#diaposting

eventually there’s a whole portion of their wardrobe that seems to be shared between them, even if it’s obvious which pieces originally belonged to whom. regulars in the Detroit punk scene know not to comment on Simon’s occasionally colourful fashion choices, bc if they do there’s a decent chance of Patty springing out of nowhere and punching them in the jaw. one time she chipped a guy’s tooth. (he was twice her size, it took him completely by surprise, and now he’s one of her band’s most loyal fans.) sometimes Simon just wears yellow and purple, much like sometimes he has cartoon character bandaids wrapped around his bruised knuckles, or like sometimes he offers you a light with a bright green zippo that has frogs all over it.

When he's alone it's easy to be like "yeah, I piss myself at night, I can't control it, so what", the whole routine of baby powder, putting a diaper on, falling asleep, waking up wet, changing out of it and stashing it into a plastic bag into a bin is just so normal to him now. When he's alone.

Daniel caaan't be sharing a room with his teammate now. Not now, please, not now.

Max is a three time world champion, on his way to a fourth, stuck with red bull since the start and made that shitty drink synonymous with his name. He's so fucking cooool, Daniel has no idea how he's gotten to this level. He of course does, but- that's not the point.

He can't be sharing a room with Max now. Or at all. Ever. Fuck the crush he has on his new, cooler, older teammate, if Max catches him waddling to bed with a stupidly big and plastic-y sounding ass then he'll quit F1 and off himself right there and then. Suffocate himself with his own medical aids all taped over his head.

He tries to bargain out of it with Horner, one person who vaguely knows about Daniel's nighttime problems, but all he says is that Max is a good lad and won't pick on him for something he can't control. As if. Daniel knows the older drivers sit and gossip about the younger ones whenever they can, shared whispering when crossing paths in the garage corridors, side eyeing the rookies before press conferences. They always do that. Daniel's seen it. He's been in that position too many times.

Daniel tries one last time to get out of sharing the hotel room by begging his trainer to share instead. He understands the concern, but he's got a tiny room and a single bed, and gives a little nod down to Daniel's crotch when he says he doesn't want a leak all over his thighs in the morning.

With the last chance gone, Daniel has to suck it up and deal with it - find a way to hide any and every indication of something being wrong with him from Max.

Too bad diapers are the most obnoxious thing to deal with when trying to be discreet about them.

Daniel's used up all his pull-ups for naps during the week before. It would have been easy if he wasn't so tired, or took some more from home before this two week stint, or got nabbed some from the medical team, or just-

He sighs, lying on his back, scrolling on his phone with one earbud in, eyes unfocused on the screen.

Max is over in the corner, facetiming his sister, waving to his nieces. Daniel's half listening, picking out bits that sound somewhat English before they're interrupted with that khggrh sound.

He's hatching a plan, to get diaper up when Max is fast asleep, but even then, he might wake him up from the loud crinkling. What other plans can he go through with? Falling asleep in the bathtub? What if Max needs to go piss in the night and the doors locked? That's suspicious enough to warrant a interrogation conversation with Daniel about it. Run over to get ready in his trainers bathroom? Then he'll have to waddle back, up three floors and long corridors to get back. The diapers are too loud when they're empty.

"Are you doing okay, mate?" Max voice comes, from a bit closer. He's sat on the edge of his bed now. Yawns and stretches.

"It's getting late," he keeps talking. The implication is there.

"I gotta- uh, shower, I'll go in after you." Daniel nods to the bathroom. If he uses the shower and... and plays some music along with it, then maybe? Max won't hear the rustling of his diaper. Solid plan, Danny boy.

All Max does is nod and walk into the bathroom.

Leaving Daniel, and his totally-not-diaper-bag-backpack that needs to be smuggled in, alone to think.

Well, what if...

"Simon?" "Yeah?"

"Are we going to jail?" "...Probably."

hi. hello. here's a goofy lil Simon/Patty scene I have NOT been able to get out of my head. crossposting directly to tumblr as well as ao3 bc it's not even 600 words and. I feel like it? (note: in some of my other WIPs, Madison is the angry lesbian I made up to be the drummer in Patty's band. it doesn't really matter here - I think the obvious context of her just being someone Patty and Simon know is good enough - but still.)

read on ao3 instead if you want ->

Simon’s standing out on the glorified fire escape that their super calls a balcony, enjoying the afternoon breeze and a smoke, when he hears Patty approach. Her bare feet thud gently against the warped hardwood and come to a stop behind him, just inside the open door.

“Hey Simon?” she asks.

“Mn?”

“Is it unpunk to get married?”

I don't quite have a fully-realised Thesis to go with this but. I have found myself several times making note of the use of American flag symbolism/imagery in the movie

it's most prominent in the scenes that take place before Simon and Patty meet, and usually present at times when things aren't very good? it's in Patty's outfit when we first see her harrassed by Derrick and Brandon, behind the nasty clerk when Simon is trying to cash his check, hanging at the house Simon visits to pick up drugs from Albert (which he deals out of his need for money), in the store full of vices (booze, cigarettes, porn, and those same drugs again), in the window when Simon realises a cop has spotted him.

later we see flag decor at Patty's house, a place where she's trapped by her parents' expectations and her own passivity in moving forward with her life. specifically we see this decor during the scene in which she and Simon play basketball in the driveway, which is also arguably the scene in which his attempts to push/challenge her shift from just trying to push her buttons and figure her out into trying to get her to push back against the rules and ideas boxing her in.

we also see one right near the end of the movie, on the postage for Simon's letter to Patty. it makes sense that the prison would provide only the most basic standard-issue postage, but it's also pretty Thematic to connect the flag symbolism to the prison

the only flag I spotted that really breaks this rule is the one hanging upside-down in Simon's room. there's a long history of using the upside-down flag as a form of protest, which absolutely suits just as a bit of background environmental storytelling regarding Simon's character, but also - it's most prominently visible in shots where Patty is happy, either smiling/laughing or singing. which seems relevant, given that Simon's room as a setting is almost entirely used for the two of them to be honest with each other, choose one another, and really discover how much they love each other and what they're capable of together that neither of them could've done alone. compared to the use of the flag in all of its negative contexts throughout the rest of the movie, the use here of an inverted flag feels pretty deliberate.

I've been collecting text posts to do a "text posts + DIA" collection bc everything makes me think of Them and then it crossed my mind that I could probably 1000% do just a pure DIA + SkinnyTuna collection. and I was right. in fact I'm sure I could do more but this is what I came up with from scrolling SkinnyTuna's account until the app just crashed on me lmao.

my favourite is the 'can I hit' one bc it works in either direction