#alpinelogy

[racingliners]

Hello yes I think we should all look at Gem this morning!!

(It would be really nice if we got even more Gem pictures 🥺👉👈)

Ask and thee shall receive!!!

[racingliners]

Hi as the area canon divergence and TRoS enthusiast I need to know how you came up with the initial premise of Merc strategist!Seb!! What was the thought process to this great idea :0

Dearest Erika I kid you not... I literally came up with the idea for TRoS while in the shower.

A line of what ended up being part of the pre-season testing chapter just waltzed into my head, and the rest came semi-fully formed immediately after. It literally stopped me while I was mid-lather.

TRoS is literally a hybrid of three of my favourite F1 things: Seb, Lewis, and the Mercedes engineers. While I was very quickly set on Seb being an ex-driver turned engineer thanks to his long rambly answers in press conferences that made them feel like post-race debriefs, it took me a little while to settle on what branch of engineering he'd be in.

I didn't want to make him Lewis' race engineer because that would mean breaking up Lewis and Bono. I did briefly toy with Seb being Lewis' performance engineer, but then I quickly realised that I didn't actually want to write out any of the other Merc engineers. So when I decided I wanted to set the fic in 2017, I came up with the idea of "what if Toto was so burnt out by the 2016 season that he wants less responsibility, makes James Vowles deputy TP, which allows Seb to come in and take the Chief Strategist's job".

Side note that I set TRoS in 2017 as it was 10 years after Seb's debut with Sauber, and I thought it would be both symbolic, and feel realistic enough that Seb would have had enough time to study at university and have had a good few years of an engineering career under his belt before joining Mercedes. I picked him being a strategist in endurance racing because I both love Le Mans, and when worldbuilding I wanted Seb to have some kind of equivalent to his 4 WDCs, so I gave him 4 Le Mans wins instead.

For me I thought it would be more interesting to have Seb be a member of the wider engineering team as opposed to just being on Lewis' side of the garage, just to give that extra conflict when I (finally) start writing about them catching feelings and how Seb and Lewis go about processing the italicised ohs of it all.

[racingliners]

💚 :3c

OPI - Can't Find My Czechbook

Yes the name is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, but I just had to pick it. But this is also one of my favourite blues, and I'm actually wearing it as part of my current manicure so that's a fun little bonus!

I feel like this just about works as a George Russel helmet blue colour (it's not as bright but the shade is just about there) and it's an Alpine blue if you really really squint.

But another reason why I picked this is that it's also a really pretty sky blue and you do give me lots of outdoorsy vibes! I think a lot of that is down to the cycling but also chatting to you feels a lot like hanging out with friends at a park all day and this polish reminds me a lot of that too 🩵

mutuals send me a 💚 and I'll assign you a colour from my nail polish collection!

[racingliners]

💌 hi 🥺👉👈

ERIC MY BELOVED!!!!

First of all, you're still the cool mutual (no takebacks!!!). Secondly, I still think about the Cycling AU once a week (I want to talk about worldbuilding with you so bad). Thirdly, YOU'RE JUST SO NEAT!!

I love that we can go ages without chatting in the DMs and pick up as if time hasn't passed at all (and you are definitely the unofficial Co-President of the Gem Appreciation Society), you're also so great to talk to in general about anything and everything!!! Very funny, very chill, very fab.

Also, I mean this in the best way, your graphics are so crunchy. They have a really distinctive style that's truly yours and I always love seeing what you're gonna make next!!!

mutuals send me a 💌 and ill tell u something I love about you

[racingliners]

Happy Birthday!!! Hope you have a wonderful day 🥳🎉🎊

Thank you Eric!!! 💚

[racingliners]

Also the racing bulls livery looks like an ad for a mouthwash or some mints... sorry i just saw your post about it and I need to put my thoughts somewhere asdfgh

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is genuinely ruined. Get out of here with that picture of glitter instead of actual glitter on the car nonsense.

[racingliners]

seanagh liverywatch, what are you thoughts on the pink alpine livery they just dropped?

Full Livery Watch thoughts have now been added to my 2024 one-off/special liveries post here! Just scroll down to the bottom.

sidenote that I am thinking of changing the format of my livery watch posts so that instead of one post I update through the year, I do a post for each race we get new liveries, but that's for 2025 Seanagh to worry about

[racingliners]

Please don’t edit fic or some official account will tweet out that Doohan got fired at this rate 😂😭🫠

I mean a part two to the F1 race director news just dropped, so I think we (and also Jack Doohan) are safe 🤞