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thank you & goodbye 

It’s almost been a year since I have posted my first F1 fic on my account - and what a year it has been. I have learned so much, met so many great people, stepped out of my comfort zone a bunch, and really, really found my love for writing again. 

The events of the last 24 hours have made me reconsider a whole lot. About what I am doing here, about the time I invest in writing, about what it all amounts to. I have been writing non-stop since I started a year ago - it has been my most productive year, yielded my longest work so far, and it has been a great year for me, of both growth and enjoyment.

Writing has always been an escape for me, a reprieve. It has been the most wonderful outlet for me for an entire year, and I have found solace in it. However, that has changed over the last few weeks. 

Everything has gotten so big, so overwhelming – to the point that I have not managed to stay on top of replying to comments and to asks, which has always been the most important part of this whole thing for me. All of a sudden, people have started to talk about my fics everywhere - and, of course, in Oscar’s comments as well. 

What happened with the MCSR fandom has showed me how big these things can become in a very, very short amount of time - and it has really put the fear of god in me, haha. I did everything in my power to contain it, but it was of little avail. 

I think that the way ZC breached containment has been a warning sign for me, since, thankfully, none of the streamers who know now played important parts in the fic - but Oscar and Lando do. And it would mortify me, fill me with a guilt I could never shake if something like that happened with those two - or any of the people I write about - as well.

So I have decided to take the very difficult measure of removing my fics and myself from the internet. 

I cannot control how people behave, and I apologize for any damage I have caused. I can, however, take the fate of my fics into my hands. 

I will always love writing. This past year has taught me that; you have all taught me that. 

I want to thank you for that, from the bottom of my heart. I have had the single greatest time, but I feel like this is the only thing I can really do.

max: oscar_piastri has said "max, take off your shirt".. i don't think oscar would type that so i don't think that's the real oscar 🤔

To me personally, Alex has the 'poshest' sounding British accent. His is the closest to RP (received pronounciation) and actually, when you listen to him talk, I feel like he has the least quirks as well. Pronounces his syllables clearly, doesn't do any th-fronting (where your th- sounds become f or v), I can't say I've even heard him with a glottal stop (so where you say wa'er instead of water) or a consonant drop (where you don't enunciate the last letter and use a glottal stop instead so you might say ca' instead of caT) . He's been brought up more in the Home Counties (Buckinghamshire) so that figures but his pronounciation definitely falls into the posher end of the spectrum.

George is a funny one because he actually has ALOT of regional vocal quirks - when he's not thinking about it, but for whatever reason he seems to try and consciously sharpen them up but they do slip through occasionally. He pronounces world as 'weld', the 'u' in 'nuts' is more of an 'oo' sound than an 'uh' sound. I *think* I've also heard him sometime use a short a in words like Bath and path rather than a long a (so more of an arrr sound) - but don't hold me on that. If you go back, to listen to him in 2019 you can hear the change from how he speaks now. If you find a video of him when he was younger, it's even more obvious. He was born in Norfolk to a family with a farming background. I'm not sure of his whole family history but his dad supports wolves so I'm guessing there's a midlands connection in there and you can hear it in his little vocal quirks. The other thing that I think skews the perception of George's accent is his vocabulary. He doesn't sound especially posh to me, but he does use some 'posher' word choices. All the crikeys and blimeys... He also almost exclusively uses the word 'father' Ive noticed recently which is quite unusual and definitely reads posher.

Lando's accent is unusual because it's very obvious he's picked up vocal twangs from his mum. He has some West Country vocal quirks in there, but also some very European. He also does the opposite of George in that he seems to soften up his accent to sound less posh. When he's pissed off, I think his pronounciation is more clipped and enunciated. It's actually interesting to read you say his accent is 'just british' because (and I don't mean this in a derogatory way), sometimes when I hear him speak, his accent makes it sound to me like he's speaking English as his second language? Some linguists might be able to explain it better than me or put their finger on what it is that he does exactly - I think it's a kind of intonation/tempo thing - I honestly don't know, but I think that's why so many people don't read it as posh because it's the least stereotypical 'British' sounding.

Also about George’s vocabulary; I would describe it as old-fashioned, which then gets interpreted as posh. He absolutely still has multiple traces of his regional accent, but he’s tried to get rid of it.

Alex is the poshest and that checks out bc Alex has a classic old money background which I think people don't realise bc he lives with his mum and barely mentions his biological dad (I don't know if he's even in contact with him these days?) but he was literally born in the same hospital as the royal children. I think he also has a slight lisp as well? Which I've found a lot of posh people tend to have, almost like they're tripping over their own pronunciation (I call this the boris johnson effect)

If you watch videos of Lando as a teenager he has a *very* posh accent which he seems to cover up now. His accent now I think makes him sound like he's speaking English as a second language? Probably something he picked up from his mum but I think it's also as an effort to cover up his naturally posh accent. As others have mentioned, the poshness comes out in force when he's angry though.

George is SO interesting to me bc I think he's actually the least posh of the three, despite his very carefully constructed image of Britishness and poshness. In my mind, George is the opposite of myself as a very self-consciously constructed Scouser bc regardless of his actual wealth and background, he will construct his accent and identity around those stereotypical images of poshness. I think he's actually quite new money with his dad being from? Wolverhampton? I think? And his mum being a hairdresser? Unless I've got it wrong. His family seem to be what I call the classic 'Thatcher Family'- from East Anglia, small business owners that have done well for themselves and so have made a very considered effort to blend in with the old money (the opposite of my own upbringing in Liverpool lol). I think George is the most 'normal' in his actual personality- he's the biggest football fan of the three, his turns of phrase and cultural references are very 'normal' and I think his natural accent is just your standard Southern accent, something you can hear when he's pissed off (most notably when he crashed with bottas and said "is 'e a fuckin' prick or WOT")

This was rambling but yeah. Alex and Lando are you're established posh boys. George is one of the many many many people who are desperate to be.

To an outsider like me, I completely agree with the assessment that Lando and Alex have posh accents while George sounds like your stereotypical Brit. It probably definitely has to do with their family background- Alex and Lando being relatively old money (not sure about Lando, seeing as his dad got rich after his venture business).

I also feel like Lando's accent is more foreign than British, but put it down to me not knowing many Regional accents. I hear some Dutch/Flemish tilt to his words, like how he pronounces "Tomorrow" (To-Maw-row) it does sounds like he's one of the multilingual/Anglo kid who grew up in Britain (which he is). He also seems like the kind of people who mold their accents according to where they live.

Alex has a VERY crisp accent to a non-Brit. Like someone who is probably a part of the Royal family.

Also about Lewis, to me he just sounds American, save a few words he says. I wouldn't know he was British if I didn't know who he was and I hear him for the first time.