#purple helmet lewis = best lewis

[ariesf1fan27]

no but like the way the black livery from last year and lewis' purple helmet make me feel should be illegal 💜

[judes-hoe]

Bitter rivals,Sweet love

Parrings~Lewis Hamilton x OC Summary~She’s gonna be in f1 for her third year and goes to a team no one expects her to. She’s always got a cold expression and only those close to her know why. Shes been close one to many times to winning a championship and this year she’s gonna get it no matter what.

Warnings~none I don’t think

A/N~i can’t wait to see how this turns out

Pt.1 pt.3 pt.4 pt.5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vanessa walked into the paddock, scanning her pass as she walked through and to the Mercedes garage. Her eyes lit up when she seen a familiar face. “Calvin?” She asked. He turned around and smiled at her. Calvin was her race engineer during her time in F3 and F2. She had someone different while at Ferrari. She hugged the man happy to see him. “How you been kid?” He asked, he loved being her race engineer when he was and was happy to be it again. “I’ve been better, how have you been?” She asked him. “I’ve been good, and sorry for your loss,” he replied but she just ignored him at the last part.

She went to her drivers room, changing out the clothes she arrived in, and into her fire proofs and her suit. She sat for a minute scrolling on instagram before she saw it was time for FP1. She walked out her drivers room with her balaclava and helmet in hand. She put her balaclava on and before she put on her helmet she kissed each side one had ‘Enzo’ and the other had ‘Emilia’. She did it before each FP1, Q1, the race, and the sprint if there was one. She loved her helmet, one side was blue and the other a purple and had them fade into each other.

She got in her car, she watched as Lewis was back in the garage and she was sent out. Toto thought it was best they don’t go out at the same time. She took a lap warming up her tyres. When she came around the last corner and saw the finish line and pressed the accelerator a little harder to start her flying lap. She hit all the corners right managing to keep her speed the whole time. She got fastest lap and took p1 from Charles who had fastest before her. She went around again before pulling into the pit and going back into the garage and Lewis going back out. “Good job kid,” she heard through the radio. “God have I missed that beautiful face Calvin,” she said back, she heard him laugh.

When Lewis came back in she went out and did her fast lap after warming her tyres. She managed to get p2 behind max before going into pits again. Lewis went back out again, she was happy with my cars performance and hers. There was also only 2 minutes left of FP1 so she got out her car before walking over to Calvin. She watched with him as the last couple cars did their last laps.

FP2 went the same for her but she ended up p3 which Charles p2 and max p1. Lewis behind her in p4. Tomorrow they have FP3 and qualifying. She walked out the garage and stood to the side texting Daniel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nessa🤍

Dannyyyyy

Wyd

Where are you???

Danny🍯🦡

Hey kid

Im about to go into a meeting

What do you need?

Nessa🤍

Oh…

I was just wondering if you wanted to go out again but I’ll go ask Charles🙃

Danny🍯🦡

Oh sorry nessa

Maybe we can go out again before we leave☺️

Nessa🤍

Ok danny ttyl😝 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Italy’s girl🇮🇹

charlieeeeee

CHALRESSSSS LECLERC

Wyd??????!

Monaco’s prince🇲🇨

Uhhhhh nothing ig

Why

Italy’s girl🇮🇹

Cause I don’t wanna go back to my hotel

So you wanna go out to eat???

We can invite Lando to😝

Monaco’s prince🇲🇨

Yesss let’s go out cause I didn’t wanna go back to my hotel either😭

I’ll text Lando

Italy’s girl🇮🇹

Okay see u soon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Charles texts Lando and they all meet up at a restaurant and hang out and eat there. They all gossip and talk more about their vacations. Vanessa had a great time and was happy, only time she showed happiness was when she was with her friends alone. She hated showing it to everyone, people always wondered why she acted so cold all of a sudden, but it wasn’t their business if it was she would’ve just said something.

They all went back to their hotels around 8pm. When she got back to her room, she took a nice hot shower and cleaned her face. She then laid in bed scrolling on TikTok before putting her phone on the charger and closing her eyes to get a good amount of sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FP3 went great Vanessa getting P2, Charles being the one to get P1. She sat in her drivers room waiting for Q1 to start. She heard 2 knocks on the door which meant it was time. Toto decided to let her go out first instead of Lewis. Vanessa talked to a few engineers before getting in her car, they pulled her out the garage and she drove out the pit lane. As she was warming up her tyers she heard the radio go off. “You still do your same strategies,” Calvin asked Vanessa. “Yes sir, still do and works like a charm!” She exclaimed. “Alright kid do your thing,” he laughed.

It was the same strategy she used every year from F4 to F1. She does good enough to pass Q1 and Q2, she manages to try and get p4 to p6. Then in Q3 puts in her best effort and tries to get p1, p2, or p3. And it worked like a charm for Vanessa ever.single.time.

She managed to get p5 in Q1, and p4 in Q2. So Vanessa puts in her all for Q3, as she passes the checkered flag as the end of Q3 she pressed she radio button. “How’d I do Calvin?” She asked him hoping she’d gotten the position she wanted. “Pole position nessa great job!” He exclaimed through the radio. She pulled into the pit lane after she went around the track one last time. She walked into the garage with people congratulating her, she went over and got weighed losing the right amount she should be.

All Vanessa was thinking right was how she wanted to go back to her hotel room and take a nice bath. As she was walking to her drivers room she felt a pair of eyes on her, she look the the direction and saw him looking at her, she looked back at him, anger in her eyes as she did before walking into her drivers room to get changed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vanessa was finally taking her nice needed bath, soft Italian music in the background. All calming until her loud ringtone took over and she grabbed her phone look at the name. “dannazione,” she mumbled under her breath. She answered the phone and heard someone talking in the background. “Lando you muppet do you need something?” She asked the man that’s interrupting her peace. “Oh hey nessa, was wondering if you wanted to come over to my room, Charles,Carlos,max, and some others are here,” he said as she heard more talking in the background. “I might but your interrupting me, I’m trying to take a bath,” she said with annoyance in her tone. “Oh, ok sorry just let me know if you’re coming over,” he said before they said goodbye to each other and Vanessa went back to relaxing.

Well she never went to Lando’s because when she got out that bath and laid in bed she was knock out and it was only 8:30pm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N~ WAIT TILL NEXT CHAPTER, also I’m not gonna write about the Saudi GP, and kinda skim over it cause the Australian GP is when things are gonna get GOOOOOOD!!!!!!!

Taglist: @happy-golden-hour @tallrock35

[royallyprincesslilly]

Title: Trick Or Treat {Headcannon}

Lewis Hamilton x Reader

Words: 1.6k

Warning: Fun & Games, Implied Smut

Note: Happy Halloween, guys!

***NOT Edited/Proofread***

~~~~~~~~~~~

Imagine it's Halloween and you and you are going to a Halloween party thrown with some friends that has been thrown by friends of friends. Sorta like a 6° of separation thing where you didn't know you ran in close circles to famous and semi famous people.

You've decided to go as Lewis Hamilton and have even committed so far as to wear a Mercedes race suit, the helmet you bought off eBay from a mega Lewis fan AND strategically position that very familiar bulge down to accurate girth 😏.

Your costume was supposed to be sort of a joke and your best friends were also going as other celebs either in F1 or sports.

You didn't think anything of it and even got tons of compliments for how accurate your costume was. You committed deep and had even gotten your hair braided like his but opted out of the faux facial hair. You thought that was too creepy.

"Girl, I feel like I should just sling you this ass cause you might just be as close to 44 as I will get," your friend Zoë said beginning a twerk.

Everyone busted out laughing while you did the ultimate fuckboi move. Rubbing your hands together like you saw a meal you bout to tear up you licked your lips in the most exaggerated way and nodded your head. Stevie J would be proud.

Once y'all get to the party it quickly becomes clear that you have existed in this 6° of separation world as plenty of semi famous people passed you by.

You and your friends make a vow to make tonight the best night and proceed to drink as much as you can on someone else's dim and see whose son you can go home with.

A few hours into the party you are pretty can't tipsy but not blackout drunk and have been entered into the best costume competition. When you get on the stage with the others, they go down the line asking what you are and to give your best impersonation of what you are dressed as.

It is a hilarious time as each one goes. You watch on as a girl dressed as Marylin Monroe steps forward kisses her hand and blows the kiss before full on lifting her dress in an effort to imitate the steam blowing up Marylin's dress moment. Applause fills the space.

You then watch a pretty dope looking Scorpion step forward and deliver the classic line, "Get over here" before unexpectedly throwing a ninja dagger across the room into the wall.

Your eyes bugged while everyone stood in silence probably trying to figure out just what had happened. When they did, they cheered loudly.

Next it was a girl dressed as Ariel or Ariel if she were in fact over 23 rather than a teenager. For a tail she had on sparkly fishnet stockings and underneath a purple sparkly thong. Her seashell bra was on point but also completely see through and every part of exposed flesh was decorated with pink or purple foil tinsel. You couldn't hate on it or her.

She stepped forward and let lose the Ariel vocal harmonics from when she gave the sea witch her voice. That you could hate on. Everyone coveted their ears and shook their head.

Then you watched someone dressed like Meg the Stallion from the WAP video and when she dropped down to the floor and tweaked on it you hyped her the hell up as did everyone in the club.

Finally, it was down to you and once you stepped forward there was laughter, but most was deafening cheers. With the helmet on it brought it all together and for a second everyone began whispering if you were really him.

When it came time to impersonate him you took the microphone and decided to play it safe. In prime and proper British accent, you spoke.

"You can knock me down, but I get up twice as strong. Yhu know what I mean. I don't aspire to be like other drivers. I aspire to be unique in my own way. I feel like people are expecting me to fail, yeh, therefore I except myself to win. Just like my tat on my back, still I rise."

No one spoke, moved or made a sound for several seconds. You began to think you had fucked it up but then everyone erupted with cheers.

It was a quick deliberation and after it, you were crowned winner. You couldn't believe you pulled it off especially with the shit you said which you clearly pulled out your ass. When you met your friends again you were 500.00 richer.

From then you partied like the end of the world was tomorrow. After a quick trip to the bathroom as you passed down the narrow corridor you felt someone push you against a wall.

"Trick or treat?"

"Uh, what?"

"Clever costume."

Biting your bottom lip, you looked up but thanks to the helmet you couldn't really make out who it was.

"Uh, thanks." You made a move to walk around them but found yourself rooted to the spot.

"I particularly like the um--package down there."

You snorted, your tipsy ass not reading the room one bit.

"Thanks. I mean we don't know if it is accurate or exaggerated by socks, but a girl can dream. Right?"

"So, you dream about it?"

"Be for real I am sure a lot of women have fantasized about peeling back that race suit and taking what's inside as their trophy on their own podium. If you know what I mean."

"Does that include you?"

You were not an idiot you knew who was in front of you was a man and as his scent permeated the air around you, you felt yourself growing bolder though you wondered which guy would get turned on hearing a woman talk like this about a celebrity crush.

"You know what? Sure. Given the chance I would absolutely have my way with him and vice versa."

The next thing you knew your helmet was pulled off bringing you face to face with the absolute last person you expected. Your brain stuttered as did your mouth leaving you speechless.

The man in front of you--Lewis Hamilton himself looked amused as hell.

"What if I said this is your chance?"

"Excuse me?"

He leaned in then, going to your ear. "I'm gonna head out in about an hour, if you decide to take your chance find the guy who looks like a giant teddy bear and tell him "treat."

You couldn't believe you ears, and you didn't trust your words.

He scoffed then spoke again. "I'll ask again. Trick or treat. You decide."

With that he walked off as quickly as he'd cornered you. Holy shit you thought trying to wrap your head around all that had just happened. You needed to sound off with your friends, but you didn't think this was something you should tell anyone. So, for the next hour you continued to enjoy the party.

Every inch of the club you went you felt eyes on you and no matter how hard you tried you couldn't find him again. What are the odds, you asked yourself. You were not opposed to one-night stands. Matter of fact you were absolutely pro one night stands especially with celebrity crushes. You only lived once, right.

By the time the hour was up you'd made your decision. Bidding your friends goodbye, you slid through the crowd looking for someone who looked like a giant teddy bear. The word was as the tip of your tongue. When you finally found him, you spoke them like a witch's incantation.

"Treat."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TagList:

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[racingliners]

Helmet Watch 2023

So, I had way too much fun rating all the team’s liveries this year (if you missed any of it you can find my thoughts here), so much so that I’ve decided to rate all the driver’s helmets as well! (I’ve also had a helmet tag on my blog pretty much ever since I got back into watching F1 because I just love how much effort gets put into each drivers helmet design... and I’m a Seb fan. Stanning helmet designs is in my blood by default)

Under a read more bc we have A LOT to get through! (Listed in alphabetical order by surname bc that just felt the best way to organise it)

Alexander Albon (Williams)

Starting off very, very strong. I LOVE the blue and red pairing, it looks so clean but so eye catching at the same time. And the stripes of the Thai flag is a really nice touch. I’m not sure why there’s the odd flash of light blue though?? It kinda feels like an afterthought.

8.5/10

Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

I do like the colour scheme, it just feels a tad busy with all the various stripes. But it is a really nice update to his traditional helmet design. I wish the Aston Martin wings were in the darker blue though, they would stand out so much better.

6.5/10

Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)

I do love me a mix of metallic finishes. The colour scheme as a whole is also top tier, the softer metallic blue with the more glittery charcoal, paired with the crème white is excellent. The overall design is super clean and looks really slick, his partner Tiffany who designed it did a really nice job!!

8/10

Pierre Gasly (Alpine)

CHROME MY MOST BELOVED!!!

I really liked his Monaco helmet last year and his design for this year is almost as good. I am obsessed with mixed finishes so the chrome on the crème white base it so nice, I like the pops of red, and the thin French flag going down the middle is a nice touch.

9/10

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

So so so so much yes. There’s just SO MUCH I love about his 2023 design. Echoing his original helmet design with the yellow, but mixing in the purple from recent years. And the subtle rainbow gradient lines are so pretty and so perfect. And it looks gorgeous with the black Merc livery, which is always an excellent plus.

10/10

Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)

You know what... I really like it. The paint splatter effect is so pretty, I don’t recall seeing it on a helmet before and I think it looks great! It helps that there’s three different shades of orange to give some dimension. I am also obsessed with the glittery metallic purple. It works really well with the orange, and as it’s a warm-toned it should look somewhat coherent with the red in the Haas livery.

8.5/10

Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

Not gonna lie, I got major Schumi vibes when I saw this. Which did make me every so slightly weepy, but he has made it slightly his own with the addition of the Monaco flag. It’s really simple, but it works. But like so much of F1 this year I really wish it was glossy instead of matte.

7/10

Kevin Magnussen (Haas)

Gotta respect the consistency Kevin has had with his helmet design since 2014. The colour scheme is also great, it’ll look really nice with the Haas livery, and stand out against his team mate’s (always nice to be able to tell the difference, looking at you 2013 yellow helmet Brocedes). I’m not overly wowed, but I also don’t hate it, it’s a really solid design.

7/10

Lando Norris (McLaren)

F1 teams take note bc THIS is how you make exposed carbon work!. The design feels properly thought out, so it doesn’t feel like anything is missing, as opposed to a few of the car liveries this year. And like Lewis’ helmet with the Merc livery, the simple two colour palette looks so good. Probably my favourite helmet design of Lando’s thus far.

9/10

Esteban Ocon (Alpine)

Yes. Absolutely no notes. Excellent work. Bloody gorgeous.

10/10

Sergio Perez (Red Bull)

It’s ever so slightly busy, but I still do like it!! The white and grey is the perfect base for all the bright pops of colour, and the pattern is very funky. Honestly it’s the Red Bull logo that lets it down for me with the different shade of yellow. If it was the same chartreuse as the accents it would look really good. 

7/10

Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

I have mixed feelings about this one. One the one hand I love how bright and colourful it is (unlike the MCL60) and I think the colour scheme is really fun (peep the silver holo!!). On the other, the design and layout feels a little too busy. However I do think it will still look really nice with the car, and as always bonus points for not being matte.

6.5/10

George Russell (Mercedes)

I LOVE the shade of blue George picked, it’s really bright which will go really well with the black livery. Though it does remind me of the 2014 Malaysia helmet that Lewis never got to use (which, after 9 years, I’m still mad about) which colour scheme wise I definitely prefer. Overall it’s another super clean design which isn’t too simple that it looks plain.

7.5/10

Carlos Sainz Jr (Ferrari)

I find it a bit wild that Carlos and Fernando have done updates of their classic designs in the same year. Anyway, the geometric pattern is fun! It does make it look a lot more dynamic than just flat lines, though the black feels a bit jarring and out of place to me. I can only assume it’s to differentiate from Charles’ all red helmet.

6/10

Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

Lance is once again staying true to the AM brand and I’m honestly not that mad about it. As a British Racing Green enthusiast I loooooove the base colour, especially bc it’s both glossy and has a super subtle sparkle to it!!! The Aston Martin wings looks great solid as opposed to an outline, but for me they’re a bit too big. And I’m not really sure why there’s a blue outline on the top, white or silver would have looked more coherent.

7.5/10

Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri)

I looooooooove this design so much!!! It’s so different, which I always appreciate, and I always enjoy it when a driver pays homage to their home country/heritage. I should add that we have a Japanese Maple tree in our garden (which is what the leaves are) and using different colour leaves is so so so pretty. I wish he had been able to put the Alpha Tauri logo in a different colour to make it look more coherent. 

9/10

Nyck de Vries (Alpha Tauri)

I really like the colour scheme on this one, incorporating hints of Dutch orange into the navy and white AT colour scheme works so well, and I also like the flashes of lighter blue. And I especially love the slivers of silver holo, I just wish there was a tad more to contrast against the matte finish.

7.5/10

Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

Obviously, I do have my Seb fan bias of there only being one superior ‘white helmet with driver’s flag colours’ design, but this does look nice. It’s really clean, and unlike Perez’s the Red Bull logo feels like it fits in with the design much better. But, I do feel like it could use a little jazzing up, maybe making the dark blue stripes a glossy metallic.

6.5/10

Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)

Lad is really going for the paddock fashionista title and I respect that. I adored his porcelain design at Abu Dhabi, so the ode to that around the visor is really cool (peep the smidge of silver holo, more of that please!!). I like that it’s an overall warm toned colour palette that should complement the red and black Alfa well. It’s so bright and I think it will really stand out at both day and night races.

8.5/10

[f1]

Every F1 drivers helmet for the 2023 season | 2023 F1 season

A new season means new helmet designs for the 20 participants in this year’s Formula 1 world championship. Or, if not new, slightly revised in many cases. With racing getting underway once more in Bahrain this weekend, here is your yearly guide to the designs each of the drivers in this year’s field will be rocking in their cars. While you can expect plenty of special designs during the year – especially around the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix in November – these are the typical styles you can expect to see of your favourite drivers this season. Red Bull Max Verstappen Max Verstappen’s 2023 helmet “We used different colours to last year, with the red and blue,” Verstappen said of his 2023 design. “I have chosen to go for a bit of a more old-school design, with some small lines and without the glitter. There are new brands present on Verstappen’s helmet, including the official F1 game’s producer EA Sports, but “the back of my helmet is quite slick and clean” still. The most important change is the addition of a second star to the design, to mark his second world championship title last year. Sergio Perez Sergio Perez’s 2023 helmet It’s another multi-coloured design from Perez, with a large use of yellow once again. His personal sponsors are present as usual, sharing the same spaces as on previous designs, and the base ‘colour’ is a grey pattern not unlike Red Bull’s famous test livery from 2015. As ever, F1’s only Mexican driver proudly wears the flag of his nation on the crown of his helmet. Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free Ferrari Mercedes George Russell George Russell’s 2023 helmet Russell used to have a Niki Lauda-style all-red helmet, and switched to having a very dark – but not quite black – as the base colour when he joined Mercedes’ line-up for 2022. He then switched to a light blue helmet which complemented the identifying colours on his car last year. For the new season those colours have changed to bright green. Lewis Hamilton Lewis Hamilton’s 2023 helmet Hamilton returned to his traditional yellow last season, having spent several years rocking red and then purple designs. He has now blended the purple back into the yellow in a more flowing style than the rigid lines that broke up the different areas of his 2022 helmet, and Monster Energy logos remain in their usual spot in a black banner around the top of the lid. For the season-opening race in Bahrain, Hamilton added a rainbow to the top of the helmet, as he has previously worn to indicate his support for LGBTQ+ pride. Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free Alpine McLaren Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free Alfa Romeo Aston Martin Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free Haas AlphaTauri Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free Williams Valtteri Bottas’ testing helmet Valtteri Bottas special helmet for 2023 pre-season testing Expect to see most of the field produce special helmet designs at some stage during the season. Valtteri Bottas has already sported one during pre-season testing. “It’s basically my face,” he said, “so it’s a bit of fun.” Over to you Which driver has the best helmet design for the new season? Have your say in the comments. 2023 F1 season Browse all 2023 F1 season articles via RaceFans - Independent Motorsport Coverage https://www.racefans.net/

[tubbietommo]

MY TOP 10 F1 HELMETS OF 2020 (AS A GRAPHIC DESIGNER)

With finally that dumb rule about amount of helmet changes out of our system, I’ve been enjoying seeing all these different helmets this season. There have been beauties, some that I’m still thinking about till this day and there have been some uglies.. some also which I’ve been thinking about till this day and literally thinking: WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?!? to the drivers that wore them. 

As I’m getting my official graphic design ‘papers’ I wanted to give my opinion about my top 10 helmets of this year: 

10: Daniil Kvyat Abu Dhabi helmet

This is his last helmet and honestly I’m a fan of this one. It’s a pretty simple design and usually I’m not a big fan of the colour red being used in a helmet. Mostly because I find that colour a bit overdone in helmets. But it being sparkly makes it extremely beautiful and it’s the first Alpha Tauri helmet that I’ve seen that match fully with that big ass logo on there. With most of the Alpha Tauri helmets I feel like the helmets designs have two parts to it, the design and the big ass logo. But with this one I find it matching extremly well. Good job on that, love it.

9: Pierre AustrianGP helmet (fan made)

Oof, the front and the upper part of this helmet is just so fun. I’m a big fan of using a dark background with a very bright color scheme combined and I love the fact that this was a competition where fans could design Pierre’s helmet and that a beautiful design was chosen. I would have loved it even more if the alpha tauri logo wasn’t there. Especially that big. It would have looked so cool and given me an 80′s disco vibe if the whole colourful design was fully around the helmet, without the logo. But I guess with this one I just pretend the logo isn’t there. It's still so good though.

8: Sebastian Vettel Abu Dhabi (ferrari tribute) helmet.

Now I wasn’t sure which helmet of Seb I liked more, this helmet or the Styrian helmet. I decided on this helmet, because it’s such a Seb helmet and reminded me of one of his Red Bull helmet (which is prettier than this one tbh). But also because I think there’s a special concept to this helmet. This obviously could be wrong but to me this helmet is a bit of ‘self reflect’ for Seb. You obviously have the achievements with Ferrari on there and his famous quote ‘grazie ragazzi and the helmet has a bit of a mirror effect. but the colours to me that especially are being used in the number 5 tells me his F1 adventure (past and future). The colours start (in the number 5) with the Redbull colours, than goes into the red(Ferrari) which blends in with a little pink and goes straight to the green(AM). So I really like this little detail even if it wasn’t on purpose, which sorry but I am convinced it is. 

7: The pink Hulkenberg helmet

I’m not gonna lie, I kind of had forgotten about this helmet, but as I’ve been looking back at these helmets this one has been really catching my eyes and is so well done. I find Pink a very hard colour to work with anyway, definitley the bright pink that just screams at you. And the fact that the bright pink isn’t overpowering with the pastel pink and white makes this helmet just nice to look at. The things that needs to grab your attention, grabs your attention and the fact that it has stripes going vertically over the helmet is one of my favourite design choices you can do with helmets so I absolutely love that. If a driver is doing a pink helmet, then this is what I love to see. Very beautiful. 

6: Jack Aitken Abu Dhabi helmet

Now this one I was pleasent surprised by. Lets just put it this way: It’s a busy helmet well done. This is also a helmet that is just nice to look at it. Using these kinds of shapes that go from small once to big once is not easy to make it not look messy and the way they've done the white spaces inbetween the shapes is really well done. It looks like a puzzle that fits well and I have nothing bad to say about this. The color scheme with this one is just amazing. Really really love this one.

5: Lewis Hamilton purple helmet (bahrain)

I haven’t been a fan of Lewis’s helmets before BUT LET ME TELL YOU, this season he has really been bringing it. I am in love with the use of purple. Such an underrated color in this sport. And why? I have no clue. Purple is creative, magic, rich colour. How has it not been used more? It looks so good on this helmet, especially the Bahrein one with the glitter. Very pretty, good job Lewis. Finally! I have nothing bad to say about this helmet. The stars for his champions, the blm message on it. A good helmet right here. 

4: George’s Abu Dhabi GP helmet

I guess a lot of drivers saved their best helmet for last... When I saw this helmet for the first time I was legit in love with it. I love that this helmet is for Frank and Claire and showing the success of Williams which haven’t been showed the last couple of years. But the use of the two dark blue shades with the white lines is complimenting all three colours so beautifully. I really hope George keeps those three colours and make a different kind of design as his main helmet because this looks beautiful to me. I wouldn’t even know anything bad to say about this helmet. Love it.

3: Alex’s Abu Dhabi GP Helmet

Now this one might come as a surprise and I don’t think anyone would’ve picked this one out as a number three BUT HEAR ME OUT. I’m absolutely OBSESSED with the cartoonish design that’s going on with this and it stands out a lot more compared to all the other Red Bull helmets that have been designed since 2015. To me they’ve been all looking kind of the same but this one to me is just so unique while still being a very RedBull helmet. The black outlining makes all of the colours pop out so much more and just the whole cartoon vibe is just right up my alley. If I were to design helmets, the whole cartoon vibe would be what I do and I think that’s one of the main reasons why this helmets speaks to me so much. Like I absolutely love it.

2: Seb’s Tuscan GP helmet

This was the hardest decision, because to me this is a clear number one. I have something with old designs coming back. And I LOVED Seb’s 2019 Monza helmet which was a love letter to the old helmets and I LOVE this helmet for the same reason, but even more so of how creative this is. Obviously it was the 1000GP for Ferrari so there was the inspiration. But I’m just obsessed with the way the old side looks. How they used an old drawing of the old racing car and made it really work. Like it almost looks like an old world map but to a racing driver. I’m obsessed with this side. But also I’m obsessed with the way it goes from the old side to the new with the old looking colours to the vibrant almost neon ‘now’ colours... is just amazing. I probably would’ve loved it even more (if that was possible lmao) if the old side was all around the helmet, but you just have to love this concept. For a 1000gp celebration it’s so good and well thought while still keeping your main design helmet in there. I would love to have this helmet. So cool.

1: Sebastian Vettel diversity helmet

Is it really a surprise that this one is on number one though? Now I’m gonna be honest with you, even though I absolutely love this design, it’s the combination of the design and the extremly strong message this helmet brings to the table that makes this helmet a number one of the season. This helmet is so special I will be thinking about this helmet in probably 10 years still. Now let me talk about the design. The stripes of rainbow where usually the German flag is (which I said before) something I’m obsessed with. I really love a helmet that has stripes going vertically over the helmet. I don’t think a lot of drivers use that and obviously Seb’s Ferrari helmet is known for that design and is so iconic. Your eyes will go straight to the vertically stripes, which in this case are the rainbow colours. But that’s not all. On the side you have all these unique illustrated people. Every character on there is differently that you almost could say you could ‘find yourself’ in there. It really shows the message of this helmet. What I also love and probably is a detail that is a forgotten detail, is how the number five slowly fades with the background. I’m very curious if that’s just a design choice, but I almost would think there’s a concept in that alone. Overall this is just a mind blowing helmet. I have nothing bad to say about it. It’s a beautiful design with an amazing message that should be talked more about in this sport.

[salenakingston]

Mystery March Day 7 - Doubt

(Another gift fic for this prompt!

This one is for @nemesis-is-my-middle-name and their “the walls are alive” AU. Not sure if that’s the official name of it, but that’s what it’s tagged as. I love the concept of this AU, and thought it would be a good pick for today’s prompt. I hope you like it Swift <3)

Three friends and their dog had all been reunited. It took blood, sweat, and tears before a sense of peace washed over them. What was once lost to them began to return. Not all at once of course, but enough that they were certain their friendship could return to normal. Even with a skull for a head, it wasn’t hard to miss the compassion shimmering from his eyes.

The idea for the four of them to live in his mansion had been Lewis’ idea at first, but one that became accepted between all of them. It just made the most sense. It had been an idea floating around in their minds even before Lewis’ unfortunate passing, they were still close enough to Tempo that reaching their day jobs wouldn’t be a hassle, and they wouldn’t even have to pay a penny for their stay.

Their only payment to the ghost was ensuring they would never leave him again.

Never. How could they ever think to now that he was back in their lives? Arthur had personally spent so much time looking for him, making him the first to make that promise. He had his best friend back. Sure, he was a ghost now, something that might haunt him for the rest of his life, quite literally; but, he was becoming the Lewis he and Vivi knew in life.

Anger could always drive people to irrational acts.

Moving into the mansion was hardly a hassle. Most items either human had to bring were packed carefully into boxes, not worried about any furniture. The whole house was under Lewis’ control, and if he could make a kitchen, especially one with a fully functioning fridge and other household appliances, then it wasn’t too far outside the realm of possibility he could furnish any other room.

The ghost escorted each of them to their own room, taking the liberty of designing each in a way that suited its inhabitant. Vivi’s blue swam in her room, creating a mix with the magenta tint lining the walls. She had plenty of space for books, an open space for her to test out anything she might find, since apparently she’s got ice powers none of them knew about, and even a few turtles resting on her bed.

They seemed to look similar to the one she kept in the back of the van among her clutter. No, that wasn’t too fair to say when the mess was a split deal. Vivi had her clutter, and Arthur had his’.

Speaking of the blond, his room was next. He and Lewis walked side by side, taking note of the suits of armor. If the suits were not present, some sort of painting seemed to be. He recalled the first time setting foot into this place, neither one taking too kindly to the three intruders. Now that there wasn’t the lingering doom over his life, he could see why Lewis might choose them as an aesthetic choice.

The armor even seemed to make more sense around his room. The stories of King Arthur and all that jazz.

Arthur’s room looked nearly like his old one. Typical when it came to his bed, orange being there instead of blue. There was a desk resting just under the window, plenty of space for him to work on his arm and any other personal projects rattling in his brain. There were shelves in his room as well, space for any other spare parts and blueprints.

Lewis had even taken the opportunity to make a small corner just for Galahad, a touch he had done in Vivi’s room as well for Mystery. Might as well make the pets feel as much at home as their owners.

The ghost left the room, leaving his friend to set up the rest of his belongings however he chose. The first order of business was getting Galahad settled. With the hamster’s cage taken care of, he returned to the boxes he carried inside. There were more out in the van for both of them. Good thing that vehicle had so much space in the back. Once he knelt down to start unpacking, he could tell something was off.

The temperature in the air dropped. That was strange…

It wasn’t like this when Vivi or Lewis was with him. Maybe he just hadn’t noticed until now. Well, he might as well take care of his things. Nothing else seemed to be going on.

A few things here, a few things there, and he was done. For now anyways.

The boxes were set in the corner, the blond turning for the door. He couldn’t help but notice how cold the knob felt as his hand closed around it. It ran a physical shiver down his spine. How foreboding…

Shutting the door behind him, he began the navigation through the halls. He thought he was going the right direction, at least based on his memory, but when he was so sure he got to the right turn, it just seemed to lead down another long hallway. Did he go the wrong way? He wouldn’t be surprised if he had. The place already felt like a maze the last time they were here.

He’d have to ask Lewis the next time he saw him.

The longer he walked, the more unsettled Arthur began to feel. He was getting the feeling he was being watched, an all too familiar feeling. He didn’t understand what could be watching him. There was no one here except himself. He failed to notice the spark of purple leaking through the slats in the helmets.

Nor the extended leg to one of the suits.

The blond trip over the metal plating, landing face first against the carpet-lined floor. He began to push himself up, though another sound caught his attention. It was the sound of metal moving, but more than that was the subtle sound of something moving through the air. He scooted forward just enough to miss the sword from the suit ahead of the last one coming down. His breathing began to accelerate, even more when the helmet began to turn in his direction. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except he could see the other ones doing the same. Suddenly he didn’t like them as much as he did before. He scooted back, sure they were going to advance on him.

“Arthur, you alright?”

Huh?

The blond turned around, Vivi and Lewis standing there. He had to do a double take when his eyes fell back on the suits of armor, each one back in their proper place. Had he imagined all that? He shook his head, pushing himself up to his feet, “Yeah… sorry about that. I think I got a little lost.”

“No worries. Come on, let’s get the rest of your things.”

Right. Yeah that was easy enough.

A few more boxes later, and Lewis once more leaves him to his own room. The ghost agreed to walk with him, not only to help with carrying belongings, but to make sure he knew the way back to his room. Amber eyes trailed to the suits as they passed. Again, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

And once again, the moment Lewis was gone, the chill began to surround him. It couldn’t have just been a coincidence.

Well, everything was put up now. Rather than sticking around in his room alone, perhaps it would be best if he went looking for his friends. They were probably done too. Knowing Lewis, he was probably working on something for them in the kitchen, and who could tell with Vivi. If she wasn’t in her room, then she was probably with Lewis.

Another turn of the cold knob, leading Arthur back into the hall.

There came that feeling again. This time he didn’t miss the flash of color in the armor, something that made him pick up the pace. Best to get away before something happened again. Even with such a logical line of thinking, it didn’t stop the hall from appearing to have no end. He knew the way now, so how had he gotten this lost?

He could see the glint of silver out of the corner of his eyes, and it wasn’t the metal of his arm.

Their swords came at him again, his reflexes from all the adventures the Mystery Skulls had been on keeping him from taking an injury. Where was Lewis? How was he supposed to get out of this mess? He didn’t even know what was going on to begin with. Why were these dormant suits of armor suddenly attacking him?

Panic began to well inside him when he felt the tip of one nearly miss the side of his head, a few loose locks of blond hair falling to the floor. Getting tired of the slippery blond, one suit finally took matters into its own hands. Grabbing at his flesh wrist, he could feel his body being slammed against the nearby wall. The grip the suit held on him was one that could surely fracture his bones with just a tad more effort.

He kept his mouth shut, trying his best not to cry out from the pain. Then again, could anyone hear him? Where was Lewis?

Another suit stepped forward, plated hand pressed against his forehead, curling around strands of hair. It forcefully pinned his head back, pressure building on the back of his head. Why? He couldn’t understand WHY?

Then he suddenly felt himself fall to the floor, pain shooting through his wrist. A dark, bone-plated hand reached out to him, “Arthur? Are you alright? We heard a noise down the hall.”

Convenient was the word that raced through his mind. Wait… why?

Everything was one again in place once the ghost turned up. He knows he didn’t imagine it this time. Something was wrong. He shook his head, taking the offered hand with his metal one, “Y-yeah. I’m fine. Tripped on the carpet and slammed into the wall once I lost balance.”

Why lie? What was wrong with telling Lewis that the suits of armor came to life and were suddenly tracking him down? Maybe out of worry the ghost wouldn’t believe him? Or perhaps, it was a worry that it might get worse? Lewis was in control of this place. It would do him no good to make his friend mad with him.

It seemed that excuse was enough for the ghost to drop the matter. Well, now that he was here, he could follow him to where Vivi and Mystery likely were. He couldn’t help but notice the entire time he lingered around them, nothing unusual was happening. Was it only that hallway? If that was the case then why have his room there? Why put it in a place where there was an abundance of armor? Why did each one have to have a weapon at their disposal?

Unless…

Arthur cast a glance over to Lewis. Pieces were falling into place in his brain. The suits of armor only came to life when Lewis wasn’t around, though he could probably link that to when Vivi and Mystery were not around either. Lewis was the master of his own mansion. If anything was attacking him, then it would have to be by his order right? That was how it worked last time. Lewis had been angry enough to wish death on his best friend, an eye for an eye.

But they made up. Lewis didn’t hate him anymore. Right?

Maybe it was too soon to tell. After all, it had only been a few hours, and only the first day living in the mansion. Maybe there was the possibility his mind was playing tricks on him. Maybe it was just Lewis being a little apprehensive about his believed murderer to be living under his roof. Both of those seemed more plausible than the conclusion he immediately jumped to without thinking things through.

For now, all that mattered was the time spent with the people he cared about most. Everything would settle down. Things would go back to normal.

How foolish he was…

The days that followed hadn’t gotten any better. If anything, they were steadily getting worse. Nights were filled with a chilling air, and even under the covers of his bed, he couldn’t shake the cold away. Where he only had the bruised wrist, something he could thankfully hide away with his wristband, and a headache spiraled to the bandages he wrapped his body in. The suits got more daring, never holding anything back when he entered their hall…

Or anywhere else alone.

Arthur laid in bed, resting a new headache and the throbbing pain in his chest, tears streaming down his face. Truth be told, he couldn’t tell if the pain was from his heart breaking, or the cuts he treated not too long before laying down. Every time Lewis asked what happened, or if he was alright, he would nod and give some kind of excuse. He couldn’t break the façade in front of the ghost or Vivi.

But it hurt. It hurt so much.

He didn’t want to believe it, but the more he thought about it, the more he couldn’t help but believe it to be true. It only happened when he was alone. Lewis was the one in control of the mansion. If he was acting when they were together, it made sense his anger would be taken out on him when there was no one else around. He hated it. He thought Lewis had forgiven him. He thought they were friends again.

It couldn’t have all been a lie…

…

…

Right…?

[lunarnoona5342]

So I had a second attempt at a Pokémon X nuzlocke and beat it this time

For those who don't know, a nuzlocke is a self-enforced game mode of Pokémon where you can only catch the first Pokémon you encounter on a route, you must nickname them to encourage closeness, and if the Pokémon faint in battle, they are dead: you can no longer use them. I added an extra rule onto the route rule: I can catch the first Pokémon that comes from a rock smash on a route, since that's something that can rarely be done on routes anyway, and also I'm prone to killing Pokémon so I needed a fighting chance at this. With the rules sorted, we can move onto my second attempt at a nuzlocke (with my best friend Mar (@serpentine-fxrtune) beside me to help name my Pokémon and mock my dead ones with bonus friends Bread and Ariel (@catboy5000))

I played as a male named Takehiko because me, Mar, and a couple other friends have a Pokémon fan project thing going on between us and Takehiko is one of my characters who is Kalosian. When I was offered to be nicknamed Big T at the beginning of the game, I could not refuse. I picked Froakie to be my starter and already had naming issues, so I consulted Mar for a nickname. She suggested the French word for frog, and I just went with it because, yanno, Kalos is based on France. And so, I gained my first Pokémon, Grenouille. I go to route 2 and encounter the obligatory Pidgey (which doesn't count as my first encounter, I don't have any Pokéballs at this point) and sit through Serena teaching me to catch Pokémon (who btw I forgot existed in this game) by talking to Mar about something I remembered.

Me: I just wanna talk about SKZ's English names, specifically Changbin's name. Like it's normal, it's just Lewis, but CHAN TRIED TO CONVINCE HIM TO BE CALLED BARTHOLOMEW, THAT'S LIKE IF I TRIED TO GIVE BREAD AN ARABIC NAME AND CHOSE TO NAME HIM ABDUL RAHMAN, THAT'S NOT EASY TO SAY.

Me: Should I name my first Pokémon Bartholomew, for what Changbin could have been?

Mar, ever the enabler: Sure, I can't really stop you.

So I named the Weedle I caught Bartholomew, and proceeded into Santalune forest.

So we move on (and I'm just ignoring rival battles because they're just not it) and out to route 3, where I caught a Fletchling. Following on from my SKZ English names talk from earlier, I named the bird Sky, because Seungmin's English name is cute goddammit. So when I got to Santalune, I ran into a problem: I had no Pokémon that could be super effective against Viola. I head over to route 22 nearby after grabbing the roller skates to try and get Riolu for a first encounter. Instead of that, I got a Bunnelby.

Me: You are not Riolu... so you shall be named Not Riolu.

So instead of fretting over the type advantage Viola had on me, I chose to grind for higher levels to beat her Pokémon up with power instead; this is when the first casualty came in.  Sky, the poor child, got killed by a Riolu using counter because peck didn't do the job of making it faint. Sky was the first to join the graveyaed (yes this is how I spelled it in game). Sky, though you were technically not Seungmin since you were female, you will be missed.

Also forgot to mention: Batholomew is a female too. Moving on-

So after spending a long time grinding, being a bit more careful this time, I finally felt like I was ready for Viola, and I was. I swept the floor with her, Grenouille carrying the team as he was a higher level than the rest. Upon reaching Viola's sister, Alexa, before route 4, I got an exp share, and then she reminded me of what happened in my first attempt at the nuzlocke.

Me: *says a thing about something being sad*

Me and Mar, at the same time: Alexa, play Despacito.

Mar: Name the Pokémon you catch on this route Despacito.

Me: Okay *gets a Flabébé*

Future me: *pockets memory for future Flabébé*

On route 4, I encounter a Skitty, but as I mentioned earlier, I am prone to killing Pokémon and end up killing the Skitty before I could catch it, so I just make my way over to Lumiose to get a Kanto starter after beating up all the trainers on the route.

So this was my conversation with Mar about which Kanto starter to pick (I have a grudge against Ch*rmander okay), and through this I chose its name too: Zekrom 💙

So on route 5 I catch a Furfrou that I nicknamed Floof because it floof and made my way to Camphier, where I went off with Shauna to get the Poké flute to get rid of the Snorlax blocking route 7. I collect the item, and on the way back I catch an Oddish that Mar named Pea for me. I got rid of the Snorlax by running the moment I interact with it - there was no way I'd fight that thing. Onto route 7, where I go into the purple flowers in hopes I get a blue Flabébé, but instead I got an orange one. Regardless of the colour, it was gonna be called Despacito.

In the connecting cave, I catch a Zubat that I named Ciel because I wanted to honour Sky by naming a bat the same thing, just Italian. I move on to route 8, where I get Shelly the Bagon, Shinju the Cubone from the Glistening Cave, and Itzy the Amaura from the fossil I got. It was on the other side of route 8 where the first of 2 rock smash Pokémon emerge, and I'm not sorry for killing the Binacle, it was Dwebble or nothing. In the Twitter thread I forgot to mention that I also caught a Helioptile that I nicknamed Frilly on route 9, but enough of that, now to Grant, the gym that killed my first Pokémon X nuzlocke...

Grant scared me a lot because of how I've always struggled to beat him even when I played normally: he's way too strong to just be a second gym leader. However, thanks to way too much grinding, I was able to beat Grant without any casualties.

So I can't remember how it happened, but at some point in route 10, Shinju died, I can't remember what caused it but it happened and ig I wasn't sad enough about it to remember. On route 10 though, I did get a Snubbull that I named Berri (Mar wanted to name it Ugli but I said No.)

So skip over Geosenge and off to route 11 and Reflective Cave, where I got Zappy the Dedenne and I then killed a Roggenrola by accident because, despite its sturdy ability, it still got hurt by Despacito's rocky helmet and fainted. Unfortunately this is where I lost 2 Pokémon. Kumi died to a Wobuffet that, idk what it did since I wasn't looking at the screen, but I'm assuming Kumi just couldn't take the counter, and fell to the same fate Sky did. Then, Itzy died too, by means I can't remember, but tbh it's me I probably did a dumb type matchup.

Either way I started making Itzy jokes to ease the pain of losing 2 Pokémon consecutively, like "maybe she just wasn't Icy, just on fire all along", and Ariel goes "perhaps she was just a wannabe... 💔".

By this point, my team consisted of Grenouille the Greninja, Zekrom the Charmeleon, Frilly the Helioptile, Despacito the Floette, Pea the Gloom, and Not Lucario the Diggersby (I renamed him from Not Riolu since it evolved).

Eventually, I get to Shalour and get the Lucario from Korrina, who I appropriately named Not DiggersB (Not Diggersby didn't fit so I improvised), and replace Not Lucario. I beat her in battle (without trying either I hadn't noticed I won until I was talking to Korrina again).

I gave up my route 12 encounter to get the Lapras the Pokémon breeder gifts you at the beginning of the route if you speak to him, and Mar named him Lettuce (because iceberg lettuce), and quickly grab myself a Tentacool from Azure Bay that I named Booze because it's water poison. It's when I'm grinding on route 12 for Ramos where I get my biggest casualty so far: Zekrom. Zekrom, the fully evolved Charizard, ready to take on the world, got killed by a Miltank that survived 2 hits from Zekrom and was able to land a bide on him.

Mar asked about Zekrom earlier because I got mocked for his death, and idc about it now but like, it hurt when it happened (yes I did threaten murder but my threats are empty, I'm not edgy I just swear a lot).

So I went and got rid of the Pokémon population of route 12 before *almost* going to Ramos. I noticed that I could go to route 13 before battling him, and it was there I could get a Slugma from the second (and final) use of the rock smash rule I had in place.

*over call*

Me: I'm gonna go take a risk and hope that I can get a Slugma on route 13 using rock smash.

Mar: Slipknot?

Me: *laughing* No, SLUGMA.

Mar: Oh, well you're naming it Slipknot now.

Needless to say, I got very lucky and got a Slugma on first encounter, and named it Slipknot. Unfortunately for me, however, catching Slipknot meant even more grinding for levels. Luckily, Courmarine is where you can get a lucky egg, which gives the holder more exp from battles, and with the use of Pokémon Amie, Slipknot caught up in no time (and evolved into Magcargo). Tbh the thing that took more time was bringing up Slipknot's affection on Pokémon Amie since you literally can't pet Slugma, which eliminates the main way to gain affection. The amount of times I played Tile Puzzle and Head It was quite a lot (never liked Berry Picker, stressful).

So I beat Ramos after pulling a risky move to protect Slipknot from Gogoat's ground move by bringing out Lapras and using ice beam to beat it. I bring the lights back to Lumiose city and go to beat Clemont, where the next big casualty happens - Not DiggersB. I had overestimated Not DiggersB's defense and lost him to an Ampharos that used thunder punch a bit too hard. This was a really bad death since I had a whole ground type in my box just sitting, waiting to be used, but nooooo, I had to used the fighting steel type with bone rush.

Not Lucario, in revenge for his counterpart, destroys Clemont's team, and we're off to Laverre. On route 14 I immediately catch a better ground type (Not a Fish the Stunfisk) and Not Lucario is relegated to the box again, the dirty HM slave. This means more grinding, passing the lucky egg over to Not a Fish, more PokéAmie, and more destruction of the Pokémon population (while also tryna level up both Pea and Despacito enough to get giga drain and moonblast respectively before evolving them into Florges and Bellossom).

To explain Pea and Despacito quickly (and Zappy too), they only evolve into their final forms when they are met with a sun stone (for Bellossom specifically and Heliolisk) and shiny stone (for Florges). I did have a sun stone but used it to evolve Helioptile int Heliolisk so I had to wait until I got to Anistar to get another sun stone, and I only got a shiny stone at the end of route 13, so I saved it until Despacito reached the right level for moonblast, then evolved it (thank you Mar for being the one who knew this info, I'm actual shit at Pokémon).

Anyway, I make it to Laverre, beat Valerie (and almost lose Pea that battle gave me a heart attack), beat up team flare in the factory, get master ball and big nugget, blah blah blah, get better clothes for Big T (which isn't much better male clothes in Pokémon is shit). I get a Foongus on route 15, consult Mar on a name because, once again, naming issues, and she names it Amanita for reasons I've honestly forgotten, and go over to Dendemille, where I redeem heart scales for better moves for Grenouille and Slipknot, and beat up more team flare.

Before I make my way over to Anistar though, I quickly go to route 16 to collect an obligatory Pumpkaboo (that I called Jack). I did (or tried to do in some cases) Pokémon Sword runs for my part of the fan project's E4 and on every file, I've caught a Pumpkaboo so it's tradition.

On route 17 I failed miserably at trying to catch a Delibird, which I wasn't upset about. I use the place to grind a bit more before I make it to Anistar. I grab the sun stone there to finally evolve Pea and just completely destroy Olympia with Grenouille.

So the game's plot "thickens" (aka Lysandre outright says he's the one in charge of team flare) so I do my protag thing, saving the world, when I have to deal with the most heartbreaking and stupid death ever.

Xerneas: *appears*

Me: Okay just master ball it.

Me: *accidentally picks quick ball*

Me: it might be okay it's the first turn anyway-

Xerneas, not expecting to battle so had moonblast ready for fun:👁👄👁  *kills Grenouille*

Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

This genuinely hurt me so much I wanted to cry, I was so close to getting Grenouille through it all and he dies to a misclick?! Luckily I got Xerneas in a master ball immediately afterwards. Since it counted as it was the only Pokémon I got in Geosenge, I aptly named it "YOU KILLER".

So I grind a bit more for Xerneas and make my way over to Snowbelle. On route 18 I got a Durant that I named Ditant because I couldn't spell, then got a Sliggoo on route 19 while grabbing sludge bomb for Pea so that she, along with Despacito, can be called the fairy killer.

Despacito the Dragon killer and Pea the Fairy killer honestly sounds so intimidating until you find out they're just a big flower patch and a weed, but they are scary, and can and will kill you without hesitation. I make it to Snowbelle and have to make my way to the Pokémon Village to grab Wulfric to be swept by a heavy metal band, and get myself a Trevenant I named Tree on route 20, and a Zoruark, that immediately replaced YOU KILLER in my party, from the village, and I named him Nuh. Nuh is basically the Muslim name for Noah, as in Noah's Ark Noah, so I did a grammatical joke based on that.

Nuh's Ark = the ark that belongs to Nuh

Nuh's Ark = Nuh is (Zoro)Ark

So I spend my time on route 21 accidentally killing the Ursaring I could've had and then ridding the waters of Lombré and Floatzel for Nuh using Pea. If someone had told me at the beginning of my nuzlocke that my star Pokémon would be a Bellossom, I would've laughed. After a while though, I felt ready. Pea, Despacito, Lettuce, Not a Fish, Slipknot, and Nuh (who I got a heart scale for to learn foul play) were all ready to go down Victory Road and beat the Pokémon League. On the way, I caught a Lickitung, my final Pokémon, that I named Balloon.

(I did have to leave victory road a few times because there's bits where you need to use strength, so I had to fetch Not Lucario because there was no way I was teaching any of my party a HM move this late in the game other than Lettuce learning surf and waterfall).

Going up Victory Road was a breeze (minus the multiple encounters in the caves), and I quickly made my way over to the Pokémon League. I went in, after healing my Pokémon, with an abundant amount of full restores to use freely (I had like P300k the money wasn't going anywhere).

I took on Siebold first, since he's the poetic guy and I wanted to show off Takehiko's abysmal fashion to him first. Needless to say, Pea beat him to a pulp (with Lettuce coming in clutch for his Gyrados by using thunderbolt). Siebold was by far the easiest E4 member.

Next was Wikstrom, whose Probopass had always worried me. It had sturdy, so every time Not a Fish tried to beat it, it'd just survive. Eventually, Wikstrom ran out of full restores, leading to it's untimely demise. Slipknot and Not a Fish cleared out the rest of his team easily.

I took on Malva next, who I legit didn't care about, and just had Lettuce spam surf until I beat her. It worked, of course, so that meant I only had one more battle to go: Drasna the dragon lady who, fun fact, is related to Iris, and is also therefore related to Leon and Hop!

I already knew Drasna would start with Dragalge, a danger to my dragon killer, so I sent out Not a Fish first just to get rid of it. I then sent Despacito out for her Altaria and Noivern, of which Noivern was actually able to land hits on Despacito, getting her in the yellow. Luckily for me, I had Pea learn Dazzling Gleam just in case I needed it, so I switched out Despacito for Pea when Druddigon came out, just to protect my big flower. Pea quickly handed Druddigon its ass as she beat it up without a hitch, and with that, I had finished the E4.

When I was checking if I needed to use my not so abundant amount of ethers and elixirs on my Pokémon, I was glad to find that I really only had to use it for Not a Fish's earthquake: I didn't have to use many moves against the E4, and earthquake was only down because of Wikstrom.

With my Pokémon healed up and ready, Despacito leading the party, I was ready to take on Champion Diantha. Her Hawlucha was up first, of which Despacito beat using moonblast in one fell swoop. She then went to beat up her Tyrantrum, who also fainted to a moonblast. She brought out Amourous next, aka what Itzy could've been, and Despacito used petal blizzard to beat it. The Amourous survived but didn't cause problems. I went to use petal blizzard but Diantha switched out for her Goodra, whose attack got boosted thanks to the grass type move.

Unfortunately for Diantha though, Goodra was a dragon type, so that thing fainted immediately afterwards thanks, once again, to moonblast. She brings back Amourous, who finally faints after a second bout of petal blizzard, and next up is her Gourgeist. It's at this point I finally let Despacito rest, bringing out my newly acquired Nuh, who comes out disguised as Slipknot. Nuh beats the Gourgeist in one move, meaning that Nuh's illusion is still up. Diantha brings out her final Pokémon, Gardevoir, and the battle is almost over.

I think the funniest part of the entire game for me was messing around with Nuh, because when Gardevoir used a psychic move: "It doesn't affect Slipknot..." Which is very funny considering it SHOULD affect Slipknot, it just doesn't affect Nuh, who's pretending to be Slipknot. Nuh takes the opportunity and uses foul play (as Slipknot, which also looks very peculiar) to take down Diantha's Gardevoir, and with that, I had beaten the champion. The nuzlocke was over...

Or was it?

Me: *getting fussy because the other 4 Sycamore pupils were getting credit for me single-handedly beating team flare*

Mar: NOONA THERE'S STILL A BATTLE LEFT, YOU NEED TO BATTLE AZ!

Me: oH

So the nuzlocke was *almost* over.

AZ was very very easy, the only issue I had was Lettuce not being up first to beat his Torkoal. His Sigilyph and Golurk were both very easy to beat, and nothing else really happened in the battle. With that battle over I had truly beaten my second attempt at a Pokémon X nuzlocke.

If you read this far, congratulations! You have read the equivalent of 75 tweets in (possibly) one sitting! Twitter kept capping me off every 25 tweets, so now I understand why Twitter au writers don't post abundantly. This was honestly so much fun, even though I did grieve over my dead Pokémon.

I wanna thank Mar for sticking with me the whole way, even though I was such a nuisance for asking every single time, without fail, what beats poison type Pokémon whenever I encountered one. When I said I'm shit at Pokémon, I wasn't lying: I'm Very Bad™ at the game.

I also wanna thank Bread and Ariel for just popping in during my run every now and again, even if all you wanted to do was mock me for Zekrom's death (which btw I don't get why you're still holding that to me? I'm more shocked you're not talking bout Grenouille lmao).

Would also like to thank my team, Pea the Bellossom, Despacito the Florges, Not a Fish the Stunfisk, Slipknot the Magcargo, Lettuce the Lapras, and Nuh the Zoroark (who, despite being a super new addition, pulled his weight very well). I wouldn't've won of not for y'all  (Idc that they're fictional and can't read my thanks, I love them okay???).

Anywho, thank you for reading this if you chose to!

[bigmacdaddio]

The Black Man Who Invented Nebraska Football:

Before the opening weekend of the Big Ten football season, the conference sent a press release outlining the ways each school would support the league’s “United as One” social justice campaign. Many of those efforts involved stickers, logos, T-shirts, and other ways of distributing messages such as “End Racism” and “Equality.” But it was the University of Nebraska, alone among Big Ten teams, that made a nod to history, using a helmet sticker to pay tribute to the school’s first Black football player, George Flippin.

As it turns out, Flippin’s story resonates far beyond Nebraska, illuminating racial dynamics within college football and American culture more broadly. It also raises the thorny question of what we should remember when we look at the past. For Nebraska, the choice to honor Flippin was a gesture of unity in the midst of racial unrest. “In a lot of ways I think society should mirror locker rooms when you have good cultures built,” Nebraska coach Scott Frost remarkedwhen asked about the tribute to Flippin. The reality of Flippin’s time at Nebraska, however, suggests that any celebration needs to be coupled with a reckoning.

Flippin was born in Ohio three years after the end of the Civil War, eventually moving to Kansas and then Nebraska. He arrived at the state university in 1891, a few months after the school organized its first football team. By the fall of that year, Flippin had been recruited to join the squad, and he saw his first live action against Iowa on Thanksgiving weekend. It was the fifth game in Nebraska’s history and the first against an out-of-state opponent.

Nebraska (or the “Old Gold Knights” as they were known that year) lost that day, but Flippin caught the eye of the victors. “For Nebraska,” the Iowa student newspaper declared, “Flippin, the colored left half back, undoubtedly did the best work.”

What that statement lacks in detail it makes up for in significance. At the very beginning of Nebraska’s football history, the player carrying the banner for the state was a Black man. While there were a handful of other Black athletes at predominantly white colleges at the time—George Jewett at Michigan, William Henry Lewis at Harvard—Flippin was the only one building a football tradition from the ground up.

Over the next three seasons, Flippin continued to lead the way. The Illinois student newspaper recognized him as Nebraska’s “star.” A Kansas newspaper declared that he “had no rival in the West.” And reports out of Colorado said that Flippin “gave Denver more trouble” than anyone on Nebraska’s team because of his “weight, strength, and good playing.”

While Flippin did sometimes draw praise from Nebraska’s opponents, they didn’t typically react with the same levity. One commented on Flippin’s “peculiar and perhaps natural habit of butting his opponent with his head” while another castigated him as “an exceedingly brutal player.”

From Nebraska’s perspective, Flippin was simply giving out what he was getting. Game recaps told of Flippin being “kicked, slugged, and jumped on.” He was targeted, no doubt, because of his talent—but also, like numerous “racial pioneers” at predominantly white schools, because of his race.

Some teams used another method to counter Flippin’s greatness: They refused to play against him.

Missouri took this approach in 1892, forfeiting its matchup with Nebraska. The Nebraska student newspaper rushed to Flippin’s defense, framing Missouri’s boycott as a lingering effect of the Civil War. “Our team is truly representative, both of our principles and our members,” the editor declared. As for Missouri: “They believe what their [pro-Confederate] fathers believed. If they do what their fathers did, they will have to be whipped as their fathers were whipped.”

By embracing Flippin, Nebraska was claiming racial inclusion as part of its identity. But framing the Missouri-Nebraska divide in Civil War terms concealed the reality of American life in the late 19th century. It was not just Southern and border states like Missouri that were implementing Jim Crow laws. With the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling in 1896, the Supreme Court of the United States sanctioned this reassertion of white supremacy across the United States.

After a game in Denver, Flippin was denied entrance to an opera house. In Omaha, a hotel set up a private dining room for Flippin and his teammates rather than allowing him to eat in a public space. And in Lincoln—a community that praised itself for supporting a Black man’s exploits on the football field—Flippin sued a bathhouse for refusing to admit him on account of his race. That suit was unsuccessful.

Flippin understood the bind that Black people faced in America. “Whenever he demands the rights of citizenship he is accused of self-seeking,” he declared in a speech. The fact that Flippin sued a business that had discriminated against him makes his willingness to fight against racial discrimination very clear. But he also saw the limits of what he could hope to achieve. So Flippin continued to take the football field, representing a state and school that did not always support him.

After the 1894 season, Flippin’s teammates voted 8–7 to have him serve as the captain of the next year’s team. A backlash ensued immediately. Newspaper reports claimed the result was an accident, the product of political maneuvers by rival fraternities. They declared, too, that several Nebraska players would decline to take the field if Flippin retained his title.

This opposition to Flippin’s captaincy was not universal. Eight teammates had voted for Flippin, after all, and the Omaha World-Herald published an editorial on his behalf, arguing that football should be a democratic game, open to all. “If he were white, the university and the whole west would be so proud of him that he would be dressed in purple and carried on a floral wreath,” the editor of a Kansas newspaper wrote.

Despite this support, the tide was turning against Flippin in Nebraska. His physical play had endeared him to fans in the past; now it became an excuse to deny him the captaincy. A Lincoln newspaper reported that students feared Flippin’s penchant for “brutality” would lead him to “inculcate that kind of playing if he is permitted to captain the team.” Nebraska’s head coach, Frank Crawford, further denigrated his best player. “It takes a man with brains to be a captain: all there is to Flippin is brute force,” he said before predicting that Flippin would be forced to relinquish the title of captain.

There was no public announcement that Flippin had been stripped of his captaincy. But by the time the 1895 season began, he’d moved on from Nebraska, even as the new narrative about him remained. “He takes into the game no brains or skill,” the Nebraska student newspaper remarked in 1897, before describing the former star as “a disgrace to the college game.”

By that time, Flippin was attending medical school in Chicago, playing football to cover his educational costs. After completing school and becoming a doctor, Flippin made his way back to Nebraska, serving the Stromsburg community, about 60 miles west of Lincoln, until he died in 1929.

Upon his death, Nebraska fans rewrote history, eliding the fact that Flippin had been disrespected, discriminated against, and run out of town. A World-Herald sportswriter memorialized Flippin as “the charging bull, into which was bred the tenacity of the bulldog, the ferocity of the tiger, the gameness of the man who knows no fear.” Left unsaid was the fact that Black athletes were no longer allowed to compete for Nebraska. In 1892, Nebraska students had marveled that Missouri would defend the idea of racial segregation in a “progressive age.” By the 1910s, they had joined Missouri’s side, drawing a color line that would remain in place until after World War II.

As the Cornhuskers honor George Flippin in 2020, it’s the full scope of his experience that must be remembered. We should celebrate that Flippin integrated the football team and helped launch the program. We should also dwell on the fact that he was rejected by the predominantly white school and state he represented—as were generations of Black athletes after him, including some today who have said that their full humanity is not always valued.

To truly remember George Flippin, then, is to confront the reality of what America was and continues to be. A helmet sticker can remind us of a name from the past. It can’t force us to right the wrongs of history, or to do the work we need to do to examine our actions in the present day.

[russell-63]

Nicholas & Antonio for the F1 asks 💕💕💕 (Felt like it's only fair to send one back 😊)

You didn't have to but thank you 🥺🤧

nicholas latifi: favourite race ever?

I always forget what happened yesterday so it's even harder to remember races 😂 I'd say Barcelona 2016 and Hockenheim 2019, two that sticked the most with me the past years (although there are so many other good ones)

antonio giovanazzi: driver with the best helmet designs? 

Seb, his blinking lights in the helmet were legendary 🙌. I also liked Dans 'stop being them' and Lewis' purple one a lot 😊

💙💙

[amicaniiya]

My Input: Mystery Skulls Animated - Hellbent (Warning: LONG)

Last one! It was just released, so there isn’t that much out there yet. This is more a list of what was revealed in this video than little things I think others missed...

Arthur is scared of Mystery even as a dog, so he seems to at least have a unconscious knowledge of his real form and what he did to his arm, but thinks of him as a friend (Also, cutest scene ever when he pets him)

He seems to recognize the purple sparks

The van probably works after Arthur hit the board since the interfering energy gets transferred to the arm (ouch, that looked like it hurt as well)

Huh, Lewis seems to be able to turn actual object into “ghost object”, seeing how the truck can turn into flames to get through the tunnel despite being an actual truck that he just possessed. So it might actually be his body

Sad ghost is bigger and even more concerned now

Shiromori is literally thirsting for Mystery’s blood, she goes crazy when she sees it

The blue petals wither the moment Lewis opens the locket, maybe it kept them fresh

Little thing I noticed, the Kingmen Mechanics logo on the car keys has a silver wrench, but the shop’s sign has a golden one

There is something resembling Arthur’s robotic arm on Lance’s desk and a “For Dummies” book is lying on his face. MysteryBen said Lance isn’t good with robotics, so it seems like he’s trying his best to help (oh my heart)

Also, in the back, there’s his wrestling belt and some award for the workshop

Of course the flashbacks of Lewis and Shiromori are very important. (Those you can find at @mysterybensmysteryblog) We finally get some background info for Shiromori! 

Lewis: Arthur obviously isn’t happy with Vivi and Lewis’ relationship. What’s weird is that he doesn’t show any interest in Vivi herself, like in the Pepper Paradiso, so it’s more likely that he felt left behind and like a third wheel and he wasn’t jealous of any of the two. In the one flashback of the fall, Lewis clearly sees the black and green eye, a sign of the possession by ???. Together with the sad ghost, this might hint towards him slightly considering Arthur’s innocence. The hole in his clothes show the spike stabbed right through his heart (ouch) and the green fog hint at ???’s influence in the cave still being strong. Lewis looks rather betrayed and sad than hateful in the image, he might have hoped it was an accident and his hair isn’t fully formed yet; he isn’t a vengeful ghost with pyrokinesis at that point, but he might have acquired the powers as his hate grew. 

Shiromori: She seems to have started out as an albino flower in a random forest somewhere in Japan, but then a kitsune, probably Mystery, came along (at this point he has 9 tails) and let some of his blood drip onto the flower, likely preventing it from dying like albino plants usually do. Sometime later, that flower apparently grew into a whole forest (“Shiromori” means white forest) and that kitsune lives in it. There’s arrows all over the place and a sword and helmet on the ground; Mystery probably lured in people, Shiromori then bound them and maybe sucked their blood (Jubokko). A blue haired swordswoman is held by the forest, she might have come to take revenge for the guy whose helmet lies there, but the kitsune is just amused. Even later, that blue samurai and Mystery fight. Her sword has changed and gives off a blue energy (judging from the sword and the snow on the ground, prob ice powers).

It might be possible that she’s seen that exact scene she sees when mistaking Vivi for that samurai once before. It likely happened right after the fight shown in the last flashback, judging from their apperance

She looks at Mystery in surprise, apparently asking how and why that samurai’s descendant (?) is here with him, but he just apologetically shrugs, probably meaning to say “Coincidence”

Shiromori blushes (aww, this might mean sth...)

Vivi shows signs of that same ice power that samurai had as she blocks Shiromori

Lewis is like “dude, seriously?” when the other freaks out when seeing him

It’s the exact cave as before, but probably just a copy Lewis created

Sad ghost looking at Arthur, his eyes follow him as he runs away (foreshadowing?)

And there’s now a happy ghost as well

Arm starts working again for some reason, but interfering energy still there

FACE REVEAL, Arthur FINALLY recognizes Lewis, seems very surprised that his friend is both dead and after his life, showing again that he doesn’t have clear memories of Lewis’ death

And of course, the last image with all five shown. Lewis regrets his action, his heart cracks even more than in Ghost, Arthur shocked, Shiromori about to strike, Vivi lying on the ground, Mystery turned into his kitsune form

At last, the logo shows an iceberg on top, likely to represent the samurai’s ice powers, and two tail-like appendages on the bottom, probably Mystery’s two missing tails. Edit: Some pointed out that it might not be an iceberg but the stalagmites in the cave, and the star represents Arthur as he falls. Someone also mentioned the dripping M might represent Mystery's blood

Edit: I forgot to mention this, the gunshot at the end is not part of the original song, so they added it to show that someone, most likely Lance, shot someone. Either Shiromori or maybe Mystery, who is in his true form at that moment, so Lance might not recognize him

Ah, finished! Finally. Now wait two years... Well, I’m happy if anybody has something to add.

And what might happen next? I don’t know, maybe Lewis saves Arthur, maybe the cave collapses due to his regret, maybe Vivi gets killed, maybe Lance saves her in the last moment, only the team knows...

My other inputs: Ghost and Freaking Out

[shiftyskip]

Donald “Don” George Malarkey

(This is a really long post about Malarkey. Feel free to skim it or read it all.)

The real Donald Malarkey:

Donald George Malarkey was born on July 31, 1921 in Astoria, Oregon. His mother, Helen, and father, Leo, had four children: Leo who was called John (his middle name), Don, Bob, and Marilyn (who Don called Molly). Leo was about two years older than Don. Bob was about five years younger. Molly was fifteen years younger.

While growing up, Leo never stayed with his children much. He was gone most of the time for work, leaving Don, his siblings, and his mom alone in their cabin. His father was drunk and Malarkey was a high school senior working in a grill. Malarkey recalls his father had looked at him and had yelled, in front of God and everyone, “There’s my no-good son.” Malarkey’s mother was loving on the other hand. She took them to church every Sunday, where Malarkey would become an alter boy (much like Skip Muck, his later best friend). She would take her children berry-picking. He describes these times as the happiest memories he had.

Malarkey learned how to trap and hunt with a bow and arrow from his half-Indian friend Louie Jacobson. Malarkey said that the outside was the place he felt closet to God and not in church. The boys spent most of their time in the woods. Malarkey loved nature, it seemed it loved him back because he got in trouble with a nun for carrying a chipmunk around in his shirt pocket when he was 12. 

After that his father sent him to work at a dairy farm. A forest fire sadly raged against him and took that barn. He worked against it till 10:00 PM, trying to put it out until he was taken home. He went to bed, only for an hour again to be awoken again. The fire had shifted and was headed towards their house. His family found themselves in the middle of a raging forest fire. They grabbed the things they wanted the most into their car and a little trailer and drove off to a nearby field that was safe from the fire. In the morning, his house was gone. 

The Great Depression hit around when Malarkey was 8. He started working when money started getting short when he was 15. His father’s insurance business went bankrupt in 1938. Malarkey claimed it was because he trusted people too much. He didn’t want to go after money that was owed him and Malarkey admired him for that. 

A month later they lost the house. His brother John moved out to California with relatives. The younger siblings, Molly and Bob, were to move to a replacement cabin with his mother and father while Malarkey was to go live with his grandmother. Malarkey was deeply upset at his loss. He lost the dream of playing Catholic All-State Basketball for Astoria High, he had transferred into Astoria High for his final year of high school. He couldn’t get rides home if he attended the games so he gave up. He was injured and also had to give up football.

His father gave up on a deeper level. He retreated further and further after the bankruptcy. He wanted nothing to do with his family, especially his children. He drank more and more. Helen would stay in the cabin and his father would go out every night. No one knew where he went. Malarkey became the sole aid for his family. He vowed he would never do what his father did; he would never quit. 

After his family separated, music became a “serious addiction”. He used to sing for his mother and would go out with his buddies on Sunday campfire nights. Malarkey says that music was a salvation. It made him forget everything else. 

Malarkey graduated in 1939 and got a job to afford his dream college, the University of Oregon. He worked at the Pillsbury Flour Mill.. He eventually made enough money to get through college and bought a ‘36 Chevrolet. He bought his own apartment Bernice, his girlfriend, and her father owned the apartment that he bought. 

Malarkey enrolled in college in 1941, after eventually selling his car to afford it. He joined the fraternity Sigma Nu and the members eventually persuaded him to break up with Bernice because she wasn’t a part of a sorority. Malarkey sang in their choir while also pursuing a business administration degree. He was required to take the ROTC class. After being sick and missing a test, his instructor flunked him. Malarkey handed his uniform back. He went home and worked as a machinist. 

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Malarkey had first attempted to enlist in the Marines but was denied. When he was 21, Malarkey was drafted. On September 12, 1942, Malarkey arrived at Fort Lewis and volunteered to be in the Paratroopers. He headed to St. Louis (near the author’s house actually) where he met Robert Rader, Don Hoobler, and William Howell before they were shipped to Toccoa.

Malarkey was under the command of Sobel during his training. There he met Skip Muck. They bonded over their mutual hate of Sobel, who Muck described as “the devil in jump boots”. They became a team and belonged to the same mortar squad. They ran Currahee side by side and would often get in trouble with Sobel for talking while doing so. They both were adventurous, happy-go-lucky, witty, and loved a good laugh. Their real bond was in the same music: Glenn Miller, Mills Brothers, Harry James, and others. They loved Frank Sinatra’s Moonlight Serenade. They’d go out to the PX and listen to the jukebox there daily. Malarkey was corresponding with Bernice again and Muck had Faye Tanner, both of their girls back home. They would talk about the girls often and would read their letters on a daily. Malarkey says that Muck replaced his family and friends back home as the person he was closest to. They would talk about they’d visit each other after the war and go fishing. 

In the 118 mile march in late November, Muck stayed near Malarkey. When Malarkey was so sore he couldn’t walk, Muck grabbed them both food and sat next to Malarkey. He told Malarkey, “No friend of mine crawls anywhere” when Malarkey had attempted to crawl to Mess. When Malarkey told him he didn’t think he could make it, Muck told him “I’ll get you to Atlanta if I have to drag you.” When they crossed into Atlanta, Skip was right there with Malarkey, yelling he’s make it if he had to carry him. Sadly this dynamic duo would not be together long. Skip and Malarkey crossed over to England, only to find out they were being so staged. Winters said the reason he split them up was because they were practically brothers. If Muck went down, either killed our wounded, the other will be of no use and vice versa.

In April in England, Malarkey got a head cold. It got so bad that he had to go to the hospital in London. When he arrived, he had a 105 fever and was given a ton of medicine. He woke up bleeding from his ears and nose. Later he was told that if he hadn’t arrived at that time, the infection would’ve spread to his brain. He was transferred to St. Albans. He was there for two weeks. When the Doctor threatened that Malarkey should not jump out of an airplane and should be removed from the paratroopers, Malarkey told him he’d risk permanent damage to his ears and was discharged back to Easy.

Malarkey jumped on D-Day into Normandy. He connected with Bill Guarnere and Joe Toye near Ste. Mère-Énglise. When they reached the rest of their batallion, Malarkey ran into the German prisoners. One of men asked if the POWS were from Brooklyn, one responded that he was from Portland, Oregon. Malarkey hung back to talk to him. Malarkey and this POW had worked right across the street from each other. He fought with Winters and his small group of men to secure ground against the Germans. Throughout the whole day, Malarkey carried a picture of Bernice in his helmet.

In Carentan, Malarkey witnessed Father John Maloney walking down the middle of the road, holding a cross, and adminstrating last rites for the dying men. Malarkey was wounded in his right hand by shrapnel. He ran to Doc Roe, who without looking informed him it was a Purple Heart wound. He refused it, saying it was not bad enough. After the battle, Winters asked Malarkey to put a wounded German out of his misery, and Malarkey did.

Malarkey went back to Aldbourne, England with Alton More for a short three day break. Easy had jumped with 139 men, it now had 74. In the end, they were joined by the rest of Easy. The men were struggling with physical and mental wounds.Malarkey saved Joe Toye from jumping off a roof by convincing him to come back down.

September 17, 1944 Malarkey jumped easily into Holland. They were treated with open arms by the Dutch. When they reached fighting, Malarkey, Heffron, Guarnere, and Toye stumbled upon Compton. Compton was getting shot in the ass a lot and begged them to leave him and run. They ripped the door off a farm and dragged him with them until they reached a tank to put him on.

When they left for France, the Dutch cheered for them again. They chanted “September 17!” Which was the day Easy has helped liberate them.When they arrived in France, they stayed in Camp Mourmelon. Compton found him and thanked him for the “barn-door ride”. Malarkey convinced Skip to let him gamble for him and earned several times more than what he had been given.

On December 16, Malarkey learned Easy was being sent to Belgium. Muck passed him in another truck and the boys smiled at each other. They reached Foy around December 19 and were orders to stay in the wooded area near Foy. They dug fox holes in the cold, wet ground and slid in. They tried to expand their foxholes but the temperature was dropping too fast.

Father Maloney had a service with the Catholic members of Easy. It was Skip’s idea to help with the spiritual encouragement. Muck, Penkala, Malarkey, and a few others gathered together. Skip and Malarkey had not gotten to see each other since Mourmelon and when the group parted, Malarkey saw the rosary Skip had carried everywhere and told him to stay safe. Skip told him he’d see him again, they shook hands, and separated.

Malarkey became a unit sergeant and started watching out for any of the men that might need a break. After witnessing a man lose both of his feet, Malark began to wear burlap bags around his feet. He didn’t care much for his pride and let the Easy men poke fun at him.

In early January, JoeToye lost his leg after the Germans rattled the forest with heavy artillery fire. Guarnere raced to help his struggling friend and ended up losing his leg as well. Malarkey ran to Joe Toye’s side. Malarkey tried to convince his friend that everything would be okay, his mind playing back to that night he found him up on the roof. Toye simply asked him for a cigarette. Malarkey gave it to him. Joe asked him, “What’s a guy gotta go do to die, Malark?”. Malarkey didn’t have an answer.

After witnessing most of his friends be horribly injured or killed, Buck Compton was sent back to Paris and he said his sad goodbyes to Malarkey. Before he left, he asked Malarkey what the other man thought of him. Malarkey replied, “They think you’re a hell of an officer, Buck.”

On January 10, Skip Muck, Mallark’s best friend, died. A direct hit on his and Penkala’s foxhole killed them instantly. Malarkey lost the man who was a brother to him, but he couldn’t cry, he had to keep strong. Roe broke the news to Malarkey and gave him Muck’s rosary. Winters tried to send him back to recover but Malarkey refused and instead stayed with the men.

Malarkey fought survived the Battle of Foy. He was enraged at the death of another commander and shot a German. He learned the boy was 16. Malarkey kept his records and recalled his face for the rest of his life. Malarkey considers the war had officially ended for him is Bastogne, although it was far from over.

In Haguenau, about 160 miles from Bastogne, Easy received replacements. They regained Webster, who had been out since Holland or Normandy. Webster didn’t notice Malarkey didn’t want to talk much about the men they lost and kept asking him where the others were. Malarkey responded patiently but not happily. He received letters from Toye on how him and Guarnere were recovering but not Bernice, who hadn’t been writing him lately. 

In February of 1945, a patrol was sent out across the Moder River and capture Germans. Malarkey was originally supposed to go but he was replaced by another. This was the final patrol of Easy.  After three weeks in Haguenau, they returned to Mourmelon, where he wrote to Faye Tanner. They continued to write to each other for a while.

Malark came down with some form of Rhine River Malaria and was sent to an army hospital on Belgium. He stayed there with people who were faking to be sick to stay out of fighting. It made him furious that the men were such cowards. He demanded to return to his unit for days on end until eventually he was discharged.

When the war with Germany ended, Malarkey was by himself in a pub in Belgium. He believed it was just to be him that day when he ran into Frank Perconte. Frank was on his way back to Easy from England and the two men were joined by Burr Smith, also returning back to Easy. These men spent the victory day with each other, leaving Malarkey feeling a bit better. 

In Mid-May the three returned to Easy. They had missed the capture of Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, but still got a few things. They all believed they were to be sent home but the war had not ended in Japan. It was believed that 101st Airborne would be sent to the Pacific theater. If they were to be shipped to the Pacific, they would all get 21 days in the states. They moved to Austria where they swam, boated, and enjoyed the warm weather. At this point, Malarkey had seen 177 days of war.

At Kaprun, Winters offered Malarkey a position as a technical adivsor in Paris. Malarkey took it eagerly and Winters offered to drive him to the airport. They had stopped once before the airport, where they met Sobel. He commented that Malarkey had obviously been doing things. Malarkey writes about the famous “we salute the rank, not the man” incident and says that by the end of the war he had an odd respect for the man. 

Malarkey was discharged on November 25, 1945. He spent three days after discharging with Bernice, who had come to see him. He did not go meet Faye Tanner, out of fear he might disrespect Skip by falling in love with her. He got a salute from the premier tenor of the New York Metropolitan Opera, Lauritz Melchoir, which made him feel extremely proud of himself. He returned home in time for Christmas.

Malarkey at the age 24 started college at the University of Oregon again. Although he tried his best to make his life the same again, Malarkey suffered from after affects from the war everywhere he went. A car backfiring sent him ducking for cover, saw Toye and Guarnere wounded again, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t concentrate, or imagined a German bayoneting him. He didn’t tell anyone about his struggles. He took a photo he had of Easy and marked every man that had died or been severly wounded. There were 34 KIA and 61 wounded. Every time he looked at that photo, he suffered from survivor's guilt. 

In March he broke up with Bernice. Later he met a girl named Irene Moor. They fell in love. Malarkey proposed to her around Easter by planting a ring in an Easter egg in her basket. They married and had one son and three daughters. His father would die in 1955 and his mother in 1965. Bernice went on to be a famous singer. 

Malarkey never returned to normal. He hated the winter and tried to drink the months away. He became closer with Joe Toye over drunk phone calls. While living in Portland, at age 60, he drove home during a snow storm. He was depressed and had been out drinking and was driving toward Mount Hood, where there was a thousand foot canyon he planned to drive off of. He wanted to be buried in the snow, “like Skip had been buried in that snowy foxhole”. He talked himself out of it and told himself he’d never quit. 

In 1980, Malarkey started attending the reunions and learned he actually had a fear of heights. Malarkey met Faye Tanner at an Easy Company reunion in the 90s, where they both broke down and cried. She’d saved his jump wings and other items. 

The series Band of Brothers led Malarkey becoming close with Richard Speight Jr., who played Skip. When Richard had first called to ask questions about Skip, Malarkey hung up on him because he couldn’t take the pain. In 1991, Malarkey visited Skip’s grave for the first time. He did not cry. He returned in 2004 and visited once more. He stopped and pictured Skip and all their moments together. He cried what he called ‘sixty years’ worth of tears’. 

Irene died in 2006. Malarkey would go on to public speaking until his death on September 30, 2017.

[racingliners]

F1 Re-Watch 2022: Round 19 - USA

More mild shock because it’s a race I did remember to watch C4 highlights of!!

Granted, the bulk of my memories around this race were Lewis nearly winning, Seb leading for one (1) lap and Seb and Kevin’s INSANE last lap battle for P8.

Oh and once again everyone wore cowboy hats because Texas

So, grab your team coloured Stetsons and let’s jump in!

I think this race was good?? I mean I hope it is

I actually like COTA as a track, it’s pretty decent (and the best of all the current USA tracks by a mile imho)

(yes I’m saying that despite us being months away from Vegas bc what is the Vegas layout 😭)

Anyway, starting grid whiplash:

“Lots of drivers out of position thanks to penalties” 2015 McLaren Honda flashbacks

ouch Dan P15 & Charles P12.

BUT SEB TOP 10 YEAAAAAAAH BOI

LANCE P5!!!!!!! LEWIS P3!!!!!! INJECT IIIIIIIIIIIIIIT

I love it when the starting grid whiplash is actually nice

“This race could be anyone’s today” Really Crofty??? Really??? When the RB18 exists???

Helmet watch: Lewis’ neon yellow helmet with the purple visor >>>>>>

They had to change Lewis’ brakes before the start???? I really will be taking a sledgehammer to the W13 when I’m finished re-watching 2022

[Start/Lap 1]: Oh... a Merc murdered Sainz at turn 1

or not he’s gotten going he’s just at the back

oh it was Russell erguhaii

The saga of George Russell’s violence against the grid continues

anyway SEB UP INTO P5!!!!!!!!!

THAT’S! MY! BOOOOOOOOOOY!!!!!!!!!

[Lap 2]: aaaaaaand Sainz DNF. 

Charles up to P9

LANCE IS IN P3??????

STOP THE RACE

TEAM GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN 💚💚💚💚💚💚

[Lap 3]: and 5 sec penalty for Russell t-boning Sainz

Meanwhile Albon has no grip, and has dropped to P10 from P8 and has Bottas all up in his business

“The Aston Martin is working well around here” Inject it, frame it, capture it, remember it

the AMR22 is a tractor no more!!!!

“Lightning reactions from Lewis Hamilton” Of course??? He’s a king, tell us something we don’t know

[Lap 5]: No George, don’t overtake Lance. That would be rude.

also boo Perez got past Seb

welp Lance demoted to P4

“Howdy Crofty!” HI TED!!!! 👋

[Lap 6]: aw no Nicky spun 😔

oh Perez’s front wing is not looking healthy, front wing endplate went poof

(Alexa play I Want to Break Free by Queen)

[Lap 7]: Meanwhile Lance and Seb are vibing in P5 and P6 as the unbothered Kings they are 💚

....Lewis is three tenths faster than Verstappen you say???

please tell me we get a Hammertime radio it has been SO LONG

[Lap 8]: I’m ignoring the Ferrari radio that came up telling Charles they’re already thinking about Plan B :))))))))

Perez v Russell... I fear much violence

[Lap 9]: Charles up to P7, the race seems to have calmed down for now

I may cry at the Seb and Charles battle though, I miss them 😭

[Lap 10]: and the gap is down to 8 tenths, @ TV director show me my boys!!!

It’s also seemingly fucking WIMDY at COTA

[Lap 11]: oh the #JustLewisThings of him saying he’s not happy with his tyres then proceeding to set a purple sector, nature is healing

ahhhhhhh there’s Charles v Seb!!!!

The fact that this would have caused me pain in 19 & 20 but now we’re rejoicing. Growth!!

[Lap 12]: Gasly pits, after Bottas pitted the lap before, overcut win!

and back to Charles v Seb

and Charles gets past pretty easily

HAMMERTIME RADIO!!!! IT’S BEEN 84 YEARS!!!!

Bono I’m sending you a basket of the finest pastries AND flowers

[Lap 13]: Lewis pits for hards??? I’m still recovering from the radio message so I’m not fully processing what’s going on

aw Lewis came out behind Seb after pitting

[Lap 14]: Verstappen and Russell pit, also both for hards

oh my days Lance trying to fight him GO ON MY SON

anyway this is a very early pit window, I can only assume it was a bit warm on race day

Charles up into P3, but he’s yet to stop

[Lap 15]: Perez pits for hards also

LANCE P3!!! SEB P4!!!! STOP! THE! RACE!

“Aston Martin running in the top 3 for the first time this season” *longest yeah boi ever*

[Lap 16]: And Lance pits for... mediums

And Lewis got past Seb for P3

and sets the fastest first sector. 

Esteban and Mick having a slightly spicy battle, mainly bc Esteban’s car got caught by some wind

[Lap 17]: “Plan E consider” p a i n 

I mean at least it came from Charles but Ferrari kindly fuck off

[Lap 18]: Yellow flag sector 3????

oh Bottas is beached in the gravel

OH shit Safety Car

ah AM Safety Car my beloved

Will Ferrari be smart and pit Charles under the SC??

[Lap 19]: THEY DO!!! They found their braincell!!!

“Plan EEEEEEE this is lucky for us!” I love Ted so much

oh Seb pits too!! nice!!

Charles in P4, Seb in P6. WE’RE VIBING FOLKS!!!

oh replay of the George on Sainz violence at the start again

[Lap 20]: First SC at Austin since 2015 apparently, a somewhat fun fact (That was a half wet race iirc??? I’m not sure)

fuck what is this drone footage I’m getting vertigo

Lewis still having brake issues, I will sledgehammer the W13 and then burn it

[Lap 21]: SC ending, boys please don’t be dumb I don’t want any carnage

Lewis the filling in a RBR sandwich... does NOT spark joy

phew no nonsense as of yet

[Lap 22]: SEB TAKES P6!!!!

And Esteban locks up and Mick takes P12 

OH SHIT FERNANDO

AND LANCE

NOOOOOO

that was not the fun whiplash fyi

And of course Crofty mentions the fact that we had future teammate on teammate violence

[Lap 23]: Also I’m sorry but Lance’s car is on the track and there’s debris everywhere, where is the red flag?????

...

Not Fernando hitting Lance’s rear and then doing a wheelie

F1 CARS SHOULDN’T DO THAT

that really did not spark joy

the various on-board replays of debris flying everywhere are also not sparking joy

[Lap 24]: This race has been surprisingly eventful despite not having that much actual racing oh my days

Lance walking alone through the paddock... Alonso you can meet my fists

[Lap 25]: SC ending, again boys please DON’T BE DUMB

I am anxious

restart 2 electric boogaloo - so far no carnage

[Lap 26]: “Sebastian Vettel gaining on George Russell” screaming, crying clutching my chest in euphoria

oh he is legit closing up on him 

go on Seb, get him!!!

[Lap 27]: 8 tenths of a second gap 👀👀👀

okay the gap is fluctuating between 8 tenths and 1.1 seconds but I’m on full hopium and delusion

[Lap 28]: DRS re-enabled

Nicky fastest on the speed trap. Goatifi intensifies.

also I heard Ted say news from McLaren and I immediately had the ‘McLaren news’ jingle from The Fast and The Curious podcast play in my head thanks Chris Hugill 

[Lap 29]: Seb now 2.2 seconds behind Russell, the hopium was fun while it lasted

Charles v Perez???? 👀👀👀👀👀

[Lap 30]: CHARLES WITH THE LUNGE TAKES P3!!!!

woot woooooooot!!!!

“And there’s a lot of fans here that will want to kiss Charles for that” yes and I’m one of them get in line

[Lap 32]: Meanwhile George still has a loose endplate on his front wing after his lap 1 violence

[Lap 33]: Verstappen apparently not very happy with the wind

Oh, Mick and Kevin both in the Top 10!!!! We adore to see it!!!

[Lap 34]: Why are we cutting to Ed Sheeran???? Show me the cars!!!

Mick and Yuki both pit

[Lap 35]: and Lewis pits, undercut maybe??

oh and Yuki’s undercut did work on passing Norris

[Lap 36]: Verstappen pits

and it’s slow 👀

LEWIS TAKES THE NET RACE LEAD

😭🙌

More Perez on Russell fisticuffs

[Lap 37]: ah nvm Russell pits

[Lap 38]: Charles v Verstappen... spicy

both of them are on the mediums while Lewis is on the hards

[Lap 39]: Perez pits

AND SEB TAKES THE LEAD!!!!!

STOP! THE! RACE!!!!

Oh Charles doing the switcheroo on Verstappen, BEAUTIFUL

AND Seb P1, with Lewis P2. I know the end result and I do not care but STOP THE RACE!!

Seb leading his 3,500th lap, I love him so much 😭😭😭😭

[Lap 40]: Cut to Seb in the lead with Lewis P2, feels so good and SO organic

[Lap 41]: Lewis takes the lead, not surprising, but seeing them on track together one last time was very beautiful

and diving head first into the sea of delusion we go Lewis is def gonna win right? 🥲

this race has legit been so fun though

“Good to see Sebastian Vettel up there” preach it Ted!!!!!

[Lap 42]: 15 laps left. yelling.

slow stop for Seb 😭😭😭😭😭😭

16.8 seconds 😭

It’s okay Team Green I still love you

[Lap 43]: no don’t go back to the drone cam it’s not fun

Charles still in DRS range of Verstappen

[Lap 44]: But Verstappen goes half a second quicker than Lewis...

welp

[Lap 45]: Perez going 1.5 secs quicker with a borked front wing??? What is going on in the House of Commons????

Seb watch: in P13 1.6 seconds behind Yuki

Norris v Ocon!!! Beloved midfield spice!!!!

[Lap 46]: Lewis and Verstappen doing almost identical lap times on similar age of tyres, though on different compounds. STRESS.

[Lap 47]: 10 laps left 😬

Gap just under two seconds, love how I’m slightly stressed despite knowing the end podium 😂

It’s the ✨ emotional investment ✨

[Lap 48]: Now would be a great time for another Hammertime radio Bono just saying

SEB ONBOARD

He’s in P12 after Ocon pitted

He’s on the back of a DRS train on fresher tyres LET’S GET IT WELTMEISTER!!!

[Lap 49]: Alonso’s mirror just... fell off????

alrighty then

ughhhhhh Verstappen has DRS

I am stressed Angela and stressed Angela is me

[Lap 50]: Thank you Brundle I really needed you to list all of Verstappen’s car advantages 😭

But more importantly SEB INTO P10 KLAXON!!!!!

...

fuck me I did not breathe during Lewis’ and Verstappen’s battle

Lewis did not give up though and I love him for it

[Lap 52]: SEB INTO P9!!!!!!

and back down to P10, he’s having some fistcuffs with Albon

and round the outside, back into the points, that’s my 4 time world champion

6.3 secs behind Kevin with 4 laps left

It’s fun knowing what happens in advance sometimes

ohhh Seb let Albon back by bc he went off, that’s fair

[Lap 53]: Verstappen assigned track limits criminal by GP, Bono, and Lewis

and then Lewis gets a warning himself svuoheaugh

boys

[Lap 54]: The one positive is that the RBR has not streaked off into the distance, the W13 has some rights.

I mean I’m still going to take a sledgehammer to it though

[Lap 55]: Seb watch: 3.2 seconds behind Kevin now

oh and already down to 2 seconds 👀

gap between Lewis and Max is three seconds though 😭

[Lap 56]: Ignoring the front and watching Seb on the running order, gap down to 1.5 seconds

...now 8 tenths of a second

(I know the overtake is coming but the hype is fun)

[Finish]: Verstappen wins, Lewis P2 and Charles P3!!!

now show me Seb!!!!!

THERE HE IS!!!!!!

go on go on go onnnnn

AND DOWN THE INSIDE HE GOES!!!!!

SEB P8!!!!!!!! THAT’S!!! MY!!!!  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

elmowithfire.gif

such a peach of a move like... Go off King you dropped this 👑

gonna celebrate with the biscoff ice cream mum just brought me 🥳

Well, that was actually a pretty fun race!!! You didn’t really know who was going to win until the last few laps, which could not be said for a lot of races in 2022 imho. Charles going from P12 to P3 was iconic af, Lewis making the most of his first proper chance in ages for a win was superb, and Seb was just doing iconic Seb shit... AND we got some midfield spice to boot!!

Overall, 8 front wings out of 10. Next race: Mexico!