honestly if 2021 season did not exist 3344 would not have the sauce it does now. Like both drivers prefer different rivals, they did not care about each other before and try their best to not care after 2021. They dont even have animosity between each other that much anymore. Max lists lewis as one of the greats because you simply can not NOT list him, and lewis literally confused max's name with seb at least a few times, when max has been a red bull driver for 10 years now, double seb's time in rb. But because season 2021 happened they both have the most saucy dynamic on track and when they do come near each other you can bet that they're gonna pull some weird shit to each other. They also can't help but shade each other constantly. Like the respect is there but they can't help responding to what the other is saying. Every single one of their actions on track is haunted by 2021, hell, every single season is haunted by and compared to season 2021. Like max WANTS charles as his rival, he can't help but clash off with george, he had lando as a brief rival but there is a very real possibility lewis will be his only legitimate championship rival in f1. For lewis it's a lot more complicated since he has fucked up dynamics with all his rivals and/or teammates but max is his last championship rival. Max has a real potential of being the one to break his records like he did michael's.
5 + 1 drabbles for the GBB weekly prompts, for the 'feathers' prompt of week 10 (yes, that's too late) (erik = the bodyguard)
“Can we keep it if it gets well, mama?” Max asks Sophie. He and Stan watch tearfully while Sophie takes the still magpie from him and places it on a blanket in the open boot of her car.
“Better not, Max,” she says and brushes his tousled hair, then Stan’s.
“But I hit it with my kart so I should—,” he stammers. “And papa always brings home strays.”
“Yes. But birds should be free to fly, sweetheart,” she says.
Stan always thinks of that when he comes across the feather Max let him have after the bird flew away.
🪶
The car is back in the garage before Max is back from the hospital. When GP looks at the hole in its bodywork it’s akin to the one in his chest. The broken pieces of carbon, serrated edges, like his anger; sharp and rough. Bile rises in his throat when he sees the blood red paint smeared across the halo. He sits with it until Max returns, pushes it all down and pulls Max into his arms and lets his hand rest gently below Max’s neck, where he’s read the words on the HANDS device so many times: ‘feather lite’.
🪶
Chris never cared much for poetry but he always remembered the ‘Hope is a thing with feathers’ poem because it had been taught in class the day after his barely-started race career had ended because his parents couldn’t finance it. The only thing Chris could hope for that morning was that his classmates didn’t see his red, puffy eyes. He doesn’t really get it until years later he meets Max in a lobby and its feathers start to ruffle.
When Max facetimes him with a smile to invite him to a GT3 test, its wings beat wildly against his chest.
🪶
Kelly had an ex-boyfriend who’d used a feather tickler on her once, teasing her until she felt like she could drown in the light brush of it. Max makes her feel that way. He’s gentle tonight. Knows what she needs. Always. His delicate fingers, teasing, dancing over her skin, the soft brush of his freshly shaved face and tongue that follows their path.
“Have a baby with me,” she says.
He’s been waiting for her, skittish as she was after Daniil. His head shoots up from her belly and she feels like she could drown in his beaming smile too.
🪶
Max’s pitstop was the only time this weekend Erik could focus solely on him. Tending to his needs, offering him a drink the way Max offers him one now; his smile huge, his joy infectious, tempting. But Erik needs to do his job for Max to stay that way; protect him and not have his trust and kindness betrayed by someone in this crowd.
It’s deep into the night when they’re alone again and Max’s drunken giggle fills the quiet hotel corridor when Erik hoists him over his shoulder. “Too heavy,” he protests.
He’s light as a feather to Erik.
🪶
Max lifts the saker falcon trophy high in the air when he’s handed it. It’s his sixth Abu Dhabi win and it’s going to be his last. Out of the corner of his eye he sees GP put his down carefully, knows it’s precious to GP because it’s his last one too. At least with Max. There’s beauty in it, Max thinks; they celebrated their first championship here and now the final one.
They shower each other in rose water until sticky sweet melds with salt and they’re laughing and can no longer see the tears in each others’ eyes.
(The best of this post and its reblogs, but with links that work)
Here is a website where you can scroll down to all the different levels of the ocean
Here is a website where you can see the future of the universe
Here is a website where you can press a ‘make everything okay’ button, over and over, until things really are okay
Here is a website that you can read if you feel like a burden
Here is a website where you can look at strobe illusions (TW strobe/flashing)
Here is a website where you can cut stuff up (TW blood/sh)
Here and here are websites where you can play with sand
Here is a website where you can draw with macaroni and other fun foods
Here is a website where you can paint someone’s nails
Here is a website where you can grow a garden with emojis
Here is a website with hundreds of videos of people hugging you (rightfully dubbed ‘the nicest place on the internet’ because it really is, y’all, it made me cry)
Here is a website that will take you to other useless websites
Here is a website where you can make a tiny cat play bongo drums (and other instruments!)
Here is a website to help give you gentle reminders <3
Here is a website where you can grow a tiny farm
Here is a website where you can take a bunch of scientific personality tests
