can i just say, from the perspective of a writer, nothing will ever amuse me more than how the fanfics for F1 literally write themselves
half of them are childhood friends. the media painting them as rivals while they are actually friends. the whole legacy/ destiny vibe some of them have going. the old money/ rich kid energy. almost everyone has some kind of tragic backstory. and just the whole 'there are only 20 of them' bond.
oh absolutely. speak. the inbuilt dynamics of the grid are so fascinating to me and i think the wealth of raw material is just insane to witness as a newcomer to the fandom. so many toys in the box to play with. childhood friends to enemies? rivals to extremely inappropriate flirting on camera? teenaged teammates to possible rivals even if one doesn’t consider the other a true rival beyond moments of being intensely annoying? childhood friends to weirdly close and borderline questionable bond? idol worship of peer driver to now teammate? it’s ripe for brainrot. and who can blame all of us from picking the ball and just running with it, honestly.
i was also listening to a fated mates podcast on sports romance recently and they so hit the nail on the head when they said sports romance is compelling because there are already such excellent inbuilt stakes, and there is something really nice about men who take on the burden of emotional labour and relationships, in a queer context, etc etc etc. maybe more on that another time cus they made some really nice points!
not romantic not platonic but a secret third thing [what would happen between earth and the moon if the earth stopped spinning as illustrated by xkcd randall munroe]
[ID: Two screenshots from Queering the Map, taken in Kottayam, Kerala. In the first screenshot there is a map pin that says “Surely, I can’t be the only one!”. In the second screenshot, a second map pin, very close to the first one, says, “No you are not.” The screenshots are from the Tiktok account @/ahecksis. End ID]
Okay. Okay. I get that we all love Crowley calling Aziraphale 'angel' (bcz WHO FUCKING DOESN'T?? I MEAN, "Blasphemy? That's not not like you, angel." KILLS ME EVERY TIME) and obviously everyone wants Azi to have some cute little pet name for him (**ahem** 'dear' **ahem**) BUT JUST HEAR ME OUT.
BUT WHAT IF. The cute little pet name is literally just?? His name?? Like, I can't be the only one noticing how many times Aziraphale starts his sentences with 'Crowley,' even in the middle of a conversation with no one else around he could be talking to??
ANDANDAND he's the only angel who calls Crowley by his name as opposed to 'demon' (Yes, I'm talking about the fucking metratron rn) or 'the demon Crowley', 'the enemy', etc.
BUT THE THING IS, Crowley never TOLD Aziraphale his name the first time they met- we don't even know what his name WAS back when he was an angel- we know he's changed it before, and the original 'Crawley' doesn't seem particularly suited to an Angel ("well, you were a snake") so we don't even fucking KNOW the name heaven called him back when he was the starmaker.
Even hell barely call him Crowley, with the first scene of Ligur (literally one of the demons Crowley interacts with the MOST after Beezlebub and probably Hastur) featuring him asking "what's he calling himself these days?" (probably just another representation of how little hell actually cares about him, but moving on)
OVERALL, the only person (angel? being? idfk) to CONSTANTLY refer to him by name- whilst talking TO him, not ABOUT him- is Aziraphale. Personally, I think that constitutes a 'cute little pet name' 😇😇
i feel like people are sleeping on the occam's razor situation of how buckwild it is to outright accuse a guy of being a clone of your friend even if you DO have a lot of circumstantial evidence. there's other options is what im saying. they could just be like. a guy. that's a sensible deduction. you should explore that deduction. ignore my shirt that reads I <3 RED HERRINGS.
i still think odile has the correct theory on lock but she's smart enough to know it needs like... a real smoking gun to be able to bring it up without sounding insane.
anyway. (mirabelle voice) i know its rude to speculate but has anyone else noticed the grieving? they seem to be grieving. does anyone have any thoughts on the grieving? i have some thoughts on the grieving.
My Grammarly subscription finally ran out in December, and I'm not renewing it (see my various past rants about their introduction of AI), but I just got my final "insights" email, which tallies up how many words you've written for the past week but also since you started using it.
I almost want to frame it as a fuck you to my "I'm not doing enough" brain worms because, since September of 2019, when I reinstalled Grammarly for a pro-editing job (required by the company, as many of them now do 🙄), I've written over twelve million words.
I primarily used Grammarly for my emails.
That's 12,834,172 words of telling people they're gonna be okay. Sharing resources, doctor information, and just general words of comfort. That MCAS isn't a death sentence. That MCAS from long-covid isn't the end of their life; it's just going to be different from now on.
And here I was, feeling guilty about setting up auto-responders with links to resources because I got too burned out to do it one-to-one anymore...
It's interesting how Buck's love interests are all written in a way that ends because of the reason they meet/happen in the first place and then of course, we have Eddie.
Abby, who changes Buck's view of a healthy relationship but then turns around and ghosts him, making him wait for months on end and letting him realize she's not coming back on his own.
Ali, who meets Buck during a dangerous situation in his line of work and then leaves him for how dangerous his work is.
Taylor, who lashes out at Buck for using her as a fake date and saying she thought she could trust Buck to be a friend who then ends up using him for her career and chose to put his friends in danger.
Natalia, who's there to help him embrace and deal with his temporary death but it leads to their break up because of the constant talk surrounding death when Buck's not comfortable with it.
We can't confirm for Tommy till it ends but it's important to note how he offers to get Buck into his interests like flying and muay thai yet doesn't show effort with Buck's interests like dressing up according to the bachelor party theme despite Buck being stressed about it. And we also have the fact that the entire reason they got together was due to Buck's jealousy for Eddie which he then claims to be was for Tommy. Makes me think they are either going to end because of differing interests OR because of the jealousy issue popping up again.
Funnily enough, every scene above has an Eddie parallel:
Eddie co-parents with Buck and not only does this not stop after a dangerous event but Eddie also has Buck down as a legal guardian (healthy relationship - Abby).
Eddie is in the same dangerous line of work and they have each other's backs. This happens right off the bat too.(dangerous job - Ali).
The Lawsuit era and The Dispatch era - both where they "betray" each other but manage to work through it (betrayal/lie - Taylor).
Eddie doesn't pressure Buck to talk about his temporary death until Buck's ready and is more focused about him living than in his death (death doula - Natalia).
Eddie who has different interests than Buck (poker, basketball and UFC/MMA) but also manages to show interest and actively takes part in whatever Buck comes up with; he suggests their outfit for the themed party AND ends up staying there for Buck even when others leave (different hobbies & showing interest/taking part - Tommy).
Absolutely fascinating when you start noticing that Buck's relationships keep failing for one reason or another and then we have him and Eddie who face the same sort of situations but they still come out of it stronger together.
It's clear that there's a reason Buck is able to overcome anything when it comes to Eddie (that conversation with Maddie about being there for each other even at their worst 👀) and we've already established that everything Eddie looks for in a partner is already something he has found in Buck. So really, all that's left is for them to realize that hey, the one I'm looking for is right in front of me! 🤷🏽
And yes, it's been said to death (hah) but you don't find it son you make it. And Buck and Eddie have already made it.