#second one is… meh

[lbctal]

cooper howard (the ghoul) in film posters datamined from the upcoming fallout 76 america’s playground update.

source + bonus lore

[hinamie]

alongside someone like you

[filia-floris]

Goromi brainrot

[plushiesssforcrying]

me when i've never drawn them before but they're still my babies ever

[2truehearts]

✦ — BUT DARLING, YOU ARE THE ONLY EXCEPTION.

✦ CHARACTER/S︰ijekiel alpheus & lucas from wmmap (who made me a princess).

✦ SYNOPSIS︰love can bloom and burn in any heart at the first sunlit-brindled brief—whether it be bounded by duty, ice, or disbelief; as long as that epitome of affection is you, they suppose they can make an exception and make some space—or in which they fall in-love with you first glance and sight.

✦ CONTENT WARNING/S︰nothing other than one swear word (fuck), & the general fluff and infatuation (from the character/s) + everything is proofread with the wc 200 - 300 each.

✦ A/N︰making my debut as a manhwa writer on main is not the ideal move but idk where to post it okay (side eyes the 2367838 sideblogs under this one/silly (also the title is inspired by "the only exception" by paramore <3 it's bleeping awesome go and give it a listen!!))

IJEKIEL IS NOT ONE TO FALL IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT, to have his world still for a few seconds while his heart overrides and blood races to the forefront of his cheeks—but dear heavens, were you the only exception to that rule bound by duty and a planned future in his chest. you surely weren’t the epitome of grace or as enchanting as the gods, but to him you were enough—more, than enough, truly.

he first met you in an arrangement of his father and your parents from your vague childhood—but oh, how he remembers every second of that first meeting. when the doors opened to you bowing in front of him with a barely-hidden smile of excitement curving the tips of your mouth to look at him with big, bright eyes of wonder staring directly at the copy of the sun—not once backing down to blink or burn away from awe and fluster. so ijekiel does that instead.  his skin flares with the color of blooming carnations, sunlight-prickled hues wide from childish panic at the sudden increased beating of his heart.  was something wrong with him? he felt light-headed and dizzy, stomach twisting, tossing and turning as if he was about to faint from merely seeing you presented before him like the finest muse of a pristine piece of art, incomparable to anything else other than itself. what should he do? should he compliment you? should he act indifferent and use a practiced smile? his mind is trying to adjust to the drastic changes of his swayed heart, but the boy just can’t seem to do just that when he’s faced with a fairytale protagonist right in front of him—and he blinks, catching something from the corner of his eye—and is brought back down to earth when he sees his father’s questioning gaze. then, bows with a smile, greeting you further in to sit down and perhaps enjoy a cup of tea with him?  you said yes out of common courtesy, but that only made his smile grow wider.

LUCAS FIRMLY DOES NOT BELIEVE IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT, like come on—who believes in love like that these days? naive little kids? newly adolescent noble ladies? men of high and poor status? it’s simply too . . . unlikely to actually happen in his eyes. the butterflies when you meet “the love of your life’s” eyes? could be the early signs of constipation. the flush in your cheeks when there’s too much prolonged eye contact with them and the dizziness of your heart and mind? could be an oncoming migraine, headache, or a sign you're being possessed by some evil spirit, y’know? anyways, enough joking aside—the point is, he finds the subject some far-fetched fairytale that is highly impossible even with the magic he has—that is, until, you waltz into his life. the things he feels when he's around you is something that could be described as a contradiction. the first gazing into your eyes turns the world upside and back again, the first brush against your fingertips suck all the air out of his chest, the first chuckle that he manages to rouse from deep within your giddy joy paints him a shade darker than his eyes from head to toe—holy fuck were there a lot of firsts that made him experience everything and anything all at once; with most he can't even explain properly without sounding so . . lovesick. god do you make him sick to the last bone with whatever sorcery you possess. in short; when in love, lucas is everything that correlates to being stupidly infatuated and is constantly reeling himself in by a hair’s breadth back to the surface when you smile, laugh, or simply exist next to him—like, can you imagine how utterly moronic it is to see how degenerate he’s become from before you?! . . . but, if it makes you happy, he’ll gladly be idiotic for the rest of his life (though, that depends if you're gonna annoy him or not).

✦ — @khasmies 2023.

[xofeno]

CHICAGO P.D. 6.15, "Good Men" (2019)

[j-nor]

Hey. Grisps you.

[livetogether--diealone]

calling this: seb's-eyes-looked-too-bright-and-too-blue-and-i-lost-focus-on-what-i-was-actually-looking-for.gif

[lloydfrontera]

In my opinion, the reason the reunion scene was skipped was because the author couldn’t figure out a way to write it non-romantically and gave up after a while

honestly. i kinda agree with you nonnie.

it just. the set up to the scene is sooooo romantic. you have lloyd being absolutely devastated at the thought he's not going to see any of his loved ones ever again and that he's been dropped back into his terrible life, to the place he admitted he'd rather die than go back to,,, and then someone knocks at the door and when he opens it this is the sight that greets him:

his best friend, the person he's closest to, the one he's spent years with, the one he promised a peaceful life at his side, the one he wanted to grow old with, the one he sacrificed everything for, the one he effectively gave his life to save, the one he thought he'd never see again, standing at his door, having crossed literal dimensional barriers to get to him, a soft and teary smile on his face as he tells him "i missed you"

like. c'mon.

i'm all for platonic interpretations, i'm aroace, i love me a good best friendship as much as the next guy, but,,,, isn't this,,, like,,, really fucking romantic??? extremely so??? am i??? reading too much into it?? because it feels really, really romantic to me.

and like you say. where do you go from there. what response could lloyd give that doesn't involve throwing himself at javier and clinging to him with all of his strength. what conversation could these two have that doesn't involve them seeing how truly devoted they are to each other. what resolution does their arc together have that isn't them spending the rest of their lives together, at each other's side, like they so dearly wanted to.

but. alas. that wasn't the story bk moon wanted to tell. and that's very much his right. i just think that if he didn't want me to assume there's no in-character and narratively satisfying version of that conversation that doesn't end with them kissing he should've at least tried to give us something. and not completely skipped it lol

but that's just my opinion too :]

[fadedrainbowbookshelves]

Getting to know your new neighbor.

[yuriyuruandyuraart]

Dancing with the devil...

@estelletheskeleton forgot to add this here but here you go >:Dc

[r0bita]

Everybody saying Cahara is the only character who didn't get their S ending because he would have been the only character left to have taken the girl to the depths are probably overlooking an equally, or even more, depressing implication.

Any of the playable characters would have achieved their S endings, but the girl still becomes the God of Fear and Hunger - no matter what. The girl's fate was set the moment she was born and everyone else was simply an unwilling participant in the grand scheme, even Le'garde.

[val-the-protoss-simp]

I ONCE AGAIN FORGOT ABOUT THIS DAMN BLOG

CURSE MY ADHD AAAAAA

ANYWAY

Part three of this ask, the Nerazim

Part 1/3 the Tal'darim

Part 2/3 the Khalai Part 3/3 the Nerazim <- you're here

Anar. The oldest of N&N babies. Nothing much to say about them aside from that they're a reclusive phase smith (or the Nerazim equivalent to one) They’re good at what they do and they know it, which can lead to them coming off as rather arrogant and full of themselves. They also have your average "oldest child syndrome" and tend to parent their siblings, who are adults and literally hundreds of years old in most cases, which once again is something that often makes them look patronising.

Elyon. A very underdeveloped character for now. I keep putting their writing off because I don't feel like I can portray their story adequately just yet. Yet. They're half Khalani, half Nerazim, the oopsie baby of Zhakul and Tali and because of this mixed heritage, they struggle to “decide” who they want to be in a world where the Nerazim and Khalai society haven't really integrated yet. In a world where not many mixed protoss exist just yet, they fel like they don't really belong in either society and grow up shy and reclusive because of this.

Their end game was to become an Alyssar. Because this little bean is, like, so hungry for knowledge. You know how humans are inherently hungry for money? Elyon’s like that, only with information. Anything is fair game, from knowledge about botany, philosophy, terran theater plays, the way plasma based engines work, molecular structure of a sandwich, etc. They don't necessarily want to do anything with it, like become a doctor or a politician or even a scholar, they just want to have it, to know, to understand. Eventually a few centuries down the line, they move their ass to Ehlna and join the other Alyssar. 

You could also argue it's a coping mechanism. Elyon will live for centuries, like all protoss, but their terran family won't. The grief that strikes them when Jake passes away (and Zhakul's visceral reaction to it) as well as the horror of seeing Harper get older and older in front of their eyes while they stay young, frightens them. So they occupy their brain with other things just so they don't have to think about this, and learning about crop rotation and quantum entanglement seems to be the thing!! 

Elyon also keeps their cords uncut despite frequently feeling the societal presure to do otherwise. This is mostly because it's the only way they get to feel close to one of their fathers, Talizun, who is a previously mangled zealot currently enlosed in the shell of a dragoon. They especially begin to rely on this bond after Jake's passing.

Nanzak. A very tall, very lanky middle-aged protoss lady. (middle-aged for THEIR standard. So she's like 600 years old) Very quiet, reserved, may come off as cold, unfriendly or even mean to others, but really she just likes her peace and personal space.

She's a performer and a dancer originating from a nomadic tribe deep within the midnight deserts of Shakuras. I really like the idea that a sense of family and tribes is very strong within certain Nerazim communities and Nanzak comes from one. The desert tribes have a different outlook on life, which then takes shape in their customs and culture. She'd be considered sort of an outsider in the more urban areas, mostly because she sticks to her tribe's customs and doesn't want to mitigate it whatsoever. She's proud of who she is, very secure in her place in life and society and if someone doesn't like it, that sounds like a them problem. 

She's absolutely and irrevocably in love with her short husband, who she has like seven kids with (something very usual with the the protoss, since most have like two to three offsprings in life IN TOTAL) Speaking of-

Narzul. As mentioned previously, he's Nanzak’s short husband and a complete opposite of her when it comes to personality. He's social, loud, kind of a joker, open and curious. Also quite clumsy compared to her (everyone is clumsy compared to her)

He's a very skilled medic who was travelling all over Shakuras in his youth to quench his thirst of curiosity and that's how they met. They've been together for like four centuries now, have seven kids and are absolutely that couple in public that is way too comfortable with PDA. You know the one. He also absolutely will start talking about his wife and how much he loves her and how cool and perfect she is every chance he gets and won't shut up for hours. Your fault for asking.

After Haven and Shakuras boot up their diplomacy programme, he eagerly joins as the protoss's designated medic. Mostly because he's very very curious about terran medical science and wanted an excuse to to eagerly study it. Now he can do that while there's also so many terrans running around that he can talk to about their whacky boddies?? It's like a dream come true! (he WILL ask about your bowel movements nearly every morning buckaroo you better get used to it) which eventually leads to him being curious about different aspects of terran culture as well.

He also has a role as a sort of an emotional anchor (???) during the time Zhakul is expecting Elyon. This is an unplanned baby that neither Zhakul or Jake feel like they're ready for and are lowkey (highkey) panicking about it, especially Jake, who doesn't feel like he could ever be an adequate father figure to anyone ever. Narzul helps midigate that in a way only a wise old man that's seen it all can do.

Ulzea. The one thing I can say about her is that she’s very pink in my head. And that’s about it fjdvikjbvf

Funny how she’s existed for about *checks watch* fourteen years and there’s barely anything to say about her (even her name, Ulzea, was recycled from a different character that I renamed last year) This is because she was never really a person to begin with. I make it no secret that this entire AU is based off of my frequent daydreaming from when I was a teenager trying to cope with an unfavourable family situation. The thing with daydreams is that they make for an excellent distraction and are a good tool for coming up with ideas, but they make terrible stories when they’re put on paper, namely because of their overly long, complex and often nonsensical narratives that are more aimed to the be self-gratifying to the daydreamer rather than be fully realised, balanced stories.

But I digress. Ulzea is a victim of this. I think the best way to describe her would be that she’s to Zhakul what Vorazun is to Artanis during the events of LotV, that being that she acts as an exposition dump whenever he needs to listen to some Nerazim lore. Ulzea is worse than Vorazun, given that Vorazun is still, you know, a character of her own with her own personality and growth and so on. Ulzea never had this.

The reason why I never talked about her is because she’s essentially been written out of Zhakul’s story because of this. She was more of a narrative device for me to arrange my headcons about the Nerazim rather than anything else, which I achieved by having her dumping this information onto Zhakul, who only just got to Shakuras after living with terrans for some sixteen years and had no idea how to be a protoss. She’s just no longer needed as a character because Zhakul learns of his heritage in a more organic way, but recently I’m thinking about bringing her back if not for any other reason that she’s pretty (also because Zhakul just. Needs more protoss friends who are close to his age)

Uszadar. One of Narzul and Nanzak’s several babies. He lives in the more rural parts of Shakuras, specifically around the crater where the Xel’laga Temple is situated, but due to his lifestyle tends to be mostly nomadic. 

I have a terrible habit of fixating on small features and details in media that regular people don't tend to give a shit about, which is also a case here. I love the kakarus. I have loved them since I first played Brood Wars at the ripe age of six. They were my favourite critter in the entire game and stayed as such to this day as well. I always envisioned them as, like, flying mounts for the protoss because kiddie me was obsessed with dragons, dragon riders and the 2002 Dinotopia miniseries that featured the skybax. So big flying lizard-thing mean alien ride too, yes? 

Anyway, the joys of having my own AU means I can do whatever I want, so I say the protoss ride kakarus. It's mostly something done in the more rural parts of Shakuras because the more urban areas just use modern technology for the transport of cargo, people and messages. At this point it's the equivalent to how us humans keep horses. Something that used to be widespread and important for the function of society is nowadays mostly a hobby. Uszadar is mostly on the practical side of things, still utilising kakarus for transport and to reach the more rural parts of Shakuras, as well as doing conservationist work for the species, preserving their natural environment as well as studying them both in the wild and in captivity. 

Meaning that, yes, he's a horse girl. 

Zeredar. Once again, this is one of Nanzak and Narzul’s babies. She was originally gonna die during the second invasion of Shakuras but then my friends convinced me to let her live (boo) so she continues to unleash herself on the rest of the world. I see her as someone with a very dry sense of humour, which often makes her come off as rude or mean. She’s also the kind of person who can keep an absolute deadpan expression while telling the most hilarious joke you have ever heard. She’s also very dramatic and sassy, something she gets from her mother.

Funnily enough, however, I also see her as a fairly cheerful person, similar to how her father is, despite what her sense of humour may suggest. It’s a bit harder to see this side of her, you have to get to know her better first, but under all that sass and sarcasm, she has a generally positive outlook on life and people, doing what she can to see the best in everyone and everything. She’s very proud of her work and is confident in it's quality, similar to her oldest sibling, and is also a very confident person overall.

The injury she suffered during the invasion doesn’t slow her down one bit and she continues to find beauty and happiness in her life regardless of it.

Zhakul’s mothers

Yeahhhhhhh…they don’t have names ifgvidhvvd

I’m pretty sure you can see a trend by now aaaaaaaaaa

They’re just as old as him, turning 14 years this year, but unlike him, they're are barely concepts. Which is fine in the case of this particular story, given that it’s not about them and they more or less exist so Zhakul can have certain aspects of his backstory set in place, like that he’s related to Vorazun through one of them, or that he eventually decides to walk in their footsteps as an elite member of the Matriarch’s personal Shadow Guard.

They were fully dedicated to their duties and very happy as only a couple, never intentionally trying for a baby. Which is partially the reason for why Zhakul is born when they’re fairly old, being in their early 700s. They both loved him very very much and would happily claim that the few years they got to spend with him before their untimely deaths were the happiest years in their long lives.

Both of them die a few months before the events of WoL. With the zerg invasion beginning anew, many protoss colonies were evacuated as a safety measure, including the one they were escorting. This was during the time the Dominion was kicking its Hybrid Program into overdrive and needed, um, material, to be able to build these guys from. I see you know where this is going. The ship on which the protoss were being evacuated on got seized by Dominion secret forces, resulting in a great loss of life, which included both of Zhakul’s mother. 

AND SPEAKING OF-

Zhakul!! My baby, my little innocent bean, precious cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure. Oh, how good it feels to torture him-

Um. Anyway.

This is the oldest OC I have. Period. He was conceptualised in summer 2010 when Wings of Liberty first came out and I played through the campaign for the first time. I fell in love with this game all over again, and came up with Zhakul as a way to organise my thoughts on it because I just could not stop thinking about it. Many things in the AU changed, he mostly remained the same. From the day I first imagined him up until now, he underwent very minor design changes and very small changes to his overall story. This is because he is perfect and has no flaw-

The only other character I can think of that I am more attached to other than him is Jake (who is also nearly as old as Zhakul) who he is essentially attached to the hip to and an integral part of his story, just like he is in Jake’s. They meet shortly after Zhakul is rescued by the Raiders from Castanar, where he was held captive and experimented on. The story of how the Raiders dumped him on Haven is a bit long and I think I already spoke of this on this blog anyway (???) He then integrates into terran society and becomes a part of Jake’s family, almost being like his adoptive brother but not really because he’s an alien being raised by humans. Still, he’s loved just as much by them.

He continues to suffer from terrible anxiety and rather intense ptsd episodes from when he was held captive and experimented on, which was something his terran family did their best to help him with, but there’s only so much therapy made for humans, by humans, can do to help an alien, not to mention when said alien struggles with trauma as heavily as Zhakul does. This eventually results in him severely hurting Jake in one of his episodes by slashing his chest open, after which he panics and runs away from Haven to Shakuras.

(How does he get to Shakuras? No idea. Its been a plothole for the past fourteen years.)

There he gets a bit of a culture shock because he’s been living with terrans for the past sixteen years or so and has no idea what it means to be protoss. Essentially, he’s a terran in protoss skin and I remember that one of my favourite things to think about was how confusing his learnt mannerisms would be to everyone else (like how protoss tilt their head instead of chuckling meanwhile us humans do it when we’re confused. I imagine this lead to quite a few SituationsTM)

A lot of stuff happens here. Zhakul originally only ran away for the sake of running away but eventually figured out the protoss will surely be able to offer better help than terrans? So he gets it into his head that he will go to whatever equivalent of therapy the Nerazim have and then come back to Haven, because more than anything he yearns to be with his family and with Jake. A lot of things happen here, namely events that include Dal and Tali, showing that him that he cannot deal with his issues by burying them deep inside him and pretending they’re not real, but rather by admitting to himself that they happened and learning to accept it and let go. 

A lot of Zhakul’s story is about trauma, coping with it and about healing from it. About learning that your past does not define you as a person and that it’s on you to decide who you are, not other people. The past cannot be erased, so why continuously dwell on it? Mistakes are made, relationships are broken and lost, but being forever attached to all of this and pondering how it could have been different is pointless. What you can do is learn from it, change your future, put effort into being the best version of yourself that you can be, for the sake of yourself and those around you.

He does eventually come back to Haven to make amends, but what happens is once again long and convoluted and more focused on Jake rather than him, because the gremlin human also needs his own character arc. They end up leading a pretty interesting life together, full of adventure and other various shenanigans, but writing about that would end in a much longer essay than this is already. Anyway, Zhakul is my baby and a personal favourite, the One That Started It All and my favourite punching bag.

[accirax]

On my fetch quest to retrieve Xander's assigned color from the DRDT Demo Video, I noticed something interesting-- where everybody stands in the Class Trial totally changed between the demo video and now???

Here's where everybody stood in the Class Trial during the demo:

(ignore the colors, they have no meaning) And here's where everybody canonically stands:

Like I said, almost completely different. Here are a couple of my observations that I thought were most interesting:

Teruko and Eden are the only characters who stayed in the same location. Teruko always stood in front of MonoTV, and Eden was always to her right.

Arei and Hu always stood next to each other.

Veronika and Levi always stood next to each other, although they flipped which order they were standing in.

Originally, Xander was in the position opposite the circle from Teruko. Now, that's where David stands.

I have no idea what any of this might mean, and it might be completely arbitrary. Still, it's interesting what might have been going through the creator's head when they originally chose the demo placements, and then when those placements changed.

[batsplat]

everybody is rightfully excited about the upcoming season but whilst i think if he adapts well and keeps his head on straight marc will win the title, i do think people on this platform (and reddit) are highly underestimating pecco and honestly if marc does any marcism like last season where he just crashed and crashed and kept on crashing, the title could just as easily go to pecco. also pecco’s racecraft is very good and the victor of their wheel to wheel battles will not be a given. the cutbacks alone!! plus on his « specialty » tracks he is very very fast. and he’s younger. i also get the feeling ducati will not let marc try any mind games or whatever and he’ll try to be cordial as he’s the one going into an established team and he won’t get preferential treatment which would kind of be a first. not to meantion pecco will be his toughest teammate to date (except maybe pedrosa but a lot went right for marc when he was racing pedrosa before he literally started sabotaging bike development slow him down). i kind of want pecco to show how good he is and if marc has to win then like i beg it’s at least not a walkover haha

welllllllll idk I was kindaaaaaa there mid-season, I'm not sure if I'm still there. it's not even as much the wins that I find a bit spooky as I did the sepang/catalunya ii performances, admittedly with the proviso you only get limited prop points for going fast and then crashing. idk, I do think at a basic level the case for the prosecution is pretty compelling. the gp23 was a lot slower than the gp24, marc was still adapting to the ducati and was that fast anyway, marc's crashes were often explainable by having to push the package too hard.... does all sound reasonable yeah

that being said, it's not an open and shut case for me. I think it's a bit tricky because my sense is the commentariat is basically united in thinking it's a slam dunk situation next this year, and I am more inclined to defer to their expertise than I would be in a sport where I know what I'm talking about. idk, I don't think it's quite as cut and dried (to continue to mix metaphors) as they do that marc's going to wipe the floor with pecco - I think that's a completely plausible scenario, but not a foregone conclusion. my open questions are based more on like,, logic than they are on understanding motorcycle racing. but this is what I would make the case for the defence:

while marc's speed of adaptation is undoubtedly impressive, that doesn't mean there's any reason there's more adaptation to come - this is probably roughly as good as it gets. this is low-hanging fruit and I don't feel like many people are arguing that marc will dominate because he'll get even better with the ducati, but I thought I'd get it out of the way

this is a bit trickier to articulate but... let's see what we can do. so we know that the gp23 was slower than the gp24. but we also know that a marc-level talent could ride the bike close to its theoretical performance ceiling, which is closer to the gp24 than other gp23's made it look. 'outperforming the bike' is one of those stock phrases that are useful but obviously not true, like you can't LITERALLY outperform your machinery, that's not how physics works. what you're basically denoting is that a rider is outperforming what we believe to be its 'natural' place in the pecking order, often by riding very close to the limit. given the michelin rear tyre, the peaks of the gp23 were very hard to access this year, which is of course where marc's immense natural talent comes in. but that does mean that... I kinda feel like,, logically, surely there's a problem with the idea that you can just rub off another three tenths or whatever to estimate how fast marc theoretically would've been on the gp24? like surely it is at least possible that pecco and jorge and occasionally that other guy were riding very close to the ceiling of the gp24 - it's just that this ceiling is a lot easier to access in a controllable way. so in that sense, a better bike might just... take that last extra bit of talent out of the equation a little bit. I guess the comparison I'd make is... so I think we can probably safely assume that nobody, including any of casey's rivals at the time, could have done with the ducati anything like what casey did. but when casey moved to the honda, at the time a more rideable package, casey wasn't completely brutalising dani on the rare occasion where they both had all their limbs intact. so in a way, a 'better' bike does at least somewhat neutralise that particular strength. pecco readily admits he needs a well-sorted package to be good - but crucially, when he does have such a package, he does seem to be very fast. idk, I just don't feel like it works to pretend like we can talk about a uniform swing here, like surely it's more complicated than that

yes, I do broadly agree that people underestimate pecco. I also think, and I know this probably isn't a great time to voice this opinion, that it's still possible for pecco to become better as a rider. idk man, I really would struggle to say that I felt his 2024 campaign was worse than his two title-winning seasons. if anything, his edge in raw pace felt more pronounced, and not just because of the bike factor. now, look, I do think he was an idiot at times and there are some forms of idiocy that are incurable but... I'm not sure pecco's malaise falls into this category. first off, I think he's clocked that he needs to take sprints more seriously - which, okay, yes, does feel a bit belated but fine. secondly, the racing incidents thing... idk, I live in hope. if he has another clash with marc then this time round it's fine as long as you're taking both of you out, because now he's your title rival so whatever. if it's another rider... I mean maybe this is just in his dna as a rider but it doesn't HAVE to be. valentino please, I know you think sports psychology is fake but I could fix him. and thirdly, the other crashes... y'know, some of that is inevitable, but something like the misano ii crash where it's not a riding thing as much as it is a decision-making thing, I do again kinda feel like you could probably tackle that. idk, one thing about pecco is that he does have the capacity to Get Better, which is rarer than you'd think really and maybe he'll do it again

the marc crash thing. yeah, idk! it's super feasible to me that this was just a function of marc over-riding a poor package and that he goes back to posting prime!marc numbers of crashes - which with the exception of 2015 were mostly like... okay in races, less okay in practise but idk clearly his body must be built different. but also, maybe not! maybe you just crash this generation of bikes more when you're pushing hard! maybe there's just a lot of races and inevitably you're going to crash a few times when you're constantly riding that fast! marc assembled a decent number of dnf's for himself this year - and while a few had Something Odd attached to them, some of them were just ... crashes. again, it's plausible marc gets it completely under control and pecco doesn't but... yeah. foregone conclusion? idk man

*wiggles hand* nebulous age-based/worn-down-by-injuries factor plus the qualifying question. idk I just won't entirely believe the marc raw qualifying pace is back until I actually see it. just feels like the thing that goes with age so you're kinda primed to be on the look out for it anyway. and also say what you will about pecco as a complete package, but that man is fast over one lap. personally I do kindaaaaaa suspect pecco will win the qualifying h2h this year - doesn't mean it'll matter as long as marc can regularly qualify in the same general bit of the grid. which feels likely. but still. idk, in general there's still a few unanswered questions about how this marc compares to 2019!marc, and obviously you'll never get definitive answers to that but this year will make some things clearer on that front

anyway, I still think marc will win the title, and if you put a gun to my head I'd probably say with a pretty comfortable margin without getting to a ridiculous territory. I actually think you're completely right about pecco's strengths - I think he's going to be dominant some weekends and I even think that pecco might come out and win most of their extended wheel-to-wheel encounters. but the thing about marc is that neither of those things necessarily matter. if you look through prime!marc's title winning seasons, he generally either wasn't posting a) all that many wins OR b) a great h2h in direct w2w duels. exception is 2014 I suppose. wins titles despite losing silverstone 2013, catalunya and mugello 2016, austria and motegi 2017, qatar and austria 2018, qatar, austria and silverstone 2019 - ofc he also wins a few but it tends not to be a positive h2h... big exception really is 2014. and with the ducati margin over the field I would be expecting him to post more wins than in a 2016-type chaotic season

where marc really gets you is relentless pace and a degree of consistency in that pace. so you get a 2018-type season where marc can afford to have an argentina *gestures* whatever that was - but all his rivals are so busy tripping over their own feet that you get to half season and turn around and his only 'title rival' is five hundred year old valentino, who is in pee two in the standings on the sheer power of not binning it every other race. or, okay, vinales also wasn't crashing but he did that trick where he just doodled around in the shadow realm for a whole stretch of races. and this is where pecco's problem is - he just lost a title in a season where he won eleven races. I'm not saying I think that'll happen this year, but like,,,,, this is the issue right, there's a world in which pecco's raw pace is extremely respectable in comparison to marc's but the title winning margin is still comfortable,, because marc's bad days are mostly pee two and pecco's bad days are... remember that aragon sprint where you blinked and he was suddenly fighting with fabio? that. idk, I basically think that if pecco rides a perfect season, he has a fair shot, but there's just more plausible paths to the title for marc. which doesn't mean it's a done deal but does just make marc very much the likely winner to me

about the ducati box dynamics, idk man, who knows. I don't actually have much faith in ducati's skills at rider management, not least since I did watch them get bullied by marc like half a year ago in a completely avoidable situation. I mean ideally they just completely lose control and it becomes a bloodbath, but seeing as that's fairly unlikely... you are right in that idt it'll be as easy for marc to steer ducati's development direction because there also just won't be the same dependency relationship (unless some stuff changes a lot in the near future). does ducati's tolerance for mind games really matter? ducati seems good at figuring out how bikes work in recent times, less good with human beings since basically forever. I do like the idea of another portimao situation, preferably with them 1-2 this time, just to see the ashen faces in the ducati box. but also, some stuff can't be reigned in!! yamaha TRIED with valentino and jorge, they also would've loved to tell both of them 'no mind games', but you'd have to say it didn't really work. pecco and marc aren't valentino and jorge, but they will inevitably play mind games. you play mind games with your competitors, it's part of the game to some degree or other. worst case scenario is that marc doesn't really bother since he's winning so clearly, so. hopefully we can avoid that

(also as a fan of Narratives I do kind of want to see marc pushed. like the whole charm of 2008-09 is that valentino is having to operate from a place where in at least one of those years, he probably wasn't the 'faster' rider compared to his title rival but managed to win anyway. poured his heart and soul into the psychological warfare front because that's how he had to win. and he almost pulled off something far more drastic in 2015 with quite a radical pace deficit, where at best he was the third fastest rider that year and by a comfortable margin. idk, that's fun! I like that kind of arc where ideally the older rider doesn't have this massive raw pace margin anymore, or has SOME kind of limiting factor - even if it's that marc can't afford to crash a million times (though going by the 2024 season apparently he's not too worried about that) - so they have to use other skills to win the title. ideally your wits and nerve. but obviously that only works if you don't have a massive pace advantage over your opponent, which is objectively very nice for you but also is kinda.... idk, it's more satisfying if marc actually has to draw on something new and interesting to win the title, something he's learned since the last time he won the title. if marc dominates the title, my response will be 'wow, marc sure is a very good rider', which I think we all already knew. if marc slips pecco poison to win the title decider, THEN we're talking)

in conclusion. I too would like the margins to be kept respectable. the way I usually operate in title fights is I kinda automatically at least casually root for whoever's currently in second, because there's something wrong with my brain and I don't like winning. I mean, mainly I am hoping for a) a competitive title fight, and b) good racing. since (b) seems like a bust at least for another year, we do kinda need (a). idk I think a lot of fans can just kinda enjoy winning for winning's sake and I envy them but... the thing about 2019 is that it was just about watchable because the quality of racing was consistently very high. qatar, mugello, austria, silverstone, misano, thailand, phillip island... even ones that aren't 'classics' like cota or argentina or catalunya generally had interesting stuff going on. this stuff matters!! it mattered that valentino back in the honda days had a principled aversion to being in the top five at the end of a first lap, just to spice things up a bit. this year we had a competitive title fight and a lot of godawful races. the action is almost always concentrated in the first half of the race or even the first few laps, after which it becomes exceedingly processional. and, look, none of this is the fault of the riders except insofar as they're not testing michelin tyres, but it's still bad! next this year could become a real slog if the title winning margin is massive and the races are dull as shit. but also, what can you do. hopefully pecco will try not to roll over and die