#feels kinda mean posting this but whatever

[semihearts]

Undercover

— Reader who is a disguised cop in the Squid Game and join it as a player.

— Dae-ho who tries to impress reader with his “courage” but instead he’s the one who gets surprised.

Pairing: Dae-ho x reader

Author’s note: Hi! This is my first post, hope you like it and sorry if there’s any typos! Feel free to give your opinion and suggestions for more fics ⁺⠀⠀.⠀

- In the beginning of the games you already knew that you had to stick with player 456, who already won the games before. You’ve seen him multiple times at the police station, reporting some deadly child games. No one ever believed him, only you, and that’s how you not only investigated the games, but literally joined it.

- Everyone was starting to make teams and alliances, and you thought that getting in Gi-hun’s would be difficult, you couldn’t just ask to join them or something. But as you felt a tap on your shoulder and turned around, you saw him.

- Player 388, who introduced himself as Dae-ho, was looking for one more person to join their team, and you seemed to be the best option for the last spot!! ( he just thought you were cute ).

- What he didn’t expect was that you were actually one of the bravest person of the team ( dae-ho was almost pissing on his pants during mingle!) At least he could feel your hands in his when both his legs stopped working and you had to drag him to a room.

- Dae-ho would always tell you stories about the marine ( some of them weren’t completely true..) and you had to lie about your life out of the games, pretending that you were just some ordinary person with an ordinary job and whatever.

- He actually cared for you, you could feel it, and all his attempts to protect you made your heart start liking him more.

- You helped Hyun-ju with their plan to end the games for good creating strategies and, when the time came, you did pretty good at knocking those guards off. Oh and you also volunteered to go with them to find who’s behind the games.

- But Dae-ho only comprehended: You + gun + guards who also have guns = ??? And also, how did you fight them so well… that wasn’t cute at all!! He tried stopping you from joining them but it was of no use.

- When he was about to tell you how dangerous a gun was and that you could get hurt, there you were, with a MP5A3 in hands teaching the others how to use it.

- During the mission, he saw you, giving everyone orders, covering for Hyun-ju and taking the lead when needed ( that also wasn’t cute at all ).

- When Dae-ho took so long to come back with more ammo you immediately went looking for him, worried that something happened on his way to the players’s room. He was hidden in a corner, almost crying, and it only took your hand on his for him to tell you everything. That he didn’t really wanted to be part of the marine and he got lots of trauma because of it, and that he was scared as hell in that moment.

- You didn’t know what to say, I mean, yeah you kinda expected him to not be the ‘'oh so tuff’’ marine soldier he tried to be, but you can’t say that hearing such a confession was in your mind. So the only thing you could think of, was telling him your truth now.

- ‘’Dae-ho I… the reason I am here, the true one, is to stop these games, it doesn’t matter who I really am now, and I’m sorry that I lied to you, but my objective since I got here is to stop all this killing. And right now, I need your help, please.

- ‘’ I’m sorry I can’t’’- he said while burying his face in his hands “I’m just stupid, God! I wish I could help you, be brave for you, I’m just a idiot in debt who pretends to be someone else to impress a girl”.

- You remove his face of his hands and hold them. “hey, you impressed me when I saw you getting out of your way more than once to try to save me. That was braver that any other story about the marine or whatever, you have a protective side for your loved ones that is rare to find. Now, we are in the middle of a gunshot there and Hyun-ju really needs our help, and I need yours, would you come with me?”.

- Born again, you could see determination in his eyes, getting up and taking the ammo, he wanted to deliver them as fast as he could, of course he wanted to help and destroy the games, but honestly that was just the aftermath. The truth is, he enjoyed the feeling of being needed by you, the fact that you specifically wanted his help, and he wanted to show you that you could always count on him.

[holypeanuts]

ummmm yapping (kinda analyzing) about the recent ddvau chapter or whatever !! 😋😋

BTW THIS ISNT A POST ABOUT DEFENDING ANY CHARACTERS PLS.. 🙏😞

I'm just yapping about what I'm seeing mostly idk

comic/art creds : @kitsuneisi

OK STARTING OFF WITH THIS PART!!! ^

there's so much that can be taken from this image alone GAHHH

in this chapter hotguy talks about the "view" of grians hospital room (which is CRAZY conversation starter btw 😧) which means he was definitely trying to get the upper hand here. Reminding grian how easy it is to track him, or spot him out.

Considering how grian acts around HG hes very closed off to him- so, in order to get information out of him (<grian), HG chose the more (IMO) authoritative approach. he deliberately chose a way of wording to make grian feel small, vulnerable, and almost more likely to share information due to the pressure of authority.

I mean, it'd be a lot easier to get information out of someone who's scared.

(AGAIN, NOT DEFENDING HOTGUY HERE!!!!This is definitely not a good thing to do, but it's also very common for cops / detectives to use fear or pressure as a tatic to get information out of suspects.)

Pressure makes people crack, which is what HG wants! He wants grian to "crack".

Ok that was way to long. 😞 Sorry chat

ONTO THIS PANNEL ^

We already know grian is standoffish towards HG but with HG's body language I don't think he was prepared for that wall to be put up so quickly..., or at least not to this degree!

Grian is obviously unsettled by HG's presence right now, and since the first part of their conversation was literally HG saying (more like implied but whatever) he was watching him; it makes sense why he is!!

Grian (mother spore) caused a lot of damage to both property and people (even if it wasn't technically grian who did it) he's obviously concerned about the consequences of what happened.

And if the law enforcement is anything like how I'm imagining it is then, he should be concerned about being arrested! Even if it wasn't his fault, he could still very well be blamed for the incident. It was still his body that was being used for the damage.

Okay, I feel like HG was trying to be nice..? Supportive...??? Here.. Like, it reminds me of #those people who're saying they aren't racist but the way they say shit is so ignorant that it makes you like.... Go "umm"... Ykw I mean???

Like it was low-key ignorant considering HG himself isn't actually mutant. So it just makes it worse that he phrased it like that.

I also feel like this was a way to show off the power imbalance here as well. Especially with how HG is practically on top of grian, while grian looks unsettled (and while injured), it really just shows their imbalance even more!!!

Which kinda makes the situation worse! 😭

Okay, so now he's going back to the pressuring route...,

While he's still leaning over grian... (ITS A POWER IMBALANCE THING GUYS I SWEAR!!!! I scream as they drag me into a padded room) oughhhh ☹️

With the way HG said "as far as they are aware, you were possessed by something that gave you wings" and the following up with "as far as I'm aware" I feel like he's trying to hint to grian that he knows something (he doesn't actually☠️) that he (<grian) doesn't want him (<HG) to know! Trickery !! 😮

This is also a very common cop (/ authority) tatic btw! Like saying they know things (while being vague, like, majority of the time) while (usually) knowing nothing. They use it as a way to say "hey, we know things! So it's best to fess up now since we already know LOL. (^_-)"

AGAIN WITH THE POWER IMBALANCE CAUSE WDYM "let's not forget"!!!! At the beginning !! bros low-key manipulative! (｀´）

But manipulation is also needed in this line of work. so while I don't necessarily hate him for trying to get information out that way, I can completely understand why grian does NOT like the way HG is going about this. Being basically interviewed (coughsss interrogated) in this manner is extremely off-putting, stressful, nerve-racking and, annoying to deal with as the "suspect" <idk how else to phrase it sorry 😞

OOOOO OKAY where to start,,

The way he hugs him while basically saying hes kinda fucked if others find out about what happened AGGHHH tearing my skin off WTF IS HIS PROBLEM. 😭😭😭

THE "for now" IS SO OMINOUS.. are we foreshadowing rn chat

"it was just you and me" classic cop line! WOWZERS

But that line is kinda subtly telling grian that he can't hide something from him because he was there to see the carnage! He's basically saying "don't lie cause I'll know" or something like that

^^ (I'D LIKE TO PREFERENCE THIS BY SAYING THIS IS MY INTERPRETATION, YOU CAN SES IT HOWEVER YOU FEEL IT IS!!)

"your secret is safe with me" waiter,! Waiter! More power imbalance please!! 🍽️

THE WAY HG LOOKS AT GRIAN DURING THE HUG AHHHH falls to my knees and shreds my shirt apart in that one werewolf meme style

Umm okkk I think I'm done 🤓

[losver07]

GUYS WTF WE'RE AT 100 FOLLOWERS

JSJDJSJFKDNCKDKSKXKNC HELP ME WHAT DO I DO

okay okay first of all THANKS???? like omg jdbckdnckfj im kinda freaking out a little bit i wasn't really aware of how many people actually read my shit on here lmao

OKAY! i'm going to do one of those ask things because i think they're really fun and i don't know what else to do if not that! so yeah!

~ · ★ · ~

moots! (you know who you are hehehe)

you can suggest either of these:

🪐 i write something for you! you tell me what, i'll just write a short-ish thing, either fanfic or any other ideas you give me <3 (you can choose english or spanish too!)

🎨 i make you a lil doodle! digital or traditional, idc, a sketchy portrait or a drawing of a fluffy cat or whatever you wish!

🪞 i tell you what piece of art reminds me of you! and i mean paintings, novels, sonnets, films, sculptures, whateverrr

📼 song rec! pretty self-explanatory but you get a song that i am obsessed with and that reminds me of you somehow! this will probably be very unhinged and very funny AND very gay

~ · ★ · ~

literally anyone (moots included in this too, obviously!)

🗝️ i compare you to something very specific (flower types, kinds of clouds, an specific colour, a feeling, etc. literally anything) and probably give you a weird and lowkey poetic explanation for it!

🌻 i answer a question about me! nothing too personal/private of course, but all kinds of random stuff to make me yap are pretty much welcome!

🪶 i answer ANY question about my current fic BUT only with yes/no (i probably won't be able to hold myself back from saying more but technically i cant ok?)

~ · ★ · ~

friendly reminder too that gossip and rants and overall yapping are very welcome in my ask box so of course feel free to say anything to me now or whenever you might need! <3 i probably sound like im joking but i love to give advice to people lmao

okayyyyy (i feel like ive said okay a lot of times in this post) that's it!! again THANK YOU GUYS<3 i love you all really 😭 i'm tagging every one of you here btw you're not getting away with this heheheh

@clearqueensong859 @ineffably-fucked @ciorann @thatoneguyhu @nonage4life @junkiepunkie @aletharaej @samisamousa @outromoony @magicwithclass @possesedanddepressed @somanyquestions-featuringanxiety @nyx-taylors-version @chaserofstars11 @isalikescherriesandblue @ll-until-the-very-end-ll @the-moon-and-stars-4ever @andreainlove @addsalwayssick @whydousernamesevenexist @wisegirl42 @t1cyh @glitchedmoon5 @the-fandoms-onceler @burningchopshopblizzard @sparklingwatermelo @equippedtolove @bloutwo @g-doggs-blog @kikinkapipi @nonsensicalnonsense00 @wolfstarjunkie @innielvrz @ssutton74 @treefairy-28 @siriuslyreggie07 @brnwynkl @mynametheyspeakof @jesssss28 @eczl1pse @actually-dumb-blonde @rocknr0llz @huskyhaven @vintagetee13 @mayaspeaks @clementineashton @dutifullynervouscreation @hawaiianshirttaco64

(gonna reblog with the other half of you now) <333

[mooyuun]

Caleb's Timeline. 🍎

A timeline post, so I can write little things that I liked about the cards, and their order.

Past time.

Borrowed Promise. (4) he really likes to do things for her, comically thinking about him carrying all the bags with that super thigh grandma jacket.

Summer’s Echo. (4)

Verified Rumor. (4) “honey” other of my fav voicelines

Pathless Realm. (Anecdote) if for some kind of magic or whatever MC doesn’t like Caleb, maybe Greyson can keep him 😆 their interaction makes a good plot for a BL school life shounen ai.

Stage Observer. (4) cutest memory, Caleb + microphone + MC = Hey everybody! I’m so in love that I will add this minute of how I’m happy to have MC in my life”. Also Caleb brain freezing when MC kissed him. 😂

Rain’s Embrace. (Bond Story affinity 5) “I’m gonna open it~~~” best voice line for me.

Longtime Yesterday. (4) i like that Caleb friends are so cool with MC too, there is some occasions sprinkled in some cards where Caleb's friends helps him to take care of MC and I think is cool because they acknowledge the importance that MC has in his life.

Skyline. (4) love that they both get anxious by the thought of the other getting a gf/bf, also so sweet that Caleb supports all MC dreams and how he says that he will take the responsibility so she can keep focusing in her dream of being a hunter.

Present time.

Under Deepspace chp. 1 (main story)

Under Deepspace chp. 4 (main story) he kabooms, and is cool to see how in the next chapters she gets an unhealthy obsession of discovering the reason of explosion, but he kabooms.

All Homecoming Wings. (main story) Is curious that Caleb, for now, is the motor of the main story. The reason of why she goes to all the adventures with the guys and now the reason of her investigation towards the chip, the little kid and Ever.

Endless Summer. (5) Caleb pls kiss MC already, MC nobody thinks that you actually had something in your eye girl…

Exclusive Aftertaste. (5) I think they kissed here, Caleb kinda changes course before fading to white, but the apple sound at the end also makes me think that they didn’t

Lucid Dream. (Permanent Myth Cards 5) someone rescue Caleb, poor boy is controlled by Ever and his only defense for now is a black hole in his own brain. Also MC matches his vibe, both of them are super attached to each other. Also poor MC, sadly she doesn’t have the big picture and she doesn’t understand that exposing herself in skyhaven means a future of deaths and torture. She usually doesn’t have good plans and is too hot headed in some occasions, at the end, the boys had to help/intervene to save her from death sometimes.

Hidden Waves. (5) MC finally tells him that he’s not alone and both can fight together, it seems that Caleb is realizing that he doesn’t need to do things alone.

Longtime Moments. (4) Both fight together, I think Caleb understands more that he doesn’t need to do everything for himself 🥹

Painful Signals. (5) MC is so furious that she’s trembling, go girl defend your boy!! Also Caleb is the meme lord and Gideon I luv u, I’m sad that people went without you in Valentine’s Day XD

Intertwined Gold. (4) the card that everybody thinks about since they talk about a kiss that we don’t know if is a future card or a card where it was implied. I love too how both of them are domestic already and how Caleb is like “she’s not bullied in her work right? 🤨”

AU - Alternative Universe.

Tain ted Cuts (5). the bad ending destroyed me, all the bad ends of the boys kinda parallels how a possible bad ending would be in main story. So thinking about how MC waited for him is too sad. Also we have a nest/bird reference like it happened in past cards with the seagulls and how it seems that MC abandoned the nest/disappeared, so maybe a reference for a future card or myth. At the end, if you go for the good ending, is fluff. This AU with Caleb didn’t feel dangerous, he is so mentally restrained that MC was not afraid of him and when he actually bites her, he runs (imo he literally trows himself to danger so he can die, because he’s so scared that he hurt her that I think he preferred to die than to live with the knowledge that he almost kills her 🥲)

[goldenlionprince]

for real!

I mean, apart from this being just plain rude, posting stuff like this under fanart of whatever ship (even if it's on pinterest where it's very likely a repost so the artist might or might not see it - and that's a whole different can of worms, art reposts)

I really wonder why people can't wrap their minds around friends to lovers ships (especially side-eying the ones that come from a supposed friends to lovers ship like wolfstar, but when I look at how this is often written I strongly ask myself if they are really friends in the first place). And it's fine if it's not their vibe, it's just weird to me to go the "My ship is morally sound but yours is iky" route.

what bond are you ruining with love? why do you all have the need to hate your partner? why is that okay and pure passion, but kissing your best friend is a big no no and "taints" the relationship??? (not even starting on "ruining male friendships" and the whole "they are like brothers so it's incest" thing because it's kinda homophobic too, not gonna lie)

And the whole "I would marry you if my boyfriend wasn't hot"??? like maybe someday they will see that being hot (but then mostly rude/mean/violent) isn't the only thing to build a relationship on. some people prefer to actually like the person they are with. wild, I know.

and for some people sexual attraction and romantic feelings come out of a deep bond of friendship. I personally need that connection point. I can appreciate aesthetic hotness, but for me to be interested in anything that expresses romantic love or anything sexual, I need the connection through understanding the person and liking them and friendship first. That's why I've always been drawn to ships that give me that dynamic. Deep friendships, ride or die. Deep feelings or each other that are both friendship and romantic love. There is no line in between.

I don't shame people who don't work that way or don't need that. Who feel attraction and love differently. But I would very much appreciate if people could stop shaming me for how I work too and not make it seem like I'm the worst satan for searching for the dynamic I like most in my ships.

comments under prongsfoot art on pinterest to ruin your day 🩷

[ray-from-outer-space]

because i just saw some people complain about blasphemy in exploding kittens

I wanna recommend Exploding kittens on Netflix. it's based on a card game with the same name. The series is exactly as unhinged as the cards in the game and I think it's pretty entertaining if you like these kinds of series.

So it's a cartoon where god is forced to reside on earth as a cat helping a family. And hell sends the CEO of hell to earth (also as a cat) to learn how to be evil. And we see them and the family interacting. Bit hard to explain but the trailer captures pretty well whats happening.

The series is probably trying to offend as many people as possible. So it's probably not for anyone, which is okay. But I love that it's offending some hardcore Christians.

[mossy-aro]

ultimately i think my insistence on aro positivity honestly is as much a political stance as a personal one.

when i say aro positivity is crucial and that i dislike doomer-ist posts that express sentiments like 'I hate being aro so much I wish I was dead instead’ it's not because I don’t think there can and should be a space for negativity and acknowledging self-hate, or the many ways being aromantic can really suck sometimes. i find that to be very important!

that being said. there is smth here about how self-hate posts are sometimes just arophobia that we inflict on ourselves. and when we put that out into the ether it (intentionally or not) can become arophobia that we inflict on other members of the community. i think there absolutely needs to be a place for negativity and the expression of anger and frustration and self loathing even - these are all good things to talk about because these are things that we experience. that being said, it can also be genuinely upsetting and triggering to people to have what is essentially arophobia shown to them and then have that be validated by other aspec people. your personal thoughts can affect your wider community on a level you may not anticipate. and i understand it i truly do! it took me so long to be able to recover from accepting being aroace - it threw my entire world off kilter and made me question everything about my place in the world.

but my insistence on aro joy and positivity is because ultimately i do believe that building is at the core essence of it all. that ultimately discussions and the purpose of community should be about construction, not destruction. and this is both a personal and a political stance. talking about how much you hate yourself and cultivating online discussions/spaces where negativity about aspec identity is the main and only theme is destructive - if that’s where we let the conversation end. these thoughts can and should be used as a vehicle to look for a path forward!

joy and positivity create a space where the focus can become on forging a path forward, on construction, on community building instead of tearing ourselves and others down with negative thoughts. it’s not productive or healthy when it stops at a place of negativity - it becomes actively destructive to the essence of community.

and i do think that this is especially poignant considering the fact that being any kind of queer, but especially aromantic (and/or asexual) means forging a path for yourself and making your own happiness where there is no obvious way forward. our communities exist mostly online (right now, anyway), there is little recognition of our existence in the real world, the effects of amatonormativity are both pervasive and actively dehumanising, and there are legal, economic and social structures in place actively making our lives more difficult. yes that all sucks! it’s good to acknowledge that. we need to in order to change it. but more importantly, that’s not the end. we are still here and our happiness, our future is for us to determine. even if we can’t change the laws or society, loving yourself and understanding aromanticism as a political identity (as well as personal), as a radical worldview, and as a protest against amatonormativity is essential for both community and personal well being. the personal is political.

tldr. i guess my point is that as a community, we should focus on building, improving, and nurturing ourselves and each other (construction) as opposed to destruction. we should recognise aromanticism and asexuality as political identities as well as personal ones and rely on community and self-love in the absence of anything else as a form of protest and political power. destruction (the recognition of everything that is wrong) is essential as a starting point - but where do we go from there? we rebuild.

[murdockhawkeye]

so a while back i made a sorta-timeline of h2o's first season, and i even went as far as to study up on the australian school year, and then from that - i made a guess of when the school year started in s2 based off the full moon in the first ep (february 5th)

which then led me to guess the first days of school in the eras of season 1 and season 2 (february 6th and february 4th respectively) just because

and then when i looked at it again, i realized that meant rikki seriously started beef with not just zane, but also miriam and lewis in like the first week of school

rikki stole zane's spark plug because he was a pig. she and miriam were hostile to each other in ep two. and then in that same ep, lewis says he and rikki had their "issues" in the past, which ? i want to know more

like. what did rikki and lewis even do to get on each other's bad side? does that have to do with why cleo was so awkward, when rikki asked how she knew her name?

so anyways, the girls' anniversary is on valentine's day 💕 love that for them

[notdeadyetnatural]

Was working on redecorating/rearranging my room and I finally got to my destiel wall + designated shelf space

Art was previously scattered around my room and my spn stuff was all over different shelves, but now it's all together! (with the exception of one bigger print by archervale that's slightly below the shelf in this pic)

[batsplat]

It's a thing I already knew but all your beautiful analysis really made obvious (to me) how much of a grudge holder vale is. That man is never letting it go he's gonna hold his grudges into his grave

you know, I do think this is an interesting issue, because I'm not sure this is true of all his grudges. just sticking here with the grudges he accumulated in his capacity as a competitor, rather than just his general approach to life or whatever... how you judge this will kinda depend on how you feel about the 'reconciliation' he's experienced with some of his rivals - and whether you read the whole thing as sincere or not. now, personally I reckon he still dislikes biaggi, but also you are allowed to just dislike people so I'll give him a pass for that. some of the others, I'm a little more convinced by the whole reconciliation schtick

let's get valentino's take:

interesting that he mentions those three together, isn't it? and like, he's still not messaging biaggi or inviting him to his home - "even with max" kind of tells you all you need to know - but the other two? they said some proper nasty things to each other over the years!! I mean, the casey rivalry, there's some remarks from both sides where quite frankly I think I would struggle just a touch to get over it

I don't know, obviously this could all be pr stuff, but I kind of feel like... y'know, why bother? it's 2022, you're retired, who gives a fuck? sure it's a good look to be all magnanimous, sure it can be a bit of a way of twisting in the knife to the guys left in the cold, but also, who would care if you don't play nice? I think especially with jorge, you surely don't need to do all that, inviting him to your home and dancing with him... (which, again, some of the spats those two had...) and with the casey rivalry, if there's one guy who's still hung up about what happened between the pair of them, it's obviously casey (speaking of blokes who can hold a grudge). maybe this is giving valentino too much credit, but personally I buy it's more or less sincere. there's nothing to really indicate he's still particularly bothered by any of their past disagreements - he's basically going for the 'all's fair in love and motorcycle racing' approach. he knows he was an asshole, he accepts they were assholes too, whatever, that's how these things work. he's generally a fan of drama in rivalries, unsurprisingly, and he was happy enough to contribute his fair share - but he does see it as fundamentally being part of the game

to point out the obvious, check out who he's left out: sete and marc. that's where he can't let go of the grudges... because it's not about the offence itself as much as it is about the betrayal. this is the thing with valentino, right, it's about what kind of bond you had with him. if you weren't his friend in the first place and then piss him off as a rival then, y'know, whatever. obviously he's going to be vicious in trying to get back at you, but also he's really not going to waste his time feeling too aggrieved by it. I mean, think about how all the bullshit between him and casey dropped off sharply post-2012... from valentino's end anyway. think about how jorge and valentino pretty quickly got on again whenever they weren't fighting for supremacy within yamaha. they weren't friends in the first place, then they were enemies for competitive reasons for a while there, then it's over and valentino is basically happy enough to call it bygones

but... if it's a certain kind of bond you had with him and then you wrong him... that little mental list of all his past grievances, all your past transgressions, that's where it comes in. that's where he ices you out. denies you any emotional warmth. ensures that any interaction going forward is conducted entirely on his terms. where even any public 'reconciliation' won't truly be sincere.... or, certainly he's not going to forget what happened. if something else happens... it's like you've always got the potential of triggering this lingering resentment, in a way, where all that past stuff is still primed and ready to be called upon. he certainly doesn't just let it go

or, as he puts it in his autobiography:

Biaggi and I never talk to each other. I mean, we've never had a real conversation, anything that's lasted more than the requisite time to insult each other or put each other down, in the nastiest way possible. In any case, I don't hate him. It's true, we've never been friends, but hatred is something different, and that's too serious a word to describe our relationship. Far too serious. No, we have a reciprocal antipathy. No doubt this is a result of what we do for a living and the fact that we both want to win every single time. And perhaps it's also a function of the fact that we have very different personalities and very different ways of seeing things. Still, I don't think this means we hate each other, as some journalists have written. I think I could feel hatred for someone, but only for someone far worse than anything Biaggi has done. For example, if I were betrayed by a friend, then, yes, I could hate him. But Biaggi will never betray my friendship for the simple reason that we are not, and never have been, friends. Our relationship is very clear: we compete on the track - outside the track, each goes his own way. You could say we detest each other cordially.

... I mean. he said it, not me. and given this book was first published in '05... biaggi can't betray his friendship because they were never friends... I'm not saying he's thinking about sete, but it has to at least be a possibility, right? he's talking about one rivalry here and refusing to even mention the other... and the one he's refusing to mention is the one where he was friends with the other bloke. I don't know, maybe that's reading too much into it! and anyway, even if this passage wasn't really about sete, it's obviously still revealing. "detest each other cordially" is essentially what he was doing with casey and jorge (or from his point of view in any case, not entirely sure they'd agree with that). the grudge comes when he feels let down by you... and then, yes, he'll never let it go

of course, he's willing to set aside his grievances for a while if there's sufficient motivation for him to do so. in 2009, when he had so definitively won that rivalry with sete, why bother kicking up a fuss? in 2016, quite frankly it was just too much, and it was getting to the point where it was obviously hurting him too. on the one hand there was the media furore that had been going on non-stop since sepang, on the other hand it was also hurting his own approach to racing. there's reports from the time how visibly aggrieved he still was in the first few races of the season, and it took until they got back to europe for him to... y'know, have fun again. it's not sustainable to be walking around with a constant dark cloud over your head and broadcasting burning resentment towards your two main rivals. certainly not for someone like valentino - he needs to be having fun! the slight rapprochement needed to happen, in a way, because otherwise those years would have been even worse for everyone involved. but that doesn't actually translate to forgetting any of those grudges. this is about convenience more than anything else

goes to show, really... most of the time he doesn't take these things personally. I talked about it a bit in this post, how maybe it's also something that changed over time for him: the question of whether he was willing to develop these kinds of bonds in the first place with competitors... because he does possess a certain level of self-awareness in terms of what these kinds of rivalries are like and what they do to interpersonal relationships. ideally, you don't want to be hurt by a friend like that, right? better not to have that kind of emotional attachment with your competitors in the first place. how unfortunate it'd be if all those years after sete the circumstances aligned for him to see a competitor as something like a friend again... because, after all, those are the only people who could betray him. those are the only people where he thinks he could truly hate them

[front-facing-pokemon]

[telesodalite]

I need to be weirder about the scavengers and cannibalism...

[ohsweetflips]

somewhere on this blog there is a post that goes something like "what if i just start identifying as nonbinary and don't tell anyone and still go by she/her" and that needs to be marked as the day that pandora's box opened

[st4rstudent]

i feel somewhat responsible for this, even if i’m not the one saying these things. I’m genuinely so sorry.

No need to apologize! It's not one singular person doing it and truth be told I don't think it's a large majority that thinks that (albeit the ones that do are quite vocal). I didn't mean to upset anyone or anything when complaining about it, I was just letting off some steam.

Having a yap session under the cut sorry I feel like rambling under your ask anon.

Admittedly, I do think there are reasonings for people thinking this way. A lot of the focus with Clash has been on the cogs, especially after the 1.3 update. Which I can't say I blame them! Managers were something new and exciting and (from what I can tell) really separated them from the other servers. I don't blame them for wanting to put focus on that because that was their thing. Alongside other things, but majorly when you hear Clash the managers are mentioned in someway shape or form. But as we all know, toons ended up taking the short stick from this. This isn't helped by the gameplay itself, being mainly a fetch-quest deal so you often only talk to npcs once or twice unless if they're repeated ones and the taskline wasn't entirely accessible on the wiki for a while (shoutout to the wiki maintainers. The taskline script is a savior). Which I'm quite excited to see if they deal with this issue with the rewrite. I imagine they will, but anyways. Social media posts would often contain more managers than toons, which I also believe they're starting to fix. And ontop of this, I believe most of the team in the early era of the sever is gone, so there's been some stuff lost in the change. So yeah, dialogue/writing has been kind of rocky. AGAIN- I am completely aware of the rewrite going on and I am not judging them harshly based off of their current state. I'm very appreciative of the fact that they took the time to listen and are focusing on trying to fix it up. And then there's also fandom mischaracterization- especially of the cogs. Forgive me for mentioning mischaracterization because normally I wouldn't really care (I've mischaracterized characters before..especially in my younger years. I think it's just a process of learning an having fun and I hate to limit anyone because of it). With that being said, there's a lot of baby-fying and coddling of the managers. Especially with those who have more 'sympathetic' stories (Misty, Chip, Winston specifically). Don't get me wrong, I like these characters and I can appreciate the story they're trying to tell, but I feel like so many people will hear their dialogue and then misplace their anger. People get mad at Bessie for trying to protect HER lighthouse or at the Elders for trying to keep YOTT safe (lets not forget Winston was there to brainwash toons). Yes, yes technically there would've been better ways to do it but consider this: The toons are scared. Their homes, stores, lives are being taken over by a big corporation that has more resources that they do. They don't have the privilege of waiting, seeing, and gathering. And then people forget that the company has such a huge role in both toons and cogs lives. If you're mad over the mistreatment of Misty or the fact that Winston is still in the dungeon, your anger should be directed at the company who doesn't care. I may be completely wrong in saying this, but I feel like the stories with almost all of the managers is a reflection of the company. The toons are only trying to protect themself and their environments and yet this seems to go forgotten when people start bashing them. And of course, I'd consider myself a toon guy so me saying all this and complaining may come off as "I HATE the cogs and everyone who posts only about them!" and for clarification that's not true. You all know how much I like that little brain thing. The cogs are interesting, their designs are fun, I don't blame people for liking them because I do too. I just wish that the thought process behind so many of these discussions wasn't so cog focused because I believe that this anger at the toons for, RIGHTFULLY, defending themselves helps push this mischaracterization of them as a whole. That they're mean, boring, unlikeable while the opposite is true. Yes there are some, what I'd consider, "filler" dialogue from the shopkeepers. This is just because of the gameplay. But there are some funny and cute moments with them if people would just listen and read.

Which also brings me into another point: people skip the dialogue. I've caught myself doing this before (on my first account. I have 4 accounts total, so I reread the dialogue on like 3 of them). But people will complain about lack of toon personalities while doing this. It's like reading through a comic book, only looking at the drawings, and then complaining because there "isn't a storyline". Luckily, there's been efforts to keep track of the dialogue on the wiki but I doubt a lot of people are going through and reading the entire script. It just feels very disingenuous to criticize the dialogue when you haven't even read it. Likewise, people don't seem to read the blogposts either. This is both from a dialogue aspect and from an update aspect (people continuously asking about hammerspace/mix-and-match under unrelated posts).

[oleanderspride]

Cartoonish blinking noises. Hi guys

[lovevalley45]

if ava and sara divorced at the point of the plot we left off in s7 i do fear that ava would be getting custody of most of the remaining legends