#maybe i should make a post that's just the timeline

[petrichal]

Role-reversal as a concept is really simple imo BUT things like change of environment and plot-related stuff personally makes this fic so fun for me to write :)

So I ended up writing a bunch for what was supposed to be a simple concept, wanted to compile my word vomit so far and, hey, maybe this might be enjoyable for people to read too, who knows (ᵕ,—ᴗ—,).

(⚠️ long post ahead!)

Timeline:

10 y.o - Ace swaps with Sabo before he sails off to sea, while Sabo goes back to Dadan's. The day after the explosion, Ace is found drifting on a piece of wood near Shimotsuki village by Marco who had been around the area with some members of the crew.

15 y.o - Ace eats his devil fruit on his "birthday" (the day the WB found him).

17 y.o - Sabo sets off to become a Revolutionary. 

18 y.o - [2 years before canon/Luffy sets out.] Ace gets his first bounty. It's been 1 year since Sabo entered the RA, and it's also when he finds out about Ace. (<- we are here) 

※ Some time when Sabo was 14-15 years old, he became aware of the Revolutionary Army when he first heard Garp mention his son in relation to it during one of his drinking sessions with Dadan. He went to a library in Goa's Town Center after the fact, saw some information and connected the dots, then confronted Garp about it when he visited next.

※ Garp doesn't know that Ace is alive prior to his wanted poster, but had heard a rumor of a kid on board Whitebeard's ship. The rumor came later than when he first heard of Ace's incident in Goa though (both did not seem connected), and it isn't rare for Whitebeard to pick up a stray, so he hadn't pressed on anything. He will later confront Whitebeard on Ace's whereabouts in the future.  

※ Ace isn't allowed to be off the ship when he was younger in case of any danger from enemy pirates but made a habit of sneaking off on his own without any of the crew knowing sometimes. He'd spend his time in the mountains or making friends with the forest animals (for reasons unknown to him) after getting bored of being in towns. The crew had been lax about the rule until an incident when he was fifteen, resulting in Marco forbidding him from getting in fights for a while. 

※ Sabo met the Revolutionary Army by tracking them down. Word of mouth by the marines made the job easier, and he found himself joining after getting involved in a coup of a kingdom in East Blue. 

※ Sabo is not the Chief of Staff, nor is he anywhere close to being one at this point in the story. He initially judged Dragon for not being present for Luffy but understands that the risk of being connected directly to the leader of the RA would be dangerous. He'd share letters and drawings from Luffy with him at times, where Dragon would keep them in a drawer despite Sabo's playful insistence that he should pin them to his board. 

** This is a personal headcanon but I believe that (in canon) Ace still felt some guilt for not taking Sabo with them instead of letting Outlook drag Sabo back to High Town resulting in Sabo running away and getting blown up by the Celestial Dragon, and that Ace would have resorted to unhealthy coping mechanisms because of it- except, Ace is a fire logia, and he can’t get drunk because he’d just burn all the alcohol away. 

In this fanfic I kinda took that headcanon for Sabo and because he’s not a fire logia, he has an easy time drowning himself in his own misery. This gets progressively worse especially after he sails off on his own, when Luffy's not there with him.

(Everything below this was made before I started chapter 2, and they’re all just how I put together my thoughts so I could write ch. 2 & 3)

The Plot (up to ch.3):

Summary; In which I provide you with sea routes?? because why not:

(Kind of a bastardized version of this from One Piece Novel A, where the boss of an island under WB’s territory gets outed for being involved in slave trades.)

** “Feltor” is an island I made up and carried over from the original version of the story, but the region I specified in chapter 2 “Las Camp” is canon and was said to be one of Whitebeards’ territories. “Port Marina” is also made up, except it’s kind of a nod to Port Chibaralta.

Rumour says Feltor has been used by slave traders as a rendezvous point between ships.

Logbook received by the RA from Sabaody confirms that a “merchant ship” from Feltor frequently docks in the shipyard before being sighted near Sabaody’s lawless zone (Human Shop location).

Sabo & Koala go to Feltor to steal their logbook. The logbook records should tell them about the location (slave trader's base / Port Marina) the first ship came from before they transport passengers over to the "merchant ship".

I actually didn’t realize how stupid the route was (like wouldn't it be easier for all of this to be in the Grand Line instead??? ugh) and was too stubborn to change anything, but I got rid of the discrepancies and end up a happy writer because of it yippee ;_;

Of course this isn't all there is to it. I haven't written up the rest so the notes for Port Marina stays in their notes.

(This part is genuinely super self-indulgent. I need to have it make sense in canon worldbuilding and that’s why I write at a snail’s pace orz Moving on - )

Emotional Process??:

Chapter 2 was hard for me to write because I couldn’t keep track of how Ace and Sabo feel towards certain things (their main conflicts, what they wanted to do, what they feared or hoped, etc.), so I made a mindmap of their thoughts about stuff like that:

I tried putting this into text but how I put it [above] was easier to understand 😵‍💫 There’s a bit of dialogue that’s for the next chapter but don’t worry about that lol. If you can read through my atrocious handwriting then all the power to you :’)

This is genuinely not supposed to be a long fic and was supposed to be 4 chapters long, but that didn't go as planned lmao ⚰️ My target for now is 6 chapters (2 chapters + an epilogue, hopefully).

(If you've reached this far, here's an experimental draft of Chapter 1 that didn’t go anywhere, but I still consider it part of the story): 

Eight years have passed since Ace was shot at the age of ten, when he gripped Sabo by his shoulders and told him to be free.  It’s been eight years since he had worn Sabo’s clothes to act as a lousy decoy and sailed under his pirate flag - ��Just the letter S on some crossbones? Come on, Sabo,” - and it’s been eight years since Sabo’s brother died because of it. Growing up without Ace had been a challenge he didn’t think he’d face. They saw his ghost sometimes, young minds longing for a voice gone too early, and it existed in the forest they used to hunt in and the room Dadan had for the three of them, now two. They seldom stayed in the treehouse anymore- too many precious memories they didn’t dare disturb- but Sabo’s heart was stronger because of it.  Colder, sure, but there was something about seeing bent nails hammered clumsily into the treehouse’s flooring and childish drawings on the battered wall that served as a reminder for what Ace had left, and before long, it hurt too much to bear. So Sabo stayed at Dadan’s, and after a while, Luffy followed him too.  It got easier to breathe as Sabo got older. Holding on to Ace’s memories and Luffy’s permanence by his side gave him some sliver of strength to continue, and if it wasn’t for them then it was his rage for the world above all else.  So he joined the Revolutionary Army at seventeen, and it’s been one year since then and eight years since he’s known hate like he was born out of it. 

.

The second truth came close to the first; That the world was rotten to its core, and it was why his brother was dead in the first place.  Because Ace's death made no sense. He was someone whose dreams were greater than anyone Sabo's ever met, someone who would stand tall and grin in the face of danger, someone who was destined for the world beyond Goa and the East Blue.  Ace whispered wishes in his ears, Sabo remembers, to be someone greater than his father. Maybe he can be his mother's pride, too, someone she won't regret giving up her life for.  Ten years of living, five years of wishing. A life cut too short.  (From Ace’s demise stands Sabo, this turncoat noble, the boy who was handed everything on a silver platter from a young age just so he could shove it all away, and, what, his dream is to write a book? That's all?) Luffy was the one to bring what was left of him back around, in the end.  It had been a week since they'd heard the news about Ace, and Sabo had spent most of his time in the forest to think, as he called it.  Sunlight pierced through the canopy of leaves above him where he swung his pipe against Luffy's outstretched punch. It made the boy stumble, and soon enough, his arm snapped back and made him fall to the ground.  “14 - 0,” Sabo exhaled. The metal pipe felt rough underneath his grip. He was distracted; His mind was elsewhere. “Luffy, this isn't really-” “No!” Came the petulant reply. Luffy got back up as fast as he went down and resumed his stance. “Next round!”  And maybe it was frustration, or maybe it was something more harsh, because Sabo could remember throwing his pipe down and sitting cross on the ground instead of parrying Luffy's attack. Sabo ignored how the punch missed him by a whole two inches and how Luffy tumbled forward in surprise because of it. He mussed up his curls instead, and he didn't really get what was making him feel this trapped, this suffocated, but all he knew was that he just wanted everything to stop so he could think.  “Sabo?”  But he couldn't really ignore Luffy completely, could he? Slowly, the blonde lifted his head up, and through the beaming sun rays piercing through the canopy, Luffy's frown fixed itself like a picture on his face.  “What's wrong?” Everything, Sabo wanted to say, but Luffy knew that already.  “Just tired,” he said instead before burying his head between his knees. “Oh.” He could feel Luffy settling down on the grass next to him and the boy leaned on Sabo's shoulder like he was worth relying on.  “I'm sad about Ace, too,” Luffy said after a beat. The mere mention of their other brother felt like ice nowadays. It froze Sabo, and maybe this was what he feared, this talk with Luffy.  “.... I don't think we'll ever stop feeling sad about Ace.” His little brother had nothing to say to that. He only pushed himself more on Sabo’s side. The morning was still young with birds chirping in their homes, and it filled the silence that lapsed in between them like some kind of healing balm. But that wasn’t enough. Sabo knew his wounds, and this one in particular was heavy and deep, something that couldn’t possibly be reconciled in just a week after losing Ace. (And the second truth, really, was that it was unfair of him to blame the world for Ace’s death, when he was the one who led Ace down that path to begin with.)  “Don’t you blame me at all?” Sabo found himself asking after the quiet started to feel unbearable. “If I hadn’t tried to leave, he would still….” “Sabo’s stupid,” Luffy said instead, and before Sabo could react in any way to that, “Ace saved you so you can be happy. Why would I get angry about that?”

Aaaand that's it! I really like thinking about this fic! Sorry it's a bit much but thank you for reading until the end!

[antebunny]

a summer is sold

[part six of my fae!Tim AU. masterpost here]

~

Bruce returns to the Unseelie Queen. He steps through the fae circle with the trusty protections of salt and iron. It is quite unlike Batman to use tools that are so low-tech, but he will not deny the efficacy of that which has protected humankind from the fae for thousands of years.

“Unseelie Queen!” Bruce shouts. Last time the forest of mushrooms simply melted into a clearing where he placed his protections and conducted his business. Today, the poisonously red caps simply grow and grow until the mushrooms tower over him.

The smell of organic matter decaying and a swirl of turquoise leaves. She arrives in her usual fashion. Ten feet tall and dressed in a gown of rushing rivers and starlit nights. A gray face and the smile of nightmares. The Unseelie Queen attempts of human beauty and misses in a manner so violently unsettling, so uncanny-valley-upsetting, that even Batman feels fear.

“I have come to make a new deal.” Bruce shows no fear. Rule number one.

“Oh?” The Unseelie Queen bends down until her back splits in four places and they are eye to eye. Screams dance madly in her silver-violet-smoke black eyes until Bruce drops his gaze to her chin. “Do you wish for me to take back my gift?”

Not Jason. It is love that pangs around Bruce’s heart, love that morphs into fear when she threatens Jason’s life out of curiosity. 

“You overreached,” Bruce accuses. He will not acknowledge her threat. Rule number two: admit to no emotion but rage. “You made a deal with Tim for humanity. If he fails, he leaves.”

This is once again educated guesswork on Bruce’s part. He’s still not sure what the Unseelie Queen is getting out of all of this. But Tim clearly wants to stay in the human realm. How else to punish him but to make him leave? 

“If he leaves, you’ve failed your bargain with me,” Bruce continues. 

The Unseelie Queen gnashes row after row of teeth to dust until her frustration works itself out. “You cannot make a deal on his behalf.”

“And you can?”

Bruce’s bargain with her depended, from the very beginning, on her right to bargain Tim away. He had believed, when she first handed Tim over, that Tim was a subject of the fae, a member of the Unseelie Court, and therefore hers to do what she liked with. A loyal subject. A spy meant to serve as the Unseelie Queen’s hand in a realm she could not otherwise reach. 

But Tim delights in the cuisine explorations Dick and Jason take him to. He soaks up Barbara’s computer crash courses, which is quite unusual for a fae; they are notoriously tech-averse. He yearns to be human. If there is any chance that Tim truly wants to turn away from the Unseelie Queen, then it is the morally right thing to do to keep him away from her. Batman has offered hand after hand to the most irredeemable villains; what is one more to a strange little creature who may still be a child by the standards of the fae? 

Moreover, it is in Bruce’s and his family’s own best interest to expedite Tim’s process of becoming human. If Tim’s deal with the Unseelie Queen doesn’t work, he may attempt to become human by eating one, or by stealing the skin of one, or whatever else a fae’s mind might think up. Suppose, even, that the Unseelie Queen has no jurisdiction over the humanity of her subjects. It made sense to Bruce that she could de-fae whoever displeased her, but he knows now that she makes promises vastly out of her reach. Perhaps she has no humanity to offer Tim. Then it is still in Bruce’s best interest to keep Tim away from her and teach him the morality of humans. 

“Very well.” The whistling shriek of wind in the trees escapes the Unseelie Queen’s nostrils. “What is your proposal?”

“I keep Jason, no strings attached.” Bruce doesn’t need Jason one slip-up away from dying again. “I keep Tim. If he fails his bargain with you–”

“Do you love him?” 

Bruce, caught flat-footed, adheres to rule number two.

The Unseelie Queen cycles through a magnificent number of eldritch recreations of faces, yet maintains the air of leering. “Do. You. Love. Him.”

Rule number three: do not lie to the fae.

“No.”

Another hiss akin to howling wind issues from the Unseelie Queen in fits and spurts. Not until she calms does Bruce realize she was laughing.

“He may be your responsibility now,” the Unseelie Queen concedes, “but he will always be mine before he is yours. You may keep Jason. But if dearest Timothy fails, he will return to me.”

Now it is Bruce’s turn to gnash his teeth. But he follows rule number one and hides it behind the stiff line of his cowl. “Three-fourths,” he suggests finally. “He’s done that much. Cancel the bargain you have with him right now and take one fourth. You’ll have him in the summers. I’ll take him the rest of the year. And I keep Jason.”

He waits patiently as an awful cacophony of bird calls, the clicking of beetles, and all the untempered rage of nature arises to spite him. The Unseelie Queen sways, collapsing into an eight-legged beast rampaging around the mushroom forest one second, then whirling into the purple sky the next. A tempest. A temper tantrum. The Unseelie Queen throws a hissy fit when she realizes that she cannot get away with her double-bargaining this time. That because of her habit of trying to have her cake and eat it too, her favorite toy is at risk of slipping away. Bruce always offers second chances, but in this instance he finds himself entirely out of sympathy.

“Fine,” the Unseelie Queen hisses once she finishes throwing a tantrum. “I accept.”

Bruce does not love Tim. Tim is not his son. He acts on moral imperatives. His heart opens glacially slow. If they had more time, perhaps Bruce would come to love Tim and see him as one of his kids. Perhaps he would not have had to fight the Unseelie Queen for 75% of Tim’s life. But the summer is escaping, and Bruce knows when compromises must be made even if he detests them.

Now he just has to tell Tim.

[spaceistheplaceart]

found an old ekurei comic rotting in my files, decided to finish it. upon my rewatch of mp100 i kept noticing how many times dimple was referred to as a pet- but he's not ! ! ! he's a friend :)

[trans-leek-cookie]

listen I'm not gonna be a Curly apologist he did Fucked Up as captain but I genuinely recommend ppl watch a playthru that goes thru the game in chronological order. It kinda helps clear up the events and gaps between them, bc even tho u See the times, you still experience it out of order.

The stuff Anya says definitely sets off alarm bells but it doesn't seem like he Fully Understands what she means, and I'm going to be 100% honest I think she was trying to repress it herself. This isn't to say that she is AT ALL "at fault" for what happened after and she should've gotten help even if she wasn't ready to fully discuss the issue but I genuinely think she herself was still coming to terms with things, so she didn't necessarily process the full impact before talking to Curly, and a lot of what happens occurs after they're laid off- like this delves into personal interpretation but I genuinely think Anya only registered Jimmy as a serious danger after his outburst towards Curly. Ofc my interpretation is limited bc of the limited pov in game and not having gone through what she has, but it personally reads more akin to coercion over time than a singular Obviously Violent incident (like. Not to say that Sexual Assault isnt violent in nature, just that coercion often specifically works to obfuscate the fact it is a form of violence.) The layoff is a Massive catalyst for her bc of Jimmy, in that she now has a very clear understanding of his capacity for aggression.

To extrapolate a little from the "Dead Pixel" conversation, she starts by saying she Likes The Screen (even though it's fake). While Curly has his quotes about the pixel "not ruining the illusion" which. Y'know is Symbolic Of His Flaws. She doesn't say the pixel ruins it, just that she can't get it out of her mind.

If we take the pixel to represent her Or jimmy, either way the way she talks about it kind of downplays things, like it's a Minor Thing that's Slightly Upsetting, but she's still okay with the big picture. Idk I could be 100% wrong but that is my take

Besides that, Anya tells curly she's pregnant 2 days before the crash, and it isn't until she outright states it that he starts Putting The Pieces Together. I want to note, he says "I'd do anything" and "this doesn't have to go on our performance evals" 1. Before he knows shes pregnant 2. Under the assumption she might attempt suicide, and I doubt he even thought about her using the gun on anyone else before she brings that up. He says literally before the line where she tells him she's pregnant that "being laid off isnt a reason to hurt [herself]". Like I've seen ppl talk about the performance evaluation thing like it's about her and jimmy, but I think he's referring to (his belief) that she might attempt suicide or similar which might genuinely be a consistent thing he's seen her struggle with, given she's able to go through with it. Also just to note: assuming their society is like ours (hellish) reassuring her he won't blab Abt her mental health is like. Genuine reassurance- lots of mentally ill ppl will Not Open Up bc it could have long term consequences (like. For example. On employment) ANYWAYS I hope it doesn't come off like "Curly never failed Anya" but rather "Curly approached this specific situation without the context of why Anya is panicking and (possibly validly) assuming she's dealing with a very different issue"

Also let me say again the time frame is 2 days. We don't Really see what happens, but we know Anya tells Jimmy without Curly knowing. I genuinely believe he maybe didn't do a Great Job in those two days (the fact he says Anya should've talked to Him before telling Jimmy is uhhh. Mm. 1. Your job to create an environment where she comes to you my man 2. Weird to tell her what she should do with HER OWN PERSONAL INFORMATION) but like.

I get a lot of ppl want immediate consequences but consider that they can't really get rid of Jimmy (co pilot. Which is. Y'know it's Own Problems) but also like. Curly knows Jimmy, and we know that Jimmy tends to lash out. Curly should probably Not Confront Jimmy Unless He Knows Exactly How To Keep Him From Hurting Anya. Like I'm not an expert but this is something genuinely important- when confronting an abuser you NEED to take into account the impact it can have on their victim, and sometimes for the victims safety you need to wait until you have a Solid Plan. It sucks but it's important.

And theres discussion to be had about Curly kinda going along with Jimmy saying "well what if we all died" and like. I do believe he Didn't Realize What Jimmy Said. Like he was just processing/trying to keep the situation under control (and failing because he underestimated how willing Jimmy was to hurt everyone including himself).

Like he's definitely an enabler but I would say his problems are mostly before he understands the gravity of the situation, in that he's friends with Jimmy and assumes the best of a man with abusive tendencies, and fails to create an environment that can keep Anya and the others safe. Like, he definitely doesn't handle in game events perfectly (psych evaluation for one- he does do it instead of Anya which is actually helpful, but he still treats it like. Weirdly.)

Idk I have a lot of thoughts about this game and I don't necessarily want to defend Curly but more like. Anya's situation is very delicate (and light on details) so sometimes the way ppl talk Abt it feels like they aren't actually focused on what she wants and what it means to prioritize her safety y'know?

Edit bc I just now figured out kinda how I want to word it: curly is an enabler and making things worse bc he doesn't put a stop to Jimmy's BS, but in the specific scenario we see in game I think he's trying to use his Skillset of like, people pleasing not for Jimmy's sake but for the crews (like "if I nod my head and say I sympathize he won't lash out and hurt them") which like. There are situations which that is unfortunately the safest option (on an individual level yes, but sometimes it's also necessary to prevent abusers lashing out in response toward ppl who are more vulnerable) but it was the Wrong Choice.

It's like. I think Curly was trying and had good intentions, and understood that he needed to protect the crew, but he didn't have the toolset/experience to realize he can't Just go along with things and that he needs to be able to set hard limits, even for ppl he likes and trusts. Like he failed but the failure was "for want of a nail", where it began way before what we see (for want of an understanding of power dynamics I guess.) Again, don't think this makes curly more forgivable or whatever, I just think he's a good example of trying to make the right choices when you never realized you'd have to make these kinds of decisions and therefore are unprepared and/or unaware

Second edit: personally I don't think you can really incapacitate jimmy without there being serious risk (again he's the copilot) but curly should've given Anya the gun when she told him Abt the pregnancy

[bbnibini]

I wonder if it's a design choice or the devs themselves can't make up their mind, but why did Solomon's eye colour "change" in NB? The chibi sprites in the OG show his eyes are shades of grey to brown/almost gold-bronze.

The NB chibi sprite shows his eyes to be dark blue and brownish-gold.

Don't even get me started with the cards and merch that can't make up his effing eye colour

To my Solobesties (I'm calling Solomon stans this now. I think we formed a strange kinship after lesson 17 even if we never interact lmao), especially artist solobesties, hats off to you and your service to the community.

My personal HC is kinda a spoiler for uhhhh something I'm writing, but here it is:

"It's just…your eyes are like you: I can't figure them out." "MC, I-" "No! No! Solomon, I'm sorry! No…it's not like that, I promise! Look at me, won't you? Please look at me." So he did. His eyes trembled as he met with yours. How could he have hidden this part of himself for this long? How could you not notice? How could you forget? How could Father be so cruel to him and you for simply existing? You traced the corner of his lips with your thumb as you held him by the cheek. He was leaning onto your right hand, unable to maintain his gaze. He was surprisingly bashful. Adorably shy without his facades. But he looked like he would crumble even with a gentle word so you did not say anything. He looked at you expectantly, then looked away as your gaze burned onto him for too long and muttered, "You can't figure me out?"in almost a whisper, after a long-drawn out silence, weighing in his words, watching your expressions and body language. Afraid, so deathly afraid. You smiled. "It's like I'm looking at a mirror. Sometimes it's silver, sometimes it's midnight. When you look at the world around you and then look back at me, I feel like you've captured the sky and the oceans in your eyes. It's beautiful." His face was red all over, even to the tips of his ears. It was such a shame. You haven't even said everything you wanted to say to him yet. That he was the moon and the stars to your daytime; gold and silver gazes, looking after you from afar in the many branches of realities he couldn't be as honest with you as he was now. Ah. What will you do without him now? How can you give this up after remembering everything? You knew it was selfish, but you love him. Both of him. Every part of him just as much as he loved you and every part of you that existed. But now, you had to say goodbye. Again. How truly unfair.

[roots-symphony]

seeing a post or fic about Jinx and Isha:

it doesn’t make them mother and daughter:

[redheadedfailgirl]

From 'Dream of a woman' By Cacey Plett.

This sums up exactly how I feel about most transition timelines. As much as they reflect people's experiences, they are also a narrative. And the narratives that get shared the most tell a lot about what our values are. The timelines that get the most attention are the ones where people go from sad, loser, nothing boys into beautiful women.

But if you go to /r/transitiontimelines or a similar place, and sort by controversial or look at what has the least likes, its people who made timelines when they still don't 'pass' yet. Even if they're happy as can be, that's not what people are looking for.

I think it says a lot about what people expect from trans women, that they only want to see us be beautiful. In some cases, that they want to believe they can be beautiful. So there is no value in trans life if you're not beautiful.

[skyrim-forever]

How I feel with my 11 interconnected oneshots and minifics with a timeline that only I know because "writing longfic is scary"

[moldy-flowers]

Naori Uchiha :33

BAD BACKGROUND BC I HATEE DRAWING BACKGROUNDS SJSHSNSJ

Anyway Naori is in my top 5 I love this girlie I found her while scrolling through the Naruto Wiki and she instantly drove me insane she should get more than 20 seconds of screen time.

[acquiescest]

irt the lrb what would you say if i said liam & noel spent new years 2023 together in paris

what would you say if i said liam bought the house in france (the one with noel's name carved into the walls) in march 2023 and that month noel talked about wanting to spend several months in paris

which could mean nothing

[worfianism]

Listen whoever decided to pair up La'an and an alternate version of Jim Kirk in a romcom style classic time travel episode actually galaxy brained. Freaking great episode.

[batsplat]

from the stuff i’ve heard marc’s former honda teammates (dani jorge and pol in their media careers but joan also i guess) say about him now that they’re racing is generally quite positive, both on a professional/riding level but also seemingly on a personal level? i’m wondering what you make of that given that, yeah, marc doesn’t seem like a very good teammate (unless you’re alex who i’ve left off this list). like MARC wants to separate on and off track stuff and it seems like all of these guys are willing too at least in retrospect, so he can’t have truly burned bridges with them. do you have any thoughts on that

(x, x) most riders are quite good at not burning bridges with each other! it's not like marc's competitors don't know that this stuff is kinda part of the game. I mean, all of marc's past teammates were also trying to assert themselves within the internal hierarchy... you can say that certain teammates engage in 'worse' behaviour than others, but, like, these people do understand they're supposed to be fighting each other! a baseline degree of nastiness is factored in and will be accepted to a greater or lesser extent by your rivals - especially when it comes to asserting yourself in intra-team power struggles. you might hate the other guy in the moment, but generally speaking once the active part of the rivalry is done with... you will probably get over it. marc's fellow riders are aware of how ultra-competitive marc is - and to a certain point they do respect it, not least because they're aware that this is part of the reason why marc has ended up with all those titles. it's like dani said, right, it's marc's strong suit. and in general, you do have to say that there's relatively few teammate pairings that devolve to the level of toxicity that it completely destroys the interpersonal relationship. you might need some level of preexisting animosity... most of the purely competitive sins can be healed with a little time

on the 'separating on-track and off-track' thing... well. this is kind of a question of how you define these things, you can say that marc generally speaking isn't going to massively hold grudges over isolated on-track incidents or whatever... but he doesn't just leave his fighting to the track, and personally I've also never felt he can entirely separate these things out in his mind. can you really say his professional and private relationships with other riders are completely detached from one another? mostly, he's opted to be pretty disengaged from his fellow riders as a collective, and obviously that's a good way to not take things too personally... it's all part of the game, isn't it? sometimes it's good to go with the straightforward approach: marc tells you he will make your life hell, he does indeed make your life hell, and then you both move on with your lives and can maybe actually have a pretty amiable relationship with him in years to come. he's not really defying your expectations at any point here, is he now? it's still a question for each of them as individuals as to whether they think that kind of behaviour is above board and acceptable or not... but everyone by now knows that marc plays these games, so it's not like they're going in blind

and it's not like other former teammates are constantly badmouthing each other. I mean... look, let's just cut to the chase here and bring in valentino as our reference point (as he is for the sport as a whole, which by the way does also help create a certain baseline of acceptability for marc's antics - maybe goated riders are just supposed to be dicks who knows). vale's premier class teammates were 1) nobody (2000-01), 2) tohru ukawa (2002), 3) nicky hayden (2003; 2011-12), 4) carlos checa (2004), 5) colin edwards (2005-2007), 6) jorge lorenzo (2008-10; 2013-16), 7) maverick vinales (2017-20), 8) franco morbidelli (2021), and 9) andrea dovizioso (2021). of these eight men (let's just exclude 'nobody' for now), do you know how many had serious complaints at any point about valentino as a teammate? that's right, it's one guy. one. some of valentino's other teammates, like hayden, checa and edwards, were even quite actively positive about their whole experience. this is the thing - you do need some specific circumstances for teammate rivalries to escalate from 'being kinda bitchy every other month' to 'actively fantasising about stabbing each other'. not accounting for natural interpersonal animosity, let's list some circumstantial factors that you need to get a bridge-burning-worthy level of feud:

you need a competitive bike. it is possible to beef about development direction when you're in the trenches (cf late 2010's yamaha, 2020's honda)... but generally speaking this is going to be quite low-level petty stuff, not actual war

you also need something that approaches competitiveness between teammates. if one teammate is unquestionably stronger than the other one, then it is very unlikely that you are going to get any open hostilities. the tension comes when the two sides are close enough to each other for the internal hierarchy to actually be a contentious issue (this is also basic self preservation... if you're the far weaker teammate then you do not want to make the situation troublesome, because then you will be the one to be fired)

following on from those first two things... well, it doesn't hurt to have a title fight in the mix. there are also other ways you can generate competitive stakes, like, for instance, if you and your teammate know that one of you will be out of a job soon. basically, it helps to have something to squabble over

it is maybe easy to forget how rare it is this century for teammates to be fighting directly for a title, let alone over the course of multiple seasons. only two 1-2's since the year 2000 and they're both for the factory yamaha's (though 2006, 2011-13 and 2017 did all prominently feature two factory hondas). which means that for valentino, the prerequisites were met just the once in his premier class career... and yes, the results were pretty memorable, but (topic! for! another! post!) it's worth pointing out that even that relationship was pretty much 'fine' whenever there was a sizeable disparity between the two of them performance-wise (2008 and 2013 are the most clear cut examples). I think the way I'd frame it with marc is that he has a bunch of mildly dubious strategies up his sleeve to assert himself within the team, which don't really deviate that far from what you'd expect from a rider of marc's calibre and only need to be escalated under specific circumstances. that doesn't mean he doesn't have the potential to be ruthless, but up until now it's mostly been a fairly 'acceptable' level of ruthlessness on the intra-team level... and not something that is likely to make other riders actually hate him

taking marc's teammates one by one... dani was the closest to meeting the bridge-burning prerequisites, though he was only a title rival in marc's rookie season. and marc did go further with him than he did with anyone else, and dani has made some pointed comments about marc's style as a teammate... but yes, he is fonder of marc these days. partly I'd just emphasise again that this is a fairly natural progression when you've stopped directly competing for long enough, and partly it's also just a question of individual personality - dani's not massively into holding grudges. then there's jorge, who... I mean, they might as well not have been teammates, given that jorge was either too slow or too injured to even be sharing any track space with marc. you have to put that one down primarily to circumstance, seeing as jorge's own track record on the teammate front isn't exactly spotless. marc and jorge beefing in 2019 would have been pretty dumb and also a massive waste of everyone's time in a year in which marc singlehandedly won the team's championship. even those two needed more to get things going

moving on to the dark years, pol and marc had an extremely stop-and-start partnership on a honda that was generally pretty uncompetitive... so the only stuff they could get ever so mildly irritable about were riveting incidents like 'marc saying pol wasn't the biggest championship threat' (neither of them were) or 'pol saying he'd copy marc's set up' (which proved entirely useless). not exactly title decider territory, is it now, and marc very much had pol covered as a challenger throughout their partnership. also, those two do have a longer history! they've known each other since they were kids and hold a pretty significant place in each other's careers. now that pol's more or less retired, it's natural there'll be quite a lot of sentimentality there - which will paper over any small cracks that appeared during those two years. and joan was a one year teammate at a time in which the bike was consistently close to offing them both. they only managed to start a sunday race together as teammates on thirteen occasions. it would take some serious effort to engineer a feud with that little opportunity, and, really, why on earth would you bother. maybe if honda had gone for rinsy rather than joan for the factory seat, it could've been a bit more prickly, but it's unlikely that it would have escalated beyond that

this is the thing, right, the only one of these partnerships that would have been worth burning bridges over was dani, and even there marc pretty much had him handled after the first season. in general, marc has been pretty clear on how he's not interested in making friends with the other side of the garage while the teammate relationship is ongoing... which is fine! there's some prominent-ish teammate pairings that are actually good friends, some teammate pairings where one of them is actively helping out and advising the other one, but some riders prefer to just keep their distance. it would have been a little silly of marc to start a feud with a teammate who is galaxies away from being a competitive threat, let alone a title rival, but generally it is possible to toe the line between 'attempting to suppress your internal rivals enough to stop them from becoming a problem for you' and 'taking radical enough action to make your internal rivals despise you'

especially in the post-dani era, marc never really had any need to push things too far... and, let's face it, how many of your teammate relationships end up with burnt bridges is also quite frankly a question of luck and circumstance. do you want to guess which top rider on paper has the worst track record this century with premier class teammate feuds, in terms of a) how many they've had, and b) how little public reconciliation there has been since the end of the rivalry?

yes, that's right, it's the first name that comes to mind when you're thinking of toxic and conflict-prone riders: andrea dovizioso. that old devil, constantly causing trouble. just couldn't stop undermining his poor, innocent teammates. can somebody please stop this ruthless bully before it's too late

I think you get the point. I would personally suggest that dovi is not in fact the worst teammate it is possible to have in a motogp top team. he just happened to find himself in a situation where he was teammates with two separate guys he did not click with at all, in situations that involved a pairing of riders who were (or had the potential to be) competitive with each other, as well as some proper stakes attached to the rivalry. in general, situational factors are going to determine this stuff more than anything else... and marc more often than not does have a reasonably good feel for picking his battles. he's flirted with the line, but he's mostly avoided crossing it. he hasn't had to

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

Adorned by stars | Changing States

When he hits the I-70, Jeremiah slots George Michael’s Faith into his ’98 Accord and drives with the windows down. His mother would chide him for two reasons: a) he’s wasting fuel and b) it’s begun to storm. But he likes the way the wind shears through his hair like a nail breaking drywall and he likes the way spats of rain settle on his skin like constellations because on the road, he isn’t just a hand for someone else to hold, a body to handle, a man who looks at another man and fears how much of himself he’s lost in his reflection. No. On the road he is the sky, adorned by stars of his own making, relentless in his abundance, blinking in the absence of any other light.

A little Changing States aesthetic & excerpt!

i'm so normal about him i'm so normal i'm so normal i'm so-

[icewindandboringhorror]

Recent misc pictures

[tronlightcyclerun]

screams . someone in a server im in saying they found someone from their timeline wow that must be real nice to have canonmates or sourcemates in the first place haha . ha . ha . that must be cool . must be nice to know someone who isnt a double . or even people who know anything about your source in the first place

[sn0wbat]

alright, question. because this post is getting very long.

i've still got a couple more pages left of this, and this is kinda the first time i've been adding onto a comic arc in real time on tumblr. so i'd just like to hear opinions