on the topic of misunderstanding rosquez i also think the chain of events at the end of 2015 being marc is pouty over losing several races to vale > vale is under a UNIQUE and SPECIALLY CALIBRATED pressure cooker of stress so he stupidly decides okay we’re not friends anymore anyways and lobs the kind of media bomb he’s been id say medium successful at wielding in the past in ways that haven’t ruined anyone’s lives thus far > this backfires majorly bc marc is crazy and hurt and marc decides to fuck with vale’s race and as such championship on PURPOSE > vale freaks out and kicks him off his bike > the media shitstorm gets bad in ways that scar marc forever > vale’s championship and ego are now ruined so he must construct a new version of reality where marc is TURBO EVIL in order to make himself look less dumb looking. and i’m gonna be real i don’t think that is a level of nuance easily translated into au form

i will say one of my fav things to sneak into this fic is to have vale go well its not like we were EVER together. and then i keep adding pop up unexamined memories of him and marc doing shit years 2013-2015 that were absolutely dates but he is stupid so he doesnt know that

writing rosquez is #annoying because i feel like the whole way they express any emotion in that relationship in public is by smiling with varying degrees of fakeness so im constantly like he smiled. tightly. or he smiled! for real this time! or i’m like he smiled but he was sad...