also! i just read run rabbit run (amazing btw) and i was wondering if u would be willing to go more into detail about what happened between lando and oscar post brazil ‘24…
ik we already got a huge paragraph about it but i’m greedy and in love with ur story
i feel like there’s so much potential for rough and rancid and ‘kind of reluctant to take it all out on oscar but not really’ lando, and super-fucking-into-it oscar lol
Aw thanks so much Anonie <3 So glad that you loved it! It was a joy to write so I'm so glad it's a joy to read.
Strap yourself in, this is a long one. You actually opened pandora's box fr:
This short scene was verryy fun to write for me because it was also one of the strongest plot glimpses into this vibe about oscar that simmered underneath his whole character but really came into its own over the course of chapter 3.
Oscar in run rabbit run had such a streak of ruthlessness. It was something that was so endemic to him that he almost wouldn't even be able to pin it down and name it on his own. It just is part of who he is, down to his very core. I feel he would just say 'i'm ambitious' or 'hardworking' or 'willing to do what it takes'. But to actually distill it down to the word 'ruthless' instead of dancing around it...if someone pointed it out to him, he would pause for a second and absolutely own it (i see him reacting exactly like in the gif I linked to). But it's a funny little blindspot his character has. He's just oscar (and oscar just so happens to be unrepentantly ruthless).
In saying all that, post Brazil, I had such a clear idea in my head that the race was absolutely atrocious for lando. Maybe he crashed out 2 laps from the end from his own mistake. Or someone crashed into him. Or maybe he had to DNF very early and spent the rest of the race watching oscar in an interesting role reversal from chapter 1. But either way, the race was awful and he was pissed and having to do media through gritted teeth as journalists were rude and snipey and doing everything to provoke a delicious sound bite out of him. It made him furious.
So coming off that, oscar would have guessed, or taken one look at lando e.g. in the media pen and clocked exactly how pissed lando was (the glint in his eyes, tension around his mouth, the stiff line of his back, the way his hands were twitching as if he wanted to wrap them around some dickhead journalist's throat etc). More to the point, oscar would have immediately known exactly how to best "stress relieve" lando (to his best advantage).
By that point, oscar knows a few things about lando: (1) lando deeply enjoys being in control (and this is where the dom/sub dynamics come in), (2) lando is feeling a severe lack of control, because his race went tits up and (3) lando is very careful with oscar in bed (a soft!dom with him, if you will).
So I have a few ideas of what oscar would have done but, considering the time constraints (as they only have like 20 mins before team debrief), oscar would have brushed up against lando in passing in the media pen and whispered something along the lines of "I'll be waiting in my driver room if you want to fuck out that tension". He's not really offering lando sex, as much as he's offering lando control. That's what's really intoxicating to lando. And oscar knows it, and is willing to exploit it.
So now lando's horny (but really, seduced by the offer of being able to exercise control in a d/s dynamic) on top of being very pissed off and he stalks down the corridor into oscar's driver room (and I have this very clear image of him stalking the halls like a predator and ignoring anyone who tries to talk to him). Oscar's waiting naked on his knees for lando. He's a very good boy for him.
Lando obviously takes him up on his offer and they end up fucking but oscar can feel that lando is holding himself back because he's still worried about genuinely hurting oscar. Oscar's frustrated because he's 80% sure he can take what lando needs to dish out (and the spare 20% is inconsequential, he'll make it work if it breaks him) and the whole point was to get lando to get his top/dom kick out of the situation PLUS release tension, but it's only happening at like 40%.
So he probably tries goading lando (which doesn't work, that just gets him pressed face down into a pillow to muffle his words, or fingers stuffed in his mouth to gag him). So he tries a different tactic: he uses his submission. He starts moaning and pushing back so sweetly, stroking lando's ego by telling him how good he feels, and starts begging for more (along the lines of "please, please, harder, lando, i need it, more") and that's what finally works. lando finally fucks him as hard as he needs. stress relieved ;)
Oscar does all of this for a few reasons but the most compelling one for me is that he wants to give lando something that he can only get from oscar. A heady, intoxicating mix of control, sexual release and a safe haven from shitty race. Oscar is willing to do anything he can to make lando as obsessed with him as possible. He'll use anything to achieve it. He'll pavlov bell lando into loving shitty races because he'll know that oscar will be waiting for him at the other end, open and willing and accepting.
FYI all of the above are things I didn't want to go into too explicitly in this story (and especially that very short scene) because I loved that there was a levity to it. I wanted it to be more 'fun and freaky' than 'darkly obsessive'. I wanted the darkness to more creep up when you thought about it a little too hard. A little 'wait a damn minute' around the smut and the lols. The most overt bits came from the allusions and metaphors e.g. how oscar thought about their relationship - the fleeting idea he was a frog being happily vivisected, lando kissing him with a mouth stained with the blood of his slain best friend, that oscar was michaelangelo painting the sistine chapel with his raw fingertips and absolutely loving it. These little psycho glimpses of his true thoughts - and again, his core ruthlessness that he doesn't really notice but just is.
Maybe I'll explore obsession and control in more overtly darker fics as these concepts fascinate me.
(Side note: on point (3) above, there's backstory that's very interesting to me, in that lando is not ordinarily a soft!dom. I very easily see him being quite harsh and uncaring of the people he usually sleeps with. He would see them as quite disposable, essentially just cheap sex toys for his pleasure, to be discarded and replaced on the regular.
But there's something about oscar that compels him to be softer in bed...Oscar is his teammate so there are possible professional repercussions if he really hurts him. They also have a mutual friend in max f, and max f would 100% give lando a *look* if lando was horrid to oscar and say something along the lines that lando 'is better than that, and if not, maybe he should be better than that'. That would stick with lando for a long time. Maybe it's the fact that oscar's an extremely inexperienced virgin (and lando hasn't slept with someone like that in forever). Virginity is a construct etc but he'll still have a feeling of being handed something precious, like a piece of handmade, fine crystal art...upon holding it in his hands and gazing upon its beauty, he finds his hands want to cradle instead of destroy. It's a softer side of him that would only come out around his very closest loved ones...maybe just max f and his mum.
There's also something deeply compelling about the fact that lando knows oscar has been utterly obsessed with him for years, and would swallow any bs lando gave him and beg for another crumb. In the face of true utter devotion, lando would surprise himself by also being benevolent. At the end of the day, I think he just deeply, violently needs to be loved and adored by the close people around him, and oscar gives him everything he has, and has done, for years. Lando absolutely lovedddd that oscar was commenting and liking on all his shit from when he was 14 onwards. It tickles him. Here is someone who can actually prove he adores him. It's also the fact that oscar didn't go running away from him when he actually got to know lando in real life, in fact, he scooched in even closer and closer at every opportunity and matched his freak at every turn.
I actually think if lando wasn't a soft!dom their relationship would have had to be very toxic and painful and I wasn't in the mood to write anything too achy lol. I wanted surprising sweetness and to keep the fic lighter and fun!)