#ok i give up trying to tag

[clemswinecorner]

Future of the team [Ralf Aron]

Summary: You're Paul Aron's trainer/coach whatever at Prema and may have a relationship with his brother (that supposedly no one knows about, but Rene and Angelina obviously notice)

Wordcount: 3.1k

Warnings: a little suggestive but no actual smut, alcohol. also swearing but that's not unusual

*Someone* complained about the lack of Ralf fics and I got inspired. Also in honour of Paul going to F3 hihi

Ok so I could’ve stopped this at some point but decided to keep it going and now its way longer then i intended… Have fun!

Sidenote, Ralf and Paul obviously talk estonian to each other but those parts are written in English for obvious reasons (me not being Estonian and you probably not being Estonian either)

Honourable mention to @louisaamz who helped giving me inspiration, wouldn't have finished this without you :)

Main Masterlist

"Paul! Do you have time for me right now or does race prep have to wait until we’re literally on the grid?" Paul looks behind him as you call his name. He waits until you catch up, leading you towards the Formula One paddock. "I have to pop in at Mercedes, but that won’t take more than five minutes. Don’t worry, I already planned to be back at Prema with you in fifteen," he says as you walk next to him. "Alright, cool. Meet you back at the garage then? I don’t have my F1 pass with me right now," He nods before he goes through the security. "See you in 15!" He says before heading off. "You better!" You walk back to the Prema garage, seeing Ralf walk the other way. He stops you to ask "Hey, have you seen-" before he can finish his sentence you interrupt him. "He’s at mercedes. He’ll be back at the garage in 15 for his race prep," Ralf smiles at you, thanking you silently. "I’ll just talk to him then. Hey, tonight is still good right? 10.30? I’m having dinner with Paul and some drivers," you nod. "Yeah, Angelina and Rene asked me to join the team, but I think 10.30 is good. I’ll text you if it gets any later," he nods and smiles. "Weren’t you going somewhere? I’ll see you in 15," He smiles as you do a casual handshake to say goodbye. "You better," you smirk at his choice of words.

Paul stands in front of you with his face to the wall, catching the tennis balls you’re throwing at random speeds. You liked these exercises, because they weren’t too much physical work but still helped with (both your and Paul’s) reaction time. "Oh fuck," you mumble as the one you’re catching manages to slip from your finger. "I go it," You hear a familiar voice and you turn sideways for a few seconds to smile at Ralf. You communicate in silence about both throwing the balls to throw Paul off (it supposedly is to test his reflexes better, but really it’s an excuse for him to stick around). "Hey, stop just looking at each other, that’s worse than if you’d be constantly flirting. Just throw the damn balls, which clearly neither of you have," he mumbles the last part and you and Ralf look at each other with a knowing smirk- if only he knew. "You had to talk to Paul, no?" You ask, recalling what he said earlier. "Oh, yeah. Ma called, she wants us to get grandma a gift here. We have her birthday the day after we get back, and she thought something from Italy would be nice," You and Paul continue his exercises as they chat about their family birthday gifts and what not in a mix of english and estonian, and you find yourself occasionally looking at the older one of the pair a little too long.

That night you knocked on Ralf’s door at 10.40. "Hey," You smile as he opens the door, already stepping aside for you to come in. "I’m going to be honest, I may have had a few glasses of wine. Not that I'm like, extremely drunk, I'm just definitely not sober. I kind of wanted to go to my room but I don’t trust myself with my key, could you come along so I don’t lock myself out or in?" He laughs at your statement as you try to find the best words, dropping your bag on the desk. "Sure. You could just use some of my stuff, you know? Same team after all," You chuckle, grabbing your key and handing it to Ralf. "Yes, but I need underwear. I’d appreciate a shirt though, so I can drop off my dress as well," He smiles, handing you the shirt he already had hanging over the chair. They came back to the hotel fifteen minutes before you, so he’d already changed into gray sweatpants and a somewhat tight black shirt, perfectly showing his muscles. He handed you a simple white one with the prema logo, a little oversized on you but it fit perfectly. "C’mon, what room are you in?" He grabs your hand as he slips his own keycard in his pocket.

"You look very handsome, by the way," You whisper in Ralf’s ear as he opens your door. At this point you’re fully in his personal space- not that he minded. You would get touchy and clingy when you had a few drinks, with Ralf especially. "Thank you. Now get in the room, then we can get back," he says as he tries to push you away from him a little. You smile, but both freeze as you hear a door open. "What are the two of you doing here?" Ralf immediately turns around at his brother’s voice. "She forgot her key at the track, so I kept it in my room for her. She came to pick it up but had a few wines, so I just wanted to make sure she’d end up in the right bed," you quickly thank god for Ralf still being sober and able to come up with a lie that quickly. "Go change, I’ll get you a glass of water in a minute," he says and you nod, making your way in. Ralf looks back at his younger brother, who raises his eyebrows, as he closes the door. "I’m just making sure she doesn’t do anything stupid," he sighs, and Paul just shrugs. "We both know she could’ve walked herself, she’s not that drunk. Tipsy at most," Ralf decides not to make a big deal out of it- his brother had a point after all. "She asked me to walk her because she didn’t trust herself to not lock herself in or out. I’m going to get her a glass of water, just go to sleep. You have a race tomorrow," Paul hesitates before he opens his door. "I just… If there is more going on, please just… Be careful. I don’t want her heart broken again. I don’t want to see her or you hurt, especially not because of someone I also care about. I’d like to see you guys together, I just hope neither of you mess it up," before Ralf can form a response, his younger brother has closed the door.

“Thank you for taking care of me,” you mumble with your toothbrush still in your mouth. He smiles before spitting out his toothpaste. “Don’t thank me, I’d take care of you even if you were a baby,” he pauses as you look at him with a questioning look. “Ok, wait, no, that sounded wrong just- I’ll always try to take care of you whenever you can’t, because I want you to feel good. Even if it means making sure your drunk ass goes to sleep with brushed teeth and in a sleep shirt instead of the teamwear,” you glance down at your his shirt you’re wearing and raise your eyebrows. He playfully rolls his eyes. "Well, that’s not your teamwear, is it? It’s an old one and it’s mine. Remind me what you usually sleep in?" You blush at his statement, mumbling "your shirts". He smirks as he moves out of the small bathroom, as you finish your night routine- skipping half of it due to your tired and tipsy state. You walk back to find Ralf sitting on his usual side of the bed already, scrolling through his phone. You smile at the view, him casually sitting there waiting for you, and snap a quick picture. You put your phone on the bedside table, slipping under the covers. You put your head on his lap, and he lays his phone next to him to look down at you. You close your eyes for a second, not seeing Ralf still looking at you as with his arms wrapped around you. "Feeling the alcohol again?" You hum, still not looking at him, just allowing it to hit you again. "You know, I like you a lot," You mumble as you finally look at him. He chuckles, "Well that’s good 'cause I like you a lot too," he makes you smile. You move from his lap, allowing him to slide down as you both lay on your sides. You move towards him, giving you a kiss. Although it’s a bit slow and tired, it’s great as ever. You smile, moving on closer to him. You make your way to his shoulder, pushing his T-shirt away. You kiss his shoulder, sucking lightly when you feel him shiver. Y him a fast but strong kiss, moving down not long after. "Wait, wait, wait," You stop immediately, looking up at him. He looks at you and for a second he almost regrets stopping you, wishing he wouldn’t have to say what he says next. “Sorry, just… Not tonight. You look beautiful, tonight though, really,” he softly grabs your face and you move off him. “Oh, I thought you’d be up for it, since-“ He interrupts you and pulls you closer. “I am, but I don’t want to do anything with you after drinking. I know you’re perfectly fine and not extremely drunk but it’s just that we’ve never talked about this, and that’s fine but I feel like I’m taking advantage if you’re not 100% sober and I am. We can tomorrow, if you want to, and we can kiss a whole lot right now cuz I like that too, alright?” You almost melt at his words, nodding along. “You know I’d always tell you if I didn’t want something, right? Because I know how much you respect me. This just shows how perfect you are,” you say, close to his face with your lips almost touching. "Mhm. Just want you to be comfortable," He rubs your arms and you lazily smile. "And I just want to kiss you."

The next morning you wake up with an arm around your waist, though that hadn’t become unusual on a race weekend. You rub your eyes before tapping your phone to check the time- 7.37, plenty of time until either of you have to be at the track. You close your eyes and lay back down, moving closer to Ralf. He lets out a soft groan, mumbling something you assume is along the lines of 'what time is it' against your shoulder. "Not even 8," you whisper as you pull yourself up a bit, running your hand through his hair. He looks up at you, still half asleep, with a content smile. "Is it cliche to say I could lay here for hours?" You mumble as you look at him laying on your chest. He sits up just enough so his face is in front of yours. "Is it cliche to say I’ve imagined moments like this since I first met you?" You chuckle as you look away. "No you haven’t, it took us 6 months and Paul forgetting his boots to properly meet," He rolls his eyes, still smiling. "Alright, I might have exaggerated," it’s quiet for a second as you hold eye contact, eyes occasionally dropping to the others' lips. Ralf grabs your hand, fingers intertwined, as you put your lips against his (or he puts his against yours, you’re not quite sure). The kiss is what you’re used to from Ralf- passionate, sweet, soft, hot and wanting at the same time. As the kiss gets more heated, Ralf pulls away for a breather. "Thanks for saying no yesterday by the way, not a lot of guys would. However, now i’m completely sober and I still want you the same, so…" Ralf chuckles as he looks at the nearest phone for the time. "We have to be at the track in over 3 hours, I’m 100% in. I guess not being a driver does have perks like arriving at the track later," you look at Ralf, already thinking about what was to follow. You smirk, "We’ll take our time then."

Someone who didn’t have the same privilege of arriving a little later, was Paul. Paul, who was currently knocking on your (Ralf’s) door. "Who’s that?" You ask as you stand in the open bedroom, grabbing two towels as you get ready to hop in the shower. Ralf, currently only wearing underwear, quickly throws on a shirt. "Might be Paul, go in," you quickly go in and lock the door, vaguely hearing a conversation after Ralf opens the door. "Do you have my gloves?" Paul asks in Estonian, Ralf quickly answering he’ll take a look and closing the door before Paul can get in. He gets the gloves and gives them to Paul, who stops the older Aron from getting back in without any talking. "Hold on, hold on. You’re not wearing pants." "Yeah, I’d prefer to put some on but I was gonna shower." "Is that why your shower’s running?" Ralf stares at him trying to form a sentence. "Your hair’s all over the place as well, your bed too I'm guessing?" Ralf doesn’t say anything, avoiding eye contact. "Listen, Ralf, I really don’t care who you’re screwing, just don’t fuck up too much with anyone. And for what it’s worth, don’t ruin things with Y/N.” Ralf nods as Paul lets the silence fall. “Do you know where she is? I knocked on her door but she didn’t open." Paul restarts the conversation. "Yeah, probably sleeping. She mentioned before she’ll sleep more when she had something to drink, but she’ll wake up from her alarm. I still have a pass, so I can check in an hour if that’d make you happy." Paul nods, "Alright, thank you. Well, I’ll see you at the track," Paul says his goodbye. "Don’t fuck up!" He says one last time, before Ralf retreats to the room with Y/N in it.  

"Oh, by the way, thanks for yesterday. Especially for making me drink water, absolute life saver because I know I wouldn’t be bothered to," he chuckles, wrapping an arm around you as you close one of the fridges in the Prema garage. "Just taking care of my girl," he mumbles, giving you a kiss on your forehead. “Must be one lucky girl you have,” you hand him a water as he raises his eyebrows with a smile. “Is it cliche to say i’m the-“ you don’t let him finish as you remove yourself from his grip. “Yup. In the morning I can excuse it but just take the compliment. C’mon, we have to watch your brother win this shit,” You start walking away as he jokingly rolls his eyes, missing the lovesick look he gives you afterwards.

You smile at the screen as Paul approaches the last corner. He led the race lap after lap, quickly catching up again after his pitstop and absolutely dominating the race. You look next to you, where Ralf is sitting, quickly moving his eyes back to the screen. You’re standing a little behind the lined up chairs, following the race closely in between Rene and Ralf. “He’s doing it,” you lean in closer, seeing a wide smile appear on Ralf’s face again. “He is. Who’s going on the podium with him?” He asks out of curiosity, and you look around. “Rene, are you going to the podium with him?” Rene nods as he looks at you, “Of course, it’s a first race win tradition!”

Next thing you know you’re standing behind the barrier, holding Ralf’s hand behind it as Paul parks his car behind the number one board. You both have wide smiles on your face as Paul jumps out of the car running towards the team. You and Ralf let go of each other as he hugs him, and you look at them with a smile. “Good job!” You say as he hugs you. You see the smile in his eyes through his lifted visor as he thanks you. You give Dino, who made his way up to third, a quick congrats when he’s celebrated with the team as well. As the two are rushed to the cooldown room, you make your way over to below the podium with the team. You and Ralf walk closely, arms touching each other as Ralf uses his hands to talk about something that happened during the race. Angelina walks behind you, filming everything for the LAP (as usual)- after it was posted you’d find yourself watching back the small moments from you and Ralf throughout the weekend. The podium ceremony goes by, and you sneak a glance at Ralf looking up at his brother on the top step, with the Estonian anthem playing. You squeeze his hands and he looks at you with a smile. After a lot of proud looks shared between the two of you the podium ceremony is over, and before you know it you’re back at the Prema garage with a soaked Paul and Rene. Despite the many cameras and people, you and Ralf stayed very close to each other. Maybe it was the buzz of the win and the happiness radiating through the garage, but for a while you didn’t worry about anyone noticing what’s going on between you two. You were just happy to be there together, celebrating a win. Paul was still buzzing from the adrenaline (and a little bit of champagne) and didn’t pay any mind to the two of you. Rene, though, was very aware of it- he’d known the both of you for years, he’d obviously noticed how you got around each other. He was gossiping with Angelina, who updated him about how close you were during the podium ceremony, showing him the footage of you looking at each other. He glanced at the two of you, you with an arm around him and his around your waist, as Paul and Dino describe their best laps in detail. "I think they’re going to be like us when they get married, managing a race team together. It fits them," Rene tells Angelina, and Angelina smiles. "You’d give them Prema?" He hesitates for a second before answering. "I didn’t say that, but… Maybe, if they want. We’ll see if it goes that way, but I’m not against it," he quickly changes the subject as you approach the two. "What are you two gossiping about this time?" You tease the married couple, and Angelina laughs. "Just the future of the team," you give him a curious look. "Do tell, what do you have in mind?" Rene looks at Ralf with a slight smile and then back at you. "You’ll find out eventually."

Taglist:

@alexk2002 / @thesatansgirl-blog / @haasterplan / @fortunatelylovingsweets / @charles-and-chelsea / @greedayag / @emmabluesky / @sikeyeehaw / @idontwantablogthanks / @adore-u-ls / @starcandy-y / @louisaamz / @langdonsluxiouslocks / @leclercswhore / @vxlesunflower / @ashf1 / @idkiwantchocolatee / @zira44 / @agirlwithmidnightthoughts / @mariiaamr

@breals02 @shewatchesf1 @wilmasvensson @clearavenuementality

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[a2zillustration]

I carried this thing for MONTHS with the EXPRESS PURPOSE of putting Raphael in it (knowing full well Larian wouldn't let me do that, mechanically) and I had one major miscalculation.

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[[ All Croissant Adventures (chronological, desktop) ]]

[[ All Croissant Adventures (app) ]]

[carpathiians]

dug up my oldddd tiny wacom i used to draw with as a kid </3

[gobstoppr]

Tetris Fanart.

I've been playing tetris while listening to horror podcasts. and yeah

[dizzybizz]

you will never guess but i have another magma compilation

the discord didn't appreciate my "she hanako on my toilet til im bound" joke 💔

the only non magma art from the past few days someone drag me away from there

[marysoulpainter]

Hello-hello internet! Once again I am trying to post my art, let's hope I don't abandon this attempt! :D

y'all probably know me as @soul-teller, or the Dancing Strabby blog - well this is my new Jam Cat art blog, welcome! 👌

and, of course, I open up with Spamton doodles and some oc/au/headcanon things, for the brainrot is real and I love him (click to see in better quality!)

[guardian-angle22]

Tarlos Wedding Celebration Event [Week 7] -> favorite s3 moment(s) -> TK sleeping on Carlos in 3.05

[sleepyblr-heart]

this'll hurt you more than it'll hurt me

[utilitycaster]

I don't begrudge anyone their campaign preferences, and I think there's plenty of valid reasons to like Campaign 3 the best and this is not directed at people who are genuinely having a great time with it, but it feels like virtually all the nostalgia and wishful thinking I see surrounding Campaign 3 is screaming "you guys want Campaign 2." You want more slow travel and downtime and interparty conversations and slow-burn romance? You wish their main focus was fighting governmental corruption? You want a party that only semi-settles down at the end and keeps adventuring and remains very close? You're frustrated by how everpresent and overarching the moon plot is? You miss when they were just fucking around in a city? I genuinely believe you want Campaign 2, or at best you love a specific ship or a character from Campaign 3 but aren't happy about basically anything else, and would vastly prefer the tone and events and plot of Campaign 2. And I don't really care if you watch Campaign 2, or if you think I'm being annoying here; I simply genuinely believe you'd be happier watching Campaign 2 than Campaign 3 and are so deep in a sunk cost fallacy well you can't see it.

[mulletmitsuya]

random tokrev rant ahead !!

when i first started this blog it was going to be for random shitposts, groupchats once in a while, and mostly tokrev analysis but i was so scared of discourse that i just chose to do the funnier stuff 😭. when tokrev was at it's peak i'd be reading 20k+ words of analysis and it was so fun!! but i felt like i couldn't word what i wanted to say properly so that discouraged me but i wish i'd ignored that because there would have been at least one person who understood what i was saying yk?

[pothospant]

i get it. i get why he went evil. i really get it

[wild-moss-art]

I’ve been dating and I try not to dress my absolute best for meetups bc I don’t like to be held to that standard but it’s so difficult bc I slay too hard in everything I wear 😔

[queen0fm0nsterz]

I think the way the Lady and the Thin Man became a lot more enjoyable to me as a duo when I stopped believing Six to be the Lady needs to be studied in a lab

[presiding]

What is your favourite thing about Billie Lurk?

(Answers are obvious possibly but i love when people talk about her👍)

thanks for the ask!! YEAH ME TOO I love when people talk about Billie! I can't say I have a favourite thing specifically, but I can explain why she's my fav. apologies for not taking this qn literally, but -

short answer: she’s really cool

& you can stop reading there, or, for the maybe 2 mutuals who might have time to read this my thoughts on her as a character, her meta, and her character as raw potential...

long answer:

i considered making this entire thing a gush so you could read a gush about Billie. but, part of what draws me to her is that she’s not always well written, and in fandom she’s underrated for a literal protagonist.

since you ask...

billie is a cool character

when I played Dh2 (hadn't played Dh1), I was excited to see a black woman with disabilities who was captaining a massive ship by herself. wow.

then I discovered Billie’s backstory with Deirdre, the way she responded to that, then having to survive while living on the run, and her bisexuality. as well as her history with daud & delilah. fascinating!

she’s an outsider who has so much to lose, and knows what it's like to lose everything - having lost everything not once but three times - but nevertheless speaks truth to power. she's so brave! she went and helped Emily & Corvo and she must have known they might kill her! plus, she’s smart, she’s funny, she gets shit done, she’s gorgeous.

but... the meta

mild critique of fandom & arkane incoming.

skip this bit if you want - you've been warned twice now - jump to tired Hayao Miyazaki and read from there if you'd like my thoughts on writing her.

i thought Death of the Outsider was going to be amazing and then... well. *sad trombone* i've written about that before so i won't keep banging on. i figured others must be disappointed too, so I joined a few fandom spaces in hopes of finding camaraderie.

most people with complaints about DotO didn’t like how the Outsider and Daud were handled. which is valid & I agree. but it seemed like most paid no attention to Billie; when people talk about her it’s with respect to Daud, as opposed to in her own right. you could argue for fandom misogyny because people don’t talk about adult Emily Kaldwin that much either, but in Billie's case, it’s misogynoir (compare & contrast with the popularity of thomas, particularly the popularity of thomas portrayed as a white man for no particular reason that i've been able to discern - i keep asking around, is it in the books???).

i think this is a LOT better now than it used to be, which is fantastic. or perhaps i have found the correct echo-chamber? ha.

ultimately, The Fandom is a fraction of the entire picture, and not even the important bit since The Fandom is not who these games are made for. you can't make money relying on only your hardcore fans even if all of them spent a fortune on merch, this is true for any AAA game.

while it's true that Billie is underrated from a fandom perspective - but Billie as an underwritten protagonist is squarely Arkane’s fault.

it was reasonable when she was a side character - the lack of info in Dh2 makes perfect sense (if anything there was more lore in Dh2 which is kind of wild)-

- but as a protagonist in Death of the Outsider?

.... there’s lousy writing, and there’s whatever is going on with Billie Lurk, a black woman who mostly exists as a foil or saviour for light-skinned characters. In her own game there’s barely any of her own lore except where it's relevant to saving two dudes.

lore hints at, but barely touches on what race means in the Dh universe (xenophobia is stronger in Dh1; separate essay i guess), but Arkane has patted themselves on the back for portraying non-white characters, which feels like the same thing as the aesthetic of diversity we're seeing in advertising currently because it’s in marketing trend guides. it's self-congratulatory and it's a missed opportunity for deeper storytelling.

you can see an example of diversity at its most shallow in the way that Billie’s written: there’s little engagement with her as an entire person with history & wants & preferences, and the world she walks through in that game feels like it has nothing to do with her. you could make a case for alienation as a theme, but then, how do you handle the titular premise of 'Dishonored' without ever letting Billie make changes in an environment without a chaos system? it's disappointing from that angle too.

in my opinion, whatever it's worth, it was an accident Arkane created such an awesome character - they needed someone to betray daud. congrats billie.

all this said, it makes her an underdog as far as characters to enjoy & create art & stories for. it's nice to find so many like-minded, switched on people! <3

billie's character potential

she’s got a wealth of unexplored lore, being deeply intertwined with both Karnaca & Dunwall’s fates & criminal underbellies, as well as her connections to the witches & whalers, and three Empresses.

she’s lived a few distinct lifetimes and in the games we get to meet her at two peaks (KoD & DotO) & a low (Dh2 as Meagan).

her voice is very distinct, her dry & often dark humour is entertaining & fun to write. her perspective is really interesting - she’s had the widest variety of void-powers of anyone canonically, and she’s also lived through the highest highs and lowest lows.

she's got everything going for her :) i couldn't really pick a fav thing!

[jamiethebeeart]

:D (I ramble in my tags about this)

[fishnchip3011]

everytime i actually open up sdv to play i get flashbanged with sebastian's white ass sprites because i always forget not everyone sees him as wasian💔 my current hc for him is half chinese (liable to change... but ik for sure he's half asian) but he is Not bilingual he can't rly speak or write the other language he can only understand it when listening but even then he's not very fluent LOL this is just turning into a sebastian hc post might as well go full out. to me sebastian Does have relationship experience but has been thru shitty ones in the past which is part of the reason why he's so pessimistic & brooding </3 and he'd hook up with ppl in zuzu city for a night for a while but it just made him feel shittier so he's stopped since ☝️ also people make him out to be way cooler than he actually is like yea sure he's kinda cool but he's also a Massive Loser especially when he tells you how he hates "seasonal fads" like pumpkin spice and that one line about the potluck soup where he's like "Why ruin the potluck? Hmm... I guess some people feel liberated when the rigid structures of society break down a little. Maybe I'm weird.” WHO ASKED😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 his ass also can NOT cook he can make spaghetti but it's mid. he probably has low ass stamina and yeah he's tall and lanky (rn i see him as around 5'9-5'10) but you could snap him in half over your knee. when he's in an actually healthy relationship he gets really flustered over certain romantic gestures cuz he's not used to feeling valued or being considered someone's #1. he picks up on little things and does acts of service but i also think he can be really callous and insensitive at times because while he can be pretty perceptive he is also Very Emotionally Stunted. he unlearns lots of unhealthy behaviors & mindsets with the help of his partner & family & friends ^__^