#alpinelogy

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

Ask and thee shall receive!!!

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.

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 🩵

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!!!

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

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