Cat making really weird faces when she wants acknowledgement??? Idk how else to describe this

I noticed my cat, who I raised since she was a kitten, makes this extremely weird face when she wants my attention or when I talk to/pet her sometimes. She kind of bends her ears back and makes her eyes really big and stares at me all serious. But she isn't angry, whiskers are pointed towards me, tail isn't moving. She leans up into my hand when I pet her but the second I stop she starts making some variant of the face again. She seems to do it extra if I slow blink at her. Just opens her eyes super wide and stares at me with her ears back. We can genuinely always tell when she's actually pissed off because she gets the most hateful look in her eyes and legitimately seems to frown (she despises one of our other cats and the second she sees her she just looks so insanely angry before trying to stalk her) so I know it isn't that I'm upsetting her somehow. She has very obvious body language, probably the easiest cat to read that I've ever seen, but this face. It's something I've never seen any other cat do.

There are also variations to this. Sometimes she squints but doesn't fully close her eyes, sometimes she kind of leans in. A lot of the time this is also accompanied by her patting my arm with her paw, climbing onto it and kneading it until I yelp or move her, or even occasionally gently wrapping her leg around it then trying to sort of flip against it (it looks like a hug, but it isn't the typical play gesture she goes into when she wants to kick and bite something, it's purely affectionate and her claws are always in during this unless she's also kneading). Occasionally she just straight up loafs on my arm and forces me to stop whatever I'm doing on my computer. Sometimes she headbutts me during this, specifically if I'm paying attention to my phone instead of her.

I know that the reason behind this is almost certainly attention seeking of some kind, she's absolutely my cat and she's obsessed with me. She follows me *everywhere*. Even climbs on my shoulder sometimes though she's getting too big for that now. As a kitten, she originally escaped the room we were containing her in using a gate JUST to come hunt me down after crying for me loudly because I had left the room and she got freaked out. After that we could no longer keep her in the room at all because no matter what we did she would find a way to follow me. She constantly wants my attention. I'm moreso wondering what science there is behind the face she's making??? Because I can't find any articles on this specific face and none of my other cats have ever done this, even the ones that like me more than my mother. I raised her since she was literally slightly too young to be weaned. Could it be that??? I don't know if this is helpful, but sometimes she gets particularly affectionate and snuggly then starts drooling on me if I pet her and I don't know what that is.

This all sounds so cute but keep in mind this is also a cat we found outside our house at random and I fucked up TERRIBLY when raising her. She's super aggressive with basically all the other cats in a way that kind of just seems sadistic at times??? Like she waits by the water dish and then slaps them in the face if they get close to it, and sometimes she waits right outside of doors for her least favourite cat to walk through only to immediately pounce and attack for a second, she'll rush over to our other cats food bowls and literally like unhinge her jaw to take the most giant bites possible before anybody can stop her and then run off with it DESPITE ALREADY HAVING HER OWN BOWL OF FOOD TOO. we had to get more litter boxes after we realised she was trying to beat the other cats up in the litter box and she just kinda seems to hate everything that isn't me with a burning passion. She's civil when I'm around to watch how she interacts with them but she doesn't even try to hide it around my mother. For some reason I see a side of this cat that nobody else ever does and I'm so confused about her weird mannerisms. Did I teach her how to slow blink wrong???? I spent vast amounts of time focusing on doing that over and over. She didn't have her mother for long enough so I was extremely paranoid about raising her right but I was too overprotective and forgot to socialize her properly. But I used to spend hours just slow blinking at her and petting her because I wanted to teach her what it meant in case she hadn't learned yet (Idk if kittens are born knowing how or if they're taught, I'm aware some things are instinctual for animals but didn't know exactly which things would need to be taught).

Is there anything I could have done wrong that taught her that leaning in with her ears back and eyes wide was how you got attention? She does this the most when I'm on my computer and I low key sometimes do a similar motion with my head when I'm really focused, I lean in and squint and tilt my head the same way she seems to be doing. Is she trying to copy me??? I got this idea from a video where it seemed like a cat had learned to copy its owner's mannerisms after a while but I don't know how true that was. Any advice is welcome, I know this is long I just wanted to give proper context.

Dunno if it matters but she was born in august of last year. I think reddit tends to call this breed of cat the "standard issue"/tiger stripe??? Pretty basic looking, fluffy striped cat with a tan belly and big green eyes. I've heard tiger cats can be clinically insane but I've also heard that about every other breed of cat too so this might be utterly irrelevant.