the-fabulous-51 - Tumblr blog

[the-fabulous-51]

So this is actually my new favorite piece

[the-fabulous-51]

OCs are so fun to make in WoC but i swear the annoying part is the immense research that has to go behind choosing their model and making a backstory accordingly to the history of that model sometimes too.

[the-fabulous-51]

hrrrrrnng.... . ... cars.... . .. ....

[the-fabulous-51]

*chanting* CARS 3 CARS 3 CARS 3

[the-fabulous-51]

lmq in the lmq cosplay

+ ver without lighting, shading, and sunglasses + full body ver

I think more people need to put their favourite cars character into halloween costume/disneybound/cosplay outfit versions of themselves it's joyous and silly

[the-fabulous-51]

okay but hear me out…

[the-fabulous-51]

The hard part came in step two: get their crew chiefs on board.

They sit the two men down in the Dinoco trailer and run the idea past them. What they get in return is a flat look from Doc and a quiet sort of confusion from the King.

"You want to... what?"

 

or; it's all fun and games until you're at showdown with a shit hand

been a while but I live!! have 10k words of pure fluff and shenanigans

fun fact about me: though this takes place during the 2009 fall race, I was actually at the 2010 fall Richmond race. irl. as a kid.

[the-fabulous-51]

i really love thinking about the potential of lightnings childhood. we have no idea what happened, but its up for interpretation, and i think thats great.

neglect - a common headcanon - seems to make so much sense for him. he hates help, he hates being told what to do, but also hes so lonely and in such desperate need of approval and validation that he’ll take the harshest words as long as theyre coming from someone who, at the end of the day, will give him at least one pat on the back for doing something right.

i think this, as we all know, is a major part of his character, but the idea of doc, taking this kid thats been so awfully treated his entire life - who isnt used to affection or any kind of positive attention, who hates being bossed around because he thinks he knows better and can be trusted more than other people would - and essentially finding a midway point so he can be lightnings crew chief in a way that both introduces the idea of gentle help (telling him when to pit, etc etc) and doesnt infringe on lightnings fear? hatred? of being told what to do and how to do it? its perfect. it introduces to this kid with severe abandonment issues the idea of sometimes needing or even just wanting help, and helps him change for the better without forcing him to immediately conform to the idea that oh, he HAS to need help.

lightnings previous crew chiefs are so much different than doc, because while doc takes the time to get to know lightning, to discuss ways they can work together to get around these issues he has while also being able to enforce proper rules within the sport, his crew chiefs before never did this. they didnt get to know him personally, they didnt care. they just knew he didnt listen and had a flaring temper, and it was never really that fair to lightning that they didnt give him a chance. obviously, not all blame is on them, because as much as they didnt put the effort in to find a groove that worked for their driver, he also didnt try to put this effort in (although, really, as an 18 year old with issues surrounding this job that are KNOWN it was never really his job to be the one to initiate finding a solution - hell, he probably didnt even know what the issue was.), he was ALSO the one to fire these people, so they’re both at fault for this in a way.

but, again, i love thinking about this whole childhood thing because not only is doc opening up the help that lightning was always consistently refused to the point he believed he just didnt need it - that all those times he wanted help when he was young was really just him being dramatic - but hes also opening up the option for Family that lightning never had either. doc takes all the awful morals that lightning taught himself (or that harv taught him) because he had no one to teach him the true ones, and flips them around. he becomes the father lightning never had and the guidance that no one had ever given him. god i love found family guys theyre literally father and son

also nobody imagine how silly the first time doc ever ruffles his silly ass sons hair is. lightning freezing because oh, no ones ever done that before, and doc being like ? how badly do i need to kick the shit out of your parents? that is like the most average father appreciation Ever wdym ur dad didnt do that to you at least Once.

[the-fabulous-51]

trouble at the top

[the-fabulous-51]

have another High Quality ™ cal weathers meme 👍

[the-fabulous-51]

im curious how you envision lightning ending up in radiator springs in the human-verse. i don't think you've mentioned it in any of your fics (except maybe that one chapter of whumptober). if you have put absolutely no thought into it that ignore this lol

I spent all day thinking about this

So. I have left.... .. Many things ambiguous cause I couldn't figure out how to make it fit exactly in the human!verse side of things XD

But I, like everyone else, have Thoughts:

Let's start with the trailers: so there are some very obvious differences in my human!verse and NASCAR, though I do take a lot of inspiration from irl racing (mainly the racing aspect itself). But where a lot of NASCAR drivers fly to their races, most of the guys in the human!verse here will ride in a trailer, either in the same trailer as their cars (basically a small room just for them tucked in the very back of the trailer closest to the truck part) or in a separate trailer that's very RV-like, depending on how much $$$ the sponsors want to spend. so, for example, Dinoco obviously would go the two-trailer way if not just outright flying the King out to a race if it's far (or with Cal's run, just opt to go the RV route since the two are family and live together easier than a lot of crew chief/driver combos can), where early on Rust-Eze isn't going to or has the money to spend on buying rookie Lightning a whole other trailer, especially if he doesn't have a crew chief sharing the space with him. So for his rookie year he's staying in a small, cramped trailer room that's very reminiscent of a small, pop-up camper room if you've ever stayed in one of those. It's got the bare minimum and the door opens along the side to the outside world or directly into the trailer where the car is.

my crude representation

The car, usually packed up by the pit crew, has to be secured by Mack this time, who is used to securing regular cargo from his past jobs and does not tie down the wheels correctly. there is no pit crew to double check and lightning, who does know how to do it properly, is too prissy to check it himself.

And lightning, being the drama (mc)queen he is, will sometimes opt to sit in the car in the trailer rather than the cramped bedroom (not that the car is any less cramped with the way the seat is but it's his happy place whether he'll admit it or not)

And same as the movie, he promises he'll stay up with Mack and falls asleep anyways, just in the driver's seat of the car (impressive, since those are Not comfy and he's still in his fire suit from earlier (stinky boy))

And same as movie, one of those toys on the shelves falls and opens the back door when Mack falls asleep behind the wheel and ends up in the rumble strips. The car, secured incorrectly, gets shaken out of the straps and starts creeping down the ramp until it ends up stock-still and facing backwards on an active highway.

Which is Bad news.

Lightning wakes to cars dodging him and he manages to start the car and whip it around in an adrenaline-fueled record time.

Mack is gone

And (because it's funny) Lightning's drivers licence is useless here (it's a Florida license and as someone who held a fl license for a while, in some places they do not give a fuck, they'll pretty much throw that thing at you and call for the next person) so it's been, oh, a few years since he's been behind the wheel of a car in a real road (I hc him as somewhere around 23-24 in the first movie) and between that and the adrenaline, he can't remember how to read the road signs to tell him where to go (and it's not like any of them are saying LA yet, theyre still a ways out.)

The rest of his chaotic journey through to RS is the same in the movie just cause that's my favorite scene in the movie and idc if it'd be impossible in real life. it's fun.

And I'm torn with Mack's side of things between not changing it and him stopping at a rest stop, getting something from inside, and as he comes back out seeing the back open and panicking bc he thinks someone stole the 95, only to then find Lightning missing and then thinking someone stole the 95 *and* kidnapped Lightning. Poor Mack.

So yeah. This was mostly me talking through the logistics of how trailers work in my human!verse but I feel like that's really important to how I imagine Lightning ending up in RS. Of course, after doc and everyone joins, Rust-Eze splurges on a whole other RV-like trailer for Lightning and Doc, with the others usually being put up in a hotel nearby or something. Rust-Eze not having an RV trailer is why in 'beginning another end' Doc and Lightning stay in a motel overnight. Even though Mack and the 95 trailer were still there, Lightning hates the little bedroom and opted to stay in a shitty motel room w Doc instead (also he has separation anxiety lol)

And in 'straight and narrow' lightning sits up in the front with poor Mack (who usually sleeps in the attached bedroom on the truck cab, which is not too dissimilar to Lightning's trailer room, just that Lightning has a smidge more standing room in his)

(So in my fics, when I say 'trailer' it's usually referring to something like an RV bus. Who drives it? Idk yall just roll with it lol)

Basically this puzzle boiled down to:

How does lightning end up separated from Mack and the trailer?

How does the car end up separated from the trailer?

How do the two get separated together?

How does Mack not notice until LA (or sooner, depending)?

I lean this way personally rather than the other popular version (also the movie writers' original version of events i believe) where lightning is accidentally left behind at a rest stop (which is also very valid!!) just because personally it doesn't answer more questions for me than it generates (but my alt events for Mack kind of pays homage to it bc it's still a very good version of events).

Lightning being separated with the car is important for obvious reasons and the og movie had a plausible swiss-cheese of events, so all I think it needs is some light tweaking before we got something just as (humanly ;)) plausible on our hands.

I have no idea if this answers your question or if I just went on the most unhinged ramble :)

[the-fabulous-51]

blacked out when I saw this meme and woke up to this image on my phone

[the-fabulous-51]

This is dumb

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Lightning McQueen hits the curb every time he pulls into Flo’s and every resident in Radiator Springs can and will make fun of him every chance they get

[the-fabulous-51]

til kyle petty can sing... but wait... does that mean...

[the-fabulous-51]

man I love this fandom so much it feels like a sleepy small town compared to a lot of other fandoms. cozy. no matter where I go I see the same folks. the vibes are generally so positive and kind. like it feels like we're thomasville.

[the-fabulous-51]

let me man sing