#AND THEN THEY RECONCILED DURING SEBS ERA

[arseteta]

webbonso jaguar teammates!au

[foggieststars]

how do u think a younger!charles and older!max dynamic would be different than same age!lestappen? ever since u mentioned ur new wip… i’ve been going a little insane

yeah. me too anon...

ok i'm putting a cut in here because i rambled for SO long abt like. just lestappen to be honest

honestly i think my fic is probably not the right place to like. properly explore this because it's a time slip au so like. charles knows what His max is like and they've still grown up together etc but his big dilemma is trying to marry that together in his head with older max. because charles knows like. pre-world champion borderline mad max era max and then when he's confronted with a more mature older max it's difficult for him to reconcile......like i've been doing research for the winner's room au and in 2019 seb and lewis were still publicly saying that they race max differently to others because he's fucking crazy so LMFAO

but also charles in 2018 was still very much. a bit of a hater.....like i know for the past couple of years they've been all smiles and like oh we have a good relationship! in the past it was tense :))) but we're all good now! but in 2018 charles was very much like. i can't say we have a good relationship but I'm Not Here To Make Friends .... and max was literally silent abt it....so from the perspective of an age gap it's very much charles trying to be like. how the fuck is my older self in a relationship with MAX VERSTAPPEN and also why's he so soft and goofy and genuine and charming oh......dear.....what if he fucked me so i can get back to my original timestream.......

but honestly for a proper age difference au i struggle to say. bcs so much of lestappen to me is their history so divorced from that i think their dynamic would be very different and like. i hesitate to say not as compelling.....like. i'm so sorry to quote jos verstappen but this quote about them during their karting days lives in my mind rent free

A PROPHECY................ like to me this is why age gap lestappen is honestly for me. purely about getting to write older max fucking sauber charles. because sauber charles was still like. not that charles is exactly a rippling muscle monster now but like. in 2018 he was a tad more twinky....and max is like. Bigger now. so for me it's about aesthetics literally just because of the fact that like. to me it's always about the History.

ALSO i can't remember who said it i think it was one of my mutuals so full credit to whichever big brained beauty said this. but they pointed out that like. when max started driving lewis and seb and kimi etc always described his driving as over the line but charles has ALWAYS described driving against max as 'on the limit' and like. they know each other well from their karting days and they know how to race each other.............god. much to think about

however i think a true age gap au would have max being irritated by charles treating him exactly how max used to treat older drivers and just being fucking crazy. because max might have the mad max rep but like. charles is not exactly the epitome of safe sane and consensual racing himself.....anybody remember monza 2023

having said all that. please go and read frechheit by @additiva . i find lestappen age gap SO unbelievably compelling in this fic like. it is absolutely delicious and i think will satisfy your need for age gap lestappen and like. still somehow draws in all the regular lestappen insanity....being soulmates and knowing exactly how to race each other even sort of divorced from their history and it is just Brilliant !!

sorry for not answering your question at all. i'm so glad ur excited for the fic though ily <3

[kritischetheologie]

Sing Myself a Lullaby but if it was for maxiel! ❤️

btw i LOVED this fic— everything was so well executed, especially characterization!

THANK YOU anon!

as an obligatory starting point: my characterization of nico, particularly his relationship with his father in early years, does owe a lot to my violence uncommitted aka secret omega max by @yekoc

In the interest of not just reiterating that, and since max is canonically an alpha in sing myself a lullaby (genuinely can't remember what daniel was oops), let's think about a sing myself a lullaby with omega daniel and alpha max.

let's keep seb as an alpha too, because I think daniel's friendship with seb ends up important and formative. driving with seb, who's an alpha and a champion, is what gives daniel the confidence to really race against max, who's young and cocky enough to assume that daniel being an omega means max can waltz in and be first driver.

there's not as much mucking around in daniel's childhood as there is when it's nico, because what's important is his time at red bull: with seb, and then, with max. they start fucking sometime around 2016, around max's first win, even as they're racing against each other. in some ways, this timeline is a fairly standard rbr era maxiel fic: rivals who are fucking, max going into rut, daniel going into heat, friendship and laughter and intimacy they can't repress no matter how fiercely competitive they are on track.

by now, the formula for how sing myself a lullaby works is clear, so you probably know what's coming next:

daniel miscarries during the summer break of the 2018 season, calls cyril, and signs with renault.

(the pregnancy had been the last straw that forced him to realize the team was favoring max. the miscarriage had been the last straw that forced him to realize he needed a car he could rely on, if he couldn't rely on his body.)

the middle timeline covers the renault and mclaren years. daniel grinding away in cars that aren't worthy of his talents, culminating in abu dhabi 2021: daniel not allowed to overlap himself, stuck behind max as he takes his first title.

the final timeline covers silly season of 2022 and beyond: daniel losing his mclaren seat (seb returns as a foil, as he decides to retire), daniel going back to red bull, reconciling with the way that it was never about him being an omega after all (as compared, perhaps, to how it was at mclaren), taking the alpha tauri seat, and then the red bull seat, rekindling things with max, finally...

(this last timeline is still playing out, so I can't tell you how it ends. maybe daniel wins the title in 2024. nico needed to learn that he was more than winning. daniel might just need to learn that he's allowed to)