THUNDER NOISE

OOOOOOOH, JUICY JUICY, I HAD TO SIT AND THINK ON THIS ONE!!!

51: What is a boundary in the relationship that they would never cross?

So, in the Silver Frontier era of their relationship, Gold Arm is not ready to publicly come out yet. (A little more context laid out here in this ask!) She is only comfortable with Frontier knowing the complexities of her gender and does not want anyone else to know. She's deeply concerned that Dark Sports Foundation would not love the marketing angle of their obviously macho baseball captain being a bit gender complex. A woman (sometimes) who is a King? How do you sell that to a narrow minded human audience? Frontier tries to reassure her that her team, the Dark Kings, would surely understand and be kind about it, but he agrees steadfastly to keep it a secret. He refuses to endanger her trust in him and so obviously, he will respect her wishes and not tell a soul. In private, he does everything to affirm her feminity since he knows that she won't get that anywhere else.

That was her boundary. I'm out to you, Frontier, but I'm not out to anyone else. My secret better be safe with you.

Now of course, when he leaves... This makes her twist many of the narratives of the relationship they had. Instead of viewing what Frontier did (at her request, mind you) as respect, she views it as manipulative in hindsight. Obviously, he wanted her on his string, and drip feeding her validation in private was a fantastic way of doing that.

But being so angry about everything with Frontier did make her bolder, at the very least. Thrust into the position of team captain, she pretty much immediately tells the team "Look, this is my gender situation. I'm a man and I'm a woman. You can either respect it or fucking leave." And as Frontier predicted everybody was just like

This is all based on writings we did years ago, so I forget off the dome if Arm used the leverage of already being the captain on the team to be like "DSF, you can't touch me, I'm your expensive and popular captain, so you just gotta deal with the gender stuff too" or if having the validation of her team (and eventually, her brothers) was good enough for her. Regardless, DSF doesn't do much with the info yet.

But yeah, when Magnum comes back and sees that not only has Arm come out to the team (yay!) and has little brothers (yay!) it's a silent victory for him inside. But of course, he does not get the context of her villainizing him in her head loooooool.

Once they get back into a relationship and hash out a lot of the bullshit, as Magnum Ace and as Gold Arm, the boundaries they set change, clearly.

Gold Arm's big boundary now is that she needs her partners to be completely honest with her about if she's hurting them. She likes to be rough. She's a sadomasochist and heavy on the sado stuff. If you're with her, you're probably on the same page. But she demands truth, if she's going too far, the onus is on you to inform her and she will gladly adjust. If you put her in a position where she's afraid of her strength, she simply cannot trust you. You have to be able to say your boundaries so she can respect them and she is very staunch about that. Thankfully, Magnum has always been fantastic at this. He knows his limits and communicates them, which she loves so much.

FUCK YES

7: How much time did it take each of them to notice their feelings for the other and how long did it take for them to act on those feelings?

I believe Gold Arm came to the team with a crazy attitude problem. He absolutely had been informed that his specs were off the charts for a Leaguer of the time and that the long term plan was always that he was going to replace Silver Frontier's spot on the team. It made him itch for power, authority, and control right out of the gate. And also, made him feel wildly superior to everybody on the Dark Kings!

...Clearly, this did not go over well. Who was this fresh out of the factory greenhorn trying to boss around Frontier, exactly? Frontier had already taught everyone here that specs only mean so much and this mech before them had no qualities of a leader yet.

Frontier was very willing and able though to take Arm under his wing and really teach him the ropes. How to work well with a team (Arm had been completely isolated during all of her preliminary training, no wonder she had no idea how to with others other than intimidation), how to be a real team captain, how to understand that it takes a Leaguer to polish another Leaguer and that how you were made cannot define you. But all of this one on one training, especially because she had such a fowl attitude to start and needed a lot of work to change for the better, really got them close together and forming a very special and tight bond.

The issue is though, um, Silver Frontier is fucking charming to say the least. Most of the Dark Kings have at one point or another tried to shoot their shot at him. Frontier, being a responsible captain, has always very gently turned everyone down. It would be an imbalance of power to date a teammate when you're the one in charge. Plus, surely it would lead to unfair treatment for the rest of the team. It just wouldn't be right.

(Uh oh, do we see this plot thread as a commonality in a lot of my ships? Oopsies, can't help it, I have my themes!)

Arm kind of rapid fire comes out to Frontier when he calls her out on acting off lately after she's been on the team for a while and really grown. Quiet, reserved, distracted. She confesses to him that she's been questioning her gender but has no idea how the Dark Kings or Dark Sports Foundation as a whole would take it. After all, there's not exactly a lot of women or (out) nonbinary mechs in baseball. I'll get into that in another post. But the other part is she's like "I think I'm in love with you!" And Frontier is like "Shit, I think I'm in love with you too! But we can't, I'm the captain of the team—!"

Gasp shock horror. Oh no. Love.

They decide in all of their wisdom that they should date in secret first. Smooth moves, y'all. Originally, Frontier was going to just try and smother down all of his feelings for Arm, but when she confessed her feelings to him, he folded like a house of cards.

11: Is there anything they keep hidden for themselves and refuse to share with the other?

Magnum absolutely tries to shield Arm from the horrors of war he endured as an Iron Soldier. He already feels enough guilt and pain that Top Joy saw them and that Arm was briefly brainwashed into one and was almost sent out, so he does everything he can to basically not address that part of his life around her. Luckily, her residual bitterness about him "leaving" and her own painful memory of the Forced Retirement Arc means she doesn't wanna pry into any of that shit anyways. They mutually leave well enough alone lol.

Meanwhile, Arm feels like a pretty open book. Only for Magnum though. She comes to him with the stuff that she feels like she can't admit to anyone. Especially because of everything she's been through and everything he guided her through, Magnum is kind of her confessional booth and priest, metaphorically speaking. But Magnum really loves being that for his lovers, so like, this isn't a problem for them. It works, they're exactly where they want to be.

16: How accepted is their relationship by their community and loved ones?

OOOOH, THEY FUCKED UP THE TEAM. Them coming out about their relationship did cause a couple of the original Dark Kings to put in for team transfers. They're safe, thankfully they got put on other Dark Sports teams. But they're pissed, not only did Frontier turn them down on some sanctimounious shit, but he then turned around and went back on that rule when a hotter and "better built" Leaguer gets out on the team. Be so for real. Of course, more than one of them asked to come back to The Kings once Frontier was gone and Gold Arm was captain and leading in a completely different way than he did. But some never came back, though they still forgave the perceived transgression eventually.

Once Arm and Magnum are back together and the League has absolutely changed (because of course in any/many of my writings, I'm omitting the OVA and generally picking up after episode 52 with the notion that rough play gets more or less banned or at least discouraged and the Iron Soldier program is dismantled), these two become the power couple of the League. These two get merch, advertising deals, they're the POSTER CHILDREN of "Look at how gay and marketable the Iron League is! Even love can bloom on the baseball field!!!" Their wedding is made into a huge event with tickets.

🌹: Who fell harder & who fell first?

Snakemaaaaan. I think it was very much a big "love at first sight" moment to a comical degree. He just saw Toadman and his perfect-ness and thought "Oh my god, I love him."

But Toadman is quick to call him out on that shit. Toad is very much of the stance of "Dude, you don't even know me. You can't say you love me, you don't even know what that means, do you?"

I like the journey of their relationship a lot, because Snakeman comes in waaaaaay too hot and idealistic. Toadman is a realist and he's not going to settle for some swooning idiot who doesn't know anything about him just claim that he loves him or that they should be together. Toadman wants to be seen, truly seen, in a relationship. Which means that Snakeman has to really learn about Toad, spend time with him, properly romance him, do all the things that make him feel heard and pampered. I think the one-sidedness of it is very endearing and the way it eventually blooms to be reciprocal is very cute!

🌸: What nickname do they have for each other that would mortify them if others heard?

Snake is deeply honored by any petname that Toad gives him. He has not one ounce of shame in his entire frame. You cannot make him feel bad about any nickname he gets because his precious Toadie gave it to him and that means the entire world.

Meanwhile, Toadman really hated "Toadie" for a bit. It made him think of toady, like a sycophant. Which is nuts, coming from Snake, who comes off as really sycophantic towards Toad! But eventually Toad realized that no, Snake isn't trying to flatter, he genuinely means every word of praise he says, and that he just thinks it sounds cute. Toad comes around to Snake calling him that in due time.