#salters fuck off

[so-na-gi]

2 things;

i feel like shit. 1 hour crying = free noko🐼 makeup (i;m not even going to fix my makeup i'll just go out like this. who tf cares)

i finished the witcher s1 yay. geralt (passed out for 99% of the episode) my sole support

[ilikekidsshows]

What do you think of the argument that Marinette keeps secret to benefit others while Adrien keeps secrets out of selfishness?

---

I think Adrien salters are so infected by bad faith criticism that Adrien could sneeze and they would claim he was just trying to get sympathy by faking an illness. Adrien can't do anything without them taking the worst possible interpretation and running with it. I also think that they have Adrien and Marinette confused. Adrien is the abuse victim who has been taught that his feelings don't matter while Marinette is the control freak in pigtails. Adrien lies because he has been taught to lie, while Marinette lies because her biggest fear is feeling uncomfortable for the 10 minutes it would take to explain the truth. 

But, let's play a game of pretend. Let's pretend Marinette is a pure saint who only ever lies to bring happiness to others and never for her own gain. It still wouldn't matter. The argument has never been: “did Marinette lie for the right reasons?” It's always been: “did she have a right to lie?” and the answer is, unless you're a victim-blaming ghoul, a resounding “Fuck no!” Marinette’s good intentions don’t actually help any of the people she lies to, because things they have a right to know and that they need to know so that they can make informed decisions are being kept from them, by Marinette. The people defending her can’t even give any reasons for why the “logic” of her lies is sound, because they just make vague comments about the secrecy being “more secure” without giving any examples why Cat Noir knowing the two-man team is now a three-man team, there’s a potential backup Ladybug and who their allies are is such a security risk.

As I said, there is no point in arguing over selfless or selfish lies because that's not what the discussion is about. It's about lying about things the other person has a right to know. Marinette is not entitled to Adrien's personal life, any of the conversations he’s ever had about her or every thought he’s ever had, even if they’re negative thoughts about her, but Adrien, however, is entitled to know what the fuck is happening in the team he’s in. He’s entitled to know his father was a supervillain. And he’s definitely entitled to know that he's a remote control robot and his cousin can now snap him out of existence whenever he wants. Marinette causes problems by lying and no amount of good intentions will fix that. In fact, the good intentions make it worse, because now her victims feel like they have to give her a free pass because “she didn’t mean to hurt anybody”. Maybe people should get mad at her for once and maybe she’d stop being like this. Because Marinette lies constantly over the most inconsequential shit, so it’s not surprising she lies about the actually important shit too.

Because, like, let's not kid ourselves here; Marinette’s lies aren't within spitting distance of selfless. Marinette lies to avoid feeling uncomfortable, because the truth makes her uncomfortable or makes her look bad. This is consistent with her lies as both a hero and a civilian. Her reasons for lying include not wanting to deal with Chloé's reaction to being told she was off the hero team, not wanting to explain to Cat Noir that she isn’t the independent, perfect leader she portrays and actually buckled under the pressure and made Rena a permanent team member to take off some of the load, wanting to sabotage a girl who has a crush on Adrien so that they don't get to spend time together, lying about deleting the most important video Alya had filmed in her career as an amateur journalist so far because she didn't want her to be upset at her, and trying to avoid a preschooler thinking she's cringe. There is no greater good here. If there's a pattern to Marinette's lies, it's not selflessness, it's her fragile ego.

[tamamita]

Unfortunately, the Jalter x Salter doujin felt very ‘straight man objectifying lesbians’ rather than depicting an authentically queer romance. Parts of it felt exploitative and made for the male gaze if you know what I mean. I’m disappointed because I see Nipi’s Salter x Jalter art all the time and think “wow this is a great depiction of a sapphic couple with no fucks to give”. I dunno, was I expecting too much or am I looking in the wrong place?

Get what you mean, but it's porn. I don't think a doujin like that would've been on a site like nhentai if it wasn't about two girls from an Ero game spin-off having radical terrorist sex with each other

[familyagrestefanblog]

Sorry, I just need to get this off my chest.

You know what's shit?

That I always come back to work on my explanation posts on why Alya, Plagg, and Emonette being treated unfairly and being disregarded by Maribug's writing is by now pissing me off to similar degrees as her bad treatment of Chat Noir

But that always ends in a domino effect of me putting together more of the overall narrative that ticks me off so much cause my ADD brain can't NOT look for the continuous string of the writing pattern I follow once I'm at it.

You probably can imagine that this isn't very good for my mental health and the only reason why I'm still doing it is because I have a strong suspicion on what the new story arc will do with Cerise after this agonizing hiatus, and only once the actual new story arc proves me wrong can my ADD brain let this emotional investment of 7+ years in my "comfort show" since I was a 16 rest in peace.

Being neurodivergent is exhausting of FUCK...

So I always stop writing any of the posts about the other topics and come back to my Adrichat corner because that's the "safe space" my brain is the most familiar and comfortable with by now since season 4 to make a post AT ALL that isn't running the risk of leading me down 7 new rabbit holes I can't unsee anymore afterwards...

I MISS looking into several narrative threads in this show and voicing my opinions on them. In hindsight, I regret not having done it more when it was still possible, but I feel like it should have been alright in any other normally written show to have a fan blog dedicated to a specific part of the story. I feel like I shouldn't be the one in the WRONG for having done that.

Anyway, I honestly MISS the time where I knew that Maribug's benefit and comfort weren't the only things accepted as "valid" readings of the story. From both sides. Supporters and critics/salters.

Where saying anything that isn't immediately connected to Marinette's benefit and comfort didn't need a full-blown 20 page essay post going into any detail possible to fight for the right to even be taken seriously as a realistic reading of the story at all.

I know I'm not the only one upset at this, but I wonder how many people really realized by now how batshit insane this is right now. That only the most vanilla and vague-ass posts that do their best to not in anyway say something that would be "mean" and "non-validating" to Marinette can be posted now without it automatically being categorized as at least "critical" or running the risk of getting perceived as salt or wishful-thinking.

You can't point ANYTHING out anymore without at least one person running in and either saying "You just HATE Marinette and want to see her punished! You people never care about HERRRRRRRRRR (regarding a topic that isn't about her or is her fucking JOB as a narrative tool to DO)" or "Yeah, nah, the show would never let that happen because of the Marinette bias lol"

You can't even say anything anymore about Adrien's abuse without it being either undermined to all hell because of Marinette having been bullied and needing to be a girlboss who does to others what she's declared "tortured" for, or Félix "hypocrite and victim-blamer" Fathom. Gabriel being abusive was once the most basic ass thing to talk about, what the fuck happened?? (don't answer that, I know the answer...)

The whole analysis' side of this fandom that isn't catering to Marinette was either killed or basically exiled into the "critical" or outright "salt" tag because you can't even be interested in world-building anymore without having to fight for the post's right to be taken seriously under the crushing weight of Marinette's narrative benefits and comfort.

Because mademoiselle ain't fucking interested in ANYTHING lore wise beyond what's convenient for her (not to mention the retcons), so talking about the Guardian and Kwami lore for example counts as SALT now because it automatically implies for people that Marinette isn't all that matters and her flaws of not being interest in ANYTHING might actually COUNT as flaws she should work on. I know, the fucking HORROR! 😱

I MISS writing theories, analysis posts, and speculating about this shows future plots in even the most basic "set up and pay off" manner but I know I can't because my default approach is always complementary to the main character - meaning what challenges them and the narrative the most to grow, expand, and develop. This isn't a Marinette specific thing, I ALWAYS do this.

And contrary to popular belief in this fandom, I get by perfectly fine doing that for the majority of other pieces of media I consume. It is MIRACULOUS and this damn Fandom that now genuinely did it's best to convince themselves that this level of main character centric morality and revenge porn level writing is NORMAL when it's seriously NOT.

There is a REASON why this show hardly ever gets recommended on social media the way one would think despite its success. Or why the Fan backlash is so enormous despite a solid part of the Fandom already having left long ago and the young target demographic not uniformly having a voice in the social media discourse.

Or why people actively advise others AGAINST watching the show, AGAINST forming an emotional investment, and AGAINST going anywhere near the Fandom.

Cause no fucking shit, this isn't normal.

[baenyth]

After too much stalling, I finally finished the other half of Miraculous Season 2. Here's my thoughts episode-by-episode:

Zombizou: The episode focused on Ms. Bustier. Honestly I get where she's coming from in that statement to Marinette. This is a world where people can become butt-ugly abominations because they felt upset, although I think Chloe still needs consequences for her actions as well as something like positive reinforcement. She had plenty consequences in season 1. Speaking of Chloe, That Asshole was wrong. There was clear intent for Chloedemption. Also could we at least have seen all that stuff Ms. Bustier does in previous episodes?

Syren: This was an episode the salters talked loads about, and honestly, I get where Adrien's coming from here. On a fundamental level the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculi aren't equals due to the Ladybug's magic reset button, but as one of the first Miraculous users, Adrien should've still been let in on the loop. Kid felt like he was useless, that Ladybug could save the day without his help. At the very least have Master Fu go one-on-one or have both kids show up while transformed or blindfolded. Also the water voices ticked me off, but that's relatively minor.

Frightningale: A fun character-of-the-week episode, especially since I'm fond of Clara Nightingale's constant rhymes and rhythm. She's dedicated to it and I love it. It's also good to see Chloe be an exceptional and talented dancer! It's good to see her having talents and interests that aren't just making people suffer!

Troublemaker: Another episode showing why I think Marinette and Adrien shouldn't date in any of their forms. I don't know enough about stalker shrines but I think Marinette's room is getting close enough to be one for Adrien. Though I'm pretty sure Adrien's seen worse or has been conditioned to not care, based on his reaction at the end. Still a shame that the local TV show had to live-film Marinette's room and beach her privacy in the local city-town of Paris while the real Paris has been converted to an amusement park for tourists. You got any other reasons why the population is so low? One more thing: I'm pretty sure the lack of ladybug-vision was more due to anxiety over losing one of her earrings and the difficulty of the villain more than anything else.

Anansi: I find the new heroes good, personally. They give more screentime to other characters. Also again with Adrien's insecurity about being useful. And I think this episode would've been over sooner if they noticed that Anansi was going to get herself akumatized over the stress and maybe just let her come or something. Or if they got Marinette to arm-wrestle her instead. Marinette has muscles, right?

Sandboy: A lore episode, mostly. The nightmares were funny for a second and I was a bit annoyed by the Akuma's voice, but that's small potatoes. I like how compared to season 1, where we would be given a bunch of development for Sandboy it's just explained to us afterwards while we instead get more time for lore.

Style Queen: Hawkmoth has a contender for the most evil character in the show. Audrey Bourgeois is the kind of person that would be made fun of in those Karen freakout videos. She cheats on her husband, neglects her daughter to the point of not remembering her name, fires people over the most minor inconveniences, and starts G-rated killing people over getting a seat in the second row. She needs to be cancelled, deplatformed, and Chloe needs a therapist and better role models. I really liked the split-second of Adrien looking shocked after Marinette told him he had the catwalk down, btw. Did he think his identity was outed there?

Queen Wasp: This is why teenagers shouldn't get superpowers. I get secondhand embarrassment watching them. Also Marinette What The Fuck why the Hell are you getting Chloe to bond with the Absolute Worst Person For Her

Maledictator: This is what happens when you make Chloe bond with a Chernobyl-level toxic influence, Marinette. In general this episode was funny, both intentionally and unintentionally. Everyone starts celebrating Chloe ditching Paris with her mother except Adrien because Chloe was her only friend even though she was a detriment to everyone else and suddenly Marinette feels bad because she worships Adrien. The first thing the villain of the week does is make Audrey stop being such a horrible person and later he made Chat Noir reach the limit of catboyness. It's like a Smiling Friends episode. Also it was cool to see Chloe's depths and self-loathing. Surely that won't be forgotten and Chloe will be given therapy so she can become a better person, right?

Reverser (Put here so it makes sense timeline-wise): It's Yaoi time. Except that Nathaniel is into Ladybug (who I assume he knows is Marinette) here and Marc is fine with that. Overall a good episode. Some nice humor, and Reverser's probably the best akuma design so far I love the paper stuff. Plus more info on the side characters and a spot of good humor, excellent!

Frozer: Ah, there's the Nathmarc. And explicit Julerose. And Marinette getting some idea that her fantasy of Adrien is unhealthy and shouldn't be followed. And Adrigami, albeit a bit one-sided. Quit pining over someone who doesn't love you and get with someone who does, kid. And a smidgeon of Marigami. And Adrien's bodyguard being his daddy in place of his father. And a pinch of me seeing what the salters were talking about with the girlsquad and them forcing Marinette and Adrien together. Or at least Alya and Mylene. I couldn't hear what Alix, Juleka, and Rose were saying, but they disagreed, right? At least one of them had to disagree, right?

Heroes' Day Two-Parter: Marinette you're being too hotheaded against Lila no you gotta be like Columbo. Also yet another Marinette Costanza moment. Otherwise not much to say here. It's the boss rush episode, it's the series finale, Alya managed to catch onto Nino being Carapace but still can't seem to connect the dots between Ladybug and Marinette, the Peacock Miraculous is introduced, and Natalie is on my suslist.

I might procrastinate again on the first half of season 3. The first episode deserves a post of it's own. It's the salt episode.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Ya'know I'm curious on your opinion on this. We know the ML salt is very much exaggerated. But how much Master Fu salt do you think is warranted?

God idk what salters are saying anymore last I paid attention to salt Fu was only ever used to justify the Adrichat Salt so let's roll a little.

So like. I do think there is some criticism to Fu's actions. A lot of the things that Mari gets blamed for are actually his fault. Like the secrecy between the Heroes, not trusting Chat with the bare minimum, so on and so forth. Not to mention things like putting all the pressure on Mari by.... honestly pulling the trigger kinda early there.

Though, similarly to when this criticism is aimed at Mari, these actions are not malicious. He's thinking that this is for the Greater Good, and is running off of shoddy teaching and ptsd, but magnified by years.

We do have the 'oh he fucked up because he was hangry', but while joked about a touch I am looking at the lens of how the Order treated people and how a child's test was 'lmao starve bitch'.

So to those, I do roll with my usual 'you can criticize this character's actions without turning them into some horrific monster'.

The only other thing I can think of re: dunking on Fu is 'why give the Miraculous to children instead of adults' and that's one I mostly ignore because this is a meta thing. We can't have our teenage protagonist if characters do the logical thing of giving the superpowers to adults.

[aknosde]

roundabout

Jann Mardenborough & Steve Mardenborough // Jann Mardenborough & Jack Salter // Injury Recovery // Father-Son Relationships // Growing Up // Emotional Hurt/Comfort // Concussions // family is hard when you've been a fuckup 98% of your life // 5.8k

ao3

—————

The second time Jann is involved in a crash, there is no possible way for him to misconstrue it as his fault—though the fact that no one dies most certainly helps. 

It happens like this: Jack tells him there’s a hairpin round the next bend, and in front of him O’Riley’s car (4th place) twitches. It’s an odd thing to see, because it almost resembles a glitch, besides the fact that Jann is very much in a real race and also the fact that his brain is nagging at him—this means something. He’s on O’Riley’s bumper, set to surpass him at the turn, and then O’Riley goes twitching the other way, falls back, snags Jann’s wheel (it blows instantly), drags him to the side where they go ramming into a third car (Moreno, 6th place, his mind helpfully supplies as his spoiler goes through his passenger window) and at several hundred miles an hour they’re sent like some twisted human centipede into a concrete fucking wall. By this time Jann’s been detached from both O’Riley and Moreno, which means he has the pleasure of spinning out back into O’Riley, nosing into the wall at a 45° angle, effectively preventing him from benefiting from any of the safety-crunch he would have had if he could’ve rear ended O’Riley like any other car that gets into a pileup. 

There’s fire, and the smell of gas, and Jann climbs out of his broken window—the door’s bent shut—sporting some kind of instantaneous headache-nausea combo before he sees the lick of flame and O’Riley screaming in his passenger seat. Jann does what anyone else would do when they’re sporting what will later be diagnosed as a grade three concussion, four bruised ribs, whiplash, and a patella fracture: he spits the blood out of his mouth and pulls O’Riley out of his car. 

Persol sends him a tiktok edit of the ordeal later, underwhich he writes: fuckin badass. (They leave out the part where the ringing in his ears—Jack—got so loud that he threw up on the track before the ambulance pulled in, which is significantly less badass).This is after the customary half dozen panicked voicemails of course, Jann is never lucky enough to escape those. 

The good thing, if you believe there can be a good thing in a mess like this, Jack says while his ER docs are deciding whether he needs to be sent to the ICU or not, is that it was only a free-race at the beginning of off-season, so in contrast to the Nürburgring chaos (Jack calls it a “mishap,” heavy on the American accent and the pause before it) he has more than three weeks to “do the whole recovery thing”—also Jack’s words. It’s good Jann has someone to think about this for him, because he’s high off painkillers that can only be described as “that good shit” (Danny) and also a concussion the likes of which he hasn’t seen since his stint as a keeper in third form—he’d grown 5 cm in a month and rammed his head into a post; it had been awful, and overall signified a turn for the worse between him and his dad. It’s at this point that Jann starts crying, as those with severe concussions are won't to do, and Jack begins freaking out over how much pain he’s in until Danny comes striding over from whatever extremely important business he’s found himself in a hospital in Ireland and bothers to ask what’s wrong. Danny’s got a very proportional face and a clean cut accent that makes most people want to answer his questions, and Jann is extremely suggestable at the moment, and somehow he manages to clear the situation up slurring every fourth word, though it must be in a particularly devastating manner because he has a vivid if vertigo-inducing image of Jack putting his head in his hands and Danny squeezing his bicep kindly. And then Jann spaces out until the doctor comes back in, because concussion. 

In the end he is put in the ICU—apparently it’s possible for brain injuries to get worse after you receive them, and he’s subjected to round-the-clock monitoring to make sure he doesn’t slip into a coma or something equally bad—but after the first twenty-four hours they move him into a step-down unit and everyone stops freaking out quite so much—'everyone' primarily being Jack and his mom, who’s been calling every three hours. There, he’s allowed to continue his pastimes of sleeping, headache-having, and picking at his food without quite so much interruption, which unfortunately leaves him quite bored. He’s not the only one, either. Every time Jack says “stop”—followed by touching your face, you fucker or trying to look at your phone or squirming or I’m gonna sit on your goddamn hands—he looks just that little bit more sick of the place, and even Danny’s let slip complaints about the fluorescents and shoddy wifi amidst his flirtationship with one of Jann’s nurses. 

By the fifth day—Jann’s been moved out of the step-down unit and into a normal ward—when they know that his knee is healing fine without surgery and that the best he can do for his ribs is try not to sneeze, Danny starts gunning for an early release that Jann’s doctors seem happy to appease. He’s handed a packet about identifying symptoms of post-concussion syndrome and the painkillers they’re prescribing—fucking opioids, not like they ever screwed anyone over or anything—that Salter immediately plucks out of his hands to flip through, and told to wait for the discharge paperwork that same day. It’s waiting for the paperwork, reading the packet, that Jack suggests Jann stay with his family instead of alone at his apartment. 

His apartment is a too-large, two-bedroom between downtown Cardiff and his parent’s place, a quick jog away from a gym he likes. It’s too big because Danny told him to invest in the extra space for some reason Jann has no hope of understanding when his month and a half at university makes him the highest educated in the family, and after a quick argument about it—“Think of it like having a guest room.” “My room will practically be a guest room.” “For the love of God, Jann–”—he’d decided that Danny knew more about that sort of thing and that he could blame the whole thing on him if something went wrong, anyway. This is not to say that Jann has no fondness for his apartment. Having his own place was always an unachievable dream as he got older, itching to get out from under his father’s distrusting eye, so no matter how uninhabited it might be he’ll always choose it over bunking in his childhood bed, Mam’s waffles be damned. He may love them, but his family is unbearable. Jack usually picks up on that. 

“I know, Kid,” he says. Okay, he’s still picking up on it. “But you need aftercare”—he shows Jann a page of the packet in demonstration, though it’s too far away for Jann to read anything—“so either you give your guest room to me or one of your friends for the next three weeks–”

“No.” Jann’s been trying to get Jack to take a vacation for the past year and a half (ever since he learned he hadn’t had one in twice as long). Jack is not giving that up to play nursemaid. Audrey and Persol have uni and work that Jann’s all ready convinced them not to stave off to visit him.

“–or, you stay with your folks.” 

It’s not much of a decision at all. 

He and Jack split from Danny once they touch down in Cardiff and take a cab to his parents’ house. He’s unreasonably anxious in the back seat, good knee bouncing so furiously that Jack gives him another “stop that” over the newspaper he’s reading, and he knows increased anxiety is a symptom or whatever, but that doesn’t make pulling up any less nerve wracking. 

The house is just as it always is: paint peeling along the door frame, small front porch sagging over the non-existent garden, curtains over the kitchen sink open. Jann focuses on getting out of the car while Jack pays fare, tosses a “thanks, Drive” to the front seat when Jack collects their things from the trunk. 

“Ready?” 

The cab has pulled away. Jann can’t remember when coming home stopped being a good thing, but it’s been so long that he doesn’t think twice about it. He shrugs. 

“Yep.”

Only Mam’s home. He unlocks the door with his own key, prepared for Jack to leave him with his instructions and prescriptions and orders to not move for three weeks, except she’s sitting at the dining room table on the phone and when he comes in a great grin spreads across her face and she apologises to whoever’s on the other end and hangs up. She pats him down, a bit like an airport security officer, and then cups her hands around his cheeks and says, “I missed your face, love.”

Maybe being home isn’t so bad; she’s always happy to see him. 

Jack greets her with a kind, “Lesley,” and they hug hello. She instructs him to put their bags down, anywhere’s fine, and then shoos Jann and his knee splint off to the couch because she doesn’t like the look of it while she makes tea and returns to her call. Jack keeps him company for a bit, passes him a mug and turns the TV on until Mam hangs up, and then leaves Jann to stretch out and listen to them putter around the kitchen. Jack and his mam get along like a house on fire in the same way that Jack and his dad get along like a house being flooded, which in both cases is rather reminiscent of Jann’s relationships with each of them. He gets invited over for dinner in record time, and then they take turns asking about work, and Jann gets to fall asleep to the comforting noise of idle chatter and dishes being done. 

When he opens his eyes, Coby is looming over him. 

“You look like shit,” he says perceptively. 

Jann knows. He sleeps approximately eighteen hours a day and perpetually wakes up exhausted, hasn’t been able to correct his posture for five days, his emotions swing back and forth like a fucking pendulum, and he’s covered head-to-toe in bruises. And Mam’s not wrong, the splint looks pretty mean. 

“It’s almost like I was in a crash.”

Coby shrugs, which Jann knows is mostly for show because he was always in the background of Mam’s calls. “Supper’s on,” he says and promptly disappears from Jann’s view. 

Jann rolls onto his side and groans quietly, every abrasion making itself known, though most particularly his ribs, who don’t like him putting pressure on them right where they’re sensitive. He pops his head over the back of the couch to check the clock on the microwave—it’s eight, so he’s late for his dose, which explains the points of searing pain. He identifies where his bag’s ended up too, under the coat rack, and hauls himself off the couch to pull his meds out, a herculean task though it may be. 

“Hey,” Jack says when he spots him, pulling the Y out in a way that means he’s happy and has had a drink. Jann’s dad shoots a dirty look at him and then, spotting Jann over Jack’s shoulder, takes an urgent step forward. 

“You’re up.” It’s a statement. Jann nods. No one moves for a moment. 

“Right,” Jann says, hands in his pullover front pocket. “I’m just going to”—he motions towards his duffle and makes an awkward, balancing-act of a bend down towards the side pocket for his prescription because he can’t bend his left knee. 

“Christ, I’m sorry Kid,” Jack says, crouching down beside him and reaching for the bag. “I completely forgot to wake you up.”

“It’s fine,” Jann says, making a flicking motion so Jack will let him get his shit himself. He can’t quite keep the pain out of his voice when it feels like half of his body is very precisely being run over by a steam roller, and he sees Jack frown out of the corner of his eye. “Not on you. I set an alarm but my phone got screwed with the time difference.”

He’s standing again now, and both his father and Jack frown at this, like the idea of Jann taking care of himself is alien to them—which, insulting. He frowns back. Jack shrugs and turns ‘round to continue help set the table, but his dad watches him as he downs his pills. 

It takes twenty minutes for the meds to kick in, which Jann knows because he’s about a third of the way through his plate when he starts feeling better and then a lot worse. One thing they don’t tell you about opioids is that they can make you really fucking nauseous at the drop of a hat, and Jann had been in pain and dealing with the headache that is Jack and his dad in the same room, and he hadn’t taken the anti-nausea drug. He sets his fork down—it clinks against his plate—and closes his eyes for a second, willing the feeling to go away. It doesn’t. He stands up, abruptly he knows because his chair scrapes against the floor and Mam looks at him strangely, and makes as calm and quick of a path to the bathroom as he can manage. He doesn’t have time to close the door before he retches into the toilet. Two other chairs scrape against the floor. 

“Jann.” That’s his dad. If he were anyone else it would be a concerned question but because he’s Steven Mardenborough it’s a command: respond. 

“I’m ‘right,” Jann says, like he isn’t audibly throwing up, and kicks the door closed before anyone decides to join him in here. 

A second later there’s a knock on the door. “Kid?” There: concerned question. 

“I’m fine, Jack,” he says after a minute, trying not to press his face to the toilet seat when he’s sitting on the floor and exhausted and has the idea to just hang his head inside the bowl. God, his neck hurts. He sounds unconvincing, he knows. 

“You sure?”

“Leave him be,” Dad says, as if he’s not also hovering outside the bathroom door. 

“I’ll leave him be once I’m convinced he’s actually all right.”

Jann misses last year when his dad was grateful for everything Jack had done for him, and not weirdly territorial of Jann whenever he’s within five meters. They begin arguing about what he needs and how would you know that in the hall, which escalates quickly into he's my son and then where have you been. No thought seems to be spared for Jann himself, who's managed his duties masterfully (for a rookie, at least) since he was was brought up from the academy. There's a particularly loud he's made it this far because of me that makes Jann want to do something stupid like punch a wall.  

“Jesus,” Jann curses instead, though there’s nobody there to hear him. Maybe because there’s nobody there to hear him. His dad wouldn’t like it. Mam should not have invited Jack over for dinner; she should’ve left Jann to fall asleep on the couch and gone back to work without comment. 

He flushes the toilet and clambers to his feet, holding onto the edge of the sink so he doesn’t do anything stupid like stand up too fast and fall over or lose his breakfast too, and brushes the acidic taste out of his mouth with a toothbrush he’s used maybe three times in the past year. His shelf in the bathroom cabinet is untouched. When he’d left for uni the rest of his family had taken over it immediately but now everything is where he left it at Coby’s birthday, collecting dust. He’s never been away from home this long, at least not before GT Academy, though that’s more because he never had anywhere else to go, not because he can’t get enough of this house. Listening to Jack and his dad going back and forth he knows he’s definitely had enough of this house. 

Dad and Jack are still arguing furtively when Jann yanks open the bathroom door—behind them his mother is still at the dining table next to Coby, grimacing and clearly not wanting to touch the situation with a pool cue. 

“Quit that, won’t you,” he says, annoyed, and they fall quiet, only now realizing that everything they were saying was audible, apparently. They’re both frozen for a second, and then adopt contrasting looks of concern. Jack’s leans empathetically queasy while Dad’s more closely resembles a boxer who is also a general practitioner; both rake on him. 

Both their mouths open, doubtlessly to make sounds of concern, but Jann cuts them off. “I’m fine, and more importantly I can take care of myself, so why don’t you stop lurking around the toilet as if you can help someone throw up and go back to your suppers. The only reason I’m even here is so if I fall down I won’t hit my head again and die, leave the rest of it up to me.” 

“How about some space, fellas,” Mam says, getting up and patting Coby on the back. Coby is practically grinning; Jann doesn’t think in all of his years of a contentious relationship with his father he ever dressed him down so thoroughly, and even now he feels the urge to get out of the house as quickly as possible before retribution strikes. Jack is also still, but not nearly as important; they disagree plenty. 

After another moment Dad and Jack seem to realize how close they are to him, and they take two very obviously counted steps back, leaving Jann just enough room to squeeze between them to the kitchen. Coby is still watching them, looking a little entertained. 

“I’ll get you some water,” Mam says, brushing her hand down his arm and then squeezing him into her side like when he was seven and worried about a match or thirteen and fretting over a presentation at school. She’s smiling tightly, a little amused and a little concerned, though she keeps it to herself. “What do you need, love?” she asks more quietly. 

He doesn’t know exactly. He feels flayed open, raw, everything around him a little too much. He settles for “space,” making a gesture to the mess of grown men in the living room. She chuckles lightly and presses a tall cup of water into his hand. 

“Try the porch. Fresh air’ll be good.”

Jann nods, makes for the door and flicks the back of Coby’s neck on the way, though with his cup in his other hand he has to be careful about balance. 

It’s night, well and properly now, and the neighborhood is lit by oranging street lights and cracked blinds. A cat crosses the street towards him and he clicks at it for a moment, beckoning it to come closer, which it does, if just out of his reach. He digs his fingers at the foam of his splint, itching through it, and then stops when he presses on a spot that is definitely not meant to be pressed. Incidentally, this is also the moment Jack comes out the front door. 

“Hi,” he says. 

Sometimes Jann can hear how he used to be famous in his voice, especially when he’s coming up on someone. If he’s not angry or schmoozing, his greetings come out all ready sheepish, like he knows he’s been recognized. It’s a little stupid, but it’s also a little endearing—that even the great Jack Salter can be humbled in the face of normal social interaction. He sits down heavily next to Jann on the porch; they aren’t high up, his feet touch the mulch below. 

“Hi,” Jann says back. He takes a drink. 

“How are you feeling?”

Jann raises an eyebrow purposefully over his cup: you’re really starting with that? 

“Sorry, you’re right, I’m sorry,” Jack laughs, scraping a palm over his jaw. “After last year, I guess… I’m just used to Danny and I being the only people in your corner. I’ve been hovering, and untrusting, and I’m sorry.”

The situation’s more complicated than Jann would like. Nuanced, Audrey has called his relationship with his parents—his dad in particular—lounging on a hotel bed with a piece of her hair wrapped around his finger, the same as her relationship with her grandparents. They’ve always loved him irrefutably, that’s indisputable, but there’s no denying that for most of his life they haven’t been his biggest supporters, especially when it came to racing. He’s gone back over that a lot—the one in a million chance he came out on top of versus his parents’ logical concern. Jack is more difficult to pin down amidst the mess. He criticized Jann a lot throughout GT Academy, openly admitted to working towards the downfall of all his students, but since winning that final race he’s always had Jann’s best interests at heart. And he’s right: on the road, and especially that first year, he’s been Jann’s number one supporter. 

Being twenty is terrible, Jann internally laments. He’s an adult but he’s young. He’s skilled but relatively inexperienced. He can take care of himself but sometimes he needs help. It seems up to the proper-adults in his life to decide when he’s grown up enough, which is infuriating, because if they trade off watching over him he’s never going to get the damn process over with. 

“Can’t give me up? You do realize it was you who recommended I come home, yeah?”

Jack sighs, lifts his thumb and index finger to his forehead and presses slightly, his typical this little shit is being a smartass pose. Jann grins smugly, though Jack isn’t looking. 

“Yes, I realize that. You do realize I’m apologizing, yeah? ” he mimics. Jann rolls his eyes. 

“What’d you and my dad get into, then?”

Jack waves his hand, which is code for stupid shit I don’t want to talk about. It’s enough to dissuade Jann from probing about pointless parties and interviews and press briefings but it doesn’t work when his own father is part of the equation. 

“That’s not gonna work, old man,” he says, and Jack sighs again. He’s really good at sighing, would probably have podiumed at it if the world cared about that sort of thing. 

“Me and your dad both care about you very much,” Jack grinds out, sounding like a recently divorced parent despite the fact that he didn’t meet Jann until he was nineteen. “We found some mutual ground.”

Jann realizes that that’s probably the best he’s going to get from Jack, so he lets it drop. They sit on the porch in companionable silence, Jann working on his water and Jack coaxing the cat once he spots it behind their neighbors’ bins. His knee starts bothering him again, probably because he threw up the painkillers. It’s a problem without a solution, because opioids are dangerous and he has to wait for his next dose, so his only option really is to be as still as humanly possible. He’s just polished off his cup and adjusted how he’s sitting so his shoulder doesn’t ache quite so much when Jack gets the cat to jump up on the porch. 

It leaps between them, curious about Jann’s discarded, probably twenty year old cup, and Jack reaches out to pet it. It has a collar on, which means it’s probably not flea infested and this is probably fine. The cat backs up until it hits Jann’s thigh, and then turns around to look at him curiously; it sniffs his joggers and paws at him tentatively. Jack decides to take advantage of its apparent concentration to pet it again. It hisses this time, but instead of pulling back Jack begins scratching it gently. For a good five seconds Jann is sure that Jack is about to get his hand clawed off, but then he finds a particular point beneath it’s collar and it melts against Jann’s leg, purring loudly. Jack uses this opportunity to reach for its tag: Steffan.  

“Hey, man,” he says to the cat, scratching it harder. 

“How’d you do that?” Jann asks, perhaps a little bit insulted that his neighborhood cat surrendered to Jack before him. 

“Jus’ takes some effort,” he says absentmindedly, invested in the petting process. Steffan rolls onto his back and then stands up, Jack removes his hand, Steffan licks his paw. 

“All right, then,” Jack says, standing up. Unnecessarily he does so on the porch, instead of stepping into his family’s poor excuse of a front garden out of some strange Midwest-American sign of respect, so he’s looming over Jann as he works though his departure checklist. “I should get outta here, but call if you need anything—I’ll be close. You’ve got an appointment with your GP Thursday, make sure to forward her notes to me. No training. I’ll meet you at your place in three weeks if there isn’t anything sooner.” 

He pats down his pockets, as if searching for something he’s forgotten. It’s their goodbye hug, Jann realizes, a strange element of their routine born of the fact that Jann is very rarely away from Jack for more than a day or two at a time. Three weeks does seem a little monumental. 

He gets to his feet gingerly, wincing, both of which Jack notices, reaching for his forearms and guiding him up purposefully. “How ‘bout we get you inside,” he says, ducking down to grab the abandoned cup and pushing Jann lightly towards the front door. Jann takes the cup from him. 

“I’m good, Jack.”

Jack looks at him—wearing not exactly a frown, but something equally examining, equally concerned; Jann tries to let it roll off of him. He looks to the scar under Jann’s eye and the healed break in his nose from Nürburgring, the bruise on his temple from where he was thrown hard enough that the padding in his helmet turned inconsequential and the split in his lip from last week. He knows how he looks, least of all because Coby had no problem telling him earlier this evening. 

“Okay,” Jack says with a small but sure nod. Every risk Jann takes, there’s a point where Jack just has to trust him, and it looks like this is the point for tonight, even if the risk only exists in Jack’s head. 

Jann steps inside; Jack holding the screen door open with the toe of his boot. They hug. 

“Get some rest, all right?”

“Sure,” Jann says, like he wasn’t planning to down as much acetaminophen as he can without killing himself and going to sleep but is considering it now. 

Jack nods, he doesn’t like saying goodbye for whatever reason, so Jann calls out “See you later, old man,” as the screen door slams shut, Jack on the sidewalk. 

Exhaustion returns with his exit. Jann closes the front door and his mam points towards the plate she’s saved for him on the counter, though he shakes his head at it after thinking about it for a moment. She pats his hand sympathetically and returns to her crossword, and Jann makes for his room. He’s uninterrupted by his father, surprisingly—he and Coby are watching a match on the couch, unsurprisingly. Coby shoots him a glance, which is essentially sixth former for “you ‘right?” and Jann nods before slipping down the hallway. 

He’s been in bed for almost two hours—long enough for the ice packs Coby dropped off on his way to bed to warm—when his dad cracks the door open. Jann’s room is a mess, partially because he has pretty limited range of motion and partially because he left it like this and doesn’t like his parents touching his stuff, which makes him twice as self conscious as his dad peers in. 

“Alright?” Jann asks, getting an elbow beneath him. His blinds are open and the orange light from the street is coming in, washing over his room and onto his father’s face. He’s prepared for a fight, no matter how little he wants it.

“Jus’ checking in,” his dad says, peculiarly, voice heavy. It’s probably nearing midnight; he doesn’t usually stay up late. “You sorted?”

Jann motions to the small army of prescriptions on his nightstand. The alarms on his phone have been fixed. He’s attempting to sleep until his next round of pain meds but it’s not working out very well, not that Dad knows that.

“I’m–” Dad starts, voice gruff. He motions, silhouetted in the dark, and then gives up and comes in the room, closing the door behind him and picking carefully through the darkness. He choses a spot on the edge of Jann’s bed and promptly sits on his knee, which isn’t entirely his fault since Jann’s lying on his side.

“Fuck,” Jann bites, his dad already standing again, fretting far too much for Jann’s liking. 

The difficult thing about their relationship, ever since Jann quit football, is that his dad is distant and protective of him in turn, always in an extreme way, and Jann never knows when one will turn into the other. When he was in school it would manifest in long silences, often emanating disappointment from his dad’s end, and then a poor mark or a cracked phone screen would unleash an overbearing dictatorship of mandated studying and an after school job. Now, Jann will go weeks without hearing so much as a peep from his dad until Mam gets annoyed and pushes her phone into his hands, and then sometimes he’ll come see a race or call out of the blue or Jann’ll bring him lunch, and he won’t shut up for hours or will just emanate a deep seated pride that Jann has no clue what to do with. That’s what he wanted as a kid, but now that it’s here it feels alien. 

“Shit, shit,” Dad curses quietly. “What do you–? How can I–?”

“It’s fine,” Jann gets out, sucking in a breath. It feels a bit like his knee is splintering into a thousand little pieces, but it’s also felt like that every day since the crash so he figures he might as well let his dad off the hook. He turns onto his back. “Just– Be careful.”

Dad takes this very seriously, and gingerly resumes a position on Jann’s bed. He looks odd sitting on the edge, too bulky an outline compared to the slight lines of Jann’s room, an alien presence. He himself isn’t odd, though. He sits with his hands folded between his knees, looking off at something in the distance seriously. At his heart, his father is a storyteller Mam always says. It’s true; some of Jann’s best memories of his childhood are sitting on the living room rug or tucked into his dad’s side with Coby as he replayed a great match or the summer he spent working on the docks. He was meant for more than the freight yard, they all know, but Jann thinks he might’ve been meant for more than the pitch too. 

“I… apologize, for this evening,” he says eventually. Jann waits, quietly, for whatever more he has to say. Dad takes a deep breath. “You have to understand, I’ve been raising this kid for most of my life. 

“He’s quick as a whip, smart, and so, so talented.” There’s a smile in his voice, that pride again, and Jann has to resist squirming. “All I’ve ever wanted for him was a good future: something steady and reliable, where he could make something of himself, be…happy with himself, because life taught me those things weren’t guarantees. But things, they didn't turn out how I thought they would. For the longest time…”—he looks knowingly at Jann, an almost sly smile playing across his lips—“…he seemed to fight me on everything. There were many downs before there were ups.”

“I understand,” Jann says, because he doesn’t know how much longer he can listen to this. It’s unfair, the way it’s clear his father has had so long to sit on this while Jann is completely unprepared. 

“Don’t interrupt,” Dad scolds, a turn towards typical. He continues. “I didn’t understand him, how he could point his drive somewhere so pointless, and I was worried he’d end up like me. When he left, out of my reach, I was afraid he’d fall somewhere I couldn’t catch him. And then, he almost died, and then, he almost died again.” There’s a lot missing in between there, Jann thinks, not to mention the dramatizing, but Dad seems to know he’s about to protest and swats at him. “I know I haven’t always been your biggest supporter, and for that I’m sorry–”

“You’ve all ready apologized for that,” Jann reminds him. Dad glares. “Sorry.”

“–but I have always, and will always, care about you, and I can’t be there to do that all the time, so perhaps I go a bit overboard on occasion. I am sorry for not managing myself better tonight.”

This is perhaps the most roundabout way for his father to make the same “sorry for hovering” apology as Jack, but it’s also so… Steven Mardenborough that Jann can’t imagine it having been done any other way. It also, alarmingly, explains a lot of Jann’s childhood. Not in a way that makes him feel better about it, but in a way that makes him see his father’s side of it. Jann’s been a fuckup most of his life, but he never thought of his father as one; it seems his dad has a different perspective on that. Doesn’t mean anything’s miraculously fixed. 

“I understand,” Jann says a second time, quietly, sincerely. 

He’s crying, he thinks, his vision blurring around the edges and breath hitching. His head hurts. Dad can hear him, thumbs a tear from under his eye and hugs him to his chest in a way that finally relaxes Jann’s shoulders. He exhales, an echo of Le Mans.  

“I fucking hate concussions,” he says, arms wrapped around his dad’s neck. 

“Watch your mouth.” Jann laughs wetly into his shoulder. Then, “You scared me, boy.”

“I know,” Jann says, even if he didn’t realize how much until a few moments ago. “I’m sorry.”

They pull away naturally, and Jann sinks back into his spot, a little closer to sleep. 

“I’ll give you your space,” Dad says pointedly, something Jann would take as an insult if he were any less tired, if his dad hadn't just apologized. “Tell me if you need anything.”

Jann knows he won't, but it means something that his dad offered. It’s more than he’s done in the past. 

“‘Night.” 

"Goodnight, Jann."

[plumsaffron]

Shit, after hearing that Cristina Vee was harassed off Twitter/X made me feel bad for her and many ppl who worked under awful higher ups of any group… They’re talented people who need the money to survive obviously. The poor actors having to voice characters under bad writing making unstable viewers associate said characters with VAs. Hence why we got stories of unwarranted harassment.

Hey salters and rabid dogs! Take it out on the higher ups who refuse to heed criticism, not the innocent people working under them!

Also, are you guys even mentally ok? Probably not! Y’all are too stuck in the head to see whatever else happens outside of your circle(s)! Fucking cults!

THIS

[lordelmelloi2]

I feel like if I had just gotten over myself in the first place and started selfshipping openly with Waver I would've maybe been a happier person but without the takeoff of the mastersona community here I wouldn't have had the confidence or like... playing field? to do it in. Idk. It's kind of funny how like. Denying myself that connection like that. Really did impact my life in an insane way. When I look at my old posts from this blog's beginning and from shitpostsaber it doesn't even feel like the same person anymore. Or like. I can't... remember the depth of suffering and aimlessness I was experiencing back then. I had dropped out of college and was struggling with depression and ptsd and chronic illness so bad that I couldn't get myself out of bed most days, and I had no skills or talents I could make a decent living off of. And I was broke. And living with a parent who denied I was mentally ill in the first place, and HIS solution to my disability was to LITERALLY put me back into the cage that caused the brunt of it. He said, and I quote, "Sometimes it only feels like you progress when your back is up against the wall."

And I fucking hate that he was right. The last time I showed any prerogative towards my self survival and progress as a human being was when I had come to ask to live with him in highschool, back when I lived with my mother, and it was like -- something about seeing her flub the act of parenting or caring or being a real person so hard enraged me to the point of taking care of both me and my sibling and then eventually myself. It made me start looking for options to survive and carve a path out for myself. And then he essentially exiled me here, to live with her again, and when I called him and asked for help, he said that; and said Money is Freedom. it was fucking heights of covid lockdown then of course so that wasn't going to happen for another year. But the year after that everything changed rapidly. One by one I started being an adult who put his life together and was able to get his shit together tangibly enough that I could (...most of the time) afford an apartment, a car, utilities, a phone, etc... this was not the kind of person that the person running shitpostsaber could've imagined.

And I don't know what Salter thought either. Salter wasn't capable of thinking about these things. Maybe Salter thought an eternity of self harm based ironic humor was the answer. You can live by being funny, and likable, and hurting yourself for jokes while the secret only being visible to you; the spectacle of online media performance. It's why I'll always have a sort of visceral hatred for the vtuber phenomenon, for the act of separating your Self for performance, for an online audience of in particular People Into Anime And Manga And Games. And Otaku Shit. Right before I ended the blog I was working on putting together a model w/FaceRig for streaming. I'm glad I didn't finish, like many of my projects I had started.

I had to continually deny my self's existence and to overlay it with that presumed Artificiality in order to justify my existence. Because reality isn't desirable, isn't marketable, isn't cute or attractive. My sona now is fat like I am. Has roots coming in. I draw the nose a little crooked in some images, I draw the fat under his chin. I draw thick scratchy eyebrows, fat thighs and belly. He's me now. He is finally me. That representation of me, for all fantasy's worth, is still me. SPSB couldn't comprehend removing that lense of Anime Girl Funny Relatability. Or maybe couldn't imagine claiming this all as their own. Whatever the case may be, I'm freer now. I'm less possessed by trying to be something I'm not -- because I am what I am, and because I acknowledge how I've grown and what principles I operate on. I just am who I am. And all of that that exists with me is me. All the dissociative stuff, all the fatigue, all the frustration, all the issues, the spontaneity, everything. It belongs to me now. Not to the lense.

[susannaius]

Pretension

Ok, so I loved EVERYTHING about this episode, starting with THIS:

Just look at his face. How horrified he is. This is the first time he might realise that there is actually something wrong with him. He wants to contradict his father, he wants it so much, and he physically cannot. And the first part of it? Plagg is right behind him, so while he is there, he cannot see Adrien's face, cannot see the absolute distress he is in (while he is already used to Adrien musing about contradicting his father but not acting on it). Adrien is so ALONE.

The only upside is that the situation will not last long, because Marinette will storm in, enclose him in an embrace, and reassuring him that she will always be there for him. I really loved how Gorilla simply let her did it. Not that I'm surprised, especially after we were reassured earlier in the episode that he is in Adrien's corner.

Also, Marinette is absolute queen in this episode. After Gabe accuses her that she is in "love" with Adrien only for the fame and the connections (which a lot of Marinette salters do anyway), and in general does his best to break off her wings, she makes the most of the situation by 1. leaving the situation without choosing one bad thing or another, 2. still reassuring Adrien she is there, and 3. handing Gabe's ass to him on the pancake front. As soon as she is out of view, she deserves a little meltdown, as a treat.

In the meantime, Tomoe is being a total bitch. If anyone had any doubts whether she cares about her daughter, know we know for sure. And what kind of twisted person would say that wanting to feel love and feel loved, and letting other to have the same is being "slaves to their feelings"? What the actual ever giving fuck?

And this is topped by Felix coming to her "rescue". My baby boy is trying to express his feelings by stalking and kidnapping the girl she likes! I'm so glad Kagami is calling him out on his bullshit. (And that when he asks for time, she stops swinging the chair, but will not put it down.)

But then, but then... OK, so I tried to keep as spoiler free as possible, but I still ended up getting hints of Feligami. And I was like, huh? How is that possible? How can that work? But then Felix goes and says the one thing that can realistically make self-sufficient, determined, but lonely Kagami fall for him: that he wants to protect her from her mum, and here mum can't talk to her like this?!?

Look at that girl? She is so... soft?!? But alas, this cannot last, guests arrive, and EVERYONE wants to save Kagami! Asasdfasgsdxsgafvgd

The only question is, who does KAGAMI want to save her? Probably not Felix... But then her mum starts shooting arrows at her, so...

Hey, what do you MEAN Felix's father was worse? How worse? Did we know about this? Did Felix get free because his father died? What is happening?

Felix getting romantic in the sewers (the sewer system is such a romantic place, we know that already) - about senti beings. Or is he talking about parents? Who knows? Not me! Not based on this one frame!

And then our heroes arrive and Kagami stands up to them! For Felix! And we get teamwork! Yay!

And it is so bad that when Tomoe is turned back and Ladybug briefly talks to her, we know this is not the end of it. And then Kagami comes and tells her that to follow one's heart is not a weakness! GO KAGAMI! But Kagami is still a dutiful daughter who loves and respects her mum very much...

Please tell me she is not a senti and that is not her amok please tell me she is not a senti and that is not her amok please tell me she is not a senti and that is not her amok please tell me she is not a senti and that is not her amok...

Well, I guess, she is, and it is... (in which case I do hope Felix tells her to keep it safe, and maybe also why, grrrr)

(On a sidenote, you can trust Gabe to promise Natalie that he would spend as much time with Adrien as possible, taking this last chance to be there for him - and then trying to break up him and his girlfriend, and announcing to send Adrien off to London. Of course, that can only be expected. Ugh.)

OMG WHAT A RIDE

(One more thing: when I first read the sentiadrien thing I was so angry, and when I first read the "all the rich kids are sentis" thing I was like no, that cannot be true... But all these things happening, and Felix being like this... it makes total sense if all the rich kids are sentis, while none if not, unless there is a totally different solutions... and this is the biggest red herring of the history of animation.)

[marinettesaltprompts]

So uh this is prob gonna come off as rude. but like, I understand that Marinette has done a lot (and I mean a lot) of questionable things. But like, she’s well-meaning and always apologizes in the end once she realizes the flaw in her actions and the ppl who it has hurt??? Yes, she shouldn’t have done a lot of things that she did, but 1) when she attempted to break in to Adrien’s house (again not at all okay, but maybe if the firefighter had done his job and told her off, it wouldn’t have happened at all) she was genuinely concerned about Adrien’s safety because she didn’t know how far Lila would go yet. And when she sent the video confessing on the same day Adrien’s mother died, she acknowledged this was an awful idea (“today is the worst day to do it, Tikki!”) but Tikki had convinced her otherwise. So again, not intentionally hurtful.

I just think that if you’re gonna give Marinette a lot of flack for the mistakes she made and learned from and made up for, you could at least acknowledge the stuff Adrien has done, didn’t learn from, and didn’t make up for (sexual harassment (and assault), enabling, etc, etc.)

You’ll probably ignore this but I just wanted to throw that out there.

Honestly if you want to see blogs where Adrien's shortcomings are acknowledged than you should just search the Adrien salt tag. I do think most of the blogs are dogshit because they flanderize the worst parts of Adrien to the extreme in an obsessed desire to circle jerk about why they hate him so much, but they do feature that kind of stuff if you feel like that its a problem you have with Adrien. I could try to compromise and include this stuff, but I don't want to, mainly because that would compromise on the prompts I make focusing on Marinette.

On that note, I want to go on record and say that I made this blog because aside from my personal hatred of this character, I did as a "fuck you" to all the adrien salt blogs where there are millions of posts about how he's a sexual stalker (even though I think its complete dogshit and those blogs only came about because of Adrien's high road comment from oblivio because "OH HE DIDNT IMMEDIATELY SIDE WITH MARINETTE SO HES BAD") but never a single post about why Marinette is also a shite character.

I made this blog specifically for that reason. To make posts about Marinette and her bullshit in the same salty format people do for Adrien, though admittedly even I failed to make the characters as OOC as other salters have done. So pardon me if I didnt want to make posts about Adrien, there are enough of those already.

And to counter you post saying that Marinette is "well meaning", let me say this:

Marinette has been a creepy stalker type character since her first episode. She had a planner tracking Adrien's every move (which was then hastily retconned 4 seasons later when it was pointed out as being a planner for all her friends) and has made multiple plans to try and seduce (or woo) him without so much care for his actual input in the matter, yet cant for the life of day simply ask him out. On that note, she would often go out of her way to prevent other girls from being with him, and even though some were rat bastards like Lila, it sure as hell wasn't care for her friend that inspired her to slander Lila in front of Adrien as Ladybug, causing her to cry and run away in Volpina. It got to a point where Marinette's desire to try and romance Adrien actively fucked over other characters, such as Juleka in Reflekdoll and the boys party in Party Crasher. She didn't HAVE to break into his house in Oni-Chan as she could have called him (or ask Nino if she could call Adrien) and warned him about Lila, but no she did it her way because fuck the rules when Marinette wants Adrien.

No I do not care season 5 is out, they are only stopping it so we can have some fake reverse love square drama bullshit that will be undone by the end of the season I SWEAR ON IT.

Even putting that aside, Marinette is also just a shite hero. Aside from some moral obligation to be a hero and being smart, there's nothing about her that remotely heroic, and most times fucks things up whenever the villains even get a single brain cell since most normal akumas are morons. She relies on others to help her win fights yet can be fucked to try and trust others and make the team work beyond demanding people to be her meatshields, to the point where even her partner that she worked with for 3+ years was getting fed up with it. Yet the second she messed up and cant rely on someone to save her sorry ass from a mess up, all she can do is cry like a bitch as some villain makes off with the entire miracle box. 3 years of hero experience and she ends up crying like a bitch.

But it doesnt matter anyway because everyone loves Marinette so much that they easily forgive her alter ego despite her MAJOR FUCK UP. Everyone in the show is obsessed with Marinette and Ladybug, to the point where they are even obsessed with her getting together with the supposed boy of her dreams, EVEN HER FUCKING EX WHO SHE BASICALLY GHOSTED FOR HALF THEIR RELATIONSHIP. As Ladybug its even worse as everyone is so happy and trusting to her (minus the villains) despite the fact she failed for 3 years to catch the one dude making all the butterflies, not because she was bad, but because she didnt try tracking him down, only confronting him when the villain himself stuck out his neck and got greedy.

I could talk about other stuff I dislike about her, but im just gonna sum it up and say that she's a Mary Sue in a world where there's no main protagonist to replace. If any other character was the main hero, she would be that character in a SI fanfic that ends up overtaking the main hero with her bullshit powers. THERE I SAID IT

On that note, im not changing my mind about how I feel about Marinette despite how much EVERYONE ELSE in the fandom wants to coddle her, and if you wanted Adrien salt in a MARINETTE SALT BLOG you should just look somewhere else. Also I didn't ignore your post so there's that I suppose.

[lilyblackdrawside]

Hellagur's new module looks interesting, but I don't think it holds up when compared to the first one he got. (I'm going to slightly change my mind on its efficacy over the course of the monologue below. I had made a glance judgement, but the math reveals that it's pretty decent. Look below for details.)

Module X +350 HP +90 ATK

Trait Addition: Gain 25% Sanctuary (Phys/Arts damage resist) when HP is below 50%

Talent 1 modification: Gain up to +130 ASPD Tenacity, capping at 50% Max HP (from +100 ASPD Tenacity, capping at 30% Max HP)

Talent 2 unmodified

Module Y +90 ATK +60 DEF

Trait Addition: When defeated, once per deployment does not retreat and instead recovers 30% HP.

Talent 1 unmodified

Talent 2 modification: Regenerate 80 (90 with Potential bonus) HP per second when not blocking an enemy, or when HP is below 30% (from Regenerate 60 (70 with Potential) HP per second when not blocking an enemy.)

The extra life naturally has its uses, especially since he gets set to 30% HP where he has +100 ASPD, but generally speaking if something can kill Hellagur once, it won't struggle to do that again in the next hit when he's that low. There aren't that many enemies that have a big fuck-off-tankbuster they use once every minute that you'd want to put a Module Y'd Hellagur on when you have Dollkeepers, operators who can naturally be invincible (Specter, Blaze, anyone with Salter, others) or operators with barriers (Mudrock, Nian, (Archetto), others (I think)) or even just a Dreadnought Guard with their own Module Y, where you can go for the much cheaper to build Matoimaru who incidentally has even more HP than Hellagur, especially when he's on module Y if what you're looking for is someone with big-ass HP and an extra life.

Module Y Max Level Hellagur has 4225 HP Module Y Max Level Matoimaru has 6048 HP, 6291 at Pot 4 and 6431 at Pot 5, which leaves her at 2419~2572 HP post revive. (This makes me feel like the Dreadnought Module Y would be more interesting if it made the operator deploy with max hp reduced to 40% and revive with the full 100%, but that's a tangent and I never go off track.)

So yeah. A bit of Matoimaru shilling.

The intent of the module is to make it safer for Hellagur to sit at 30% HP by giving him his talent regen when below so he can enjoy the full +100 ASPD and if someone punches him really hard he has the safety net of an extra life.

Module X gives him an even higher +130 at an earlier 50% HP while also providing 25% Sanctuary to make it safer to sit at lower HP and enjoy maximum ASPD.

Both modules have the same intent. X has the higher ceiling, but he dies if he gets killed, Y makes it so he doesn't but has less potential but also makes it easier for him to die in the first place.

Gaining regen from Talent 2 while blocking is kind of a moot point when he'll usually also be attacking while blocking.

Assuming he sits at 10% HP with Module Y while blocking an enemy who deals Arts damage and attacking said enemy Hellagur gains 80 HP/s from Talent 2 (a one third increase over not having the module) and 117 HP/s (rounded) from attacking at 0.6 interval due to +100 ASPD from talent 1, meaning it provided 59 HP/s, for a total of 197 HP/s, 80 of which are from Module Y.

Same situation, but this time with Module X: 0 HP/s from Talent 2, because he's blocking 135 HP/s from autoattacking at 0.52 interval, 77 of which are due to the boosted Talent 1. The total remains at 135 HP/s and the module boost only amounted to an extra 18 HP/s.

However, this is not accounting for the sanctuary effect, which is a fully positive EH increase so I can simply slap it onto his HP/s as a modifier, making it 180 HP/s (135/0.75) [He takes less damage, so he needs less healing. It doesn't matter how you sustain a certain amount of incoming dps, be it through healing more or taking less so I can apply a damage reduction as healing increase as long as I don't apply it as damage reduction in the same calculation. Example: Incoming DPS = 160. Module Y Hellagur sustains this with his 197 HP/s, Module X Hellagur reduces it to 120 by only taking 75%, making his healing 112.5% of incoming damage, same as if he had 180 HP/s vs 160 DPS.]

So ultimately we're looking at 197 HP/s with Hellagur Y <30% HP 180 HP/s with Hellagur X <50% HP

Hellagur Y has +60 Def and an extra life Hellagur X has +350 HP and 25% Sanctuary

I don't know if Sanctuary is calculated before or after Defense and with its flat calculations it's kind of a pain to take into account for this. It does mean that Hellagur Y has improved physical EH. His defense goes from 334 to 394, which is pretty respectable. I don't want to go deeper into his Def stat for this.

I do want to go a little deeper into the Sancutary effect of Hellagur X though. I used it as a healing increase in the calculation, but as a fully positive EH improvement, it will also "increase the healing" from all sources, not just his own. He may be immune to Medics, but any kind of regeneration still hits him and is more effective due to Sanctuary. It's also active while he's not able to attack, such as when tanking ranged enemies, where his unboosted Talent 2 will also be active and more potent than the Y-boosted one thanks to Sanctuary.

In doing the math, I am now seeing Module Y in a slightly better light, since the raw healing is quite good. Sanctuary effects don't stack, so if you're used to using Abjurers, Module Y might be for you. Salter provides 24% Shelter for operators <30% HP and a rather potent regeneration effect for those <50% HP, meaning she would be a very strong partner for him when using Module Y, though she might accidentally keep him closer to 50%, reducing his DPS.

[purrincess-chat]

People in this fandom really be like "Oh no we're not salting on Adrienette/Marinette, we're coming up with worst-case scenarios just for fun and then expecting them to happen in canon. The fact that we're the same people who used to whine about canon "killing off ladynoir" for months and that the funny break-up/cheating scenarios are always about Adrienette is just a coincidence, it's totally unrelated, no no you don't understand, it's different. We don't want Adrienette to break up for real, nobody wants it, but a breakup would be beneficial for them, so we'll be holding our breath.". ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As someone who was both around for the great Chameleon salt wars as well as a participant in them, at least the salters back then could admit that we were salty and owned up to it. We called shit writing way back then and people were like "no, the writing is great you guys are just so picky and don't understand the show" and now that canon has done something they don't like they're doing the same shit but insisting they're different and better 😂 like nah, babes, yall are salty. Say it with your chest.

And like I'm not immensely pleased with the ending of s5, but Adrinette is not what went wrong last season. Adrinette was one of the only good parts of the latter half of s5. I still hold that their development in s5 was good, and I appreciate how they handled their relationship with going slow and building trust and understanding. Everything that happened with Gabriel that whole season is what was wrong with s5. But we don't see anyone talking about that shit. Everything is Adrinettes fault, or more specifically, Marinette's fault, and she needs to be punished and get dumped by the boy of her dreams so she can run into his arms again in a cat suit for comfort. That's not likely to fuck either of them up when a reveal happens. How could it? 🤡

Point blank, if yall are actively rooting for an Adrinette breakup solely bc you want LN to get together or want Marinette to be punished for keeping secrets, yall are salty. Own it.

[xxx-calibur]

Before I sleep tho

Salter being confused n thrown off by Castoria is doubly funny because she, much like I, have no clue what the fuck Castorias deal is because I'm still in Lostbelt 1, lol.

'I don't know what you are, I don't think I like it but you fight back and have a spine so you're okay I guess' is very much the vibe Salty has with Castorias.

[baenyth]

Bethany's Bizarre Miraculous Reviews: The New York Special

New York! New York! It's a Fuck of a town! The Bronx is up but the Battery's down! I was spooked by it when I went there in the summer of 2017-ound! New York! New York! It isn't a town!

(It's a city.)

(Also I heard Alya and Nino did a big no-no here so I'll keep my eyes out.)

Oooh! Big new Fancy Opening!

Good introduction, silly stuff with Mr. Pigeon, New suits that I'll talk more about in season 5, etc.

Green typically represents jealousy, Chat. It's good to see you trying to befriend Ladybug instead of flirting with her, though.

Also good ego. It's hard to balance your ego from experience.

And of course Marinette harshly simps for Adrien when it's a detriment to her. Do the salters live in backwards land or something? Chat Noir isn't perfect but he has more respect for Ladybug's boundaries. He doesn't sniff Ladybug's pillow, and I doubt he would even if he knew where she lived.

Sock puppetry lmao

Chloe, shouldn't you be happy about going to New York? You wanted to move there with the Karen that birthed you.

Get disrespected lmao

I love through that sock-filled monologue Marinette implied Lila wasn't their friend. Then again, considering my belief that more of the class is sus of Lila than Marinette,

Yes! Marinette's actually letting go! Or at the very least trying to! Forget what I said earlier. Baby steps, baby steps.

I'm assuming Ladybug's taking the Horse Miraculous with her again like with Startrain. Also the Kitty toy alarm's so cuute!

Dramatic irony lmao "Do you see a supervillain in the house?"

I'm also glad we're getting Luka and Kagami content, even if they aren't going on the trip.

Adrien's dad is coming! And I think he's afraid of flying!

Oh god. This relationship is an agony of cringe. Also quit encouraging it, Alya. Even Rose seems to be for Marinette changing seats and she's an utter romantic.

He is afraid of flying.

Sleep cute. I love it. And the ships too.

Oh no. Alya, Nino, don't do it. Marinette and Adrien are better off as friends. Don't do what I think you're going to do.

He doesn't look that much like a pirate. Aren't supervillains supposed to have more swag than this? Maybe he's just a villain.

Oh yeah. The Miraculous isn't the only magic (in an abstract literary sense) in this verse. There's also superheroes. And all the other Zagtoon shows.

Adrien and Marinette are made for eachother in the same way water and cesium is.

They're really trying to tell me Sabrina is bi and into some guy she just met? I could probably believe the bi part, actually, but only if she uses her love language: acts of service pushed to the extreme.

The mischevious

They're really trying to act as if Sabrina isn't approx. as evil as Chloe and pushing this relationship with what looks like a background character?

Hot Dog superhero whose hot dogs empower others. This is objectively the best superhero I've seen.

Fuck it. I'll take this. There's Julerose in this slow dancing scene. Look on the bright side of life.

Doors! Doors! Doors! Doors!

Oh. So it's the teenaged American heroes suggesting that. Oh. Alya's more innocent than thought. She's still into it, though.

Why is Uncanny Valley's superhero design so white? And just looks like that in general? Sparrow's is cool and practical, though.

There's the piracy! I was looking for that!

Why did Techno Pirate only steal her third eye? She's 100% technology! Oh. He just couldn't.

Ladybug, quit distracting Chat Noir. He fully did not expect this.

Oh. Chat Noir had time, he was just anxious or something. Yeah. I get it now. Ladybug has the right to be pissed.

So it was an accidental killing. And she was only corroded, not dusted.

What is with these assholes? Technolyzer or whatever his name was the one that forced Chat Noir to cataclysm Uncanny Valley, and yet they're blaming Ladybug and Chat Noir?

Reused sewer model

No, Chat, she would've been fine no matter what. The Miraculous Big Bang undoes death. It undoes erasure from existence.

This feels forced. Too forced.

...Is that her civilian model? And at least someone's getting consequences for trying to force Adrienette.

This is a joke. That sopping wet cat breakup is a joke. Marinette's unfaithfulness is a joke. The superheroes under liberation are jokes. Why is Miracalyzer or whatever his name is making someone want to take people's freedoms away? Oh right. We got this much Julerose content in an absolute joke of a special. Cursed irony.

Alright, the orchestral reprise of Chat Noir's transformation was pretty cool, I'll admit. He's back!

Miracolonizer? Is that his name?

So was Adrien's dad just listening to stuff in his room this whole time?

And was this trip that short?

And all the VAs were dehydrated at the time due to production fuckery and a constrained schedule?

So that's what that fic was talking about. It was a Julerose fic as well. Marinette was dating Luka and Adrien was dating Kagami at the time of this special. No mention of polyamory. They were making her cheat. This is Luka disrespect. This is Kagami disrespect. Alya, what the fuck? Also the other plot stuff was just My Hero Academia again, and I hate My Hero Academia.

Edit: So apparently Adrien was told he's going to New York right as he was leaving. So it wasn't his fault.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Might sound bit salter like, but i'm genuinely curious about how Marinette would react if someone did the same "it's for the greater good" thing to her.

Would she be upset but understanding about it, upset and slightly hypocritical, or just understanding without being upset

It's complicated.

Because on one hand yeah doing some full on atrocities is kinda.... oof. Plus their idea of the 'Greater Good' may not line up with her own.

In this she may see through it for either 'you have a point but your methods are fucked' and/or 'you're just a nut who thinks they're the good guy'.

But if they're capable of convincing her for their cause, or they've only done some wrong but not yet gone off the deep end, they may be able to convince her to be chill with it.

ofc Canon did the 'oh Gabe had a Good™ reason to terrorize the city for a year and make my life hell and abuse the shit out of his kid, so he's a Good Person™!'

But ya know