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blue-jisungs · 1 month

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YELLOW CAB

author's note. i kinda slayed w the banner ngl

summary. 3rd time is a charm, right? especially when the guy whose ride home you stole is kinda (very much) cute

word count. 2111

genre, pairing. crack and fluff lmao!! graphic design hybe worker!yn x idol!seungkwan;; sassy kwan.

warnings. one or two curses, mention of throwing up

letting out a deep sigh, you stepped outside the hybe building. holding the file with your notes and sketches, you pressed it closer to your chest as you whipped out your phone. the weather was quite stuffy, air no better than in the office.

some of your coworkers passed you by and walked towards the parking.

shaking your head, with a few swipes you ordered a cab. living without a car was manageable but quite a pain in the ass, especially on days like this when you didn’t feel like taking the metro.

you stayed overtime, again. it’s really a bad habit, you should work on it. your eyes were struggling to keep open, even while standing. speaking of which, your legs hurt too – probably a result of sitting for too long. and your back; oh god, your back. leaning over the drawing tablet for the whole day will definitely cause you to have a hump… fun.

someone left the building and sat on the bench, doing something in their phone. it was good to know you weren’t the last one to leave. yawning loudly, you struggled to stand still.

then, you noticed a yellow cab arriving. finally! you marched towards it, absentmindedly. you opened the door and greeted the driver, sitting inside.

before you closed it, you heard an offended:

“yah! that’s my cab! check the number, miss!”

but the door closing shut the voice down as you muttered the address. letting yourself relax for a while, only halfway home you realized you just accidentally took someone else’s cab.

well, at least they won’t be left alone – in such case yours should be arriving at the hybe building soon.

you observed in deep thought the water droplets racing down the window. someone tapped your arm and you jerked, blinking.

“y/n, we’re leaving. you should too, tomorrow is an important day” your co-worker smiled gently and patted your arm “you should get some sleep, okay? i’ll see you tomorrow”

nodding in agreement, you waved them goodbye and started packing your things.

tomorrow you’re going to be presenting your new album cover and other details for seventeen’s upcoming comeback. you were nervous, you didn’t know if they were going to like it. considering the time you spent and how much tears, blood and sweat you put into the design you tried to be optimistic that they would enjoy it.

you left the office and already ordered a cab while in the lift. you hoped that because of it, you weren’t going to wait in the rain for too long.

a distant chatter echoed and bounced of the lobby walls, mixing with the elevator-type-of-music.

then, your phone dinged with a notification that your cab arrived.

taking a deep breath and putting your scarf around your head, you headed out. running towards the yellow cab in the rain, droplets hitting your face. water splashed under your shoes and in a few leaps you reached the car.

you decided to hop on the seat behind the driver, putting your bag on your knees.

“sorry for the mess” you breathed out and tucked the hair that got stuck onto your face.

suddenly the door opened again and someone entered the cab.

your eyes widened and you looked at the stranger. he blinked, flabbergasted.

then you yelped upon realizing its seungkwan. boo seungkwan. the boo seungkwan from seventeen.

you bowed yet were speechless, too stunned to mutter even a single word.

his brows knitted as he pointed at you.

“hey, you stole my cab last time” he grunted and ran his hand through his wet locks. your cheeks grew hot with realization, fingers nervously playing with the material of your bag. that’s not good. not good at all.

“i’m sorry i promise it wasn’t on purpose! i was just so tired and didn’t realize–” you started.

“are we going or what? it’s not a cafe to chat endlessly in one place” the driver grunted impatiently.

“yeah, right. um, i’ll just leave and you take this one. i’m deeply sorry, mr. boo” words spilled out of you like the rain from the dark clouds.

before you could open the door, seungkwan leaned and smacked your head gently. you halted in shock.

“are you out of your mind? i mean, respectfully. whatever happened, happened. just be sure to check next time… and let’s just take this one. i assume you’re heading home?” he asked, catching the driver’s annoyed look in the mirror “you should go first”

you nodded and after saying the address, the car started.

“do you work here?” seungkwan asked, interested. you felt a little shy – even though you knew they work at the same building, you never met an idol. and yet here you are.

“yes, i’m a graphic designer” you smiled politely “oh, i’m sorry. my name is l/n y/n”

the idol returned your smile and reached his hand out. you shook it and he hissed dramatically.

“aigo, your hand is so cold!”

you giggled and took it back.

the nervousness gradually left your body as you had some small talk with him (and he insisted not to call him mr boo or mr seungkwan as – quote – “that makes him old and he’s still young!”), genuinely feeling comfortable. he seemed not to be faking his engagement into the conversation either.

before you realized, you arrived in your neighborhood. it was pouring now but luckily the driver stopped quite close to the building. the driver asked for seungkwan’s destination, wanting to put it in gps already.

as he did, you reached for your card. then, you asked the driver how much it would cost to take seungkwan to his place. the man replied and the idol smacked your hand once again this evening.

“you are really crazy” he grunted and shook his head.

“no, no. let me pay, as a form of sorry for the last cab incident” you frowned, discreetly nodding to the driver. he nodded back and put the full price for the route; seungkwan didn’t seem to notice.

“no, i can’t allow that. it’s literally nothing, i swear i already forgot” he whined.

the driver handed you the terminal and you paid with a bright smile.

“okay, fine. um, thank you for the ride, seungkwan” you said and grabbed your bag “it was nice meeting you. have a good day!”

with that you left and seungkwan observed as you ran to the building, heavy rain slurring your silhouette. he kept his eyes on you as long as he could before the driver was too far away.

only then he noticed something on the seat.

worker id.

he huffed and took it in his fingers, not realizing he’s smiling. it must have fallen out when you pulled out your card.

“the lady paid for you, by the way” the driver said softly, glancing at him through the mirror.

seungkwan rolled his eyes, not sure why his mood is so bright now.

you dug through your bag, heart rate being faster than when you took your friend’s niece to the rollercoaster park. feeling the guard’s displeased sight on you, you decided to turn your bag around and spill the contents on the floor. then, you dropped to your knees and ignored the weird looks from other workers.

“i promise i have it! i have no idea why it’s not here!” you whined, glancing at the clock. 9:55am. you had about three minutes to enter the building and arrive at the meeting place since it starts at 10am.

and currently you couldn’t find your worker id.

“i can’t let you in on a promise. i’ll need to escort you if you don’t have it” the bodyguard said, unbothered.

you looked through all the papers and sketches that fell out, sweat dripping down your temple. that’s not how it was supposed to go.

with shaking hands you wiped a tear that gathered on your cheek and checked your wallet again. nothing.

a sudden pat on your arm caused you to turn around sharply and the person jerked in surprise due to your dramatic reaction.

it was seungkwan.

“now that’s just embarrassing” you grunted, blinking the tears away.

“are you looking for this?” he asked with a soft smile, reaching for something from his pocket. your eyes saw the goddamn plastic card “and before you think it’s creepy, you left it in the taxi. i figured i’d drop it off at your office but you’re here so…”

nodding your head vigorously, you gathered all your stuff and put it into your bag.

“thank you, thank you so so much. i was just about to be late for a meeting as if the meeting itself didn’t make me nervous as fuck” you breathed out and took the id “thank you…”

“i get it, i get it. now shoo, you can’t be late! and good luck, fighting!” he grinned and you sent him a wide grin.

seungkwan watched you disappear in the lift before a gasp ripped out of his chest.

“what am i even doing?! i have a meeting too–”

he rushed to get another lift and cursed underneath his breath when it came late. seungcheol will whoop his ass for being late but first of all, it’s only like five minutes. second of all, he was helping you.

the man pushed the door from the meeting room, sending all eyes on him. he rose his hands in a defensive manner and then bowed.

“i apologize for being late, there was a small… incident” he mumbled and before he looked up, he heard a voice.

“it’s alright, mr. boo. we didn’t start yet”

your voice.

his eyes met with yours, causing his face to lit up. some of the members noticed the strange exchange between you, especially when a shared smile bloomed on your faces.

seungkwan sat down next to minghao, earning a smack on the arm.

needless to say, everyone came to a conclusion that for the first time ever seungkwan was laser focused in the presentation. and you.

“i feel like i’m gonna throw up” you mumbled to yourself, squatting down on the sidewalk. hiding your head in your knees, you heard a chuckle.

“i thought people usually got nervous before presenting?” seungkwan’s voice reached your ears and you looked up with a smile.

“well now i’m waiting for the decision, it is nervous too” you sighed and stood up, raising an eyebrow.

“you don’t need to worry about that. i know those guys and they liked your project, a lot. and if they didn’t, i’d convince them” seungkwan grinned and whipped out his phone “cab? let me pay this time”

“aish, we’re gonna be pushing and pulling all the time?” you scoffed and shook your head “wait, did you like it?”

seungkwan nodded, noticing the yellow cab approaching. good thing this was a busy street and there were lots of taxis.

“obviously!” he grinned and led you towards the car, opening the door for you. once inside, he waited for you to tell your address to the driver and continued. “i really like your art style, it’s very unique and original. the colors fit well with the concept, as well as the design. did you create the font yourself?”

you stared at him in shock, causing a giggle out of him.

as you indulged him into the details of your work progress, you failed to realize how quickly you got home. not even done with explaining how you got the idea for the design, you saw a mischievous spark in his ebony eyes.

“let me pay, please” seungkwan pleaded and you huffed “and… if you want, i’ll let you pay next time. for coffee”

he stared at you hopefully (ignoring the fact that he obviously wouldn’t let you but he somehow wanted to have an excuse), seungkwan noticed a cute smile bloomed on your face.

“i’d love to. tomorrow? 3pm?” you asked, unable to control your face muscles from grinning. seungkwan nodded energetically “we’re set then. get home safe, mr boo”

you leaned in, led by an impulse, and tried to place a goodbye kiss on his cheek but you accidentally pecked the corner of his lips.

blood flowing to your face, you left the cab panicked, yelping a nervous bye!

“hey there, misses! what’s with your kisses?” he mumbled, fingers ghosting over the area your lips brushed against.

looking at the whipped man in the mirror, the cab driver smiled.

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taglist. @mirxzii ,, @primoppang ,, @l3visbby ,, @nicholasluvbot ,, @planetkiimchi ,, @weird-bookworm ,, @slytherinshua ,, @kazmura ,, @laylasbunbunny ,, @dazzlingligth ,, @eternalgyuuu ,, @rubywonu ,, @haecien ,, @mine-gyu

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wisteriagoesvroom · 2 months

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when you watch lando's old footage back with his different teammates you can see his chemistry is so different with each and every one of him. you can see the observant and maybe nervous first year f1 racer that he was around carlos. the fire-meets-fire vibe that they brought, all the overflowing energy of being early 20somethings.

then you get the daniel era where it's honey and butter. both of them warm and charming and lando still learning from the other. but also lando also coming into his own as a racer and realising that he's not an imposter - he's on the level, if not better at that point, than the person who raced for red bull and has 8 GPs under his belt. even if that same racer seems a shadow of his former self at mclaren.

then you get the 2022 merry go round, and oscar. might as well be night and day when they first meet.

oscar, who keeps to himself, puts his head down and works. oscar, watchful and careful after the silly business with alpine. who probably knows he's coming into a buzzy environment with big personalities and huge expectations too - because who is this kid who had the audacity to basically flip off alpine? and via social media of all things (how very modern for an old-fashioned sport). how is this kid gonna make his mark on such a storied team, where the last win is almost now as old as him? what is he going to do with all that potential, right?

we love the machine, because we love watching the potential of a bright young thing fighting their way out of its jaws. lando was in there too, not so long ago, and the poison from that bite might still seep.

nobody knows what to expect. but lando gets to be the elder in the duo for the first time. lando's also going through a process in 2022-23 where he also seems to be entering a new phase of his life and realising some stuff about himself as a person too and what his priorities are. we'll never truly know what that process is (nor should we), but i think on this side of 2024 you can already see how he's handling himself out of it.

and we saw it maybe, in a bit of a smirk at oscar's first day for the car launch and oscar being late. a bit of wonder at oscar, who when suited up seems physically larger than what he remembers.

but then! oscar puts in the work. good chatter surrounds newbie and his working style, and oscar demonstrates maturity. he shows what a contender he is. that he's got his own approach, and he's ready, and – once the car comes – he starts backing that up with good results.

lando is competitive as hell on his own terms. but seeing a twenty one year old from the Reserve bench come in under er, fraught circumstances, then smashing out result after result from Suzuka onwards - surely that puts some fire under your ass in a big way. and! lando is someone who, i think despite his bad luck and lack of a win yet, is incredibly driven and has it in him to be a proper WDC contender. he has that quality. if his teammate is pushing him he's just going to push himself harder.

which culminates, interestingly, in soundbites we're getting recently. like the peter crouch interview, where lando says he's stopped DJ-ing because he's prioritising racing. not an easy decision to make i'm sure, and maybe one that would've happened without oscar's presence at mclaren anyway– but just one signal of where his headspace is probably at now and into '24. lando is also much more reserved about the soundbites he's giving lately (like "i'm not making any race or win predictions anymore and i'm taking things as they are because predictions haven't come true for me in the past, there's too much expectation on myself" etc etc.).

you might even describe it as... maturity.

and guess who has been described as incredibly composed and mature by the mclaren team?

exactly.

#lando norris #ln4 #landoscar #twinklaren #mctwinks #oscar piastri #did i expect to write a mini essay about lando norris in the year 2024?#no #but his whole thing recently has been fascinating to me #sport is myth and imagemaking #so this is a meta on the myth if you will #i could probably do an equivalent essay on what oscar's learned from lando #but that'll be another like 800 words so i won't turn that into a ted talk #wisteria talks

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twopoppies · 3 months

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Gina, have you seen the article about Hs workout routine for LOT? I mean, we all saw the results… but I find it almost even more impressive to learn how its been done! His dedication and work ethic is so inspiring and surely part of why I adore him so much 🫠🫶

Holy hell. No wonder he’s in such great shape. Just a note that Thibo David was his old trainer with Live On Tour. I assume Brad Gould was his new trainer for Love on Tour. But I doubt his regimen was any less insane.

[…]

If you include the one-mile run and bodyweight challenge, this is the hardest warm-up I’ve ever done, but, given the intensity required for the next two elements I’m promoting them to workout status.

[…]

David says Harry Styles can run a mile in an impressive 5min 13sec—a standard some of the professional athletes David coaches can’t match—but I was urged to run my own race.

[…]

This was far closer to my wheelhouse as a CrossFit fan. I chose to tackle it in alternating sets of 10, transitioning quickly between exercises to finish within the eight-minute limit. But even commando rolling from push-up to sit-up then springing into the squats left me little time to spare.

[…]

I took 7min 39sec, and, somewhat unexpectedly, given I can barbell squat more than 300lb, it was my quads that blew up the most. Whether this was the result of the one-mile run before it or heavy front squats the day before, I couldn’t say, but my thighs were on fire by the final rep.

“I like to say that I train very smart, but you also have to be very stupid sometimes, you know? Do this type of workout in the most stupid way; go hard at the task at hand, like when you throw a ball for a dog and it goes super crazy.

“This is a very good workout for that. Very good at building everything that needs to be added after the aerobic base; aggressiveness, speed, that go-hard mentality.”

[…]

Things did become particularly spicy during round three and four though, as my body began to tire with the sustained effort.

My posterior chain (the muscles running along the back side of the body) took a battering from the kettlebell swings and sandbag-over-shoulders, my already-fried legs felt heavy during the box jumps, and my shoulders grew tired from two minutes of straight clean and presses—it was a serious test of muscular endurance.

[…] I also did 12 total rounds—I wanted the full Styles experience, after all—but I’d live to regret this. The hill I chose grew progressively steeper as I worked my way up it, and by the eighth round I felt like death. My sprints turned to slogs, and the time it took me to complete the distance I established in the first interval grew longer.

[…] The prior running and box jumps didn’t help either, but I got it done eventually in less than 30 minutes.

[…]

This was a relaxing way to wrap up a far from relaxing morning of training, and gave me a second to catch my breath after a monumental effort which lasted a little over two hours.

I swapped his day of training for one of my usual CrossFit sessions and had a lot of fun doing it. Every part of my body felt like it had been put through the ringer thanks to the muscle-burning circuit and lung-taxing running elements. I was also very, very hungry.

Another thing that impressed me was Styles’ evident fitness levels and work ethic; how he has the energy to perform for two hours during a stadium tour is no longer a mystery.

Another thing I liked about my chat with David was his openness and honesty. I often see articles online saying celebrities do a few Pilates classes or HIIT workouts each week to stay in unbelievable shape, and he was keen to dispel this myth.

“Collaborating with Harry Styles was an absolute delight; his commitment is unparalleled,” says David.

“But it’s important to note that this level of training isn’t suitable for everyone. Harry was inherently fit, but achieving the level of fitness needed for this session still required time, work and effort. Rushing into such high-volume workouts can pose risks.”

David also stressed that sessions of this intensity weren’t done every day, and the nature of his workouts will often “depend on the day and the state of the athlete”.

“It’s crucial to emphasize the significance of proper periodization,” says David. “Not every day constituted an intense session. In fact, we strategically incorporated recovery sessions which often involved a light run combined with core exercises and mobility work. Every workout was thoughtfully placed within the overall training plan.”

Read, full article here

#exercise Harry #workout Harry #fitness Harry #thibo david

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bonny-kookoo · 6 months

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Racer!jk might be my favorite one right now!!! Omg can we please have a drabble on that race where jk crashed?

...but also,,, pretty please can we have a drabble before jk was successful? Shes been with him thru thick and thin, i feel like it would be a great read to see how they were when jk got his first ever major win

I'm doing the second one, before his career really took off.

-> main work

"It looks so cute!" You say, looking at the front of the car. "Like it's smiling!" You beam, and Jungkook laughs, walking up to you to look at the front as well. People are watching you- its the first time jungkook has taken you with him to a race after all.

"Huh. I guess?" He wonders, tilting his head a bit. "If you take the headlights as eyes and then the bumper as a mouth.. it does kind of look like it." He admits, and you laugh. You've not been dating too long- but he already knows that your laugh is the cutest he'll ever come across in his life.

"See?" You tell him, before you take a peek at the inside. "It's so small in there though.. and What're those tubes for?" You ask.

"Its called a cage. Basically, if the car flips, the cage stays intact and as result, I do too." He jokes- but he notices you tensing up a little. "It's for safety." He says, and you nod a bit more quietly now.

"And.. all the wires there? Are they gonna cover those?" You ask, and he shakes his head.

"Nah, they stay like that. The car doesn't have to look pretty, just gotta accommodate me and keep me alive and well." He tells you- but it's clear that he's not very tactful in thinking about your emotions. He's not used to having a girl around in this setting- and it shows. "Hey- I'll be fine."

"But this is fucking dangerous, right?" You worry. "I looked up stuff online." You say, crossing your arms. "I'm not stupid." You threaten, and he moves to gently hold your cheeks.

"Baby of course you're not, never said you are." He reassures you. "But it's not my first time, I'll be fine!" He urges, and you can't help but let his big Boba ball eyes get to you. They're sparkling with the heat of his own pride right now, and he deserves to feel like that.

"..okay. sorry." You're not sure what you're apologizing for, but you still do- and he laughs, pecking your lips. Twice, because once is never enough. He doesn't care about his friends whistling in the back.

They're just trying to tease him.

"Dont worry so much. I've got experience, and my driving skills aren't half bad either!" He beams at you, and you smile. "And I've got my good-luck charm here too, so there's no way I'll lose this one." He purrs, pushing you back a little against the side of his car before he kisses you deeper than before, uncaring about looks.

"You sure I'm not distracting?" You ask, watching how he licks the piercing on his lip. "Kook you're literally staring at my tits right now, you're proving my point!" You laugh, and he grins as well.

"Nah." He shakes his head, shamelessly grabbing your ass as he walks you back behind the safety barriers. "I'd call it motivation." He responds.

"Motivation huh?" You tease, and he nods.

"To get back quick, and fetch my prize." He explains to you. "Take you out to a fancy dinner with that money I'll make."

"Maybe I'll let you have dessert in the car." You tease, and he grins.

"Deal." He grins at you, before he leaves to get ready for the dirt track race, leaving you behind with your suppressed worries.

He'll be fine.

Or at least you hope he will be.

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#bts imagine #bts fanfic #bts fic #jungkook imagine #jeon jungkook x reader #jeon jungkook imagine #bts jungkook imagine #jungkook x reader #bts jungkook fanfic #jeon jungkook imagines #bts jungkook drabble

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inchidentally · 4 months

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https://www(.)autosport(.)com/f1/news/stella-singles-out-exceptional-japan-f1-podium-as-piastris-2023-highlight-/10559510/

I think you've posted about Andrea Stella's relationships with Lando and Oscar before and I've been thinking about this and just needed to share my thoughts with someone.

when Oscar talks about his best weekends, its always Qatar where he felt like he really maximized his result and SIlverstone which he talks about as one of his most complete performances despite missing that podium.

When it comes to Japan and his first podium, it's like he's happy with the result and what that meant for the team, but it's not actually a weekend he reflects on super positively in terms of his race. I feel like he's never the one bringing it up, it's always like a reporter being like "and Japan?" and he's just like "yeah I guess that was nice too", but he doesn't really talk about it as a personal highlight (even though I'm sure he isn't like... upset over it, just not a performace he rates as his strongest).

all that to say I love that Andrea actually picks out his qualifying performace there as a highlight of his season, because it was! it just feels really subtlely supportive of him to bring up a moment that Oscar doesn't really talk about himself, and kind of got lost in all the comparisons or race pace between him and Lando.

idk i just needed to tell someone this lol

oh anon and I am so glad you shared it with me bc I wanna go offfff

truly this quote is the kind of thing I could see making Oscar feel emotional about and puff up with pride. it's the sort of meticulous score card that his big brained A-levels overachieving ass must eat up with a spoon:

"In terms of speed, in terms of capacity to learn very rapidly, in terms of collaborating with his engineers and extracting the information that he needs to grow so rapidly, in terms of his own awareness of where he is in the various stages to go from: ‘I know nothing about this track, first time in a Formula 1 car' to being P2 on the grid. And also the way he keeps himself calm, controlled – therefore always capitalising on his potential because he doesn’t create any unnecessary stress - that’s quite exceptional. And I can see why he was so successful in junior categories."

and god, the stern but loving dad role Andrea has taken with Lando and Oscar. especially when you think from Oscar's perspective how he was coming into a team fresh off of a dramatic court case and filling a seat that everyone - including Lando - was still deep in mourning over. from what I remember Oscar's "promo" by McLaren was more like something they'd do to announce a new reserve driver rather than Lando's new teammate. especially considering the weeks of emotionally overwrought posts and content about Daniel leaving. I'm guessing a lot of that had to do with trying to mitigate the comment sections turning rancid on any Oscar content (and I'm being generous saying that). but there was exceptionally low fanfare attending Oscar's arrival, especially considering him having such a scorching record coming up to F1.

so for someone like Andrea to come into his new role and choose to watch Oscar so closely when Oscar was honestly sort of - either ignored or still hated bc of Daniel and Alpine - during those races before Silverstone has come good in the huge revolution of public opinion about Oscar. Lando was already comfortably at home and only needed a little managing. side note I love how many times in challenges Lando would pretend to pout and say "Andrea said there has to be balance and fairness between teammates sooooo" akgfkasgs he had Lando's number already <3

but for all that Oscar has been a trooper about having to kind of operate without the kind of consistent found family that Lando has and dealt with the press and DTS dutch angle drama interviews in such a mature way idk. I feel like sometimes Oscar sees himself as only existing as one of the drivers once he's actually in the car. he's never found that footing of becoming one of the F1 personalities the way that even Logan has (thank you Williams and thank you Alex).

a lot of the time you could confuse Oscar's presence in the garage and the paddock with another engineer. and tbh when you consider how much of an online meme he was in F2 and F3 and how strong his twitter game was it definitely feels like he's intentionally suppressing his personality to maybe ? just get through his rookie F1 season with as little drama as possible. I've gone on and on and on abt how Prema Oscar would have made the perfect fan favorite dynamic with Lando the same way he was with Arthur or Robert. but Oscar's personality has only come out on camera a few times and otherwise he just watches Lando or stiffly gets through his own parts.

that's why I had to compile these instances of Andrea seeking Oscar out and being so incredibly tender with him. Lando is the always beloved child at McLaren and he absolutely earned that. but he was also definitely thrown by Oscar choosing to go so quiet and under the radar - I don't think in a bad way, but I will be interested to see the clips from DTS that haven't been chopped to hell so we can get a better glimpse of that.

but someone in higher authority than Lando needed to go out of their way to regularly remind Oscar that yes, he's One of The Big Boys and yes, McLaren is his home now. he has as much right as the rest of the drivers all feel to stand up and ask for what they want and speak for themselves and even cause a little trouble if they feel they need to. an F1 grid are always drama queens to some degree because they're basically the lead singers of a band. they had to as Lando rightly said "be fairly selfish" to get to their rarefied position. not that they're bad people at all, just that they have to treat themselves as of utmost importance in order to achieve the performance and mentality to even get a shot at F1. but not only is Oscar not naturally like that (his forms of self-care involve sleep and seeing friends lol) he certainly wasn't going to stir things up anymore than he already had.

but! what Oscar does have is incredible courage, unflappable calm and towering competitiveness. like I said once he gets in the car his focused self-belief overtakes everything else. the amount of times his rookie season it was down solely to the car or to other drivers that resulted in taking him out of a race or knocking him down the grid as opposed to pure rookie error or personal mistakes is amazing. and guess who said that back in August:

"For us being in this journey with Oscar, it makes it even more exciting, because it was very clear right from the start – the level of talent.

“Even the analytical behaviour, looking at things, trying to learn, and at the same time always remaining very calm. He is able to absorb things, execute things, always staying very calm, which I think is a strong point of Oscar.”

and guess who gives us some of the best insights to the kind of driver Oscar is when no one else can? (apart from sexy daddy Mark ofc)

“I think the quality which, if you want, maybe one of the key enablers [of] why he can grow so rapidly is just the man beyond the driver,” Stella told GP Blog. “He’s so calm. He’s so good at keeping himself in a status in which he can use the best of his talent.

“I don’t have that quality, I have to think very actively about ‘What am I thinking? What are my emotions?’ I have to think about my psychology to actively keep myself in the most productive state. For Oscar, this seems to come quite naturally. That’s the main enabler.

“I think he, potentially, has a natural gift. Or, maybe he worked throughout his young career through that. I don’t know. But, certainly, he’s remarkable. And even when I’ve seen great drivers currently or in the past, all of them sort of sometimes underperformed because they don’t stay in the status in which they give their best. I think, for Oscar, this is quite natural.”

oh and guess who also tells us the most about the fact that Lando has taken his role as established driver and leader seriously wrt Oscar and how well they've complemented each other?

“So Lando can say ‘ok, we can do this in this corner’, and so on. And likewise, obviously, for Oscar with Lando. The second element, which is remarkable this year, is how similar the comments are between the two drivers.

“And this is not only in the off-line debriefings, but it's also when the drivers come back after they run the first run during a session. They actually use the same terminology, like it looks like they are in communication before reporting their feedback.”

papa is giving his boys their props!! they did him proud and he's not going to hold back on telling the world!

and I even love how Lando and Oscar both choose Silverstone without any hesitation as their favorite race of 2023 and that Lando said how much Oscar deserved to be up there with him. that's exactly what Andrea had instilled in them and shows his values have fully sunk in.

you're absolutely right anon, we should never forget that Andrea is the one who went to Oscar when Oscar needed it and that Andrea established the team culture that has let someone like Oscar thrive at the same time as someone so different from him like Lando.

articles sourced:

#inchreplies #inchidentallyanessay #oscar piastri #andrea stella

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earthstellar · 10 months

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I was reading this post by @classychassiss and some good points are made-- I almost never see anyone talk about the Quintessons in the Aligned Continuity, but they play a very important role!

Quintus Prime and the Quintessons: Quick Context for the Aligned Continuity

Where do the Quintessons come from?

When the Age of Primes ended, Quintus Prime left and sought to use the Emberstone on other worlds to create more species which could potentially become allies of Cybertron.

He reached Quintessa, where he created the Quintessons himself-- Who are believed to have then turned on him. It is implied that they may have killed Quintus Prime, but this is never outright stated.

Needless to say, this did not go well for anyone.

Why? Well...

Colonialism in Space: It Is Always a Bad Idea

So, of course, Quintessons are directly the result of more Primal hubris in this continuity.

But it’s interesting that we see colonialism and a sort of reverse-colonialism occur.

Quintus Prime went to a foreign planet as a being who is nearly outright a God himself, and in something resembling a “divine intervention”, created an entire species with the sole intent of making them to, in some capacity, serve a purpose for his own people.

This is a bad idea. The motivation behind creating an entire species of beings should not be “they can be useful for our own people”.

This is how you might approach making a toolset for a community workshop, not the way anyone should frame the creation of very much living, sentient life.

But this is also inherently a very coloniser mindset: “I will go to another place and massively, irrevocably change it in ways I feel will be good personally, in an attempt to benefit my own people. I see this place and its people as a potential tool.”

Did he consider what might be best for the planet Quintessa? How would introducing a new species affect the world itself? How would this impact any naturally developing life on this planet, even if he himself may not have immediately recognised it as “life”, as we know Cybertronians often struggle to value organic matter and lifeforms (and this attitude may well have extended to some of the Primes as well)?

Did he truly fully consider the implications of creating an entirely new race of beings? Did he have the means or ability with the Emberstone to inform their development beyond simply creating a lifeform that would then develop on its own, and if he did, to what degree did he manipulate the development of Quintessons (aside from bringing them into existence in the first place)?

Perhaps he believed that since he witnessed the creation of the Cybertronian people, that this could turn out the same way. But considering all the difficulty Cybertron had already been through by that time, was that ever a wise thing to believe? Was it ever sensible to think sentient life could be so easily made and worked out?

Throughout the Aligned timeline of Cybertron, we see that colonisation is a common element, and it leads to utter destruction EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Space Bridges and More Colonialism: Please Stop Colonising

As soon as Cybertronians developed the capability for interplanetary travel, they immediately started to explore.

Exploring is not inherently bad: It leads to further research and development of critical knowledge of the universe around you. It can inform everything from artistic creativity to scientific development. New discoveries could be genuinely revolutionary in many fields and with many potentially beneficial applications.

But we know that as soon as they learned enough to attempt colonising other worlds, they began to do so.

And in the process of fucking around and finding out, they discovered the Rust Plague.

The Rust Plague would have remained relatively isolated, had they not bridged bots from place to place (and planet to planet) with such aplomb that inevitably the plague spread as people attempted to flee afflicted colonies and abandon overwhelmed ships.

Their cavalier attitudes towards actively colonising every planet they could reasonably cyberform for their own use resulted in the ultimate destruction of their space bridges altogether in an attempt to spare Cybertron the same fate as countless others, thus cutting them off entirely from the stars they so fervently yearned for.

All that potential for valuable research and exploration lost, in the name of colonising.

By aiming at other worlds, they shot themselves.

Quintessons and Colonising: Nobody Learns Anything, Now Slavery Exists

Naturally, as soon as they were capable of doing so, the Quintessons set out to colonise other worlds as well.

We can’t say that this wasn’t entirely predictable, as it seems most sentient lifeforms of all kinds in this universe have a desire to explore, even when they are not yet or no longer able to do so.

The thing about Quintessons, though, is that they don’t just love exploring.

They love slavery.

Quintus Prime created an entire species whose ultimate cultural export was the expansive development of an interplanetary slave network.

And when the Quintessons did eventually reach Cybertron, something Quintus Prime had hoped would benefit at least Cybertronians if not the Quintessons themselves as well-- We know how that turned out.

Cybertron and its population was enslaved.

And owing to the nature of the Cybertronian species, this slavery extended to extreme modifications of their bodies for uses as seen fit by the Quintessons.

The Quintessons explicitly wanted to diminish any sense of individuality that Cybertronians had-- A motivating factor for establishing what would become a strict class/caste system, to group bots in together based on physical characteristics that they likely altered further for this purpose (among others).

The Well of All Sparks itself was tampered with, the source of all Cybertronian life, to degrees that are not entirely known.

Cybertronians stopped coming forth from the Well with designations and no sense of self-identity, making it easier to stratify, alienate, and wholly manipulate them as a people. You get a number, you go over here, and this is your life now.

The establishment of Quintesson influence on Cybertron irrevocably altered the development and progression of Cybertronian society in every aspect, down to the people themselves, on a fundamental and often personally physical and mental level.

Simply put, the Quintessons did what the British Empire did: They found other people, set themselves in so fundamentally deeply that the environment, culture, and population itself was warped to their liking under their direct control, and everything from individual people to systems of government to the more core levels of societal development were skewed and manipulated for the central purpose of serving them in one form or another.

The Legacy of Quintesson Interference on Cybertron

We will never know what Cybertron may have developed as naturally, left to their own devices as a species.

Cybertronians themselves may not be able to identify any permanent or lingering changes brought about by the Quintessons, as these changes include alterations to the Well, and therefore they are “born” already altered. To what degree may be impossible to determine.

What changes were made, how extensively, how far have things and people deviated, can they even identify certain changes?

Orion Pax actively suppressed his memories of the occupation, to the degree that despite working with archives day in and out, he essentially entirely forgot about the entire species-wide ordeal. (Which also hints at potential information suppression in the archives...)

We do know that Quintessons are the ones that introduced the concepts that would become the class/caste system on Cybertron.

They created a system of government which benefitted them, and continues on in a slightly modified form throughout all subsequent eras of Cybertron.

What is interesting is that we know some still-living bots were alive prior to the Quintesson occupation-- I cannot imagine the horror of watching this happen, seeing new bots created with no designations, no identity or sense of self, diminished to the point of being service machines.

We don’t have a lot of details on the broader implications and realities of what Quintesson occupation was like or how severe things truly became, because this is still a franchise intended for generally young audiences, and I’m not sure Hasbro is ready to discuss the evils of slavery with children-- Even though this and similar themes are often critical to the actual story and characters throughout the franchise as a whole.

I do wonder if bots created prior to the Quintesson invasion and occupation of Cybertron were subsequently modified by the Quintessons as well-- I would imagine this would be necessary for the Quintessons to achieve their goals, although the other alternative is that many bots were simply offlined if they were not compliant enough, or if any forcibly made alterations were deemed too complicated/difficult to carry out on any resistant bots.

This gets dark very quickly-- Again, it doesn’t surprise me that Hasbro probably backs down from going into any detail for a lot of reasons.

We know that a lot of frame alterations occurred, including the specifically noted alteration of bots with flight frames-- Which instantly adds another layer of body horror, as these modified flight capable bots would have had to carry Quintessons around inside of themselves, against their will.

Even on a basic level without any further information, that is some truly horrifying shit.

I find the alterations to the Well to be among the most disturbing; The very way they come alive has been fundamentally altered. Nobody knows the true extent of those modifications. The implications of this, both the ones we actually see and what we can infer, are completely terrifying-- And will potentially continue to affect the entire species for the rest of time.

What Happened With the Quintessons Afterwards? Spoiler: The Colonisers Find Another Colony

And I do mean “find”, not “make”.

After the resistance on Cybertron built up enough to run the Quintessons off world, the Quintessons ultimately found an abandoned Cybertronian colony -- Aquatron -- and started making techno-organic lifeforms to subjugate.

On the up side, this does mean that merformers are canonically real, in one form or another.

On the down side, obviously this is fucked and evil, and once again, another world is added to the Quintesson Imperium-- Essentially, British Empire: Space Edition.

Was Quintus Prime Right? From D-16 to Megatron: Overcoming the Legacy of Oppression

In the most obvious sense, no, Quintus Prime was not right.

The Quintessons did not “benefit” Cybertron-- Or really, anyone or anything else in the universe, either.

If we want to think about this in the sense of Quintus Prime being a Prime, and the fact that Primes seem to play a very, very long game (albeit with seemingly little understanding of how their ultimately desired goals might come about and how severely awful it might be/what the negative consequences of their actions could be)...

...It may be the case that if anything “good” came out of the Quintessons at all, it is that the Quintesson invasion of Cybertron was the catalyst for the development of a society so brutal and riddled with inequality that change was both necessary and inevitable. The world was forced to one day become what Quintus hoped it would be, due to the suffering which rained down upon it.

Which is completely and utterly fucked, and in fact, is not a “good” way to achieve this outcome to any degree.

Now, due to the obvious parallels to real life here, I want to make it very clear: There is no upside to oppression, occupation, colonialism, or slavery. Ever. I shouldn’t have to say this, but we live in hell, so I feel like I need to make this extremely, crystal clear. There is no “good” in this situation, either fictionally or in real life.

Quintus Prime was, in fact, wrong.

His intentions may have very well been “good” from his own relatively narrow point of view, but he completely and utterly failed to understand that his way of getting from Point A to Point B would result in the almost unbelievable suffering and destruction of not just the people he actually cared about-- Cybertronians--but also countless other species throughout their galaxy.

We should still look at what happened as the outcome of Quintus Prime’s fuckery, and I think it hints at how deeply fucked up the Primes actually are.

Understanding this Primal “long game” approach to things requires looking at Megatron in this continuity:

Megatron came forth from the well as D-16.

Remember that it is the Quintessons who altered the Well to churn out bots without designations or a sense of identity. Megatron was a victim of classism which itself was the product of slavery. Megatron was born as close to being a tool, and not a person, as they could possibly have made him.

He became a fully realised individual despite the most adverse situation in life possible, became a revolutionary figure that was necessary to set off much needed change--

--And even if this spiralled into eventual war and the near-destruction of Cybertron itself, would meaningful change have been able to occur any other way?

Or would Cybertronians have continued indefinitely in the post-Golden Era haze of classist, caste-based oppression with nothing to spurn the population into action? Nothing that could overcome the fear and fatigue of a battered people and encourage them to actively work towards a better, more egalitarian future?

Was revolution, war, struggle, all strictly necessary?

I would say that if that is the case, then it is almost certainly primarily because of the damage caused by the Quintessons. And the Quintessons are the fault of Quintus Prime’s meddling, regardless of his intentions.

So much suffering would not have happened, or at least would not have happened to this extent and would not have manifested in this way, had the Quintessons not laid the foundations for it and built upon it.

While the past of Cybertron is staggeringly bleak, and the present in this continuity is extremely dire, the future of Cybertron may well finally see the planet (and it’s people) achieving what the Primes had hoped for them in the first place.

That having been said, getting to this ultimate future outcome has been an utter fucking misery beyond all miseries for both the planet and it’s people.

And honestly, we don’t know how Cybertron would have developed socially, politically, culturally, or otherwise-- The damage of the Quintesson oppression is so great that we can’t say if similar systems of oppression would have ultimately manifested on Cybertron in some form or another, even without Quintesson involvement.

But I think it’s very safe to say that it almost certainly would not have been to the extremes or in the exact forms that were forced upon people by the Quintessons.

Quintus Prime fucked up. Very, very badly. We can’t say what would have happened if he hadn’t created the Quintessons, but we do know what happened after he did in fact do so. And it was not good.

The Fuckery of Primes: We Don’t Even Know How Bad It Is, Really

Primus, in theory, created the Primes to unify the various tribes of early Cybertronian peoples and to help cultivate the planet as a thriving entity for the sake of the then-developing species of Cybertronians.

Would Quintus Prime have had the forethought to imagine this potential path of events, would he have had the ability to understand what the outcomes of his actions would be? In and of himself, probably not.

But Alchemist Prime and Alpha Trion have, essentially, powers of future sight to some degree. We know that in at least two different continuities (Aligned and Cyberverse), these two Primes very much do play the “long game”.

We know that the Primes degraded over time, falling prey to their own biases and interpersonal issues. Unable to mediate amongst themselves any longer and unable to progress beyond severe trauma and loss born of their own infighting and lack of trust, they broke apart.

We don’t know what they may or may not have talked about with one another, or how they individually or collectively may have planned or attempted to plan for Cybertron’s further development in their absence.

We do know that there was some of this type of conversation happening, as most Primes are depicted as having influenced or had personal interest in at least their own respective tribes on Cybertron. They did, at one point, actually do their jobs and serve their intended purpose.

We also know that the Thirteenth Prime was notoriously the only one who would actively engage in a more consistently diplomatic way with the other Primes, and that he also engaged with the general Cybertronian population at the time in a more compassionate and direct capacity compared to the others-- And this is part of what was considered to make him so particular and special.

Which implies that at least past a certain point, the other Primes seemed to have withdrawn from the general population, while Thirteen did not.

As much as the Primes seem to have cared for Cybertronians, most of them don’t really seem to have engaged with the actual population very much-- At least not beyond the very early years.

Quintus’ Call: You Can’t Fix a Mistake With Another Mistake

Perhaps Quintus Prime attempted to create the Quintessons out of a realisation that he failed his purposes as intended by Primus, that he let his population down, and wanted to rectify this so desperately that he did not consider the full implications of creating a species with another species’ needs in mind.

If this is the case, it may be understandable, but in no way excusable, that he proceeded as he did.

The Emberstone is his personal artefact, imbued with life-giving powers implied to have been gifted to him by Primus in order to help him serve his purpose as a Prime. He failed in this purpose, and may have felt that utilising the Emberstone was a critical part of his efforts to essentially repent for how the Primes had fallen apart and abandoned their people and their world.

Again, understandable, especially given the distress we know the Primes were all in at the time when they fell apart and away from each other.

Understandable, not excusable.

People make bad decisions when under duress and emotionally fraught, and we know that the Primes are certainly not immune to this.

But Quintus Prime’s power to give life is extraordinarily powerful, and carries a significant burden of responsibility.

You do not create life on a whim-- But that is what Quintus Prime did, in a moment riddled with grief, stress, fear for the future, and a sense of personal failure.

The result of this, seemingly predictably, was horrendous. He may not have been able to see past his own turmoil by this point, or perhaps leaving Primes to their own devices is inherently not a good idea.

Either way: His decision to create the Quintessons not only led him further into breathtaking failure to fulfil his intended duties as a Prime, but led to the destruction and loss of countless others.

And this would have been impossible without the Emberstone.

Primal Artefacts: The Emberstone

The ultimate outcome was such staggering destruction, loss, and suffering that I wonder if the Emberstone didn’t pick up on his feelings or state of mind during the creation of the Quintessons, and forged them from a place of inherent discontent.

We know Primal artefacts have the potential to react strangely and seemingly with some degree of awareness that operates beyond the Prime that wields them.

Alpha Trion’s pen writes in languages nobody yet speaks, that he himself cannot yet read.

To what degree does the Emberstone potentially have something resembling sentience?

What is the nature of the power gifted by Primus? It seems to vary from item to item and individual to individual, at least among the Primes.

But we do not know how the Emberstone actually goes about producing life. We don’t know how it works, or what any implications of its function might be.

Does Quintus himself know? Or it it an assumed, innate power to him? Something at least partially instinctive on some level, so familiar to him that perhaps such a casual use of it may not be so surprising?

We don’t know.

But I think the Emberstone itself is fascinating; It has some of the greatest power imaginable, to create living beings. To will a species into existence, to forge sentience.

The only other things or beings we see actually produce complex, sentient life are Primus and the Well of All Sparks.

We know that the Primes came about as unique individuals with unique abilities, intended to work together for the better of their world.

Things did not work out as intended. Some events are unpredictable, and some outcomes are beyond anyone’s power.

But we know very, very little about what power the Primes do actually have, really, in terms of their extent of application or how they work or why they work or anything else.

The one we know the most about is Alpha Trion, and his Quill.

But even then, things remain esoteric. Alpha Trion has foresight and the ability to alter events to some degree by literally editing and changing the narrative of life in real time and in future tense.

Yet even Alpha Trion could not see the death of Solus Prime, and had withdrawn enough by that time to have no inkling of the real depth of Megatronus’ discontent. He did not expect the betrayal of Liege Maximo.

There are clear limitations, when it comes to the Primes as people.

The artefacts themselves, while connected to their respective Primes, seem to very well have their own thing going on at the same time-- As independently operating esoteric items of power.

All of this is to say, how much of the Quintessons are the fault of Quintus Prime’s personal hubris, and how much of it is the will of the Emberstone, if it does in fact have individual will?

Can the Emberstone influence Quintus, in return? To what degree, if so?

Something to think about.

Phew, this was a long post-- Thank you to anyone who’s bothered reading (or even skimming) all of this! :) <3

I haven’t had much time to edit, so I apologise for any errors, repetition, etc.

But I’ve wanted to talk about the Quintessons in the Aligned Continuity for some time, and I figured this was a good time to throw a bunch of my thoughts on it together-- Especially as we know Quintus is involved in the Earthspark Continuity as well.

(Also, I couldn’t find any Aligned Continuity illustrations of Quintessons, so I’ve used the classic G1 Quintesson Judge here.)

#quintesson #quintessons #quintessa #maccadam #maccadams #long post #transformers analysis #analysis post #aligned continuity #tfp #Transformers Prime #quintus prime #alpha trion #thirteen primes

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lovesickry · 7 months

Text

- come out and play.

┈⋆⭒ daniel ricciardo x fem!reader [3.1k] ┈⋆⭒ part 5 !

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ ⎯ find all parts here! ˗ˏˋ ´ˎ˗ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ ⎯ contains: 18+, minors dni, bitchy reader, bitchy Daniel, unnecessary angst .𖥔 ݁ ˖ ⎯ a/n: its getting juicy don't fear

the start to the season was approaching and you weren’t sad as such but part of you was feeling a little bit almost left out that they’d be leaving and you’d be staying. they’d be living their life flying from different countries every week and you’d be here. in london working and studying and only seeing your one friend. it was a little bit hard to stomach how isolated that made you feel. they had both been such a big part of your life in the recent weeks or months, you hadn’t kept count of the time that had flown by. it was late early march now and the first race of the season was the 29th. you’d knew they’d be leaving soon. you'd called Daniel and Lando seperately on the day they were leaving, they both expressed their discontent that you wouldn't be present. you laughed it off, tuning in every practice session and on Sunday. Daniel was struggling more than Lando and you had the urge to call him or something, something that just friends wouldn't do, but it hurt he was miserable most of the time, in those interviews he looked completely worn down. it had a week since they'd both been gone and you'd mostly got on with it, you liked a fair amount of mundanity but you weren't unhappy when Daniel reach out.

tuesday morning (following week)

(1) new message: Daniel Ricciardo

hey wasn’t sure if lando has already reached out, and i know that you have uni work and stuff (geek). BUT, if you were interested in coming to Italy for the race, i can get you a pass? we’d both love it if you came. 😉

it was a no brainer. yes of course. a fucking f1 race and a paddock pass from a driver, obviously. yes you had uni but come on you have a laptop for that and you can do it on the train. you composed yourself and went to grace, who was thrown across the couch. your smile told her everything she needed to know. daniel. you showed her the text and she was as happy as you were, pushing and shoving you. insisting you go.

“i know i know” your insisting, slightly encouraging her to calm down slightly, but enjoying the justification of your emotions. after the debrief of packing and transport and all the boring stuff, you texted him back. of course you would love to come, do you meet him there or go there together, what happens? you were basically asking a lot of questions but overall starting with a very firm, yes. obviously.

trying to curb your sheer excitement you went to work on one of your recent assignments. figuring if you were pathetic to obsess over a man who was quite literally a formula one driver, you could channel that energy into your uni work that you wouldn’t be doing over the weekend, since you were in a different country. what you hadn’t expected was reaching for your phone an hour and a half later and seeing that daniel had replied. (you had changed his contact name in your phone, figuring you're on first name basis now.)

(1) new message from: danny

oh yeah, well i mean we’ll figure out all the lil things later but you can come with the team, with me and lando. we’re allowed a guest each so, if that sounds good with you i can get a car to pick you up wednesday morning for the flight. we have a few days before we race so we can have some fun.

is that all okay?

yes omg, but are you sure?

yeah of course!

you were shamelessly blushing looking down at your phone. you were giddy and you loved it. your assignment lay unedited on your bed as you flicked through your closet debating what to pack, enlisting graces help as you always do. Trying to relay to her the exact niche of what you wear to a formula one race. You think she understood? Or at least had a clearer mind than you did. packing was a lengthy and drawn out endeavour, one which resulted in the complete disregard of a suitcase but rather just a pile of clothing options on the floor that were the "options". so as far to say went well.

you only had 2 days before you left and you wondered if you should bother calling your parents, you decided against it, they never really cared anyway. they barely called you once a month, let alone to announce their coming's and going's. the next 2 days pass in a blur of preparing to go to Austria and uni and work, you're glad someone could take your shift, because they didn't love you enough to not get mad for just flaking.

Wednesday morning, 6:38am

(1) new message from: danny

the driver is outside whenever you're ready

you said goodbye to grace and drag yourself and your bag outside, hoping your state is acceptable enough. the man gets out of the car and greets you with a smile taking the luggage from you and putting it in the back of the car. it was all so fucking fancy. you sent Daniel a text

I forgot you were rich this is insane, you might be my favourite person ever.

im telling lando you said that

don't you dare

you arrive at the airport just as the sun rises and thank the driver profusely before going to the departures terminal. you arrive at bologna at around 1pm Italian time. lando had promised to pick you up and sure enough as you walked out of the terminal they were both standing there, boyish and bright and nudging each other. joking and pointing, seeing who would spot you first. neither of them did. when they finally do they feign shock and you walk towards them . they both engulf you with a hug and you can't help but laugh, Daniel holds your gaze as you pull away and get lead to the car.

the drive isn't too long to where they're staying near Imola and the scenery is so beautiful, you send grace a few pictures and post one on your story. you figure you fell asleep because you don't remember pulling up to the hotel but you remember Lando's face in yours and Daniel standing back laughing, you rub your eyes and glare at him.

"how'd you sleep" lando says with a snort.

"shove off" you say, getting your stuff out of the back seat and pushing him out of the way.

"you're a snorer did you know?' Daniel says looking between you and lando.

your eyes widen for a second before realising hes joking.

"no I am not" you say, quite matter of factly as you walk into the foyer of the hotel. trying not to drop your jaw as you're met with one of the swankiest hotels you've ever seen. your room is equally impressive as Daniel and lando insist to give you a grand tour. you settle in and receive a text from both of them, inviting you for dinner with the other drivers and some friends. you say yes and they say they'll be at yours around 7 and to dress semi-casual, whatever that meant. there wasn't much to watch on the TV seeing as it was all in Italian so you settled on the repetition of a few favourite albums as you were getting ready, settling on a long skirt and a nice fitting top. the skirt was long and loose and the top was short and tight, complementary you thought. you had only packed one pair of heels so settled on that pair, they were reasonably comfortable and were a favourite of yours. you'd finished getting ready at 6:45, needing a 15 minute period of silence to get ready to interact with people who you'd literally only ever seen on TV. you honestly could've taken another nap before leaving, you were exhausted.

Lando and Daniel show up right on time and in sheer gentlemanly fashion fight over who gets shotgun. you step back and after having a heated, whispered conversation look over at you to say, "who should drive".

"do scissors, paper, rock."

they nod at that statement and continue, lando winning and Daniel storming towards you in a faux sulk.

"you'll be okay" you say jokingly, patting Daniel on the back.

"ill never get over it" he says, closing his eyes and turning away in a kind of show to Lando.

"okay children lets go" a shocking line said by Lando who in most situations is the child but you oblige.

the restaurant is magical, the only words you can come up with, its a big long table all set up outside and its in a winery and its all so beautiful, shamelessly taking photos of everything and quite literally anything. you're not the first to arrive but it seems that others haven't yet arrived. you sit down next to Charles who is sat next to Pierre and Kika. his face is nearly jarring, how just absolutely perfect it is. you weren't attracted to him like that, but oh my god he was definitely something nice to look at. he shakes your hand quite formally and introduces himself before asking what you do, you respond that you're studying, to which his interest peaks and you get into a conversation about that. the conversation ebbs and flows as more people arrive and Daniel and Lando drift out of your vision to go talk to other drivers. its getting dark and you're on your third drink when kika and Pierre come over and introduce themselves to you, you're already in a group with Carlos, Charles, Alex and lily. Kika seems lovely and while you don't seem to be a massive fan of Pierre he seems to be close with Charles so he doesn't speak to you much. lily is just about the sweetest person you'll ever meet and you talk to her and Kika for a while before you excuse yourself to go find Lando or Daniel, having not seen either of them in a while. you stop by the bar first and manage to spot Daniel chatting on the phone just off to the side, you don't meant to be nosy but with the rigidity of his posture you're guessing he's not too happy and you don't want to make him feel like he's all alone, that's the last thing you want him to feel.

you approach, with slight caution trying to wave before you get to close as to say, "promise im not eavesdropping". your effort is futile as he hangs up the phone and turns around swiftly coming face to face with you. his eyes are red and his jaw is tense. his eyes slightly widen at the proximity of you both.

"what are you-"

"are you okay?" hoping these words project the sincerity that you mean to.

he smiles at you, but it doesn't reach his eyes.

"im just fucking angry to be honest, work shit is killing me"

you tilt your head, squinting your eyes slightly before returning a small grin.

"wanna talk about it"

"you're drunk Dylan"

"this is only my third, so no im not and you're avoiding the question"

"I don't wanna talk about it"

"okay then ill just go back to talking to Charles then" you say dramatically and turn to leave, he grabs your wrist and you turn towards him with a puzzled look.

"don't" he says softly.

you meet his eyes, softer now, his jaw still clenched. moments like these you notice how beautiful he is. he is always beautiful, but away from the crowds and the fans when he is at ease and his face is shadowed in the moonlight you notice and not only do you notice but you look and its hard to draw yourself away from it to respond.

"I thought you didn't want to talk"

"I don't" he grunts out

you roll your eyes.

"just-"

before he can finish what he is saying, lando comes upon from behind you, scaring you. you jump and turn around, slapping him in the shoulders. he's still recovering when he tries to speak.

"so you were just going to abandon me, you guys suck"

Daniel waits for you to answer, head turned towards you.

"Daniel just wanted to run away from you" pointing at lando.

"liar"

you turn towards Daniel giving him a sympathetic look.

"I swear im coming back, just give me a sec"

lando smirks at you and Daniel before walking off.

"well" you say lowly, awaiting his complete response since he was cut off by Lando.

"nothing" blankness filled his features

"oh come on if you're angry wouldn't you rather let it out"

"no" his gaze hardens.

your shoulders drop, honestly fairly fed.

"okay"

"go back and talk to Charles"

"what"

"go back and flirt with Charles "

there's now words, the most you can do is scoff in his fucking smug face.

"yeah okay dickhead" you more confused at his outburst than angry but it gets you riled up nonetheless.

you meet Lando back at the table and he presents you with your fourth drink and some appetisers as the night cools down and people loosen up. Daniel returns shortly after, though notably less content then when he left, he inserts himself into a conversation with Sebastian and Lance and seems reasonably talkative, though you don't ignore the look he gives you from across the table.

somehow you find yourself with a fifth drink at the corner of the table between Carlos and Charles, its completely harmless, you're really not flirting, or at least not trying to, but the burning look that Daniel continues to give you is getting unavoidable. Carlos and Charles are talking about something irrelevant while you make small side comments every now and again before again, excusing yourself for another drink. if Daniel was going to say you're drunk, the least you could do was get drunk. you meet with Lando at the bar who you stay a while to chat with, its easy talking to Lando and he's fun, you take a few shots and some other drivers join you though next to Lando so you're not too sure exactly who they were. on the third round of shots nearly every driver is at the bar and you notice Daniel's presence more than anyones.

you go outside for some air and you wish you could say you were surprised when you turn around and see Daniels coming after you.

your leant up against the wall when he finally opens his mouth.

"im sorry"

you wait for him to continue.

"about before, im sorry"

"which part?"

"all of it"

"really?"

"yes"

"are you still angry?"

"furious"

"you do a good job at hiding it" genuinely impressed with his composure.

"not healthy though" he scoffs

"fair enough"

"should probably go punch something"

"not a fan of talking?" you say

"no I love talking, just not about this shit"

"this shit?" you question.

"work shit, meaningless shit, shit that makes my blood fucking boil"

you nod and he moves next to you, occupying the space next to you.

"I wasn't flirting with Charles you know?"

he turns and looks at you.

"I know. Charles thought you were though"

"but you know I wasn't"

"but he didn't"

"so?"

"so he wanted you, that made me angrier, the way he looked at you" he's grimacing now, as he speaks out.

"I made you angry?" you move infant of him, wanting to read his emotions slightly.

"I wish you didn't" he says honestly and then continues

"you shouldn't, I shouldn't be angry, I shouldn't be this fucking angry about my mate just talking to you" he's tensing his jaw now, and shaking his leg, avoiding your gaze.

"take it out on me" the words leave your mouth before you can stop it and his heads perks up.

"what" he breaths out, gulping.

"you know what I mean"

"I shouldn't"

you move closer to him, touching the skin of his neck with the tips of your fingers, he inhales sharply at your touch and closes your eyes.

"fuck" he says.

your hand moves up and down his neck and goes to cup his jaw, he moves into your touch, unknowingly. though he appears to still be fighting himself, refusing to touch you, hands clenched at his sides. eyes screwed shut.

“daniel”

his eyes open at his name and you give him a wanton look.

“don’t” he says, nostrils flaring, hands open and closing again.

“please”

“fuck” his hands stretch out and grasp your waist, pulling you into him. he moves his head to your neck, breath fanning there for a while, before moving one of his hands to your lower back. you close your eyes at his touch, succumbing to it as his hands move up and down the side of your body. moving your shirt up so his hands are on your bare waist.

"dan-"

"you feel so good"

his words make you weak, spineless, boneless. just for him. your already on fire and he hasn't even kissed you. yeah lets change that.

there's animosity in the force that brings you two together, he kisses with a kind of breathlessness you weren't ready for. your hands grasping at his hair as he pulls you impossibly closer to him hands both resting on the small of your back. you both break for air and his pupils are blown, in a swift motion you are now the one against the wall and Daniel is covering his whole body with yours, kissing down your neck, licking the place he dwells over and the places which seem to have you squirming. you're tilting your neck for more access as he seems to not get enough of you, having to pull his face up in line with yours and kiss him just to get his attention. he moans into the kiss as you bite his bottom lip softly, his hand is tangled in your hair as you feel his hips buck into yours. fuck you were so warm. the heat from everything happening nearly becoming too much. he feels so fucking go-.

"Dylan, Daniel where are you" the voice sounds distant but loud enough and your eyes snap open at the source. Daniels body is off yours in a second and he looks like a deer in headlights, eyes wide as he smooths his hair and adjusts his pants. you're not too sure what to do, gain composure is your only choice. you follow Daniel after a bit and walk back inside, the crew is now slightly more drunk than when you left and Daniel is nowhere to be seen.

#source: cafekitsune #daniel ricciardo #daniel ricciardo fic #f1 #daniel ricciardo angst #daniel ricciardo smut #f1 fic #lando norris #f1 x reader #f1 x you #daniel ricciardo imagine #Daniel Ricciardo series #daniel riccardo x reader #daniel riccardo imagine

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genderkoolaid · 1 year

Note

It’s weird because I love my non-binary and genderfucked siblings, I have two friends who have “weird” “cringe” genders and I love them and I think they do gender so well. But I’m scared that by “demolishing” the gender binary, I won’t get to be a binary man anymore. What does that mean? I want people to see me on the street and think “he/him”, I want people to think of me as heterosexual when I show affection to my girlfriend. I want to be a binary man, and I don’t know how to do that in non-binary world

Playing with gender and fucking with it is good and I fully support people doing that. But I do not want to be seen as anything other than Pure 100% man, I have been constantly called “they” as a way to undermine my masculinity and refusal to gender me properly by people who know my pronouns. I don’t want to be seen as anything other than a Man. I want to be associated fully with masculinity, I don’t want to seen as a lesbian, I don’t want to be seen as anything other than a heterosexual man. Not even that I don’t want to be seen as a lesbian, I don’t want to be associated with lesbians. I’m a trans man, I’m a MAN and my attraction to women is heterosexual, and I cannot accept ideas that tell me otherwise because that would cause me to misgender myself, and I’m tired of being seen like that When I say I’m a man I don’t mean “butch boy girl lesbian” etc etc, if someone wants to be that and fuck up everything, I appreciate it, but I feel uncomfortable with them saying they’re a trans man because when I say I’m a trans man I mean a MAN as in binary man

I think its very good that you started this by acknowledging that this is a product of fear and anxiety. Its important to understand that that is where this is coming from.

You are insecure about your manhood. That is not an insult. Its entirely understandable to feel that way, especially as a trans man. There was a post a little while ago where I talked about how trans men can fall into toxic masculinity, not because its a product of being a man, but because trans men more than cis men (solely in terms of gender) have their manhood scrutinized and devalued. Manhood is a rat race & trans men are fucked over from the start, so we have to try 10x harder to be seen as Proper Men. That leads to a constant pressure to perform "proper" masculinity to the fullest extent possible to try and avoid having your manhood discredited, which can be not only emotionally damaging but legitimately dangerous.

But you need to understand, and I say this with love: this is a you problem. It is not other people's responsibility to change how they identify to soothe your insecurity about your manhood. Other people's identity, in fact, means nothing about your own. Someone else using a label you use to represent a different experience does not mean you must also share that experience, or that you cannot use that label to describe your own.

You are, understandably, fearful that your manhood (which is already constantly being scrutinized and attacked), will be further devalued if "trans man" can also mean "lesbian". You share a community and a label with those men and as a result, their genderweirdness feels dangerous. They feel like a threat to your being. This is not dissimilar to how cishet men react to visibly queer men in their communities and families: "how will people think of me, as a man, if they associate me with a man like that? I need to stop him from being a man or make him be a man right in order to protect my own manhood." This is how the patriarchy functions; make every man constantly compete with each other, under the threat of violence if they fail. Its not your fault you feel this way- you are made to feel this way on purpose because of the patriachal panopticon that makes us self-regulate- but it is your responsibility to work on yourself and resist the urge to view other men as a threat to your manhood.

"Bi lesbians" existing does not mean that people will/should assume every lesbian is bisexual, and for men to use bi lesbians as an excuse to harass lesbians is lesbophobic but not the fault of bi lesbians. In the same way, "lesbian trans men" existing does not mean that people will/should assume every trans man is a lesbian, and people using lesbian trans men (or nonbinary people for that matter) as an excuse to misgender straight trans men is transphobic but not the fault of lesbian men. In both cases, lesbians who have felt pressured to be attracted to men and trans men who have felt pressured to be lesbians see this new fusion identity as a threat to their own as a traumatic response. That fear is valid, but we need to understand that its our own fear. Its not their fault that bigots tried to pressure you to be a certain way, and their identity does not mean that those bigots were justified in any way. Other queer people are not the enemy.

If you care about your genderweird friends- and I don't doubt that you do- its important that you recognize where this fear is coming from and take steps to confront & cope with it. I don't like when people use "fragile masculinity" as an insult; fragile masculinity is part of what keeps the patriarchy running, and men with fragile masculinity need the compassion that the patriarchy will not give them. So please know that when I say you are insecure about your masculinity, I'm not saying you are doing a Bad Thing. You have been made to have a fragile masculinity as a way of controlling you, and now you need to work on healing that in order to have productive and healthy relationships with other queer people (and people in general). You can't support other queer people while also viewing them as a threat to your own manhood, even unconsciously. It requires a process of strengthening your identity as a man and not letting anyone or anything make you feel like it can be taken away because you (or someone you are associated with) Did Manhood Wrong.

You might want to check out @gay-otlc. He's a straight trans man who's talked about the issues straight trans men face, while also being supportive of lesbian trans men, and his blog might help you out with dealing with these issues. In general when it comes to identity issues, I think its very important to see and interact with other people of your identity, especially those who are confident and able to confront/cope with bigotry in healthier ways. I wish you the best, anon.

#m.#ask box

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lucy90712 · 1 year

Note

Hihi its me again could you do gavi x f1 driver where the reader is one the youngest f1 drivers

A/n: thank you for this request I enjoyed writing it as I like formula 1 too

wc: 2.0k+

Racing as been a passion of mine since I was little it first started when I went to watch my brother train on a motorbike as thats what he enjoyed. While there I saw people on go karts and instantly wanted to try so my parents got me one and from that day on I have been racing. I worked my way through the ranks in go karts before getting into single seater cars and then to the formula one paddock when I got a seat in f3. Everything happened so quickly but after winning in my rookie season in both f3 and f2 I have finally made it to the top flight of racing formula 1 which is a dream come true.

Of course there has been criticism of me and the team for giving me a seat but overall so far it’s been a great experience. The first few races were really difficult as the car is very different to anything I've ever driven before but slowly overtime I have been improving and getting more confident in the car. A lot of the places we have been racing in I haven't been too familiar with but once we started racing in Europe I got a bit better and now we are going to a track that I have spent my life at the circuit de Barcelona Catalunya I am hoping for a really good result. Not only do I want a good result just to show that I'm improving but I also want to do well because my boyfriend is coming to watch me race for the first time. He is a footballer with Barcelona so is always busy during race weekends which means he has never been to one of my races in a proper championship but finally he has a weekend free which just happened to fall on the week we are in Barcelona.

For weeks I've been looking forward to Pablo coming to watch me race so now that the weekend is finally here I'm just so ready to get in the car. Sadly Pablo couldn't come for Friday practice so we have already done two practice sessions although they went really well and I have been fast in both sessions. Today he is coming with me though which has had me so excited that I barely got any sleep but I did managed to fall asleep eventually after telling myself that time would go by faster if I slept. Eventually my alarm went off and I got ready in record time which meant I had to wait for Pablo to arrive at the hotel all drivers were made to stay at so that we could go to the paddock together.

Eventually there was a knock on my hotel room door so I ran to open it and before he could come into the room I had my arms wrapped around Pablo because we haven't seen each other in a while as I've been so busy with racing. Luckily he arrived a few minutes before we needed to leave so we got some time to greet each other and talk a bit as we probably won't get much time together once at the track. I told him everything he would need to know before we left like what time every session was and where everything was even though I'll give him a quick tour when we arrive. He seemed really excited but I could tell that there was something he wasn't telling me so I tried to get it out of him.

"What's going through your mind?" I asked

"Nothing I'm just looking forward to watching you out there" he said

"I know there is something you aren't telling me Pablo just tell me whats wrong and I can help" I said

"I'm just a bit nervous I've seen what it can be like going into the paddock and I know I deal with it before games but for some reason this just makes me more nervous" he admitted

"Thats ok you can be nervous I still get nervous going to your games but I will be there the whole time and we can always walk to the garage quickly" I said

"Thank you love" he said

After that we had to leave so we got in the car that would be taking us to the track even though its only a short distance away we are made to go by car. As the car entered the track there was a lot of fans waiting and filming as we went past which I've got used to but I know Pablo hasn't experienced it before so I made sure to grab his hand to let him know I was there. Once the car was parked Pablo let go of my hand and ran around to the other side of the car to open my door for me which made me laugh because he always has to open my door no matter what. Before we walked in I made sure we took a minute in the car park just to make sure he was ready and secretly I had to calm myself down as I was nervous about what would happen when I walked in with Pablo.

As we got to the entrance to the paddock there was people waiting like always so I went and took pictures and signed things but I always made sure to keep Pablo by my side if I couldn't be holding his hand. I love to talk to fans but today I wanted to make sure I didn't spend too long out there so I only signed a few things before heading into the actual paddock. Even once inside there was people taking pictures and trying to ask me questions but I just kept walking until we made it inside the team hospitality and my driver room. I expected Pablo look a bit overwhelmed but he had the biggest smile on his face before he launched into telling me how much he loved seeing people excited to see me and how they completely ignored him like he was no one and only cared about me. It was so heartwarming seeing him get so excited about watching me interact with fans because he always feels so bad whenever we go anywhere together and people want to talk to him but ignore me so for the opposite to happen isn't normal.

The next few hours were incredibly busy with practice and then preparing for qualifying but it was all completely worth it as I managed to get p2 which is the best I've done in qualifying all season. Afterwards I was dragged off to do interviews but as soon as I was done I ran back to the garage to find Pablo who was waiting for me just outside. Without really thinking I jumped straight into his arms and we celebrated together. I think he was more excited than I was but that just made it all so much better because I wanted to show him what I could do and I feel like so far I've done that.

~~~~~~~~~~

After yesterdays qualifying I have been on a high for most of the day but as the clock has been ticking down to the start of the race the nerves have been creeping in. I always get somewhat nervous before a race but today I'm even more nervous because I'm starting from p2 and so there is a higher expectation of a good result. Having Pablo here is also making me more nervous because I want to do well for him which is silly as I know he will be happy no matter how I do but I still keep putting the extra pressure on myself. We have already had our team meeting this morning and they are confident that we can fight for the win as long as we get the strategy right but sometimes they do get it wrong so that has me worrying too.

With the race being in under an hour I already have my race suit on and am just sitting in my driver room trying to keep calm. Pablo left to go and do something so I've been sat on my own for a while which hasn't been helping. Just as I was getting myself really worked up the door opened and Pablo came back in holding something behind his back. Instantly it perked my interest as he had a smirk on his face as well which can be scary when it comes to Pablo depending on his mood. Luckily he didn't make me wait too long as pretty quickly he whipped out a hat with my number on it and put it on with a big smile on his face waiting to see my reaction. I loved it but I couldn't make myself smile too much as I was still worried about the race.

"What's wrong do you not like the hat?" He asked

"No I love it I'm just really nervous for the race" I said

"There's no need to be nervous you have been doing so well all weekend you will do amazing" he reassured me��

"But there is so much that could go wrong the team say we need the right strategy to win and you've seen what the strategy can be like sometimes I might be fine but what about everything else" I pointed out

"Don't worry about it all you can do is drive to the best of your ability if you don’t get a good result it just wasn't meant to be and you will do it next time and before you say it I don't care how you do I just want to see you out there" he said before giving me a kiss

"Thank you Pablo you always know what to say" I said

Before I knew it I had to get in the car and then I was lined up on the grid with the lights about to go off. For some reason seeing the lights settled my mind and I got in the zone like I do for every other race. Once the lights were out I just went for it and had the best start of my life ending up in first before even getting to turn 1. The rest of the race was much the same I was racing really well and putting down really good times each lap which kept a healthy distance to the car behind. By some miracle the strategy worked out and we had two really good pit stops which gave me the best chance of winning. When the last lap came around I was in first with enough of a gap behind that I didn't have to worry about losing position so I just got to take it all in and really enjoy my first win.

After crossing the line I was instantly screaming down the radio and thanking the team before pulling down pit lane and stopping the car. Everyone was waiting for me to get out the car so I got out as quick as I could and jumped into the crowd to celebrate with them all. When the team put me down I took my helmet off and went straight to Pablo who was stood off to the side. He brought me into his arms and hugged me so tightly my feet came off the ground. When we pulled away he gave me a few kisses before telling me how proud he was and how well I drove which was nice to hear as sometimes I doubt myself. Once I let go of him I headed to the podium and the whole time I was just looking down at Pablo smiling as he filmed the whole thing like a proud mum.

I had a lot of media to do but eventually I was done and met back up with Pablo to head back to his place to spend the night together as I don't have to be in the hotel anymore. When we arrived I went and flopped straight on the sofa where Pablo joined me and wouldn’t stop telling me how much he enjoyed the race until we both went to sleep a few hours later.

#gavi imagine #gavi oneshots #gavi imagines #pablo gavi imagines #pablo gavi imagine

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lover-of-skellies · 9 months

Note

Really enjoying your ratings and your reasonings behind them. Great work!

Would you be able to rate Geno, please?

I've actually done both Sci and Lust already, and you can click on their names to go to the original posts if you're curious about them ^^ and I’m glad you guys seem to be enjoying these smooch-ability rating things!

Alrighty, after some thought and consideration, I’d say Geno gets a smooch-ability rating of 9. He’s still pretty safe, but if you surprise him, he wouldn’t be too happy about it. Smooches could also get a little gross, with his constant mouth bleeding and all, but if you wanted to overlook that and go in for a smooch anyway, be my guest

1) How dangerous is Geno’s mouth? In and of itself, not very. His teeth are flat, as opposed to being sharp or jagged, meaning there’s less risk of your lips being snagged or cut on them. 2 points for having safe chompers. I’d say the fact that he’s glitched could result in a sting or a zap (like it might with Error) upon smooching him, but he doesn’t seem to be nearly as glitched as Error does. In comparison, he’s still pretty solid

2) Would he bite, and is he aggressive? I’m inclined to believe that Geno may possibly be a biter; the chance of it happening is small, but still a bit more noticeable than it’d be with Sans Classic, for example. As for his aggression, I’d say he’s a little bit more moody and temperamental than his original UT counterpart (likely due to a mix of trauma, possible resentment toward certain individuals, him being from a genocide timeline, and his whole thing with Determination), but not as moody and temperamental as someone like UF Papyrus or Error. He knows how to keep himself in line and relaxed, and the only chance of that self control slipping would probably be if something or someone happened to set him off or trigger him. Since he’s relatively tame but still carries a slight chance of lashing out, I’d say he gets 1 point for this area

3) Are there any health hazards to the smoocher? Quite possibly. While he doesn’t carry around a weapon regularly that could cause accidental injury, he is very adept with magic. We know he has no qualms against using magic when necessary, so if he somehow felt threatened, he could use magic and sort of act on impulse to defend himself. Beyond that, blood constantly drips from his mouth and he has that big gash across his chest area. Blood, no matter what race or species it’s from, could very well be a biohazard. Taking that into consideration and the fact that kissing someone and getting their blood all over you is uh… pretty gross, I’m gonna have to give him 0 points

4) Does he have a sympathetic backstory? He went through all the same stuff as Sans Classic (raising his brother, working multiple odd jobs to financially support both of them, caring for Frisk/the player, being the only one to know about the resets, and being the one to watch judgement hall), which already gets him a small amount of sympathy on its own. That’s not all he ends up having to suffer through, though. In a horrifying turn of events, the player/Frisk decides to go on a murderous rampage and kills every monster they come across, which would’ve been a big betrayal to him. He repeatedly has to experience the death of everyone he’s loved and cared about every time they reset, then out of a desire to stop them for good, he starts experimenting with Determination (from what I remember reading). My memory of the events of Aftertale are a bit fuzzy since it’s been a while since I’ve read the comic, but through a series of events, I know he somehow gets trapped in the save screen and is unable to leave. The game goes on without him, spawning in a new Sans, and he’s just. Doomed to forever be stuck and unable to leave or communicate with anyone. While I believe Aftertale does give him a neutral or happy ending after a while, the fact that he went through so many tragic events back to back and probably has an insane amount of trauma from all of it gains him a full 2 points for sympathy

5) Does Geno deserve a smooch? After everything he’s done and been through, and all horrifying things he’s been forced to endure, yeah, I’d say he’s pretty deserving of a smooch. 2 more points for him

6) Is he cute or cool? I’m not sure if I’d call him cutesy, because when the pixels over his bad eye vanish, we’re left with this disfigured, melted half of his head (some depictions of him have a melted head, others just have the melted socket) and a socket that’s beyond repair. Which, if you were another skeleton seeing that, that on its own would probably be nightmare inducing. In terms of coolness though, I’d say he could be passing; he’s got this very laidback and chill personality, he doesn’t take shit from anyone, he’s incredibly strong and skilled with magic despite the condition that his body and soul are in, and he’s a fighter. He’s got a lot of trauma and obvious issues that need to be worked out, sure, but overall, I’d say it’s pretty cool that he’s willing to keep fighting, again, despite the shape his body are soul themselves are in because of the things he’s gone through. His design is simple, but it’s effective at conveying what he went through, from the blood on his slippers, the gash on his chest, him having pixels over one eye, and him wearing the scarf of his deceased brother, he’s unique, and pretty easily identifiable. 2 points for coolness

In total, Geno gets a rating of 9. If you absolutely needed to kiss him, you could, but you might end up covered in his blood, which isn’t exactly ideal. Since he’s a bit standoffish, he might not be too thrilled about a surprise smooch, but I can’t see him being the type to cause serious injury over it. At worst, he’d probably get super intimidating and tell you never to do that ever again

#emeraldhazeart #anon #asks #geno sans #smoochability rating

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hussyknee · 4 months

Text

If y'all want to feel sympathy for the Israelis, you better have it for every single genocider. Slavers and settlers that scalped Natives and Nazis and Imperial Japan and Stalinists and Serbs and the British East India company and white nationalists and Islamic fundamentalists and Hindutvas and Assad's forces and and and.

People do not become genociders because of victimhood. The majority of the worst colonial empires were people who hadn't been oppressed themselves in centuries. Groups become genocidal because they have power and want to take their trauma or paranoia out on someone weaker than they are. Even the ones who aren't gleefully enthusiastic go along with it because the benefits and risks of dissent outweigh your moral conscience. You're not forced to make those choices. That's not what indoctination is. Indoctrination helps dehumanization. It's making it easy to silence every doubt and qualm and instinct for empathy and compassion. But you still choose. You make a conscious decision to see a human being as a vermin to be eradicated. It's easy to do that when you have no incentive to see them as human and no consequences for treating them accordingly.

For fuck's sake, stop using the Holocaust as an excuse for Zionists. Half of them are converts or the children of converts who never lived the Jewish generational legacy of persecution. Most of their families migrated from places where they had a perfectly comfortable lives, and the other half was born in Israel and never knew what being a marginalized minority was like. Israelis are literally the least oppressed Jews in the known world. They victimize Palestinians because colonizers and oppressors live in mortal fear of the people they colonize and oppress, because they KNOW that they're crushing them and have to manufacture all sorts of narratives to rationalize and justify that they're actually the good guys.

Colonization and genocide is a result of power. I and a lot of other BIPOC have been traumatized by Zionists before we ever knew the word for them, because they keep taking out their paranoia of Jewish hate on Black people, Natives, immigrants, Muslims and Arabs and every kind of racial minority that have no systemic power to hurt them. They have such a foothold in the Jewish communities of Europe and its settler colonies (Australia, the Americas), because white Jews have assimilated into whiteness. However conditional their acceptance among white Christians, they have the same racial and institutional power over Black and brown colonized people. Which makes it easy for them to choose Zionism— the legitimizing of white colonial anxiety in place of fear of their oppressor. Antisemitism is their ready and convenient way to rationalize the racism and Islamphobia and racial superiority they already have.

Do you think Jews are the only people who have ever been genocided? The Holocaust was not exceptional, it was exceptionalized by the Western powers to launder their own atrocities that far outstripped Nazi Germany. Look at what they're doing with Ukraine. They're being genocided and colonized and they deserve empathy and help against Russia. But the West isn't concerned about Armenia the same way even though it's also an Eastern European country. They definitely weren't concerned about any of the other countries Russia has attacked or helped genocide (like Syria). Including Ukraine itself before all this. Putin has been attacking Donbas since 2014.

So why now? They care about who's genociding Ukraine, not about Ukrainians. Russia under Putin is very much a threat to NATO and Ukraine is bordered by NATO countries. The Western PR machine still had to make Ukrainians white, because Slavs are ethnically marginalized in Western Europe, and even North America to a lesser degree. They have white privilege over all Asians and Africans and Indigenous people because the colour system of race is based on European colonization, but they have only conditional whiteness in the imperial sphere of both the US and Russia. But because they're ethnically European, the US and Western Europe was able to launch a PR "Look They're Just Like Us!" campaign to elevate them to full whiteness, so that their own citizens would actually give a shit about this country they'd barely heard of before. That's why we're all more concerned about Ukraine than any other Eastern Europeans (we're all conditioned into white supremacy). After that, the US went around thumping its own chest for a full year and half, trying to launder its military image after the twenty year Muslim genocide that was the War on Terror (still ongoing).

This is exactly what they did with European Jews. High-ho, somebody victimized by the Enemy! Dust them off and lookie! They're European! People will give a shit that we liberated them if we make them all white! But uh, do we really want five million Jewish refugees in here? Oh I know, we'll thrown in with those crazy Jewish terrorists that were giving the Brits so much trouble, and give them a state! They're also from Europe after all, and Civilized™, unlike the savages!

And then the liberated Jews accepted doing exactly what the Nazis did to them. Not because they had to! They could have just lived in Palestine, that whole region of the Levant was pretty secular and multicultural. But they didn't see Arabs as human beings! Because Europeans are taught to see Black and brown people as servants and savages! They massacred Palestinians and took the place over because they could and then called it the War of Independence. The first people they victimized after that? Were Arab Jews. They colluded with Arab nationalists to have them ethnically cleansed entirely out of their countries and scooped them up to create a labouring underclass! Put them up in such squalid conditions that scores died!

And did those people look around and realize white Jews were their oppressors and they had far more in common with Palestinians? No. They threw in with their oppressors to help make Palestinians lives a generational nightmare. Because power and assimilation! This is the exact same reason why Zionists has been trying to cosy up to Nazis since before Hitler.

(Oh and by the way? Germans never regretted the Nazis or the Holocaust. The Americans "denazification" was a dead fail. They just used Israel to make a whole dog and pony show of how very sorry they were and how it was a Dark Moment in Their History™ (because nothing they've ever done to colonized people counts). They paid reparations because the West made them, but they never got over the massive post-war genocide the Allies subjected their people to, or the way they carved up the country like a Christmas turkey. But again, did they hold Britain, France, US and Russia responsible for it? Did they acknowledge that the most severe cases of post-war violence came from American GIs? Of course not. Obviously the biggest threat was...the Poles.)

If you really see all those TikTok videos of families dancing to their genocide songs, taunting starving and dehydrated Palestinians and teens lampooning Palestinian mothers grieving their dead children and think "they're also victims because Western imperialists exploited their fear and made them into monsters" then I don't even know what to say to you. That level of infantilization, wilful ignorance and need to turn sadism into victimhood is breathtakingly racist and paternalistic. Even if you believe #Not All Israelis, the point is there's enough Israelis. Also what is even there to feel sorry for?? Are Israelis about to be turned out and shot in the streets? Starve to death? Have their limbs amputated without anesthetic and still die of sepsis? Literally what??

Emotions are signifiers of your own internal biases and perspectives. They aren't indicative of justice or morality. We can't move through a deeply unequal world and believe that compassion is having the same responses, judgements and feelings for everyone. It's not empathy you're feeling for Israelis, it's conditioned philosemitism and casual racism against Palestinians. If you actually followed the videos and images and news coming out of Palestine, you would feel about as sympathetic towards them as Nazis. You would understand that this kind of atrocity doesn't come from trauma or having been victims. It comes from having zero consequences for doing them. It comes from unchecked, gleeful, sadistic power.

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angel-inrealtime · 1 year

Text

November F1c Prompts Day 25

Day 25 - Tactile (Sharp)

A/N: hefty TWs for this chapter including - parental death (offscreen, discussed), resulting trauma, bad family relationships, mental health issues (think CPTSD/adjacent), mild (??) toxicity in relationships as a result of the above (I am not a good judge lmao).

Let me know if there's anything specific you think I should tag, happy to do so.

A/N 2: Despite all that ^ I feel like this is more comfort than hurt. It's still a nice little sunshine universe - just a passing (or already passed) storm.

Sometimes you feel like you’re made of sharp sides and spikes. And that’s fine – great, actually - when that’s what you need. It helped you get through the hard things (even though it was other hard things that made you so...prickly, in the first place).

The problem is…it’s difficult to know how not to be sharp. How to turn it off when you don’t want to be.

(When you don’t need to be)

You look at Daniel and you desperately don’t want to cut him on all of your sharp edges – privately think you’d rather die than hurt him; on purpose, by accident, or otherwise. You can’t say it like that, of course. That would seem insane.

The first time a therapist said to you “you’re very self-aware” you wanted to scream ‘yes, that’s the problem’. You came armed with bulleted lists, traumas laid out neat on journal pages and organised by connection.

(You don’t mention that you have a psychology degree, because that would mean explaining why you turned down a first class honours position when it all got too close to home, as if that somehow hadn’t been the point all along and you’d just avoided thinking about it until you couldn’t anymore, and then…well, turning it into a commodity via organisational psychology and human resources had just been a pivot, or whatever buzzword is most fitting)

You remember the lists though, of all the things that made you sharp, all the spindly lines between cause and effect and outcome but it’s like Daniel set off a pebble sized snowball at the top of a very large hill and it grows and grows until it’s a boulder and it seems unstoppable.

“You really are obsessed with the moon hey?”

He’s delighted by it if anything, but what almost slips out is the clumsiest self-deprecation in the urge to turn it into a bit. What you almost say is ‘yeah, me and Sylvia Plath really grabbed the mummy issues with both hands on that one’. He won’t get it, which means you’ll have to explain, (which means you’ll have to examine it), when all you can muster is disjointed bits of verse;

The moon is no door. It is a face in its own right, White as a knuckle and terribly upset.

The moon is my mother. She is not sweet like Mary.

I have fallen a long way.

The moon sees nothing of this. She is bald and wild.

“You didn’t tell me. About your dad.”

He’s so handsome, sitting across the table at dinner, which is new. If you eat together, it’s usually with friends; your time alone is usually confined to a hotel room (maybe one of your apartments or his place in LA if it’s not a race weekend). But it’s just the two of you in the Montreal dive-bar, a couple of share plates and wine you can feel staining your mouth red on the dark wood between you. It’s all candles in artfully grubby mason jars and dim, filament light-globes which send shadows across his sharp jaw and high cheekbones (bring out the gold flecks in his honey brown eyes and when you’re honest with yourself you could spend an eternity trying to find them all and you’d be content for that to be your life’s work).

It falls out of his mouth softly, like an accident, but also the loudest thing you’ve ever heard.

You pick up your wine and take a huge mouthful to steel yourself before you meet those eyes (he looks sad). “I don’t…really talk about it. Him.”

(‘you’re not special’ the panicked, hysterical part of you wants to scream. ‘I don’t talk about it with anyone’)

“Would you…” He pauses, still looking at you softly. “I mean, you don’t have to, obviously, but…if you want to.” There’s a little aborted movement in his long fingers, but not so stilted that he doesn’t brush the back of your hand with them. “The offer’s there. I know…or…it seems like it was a long time ago? So if you don’t that’s cool. But…”

He’s tying himself in knots trying to give you something that’s so at odds to the rest of your relationship – easy, flirty, no strings – that the smile on your mouth when you muster it feels like it doesn’t quite fit.

“I’m all good, Daniel. Thank you, though. I appreciate it. You’re a good friend.” Reassure, express gratitude, make it genuine, compliment.

So why, when you meet his eyes again, does he look so crestfallen?

“I don’t want to fuck this up.”

It’s that he just stares at you, once you finally force the words out past the barbed-wire lump in your throat that’s been sitting there for…well. You don’t even know. It probably pre-dates him. “What, Daniel, what are you looking at?”

It almost sounds like you’re begging him to tell you. You hate it.

“I don’t wanna fuck it up either, that’s…” He looks at you like you’re fascinating, or something.

It’s grating.

“I’m not a fucking…puzzle, to solve, Daniel. Like, I get it, I’m several circles deep in the ‘fucked up parent issues, don’t stick your dick in crazy’ scale, but I-”

His expression changes immediately, full mouth twisted in a frown that still looks foreign on his face. “I never said that. Don’t put words in my mouth. I wouldn’t say that.”

You can tell from the careful way he sits, how his fingers twist together, that he wants to reach out for you. Touch is how he orients himself in the world, but he’s trying to give you the space you asked for (it takes everything in you not to give in, to stay standing near the picture window, because you could give him what he needs to feel safer and you’re withholding it for what feel like selfish reasons).

The lump isn’t made of barbed wire anymore, it’s acid spilling out of your eyes and onto your cheeks.

“You can think it though, it’s okay to just…get out now.”

His fingers are so twisted around each other that his knuckles are white, and he looks heartbroken when you chance a blurry glance down at where he’s sitting on the coffee table. “Is that what you want?” He asks quietly.

“Danny, I…”

“Is that what you want?” He asks again, with a steadier voice and a crackle of defiance in his eyes that you weren’t expecting. “I’m asking you what you want. Not fucking…” He breathes harshly through his nose, and his voice is quieter when he starts again. “Not what you think you deserve, or what you feel like you haven’t earned or whatever…bullshit the shitty parts of your head are telling you. But what you want.”

“You.” It comes out no louder than a whisper. “I want…”

He can’t seem to bear it any longer, opens his arms from where he’s still sitting and looks at you like he’s cracked wide open and exposed. “C’mere. Please, love, I…” He swallows loud enough that you hear it. “You’ve got me. You’ve already got me.”

Maybe you don’t need the space anymore, maybe it’s enough to wrap your arms around his head and let his arms be like a vice around your waist, and to see him look up at you so raw and so fucking sincere.

“I’m scared.”

“That’s okay. You can be scared. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea, just because it’s scary.”

It sounds so fucking simple when he says it but… “What if I can’t…”

“Babe.”

“No, please can you just…listen?” You sniff hugely and try to keep the rise and fall of your chest steady. Wind your fingers into the curls of his hair just in case it’s the last time you get to. “There is a not insignificant part of me that’s fucking…terrified, of ever making a kid feel the way I did. Or do. Or whatever. I need…” You shut your eyes and let the drying tears stick your eyelashes together, so you don’t have to see his face as it happens (‘if it happens’ the traitorous, hopeful part of you contributes). “If you want to…if this is serious then I need you to know that’s my one card on the table. I will do my best, to keep working through it and…communicating, and stuff, even though that’s hard and scary but…I can’t promise that bit. And it’s only fair that like…you know that, at least.”

Daniel is quiet for what feels like an age, and then one of his hands finds the soft skin of your lower back under your jumper. “That’s okay, babe. It’s okay. That’s not a thing to rush, anyway.”

“But you…”

“You’ve got me.” He says again. “I want us. And if what ‘us’ looks like is just…the coolest fucking aunt and uncle in the world then…” He shrugs, you can feel it under your hands. “That’s fine by me.” His fingers press into your skin until you blink open your eyes and look at him. “But we can just…check in, about things. As often as we need to. It’s okay.” He repeats, presses a soft kiss to your chest.

“I’m sorry.”

“Ah! Ah Ah Ah!” His arms go tight like a vice around you and there’s warning in his eyes around the joking tone of voice. “No. No apologising. Unnecessary.”

“But-”

“For fuck sakes babe.” He stands up so suddenly it’s embarrassingly easy for him to tilt you over his shoulder so you’re hanging there, secured with an arm around your legs and a hand very firmly on the denim covering your ass. “Clearly I need to employ alternative methods, here.”

“Fucking put me down, you cunt.” The kick of your legs is half-hearted – he isn’t letting you go until he’s throwing you down on the bed with an exaggerated shrug like he’s a professional wrestler rather than a race car driver. You know how this bit goes.

“The mouth on you!” Somehow he manages to stay deadpan to deliver the sentence, but he devolves into giggles immediately after.

Unscathed, against all odds.

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italoniponic · 2 years

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Can I request hcs for Trey Azul Deuce Floyd and whoever else you want. Everyone has such pretty eye colours but mine are nearly black you can't see the actual brown unless you shone a light directly in it. Can I request them discovering that and falling harder for the reader it's like a secret in plain sight only they know

𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲'𝐬 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 - 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭

Notes: Hi, anon!

Let me tell you first that you have beautiful eyes. From where I come from, having brown eyes is pretty common and my mom makes similar complaints about her own eyes too but hey, every eye has something very special to it bc of the person that has them. And you never know, maybe someone sees your eyes and thinks “wow, they are so dark! that’s so cool” or something like that. I mean, I’m the type to say that lol

I didn’t knew who to exclude because I don't do more than 3 characters and Trey and Azul already appeared in other requests… but you said “whoever else I wanted” so I chose Lilia to replace them. He has one of the wildest eyes out there so maybe it’s a good match. But! I’ll still use Trey and Azul for a part 2 of this in the future, for sure. I’ll do the same for the anon who also asked for Trey in the “sick stubborn reader” story. I’m planning a whole special project to this bc I simply cannot let anyone behind it seems lol

Thanks for the request <3

Lilia Vanrouge, Deuce Spade, Floyd Leech x gender neutral reader / fluff headcanons / reader has dark brown eyes

Cherry's Harvesting 🍒 Masterlist

Your Eyes Have Enchanted Me

It was an ordinary afternoon in Diasomnia and Lilia had taken you to his room to show you some special souvenirs that he collected during his many travels over the years. Among all, there was this lamp from a distant land whose light could illuminate an entire street block. Lilia turned it on and inevitably, the lamp lit a powerful light before your eyes;

And that's when Lilia noticed something in your eyes as he turned to see your reaction. Your eyes, usually so dark that they almost looked like ebony, revealed their true color: brown. But you were starting to blink so much that Lilia put out the lamp and saw your eyes darken again, as if nothing had happened;

Lilia stared at you for a while, enchanted and silent. Awkwardly, you ended up explaining to him what happened and although you treated it as something simple, Lilia was truly moved by that secret of human physiognomy. His eyes — which you considered quite unique — were sparkling the whole time you spoke;

Then Lilia followed up the days chuckling to himself alone, marveling at the knowledge you shared with him. Only with him. As if it were possible, he fell in love with you more. Either because of the accidents of fate or because you would like him to know that, Lilia was in the clouds, floating higher than usual. As a gift, he decides to create for you a magic lamp whose light doesn’t end up blinding your eyes too much and so you could also better see your own dreamy eyes;

When very young, Lilia didn’t like his own eyes. His race was small and lived near the valley of the little nature fairies who were frightened by the “blood-thirsty” appearance of the family Vanrouge’s eyes. If Lilia had not met the young King of Thorns — Malleus’ grandfather — and, through their friendship, elevated his clan to a status of respect, he would never have passed this obstacle of his youthful years. His gloomy and intimidating appearance, which signaled warning for the smaller fairies, could then be the sign of an even greater fear in the big fairies;

It took some work and Lilia put together notes, mechanisms and technology from various other sources — like Trey from the science club and online friend Gloomy Samurai who was almost the “god” of mechanics — to create the lamp for you and your beautiful human eyes. When everything was ready, Lilia showed you the final result and you watched its effect on your eyes through the mirror in your bedroom. Eventually, you noticed Lilia's gaze on you;

Everyone in the Valley of Thorns and nearby regions, home to all kinds of fairies, has something special about their features. If for fairies, such characteristics are analyzed in detail because they denounce something of that fairy’s nature in particular, for humans it is another kind of exotic, fascinating and curious feeling. Lilia explained all this to you;

“But your eyes are the most beautiful thing made by human genes,” Lilia concluded. You turned your face to the side, flustered with his words. That world had really fantastic things and was actually quite different from your world where varied hair colors are obtained by artificial paints. There were a lot of people in school with wonderful hair colors and eyes. But then to say that yours is the most beautiful thing...?

When you were going to try to ask Lilia for more explanations about this, you were cornered again by the way he was looking at you. You, on the other hand, analyzed his eyes. Red raspberry-colored eyes, intense, with a sharp vertical iris that made your stomach tremble, worried. Your natural instincts conflicted between fear and admiration of the beauty of those eyes that look at you with the same admiration;

From then on, Lilia always quoted your eyes when he was going to compliment you. Be it their ability to hide the most beautiful of brown tones, be it the beautiful, beautiful shade that shone with your deepest feelings. It was just fantastic for him and you didn't quite know what to say. But his admiration was quite captivating;

Lilia even made a song about your eyes, their secret hidden between the lines of the lyrics and the poetry that surrounded the feelings of his heart. Not that anyone had understood much because he sang everything in the most hardcore rock metal style humanly possible. “Lilia must be talking about the eyes of a very powerful being for such respect and dedication,” was what Malleus said and that made you laugh a lot.

Deuce and you were on campus in the late afternoon, on top of the lawn near the Mystery Shop, chatting and spending time together. It was all going normally until Deuce noticed how the sunset light hit your face, making your very dark eyes reveal a beautiful shade of brown;

Because Deuce was staring at you intensely for a while, you ended up coming to the conclusion of what he was observing without him needing to say anything. “My eyes are so black, you must have even doubted that they are brown actually,” you said, laughing a bit. Deuce didn't think this was a weird thing, though he kept blushing by staring you over and over without the slightest subtlety;

Deuce returned to his dorm room still thinking about what happened. He kept this precious event in his heart, happy to have witnessed it. He didn't tell Ace about it. If you spoke to others, it wouldn’t be a problem. But he wanted to keep that feeling that he knew, maybe before everyone else, a special thing about you;

Deuce tried to think of something romantic to talk about with your eyes, becoming more delighted with you every day. He talked to Jack without telling him exactly what happened, and although it was obvious that he wanted to talk about eyes and you, Jack thought of some good advice to give. Once he saw a couple comparing each other's eyes to food and this should be quite simple to do. Deuce found the idea fantastic;

He bought a box of chocolates from the Mystery Shop and prepared a whole speech about the difference between the colors of chocolates, that even the darkest of chocolates is not necessarily bitter and is extremely expensive and appreciated — according to what he studied the night before. But when you sit on the bench and again, the sunlight came to meet your eyes, Deuce forgot everything he had prepared;

Deuce has never been one to personally cling to things like eyes but he likes the fact that he has his mother's eyes. It is a simple thing, however it makes him feel connected to a very special person for him. Even if that's not your case, Deuce still thinks there's something very wonderful about the subtlety of your eyes color;

Since then, Deuce has always been attentive to your eyes when you pass through places with a lot of light or darker ambiences, watching the subtle facets of brown tones appear and disappear as if playing in your eyes. It's so interesting to him and even if you don't quite understand what he likes so much, his smiles warm your heart;

Once, you commented on Deuce's eyes and how beautiful it was the peacock-green shade he has. It's electric, fresh and hopeful, just like him. But — partly because he didn't know how to answer your compliments most of the time — Deuce assured you that you also have beautiful eyes and that they are even more beautiful because it is yours;

One day, Deuce gave you a small keychain that he found in one of the village’s shops. Coincidentally, the pendant was of the suit of Spade and had a very beautiful and glossy black color. “Now, look at this!,” he said and getting close to you, he took the pendant up high and you saw the sunlight reflect some shades of bronze inside;

“Diamond-senpai was commenting on these double-colored keychains on Magicam and… I...,” speaking of changing colors, his face began to turn quite red. “... I remembered you.” Your hands trembled holding Deuce's little gift, you were trying to control yourself. Deuce was so cute at times that you just wanted to hug and squeeze him with all your might;

It took a while for others to notice this effect that light had in your eyes, if only because they simply thought the dark and intense color of your eyes was normal. But during this time, Deuce and you acted as if they kept an important secret, and, at least for you two, it was. And one thing you could be sure of: Deuce would always find your eyes the most beautiful in the world.

It was a simple afternoon on the basketball court. Floyd and you were lying on the floor, talking and passing the time since he had lost interest in playing and wanted to spend time with you. But at one point, Floyd sat down and noticed how the ceiling lights along with the Sun made the brown of your eye appear;

Floyd found this incredibly curious and ended up going over to you a bunch of times, trying to understand how it works. When Floyd realized that you were getting a little uncomfortable — and his shadow didn't help the light get into your eyes — he stopped. You explained what it was all about;

From Floyd's expression, you came to think that maybe he didn't understand anything but, in fact, he understood it very well. Several merman and mermaids in the Coral Sea have special abilities or features because of the species of fish from which they descend. In the case of the Leech twins, they were born to a couple of eels where Mr. Leech has golden eyes and Mrs. Leech has olive-colored eyes, which blended into their two mischievous children;

Despite understanding your explanation, Floyd had a very unexpected attitude about it. He commented on the fact that he had heterochromia and because of that — in his mind — you two became more alike because you also had special eyes. It wouldn't quite be how you would classify your eyes but Floyd seemed so happy with this “similarity” that there was nothing else to do;

Floyd had been thinking a lot about your eyes ever since, completely in love with you and becoming obsessed with the fact that humans can have these small, subtle abilities. You laugh at the way Floyd treats your dark brown eyes like a superpower. You’re just an ordinary human and, in your opinion, there are other people with more beautiful eyes. Floyd is one of them;

Floyd doesn’t comment on this with anyone, excited by the fact that only he knows this about you. But he likes to torment Jade and Azul over the fact that he knows some of your secrets and they don't, which makes Azul insanely curious. Riddle is also the target of these taunts but, he thinks that “because it's Floyd " should be no big deal and looks at you with pity when you pull Floyd somewhere else;

Floyd once commented to you about the eyes and characteristics of various fishes and other marine animals, going in full detail about the colors of each, to your surprise and pride. The way Floyd's eyes sometimes shine when talking from home is very endearing. His right eye lights up like gold and the left eye vibrates with emotion, like an olive about to be born in its tree;

Suddenly Floyd went silent because he ended up being distracted by the way you were looking at him, the darkness of your eyes curious and enchanting like a treasure ship in the bottom of the ocean. “You have beautiful eyes, Koebi-chan,” Floyd smiled, leaning the side of his face on his right hand, squeezing his own cheek. He seemed quiet, those rare occasions he stays in place;

You are invited more often to the Mostro Lounge. All because Floyd likes the way your eyes reflect the lights there, even in their blackness. The sparkling and light colors of white, violet and blue have a very special effect on your eyes;

On one of those visiting days, Floyd made a special request for you just to compare your eyes to beluga caviar which looks black but is actually dark gray when shown in another light. You didn't know what caviar's fame had in Twisted Wonderland, but in your world it was something very expensive and rare to find — that's what you told him. Floyd shared the caviar between you two and ate it fast and carefree like it was a cracker, a simple afternoon snack. You laughed at his antics;

You both lie on the basketball court together again. It was a day off from the club and Floyd managed to get Jade to steal the court’s keys for him. There you got over your first experience and once again, Floyd saw the way the light plays with the colors of your eyes, trapped in an endless fascination, which is very unusual by his standards. It must be because it is the eyes of his beloved Koebi-chan.

#twisted wonderland #lilia vanrouge #lilia vanrouge x reader #deuce spade #deuce spade x reader #floyd leech #floyd leech x reader #twst imagines #twst fluff headcanons #twst fluff #twst scenarios #cherry's writing #cherry's harvesting

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 11 months

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What are your thoughts on accusations that atheists are "culturally Christian?"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Christians

Cultural Christians are nonreligious persons who adhere to Christian values and appreciate Christian culture. As such, these individuals usually identify themselves as culturally Christians, and are often seen by practicing believers as nominal Christians. This kind of identification may be due to various factors, such as family background, personal experiences, and the social and cultural environment in which they grew up.

I'm willing to accept that there are aspects of Western countries that are derived from or influenced by Xianity.

There are certainly many fine things that emerged under Xianity. Art, sculpture, literature, music, various institutions. But I would argue that those things can be attributed to people operating in a world that was pervasively Xian, not to Xianity itself. It's sort of like saying that the US owes 5G to Donald Trump because 2019 is when it started rolling out.

If only because non-Xian societies produced comparable cultural artefacts and institutions without knowing anything about the Dark Lord Yahweh. We need look no further than China for thousands of years of music, art and education. The idea that Xianity can be credited with these things when Xianity was simply the law of the land is lacking in self-awareness.

Political democracy is derived from Greek thought, our numbering system is derived from Arabic, and Liberalism itself is culturally British - via John Locke - in its modern form, and Greek and Chinese philosophy in its ancient forebears.

It's kind of a bizarre claim to make. Every time the culture was changing, or tried to, Xianity was there to oppose it. Printing press? Abolishing slavery? Street lighting? Desegregation? Interracial marriage? Same-sex marriage? Rock and roll? Xianity has nothing to say on these any more - mostly, anyway - but they came in spite of Xianity, not because of it.

That's not to say I don't appreciate the contribution of a conservative (small c, "preserve the existing good") counter-balance. We currently live in a time of "progressivism" so intractable and regressive it's advocating segregation, hiring and enrolment based on race, denying evolution and making gay people straight.

But Xianity didn't say "here are the very good reasons why this isn't a good idea, why we should go slowly, or why we need more information before deciding." They said "tEh bIbLe SaYs" and "bUt gOd!!" and "yOu'Re gOiNg tO HeLL!"

I don't really mind or care if individual atheists say they regard themselves as being "culturally Xian." Apparently Richard Dawkins does. But the idea that all atheists are "culturally Xian" is presumptive, arrogant and seems to be a way to take unearned credit, along the same lines as claiming morality comes from religion.

And I'm not even sure what the point is. Even if I agreed - yes, I'm culturally Xian - so what? What are they going to expect or demand as a result of this? What do they think we owe it? Deference? Refraining from criticizing and mocking Xianity? It does nothing for the god question.

Worse, it seems to be what we might call an Appeal to Utility - an admission that Xianity isn't true, but it's useful. Lead is useful, but I don't want it in my paint. Like when believers surrender the truth argument and say, well, my faith gives me peace and community or whatever. Meth makes people feel happy too.

But what does it say about Xianity when, as already mentioned, not only has Xianity not guided us through our own betterment, but has opposed it, and we've had to fight and ultimately, disregard it? Why is it that Xianity does not reliably produce cultural advancement? Why is that at least since the Enlightenment began, all cultural development has been without Xianity, and in spite of Xianity trying to hold it back?

One obvious and likely answer is that cultural development was never a goal or intention of Xianity, it was tolerated only in as much as it could be used to glorify their god and reinforce their authority. That's what they expected science to do. The Enlightenment, science and the pace of cultural development made "god" and Xianity unnecessary.

And why is it that society is abandoning Xianity in droves, and Xians feel compelled to change Xianity to make it fit non-Xian values? Why are Xian values and ideals - at least, the ones Xians want us to know about - lead by secular ones?

What's that saying about science? Xianity ignores it, opposes it, then pretends it knew it the whole time.

I would argue thanks, but we'll take it from here.

#ask #cultural christianity #cultural christian #culturally christian #christianity #religion #religion is a mental illness

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