#Id say theyre like 15

[bulbabutt]

no offence to people who genuinely enjoyed james somerton and feel cheated but you could kind of tell he didnt give a shit about anything he ever said. there was no passion or personable anecdotes in anything he ever made, and the fact he was constantly posting videos was crazy. like if you watch your more popular video essayists theyre always coming from a point of 1) education in a field 2) passion in a subject and 3) being open about themselves

like , this man hopped on the video essay train because of the popularity of his peers and just tokened himself into "the gay video essayist" as if so many other people werent already doing that? and the lack of care for intersectionality was obvious. i stopped ever watching him after he took it personally that some marvel show was about black exploitation in america and not about two men kissing each other, cuz it became abundantly clear that was the only experience he gave a shit about (his own)

[kradnie]

talking to my grandma about politics be like

communism bad

current system just as bad

[badolmen]

Look at me. LOOK at me. Old growth forests are important. Their loss is violence against the land.

BUT that isn’t a reason to point at younger, perfectly healthy closed canopy forests and claim they’re ecologically insignificant or bad. Their sparse understory is a function of closed canopy forests. Even old growth forests will have sparse understories if the canopy is closed. That’s how photosynthetic strata works.

The west coast has vastly different forests and history than the east. The rare volcanic eruption that made the giant stands of Douglas fir in the west possible would be literally impossible here. Our species are adapted for stand replacing fires set by indigenous peoples to drive deer and rejuvenate oak. Oak as a genus is dying here. We can’t set fires. We can’t harvest patches large enough to simulate a fire. Our deer are overpopulated and browse down every sprout that dares to reach for sunlight.

Making a sweeping ban on clear-cut and similarly ‘scary’ harvests would kill them for good. The restrictions on fire have nearly done that to species like Jack and pitch pine that rely heavily on fire to establish. They’ve been relegated to pine barrens and the rare sandy forest clearing. Our fire Cherry, thankfully, can last decades in the soil seedbank. You can only see them the first few decades after a large, complete harvest and then they die.

What’s good for one forest kills another. Not all trees are made ecologically equal - and that’s a very good thing. All trees and forests have their ecological value. Management of one forest is never applicable to other forests; they all have their own unique histories and communities that should be imitated when possible and left alone when not.

[the-gayest-sky-kid]

'and yet there are still people who think it (dazais ability) doesn't work through clothes' yeah because its inconsistent. lol

[penisliker-moved]

im like *Gets mad at my parents*

[tazzmanian-devil]

i wish i got to play grout(dnd half orc) more. i loved her. she was part of a mystery solving campaign and was awesomeeee.

[single-malt-scotch]

i remember reading your fics a long time ago! would you ever write again for mcyt, if it isnt shipping?

the simple answer would be "no i wont write mcyt fan fic" but also heres the long answer lol

my main thing is the history what i used to write- which if you followed my particular side blog had a lot of ummm 😬 you know. that plus the rpf association, it was hard for me to ever consider revisiting any of this again anyways! growing up a bit i really wanted to detach from that. you have to understand if you saw these fics and the topics. god.

and i have sure removed like, most of that old fanfic from my existing name (theyre on ao3 but orphaned), and i dont really plan to go anywhere close to what i wrote years ago... so following that, part of me doesnt mind the idea of it. but its incredibly hard for me to again, associate directly with it still, which is the main thing. i have many complicated thoughts on many of these yters and character vs creator (which is that 80% of the time there really isnt any separation at all). you could perchance see an anonymous fic on ao3 someday and guess if its me or not lol.

[saturnerens]

me doing this whole thing rn bc im bored

1) WHIZZERRRRRR

2) i love all of them but if i had to choose id say mendel bc hes a freakkk

3) None theyre all perfect

4) Jason!!! Love jason sm

5) Marvin and Whizzer

6) the games i play

7) there is not One bad falsettos song im so srs

8) idk my all time fave but i love the baseball game

9) year of the child is funny as hell (listening to it as i type this) also everyone hates his parents (fucking mendels cartwheel Sends me every time)

10) what would i do is Instant mental breakdown

11) marv of course!

12) MORE WHIZZER IN ACT 2

13) ?????? Idk

14) a day in falsettoland looks super fun

15) Whizzer but Realistically id prob be like dr charlotte or something and Super realistic outcome: I wouldnt be casted Lol

16) Whizzer ofc

17) Again whizzer—(r y’all noticing a pattern) I would Loveeee to know more ab whizzers backstory

18) marvin growing up !

19) I cant sing for Shittttt

20) Andrew and Christian my fave men ever honorable mentions to everyone else tho Bc the whole cast is incredible

21) i showed my best friend TOFL and it worked soooo

22) i Love act 2 but act 1 holds a special place in my heart

23) Anything whizzer related im his #1 defender

24) kevin price rings marvins doorbell and converts him to mormonism ??? Ik yall see the vision /j

25) Marvin……….. Unfortunately

26) Whizzer and jason Ohhhh they make me die also marvin and the lesbians

27) “if i could hold you, for one hour more”

28) when marvin hits trina Ohhh i get so mad

29) that one pic of all the guys with matching jordans Yall know the one

30) falsettos is the best musical ever Yuppppperrrrr

[mogwaisonmars]

i didnt originally intend to color this butttt i got carried away so now i want to post it because im very proud of it!!!!1

it can mean whatever you want it to mean tbh

oh yeah and id say theyre like around 15 in this

[lemontarto]

:) OOC: I am going to need you to explain every detail of the Gethen and Elwin Ship. I NEED IT.

my buddy u have no idea what u just unleashed. there is so much extensive lore for these guys that i could call them ocs . But anyway @everyonehasthoughts @creetchure the hethen trio fr

To understand how they've gotten to this point (toxic yaoi) you first must understand their backgrounds. But if you just want the fun stuff id say skip this whole first block 😭 anywya. (pspsp virg is writing a 15-30k fic abt them so tune in ehen that comes out)

this is. The Hethen Masterpost

gethen was the child of a telepath and a shade. Not a bad match but their relationship was still greeted with animosity. I say was because his parents died (for undisclosed reasons buuut it has to do with match policy and elvin standards etc) and he then lives with his grandparents. So hes not exactly at the top of the family food chain

Elwin is from a normalish family . theyre not vacker pretigious but they're not embroiled in some drama and scandal if yk what i mean

they enter foxfire, where gethen is very loud and charismatic and relatively liked by his peers, and elwin is (while generally liked) less popular. the last one picked at gym.

until gethen picks him. And then long story short they're best friends. gethen will usually go to elwins to escape his family situation and theyre essentially inseparable

level four is when shit kinda shifts. see this is when washers are trained and employed. and up to this point gethen feltlike he had to prove himself and if he did that the system would save him and his family.

being a washer puts him in closer proximity with the council and their nobility and all the secrets and him also being washed (by kenric i believe) which will fuck a guy up !!!

elwin can see theres inequality but hes on the naive side and believes he can fix things from the inside out. believes in the inherent goodness of everyone.

----------------

the elite levels is when shit gets gayer! theyre roomates. elwin practices his flashing on gethen and uses him to model his glasses prototypes. he patches up gethen when he gets banged up (from god knows what)

meanwhile gethens like ten times deeper into this washing gig. which will make things infinitely worse

whatever the case, theyre essentially like a couple at this point. which means theyre disgustingly in love. but this also means they have arguments. several.

and how do they resolve them? most of the time gethen will wipe elwin's memories. Because he cannot risk losing elwin.

So you understand. they do not have a healthy relationship. At some point gethen has enough with the whole system and joins the neverseen, in which he wipes the memory of him from the council and his family and from elwin. to everyone concerned, he doesn't exist.

circa post-flashback is when forkle steps in to confront elwin. Maybe he was a mentor when they were at foxfire but he knows about them. and he triggers the washed memories to come back (either he or the sophitz cognates do, in which case this is kinda funnier)

he does this because 'theres no other way' to take gethen down.

the way in question is elwin seducing gethen

(note about this plan: forkle had to erase the reason why elwins contacting gethen again so their cover isnt blown)

elwin goes into this swearing its purely for the sake of the black swan and he cant get attached and gethens a terrible person but Fuck if he isnt hotter than he was 100years ago

same for gethen. hed never fully gotten over elwin anyway. and he has his suspicions about elwins motives but he cant bring himself to care when hes finally in his grasp again

So in general. they're in this neutral space between the black swan and the neverseen, playing a great game of pretend . how could they not? its their only chance at a normal relationship.

----------------

there are several possible conclusions to this arrangement. Some of which are more likely in aus but whatever

they run away. theyre in the human world. elwin has somewhat convinced gethen that his goals arent aligned with the neverseen and he just wanted revenge on the council/system that fucked him over

gethen kills the second forkle, finishing the job persay. elwins a witness. no one else knows. gethen offers to wipe elwins memories to make it easier. Maybe elwin accepts.

this is a sillier ideal ending where gethens reformed and hethen adopts fitz (and or all the vacker sibs) . gethens like grunkle stan and elwins just dadwin. its very funny and they coparent with dellivvy

anyhow this ship was purely coincidental but i adore them more than any other. i hope you too, enjoyed this. because you will see them more.

[wimpout]

Hey, I'm Elijah. Please just call me Eli, I don't have nothing against the full name but Eli is just better looking. I go by they/them. Don't try and assume my AGAB, you'll be exploded by my mind.

I had an account before this, but I couldn't log back in.

I believe I have the most normal and non-biased takes so if you even care you should check it out. I might see you around.

Here's my old school ID, or something. Ignore the char.

And, er. I have amnesia and some prior memory loss problems. Please, just ignore if I don't remember you at all or even clearly. I'm trying my best, alright?

last update 8/9 23:22

‼️please read all they way below to find tutorial for this blog ‼️

if you knew my intro from orion, you can basically skip all this: its all the same. some of it is personalized for eli; so skim over it if you want to. the bottom is where i explain how this blog works!

about the mun!!!

hi! elis mun here!! you may also know me as im the one who runs @oranberryorion !!!

you can call me adon or guy!!! guy is more the silly nickname but i truly dont mind what you call me ^_^

i go by he/him strictly but you can freeball with neos if you want

ive been into pokemon since i can remember :3 b/w was my first games, but ive played back to emerald and ive played the entire sv dlc and all!!!

eli was an idea i had from the expansive community of rotomblr and my love for the ability of people to gather around to collaborate and build something unique. eli is that!! their story is completely made from what rotomblr will say.

interaction!!!

pelipper mail/malice: ☑️

musharna mail/malice: ☑️

mystery gifts: ☑️

magic anon: ☑️

in character non hate: ☑️

please remember that if any of the mails/anons oversteps my boundaries, then i probably wont respond.

this is also pretty important to say: i dont care WHO interacts with me. fallers, sapients, eebydeebys, hybrids, ocs, self-inserts, in-game characters, i LOVE interaction. i respond to anything i see as fast as i can and unless its weird or stepping beyond my boundaries i WILL interact back!!!!!

that being said, i should establish some things

- mod is 15, eli is 17! nothing nsfw. suggestive jokes i really dont care but theyre 17 so you should know the boundaries for that

- any rotumblr blog is allowed to interact (back). literally anyone. you want a sapient pokemon to talk to eli?? they'll answer!! want an eeby deeby to roleplay with eli?? ill respond!! even fallers or such, (as my own bff literally has two faller blogs LOL) asks, anons, general questions, spam mail, ask games, interaction is always allowed!!!!

- i love character events and planning. if you have an idea for a small event between our characters, or a type of relationship they have, anything, please let me know!!! my discord is adonciant and you can add me (im not always active, so ill try and accept any friend requests or such as fast as i can) OOORR you can just dm me on here!!! preferably keep it to eli, so dont go messaging my main/orion about anything ^_^

- i (accidentally) do long threads of reblogs/interactions. i swear none of it is purposeful, i just happen to interact back if i get no indicator of an ending conversation. if you want, you can make an ooc tag to tell me to stop reblogging back or anything. these threads do not get tagged with anything, either.

- theres some content warnings to this blog. however, its rough to estimate exactly what could happen. i know thats very scary to hear, but as rotomblr you decide what happens; which does include any darker themes. generally, spoilers for any game. i do tag triggers and theyre always the first tag, so if youre ever scared about something, read the first tags!

- my main is @adonciant ! likes and follows come from there!

heres the good part; how does this work???

in case you didnt see on orions blog, eli is a character who is collectively expanded upon by YOU!! the community of rotomblr!

everyone and anyone who has a rotomblr blog is allowed to contribute to eli.

logistically, if you wonder how it works with the fact these anons would seem to know an abnormal amount of information of eli, blame it on their old account they couldnt log into ^_^

how do you contribute, you ask?

simple! my asks are open. go ahead, ask them how their life is in galar. they'll respond as if their life is in galar. well, someone else already asked if they lived in unova? they live in unova! ask how their whimsicott is doing, because now they do indeed have a whimsicott! ask how their moms funeral was! because, uh oh, now they have no mom :(

but its important that you dont overlook the existing information other people/anons have already asked about. if they really do live in unova, you cant go out of your way to try and forcefully retcon that information: as a reminder, its a collective to create a story for them.

not only are asks open, but every type of interaction is allowed, even up to magic anons. if eli reblogs an ask game, he either responds appropriately to how his story has been shaped out or how i see is fit to the rest of his character! want to send musharna malice that means him seeing a nightmare of his past? say it! send pelipper mail of clothing from his dead relatives? say that!

all that i request is that you and the rest of rotomblr make a coherent story. you build off of previous information and make it into one, stable story. they could totally have been there for opelucid city freezing, but not for lysandre attempting to use the ultimate weapon at the same time.

genuinely, a lot goes by communication.

this blog is supposed to be fun. i dont want to see arguments over eli. its supposed to be something that a community works on together and adds in their words to the pages.

not sure whats canon and whats not? heres a google doc to check all valid information!

this intro/full body ref will be updated if need be.

[cressthebest]

Crimson Rivers thoughts pt. 38

chapter 57:

1. starting out with gay panic i see. not for pandora, but for me. good lily is SO HOT

2. lily and remus’ freindship is pure angst atm

3. “I love you, Lily, then and now and the past six years and the next six and all the years I've got in this life. All of them will be spent loving you, and I would do it all over again; I would do it tomorrow.” 😧 IM IN SO MUCH PAIN

4. the loss of dorlily 😔😔 BUT we we lost in dorlily, we gained in marylily and dorlene

5. i love the emphasis put on the importance of freindships in crimson rivers. remus even says himself that he loves lily just as much as sirius, just differently

6. “"You know, Red, I feel like I need to go shake Remus Lupin's hand," Kingsley says dryly. "He's working miracles, clearly."” kingsley is showing KING behavior

7. omg the absolute LOSS OF DORLILY

8. damn lily went to mary and spilled everything

9. “Regulus is snatched out of his near-daily daydream of taking Slughorn by the back of his head and smashing his face down against the table he sits at until he's just a smear on it” MOOD

10. barty and regulus taking care of each other >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

11. I WANT SIRIUS TO BE ABLE TO TAKE THE MASK OFF!!! FUCK THIS!!

12. SIRIUS AND JAMES SIRIUS AND JAMES SIRIUS AND JAMES SIRIUS AND JAMES SIRIUS AND JAMES SIRIUS AND JAMES SIRIUS AND JAMES SIRIUS AND JAMES

chapter 58:

1. “He's not above killing an old man” 🥰🥰💞💖💞✨regulus✨💞💖💞🥰🥰

2. WHAT

3. albus killed ariana. that’s- that’s wild. i’d- i’d never. holy shit. HE KILLED HIS OWN SISTER TO WIN THE ARENA?? THEY WERE THE LAST TWO AND HE KILLED HER??? holy FUCK

4. ALBUS VOLUNTEERED FOR ABERFORTH FIRST AND THEN ARIANNA WAS CALLED???? ID NEVER FREAKING RECOVER HOLY SHIT

5. this is such whiplash. i was unprepared for this knowledge

6. 😐😒 side EYE at albus. he fell in love with the person that literally tore his family apart. i don’t feel sorry for him in the slightest. he’s insane.

7. OHHH got it. grindlewald killed ariana. so then albus killed him. revenge >:)

(i still have no sympathy for him. he’s still in love with grindlewald. the little bitch)

8. regulus does not play around. his deal with albus is feeling a lot like his ahb self and i’m love with these characterizations of him.

9. 😭😭😭 tiny nymphadora kicking a man’s ankles for hating on james

10. dumbledore: i have a mission for you-

remus: fuck no

dumbledore: to save james and sirius

remus: FUCK YES! OKAY!!!!

11. before i know if dorcas and marlene switched who goes on the mission, i make my guess right now: this mission kills marlene. she goes on it and dies.

12. “"I'd rather you kill me, I think," Dorcas tells her, and it comes out as a whimper, her heart clenching violently in her chest.

A shaky laugh spills out of Marlene's mouth. "Honestly, that could be arranged."

"Make it hurt," Dorcas mumbles.

"No, for you, I'd be so gentle," Marlene whispers, breath spilling out hot and trembling along Dorcas' jaw.””

FUCK IM SO GAY

13. “"I promise," Marlene vows immediately, fiercely, and then she kisses her, holding her face in her hands and kissing her like that's enough to make sure that promise never breaks.”” zar, i’m so tired. please, i’m so tired. she’s gonna die and i’m so tired. 😞

14. the theme of harry potter is literally supposed to be about how love is more powerful than anything else, yet jkr sucked at portraying that. crimson rivers does it wonderfully, over and over and over again.

15. i forgot about mary being trans until it was casually dropped in again, and honestly, i’m glad it’s that way.

16. i like how everyone’s like: reg no!!!

and bartys like: REG YES!! THEYRE TALKING SHIT ABOUT YOUR FIANCÉ!! FUCK THEM UP!!

17. every. damn. time. reg is like “if you do this, i am explicitly telling you the pain i will make you feel in return.” and every single time, people do it anyways and are surprised.

18. “Marlene, a woman who rolls with the punches, and keeps going, and wears her bruises like jewelry.”

19. zars comments on lily at the end of the chapter 😭😭 “i love this transition for her going from having sex with a lot of women to being like I'm A Family Woman Now 😭 she really said, i found a wife and a kid, and im done with the drama”

[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

[shiftingtomydrs]

MLB DR

Alright so same as with some other drs my personal stuff like name and everything is the same soo wont go into that a lot tbh

then backstory, i originally wanted to be like an exchange student in france but then like i cant very well be ladybug if im only there for a year so i switched it to i move to france for some reason i dont know yet and i live there with my aunt or smth bcs she lives near paris yk? then basically i just kinda take marinettes place but not completely, like shes still there and stuff but im there too yk? my love interest is adrien and marinette will get together (and stay together) with luca cos theyre cute and im not sure yet if i should script her crush on adrien out or just say it disappears at some point

changes in plot: i dont like anything after season 2, dont ask me why, i just dont like it idk why either, so im gonna script seasons 3-5 out with some exceptions (e.g. i kinda really like cat blanc so i might leave that in with some other stuff but the whole shadow moth and all that shit no) also lila isnt the next supervillain shes just a regular mean girl cos it doesnt make any frickin sense that a 15 year old is able to manipulate every single person she meets. like shell still be able to lie and manipulate people her age but not adults cos thats just stupid imo. Also i havent even watched season 5 yet so im going off spoilers i saw for the next part: none of the miraculous will have permanent holders except ladybug and chat noir (aka me and adrien) cos i like to be special :) also i wont be guardian of the miraculous until much later like college or smth cos thats a ton of pressure and it went sideways for marinette so i dont want it going sideways for me. oh and a big one: ill be taking the whole sentimonster plot out cos i hate it and i think ive never hated a plot as much as that one. like sentimonsters can exist okay but felix and adrien and kagami etc arent one. cos just no. oh and ofc i wont know adrien is chat noir haha

now a bit more about myself: idk yet if i just wanna kinda steal marinettes interests and do the whole design thing cos i am a sucker for parallels and the parallel of adriens parents and adrinette is there but then again why would i wanna be like gabriel? so i might just do what i do in 90% of my drs and be a songwriter (well ill be that anyway question is do i add the designing part on top or not?), otherwise i like baking, ill do figure skating or gymnastics or ballet prolly like all the things i wanna do here but cant for this or that reason. my nationality will be german prolly cos i like having the german passport and also i dont think i need a visa for france cos its in the eu. i wont really script much more about like me and adrien except that we end up together but in my head its kinda similar to the adrien and marinette situation cos im a sucker for slowburn and idk it just fits i think also with my issues with trusting people have good intentions and not just spend time with me bcs of a bet or shit like that.

Physical looks, i might change my hair color cos idk i think itll fit and yeah but ill still have my eye color and height and stuff just be a bit fitter cos with my endurance theres no way ill be able to be a superhero (ik theres magic and shit but still)

im not sure yet if i should leave the dr as a cartoon or do it like this reality (leaning towards this reality bcs i think cartoon would freak me out a bit for my first shift and id overcomplicate it) or maybe ill just do two drs, one cartoon and one not.

anyway, if you have any questions, id love to talk more about this dr so pls ask them <3

@ningsols here it is :)

[gilligansgarden]

15, 16, 23, 26, 42, 53, 79, 95, 99

Do you get wanderlust? Where do you want to go?

its not really worth thinking about because i start wanting it but i wanna climb the eiffel tower

Romantically, do you prefer men, women, both, any/don’t care, or are you aromantic?

i prefer alex!!! ♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡ theyre so princely in a pretty way

i saw them in a suit a while ago it was so hot and fancy we danced!!!!!!! man a fancy dress would be cool huh

Do you believe in an afterlife?

god got killed in 1974 during the watergate scandal so at the moment angels are getting bought off by rich bitches for dominion perks so uncle bro had to make sure to shoot some out every now and again when he was alive still

hell is all we got left unless we end up god tiering for real but DATS not gonna happen...

What does your favorite tattoo mean to you? Or if you had to get a tattoo, what would it be? Why?

scars are baaaasically tattooes but i already talked about those so i think id get a cabbage patch kid on my womb so i could act like im bursting out of my own body alien style

What do you feel like you’re missing from your life right now?

the tiny gay hat that pentiss stole from me [:](

What’s the most annoying thing that happens to you on a regular basis?

when goli tosses fruit at me when im trying to take a fucking wiss!!!!!!!!!! DICK!!!!!!!

What’s your most prized possession?

GOLIATHS SKULL!!!!!!!!!!!! its proof of my win [:])

Can you remember the last time you made a deep personal connection with someone?

if i asked myself this question i would think about all the people i knew and ask what makes the connections we have deep because i know a lot of things about myself and all the guys i am and all the people around me kind of think im just one person

and i guess thats true

but its the same way you get a big blanket with holes and say the fabric like the circles you cut out is also the blanket like its true but its also a different blanket like holes in the ground

but you cant actually jump into them because its not big

the big blanket has holes you CAN jump through though so i guess you could stretch it over the gap between some pillars or cliffs or beds and have some fun hopping around like its a set of agility tires

Which people in your life do you wish knew you better?

seriously who the shit is zack

oh besides that alex has a dirk strider who i have to kill the ass and heart of but only a little because theyre pitch together which means they duel and fuck in an anime rivalry way

i dont know i5opod all that well or sefoni or dave yifftwiceplz who IS A DAVE!!!!!! WOW and i like captain [:]) captain is an inkling and i want to know them more CT IS AWESOME TOO BECAUSE SHE LIKES FROGS AND EXPERIENCES HER ASPECT WEIRD. and guiltygetaway [:]P HI GUYS IF YOURE READING THIS

[roe-and-memory]

thinking about lightnings walkman and the headphones he had before. how when he was 15 he broke them and mack did everything he could to fix them. it didnt work and mack took him to buy new ones.

lightning hating every minute of the shopping because he likes his old ones, with the stickers and the electrical tape because some of the wires are visible. he doesnt want new ones. he wants his old ones to be fixed so he can keep them.

its.. concerning to mack, to say the least — lightning is extremely attached to his old headphones and would genuinely rather die than get brand new ones. usually a teenager would jump at the chance for new technology, but lightning is set in his ways with those old ones and gets emotional at the idea of replacing them.

“its so dumb,” he says to mack, “but what if.. the old ones feel bad. or something. because i broke them and im replacing them just like that.”

mack tries to fix them multiple times, lightning goes without them for almost two months even when he Really needs to use them. after the last try to fix them — including one of the rusteze technicians in the work as well — mack sadly gives up. he manages to corral the kid into a walmart to pick new ones. at first, lightning refuses and stubbornly stands there glaring at the small display of sony headsets, he pretends he isnt teary eyed as he gives into picking out a pair, and he picks ones that are drastically different from the originals so he can hate them even more.

theyre cheap, he makes sure of it, and then for a week afterwards he refuses to even open the box. mack suggests maybe throwing out the old pair would help, but that seems to almost set him back in this grieving process. when he finally does open the box, it’s begrudgingly. he had to wear them because he was Sick and Tired of being overstimulated in public — and theyre nice. it fills him with guilt because oh. i said i would hate them. and that night he comes to the conclusion that id he glues the old ones back together he could find a way to fit them on his stuffed dinosaurs head and still have a reason to keep them (although mack would never make him throw them out)

rumour has it he still has them to this day ‼️