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#what lightning though
aroaceleovaldez · 7 months
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chewing on big 3 kids being capable of absolutely devastating natural disasters and apocalypse-level outbursts of power.
Percy who creates hurricanes complete with lightning that pummel titans and flooding and whirlpools that can trap god-powered crocodile kaijus. Earthquakes that erupt volcanoes. Hazel who sunk an entire small island entirely on her own with her final breath, against giants and a primordial goddess of the earth.
If Nico dramatically wilts plants and cracks the ground when he's mildly stressed, and disintegrates enemies down to their skeletons with a single touch or rips their souls out of their still-living bodies, and can command armies of the undead, what happens if he tries to cause destruction? Even outside of total zombie apocalypse or insta-killing a crowd, he's shown enough geokinesis to absolutely be capable of the same destruction Percy and Hazel can manifest.
What about Jason? He can control the winds and storms. There's no way he can't create the most destructive tornadoes with casual effort that he can never justify using for the collateral damage they'd cause. With a single thought he can rip up a town and launch the remnants 50 miles out. (Jason in the center of a Dead Man Walking tornado, vortexes responding to his movements like an avatar...)
And what can anyone do to combat it? How can you fight the wind lifting everything you know and love into the sky, or floods sweeping you away, or the ground giving way beneath you? The Big 3 kids are scary because they are forces of nature, and their whims are the only thing preventing you from witnessing that at any given moment.
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unknownsigils · 9 months
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living in obscurity
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orcelito · 10 months
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showing off the commission i got from @ruporas for my fic, In the Next Life!
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i'm still so incredibly excited about this. it's been some months since the story event that caused these scars, but i wanted SO BADLY to be able to see what they'd actually Look like... & Here They Are.
ruporas rendered the scars So Well, i just cant stop Looking at them... there's a Fresh & a Healed version, which ruporas was kind enough to give me without additional charge (Thank U Again😭😭) so i get to see what it looks like at different stages.
Lichtenberg Figures. in terms of actual scarring, lightning strikes that people survive don't tend to leave permanent scars, but the lichtenberg figures that they (usually temporarily) leave behind are just So Cool... Now, what happens when you get someone who can survive an amount of electricity/lightning that would be Frankly Lethal to any normal human person?
This :]
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eternal-learner · 2 months
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The Collector (2009) dir. Marcus Dunstan
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triglycercule · 24 days
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wahhh wahhh triglycercule post more NON jk fashion au related content i whisper as i post this. double post today because i genuinely love jk!dream and also if i dont post the dreamtale twins together i will actually die! you might consider her crazy way of somehow getting into trouble a form of bad luck but i see it as more of a being too pure for the world meeting a world that's not all that great. jk!dream lives up to her name she is a idyllic dream
valedictorian. practically a million extra curriculars. she can sing she can dance she can cook she can do advanced math she can fix a car jk!dream is everything jk!nightmare isn't (a loser). the types of trouble she gets into though aren't manmade (like some guy trying to rob her) but instead are naturally occurring. like one day the dreamtale household washing machine explodes because dream used it and coincidentally it was because it was faulty or something like that. really really crazy coincidences
nightmare is a fighting force in keeping her little sister alive i swear to god. she has to monitor dream a lot and when she can't she gets one of the mtt to do it for her. because if she doesn't there is bound to be something that hurts her. and because jk!nightmare is an absolute fucking loser who's stupid she came up with the genius idea of roleplaying a bigger issue than the one that dream's about to encounter (because then she gets to keep her safe and also feed into her pretend villian persona). like for example with the washing machine thing earlier nightmare would probably distract dream with some sort of evil monologue and then put her own load in the washer before she could. that way it won't FUCKING EXPLODE (comments from currently existing jk fashion au sanses :3)
"ah, my younger kin, dream. quite an enigma she is. on one hand, she's the epitome of perfection. even i can admit that, for she's loved by our school, family, and i. but of course, like all aside from i, she has her faults."
"for example, last week, our bloodline was strolling around the kingdom on the search for a new mirror of truth, as the one in our castle bathhouse had shattered. how did that happen? uh, i might've maybe... i shall maintain secrecy."
"returning to the point, dearest dream had almost lost herself in the shopping district, claiming she had seen a lost puppy in a mirror that she wanted to help. a chivalrous reason indeed, but my, dream can be quite... foolish sometimes. nevertheless, blood is thicker than water, and our bond has never been closer."
they still love eachother in this universe because there was no corruption thing. also nightmare's bullies were just other elementary school kids in this au so it wasn't like fully grown adults vs a 6 year old at least. she's recovered from it (somewhat) and doesn't blame dream. dream's too perfect for anybody to hate her. dream supports nightmare's delusion and nightmare keeps her alive. equivalent exchange (dream has no idea nm is doing this. ok now the mtt‼️
"oh. my. god. dream? like, dream dream? she's literally my idol, i love her so much! i'm the 7th member of her fanclub out of like, the entire school, which is like 300-ish students! she's cute, and pretty, and she gets this a lot, but her voice is literally like an angel's~ i've never heard what a hymn sounds like, but it probably sounds like dream's voice. and no matter how much i search up online, i can never find any dirt on her too! she's got a perfect online footprint! huh? why was i searching dream up? eh... haha... let's move on~"
"dream? she's really cool. there's a reason she's part of the star students at this school, along with swap and ink. nobody really knows what it takes for someone to become a "star student" though. none of the students know, none of the teachers either. apparently it's a title given to a student specifically from the principal? still, dream probably deserves it though. she's good enough to win a nobel prize. one day she's gonna cure cancer or something."
"oh, dream? that girl with the angel halo crown thing? yeah, i know her. she volunteers at the dog park i bring my dog to, the bakery i go to get snacks, the local art museum, the ice cream shop during summers, nightmare's gang, the... car dealership? wait, hold on. how many volunteer opportunities is this girl doing? is she not getting paid? that has to be illegal. or at least some form of monster rights violation..."
both of the jk!au dreamtale twins are soooo silly i love them. the more and more i elaborate on jk fashion au the more i realize that this is just turning into sans aus but anime tropes but its okay i like it its funny. jk fashion au was always meant to be silly and slice of life and fluffy anyways. anyways i love her i'm literally her number one fan. i mean i AM the principal of this school aftersll,,,,,, this really was our,,, jk fahsion au. says dream at the end of the au (there is no end because this au has no lore what am i talking about
#i love coming up with dumb ideas for the jk fashion au its SO FUN#originally this started because i was like. huh. no nightmare corruption event (i mean jk!nightmare's corrupted but not in THAT way)#so i cant keep the canon personality that dream has. but wait. young dream. naive dream#and so thats what i did. dream's a naive gullible selfless chivalrous dumbdumb#but i was like ughhh it would be funny if i made her cool and amazing to go against jk!nightmare's embarrassing delusion#so thats how i got here. the sparkles surrounding her ARE an aura of sorts#she's just so perfect she LITERALLY sparkles#i was GIGGLING drawing dream watching a fucking WORM in awe. GIRL ITS A WORM#shes probably thinking omg life is so beautiful and wonderful and even this worm can find something to live for even if its to exist#and then she leaves the worm and a thunderstorm begins#jk!nightmare is DESPERATELY calling her to get home because she knows dream's gonna get struck by lightning soon#the world hates her but she loves the world. the WORLD. not monsterkind. EARTH hates her#shes actually so cute though wtf. all the jk au designs are. jk fashion is naturally cute#i love the little angel wings i gave her crown. that way the crown can be a halo and she has the wings to go with it#and the HANDS the FINGERS i gave her on that second little doodle........#girl i know youre fictional but youre my age and way out of my league so lets work something out here#laughing now i just imagined dresm getting swept up into a tornado and she's just appreciating earth's suddenness#dream sans#nightmare sans#killer sans#dust sans#horror sans#murder time trio#bad sanses#bad sans gang#nightmare's gang#utmv#sans au#tricule art#jk fashion au
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i am so ready for persassius jackson in the form of walker scobell
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roe-and-memory · 5 months
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the off season can get boring.
lightning hates being bored.
it’s sort of like his own personal hell, and on those chilly winter days when theres not a flake of snow but you can feel it in the air, he wishes he was still able to run late model races like he did before the piston cup. back then, he could still find a track running races in a little bit of chilly weather and he could get out and do some laps, but the piston cup doesnt work like that - they dont run in the winter, FOUR MONTHS of sitting around doing nothing until the fireball 500, and it drives him mad.
he Needs to be moving, and running around isnt what hes talking about. he needs to be in the dirt, driving at 200 mph like his life depends on it, winning something, competing in something…
doc is quick to pick up on this restlessness. you cant just live in the same house as a teenager and not feel the tension in the air when he gets told he needs to take a break. and, because lightning is his kid and he knows him better than anyone, he knows EXACTLY what lightning is longing for.
its cold, the sun is barely above the mountains of cadillac range, and lightning is sitting on the front porch in his rusteze racing jacket playing with that stupid gas station lighter that never seems to run out of fluid. doc steps out onto the porch, car keys in one hand, crutch around his opposite forearm. hes a man with a plan to get this restless kid some racing time.
kingman raceway isnt too far, maybe two hours, and doc is well aware of the schedule that lizzie plasters on her window every winter when the spokesman for the track pops into town to drop off flyers. today is a sprint race, and if hes not gonna sign lightning up to do SOMETHING then he’d be the worst father in the world.
he doesnt have a sprint car, but doc happens to know a guy, and everything is already set up. he gets lightning in the car and theyre on their way to kingman - the 19 year old in his ear the whole way asking him “where are we going?” “please tell me its not an interview, i’ll lose my mind, doc.”
“just wait.” is all he can say.
lightning raced stock and late models, not sprint, and doc can feel the slight disappointment when they pull into the track and the peculiar looking sprint cars are sitting on trailers or parked outside the garage door of the shop.
they get out and stretch before doc leads him to the ticket booth, where they’re greeted by a kind older woman, who seemingly recognizes him and ushers the two to the garage.
lightning is confused. what is even happening right now? doc is striking up conversation with some random guy and lightning is left wandering, looking around, watching the mechanics and tense drivers work away on their cars..
then, a waiver and a pen are shoved into his hands, and doc stands there with a sly grin. “you wanted to race, didnt you?”
“well, yeah. i dont know how to drive a sprint car though.”
“trust me, kiddo, you’ll get it”
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purble-gaymer · 11 months
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more gsa family (+refs)
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i-wanna-show-you-off · 8 months
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tdroti except when Scott gets eliminated he does not take it well. He doesn’t go “oh haha Zoey good job” no. He breaks down in front of Chris when he gets to the catapult (bc he sees fang or whatever) and begs him to let him stay
he’s like “PLEA SE DONT MAKE ME GO HOME” and Chris is like “wtf” and chef just looks mildly uncomfortable
chef’s like “I kind of feel bad even though he’s awful” and Chris is like “I have to send him home I have to get my revenge”
the other contestants hear him bawling from the campfire or whatever and they all just sit there in silence
then lightning nervously smiles and goes “do you think maybe he’s a little sad”
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seth-burroughs · 9 months
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I think we as a fandom don't talk enough about how Seth:
Took bribes from the Nail Man, a serial killer in exchange for allowing him to keep murdering people -- said killer ended up killing 3 people (while they were 4 victims, one of them belonged to the copycat) in the span of 6 months(?). But I'm able to excuse everything the Priest has done, free my man, however...
It was rather strongly implied he (and the other peacekeepers affiliated) had a hand in the whole "Jiei being called to the Clocktower for a quote unquote emergency" trap, picking an innocent man to frame as the Nail Man and either put him on death row or in prison for life, so they could sweep the case under the rug and be done with it.
EXCEPT. After his arrest, he says this: "To speed this case along, we need to quickly deal with that Nail Man we arrested. We should even consider... a public execution."
WHAT are saying
In what time are we living. Is this the medieval ages. Is this the 1400s. This has to be one of the most barbaric sentences I heard a peacekeeper say in Master Detective Archives: Rain Code by Spike Chunsoft. Can he even do that? Would Yomi allow this
He just picked a random man, and didn't even want to lethal injection him privately, he was preparing the damn scaffold so that he could subject the whole district to his legendary beef with that guy in particular, because fuck him I guess. Was that personal? Did Jiei drive his mother of a cliff before the story and this is his carefully planned revenge after decades of suffering in silence
There was LITERALLY NO REASON for him to do this. It was not securing his Evil Plan, not anymore convenient than a private execution, or anything. It was simply Seth's whimsical urge of getting to fulfill his Monokuma fantasy after all these years of severe disrespect
Conclusion: that guy was OUT for BLOOD the sheer MALICE evident in his gay little eyes easily matches Yomi Hellsmile and they should fight to the death for the title of Kanai Ward's Top Cunt
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lizzardwitch · 3 months
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Top 3 Kendall Ships?
Ooooof I've got a lot to say let's go
3rd Place: Kendall/Ivan. Definitely not helped by the fact that I crushed heavy on Ivan (still do) when I was a kid & and that I just as heavily related with Kendall then as I do now. It's so adorable how Kendall always looks to Ivan whenever shit is going down and he tries to make her feel better, the entire episode where he destroys the suit of armor and IMMEDIATELY upon clocking how terrible the situation is, tries to do something about it because he doesn't want to make her upset especially is too fucking cute. They're like a subversion of the princess/knight dynamic, instead of insisting that Kendall be his damsel in distress, Ivan adores her just the way she is. The way he's constantly calling her "m'lady" (even though he does this with every girl) has me weak every time. In the Halloween episode where they were skipping together in their costumes <333. Their height difference is also adorable (and I think it's great how someone who is so used to old customs and traditions manages to get along with and have a deep bond with someone who is constantly developing technological advancements and believes in science).
2nd Place: Kendall/Shelby. Probably one of my favorite wlw ships in fiction, I absolutely adore the development their relationship had from the beginning where they would antagonize one another, moreso on Kendall's end to Let Sleeping Zords Lie, when Kendall actually makes good on her creed to correct her mistakes and begins to cooperate with Shelby more. Given how they're the only main female characters out of the entire team of 10 and incredibly intelligent, it's really nice to see them stand in solidarity with one another and support each other given their similar situations and interests. Definitely giving the writers props for subverting the childish trope of pitting women against each other for no reason in favor of character development for both. Their sunshine/sunshine protector dynamic is so cute and Shelby helping Kendall relax while Kendall employs her musical background to help Shelby got me going crazy oh my goddddd Kendall/Shelby girlfriendism is so real (+ I actually have some drafts/drawings for a Madoka Magica AU featuring these two lmao since I'm a sucker for pink/purple girlies)
1st Place: Kendall/Heckyl, hands down. This is gonna turn into a yap fest but I've been obsessed with them for nine years and that shows no signs of stopping any time soon, they're in my top 10 favorite ships of all time. Much like Ivan, I crushed heavily on Heckyl when I was a child (and still do) and absolutely ate up his flirting with her, calling her 'pretty lady' and things of the like. You can see it gradually, when he hesitates between saving her or revealing his identity upon Wish Star attacking (although he's still in his evil arc so he runs off). When he catches glances at her while working. When Shelby revealed his villainous nature and referenced him saving her from the car she looked and sounded so heartbroken during the scene :( (and in the Beauticruel episode he mentions that love hurts, which I interpret as him feeling at least a twinge of remorse about fumbling his relationship with Kendall)
I also love how in the finale they actually work together more once he turns good (after literally SAVING HER AGAIN AAAAAA), like how they cooperate in taking over Sledge's ship along with James & Phillip, and he's STANDING WITH HER IN THE MEGAZORD AND STAYS BY HER SIDE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST SNIDE. I'm willing to bet the only reason it took him so long to turn good in the finale was because Kendall wasn't in the café to convince him lmao
These two are the standard of what I want in a relationship: his constant flirting, the way they're both sassy, snarky, and intelligent but also provide a great contrast (her stoic, deadpan nature w/ his flamboyance and effervescence), and when his convictions are turned for the better, he always comes back to aid them no matter how much he wants to deny it initially (he's such a softie omg). These two are like the old married couple of the show. The autism/adhd couple next to Chase/Riley. The girlboss/malewife next to Shelby/Tyler, if you will. I've got so many headcanons & AUs for them, drawings of them, fics for them, I have a playlist for them, I'm just delusional over them bro
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phoenixcatch7 · 25 days
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The thing with stories of any type is that everything is a translation. Sometimes literally, from the author's own head, from another language, from book to TV.
Then there's things like visual metaphors, props and fake backgrounds, set pieces, onomatopoeia, paragraphs of description that everyone will visualise slightly differently, animated contortions, unrealistic but helpful sound effects, camera angles to emphasise mood.
In fantasy or scifi settings you can't even assume they're speaking the language you do. That their culture is exactly what's shown and nothing more.
So much of what makes up good world building is shorthand, is making it work to the audience, is using something in the right context rather than digging up every detail that would make or break the illusion.
A character in a magical world, or even simply a non English speaking country, would not use the same curse words. Leather could be presumed to be cow but could just as easily be any number of bizarre creatures. Booking a hotel could require a very different system to one we're used to. Champagne, the word, wouldn't exist without France but it carries the meaning of expensive alcohol for celebrations and parties, the readers would understand what it means.
Tolkien did it with LOTR and it was a masterpiece. The prevalent themes of dark and light being mere shorthand for expansive good and evil, used to convey the messages it needed rather than entirely new words the readers wouldn't intuit? The characters not even going by their actual names? A whole entire conlang that never even gets mentioned in the actual story??? That's a man who has a grasp on how tightly interconnected the world, history and culture all reflect each other. I mean of course he did, it was his job, but what he did was nothing short of fantastical.
All this to say, I believe this is the root of all world building. Cohesive, well balanced, feasible, detailed-but-not-too-much, no words that'd break a reader's/viewer's immersion, expansive enough, realistic, resonant, coherent, believable. All of it, whether fantastical or realistic, stems from one thing.
Is this a good translation of what you had in your head?
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skyward-floored · 8 months
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I beat hyrule warriors :D
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dissentersrising · 11 months
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hmm. retainers.
actually, let's first talk about the leylines of sornieth. the network of magic running beneath reality that all magic flows through. the world's natural mechanism for cycling magic.
all magic flows from the leylines, returns to the leylines, and is broken down by the shade within so the cycle can start anew.
(as you might have noticed, the leylines and the shade both are the source of many superstitions and misunderstandings, but this isn't about them.)
near-to-all creatures on sornieth are magical in some way, which means that their magic, too, will return to the leylines upon death.
all that is to say that the leylines are the afterlife. purgatory. whatever. which means that every now and then someone will realize this and try to break out. because that is something people will want to do, because a good few people do not want to be dead and/or do not want to simply fade into oblivion. and because that is something you can do, since magic can, in fact, flow out of the leylines.
(which means that you can, in fact, revive someone if you drag them back out but WE'RE TALKING ABOUT RETAINERS HERE.)
retainers aren't actually dragons. they are just kind of... spawned in by purgatory to keep people from breaking out of the afterlife. luckily, they're usually passive. won't bother you if you're just chilling (or, more likely, dying a second time) in purgatory.
they'll beeline for anyone causing trouble though. this includes people trying to break out, people trying to break in, or people who have already broken in and are running around in the leylines while still being very much alive. they will not pursue people out of purgatory, but they will remember and they will come for your ass once you die again.
physically, they're pretty damn big. about the size of a particularly large imperial. they don't have any limbs by default, but they can grow any number of them so one can absolutely have, i don't know, twenty arms if it needs that many. their wings and haloes (for the ones who do have haloes, at least) are not quite solid, but you'll encounter some resistance if you try to touch them.
they can technically be killed if you fight them hard enough, but so long as they retain a connection to purgatory they simply will not stay dead. "killing" one is a pretty tall order in the first place. they're stupidly big, they can channel lightning (not actually lightning- just raw magic. remember, purgatory is inside the leylines) they're able to teleport, and they can straight-up change the geography of purgatory at will. if you want to get out of purgatory, you're better off trying to avoid these things instead.
they seemingly answer to the employers, despite the employers... not actually having created purgatory. still, some of the employers have taken it upon themselves to watch over purgatory and have managed to intertwine their own magic with that of the leylines. as a result, they have some degree of control over both purgatory and its retainers.
anyways out of universe um. hi it's me i'm being insane about madness combat and making fandragons of the most random things. gabriel ultrakill is here because it makes the most sense. he's a retainer now because it's my lore and i get to pick the writing also i use "the leylines" and "purgatory" pretty interchangeably above because they are interchangeable. two names for the same thing. btw sorry i keep drawing things that are not actual flight rising dragons who are actual flight rising breeds. it Will happen again
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vulnonapix1234 · 1 year
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I love your headcannon on how Miles would improve his bioelectric powers! Do you have any headcannons for his camouflage powers? Or ways he would go about improving his overall stealth without those powers so when he eventually does use them his literally undetectable?
I am glad that my rambling made sense to you! What I have to say beforehand is that I know Miles from the movies and the ps4 game. So I am aware that most of my theories and headcanons are utter bullshit. But anyway:
The special thing about Miles's camouflage is that it doesn't come from the bite. It's a mutation from his mother's side of the family that awoke due to the electric shock he got from getting his powers.
(Why? Because I think that it would be funny if his most "spiderlike" power didn't come from the spider bite)
As such, his powers don't get along.
The camouflage concentrates on flight instincts, whilst his lightning powers and inhumane strength are on his fight instincts.
It doesn't help that his spider senses are constantly screaming at him, leading to him being under constant voltage or just straight up disappearing.
(Hence why it's so dangerous when he gets a panic attack. He will electrocute you if you get to close and you will only be able to see him flickering in and out of reality. )
So for him to "master" his camouflage powers he first has to master his spider powers.
After that, it's quite easy for him, especially since he is an artist.
It has less to do with how good he is at copying his surroundings and a lot more to do with how well he can "composition" himself into the picture.
Because Miles "silicone valley" vibes are just *that* strong.
You have to think of his lightning powers as a second heartbeat. It's a constant buzzing through his body that will only stop when his actual heart stops.
But you can train your heart with Endurance sports, sinking your blood pressure and heart rate and that is what Miles did with his powers.
Not only did it power up his control over it, the damage he could do with it, how much he can store, and how long he can use it, but it also dialed down his accidental output and with that his vibes.
(The rest of his spider powers can also be related to other organs and body parts. )
He also took a few dance lessons with Gwen so he'd be able to move more gracefully and quietly.
(It became a group hobby pretty quickly though. Pav took to it pretty well, whilst both Penny and Porker are disasters.)
Noir, having detective vibes, and the ability to sink into the background better than anyone else helped a lot as well.
Especially since he gets having to battle your fight/flight instincts and your spider senses, living in a war-torn world.
(Miles on the other hand took him with him to paint as a thank you. I just imagine them as close friends after everything, as he is the only adult that didn't turn his back to him)
I also want to think that Miles accidentally became more "cat-like" whenever he goes into stealth mode.
He is an apex predator and turning his flight instincts into fight ones where a big stepping stone for him.
This also means that he became a tiny heart attack for his friends because he enjoys training with them.
(He just likes to surprise them. Hobies' screams are the most high-pitched ones btw.)
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whipplefilter · 2 months
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Auto Racing Analytics is my new favorite account, because who doesn't love a spider graph?? I love a spider graph:
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I initially found this account through a post that had that blue line and was like, "guess whose stats these are." And I was immediately like, that is the most 5-coded blue line. Operating at such a high level! So well-rounded! Except for the giant chomp taken out of it where DNFs and crash avoidance are concerned, hahaha...ha!
Going into Indy, I was talking to @the-kings-tail-fin about how, on any given day, the 5 could not be trusted in the way that the 9 could, and that the 24 was seasonally trustworthy (one of those seasons not being summer). I'd wanted to make a post about my thoughts on Kyle Larson's driving style, but chickened out of it because it's not as though I had any actual data aside from anecdotal evidence of having watched more of his Cup races than I haven't. But look, a spider graph! That affirms my personal impressions!
So let's talk about Kyle Larson and the 5. Kyle Larson is known for being good, which in racing generally means fast. HMS can put together some fast cars. But the fastest car isn't always the winning car. So what've we got? Here are my novice takes:
fast -- yes
loose -- he prefers a loose racecar (as opposed to tight)--understeer in the corners, where the back tends to swing out. If you can control it, you can find speed this way. Con? The if, I guess. And tire management, because a tire that's sliding isn't rolling.
aggressive -- Larson's self-descriptor, which in his context means shoving a car in places it does not seem like a car can fit (and often finding that it does not, in fact, fit there).
Case in point:
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That was re: late braking/brake lockup, but when other cars are involved, aggression looks like shoving a car in places that dare the other guy to wreck them both or lift. This is why the "terminal avoidance" and "crash avoidance" stats take such a nosedive--because sometimes when you're playing with fire like that, you mess up. Or the other guy doesn't lift. But it makes for fantastic spectating, especially when coupled with the daring required to pass and come up the field (when you have the speed to do so). That kind of run can also be hard on tires, as well as fuel, though fuel is not typically as big a storyline as it has been in 2024. And I will say that KL has gotten a lot better at tire management than he has been in the past.
creative -- Adaptability to an ever-changing track and, again, the daring to try new lines and search around for whatever works, which Jeff Gordon describes as a dirt race thing, in that it's the bread and butter of that form of racing, given that a dirt track is different every lap.
clean -- It doesn't seem like "clean" and "aggressive" would go hand in hand, since being aggressive can result in wrecks and also means you're a pain in the bum to anyone you're racing, but there's lots of flavors to "aggressive" and KL is not a "rattle his cage" kind of guy. Which isn't to say the racing won't get phyisical--it just probably won't be retaliatory.
For example, my biggest kink is Kyle Larson getting eaten alive by JGR, and KyBu and Denny Hamlin have, historically, done this a lot, because their form of aggression is a lot more toothy, if you will. But KL's bit back sometimes, too. (MTJ has gotten in on this action by beating KL on restarts for years straight. But as you'll see in the graph, restarts have improved!)
I'll also note that I've definitely seen KL punt a backrunner out of his way, so he's not above such things entirely. But he's a terrible person to pick a fight with outside of the car, because he won't fight back.
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He's just great to watch, on TV and live. Even if this style of racing is exceptionally make-or-break in a playoffs format, because when it's good it's so, so good and when it's bad it's real bad. But such are the tradeoffs, and it's really cool to look back and recognize the level of excellence that's happening in the car.
I'll caveat that by saying that I've watched Kyle Larson miss pit road in an Xfinity race because he... forgot?? to pay attention??? and have seen him wheel hop his way around a road course and tear the tires of a racecar overdriving it and push extremely badly in the draft and whiff a restart to the point of no return, and that realistically I've probably also seen him do... most of those things... in 2024, too... I saw someone say once that for someone so talented KL sure does a lot of things that are incredibly, gobsmackingly dumb, and I probably wouldn't argue against that.
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