Latest Posts by c-losur3 - Page 2

So … this happened.

The Formula 1 community — and sports fandom as a whole — needs to have a serious conversation about the dangerous commodification and objectification of athletes.

And I know, I write fanfiction — what right do I have talking about any of this? But there is a reason why the cardinal rule of fanfiction is to keep it far removed from those featured in it. Because those of us who create and consume it know about the importance of boundaries.

Boundaries … that are repeatedly being crossed by so-called fans who choose to forget that Formula 1 drivers and all athletes are human beings while sickeningly violating their privacy and encroaching on their safety in real life.

Things need to change.

This is an issue of morality, dignity, and security. It cannot continue.

ATTENTION: Please help to report this TikTok video that is circulating, capturing Driver 63 at the urinals at the Australian Grand Prix.

User 63CEDES on Twitter has called this out, and has made a better statement about this asking for the help of Mercedes and AUS GP to help get this taken down.

This is the video in question. For the record, I'm only posting the link so that people can report it.

I know that the drivers are famous and all that, but taking videos of anyone in the bathroom is just so fucked up and inappropriate. Drivers are people too, and they deserve privacy- this video is such a disgusting violation of their privacy and safety.

Hey, I think the new Power Girl and Wonder Woman variant covers might be AI

look, I’m no artist, but I think I’m pretty decent at spotting AI “art” when I come across it. There’s usually just this weird look about it that causes me to raise a metaphorical eyebrow, and if I look closer, I can find the inconsistencies in it a real artist wouldn’t make.

Both of these variants were made by Daxiong, I’m not familiar with their artwork and tried looking them up and their usual style is very different than what they had this time around.

Let’s start with the Power Girl cover:

At first glance it looks fine, but if you look closer you can spot the inconsistencies

There are these weird ribbons? or hair? just popping up from her head and belt that kind of connect but are just confusing to look at

The belt itself is very inconsistent

The hair ends differently in places compared to the rest of it

There are lines in weird places

And for the Wonder Woman cover, I admit, I don’t think I spotted as many, but there are still areas where it looks weird

The lines on her “W” belt are inconsistent

The lines on her armband/gauntlet thing are all over the place with no coherence

And the symbols on her shield don’t really look like anything and they just fade away

Like I said, I’m no artist, but this looks like the work of AI to me.

I hope I’m wrong, I don’t want to see people using AI “art” at all, let alone professionals in the comics industry. But if this is actually AI, I don’t think people should buy these covers if the “artist” didn’t even think it was worth their time to actually put effort in and make them.

Johnathan Glazer, Oscar winning Director of The Zone of Interest, a movie depicting the wickedness of apathy during the Holocaust:

“Our film shows where dehumanisation leads at it's worst. It shaped all of our past and present. Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether they be the victims of October 7th or the ongoing attack on Gaza. All the victims of this dehumanisation. How do we resist? Alexandria, the girl who glows in the film as she did in life, chose to. I dedicate this to her memory and her resistance.”

This is how quickly my mood changes when i'm on my period

"That is so relaxing.......BRAKEEEEE"

goodnight everyone (:

do your daily click

spreadsheet of families in Gaza you can help today

donate to:

Buy an e-sim

Help diabetics in Gaza

The PCRF

Anera

UNRWA

Taawon

Help Gaza Children

Sudan Tarada Initiative

Help a Sudanese family escape conflict

Darfur Women Action

Ramadan for Sudan

Period products in Sudan

Sudan Emergency Appeal

This blog supports Palestine.

Hi May, I think with everything going on, I would encourage those who are disappointed in how F1 is dealing with these issues to:

Watch F1 Academy—their broadcast having large numbers will make a statement, especially if it surpasses F2’s viewing numbers.

Boycott watching the F1 race this weekend, or choose to watch it *other* ways, so their viewership numbers are down.

In a perfect world, and with more time we’d be able to organize a more effective boycott to where the F1A numbers being inflated and the F1 numbers being deflated brought the two numbers much closer together than they ever should be, but hopefully we can still make a statement!

Whatever you do, please make sure you do not click here or here if you wanted to watch Formula 1 for free, as that would be illegal 😏

But do watch F1 Academy races for free on YouTube 🫡

The worst army in the world never records itself battling Hamas, just unarmed civilians, homes, and empty air

466 words, fluff, second chances, reader described as pretty, but nothing specific 🫶

for the Logan Sargeant fans, >> Additionally, if you want me to continue 💌

Partially inspired by Begin Again by Taylor Swift 🫡

Warm water splashes on your face as you wade into the calm of the sea.

You’ve long teased Logan about his eyes matching the sea-green hue, and you proved it today, albeit begrudgingly.

He pulls you into the cold water, and you flail, kicking him where it hurts the most.

Childish antics ensue, and after a few rounds of blame game, you’re back in front of the fireplace, drying off together.

An off-comment is made about how much you’ve changed. You can say the same about him, sharp jawline, and even sharper eyes.

Before you do, though, he calls the change pretty, and all your words crumble like the sandcastles you made.

You’re his childhood friend- er, ex-something, emphasis on friend. Best friends since he started karting, first everything.

Except for your first kiss, which was by your prom date, who you didn’t feel anything for. Logan walked you home that night, and you had more fun in those few minutes, than the hours before.

He kisses you for the first time on your porch, that night. And it’s the kind of kiss you write in your diary about, you can’t help but hope for a lot more to come.

It’s the same kind of kiss as he flies away to chase after his dreams of fast cars.

You’re more cynical, consigning yourself to the speeds of average life. So you let him spread his wings. Eager to watch him shine from the pixelated livestreams.

You’re invited back for a vacation catch-up with some of his friends, and it just so happens that his mother sees you in the grocery store.

Insinuations are insinuated, and you find your soft spot for the Sargeant family to be as soft as sand on the familiar beaches.

So now, you’re back again, where you were all those years ago.

You think it’s strange that he finds you pretty, after a drunken remark of how he misses you so much. Stupid boyfriends, GPs, and work keeping you apart.

You’re charmed instantly, liquid courage is the way to go. It then becomes something he says, fully sober.

It’s been a long morning for you both- and a long evening. Beer pong with the rest of the grid and past friends leave you with the greatest hangover in the history of hangovers.

Another drunken confession is made, and you can’t help but smile as you cup Logan’s face with your hands.

Fireworks reflect in your eyes as you exchange sparklers, but the real star is you, smile and glow everlasting as you bathe in the celebrations.

Youth creases your smiles with the promise of many more Fourth of July beach trips to come- Long live, America’s golden boy, who’s worth much more to you than all the riches in the world combined.

To the anon who requested the Charles one-shot, I’m so sorry that it’s been so long, my schedule is killing my writing time. 🥹

It’s in the works, I definitely want to flesh it out a little more!

Hopefully, my sched lightens so that I can get back to it. ( ´ ▽ ` )

Once again, thank you for the amazing prompt! <3

All the best! 💙

515 words, part 1 here! angst again, but I promise that we’re getting closer to comfort. Stay strong, Logan fans. I believe in you!

>> Warm thank yous for the warm reception 🫶. Ofc, this is all based on @disneyprincemuke ‘s amazing vr!universe.

Before you go, I wrote this fic with these songs in mind; tolerate it and story of us by taylor swift

He takes a brisk walk outside of your shared apartment. You’re behind him, running to catch up.

However, you’re stopped by multiple fans, and he doesn’t know if that’s a blessing or a curse.

It’s just another reminder of how different you both are.

Equal halves of the same puzzle, the same puzzle that become unequal, and one continues to grow as the other withers.

Logan doesn’t get stopped by anyone. And he bitterly wonders if it’ll be that way for the rest of time.

The taste of metallic blood tinges as he bites his lip too hard.

Of course, he’s never had a problem being just a planet orbiting around you and your bright stardom, akin to the sun. But, is that really all there is to him? Is that all he’s ever going to be?

He can hear you mingle and brush away fans after a few minutes, yelling at him to stop walking. It chips away at him, hearing your normally confident voice wobbly, but he reminds himself that at the end of the day, you’re going to find someone better.

He manages to avoid you for the next few months. Lovelorn, eyes downcast as he sees you on the news.

That’s all you are to each other now. Strangers passing by.

Intersecting lines are worse than being parallel, after all. You meet once and then it becomes nothing, something, only in the past.

He tells himself that he expected it, it was simply a matter of time.

Time is the cruelest factor. Your original plans to go on a trip together, the Disneyland plans for your anniversary, dashed, and gone.

You’ve always laughed together about the cliches of being a couple, being spotted at places together was something you snorted at. But to him, it was everything.

He was always fine with your level of success and fame versus his. But as time passed, it rusted the shine of young love.

The news articles splash you with stinging headlines and speculation.

They’ve taken one of two sides, either blaming you for changing after your short and seemingly effortless taste of fame. Or, blaming Logan for relying sheerly on your prolonged successes.

It hurt. But imagining him, reading all this, swallowing it whole, vulnerable and essentially left with the worst side of the break-up, hurt more.

That was the first time you’ve fully considered that you two weren’t together anymore.

Twin flames burning too close to the other’s side of the wick.

You see him tomorrow, at a quick press conference that was supposed to be your somewhat victory lap. It’s now seemingly become a celebration of what you’ve lost, you realize, as your eyes meet his.

Practiced speeches splayed on your side of the table from your PR team. They feel empty, without you two sitting beside each other. Each other who used to nudge and use every trick in the book for conferences like this to go off rails.

All traded for a simple and quick end to your long story together. A clean flourish of your shared history.

pre-mclaren oscar piastri primer (ft. maxf, landoscar)

0. introduction

for a few months now i've been wanting to make both an oscar primer and a timeline of pre-mclaren landoscar moments, but i couldn't figure out which one to prioritize… then after some deliberation i finally realized i could just combine the two things together! so. here is an oscar-centric timeline that is mainly about his racing background, moving to the uk, and how he became acquainted with other members of the rfm pack—aka lando, maxf, and logan. i don't know whether any of this information is useful or even vaguely interesting, but i mostly just wrote it for myself and thought i'd share what i had in case anyone else wanted to check it out. please feel free to comment or shoot me an ask if anything here is egregiously incorrect; i've checked and linked as many sources as i could but it's of course possible that some errors remain :)

1. background, rc racing, early karting days (2007-2015)

oscar piastri was born on april 6, 2001 in brighton east, a suburb of melbourne not far from albert park circuit, as the son of chris and nicole and to-be oldest brother to 3 younger sisters. a love for all things automotive ran deep in the piastri family: both of his grandfathers were mechanics and his father had also co-founded his own vehicle diagnostics software company, hp tuners, aka oscar's sponsor throughout his racing career. thanks to his father's business, oscar's family was objectively well-off and managed to contribute a fairly substantial amount of support toward his junior career, but they also weren't swimming in cash by multi-millionaire motorsport standards either.

(L-R) mae, edie, hattie, and oscar, from nicole's twitter — each sibling is ~2 years apart (source)

while most drivers on the current grid were introduced to motorsport through go-karting, usually at or before the age of 7, oscar's path to single-seaters differed slightly. he first developed an interest in racing via remote-controlled cars at the age of 6, when his father brought him a monster truck as a souvenir back from a business trip in america. oscar began racing them that same year, eventually moving to safer electric track vehicles and even winning the second class of the national titles in 2010, at the age of 9. he was so small then that he often needed to stand on a milk crate to see the cars on track, and the next-youngest competitor at the time was twice his age. (source)

oscar on the podium at age 8 (nov 16, 2009)

oscar with his father chris, who often competed alongside him in a separate class (dec 21, 2010)

by 2011, oscar and his father were seriously considering his potential of pursuing rc racing as a viable career path, but things changed when he was introduced to karting via a friend's daughter in the rc community and his aspirations slowly shifted toward racing from inside a car. oscar was an unsurprisingly sporty and competitive child growing up; he'd played some cricket and aussie rules football and knew that all he wanted to do was race professionally, full-stop, at the time thinking along the lines of australian racing categories like v8 supercars. he was still competing in remote car racing as late as 2013, but he began karting seriously within australia in 2014, placing respectably in the junior categories of several regional karting series against relatively senior and more-experienced racers, and even going to france for a one-off event where he finished on the podium of the iame international junior x30 final. this outing affirmed his potential to his father and motivated the two of them to split time between australia and europe in 2015 as they juggled his karting future; plans for two more european events that year fell through, including the cik-fia world championship at the kfj level (which logan sargeant would go on to win), but at this point they were officially looking to take his career to the next level and commit fully to european karting in 2016.

this is when ricky flynn (and the hypothetical idea of lando norris!!!) comes in. before we get into rfm and karting professionally in europe, it's important to note that the defining aspect of landoscar's junior careers is that their pathways never once intersected. in fact, they don't even seem to have met properly before oscar entered the f1 grid as alpine reserve, although they'd spoken over social media and oscar was familiar with several people around lando's life—for example, maxf, logan, guanyu, and even lando's older brother oliver, who had also raced for rfm.

in short, you could say that landoscar's biggest hindrance was their parallel excellence. oscar was good enough to catch up and even surpass everyone else at lando's level, but lando remained untouchable throughout the years. oscar is only 1.5 years younger than him, but their f1 careers are offset by 4 years (2019 vs. 2023 debut) because of exactly two things: oscar's 2022 gap year in alpine and his two attempts at formula renault eurocup. on the other hand, lando sped through all of his junior categories in blistering fashion, falling short of the championship only once: the year he placed 2nd in f2 behind george russell. this is significant because many talk about the clinical nature of oscar's rapid single-seater ascension and three b2b2b victories (still very impressive, especially given his limited karting career!), but all of that speaks equally to the illustrious nature of lando's junior success and the sheer magnitude of faith placed in him as mclaren's "golden boy" coming up the ranks. to put things into further perspective, lando was teammates with maxf and jehan daruvala at rfm until 2014, jehan competing in the same class and max one below, yet by the time oscar was racing max and jehan—in f3 in 2020 and f2 in 2021, respectively—lando was already into his 2nd and 3rd years of f1. here's a chart that hopefully makes a bit more sense:

majorly simplified timeline showing lando, guanyu, maxf, logan, and oscar's junior careers + the karting classes they primarily competed in each calendar year. maxf did not complete his 2nd f3 season and many of them contested multiple/different formula renault series, but this is just a rough overview of their feeder series experience. 

2. moving to europe, rfm, regional formulae (2016-2019)

back in australia, oscar was a member of the oakleigh go-kart racing club and being actively mentored by james sera, a multi-time australian karting champion and fa kart dealer who worked with young karting talents alongside his cousin david. in late-2015, he presumably helped oscar and his father reach out to ricky flynn, who ran ricky flynn motorsport (rfm) and whose team was at the time enjoying exorbitant success in the karting scene; lando had won the world championship at the kf level the year prior, and logan would soon clinch the kfj title in 2015, results which further drew oscar's interest toward the team. ricky flynn agreed to take oscar on and have him and his dad move out to europe, and by november 2015 oscar announced on social media that he would be joining rfm the next year. in january of 2016, he and his father moved to hertford, uk, so that oscar could begin a 100-day karting program and travel extensively around europe to attend races. this is where he met logan sargeant, who was in his final year on the team but competing a class above, now at the ok (previously kf) level. oscar himself was only competing in the okj class.

not oscar-related, but as you can see guanyu, logan, and maxf were already acquainted before oscar and logan met, since the three of them and lando had been in rfm together as of 2014 — (may 11, 2014) & (feb 6, 2015)

oscar and logan in 2016

in an interview published on june 7, 2023, oscar reflected on leaving australia and committing to his racing dream, saying:

"i think if there was a turning point, it was probably when i started finishing towards the front in australia, and i started winning a couple of races here and there and finishing in the top three of championships and stuff, and then went to europe and fully committed to going down that route. [...] there's obviously a very big commitment at that point when you move halfway across the world without family and stuff. so i knew at that point that i really wanted to become a professional because, firstly, that's what i want to do anyway, but, secondly, now i'm sacrificing seeing my family, and stuff like that to be able to do this — which was a sacrifice i was more than willing to make."

like the majority of oscar's karting career, his time with ricky flynn can primarily be summarized as decent. none of his performances were particularly stellar, and in november 2016 he placed 6th in the fia world championship final behind the likes of victor martins and théo pourchaire (he mainly competed against guys like them, dennis hauger, caio collet, etc… once again logan was a class above and lando/maxf had already graduated to single-seaters), but he showed promising racing foundations and a great capacity for improvement, especially given that he'd moved to europe the same year and was still adjusting to life and racing on the opposite hemisphere. about 6 months into his new karting venture, oscar had settled in reasonably well and his father decided he would return to australia to continue on with his life, so they made the joint decision that oscar was to begin boarding at haileybury's uk campus and continue racing in europe entirely on his own. uk and australian school years are misaligned, so my personal understanding is he moved to europe after finishing year 9 in australia, attempted online school/took a few months off (he says he did online coursework here, but mentioned here that he was out of school, so it sounds like it must have been a very half-hearted effort…), came back to australia over the uk summer to do some more karting, then began boarding in september 2016 as a year 10 student. he spent ~4 years there and eventually received his a-levels in 2020, except his final year was disrupted by covid and he never sat his exams. (blog post mentioning his a-levels + btg transcript excerpt about his exams; his website says he attended haileybury from 2016-19, but i think this mainly encapsulates his boarding period, as he was still doing remote work in april 2020.)

oscar in f4 with his gcse revision guide, 📸 sebastiaan rozendaal (may 20, 2018)

2016 is also when oscar began his well-documented super-liking of several of lando's social media profiles. i think understanding oscar's time in rfm and his extremely british single-seater origins helps better paint his history with lando and maxf; my personal understanding of pre-mclaren landoscar is that while oscar never formally met lando or maxf during his karting days, he knew of them quite well through rfm and thus followed them on instagram/twitter after moving to the uk. of course, oscar has a fairly active social media presence in general, so young oscar quietly liked instagram posts and tweets from many different people, but i do feel compelled to note that in the early days he liked lando, maxf, and logan's posts with seriously impressive frequency compared to anyone else on the grid (or anyone in general, really); after creating his twitter account in may 2016, some of the very first tweets oscar liked were from maxf, and he also liked a multitude of mundane lando tweets from 2016 until… today, while on the other hand he didn't start liking george's tweets—another similarly-aged young british talent—until late 2017. (he does have some fun george-admiring moments though, but that can wait for another time!) outside of rfm, other people oscar was familiar with during his early racing years were british f4 teammate ayrton simmons, to-be series champion jamie caroline, and old australian karting friend christian pancione, who appears to still be one of his best mates (if not his best) as of today. fun fact is that christian raced for the carrera cup as a support event to the australian gp in 2023; here's oscar allegedly checking the quali live timing at lunch during his own media day. 

so, to conclude, oscar's early lando focus basically traces back to the motorsport path he took at the behest and guidance of his early rfm connections in the uk. the thing is that despite growing up in australia and vaguely admiring several aussie drivers in f1 as a child (read: mark webber and eventually daniel ricciardo), oscar has never had a specific driver he consistently mentions when pressed for his racing "idol," likely since his personality inherently resists idolatry and he instead views successful people more as actionable benchmarks or reference points for self-improvement rather than as unattainable paragons of accomplishment. as a kid forced to grow up almost entirely on his own, the majority of his racing aspirations were molded independently in the uk—he completed his karting career in the uk, boarded at haileybury for 4 years (fun fact: other drivers to attend include jehan, callum ilott, and clément novalak; callum was a few years above oscar and finished school in 2017, but the two would later become quite talkative over social media anyway), raced in british f4, became a brdc member, contested eurocup under a british license and therefore had the british flag raised and british national anthem played during his wins, stayed in the uk even at alpine since the factory is based in enstone, etc. oscar basically moved to the uk from australia without having really met anyone significant in the racing scene (other than jack doohan, or more importantly jack's father mick, but jack is younger and did an extra year of karting) and pretty much didn't have anyone specific to "look up to" at the time. oscar's first acknowledgement of lando's online existence was in december 2015, when he liked one of lando's instagram posts prior to moving to england, so it can be assumed that lando basically functioned as his most accessible reference point in the junior ladder as a 14 year old dipping his toes into the european racing scene for the first time. that is my highly subjective analysis of the situation!

select quotes re: oscar's inconsistent responses to his motorsport "hero" (or his favorite driver / a driver he looks up to in general):

(f1fs; mar 9, 2022) "i started watching f1 in… 2009 was the first season i properly watched. so when brawn came in, obviously mark was the only aussie on the grid at that point, so i was kind of naturally going for him. then joined by daniel, so obviously going to support the aussies, but i think watching lewis has been nothing short of spectacular, and a very good role model. [...] i think when i was first watching, i supported mark, but, you know, and i hope he takes no offense to this—vettel was winning everything at that point. so i was supporting mark, but vettel was doing most of the winning. i think now that i understand more about racing though, i would say [the driver i look up to the most is] lewis, mainly. the way he goes about things on and off the track is quite exceptional."

(mcl youtube; mar 29, 2023) sporting idols mentioned: ayrton senna, alain prost, michael jordan (see also ultimate athletes list)

(p1; aug 10, 2023) "i would say i never had like one specific idol. when i was growing up watching mark webber was at red bull, and obviously being australian, red bull being very quick at the time, i kind of naturally followed him. i mean—even like some of the guys in the junior ranks above me. like lando was always kind of two, three years above me, winning… most things on his way up. so i guess kind of him in some ways?"

(eff won; dec 4, 2023) "i don’t really have like one specific [idol]. i think what lewis has been able to do in terms of getting to seven world championships was incredibly impressive. i think what max is doing now is also very impressive…" 

the first lando post oscar liked on instagram (dec 21, 2015)

the first maxf posts oscar liked; instagram (feb 26, 2016) & twitter (may 9, 2016)

anyway, back to british f4! despite his initially unconventional foray into motorsport, oscar's journey progressed in a much more orderly fashion once he stepped up to single-seaters. his actual debut was in f4 uae, which he ran 3 rounds of between 2016 and 2017 (another fun fact: this is where he briefly acquainted himself with mclaren indycar driver david malukas, who would later recall him being very intelligent and whom zak brown allegedly spoke to oscar about before appointing to their indy team). after cutting his teeth on actual car-racing for the first time, oscar decided against moving up to the ok class as he felt confident in his ability to be competitive in single-seaters. his first full season was therefore the 2017 british f4 championship, during which oscar signed with arden while logan went to reigning champions carlin (lando had won with them in 2014, then maxf in 2015). oscar made his way to the top step 6 times in the season and placed just barely above logan for 2nd in the championship, finishing behind the considerably more experienced jamie caroline. arden was also founded and is currently owned by red bull team principal christian horner, so it was during oscar's time there that christian took note of and interest in his talent; oscar reportedly did a few runs in the red bull simulator but was passed over for joining the academy, which christian later voiced regret on. (source)

maxf, logan (center), and oscar (to max's right) on a day maxf was visiting the 2017 british f4 grid (april 11, 2017)

linus lundqvist, oscar, and logan on the podium at snetterton (jul 30, 2017)

jamie and oscar, who were… er, mathematically in the main championship fight. for some reason they made them take these photos (sep 30, 2017)

after a successful f4 outing with arden, oscar returned to the team for his first season of formula renault eurocup in 2018, a renault series that ran in its specific configuration until 2020 before merging with the parallel regional series frec to become what is today known as freca. this season proved to be less competitive for oscar, as arden was relatively inexperienced in this series and oscar's three teammates were afflicted with what can colloquially be referred to as a "skill issue," making it difficult to collectively develop the car throughout the season. (blog interview) the series was thus returning driver maxf's to lose, who at the time was racing for reigning champs r-ace with teammates that included oscar's fellow rookies logan and victor martins.

despite the unideal environment, oscar managed to prove his worth by placing a respectable 8th in the series, scoring 110 points as a rookie driver and capping the season off with 3 podiums and a top-finish of 2nd place—a jarring contrast to his teammates' joint total of 12 points. this result attracted the attention of r-ace and granted him a seat with them for the 2019 season, at which point maxf and logan both graduated to f3. thankfully that wasn't too much of a concern for oscar since he'd always intended to do two seasons of eurocup, and now he finally had a chance to win the first serious championship of his racing career with an established racing outfit.

oscar, max, and yifei ye on the hockenheim r2 podium (sep 23, 2018) [full gifset]

oscar's second season of eurocup is when he truly started proving himself as a driver, or at least to the people whose names, money, and opinions mattered around the paddock. his main competition in 2019 was again victor, who was now racing for mp and had been made a member of the renault sport academy back in 2018 after a strong performance in french f4. despite a close title fight, oscar managed to hold him off for the championship in the final race of the season, kicking off what would soon become an impressive string of consecutive single-seater series titles. even sweeter was the fact that all eurocup champions were awarded a renault sport academy spot that could be left or taken as they pleased, and of course—while the finances weren't nearly as impressive as alpine would later proclaim in their baseless smear campaign—oscar's connections in the racing world were limited as an australian driver almost exclusively managed by his father, so he gladly accepted the offer for the many venues of support renault presented to him.

see also: bby oscar briefly mentioning lando after winning eurocup in 2019 (@ 1:10)

oscar being lifted by his team (r-ace) after placing 4th in the abu dhabi finale and winning the title by 7.5 points

3. renault sport academy, lockdown, f3 (2020)

many things happened in 2020. one: oscar became an official member of the renault sport academy, joining the likes of max (who'd been picked up on merit after winning british f4 in 2017), guanyu, christian lundgaard, caio collett, and fellow new recruit hadrien david (victor had been strategically demoted after oscar's win because renault is a notoriously unserious organization, but again this is not the post). two: by the time oscar was ready for f3, moving up the ladder proved to be exorbitantly expensive, and he realized he needed better funds and managerial support to sort his career out. he'd been offered a spot in prema's f3 team by team-owner rené rosin at the end of his eurocup season, who'd named him for the post-season test before the championship was over and stressed that the spot was his no matter where he finished. (source) prema is unquestionably one of the top—if not frequently the top—teams one can drive for in most junior series (though there is also somewhat of a self-selection bias; if you ask oscar he is not a significant beneficiary of prematax!), having absolutely demolished the f3 competition that same year and achieved a clean sweep of the drivers' standings with rob shwartzman, marcus armstrong, and jehan at 1-2-3 consecutively. oscar completed post-season testing with them in spain alongside to-be teammates logan and fred vesti in october (source), before confirming on jan 26, 2020 that he would be joining them for the f3 season as a renault junior.

so, where does mark webber come in here? apparently mark's trainer from red bull and wec had also been oscar's trainer since 2016 (i'm pretty sure this is australian physiologist simon sostaric), and it was through their joint connection that oscar was introduced to mark. according to mclaren's 2023 season preview, "the pair hit it off, and webber took his countryman under his wing," signing oscar to jam sports management, aka the management agency he runs with his wife ann. mark's support would become a major factor in helping oscar progress through the feeder ranks and establish himself in f1, mainly because he had actual connections and could help oscar network with sponsors and negotiate his way during future signings. of course, more on this later.

as an aside, here are a few things mark has said about oscar:

"he’s got that white line fever when he puts his helmet on and turns into a different character, which is sensational." (mar 1, 2020)

"one of oscar’s biggest strengths by a mile, compared to everyone he is competing against — and this will be a huge string to his bow when he makes it to f1 — is his composure. he has immense levels of composure. [...] if you are weak mentally you won’t make it. he was on his own from an early age. he did brilliantly with his studies. but the racing disease would not go away, he wants it very much." (sydney morning herald; dec 11, 2021)

"he’s a prost, mate. he’s such a thinker and so calm. at first i thought i needed to inject a bit of urgency in him, but actually no, he’s got his own frequency. that’s just where he is." (the race; oct 7, 2023)

estimates provided by chris piastri on the cost of oscar's junior career, stressing the million-dollar commitments of running a single season of f3 or f2 (source)

anyway, back to the chaotic events of 2020. i think something that's good to keep in mind when discussing oscar's time in the renault sport academy is that he was actually a relatively new recruit, as in he only participated in a single training camp with the other juniors in 2020 and most of them (max, christian, guanyu, the temporary ghost of victor) already knew each other before. oscar essentially met with renault's factory team in early 2020, filmed promotional material with other juniors in january before attending the season opener together in february and then heading to winter training camp later that month, after which he and max left early for f3 pre-season testing in bahrain on march 1—a blessing in disguise, seeing as caio, hadrien, and christian remained behind and would soon be stuck quaranting in a hotel in tenerife—then briefly spent a week at school before returning home for what was meant to be a quick pit stop at the australian gp, which at the time had yet to be canceled.

then, of course, lockdown happened.

simplified breakdown of renault junior stints, notably showcasing the academy's struggles to meaningfully promote any of its juniors

oscar at the 2020 renault season opener alongside then-academy director mia sharizman, then-tp cyril abiteboul, alain prost, f1 drivers esteban ocon and daniel ricciardo, and the other academy juniors: fewtrell, lundgaard, zhou, david (feb 12, 2020)

oscar and maxf behind the scenes of the same event (feb 12, 2020)

stuck in australia for three months, oscar would end up participating in two fia virtual races, one for f2 and another for f1 (jun 7, 2020). a fun landoscar tidbit is that he finished 5th in the virtual gp right behind lando, so they technically had raced each other before 2023, depending on... well, whether you count a 2020 sim race wherein george russell and alex albon lead the pack as a real race. nevertheless, this was a time when drivers were becoming much more active online, seeing as streaming was the best way to keep their images relevant and connect with fans, and despite oscar expressing little interest in streaming on twitch he would still experience a considerable uptick in his online activity and twitter reach that year.

racing resumed on july 4 at the red bull ring in austria; oscar had been granted an exemption to travel to the uk and complete a 2-week quarantine back on may 27, a reassuring indicator to the motorsport world that the f3 season would run after all. now that he no longer had to attend school, having received 2 b's and 1 c for his maths, physics, and computer science a-levels, oscar relocated from hertford to oxford in june to be near the renault facilities, which he visited nearly every day to train at, and began living independently (as in in a flat) for the first time since 2016, rooming with fellow renault junior caio collet.

as i said before, this season is when oscar's online presence and "memeability" began to really conceptualize, enabled primarily by the fact that he was a) finally living outside of a school dormitory, and b) now, of course, signed at prema, a team notorious for its social media visibility, literal family atmosphere, and frequent youtube pandering. according to this f3 article, his twitter followers jumped from 795 at the start of the season to 11.6k by the time he won the championship, an audience built significantly off the self-deprecating string of jokes he used to tweet regarding drs and general reliability issues faced throughout the season.

what i guess i want to touch on here is how oscar's online presence has always been concentrated around the bare fundamentals of his personality: dry humor, candid words, sparing emojis, a few humorous photos detailing the mundane reality of his everyday routines, and at most the occasional inopportune meme or reaction gif (#thepiastri 🤷‍♂️, f2 in baku, jetpack guy, so on). he's bantered frequently with callum on twitter and near-obsessively liked memes, videos, and other updates lando shares with his audience, but he also has seemingly little interest in building up his own "brand" the way lando so smartly has with ln4 and quadrant, and quite frankly seems viscerally incapable of wanting to engage one-to-one with fans or otherwise leveraging the popularity of his material image. basically what i like to say is that oscar enjoys being adjacent to "lad humor" and will happily enable it, but he really has no interest in being the one to initiate it himself!

"there's some things you want to share, some things you don’t. in today's age and sort of having the profile that us drivers do, we kind of just have everything shared,” piastri said. “but (social media) can be used for good, certainly within the profiles that we have. but in some ways, it can be negative, and there's always going to be people out there that don't like you for being you.” piastri tries to write as many of his posts as possible, and he checks those written by his team to be sure they sound authentically him. (the athletic; jun 29, 2023)

along these lines, oscar does enjoy the spotlight, only he seems to prefer it concentrated in a specific lens toward a specific productive end. he's endlessly capable of seeing the objective upside of a situation, joking after he was made a meme in baku following his f2 sr1 collision that he was all for it if it got him popularity. after his eurocup championship he also said: "i think everyone loves a bit of spotlight on them. i think that's just human nature, so a bit of attention's always nice." which is interesting to me!

but back to racing. this season would unexpectedly become two things: maxf's last competitive season in motorsport—especially disappointing considering that he'd gone into the championship expecting to put on a second-season title charge, instead failing to gel with the hitech team to the point that each increasingly poor weekend made him spiral mentally—as well as oscar and logan's last season racing against each other before f1, since logan would later encounter financial difficulties that left him stranded in f3 as oscar catapulted himself to f2 victory. 2020 was obviously a weird season in general because of covid and the gap from pre-season testing, so it also meant that oscar had gone into the season fairly rusty; he managed to win the first race of the season, but on top of his drs rollercoaster he did struggle with middling results in qualifying and was met step-by-step throughout the championship by logan.

maxf's last race in f3 was the barcelona sprint race on august 16, with three rounds left to the end of the season. he dnfed in an unfortunate first-lap incident mere moments after oscar charged his way up from 5th on the grid to the front of the pack, where he would eventually breeze his way to victory and pull himself near-level with logan for the championship lead. i recognize that this is an oscar post and not a maxf post, but i think their time in f3 during an extremely isolated and covid-affected period speaks to both an interesting dynamic between them (the little kid who always lagged a series behind you suddenly beating you on merit) and their respective temperaments toward racing. while at renault, max reportedly lived with jack aitken during the week but would return to his family home on weekends, so it makes sense that he struggled to adapt when covid hit and drivers were collectively forced into very regimented sporting bubbles. mark webber, who worked for channel 4 as a commentator and had access to the f1 paddock, basically couldn't see oscar in person and instead spoke to him over the phone every day on race weekends. maxf said of his decision to quit:

"normally [...] i’m able to stay calm under pressure and i don’t let many things get to me but when you have a bad qualifying result and you see guys up there that you know you’re capable of beating, it definitely takes a dig at you inside and it’s been a lot to process throughout the year." (source)

while then-academy director mia sharizman, who worked closely with the renault juniors, spoke of oscar's inherent propensity for independence and how he adapted well to the pressures of living on his own:

"if you look at oscar piastri, he has been living on his own, [away] from his family who are in melbourne for the past five to six years. because he has been living on his own in boarding school, he learns how to live on his own, and he thrives in that. we have to force him... 'have you spoken to your father?!' it's just things like that, but he thrives in that. that's why he thrived in those weekends racing. he loves being on his own without anybody. on the other hand, we had max fewtrell, for example, who can't – he couldn't survive the 11 weekends racing, because he always needed his family to be around him. so those are the things that suddenly you see and, i think that that we see now, after a few years a driver who is quick, a driver who has the talent, and then the driver who is stable." (source)

2020 is also when lando and oscar spoke to each other on twitter for the first time. yay! after lando went semi-viral for having a meltdown over a hornet on three separate social media platforms, oscar first joked with him about it on august 24 (this was incidentally also the day maxf announced his functional retirement, which oscar liked as well 😭), before referencing the incident again a few weeks later in september.

(aug 24, 2020) / (sep 10, 2020)

outside of drs tweets and trying desperately to banter with lando norris, oscar's popular tweets at the time included several food-related mishaps and home appliance tragedies. while this isn't actually a lando moment, he was also slandered by the LN4 twitter account a month later on october 17 for reasons that remain a mystery, resulting in this set of interactions:

(oct 17, 2020) / (oct 19, 2020)

bonus: maxf's tweets @ oscar (when you aren't close enough to just text him.......)

but back to f3. similarly to his second season of eurocup, oscar would go on to clinch the title in only the final race of the year, this time even more stressfully—he never got pole that season and won arguably off of consistency, benefiting from errors and unfortunate collisions involving his primary competitors. after a hectic qualifying and string of contentious grid penalties set for the before-last round in monza, he began the feature race 15th on the grid but put on an impressive performance to finish on the podium, buffing his points lead after logan was tapped by clément and put out of the points. he, logan, and fred all dnfed in race 2 (read: the novalak pendulum swung away from oscar's favor to maintain stringent cosmic equilibrium, while logan and fred threw away a points opportunity with a teammate4teammate love tap), and oscar went into mugello with only an 8-point lead over logan and a 24-point lead over pourchaire. this weekend proved equally hectic, as is frequently the case with f3 racing standards, but in short oscar and logan entered the final sprint race level on points, with théo approaching terrifyingly near in their rearview mirrors. logan was unceremoniously taken out of contention on the first lap after contact with zendeli, and oscar managed to squeak his way to 164 points in the championship by placing 7th in the race; théo finished 3rd, with 160 points, two positions away from claiming both the race and the championship title.

a succinct summary of an eventful season! (posted jun 30, 2021)

despite winning the f3 championship in far-from-dominant fashion, oscar's career was now steadily on an upward trend. on october 30 he was rewarded with a private test in the r.s.18 at bahrain alongside christian and guanyu, and a month later confirmed that he would be racing for prema again in f2 (december 1, 2020). as a rookie f3 champion there was a moderate amount of interest in him, but no one really expected him to carry home the f2 title on his first try and so one of the main favorites going into the next season was his second-year teammate and 2019 f3 champion rob shwartzman.

4. f2, alpine reserve duties, #piastrigate (2021-2022)

at the start of 2021, fernando officially took daniel's place at renault and the team rebranded itself as alpine, parting ways with team principal cyril abiteboul and functionally replacing him with new ceo laurent rossi—part of a no-tp management structure, frankly a self-evident infrastructural faux-pas from a million miles away. the renault sport academy was then also renamed to alpine academy; again i know that this is an oscar post so i won't get too into the details of Alpine Being Alpine, but understanding how the academy functioned does help better contextualize the inevitable unfurling of piastrigate.

the main issue, really, would always be laurent rossi, or at least the values laurent rossi had been hired to represent and which he willingly peddled during his controversial tenure at alpine. after rossi's appointment it was reported that "the renamed alpine academy was now being tugged in two directions between director mia sharizman's ideal as a creator of future f1 drivers and alpine's chief executive officer laurent rossi's commercially-led preferences." (source) mia directed the academy from january 2016 until may 2022, and had been the one to restructure its recruitment process by demanding better funding and robust testing programs to cyril:

"when we first restarted the team in 2016, it was, we didn't even have a two-year-old car program at that time. we had to use a 2012 program using the [lotus] e20. [...] then in 2018, i went through it, and i said to cyril abiteboul, "look, let's try and do this." we needed financial resources. i needed a head start with financial resources to kick start the program whereby you entice drivers, and you offer [a place] to the academy drivers. it was more to see how they are... it was more of an evaluation process... that was what the first idea was. then we developed the program to develop the drivers to suit their formual 2 program." (source)

(note: mia also believed that 2020 was a disappointing year for all of his juniors save for oscar's performance in f3, which is a whole other thing. but rossi's greatest shortcoming was that he had singular, insulated vision, and he resisted any external input to the detriment of reactionary business decisions, a fact that alienated alain prost and soon led to his exit from the outfit in 2022. not a good look!!! prost would later call rossi "the best example of the dunning-kruger effect, that of an incapable leader who thinks himself able to overcome his incompetence with his arrogance and lack of humanity toward his troops." 🤌)

so basically, the cracks of mind-boggling incompetence within the team's leadership structure were long evident. on a brighter note, oscar's 2021 f2 season would quickly become his strongest single-seater contest ever (f1 youtube has a good summarizing video of his season, if interested); because of covid, f2 was experimenting with a three-race format this year in which quali set the reverse grid for sr1 and sr1 results then set the reverse grid for sr2, which essentially meant high qualifiers were rewarded for simply maintaining composure in the first sprint and running cleanly in the top 10 in order to secure a favorable grid spot in sr2. oscar adapted well to this format, building off his reputation of smooth, consistent driving on top of slowly improving his qualifying results over the course of the season, finally breaking through with his first feature-race win in monza. 

oscar with mia sharizman

this is also around the time when lando mentioned oscar in official f1 media for the first time, reading off a question about him to daniel in an interview posted in october:

"this one's not even about formula one. it's about oscar piastri. oscar pias-tree! [...] he's been on it this year." — (full video) (oct 1, 2021)

of his own f2 campaign, oscar said:

"i thought that i could challenge for race wins, but i probably wasn't expecting to be so consistently at the front. consistency is something that i’ve had as a trait throughout my career, and i was expecting to be consistent in my results this year — but maybe a bit lower down!" (source)

not only did he end up being consistently at the front, he became virtually unstoppable in the second half of the season. on december 11, oscar clinched the title in abu dhabi with two races to spare, ending the season with 5 consecutive poles and 4 consecutive feature wins, 60.5 points above his previously-favored teammate in the standings. #notbadforashitqualifier!

by now oscar was a hot commodity in the paddock; the only problem was that alpine didn't really care, mainly because rossi had enthusiastically re-signed ocon to a three-year deal in 2021 and held zero intention of actually promoting any of its juniors to one of the race seats, plus the one open spot at alfa romeo had instead gone to guanyu and his considerable financial package (though oscar has always been vocally defensive of guanyu's appointment to his detractors). instead of moving to another series, such as indycar or super formula, oscar recognized that he'd proven everything he needed to prove within the feeder system and opted to remain on the grid as alpine's reserve driver, mainly so that he could embed himself in an f1 team environment and—most crucially—avoid being left "out of sight, out of mind," because once you go to america you usually don't come back.

i'll keep the rest of this post brief since i feel like everyone already knows What Went Down, but a quick highlight for fellow landoscar enjoyers was the 2022 australian gp on april 10, during which oscar accompanied rosanna tennant for the post-race show and awkwardly participated in a chaotic lando & alex interview. as far as i know, this was landoscar's first time interacting on-camera!

o: "i haven't raced either of them, no." l: "not yet!" o: "not yet. hopefully soon." — (full video) (apr 10, 2022)

then silly season started, and everything was thrown into disarray when sebastian vettel announced his imminent retirement and fernando subsequently took his place at aston martin; alpine scrambled to recover from this blindsided move and prematurely promoted oscar to an f1 seat, to which oscar eventually posted The Tweet—claiming he'd never signed a contract with alpine and would not be racing for them in 2023, thus kicking off #piastrigate. or the piasco, or whatever you prefer to call it.

here's a good article that properly summarizes the crb ruling, but tl;dr: mclaren and alpine had come to an agreement back in march to loan oscar to mclaren's stable of reserve drivers after daniel contracted covid; mark webber, who was close to andreas seidl from their time at porsche in wec, quietly negotiated a contract with mclaren for 2023 that oscar would then sign on july 4, which was reportedly initially a reserve deal with an upgrade clause to a full-time drive given a dr buyout; alpine's legal team turned out to be essentially one overworked legal director who mishandled the situation thanks to a lack of organizational support, while a concrete williams deal never actually existed no matter what people continuously allege, and any proprietary right to oscar's services that alpine purported to have for the 2023 season would soon be voided by crb rule on september 2. in other words, they dun goofed.

because tumblr dies when i try to include it in this post, here's a link to a condensed chronological timeline version of this post.

that's it for now. i'm sure you know how the rest goes!!! 

389 words, angst, pre established relationship, reader is accomplished, based on the world @disneyprincemuke created.

My first real try at RPF, for the Logan Sargeant fans, I’m sorry in advance. >> Additionally, if you want me to continue, I have two endings in mind. Let me know!

part 2 here!

You win. The announcers’ voices boom over the track. Your name has never felt more foreign to Logan. Perhaps, it’s not the only unfamiliar thing, and that’s the cruelest thing to him.

You up there, on the top step, starry eyes sparkling with the flash of cameras

And where was he?

Far, far away from where you’re standing now.

Perhaps he knew for the longest time that you’d just continue to rise, fallen stars always make their way back to the sky, and he couldn’t fault you for it.

You and him through it all, you promised with a toothy grin, pinkies interlocked.

The reporters are cruel, even when he can tell they mean well. Congratulating you and your feat, female world champion and broken records.

You’re happy and that made him happy. What changed, he couldn’t bring himself to come to terms with.

He insists that he’s fine as you reach your respective motorhomes to pack up for the end of the year. (He’s not.)

And as you walk away, extra excitement in your step, and Seb ruffles your hair, he locks himself in his driver’s room.

You’re amazing. And he can’t fault you for shining.

But if you can win, succeed, then why couldn’t he?

Tears prick his waterline as it sinks in. The replays of your win sting. And it’s never been this way, but why does it hurt him now?

He snaps at you for the first time in your whole friendship, relationship now, this morning.

He’s apologetic immediately but your face loses the smile that’s been honed there for a while now.

He snapped about you and your shiny, amazing, champion friends. And you took it to heart, yelling back that at least they were something.

A pin drops as you realize that you fucked up. You’re sorry, you really are. Hotheadedness and youth go hand in hand, and you never meant to hurt him.

He shakes his head stepping backward as he puts on his coat, running out of the shared apartment, running away even when he feels that you were right.

He’s just a sentence in the paragraph of your life.

You’re reassured him time and time again that he’s important to you, and that his performance would never change what you feel about him, what what if it did, he thinks.

happiest 350! <3

-- MORIARTY'S 350+ FOLLOWERS EVENT !!

☆ INFO ; first off - thanks so much for 350+ followers!! I really appreciate it, especially as I've been inactive lately. this event will be a raffle event, where everyone can be entered into the raffle by reblogging, and a winner/winners will be chosen at random. one person will win a fully completed rentry, with up to 3 pages total, including graphics; another person will win a customized rentry homepage plus two extra graphics; one person will win 3 edits (cannot be rentry templates); and one person will win 1 edit (cannot be a rentry template).

☆ TAGS ; @autibf, @kiochisato, @essthereal, @motherlyidol, @cutesiplushi, anyone else who wants to reblog :3

:squint: whatever you say...... (<3)

giggling in the corner cause i’m plotting for that vr trio angst… be afraid

NOOOO (yes.) I beg of you, go easy on us all PLEASE 🙏(I want a good cry)

giggling in the corner cause i’m plotting for that vr trio angst… be afraid

It's literally perfect, THANK YOUU 🫶

Here to rerequest a DC matchup! Saw the update. It’s pretty much the same as the old ask ^^ happiest 1k, Cressie! • outgoing, oftentimes reserved. - coffee / tea date! Anywhere, as long as we have fun. - adult - no ideal type, but humor>> - ESTP/ENFP - cancer sun - black hair, gray eyes, 5’2. 💙

walk in the sand, stars in our hands

"This feels weird." You mumble, thumb forcing the lighter on, flinching at the fire. "Are you sure you knew what you were doing?

Dick rolls his eyes. "Of course I did. Come on, it's not going to be this warm forever, you know?"

"It's already high tide." You huff, helping him light his sparkler.

"Now make a wish." He grins.

"These aren't shooting stars."

"They are if you do this—" He steps back and runs with the sparkler, drawing lines in the air, and he raises his voice. "Come on! Make a wish!"

Your lips curl up in fondness as you close your eyes. May every summer be like this forever and ever.

Headcanons:

#1 supporter of your violin playing. He does not care if you don't have recitals. When you practice, he's throwing his hands into the air to cheer

You guys walk Haley together!! Haley loves you. Dick jokes about how she likes you more than him (which is vv much true)

Also, he takes photos of you when the two of you are out so he can add it to an album of photos of the two of you on dates

Coffee dates happen a lot! The two of you will stop for coffee or tea while out walking Haley

Also, the two of you go wander in the city a lot! dates without destinations :D while u two talk n catch up on life

Un-anoning myself rq, THANK YOU SO MUCHH It's perfect!

requested by anon: santa oscar

Crazy. Did not expect this at all !

Seeing my damian blurbs doing vastly (doubly) better than my dick blurbs is sending me. >> in case it wasn't obvious, I'm a Dick Grayson girl all the way HAHAHHAAHAH

All I want in life is a nightwing animated movie in the style of spider verse and I'm never gonna get it because DC hates all of their characters and that has been hurting me every single day for the past 3 years

70???? AND 118?????

34 and 55 notes respectively on my first two daydream writing posts. That's a literally CRAZY, thank you guys! 💙💙💙

gleefully watching Little Women for the 100th time as I ponder what to write for Jason. (tbh it's not that I have nothing to write for him, it's just that I've given all my Jason blurbs already, as 🐈)

506 words, strangers to lovers, he falls first and continues to fall harder. Another of my drabbles for Damian, slightly inspired by Suburban Legends/Gold Rush. >> No names mentioned, no warnings, overwhelming pining + fluff.

I offer, Damian Wayne going on the one gala date he swears that he won’t enjoy begrudgingly. Alfred smoothens his tie, for reassurance because the tie is already perfectly done anyway. There’s hesitance in his features. Bruce assures him that the girl he’s set to be his date is his age and won’t bore him. It’s a coin flip, really. However, curiosity kills the cat.

So, Damian Wayne leaves the manor, suit perfectly creased, ready to bite the bullet.

When they reach the gala, you're there, waiting at the start of the red carpet. It's a breathtaking sight, you're a breathtaking sight. There's a knowing glance from Bruce, and there's an elbow nudge from Dick, who cheekily reminds him to close his mouth, lest flies fly in.

He's quick to dismiss his awestruck gaze. He guesses you'll bore him; he prays you do. So that it makes falling softer. It makes this figurative cliff he's ready to jump over for you, easier. He guesses wrong. You make the stuffy event more than bearable, you make him want more of you, you make him want to toss you his heart.

That's why he finds himself escorting you back home. As you pull on his tie to kiss him, he finds himself never wanting this night to end. It's been a few days, and he's been wanting, craving, to see you again. You, your charisma, crooked smile, endless patience and grace.

He's been shamelessly looking up who you are, grasping at the straws to find out who exactly you are. You, the mystery who has captivated him since the night you both met. Alfred the cat is judgmental, wise eyes gazing at him as he spends the next few minutes looking at your long list of achievements, the next more impressive than the other. That's why at the next charity event, he finds himself asking Bruce to invite you as his date again. There's a sliver of a smile of his father, who puts on a poker face, trying his best not to smile proudly in front of his son. An I-told-you-so is in order, but he's happy, nonetheless. Time passes quicker than expected. This time, he sees you part the crowd effortlessly as you walk toward him. It may be a Wayne event, but it's shaping up to be one that you're the star of.

You were so magnetic it was almost obnoxious. Damian's never had to battle for someone's attention as much as he did with you. It's worth it, though. As you both exchange numbers on the balcony, the starlit night illuminates Damian and you. You chorus that you two should meet outside of these events, and Damian's ready to melt, and perhaps die happy. It's unusual, and it's definitely not what he expected; to fall and fall harder with a stranger his father set him up with. It's a welcome surprise. After multiple dates, quick coffees evolve into domestic mornings with each other, and that's when he knows, he knows that you're the one.

^^ one last! I couldn’t decide between them, but either a billie bossa nova or lost cause (any fandom), please. All the best and to many more milestones, 🧡

┊. ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀» ❨ falling ─ harry styles ❩ 

34 and 55 notes respectively on my first two daydream writing posts. That's a literally CRAZY, thank you guys! 💙💙💙

342 words, dreams of the future, established relationship with thoughts of marriage. Sleepy drabbles for Damian, continuation of ask sent to @/idyllcy. What if I scream into a pillow because this makes me so jealous. >> No names mentioned, no warnings, overwhelming fluff.

When he wakes up in the morning from nightmares or dreams that frighten him, he sees you. Either awake, candlelight illuminating your familiar features as you read, or snuggled beside him. Damian readjusts his hold on you gingerly, a small smile growing as you cuddle into him unknowingly. There are times that he worries that he may break you.

A clawed grasp on his past may extend to you, and he fears that one day, all the patience you’ve shown him will dwindle.

He’s like a cat in that way. Even when cornered, he’s instance to attack, claws sharpened, lips curled into a sneer, to hide what he thinks is scarred, ugly, and undeserving.

But somehow, you make him retract those fears, heart softening, touch, soft. You make him want to bend to your every whim, you make him soft. You, his angel, his better half.

Soothing kisses and touches from you make every thought melt away. You've always managed to make him feel that he is indeed worth it. It was a long time coming, getting him to open up to you.

It was worth it, though. As it always is with you and your easy charm.

He couldn't help but want to be vulnerable for once. Even with the ugly, scars on his person, you somehow make everything feel worthwhile. You see every part of him he thinks is flawed. Making it so easy for him to crumble the walls he's constructed all his life.

That at the end of the day, his past is less of a burden and more of a gift.

The weight of the small ring box on his nightstand is a reminder of what's to come.

Marital bliss is something he never knew he wanted, in the past, but a welcome dream.

One that he hopes will come. Damian's never been one for dramatic confessions or ceremonies, but something about bridal henna, customs, and courtship, with you. It makes his heart beat in his chest. He hopes it's the same for you too.

438 words, pining idiots to slightly less idiots. Dick doesn’t know how to tell you, the person he does patrol with, the girl he’s grown from sidekick to solo hero with, that he kind of, actually, loves you. So, when he finally considers the idea of confessing, he’s a nervous wreck, and you become a nervous wreck by extension. >> No names mentioned, just soft nickname variations of 'star'. Open ending (?)?? You tell me how you want it, and I'll continue.

There’s something about how you ground him in fights. Soft tap on his shoulder as you take out a sharpshooter about to take aim. You may be wearing gloves, but it’s still your signature warmth. You know each other better than you know yourselves. So much so, that he knows all your tells and you know his.

He knows of the rare times when you need to fall to your knees and cry. You know when leadership takes its toll on him, weariness hidden behind a facade of confidence and smiles. Tonight's not much different. It's one of those strenuous patrol nights with Dick. You can tell he’s worried about something as you handcuff another pickpocket to a lamppost, eyebrows furrowing as he fiddles with his escrima sticks.

You give him a silent look, your own eyebrows raising as you stand and face him. Oh. You know that look. “Talk to me.” You plead quietly. This may be the one thing that breaks that small daydream you've had since your teenage years. That dream where you both are together.

But dreams, as you've long accepted, are still dreams. You can settle for loving him from afar. And either ways, why ruin a perfectly good dynamic? “You know I couldn’t tell you. It’d make things awkward, star.” It’s always been this way, cat and mouse, kitten and robin, whatever you want to label it.

It’s been a game of chicken, awkwardly, tooth-rotting sweet actions and words. Until one of you decides to back away. Childish squabbles have always ended with picnicking over the rooftops of Wayne Manor, a game of how to admire the view.

The familiar nickname flows from his lips, coined after your first meeting, a shooting star lighting the rooftop when you first met. It’s softer this time though. Almost gingerly said, as if he himself is unsure of his next steps. Unusual with the charming and coy boy wonder you’ve grown up with. You hum, letting it slide as you notice the sky breaking in hues of the rosy oranges and pinks. A giveaway that your nightly patrol is up. "Tell me when you can, 'kay?" You pause, tacking on carefully as you walk past him, hand on his shoulder. "I'm always here to listen, boy wonder." He simply smiles, and even if you can't see his eyes, you know that the blues of his irises are smiling with it. It's real and genuine, and it makes you feel at ease like it's always been.

"I will. See you soon, star?" He questions, a hopeful smile working its way onto both of your expressions. "Always." >> This is what happens when I get 30 minutes of a good nap accompanied by a craving to see open endings. Additionally, this is a reworked version of the asks I've sent @idyllcy. I'm still so sorry for the inbox spam WHAHAHA. Thank you as always, hope you enjoy! 💙

'I’m not a hopeless romantic, I’m an optimistic romantic.' >> Future prompt? Hm, have no idea for who, but that's definitely in the works.