#AND YOU WERE SO SWEET TO TAG ME

[httpbandit]

THAT WAS SO SWEET OF YOU AND WHAT YOU SAID AW <3

OKAY WELL

@platedpixels RIGHT BACK AT YOU I LOVE YOUR STUFF

@rivirkwu I KNOW YOUR ALREADY TAGGED HERE BUT I ABSOLUTELY ADORE YOUR ART SM

@snaky1ello I LOVE YOUR STYLE SM

@flowersformyloves YOUR ART IS SO STINKING AMAZING

@ghostyclay LITERALLY ADORE YOUR STUFF

AND THIS JS ALSO GOES OUT TO ALL MY MUTUALS BC I LOVE EVERYTHING YALL POST NO MATTER WHAT IT IS

positivity train!

if you see this or are tagged in it, tag a couple of your favorite mutuals/blogs and let them know you appreciate seeing them on your dash!

@h0neysugarfree @blueberrylovv @bequiteanddriveeeeeee @cherri-bomb-bomb @eg0mechan1c @fatrexicisback

[lil-lemon-snails]

decided to draw some of your guys' tags from my harlequin sun and moon post!!! These guys are so much fun and you're all so funny >w<

[mblue-art]

sans au sexyman polls doooodle

congrats to the kings<3 🫶🫶🫶

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

More MDZS and Hollow Knight! The cool bugs I found in my backyard have started to unionize.

Part 1 - Part 3

[vynnyal]

Turns out Sunlit Trail isn't quite done just yet, so after all that they just send you to a dead end 😂

[kitkatsgalore]

you have my soul, you have my heart ♡

[ispridestillasin]

So I decided to watch a bit of Bridgerton with my mother, which I'm not really interested in (I don't really like period pieces unless it's a fanfic for a ship I like) but it's a show she enjoys so I sometimes catch her watching it and join her, and literally the only takeaway from the stuff I've seen with her is that Colin, Lord Debling, and Penelope should have all been poly

[feroluce]

So I went to the wiki page for the henghill Bullet & Brain mission of 2.2 looking for some dialogue I had missed and

a) I found something incredibly tasty that slotted into some other thoughts I'd been having, more on that on another day, and

b) I saw this super fun little trivia at the bottom, which!

I knew Penacony characters like Boothill took a lot of inspirations from old movies, but I didn't realize it was even in his and Dan Heng's relationship, that's so cool!!

It fits them very well, it's such a fun reference. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" was an old buddy Western film (from 1969- nice) about a pair of outlaws. Butch Cassidy was the leader of a gang, and described as clever, affable, and talkative. Meanwhile, his closest companion, the Sundance Kid, was known as a man of few words.

Cassidy's original birth name was much more plain, but similar to Boothill, he took on a new moniker when he became an outlaw. "Cassidy" had been the last name of his beloved mentor, who taught him how to shoot and ride. And Sundance Kid was known as he was because Sundance was the name of his hometown, and it was the only place that had ever managed to catch and jail him, back when he'd been younger (also similar to Dan Heng, but ouch).

These two stick together like glue throughout the length of the film- through Cassidy's leadership of the gang being challenged, through a train robbery gone wrong, through being pursued by mercenaries, and even through fleeing to Bolivia and trying to start over together.

I don't want to say too much more, since the mission title is referencing one specific movie that I've never seen. I kinda wanna watch it now, though, just to see the inspiration that went into Boothill and Dan Heng and how they get along. I just think it's really sweet that these two were literally made to be the best of bros, how lovely is that. 💕

[francesderwent]

but you should’ve seen him when he first got me…

dive bar on the east side, where you at? phone lights up my nightstand in the black. come here you can meet me in the back —> wait for the signal and I’ll meet you after dark, show me the places that the others gave you scars

I’m perfectly fine, I live on my own, I made up my mind I’m better off being alone. we met a few weeks ago, now you try on calling me ‘baby’ like trying on clothes —> oh, I’m falling in love, I thought the plane was going down. how’d you turn it right around?

I got a boyfriend, he’s older than us, he’s in the club doing I don’t know what. you’re so cool, it makes me hate you so much. whiskey on ice, sunset and vine, you’ve ruined my life by not being mine —> maybe I’ll see you out some weekend depending on what kind of mood and situationship I’m in and what’s in my system. I think there’s been a glitch.

our secret moments in a crowded room, they got no idea about me and you —> romance is not dead if you keep it just yours

and I snuck in through the garden gate every night that summer just to seal my fate —> head on the pillow, I could feel you sneaking in, as if you were a mythical thing, like you were a trophy or a champion ring and there was one prize I'd cheat to win

I scream, “for whatever it’s worth, I love you ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?” he looks up grinning like the devil —> the first night that you saw me, nothing was gonna stop me, I laid the groundwork and then saw a wide smirk on your face: you knew the entire time! you knew that I’m a mastermind, and now you’re mine. yeah, all you did was smile.

back when we were card sharks playing games, I thought you were leading me on. I packed my bags, left Cornelia Street before you even knew I was gone. then you called, showed your hand, turned around before I hit the tunnel —> got a sense I’d been betrayed, your finger on my hairpin trigger. soldier down on that icy ground looked up at me with honor and truth, broken and blue, so I called off the troops. that was the night I nearly lost you

and he’s passing by rare as the glimmer of a comet in the sky —> one night a few moons ago I saw flecks of what could have been lights but it might just have been you passing by unbeknownst to me

[deadqueernoldor]

Thinking thoughts about those from Cuivienen and how they later treated the Valar, especially after Cuivienen was destroyed.

I imagine a foundation of sorrow and a layer of betrayal and pettiness. They had promised safety. And how did it turn out? Kin of Tata and Tatie their first leaders, slain in Valinor by the Dark Hunter from which the Valar promised protection in Valinor.

And then, the War of Wrath comes and with it the destruction of Cuivienen.

If any of those were re-embodied in Aman, I wonder if they make it a point to always turn their back to Valar and Maiar. I wonder if they only speak in the tongue they had first devised all those millennia ago and spoke in Cuivienen before time and different kindreds changed the tongue, not Sindarin or Quenya from the Great Journey's time or later. I wonder if they sing songs in their ancient tongue, songs about the beauty and unsullied health of Cuivienen every time any of the Ainur are near.

I wonder if the Valar feel any shame when those who they once looked upon in wonder and love gaze back at them with indifference or disgust.

[resident-gay-bitch]

*looks at you with big wet eyes* transfem sirius hcs please🥺also what do you think her fashion sense is like

*looks at you right back with even bigger wet eyes* HIIIII! Im so sorry for getting back to you so late, please forgive me, I've been very busy and didn't even notice I had this ask

⭐️ Sirius Sundays ⭐️

Here are my transfem Sirius headcannons! (I love her so much), (I hope you don't mind that I included this in my Sirius Sunday thing);

Her style:

I think it probably wouldn't stray too far from what she'd already wear pre transition; for wizards skirts and dresses aren't that far off from robes so styles of clothing wouldn't really feel too different for her.

In terms of muggle clothing style specifically she'd still wear a lot of boot cut jeans and bell bottoms, a lot of band shirts and her leather jacket, she'd probably just style them a little differently, now with things in her hair, more jewellery and makeup and stuff.

However, I do also think she would raid Lily, Mary, and Marlenes wardrobes to find things that she likes. I think once Sirius came out, the girls would have basically adopted her as their protégé, teaching her anything and everything she wants to know about girlhood.

I think she'd like Mary's wardrobe best, I always hc Mary as a very fashionable person who likes to experiment and be bold with her outfits, and Sirius would love the sparkly dresses and bold colours stuffed into her wardrobe, and she'd have the best time trying everything on and doing a little fashion show for her friends.

I think as well she would wear a lot of skirts. She'd like the way they feel, how flowy they are and how cute they look, and they help her pass better in the beginnings of her transition, and also she knows she's got amazing legs so she doesn't mind showing them off a bit (showing them off to one specific person, more like).

I think, even though she'd try to pass more with typically "feminine colours", blue would be her best colour. Pretty shades of dark iridescence and periwinkles as well, she'd have lots of dresses, skirts, and coats in various shades of blue, and they'd always make her feel most pretty and feminine. Especially some blue eyeshadow or eyeliner. James would call her new penchant for blue a betrayal and tell her to go join Ravenclaw for being such a traitor (and then secretly tell her she's pretty and looks great at the same time).

Tall girls being even taller in high heels is a weekness of mine, and if I knew Sirius in real life, she'd abuse that weakness. I think anytime theres a party or a fancy event on, she'd put a pair of high heels on. They'd make her feel so pretty and feminine, and she'd be so tall. At first she refused to wear any shoe that wasn't flat on the foot because "girls are meant to be shorter than guys, right?" but then everyone told her that was stupid and peer pressured her into a high heels, and made sure she felt amazing in them.

In public, Sirius is very amendment on passing. She's done her research and always wears the most feminine clothing in muggle areas, wears the girls uniform to school, puts on eyeliner and lipstick, pitches her voice up, etc etc, and it's very important to her that she passess. With her friends she relaxes a little, when it's just them in a private area (esp just the marauders because they've seen the most over her over the years and she knows they don't really care), but she still pitches her voice up and wears typically feminine "colours" or "clothing". However, when with James or at home with just the Potters, she doesn't try at all; she'll often use her natrual voice, doesn't ever try to tuck or wear anything really feminine unless she just feels like doing so, she'll let her stubble come in from time to time even, until annoys her, and they never make her feel bad for it. James still calls her gorgeous every day, and Effie and Flea still call her their daughter. They make her feel extremely comfortable.

I think she'd love wearing her hair in double plaits, she'd look so cute like that and she likes how feminine it is, and it would also make her feel like the little girl inside her is coming alive, because all through the first and second years of school, all the girls in their year would have worn double plaits to class. So not only would it be cool and cute, it would be a way for her to feel like she's experiencing the girlhood she missed out on when she was younger. (Maybe James learnt how to braid so he could do it for her before bed if she's tired, and in the mornings so she could do her makeup and stuff at the same time so they wouldn't be late to work / class)

I also think she'd go through a phase where she'd grow her hair as long as possible just to see how long she can get it. Her record is just past her arse and she's very proud of it.

She'd love playing around and experimenting with hairstyles as well. She'd 100% go through bad phases of strange styles and all of her friends just have to grin and bear it, because if a very high side pony is what makes her feel best this week, than they're not going to crush her soul, they know she'll grow out of it soon enough. She does have taste afterall.

She'd get so pissed off about the lack of pockets in everything when she starts shopping for muggle womens clothes, and you know the minuet she finds a dress with pockets she'd show it off to everyone. She'd get so excited and wear the dress for like a month straight, no fucks given, only pockets.

She'd practice makeup looks on the Marauders all the time. James is her most willing model, of course, he'd let her do anything she wanted, but sometimes she'd want to practice on someone with a similar complexion to her, or with a different eye or lip shape or whatever, or sometimes if James isn't around to model. She'd wrangle Remus and Pete into getting their makeup done by her, and they argue the whole time even though they secretly enjoyed it a lot.

Before she came out to Effie and Flea - maybe especially if she was still living at 12GWP at the time she figured it out - and she started experimenting with her gender to figure it out, she wanted to try womens underwear and stuff, but she didn't want to be seen / caught buying it when she was still perceived as a bloke, so she made a bunch herself. She cut her breifs into knickers shape and made makeshift braletts out of old shirts and pyjamas (she had to learn how to sew for this too), and one day Effie or Flea came along to do her washing and found all the janky looking underwear and just went to her like "right, good effort darling but I'm taking you shopping for some real undergarments that actually fits you properly an doesn't look like it went through a blender".

Hc's about her transition;

I feel like she only figured out she was trans later in life, probably after she ran away to the Potters and started to really work on becoming her best self, or possibly just figured it out right before she ran away, and that was the kind of final reason to do it because she knew she had a better chance of acceptance with them <3

I am a tall Sirius truther till the day I die, so obviously she'd be a very very tall woman and this would make Marlene very jealous, and she'd constantly tease Marlene for being so short.

You already know that James is the first person she told, and if this is all happening in the 70s/80s, he probably would have been a little confused by the concept at first and didn't understand it at all. He would have never heard of transexuality and people swapping genders, but he would have still accepted her immediately. He would have asked so many questions, not only to make sure he was doing all the right things to make sure Sirius felt comfortable, proud, and happy throughout her transition, but also because he was extremely curious. He would have done a lot of research for her. (If Sirius wants something, Sirius gets it, so if she wants to be called she and a woman now, James is going to give 110% effort).

All of her friends have had a crush on her at one point, no matter their sexuality (eg pre transition + post), and she's pretty indifferent to people having feelings or attraction towards her, doesn't really care about it at all, but she does like to brag about it with her friends. And she loves to hold it over their heads lol.

I think if she came out whilst still in Hogwarts, she would have just gaslit everyone into thinking she was never a bloke. She'd get all her friends in on it, along with McGonagall of course, and anytime someone asked why she was wearing the girls uniform everyone would just be like "she's a girl wtf are you going on about? no, she was never a bloke, do you need me to take you to the sick wing?"

I think as well, after she came out, she would have gotten a lot closer with the girls. She'd love the way that girls all talk to each other, she'd love the constant drama and gossip, and she'd love how in touch and normal they are about their own emotions. Of course, Sirius has always felt she can talk to James about everything, and she does, but she likes how she can have deeper conversations more casually with the girls and in a group setting and stuff. She'd love how they always immediately validate her feelings and give her proper good advice and can relate to her problems in their own ways. But James would get extremely jealous of this and always try to intervene on girls night - it would never work, but Sirius promised to give him the best gossip when she gets home.

Back to Sirius being drop dead gorgeous, I think after she came out all the blokes on like the quidditch team and in their year would start fancying her, hoping to get a shag or whatever, and would constantly talk to James about it (they'd especially be asking if James and Sirius are actually together now that she's a girl because they're that close, James never gives them a real answer, just tells them Sirius isn't interested), and of course James would tell her all of this. They'd think it's so funny, but it's also strange because suddenly all of Sirius casual mates and quidditch team want a shag with her and it's weird. Again she's indifferent to it, has no interested in any of their advances, but it is odd when all the blokes who used to call her "a good lad" and would crudely talk about girls in the locker room around her, are now interested in her.

I think she'd love taking photos throughout her transition to track her progress. So then on days she feels like shit she can look back through them and see how much she's grown and feel as beautiful as she is again.

Thank you for the ask, I really love receiving them! I had a lot of fun compiling this list actually, I haven't written out all my transfem Sirius hc's before. I really love her so much and she deserves some more recognition tbh. She's the best. :P

[moe-broey]

Cinematic parallels. To me.

I'm NOT saying she's homophobic btw she would NEVER. What I Am Saying however is that as his beloved little sister it is her god given right -- no, her sacred DUTY. To hit him over the head with a cardboard tube at any opportunity

[toxintouch]

As I am writing this next request, I find myself pondering about the actual canonical abilities of each of them and I'm thinking that:

Mhin is the only one who can reliably cook or bake.

Tho maybe Ais can make dog soulless treats (anonymous meat jerky?) on a good day.

I wonder if Mhin actually would actually like to bake, since baking is said to be chemistry but edible? And Mhin has an interest in alchemy which is the predecessor of chemistry irl... (Though I'm sure there will be some extra fantasy elements to it in canon) All I'm saying is: it is relevant to their interests, a practical/valuable life skill and they get a sweet treat out of it.

[batsplat]

hi batsplat! i would like to say that you are an absolute pillar of the motogp community on here, like you are truly so so appreciated. both for your knowledge and also for the way you write about things (i think you could write 3000 words on a grocery store trip valentino took in 2003 and still make it super interesting reading)

i was reading your post about your favourite rivalries that didnt include one of the aliens, who would you personally include as part of that list? (versus who is really good but not quite alien status) id also really like to know if (and who) youd count as aliens from the pre-motogp era, and if theres been a difference over time about how often we are seeing aliens or if theyre easier/harder to spot as technical developments have sped up

hope you have a great day!

that's so sweet... thank you that's such an incredible compliment dsdkhfkhfd

about the aliens, the way I use the term is entirely as a historical descriptor, not as a qualitative assessment of any riders. it's a useful shorthand for a specific riders in a specific era, but to me it has limited relevance outside of that era. so to be clear we're talking valentino, casey, dani, jorge and marc - and according to common wisdom this usage originated from colin edwards' 2009 comment:

“But as I’ve said before, I’ve got to be pleased to be finishing next best behind those four guys, or should I say aliens. “They are riding out of this world and to be right behind them means I’m doing the best job I can and that’s about as good as I can hope for at the moment.”

(jorge discusses valentino as an alien in 2007, see here. which might be complete coincidence, but has always made me kind of curious whether the word was floating around in the paddock in some capacity before edwards 'coined' the term)

the thing is, right, it made sense to treat those four (and later -casey +marc) as distinct from the field, because they were winning almost everything. one reason for this was that they were very good, very skilled riders. another was that from 2007-15, only four to six bikes were capable of regularly challenging for wins at any one time. it was a massive field disparity that quite frankly was partly enforced through machinery. that's why it makes sense to include marc in that term: it's not just the fact that he was very good, it's the fact that he was riding a repsol honda that was the best or second best bike by a long way for his first three years in the premier class. in 2016, motogp returned to michelins and introduced new technical regulations - and for all intents and purposes, the alien era ended. it ended when eight different riders won in eight races that season. yes, marc, valentino and jorge were still the top three in the championship... but it's the difference of whether you go into a weekend convinced you know the winner will come from a list of four riders, or if you very much do not know that. between 2008 to 2015, apart from the aliens, a grand total of two riders claimed wins - dovi on a repsol honda in 2009 and ben spies on a factory yamaha in 2011. both of those were wet races (which of course are generally more open than dry ones). so just to reiterate: a greater number of riders won in 2016 alone (9) than in 2008-15 combined (7). (in 2007, a further two different riders won races - capirossi on the championship-winning factory ducati and vermeulen on the suzuki.) yes, obviously the aliens were very good riders, nobody is going to argue with you over that... but those numbers? they're only possible in a specific version of motogp - one that only existed for a few years

honestly, I don't even really use the term 'alien' to describe valentino pre-2006 or marc post-2016. it's just not that useful to me... aliens to me is a 'pack hunter' thing, where even if some of them are injured or are having a bad day or whatever, at least one of them will basically always be there to pick up the pieces. marc and valentino might have dominated the sport as a whole - but not all of their championship seasons were completely dominant, and there's only so much any one athlete can dominate in the sport... you're not going into every single weekend thinking 'oh yeah they're definitely going to win' (yes, yes, there were two times per year where you did very much do that with marc). which is different when you compare it to the aliens as a pack, where you could be confident that ONE of them would end the weekend on the top step of the podium

which is why I just don't apply the alien term to anyone pre-valentino - it's not because I think they were less good or less talented or less anything, it's because for me it's a term that's more about an era than it is about individual riders. you have to treat each era on its own, and I'm not really a big fan of inter-era comparisons. it's just kind of impossible to say whether a rider in the 1970s is more talented than one in the 2020s, whether ago's numbers are more or less impressive than marc's and so on... the sport has just changed in so many ways over the years. of course, in sports you do generally have this upward momentum where each generation is 'better' than the last. sports has gotten more professionalised, there's been massive advances in terms of pedagogy and sports medicine and exercise science and all of those things - all of which already affects how athletes train from childhood onwards. the young aren't more 'talented' in the sense that they were born with an innate superior ability to compete at the sport, but they are more 'talented' in that their ultimate ceiling will be higher as a result of all these gradual changes over time. these things can change quite quickly even (and if other sports is anything to go by, I wouldn't be surprised if the nineties/early noughties brought some big changes in that regard) - so already between, for instance, valentino and marc there'd probably been a real shift in how young talent is being nurtured

(the most blunt illustration of this is that young valentino's lifestyle was completely different from that of young riders today, in terms of how much time he spent training in the gym, sleeping habits, nutrition etc etc. athletes now can't get away with that much deviation any more, and indeed valentino had to massively change his approach in the 2010s to remain competitive - but of course it's different if you haven't been doing this stuff since you were a kid. I think we can safely assume valentino's 2003 supermarket trips looked rather different from marc's 2017 ones)

being good in pro sports may in some ways be harder now than it was in, say, the eighties, and the level of competition you're facing might be higher now - but of course, it would also by extension be unfair to judge those athletes by the standards of today. also, different eras are going to lend themselves to different profiles of rider depending on competitive trends, type of machinery and so on - even very basic stuff like how tall you are might have helped you in a certain era and hindered you in another... so what does that mean for talent? if we're discussing 'talent' at all, how can we possibly treat it as anything other than relative to the era we're discussing? to me, it just makes these comparisons between different generations pretty pointless... or well, I like talking about some of this stuff in a more holistic 'isn't this interesting' kind of way, not a 'this is why xyz is better than xyz' approach... this kind of thing is also why I finds goat debate such a uniquely boring way to spend your time, incidentally

this is a very long way of saying, I don't have a metric by which I judge athletes pre-2000 as 'alien' or 'not alien'! I think you have similarly dominant athletes, though again it is so tough to decide how much of that is down to talent and how much of it is down to bike advantage. if you take doohan's title winning seasons for instance:

yeah, look, sure, you can call him an alien as far as I'm concerned - if I'm watching these races live I will be expecting doohan to win in any given weekend. I'm still kind of missing the pack hunter feel in some of these seasons, so I won't know for certain the winner is going to come from a very short list. like take 1998:

not really one group vs the field, is it? and yeah, even if I consider doohan an 'alien' in some of those seasons, I'm still not going to call him that - because the term was essentially coined in 2009 for a specific group of guys that one other guy was later added onto. the competitive landscape and demands of doohan's era were so different that it feels off to try and go back and label him or any other past riders aliens... they were phenomenally talented, yes, they were great champions, yes, they can be called as good as the aliens, sure - but why wrench the term out of its historical context? is it still an analytically useful concept if you do so, except as a way to generically refer to a rider as 'very talented'?

which is also why I personally don't describe anyone since then as an alien. this doesn't mean I don't think fabio or now pedro aren't as good as those guys were, I just don't think they've been given the opportunity to have that kind of hold over the sport. fabio won five out of eighteen races in 2021 - and he did so on a yamaha that basically only he was able to consistently get a high level of performance out of. which is deeply impressive - but unlike say casey in 2007, he didn't have those other riders to dominate all the other races. eight riders won a race that season! it's just a fundamentally different competitive landscape. personally, I'd be perfectly content if we don't get another alien era. of course 2007-15 isn't all bad, but for good reason most fans' most fondly remembered eras are either 2001-06 or 2017-19... yes, at times one rider was too dominant, but it still felt like more riders had a shot at victory - and most importantly the quality of the racing was generally very high. this kind of domination by a few mega talents on the best machinery can get drab pretty quickly (though of course a lot of the blame for decreased race quality needs to be assigned to the 800cc era 2007-11, not to any of the aliens themselves)

I'd be quite happy to retire the term alien going forwards... except as a useful shorthand for a specific group of guys who have mostly retired. it shouldn't be used as a way to bash the young stars, as if they just can't measure up to the legends of the past. which would be dumb! again, plenty of ways in which motogp is harder now than it ever has been, though the most important thing is that it's just... different. not better, not worse, just different. sure, maybe we'll get another equivalent to the alien era, even though I personally think it's quite unlikely. if it happens, yeah, let's discuss cranking the term out again (and, yes, if you look at the current season and ignore sprints... if this current trend continues then we can have the debate at the end of the season. pecco and jorge despite all their apparent inconsistencies are currently building a pretty solid case for themselves) (now I've said that they're both gonna crash out of assen huh)

that being said! I don't exactly neatly follow this principle myself, because sometimes I do use something like the term 'alien-like talent' to refer to fabio or pedro... obviously, you can argue this is basically the same as calling them aliens in everything but semantics. so what's the criteria there? when do I use this term? I think to me it's just... instant, 'in your face' talent. they arrive to the premier class and they shine basically immediately. valentino got a relatively sedate start to the premier class by alien standards - which is fitting, because he's not really about that blistering raw pace. still, he wasn't far from being a rookie champion, got ten podiums, two wins... not too bad. casey was on a satellite team, but he got pole in his second ever race and came painfully close to winning his third. dani got a podium on debut and fought for the championship for almost the entire season. jorge got pole in his first three races and won his third. marc won the second time out and of course secured the title in his rookie season. compare that to fabio - pole in his fourth ever race on satellite machinery, fighting for wins in his first season. pedro got a podium in his second ever race and is handily outperforming everyone else on that bike

so it's about how quickly these guys pick this stuff up, how quickly they make that step from one level to another - though again, it's important to stress you can't just neatly compare these achievements! valentino's first two seasons were on 500cc bikes, which were notorious for being kind of evil. some of these riders started on satellite bikes (we're not counting valentino here), and there's also plenty of talk about how the bikes have become more complicated to ride now, making pedro's rapid adjustment even more impressive. but in every case, there is just this ability to 'be fast immediately', whatever the circumstances... and it's worth pointing out that even though pecco had a mediocre rookie season, he was incredibly quick in 2019 pre-season testing. jorge martin secured his first pole position and podium at his second race in motogp

speaking of, those two were already a touch older when they joined the premier class. there does generally seem to be something to the idea that in motorcycle racing, if you are not already very fast at a certain age, you will have a quite definitive ceiling... and from valentino onwards, the age by which you need to already have reached that standard of 'very good' seems to have gone down. when we're talking about talent and throwing around the term alien, this feels like another important change to mention - doohan was not winning his titles as a 22 year old! neither was rainey! or schwantz! or lawson! or... actually spencer was very young, yeah. but I think you get the point. I cannot tell you definitively why this changed, but it clearly has changed. in the 21st century, only two riders have won titles when they were older than 26: valentino (29-30) and jorge (28). valentino and marc were both 27 when their dominance over the sport ended (even if valentino secured titles after that point and marc will very probably do so as well). casey was 27 when he retired. (fun fact: pecco bagnaia is currently 27 years old.) so overall it's pretty rare in grand prix motorcycle racing to operate at the top of the premier class for more than a certain number of years - but the precise age window in which you are likely to be at your best does seem to have shifted pretty radically this century. which should demonstrate how hard these things are to compare... like I said, talent is often assessed by how quickly you are good at something - but if we called mick doohan a late bloomer, it would be wildly ahistorical

and yeah, look, this idea of 'you have to be good young or you will have a certain ceiling' is hardly unique to motogp, lots of sports are like that... another measure of this precocity that's perhaps more useful than just 'age' is looking how long it took them to win a title from when they joined the premier class (if they did so at all, of course). it's generally very fast! marc year one, valentino, casey and joan year two, jorge and fabio year three... and, well, pecco and hayden year four. of course, there's exceptions to this 'be fast immediately' rule - athletes who ended up being very good and title contenders who had slightly different paths getting there. the sete's and dovi's of this world - and to a lesser extent hayden too, who unlike those two was only even really a title contender in a single season... but generally speaking, those riders seem more heavily reliant on circumstances playing out just right to have a shot at a title

or perhaps! perhaps it's going to change! especially if you look at repeat champions, pecco does become a bit of an outlier in how he got there this century, doesn't he? compare the numbers he was posting in his rookie season vs valentino, casey, jorge and marc. and in some ways, you can extend this even further and say he's a massive historical outlier in terms of any premier class champions. there was an article about this in late 2022:

and some more about how historically unusual he is:

isn't that great? you don't become premier class champion with that kind of a rookie season, but pecco did! hey, aleix was a serious title threat in that season, which is a far more remarkable story still! and the thing is, right, if you're studying the current era and are labelling some riders aliens but leaving out pecco... then no offence but what's the point? look, who knows, maybe marc and pedro and david alonso are going to dominate the next twenty titles and pecco will have been a weird blip. but isn't there something fun about believing that a bunch of different riders could eventually develop into title threats? wouldn't it be kind of cool if you don't have to just write someone off age 22 any more? I don't know, I think it's a neat development! I hope it sticks around! there'll be plenty of alien-level talents in the future, but personally I wouldn't mind at all if there were no more aliens

[astraystayyh]

it’s officially been a year since ive posted on this account 🥹🥹🥹🥹 thank you for showing me so much love and kindness in these past months, i am so immensely happy to be able to share my little fics with you here :,))) wahhh it seriously feels like ive been here all my life im feeling emotional ;;;;

&&& to celebrate!!!! im opening drabbles requests for a short time hehe any member ofc and no smut as always!! it can also be a bonus scene of a fic you liked, head cannons too (just not long fics because i wanna answer as much as i can)

i cant guarantee ill do alll requests but ill try my best! ill tell u when requests are closed again and which ones ill be answering!!! lets have funnnn 💕💕💕 thank you for your support my angels <333

[leavemetoexist]

Just got to the second half of disco elysium and all i have to say is... WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK AHHHHHHHHHHHHH-