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batsplat · 5 months ago

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wait, is there a dovi/jorge feud???? i didn't know this!! also thank you so much for all you do for this community ❤️

not the only ask I've gotten about this and... look, rather than doing a proper write up that would take forever, I'm just gonna give my top ten fun... facts? bits of trivia. tidbits related to the two of them. quite long tidbits, on second glance. the highlight reel, if you will

(1) that time andrea dovizioso made 14 year old jorge lorenzo cry

the two of them already raced each other before the start of their grand prix careers, competing for the first time in 2001 in the cev when dovi was around 15 and jorge around 14. in riveras tobia's biography, here's jorge talking about their first fight:

I led the way at the start and Dovizioso and I escaped. It was our first head-to-head encounter, the first time we raced each other. My dad had heard that Dovi was a really clever rider and he warned me before the race. But just like in 1998 at Jerez, with Olive, I acted like a dummy and pushed for the whole race. I kept looking behind me to see the bastard still there! It was impossible to shake him off, he was watching me the whole race until the last lap. Three comers from the end I could hear his engine getting closer and I saw his shadow to my left, but he didn't come past. I thought to myself "This guy is going to try something in a second!" I decided I had to on a tighter line and close the door. Sure enough, Dovi went wider through that comer and then dived up the inside. I didn't close the door in time and tried to get in his slipstream, desperately hoping I could get him the next corner, but I ran wide and he won. I came back in tears, I didn't even want to go to the podium, I felt so cheated. I'd been on the limit for the whole race and I felt like I deserved the win more than he did.

so that's a nice and positive start! there's something charming about how even fifteen year old dovi was an absolute menace on last laps

also about that race:

'Jorge beat Dovi in Braga but in the previous race at Most, what a tantrum!' recalls Juanito, laughing. 'He didn't even want to go to the podium, he was crying like a baby! I can still see Dani (Antatriain) talking to him, trying to convince him. In the end he went but he didn't want to look at anybody.'

(2) the photo finish

in 2004, they were rivals in 125cc - a year in which dovi claimed the title and jorge was p4 in the standings. in the very first grand prix ever at the lusail circuit (pretty eventful weekend, you have to say), jorge and dovi crossed the line at the exact same moment

(3) dovi's top three favourite career win

dovi and jorge progressed through the categories at the exact same rate, and after their 125cc rivalry they continued fighting in 250cc. they were title rivals in both 2006 and 2007, with jorge's aprilia winning out both times against dovi's underpowered honda. (the general pattern was that dovi clawed back a bunch of points from jorge in the wet - jorge, with perhaps the exception of a few years in the premier class until around 2013, has never been much of a wet weather racers, while it's always been one of dovi's strongest traits.) for dovi's 300th career start in 2019, he was asked what his top three wins were - and one of his picks was from way back when in 2007

I'd recommend the race! which... well, I did in the race rec post - and I can only reiterate that these two kids do not acknowledge each other, not good vibes at all

(4) jorge's thoughts on young dovi from 2008

Jorge has a lot of respect for Andrea Dovizioso and feels that his two 250cc world titles have even more prestige because he had to beat the Italian to win them. 'You wouldn't label Dovizioso as fast, particularly, but he's much faster than he looks. He doesn't set many pole positions but he is always up front in a race, fighting to win. He is very intelligent and you can't trust him an inch on the last lap. He has been faithful to Honda, he has great belief in them. His negative side is that he tends to play the victim too much. He'll say that if his bike had a better engine or if it was a bit faster he would win. He's even said that if he was on the same bike as me he'd give me a hiding. I think he looks for excuses too often sometimes, but as a rider and a person I don't have a bad word to say about him.'

some dovi traits read as very familiar, from how he's a better racer than qualifier to the intelligence to the last lap prowess. as for jorge saying dovi plays victim too much? well

also this:

ER: Don't you think that Dovizioso wanted to be World Champion too in 2006 and 2007? Don't you think he gave everything to achieve it? JL: He will think he gave his maximum but he will be lying to himself because nobody does that. Nobody gets close to their maximum, not even me. He will think that he didn't win because he was riding a Honda. There are very few sportsmen who will say, I deserve what happened to me and there are no excuses. I didn't know how to do any better and I've done things wrong.' That is the only way to be the best, the only way. People who make excuses don't get to the top. I know riders who haven't made it for just that reason.

plus ça change

(5) jorge's thoughts on young dovi from 2018

when they were doing their thing as ducati teammates (bickering), here is one of the things jorge said about dovi:

dovi's been trying to undermine jorge's morale his WHOLE career... even when they were but teenagers... love it when you can really tell someone's been sitting on something for over a decade

(6) "also lorenzo is not my friend"

both of them moved up to motogp in 2008, jorge with factory yamaha and dovi with satellite honda. dovi had a very strong rookie season and finished in p5, only sixteen points behind jorge in p4 (who after a promising first few races had spent a lot of time that season crashing). after that, their fortunes diverged. dovi did not have a particularly happy time in the factory honda team and needed to do some shrewd negotiating to be retained by them for 2011 in that three-man squad, while jorge of course won the championship in 2010

here's a deep cut from 2011, a season where much of the excitement and drama was caused by marco simoncelli alone. jorge had exchanged tense words with sic in estoril, one race before simoncelli was responsible for a crash where dani broke his collarbone. the crash and sic's subsequent penalty meant that the three-way fight between jorge, dovi and valentino became one for the podium, with dovi and valentino eventually grabbing the two remaining spots behind casey. but during the race, jorge had executed a... questionable manoeuvre on dovi, one that did have some similarities to the sic/dani incident. given jorge's strong previous comments on racing standards, unsurprisingly the journalists pounced on this incident in the post-race presser and ask the podium sitters about it. here is the clip:

in this clip, dovi essentially says it was a dangerous move from jorge, but he wasn't sure what jorge's intent had been and he needs to watch the footage again. valentino (who had been the most outspokenly critical of sic of the three of them earlier in the presser) takes the opportunity presented to him to have a bit of a potshot at jorge. he says that dovi doesn't have the best relationship with sic but jorge had done something pretty similar in the race... at which point dovi goes "also lorenzo is not my friend"

which, you know. not exactly a major incident, but I find it very charming dovi felt the need to clarify that, actually, he doesn't like either of them. valentino also adds that by jorge's own standards, surely he too should have gotten a penalty. not exactly a meeting of jorge's biggest fans hm

(7) mapping eight-gate

well I can't leave it out, can I

so in 2017 jorge switches from yamaha to ducati and does not have a great time of it. a lot of weekends, he's just too slow, other times he shoots to the front of a race at the start (typically not great news for the rest of the field in his yamaha days) and then chews up his tyres before gradually dropping like a stone back through the field. at some point that year it became a bit of a running gag - especially when you saw he was the only big name to be picking a soft tyre and just went... buddy we ALL know how this is gonna end....

while this was happening, his teammate dovi was for the first time in his premier class career in championship contention. an extremely close title fight throughout the year with five protagonists until pretty late in the season, it eventually went to a title decider in valencia between dovi and marc. you know, the kind of year where every point counts. the race where marc put a bit of daylight between himself and dovi was phillip island, with marc winning a great dogfight out front while dovi had a bit of a horror show of a weekend. this meant that a lot would have to go right for dovi to have a chance of still winning the title... and sepang was already a match point race for marc

ducati had not won a championship since their 2007 title, courtesy of one casey stoner. after that year, their bike became steadily less competitive every season, reaching a nadir around the 2011-13-ish period. so by the time 2017 rolled around, they wanted this so so badly - even if they wouldn't have expected dovi to lead the charge. dovi had only narrowly beaten out iannone in the 'who's going to be fired for our shiny new lorenzo hire' contest of 2016, and really it was supposed to be jorge who was carrying ducati's dreams on his shoulders. but, never mind, they were throwing everything behind dovi now... no stone left unturned

which brings us, of course, to the subject of team orders. this discourse really took off at the penultimate race of the season at sepang, but was already brewing before that - and in phillip island, satellite ducati rider redding had been told early in the race to let dovi past

here from marc at sepang:

dovi had been in great form all weekend at sepang - and with his wet weather prowess being what it was, really there shouldn't have been any need for team orders at all. but he got a sluggish start, and the race unfolded from there... until eventually jorge was in first, dovi was in second and marc in fourth. in those positions, marc would have clinched the title there

and then, jorge got a message on his dashboard. suggested mapping: mapping 8. pit boards and dashboards and all sorts of boards will feature various codes during races, most of them completely innocuous - but of course they are a healthy source of all sorts of conspiracies. the timing of this one was certainly... notable, and speculation immediately started about how it might be a way of telling jorge that he should swap positions with dovi

jorge didn't end up letting dovi pass - it is questionable whether he really would have done so with what would have been his first ducati win on the line. in the end, he made a mistake that let dovi through so that dovi claimed the win anyway, keeping himself in mathematical contention in valencia. and jorge did say afterwards he was keeping dovi's title hopes in mind, kind of

jorge also said he hadn't gotten any message indicating team orders, and of course nobody at ducati confirmed that mapping eight did have anything to do with team orders

for what it's worth, this is what dovi said about their relationship at this stage:

lovely! let's see what the vibes are like a few months later

anyway, onto valencia. this race was pretty boring despite being a title decider, but the jorge/dovi bits were just unequivocally the weekend's most enjoyable aspect and rather nicely spiced up the whole thing. dovi's chances were always slim going in, given he'd have to win the race and marc would have to barely get any points at all... but still, you never know, right? marc could always crash (narrator: he did almost crash). jorge plays coy early in the weekend about the whole 'helping dovi out thing', and basically just started putting in place...? ... very specific conditions...? under which he'd help:

so during the actual race, dovi got stuck behind jorge in p5, with marc ahead of both of them. valencia is traditionally not a fantastic track to overtake at... so even if dovi had been faster, it's not like he'd have an easy time clearing jorge and cracking on. but they were beginning to drift further away from dani in p3 as ducati watched on, increasingly unamused by what was happening - and the tv cameras were of course kind enough to repeatedly show the ducati box looking deeply unamused. again, they went for the good old mapping eight message, which, hey, that could mean anything! they sure did keep showing it to jorge though, almost like he wasn't paying attention to it

eventually, they abandon all subtlety and go for a pit board message that does just straight-up tell jorge to swap positions. jorge kept ignoring the messages, lap after lap, and he never ended up letting dovi past. eventually they both crashed and marc claimed the title with a p3 finish, so it wouldn't have mattered anyway, but... still. the feeling was that this might things rather awkward inside of ducati

publicly, ducati was extremely keen to smooth over the whole controversy, saying they totally weren't mad at jorge blatantly ignoring team orders. jorge had, after all, explained to them (and the media, repeatedly) that he had totally been intending to help dovi by dragging him closer to dani

Giving his take on events, Lorenzo acknowledged that he ignored Ducati’s instruction because he felt Dovizioso’s chances would be boosted by having him directly ahead. “Even looking at this [dashboard] suggestion, I keep pushing until the end, because I knew it was the best thing for me, for Ducati and for Dovi,” said Lorenzo. “I helped him to improve his pace by one or two tenths, to be as close as possible to the first group. My intention was, and it was the case, that we arrive at the first group. If he had the option to win, I would have gone wide and let him pass. But unfortunately it was not like that. Maybe in some corners Dovi was close and I slow down a little bit his pace, but in general terms, having my wheel in front of him made him improve slightly his pace. I helped him stayed closer to the front group. “I knew Dovi was struggling, I knew his pace during all the weekend, and I knew he was making the best pace of the weekend just in the race. It was [because of the] help from my wheel. I’m happy because I was not wrong. If I was wrong and slowing him, I would be very sorry. But it’s not like that, my feeling was true.”

which, you know. is it really that easy to tell how much faster you are than someone who's sitting on your rear tyre? who's to say. dovi did certainly seem rather keen to get past

anyhow, of course there were plenty of fun dramatics post-race:

'our rider ignored team suggestions not team orders' is a great line, fairs. there's plenty more of this from ducati, some excellent spin doctoring - and dovi was extremely magnanimous about what had happened:

the whole thing was pretty undignified from all non-dovi parties, but it was also very funny so who's to say if it was bad or not

(8) runner-up-gate

let's check in on them in 2018, the second and ultimately last year in which they were teammates. remember that 'undermining morale' quote from above? those are from early 2018, after dovi says he wouldn't be surprised to see jorge elsewhere the following season. so, once jorge has complained that dovi had been trying to put him down his entire career, comes this:

so that's something. jorge, dovi and dani have a three-in-one crash in jerez, after which some fingers are pointed but it all remains fairly civil, and a bit later dovi says that jorge's approach doesn't work at ducati:

by the summer break, jorge's results had gotten better, but it was already too late to save the relationship with ducati and they parted ways. anyway, here's dovi and jorge having another go at it:

And while a rough patch for Dovizioso coupled with breakthrough back-to-back wins for Lorenzo in Mugello and Barcelona have now left the pair just three points apart in the standings, Dovizioso refused to back down from his claim when speaking to Spanish sports daily Marca ahead of the upcoming Brno race. “He’s won two races,” Dovizioso said. “Winning two races does not solve the problem of a year and a half. Lorenzo was not signed to win two races. Therefore I do not change my mind.” When the comments were put to Lorenzo, the three-time champion offered an ardent retort, stating that Dovizioso's rhetoric was proof of the claim he'd made back in April. “I'm a bit fed up with this situation, mainly because when I had trouble and he was winning, I was down there applauding,” Lorenzo told Spanish broadcaster Movistar. “What I said in Argentina - and the comments caused a big surprise - you can see that I was right. “He tried to undermine me, or downplay what I achieve or just attack me. As you can see, I wasn't lying. He's still doing it and now he says my method is not good, according to him.” Lorenzo intimated that Dovizioso was in no position to criticise him, as the Italian could do no better than runner-up to Marc Marquez in a 'perfect' 2017 season. He said: “I think my method has not worked too bad in my career. I've won three MotoGP titles and have 46 wins.” “In my second year in Ducati I'm usually faster than him, but maybe I should look at his method closer if in his best season, with everything going perfectly, he was second. Otherwise he's fourth or seventh usually. I'd tell him to leave me to go my way and to focus on his own and everything will be better, because when you have an angry Lorenzo it's usually worse for you.”

fair to say that by this point the pretence at civility has mostly been dropped. I'm rather fond of the "lorenzo was not signed to win two races" line, though "when you have an angry lorenzo it's usually worse for you" is also really strong stuff. dovi tries to restore a little bit of peace:

Responding in turn to Lorenzo's tirade, Dovizioso sought to play down the conflict. “Jorge has his ideas and I think they are based on particular things. I don't think like him, but it's not a problem,” he told Movistar. “Everybody creates their own ideas based on what they see and how they live. “I don't think he has everything clear in his head about what's happened, but we continue the relationship that we started last year with respect, there's no particular problem. If he thinks this way, that's his problem."

so basically the classic 'idk what he's on about but it's not my problem' approach to attempting to defuse feuds

(9) twitter-gate

there's a few more on-track battles where it's nicely obvious how badly they want to beat each other, with jorge beating marc just ahead of dovi in austria and then dovi beating jorge in brno. jorge's season is increasingly derailed by injuries, which sets the stage for their next big spat:

The row was sparked by Dovizioso's comments to Sky Italia after qualifying at Sepang on Saturday, as he was asked what he thought of Lorenzo having to pull out of the Malaysian GP weekend with injury. "I don't know the details, I don't want to get into this, it's a bit of a strange situation," said Dovizioso."It happens often in Ducati or to certain riders, but I don't understand the details and I don't want to get into it and give my opinion." When it was put to him he was offering 'cryptic words', he added: "I leave things there, it's not my problem."

pretty vague, yeah. but anyway, I'm sure jorge had a proportionate response to this

Dovizioso's comments prompted a series of irate posts from Lorenzo on Twitter, with his first reaction being "Thank you very much @AndreaDovizioso! You are a real gentleman!". In his next post, he went on to call Dovizioso "an exemplary teammate", adding: "You applaud him under the podium when he wins and then... (That's right, he does not give his opinion, it's not his problem)." After that, Lorenzo labelled Dovizioso "envious" and described him as "a world champion... in 125cc."

the podium thing really bothered him, don't you think. their ducati in-fighting follows that general pattern where dovi says something... a little shady, a little ambiguous, where his intentions aren't entirely obvious... at which point jorge goes all in at fighting back and has a go at dovi - often not as much for what dovi is actually saying, but what jorge thinks dovi is implying. which is based on his understanding of dovi, the image of dovi he's built up in his head over the years, so that he is... predisposed to think ill of the intentions of the 'intelligent' dovi who always knows exactly what he's saying

again, dovi tried to downplay the argument, while simultaneously not exhibiting much patience for jorge's stance:

After the Malaysian GP, Dovizioso was asked about Lorenzo's responses to his comments, and the Italian accused his teammate of reading too much into headlines. He said: “Why should I talk to Lorenzo? I do not waste time on these things. He makes the usual mistake of giving too much importance to what is written, even without the context. "I have not pointed my finger at anyone and I have no problem with Jorge."

if I were ducati, I probably would've let the whole thing blow over given jorge was off soon anyway. but they decided the whole thing was so bad they had to organise a peace summit

Asked about the situation, Ducati sporting director Paolo Ciabatti admitted to Motorsport.com that the Bologna marque has already planned to sit its two riders on Tuesday in Milan to make it clear what its priorities are. Ciabatti said: “It is clear that the interests of Ducati come before personal problems between riders. On Tuesday we will be together in Milan, for the EICMA [motorcycle show] and we have in mind to spend half an hour to sit and talk to Jorge and Andrea. "We want to avoid similar things to what happened last weekend. "I understand that these kinds of situations can happen. Sometimes riders get nervous during a Grand Prix weekend and on a rainy day, with tricky conditions, sometimes they say things they shouldn’t have said."

god knows how that turned out

(10) wow, you guys aren't gonna let this go, huh

late 2020 and jorge's career is already over, while dovi's looks like it will be... paused, at the very least. which is always a good time to check in with riders on how they feel about their rivals - if they're still being nasty you know that shit was personal. from december:

some quality petty material here. "I can't understand his somewhat peculiar mind" vs "he was envious of me since 250cc, but I wanted to give our relationship a chance". note too jorge talking again about how generous he had been in the face of dovi's 2017 successes, and how he feels like this was not reciprocated at all. jorge's complaints don't stop there:

merry christmas!

not the only rider jorge has beefed with post-retirement, but compare and contrast with how he really hasn't been doing any of that with some of his biggest career rivals. valentino, marc, dani - sure, he still talks about the controversies he's had with them pretty regularly (to put it lightly), and he's hardly free of complaints... but mostly it's a distinctly nostalgic tone he's adopting with these guys. admittedly, it helps that none of those three have gone out of their way to say anything particularly inflammatory about jorge. still, the absolute lack of any sort of rapprochement with dovi of all people is pretty funny

bonus: that time when jorge skittled all of marc's rivals

you know how in catalunya 2019, jorge took out like? all of marc's major rivals in that era including himself in one go? with half a decade of hindsight, this was kind of hilarious, and it did also feature jorge having to eat a hell of a lot of humble pie and go to the three other blokes to apologise. anyway I have a lovingly assembled set of screenshots of all three of them emoting in their boxes after the incident, all suffering some form of an existential crisis. here is dovi contemplating the bleak realities of our brief lives on this planet:

truly one of the world's least enthusiastic waves

bonus 2: another one for old time's sake

already posted this elsewhere, but this from late 2023 made me laugh

"jorge came to ducati and thought he was going to beat everything, but in the end he didn't" uh huh

#also thank you!! that's really nice #valentino is absolutely SHAMELESS in that clip i'm crying... saw some low hanging fruit and took a chainsaw to the entire tree #laughs a bit TOO much at that dovi line. a little restraint I beg #andrea dovizioso #brr brr #//#ad4 #morale tag #batsplat responds #very lazy post sorry but i just wanted to do something fast... i do think they're more interesting than just a list of drama #real lack of mutual respect... how little they get each other... also jorge's side of that 250cc rivalry is sooooo...#currently still cooking up that jorge/valentino post which means i'm obviously revisiting my jorge primary sources #and the way valentino and dovi get described in particular is... hm how to describe this... this isn't just a sports thing but -#- especially in sports and especially at juniors level you come across a lot of people who act like they're constantly on camera #jorge at that age has extreme sports film syndrome. his entire team also has sports film syndrome. the author has sports film syndrome #they're constantly trying to write character arcs for him. 'like a superhero after his darkest hour' that kinda thing #and that also means other riders sometimes get this treatment where you're a bit? this doesn't feel... completely in touch with reality #dovi's The First Rival who's there to help jorge grow... it's quite tricky to explain because you can't point to anything SPECIFIC #it's just tones and vibes really lmao #anyway my point is I do have Takes on this dynamic but for now. here is just a random assortment of stuff with a lil bit of context #I do love it when you have a kind of primary text for these riders. they're all COMPLETELY different #all with quite funny editorial choices that sometimes tell you as much about the blokes as the actual text itself #fwiw the jorge one was the one where i had the most moments of 'hm i'm not sure it happened quite like that but continue'

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speedane · 1 year ago

Text

A Hidden Monster

Main Character: Leon (Vali) Supporting Casts: Hailey (Hephaestus), Hall (Hodur), Q (Eros) (Phanes version by @murkyike ) Very Minor Appearance/Mention: Drew (Anubis), Long Mian (Ao Bing), Bonnie (Eris)

Number of Words: 3,188

Tags: Occasional swearing, few thrilling scenes (in a horror kind of way), slight implication of (almost) pulling Leon's eye off as well as cannibalism

Summary: Leon, still dumbfounded that he wasn't able to kill off Q, decides to do a little research with Hailey. What answer lies within the pages of the books? Will he find the answer that he was looking for, or is his mind playing tricks on him?

I am so sorry if this is gonna be too much for anybody, I tried giving the most appropriate of warnings!!

____________________________________________________________

Silence fills the air, shelves left and right. The smell of old books fills the air as Leon rummages through the pile of books on the table. Hailey, who is currently climbing down the ladder behind him, glances at him with a puzzled look.

“Do you really need to learn about every single love god there is in existence?” She steps down the ladder with a stack of books in hand and paces towards the table where Leon is. “Like, seriously, you can’t just be reading ALL of these for the rest of the weekend?”

The inventor lazily dumps all the books before sitting beside the sniper, who seem to be setting aside any book that does not interest him. He seems to only scan the contents of each book, as if looking for a needle in a haystack. “Not all of them,” Leon replied. “I’m only searching for one.”

“Oh~?” Hailey places a leg on top of another, while leaning her torso towards the table with an arm resting on one of the smaller book stacks. “Do tell me Mr. Stoneface, which one of these could possibly fancy that eye of yours?” She asks with a rather sarcastic tone in her words.

With her free hand, Hailey picks up a random book with a rather interesting cover. “Eros and Psyche…” She pouts, scrutinizing the imagery of a winged man with a fair lady in his arms. Judging by the art, the two people looked like lovers. It’s sweet, maybe too sweet for her liking. “Eh, sounds cheesy.”

As if by reflexes Leon’s head perks up and immediately grabs the book from the inventor’s hand. “I’ll take that.”

Her eyes widened. “Eh?? That one??” Hailey stares at Leon with disgust. “Don’t tell me you’re into those soft... mushy, sickening love stories??” Her stomach churns, feeling like throwing up. Fortunately for the dusty old books in the Decree’s archives, they won’t get soiled today. The fiery-haired woman places a hand over her mouth, no longer looking at the sniper. “The more I learn about you, the less I want to…”

“It’s not like that,” Leon replied nonchalantly, his eyes on the person next to him. “It’s just research… for my target.”

“Your target?” She blinks. “Oh.”

“What?”

“I thought you’re looking for love stories to woo someone…” the inventor waves her hand around as she continues. “Liiiike we barely even talk and then boom! You asked me to help you with this love god research of yours!”

The sniper only blinks.

“What I’m saying is that… isn’t this all too… convenient?” Hailey moves her hand back and forth towards the man with her palm upwards. “You? Me? Alone in this empty archive? If this was about research then an advanced notice would’ve been nice.”

Leon only sighs. “First of all, I am not trying to shoot my shot at you.” He pinches the bridge of his nose, perplexed. “Second, you were the only one here to help me.” Lowering his hand, he faces her again.

“Aw dang, where’s that big bad wolf you’re always with?”

“In the training room, amusing himself.”

“And that Hall guy?”

“Not every book on the shelves is written in Braille.”

“Riiiiiiiight so you’re now stuck with me, I get it now.”

Haily starts shuffling through books. “So, books about Eros, huh?” Lifting a hardbound book, she squints. “He’s the target?”

“His esper,” were the only words he said.

“Huh…” The inventor chooses another book and opens the table of contents. “I think I know who you’re talking about…” Slowly, her finger slides through the titles, tapping on the very topic that grabs her attention. She starts flipping the pages. “Very popular internet guy, looks like a ball of cotton candy… got beef with him?”

The sniper only stays silent, his eyes fixated on the story book in his hand.

Hailey managed to locate the chapter that she is looking for regardless. “Thought so… oh!” Her eyes went left and right. “Eros, son of Aphrodite… Personification of Love… can forcefully bind two people into a relationship.” Squinting, she reads further. “I don’t get it, what’s so special about him? Sounds like just any other love god would do.” Soon after, she let out a big gasp. “Oh no! Don’t tell me… he made you kiss a fire hydrant!”

Ignoring the inventor’s boisterous laughter, Leon continues reading the story. Glued on the edge of his seat, locked on the words in the book. He is dead set to learn about the little flying baby that miraculously survived his bullet. When did he see his hiding spot? How did he survive? What makes him tick?

The young woman peers into the book. She sees a beautifully-illustrated picture book with words large enough for even her to read. “Huh, isn’t the Shadow Decree too old for these kinds of books?” Regardless, she bends closer. “Looks gorgeous though. So that Psyche girl was supposed to be sacrificed to a horrendous winged serpent!”

“Read your own books,” Leon coldly responds without even looking at her.

“Fine, fine, geez…” The fiery-haired woman slumps back to her seat, grabbing another book to read. “And when I was finally getting interested in that cheesy love story too… hmph.”

The sniper flips page after page, but he is more interested in finding weaknesses of his opponent than learning the story. As minutes passed on, he finally closed the book shut. His eyelids are drooping, his back sore… and yet he did not find what he was looking for. The person at the seat next to him notices his tired look on his face.

“You were so focused on that one story book.” She smirks. “Found anything?”

“I found no weak points…” Leon yawns. “It was just… a love story…” he groggily rubs his eye, resting his bust on the table.

Hailey notices his exhaustion and shakes her head. “You know what, we’ve been doing this for hours now. The books may have bored you to sleep.” She stands up and walks towards the door. “If you need me, I’ll be getting some snacks.”

The sniper did not reply. With the inventor out of the scene, there is no stopping him from closing his eyes and entering into a deep sleep…

As his world fades to black, he feels at peace. No distractions, no responsibilities, no worries. He even almost forgot what he was doing a while ago…

“LEON!!”

Hailey’s sudden yelling woke him up unceremoniously. His head is in pain, his vision rather blurry. He could not make out from his surroundings, but he could tell that Hailey had entered the room and was in a hurry.

Walking down the hallway, the pair notices more henchmen passing through them. Leon suddenly gets a feeling of uneasiness… like something worse is happening outside his view. Walking further, he finally sees Hall standing in the middle of all this. The two of them stop to meet him.

“Leon, you got a new assignment, and they looked like they urgently needed your help out there!”

The sniper rubs his temple sighing, looking annoyed. “Figures.” Standing up, he grabs his saxophone and heads out with Hailey.

“Hall, why are they sending more people out there,” Leon asks.

“From what I heard, there is a hostile entity steadily approaching our base…” Hall faces the two with worry. “We need more manpower before it reaches here.”

Hailey scratches her head. “Sounds like a tough cookie… is it some sort of a miramon?”

The blind archer shakes his head. “Reports say it’s an esper. The last thing I heard was that Bonnie returned here with minor injuries, and Long Mian is stalling.”

The inventor whistles. “Did the Esper Union have a secret weapon or something? Pretty bold of them to send a single guy our way if it’s really them!”

“No time for chitchat, I’ve heard enough.” Leon cuts the conversation off and switches his saxophone into the sniper rifle he always used. “Do what needs to be done.”

Hailey separates herself from the group, taking the route to where the labs are. Leon is now paired with Hall and heads to the exit. Outside was starting to get chaotic. Various men scrambled around, preparing for a possible onslaught. Whoever this ‘hostile entity’ is is becoming a serious issue for the Decree.

The sniper turns to Hall. “You stay here and guard this entrance.”

Hall gives him a troubled look. “But what about you?”

Leon lowers his hood and turns around. “I’ll be at the sniper tower where I can see what’s really going on out there.”

Without a word, he left in a hurry, with Hall standing still by the entrance. For a sniper, the tower would be the most tactical place for him to maneuver both offensively and defensively… but it would also be the loneliest place for him.

No subordinates. No partners. Just him, his rifle, and the vast outskirts of the ruins that was once Hazlitt.

Now in position, Leon looks at the barren wasteland through the sniper scope. He scans through the area, now currently quiet. Too quiet. “Odd… did Long Mian manage to subdue the target..?

Before he could lower his rifle, he spotted a pink light towards his direction.

“What-”

And just like that, it hit him in a flash of pink sparkles, sending him on the floor with a thud. The laser temporarily made him blind, his vision only filled with a bright hot rosy color. The man winces in pain as white noise fills his ears and dizziness hits his head like banging pots and pans. He groans, but nobody could hear him. What in the world is happening in the base without him? He’s just there, laying down. Helpless.

“Leon!!”

“... Hall?”

He opened his eyes. Vision was suddenly clear as day. He heard Hall’s voice from far away. The sniper slowly stands up, struggling to keep his balance at first.

“Hall? Hall!!”

But nobody answered back.

“...”

The sudden silence made his chest feel tight. Now regaining his full senses, the sniper immediately jumped off the tower without a second thought, landing on one foot before tumbling down. By the time he looked up again, he knew immediately that there was something horribly wrong…

The entire lot that was full of chaos before is now barren. Not a single voice can be heard from any direction. What happened to everyone?

“...”

Leon paces as he scans the area. Still nothing, except for the burn marks on the concrete. The red-haired man kneels down and lightly touches the marks. Warm to the touch, as if freshly-made. Getting up again, he heads to where the entrance is. Hall was not there.

“Where did you go..?”

He gazes into the hallway within. It’s just as eerily quiet as the outside. He decides to enter in high alert, with the rifle pointing ahead, careful not to make a sound with every step. Lights above his head flicker as he moves further down the path, his heart pounding louder the deeper he gets. When he reaches the intersection point, he stops. Soon after, all lights flicker and fail except the one on top of him. Everything beyond the light turned pitch black.

Within the darkness, the sound of a slithering snake can be faintly heard. Leon quickly aims at the hallway passage on his left. As always, there was nothing… but the sniper knows he’s not alone anymore.

“I can hear you…” He aims at another hallway. “Show yourself.”

All silence. Leon is quickly losing his patience.

“I have no time for games..!”

And there he hears the same hissing from a minute ago. A honeyed voice speaks from behind him.

“How delightful it is to see you.. Leon.”

In a flash, the red-haired sniper swiftly points the rifle from the source of the voice and makes the first shot. The sound of movement is noticeable after the attack despite the deep darkness, which he took advantage of in making out his opponent’s next move.

“Don’t hide from me…”

He makes his second shot. This time he hears the hissing of a snake.

Then his third. Wings flapping can be heard almost immediately.

“This bitch can fly-”

A slither on his top right. A shot fires again. A hard landing to his rear. And another shot resounds into the void. No matter how many shots he throws at it, the thing doesn’t seem to go down. The mix of adrenaline, frustration, and fear makes his heart pound faster than he ever felt for years. He’s a cornered rat.

“Your heart is beating so loud…” The voice became more venomous.

It finally makes its first move and flicks its reptilian tail towards Leon, disarming him in the same process. He let out a wince and tumbles down to the cold hard floor. He sees his rifle beside him, but as he turns and reaches for it, the tail has already coiled around his body and pulls him up in the air. Now binded, the man is now helpless in cold sweat.

“Let.. Let me go..!”

He attempts to wiggle out. However, it was of no use.

His opponent lets out a soft chuckle. “Resistance is futile, you know.”

The last remaining light starts to fail, and eventually leaves Leon devoid of light. He could still feel the tail that constricts him, and it only gets tighter. Almost choking.

“Who.. are you..?”

“You still haven’t figured it out? Poor you~”

Leon senses that his shoulders are being held with soft, human hands. The sharp nails poking on the fabric of his hood doesn’t make this fact relieving though. But he could still feel it in his skin. And it’s really unnerving.

In front of him has two purple eyes flashing right at his face, their slit pupils piercing into his soul. The voice becomes more distorted.

“I thought you did your research?”

“You..”

The once dim area gradually gets illuminated by a bright golden light, showing the wings of his assailant, and his true nature.

“Or have you already forgotten about me?”

“Tch… I should’ve known it was you…”

Lo and behold, the one who’s been attacking the Shadow Decree all this time is none other than his target… or what he thinks to be.

Unlike the usual youthful appearance of the cupid, the one that stands in front of him is much taller. And much more menacing.

“Ding dong!”

“What did you do to them? What did you do to Hall..?!”

‘Q’ gives him an eerie smile, showing both of his sharp fangs. “Oh trust me… you don’t wanna know.”

The red-haired man grits his teeth. “Is this what you’ve been hiding from me? Is this how you survived… my bullet?”

The other esper lets go of one hand and cutely pokes his own cheek with a matching head tilt. “Oh no, it’s no secret~”

With the same finger, he lightly pokes his nose. “You’ve read this, remember?” The man pulls the other closer to his eyes. “Or should I say, your lady friend?”

“H-Hailey…”

Three words resounding within his mind. Words he didn’t know were relevant until now: Horrendous. Winged. Serpent.

The snake tail, the sharp fangs, the feathery golden wings, and those monstrous eyes… It all makes sense now. This is no longer the small annoying target that Leon knows of. This is a threat of a high caliber, a threat that manifested from his inner fears, a threat he couldn’t kill.

The constricting tail continues to choke the sniper, and sooner or later he’s going to run out of air to breathe. Yet, he could do nothing but watch as the winged serpent in front of him gets amusement from his suffering. At this very moment, he’d pretty much rather be dead than having to look at his deceptively sweet face.

“Go on… kill me already-”

“Oh, not yet…”

Both of their eyes are locked on each other, and nobody would want to let go. Pure, visceral rage fills Leon’s heart as ‘Q’ stares at him mockingly. His arms are still binded, his feet frozen, and his breaths becoming shorter.

“You know, I’m feeling quite peckish right now…” The wings on the serpent’s head flutter lightly, happy thoughts in mind. “I was thinking of getting something sweet!”

Leon could feel one of this monster’s fingers gently brushing on his freckled face, like a little plaything.

“You know what your red hair and speckled cheeks remind me of?”

He leans closer to his ear and lets out a whisper.

“Strawberriiieeesssss…”

A soft gasp can be heard from the hooded man. There is no way this beast is thinking of what’s in his head right now… but the heavens are finally merciful enough to give him an answer as one of his clawed hands starts creeping into one of his eyes.

“I was thinking… hmmm… strawberry tarts.”

Leon wants to look away. But he can’t. The man’s body is unresponsive, like a plant. Not even a sound escapes from his mouth, not a tear from his eyes. He’s facing his death, and he can’t do anything about it… With no time to waste, the hand grabs his face and he lets out a loud, painful scream.

The next thing he knew, he could hear books dropping on the floor, and his eyes could finally see the light of the archives again. A familiar voice speaks.

“Aw man, I was about to make it to five stacks!”

He finds himself back at the same table he was sleeping on, with sweat on his face and a messy set of red hair. Nothing binding his body, no hands grabbing his face. He is where he was before everything started… or did he even leave at all?

“Am I back…?” The man stares into nothing as Hailey starts picking up the books that fell with his rude awakening.

“Back? Pff, you’ve been sleeping for an hour and a half!” The young woman places the books on the table and grabs her phone that has been opened for a while. “Anyway, while you’re asleep, I started doing my own research as well.”

She puts the screen directly at Leon’s face that currently shows a livestream of a flying baby and a butler jackal.

“You can put your preferred fruit on top of the tarts. Make sure that they are fresh and delectable to eat.”

“I want mine with strawberries!!”

Strawberries… strawberries. The word echoes in his head, bringing him back to that very moment in his nightmare. The inventor only laughs at the seemingly innocent scene of a small boy putting strawberries on his tarts, unaware of the ordeal that he had to endure in his sleep.

“You know, for a target, he’s such a comedian! Goofy-ass motherfucker.”

“I’ll get some milk…”

With no words left to say, Leon gets up from his seat and leaves the archives. Hailey’s eyes shifted from the door that he went through, to the pile of books left on the table, and back to the door with an unamused look.

“I am NOT cleaning this up.”

#jee writes #dislyte #leon dislyte #hailey dislyte #q dislyte #hall dislyte #second dislyte fic in and it's 3k words I am so sorry for that #also yes I wrote a leon fic #TOOK ME A LOT OF RESTRAINT WHILE WRITING THIS #cause I had to make sure that this is a Leon fic #not a Q fic #LMAO #dislyte fanfiction #fanfiction #shoutout to Murky for allowing me to writing about his blorbo

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