past, get over it and grow up, you are an adult so act like it.

You say you don't owe us any comic or works, well at the same time if you want to mistreat the fandom I care about then I or anybody don't owe you any respect yet I did for nearly five years.

Why? Because I cared about how this all made you feel. What do you see when you look at me, another obsessed toxic fan who should keep their mouth shut or a PERSON with their own thoughts feelings and beliefs?

One of your problems is that you think nothing ever seems to be your fault, just the fans who keep asking. Well maybe they wouldn't have asked if you didn't leave them hanging for almost five years. To me, it no longer matters if you finish Endertale or not.

Maybe you still think it isn't your fault, then that makes me the idiot for hoping you can be better. You hurt me, really hurt me. I don't think I can ever trust someone like you again.

Do you know what I really want?

Your apology. I want you to make a genuine apology to me and the fandom at your actions over the years. I won't block you because being the idiot I am I hope my words mean something to you and you'll want to chat.

But until you wise up ask yourself this familiar question,

Do you really think you are above consequences?

[batsplat]

#this is all incredible cowardice btw obviously i've ranked all the aliens in my notes by basically every imaginable metric#from qualifying to starts to w2w to mixed conditions to wet weather prowess etc etc etc. like i do also do it i just don't stand by it

i would LOVE to hear your rankings if you are willing to share...

sign of faith I'm posting this. please feel free to send me counter-arguments and disagreements but keep it sensible. this is not supposed to be serious, I just enjoy treating athletes like pokemon and love doing a sports discourse, but I'm not making any judgement over how I'd rank these guys overall. also, I've already said how I think basically all of these things are impossible to judge given timeline + machinery differences. it's really not that serious, this is really just an excuse to make radar charts, aka the coolest things to exist

also, obviously these categories are extremely fake and made up. please make alternative suggestions!! the two ones that I would have liked to include but couldn't really figure out how to put numbers to are 'tyre management' and 'adaptability'. with tyre management... that's a broad category and the one where era differences + bike factors really punch you in the face. like, for instance if I were doing this for dovi (which I'm not), by any reasonable standard that's such a massive strength for him - but then how do you account for his 2020 decline being so much about a tyre switch? how about jorge, who was the tyre preservation bloke, mr metronome himself, and then went to ducati and spent like, 1.3 years just darting to the lead early and slowly dropping back? what about valentino, who was seen as the absolute master of riding well once the grip levels were fucked at the end of the race, but then he too eventually got caught out by successive michelin tyre changes when he was like 108 years old? if you look at a lot of these riders' competitive decline, you do end up tracing it back to like... michelin... *shakes fist* but no it literally is about them no longer being able to make the tyres work for them for xyz reason, like that's typically the nail in the coffin, if you will. but obviously it would also feel weird to penalise someone for successfully adapting to one generation of tyres after the next until eventually no longer managing to when they're about 249 years old, y'know? also, tyre management does feel like you need to differentiate more if you're tackling it - like for instance one of dani's big strengths is the lack of tyre wear, plus similarly you have jorge's super smooth riding. whereas with valentino, casey and marc, I'm not saying they're all murdering their tyres, but their real big strength where tyres are concerned is that once the tyres are shredded and the grip is completely fucked, they're still able to be silly good in that situation. like, check out valentino's catalunya record, tyre killer track extraordinaire - you really see how good he is with this stuff in 2004 when he's more on the limit and he looks less in control than he generally does (a bit more like those other two actually). with casey, literally nobody needs me to reiterate the bonkers levels of raw talent he has, it's also not a coincidence he's the only one who's actually managed to beat valentino in one of said 1 vs 1 catalunya battles, the dirt biking thing, the insane natural sensitivity he has to grip levels. ditto with marc (minus beating valentino at catalunya), there's a reason why he's the mixed conditions goat, check out what he's been able to do late in races this year. so, sure, I could try and put numbers on 'tyre management' but.... I'd really struggle to rank them, like this may shock you but managing tyres is kinda important and it does feel the equivalent to having a category asking how 'fast' they are. they're all very good at it!! if in different ways

adaptability... yeah, look, ideally I would like some metric that considers the manufacturer switches + ability to override a poor package. but first of all, there's an obvious sample size issue, and second of all it's just TOO context-dependent. like, yes, brownie points to valentino for the yamaha switch - but how do we compare his failure to adapt to the ducati vs casey? on the one hand, obviously completely different levels of success on that bike. on the other hand, valentino by time of this switch was over thirty and casey when he joined that team was like, a child, with not that much experience of motogp - more of a raw talent who could mould himself to the needs of the bike. also, if you use hayden's results as a rough baseline, you kinda have to say the ducati was worse in 2011, and then if you dig into the numbers you do probably go 'yeah casey would've done better but not THAT much better'? like, he would've won races, not titles. I don't have a number for that from 1-10 either. dani never switched manufacturer, the honda was eventually developed away from him but *squints at the other side of the garage* he was also the only alien who had to deal with a teammate actively attempting to make the bike less rideable for him. jorge's switch to ducati is a bit. well. obviously it's not actually great that his final standings in those years are broadly in line with valentino on,,,, a WAY worse ducati a few years earlier. he gets bailed out a little bit by the three race wins in 2018 lol, dovi does have a littleeeee bit of a point that this man was not signed to win three races. but! he did click with that bike! I'm not sure I entirely buy his line of 'oh I would have won the 2020 title on a ducati' because, with all love, it's a very jorge thing to say and I'm also a bit? well before 2020 if you'd told me that marc gets injured in the first race of the season and someone else is gonna win the title, and then held a gun to my head and told me to predict who was gonna win the title in his absence, I guess I would have gone 'dovi or MAYBE fabio'. ducati wasn't in a super happy place in 2020, the tyres were funky, that could have affected jorge too!! we don't know!! I think it's absolutely a plausible counterfactual but I also haven't seen a convincing case for why the things that caught out dovi wouldn't have caught out dovi too, like come on. anyway, marc gets brownie points for this ducati adaptation, casey gets brownie points for the honda adaptation. honestly, just vibes based I do kinda think of casey as like, the most adaptable rider ever. I maybe rate valentino a bit higher in terms of getting the bike to where he needs it, and also obviously being adaptable - he has the longevity and multiple major riding style changes going for him. also marc is insanely good, and he rode the unrideable honda to places where it should NOT be ridden. it's those three in a cluster, probablyyy casey first, followed by marc then valentino, and then the other two aliens

also quite frankly I'd like to have something to do with bike development, but that's so hard to judge from the outside? obviously, valentino does have a very clear claim to fame here, and the yamaha gig is still... well, that's got to be the biggest impact a rider has had on a manufacturer this century. the other contender is casey at ducati, but the thing is he did basically bag them a title by being the only bloke who could win there, then they got super complacent, bike got worse and he fucked off. now, I'm not saying casey hurt ducati's development because of course that would be silly and unfair, but there is obviously a good half decade between him leaving that project and anyone else being able to consistently do something useful with that piece of shit. (obviously valentino also did not manage to make much short-term change at ducati so maybe we should just be blaming ducati here, but equally obviously the rider who made the single biggest individual difference into making that thing rideable isn't any of these guys but is instead andrea dovizioso lol.) as outsiders, we really can't meaningfully know how much these guys are making a difference behind the scene, all we have are vibes and rumours and surface level results... like basically if I had to rank them I'd probably give valentino the nod just because the yamaha thing deserves a nod, then kinda? idk casey + dani clearly did make an insanely good bike at honda and they should get some of the credit for kinda rescuing honda from its post-2006 slump. I think maybe dani goes second, like I know some have said he's a less useful development rider because he's too short (part of why honda didn't use him as a test rider, as well as obviously *gestures* the puig thing) and thus harder to compare to other riders.... BUT there's pretty universal praise for his work at ktm, and casey's post-motogp stints I don't think you can really say the same. with jorge... idk it's tricky, I remember reading that the vibe from valentino's team in 2013 was kinda 'well this bike is still... the exact same as it was two years ago...?' but obviously those guys also aren't neutrals. and they weren't even saying that in a negative way, there's a bit of an element of if it ain't broke don't fix it given jorge had just won the 2012 title. plus, especially in their second stint as teammates, I get the sense they were always broadly on the same page in terms of feedback? and if anything, yamaha's current malaise can partly be traced back to them not listening to shit they were being told by JORGE (+ valentino at the same time) like this is years and years back... so yeah those three are all in a blob. then comes marc, which. okay sure, super talented so can ride around everything etc etc, he's not the main reason for why honda sucks now, etc etc. but I'm sorry, you do just get marked down on this category if you sabotage bike development to fuck with your teammate. like I respect it, love you for it, but you are getting marked down here. there is no way you can get around this

then there's even more nebulous categories like 'mentality' or 'mind games' or whatever, but how even are you gonna rate this. with perhaps the sole exception of dani, all these other guys have exhibited some spectacular instances of head loss over the courses of their career. but then again with dani, you're probably also not going to point to mentality make the difference as much in a positive sense - like it's good to be even-tempered, but the highs also aren't as high in that regard. you have stuff like mental resilience, ability to bounce back from tough results... and again. I don't know. I don't feel comfortable putting a number on some of these. like say we took casey, then surely I'd have to mark him down for what happened post laguna in 2008 (and yes, I know he wouldn't agree with me on this, yes, I know there are mitigating circumstances, but it is a bit glaring). but then you look at how he got through 2009 and actually eventually got himself to the place where he won another title. how marc bounced back after 2015. whatever tf valentino did after qatar 2004. the 2009 bounce back after le mans/mugello... the 2003 arc and all that. for all of them, various criticisms in the media, hate campaigns from fans etc etc. like idk I don't have a number from 1-10 here. plus, any metric kinda has to have a clear good pole and a clear bad pole if you're putting numbers on that, and with something like mind games you can go either way on whether you think they're good or not? basically, I think we should lock casey and valentino into a room and get them to discuss this. I will provide a piece of paper with talking points and only let them out when I feel like they've had it out to an adequate extent. they're all mentally strong, love them all, let's leave it at that

wow! yay! these are all metrics I didn't even include! aren't you glad you clicked on this read more! there's so much to come after this!

let's get to metrics I did actually include: qualifying, starts, reliability, flexibility, mixed, wet, overtaking ability, defensive ability, cunning, strategy/work process. again, there were a few where I was like.... should there be some kinda basic metric for 'underlying pace' or 'raw talent' (both of which you kinda gesture in the casey + marc direction) but I'm somebody who's very outcome-focused. when you're rating things, you should sometimes just focus on the shit you can actually see. 'talent' is fake, give me results. but this does mean that... obviously not all of these metrics are of equal importance. like, qualifying is more important than how you are in the wet!! and yes, again, there's a million caveats here in terms of era and different bike characteristics and all that shit. even 'effort levels' - valentino's starts generally got better when he moved to yamaha (they were truly abysmal before that), which you can maybe attribute to the yamaha bike being better off the line (not much evidence for this from other riders who made switches back-and-forth around the same time iirc), or you can also attribute it to valentino knowing he couldn't afford quite as much faffing about on a worse bike. again, there's so so many caveats here. also, I found marc and casey REALLY hard to judge because like? it's so much harder if you haven't been able to see them line up next to each other to figure out how they compare? sure, you can use general metrics, you can check how they compare against the same group of riders, but... yeah, idk, for a lot of these categories when I was figuring out who to give a 9 or 10 out of those two I did a sort of *shrug*. I think one of these two I probably did dirty but I'm not sure which one. maybe I did everyone dirty. or maybe they all suck

so. let's go through them

1. qualifying

stuff I considered: outright qualifying performance both in terms of number of poles and average grid position, strength of qualifying opposition, h2h comparisons, adaptability to changing conditions

okay, so, I started with the most basic measure possible and looked at the pole numbers in the premier class as a percentage of number of race starts (and I've even updated the numbers for marc, that's how thorough I am hehe) (I just realised there's a problem here actually for casey because he got pole in valencia 2009 but didn't start the race due to a crash in the warm-up lap, which... well I don't want to take his pole away from him but I'm assuming the race start wasn't included? look, who gives a shit, I've kept the pole)

I also ran these numbers again just by... trimming down the number of seasons and limiting it to the 'competitive' ones, aka one where the finished top five in the championship standings. I'm aware this is super arbitrary, but I'm also not sure if we're really gaining much from including jorge's 2019 or valentino's 2021 or marc's 2023, when for instance you don't have those kinds of dud seasons for casey (though his rookie season did get cut). like, this is just a rough way of not punishing longevity and injuries and bad vibes, who knows what casey's qualifying would have looked like at age 382

doesn't actually change the order, which is nice. still think it's a better reflection of their actual qualifying chops

let's get the obvious out of the way - if you are getting almost 50% pole positions in your competitive seasons, I don't care how good your bike is or the era or whatever else, you are obviously an obscenely good qualifier. like, marc's qualifying numbers make you want to bust out the 12/10's. those are silly numbers that honestly you don't really need to add much too - sure, we can also dive into his average grid positions etc but like. they're all super high. idk what to tell you. marc has the average highest grid position every single year 2013 to 2019, enough said. I think casey over the course of his career was on slightly worse bikes on average than prime!marc, and also he was facing aliens in their prime or late prime literally every year which... yeah, maybe you do want to make a bit of an adjustment for that. like, marc's closest competition on paper in 2017-19 was dovi, who is very much not a gifted qualifier. but marc also got THIRTEEN POLES in 2014!! I know the honda was the best bike on the grid, but not by that much, and dani's hardly a slouch! idk I feel pretty happy with just giving marc the top spot here and letting casey slot into second. like, at a certain point the numbers you're staring at just sort of bludgeon you in the face, and you also have visions of cota 2015 and brno 2019 playing around in your head in a loop

THAT BEING SAID. there is one major caveat we do have to address: in 2013, the entire qualifying system was changed to introduce these 15 minute time slots. this whole q1 and q2 business is a relatively recent invention. now, this is pure speculation, but I think this format would have suited casey 'mr friday' stoner very very well. one of his big strengths was always like, being fast immediately, getting used to what the track was like with zero adaptation process and just putting down a super fast lap at the first attempt. he would have done great here!! also, I think the numbers of some of his opponents might have taken a bit of a dip and... yeah, look, obviously I'm really just talking about valentino here, who hated the new format and never got on particularly well with it. (serious argument to be made that if they hadn't switched the system, he would've taken the 2015 title - like obviously you get into weird butterfly effect territory with that kind of thing but ceteris paribus that will have absolutely cost him more than five points over the course of a full season.) he got better for a while in 2016.... but anyway during the early bits of the alien era, valentino was often qualifying like, really well when you compare it to his mid reputation. and maybe casey would've been able to beat him more under that system. probably

still, overall. idk man. almost 50% pole positions in his prime. obscene. giving it to marc

jorge is a lonely third in this metric. I feel fine with that? like, he's clearly very good, he was very good in his prime, that's how he won the 2015 title (though he did actually have a slightly worse grid position than marc that season, but crucially a lot better than valentino), he's gotten a lot of poles... but also his relative lack of flexibility hurts him here too, like he's not doing a brno 2019 is he. jorge kinda needs everything to be just right to get out the metronome, and that's also reflected in qualifying - he's more likely to be caught out by something being a bit off than either marc or casey. super fast over one lap, clearly insane underlying pace, what can you say

it's on the other end of the spectrum that I ran into my biggest headache, because...? honestly, I was a little bit surprised at valentino having the slight edge in the percentages, either way you measure them. dani has a bit more of a qualifying-centred reputation, whereas with valentino it's a bit... well, people do think he's very good at everything, and if you're looking for flaws in his game then that's one of the big things that jumps out. also, I do reckon there's a fair bit of recency bias at play here - a lot of fans only remember post-prime valentino, where format change this format change that he had just lost his edge over a single lap. some of this is also natural age-based decline? it does seem to be a thing in motorsports that saturday performances can go off before sunday performances, so it is a bit of an issue if everyone's just going 'okay but he was seventh every single week' when he too has racked up some impressive numbers over the course of his career. which isn't just longevity! you don't just longevity your way into 55 pole positions. on the other hand, you look at his honda prime and given the bike he was on, you do kinda go 'okay but I feel like you could've done a bit better here'. like, what are you doing being tied with biaggi on the yamaha in terms of average grid position in 2002... come on. come on. again, there's a teensy bit of an effort question here - I'm not suggesting valentino fluffed his qualifying on purpose to make his sundays more interesting, but I do think he does... you know, just performs differently when he knows he needs to do so. he's getting five pole positions on that 2004 yamaha... like he's clearly not a slouch

I actually think the best way you can make the pro-valentino qualifying argument is probably just by looking at the years when pretty good versions of the aliens were competing against each other on pretty competitive bikes? which is 2007 to 2009 - of course, that's gonna look fairly kind to valentino because he won the titles for two out of three years, but it's a good way to check our priors here and see whether valentino could theoretically keep pace with his fellow aliens. here's the average grid positions:

valentino got seven poles in 2009. idk, best bike, casey missed a few races, but at least against jorge it's a direct h2h (giving jorge a pass for his rookie season, but jorge's not becoming a significantly better qualifier after his sophomore season). like clearly he's fast

and after saying all of that, I ranked him last after dani!! yeah, look. I think it's marginal to me, and maybe this is partly my own bias because I've always thought of dani as a very good qualifier and have ragged on valentino for being mid literal hundreds of times. maybe it's also being swayed by the young talent factor - did you know valentino is the only alien who did not get a pole in his rookie season? these are the youngest pole sitter rankings for the premier class:

yeah, idk. I don't love this argument for philosophical reasons... but also it's kinda fine, it was obviously more important in dani's game than it was in valentino's. the percentages are close enough you can make the argument either way, but what sways me more than anything else is the competitive spread argument. like, all of dani's poles came with one of casey or marc in the field. several of prime valentino's opponents were really good qualifiers, sete in particular did out-qualify valentino over the course of whole seasons, but I'm not gonna make the case they were casey/marc good qualifiers. that's the deciding factor, congrats dani

2. starts

stuff I considered: speed off the line, consistency in starting ability, likelihood of getting holeshot, ability to get to the front from second/third row, wow factor starts from lower down the field

I was debating whether to put dani or casey first here, and I think you can make the argument for either. like, it is very hard to match dani, but I do also remember those kinda... later years, where he was still pretty competitive and winning races and all that but wasn't a rocket off the line in the same way any more, and it was one of those 'is it him or the tyres or the honda' thing. the whole problem with casey is that he retired so early so it's kinda... I mean, he may have had any of these issues too, we just don't know! unfair comparison. but well, I can at least judge the two of them competing, including on equal machinery and... man, dani and the holeshot, name a better love story. silly good. what I think is also important is... sometimes dani gets judged a bit for lack of flexibility in terms of figuring out how to get overtakes done in particular, but I can sort of picture a highlight reel of dani shooting off the line and picking his way through the field to still get the holeshot? like when he was good at this, he was so good - this is a category where the peak sways me I reckon

casey and jorge I'm also fairly content ranking in that order. jorge had to become a better starter, and while he did get very good at it and had so so many races where he just led off the start and then disappeared... idk, in terms of blistering raw speed off the line I still think casey edges him out. jorge does get brownie points for some of his ducati starts, bit more muscling his way through the field before burning out his tyres and falling back. sorry jorge. but yeah nah I'm fine with this order, casey did have the occasional stinker but also I'm blaming that on the ducati.... also jorge automatically loses the tiebreaker just because I remember that COMICAL 2014 cota jump start. then we get to marc and valentino, in that order. starts were a real flaw in marc's game early in his time in the premier class, even in his super dominant 2014, and while it did get better... like, y'know, he was never awful at them, but it also generally speaking wasn't ever one of his big strengths. valentino was 'running gag level of bad' at starting, like basically in his prime wherever he qualified, he was reliably seventh after a few corners. again, this is probably also exaggerated a bit... but also, we're operating at a high level here, somebody has to be at the bottom of the pile, and you cannot make an argument for anyone other than valentino. nobody's saying he's maverick vinales-level bad, but he's clearly no dani pedrosa. as mentioned above, he did get better at his starts when he switched to yamaha, so some of that prime honda stuff was also just him faffing about, and post-prime he really did have some great starts to make up for his poor qualifying but. y'know. balance of the career

which brings us to.... okay, one thing we do obviously have to quickly mention is that both marc and valentino have made some of those 'wow what the fuck' starts from poor qualifying positions. like, I've been insulting valentino a lot in this bit of the post, but qatar 2004 remains some very cool shit. objectively. (I mean the start he made from the back of the grid, not him cursing to sete. obviously. I wouldn't do the other thing.) marc... yeah, look, we've all seen the starts he's been making from pee fifty million this year. the... le mans sprint start, I believe? is still comically cool. doesn't save their positions in this ranking because you don't get that many points for three good starts out of three thousand, but still. did slap. plus, it does showcase they're very good at the bits where you have to like, spot gaps and dart through them, and obviously neither of them have ever been opposed to bit of muscling their ways through the field. they are very good!! still more sluggish off the line than the other three

3. reliability

stuff I considered: conversion rate on executing achievable results, number of unforced errors (anything that isn't 'strategy' like tyre choice or flag to flag handling), crashes - in particular costly ones

gahhhhhh I HATE this metric. I kinda needed a 'how often are you gonna throw away races while leading them' thing, which, to be clear, none of these blokes have done an awful lot of. but it's kinda... look, are you actually converting your maximum achievable results? what's the crash rate looking like? how many unforced errors are you making? and then I started changing my mind several different times because unsurprisingly, I can think of a lot of plenty of errors for all of them that are kinda egregious. like, that's how racing works! also this is a way less 'clean' metric than the two before that, because inevitably you're kinda overlapping with a lot of different categories. like, take making errors in the wet - obviously, that's what you do when you're not a good wet weather racer, but you don't suddenly get a free pass on mistakes just because it's raining. is this a metric that you limit to 'competitive' seasons? inherently, I am biased towards thinking a mistake is 'worse' when there's a lot at stake, but arguably that's something that should be included in the more cerebral categories and all errors should be treated equally. which I don't!! I think it very much matters being reliable under pressure. my last issue was the overlap with the 'flexibility' category because it's kinda... there's one or two riders who have a bit of a tendency to have Perfect Weekends when everything's going well, and then have poorer rides when they're just not quite feeling it. which is mostly covered under flexibility, but surely some of this stuff does also make you unreliable!!

again, they do obviously all have their errors... I think I probably penalise riders a little more severely for crashing out of the lead, which yes, all of them have done. now, I might be missing something obvious, but I think valentino only ever did so twice? donington 2009, which was in the wet (not an excuse!! he did also finish fifth, which, fair play I suppose), and sepang 2018, where he was *gestures* very old. marc... my issue with marc is that obviously he's managed to match that this year but both of those did have mitigating circumstances? his 2019 cota crash I also think had... something else going on. of course you do also have his phillip island crashes, 2014 and 2016 (I've said it before and I've said it again, prime!marc's phillip island record is incredibly funny when you think about it). then 2014 he's also got aragon, which was more about a poor decision to not switch tyres but like, crash is a crash, and argentina 2017. which is like... you know, given how he rides and how many races he was leading, it's not terrible. also I think this is a bit more dubious with early season races because you don't know what might end up costing you, but none of these were particularly important in title fight terms (argentina 2017 could have been!) so. dani... well, he's got sachsenring 2008, which was kinda terrible because he was genuinely seven seconds in the lead, but also it's raining? idk crucially it did basically cost him any hope of fighting for the title, lost the championship lead and bagged himself a wrist injury (which, of course, is also just poor luck - we do not have a sturdiness category). laguna 2010 also isn't great, especially given it just helped jorge run away with the title even more. dani also crashed from the lead at indy 2009, plus brno 2011. jorge ALSO crashed out of the lead at donington 2009 (truly, one of those days), plus brno 2009 (not great at that point in the title fight!!), plus valencia 2012 (I mean, last race of the season, also kinda a weird one since he was lapping someone), plus qatar 2014, and misano 2017. casey crashes out of the lead at... well, back to back races post-laguna 2008, brno and misano, which admittedly apart from anything else isn't great optics. I think the only other time he does it is qatar 2010? which. yeah. not ideal

okay, look, this sample size is so small I don't think you gain much from doing percentages per competitive season or whatever. on the balance of the available evidence, you do have to say that valentino only binning it twice out of the lead is pretty impressive, given he raced for like. fifty million years. and won a lot of races, so by definition gave himself a lot of chances to crash. like, it'd be lovely to have a statistic for 'number of laps led', or even better a spreadsheet with all the numbers for when riders are in certain positions, and then also numbers for how many times they crash out of every position so we could do like. some proper maths on this shit. unfortunately we can't! and it'd still only give us an incomplete picture, because again you do have stuff like 'well marc has ridden some kinda evil bikes' and 'how do we assess wet races' and 'how much pressure were they under in each situation' to assess. I still like it as a rough indicator! I suppose I've been thinking about the concept of 'crashing out of the lead of motogp races' rather a lot these last few years... impossible to guess why that is

also, those aren't the only types of unforced errors to exist. like, marc's not crashing out of the lead in 2015, but *gestures* that season is unforced error central. I also put jorge's weird helmet visor shit in this category, because fundamentally part of reliability is about not putting yourself in a position where dumb shit happens to you. and that could have really cost him!! crash rates in general - again, I don't love just giving raw numbers here. there's some specific series of mistakes that really jump out at you... an obvious one is valencia 2006, and it's also in that weird cota 2019 category of 'right I think there may have been something funky going on with the equipment but also you are calling this an 'error' so I shall call it that'. fight me casey stoner, I guess. there's other late championship errors that are. not great. like jorge phillip island 2009 or dani phillip island 2012. with casey, it's a bit 'eh' because he never was still in a title fight particularly late in a season? like, again, the 'two out of the only three crashes out of the lead in your whole career happened at the height of the title fight in 2008' is one of those things that's always going to raise an eyebrow, and did essentially end the title fight before they even got to the late stage but... yeah, idk, we're lacking in casey's sample size here. you can also look at title decider performance for three of them, and while we can get into the ins and outs of what valentino/marc got up to - never mind all that, you have two absolutely flawless performances from jorge sitting right there

when it comes to crash rate in general, valentino's in quite a happy spot again? I mean, his record in his prime certainly is silly good: three crashes in his rookie season, two right at the start, which, vale gets a little bit of 'the 500cc's were evil' bonus.... after that! one crash in 2001, zero in 2002 (the dnf is mechanical), zero in 2003 (no race off the podium), two in 2004, one in 2005 (that one was a howler mind u), two in 2006 (one he got barrelled into at the first corner and remounted, the other was as best we know an unforced error - but the three dnf's are all mechanical), one in 2007 (two mechanical dnf's), one in 2008 (remounted and finished 11th), three in 2009 (I mean he crashed like fifty times in le mans, then in donington he crashed in the wet and finished fifth which... good salvage work, plus indy which was genuinely dumb as shit). like, again, if we're specifically considering each of the aliens' respective 'primes', that record's hard to argue with. but then again, am I going to penalise casey too much for all his race crashes in 2010, given that valentino can also attest to that bike being, well, shit? also, brownie points of some kind to marc specifically for 2019, given we know what a nightmare that honda was and he only dnf's the one time. also, his 2016!! it's less spectacular in a way but that's a season that's so much about reliability - like so many marc titles are won on the principle of 'show up, don't crash, don't slum it in p13 every other week, win some races'. jorge is mostly fine - I don't want to penalise him too much for his rookie season though I do a bit more 2009, and then post-yamaha it was all a bit. eh. dani's issue is that he didn't crash that much but I swear every time he did, it felt super costly for some reason or another? which is also just bad luck, but

again, there's some stretches you do kinda maybe give a little bit of added weight. for casey, you do kinda have to mention 2012: he was tied on points with jorge leading into sachsenring, was clearly way too much on the edge fighting with dani, really should have settled for second and… binned it. right before the end. I get he's a 'I look at wins and the championships will follow naturally' type guy, but that inherently means he's gonna get a knock in this category. and then he had a mess of a mugello race right after, just multiple unforced errors and almost barrelled over poor bautista and… idk, we don't really talk about it much any more because he injured himself at indy and was definitively taken out of the title fight - but I still reckon the honda was probably on balance the strongest bike that year, and it was kinda his own errors that cost him there. for marc, nobody on this planet needs me to relitigate 2015, but yeah, 2015

also, yes, you can sort of bring in the ugly years for all of them minus casey (who had a very ugly rookie season but we'll give it a pass, and apart from that his ugliest season was 2010 - he didn't stick around long enough for comparable experiences to the others)... jorge skittling the field at catalunya 2019, quite a few dani misadventures... we can talk about valentino's ducati stint and that wet weather collision with casey that prompted the 'ambition outweighed talent' thing, we can talk about marc's silverstone 2021 barrelling into jorge or that aragon 2022 first lap or... whatever the fuck he was doing at portimao last year. clearly, when those two specifically know they're not in the title hunt, when they've been frustrated and annoyed and are hungry for success, their decision-making skills can take a serious hit, but also... okay, look, I'm not saying that injuring other riders like marc in particular did suddenly becomes okay when you're not fighting for a title, but a) clearly they were both riding bikes that were very easy to crash (I mean, again, look at casey's early 2010 crash rate), and b) for better or for worse, they're not doing that shit if they know they're fighting for a title (isolated and glaring cases of head loss for the pair of them set aside). listen, I'm deciding the rules, set aside the whole morality thing - I just care more about mistakes when they have bigger competitive ramifications

so. I do think valentino has to go first in this category and yes, we can get into the whole 'well the yamaha is very rideable thing' but also he did help make it that way so. y'know. at a certain point you just have to look at the headline numbers. he didn't crash a lot, he showed up, he generally maximised the results he could get. there's like, two or three major stains in his record, but then you also think about how he was saving his title bids with sachsenring 2016 type deals where he was working his way to the win from tenth and holding off three ferocious hondas right at the end... like, given how risky a lot of his riding inherently was, you have to say the unforced error count is low. see also laguna 2008 or motegi 2010 type shit, like not making mistakes when deliberately roughing up opponents isn't, y'know, the most morally 'good' way to approach racing but. still. he was constantly putting himself in risky race positions by dint of being such an ass qualifier/starter and his numbers are still like that. I rest my case. and, okay, I'm gonna be a wee bit controversial here and put mr crasquez in second. I don't know, maybe I'm just rewarding 'flexibility' here too and just being swayed too much by how consistently there he was in his prime but, I don't care. part of it is also the valentino situation of 'wow it really feels like you should be crashing more' (in races, I don't feel in general marc should be crashing more funnily enough), and it's also just the 2016 thing. also the 2019 thing. I get the argument with 2015, and I don't think any version of noughties valentino would have a season like that, but *shrugs* he also didn't have a valencia 2006-equivalent so whatever (I mean. he flirted with it in 2017 and that was a pretty poor performance, but crucially I'm an outcome-oriented person and he didn't actually bin it so)

then comes jorge - given his profile as a rider I don't think it reflects great on him that he has crashed out of the lead, including in costly ways, quite a few times. also, unfortunately you don't get a sophomore season freebie when we're comparing aliens, and 2009 did have some real. issues. (so did valentino's to be clear, definitely his messiest title campaign.) also, look, I think calling his ducati seasons not competitive is arguable - because unlike the valentino and marc seasons where you can at least say 'well nobody else on that bike was outperforming them', this is not something you can point to with jorge. his strongest trait is dominating from the front! he's supposed to be mr hammer and butter, he's getting a knock for the unforced errors, yeah. he gets a valencia bonus though. then comes dani - this one also feels quite harsh, and again I think it's slightly punishing lack of flexibility, but it's the really costly errors that stick out and also just... relatively more races than some of his fellow aliens where he's not reliably bringing any result home because he's not in the position he should be running in. and then comes casey, which, small sample size counts against him here. if you have that few seasons to draw from, unfortunately the whole laguna 2008 situation and 2012 sachsenring/mugello stuff do stand out

wow. this got long. I really don't like this category

4. flexibility

stuff I considered: not literal flexibility, more in terms of 'can you be good everywhere'. like, we're looking at the broad profile of a season - I want you to be good both at qatar and at sachsenring, right? have they won/gotten decent results relative to how good the bike/opposition is basically everywhere, do they just feel a bit limited at times, what were they doing at new tracks, etc, can they figure shit out over the course of the weekend

again, there's some serious overlap here with both the reliability category and also the wet/mixed conditions categories, but idk. still treating it on its own. again, there's two fairly straightforward tiers here - you've got valentino, casey and marc, and then jorge and dani. I'm not like, super attached to any particular order here? casey has the distinction that he's won at every single race he's competed at, which none of the others do, but that's also what will happen if you retire at age 27. if vale and marc had retired at that age... okay, yeah, valentino would've been missing laguna, marc would be missing austria (which he still is, actually), but also idk. valentino's laguna record is like, one third place, two visits where his bike is just 'no thank you' and then one of the best races of all time. marc got as close as it is possible to win that bloody race in austria on three separate occasions. also, casey completed the set in 2012 with... well, first of all he needed jerez, which...? who the hell has jerez as their bogey track? he'd literally had one podium there in his entire career before that point, all classes, which is kinda funny. plus, he also needed estoril - and he was really proud to finish the set, helped make his decision to retire. real take, maybe his issue with jerez is that everyone else knew it too well, like ideally he needs everyone (including himself) to be blasted with a mind ray to give them amnesia before they go to each track so he can take full advantage

anyway, look, the point is that all three of them can show up anywhere and broadly expect to be competitive in their primes. they go about this in different ways... casey had this nasty habit of just rocking up on a friday morning and being fast the second he touched the bike, valentino made more of a leisurely crawl towards 'ah well we'll figure it out at 4 am on sunday morning' (marc did a bit of both) - but broadly speaking they did generally get there more often than not. this is reflected in the very strong records they all have when they show up at tracks for the first time, and it's something marc explicitly pointed to last year in india when explaining why him, fabio and joan as the three most recent former world champions were suddenly so competitive there (in contrast to the rest of the season, where they were *checks notes* not having a great time). I don't think it's really just a raw talent thing per se, and especially with valentino he clearly did also have a very good working process (more on that in a moment), but yeah! however they did it, they sure did do it! the gaps in marc's and valentino's resumes, I do also not feel too strongly about... valentino's missing aragon, introduced in 2010, but like. he was fine there, he just wasn't winning that many races anyway after that, and it inherently didn't suit him too well. cota... well, y'know, he had one shot of winning that, won't really hold any of his 2019 performances against him. that also wasn't a particularly strong yamaha track, and again it's not like he was uncompetitive there. he just wasn't like. marc marquez levels competitive. marc has a few like austria, but that was such ducati heartlands and he really did get very close a million times, and stuff like portimao, which, well, only showed up post arm injury, he's still got time

I don't know, with all three of them it's also just so easy to pinpoint special performances at their weakest tracks, it moves me. I actually need to check the order in which I put them, which tells you how close they are in my mind. uh... okay I gave casey full marks, then marc, then valentino. yeah, idk, I guess sometimes my casey problem is that my brain just automatically extrapolates from the bits we got to see and assume he would've adapted to everything to come forevermore. but look, he really was that good!! actually the tiebreaker to me is how in his second ever motogp race he'd been ill, his flight had been delayed, he shows up at the qatar circuit like fifteen minutes before practise starts, and he ends up popping his satellite honda on pole. not knocking marc's cota pole obviously, but he'd already tested there, and we did later find out he is like, a literal deity at that circuit (casey is good at qatar but not that good). idk. that's where I'm at. I'm not actually sure why I'm ranking valentino third, maybe it's just a sort of 'begrudgingly amused annoyance' at how he won his least favourite circuit on the calendar only twice, and both were these massive spite wins (valencia 2003, 2004). like, I get that sports psychology does matter, but I also don't want to have to make an 'effort and mean-spiritedness' adjustment to all your results? obviously it's also super telling his one laguna win came in 2008, like we get it you're a hater, let's move on

oh I was about to move on but I do have to cover the other two. hm. well, look, their 2012 was super impressive and shows they can clearly be fast pretty much everywhere, but... yeah, idk, I don't want to penalise them for what the alien era was like, but maybe a little bit? like yeah they did it at a time when the bike difference was at the most egregious, and I GET that it happens to coincide with their primes, but that is not going to be the only season I look at!! sorry!! the thing about those two was if they weren't clicking with a track, you kinda didn't really expect them to pull a rabbit out of the hat come race day (even casey had a nasty habit of doing that, and acknowledged in his autobiography how extremely helpful it was to psychologically sucker rivals into thinking he wasn't going to be a huge threat). I look at jorge's sepang record, his argentina record, his assen record (and yes, I'm aware of the massive trauma he was dealt by his 2013 crash, that's absolutely a factor in the years after that), even phillip island... I know he won the latter two once in the premier class, but yeah. don't love it!! stinker after stinker at argentina, and that one in particular does raise an eyebrow because, y'know, always a bit of a quirky track with all the various grip issue dramas over the years. 2014-16 when they're teammates again, valentino gets three podiums there (including a win) and jorge just the one, so it's also not just a bike issue. with dani it's quite easy... qatar was a crappy honda track yeah, still not ideal results there, phillip island just too many riders who were better than him there, poor at assen, quite poor at catalunya too? apart from 2008, which it has to be said was a proper class performance. (admittedly who knows what valentino could've done there if he'd considered maybe not fucking his qualifying.) idk, several of these classic high speed tracks... okay, look, I'm not going to spend too much time ragging on their circuit to circuit records here, you get the point,it should be fairly clear that they both struggled more than the other three to tackle adversity weekend by weekend. and a lot of the times when they started a weekend poorly that was basically that

5. mixed conditions

stuff I considered: ... how good they are in mixed conditions. did they crash a lot in them, were they extra super special fast, did they get better when things were sketch, did they adjust quickly to these conditions, how did they manage race situations impacted by changing conditions

okay, look, again the lack of direct comparison does hurt me here, but yeah I was never going to put anyone other than marc first here. I was also never going to put anyone other than casey second, and anyone other than valentino third. all three of them are excellent here, even if it's a different vibe for each. liked, not quite the same thing, but obviously they're all great in low grip anyway, very nice with all the sliding the bike around (especially the first two). marc's got the whole insane saves things going for him even when he does make a misjudgement. there's that ability to just instantly know how to judge and adapt to whatever condition the track is in... well, it's neat! we'll get to this again in a second with wet weather racing, but I still think valentino's a bit more in the... hm. idk. he's obviously GOT a lot of natural feel, he couldn't do what he does otherwise, but he's clearly also big on kinda following other riders around and figuring it out as he goes? like it feels a teensy bit more conscious, like a deliberate thinking process rather than primarily using instinct. but yeah, I mean, you really don't have to get super complicated about that, it's literally been years and years of watching marc gain literal seconds on the field whenever the conditions are a bit sketchy. brno 2019 qualifying. no need to say more. (but if you did want to say more, I do have a misano 2015 to offer u. also like sachsenring 2016?? assen 2014! genuinely so many you could point to with him.) (actually.... I mean, I suppose we do also have to mention argentina 2018, where he was about a minute a lap faster than the rest of the field.) with casey, again, super easy, you've got a phillip island and valencia 2011 there - his last lap of valencia!! one of the best last laps of his career!! that shit was crazy!! mugello 2009!! I get that there's Reasons why valentino played that one cautiously *coughs* le mans fiasco *coughs* but still, casey was the guy who broke the valentino supremacy!! speaking. of. mugello. you want to know another mixed conditions race that happened there... that's right, last few laps of mugello 2004, like they're so fucking good. valentino's last ever race win comes in increasingly kinda sketch conditions in assen 2017, where he is also fighting marc. like, look, I'm not gonna list every single race performance in sketch conditions, and of course they did also have some stinkers... this is a vibes category, sometimes it's truly just about looking at some lap times and going 'oof you guys really are something special here'. but also clear order here, marc is just *gestures* something else yeah

anyway. okay listen at this point I don't REALLY want to rag on the other two, especially since I'll get to it more with wet races. they're just not quite at the same level! I'm not saying they're terrible, but y'know, you can just check their track records and draw your own conclusions. if jorge had lost that 2015 title, misano absolutely would have been top of everyone's list as a big, big factor in that. I've already mentioned argentina, and again it kinda is telling what their records there look like. phillip island. it's just... y'know. it's whatever. with dani, similar story, but shout out to motegi 2015. banger performance, super impressive. jorge also has a few good f2f's. but yeah, we can list every single performance where they were massively outperformed by those other three or we could. not

6. wet

stuff I considered: well. their records when races were wet. did they bin it, how did they perform against their teammates, what can we say about performance variation over time, how understandable were their errors, what was their approach like to them

similar tiers, slightly different order - casey, then vale, then marc. but again, it's super close, and I don't feel as happy with the order here as above. I just have this highlight reel in my head of casey's wet weather performances, donington 2007 and silverstone 2011 are both crazy good in different ways. yes, he didn't win every single race in the wet he competed in, but who does? and yes, his sample size is a teensy bit limited, and yes, he did lose that one le mans 2012 battle against ducati!valentino, which, who does that, but like... listen. when he was on it, he was so on it. on the flip side, and I realise this is again unfair given the sample size issues, I just don't have all these memories of watching casey crash in the wet as I do for each of the other aliens. even his poorer performances like donington 2009... y'know, there was a good explanation there. (indy 2008 is one that I'm quite meh about admittedly.) but like!! overall it just is NOT a lot of races in the wet - I feel the sample size issues with other things more strongly, but here he also just compares positively to other aliens in their primes and it's not as much a w2w thing. just something about him in the wet that I trust..? I feel like sachsenring 2008 is another one that also kinda shows he had a good feel for how much he could push. like, dani disappeared off into the distance, and casey did kinda go. huh. well idk about that but good luck. and then won the race by a mile when dani crashed out. I don't know! given that's not always a trait I massively associate with casey, I do think he was generally pretty sensible in the wet. also... yeah, given it's inherently not that many races you're judging, I do think inevitably this is something where my brain really is pulling together two or three signature performances and judging those. and with casey, I just think those performances slap

that being said. ranking him above valentino here could(?) be controversial, and I did struggle a teensy bit with this one. like, mixed conditions can be a bit dodgy and also, we'll get to this in a moment but valentino's flag to flag record *stares into the middle distance* BUT when it's full wet!! oh yeah. right. let's fucking go. the tiny caveats I have here in my mind are a) he did make some memorable mistakes in those conditions (as casey can attest to), but again, so has pretty much everyone, and b) the wet weather performances after 2015 were kinda dodgy. but that's like.... that is just fundamentally a yamaha problem once the series switched to the michelins, like I don't really see the argument for saying that was a valentino decline? it's become a pretty persistent issue, and even then valentino was generally putting his bike in a hell of a lot more impressive places than his respective teammates (hey, you still have pretty nifty performances even in that era - look at brno 2016). let's set all that aside, and focus on all the other bits: the banger performances. the donington 2005's and silverstone 2015's of this world. let's talk donington, actually, because... idk, I think there's something very valentino in the wet about that race specifically, because for a lot of the race it really doesn't look that great? he wobbles a lot, some very cool marc-y saves but preferably you don't want to HAVE to marc-y save stuff, gets to the lead and loses it and gets back again. like, okay, obviously the conditions are genuinely just atrocious, but crucially he's not just FAST!! it's not just dominant! it's him watching and learning and feeling his way into the race, until eventually he's learned enough and can pull away. obviously, it's always worth remembering there's a shit ton of natural talent here too, cf colin edwards talking about seeing his data and just going 'what tf do you mean he's locking up in every single corner' (I paraphrase), but it's... yeah, he's doing a lot of this with his brain. which I do think is a big part of wet weather racing!! like a lot of it is figuring out how much risk you should be taking at any given moment, what's possible in the moment, how much you can trust what you're feeling etc etc

but yeah, shanghai that year is a dominant one... silverstone 2015 is like, so impressive you have to say, crazy pressure from marc behind him until marc eventually crashed and then late pressure from petrucci. like that race saved his title bid and it could've easily gone wrong. also, one of my favourite things about valentino as a wet weather racer is not just that he used to be bad of it, but he used to be scared of riding in the rain. he didn't want to go out there!! teen!vale told his team boss he didn't want to race in that shit!! it's about the journey... first premier class win in... is that a wet or mixed conditions race? never mind, crucially donington 2000 he is working his way through the field on a track that is very much not try. and somewhere along the line, he did just become a proper excellent wet weather racer, even if he never was a massive fan. indy 2008 is another banger, like basically I reckon he's at his very best in conditions nobody should ever even contemplate racing in? see also what he did in his ducati years. I'm also inherently biased towards people getting better at stuff, so maybe that's part of the picture for me. anyway, with marc I don't massively have much to add to what I already said in the mixed conditions bit? I basically think he's excellent but he doesn't have the same margin over the field when it's full wet rather than 'kinda sketch'. he does also have the misfortune of running into some of the best wet weather races out there during his prime, first valentino and then dovi - who, if I were including him in this exercise, would absolutely be in the conversation for top spot alongside vale/casey. but like, just because he doesn't win them doesn't mean motegi and sepang 2017 aren't very strong, in terms of maximising what was possible on that day. speaking of 2017, misano!!!! he's good at the decision making stuff too, good at maximising his performance when he's not winning races. 2016 is a title bid that is built on a lot of kinda sketch races, most of which marc doesn't win - but he won the championship and that's the bit that matters. and in ducati!valentino style, of course those have also been the situations in which marc's had the chance to be more competitive in the horror honda years.... motegi last year is the obvious example. he's very very good, does chuck it down the road a few times too but that's life

so the thing about jorge and wet weather is that he's like, pretty poor in the lower categories, and the general 2006-07 pattern was that dovi was keeping himself competitive in those title fights in large part through starring performances in wet races while jorge flops. then there's a period in the premier class where he's actually kinda fine? does chuck it a few times, but also really some strong performances in there. jerez 2011, le mans 2012... anyway, if we're talking about assen becoming a real bogey track in jorge's later years, it's probably also worth mentioning that the assen 2013 highside came in the wet and is around the time there was a real downturn in his wet weather performances. he was still competitive in a few wet weather races! but he also... really wasn't in many. at times he was just slow - if he'd lost the 2015 title, people would still be talking about silverstone more, which you have to say he was very lucky to limit the points damage in (and he did come within a whisker of being crashed out on like, three separate instances, which can happen if you're running in a pack in the wet). then, of course, you have 2016 where his title charge completely fell apart in the wet.... as already said with valentino, the yamaha in those years clearly wasn't quite right in the wet, but valentino was still putting together stronger performances. then in 2017 jorge still has that decent sepang race where he challenges dovi for the win, but yeah... that's basically it. it's unfair when people portray him as a poor wet weather racer his whole career, but obviously. y'know. not on the level of the three above. dani...... look, I'm gonna keep this short: I get that his literal size and weight are a massive disadvantage here, but of course there's no way you can't rank him last in this category. he won one wet premier class race in his whole career, there's a lot of big crashes to point to (sachsenring 2008 again is particularly memorable) and also just him being very slow. sepang 2012 was cool though

7. overtaking ability

stuff I considered: race craft, efficiency in overtaking, direct duels, dogfights, comeback rides, creativity, .... being cool

right. look. I'm willing to hear the arguments for the others, but to me it's just got to be valentino here. like, yes, I get it - if you're constantly putting yourself in seventh at the end of every single first lap, you will just be doing a lot of overtakes. if your entire approach to winning races is built around sitting behind other riders for half the race and just vibing, then yes, of course you'll be doing a lot of memorable overtakes for the win. maybe you shouldn't have been in that position in the first place. I hear the case! I acknowledge it! but he was just so damn good at those overtakes! he knew where to place his bike, he knew where to attack, he was so good at making that shit stick, he's usually not being massively aggressive to the point of recklessness when he doesn't need to be... what's the drawback. again, maybe this is being swayed by the highlight reel rather than measuring 'pure' skill, but my god is it a highlight reel. remember how in assen 2018 he just. overtakes other riders ten times at the gt chicane? rinse and repeat, he just knew how to get past people. that's a bit of dominance in a certain track just in terms of sheer race craft that's like, a bit obscene really. there's a reason he's got three overtakes that are still iconic and infamous alike, mix of brutality of jerez 2005 and ruthlessness of laguna 2008 and determination of catalunya 2009. he knew how to judge risks, usually he walked that line very very finely - which is how he was seen as an aggressive rider but also didn't crash a lot - but boy did he know how to send it like the best of him. so you've got the range, right, something as practised as assen 2018 gt chicane, but also the creativity of something like catalunya 2009, of trying a move where others just wouldn't. also, like, FORgET the corkscrew move at laguna 2008, let's talk about that move around the outside of turn 3 ffs. and he was so good at working his way through the field!! I mean, he had to be given what an abysmal qualifier he was at times in the latter half of his career, but like his 2015 title campaign would've been impossible without that kinda qatar and argentina vibe. the man was always tussling, but he sure did do it well. idk, what's the counter argument here.... he's crashed like. at most half a dozen times. while attempting overtakes. idk I'm unmoved, sachsenring 2007 isn't enough to ruin everything else here. 'valentino rossi is good at overtakes', more as we get it

marc. marc. the thing about marc, right, is that sometimes he does stray to the wrong line of the 'aggression or just stupid' divide, but... given his baseline level of aggression, you have to say he mostly did a good job of not pushing it too far. he's extremely adept at working his way through fields... and it really is important he's willing to go for it. like there are riders who just won't! he's very see gap go for gap, as he's happy to remind everyone, and that makes him a very fearsome proposition. I'm not like... I love it for narrative reasons, but to me personally jerez 2013 does push it a teensy bit, and there's been a few too many race craft howlers for my tastes in the last few years. he's just too good to be doing shit like portimao last year. that being said, when he's keeping things sensible, the race craft is obviously elite. incredible bike placement, also just such an innate ability to thrive in those kinda chaotic situations at starts of races, in the middle of dogfights he navigates that stuff so so good..... I don't LOVE rating marc/valentino over the other three aliens on grounds of like 'hard racing' because you then get to tricky philosophical waters, but actually I'm perfectly happy to rate them above the other three for just being very good at this shit. for my money, my favourite overtake of his is still last lap on petrucci in misano 2017, like idk the sheer nerve and daring and skill in the wet!! I moved!! I also had a heart attack but never mind that!! misano 2019 ughhh my beloveddddd... okay admittedly he has a few too many of these epic duels tm he loses which we'll get back to in a moment, but that doesn't erase all the cool moves he makes on the way to moving. also obviously got to mention these comeback rides he's been having - and this kind of thing is also super important in starts!! just very very adept at all this race craft stuff, though a few too many of his overtakes don't stick for my tastes

now. the thing is. casey did most of his racing in an era that, as we have repeatedly established, was kinda ass. also, it's obviously worth pointing out that casey really wasn't trying to win his races in a way that involved a lot of overtaking. and his attitude towards racing did have the potential to hinder him in fights, because he was perhaps maybe possibly at times a teensy bit too concerned with keeping things respectful when certain other riders were willing to push him off a cliff if it could secure them pee four. that being said. limited sample size aside. when I close my eyes, I can see casey overtaking jorge around the outside of turn one at laguna 2011, and it is still the most bonkers downright terrifying thing I've seen in my life, but it is also very very very cool. that's right, he's ranked third because that move is so cool. it's just... he's always going on about risk and danger and all that and racing valentino at laguna was scary etc etc, which, yes, I do have a lot of empathy there, but my brother you are overtaking him around a blind crest. like you literally can't see where you're going. everybody finds turn one at laguna terrifying, it's seen as scarier as the corkscrew. and that's where you overtake him. and it's not an isolated occurrence - some of the laguna 2008 moves on valentino?? dude. it very much takes two to tango, we're talking some scary turn one moves and sketch turn three and turn five encounters like.... like!! phew. plus, valencia 2011 last lap

also, listen, at the end of the day, the reason why I'm putting casey over jorge here is very simple - direct record against valentino. one of them actually won extended battles against him, the other didn't. yes, jorge ran valentino close, but y'know. you don't get extra points for 'close', do you. catalunya 2009, sachsenring 2009, motegi 2010... casey actually beat valentino, he did it at catalunya 2007 and sachsenring 2010, qatar 2007... that sachsenring 2010 last lap move truly slaps!! idc if valentino had just come back from the broken leg, still slaps! now, yes, we do need to point out that jorge has done some great overtaking in his time, and he's also won quite a few close duels against marc specifically - but, well, marc didn't race casey, can't compare it. still, jorge is good wheel-to-wheel generally speaking, the risk assessment is mostly pretty good though sometimes he can be a bit... idk, clumsier on average than the three above him? anyway, still better than dani, who unfortunately did sometimes fall into the category of me going 'PLEASE overtake the guy come on move.... MOVE'. generally a lot of overtakes only happening when there's a massive tyre advantage which is like. it's fine. but it's not quite the same thing. but jerez 2010 brno 2012 for them respectively overall were obviously cool. basically my main thing for this one is that, we're not rating duels here, we're rating overtaking ability. and on the one hand I have the highlight reel in my head and the craft and skill of it all, and on the other hand I have like. if you get stuck in the pack. do I expect you to stay there or do something. and generally it's really marc and valentino where I'm expecting some moving

8. defensive ability

stuff I considered: also race craft, just general quality of defensive rides idk, how much I trust you to keep guys with better pace behind you

yeah valentino again here I fear. this is another factor where I'm really just seeing the highlight reel in my head, just so many class defensive rides (even though usually he'd PREFER to be coming from behind than holding others off). last few laps of sachsenring 2006 are like, gorgeous, what a crazy girl. laguna 2008. assen 2015. some of the late braking in catalunya 2009, like I already have talked about it elsewhere and jorge has spoken about how vale sets up his bike to brake 10m later than everyone else, but. has to be said. he really did gag me with that catalunya 2009 turn one behaviour. phewwwww some of his mugello main straight antics..... he TESTED those brakes. his last podium ride in andalusia 2020... still had it what can you say. also, thing is, there's not really many failures you can point to? his two biggest last lap defeats, he was behind going into them - like yeah still sucked he lost (especially sachsenring 2003 where you CAN kinda argue it was a fuck up in his defence) (jerez 2005 SHOULD have been a major fuck up but he won it so) but overall... oh also sepang 2006 last lap. I mean, I could go on - he's good at picking his lines and being a dickhead and just placing his bike right and also muscling his way around the track... some of his dubious motegi 2010 antics even though he's flirting with the line. also excellent at re-overtaking after being overtaken. straightforward case

so I've switched this twice and then realised I was overthinking this and next it's obviously marc. idk I think you can overthink this and marc does have a few Actual Sketch defensive rides (argentina 2015, silverstone 2019) but also his wheel to wheel record is so strong you've got to let him slot in here. like, again, the decision making isn't always ideal, he sometimes pushes it a bit too far, but the fundamental race craft can be faulted and he does do a lot of really excellent defensive riding, brutal on the brakes and all that. again, this really does jump out during the dogfights, plus also stuff like thailand 2019. he's very good at it!! a nightmare to get past, because he is also NOT just gonna give up the position! then we get into classic casey 'god this sample size is ass' stuff where I think I give him a lot of benefit of the doubt given just the lack of races where he was like... running similar paces to other guys... awful era. but clearly did have some excellent rides where defence played a huge role, catalunya 2007 was really good... assen 2007 he kept valentino behind quite a long time, few races like that where casey really does keep him behind for quite long. phillip island 2009 is a bit tricky because it felt valentino never had the ultimate pace to overtake but, well, casey started ahead, had valentino sitting on his rear tyre for a decent chunk of the race, finished ahead, so points for that. again, just a real sample size issue here but, y'know

jorge.... listen, he definitely can defend. he has done some very, very strong defensive rides. one of the strongest and most important ones of his career was at a little known race called valencia 2015 even if marc maybe wasn't as motivated to overtake jorge as he would have been some other days I'M KIDDING. it's good. lot of good stuff going on. that being said.... man, it's such low hanging fruit, but you have to talk about how jorge was robbed at the final corner first in catalunya 2009 and jerez 2013. now, look, of course people can lose races in final corners, but in both those cases you do have to say... dude. you could have defended that line. in both cases everyone does kinda go... mate. mate. you have to assume those two bastards will go for it. idk obviously this is selection bias because both instances were just so memorable, but inevitably this is the stuff you are judged on. don't do it!! omg! also, with all love to valentino's slightly deranged levels of aggression while both attacking and defending against jorge in motegi 2010, this is another one where you do kinda feel.... yeah, it's not easy when you know the other guy is kinda willing to crash you both out rather than let you win (valentino!! your shoulder!! valentino!!!!) and yeah you kinda still have a championship to think about... still. (that being said, I'm not giving valentino TOO many motegi 2010 points in either category - yes, it worked, yes, it was funny, but was it 'good riding'? eh.) do we give him points off for the sepang 2017 error that let dovi ahead... I suppose he defended very well against dovi at valencia that year lol. but actually, same thing with 2015, I'm not sure you really get many points for defending at valencia? anyway, I feel like the way this is ordered, I'm unfortunately constantly justifying ranking the same blokes last, so again, let's keep this quick. dani: fantastic work at aragon 2015. truly elite performance. wish you had done a little more of that. way too many estoril's and shanghai's and motegi's 2008. but aragon 2015 was lovely

9. cunning

stuff I considered: 'race management', how you navigate different race situations, battle smarts

hm, yeah, another bit of a catch all category like reliability was - just that general sense of... y'know, how good are you at figuring out races. working them out in your head, being smart about when to push and when not to push. decision making skills, how you are at analysing your opponents, at studying their strengths and weaknesses. at the mental side of the on-track game, at intimidation and stealth. cunning. anyway absolutely zero prizes for guessing who slots into number one and two here. all of the things I just described are very closely associated with valentino, and this is basically his category. I'm thinking what he did to sete specifically. I'm thinking how he completely switched it up against casey at laguna 2008. I'm thinking how he did that last corner overtake on casey catalunya 2007, saved it away, then did it for the win against jorge at catalunya 2009 after visualising it the week before that. it's that bloody assen 2015 chicane trick on marc - idc if that was planned or not (all right, I deeply deeply care), but either way what a clever way of stealing a win. it's the success rate in last lap duels... and then, of course, there's all the more general stuff - we've already discussed tyre preservation above, generally speaking prime valentino was excellent at controlling races across very different eras

marc clocks in second - prime marc was again just. ridiculously good at controlling races, especially in the tyre preservation era post 2015. knows when to push, knows when to not... I will yap on forever about how neat I find his 2016 campaign, by far the most cruelly overlooked of his titles just because he didn't 'win' a lot of 'races'. who cares about that, check out the consistency!! elite at race management!! marc does have a brain and he can choose to engage it, and he does prove as much on the track - he's good at a lot of risk/reward judgements, and he'd better be because otherwise with his riding style it'd be far more of a trail of carnage than it already is at times. the head loss to riding style trade off actually isn't too bad with him, relatively speaking. he's been doing some very strong race management this year, if at times from un-ideal starting positions - again, le mans main race says hi. plus, the dogfights man... not the actual fighting bit, the tyre preservation bit. unless you want to get into conspiracy theory territory, which surely nobody would want to, let's just assume that in phillip island 2015 he hadn't actually been planning to just find a bunch of extra tyre on the last lap - but phillip island 2017 and assen 2018 he times it perfectly. that being said. okay. it just has to be acknowledged. marc. we need to work on making more of these overtakes stick. yes, I've made the arguments myself, he tends to be in duels he has no right to be engaged in in the first place, he's on the limit at some of his poorer tracks, it's impressive and intimidating he's there in the first place... and I do believe all of those things! but the thing is when you tell everyone you go for every gap, and then riders are deliberately leaving you a gap knowing you will go for it, and then they get back at you, and then they do it literally seven times in one race... marc, come on. I'm on my knees. I was literally on my knees during aragon 2021. he does this against valentino, against dovi, against pecco, man even against jorge once or twice, and it does drive you a little insane sometimes. too much red mist!! too much red mist. stop being suckered into making the move marc I am so very much on my knees

with the other three, I've already kinda discussed what I'd mention here elsewhere. like, casey... idk it's a tough one because I don't think it's harsh to judge him on a tiny sample size, but if you've engaged in like. ten extended duels in the premier class and you've crashed in two of them, then unfortunately it does make me raise an eyebrow more than if you've crashed out of two from fifty, right? he does get a bit red mist-y, not just when he's punching people in practise sessions, but also like. occasionally in races. he's red mist-y in laguna '08, sachsenring '12, mugello '12... I don't think he's even mad necessarily (well, obviously he is in laguna), just kinda very dog with a bone. (biggest valentino in-race anger-affected errors of judgement are ofc qatar 2004 + sepang 2015, btw. marc I'm not gonna give the obvious and instead throw in a cute jerez 2024 sprint, like dude please stop attempting to murder joan enough.) he's decent at race management in general, though idk my issue with some of these alien wins is that, I get it's unfair, but I'm just not really that impressed with 'managing' a gap of six seconds? like congrats on being fast and not chucking it I guess. jerez 2012 + estoril 2012 are really neat in that regard though, he's proud of them for good reason. also, again, could've easily lost a few valentino fights that he didn't. with jorge... yeah, he's excellent at race management!! also a smart tussler, got those silverstone 2013 and mugello 2016 and austria 2018 wins to go too. think I do slightly hold some of the dovi losses over the course of his career against him lol. I mean, losing to dovi in direct fights does very much happen to the best of them, and this is another category in which dovi would obviously be in contention for top spot. both jorge and dani are very very strong at race managing, in particular when they're at the front, and they're capable of outsmarting opponents... again for dani, aragon + motegi 2015 do stick in the mind. valencia 2017 was suchhhh a good win too, so much going on in that race and he was smart enough to emerge on top. look, the tyre preservation thing was very good for all three of them, they could all manage races, they all had a few rough ones w2w, also you can make casey mad and spook dani. you can make jorge mad too actually

10. strategy + work process

stuff I considered: tendency to get it 'right' with team, from set up to tyre choice to improvement over the course of the weekend. also flag to flag races

easy marc win, and a big part of it really is just how that bloke fucking nailed flag to flag races. like, jesus christ, he had the cheat code to those things. how do you just make right call after right call, truly obscene. if I'm some random midfield rider, I'm telling my team to make me copy whatever he's doing like idc. also, okay, a lot of weekends he started strong, but the ones where he didn't? he ended the weekend fast. like, he's good on fridays, he's excellent on saturdays, but there really were plenty of weekends where his sundays were the strongest of them all. found a bunch of extra pace down the back of the couch overnight. 2016-19 was obviously super big on the tyre preservation and yup, got truly elite at that too - sure, some of that is just raw skill, but some of that is also prep work and knowing what you need to be doing at what stage of the race. valentino clocks in second here, and a lot of these things are broadly true of him too, especially the finding pace overnight thing. most infamous example is of course laguna 2008 - yeah, sure, tactics are great and all, but he needed to make a step to even stick close enough to casey to fuck with him. a lot of his race weekends went like that! the blot in his copybook is... dude. what the fuck is wrong with your flag to flag strategies. like it genuinely is not your inability to ride in those situations because you're clearly fine at THAT bit, but what's going on with the communication and decision-making thing here. it's also sometimes THE most obvious shit??? not to be all armchair expert here but scotty beam me in, send me back to 2006 EYE will fix valentino's f2f. it's so bad!! I don't get how bad it is!! with marc, the biggest blot is phillip island 2013 - which, I don't care he was 20 years old, I get it was his rookie season, but it could have easily cost him the title and it's such a truly abysmal fuck up that it still makes me shake my head to think about. genuinely inexcusable lol, the backstory of the whole thing is also so incredibly stupid. marc's not the main issue here, but this entire component is kinda rated by your entire team so. I mean, look, he's still on top

after that, I'm not massively fussed about the order - though again with casey I do think it's notable he was also pretty strong at the 'finding pace overnight' trick. he was kinda.... you know, he was already so strong on friday, which WAS an advantage but he discusses in his autobiography that it almost made it tricky to know where to go from there lol. but they still figured it out!! just good at figuring out ways to win. jorge did play some proper blinders f2f which I'm giving him brownie points for, some... less ideal decisions. I'm sorry, I'm also gonna dock him a few points for some of the ducati races where he was leading early on burning through his tyres and then dropping back. I think that can happen once, or maybe even twice, but like. too often, eventually u need to maybe change up the strategy and figure out what can work now. dani generally speaking was not doing that, and yeah, a few very strong 'yup you got the approach to tyre preservation exactly right' contenders, but also really did not do well in flag to flag races... tricky one because yeah with him and jorge, they were a bit less likely to find the pace overnight (casey did kinda allude to this in his autobiography lol)

graphs :)

okay. lemme show my video game-y radar charts <3

valentino:

dani:

casey:

jorge:

marc:

and combined, because well if you've read this far I might as well not play coy here:

anyway. look

I don't. love. what I've done to jorge specifically. and there's one massive jorge strong point that I could not figure out how to rank for everyone else, but feel very very strongly he is very very good at: some kind of clutch factor. this is KINDA captured by the reliability metric, but I don't quite think that one's enough... I don't think this specifically shines when he's on the heat of battle, but it does shine when he's late in a season when he needs to maximise those results to keep his title bid in good health. the glaring exception is phillip island 2009, but, well, valentino has a valencia 2006, marc has a... I know it didn't cost him but valencia 2017 was not a good performance. but! apart from that, if you look at jorge's track record from then on late in seasons when it's his own title bid (also excluding 2017 here) on the line... proper good shit. that late 2012 stretch where dani was on a different planet and jorge kept showing up to bag second place. I know I was ragging on 2015 earlier on and I'm not like, massively moved by most of that jorge season, and I still fundamentally think that if you're leading the last lap of phillip island by as much as he was, I don't care if it's literally jesus of nazareth on that motorcycle chasing after you - you should be making it a little bit harder for the guy behind. that being said, sepang was a+ given he really didn't have that much pace (lil bit of luck at the start and then those two bozos behind him did kinda help his cause, but still he did his job), and valencia was straight up excellent. I know he didn't win the title, but late 2013 was probably like. his career best stretch. the valencia 2013 performance is genuinely one of his best races. that's clutch!! that's what he's all about!! he can bring home a title!!

that being said. I had no clue how to compare that to the other four riders, not least because casey literally has not been in a close title fight with a few races to go. just wanted to say it! I also don't think all these categories are equal - like I think I said at the top, being a wet weather rider is nice but it is fundamentally not as important as being a strong qualifier. I just don't love these categories in general? I was trying to think of a way of splitting up qualifying into two different categories, couldn't think of one, tried to think of something for tyre preservation beyond inelegantly including it in strategy, didn't think of anything. easier to come up with this stuff with tennis, and obviously also easier to just like. judge pure performance because you don't have all these extraneous categories. also I kinda think these riders are basically equal on some of these categories, but also if you're doing a ranking then ranking something as equal best is chicken shit

I think generally it's good to have your radar chart arranged in an order where it's not too spiky (listen if you're still reading this post, that's really on you), so that there's a kinda correlation between the bits that are next to each other. broadly most of them do do this in a sort of 'huh dani pedrosa would have benefited from the sprint race format over the course of a full season' way. they're all not too spiky... I kept running into the sample size issue with casey, where it's just like... look, he had a fantastic career, but also in the premier class a lot of the 2007 to 2012 races were very same-y and you kinda need that variety to judge. so a lot of the times with him I'm kinda going off vibes? like I think he's good at certain things, I reckon he'd probably struggle with xyz if he'd had more of a chance to do it, and extrapolate from that. which obviously isn't a great way of doing these things. basically, I massively rate him, I think valentino had the slight edge against him in wheel to wheel but the fact that it was 'slight' given that's valentino's number one selling point tells you enough, and I wish we could have put him into more varied race and championship standings situations to see what he does. like, the overtaking ability ranking clearly is in large part that laguna 2011 overtake just sort of killing my brain

anyway from this it feels like I think marc is the most well-rounded rider, which I probably stand by? the more I dig into valentino's actual qualifying numbers, the more I do feel like I'm maybe being a bit harsh, like yeah age-based decline we get it but during his prime... also, maybe I'm a bit too mean about the starts... but yeah, idk, they're definitely bigger flaws you can point to with valentino's game than any equivalent for marc. also genuinely do think the flag to flag thing was abysmal, I refuse to believe that's not something that wasn't fixable. I still think marc's wheel to wheel is the bit where around silverstone 2019 I was kinda going 'okay love this for you but do you maybe want to WIN one of these' (and then he immediately made baby!fabio miserable). like, again, super cool he's dragging that honda into places it doesn't belong, still need to work on that conversion rate. also, there was a bit of a 'how to fight marc' playbook by then and it's the equivalent of tying a red flag to the side of the motorbike and practically inviting him to have a go. worked a bit too often! that's like, gonna be one of the most interesting aspects of the pecco/marc rivalry because if I did this for PECCO then he would genuinely be in contender for top spot for the defensive riding category (best three defensive riders this century are him, dovi and valentino in no particular order, I really do believe this). that being said, obviously the qualifying thing is bonkers, yeah, as is anything with sketch grip. my laguna 2011 equivalent for marc is that brno 2019 quali lap. mostly I think of a hypothetical casey/marc rivalry more as like. how it would psychologically torture casey. but obviously in terms of the sport itself it would've been very cool to see them face off with that kind of thing

with jorge, again, I don't feel like these specific metrics really capture what made him so good. there's no way to phrase 'unbeatable on his day' as both like, a workable metric and also something that doesn't sound kinda patronising. 'situational dominance', idk. I also wouldn't know how you'd rank the aliens for that, except valentino would be last. my main thing with jorge is always kinda getting annoyed whenever he goes missing, something I suspect would be punished more in today's motogp - but also in 2010 and 2012 specifically, that did happen very rarely. with dani, it was always the wheel to wheel stuff that was just kinda. meh. he's another one who isn't super well served by these categories, like if there's a 'technically very clean' or 'picks very nice lines' category, he'd be on top? idk man. send in alternative suggestions or shout abuse at me for not being kind enough to your favourite alien. in conclusion, I think they're cool. I'm sorry for insulting all of them a lot

[silver-itallics]

Last Light

Warnings: canon typical violence, heavy angst, hurt no comfort, you guys will be mad at me

a/n: I was thinking about when Leigh mentioned in the saw commentary that someone wrote a monologue from Lawrence's point of view after leaving the bathroom and I wanted to write one for Adam

"I'm a liar?"

"I wouldn't lie to you."

Liar, lies. Seems like either way, Adam is getting screwed over.

He sits in the dark, dingy bathroom, his eyes still struggling to adjust. His throat is raw and aching from all the screaming and crying. Not even the hardest sex could have done that to him.

God, he's really gonna die having fucked one person.

All of his relationships were mediocre, even the platonic ones. Scott treated him like shit, the guy probably hasn't even noticed that he's gone.

Has anyone?

Lawrence is someone that would be noticed, he's got a wife and kids for fucks sake.

"I've got a family too, Lawrence! I don't talk to them anymore, that's my mistake. A mistake I'd like to fix."

One of the last things he remembers at the apartment is scribbling "Call mom?" On a crumpled post it and sticking it to the wall. The paper has probably fallen down by now. Forgotten.

Are his parents even looking for him?

Probably not. They probably haven't noticed either.

Everything that Adam does ends up screwing him in the end, just like this. But he can't really blame anyone but himself, can he? Not even $200 was worth being stuck in this bathroom. Doesn't even soften the fact that he'll probably be here forever.

The money was meant to go for his food. Not a camera, not developing fluid, not even that shiny new pokemon game Adam wanted. Food.

A necessity he barely even had.

"Why? Call it my need to eat."

He remembers snapping at Lawrence like it was the most obvious answer. But food is a luxury even Adam can't afford. The guy lives off of ramen noodles and sodas from the gas station. Sometimes he even wonders why he never gained any weight since he ate such shit.

His mom was never the greatest cook, but he'd take soggy meatloaf and unseasoned mashed potatoes any day.

At the thought, Adam's stomach rumbles. His guts ache from hunger, but he's not a stranger to it. That's usually how his day goes.

He can't even blame Jigsaw for trapping him here. But in all honesty, Adam has done so much self sabotaging, that he's probably done worse to himself than the man that left him here.

He's felt worse betrayal than when the dead man stood up, peeled the fake skin off his skull and left him here.

"Game over!"

Dead man. Adam squints in the darkness, trying to make out Zep's corpse. He's not even sure why. The first time he saw a dead body, or what he thought was one, he puked his guts out into the tub. Couldn't even keep down his latest meal.

He'll probably starve even quicker now.

The room smells like blood, and his fingers are sticky from the same substance. Not only is he a voyeur, he's a killer. Maybe his last girlfriend was right: he's too angry.

Adam isn't very good at anatomy, at least the human side of it. But he knows he broke through layers of skin and bone when he'd crushed through the hospital orderly's skull.

"It's the rules!"

Knowing now, he feels guilty. Awful, even. Guy probably had a family too, even if he was a bit of a creep. Where do you draw the line of deserving a family? What's so bad that you no longer are worthy of someone related by blood? Adam's probably the worst person to ask that.

He'd stormed out on his parents after a petty argument, an excuse to leave. One that he'd been wanting to have since he was seventeen. Somehow, he'd convinced himself that they wouldn't accept him, even if they let him drop out of high school and didn't even call the cops when he left. But was that tolerance or pure disinterest?

Maybe he's not a total waste of time, since his mom had called not long before he got his power knocked out the same way he was.

"Adam, your father's not angry anymore."

Lawrence had a home, a family. A good one, too. The pictures he saw of Diana and Alison made him crack a smile. At least before the one with them tied up. He shivers, probably both from disgust and blood loss.

His shoulder aches, oozing blood all over his shitty thrift store clothes. Adam understands why Doctor Gordon left. He has some place to go, people to welcome him home with open arms. Most places Adam went, he wasn't even noticed.

He kicks with his right foot in anger, the chain rattling as he does. The metal bites into his skin and the amount of pain he's in is just frustrating at this point. Adam screams, but his voice is raw and broken.

As much as he hopes the doctor will come back for him, at least he has half the brain to know that Lawrence probably won't make it. The man that he's had the first physical touch from in months is probably bleeding out in the sewers, and there's nothing he can do about it.

He doesn't even have a choice to cut off his foot like the doctor did. Sure, the blood loss will probably kill him, but Adam is sick of waiting around for something to happen. A job to drop, a phone call.

But he can't even do that.

The hacksaw he found in the toilet had snapped in half. A result of his ever consuming anger. Seems like everything he does leads back to that.

"I see a strange mix of someone who's angry, yet apathetic. But mostly just pathetic."

If Adam isn't angry at the world, he's angry with himself. He feels like a waste of space on the good days and a tumor on the face of the earth on the bad ones. At least with photography he felt like he had a purpose, even if it was supplying creeps and weirdos with material. He wasn't really helping anyone, was he? Even Tapp ended up dead.

But Lawrence helps people. Even if he thought the guy was initially a jerk, Adam admires him. Misses the man's blood stained hands as he cupped his cheeks.

"I wanted to be a vet."

That way, he'd benefit the world somehow. Even if he was pulling tennis balls out of dogs' throats or cleaning up puke every day. He'd much rather smell vomit, as he's getting quite sick of the coppery scent of blood.

"That's nonsense. I've seen kids with brain cancer graduate high school from a hospital bed."

"They got further than I ever did."

Adam has been pretty able bodied his whole life. While he'd consider it a nuisance that his body doesn't match up with his own view of himself, that's not a disability.

Maybe his parents wouldn't even mind, maybe they'd help him with the cost of surgery and injections. But he hadn't even told them. His parents barely know who he is. Adam barely knows himself.

"What do voyeurs see when they look in the mirror?"

Nothing. The answer is nothing.

He's like a leech, sucking the energy and luck out of everyone around him.

Now he's left to sit in his own grave- metaphorically and literally. He probably won't even have the luxury of being buried or cremated.

Hopefully someone will come around and put him out of his misery. Like a calf with two heads or a dog with rabies.

But until then, he's left to wait.

[waywardstation]

alright here we go...

I've brought together the basic outline of my idea... and since I said I share it here I am!

I really hope you like it and it is something interesting for you! I had a lot of fun fleshing out these ideas so it's alright.

~-~-~-~-~

Like it is established in your thoughts Warden Ingo is like an empty husk of who he used to be, torn away from his old life, his memories and from Emmet. I've added to this idea that there is a link between certain humans and Reshiram + Zekrom at all times. Aside the fact these humans have a high tendency of leaning into truth/ideals there isn't much else but it gives the dragons some kind of balance and ties to the people of Unova. Kyurem being "just" the husk has no such tie to the people, though it longs for one.

Ingos ties to Zekrom has been severed when he arrived in Hisui and as there already is a human tie in this time on top of being a shadow of his former self it has become a once in a lifetime moment for Kyurem to have a human tie as well.

Kyurem feels Ingo's presence all the way in Hisui and eventually seizes the opportunity to form a human tie with him. But things go horribly wrong and Ingo ends up being in a half frozen state. Never feeling truly warm; the few things his heart remembers from his old life keeping his core just warm enough.

With ice leaking out of him and an incident where he almost hurts (or does hurt) someone(not sure who), he steps down as a Warden and Instructor at the Dojo and decides to hide in one of the many ice caves in the Icelands, so he can no longer be a danger to the people. After all safety of others comes first, no matter what.

Enter Akari who just refuses to leave Ingo to his own misery and is determined to help him out of this no matter how. And no matter what it takes.

(I've also thought of the idea that since Ingo's tie with Zekrom has been severed it affects present Unova as well. With Zekrom being restless + causing random thunderstorms all over Unova. I can see N seeking out the Pokemon trying to find out what's wrong. Not sure though how much Emmet will be involved, I can see him being affected by the severed tie as well as Reshiram, not sure how at this moment though... Especially since Emmet isn't even aware of his tie... just that something is horribly wrong beside that Ingo is missing.)

~-~-~-~-~

and there you have it.

Its really just a rough outline, I think it will get better over time and sound less "rough"...

also excuse any mistakes. There are times I feel the face english isn't my native tongue come through and this might be one...

Hope you like it! Take all the time you need to reply! I am a bit nervous but I'm sure I'll be fine!

In regards to this post

OHHHH OH THIS IS SO COOL I LOVE THIS CONCEPT!! Kyurem wanting a connection with someone but it can’t in its empty state, augh… ;n;

MAN. I could certainly see how this tie would be severed especially if Ingo was placed into a different timeline when this happened (a timeline where he already exists and is fine in the present/hasn’t been sent back yet?). Putting something into a timeline separate from the Zekrom he’s connecting to, and into a timeline where a “him” already exists and is connected to that timeline’s zekrom would leave him without a connection at all. (WHEW THATS CONFUSING but I see your vision and ITS VERY VERY GOOD)

Especially if Ingo doesn’t know exactly what’s going on with this persistent cold and this feeling of connection, I could see why he’d want to separate himself from a situation. Even if it wasn’t a terribly bad incident, don’t give things a chance to do something worse, especially if you don’t understand what you’re dealing with.

I AM GLAD TO HEAR AT LEAST AKARI IS THERE TO HELP WHEN HE TRIES TO WITHDRAW. They will figure out what’s going on together!!!

I love the thought of Zekrom becoming restless. A tie was severed!! I doubt either of them have ever dealt with a situation like that and even know what a severed tie feels like. And the thought of N trying to figure things out and talk to the dragons as well… SO GOOD.

WHAT A GOOD OUTLINE, FRIEND!! I’m so glad you shared it, I enjoy this concept a lot and would love to hear additions you make to it as time goes on!! Thank you for sharing!!

[corvid-language-library]

Still dealing with ED bullshit hence the whole "not very active on here" thing, but I'm still studying Japanese hard. I've started working through JLPT N3 vocab alongside playing Pokemon, reading manga and watching anime and I really feel like that active vocab study is helping me improve. I feel like every day I come across a kanji or a word or a grammar pattern I just studied!

Productive skills still leave a lot to be desired, but, well. I'm getting there. I'm much more willing to at least try now, even if my attempts frequently end in failure.

I want to get back on here. I want to go back to being a real person with hobbies and stuff. I want to share all my adventures and funny anecdotes with you guys. But I tend to log out of here because I don't want to accidentally post something triggering. I feel simultaneously like I'm letting people down for not posting and like I'm arrogant for thinking anyone would notice or care 🙄

Having an ED is fucking boring honestly, I have no energy and the little energy I do have seems to be spent doing fucking maths. I'm not ready to get help or try recovering yet though. I'm barely even willing to admit I have a problem, and I'm only really saying it here because I feel guilty for not posting (and honestly I just feel like I'm making excuses for being lazy. Except I'm not being lazy; I have no energy and I can't focus on shit because I'm not fucking eating enough, which I logically know).

Anyway. I hope everyone's doing well and I hope I can come back soon. I've made all the images for June's Norwegian WOTD posts and just need to write sample sentences and queue them up. It's not gonna happen today though, so they'll be coming a little late. I'm sorry about that.

[stestir]

Heres my rant about Amethio age discussion and why I think the age range excuse is stupid. I should probably keep this out of the main tag, but I'm tired, sick, and angry, so idc.

Big really angry rant under the line.

So please can anyone explain to me why everyone thought that VAs comment about Amethio being a teen means hes between 13-19 and also 100% CAN be a 19 years old?

Cause English says that a teen is between 13 and 19? Well we all know that English has a lot of stupid stuff in it, so doesnt really count. Plus, quick reminder, this is anime. Japan. The meaning behind teenager could be very different here.

The difference between 13 and 19 years old is so contrast that giving Amethio this range in the first place is moronic. A 13 years old still needs to ask their daddy to go out with their friends. 19 years old already expected to pay taxes, move out of the house, is probably already on a antidepressants.

And the thing is, Amethio doesnt even act like a 19 years old! He acts like a 14 years old emo that tries his very best to look serious and is desperate for attention.

The whole his beef with Friede is a big ass example of this, that Anime just shoves into your face! Amethio becames irrated immediately after Friede stops giving attention to him, everything in his actions screams "Take me seriously!" He wants to be seen as a professional serious trainer by someone who has authority [ Friede ] and is hurt when it doesnt happen. Its literally how neglected children act.

Also the whole excuse with "B-but hes working with Explorers and has his own subordinates that he commands" GUESS WHO ALSO A MINOR BUT IS A BOSS OF A SHIP? ZUKO. The literal icon of redemption arcs. He also was casted away in the age of 13 and had a whole small army under his command. Does that make him an adult? NO. Both Amethio and Zuko are clearly special, thats why they both are forced into a weapon by their respective parential abusers [ Ozai / Gibeon ], and given some special privileges to make it seem that thse abusers love them, when in fact they are just using them.

He doesnt look like a 19 years old either! His body type barely resembles one of Friede or Spinel, both being a clear cut adults. And before someone says "Well I think that Friede looks 20 and that Amethio is just a really twigy guy" no hes bloody not! Reminder, this is pokemon, we have Lusamine and Cyrus that look like 20 and 40, but actually the opposite. And the thing is, Amethio closely resembles Silver with his body! Whos, yk, A CANONICAL 13 YEARS OLD.

What is more hysterical to me is when the Interviews AND Anime itself start to make parallels between Amethio and the kid Trio, whos, yk, OBVIOUSLY KIDS. Like- in both interviews before the big arcs the boy was compared to Liko & Roy [ And Dot, by extension. ] Amethio was literally called a kid alongside the kid Trio, [ One of the kids that still havent found their dream ] which not only makes him a minor, but also puts him the same age group with Liko, Roy and Dot!

And Anime situation is even more comedic. Khem khem. Literally an episode that got out not so long ago, 44. Amethio is called a spoiled brat by Sango [ Which already makes him a kid, but alas ]. Guess who was also called a spoiled kid? LIKO. BY MOLLIE IN THE ABROLIVA EPISODE. Liko, whos canonically we seen as a child child in the episode 18, was called the same thing as Amethio. I get that Anime tries to make parallels between them in general, but that doesnt matter to me now. The most important thing is - they are both viewed as a kids. Yk. MINORS.

Ending this, I'll say - Amethio is a barely 14, maybe at maximum 15, and he is sure is not a 19 years old. I'm sure hes in the same age bracket as Liko, Roy and Dot.

Also AmeFriede is the worst ship that deserves its own place in hell, alongside AmeSpinel. I hate both of these. They are bad from all perspectives.

[ Also, this is the angriest I felt lately, so I wont probably post any other rants like that. This is just me being beaten down by flu and projecting my anger towards this shitty and stupid "discussion". ]

[charcadett]

Hi I really love your indirect kisses post!!! It’s super cute and I love how you wrote each character’s personality 🥰🥰🥰

Could I request Rika x Reader, with a reader who melts easily whenever they are teased/flirted with? Thanks so much and I hope you have a great day every day!!! 💖💖💞💕

Thank yooou! I love the indirect kisses post. I was possessed by demons(good) while writing that one. Rika is unironically character of all time. She is so *kicks feet and twirls hair* I definitely ended up making this sound pre-relationship, but I think it can be read as established too?? Maybe.

Rika With A Reader Who Melts When Teased

- The first time you blush and stutter out a response in regards to her teasing, you watch as a grin stretches across her face from one ear to the other. She looks at you like she just won the lottery. If it was anyone else, you’d be worried. Rika is kind, and while playful, she always respects boundaries. The warmth of being wanted flutters in your stomach. You suppose there could be worse people to get attention from.

- Rika is always touching you throughout the day: an arm around your shoulder, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear, linking her pinkie with yours while you walk. She especially loves it when you curl into her hold to hide your blush against her chest. Her favorite reaction, however, is when you let out a stuttery laugh, your lips curled into an adorable smile. It makes her want to scoop you up in her arms and run off into the sunset. Which she’ll tell you with a grin of her own if only to watch you get all flustered.

- If you’re easily startled, Rika takes it upon herself to sneak up on you every chance she gets. You’ll be working away at your desk, in the middle of Pokemon League paperwork and, all of a sudden, Rika’s very cold hands are against the back of your neck. As always, you let out a yelp and Rika laughs over how cute you are before plopping next to you in your chair and asking how your day’s been.

- During her lunch break, you notice that she’s started packing more and more of your favorite foods. It’s a not so subtle excuse to feed you. She doesn’t even try to hide it. If you start doing the same, it’ll be Rika who is flustered this time around. She’ll rub the back of her neck, avert her eyes, and mutter a thank you, pretending that this isn’t the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for her.

- All this being said, Rika takes care to be aware of your boundaries. She never wants to push you too far or make you uncomfortable. If anything she does bothers you, may it be an aversion to physical contact or maybe her teasing hit a little too close to home, tell her. Rika will sheepishly apologize and never do it again.

[weekend-whip]

Ninjago Fic Rec Week: Day 2

Prompts: AU+Movieverse/Jay Recs! *vibrates at the thought of Jay content*

AU/Movieverse Recs:

if you could date any of the ninja, which one would you date?: Lloyd experiences the world's worst second-hand embarrassment and the rest of the ninja absolutely are not helping. Not actually shippy, just really funny and Lloyd has a (mostly) light-hearted hard time.

Reference Letters: Kai is tasked with recruiting some fresh talent to the Secret Ninja Force, and what starts as a joke to welcome Lloyd Garmadon into the squad turns into a genuine crusade for his friendship. The Green Ninja, however, is having none of that. (It goes exactly how you expect it to and gah it's beautiful. Kai and Lloyd duo forever!)

Who's the New Guy? He Looks Awfully Green: Movieverse fic in which Lloyd is the last to become a ninja, and the last to learn everyone else's identities. It's full of team-bonding (collectively and one-on-one!), hilarious Wu moments, and Movie!Lloyd being Movie!Lloyd ;w;)/

Jay Recs:

Unfortunately, You're Amazing: Jay faces the dilemma of *maybe* possibly kinda sorta having a small little totally non-consequential thing for Samurai X. But beyond that Jay just gets to be his dorky, smart, snarky, easily impressed self and it's so fun and delightful to read, I go back to it all the time!

Play to Win: An au/ canon divergent whump fic where Jay and Cole are roped into a round of Scrap-N-Tap...and that description does NOT do it justice, but if you like emotional tension, a heaping of personal distress, and a Jay who is unfortunately one step ahead of everyone else, you'll love this. Probably not for the faint of heart, definitely for the angsty daredevils (such as myself)

Jay and the Important Differences Between Spider Pokemon: Pokemon AU that explores Jay's "perplexing" fear of spiders post S6. A fascinating and fun idea for a plot, plus, there's Pokemon. it's all good stuff!

And She Wore Blue, Right?: Jay starts suddenly having reason to look into who his birth mother is...was. Hits just right for people who've always wondered how the show might have tackles this little interesting conundrum.

turtle or the hare: WOW I forgot I read this one aaaaaaaa BUT Jay inadvertently meets his bio mom in a rather...expected place. God their personalities are so similar yet mesh so well hnnnnnnnng (we could have had it aaaaaaall)

Jay and the Deafening Sound: ...this one's mine BUT I've got all three categories covered—extremely about Jay, takes place in the movieverse, and has shades of my legacyverse au to boot <3 Not-so long story short, Jay finds himself up against the main faction of the Shark Army all on his own and finally has a good excuse to pop off with his powers <3

this doesn't really have a title but it IS really very good: A scene or so where Jay and Kai spat over caring for each other too much and it's just such a beautiful depiction of their relationship, rocky tho it may seem ;w;)/

The Fantastic Mr. Walker: All these years later and it's still my favorite Jay-related thing to exist. Really gotta re-read it again so I can be delightedly distressed all over again <3

[justsigma-bsd]

ooc: sketches

I was debating whether or not to post them here or on my main, but I guess you can see the result- I did them a few days ago and went "okay why not" bc... felt like sharing I guess?

I feel like I messed up Karma- the shirt is supposed to be red. It does not look red.

(Silently suffers in "can't draw hats)

(Silently suffers in "can't draw hats and drew a small one for shits n giggles & to prove a point)

Do I currently remember why there's a random s in the upper corner of Nikolai's photo? Nope, I just know that sketch was near the top of the page where I put some sort of "sketch exercise" note lmao

And as a bonus because it's still in my camera roll from my last week of actual school:

Please excuse the korok that one was a mistake (also the star). The pokemon (that isn't the tortoise one) is a design made by my friend! Same goes for the bunny (and technically the flower-thingy next to it).

I was going to draw the hangman-Dazai thing from Kunikida's phone call (?), but since this kinda was in school... well, you can see why that didn't happen (the teachers left it mostly in one piece and didn't really bat an eye besides one immediately knowing it was either my friend or I).

If anyone somehow recognizes the photo, no you don't :)

[i-never-forgot]

"In the Morning Light" Canon Timeline

In light of posting my fic(s), I wanted to clarify my AU for the sake of comprehension since there are some timeloop shenanigans that occur that may make it confusing, especially since I have somehow ended up writing it all backwards lol.

This is going to be a mess of bare minimum (but we know it's going to be long-winded—c'mon, guys, it's my writing we're talking about) plot points to explain the premise of my perpetual WIP fanfic, my OC(s), and the potential AUs that may be involved. Buckle in for a whole lot of nonsense, my dudes—this is really just me trying to get everything in my head on paper, so to speak, so I don't really know who will be interested in reading all this lol, but I appreciate all of those that do. This has been stewing in the back of my mind since 2015 so…yeah.

This outline is broken down into acts, so it follows the basic canon storyline of the game until the post-game's ending, from which it deviates. (As always, questions about any of this are more than welcome in my askbox! I relish any excuse to yap about my babies!)

[Divider credit]

"Past" Arc:

[The events of "A Stagnant Life" occur.]

Eliana wakes up in the paralyzed future and thinks she's dreaming. She rescues a terrified, treed Treecko from getting trampled by a rampaging Nidoqueen by distracting her, tumbling into a ravine and hurting herself in the process, then falling unconscious. When she wakes up, the Treecko is there and...talking to her, asking if she's all right, and trying to give her a berry. That's a lot to process with a concussion, but, at this point, after taking in the decaying scenery and strangeness of it all, that seems the least fantastical element involved in her current predicament.

He convinces her to go back to his cramped cave at the top of the other side of the ravine, afraid of being out in the open for too long, and asks her what kind of Pokemon she is. She explains that she's a human, he's confused. She tries to explain that she's obviously not from the area, but isn't entirely sure how she got there—the memories are...fuzzy, for reasons that she can't seem to fathom.

Treecko says, after some questions of her own about sleeping off their injuries for the night and figuring things out in the morning, that he doesn't even know what "the sun" is. It's always dark, always silent, and the vast majority of other Pokemon are feral and violent. The poor thing has no concept of time and is extremely timid and soft-spoken, and he's obviously intimidated by Eliana in general (but especially by her size and comparatively incredible strength), yet he seems to trust her despite himself for that one act of kindness she gave him...of course, that may also have to do with the fact that he looks like he's never gotten a full hour of sleep and seems cripplingly lonely and starved for touch and company, too.

Despite the grief and trauma surrounding the loss of her original childhood partner Pokemon, Eliana's initial insistence on only keeping an eye on the little creature that had inadvertently saved her life with oddly potent naturally medicinal fruit long enough to figure out what in the hell she was going to do quickly fragments when she starts teaching him how to battle to defend himself, rescues him from a couple more dangerous situations, and answers his endless questions to the best of her ability. (She's only known this Treecko for what should've been a couple of days and if anything happened to him, she would kill everyone in that fucked up frozen world and then herself.) She decides very early on that she would lay her life on the line for him, even if she doesn't openly admit to having an attachment to him to herself until much later on.

She learns about mystery dungeons when he runs out of supplies and she figures out that the only way to get fresh food and water is to enter these odd, labyrinthian structures and to emerge successfully on the other side because, oddly enough, things seem to have been “sealed” in a way that regenerates the feral Pokémon and the items. Treecko is terrified of having to go into them because of the other Pokémon since they attack anything that moves, but Eliana starts coaxing him to try. She figures out how to use throwing items, seeds, and orbs as means of defense since she obviously has no moves, and very slowly Treecko starts to get stronger and more confident.

One “day” Eliana finds a Dig TM before they emerge on the other side, and they pass a local pond on the way home. Eliana stops by the water while Treecko stays near the treeline with their finds, but she’s attacked by a Mightyena and gets pinned under the water to drown her. Treecko accidentally activates the Dig TM, learns it, and defeats the Mightyena by using it—it’s the first time he’s knocked out a Pokémon on his own. He’s frantic about whether Eliana’s okay and clings to her well after they fall asleep.

Eliana receives her first Dimensional Scream soon after this, although she doesn’t understand what it is and thinks she might be hallucinating. (*I haven’t decided what it will be yet, but for this “future” portion of the fic, I would utilize the “past” dialogues—just like the hero captures glimpses of Grovyle’s dialogue in the past, e.g. Foggy Forest.) They're staying near Treeshroud Forest, so this is what triggers it, but they don't realize there's a Time Gear there until later.

She grows too curious about the state of this world to stay put any longer, and she tells Treecko that she wants to explore it to see what happened—she’s explained to him how it should be, but he’s never witnessed anything different. He’s understandably wary about the idea of traveling long distances, and Eliana tells him that he doesn’t have to go with her—since he has a home here and feels safe, she could leave him with what they had gathered the last several trips to the local mystery dungeons and gather her own stuff as she goes along.

(However, she doesn’t realize that the reason Treecko feels safe now is because he’s met her—she’s boosted his confidence, has taught him how to battle, and has been his sole companion in almost all of his life. He owes her everything, he feels, so he decides to go with her in order not to lose her.)

[The events of the top half of "Cuddles" occur.]

They travel along an old path that leads, unbeknownst to them, southwest. Eventually they reach the coast and discover the ruins of a town. Eliana is fascinated and tries to uncover what's left, but anything valuable has already been looted. They find an underground base mostly hidden under brush pulled over its entrance. They creep inside and are attacked! But the scuffle doesn't last very long because their assailant is a) old and b) the only other sane Pokemon they've encountered.

It’s a blind, older, chronically wounded Lucario that refers to himself as the Old Master. Eliana and Treecko are uncertain what that means, exactly, and he doesn’t deign to explain it. After some convincing that they aren’t raiders, he offers for them to stay in the little underground haven he’s built. It used to be an exploration guild, he explains, and he was its master. Since the world fell apart most Pokemon either fled across the continent or were driven mad. He doesn’t admit it but Eliana can tell he’s been lonely and he’s relieved to have some company, even if he has to readjust to it some.

He starts explaining what he knows—which is quite a lot, actually, since he’s studied all of the old tomes in the Guild’s library for lack of better things to do while hiding out between ventures into local dungeons for food. He’s able to answer some of Eliana’s questions—including that the planet is paralyzed through time stopping. Eliana exhausts his knowledge and he diverts her to the library and proceeds to teach her how to read the written language(s) of their world.

Eliana is a quick study. She even uncovers and is able to read the ancient tomes composed in Unown runes since it’s similar to the alphabet with which she’s familiar. Lucario is amazed by this and by her and Treecko’s partnership. He mentions eventually that she reminds him of someone he used to know, but he can’t place it.

Eliana uncovers texts about Time Gears and their function. She proposes a crazy—but plausible— idea. It is no negligible task, but…Lucario agrees to help, tired of the world he’s been trapped in and that Treecko has been born into. They will need help if they have any hope of finding them. But even if they did manage it, since no locations were recorded in the records, how could they possibly reverse what had already happened?

They travel to what once was Capim Town on the opposite side of the coast—a long, arduous journey filled with peril. Treecko gets stronger and quicker all the while. They arrive and Eliana is met with suspicion and outright aggression—those who remembered humans before the cleansing did not approve of her presence, so she was forbidden from remaining in town. Treecko goes with Lucario when he speaks with the leaders of the town, but he’s rejected because they suspect that any tampering with the timeline would cause their erasure. Lucario declares that the world in which they live is nothing for them, nor their children, to suffer—what would it mean for them to lose their lives if countless others could be saved in the process? (Treecko adopts a lot of Lucario’s opinions on things after this, admiring him a lot for his steadfast rationale and ability to handle tense situations.)

When they leave the council chamber and return to Eliana, Lucario is discouraged. However, a moderate-sized group of townspeople follow them before they can depart and say that they're willing to help them in any way that they can to rectify the past. They end up forming the Planetary Investigation Team and start researching the cause of the planet's paralysis by uncovering other texts and such.

Lucario, Eliana, and Treecko return to the Guild and begin their plans. They determine that while their new team attempts to narrow down the possible locations of the Time Gears in the past, Lucario says that they need to find out a way to travel through time to start with. He has to work on that, but he has enough information by then to send Eliana and Treecko out into the continent to start the process of elimination on where the Time Gears might have been.

Unfortunately, all this hubbub and action has caught the attention of the spies scattered throughout the land for Primal Dialga. They report back what's going on, and Primal Dialga sends out his best henchman to determine the intentions of these insurgents and to stop them by whatever means necessary if he determines that they pose a veritable threat to the timeline. (They do, he finds.)

Eliana and Treecko start traveling around the continent counter-clockwise, first discovering the Time Gear below the Northern Desert and in Quicksand Cave thanks to another vision she receives from almost falling into the frozen quicksand. She trusts her gut, they go down, and find the first Time Gear suspended, frozen, and inert. [Since Temporal Tower had collapsed, the "feedback loop" powers they possessed went dormant. That's when they truly figure out that they have no choice but to travel back in time in order to utilize them effectively.]

They find the other Time Gears based on the possible locations Lucario marked on their map: Crystal Cave/Crossing's, Treeshroud Forest's, then Foggy Forest/Steam Cave/Fogbound Lake's. Eliana keeps having these visions, and she realizes that they're linked to the Time Gears, although she can't figure out who is in them (spoilers: it's Lu).

They have their first run-in with the Sableye when they discover the Time Gear in Limestone Cave, and Eliana and Treecko have gotten so accustomed to combat that they don't pose that much of a threat. Treecko has become confident, sure in his abilities, and he is proud that he's able to protect Eliana just like she has him.

They book it back to the Guild to report their findings to Lucario hoping he's found a solution. He has: Celebi, the Time Travel Pokemon. He hopes that they can find her if they find a Passage of Time, and one is located near the Mystifying Forest because it's a place of primordial, mystical power. There's no guarantee that Celebi will be there, but Lucario hopes to at least leave a note there in hopes that she might assist them.

However, just as they're getting ready to travel there, the Guild comes under attack. Several of Primal Dialga's servants have discovered the place and are trying to stop them...and Dusknoir is leading them. He demands their immediate surrender with a cease and desist order, stating that if they stop their plans to tamper with time that their punishment won't be as severe.

Obviously they don't agree to his terms. A tense and rapidly losing battle happens so they can fight their way back out, but Lucario sends Eliana and Treecko away while he takes on the rest of them and holds them off to buy them more time. Tearfully, they flee. Dusknoir pursues them, but they're faster since they're more familiar with the area.

They fly through the mystery dungeon and come across an old spring. Dusknoir and his Sableye ambush them there. It's a tough fight, and Dusknoir is merciless since he's decided to use force. Eliana gets hurt, Treecko gets pissed. Something about the energy that resides there reacts and Treecko evolves! Grovyle's able to beat them off and to knock Dusknoir down long enough for them to slip deeper into the forest.

He's struggling to adjust to his new form and they're both frantic at this point, on the verge of an inevitable and certain demise but he's just so proud of his new strength and Eliana's overjoyed that their bond is strong enough to afford him that, and they almost miss it when they're called into a barely-visible cave entrance. Celebi is waiting there, having known they would come because she's been watching them, wondering why Pokemon were suddenly looking for the locations of the Time Gears. She fully supports their cause and apologizes that she couldn't have been introduced to them sooner, but she was trying to avoid detection by Primal Dialga for defecting.

She leads them to the Passage of Time, explaining that she relies on its power for longer leaps like they require in order to reach the past. They're down to the wire: Dusknoir and the Sableye catch up to them just as they're getting ready to pass through. Dusknoir almost snatches Grovyle but Eliana dives in and tackles him through the Passage. Celebi flees once it's shut behind them, and Dusknoir is left cursing in their wake. (He's in deep shit with Dialga now.)

Due to the instability of the portal, Eliana and Grovyle struggle to cling to each other. It's violent, almost, throwing them about like they're in a storm. They're attacked in the midst of it, Eliana thinks it's Dusknor following them, and shields Grovyle. It sends her careening out of the Passage, freefalling over the ocean below.

"Present" Arc:

Eliana wakes up on a beach with only the memory of her name, the certainty that she should not have fur and paws, and little else save vague sensational impressions and gut feelings about certain things (and Pokemon).

A young, blind Riolu finds her and offers to patch up her wounds (after she was battered around by the storm, hit her head on a rock which resulted in a concussion and her amnesia, and nearly drowned as a result) despite his initial wariness of her rather unbelievable story, but his personal treasure is stolen by a couple of bullies and she is Not Having That Shit since he's so sweet and shy. It takes her a little bit to get used to her new body, but using items helps. Riolu is extremely grateful for her help, doesn't know how to repay her other than offering to help her in return, and offers for her to join him in going to Wigglytuff's Guild. Eliana doesn't know what else to do, so she accepts so she can at least have time to get her bearings.

She quickly trusts Riolu because of his sincerity and opts to give him a nickname. They make fast friends with the other Guild members, but Eliana is soft-spoken and reclusive, never really coming out of her shell since she's so shaken by her lack of identity and the mysterious visions she keeps having. She grows accustomed to Lu's innate and, at times, unnerving ability to tell her mood sine he sees using his aura reading ability.

[Regular plot happens, y'all know the drill. I'm trying not to make this too terribly long so I'll add anything else here if I think of anything.]

Eliana discovers that she has a passion for the historical aspects of exploration and, in order to understand the world around her, she starts reading as many books as she can get her paws on. (She's surprised that she can read all of their written languages, as well as Unown script, although she struggles with Footprint Runes). Lu tries to keep up, but a lot of times he falls asleep while she's pulling her secret all-nighters even after the Guild's curfew has passed.

They initially focus on small jobs that don't offer big rewards since those often get neglected, but as they get stronger they start focusing on ones that are more dangerous so they can help those that need it most. They ascend through the ranks rather rapidly this way compared to their peers.

Everything proceeds as normal until they return from the expedition to Fogbound Lake and Dusknoir arrives at Treasure Town. Everyone is immediately enamored with him upon their first meeting, including Lu, but Eliana senses nothing but Bad Vibes. Her hackles rise and her fur stands on end and she can't get out of the room fast enough. Lu wanted afterwards to meet him but he goes with her to conduct their business outside the Guild. They do their missions for the day and go to Spinda's to unwind.

[The events of "Inexplicable Dread" occur.] | [Here is some meta. And here is some more.]

Dusknoir shows up and Eliana panics and gives him a false name. Lu is trying to be accommodating while keeping up decorum for their visitor, so she tries to push down her anxiety for her partner's sake. Dusknoir notices her apprehension and tries to smooths things over, which makes her second-guess herself and her initial reading of him: he is kind, considerate, and interested in what she has to say. He succeeds in being the second Pokemon to get her to open up by asking her about her studies. By the end of the night she feels comfortable in his presence, but that ill feeling lingers in the back of her mind. They accidentally touch, and triggers another vision: of Dusknoir reaching out to them, stating "You two are coming with me." She runs out in fear, leaving Dusknoir concerned about her being hurt in the past (but little does he realize he's the one that did it).

Lu finds her already in bed, curled up tight with her fur on end. He manages to get her to calm down, but she refuses to share what she saw bc he just got through telling her about how nice and kind and concerned Dusknoir was about her and that he's never met anyone so sincere with such a clear, bright aura. She decides to give him a chance since Lu was able to tell Team Skull were bad eggs right away.

They start interacting with Dusknoir more, having conversations here and there, and Eliana and the ghost-type are able to have intense debates or discussions about hypotheses that surpass anyone else's realm knowledge. Dusknoir loves listening to her talk since she's so articulated and wise beyond her years (until she reveals she's older than she looks, being a first-form Pokemon) and he'll actually go full-throttle explaining things since he doesn't have to stop, slow down, and give extensive context for his subject matter bc she already knows what he's talking about. Eliana develops a fondness for the bass rumble of his voice, like thunder, and she falls asleep a couple of times listening to his veritable lectures. She adores his patience, gentleness, and willingness to share his vast knowledge.

[The events of "Trust" occur.] | [Here is its meta.]

When Dusknoir rescues them from Amp Plains, offering to carry them back to town because of their wounds and fondly murmuring, "You two are coming with me," Eliana decides that she trusts him completely. He has brought no harm upon them, he has helped the both to be more confident in their abilities, and he so obviously cares bc he threatened to rip Team Skull a new one for the dirty trick they played that might have cost Team Relic their lives! She diverts him to the beach and confesses her true name, her ability, and her amnesia being the reasons she was hesitant to trust him at first. She is relieved to no longer hide these things from him, but he is...decidedly not. He conceals his reaction well enough, but Lu notices an inexplicable shift in his aura that darkens him. He starts acting...different. He draws closer to them, claiming to try to help Eliana with her ability to they can find Grovyle, and yet he's more reserved. It's an odd mixture.

When they begin their manhunt for Grovyle, she teams up with Dusknoir to research where the rest of the Time Gears may be located. They spend many late nights like this, usually with Lu asleep nearby, and grow very close as a result. They end up on a "first name basis", so to speak, and no one else talks to him with such casualness and informality, as though he's an equal rather than a superior. He is surprised to find that he...almost appreciates the normalcy of it, despite the circumstances. Eliana respects him entirely by the time the events at Quicksand Cave occur, and she fully commits herself to helping Dusknoir capture Grovyle.

[The events of the former half of "The Hero and the Wraith" occur.] | [Here is some meta. And some more.]

They stop Grovyle at Crystal Crossing, almost at the cost of their own lives. Eliana thinks him cold, cruel, and is almost smug about his desperation once Azelf locks down the lake. Serves him right, she thinks, after everything he's done. She doesn't realize he's on the verge of breaking down, panic and terror and grief that he's been doggedly avoiding since getting separated from her all rolling into one and verging on the edge of a mental meltdown. He's had to relearn himself while separated from his most trusted partner and best friend, not knowing what became of her, whether she was dead (or worse). He's seen no sign of her thus far, getting the Time Gears, and he fears the worst. This is the last straw, and he's barely holding it together. That's why he lashes out with violence instead of deflection or defensiveness; he's hemmed up into a corner with nowhere left to go and he's just so very frustrated and afraid.

Dusknoir didn't have to step in. He could have let Grovyle do his dirty work for him. But...he couldn't stand the sight of Eliana and Lu getting wounded so mortally. He steps in before Grovyle can land the killing blow (on Eliana, because she managed to get up to shield Lu despite being on the verge of unconsciousness). He chases after Grovyle when he escapes, but it doesn't take him long to decide the thief is gone and he rushes back to scoop up the team and Azelf to bring them back to Treasure Town.

He's frantic, the Guild members would say, worrying himself to death about their condition. He looms outside their room while Chimecho and the other healers on-hand patch them back up, and he stays with them through the night in order to monitor their condition. He has to leave the next day to keep up appearances, to hunt Grovyle down, but his inner turmoil distracts him more than anything. He shouldn't care. He would be forced to bring Eliana to her death anyway. Why would he be worried for her health now? (Why had it scared and wounded him so badly? Why did he allow himself to get involved with them in the first place?)

Eliana wants to go with him to trap Grovyle once he, Magnezone, and the Lake Trio decide on the plan. He refuses. He doesn't want to risk her recollecting anything about Grovyle, certainly, but he doesn't want to stay around her any more than what is strictly necessary anymore. He has to distance himself. He can't allow his personal feelings interfere with his mission anymore.

Eliana is anxious waiting for the update. She doesn't fully realize that Dusknoir will have to leave once he captures Grovyle. It hits her like a truck when they're in the town square and Dusknoir's imparting his goodbyes.

She doesn't expect him to reach out and snatch her (and Lu). Waking up in the frozen future is disorienting, to say the least. She and Lu are still a bit beat up from the fight in Crystal Crossing, and the last thing they want is to rely on Grovyle for anything, but...why is Dusknoir trying to have them executed? Eliana's in survival mode, realizing that her Dimensional Scream had tried to warn her and she hadn't listened. Dusknoir had betrayed them, he had lied to them, why couldn't Lu just accept that?

They argue before they decide to find Grovyle. Lu is already upset, and to see Eliana so angry scares him. When he cries, she softens back up enough for them to remind each other that they're on the same team and that they have each other, if nothing else. They don't trust Grovyle, but what he says makes sense, and Eliana admits that the "enemy of my enemy" mentality will work for the time being. (So why does she feel so safe in his presence?)

They fall into an instant rhythm. Something about him seems so oddly familiar, comfortable, and she almost knew what he was going to say before he said it or what he was going to do before he did it. They fight back-to-back effortlessly. Lu notices that his aura is pure, and murmurs such to Eliana at one point; he's sincere, and he has no malice for anyone. Something about that seems...right.

Celebi recognizes Eliana, but says nothing. She thinks Grovyle knows, and since she can see through the timeline a bit she doesn't quibble with it. She's just trying to focus on getting them back without bringing up the odd transformation.

Dusknoir reveals the truth and Eliana would've had a harder time believing it if it hadn't...felt right. It's difficult to reconcile in her mind, and she doesn't truly have time to process it, but...she realizes the voice in her past Dimensional Screams must have been Grovyle's. There was no possible other option. It's a much harsher truth to Grovyle, though, given he's been suppressing his emotions about the entire ordeal for so long. That's really what guts him in that moment, steals the wind from his sails: for a moment he truly thinks they're at the end of their rope, that there's no hope...and then Lu steps in and saves them all with his steady resolve and quick-thinking.

[The events of "A Dawning, Horrific Realization" happen.]

It's an emotional night, crowded around their low fire in Sharpedo Bluff and eating in near silence until they brave broaching the subject. Grovyle can scarcely contain himself, his relief overwhelming him to the point that he is reaching out to Eliana out of habit; but he'd hurt her and Lu, and while she felt some sort of vague bond with him, she was still readjusting and absorbing everything that she'd learned about herself and him. Despite him trying to hide it, she sees the hurt written plainly in his eyes when she rejects him politely yet apologetically.

He wakes her with a nightmare that night. She tries to wake him, but he reaches out to her again with a desperate mumble of her name. Heart hurting for him, and for the version of herself that he had lost, she caves and cuddles with him. They both sleep better than either of them had in a long, long time, finally reunited.

She builds a fast rapport with him despite their rocky start. They butt heads a little, since Grovyle had to learn the hard way how to make decisions for himself while Eliana is used to taking point with Lu, but they get everything done. When he departs to speak with the Lake Guardians, it's a tense, but temporary, goodbye.

They keep the note he leaves behind for them in Sharpedo Bluff.

The battle with Dusknoir is violent, brutal, and enraged. Eliana doesn't hold back against him, although she's limited in what she can do. She bites him on the arm hard enough that it scars. Lu and Grovyle have to volley so he won't target her specifically. He grabs her throat at one point in the fight using an Ice Punch, freezing and scarring the flesh to the point that hair no longer will grow there.

It nearly shatters Eliana to lose Grovyle at the temple in the Hidden Land, but she has to stay strong for him and for Lu. She can't let herself crack under the pressure now, not when they're so close.

She doesn't let it slip when she starts to disappear, trying to stay strong for Lu's sake so it's not as hard on him. He wishes she would have told him sooner, but it's the one time they agree to disagree.

Lu develops gray hairs on his muzzle in his grief, but Eliana's temporary absence matures him a lot. He doesn't let her out of his sight for months after they're reunited, and hardly out of reach.

The entire Darkrai ordeal breaks Eliana. Finally learning what happened brings all her grief of being betrayed but who she thought was her friend, then losing her best friend, all back again to the forefront. This is the weak spot that Darkrai tries to exploit, and it works. It's only Lu that's able to pull Eliana back out of it. She feels a sort of grim satisfaction that Palkia inflicted upon Darkrai what the Nightmare Pokemon had done to her so long ago.

Her and Lu work through their traumas as best as they're able, working through the ranks and becoming one of the most succesful exploration teams in the continent. They find a tentative state of peace in their routine, and they feel like they get a fresh start when they finally evolve. Eliana chooses to become a Leafeon in honor of Grovyle. It's an emotional moment for her, the closest she's felt to her long lost partner in months. She misses him terribly, and while Lu is able to settle, she finds herself restless still.

"Future" Arc: [WIP] {No spoilers!}

[The events of "That Poison, Reconciliation" occur.] | [Here is some meta.]

[The events of the latter half of "The Hero and the Wraith" occur.]

[The events of "Rest" occur.]

"AU" Arc(s):

Returning to IRL AU:

[WIP] Through some space-time shenanigans (whether divinely ordained or not, that's yet to be determined), Eliana is returned to the human world about years* after she disappeared from Eterna Forest. A missing-persons investigation had been conducted and ruled as a closed case when no signs of her were found. Her roommate put her belongings in storage, thankfully, never really believing that Eliana was truly gone. She struggles to get her feet back under herself, having to find another job and place to live and basically start from scratch...

Extra Information:

Team Relic:

Reference.

Meta.

Team Sunrise:

Reference.