#sorry if there are a lot of typos

[hypazia]

This is my (very late) gift to @aikuinen (thank you very much for the fun prompt and the patience) for the @palestaticexchange.

[sun-marie]

LRB but I'm replaying BG3 and Gale being on the knife's edge of Wholesome/"Dirty" is what makes him soo interesting to me. Like this is a man who, in two different versions of the same scene, can either sweetly and gently make love to your tav in a typical setting which transitions to a tasteful fade-to-black, or brings your tav's spirit along for a transcendent experience where he literally duplicates part of himself so he can have more parts to touch their parts in some crazy astral-soup sky world. And both are treated like valid expressions of his love!! Like the range they allowed him to express, he's not one or the other, he's both

[lost-in-fandoms]

seven words: max w stubble burn on inner thighs

Hello friend, I'm sorry this took so long, the weekend was....that.

cw: explicit sexual content. obviously.

It had come up, once.

Daniel had been in the bathroom, carefully shaving, trying to see on the fogged up mirror, Max just coming out of the shower, wet and flushed, carelessly wrapping a towel around his hips.

"Why do you do that?" Max had asked, coming closer to press his warm chest against Daniel's naked back, hooking his chin on top of Daniel's shoulder, dangerously close to Daniel's still foamed up cheek.

"Do what?" Daniel had nudged him back a little, not wanting to accidentally cut him but not wanting him to let go either, trying to meet Max's eyes in the mirror and only getting a blurred version of them back.

"Shave," Max had said, kissing Daniel's shoulder, hips grinding slightly against him even though he wasn't hard, from what Daniel could tell through the towel.

"You shave too," Daniel had pointed out, nudging him again to be able to tilt his head back to get his jaw better.

Max had just waved a hand, as if Daniel was being stupid on purpose, and had then touched his wrist, stopping his movement and taking the razor from him. He had turned him around, pushing him against the sink, and cupped his neck with a hand, holding him still.

"You can't see in the mirror and are making a mess," he had said, steady and casual, a complete opposite from Daniel's heartbeat, racing in his chest.

"What do you mean, about my shaving?" he had asked after a moment, trying to distract himself from the feeling of Max's fingertips on his skin, his hips keeping Daniel in place.

For a long moment, Max had kept quiet, focusing on Daniel's face.

"I cannot grow a good one, that's why I shave it. And I would not look good in it, I think," he had finally said, glaring at Daniel when he had tried to speak to refute that last point, making him stay still. "But you take care of it, so I do not understand why you keep shaving it."

Daniel had frown, receiving one more look for it, and then had asked: "do you not like it?", which had gained him another. Honestly, how did Max want him to answer questions if he couldn't move?

"You are of course always very handsome, Daniel," Max had rolled his eyes, carefully going over an area Daniel was pretty sure he had already shaved. It had been unclear if it was to prolong the process or because Daniel had missed a spot.

The full answer, obviously, had been too complicated to be put into the right amount of words that wouldn't have ended up with a razor cut on his cheek, so he had deflected instead.

"I do it for you, baby," he had said, using a pause in the shaving in which Max had been rinsing off the razor to throw him a grin, "wouldn't want to give you beard burn."

He had been expecting Max to joke back, or to roll his eyes at him, but Max had averted his eyes instead, a blush creeping suspiciously onto his cheeks.

It had made Daniel raise an eyebrow, suddenly delighted with this new information.

"Unless you like it?" he had prodded, unable to stop his smile from growing.

Max had just blushed more, slapping his shoulder and grabbing his jaw a touch harder than necessary.

"Shut up," he had grumbled, more of a yes than if he had actually said it, "or I'll leave you like this."

Daniel had wanted to tease him more, but he hadn't known how real the threat was, and he had decided to be safe, not wanting to have to walk around with just half a shaved face.

--

No matter what happens in the rest of his life, both on and off track, Daniel is sure he'll never stop feeling lucky knowing he's the only one who gets to have Max like this.

Max, sweating and writhing under him, chest flushed and warm, cheeks a mess of spit and tears, mouth open and drooling. Max, spilling moans, whimpers and pleas on the pillow like a rosary, pearls stringing Daniel's arousal along.

Max, trying to push closer and twist away at the same time, oversensitive and overwhelmed, while Daniel holds him still, both hands clutching the meat of his ass, red imprints on pale skin, as he licks a long, wet stripe from his hole to his balls.

From his position between Max's legs, most of the skin Daniel can see is flushed red. His dick, red and heavy despite Max having come once already, his back, red and shiny with sweat, his ass and thighs, red and raw from Daniel's beard.

He nips at the top of Max's thigh, right over a mark he had left earlier, and Max's whole body shakes as he yelps, hands slipping uselessly on the sheets looking for something to hold onto, even Daniel's name reduced to nothing more than a slurred mess on his tongue.

Daniel licks another stripe back up, purposefully dragging his beard on Max's ass. He would almost feel bad about it if he didn't know how much Max likes it, despite complaining about it the day after, when Daniel has to rub lotion into the irritated skin. If he didn't feel the way Max's thighs shake, didn't hear the way Max's moans go high and breathy.

He doesn't give him a break before shifting his grip on Max's cheeks, putting two fingers back in his hole, tongue tucked between them. Max screams, pushing back and then immediately away, forcing Daniel to wrap his arm around his waist to hold his hips up.

He feels so lucky.

His whole face feels sticky with spit and lube when he pulls back again, watching Max's hole fluttering around the newfound emptiness, leaving Max whimpering. His dick has been so hard for so long Daniel is half worried it will fall off if he doesn't do something about it soon.

He slips a condom on as Max begs for him, impatiently shifting on the bed, so far gone he's moaning even now that Daniel is barely touching him.

He knows it won't take long for either of them to come, but it doesn't matter, not when Max feels so good around him, not when they're both so worked up.

"Bath?" Daniel asks afterwards, drawing circles on Max's back as their breathing slows down.

Max is still pink, heartbeat fast under Daniel's hands, slumped boneless and sated against his chest. He hums, not even opening his eyes, and there's something like pride swirling in Daniel's stomach at the knowledge that he was the one who made him like this.

He trails one hand down further, gently touching Max's ass where his skin is red and raw, making him shudder.

"I'll shave tomorrow," he says, ignoring Max's displeased grumble, "and I'll make sure to use plenty of that lotion you like."

Max grumbles again, rubbing his cheek against Daniel's skin like a cat, sleepy and satisfied.

"You better," he says, sounding more than half asleep already, as if all of this hadn't been his idea anyway.

[ebonytails]

Hey everyone! this is where the zebra is currently with the design.

It has knee braces!! I will most probably be drawing the zebra usually with them on, but it’s no requirement, for example if anyone else wants to draw the zebra :-]. I always like to make sure an animal design has official colors underneath any clothing and accessory anyway. I think this will be final! thank you everyone for your feedback!

As a reminder, aside from why the zebra was requested for this flag, this is also just a zebra with the disability pride flag on it. It’s just a deisgn to fit the flag, with input from other disabled people in our community. It doesn’t mean other animals can’t have designs with these colors, too! I don’t mean this design to be the only mascot for all disabled people. It’s just a silly series i do of pride animals, and at the time, during disability pride month, I wanted to see what everyone wanted me to start off with for this flag!

the goal with my pride animals is to take requests and make people feel happy and seen.. that’s all <:-)

[canisalbus]

About the accents: if someone has a very "proper" Italian they are either foreigners or politicians/dignitaries/etc. So that fits perfectly for Machete, but I think it would be so funny if he sometimes slipped up and used a Nepalese word bc he forgot one in "proper" Italian lol

(Funny to me cause Naples has its own language in addition to accent, and most people don't actually know those words)

.

[sparring-spirals]

I need folks to understand that Bell's Hells giving therapy advice to each other is especially funny BECAUSE their codependence and advice is particularly questionable. That's the charm of it. "It's okay to be angry" ok gal that has a storm constantly in her veins and a hair-trigger and so. many. reasons to go apeshit. "don't bottle up your emotions" says the lil guy accidentally storing everyone's emotional damage. "do you want to talk about your problems" says The Walking Halfling Of Trauma. "don't get too attached" says the Most Protective Rock In Jrusar. Im sure Laudna has said SOMETHING about talking about problems which is deeply funny from the "All My Problems Are Alive And Taunting Me In my Head" Hollowed One. At least with Fearne you KNOW the advice is 50/50 "surprisingly good" and "do you want to see a fire". Why is Chetney "Embrace your inner murderer" the best at advice. Its fine. This party is a wreck. They love each other. They're all MESSES. That's the point. I love them.

[kveom]

seokmin + self-belief xx

[anemicjellyfish]

About Stella

Been thinking about her character every now and then. This post was initially 100% about how her behavior left me thinking she was a spoiled brat for most of her life. But it evolved into something else. Sorry. I do still think she's a spoiled brat, though.

In Western Energy, Striker returns and successfully kidnaps Stolas. It isn't a surprise to us, as we remember Stella hired him previously in the Harvest Moon Festival.

This is a surprise to Andrealphus, however.

What gets me is that Andrealphus coddles Stella for a portion of their conversation. He also tries leading her to make a conclusion by herself without directly telling her what to think.

He gently brings his sister to the information that's most important: that the death of her husband wouldn't necessarily leave her in a good position, just Octavia.

It's only when Stella can't seem to connect the dots that Andrealphus has a little outburst of irritation (and sibling energy, like with the "you stupid cow" line).

After that, Andrealphus goes right back to his previous tone. He once again tries to bring Stella to the point without saying it directly. And when he eventually does get around to it, he's only making it as a suggestion.

Something about the way Stella is sitting, the way Andrealphus circles behind her, and the way he is still trying to convince her through suggestions instead of beinf direct... I have a feeling Stella has had this happen to her most of her life.

As much as I don't want to "go to bat" for Stella right before I go to sleep, I do get the feeling that she's been in this type of situation before. I feel like others, even if it's just her brother, have manipulated her into doing things that they want her to do.

I really think the rest of the Goetia will have a lot of subtlety in their social circles, and that social cues could be complex to navigate. Stella is direct with both her language and her feelings. I'm curious if she's an outlier due to that. And I'm wondering if she's been kept in this mentality on purpose (again, by her brother and/or other Goetia).

I do still think she's a spoiled brat. Her behavior is immature and crude, even before Stolas cheated on her. But I wonder if the reveal of her backstory (which we are supposed to get eventually) would shed some light as to why she is this way.

[flutterflora]

Whenever I see people say things like "Pinkie Pie should've been a pegasus" or "Fluttershy fits earth pony more" I get a little frustrated because TO ME the mane six have always been a really good example of "societal expectations" VS "societal deviance" of the three pony species within equestria.

Earth ponies are almost always expected to be providers. Like the Apple family for example or the Cake family OR even the "flower trio". They provide necessities, often food or they often provide hard labour (note how "background" jobs like construction and taxi pulling are most often done by earth ponies too). Applejack is obviously a perfect example of this! She's the head of her family, she's extremely hard working, shes incredibly physically strong, she's known and relied on by most of Ponyvill. Applejack very much lives up to the expectations that pony society has of earth ponies.

Pinkie Pie on the other hand is not one bit concerned with hard work. Her whole thing is having fun and throwing parties. In a way she is also providing something very important and necessary, socialisation and relaxation, however these are generally not deemed as valuable as strenuous labour and food production. Pinkie Pie is always written off as "childish" or not taking things seriously enough. She isn't deemed as very reliable a lot of the time and has to work very hard to prove herself, more so than someone like Applejack.

Ponyvill was founded by earth pony farmers, and is densely populated by earth ponies. Earth ponies are expected to work hard and grow food and provide for everyone, their roles are incredibly necessary and their work is highly appreciated. However, without someone like Pinkie Pie who deviates from those expectations, Ponyvill would be a miserable place (as seen in the episode Magical Mystery Cure). She may not be a farmer or a construction worker but her divergence from earth pony "standards" is what keeps everything in balance.

The same can be said for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy too. Rainbow Dash is an exceptional athlete, she flies like no other pony and she almost always has her wits about her. At the end of the day, Rainbow Dash is truly a performer at heart, she wants to be in the Wonderbolts and show off her skills to all of Equestria. Pegasi are expected to be fast, agile, eager, always cool, proud and quick witted just like the Wonderbolts, and just like Rainbow Dash. She is a peak performance pegasus.

Fluttershy is Rainbows exact opposite. She doesn't care for speed, adventure or displays of athleticism, she truly doesn't even care for flying. She is, in both a literal and metaphorical way, very "down to earth", however her role is still very important and her being a pegasus is still very integral to who she is. If it weren't for her experiences of being ostracised for being different she would never have the empathy and dedication to her animals the way she does (and on more practical note, being able to fly does aid her in her work a lot the time). Fluttershy slows down, she's quiet and she gentle which something that other pegasi (and earth ponies honestly) struggle with. It was alway right for Fluttershy to be a pegasus who could soar the skies, because if she never fell down to earth she would have never found her true calling. Without ponies like her, many important things, creatures and events would go unnoticed and unchecked.

Rarity and Twilight Sparkle is kind of a funny one because I think a lot of people may expect Twilight to be the prime example of unicorns, but that's not really true at all. Twilight, despite being our mane character, is actually the deviant one here.

This is illustrated for us almost immediately in the first episode, where she's invited to a party by three other unicorns but ditches it to go study instead. Magic is merely a tool for most unicorns, but for ponies like Twilight or Starlight, it is their whole existence, it's what they were quite literally born to do. Twilight does not value social status at all, she doesn't have time to and growing up so stuck in her studies I'm not even sure she aware that it's such a big deal to others, especially within Canterlot. It's also worth noting that to Twilight, Princess Celestia was always her teacher and Princess Cadence was her babysitter so their status as royals never really mattered to her and she's able to see them more are regular ponies for that reason also.

Most Unicorns are socialites, they value "social currency" and monetary gain more than they value magic. They don't care that the Princesses are very powerful magically, they care more about their political powers and their social status as royals. We see this clearly in the season 2 episode "Sweet and Elite" where Rarity gets swept up on the high society life of Canterlot, when she mentions being from Ponyvill to two random snobby unicorns they look down on her, yet once it's revealed that she's staying at the castle for her visit, things change, mostly notably: her status. Rarity is a prime example of a unicorn, she's stylish, she's ambitious, she's concerned with image, she's social, she has very fine tastes and she's a businesswoman.

As the series progresses we she both Twilight and Rarity gain some fame. Twilight is mostly inconvenienced and troubled by this whereas Rarity, like most unicorns would, relishes in any sort of limelight. Unicorns are expected to be professional, they're most often more modern or "ahead of the curve" than other ponies and tend they to be the primary business owners of Equestria. However without ponies like Twilight, magic would become just an afterthought. Without powerful wizards like Starswirl, dedicated students like Subburt or magic obsessed freaks (affectionate) like Twilight Sparkle, pony society would crumble.

Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity are prime examples of what is expected of earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns, respectively, in Equestrian society. However without ponies like Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle there would be no balance and no progression. In fact in the episode "Hearts Warming Eve" we literally get canon lore telling us that if it wasn't for three ponies who deviated from the rules and expectations of their respective tribes, that Equestria wouldn't even exist today.

I think the mane six are a great small scale example of how pony society functions and I really appreciate this aspect of the writing <3

[possamble]

do you have any particular thoughts regarding marcille being a half-elf? its interesting to me considering the fact that she seems self-conscious about being a half-elf, but denies it when its brought up

i remember marcille looking visibly uncomfortable over laios simply asking her how old she is, which i think the only reason she might feel nervous about this is because it might reveal her as a half-elf to him.

she's never corrected anybody whose called her an elf either.

never mind the circumstances of the reveal, in which thistle goes on about how half-elves are inferior and accusing her of wanting to become full blooded elf, she seemed particularly upset like he struck a nerve-

i wish the half-elf thing was built upon more. also, underrated marcille line:

okay so i revisited this sequence just to make sure I could back myself up and it's just... man. there's a lot going on.

the first reaction we get from Marcille is this huge panel that takes up half of the page

she is viscerally affected. flushing to the tips of her ears with the intensity of it. and we see it again, a few pages later

so it might seem like she's embarrassed about it and lying to herself, but... I really think it's just that Thistle is accidentally hitting sore spots. If you really look at what he says to get these reactions

"you'll live out your entire life [...] and die that way too"

"a hundred years from now, nobody will be there"

Hear me out. I think, if he stuck to harping on about her inferiority without bringing up how terrifyingly long-lived she is, she wouldn't have been as bothered. But right now, Thistle is accidentally hitting all the marks on Marcille's deepest fears-- and this is after the Winged Lion promised her that her dreams could come true in an extremely vulnerable moment, so it also hits her slightly guilty conscience as well.

I do truly believe that Marcille isn't bothered about being a half-elf the way that people assume she'd be bothered by it. To her, the biggest problem with being a half-elf is that it's isolating.

On one hand, it's not hard to imagine why she'd distance herself from elves in the west. A lot of them can clock her as a half-elf on sight, unlike other races, and therefore she's always branded with this weird stigma of being Othered -- I would even say that she considers herself lucky for being born outside of elven culture instead of having to grow up in it. I mean, just... look at the way elves talk about her.

Skipping past the uncomfortable implication of what 'not tolerating the existence' of half-elves would actually entail, this is incredibly fucking annoying. You can see why she wouldn't want to be around elves much. You see a lot of Marcille reacting badly here, but honestly, almost all of it can be attributed to her freaking out that her bluff completely failed. She's honestly more paying attention to Izutsumi's footsteps and trying to coordinate an opportunity to escape.

And in the end, you see her built-up frustration at being asked if she wants to be a full-blooded elf like 2-3 times in a row.

Yeah, yeah, "the lady doth protest too much," and all. But we know Marcille. We know that she's a lot more embarrassed and horrendously unconvincing when she's being prodded about something she's actually self-conscious about.

Moving onto the flipside of things, it might seem weird that she "pretends" to be a full elf around other races, but it's not really that strange if you think about it. Again, people are weird about her being infertile or whatever, and a lots of them don't even know much about what sets half-elves apart from everyone else. I mean, look at how uncomfortable Laios is just asking her about it

and look at how exasperated and resigned she looks

And like... she's right. Where would that come up in normal conversation? Why would she go out of her way to tell them? She's functionally a normal elf to other races anyway -- got the ears, the abnormally long "childhood", and the huge mana capacity. Unless it's directly relevant or important for people to know, I don't think it's all that strange or indicative of insecurity that she prefers not to bother with it.

(This combined with her sense of being an "outsider" to elf culture also explains why she thinks elf superiority is embarrassing. She sees the way elves treat short-lived races from the "outsider" perspective nonetheless, and thinks it's obnoxious; especially more so because she usually has to play the elf around short-lived races and deal with the reputation of arrogance that elves have built up.)

The sad thing is, this all means that... she doesn't actually fit in anywhere. She doesn't like going out West much because of how elves treat her. But she's also an outsider in the continents she was born in, treated like this exotic long-lived alien choosing to live among short-lived races for some reason. She is always an outsider, the Other, no matter where she goes. Add in the fact that she'll live longer than literally anyone she knows, and it's honestly kind of heartbreaking.

And I think that's the crux of it. Marcille really doesn't act like she's at all self-conscious about being a half-elf because of any feelings of inferiority or being half-made or whatever. She considers herself a perfectly legitimate being and might even, in some ways, consider herself superior to normal elves because she's not blind with elf supremacy or whatever. (And whatever "elven biases" she displays, all of them are born more out of the fact that she's kind of bad at conceptualizing how other races age and mature compared to herself, not that she actually considers herself better or more mature simply for being an elf.)

I think that whatever self-consciousness Marcille has about being a half-elf is, instead, related to terror and loneliness. The reminder that it ensures she'll never truly belong anywhere for the rest of her very long life. The reminder that, in truth, even she's not actually sure how old she is by other races' standards (hence the discomfort when asked how old she is). She doesn't want to not be a half elf, or be a full elf or full tall-man-- in her ideal world, she's still a half-elf. She just gets to live out her life at the same pace with the people she loves and doesn't have to say goodbye again and again and again until she dies.

and one last very important panel, right after Mithrun tells her that all her desires would be devoured

In her ideal world, she's still a half-elf and reality magically starts marching at her pace. But failing that, the second best thing is that she's still a half-elf-- but one who is able to accept reality and let go of her fear.

(But the rest of the story pans out the way it does because, to Marcille, taking reality apart and reshaping it was less scary than simply and fully reconciling with it.)

[tariah23]

So sugar baby Gojo is canon btw

[trans-queen-administrator]

Taylor being paranoid about her passenger is such a fun character trait. Like none of her friends really seemed to give much of a shit when they learned about passengers from Bonesaw, but Taylor consistently notes the times her passenger acted without her consent, she tries to talk with it, communicate with it, just anything to learn what this thing that can control her without her say wants with her. One of my favorite little details is that during the timeskip this was the focus of a lot of her therapy sessions with Yamada, trying methods like hypnosis to communicate. I think part of it is that she's inherently just paranoid about the fact that this thing is helping her sometimes and she doesn't know why and she HAS to figure it out because no one would help out of the kindness of their heart, and another part is just that she can't bear to not be in control and this is something that threatens that in a very ominous way.

Another aspect of her paranoia towards her passenger is that she doesn't want to take blame for her own actions I think. During the Behemoth fight when her ally tried to shoot Phil Sē, she pulled the gun off target with silk and got him killed. She's the one who pulled the string, but because she's genuinely unsure if it was her being wary or her passenger setting up the string she settles on the second option because it absolves her of the possible blame or need to admit she's paranoid and ready to betray people in an instance. When Glenn shows her the video of her being the most terrifying fucker in existence she ignores how horrifying she is and fixated on how her passenger moved her, and then she doesn't have to think about the fact that she'd fit right into the ranks of the Slaughterhouse Nine because well, she can blame her passenger and focus on that instead. This applies to other people too, she sees Lung not using his power and thinks that maybe he's concerned about his passenger like she is. She projects hard onto Sophia in my opinion when she says that she got violent because of her passenger. If this person she doesn't like isn't to blame for everything she inflicted on Taylor, the surely Taylor can't be blamed for the violent steps she took to take over a city. It's another way she rationalizes everything to herself, if something is so bad that she can't justify it immediately there's always the excuse of "my passenger made me do it." But crucially, Taylor ends up being aware of the fact that she's doing this during Gold Morning.

And I think it's really good that this is something she grows and accepts about herself. It's wonderful growth for a character who's so often too stubborn to move herself forward. She's generally more in touch with her passenger during Gold Morning, like the time when she thinks that her and her passenger were in agreement in wanting to hurt Scion on the oil rig. No one else in Worm really seems to accept their passengers, Riley is questioning how much of herself has been subsumed by it, Eidolon is always annoyed it doesn't give what he wants, and most other people don't even know about them. But Taylor forms a bit of a symbiosis with hers after a long time rejecting it at every turn. I think this quote really sums up her feelings towards the end.

And by towards the end I mean like, at the very end, because immediately after this thought she becomes Khepri, and yet another fucking theme and character trait cumulates and reaches its peak with Speck. God damn what a good arc. The blur between Taylor and her passenger that she always feared is finally an actual thing consuming her, and she can finally communicate with her passenger as well. I do wonder what this is like on her passengers end. It's clearly down for the idea of killing its maker, and it's heavily implied that her passenger does care and doesn't want to actually leave Taylor as a husk (too lazy to get the quote because I've been typing for 45 minutes but Contessa remarks upon the administrator claiming everything about her until there's nothing left and she feels fear that she thinks is from both her and her passenger. 30.7 I think, near the end). But there's still so much about Taylor's passenger that's unknown. Was communication something it may have wanted when Taylor kept trying to communicate, but doing so required punching holes in the connection that would lead to more bleed through and functionally destroy its host? Did it slowly grow to care for Taylor more than the cycle, or was it always wanting to fight Scion? Did Taylor's autistic swag convince a multidimensional alien made of crystal to rebel? Is Queen Administrator trans? Idk how to end this post if it's not obvious, sorry.

[alluralater]

u talk pretty but at the same time. hate youshutupgetoutofmyhead THIRST TRAPPING GREMLIN

i know what you are.

thirst trapping gremlin you say? <3

[backmarkerr]

please....can u speak on the conspiracy

So the conspiracy (more like a theory, really) is that Kimi was pushed out of the team starting in 2008 to make way for Fernando, who was more appealing to the big sponsor coming in. Before you click out thinking "Max, that's stupid, no team would throw a championship for a sponsor." I agree! But keep in mind that they didn't throw the championship, they fully expected to win the WDC with Felipe (and almost did) and did in fact win the WCC in 2008 with Felipe and Kimi despite everything. But there were really suspicious things going on. So with that in mind...

It's 2008. Kimi has just won Malaysia, the second race of the season. Three days after his win, there's this:

.

Ok, kinda weird, but whatever. F1 runs on rumours, right? Suggesting that Kimi might retire when he's doing so well is silly. And in the article they seem to be pretty ambivalent over whether it would be Felipe or Kimi to leave.

Fast forward to Spain two races later. Kimi scores his second win of the season and takes the championship lead. The season is shaping up pretty well for the defence of the title, you’d think this would be a good time for him, but again, the story du jour is Ferrari wanting Alonso in Kimi’s seat for 2009.

[x] I guess now we know at least Massa's seat is secure...?

If you’re like me, that sounds stupid. The reigning champion just won the last GP and his contract runs until the end of 2010, so this media narrative makes no sense. Something pretty catastrophic would have to happen for that to ever come to fruition, right?

So anyway, he gets a first row start in Monaco. Great, that's almost a surefire win/points, right? Wrong, he got a drive-through penalty due to the team not fitting the wheels to the car on time before the race start. Not a great race and he ends up outside of the points. Lewis is now ahead in the WDC by 3 points. Not really a disaster, but...

[x] what on earth...

[x] again the talk of retirement.... I mean, it's weird, right?

Zero points in Canada due to being rear-ended in the pitlane, which the team can’t control. Then he’s back to being neck to neck with his teammate and Lewis by the time the British GP is done in early July, with all three drivers on 48 points. Good news, right? Just gotta stay on track and not fuck it up somehow.

[x] sigh... (this one's a little harder to source as it was printed media, but I've seen this exact interview quoted in different pages)

So anyway, they change his front suspension for the next race in Germany. Kimi has always been very sensitive to changes in the car, so he knew something was wrong. Ferrari (via Michael, who was then head of development) say he's just not adapting well to the upgrades. Maybe, sure, but why aren't you bringing upgrades that are geared towards your world champion?

(an interesting remark from Mark Hughes here if you scroll down to the comments, which adds weight to Kimi not being listened to when it came to car development in 2008)

Bar a podium in Hungary, Kimi scores 0 points in 4 out of the next 5 races. It takes until either Monza or Singapore (hello crashgate!) for Ferrari to put his suspension back as it was.

He proceeds to get 3 podiums in the remaining 3 races but it’s not enough to catch up. By Singapore he was already 27 points behind his teammate (reminder this is the old points system) and very much expected to play the supporting role. In the penultimate race in China he very obviously gave up P2 to his teammate:

"I know what the team expects." [x] / [x]

Yet the narrative in the media and from Ferrari themselves is that his motivation is bad and he's not assertive. It was so pervasive that to this day people still parrot it and say he just didn’t care after 2007, despite Kimi always stating he was fully committed and clearly getting annoyed whenever journalists asked about his motivation even years later.

Montezemolo at the end of 2008 even 'joked' that "Kimi in the recent races was replaced two or three times by a friend, but next year he'll be back." Basically saying that Kimi wasn't really present, you know? An interesting thing to say when this absent driver scored 18 points in the last 3 races (three consecutive P3s), while the one who was amazing and had the team's full backing scored 20 (P7, P2, P1).

A whole 2 points' difference, maybe someone should hire that "friend"...

So why did they do this?

Well, the theory is that Santander (I promise this isn’t like the dumb Sainztander takes) wanted a Spanish-Brazilian lineup due to financial interests (Spanish bank, big market in South America with a looming IPO in Brazil), so Kimi was basically being pressured out of the team from early 2008 onwards. Like I said at the start, the team weren’t really throwing away 2008, as they expected to win the WCC with both drivers (they did) and Massa to be able to win the WDC, which would of course be beneficial for their new sponsor. And he almost did. Almost.

[x] they're not in charge of driver selection but this specific driver line-up would good for them. (this archived copy of the article is from 2010, but the text makes it clear it's from 2009)

Of course at this point we have to wonder if a team like Ferrari would bow down to a sponsor's demands. I can't tell you what the internal considerations were or how much money was on the line, but it's also not like Santander were telling them to get rid of Kimi for a bad driver, you know? Fernando is a great driver, so from Ferrari's perspective they were just trading a great driver for another great driver who also appealed to this huge sponsor, and an Alonso-Massa line-up would be solid. And with the previous talk that Ferrari and Alonso had already inked a deal in 2008... It's just difficult to believe there isn't a grain of truth here.

So the alleged initial plan of having Alonso in 2009 was foiled when Kimi activated the renewal option in his contract. It was then that he was bought out of his last year (apparently paid for by Santander).

[from the book The Unknown Kimi Raikkonen]

As we can see, by the end Kimi was also fed up with what was going on, especially people pointing the finger at him and at his motivation, and his frustration is very clear in interviews like here at 2.35 and here:

Publicly, Ferrari said they wanted someone more in line with how Michael used to be (ironic since Montezemolo allegedly didn’t like how Michael made the team his), who could communicate with the team and give better feedback (ironic when Todt, Dyer, Stella and others said Kimi was very clear and precise.) Kimi himself has always stated that he wasn’t the issue, that his motivation was never lacking and that the real reason he was pushed out was politics and money.

[x]

[x]

If it had only been the mechanical stuff, I’d be willing to chalk it up to just bad luck and incompetence. Shit happens. But with all the rumours around it even before things went bad on the track and Kimi stating that his work and performance weren't the reason he was let go it becomes impossible for me to think there wasn’t an actual push going on to replace him.

Hell, even famed Ferrari fanboy Sebastian Vettel didn't think it was realistic for Kimi to return to Ferrary in 2014 precisely because Kimi isn't one for "bullshit" and "politics". Why would he choose to say that specifically? And according to Finnish media Kimi’s 2014 Ferrari negotiations included Montezemolo personally apologising to him. Now why would he apologise if they hadn’t done something wrong?

Personally I think Kimi's "certain people did certain things" refers to this. He never trashed anyone and always said he had no ill-feelings. And I believe him. But it doesn't mean nothing happened, lest we forget how well he handled Lotus not paying him.

The thing that really bothers me is that Kimi got the reputation for having low motivation and not caring about what he was doing (I heard that take just last month from an F1 youtuber, how Fernando was hired in 2010 because Kimi had mentally checked out 🙄), when obviously someone who wasn’t motivated and didn’t care would have simply called it quits under these circumstances. Instead he got P3 in the standings in 2008 (I know he’s talented, but he must have been trying at least a little), trained hard to lose enough weight to use KERS in 2009 (why would he do that if he didn’t care) and took the team’s only win that year despite the car being shit. Interestingly, pundits acknowledged his good performance complicated things when it came to Ferrari’s rumoured hiring of Alonso. So imagine how much more complicated things would have been had Kimi done better in 2008?

Anyway, this is long, but if you want something longer then I definitely recommend this post here. You might not agree completely with the original authors (there are parts where I wish there was more info), but I think they offer a lot of good research and information regarding the overall situation back in 2008/2009, and it's a good jump-off point for your own research.

But yeah. 2008 could have been everything. Or at least better.

[spookythesillyfella]

oobh !! what's this ?? yess , i made some fanarts because these character designs are sick and silly >:3

★ fellas who made the designs :

@disturbia-mode – ellie :]

@francarieq – tony <3

@solchle – sketchbook :3

[pala-destiny]

jock!abby all sweat, trying to “clean” her forehead with her shirt and showing her abs and the team teasing her for her muscles

manny making fun of her saying “don’t go around doing this in front of my sister, she’s off limits” and abby being like “i don’t like girls?????”

joke’s on her, because when she saw you? well, it’s normal to think how’d be like to kiss other girls, right? I mean, everybody thought of this once or twice???

you were sweet. damn sweet with being polite, smiling and it’s so HARD??? FOR ABBY TO STOP LOOKING???? you had a habit of liking and sucking your lips and they look very soft. way softer than hers at least. 

but abby is not into girls, she dated owen for almost two years and she was very sad when things were over. she MIGHT have thought nora was hot at one point or another, but she’s pretty into guys. yeah.

“for a straight girl, you were staring at her tits for too long.” - HARRIS, Nora.

“i wasn’t looking at her.. tits.” - ANDERSON, Abigail (she was)

joke’s on her part two. she’s very into the way you sit on her lap on the couch, almost riding her thigh while kissing her as if it’s the last thing you could do while manny was doing groceries

and she’s also very into the way you felt under her hands. your hair, your neck, your shoulders, arms, back and your fucking delicious ass. god fucking bless your ass.

abby’s too much into the way you kiss down her jaw and neck while caressing her abs with the tip of your fingers. 

she was obsessed with your sweet moans of her name when she sucked a hickie in your collarbone 

all abby wanted to do in that moment was to take your damn shirt off and play with the nipples she has been fantasizing about since she met you. (she was ashamed of it, she admits it. but she couldn’t help but imagine sucking them until you beg her for more)

she let a small moan out when you played with her covered nipples and sucked her bottom lip (abby could feel her pussy clench over the feeling)

“are you fucking serious? you said you’re not into women??” - ALVAREZ, Emanuel.

“wait, you’re not a lesbian?” ALVAREZ, you.