#devantesmithpelly

pairing game

in the entire fandom, lando and maxF have the best canon and like it's not even close. there is no other pairing that are as deeply enmeshed in every level of each other's lives. from like the legal complexity it would take to remove max, the managing director of lando's brand quadrant, and the like pr complexity of him now being the main face and on screen presence ... they are business married squared. they are more than married.

this is one of those pairings where the canon is so good - and so unrelenting, like are they streaming together right at this very second? IT'S POSSIBLE - that i don't self generate much in terms of fic ideas, because i'm just happy to sit there passively and have them be more insane than anything my brain could come up with. and i mean i feel like it's fair to say that my brain can come up with some pretty insane things.

are they going to SPEND VALENTINES DAY TOGETHER AGAIN? are they going to further intertwine their personal and professional and romantic lives? i mean COULD THEY? or has the melding already been completed to the point where they're no longer recognizable as individuals?

it's so interesting, because max is just lando's girlfriend. he payed the role of girlfriend on drive to survive when lando needed a person on screen with him to help humanize (and they MATCHED like they were like, how should we best appear together on camera? matching 🙂‍↕️). he dotes on lando in a girlfriendly way. he navigates lando's mood swings. he defends him on chat. and then lando pays for everything and tells max when a rocket is launching.

i genuinely think it's so intersting to try to figure out how it's possible that they make this seemingly impossible situation work, like lando is living max's dream; lando made it to f1 where max didn't, and there is such an incredible power difference between them where lando has all the money and fame and social capital and prestige. but it's also clear max has a lot of interpersonal power over lando just in that lando is deeply bonded to him. lando wants to be sending time with him. lando wants to be around him. the biggest thing lando was looking forward to at the end of the season was the boys trip, like he deeply deeply deeply values his relationship with his friends.

okay going to answer 46 & 50 and put 25 under a cut lol

46. What’s the last thing a friend recommended to you that you looked into and actually liked?

GREAT timing!! yesterday i asked @msmargaretmurry for romance novel recs and she recommended the will darling series by kj charles and i read the whole first book slippery creatures yesterday and this morning i'm like a quarter through the second book already. VERY VERY GOOD, very fun, adventurous, sexy, excellent rec all around

50. Describe your perfect sleeping conditions

i'll actually sleep under most conditions these days w the proper medication but generally speaking i prefer it to be dark but not pitch black (unless i'm having a REALLY hard time sleeping but then i'll wear an eye mask rather than make the room dark), i have a sleep playlist of ~350 songs that are familiar but that i love and i put it on shuffle every night (unless i'm having a REALLY hard time sleeping in which case i'll put on the show friends), i like to be under the comforter so the temp shouldn't be too warm but i don't want to be under too many blankets so it shouldn't be too cold either.

25. Do you have any piercings or tattoos? Are there any that you want?

i have a septum piercing & standard lobe piercings. i had my daith pierced for a while but when i got surgery they took it out & i never replaced it. i also had an industrial piercing for like 10 years and took it out for the same surgery and never put it back in. i miss the daith more than the industrial tbh.

i have like... 40 tattoos? 50? somewhere around there. some a lot of pics under the cut!

[writing ask game]

Which of your fics would you keep the basic plot of but rewrite completely?

i mean i literally just did that 💀💀💀 rewrote In Abidance -> Arrangement, In AND I'D DO IT AGAIN.

22. What is it about watching the same two idiots falling in love over and over again?

before i return to the horny IA verse aspect of this question, answering the fic ask game: 👉👈What two stories have you written that are most similar? Why?

i was thinking about this and i think there are some examples of stories i tried to write in bandom, but wasn't skilled enough to pull off, that I basically had another go at.

Nothing To Do With You was a brendon/ryan story where ryan's got abandonment issues and uses sex to try to keep brendon close even though the desire is mostly lacking, which is a similar premise to Five for Fighting, where .. i mean i'll just use the story summary: Mitch knows how to be nice to the bigger guys, and Matt knows how to say yes to the talent.

or always seem to be opening, which was brendon being repressed about his feelings for his bestfriend shane, has a similar core to it to Next Level Bromanship.

when i look back on the things i wrote across different fandoms, i'd say that in bandom, i had some really ambitious ideas that i didn't know how to execute, because they required using writing tools that i just didn't have yet. so i'd write stories that would have like a sliver of it, there'd be maybe one scene where i did what i wanted to, but a lot of the rest of it was me flailing around in the dark. i was sooo lost in trying to figure out how you show e v e r y t h i n g that i would write a lot of scenes where not that much happened. because there's a lot of nuance to "show don't tell" and it took me a long time and a lot of attempts to figure it out.

when i started writing one direction fic, i had a better grasp of what makes a story a story. i think at that point, i was better able to match my ideas with my ability to execute. i pulled back a little on ideas that were more conceptual than plot-based, you know like more stories where the premise wasn't just ~vibes. and i think i learned quite a bit about writing. that was also the era where i was taking continuing ed writing classes at the university and i had an irl writing circle that met every two weeks. so i spent a lot of time learning about writing and workshopping other people's stuff, like thinking about how to write beyond just my own stories.

so when i finally got to hockey rpf, which was nine or ten years later, like a loooot of time had passed, i'd finally got to the point where i was able to (mostly) execute the ideas i had in the way i wanted. obviously always room for improvement, but i can look back on those stories and be like, yeah, that did pretty much what i had envisioned.

anyway, my point of writing this post is that when you are first starting to write, it is extremely normal for your ideas and inspiration to surpass your ability to execute. that frustration of having an idea and not knowing how to turn it into a story is what motivates you to expand your toolbox. the tension between what you can imagine and what you can do is what drives you to improve, and it's very frustrating and discouraging at times.

but then if you stick with it and keep trying, it's incredibly satisfying.

and that is why you should never use AI to try to sneak a shortcut 🙂‍↕️ you have to go through the learning pains or you'll be stuck at that point forever. writing is supposed to be hard. your first story isn't supposed to be the best thing you are capable of writing. every person gets better with practice. and going through the work of building a skill is what makes it satisfying.

i know there's a ton of stuff you could still criticize about my writing and there's certainly still a lot of room for improvement, but from only my own experience as the person doing the writing: i'm now capable of executing my ideas. i can turn vibes into stories. i can have an idea in my head and communicate it, in the way i imagined, into someone else's head.

BUT the point about it changing the shape of his jaw made me think more broadly about how i do believe in the last year or two he's fully and officially grown into his head shape. like the rest of it caught up with his big ass forehead. THIS IS ALL SAID WITH NOTHING BUT LOVE the human body is a fascinating beautiful thing in all it's many shapes and forms

but i really do think he's like officially through his Late 20s Settling so he now well and truly looks like a Man which is just so undeniably sexy. he's so sturdy looking these days and then also he figured out the right pair of go to trousers. add a slightly straighter smile and a backwards cap and none of us stand a chance...

I think you’re soooo right, like him growing into his head (ahahah) and also just looking older (complimentary). Like I think maybe he’s lost a bit of his round cheeks also? Exactly like you said, just overall landing firmly in man instead of boy.

Your whole last paragraph like 🥵 he’s STURDY his one (1) pair of trousers are fitting better, his BACKWARD CAP. His like whole confident vibe (oh god imagine if part of his glow up was from all the time James has spent praising him for being such a good LEADER help). Also it seems like he’s been smiling a lot????

[fic ask game]

23. pick three keywords that describe your writing

grocery item: i shop almost exclusively at trader joe's bc it's across the street - their indian style flatbread is the perfect texture to me and also the perfect bland flavor. i hate food so this is great for me. also at tj's rn are mini strawberry rhubarb pies, which are great for when i like food

a good museum: ooo the detroit institute of arts is a great art museum! i also like the museum of pop culture in seattle. ^_^

song: it's pretty rare that i listen to one song over and over anymore. there's a more recent one that i can't remember off the top of my head, but snow patrol - all is incredibly repeatable. OH the recent one was arm's length - palinopsia which i had on repeat for a few days last month!