#but please. we’re only 3 races into this season | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fernandoswarcrimes · 1 year

Text

𝓟𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓬𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝓟𝓻𝓸𝓽𝓮𝓬𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 𝓟𝓻𝓸𝓰𝓻𝓪𝓶

Summary: The one where Charles finds out Mick and Lance are bestfriends with Monaco’s very own Princess. Word count: 3.7k Requested: no but I hope you enjoy <3 Warnings: google translate German, otherwise this is nothing but soft wholesome fluff Note: this has been sitting in my pea brain for a WHILE now so please enjoy what I think it’d be like to see Charles with a princess 🫶🏻

Taglist: @totostables @yourmom-lmao @weirdestmentalityphilosopher @dessxoxsworld @aracee

If it was one thing Charles dreaded every season it was the Monaco race.

The one race that always evaded him and seemingly had it out for him like some sort of curse. But atleast he could sleep in his own bed for the weekend that was the only plus.

Some of the drivers decided to get together and have dinner Friday night since most of them lived in Monaco anyways. There were a few who opted out, mostly the older drivers who wanted to rest from the flight in.

But what piqued Charles' curiosity was once the group had got to the restaurant, Esteban explained that Mick and Lance declined the offer to come out with them, claiming that they both seemingly already had plans. It was unlike the two to not go where Esteban went, usually you never saw the trio far apart.

“I’m sure it’s nothing, they’ve been talking about Monaco for a few weeks now so there’s no telling what the two are up to, they said they’d see us tomorrow.” Esteban shrugged as he sat down next to Daniel.

“Maybe they’re at Jimmy’z?” Lando questioned, causing Max to snort. “Mick? Partying?? Yeah I’m sure that’s what he’s doing. Lance on the other hand that’s more believable but not Mick.” The Dutch boy said shaking his head, he had grown up around the German boy and even now he was still shy and kept to himself.

“Maybe they just don’t wanna hangout with us, have you ever thought of that?” Pierre asked, causing Yuki to shove him “be nice, mick is nice guy, maybe he is just busy.” The shortest driver hadn’t spent much time around the German boy but he knew how nice he was just because everyone spoke highly of him.

“Gracelinde please! We’re not supposed to leave the palace!” Mick whisper shouted as he chased after the smaller girl. Lance could only laugh as he followed after the two. “Oh come on Mick, have a little fun there’s no harm in a little exploration stop being a goody two shoes.” He said, patting him on the shoulder before catching up to the blonde, wrapping his arms around her waist as he hoisted her up, swinging her around in circles in the middle of the dead silent street.

Mick sighed as he heard Gracie’s laugh echoing through the night as Lance swung her around. He knew she wasn’t supposed to leave the palace, at least not without supervision of her bodyguards Dimitri and Alexei since it was a security hazard but she had somehow convinced him and Lance to sneak out with her.

Scratch that she convinced Lance to follow her which meant he had no choice but to go with them to make sure the two didn’t get arrested or kidnapped. Which he wouldn’t doubt the two would somehow get themselves into if they weren't being supervised.

Sebastian would be so disappointed if he saw what he was doing right now, he was sure of it.

Mick couldn’t help but be a stickler for rules, he just never felt the need to break them. He wasn’t his dad. Which is why it was stressing him out that the older girl convinced the dark haired boy to sneak out like a they were still fourteen, he was sure if they got caught they’d be in so much fucking trouble.

“Come on guys really let’s just go back already, Grace if your parents find out they’d have our heads that you didn’t take Dimitri and Alexei with you.” He tried reasoning with the bubbly blonde who just looked up at him with a pout once Lance had finally put her back on her feet. “But what if we got ice cream instead? We’re already almost to the main strip” she asked hopefully. “Yeah come on Mick ice cream??” Lance added on mirroring the hopeful look the older girl wore hoping that he’d agree with the Gracie’s idea to get the sweet treat before going back.

Mick just put his hands on his hips as he gave them a disapproving look. Lance wanted to make a comment about it but Gracie had beat him to it.

“You look just like your dad when you make that face.” The smaller blonde blurted out honestly as she pointed a finger at the look he had on his face. Which caused Lance to cover his mouth to keep the laughter at bay. The German boy dropped his hands from his hips as he threw his head back with an exasperated groan. “Gracie!” “What! I’m being honest, you do!” She said, throwing her hands up in a “what” motion.

Mick just sighed knowing she meant well. “If we get ice cream do you promise we will go straight back home?” The blonde boy questioned as he looked down at her, he was trying to think of what Sebastian would do in this situation, he probably wouldn’t have let any of them get as far as they did that’s for sure, but they were already near the ice cream shop so it wouldn’t hurt to just get it anyways before going back, it’d probably make the two listen to him better. “Yes! Swear it!” Gracie shouted, clasping her hands together excitedly.

“Fine, we can get ice cream then, but we’re going straight back to the palace afterwards-” Mick said leaving no room for argument but the blonde girl and Lance had already taken off towards the main road causing him to sigh and follow after them, he could already tell it was going to be a long night.

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Gracie was never good at time management. It was something her mother always complained about but it wasn’t the blonde's fault she easily got distracted, she just couldn’t help it. Her grandad always compared her to a bunny rabbit, brain always getting sidetracked by little things never staying on track.

Which is exactly how she ended up stopping at the bakery down the street to get some croissants instead of being on time to meet Lance at the Aston Martin garage like she promised.

After glancing at the clock in the shop, she quickly paid and was soon rushing through the streets, Dimitri and Alexei hot on her heels as they tried their best to keep up and not lose sight of the smaller girl through the crowd of people lining up to watch the race that was due to start in the next forty five minutes.

The blonde princess felt her phone ring causing her to frantically dig in her purse, nearly dropping the ringing device once she pulled it out to answer it. But before she could get a word out the Canadian boy was already speaking through the phone to her.

“Twinkle Toes you said you would be here and you’re not, because I don’t see a five foot blonde ballerina princess standing in the Aston Martin garage right now. Sebastian thinks I was fibbing when I told him I had a friend coming today Gracelinde. You’re making me look so uncool right now.” Lance spoke quickly and quietly through the phone as he paced around the garage, the older German driver found it amusing how worked up the kid was getting over this.

“Lancelot relax, I’m walking into the paddock now. I got a little distracted on my way here. There were these croissants at the bakery down the street and I had to have one you know me. I got you one as well because I’m so nice-“ Gracie said before getting cut off as she ran straight into someone, her phone clattering to the ground as she caught her balance.

Both her and the mystery stranger had the same idea of bending down to pick up the phone because not two seconds later their heads were knocking against each other causing the blonde girl to let out a string of giggles as she took her phone from the stranger's outstretched hand. “I’m so sorry!”

“No no I’m sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going and I should’ve been-“ Charles blurted out before looking at who he bumped into, his words trailing off as he locked eyes with the blue eyed girl he felt his heart catch in his throat as he realized just who she was, it was hard not to know, she was Monaco’s own crown jewel.

Holy shit he just nearly knocked over the fucking princess of Monaco-

“I’m uh- I’m Charles.” He stuttered out holding his hand out which caused the blonde to giggle again as she gently shook his hand. “I know. You drive for Ferrari, they call you il predestinato don’t they?” She questioned, her head tilting to the side as she looked up at him with a smile. Her French accent made the Italian nickname sound even sweeter which nearly made him melt on the spot had it not been for Mick calling out to her as he jogged over.

“Grace! Komm schon, Lance bekommt gleich einen Anfall, du weißt, wie es ihm geht, und Seb will dich kennenlernen.” Come on, Lance is about to have a fit, you know how he is, and Seb wants to meet you. The blonde boy spoke, putting an arm around her shoulder as he started leading her away from Charles after giving him a quick hello and a goodbye, she threw the fellow Monègasque a smile and a wave over her shoulder before focusing back on what Mick was rambling about as the two quickly walked off towards the Aston Martin garage to meet the two drivers.

Charles just watched the two leave, being left with even more questions now than before. He didn’t notice the Aston Martin Guest badge hanging around her neck, nor did he know that Mick and Lance knew the country’s princess let alone were friends with her, or that she knew German. Everything was just shocking him this weekend.

Carlos had seen his teammate standing in the middle of the paddock with a weird look on his face and wondered what was wrong with him, so he decided to go see for himself. “Ay! Cabrón you alright?” He questioned laying a hand on the younger boy's shoulder making him yelp out of fright from suddenly being knocked from his racing thoughts.

“Merde! Carlos don’t scare me like that.” Charles said, pushing the Spanish man’s hand off his shoulder as he hugged his arms close to his chest taking one last glance in the direction where Mick and Gracie had walked off to before looking at Carlos. “I’m fine mate, just a bit jumpy for the race is all.” He lied, he couldn’t tell him it was because he nearly trampled the princess of Monaco. Carlos would never let him live it down and he knew if he told Carlos, that’d just mean Lando would know and then everyone else would too because Lando and Daniel couldn’t keep secrets to save their lives.

“I need to go see Pierre, I will see you before the race mate.” The bright eyed boy said before quickly walking off towards the AlphaTauri garage in search of his best friend, surely Pierre would have advice on his sudden dilemma right?

What could possibly go wrong?

“Pierre! I need your help!” Charles called out once he spotted the Frenchman sitting outside the AlphaTauri motorhome with Yuki talking about god knows what, he didn’t have the time to be curious and ask.

“What did you do now Charles? Scare a girl and embarrass yourself?” Pierre questioned looking up at his best friend through his sunglasses who just stood there frozen causing the light haired boy to raise his eyebrows in question when the Ferrari driver didn’t deny that statement. What had Charles done now, he thought.

“Nevermind- I don’t want to speak to you anymore. I’m going to find Max, he won't make fun of me.” Charles said, turning on his heel with a pout and walked off over to the Red Bull garage. “Charles what the- did you really scare a girl!? I was being sarcastic!” Pierre called out, throwing his hands up in confusion, causing Yuki to look between the two with a questioning look not really understanding what was happening.

Charles quickly made sure to send the Dutch boy a text explaining he was coming by to talk to him.

Max was already standing outside waiting for him after getting the text, because he’d always help Charles when he needed it. “Is everything okay mate? You look a little pale.” Max questioned looking Charles over, he knew the Monaco race always stressed his emotional support rival out but this didn’t look like it was that. This looked like something more serious.

“Inearlytrampledtheprincessofmonacoafewminutesago-“ Charles blurted out, frantically as he ran his hands through his hair, the reality finally setting in for him of what a disaster it could’ve been while the Dutch boy just stood there dumbfounded not catching a single word of what Charles just said.

“Listen, I know you speak three languages but that was not any of them, try again, slower this time so I can actually help you with your problem.” Max said, placing his hands on his hips waiting for him to repeat what he just said, this time more clear.

Charles took a deep breath before explaining, “I was on my way to find Carlos and I wasn’t watching where I was going and I bumped into this girl-“ Max nodded following along failing to see the problem, Charles could charm any girl he pleased even if he was a little bit dumb, that was part of his ever growing charm. “-and when I handed her phone back to her because I completely knocked it out of her hand, I looked at her and I realized it was Gracelinde Grimaldi the fucking princess of this country mate! I nearly knocked her to the ground and I couldn't stop stuttering, I introduced myself and she said she knew who I was which just made me panic even more.”

Max gave Charles a deadpan look as he listened to him ramble, because only he could manage to be that unfortunate, of all the people he could’ve nearly knocked over of course it had to be the literal Princess of Monaco. “You do realize who you are right mate? Ofcourse she knows who you are, everyone in fucking Monaco does. Did you atleast apologize to her?” He questioned which made Charles let out a noise of offense “of course I did mate! Who do you take me for?” He questioned before pausing “don’t answer that I am already embarrassed enough, I went to Pierre and he just bullied me before I could even explain what happened.”

Max stayed silent for a few seconds, taking in all the information Charles had thrown at him. “Well, did you atleast have a conversation with her?” He asked, crossing his arms as he tried to see how Charles could redeem himself after this. If the girl wasn’t mad then there wasn’t anything to be freaking out about all he had to do was give her a charming smile and move on with his day he didn’t get why he was freaking out so bad.

“I- no. Mick showed up and pulled her away to go see Lance and Seb, I think? He was speaking in German and that’s all I understood.” The Monègasque boy said, throwing his hands up trying to get his friend to see the bigger picture of this delima.

“Wait Mick and Lance- you think that’s where they were Friday night?” Max questioned after Charles pointed out that Mick and Lance seemingly knew the girl, and both were absent from dinner; everything was starting to make sense to him now.

“I mean I guess? It’d make sense. I just don’t get how they’d know her, they don’t live in Monaco?” Charles questioned, causing Max to shrug. “So what’s your game plan? You’ve got to talk to her again after the race.”

Charles shrugged, scuffing his shoe against the ground. “I think I embarrassed myself enough for today mate, you know? I don’t want to make it worse by trying to talk to her and getting too nervous to speak again!”

Max wanted to strangle Charles.

Mick also wanted to strangle Gracie.

She had not stopped talking about Charles ever since he pulled her away to go meet Lance and Seb. He didn’t know she’d be so fascinated by the fellow Monaco native, If he had he probably would’ve introduced the two sooner but he figured she had already met the Ferrari driver before remebering how Charles got invited to the palace a few years ago.

“He seems like a really nice guy Micky!” Gracie said, looking up at the taller boy. “He is Grace, you can talk to him after the race if you like, but we promised your parents you’d be at the Aston Martin garage with Lawrence before the race started so that’s where we have to be.”

The blonde just nodded with a small sigh knowing he was right as they walked inside, Lance letting out a shout of relief at seeing the two. “Where have you been??” He asked, pulling the smaller blonde into a tight hug. “I told you! I got distracted at the shop and then I ran into someone and dropped my phone-“

“It was Charles, Charles ran into her.” Mick filled him in which Lance just looked at her like everything suddenly made sense now, of course Charles would be the one who accidentally ran into her and vice versa, the two were so oblivious sometimes.

“Oh! Your croissant!” Gracie said, pulling the paper bag out of her bag and handing it to him with a wide smile as she excitedly told him. ”It's a chocolate one, you said those were your favorite!”

Lance smiled, shaking his head as he took the bag from her outstretched hand. “Thank you G, I’ll eat this after the race.” He said handing it to his trainer to hold onto since he could really eat anything else before getting in the car.

“Okay, Dad brought you a new book to read if you get bored cause it’s gonna be about two hours but after the race I think some of us are going out to eat if you wanna tag along, if not I’m sure Mick will hangout with you at home.” Lance said, guiding her over to where his dad was sitting towards the back of the garage.

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Charles managed to miss the podium by mere seconds, but he supposed P4 was better than nothing. It just sucked that he wasn’t able to win his home race yet again. After gathering his things he started making his way out to the back lot. Max and a few others wanted to go out for drinks to celebrate a good race and weren't going to let him out of going despite him saying he just wanted to relax at home.

He thought back to what the Dutch boy said about trying to talk to the blonde girl again but he figured she had left already, seeing as alot of the drivers had.

Though to his surprise he saw her standing in the middle of the walkway with a confused look on her face as she looked around it seemed like she was lost. He weighed his options, chance facing more embarrassment or just go on ahead to his car?

He chose to chance it and walked over to her.

When he was a few steps away he saw the look of relief that flashed across her face when she noticed him. “Charles! Finally a familiar face, I’m kind of lost.” The blonde admitted as she looked around “Lance told me to meet him at the back lot but I’m not sure where that is, Mick isn’t answering his phone, and I was too scared to ask Sebastian when he was leaving.”

Charles noticed the two older men standing a few feet behind her glancing at them for a second, he assumed tbose where her body guards before giving her a soft smile finding it adorable that she was scared to ask Sebastian of all people for directions knowing the German man would’ve more than likely walked her there himself just because he was that nice.

“I can show you where the backlot is I’m headed there myself, I know how confusing it can be around here sometimes especially after a race when everybody’s busy trying to pack everything up.” He offered, he didn’t mind showing her, it would give him more time to talk with her which is what he was hoping for.

“Really? You’d do that? You’re such a gem Charles.” Gracie said with a bright smile as he offered her his arm to take which just made her shake her head amusedly but looped her arm through his anyways. “Congratulations on P4, it was a good race. You did really well.” She complimented which caused his face to flush as the two made the walk to the back lot.

Charles' mood about missing the podium was lifted at hearing her say he did really well, coming from her was better than any position he could’ve placed. “Thank you, that means a lot.” He said softly as he looked down at her watching as her eyes roamed around at all the different team hospitality buildings.

“Do you come to races often?” He couldn’t help but ask, wanting to know more about her. The boy hadn’t seen her around the Monaco paddock years prior let alone any of the others but then again he doesn’t pay very much attention to his surroundings sometimes, hence the mishap of nearly knocking her to the ground earlier.

“This is actually my first time attending a race,” Gracie said with a small smile. “I watch them when I can from my phone though. It’s such an exciting sport” she gushed as she talked about how exciting it was to actually be able to be there today to see the race in person. He understood her excitement. He had been invited to the palace in 2019 but she was out for a charity event that day so he didn’t get to see her at the time but fate clearly works in mysterious ways by making them bump into each other three years later, in Monaco, at the Grand Prix.

As the two made small talk getting closer to the gate she could see Lance and his Dad talking and knew this would probably be her only chance to see him again. “Are you free this week by chance? I’d like to get to know you better when things aren’t as hectic.” The ocean eyed girl asked, looking up at him, eyes sparkling with curiosity.

Charles felt dumbfounded, she wanted to see him again??? Even after nearly trampling her? This weekend had to be a fucking dream and he was fully prepared for the rude awakening that was gonna happen any second, but it never came. “I am, I am free, yes.” He stumbled over his words and nodded quickly with a bashful grin once he managed to get the right words out to answer her question.

“Gracie! Let’s go, I'm hungry!” Lance called out noticing her walking through the gate with the Ferrari driver. She ignored the boy as she came to a stop, turning to look at Charles happy that he was indeed free.

“Great! Say Tuesday? We can meet at La Pampa around one?” Gracie asked with a bright smile to which Charles nodded in agreement. “Tuesday yeah yeah, that works for me. I’ll be sure to be there, consider my whole schedule cleared.” He said giving her a smile, it was hard not to smile at her when she was looking at him with such a genuine smile. It made him feel seen, as just himself, and not Charles Leclerc, formula one driver for Ferrari.

“À bientôt!” See you soon! She said leaning up on her tiptoes, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek before skipping off towards Lance and Lawrence, the brown eyed boy giving her a light shove into the backseat before getting in after her closing the door as his dad started the car. Dimitri and Alexei getting into the car next to theirs.

Charles couldn’t believe his luck, because for him the luck of the draw only draws the unlucky and usually that meant he became the butt of the joke due to Ferrari's strategies. But this? This felt different. He would just have to see how far his luck would go before it inevitably ran out.

He just hoped this time

just this once

that luck would be on his side.

#I just love them so much I want to wrap them in bubble wrap #it’s going to get so much softer from here on out #y’all aren’t ready #imagine #formula 1 #charles leclerc #princess protection program #charles leclerc imagine #formula one imagine #f1 imagine #skylightlanterndivider

845 notes · View notes

robinfrinjs · 11 months

Text

2023 24H of Le Mans - All you need to know

It's almost time for Le Mans! Tomorrow it's test days and next week we're racing!

This year we see the 91st running of the oldest active endurance race in the world. Its inaugural race was in 1923 which means this year its it’s 100th anniversary, this means it’s the Centenary Edition. the 24 Hours of Le Mans is recognised as the most prestigious and gruelling test for innovations and improvements in motorsport technology.

It’s not only a special edition because of the 100th anniversary, but also because we’re seeing the most cars in the top class in a while. 16 cars will take the start, representing the biggest manufacturers in the world; Ferrari, Porsche, Toyota, Cadillac, Peugeot & Glickenhaus.

Because it’s the Centenary edition, we have a special trophy for the overall winner as well. The 24 Hours of Le Mans, has sealed a partnership with the Monnaie de Paris. The oldest institution in France has thus created a unique Trophy, which will be awarded to the winner of the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Before the race it has travelled the world to places such as Goodwood, The International Concours of Elegance St.Moritz, Bahrain and more.

History

You might know Le Mans for the running starts. A type that has been used for many types of racing. When the start flag dropped drivers had to run across the track to their cars, climb in, start the car and drive away.

Those kinds of starts were obviously rather unsafe. Drivers would rush to fasten their seat belts to get as fast of a start as possible. This was the reason why it was banned in English racing from 1962.

In 1969 Jacky Ickx decided to walk to his car instead of run, and then took the time to fasten his seat belt. This meant he effectively started last but he still ended up winning the race. In this same race, a driver named John Woolfe died on the first lap after he hadn’t secured his seat belt properly.

This meant it was abolished the following year. Nowadays this type of standing start is only used in Endurance Motorcycle racing. Nowadays at Le Mans, a rolling start is used where cars line up alongside each other at a slow pace and start to race once the green flag is dropped.

The 24H of Le Mans has a rich history, but not a very pretty one in some parts. Back in 1955 one of the biggest tragedies in motorsports occurred. On the straight around the pit wall a huge collision occurred. Usually referred to as the 1955 Le Mans disaster, 84 people died and over 120 were injured. For many countries this meant an immediate ban on motorsport, though a lot of those bans were lifted within a year.

One country, that did not lift the ban, is Switzerland. In 2009 a proposal to lift the ban was defeated by the Swiss Parliament but in 2015 the ban was relaxed for electric vehicles only. Which meant Formula E could race on the streets of Switzerland, even though the ban was technically still there. Now in 2022, at the end of May the ban was finally lifted and motorsport is allowed again in Switzerland.

Please proceed with caution, the Wikipedia page includes one uncensored picture of the incident. The BBC documentary includes footage and pictures and the Reddit post does not include any pictures or videos but does link to the them.

/u/CookieMonsteFL made a post about the incident

The Deadliest Crash Is a BBC documentary on the 1955 Le Mans disaster

Wikipedia Page about the incident

Some more documentaries and movies on Le Mans’ history:

Truth in 24 and Truth in 24 II - The story of Audi’s victories against testing conditions and the might of Peugeot in 2008 and 2011.

Michael Fassbender: Road To Le Mans Season 1 and 2, Season 3, Season 4

Our Return: A documentary of our road to Le Mans 2015 - Porsche’s youtube documentary about their return to Le Mans and their eventual win.

McLaren at Le Mans: Pursuit of Perfection - The story behind McLaren's 1995 victory

The fastest ever lap at the Circuit de la Sarthe by Kamui Kobayashi

The Track

The track that is currently used is 13.6 kilometers long. It combines the permanent Ford Chicanes, pit straight, under the Dunlop bridge and through to tetre rouge as well as normal everyday roads of the Mulsanne straight through to Indianapolis and Arnage.

The track used to have a 6km long straight where Group C prototypes could reach up to 400km/h. This was changed in 1990 as the FIA required the track to have a straight no longer than 2km to be sanctioned. This is why nowadays two chicanes can be found on the Mulsanne straight. The fastest lap ever on the track was driven by Kamui Kobayashi with a 3:14.791 in 2017.

If you have the time, try to get familiar with the corner names as that’s often how commentators will refer to them.

T1, T2 etc stands for turns 1, 2 etc.

MP1, MP2 etc stands for the Marshall posts. This is important as yellows are often located by race control under the marshall posts.

Points

The race is part of the World Endurance Championship and this means there are also points to score for that championship. The winner of the race will receive 50 points, meaning this race means a lot in the championship.

Points to score:

Women at Le Mans

All credit for the info in here goes to Twitter user @smokingpuppy841 he created these two threads: Women at Le Mans & Why Women Were Banned at Le Mans

This year Lilou Wadoux is one of the women to compete at the 24H of Le Mans. in 2021 year she turned heads when she managed to completely destroy the field in one of the support series at Le Mans. In the French Porsche Sprint Challenge, she beat the field in qualifying by several seconds and then went on to win the race by a huge margin. Within just five years she went from racing in a Peugeot 206 to racing in a World Championship.

Last year she raced in LMP2 but for this year she switched to GTE as she has become a Ferrari Factory driver. This season she already took a win and hopes to do so again at Le Mans.

In 1930 Marguerite Mareuse and Odette Siko become the first women to compete at Le Mans, they finished 7th overall and second in their class.

Odette Siko also finished 4th overall in 1932 and took the win in her class which makes her the best finishing woman at Le Mans. In 1935 a record of 10 women competed at Le Mans, Anne-Cécile Rose-Itier was the best placed of them when she finished 18th overall and third in class.

Unfortunately in 1957 women were prohibited from participating. In 1956 Annie Bousquet, who was known as a spectacular but risky driver, tragically lost her life in the 12 Hours of Reims. As well as driving, Bousquet was also responsible for the preparation work, which involved picking up the car the day before and driving it 500km through the night to the race.

She started the race, but unfortunately, tragedy unfolded when her car would roll on lap 17 after it lost a wheel. She broke her neck and passed away immediately. Following the 1955 disaster which nearly ended motorsport, the ACO were very nervous about another accident. These nerves were only heightened by another tragedy at the 1957 Mille Miglia which saw the Italian government intervene to prevent a repeat.

These worries, combined with Bousquet’s reputation as a risky driver, meant they banned women from the event. A woman hadn’t even competed at Le Mans since 1951, which madethe ban, kind of pointless. The ban was eventually lifted in 1971 and this yearwe will see 5 women at the start again. Rahel Frey, Sarah Bovy and Michelle Gatting share a car in the GTE Am class while Lilou Wadoux also drivers in the same class. Doriane Pin drives in the LMP2 class.

All the women competing at Le Mans this year have already taken a podium in the regular season. While Lilou Wadoux even took two with a 2nd and 1st place. Expectations are high as all these women have the pace to win their respective classes.

Qualifying

Just like last year we will see the Hyperpole format. This sees a one hour session on Wednesday evening where all cars of all classes are allowed on track to set a time. The top 8 cars of all classes (Hypercar, LMP2, GTE AM) at the end of the session move on to the Hyperpole session on Thursday evening. This sets the top of the grid for each class. The remaining order is already decided by the one hour session on Wednesday. During the one hour qualifying session every team is allowed to nominate two drivers that can set a lap time.

Refuelling is forbidden during the Hyperpole.

For the LMGTE Am category, only a Bronze driver can participate in the Hyperpole.

Any car causing a red will have all or some laps deleted

Any car causing a red will not be allowed to rejoin the qualifying session

Schedule

This is all in local time which is CEST/GMT+2. Here’s a link to the detailed schedule in PDF version.

Sunday June 5th

10:00 – 13:00 FP1 (Official Test Day) 15:30 – 18:30 FP2 (Official Test Day)

Wednesday June 8th

14:00 – 17:00 FP1 19:00 – 20:00 Qualifying 22:00 – 00:00 FP2

Thursday June 9th

15:00 – 17:00 FP3 20:00 – 21:30 Hyperpole 22:00 – 00:00 FP4

Saturday June 11th

12:00 – 12:15 Warm Up 16:00 – 16:00 Race (24H)

Support Series

Not only WEC will be racing the coming week, also on the agenda are:

Ligier European Series

Porsche Carrera Cup

Ferrari Challenge

Road To Le Mans (Le Mans Cup)

Regulations

Balance Of Performance

As both the Hypercar class and the GTE AM class have several manufacturers running in the class, there’s a balance of performance in place. BoP” was introduced by the FIA with the aim of achieving a level playing field for the different vehicle concepts.

After an initial grading by the FIA, the performance data of the vehicles are acquired during the races via telemetry in order to adjust the balance of performance. This data input is automatically analysed and incorporated into the “BoP”. The most frequently used means of adjusting the performance level is through adding or subtracting weight as well as increasing or limiting the engine output through a restrictor or boost.

Here’s a short video on BoP

Tyre Allocation

Down below you can see the tyre allocation for dry weather tyres. GTE Pro is crossed out as that class does not exist anymore. Wet weather tyres aren’t limited. This is tyres, not sets. This makes it 14 sets for LMP2 & Hypercar during the race for example. Meaning the tyres will definitely need to be double stinted at times.

Drive Time

The maximum driving time for each driver is limited to 4h for any period of 6h. Every driver has to drive a minimum of 6H across the whole race or the team will be penalised. Every driver is only allowed to drive a maximum of 14H across the whole race.

What's a stint?

A stint is the time the car spends on the track between pit stops. So when tyred are “double stinted” at Le Mans, it means the driver didn't change their tyres during the last stop and only refuelled. Also allowed, is only changing two tyres on the car.

Safety Car Rules

The safety car rules for this year's race have been completely revised. These changes have been made in hope of having less influence on the race. As previously being caught by the wrong safety car could loose the teams a lot of time.

However, these new rules could be a disadvantage for the class leader as it does bring cars closer together. Some critisicse these new rules as they will “manufacture battles at the front.”

When the order is given to deploy the Safety Cars, all marshal posts will display waved yellow flags, and “SC” boards. Pit exit will be closed, and the pit exit light turned red, while the pit entry will remain open.

There will be 3 safety cars, starting from their respective positions, (as can be seen on the track map below). They will join the track regardless of where the overall leader is. All the competing cars must then form up in line behind the Safety Cars no more than five car lengths apart.

Pit exit green light will be turned on after the last car in line behind a Safety Cars has passed Safety Car Line 2, to allow all cars at pit exit to rejoin the track at an appropriate speed until they reach the queue behind that Safety Car.

When the Race Director deems it is safe to proceed with the merging process, the race control message ‘Incident clear – Prepare for Merging’ will pop up. This is followed by the Pit entry being closed Then safety Car B and Safety Car C will proceed to turn on their green lights, then cars which were positioned behind Safety Car B and Safety Car C will overtake their respective Safety Car and will continue as quickly as possible without compromising safety and without overtaking between themselves until they reach the line behind Safety Car A.

Once this is done, a pass around will be started. Any car that has their class leader behind them in the safety car queue will be allowed to pass the safety car.

After this the drop back procedure starts, first in line are the LMP2s. Race control will notify “Drop Back LMP2”, then all LMP2 cars will pull to the right-hand side of the track, then the rest of the cars, will overtake them to take position behind the Safety Car. Then the LMP2 cars will join the line again.

Once this is done, race control will notify “Drop Back LMGTE”. LMGTE cars will drop to the right side just like the LMP2s did. The rest of the cars will overtake them to take position behind the SC.

Once this is done it means that all Hypercars are together at the front, followed by all LMP2s and then the GTEs.

This wave around procedure won't be used in the last 60 minutes of the race.

Red Flag Rules:

During red flags it is not allowed to work on the car, only if allowed by the race director for safety reasons teams are allowed to change the tyres.

Slowzones:

To not immediately neutralize the complete field in case of an accident or debris. There's slowzones in place. The track is divided into 9 zones, when a slowzone is active cars will have to adjust their speed to 80 kph.

It is possible to have several slowzones going on at the same time. For example when an accident happens on the border of a slowzone, it is likely both zones will be deployed.

Penalties:

Speeding in the pitlane during Practice or Warm Up results in a fine of 100 euros for each kph over the limit. Besides that the driver's lap times leading up to the infringement are deleted. During the race the 1st infringement will result in either a drive through (between 60 and 70kph) or a 5 sec stop & go penalty (70kph+). The 2nd infringement will result into another drive through (between 60 and 70kph) or a 10 sec stop & go penalty (70kph+). The third infringement will result into a dsq in both cases.

It is prohibited to spin the wheels when a car leaves its pit, this will result into a stop & go. Aside from that refuelling may only be done when the car is completely on the ground which means tyres can't be changed during refuelling.

Links

Here’s a link to the regulations for this year’s race

Here’s a link to this year’s WEC regulations

Here’s a link to the noticeboard

Here’s a link to the timing results

Here’s a link to committee decisions

Media Guide to WEC

Might seem like a weird one to link but it’s really interesting to read. It goes into further depth about classes, and talks about previous winners etc

Entry List

R/WEC Scratchpad - This is the landingspage, you'll be able to find the scratchpad for practice & qually and for the race here

By this you’re able to catch up on any missed action, penalties and retirements. Obviously it’s difficult following a 24H race in its whole so this is a great way to catch up.

The Classes

The WEC grid consists of three different classes during the complete season, those are Hypercar, LMP2 & GTE. However for Le Mans two subclasses join the race. Neither of those score points for the championship (LMP2 Pro/Am & Innovative Car/Garage 56)

Each class has its own driver requirements, meaning both Amateur drivers and Pro drivers will be on track together.

Hypercar

Red number board with “Hypercar” next to it.

The current top class in endurance sportscar racing is “Hypercar”. This combines cars built to the LMH (Le Mans Hypercar) and LMDh (Le Mans Daytona h) specifications.

The ultimate aim of the ACO, FIA and IMSA is for these two types of car to compete against each other in the FIA WEC and in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and, therefore, to race in both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

LMH (Toyota, Ferrari, Peugeot, Glickenhaus & Vanwall)

These regulations leave scope for a wide variety of architectures and allow a front-axle hybrid system to be fitted. They are designed to a strict set of requirements dictating maximum power, drag coefficient, and weight.

LMDh (Porsche & Cadillac)

In LMDh, the backbone of the car – i.e. the whole car minus the internal combustion engine, the body and the hybrid system – will be supplied by one of four chassis manufacturers: Dallara, Multimatic, Ligier or Oreca.

The driver line ups in this class consist of only pro drivers, with all drivers rated platinum or gold. Technically, lower rated drivers are allowed in the class, but that’s not likely to happen.

LMP2

Blue number board with “P2” next to it.

The LMP2 class features a spec drivetrain and gearbox, using a Gibson V8 producing 400kW, and a selection of three chassis to choose from, of which the Oreca 07 has been the chassis of choice. So much, that every single LMP2 car on this year’s entry list is an Oreca

Driver’s line-ups have to consist of at least one Bronze or Silver driver. When one of the drivers is bronze rated a car is automatically scored in LMP2’s sub class “LMP2 Pro/Am”

A Pro/Am car is easily recognised by the “Pro/Am” sign under the car number

GTE AM

Orange number board with “AM” next to it.

This is the last year we’ll see the GTEs at Le Mans as next year the GT clash switches to GT3 cars.

Although there is no Pro category, the driver quality in GTE-Am is still incredibly high. The grid features factory drivers, young stars, experienced champions, and every level of experience in between. Each car features one Bronze and one additional Bronze or Silver rated driver.

Innovative Car/Garage 56

Black number board with “IC” below it.

Garage 56, is reserved for innovative cars. In recent years we’ve also seen a modified LMP2 car that allowed paraplegic drivers to race. The car was modified and fitted with a braking, clutch and throttle system controlled by a hand-controlled steering wheel.

The Garage 56 entry runs outside the official classification, and will start last no matter where they qualify. This year it will host a Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entered by the Hendrick Motorsports team for its maiden appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

This is a heavily modified version of the Next Gen NASCAR that competed in the 2022 Cup Series. The car will be symbolically numbered #24 and driven by Jenson Button, former Formula One World Champion, Mike Rockenfeller, winner of the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours, and Jimmie Johnson, a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion.

Spotters guide

I used to make my own ones but there’s no use in making one myself when @GrosiakMateusz already makes perfect ones. You can find it on spotters.guide. The planned release date is June 6th.

Where to Watch?

Official stream OUTSIDE US ONLY - The Le Mans package gives you access to all WEC sessions (Practice, Qualifying, Warm Up and the Race) with a choice of on boards. It’s a rip-off quite honestly, it costs 13 euros and the platform is prone to crashing. If you’re buying I’d recommend just buying for the rest of the season, usually WEC will put up a discount code - PAID

Multiviewer F1 (Source) - The developer of this app says their goal is to get it ready before Le Mans. It will be integrated with FIAWEC.TV - PAID (Need FIAWEC.TV subscription)

Robin Frijns server, I will be streaming the WEC Coverage, all sessions from qualifying on Wednesday evening - FREE

Eurosport will likely be broadcasting the event in a variety of locales throughout Europe. This will be updated when confirmed - FREE WITH ADS OR PAID DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU WATCH IT

Radio Le Mans will be streaming live radio for every session (Including the test days) - FREE

For American audiences, unfortunately the Official stream is geoblocked for your area. American and English-speaking Canadian audiences can access coverage through Motortrend On Demand. Motortrend should have a free trial so you can try that if needed. - PAID (BUT FREE TRIAL)

Complete Broadcast distribution list

Live Timing

This is Official Livetiming it’s okay, but I recommend using the Timing71 Beta extension

As said the creator of Multiviewer F1 is trying to integrate WEC into the app as well, this would also likely include live timing. If there’s an update on that, i’ll post it.

I hope this is all, but for any questions, my askbox is always open!

#racing #wec #24h le mans

228 notes · View notes

cieloclercs · 7 months

Text

𝐬𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐚𝐝𝐞 , cl16 — chapter five

pairing. charles leclerc x senna!oc part. 5/? warnings. basically just pure angst 🫠 yeah it’s gonna be like that for a while 😭 swearing, arthur is such an icon in this icl word count. 5.7k

SAUDADE. in which childhood rivals turned best friends realise they were always meant to be something more

05. everything changes (nothing changes)

author’s note. so i’ve had this chapter written for about 2 months. no i don’t have an excuse as to why i haven’t posted it yet 🫠 but i figured i’m going through a bit of a dry spell in my writing at the moment so i may as well post it 😭 hope you guys enjoy, and as always, please leave a comment or reblog if you did !! <3

read it on wattpad!

previous: chapter four next ➜ chapter six

Nice Côte d'Azur Airport 8 February 2021

NOA DOESN’T SEE Charles for another two weeks. She doesn’t hear from him either, not including his brief message confirming her flight’s arrival time. He’s giving her space, just as promised, and she finds herself grateful for that. The time in between their meeting at the café and the looming date of her temporary move to Monaco is for setting the record straight. When Noa breaks the news to her parents, they immediately assume the best of the situation – they’ve patched things up, got over themselves and finally rekindled their friendship. She flushes bright red when she has to cut off her mother’s delighted cheers, and her heart aches to see the grin on her face fall. We’re not friends, she tells them firmly, despite the pain it causes her. Noa is doing this for her career, not for some distant, nostalgic memory of the boy she’d once thought the world of. No. It’s her turn to be selfish for once.

Flávia is understandably upset. Just as Pascale considers Noa to be like her daughter, she has always viewed Charles as a second son. Even though she tries to deny it on several occasions over the weeks before Noa’s flight to Monaco, she isn’t stupid. The first few months after she and Charles stopped speaking to each other, Flávia had been fairly vocal about what she thought of the whole situation. She understood the hurt that they were both feeling, but as far as she was concerned, they still needed each other. Her greatest fear was that they would both continue to grow into the cut-throat world of racing without the person they trusted most at their side. As someone who experienced how difficult life could be at the pinnacle of motorsports, even as only a family member of one of the racers, Flávia worries for them. She had Gabriel to lean on after Ayrton’s death – her best friend and the love of her life. Noa and Charles, as long as they’re apart, don’t have that.

Speaking of her father, he seems to understand her reasoning a little more. Gabriel Borges is ambitious if nothing else. He fought tooth and nail to win his championships and solidify his place in the Formula 1 hall of fame. It’s a trait he’s passed on to his daughter. Sponsorships like this are important now, with racing becoming more and more lucrative with each passing season. In order to succeed, a driver needs the backing of some of the most influential brands in the world. For a rookie, it simply doesn’t get bigger than Chanel. Both Noa and Gabriel know that this is an opportunity she can’t pass up, no matter how difficult it may be for her with Charles there. They need to make it work.

He may not necessarily agree with her ‘keep him at arm’s length’ approach, but if that’s what she thinks is going to work for her, then Gabriel will support her through it.

With Luiz and Eloísa settling into their apartment in Italy, it’s only her parents who wave her goodbye at the airport. Noa has never been a fan of flying. The seats are too cramped and the people too noisy – she can never find a position comfortable enough to fall asleep. Sometimes it can be peaceful simply watching the world pass by beneath her from the window, but eventually, miles upon miles of ocean gets a little boring. So Noa spends the first thirteen hours of her flight wide awake, silently begging the couple in front of her to do something about their screaming baby. Stopping off at Heathrow for the change over feels like a slice of heaven. Just to be able to get up and stretch her legs for a little while is pure bliss. But within an hour she’s back on a different plane, looking down over the English Channel, over Normandy and eventually, the south of France. The nerves begin to set in then. There’s no going back once this plane lands – she’ll be stuck in Monaco with the person she most wants to avoid in the world for the next three weeks. Granted, she’ll have her second family there with her too, but Noa doubts she’ll be able to shake the awkward feeling even when they’re around.

Jetlag’s a bitch, is all she can think when she steps off the plane and into the harsh winter sunlight. It makes her skull ache, beating down on her, yet offering little to no warmth – typical Europe. If only it was summer here like back home. She’s grown accustomed to heat in the high twenties and sleeping with all the windows open. Checking the weather app on her phone, she sees that right now the temperature is barely breaking ten degrees. Lovely. On top of that, Noa hasn’t slept for practically an entire day. She can already imagine the headlines if she gets photographed – Gabriel Borges’ daughter spotted wandering airport sleep-deprived and wearing no makeup! The press would have a field day with that one.

She just about manages to haul her suitcase through security before collapsing on one of the lobby benches. It’s her own fault for overpacking, really. She’s never been one to prioritise well when it comes to clothes. Noa pulls her phone out of her pocket, quickly refreshing it to see if Charles has messaged her yet – sure enough, sent seven minutes ago: I’m outside. Do you want me to come in and help with your bags? Despite the contempt she still feels towards him, Noa could have cried with pure joy. She sends back a brief yes before struggling up off the bench, all but dragging her luggage through the lobby now. She can only hope he gets here quickly, because her arms are surely about to come out of their sockets if she has to carry these any further.

When his figure appears in the distance, the nerves return. He’s dressed like he doesn’t want to be spotted, in a grey hoodie and shorts, large enough that he can practically hide the entirety of his face in the collar. No one seems to notice him. For the moment anyway. When Charles eventually spots her, he seems to hesitate for a moment – like she’d seen him do at the café, arms hanging uselessly by his side as if he wants to outstretch them towards her, but remembers at the last minute that he can’t do that anymore. Noa’s eyes are glued to the ground as she walks towards him. They meet in the middle. He murmurs a brief hello, and when she doesn’t reply, takes her bags without another word.

They walk out to his car in silence. It’s a black Mercedes G63 – inconspicuous by his standards, and perhaps those of the travellers milling around them (many of them are en route to Monaco, after all). It has black tinted windows, she notices. Charles tells her to climb into the passenger seat while he loads her bags into the back. She hasn’t the energy left to complain. It takes everything in her not to fall asleep as soon as she’s sat down, eyes drooping in the dimmed light, a hazy warmth taking over her body. She jumps slightly as Charles opens the door and slides into the driver’s seat. He starts the engine. Before Noa can really process what’s going on around her, they’ve already left the airport.

"How was your flight?" Charles asks after a few minutes, soft spoken and hesitant. An absentminded hum is what greets him.

"It was alright." she murmurs back, fighting off the sudden urge to yawn. There's an edge of discontentedness in her voice, an air of frustration and annoyance about her. Noa has always hated flying, he thinks. Even as children all those years ago, she'd kick up the biggest fuss possible before so much as stepping foot on a plane. His mother always joked about it being because she can't sit still for more than a few hours, which, he supposes, had a fair amount of truth. Charles knows it's because the whole thing made her anxious. He's held her hand at takeoff enough times to have realised it, even if she never spoke the words to him out loud. The memory almost makes him smile. Then he remembers where he is, and his jaw clenches shut.

“Just to let you know, Maman, Arthur and Lorenzo will all be home when we arrive.” Charles is, once again, the one to speak up when they lapse into silence, “They’ve planned a, uh, sort of welcome home – welcome back meal.” He relays, glancing at Noa anxiously out of the corner of his eye. She’s slumped in her seat. The only sign she’s even listening to him is the tiny hum she lets out. “I can tell them you’re too tired to do it today, though, if you’d like. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind pushing it back to tomorrow –“

“No, it’s fine.” Noa cuts across him quickly. “That’s really sweet of them.”

Charles nods. He thinks back to that morning; helping Lorenzo pin up the ‘welcome home’ banner above the archway leading from the kitchen to the living room; watching with a wistful smile as his mother set out a tray of paçoca, the little cylinders of peanut butter Noa used to love when they were younger, on the kitchen table. Where she managed to get hold of them Charles doesn’t know, considering they’re a sweet pretty much exclusive to Brazil. He tries not to think about how Noa will react to it all. The thought digs up old memories he'd rather stayed buried, for the sake of his heart.

“If you want you can get some sleep now. I know you’re probably jetlagged.” He speaks up again after a beat of silence, quieter this time, “I’ll wake you up when we get there.”

Noa doesn’t reply for a moment. She’s still turned away from him ever so slightly, but as he glances to the side, he can see her expression reflected in the window. Her bottom lip is caught between her teeth, biting down hard from the looks of it. He doesn’t know if it’s his imagination, but her eyes appear glossy, brimming with unshed tears. There’s an ache in his heart that he’s not sure how to properly describe. Cathartic might be the only word close enough. It hurts, but at the same time, it’s almost freeing.

“If that’s ok with you.” She finally speaks, after what feels like an age. Her head turns to the side until she’s looking at him. Charles keeps his gaze on the road, but he can see her in his periphery.

“Of course.” He mumbles, a little hoarse. His heart is screaming at his head to turn, to smile at her, to show a little of the warmth they used to share for each other, in the wildest, most fanciful hope she may be reminded of it and find it in herself to forgive him there and then. In the end, he doesn’t turn. Instead, he hears the faint rustling of fabric on skin as Noa curls up a little to the side, leaning her head against the window. It falls silent again. Now Charles is the one with glossed over eyes, battling himself.

“Thank you.” Her voice, melodic as ever, cuts through the quiet. This time he does turn – but she’s not looking at him, already half asleep, eyes closed and fluttering ever so slightly underneath their lids. He watches her until he runs the risk of coming off the road. Charles knows she’s already asleep before he has the chance to say anything in reply.

Noa tends to have very vivid dreams. She remembers many a time closing her eyes and being greeted with an explosion of colour, scarlet race cars screaming down asphalt tracks, her flag: emerald, gold, deep blue, waving her across the finish line. A glinting trophy is thrust into her hands, and she lifts it high into the air, watching the crowd raise up their arms with her – a sea of red and yellow. But today, Noa closes her eyes and sees nothing but darkness. Charles is nudging her gently awake, it seems, less than a split second after falling into her slumber. Bleary-eyed, she sits up. The Leclerc house, her second home, sits gleaming in the frosty winter sunlight like a beacon. A thrill of excitement grips her heart. It’s been so long since she’s seen Pascale and Lorenzo – far, far too long. Her head turns, a half-smile on her face, to find Charles watching her. It falls. The sky seems to darken.

“You ready to go?” he asks. Noa nods solemnly, waiting for him to open the car door and climb out before sucking in a deep, shuddering breath. When she too steps out onto the pavement, her expression is steeled.

Charles is holding her bags in either of his hands. He gives her a look that, after years of knowing each other, she can interpret in an instant – Don’t even try it, I’m taking them in for you. She feels a small surge of gratefulness, but every positive emotion seems to be drowned out by her crushing nerves right now. Noa’s not exactly sure why she feels so nervous. These people are her second family, after all. Maybe it’s the nagging fear in the back of her mind that too much has changed; that things will never go back to the happy, perfect way they used to be.

The doorbell ringing brings her back the present. They’re stood on the front porch now, shoulder to shoulder, tense and stiff. Noa pulls at a loose thread on her joggers, focussing with absolute resolve on the door in front of her – paint peeling away ever so slightly at the edge. She knows if she brushed her fingers over it, they would come away dusted with white paint flakes. A second, maybe two passes. The door swings open.

All her nerves simply melt away as soon as she sees Pascale; arms already held out wide and motherly, eyes glistening with soon-to-be-shed tears, and the most genuine smile Noa has ever seen anyone wear. She looks only slightly older than she remembers. A few more wrinkles perhaps, a couple more grey hairs, but in essence, exactly the same. Constant. At least this much hasn’t changed.

“Ma fille!” My girl. Pascale gasps loudly. She’s rushing forwards, pulling Noa inside and engulfing her in a hug before she even knows what is happening – but the familiarity of it is so easy to melt into. The young woman rests her forehead briefly against her shoulder, suddenly unable to stop smiling, when before she’d been wondering how she would manage to fake one. Of course, she’s known all along how much she’s missed Pascale. The woman has been like a second mother to her for practically a decade. But being here now makes her realise the full force of the emotion. It feels like returning home after a long vacation, when all you want to do is sleep in the comfort of your own bed and relish in the sensation of being utterly safe. That’s how Pascale feels to Noa. Safe.

“Oh, look at you!” she gasps again, pulling away to place her hands on either of Noa’s cheeks. “You’ve grown so beautiful!”

In the two years it’s been since she last saw the Leclercs, Noa has blossomed. From a scrawny eighteen-year-old with skinny elbows and seemingly untameable curls, she’s truly grown into herself. Thanks to training, she’s attained the ‘athlete’s build’ she always craved as a teenager. Days spent soaking up the Brazilian sun on Ipanema beach have bronzed her skin, giving it an almost golden hue. Perhaps it’s the salt air, but even Noa’s unruly curls seem to have matured – instead of going frizzy in the heat and falling messily over her eyes, they now frame her tanned face perfectly. Honeyed streaks of blonde run all the way through to the ends. She looks different, she knows that. But it never hits her until she meets people again who have been absent from her life for years.

“Thank you.” Noa can’t help but giggle. Pascale merely holds her tighter, seemingly inspecting every inch of her face for anything else that may have changed. She can see the surprise and the elation in her eyes – but there’s sadness too, an odd mixture, as if she’s battling with regret. Noa supposes it’s to be expected. They went from seeing each other at least every month to all but no contact for two years. Pascale is as affected by it as she is.

As soon as Noa is released from her grip, she turns to face the other Leclerc brothers, who have been watching the whole time with fond smiles and wide eyes. She goes to Lorenzo first, since Arthur has already seen her fairly recently. The eldest of the brothers opens him arms to her gladly, and she steps straight into them. Lorenzo has always been like her protector. As the boys got older and, as boys tended to do, teased her or played too rough (case in point Arthur almost drowning her at the beach one time), he was always the one to give her a hug and scold them afterwards. With only little brothers (Charles didn’t count, as her best friend), Lorenzo was to her the older brother she never had but always found herself wishing for.

“Woah, how much have you grown? A foot?” he says, pulling away only slightly so her arms are still clasped around his back, and his come to rest on her shoulders. Noa giggles softly. It was a long standing joke that, even at eighteen, she barely rose to the height of Charles or Lorenzo’s shoulder. Miraculously, her long-awaited growth spurt arrived once most girls her age stopped growing entirely. Now she stands at a fairly respectable five foot six – though still short enough for Lorenzo to use her head as an arm rest, he quickly realises. Noa waves him away with a playful glare.

“Did he talk to you in the car? Or was it deathly silent?” he asks, not even needed to use Charles’ name for her to know exactly who he is talking about. His eyebrows raise as if he’s joking, but Noa can sense the hard edge of frustration in his voice. She smiles at him sheepishly.

“I wouldn’t know. I fell asleep.”

Lorenzo snorts. That’s all they say on the matter, because Arthur is soon weaselling his way in between them to give her a welcome hug. Apparently, a minute is far too long for his brother to spend with her whilst he’s stuck waiting on the sidelines.

Charles’ feet padding on the carpeted staircase draw Noa’s eyes unwillingly to him. She hadn’t even noticed him exit the room, too caught up in reunions and holding back tears to pay much attention to her surroundings. He’s taken her bags up to her room, he tells her. She merely nods in reply. The tension doesn’t remain for long – Pascale doesn’t let it. Soon enough, everyone is gathering in the kitchen, all proud, knowing smiles from the Leclercs and gasps from Noa as she catches sight of the ‘welcome home’ banner strung up across the archway. She’d known, of course, that they were planning something, thanks to Charles’ warning, but she didn’t expect something like this. They’ve brought another long, wooden table from God knows where into the room, placing it end to end with the main kitchen table to make more room for the spread set out across it. A white floral tablecloth covers the wood, and on top of it, tiered stands of seemingly all the food she could ever eat – fresh strawberries, watermelon, French cheese (which Noa had been introduced to by the Leclercs, and was shocked to find she actually loved), pineapple, even some chocolate and cupcakes (something she’ll later say is just a one off to her nutritionist), and finally, in the very centre, a bowl full of paçoca, her favourite childhood sweet. She remembers Charles calling her strange for essentially eating peanut butter on its own – but even today, it really is her one weakness.

“Oh, meu Deus.” Oh my God. She whispers. Her hand flies up to cover her mouth, holding back the half-sob she can feel bubbling up in her throat. “This – this is too much. You really didn’t have to –“

“Noa.” It’s Arthur that cuts her off, rolling his eyes fondly, “Just let us do something nice for you. Call it a late birthday gift.” He adds with a smirk. Noa scoffs. A part of her had thought maybe they wouldn’t remember her birthday – of course, she was wrong about that.

“This is amazing.” She speaks up softly after a moment, “Thank you so much.” Her throat closes around the words ever-so-slightly, vision blurring, heart aching in the best way possible. Pascale moves forward to pull her body into hers, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head.

“We missed you so much, petit ange.” She murmurs, “We’re just glad to have you back with us.”

I’m glad too, Noa thinks. She’s not naïve enough to believe it will all be smooth sailing from here; not as long as the pair of sad green eyes burning into her back remain. But this, she believes fully, this she can deal with. Reuniting with her second family has been a long time coming.

They eat like it’s the old times, bar Noa and Charles’ playful bickering (fallen flat, almost dead now). Pascale insists on piling her plate as high as possible, mumbling something about athlete’s diets being too sparse (or at least, that’s what she could make out with her questionable French vocabulary). Arthur doesn’t spare a thought before diving straight into the cupcake and chocolate stand, ignoring his mother’s protests about him letting their ‘guest’ choose first. Lorenzo opts for the fresh fruit more than the confectionary. Charles tries to resist the pull of sugar, better than Arthur admittedly, but his attempts are short lived. By any right, that amount of food should never disappear as quickly as it does – but before they know it, every last morsel is gone. Noa sits back in her seat, deep in conversation with Pascale about latest goings on in her family life, finding her eyes growing heavier with each passing second. Everything around her feels pleasantly hazy; comfortable. It’s the same way she feels sat at home with her parents and her brother after a good meal, lounged on the living room sofas watching cheesy Brazilian telenovelas. Like she’s safe to just be herself.

Pascale tells Lorenzo, Charles and Arthur to collect all the dirty plates and begin the washing up. They know that refusing isn’t an option, so it isn’t long before she and Noa are alone. It must be mid-afternoon by now, the Brazilian woman thinks, but her limbs are as heavy as if she’s stayed up all night and well into the morning – which, she supposes, technically she has. Pascale is observant enough to have already noticed, luckily for her. They’ve spent all of five minutes talking in the living room when she tells her to go up to her room and sleep off the jet lag.

“Oh, but –“ Noa is quick to interject, “I haven’t even asked how things are going for you yet.” She says guiltily. Pascale has been so fixated on catching up with every single moment of the last two years she has missed, that there hasn’t even been time to cover anything else. Noa is acutely aware that the last time they saw each other, it had only been a year since Hervé passed away. She knows as well as anybody that sometimes the people that look the most put-together are the ones who are struggling the most. She just wants to make certain that Pascale is doing ok – truly ok.

“I’ll still be here tomorrow.” The woman reassures her with a gentle chuckle. Noa’s concerned expression falls into a tired, but content smile. That’s the beauty of it – right now, they really do have all the time in the world to catch up. Until of course the new season begins. But three weeks before her soon-to-be packed schedule feels like a lifetime.

Noa retreats slowly upstairs, not so much as sparing a glance towards her unpacked bags, or even attempting to change out of her airport clothes before she collapses onto the bed, and almost immediately falls straight to sleep. The ease with which she already seems to have slipped back into life in the Leclerc house (which almost feels like home) is unexpected, but by no means unwelcome. She just hopes she’ll be able to carry that feeling of safety with her into the coming weeks, when undoubtedly, some difficult conversations will need to be had.

By the time the Leclerc brothers have finished the washing up – a difficult task, what with Charles and Arthur squabbling over who gets to dry the plates and who has to do the unpleasant job of actually washing them, whilst Lorenzo, serene as ever, allocates himself the task of sorting the various items of crockery away – Pascale is sat alone in the living room. She looks calm, quietly assured, but at the same time, they can sense a level of disappointment that wasn’t there before. Charles fears, before his mother’s gaze even turns in his direction, that that disappointment is meant for him.

“Où est allée Noa?” Where did Noa go? Lorenzo asks, taking the seat next to Pascale and looping his arm fondly around her shoulders. Arthur, not so delicately, throws himself face down on the long sofa facing the television, leaving Charles to occupy the lone arm chair on the other side of the room. It’s ironic, that he’s separated from his family that way, when he’s been feeling separated emotionally for far longer.

“A l'étage. Pour dormir.” Upstairs. To sleep. Pascale answers, soft-spoken as ever. Lorenzo nods, as Arthur flips his body around on the sofa so he’s no longer lying face down, but rather looking up towards the ceiling.

“Ah. Le décalage horaire?” Ah. Jet lag?

“Oui.”

Charles stays quiet. He knows full well his family are waiting for him to say something – maybe they’re not sure what, but then again, he isn’t either. Noa hasn’t spoken a single word to him. All of her attention has been directed towards his mum and her questions, or to his brothers and their playful teasing about how much she’s grown. That still doesn’t take away from the fact that he knows she’s doing it on purpose. Most of him doesn’t blame her, but there’s a small part in the back of his mind that feels almost…betrayed. It takes two to end a friendship, after all. Noa didn’t exactly attempt to salvage the wreck they’d made.

“Well I think that went pretty well.” Arthur speaks up first in French, staring up at the ceiling with his arms crossed over his stomach. Charles looks over, trying to catch his eye. He must sense it, but his gaze remains turned away. Another beat of silence passes.

“She’s quieter.” Lorenzo says thoughtfully. He’s right too. It’s not just in the way that she doesn’t talk half as much as she used to, it’s something in her demeanour as well. There used to be a spark in Noa’s eye that Charles would look towards whenever he needed cheering up. Now when he searches for it, there’s layers upon layers shrouding the once happy memory. Like he’s peering through thick fog, trying to make out a landscape he’s long since forgotten.

“Je ne suis pas surpris.” I’m not surprised. Arthur muses. All eyes turn to him, Lorenzo frowning, Pascale already prepared to question what exactly he means by that. Charles thinks he knows. “Oh, come on. It’s obvious isn’t it?” the youngest of the Leclercs scoffs, sitting up from his relaxed position on the sofa. His eyes are dark, frustrated, perhaps even angry. “First he takes her chance at being offered a Formula 1 seat – with Ferrari, her dream team.” Arthur begins, jabbing a harsh finger in Charles’ direction. He winces, “Then her mother almost dies, and she has to give up her career just to be with her. She’s a Senna Borges. Racing is in her blood. And we all know how hard she worked, just to fall short at the final hurdle – not even through her own fault.” He takes a pause to breathe, eyes now blazing. Charles, Lorenzo and Pascale sit watching in some kind of fascinated horror. It’s rare to see Arthur so worked up. He’s always been the kind of person that can make light of any situation, no matter how grim. But there’s something about Noa and the cruel hand she’s been dealt in life lately that makes his blood boil.

“Now she’s finally made it to Formula 1, where she deserves to be, but she’s also stuck with the person who ruined that dream for her the first time around.” He goes on, turning now to Charles, “Look, I don’t care about what happened between you two. There’s nothing you can do to change it now. But Noa is like a sister to me, and as long as you both refuse to talk to each other, we’re never going to feel like a family to her again. Like we used to.” Arthur speaks, almost alarmingly softly, his jaw clenched hard, “For once just stop being so selfish and look at this from someone else’s perspective. Preferably hers. You know you owe it to her after –“

“Arthur!” Pascale’s voice cuts through the tense atmosphere like a knife, silencing her youngest son immediately, “Do not call your brother selfish. You don’t understand the full story – none of us do.”

That seems to bring him back to his senses. Everything falls silent, but also on the brink of chaos, teetering on a knife edge. Nobody except Lorenzo notices the faint tremor in Pascale’s hand, which he tries to quell by rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. Charles is sat, rigid back, white knuckles, in the arm chair, glaring at Arthur from across the room. Meanwhile the aforementioned blinks as if he’s just awakened from a trance.

"Je suis désolé." I’m sorry. He murmurs, “I don’t know what –“

“Maman’s right.” Charles cuts him off tersely, “You don’t know the full story. You don’t know the things I said to her that night, or the things she said to me…” he trails off, breathing shakily even at the memory of it, “But you’re also right. I took the opportunity of a lifetime from her. She has every right to be angry at me, every right to hate me. That’s why I’m trying to make this right – and believe me, Arthur, I am trying. It’s just…it’s hard.” Charles’ gaze drops to the ground, almost shamefully, “So much has changed.”

Guilt is the most overwhelming part of this whole mess. Even though much of the misfortune that Noa has endured in the past two years has been entirely unrelated to him, he still can’t help but feel partly responsible. Perhaps it was his actions, something at the time he considered to be a mercy, that began the snowball effect. Perhaps if he’d never accepted Ferrari’s call, even though he so desperately wanted it, everything would be as perfect as he remembers. There’s so much uncertainty it’s impossible to predict. But Charles knows, at least from his side of the story, ever since the moment Noa walked out of his life, it’s gradually been growing duller and duller and duller. In a sick sort of way, he half hopes it has been the same for her.

“You do know she could never hate you, right?” Arthur speaks up softly. Charles’ gaze lifts from the ground, eyebrows furrowing inquisitively, “Mon dieu you’re both so stubborn.” He laughs humourlessly, shaking his head, “Noa may act like she can’t even look at you right now, but I know her just as well as you do. Maybe even better now, if you can’t see it.” He arches an eyebrow, “She’s hurting, Charles. You know what she does when she’s hurting? She pushes the people she cares about the most away.”

Winter break, 2014, Charles thinks. Of course. How could he forget?

“I’m just saying,” Arthur goes on, “If you mess this up any more than you already have, then she will end up hating you. But I can see it. Right now, she doesn’t. Not even close.”

Later, Pascale says something to him of the same effect. Hurt can fester. There are only two ways that things can go from here, with them both being kept so close to each other for the first time in so long. Either it brings them closer together – they work through their differences, overcome the mountains that stand in their way, and emerge on the other side even stronger because of it. Or, they’ll push each other away.

“I know what I would do if I were you.” Pascale tells him solemnly, “But you two need to figure this out on your own.”

It’s easy to say that, Charles thinks, when you haven’t made the mistakes they’ve both made. It’s so easy to imagine himself explaining how he thought he’d be protecting her by not telling her Ferrari had approached him. In his mind, she’ll listen and understand, and everything will go back to the way it used to be. But every time he runs the words he might say to her through his mind, he draws a blank. What mere words can salvage the ruins of a near decade-long friendship? What words can do justice the longing he feels to have her back in his life, not just as a distant memory, a relative stranger, but as his best friend. And even if he could find the words, there’s no guarantee Noa will even listen to them. Despite everything, she seems set on keeping her distance. Maybe Charles doesn’t blame her. Or maybe he wishes she’d fight a little harder.

taglist: @harrysdimple05 @ricciardosheart @azxulaa @cxcewg @dakotali @hopingforpeace @flowerchild-69 @destourtereaux @wordsthatwaterflowersinyoursoul @luckyladycreator2 @roseamongthorns13 @chasing-liberosis @laneyspaulding19 @lordperceval-16 @sainzluvrr

if you’d like to be added to the taglist just leave a comment on this post!

142 notes · View notes

adrianfridge · 1 year

Text

Teen Wolf is a werewolf soap opera horror that gradually changes into a gritty horror thriller. And I’d like to explore that in terms of its campiness.

For me, the campiness is determined by the personality of the villain. I’m going to focus on their theoretical willingness to put on the most flamboyant outfits, but that’s merely an illustration of their vibes.

Season 1 has Peter and Kate, who, if we’re being honest, would both go on stage wearing just the most glitter, feathers, and wig to have an epic lip syncing battle. There would be surprise outfit reveals and at least one would do a split. It would go down in history. 10/10 perfection

Season 2 has Matt and Gerard. Matt would only reluctantly put on an outfit, and it’d be something spandex to emulate the superhero comics he reads. Meanwhile Gerard would be eating up the frenzy that Kate and Peter left behind. His outfit would be more grand than both of them combined. He only pretends he’s retired while being the Final Boss of Drag Race. 9/10 some hesitation to cheer for an incel but grandpa can work those high heels

Season 3A has Jennifer and Deucalion. Jennifer is gothic rock opera chic. She’ll flip her hair while singing soprano in an obsidian gown. And Deucalion? He’s gone mad from losing to Gerard at Drag Race, and now he��s back for a rematch, this time with a BDSM-kink themed outfit to display he’s gone darkside. 8/10 trying a little hard but I can get behind it

Season 3B is the Nogitsune. It’s here when the show begins to get more serious, which I think is the wrong lesson the writing room took from its popularity. The Nogitsune has multiple outfit changes. It is kabuki theater. It is a troll dressed as Stiles while wearing the most bombastic display of practical special effects. There’s a smoke machine running underneath the robe that lights up with each step while a soundtrack plays. 100/10 Megamind would be proud

Season 4 is a mixed bag. It promises a rematch of Peter and Kate, but it doesn’t do either of them justice. Instead they’re pushed to the sideline in favor of a more traditional thriller Benefactor arc. The one highlight is the episode 4x07, Weaponized, which has The Chemist bringing back the pizazz (highly recommended; the episode is practically a one shot with everything you love from the early seasons). 5/10 averages to meh

Seasons 5-6 are entirely dedicated to seriousness.

Season 5A is Theo and the Dread Doctors. Theo is like if you took Matt and then squeezed out any joy. He’d refuse to dress up because he’d feel it’s beneath him. Meanwhile the Dread Doctors, who are already in full Steampunk attire, are doing nothing with it. As stiff as mannequins. All business, no play. They’re just here to get the job done and leave. 3/10 but has the potential

In season 5B we get Valack and the Beast, aka Sebastien. Valack, whose power is to disguise himself as other people, is the type to hate costumes. He’s going to wear an accurate reproduction of a medical professional, and he’s going to be annoying about it. Sebastien tries to be camp but it comes off like a parent incorrectly using lingo to try to be hip around their child. No one wants to see it. 1/10 please stop

Season 6A has… a literal Nazi. And the Ghost Riders, who only know how to walk a cat walk. They’d make great supermodels if their job wasn’t to make people forget they exist. 0/10 I want my money back

Season 6B is just straight up trying to be an allegory for modern day political discourse. There’s also the Anuk-Ite, a creepy-pasta knock-off of the greatest hits. You can’t even look at it without being turned to stone. -100/10 I’d rather fight a muskrat on twatter

Ultimately, my point is you lose much of the dramatic flair after season 3B. For many people, such as myself, it’s a disservice to why I started the show. But for other people it’s a good turn since they prefer the gritty realness. It ends up being one of the many reasons for the split in fandom over the direction of the show. And I can bet money that the movie is going to suck all the glamor out of the Nogitsune in favor of the same sort of straight-laced horror the later seasons embodied. Which is to say some people will love it, and it’s not going to be me or Megamind.

#teen wolf meta #teen wolf

149 notes · View notes

thehorrortree · 23 days

Text

Deadline: July 31st, 2024 Payment: $0.02 per word Theme: Science fiction, fantasy, slipstream, and everything in between Story Guidelines Flash Point Science Fiction wants speculative fiction stories from 100 to 1,000 words in length. Send us your science fiction, fantasy, slipstream, and everything in between, so long as it’s short. We here at FPSF are partial to flash fiction and want to see the flash market grow. So as much as it pains us, please take your 10,000 word tour de force elsewhere. We’re not looking for the next Brandon Sanderson. (Unless you are, in fact, Brandon Sanderson, in which case we’d be delighted!) What we’re looking for: -Fantasy (all kinds—epic, adventure, contemporary, urban, grimdark, fairy tale, magical realism, myths and legends, etc.) -Science Fiction (all kinds—hard, space opera, military, near future, science fantasy, cyberpunk, dystopian, etc.) -Slipstream (make it as weird as you want, so long as it works) -Seasonal (we love stories with holiday and/or seasonal themes, but please submit AT LEAST 3 months in advance of the relevant occasion) -Anything that makes us laugh, cry, think, or smile. What we aren’t looking for: -Horror—it can be spooky or menacing, but we’re not a horror market, so the fright factor should not be the primary appeal. DARK fantasy and sci-fi, however, are welcome. -Literary fiction—this is a genre market, so there needs to be an SF&F element, however slight. -Gratuitous sex or violence—we’re big fans of Love Death + Robots, but don’t be that guy. -Fanfic—original concepts only, please. We know there was a lot going on in Hobbiton while Frodo was away, but that’s not our property and it’s not yours either. -Stories previously published in a different language. Submission Specs In terms of how your story should look, we recommend you read William Shunn’s Proper Manuscript Format. This is the industry standard and we think it’s a good one. When we receive your manuscript file, we will expect it to be in this format (as a .doc or .docx file). Poorly formatted submissions may be rejected unread. Please do not submit to us via email directly. Submissions received in this manner will be deleted unread. We do not accept unsolicited reprints. Even if it was posted on a personal blog or website, so long as it’s public anyone who has access to the internet can read it, and that qualifies as publication. No simultaneous submissions. This means you shouldn’t submit the same story to us and any other market at the same time. No multiple submissions. One story at a time please. Authors we have previously accepted: we prefer to publish only one story per author per calendar year. Please wait for us to announce open submissions for the next year (typically in September) before submitting new work to us. Our normal response time is 30 days. If our response is taking longer, this likely means your story is being given special consideration, but if you haven’t heard back after 60 days, please contact us and we’ll bump your story to the front of the line. Please wait the full 60 days before reaching out. If we were fast readers, we wouldn’t be reading flash, right? Wrong, we still would, because we love it. Note: Flash Point SF welcomes submissions from writers of all races, colors, religions, genders, gender expressions, ages, national origins, disabilities, and sexual orientations. No matter who you are, we want to give you a voice (provided that voice stays under 1,000 words)! Still have questions? Check out this interview with the editors in which we discuss what FPSF looks for in great flash fiction. Payment We pay $0.02 per word for first worldwide rights and for non-exclusive reprint rights. We also reserve the non-exclusive right to republish your story in our annual anthology, as long as this right is activated within 24 calendar months of the story’s original publication date. These anthologies are anticipated to consist entirely of material originally published by Flash Point SF.

SUBMIT HERE (Optional) After you submit, track your submissions at Duotrope. Via: Flash Point Science Fiction.

16 notes · View notes

dreamiesformula · 2 years

Text

Dilemma pt. 1 - Charles Leclerc

{Slow burn & series}

Warnings: mentions of cheating, harassment, sexism, swearing and for those of you who don’t like imagines that involve non F1 related themes there is some K-pop written into this. (Y/n is adoptive sister to a K-pop idol nothing romantic related).

Disclaimer: I am hoping people like this enough to turn it into a progressive series, so please if you liked the content, writing or anything like that let me know. Sorry if it’s shit I’m still getting back into writing after 2 years away from actual stories.

Love always ❤️

———————————————————

Y/n spent a long time working for this pulled from the W series after just her first season, to be a driver for Haas who were down one driver before testing rounds for the new 22’ car they needed someone and Gunther was please with the pick his very own “breath of fresh air” as he put it. She worked so hard to prove him right and going into the first race all looked promising, she was determined to prove not just for Gunther but all fans that she could race just as well as any man on the grid it was now the day of the Bahrain Grand Prix and to say you were anxious was an understatement. You had grown close with a few drivers on the grid them wanting to protect you your big brother squad if you will which consisted of Daniel Riccardo, Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri bottas and George Russel. They never gave you any advantages on track as they knew you wanted to race fair plus they wanted their jobs, but they did all grow to love you like family, Daniel in particular he could tell when you were anxious, hyper, depressed, drained or on verge of breaking down. Unbeknownst to you so could a driver you barely interacted with Charles Leclerc, he had taken interest to you while an eligible bachelor it was funny how he wasn’t interested in anyone else until you came onto the grid he knew he wasn’t the only one but he was here to race and that’s what he’d do! Apparently so were you, P5 in your debut F1 race the garage erupted you swear you could hear them even as you crossed the chequered flag.

Y/n’s perspective

It was a high like no other while P1,2&3 were a dream coming P5 cemented what my point was, I was here to race and race my little heart out I would. The whole garage including my teammate group hugging revealing is what we both achieved P5 and P11 in a Haas, fucking mental. Mick came over and hugged me while I knew there was pictures I didn’t care “you killed it” I hear him whisper I shove him back pointing towards both of our bodies “no we killed it” laughing pulling him in for another victory hug.

It was a nice sight to see drivers happy however I noticed some weren’t so happy, I know how much racing means to them all so I make my rounds congratulating and trying to cheer up where possible. They seemed more astounded by me coming to hype or cheer them up than I expected it was just what I was used to doing, after all we are all humans and feeling down on yourself was the worst. I go back to the team shortly after for briefing and team meetings, then to media for interviews nothing but supportive questions so far which made me calm a lot and then finally a shower and change into my clothes I wore a baggy graffiti style tee that had the tag ICON and black ripped jeans with white airforces. On my way out I see the gang aka the brother squad talking in the paddock I go up to them putting my bravest face on “I can’t believe him of all people” I hear Daniel scoff “hiii” I surprise them all “oh shit” seb let’s out before they burst into laughter “whatca talking about” I ask only to be shut down but bottas “nothing important” he shrugs nice I’m being left out of gossip how rude “we were gonna go for a few drinks and dinner want to come?” Danny asks wide eyed and hopeful “yeah sure why not, I’ll go get changed” I smile and they scoff in sync “nothing fancy please keep as you are, we’re starving we want fast not fancy” George pats your back and you nod “we’ll hurry I’m hungry” I stomp my foot tryna fake anger only for them to laugh at me. Unbeknownst to y/n boys were all sharing a knowing look being that close with the girl that quickly they knew she was having a hard time, her boyfriend cheated on her, she moved to F1 and she was falling hopelessly in love with a driver who had some seriously pressing love life issues. They vowed to protect her from any hurt from anyone outside F1 or inside it, she was quite literally their happy virus she was too fragile and precious to them to be ruined, she was the type to fall hard a quick they learnt that quickly.

We arrived at a restaurant and I felt really under dressed so much for nothing fancy “bro I look homeless compared to these other girls” I look around at ball gown, formal and sequence dresses “you look fine, you just finished a race I bet half the girls here couldn’t do what you did today” Daniel pats my back my phone buzzed and I see the contact name ‘do NOT answer’ my best friend back home Chris did that so I wouldn’t pick up my exs calls real easy to remember when drinking “whose that” Daniel whispers “cheating ex” I choke out why wouldn’t he leave me alone I broke it off 2 months ago “block him?” He suggests “calls me off other phones and numbers” I sigh “dude that’s harassment” I laugh dryly “oh trust me I know” I roll my eyes my ex was back in South Korea now, it was confusing for many reasons one being I was adopted, my adoptive brother was a K-pop star in a popular group and I don’t know my real parents, I never wish to either. He got me into karting when I was 6 and from there I fell in love with speed and racing, he was my guardian angel he saved me, gave me a second chance at life. The boys were yet to know this yet, my first language was Korean, then English which I learnt with help from my friend Chris who was Australian and now here I am Daniel Ricardo’s mini me according to most the McLaren team already, same vibe different body I guess. Dinner was accompanied by drinks and quite a few of them more than needed considering we would be having to be up the next morning at 8 am for a flight at 10 am to Saudi Arabia I was on the same plane and Daniel, Seb and George to my knowledge, I was happy hanging out with my friends feeling like I fit in until I heard a certain shocked monegasque enter the establishment “oh hello” he stands in front of our table some Ferrari higher ups and Carlos with him great now I wanna die in a hole, “hello winners” I smile my phone rings again and Daniel checks it “Christoper🐺” is calling I answer quickly excusing myself “Channie!” I smile through the phone “you killed it out there, we had a schedule but I just watched your race, I am so proud of you” I was gonna cry “thank you Chan I love you” I missed home “when do we see our little star again?” He asks his accent seeping deep telling me he was tired “probably not for another 3 weeks” I sigh they were so busy preparing for their comebacks “we will be here okay” I smile at his reassuring words “I better go back before the guys think I’ve been kidnapped, I love you Channie. Take care of yourself please” I hear him sigh slightly “love you too y/n/n” and with that he hung up. I walk back inside “superstar there you are” bottas smiles laughing along side the boys.

Charles perspective

I shouldn’t be so hung up over another driver let alone one looking this strong early on sure she wasn’t gonna be in the championship running in a Haas but any driver is competition, Carlos must have noticed my far away gazes “you’re gonna make it obvious if you stare any longer” he whispers as he nudged me. “What do you mean?” I laugh away the burning as I watch her get closer to Daniel and whisper something in his ear “you’re little fascination with the Haas girl” Carlos was being dead serious he wasn’t letting this one go. “Dude it’s nothing don’t worry” he chuckles painfully it wasn’t nothing right now she was his everything in way he wanted to win to show off, partially for her partially for him. “Just talk to her, the sex eyes aren’t going to work on this one” he pats my back and I knew he was right she wasn’t gonna be easy to make mine but I was determined, I should maybe actually talk to her before falling stupidly in love. However he knew it was a bit too late for that you had him aware of it or not. After seeing you make friends, smile, laugh act silly and carefree during testing he was sold. Oh boy did you have him. They enjoyed dinner with the team mangers but Charles was in another world for half of it “thank you for meeting us again, congratulations let’s continue to do Ferrari proud” they shake us drivers hands and leave Carlos grabbing me by the shirt over to where the gang of drivers still sit chatting “mind if we join?” Carlos smirks at the group “come on sit down boys” Daniel laughs shoving over as we squish in I am somehow sat next to y/n thighs touching arms almost interlocked, fucking Carlos. “How’re you feeling after your win?” I hear the angelic like voice to my side ask while the table is entertained in their own conversations “pretty good, weirdly lonely but it feels good to be up their” I smile being uncharacteristically open with her, “well trust me I’ll always be here if you need” she smiles and I feel comfortable but she’s simply being friendly “what about you P5 is amazing” looking for excuses to hear her talk “honestly I can’t believe it still, I just wanna make everyone proud. I gotta fight extra hard to prove myself” she looks down to her chest and I think I know what she means, it must be tough “you’re setting an amazing example for race fans and future racers around the world” I put my hand in hers “thank you that means more than I can explain” I felt like the world stopped when I spoke to her gosh I was 24 acting like a kid in love.

The night ended shortly after a few more drinks, some laughs and we all headed back to the hotel. When I let go of her hand I realised I missed the close feeling of her skin on mine, as weird as that sounded. She wasn’t the most of that made sense, I’d dated models, famous content creators the lot but she was just so real for a racing driver she wasn’t the slimmest, not that had much to effect on how I felt but I could already imagine the articles. I went on my own tangent in my mind to didn’t realise I was sitting beside her in the car back to the hotel until I felt a head on my shoulder, upon looking down I noticed the girl asleep on my shoulder smiling to myself. “Don’t get too comfortable, you’ll be lucky if we let you near her again” seb warns a serious tone telling me he’s not joking “what?” I question confused “you’re not using the new driver and our friend as a rebound” Daniel quickly interjects it became clear what they meant after his break up he stupidly admitted to some the the driver he was looking for someone to fill the time until his ex realised he was the one and come running back. But he knew that not to be the case now, “I promise it’s more than that” but they just scoff are me clearly I had to work to gain the trust of her gate keepers.

Y/n’s perspective

I wake up in my hotel room alone and confused as my alarm sounds I don’t remember coming back, maybe I had one too many. My phone was on charge there was water and pain killers on my table, who put me to bed? Anyways I check the time and it’s 7:00 am I had to leave in less than an hour I showered and got changed into some green joggers, my white airforces, white oversized shirt and matching green bomber jacket. When I go to do my hair however there’s a knock on the door and I see Charles standing there “good morning” he smiles how is he so put together at this god forsaken time “hiya” I mumble letting him in “you look nice” he smiles and I feel my insides flip “thanks not too bad yourself, lord knows how you’re awake right now” I chuckle to myself “I brought you a toasted sandwich ham, cheese and tomato Daniel said it was your favourite and a iced mocha” he had the purest of looks on his face “you’re an angel Leclerc” this wasn’t helping how I felt though the act of friendship getting twisted in my stupid little head. “Only for you mon chéri” boom there goes my sanity “I appreciate it a lot, I know we aren’t close but it’s sweet of you to do this for me” I smile looking him in the eyes as my heart beat picks up what was he doing to me “ayo kiddo you awake” I freeze for a second as Daniel’s voice booms “ayo old fart what’s up” I chuckle opening the door to him near hugging me “we gotta head soon you have 20 minutes let’s move it, move it” he swats me away with his hands to tell me to pack my shit. Forgetting about the Ferrari driver currently in my bathroom I start cleaning like crazy “oh hey Daniel” I hear Charles awkwardly cough “h-hi” he stuttered like we was afraid “Charles is too sweet danny he brought my brekkie and checked up on me” blushing clifhtly as you say it out loud “how friendly of him” Daniel says as a pang hits your heart but your phone interrupts it ringing loudly with the cursed “do NOT answer” appearing on screen “not this prick again” Daniel groans “just another day in my life danny it’s fine” I dry chuckle he couldn’t just fuck off he was the one who cheated. “He’s getting out of hand” Daniel puts his hand on my shoulder to comfort me “you can only tell someone to stop so many times I can’t force him to do anything, just like he can’t force me to pick up. It’s been almost 3 months he’s seeing me thriving he wants money that’s all” I smile bitterly.

Charles felt out of place listening in on this, but he gained an amazing insight into who you were. You were clearly in a position of moving on you didn’t seem sad or hurt more angered and distressed, you confirmed to him you were single and that was a positive he took with great care.

You had forgot he was there again for a minute “Mon Ange, I’m gonna go I’ll see you later” he came closer to me and hugged me good “have a safe flight Charles I’ll see you later” the heat rising to my cheeks “okay what the fuck was that” Daniel says a little too loudly I just continue packing up “dude don’t ignore me” he whines “you and charles?” He questions “did nothing, I don’t think he’d take advantage of a drunk girl, plus he just came to check on me” I smile blissfully unaware of the nicknames he’d called me but thinking they sounded so cute coming from him his accent gosh I could listen forever. “Be careful of him kiddo. He’s not all he seems” with that he grabbed your full suitcase and put it with his in the hallway you have your wallet, passport, phone, keys and AirPods with you in you’re jacket pockets and grabbed the duffle bag having everything packed drinking the last of the mocha you’d sipped throughout the ordeal and devouring the sandwich both of which were surprisingly tasty. “Let’s hit the road riccy” you stroll past him collecting your suitcase from the hallways and striding toward the elevator, “do you like him” Daniel gave you once chance to be honest he knew the answer but wanted to confirm it “more than I should” I sigh hoping it’d go unnoticed.

Fast forward to Saudi Arabia pre race

“What’s your home Grand Prix?” The interviewer asked me as I sat in the hot seat for some video they were doing I had been here for a good 10 minutes answering weird questions “ah I don’t have one” I smiled the boys were all watching they’d assumed I was something I wasn’t I guess sure I was born Australian not that I knew until I was 20 but I raced under the South Korean flag cause when you’re adopted you have to become a citizen I had nothing that tied me to my actual life. “I was raised in South Korea, with my adoptive father, adoptive mother and older brother, I don’t race under my birth countries flag cause I’m not a citizen anymore I haven’t been since I was like 2.” I chuckle I look behind the camera to see the reactions of my fellow drivers most just look shocked as for the most part I did not appear Korean but that’s what happens when you’re adopted into a family of a different culture than your birth one, it didn’t hurt anyone and I loved my family. “Okay then moving on, what’s your birthday” what were these questions man “ah it’s y/bd” I was grow more uncomfortable by the second “wait you’re only 21?” The interviewer himself seemed shocked “ah yeah for you all I’m 20 however korean age I am 21, Daniel calls me kiddo for a reason” I laugh “a literal child” he calls from the back of the camera causing everyone to laugh “final question?” Before he can ask “hit me with it interviewer man” I say ready to get this over with “if you could date any driver on the grid who and why?” I looked dumbfounded “excuse me?” I had to clarify I heard what I did he goes to repeat it “I heard your question, I’m not answering it.” I look him dead in the eyes “bipolar much, you’re lucky you have tits or else everyone would be sick of your attitude” he mutters thinking I couldn’t hear and with that I stand up “you wouldn’t ask a male driver who they’d fuck on the grid so why should it be okay to ask me?” I raise my voice to get my point across taking my mic pack off and leaving the studio my press officer hot on my toes “y/n you can’t do that” he said I turned around seeing red “no. No you don’t get to stand there and say it I don’t care how it looked ask them to edit it, make them take it out but I will not be treated different in interviews just because I have tits” I set my ground down “I understand trust me I get it I have a daughter and if this was her I’d be just as upset, but we have to uphold and image of you, I’ll do my best to get it out. But please know I am not going to scold you I just want to protect you okay” he smiles and I feel bad for going off at him “I’m sorry and thank you Tony” I felt awful so I just disappeared for a while crying in my drivers room and listening to sad songs I had in my playlist probably way too loudly, it was bound to come eventually the sexist question just didn’t expect it this soon.

I had to stay at the track for free practice and so exhausted from sobbing for an hour I must’ve passed out, *knock knock* I wake up sometime later to a banging on my door “mon Ange, can you let me in we’re worried about you” I stood shell shocked “please y/n, let us in” I heard a aussie accent call it wasn’t just Charles I open the door to a decent chunk of the drivers on the grid I looked like shit. Tears stained my cheeks, my eyes were red and I looked pale, I could hear Gunther in the hallways yelling “they asked her what?” He was furious but it didn’t sound like he was gonna rip me a new one “come on y/n, let’s go to catering…” Charles lightly grabs my hand and I freeze the boys stare at what’s occurring as they all realise quite quickly this was more mutual than they thought but your phone buzzing interrupting everyone as massive letters “do NOT answer” appear on screen I decline the call quickly and grab my ID pass, secretly placing my hand back into Charles’ and let them lead the way “we are all gonna have lunch with you” George pats my back knowing if I was alone I wouldn’t eat the part at least 12 drivers strong and me pile in I notice Lewis is sitting down already a long empty table accompany him “hello Lewis” I bow out of instinct he was my senior after all everyone was actually he just laughs and pulls me in for a hug. I didn’t realise everyone could be this close without it being competitive, they quite literally were all here to stand by me, with me as a driver and a human being. We all actually had a good time laughing, chatting and just being friends it was a rare and beautiful moment, Yuki and I were talking Japanese for a bit since we hadn’t really ever spoken how ever I only knew a bit of Japanese English was hard enough.

Charles’ perspective

“You’re gonna make everyone suspicious you know” Mick taunts “what?” I snap my head around to face the boy “quit heart eyeing my team mate Ferrari boy” he laughs was it really that obvious “she’s intriguing to you” Lewis adds noting the man’s fascination towards the new driver from just a few seats beside him “I know Lewis I don’t need a lecture on grid etiquette, dating a rival driver isn’t good I know I know” Lewis stops for a second “mate, as long as you’re happy” he shrugs “as long as it doesn’t effect your driving I don’t think anyone can say anything” Mick adds I guess they were right but it’s embarrassing they all could tell. “For what it’s worth I’m sure it’s mutual” Lewis whispers while passing by to get water, “I wish” I mumble in French before I know it we had to go back to our teams.

The car with me in it is dragged into the garage I finish practice “Charles what’s going on out there” my engineer asks there was nothing wrong with the car I think I was just preoccupied in my thoughts, this girl was messing with my driving and I can’t allow it I had to focus “just a bad day won’t happen again” I smile leaving before I can cop an earful. I’ll go have a shower and get changed maybe that’ll clear my head… but all I could think about was her, if this didn’t change it was gonna be awful.

Y/n’s perspective

Daniel hadn’t left my side since he returned from practice “kiddo let’s go eat, you need food” he smiles gently putting his arm around me as we walk to catering “stop calling me kiddo I’ll take your knees” I snap back playfully as he ruffles my hair. We sit down for dinner and I notice two red Ferrari shorts walk to the counter “kiddo I’ve been thinking about what you said at the hotel room” I hush him quickly and the two drivers sit behind us “what about?” I whisper “number 16” I could tell he was scheming “that, was nothing okay” he chuckles I was panicking and he knew it “y/n you can’t hide from me, you like a guy it’s natural” he rubs my shoulder. “He’s my competition if I give into my feelings everything that interviewer and any hater could say comes true. I will have dated someone on the grid purely because I’m a female” I shake my head I simply couldn’t allow to be a cliché “if that’s what you’re worried about kid, you’ve got a lot of growing up to do. You’re feeling typically don’t pass. You’re not gaining anything by being with him, respectfully you compete for survival he competes for glory” he was sincere I could tell and right yeah, he was right. “I’m just scared” but I knew he knew that “if you’re serious about this, who gives a fuck what anyone says… y/n you’re allowed to like a guy” he ruffles my hair ruining the moment in true DR3 style “way to ruin it” and with that we burst into fits of laughter eating our food finally after a heart to heart.

Charles’ perspective

“Can I just say Charles, what’s stopping you?” Carlos breaks me out of a daydream state “reality” yet he just scoffs “if you were any of us 18 other drivers looking over you, you would realise there’s more to this than unrequited love.” But his face brightens up with an idea “what do you like about her?” He asks me typing on his phone to someone.

Charles was didn’t need a minute to make a list but took his time, unaware that his friend and teammate was texting Riccardo just in front of them who Charles hadn’t seen when they walked in.

Y/n’s perspective

“Carlos wants us to be quiet and listen to what they’re saying” Daniel whispers too me so we do Charles was speaking probably louder than he intended to “y/n, mate where do I begin. She’s beautiful but in a real way, she’s not fake, an amazing driver obviously it’s amazing how she’s not scared to push boundaries, she makes me feel like the only man in the world and I barely know her… that’s sounds creepy oh gosh. She has a style like no woman I’ve met before, she doesn’t try make herself like a princess and I find it so attractive, I don’t know Carlos I really just wanna hold her after a win or a loss, I wanna be in her life” I was shocked “you’re shitting me” I whisper to Danny “I told you kid, but if he hurts you I’ll kill him” with a worryingly happy smile “he actually likes me?” Still shell shocked before I can have time to think I’m lifted off my seat and stood in front of both the Ferrari boys “y/n” Carlos grins wider than the Cheshire Cat himself I look at Charles whose yer to break eye contact with the chair in front of him. “I uh, I have to go” and with that Charles pushes past me and out the door “well that didn’t go to plan” Daniel huffs I turn around running after him I see him run to his driver room at the last second follow knocking gently on the now closed door “go away” I hear snapped at the closed wood and a crash I wiggle the handle and it comes loose I pear in to see a huffing Charles Leclerc and a smashed plate laying on the ground. My feet move before I can think and I go to see if he’s alright “are you okay, are you hurt, cut?” I look at his hands no blood or cuts thankfully “this is so embarrassing” he mumbles and I take his hand “there’s nothing to be embarrassed about Charles” I smile trying to bring him out of this space “yes there is you heard all of that, all of it” he sulks preparing himself for rejection “yeah and, what about it?” I shrug “if you came here with reject me just get it over with, I’ve had a shit day already” he groans I laugh a bit to myself grabbing his face with my hands “just kiss me dummy” and he does just that fireworks go off I swear “I like it when you smile you’ve got cute little dimples” I huff placing my forehead on his “in case you didn’t get it from the blushing I like you too stupid” I can’t tell when it happened but it felt right “I’m sorry I’m all over the place” he frowns “hey it’s alright, everyone is a bit. We won’t do anything until you’re ready. Racing comes first okay charles, you’re gonna be a champion” I give him a peck on his cheek turning to clean the smashed plate with just some paper and a broom no dustpan in sight “hey hey careful you’ll hurt yourself” he tried to stop me “it’s okay I’ve done this a lot” I smile “just sit down and chill for a bit you’ve had a big day” and you didn’t know it but in that moment he knew you were it for him, no one had ever tried to take the load off his shoulders. “Mon Ange, what are we?” He asks quietly almost too quietly “whatever you want us to be Charles, you’re the one with the most at stake here. I’m not coming between you a glory” I smile and he doesn’t say anything “can I take you out to dinner after the race?” How could I say no “of course charles, oh and this is all cleaned up I’ll be on my way I’m expecting a call from my brother soon!” I go to leave but he gets up grabs my arms lightly and spins me into his chest for a hug “thank you for not leaving my love” he whispers I look at the closed door “I’ll always support you even from the shadows” I look up at him and he kisses me again it felt too good to be reality. “I’ll make you mine just wait” I nod leaving him alone and me slightly confused what the actual fuck just happened?

TBC…..

#charles leclerc imagine #charles leclerc fic #charles leclerc x you #charles leclerc x reader #charles leclerc #f1 x reader #f1 x y/n #f1 imagine #f1 fic #f1 fanfic

109 notes · View notes

lunarcovehq · 4 months

Text

WHITE ELEPHANT GIFT EXCHANGE

If you don't wanna buy me presents, drink me like a warm glass of milk, If you're not gonna race here from the North Pole to Beverly Hills just to keep my stocking filled, well, I know somebody who will.

Tis the season of giving and the Magnolia Inn will be opening its doors once again to host their annual White Elephant party. So, for everyone willing to brave the cold, get dressed up in your ugliest sweaters, bring a gift and see what sort of present you might be able to steal by the end of the night.

BACKGROUND

The White Elephant Party will be the last of the fun activities we'll be having during the event before the chaos begins. As may of you already know, for every event we typically have one discord thread and then the rest of the event will take place on the dash. This White Elephant Gift Exchange will be our fun IC discord event before the chaos begins. Participating in the discord event is completely optional (though if you do participate, it will count as your activity for the week). You also don't have to submit a gift on every character to be able to participate in the IC group chat. If you play multiple characters, you can submit a gift on one and have your other characters watch or sit the game out.

FOR THOSE WHO MAY NOT KNOW WHAT WHITE ELEPHANT IS (CAN IGNORE IF YOU KNOW THE GAME ALREADY):

This is a gift exchange party game that is typically played by having all of the guests show up with a wrapped gift within a specific price range (though let’s be honest- there is always that one person who brings an absurdly expensive gift for the fun of it). Everyone places their gifts in a pile and then pulls out a number from a hat to determine which order they’ll go in. Whoever drew number one will pull a gift out from the pile and unwrap it. Then number two can either steal number one’s gift or pull another gift from the pile etc. The game keeps going with people stealing each other’s gifts (though a gift can only be stolen 3 times and then it’s out from being stolen again) until it is number one’s turn again. Number one will get the last chance to steal a gift and then the game will be over.

HOW WE’RE PLAYING:

If you would like to participate in this holiday gift exchange, then please send in the following form to the main HERE by 10p EST on Thursday 12/29:

CHARACTER NAME:

DESCRIPTION OF GIFT CONTENTS:

ANY IMAGES YOU’D LIKE TO INCLUDE:

If you have multiple characters and would like more than one to participate, then please submit separate gifts for each of your characters. Once we’ve received all of the submissions, we will create a channel in the discord group chat where we will assign each character a number dictating the order in which they will go in the gift exchange and have an IC thread where charries can steal each other’s presents and battle it out. More information on this to come. The White Elephant Past Events channel in the discord also has a number of examples of gifts if you'd like to glance back at them to get some inspo.

#lunarcoveevent #lunarcoveevent9

2 notes · View notes

detroit-grand-prix · 2 years

Text

Wildest Dreams Chapter 3 - Bad Blood

Chapter summary: Phoebe is in her second season racing in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship series. After a reasonably successful first season, but every race season is different. This year, she's no longer an F3 rookie, but the first two races prove to be challenging, more challenging than she'd expected. But the third race is probably the worst of her career, and it has nothing to do with on-track results.

Content warning: This chapter contains an implied attempt of sexual assault. It’s not too dark, but please exercise caution if this is something you are triggered by.

Chapter word count: 3,035

Author’s note: When I wrote this, I was looking at a map of the Pau circuit, but I realized I was looking at it backwards. The series of turns is BEFORE the Croisement section, but I didn't really want to re-write all of it, so we're just gonna pretend. It's fan fiction, right?

As a point of information, here is the format for Formula 3 races when this particular series was running. It’s now defunct and has just been replaced by regular FIA Formula 3.

Formula 3 European Championship format: "Following two practice sessions, the first of two qualifying sessions will be held on Friday afternoon. Race 1 starts on Saturday morning, while Qualifying 2 is usually scheduled for the afternoon. On Sunday, the two remaining races will be held, with Race 2 taking off on Sunday morning and Race 3 concluding the weekend in the afternoon. Each race will consist of 33 minutes plus one lap and covers a distance of about 100 kilometers.

Previous Chapter

Circuit de Pau-Ville, Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France May 14th, 2016

Bee’s first season in Formula 3, in the European Championship series, was fairly successful. There was more pressure on her than there was in Formula Renault. It was more difficult as well - the cars were different, and faster. Almost every one of her competitors had more experience, as she was one of the very few that were new to the series that season. Her race calendar was also more packed, with more races than she’d done competing in two concurrent series in Formula Renault. Each round had three races, plus practices and qualifying, and there were eleven rounds - thirty-three races for a season. However, for the first time in her life, she wasn’t the only girl on the grid - she was joined by a Colombian girl named Tatiana. There were also a few more Americans, which made her not feel like such an anomaly. She had also signed with a team called Mücke Motorsport, which both Sebastian and Susie had driven for previously. She felt like that was a good sign.

She still couldn’t pull off any victories, but she’d been on her fair share of podiums. Still, she came through the racing season with an impressive end result. She’d been within the top 10 for the Drivers’ championship, and second in the Rookies’ championship. This was all balanced with her finishing high school. She thought she might miss her high school graduation ceremony because of a race weekend in Italy, but she’d managed to make it back just in time. It was extra special because she was in the last graduating class for her school - the next year, Alexander M. Patch American High School would be replaced by the new Stuttgart High School. She applied to some colleges in the US for deferred admission, just in case, but she’d hoped she wouldn’t have to rely on that plan.

Susie had told her a long time ago, from her experience, that if she didn’t make a Plan B, then she’d have to make Plan A work, but the idea of not having a fallback plan made her too nervous to think about.

The one downside to the season was that Susie wasn’t able to provide the same level of guidance to Bee that she had during her Formula Renault seasons. She had retired from F1 in November, but told Bee she was busy working to establish a nonprofit of some sort. Also, Sebastian had moved to Ferrari for the season. Bee was thrilled for him when she’d heard that, because she knew it was his dream to race for Ferrari, but she would miss seeing him around the Red Bull factory when she was there.

She was in for a second year in Formula 3, racing in the same series, and was still with Red Bull, and was spending plenty of time in the UK. Still visited the Wolffs in Oxfordshire while she was there. Toto had coined an affectionate nickname for her - “Bienchen”, or “little bee” in German.

When she saw the schedule for the 2016 season during the winter break, she frowned - none of her favorite circuits were on there. No Silverstone, no Monza, and only one race at the Hockenheimring, which was the closest track to home for her. Also, two tracks that she hadn’t ever been to before at Le Castellet and the Hungaroring. Round 3 was in Pau, which was possibly her least favorite track other than Spa, because it was the longest trip, other than Portimão, which wasn’t on the calendar for 2016.

The first two rounds of the season in France and Hungary felt like a wash. In all six of the first race weekends, she had gotten stuck in the middle of the pack, even ending up in the bottom on the final race in Hungary. It was depressing after such a successful rookie season of Formula 3, so she felt encouraged by the needed momentum she was gaining this weekend. It was the third of eleven rounds, and things were going well so far.

She was fighting in the upper end of the midfield for the first two races. Unlike Formula Renault, and other junior racing series like GP2 and GP3, FIA European Formula 3 was not a spec series, so not every competitor was in the same car. This year, she found that lacked the pace to beat the drivers from Prema Powerteam and HitechGP who were absolutely dominating this season, like George Russell, Ben Barnicoat, and Lance Stroll. Even so, she’d raced her heart out for all 33 minutes each round and managed to claw her way to the top of the midfield.

She’d placed above the other drivers from Mücke Motorsport, and the other driver sponsored by the Red Bull junior program, a Russian kid named Evgeni, which made Bee happy. She placed in P6 in Friday’s qualifying session, P4 on the first race, and qualified P3 on the second round of qualifying - the closest she’d come to qualifying on pole yet this season. Maybe for the second and third races on Sunday, she’d be able to get a podium or two - first of this season. Last year, she’d known she had her doubters in the paddock and the press alike, but her performance had left them dead silent. This year was starting out to be a different story. She knew that the director of the Red Bull junior program, Helmut Marko, expected results, and wouldn’t hesitate to get rid of her if she couldn’t live up to the impressive standard she’d set in her first season.

After the second qualifying for Sunday’s two races, she was talking to a few of the British drivers by the paddock as the cars were being put away for the night before Sunday’s feature races. She was elated, the adrenaline from a successful first race and second qualifying that day coursing through her blood. She was happy.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the hulking frame of Evgeni Kozlov, her cohort in the Red Bull junior program, who raced for another German team called Motopark, stalking across the paddock toward her.

Evgeni was new to the European F3 grid this year, and Bee didn’t think he was a very pleasant person. Bee had heard rumors that Evgeni’s father was a wealthy steel magnate in Russia. Evgeni was on the short, stocky side - a bit more heavy-set than most racing drivers usually were. His dark hair was cut into a severe high-and-tight buzz cut, and he constantly sported a facial expression that made him look pissed off about something. Bee thought he would look more at home driving a tank instead of a race car.

He wasn’t the worst driver, but was definitely too aggressive in Bee’s assessment. He would never leave track space, even if he didn’t have the pace, always crowding people through corners. The rules of when to leave space and when you could defend were a combination of things one learned in karting, and codified regulation. She’d beaten him handily during the first qualifier of this round, but during the first race, Bee defended against him passing right before a certain section of the track that began a series of challenging curves and chicanes. She wouldn’t be able to pass him again easily if she had let him overtake, but if he had wanted to pass her so badly, he should have taken his chances on the long straight after the pit lane before turn 13 if he wanted her position. Overtaking wasn’t easy on this track anyway, being a tight street circuit. Nothing like Monaco, for sure, but still.

“Hey. I need to talk to you.” He said, tersely, looking Bee in the eyes and interrupting a joke George was telling. “Come with me for a minute.”

The hairs raised on the back of Bee’s neck momentarily but she ignored it. Evgeni interacting with her at all generally gave her a pretty bad feeling, so she tried to avoid it, if at all possible. They frequently had to be together at Red Bull functions, and she was a little curious about what he possibly could want to talk to her about.

“Okay. Just a second, Evgeni. See you later, guys, great job today!” she said to the two drivers she’d been talking to (George and Ben, the British drivers) over her shoulder as she turned around to follow Evgeni. He was leading her to the back of the garage area behind the paddock. Evgeni said nothing and didn’t look at her the entire time they were walking over, which made Bee a little nervous. She could handle it - she’d never let her competitors intimidate her, and she wasn’t about to start now.

Once they cleared the edge of the garage wall, Evgeni rounded on her, drawing himself up to his full height and staring daggers into her eyes. He was clearly upset about something.

“What did you think you were doing out there this morning? Were you trying to make me look stupid?” Evgeni spat, anger rising in his pale cheeks.

“What are you talking about?” Bee said, confused.

“You crowded me out before turn 14 and almost put me into the barriers before Croisement.”

“I didn’t crowd you out. It was my corner, and I was defending against you. It’s not my fault you were driving like a dickhead and trying to overtake there, you weren’t going to get on the brake before the chicane unless I’d gotten in front of you. You know there’s a lot of turns after Croisement. You were going for an opening that didn’t exist!”

Evgeni narrowed his eyes. “I was racing you, you fucking bitch. I could have had you there, my pace was better.”

“That’s not racing! That’s being a fucking idiot, Zhenya. It’s reckless!” Bee tried her best to meet his eye level, but he had a good four inches on her, so it was difficult. She used the Russian diminutive of the man’s name for strategic condescension. She didn’t have the physical stature he did, and she was not going to let herself be talked down to like that, especially by this jackass.

They locked eyes for a long moment, neither of them saying anything or backing down from their posturing, but she wasn’t expecting it when Evgeni grabbed her by both shoulders, turned her bodily by 45 degrees, and pressed her back into the garage wall. His eyes were opened wide, shining with rage as he kept her right shoulder forced into the wall and braced his forearm against her neck and collarbone, threatening to choke her. Thankfully, like all racing drivers, she had well-developed neck muscles, and clenched her jaw to brace her throat against the pressure of his arm, Bee put both of her hands around Evgeni’s forearm, trying to wrench his arm off of her but she couldn’t get enough leverage to do so, and her short nails weren’t enough to even be felt through the layers of the Nomex covering his arm between his racing suit and fireproof undershirt. He looked like he’d been possessed as he continued to seethe, the tip of his nose mere inches from hers.

“What do you know about fucking racing, you fucking cunt? You’re just some fucking girl. Just some bitch who thinks she’s better than everyone else. You don’t know shit about racing, because girls don’t belong in racing. All girls like you are good for is a pair of tits, and you haven’t even really got those, have you? Maybe I should check for myself!”

Suddenly, Bee felt Evgeni’s right hand on her stomach, right above where the top of her race suit hung unzipped at her waist. He was trying to get his hand under the shirt of her fireproofs, the realization of what he was doing making it harder for Bee to breathe in her panic. He had gotten his hand under the bottom hem of her shirt, but the coat of leftover sweat and the snugness of the undershirt on Bee’s body was not making it easy for him.

Luckily, her hands were still free, and he was close enough for her to loosen her grip on his forearm and shove a clenched fist into the center of his abdomen, hitting him in the solar plexus. The sudden pressure on his chest caused Evengi to sputter and stagger back, freeing Bee of the forearm that was pinning her to the wall. Without even thinking, she stomped on the instep of his foot as hard as she possibly could, which caused him to roar with pain and fall backwards. It all happened so fast. She sprinted away without even thinking of the direction she was going in or giving another glance behind her, barely paying attention to what he was yelling after her as he struggled to stand back up. She kept running around the back curve of the paddock to the restrooms under the grandstands.

She practically dove into the door for the women’s restroom, kicked the door open to the first empty stall she saw, collapsed with her back against the door as she closed it. She fought down the urge to cry with everything she had. She swallowed it down around the dry lump in her throat, squeezing her eyes shut against the first tears that started to prick at the corners of her eyes, doing her best to not start hyperventilating, pulse pounding in her ears.

She stayed there until she was able to breathe again. Luckily nobody else had come in, as the racing was over for the day and the audience was long gone. She scrubbed at her eyes with her fists, picked herself up off of the floor, and went to the sink to splash some cold water into her face. She hadn’t known how long she was in the bathroom, though, and as soon as she stepped outside, she saw Ingrid, her team’s press coordinator, walking towards her, and waved as soon as she spotted Bee emerging from the restroom.

“I was looking for you,” Ingrid said. She looked concerned. “Are you okay? You look upset, and we weren’t sure where you were.”

“Yes. Just an upset stomach,” It was only a half-lie at this point, as she was feeling pretty nauseous by now. “But I feel fine.”

Ingrid nodded and slung her arm around Bee’s shoulders as they walked back toward the team garage. “Well, I was worried. Let’s head back to the garage so you can get changed and get back to the hotel and for dinner. We have an interview scheduled tomorrow with a sponsor once you get to the track.” Bee nodded, not really paying attention to what Ingrid was saying, but she felt a little better after running into her.

Back at the hotel, Bee ate dinner without really tasting any of it (a plate of baked chicken and vegetables that was pretty forgettable anyway) while Ingrid went over tomorrow’s schedule.

After Ingrid left to head back to her own room, Bee took a long, cold shower, and tried to calm herself down. She turned on some French television show she didn’t understand the majority of, just for background noise. She ignored her phone for most of the evening, but an hours-old WhatsApp notification on her lock screen caught her attention. It was a message from Susie congratulating her on her good results that day. She desperately wanted to call Susie, and tell her what happened with Evgeni. She would know what to do, what to say. Susie would know how to make her feel better, but she figured that she would already be asleep at this hour - she wasn’t sure if Susie was in the UK or at her home in Switzerland. Maybe she was in Barcelona at the Spanish Grand Prix. Bee was feeling too distracted to calculate time zones, and felt wretched about the idea of bothering Susie with something like this, at this hour. Susie frequently told Bee to get a hold of her any time she needed to, but Bee still felt bad about the thought of bothering her so late, whatever time it was. She figured the polite thing to do would be to send Susie a message back to ask if she could call, and resolved to do so. When she opened WhatsApp and began to type her message, Bee’s resolve left her. All she could bring herself to type was:

“Thanks! On to tomorrow! 👊🏁”

She thought about texting her mom, too, but she couldn’t imagine a scenario where her parents didn’t panic and pull her out of racing altogether immediately, call to scream at Helmut Marko herself. Instead, she sent a quick good night message on WhatsApp to her parents and laid her head down on her pillow, staring up at the ceiling as the events of the day passed through her mind. All she could see in the back of her mind was Evgeni’s furious face, inches from hers, his forearm threatening to collapse her windpipe. She reflexively clenched her jaw the same way she had at the time, and felt the afterimage of his hand clawing its way under her shirt trying to grab at her breasts. It made her feel nauseous, her face burning with shame and embarrassment. She knew what Evgeni did wasn’t her fault, she hadn’t asked for it in any way, but she still felt like she could have done something to prevent it. Why did she allow herself to go off alone with him to the back of the garages? He always gave her a bad feeling, but her curiosity had gotten the better of her. As the wheels in her mind spun out of control, she felt the tears coming again, and she didn’t try to stop or swallow them down this time.

In the darkness and solitude of a hotel room in the south of France, feeling more alone than she ever had in her life, half a continent away from one home, an entire ocean away from another, she broke down.

Next Chapter

#f1 fanfic #f1 oc fanfic #formula 1 fanfic #original character #female oc #female racing driver oc #toto wolff #susie wolff #my fanfic #series: wildest dreams

27 notes · View notes

artzychic27 · 1 year

Note

Can you do the full songs of Six the musical miraculous style? The lyrics please?

It is taking me an embarrassingly long time to write the other songs, so… Here’s this for now

All I get to do

All I get to do, fandom

Let me remind you all, I’m Kurtzberg comma Nathaniel

All I get to do

All I get to do, fandom

Though I’m speaking and expressing, I’m still in the back, such a “blessing”

All I get to do

All I get to do, fandom

I’m dramatic? Remember Season 1?

I was new, it's true but even then I knew

The only thing I get to do is...

Season one, episode seven

My episode, this feels like heaven

Chloé’s there, taunting me

And the teacher told everyone I had a D

So I storm out the classroom, tears soon fall

My crush on Marinette revealed to all

I dropped my pencil on the floor

An akuma came, infected me, let’s start the show

It’s my time, yes, indeed!

This is how fans will remember me!

Sure, I didn’t get a victory!

But I’m sure I’ll get another lead

And maybe this is it

The ratings were great, it was a hit

And just look at all the fan works

Seems this red hair comes with a perk~

But all I get to do

All I get to do, fandom

Is draw, and groan, and headbutt a desk, yes

All I get to do

All I get to do, fandom

Is stand there, breathe there, and I guess dye my hair

Bring me back into the light

I wanna be known tonight

Season’s over

The only thing I get to do is...

But then there was another season

Season 2

And get this! I got my own episode!… Only one, though. But, we got a new character and… He turns out to be something amazing…

Jittery, easy on the eyes

Wouldn’t mind getting to know that guy

Mari says that he’s a writer

But he’s nervous, so here’s a plan devised by her

She gave me his notebook and I was thrilled

I thought these were Ladybug’s thoughts all spilled

And written in black and white, my heart was racing

Can you blame me? I just think that she’s amazing

This is it, a new day for me

Get to meet my crush after Mari

Who would’ve thought the plan had some faults?

But I’m to blame, so that’s on me

Then here’s what happened after the cure

Marc and I were shipped, the fans deemed it pure

They said we have a connection

I'm sure this will be different~

'Cause all I get to do

All I get to do, fandom

Is draw, and groan, and headbutt a desk, yes

All I get to do

All I get to do, fandom

Is stand there, breathe there, and I guess dye my hair

Give us a few minutes or four

NathMarc fans are craving so much more

The season’s over

The only thing I get to do is...

So… Season 2 was actually pretty good. Sure, Marc and I aren’t all affectionate like Rose and Juleka, cuz, you know… Children’s show. But then season 3 came around, and here’s what happened…

Season 3… Finally arrived.

Things start getting wild…

Lila’s back

She’s stirring trouble, and there I am alone at a lunch table

Pushed to the background once again

But now it’s Marc and I to the very end

With Lila comes salt fics, here’s what that means

Marc and I expose her in fics written by teens

How is it, the show’s own fans

Remember me? Give them a hand!

AO3’s the place for me

Is this how the fans all see me?

This is bliss, it feels so right

Screw the show, I know I’m loved

But what comes after Season 3?

Will the writers finally remember me?~

'Cause all I get to do

All I get do, fandom

Is draw, and groan, and headbutt a desk, yes

All I get to do

All I get to do, fandom

Is stand there, breathe there, and I guess dye my hair

There's no time for when or how 'cause season 4 is coming here and now

The season’s over

The only thing I get to do is...

So, it’s season 4, it’s getting tense…

New characters appear, fans are on the fence

I’m still with Marc, call this a win

In the episode, Hack-San, I’m his cherished item

The season’s okay, I will admit

We’re even part of an Adrinette bit

So sweet, including us in the plans

But all we do now is help the girl get her man

I thought, “Finally!”

This is all I want, the recognition I need

Sure, my day as a hero was a little rushed

But it’s my time, I get to shine

But then, there’s more to it

The Kwamis are gone, didn’t tell my friend “so long.”

Doesn’t look like there will be a happy end…

I thought this time was different

Why did I think it’d be different?

But it's never, ever different

'Cause all I get to do

All I get to do, fandom

Is draw, and groan, and headbutt a desk, yes

All I get to do

All I get to do, fandom

Ignore me, don't care if you don't see me

Forget me and leave me to

Stand alone against Akumas like Zombizou!

Season's over

The only thing

The only thing I get to do is...

#miraculous #six the musical #miraculous ladybug #nathaniel kurtzberg #all you wanna do #marc x nathaniel #song parody #ask me stuff #answered ask

16 notes · View notes

literaphobe · 2 years

Note

Yes yes yes please do share your thoughts on Dream's best to worst games right now, I would love to hear it

based on s2, feel free to debate:

1. sands of time

- genuinely i think this is difficult to decide on but also probably hard to debate. even if u exclude non canon events dream’s teams got first mcc19, mcc21, mcc22. sands has went through updates and changes that made it harder for players and dream’s overcome it so many times, he’s not just one of/the best runner(s) in the event but undoubtedly an excellent strategist and leader. the vault rush strategy was developed by him, he coaches his teammates and shoulders the communication during the game to the point where his teammates both end up better at the game after playing with him and face struggles when they play without him

2. tgttosawaf

- i feel like mcc19 was such an outlier for dream where this game’s been concerned and if u also eliminate mcc14 dream has never fallen out of top 10, exclude mcc15 and he’s never fallen out of top 3, which is crazy. he’s more or less very consistent with this game due to his excellent understanding of the maps, his movement, and also his team coaching and strategizing that helps with getting team bonuses. his no punching strat also really works for him to a karmic level, and if nothing weird happens he’s bound to place high in the game

3. ace race

- dream is almost untouchable on space race map at this point, im confident he could get first again if they played the map again, also in general dream’s just really good at ace race, anything that’s not top 5/3 is honestly an underperformance for his standards like he’s just got smooth movement and this game is just like Him playing individually and removing trident collision proved his skill in this game. if he perfected his clouds and python’s crypt runs even more he could be the best ace race player in the whole event. he’s the only one who rivals illumina in ace race

4. parkour tag

- the map change to make surviving easier/falling down less punishing hurt dream’s hunting speed, and in the beginning he was having a little trouble running around the map too, but i think he’s getting used to it, and i genuinely think we’re due for a crazy running pop off from dream, even tho he’s been popping off quite a bit already. i think him being better acquainted with the current pkt map will help him hunt faster too

5. hole in the wall

- look i know he just finished a hitw round for the first time in june and he still has not canonically won a hitw round BUT despite that he’s really consistent in this game and has never fallen out of top 15 in s2, and rarely has he fallen out of top 10 (his lowest s2 hitw placements are 11th and 13th and its after the hitw platform change iirc). again all his top games really show how strong he is in movement, w hitw he just knows how to do the jumps right and has really good reaction timing, he just gets unlucky :( like off everyone that’s never finished a hitw round he’s the best player

6. rocket spleef rush

- I KNOW but like hear me out . he knows the jumps so much better now i sincerely believe he could pull off 3 really good rounds he has the potential to even finish first in an entire round he’s done it for rocket spleef itself before like i believe he could wind up being recognized as one of the top RSR players if he kept improving

7. survival games

- look. this is going to be controversial. tbh from here on out its honestly so so so debatable. but across the board i genuinely feel like dream doesn’t rank that badly in SG like unless his team gets targeted or they employ a horrifically wrong strat he’s able to place pretty okay once he gets a handful of kills its not something he places top 3 in but its also not something he places bottom 10 in a lot considering how One Chance the game is

8. sky battle

- gen srs i debated this for so long but fine dream’s popped off in sky battle more than he has in battle box this season ig. also mesa was a new map and the whole situation was scuffed so we’ll treat it like an outlier

9. battle box

- this is seriously so map dependent and like. confidence dependent ig? when he can’t hide and ambush and make calculated decisions and he doesn’t have a quick charge 2 crossbow life gets a little fucked up idk :(

10. meltdown

- not enough game data to really place dream’s performance in this game all that accurately but the bow combat seems to be in line with dream’s current strengths and with the right strategy he could really pop off

11. grid runners

- this game used to be higher but genuinely search the house is the bane of my fucking existence and it just feels like its so risky for dream’s teams atp like either the rounds are easy and other teams get through them way too fast or they’re too hard and it happens to be dream’s team that gets stuck on them and he seems to like have this sort of fate where he always does things the hard way like parkouring to get eggs when he could’ve just opened the chest through the window oh dream :(((

12. build mart

- fuck build mart

#ask #dreamwastaken #mcc

29 notes · View notes

kingofthewilderwest · 1 year

Note

Hi! Its the, “I like the new kids!” anon ☺️

Thank you for responding to my post. I’m a big fan of the dragons series, but I will admit that I haven’t read the books. I guess I wouldn’t feel too bad if the dragons were from different worlds within HTTYD movie/series canon. To me, if that ends up being the case, dragons would just be super adaptable species. But that’s neither here nor there. I don’t think Nine Realms is the best written show, but I do personally think people in the fandom are being overly harsh. That’s not to say fans can’t critique, and there are definitely aspects that deserve criticism. I’m just happy to get more dragon content. I think the modern world is an interesting setting that brings in new conflicts such as CORPORATE GREED, and I like that the new cast is diverse in a way that feels organic. I love how there are dragons from different lands/cultures even if I don’t like some of the dragon designs. I like how Tom is a distant relative of Hiccup’s. To me that’s bringing in just enough nostalgia without ruining the original story and characters.

I think my biggest problem so far is that there are only 7 episodes per mini season, so a lot of the dialogue seems forced because there isn’t enough time to fully flesh out situations. My favorite, Jun, bringing in Chinese mythology should have been a multi episode arc. But because there were so few episodes in Season 4, we instead get Tom sounding like a jerk thats’s trying to talk over someone else’s culture in an insensitive way, and acting as if Jun and Wu and Wei don’t hav the ability to make the best decisions in situations regarding themselves. I feel if those episodes had been given proper time, Tom and Jun could have still had a conflict about what is best/not best for Wu and Wei that sounded more genuine.

I was also happy with the duo of Eugene/Alex that I didn’t know I needed, but the same problem I had with Tom/Jun happens when Tom talks over both Alex and Eugene’s wants and concerns. Those two situations feel rushed and incomplete, and they make Tom seem more like a jerk than an impulsive teenager.

Now this is me wondering from a writing perspective why there are only 7 episodes per season when even with 3 more much more could be done per season. The characters would be more well-rounded, for one.

Welcome back! Glad to have the conversation continue! :)

To make things clear for folks coming into the middle of the conversation, I’m not intending to see whether DreamWorks and the book worlds match, because they’ve been distinct from the start (the books do have magic!). My focus is whether the DreamWorks world stays congruent to itself. The case of dragons having evolutionary adaptations also isn’t my main point, but an example of how DreamWorks Dragons worldbuilding situates itself firmly in the realistic. After three movies, several shorts, comic books, Riders of Berk, Defenders of Berk, Race to the Edge, and countless other tie-in materials that seek to depict a world close to ours (just with a few more animals), the foundation, framework, and finishing touches have let us know we’re not dealing with high level type magic like portals to other worlds. We’ve been given the constraints of what the characters can and can’t do and what does and doesn’t exist. For me, it absolutely would be breaking twelve years of DreamWorks worldbuilding. But it wouldn’t aggravate me either; it’d just be something I’d comment on, acknowledging as incongruent. To borrow your words and come to common ground: it’s neither here nor there. I’m fine watching whatever TNR decides to throw at us.

I’m also like you in that I don’t enjoy fandom areas that are scathing towards TNR. To be clear, that’s not criticizing fans! Just saying we do things differently! I understand why people feel that way, and please keep doing you, but I’m more lowkey and willing to live and let live. As you said so well, there’s a difference between having conversations with valid criticism and being nothing but harsh. I like to do the former: I want to engage in conversations about TNR that might have constructive comments, but aren’t trying to ever be disparaging. I’m having fun with the new content myself and want to have fun with other fans who wanna chat!

I want to agree with you on several pros you brought up! I also love:

The organic diversity of the cast.

Seeing dragons across different environments.

Looking into modern elements like corporate greed (and whether dragons like pizza).

Eugene and Alex as the Dismal Duo (TM). I didn’t know I needed it, but now I am a fan. I’ve wanted TNR to do more stuff like this: show unique bonds between subgroups of the team.

As far as the other stuff, I’m going to bring in a different perspective!

I don’t think the writing quality has anything to do with season length. It has to do with writing. Good writing can pack fantastic, nuanced conversations in two minutes. And for single adventure episodes (which exist in ROB, DOB, RTTE, and TNR), we’re given the same twenty-two minute time span for every show. Now, would long-term plot arcs have the ability to develop more with a longer structure? Yes. But it’s no solution for having the dialogue be as inane and dumbed down as it is. I don’t mean that to sound harsh; I just have no other words to describe it.

When conflicts happen in The Nine Realms, they’re overly basic, black-and-white, contrived, poorly developed, and the conflict resolution conversations use the most basic words and sentences without any nuance of thought. Lots of conflicts in TNR rely on the characters not noticing things a human being naturally would. People act one- or at most two-dimensional. This also isn’t a matter of appealing to age groups. We do unfortunately have a tendency to oversimplify dialogue, etc. for children’s shows, but the good children’s shows don’t, and the good children’s shows maintain high quality writing, character conflict, and conversation.

The characters could be very well-rounded if the writing wasn’t poor quality. They could’ve been well-rounded and complex after three or six episodes. There are entire television series or movies with high complexity for that amount of run time. The Wu and Wei episode was more than long enough to have been done justice with better writing. If Tom and Jun’s actions weren’t so oversimplified to the point of unrealism, the conflict would’ve been organic and interesting.

I’d say the problem with TNR is there’s no depth. I could take a character conflict resolution conversation, rewrite the words, triple the depth, and still keep the same number of words spoken and time allotted for the conversation.

To bring it around again, though, I do wish the seasons were longer, too. I don’t like the latest trend of shows being split up into so many small parts. I do think it messes up pacing and does, as you say, make it harder for many shows to pace well without rushing, skipping over things, or forcing conflicts and climaxes after too little development. There’s something to be said that forcing such hard structure constraints onto shows (as fracturing season length does) comes at the cost of organic plot development.

I hope these comments sound like a good back-and-forth because I love talking with you and hearing your alternate perspective. The fact we have different views is fine to me! So I hope my response came off okay.

#TNR #The Nine Realms #DreamWorks Dragons #analysis #my analysis #httyd #How to Train Your Dragon #ask #ask me #anonymous #awesome anonymous friend

9 notes · View notes

vro0m · 2 years

Text

vro0m’s rewatch - 93/301

2012 Chinese GP

Disclaimer for this season. It turns out that I only have the footage of the race for a lot of the GPs (no build-up, no post-race content) so there will be way less GIFs unfortunately. I will let you know for each of these reviews if there are GIFs or not. THIS ONE HAS GIFS.

I cannot hear the title music they had at the time anymore it's been 93 races I can't do this anymore please i hate it

I have the build up this time yayyy

Quali report : Seb was out in Q2?!?!?!?! What. He's 11th on the grid. Strange. The Ferraris struggled as well. Massa was also out in Q2 and Alonso is only 9th. Kobayashi is 4th! Lewis already knew he'd have a penalty for a gearbox change. He qualified 2nd and will thus begin in 7th position. Jenson is 5th. Rosberg got his first pole position. Schumacher qualified 3rd and he's 2nd on the grid thanks to Lewis' penalty. Raikkonen is 4th. Webber is 6th.

Oh we get a Lewis segment ! They're at the factory and Lewis talks about the cars. He's favourite is the LM (LM for Le Mans, there's a whole story about championships and whatnot you can read on Wikipedia). I don't really understand what they are talking about. From what I read on Wikipedia Ron Dennis promised to give Lewis the LM if he won 2 titles with them (but in the interview they're saying it's 3).

Lewis says he's starting to believe Ron is deliberately not giving him a good car, a championship winning car, so he doesn't "take his baby away from him".

He laughs "no, they're giving me a good car this year".

Jake asks if it'd be enough doing 6 more strong seasons with McLaren but never getting a title again. Lewis immediately answers no, without hesitation.

He says he'd be massively disappointed. He says he doesn't wanna be 5 years down the road and only have one more championship, he wants to break records, he wants more wins. "That's what it's all about, that’s what we're here to do."

Oh baby Lewis! Look at his focused little face.

Jake says they are going to relive that glory, winning remote controlled car races. Lewis asks if he has to talk in the same high pitched voice he had back then. (I've always been so jealous of his jacket in these images, it's so cool I would buy it in a heartbeat today if I could.)

The man interviewing him at the time asks baby Lewis (7 years old) how long he's been racing cars, and he says about a year (I think, it's difficult to hear). The man says “so you must be pretty good at it, is it easy to do?” and baby Lewis shrugs and says no. He doesn't look at him once.

So they got remote controlled cars and they created a little circuit around the factory or whatever. He comments it should be good for overtaking. There are cameras mounted on the cars and Jake and Lewis are gonna race. They try the cars out a little first. Lewis drives his into one of the exposed cars. Oops.

It's time to start. Lewis makes fun of Jake who's already cheating : his car is over the starting line. "What would Charlie whiting make of that", Jake says as he moves his car back. Here they go! It's not clean racing, Lewis pushed Jake’s car wide. Jake makes up for his issues by ignoring the obstacles and going straight to where Lewis is. Lewis runs! Outside, they have to go in a circle around this feature in the factory’s entrance but Lewis' car catches on the gravel at the centre of the donut and crashes. "Oh shoot!" he exclaims in his usual way. He fetches his car back and it’s go again. Lewis finishes his lap around and goes back in, Jake is just behind him. Lewis’ cameraman hit Jake’s car with his foot which slows him down. As Jake complains Lewis says "I can't help it man, gotta win!" Lewis is almost at the finish line, he glances back and says "He's not doing very well, is he?" and indeed, Jake's car falls down a staircase. "Should I stop it just before the line?" Lewis wonders. But Jake's car is coming fast from behind him, Lewis sees it and he just drives his car over the line and wins!

"I should have gone two laps [around the donut] I still would have beat you" he says. "I fell down the stairs" Jake answers. Lewis smiles and shakes his head.

Jake adds that Lewis’ cameraman hit his car. Lewis says sternly "Excuses". They shake hands. Lewis films everybody with his car's camera : "Cameraman, how you doing? I'll do some BBC filming here, Jake, the useless remote controlled car driver, cameraman, cameraman, and moi." Jake says and what? Lewis repeats “moi.” "Oh, I thought you'd called yourself a winner." Lewis laughs.

Formation lap.

And they're racing!

Rosberg has a great start, Jenson overtakes Raikkonen for 3rd place. Lewis is making places also it seems. Yes, he's 5th already. Seb has had a terrible start and he's down in 15th.

Honestly not much is happening. Lewis has pitted and he's now 12th.

Oh! Schumacher DNF! He's stopped on the grass. The pit stops are ongoing. On lap 15, Perez is leading the race for Sauber but he hasn't stopped yet and neither has Massa who's currently P2. So Rosberg, who's just stopped is still virtually leading the race, in front of Jenson and Lewis.

Rosberg overtakes Massa for the actual lead, now that Perez has pitted. Then finally Massa pits so Rosberg in the lead 4.4s in front of Jenson, only 1.6s in front of Lewis.

23 laps in, Lewis comes in for a second pit stop. He's out in 13th. He's stuck in traffic while Jenson gets his pit stop and comes out ahead.

So what happened to Schumacher is one of his tyres wasn't bolted in properly after his stop.

Lewis lost serious time behind Massa but he's now 7th. Jenson is racing Seb for P3. Grosjean is currently P2 but of course it's a matter of pit stops. That's it, Jenson is ahead of Seb and Lewis has moved to P6.

Seb and Grosjean must have stopped because Jenson is back in P2 and Lewis is racing Perez for P3. The Saubers are really weirdly fast that season. But Perez is still learning and keeps locking up while Lewis is closing on him. But Lewis still can't get past! Wtf come on. And Alonso is just behind Lewis! Perez pits after locking up again.

Oh wait, it's actually Jenson LEADING the GP but he has to stop once more while Rosberg, 10s behind him, does not. It's all about how fast Jenson can be to pull that gap.

Wow a kerb has launched the front of Webber's car in the air...

Jenson cannot make the times he needs. He's not going to win this race. Rosberg has great pace. Lewis and Alonso come in for a last pit stop. Then Jenson comes in too. Oh no there's a problem. He's 6th. It's terrible.

Now Rosberg is far ahead but it's so close for P2. Alonso just ran wide. It's Raikkonen, Seb, Jenson, Grosjean, Webber, while Lewis is making his way up the field to them. And Grosjean just went wide!!! Now Maldonado and him are making contact repeatedly there's damage. PEREZ GETS IN THE MIDDLE OF THEM. Ah it seems Rosberg's tyres are degrading fast but he has a healthy margin on the rest of the field so. We'll see. But there's less than two seconds between Raikkonen in P2 and Lewis in P6, it’s that close. LEWIS OVERTAKES WEBBER BUT HE CAN'T MAKE IT STICK WEBBER GETS HIS PLACE BACK WHILE SEB OVERTAKES RAIKKONEN AND JENSON ALSO GETS THROUGH! LEWIS OVERTAKES WEBBER AGAIN LEWIS IS JUST BEHIND RAIKKONEN NOW HE GOES DOWN THE INSIDE IT'S DONE HE'S AHEAD AND WEBBER GETS THROUGH AS WELL RAIKKONEN'S TYRES ARE DONE. He's just gone from P2 to P10 in one lap!

Lewis is seriously picking up the pace and closing to Jenson. It's still Seb in P2 though. OMG HERE WE GO JENSON WENT PAST SEB IT'S NOT OVER LEWIS IS RIGHT BEHIND AND SEB IS FIGHTING TO GET HIS PLACE BACK. My god my god what a good driver Jenson is. We don't talk about him enough.

4 laps to go, Lewis is 0.7s behind Seb. Let's go. He's sooooo close. 0.5s. 3 laps to go. Almost... McLaren tells Jenson "Let's pull away now before Lewis gets past him.” 0.2s. Here we go YESSSSSSSSS OH MY GOD THEY'RE WHEEL TO WHEEL Lewis needs to be careful swerving around he might get a penalty BOTH REDBULLS ARE BEHIND HIM LIKE WASPS JFC come on come on 2 laps to go that's it Lewis is pulling away pheewww last lap THE REDBULLS ARE RACING EACH OTHER WEBBER OVERTOOK SEB oooooooh it's tense ooooooh I like that

And that's it! It's the end of the race!

Rosberg wins his first GP, Jenson P2, Lewis P3! Mercedes hadn't won since 1955.

Schumacher is smiling on the pit wall!

Lewis asks Nico "Did you have to do any overtaking?" He did not. Lewis laughs with Jenson. They had to do a lot of it. They put their caps on. "We’ll make it a bit harder for you next time", Lewis says. They head for the podium.

Lewis says they knew the Mercedes were quick all weekend and that if Rosberg got away they'd have a hard time catching him. Congratulations to his team. Your first pole and your first win is an incredible feeling, he smiles. He's very happy he's made it to the podium, he wanted to go forward. The team did a great job with the pit stops and with the strategy. He thinks it was the best race of the season so far (I mean it's only the third but go on), loads of overtaking, the train of them, it was incredible. Fantastic day!

#f1 #lewis hamilton #2012 #2012 chinese gp #vro0m's race reviews

7 notes · View notes

maxverstepponme · 1 year

Note

PSA: I think that the F1 fandom is becoming such a toxic place in regards of the wags and the drivers and the things that they do. Honestly people, get out of your houses, touch some grass. Not everything that they do has to be overanalyzed and twisted. Like… I don’t even like 3/4s of the current wags but I don’t spend my whole days obsessing about what they’re posting or doing or not doing or wearing. Just… guys, these are people too, we’re all inherently problematic, none of them are going to be saints, none of us are. So please, I advise you, as someone who’s been around in the world of fandom for a while, take a breather. We can love the sport and the drivers without it having to be overbearing. This is not nice or cute, this is creepy and the only thing that it makes, its that it drives (haha, drives) the drivers away. It makes them wary of approaching the fandom and that’s the last thing we want. So for the love of god or whoever you actually believe in, stop it, tone it down. I know we’re in the off season, we want to see our guys and the cars, but we have to be patient, go read a book or something, we’ll have races soon. Just, be mindful of the toxicity that you’re spreading and how you’re making this fandom be perceived. We don’t need the men coming out to say that female presence in the fandom is ruining things, because lemme tell you, this is the kind of behavior that gets us looking like fools. The fandom doesn’t need that. We don’t need that. So yeah, thats my message to the F1 Fandom.

I agree, sometimes it gets too much and sometimes we’ve had to put a stop to some anons, but if someone is being problematic in such a constant and public way, you can’t expect people not to talk about it.

4 notes · View notes

racingliners · 1 year

Text

F1 Re-Watch 2022: Round 21 - Sao Paulo

Filed under: I was that tuned out of last year I didn’t realise a second race had its name changed for 2022

ANYWAY: while I forgot to watch highlights for Brazil (I genuinely had every intention to, I just forgot bc C4 only has the highlights shows up on their website for a week). I do remember logging onto tumblr after the race and seeing the carnage of George Russell getting his and Merc’s first win of the season... and the RBR team order drama (👀)

But apart from that, I know nothing, so let’s dive in:

ngl this is one of the races I’ve been most looking forward to watching in full, mainly for the non-RBR win but also I need to know how Russell dragged the W13 into P1 like please tell us your secrets

I also read a few weeks back the very wild stat that the W13 got a 1-2 finish, but it’s predecessor the W12 didn’t. Which is insane

right then, starting grid whiplash:

(which, this was a sprint weekend, which will likely explain a lot)

Lance P15, bc of a 10 sec pen apparently

SEB P9 LET’S GOOOOOOOOOO

oh my god a Merc front row, the absolute SCENES

capture it, remember it

oh, we absolutely ADORE to see it.

I will give sprint races this one right, just this once

[Formation Lap]: like Mexico, a pretty even split of people starting on either the softs or the mediums, with the exception of Albon being the only car on the hards

oh, I am looking forward to this. I am thrilled Angela in the garage and she is me

[Lap 1/Start]: Mercs holding formation at the start

LANDO NORRIS?! In between the RBRs and Ferrari???

OH SHIT

Safety Car, Dan just speared into Kevin

oh the duality of McLaren in 2022

[Lap 2]: Tag yourself I’m the marshal just flinging the broken bits of advertising board away

oh so Dan tapped Kevin into a spin, and Kevin not able to control the car, went right into Dan. welp.

[Lap 3]: SEB UP TO P8 LET’S GET IT!!!!

and Mick P10 🥺 That’s my emotional support Germans

[Lap 4]: “That Aston Martin in the hands of Vettel has some pace today” I need Ted to be my hype man seriously

Charles has potential engine problems??? oh welp

Ferrari gonna Ferrari

[Lap 5]: Albon pits to ditch the hards for mediums, still under SC

The replay of Lando’s start, very noice

[Lap 6]: aaaand SC in this lap

rip Otmar’s nerves for having to watch Esteban v Alonso at the restart

ayyy Bono sighting

...you gonna go George???

[Lap 7]: ....

ffs

Lewis and Verstappen touched and broke bits of each other’s cars

NOT LANDO TAKING OUT CHARLES

oh so Charles is not out he managed to get his car back to the pits.

still I would like a refund for that lap, it woke up and chose TOO MUCH violence

[Lap 8]: oh my god Seb’s up into P5 as a result of all the violence

[Lap 9]: And Lewis is up into P7

[Lap 10]: And now P6

cut to Lance in P9 defending from Bottas

[Lap 11]: Lewis v Seb, this is not how I wanted it to happen but I’ll take it 🥺

apparently still a way to go until 1st stop territory, which will probably have been extended a tiny bit thanks to the safety car

[Lap 12]: “That Aston Martin is a sprightly thing” AMR22 no longer assigned tractor status 🥳🥳🥳

[Lap 13]: Verstappen got a 5 sec pen for the violence huh 👀

as does Norris for trying to murder Charles

[Lap 14]: And Lewis takes P5, to the delight of the very lively crowd

I think we can all agree that Brazil is Lewis’ second home race at this point (I mean, it technically his how he has his honorary citizenship, but you know what I mean)

[Lap 15]: And Lewis takes 4th from Lando (try saying that three times fast)

can we not get constant replays of the Verstappen on Lewis violence, once was more than enough

[Lap 16]: meanwhile Seb is chasing down Lando 👀

this race has been quite a lot, and I don’t think we’re barely at one quarter distance

Interlagos will always be 100% that bitch

[Lap 17]: SEB INTO P5!!!! THAT’S MY BOOOOOOY

oh and Zhou makes his first stop

[Lap 18]: as does Sainz

meanwhile Russell is driving around completely unbothered while multiple fistfights happen behind him

Sainz has a smoky brake apparently 😬

not a tear off stuck in the brake duct oh good grief

[Lap 20]: somehow, Bottas is in P6

ayyy Lance up to P9

...or not Sainz just passed him

[Lap 21]: Charles still down in P15, he was a title contender at the start of the year 😭

[Lap 22]: Lewis closing the gap to Perez you say 👀👀👀

Charles pits again, because Clowneria Ferrari

[Lap 24]: and just to emphasise the point, Sainz doesn’t know what strategy he’s on.

Perez pits for mediums

oh my god Seb’s in P3. STOP THE RACE!!!!!!!

[Lap 25]: Russell pits, and has a slower stop compared to Perez

but he comes out ahead of Seb.

Anyway Merc 1-2, Lewis win, Seb P3. STOP! THE! RACE!!!!!

[Lap 26]: Lewis leading in Brazil, feels good feels organic

and the crowd (rightfully) love him

“Sebastian Vettel runs third” INJECT IIIIIIIIIT!!!!!

But, I did look up Seb’s result and he finishes P11 so I’m vibing now while it lasts 😭

[Lap 27]: and in Seb pits for mediums, he comes out in 9th

[Lap 28]: and Bottas takes 7th off Gasly

helmet watch: Seb’s Brazilian flag tree design is so cute I love it

[Lap 29]: They’re talking about dark clouds, please no 🥲

but anyway SEB INTO P8!!!

[Lap 30]: Lewis makes his first stop, softs for mediums, and comes out in P4

and Seb up into P7 as Lance pits

“Pitlane incident involving Alfa Romeo will be investigated after the race” ????? care to give us any detail at all FIA?????

don’t just leave us hanging spill the tea

[Lap 31]: I am not looking at the clouds in the distance I do not see them

[Lap 32]: Lewis setting a 1m15. King shit.

[Lap 33]: and Lance passes Yuki for P14

beloved midfield spice how I have missed you since you were MIA in Mexico

[Lap 34]: Ted spilling the pit lane drama tea, apparently Alfa Romeo didn’t pull in their wheel guns when Mick came in for his stop (it’s a sporting curtesy, not a rule per se)

But is still funny that the entire Alfa Romeo team is under investigation seghujgh

poor Barry from catering is an innocent bystander in all of this!!!!

[Lap 36]: Anyway, racing

Alonso pits, promoting Bottas to 5th (?!) and Seb to 6th 🥳

Sainz to pit again, not surprising considering he’s on the softs

He’s on the mediums this time

[Lap 38]: Man seeing the cars being able to actually follow each other, and make overtakes in the corners as opposed to DRS moves. WE STAN.

Alonso with a nice move on Yuki for P13

[Lap 40]: whew I didn’t even notice that we’d passed half distance

track temp has dropped 11 degrees since the race start, it’s def way cloudier. And that’s seemingly favouring Merc, considering the rate at which Lewis is catching Perez

[Lap 41]: Ted has gotten out the big braincell and realised that Merc’s goal is to get a 1-2 for the drama. As they should tbh.

[Lap 42]: Seb still in P6, I’m equal parts thrilled and worried as to how he ends up P11

[Lap 43]: Lewis’ gap to Perez under 2 seconds 👀

someone whip out the jaws music

[Lap 44]: he’s closed right up, racing time!!

[Lap 45]: and he gets the move done down the main straight. NOICE.

and the crowd go insane, as they should

meanwhile Charles pits again from 8th, I once again support his rights to burn things down

[Lap 46]: Seb pits from P6, and drops to P11

[Lap 48]: Perez pits again for mediums, and gets jumped by Sainz

Both Mercs yet to make their second stops still, I would be both surprised and impressed if they manage to make the one-stop work

[Lap 49]: And as I type that, in comes Lewis 😅

Likely to cover off Perez.

Which he does! He’s on the softs

[Lap 50]: and In comes Russell, also for softs

Crofty stop trying to manifest rain the race is fine without it!!

Seb in P7 ahead of Charles 🥺

[Lap 51]: And Charles does pass Seb for 7th

[Lap 52]: Oh apparently Kevin still hasn’t come back to the paddock yet ubhsgeugheshg

and Lando has stopped with a loss of power. McLaren’s very bad not good race.

and a bit of a late VSC, since Lando was getting out the car while cars were passing him 🙃🙃🙃

[Lap 53]: and looks like Ferrari are going to pit Sainz for softs

[Lap 54]: that McLaren is not moving for the marshals for love nor money

and we’re upgraded to a full Safety Car because of it

not Crofty stirring the pot asking Otmar what he’ll tell Esteban and Fernando at the restart slrbnhlbh

He is craving all sorts of violence today

[Lap 55]: Helmet watch: Lando’s neon yellow with chrome royal blue design is so pretty

“You are racing, just be respectful” Mercedes say no violence only polite fisticuffs allowed

stop. replaying. the Verstappen on Lewis incident.

[Lap 56]: another Bono sighting?! TV director your basket of pastries is in the post.

[Lap 57]: “They haven’t released the lapped cars yet” Brundle... don’t

[Lap 58]: oh Esteban being told to let Alonso past and he straight up says no aeghearughs

Alpine squared violence intensifies

[Lap 59]: SC coming in... I am Anxious™️

If we get RBR on Lewis violence again I will SCREAM

George once again taking his SWEET AS TIME to go ffs

[Lap 60]: okay phew that was a much more chill restart

argh Seb down to 9th what happened?!

[Lap 61]: oof Sainz trying to barge past Perez

Charles watching behind with popcorn

and Alonso passes Bottas for P6

once again, EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING

[Lap 62]: 10 laps to go, oh BOY

oh. Seb was on the mediums surrounded by drivers on softs. no wonder he’s dropped places

[Lap 63]: And Sainz does pass Perez for P3

funnily enough he’s also on the mediums while the cars around him are on softs

[Lap 64]: And Charles takes P4!

meanwhile the gap between the Mercs is just over a second

[Lap 65]: Oh jeez that swerving from Perez and Alonso

and Fernando adds himself to be “I passed Perez after the SC restart” party

oh. Verstappen is behind Perez now. team order drama incoming I guess. 🍿

replay of elated Alpine mechanics my beloved

[Lap 67]: 5 laps left, and Verstappen passes Perez.

after explicably being told to take points off the Ferrari’s 😬

ohhhhhh that pass from Mick on Gasly was NICE

[Lap 68]: Gap between the Mercs still are 1.2-1.3 seconds

[Lap 69]: Ugh, Seb’s dropped down to P11 behind Lance, damn you medium tyres

(Not Lance though, he’s great)

[Lap 70]: The fact that this was Merc’s first win since Saudi ‘21... pain

[Lap 71]: Also the comedy of Merc winning one of the races Toto wasn’t at aeghaergh. It’s a wonder Toto has been at any races in 2023.

welp more internal Ferrari violence

[Finish]: And Russell wins his first F1 race, with Lewis bagging a Merc 1-2!!! 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

Sainz P3, Charles P4, with Fernando dragging his Alpine into P5 out of sheer spite.

Okay I’m pretty neutral on Russell but his team radio was v sweet 🥺

and ending with Lewis DOTD, and Lance P10 Team Greeeeeeeeen!!!🥳💚

WHEW. Interlagos continues to deliver the racing AND the drama. That was a fun race to watch though, while we didn’t have a proper battle for the win per se there was so much entertainment in the midfield, and while the reason why it happened did not spark joy, watching Lewis fight back through the field like the King he is was *chef’s kiss*.

Overall, 9 front wings out of 10. Next, and final race of 2022 - Abu Dhabi!

#F1 2022 re watch #F1 Re watch #F1 Liveblog #Brazil edition

0 notes