#just seeing people say they never want daniel to go near red bull ever again etc etc. makes me laugh personally

[blamemma]

( i know kym illman is talking out his arse. im so confident in saying that. that man knows nothing. he just wants his name in the news for a couple more days as it brings him clicks on his youtube and instagram. and god i hate red bull right now. but lol. if red bull turned around tomorrow and said sike bitch, daniel ricbull 2025. i'd forgive them in a heartbeat. i'd buy all the merch. i'd get i <3 red bull tattooed if i have to. i simpyl would not care. if it meant daniel was back on track. i'd forgive. i wouldn't ever forget. but i'd forgive )

[sillystappen]

Broken Melodies (aka a siren!Max fic that for some reason just came to me).

Nobody is on the beach by the Zandvoort track at night. It's far too cold and dark for any sane person to want to go there. And yet, here Daniel is, kicking the sand and cursing his stupid McLaren car for being a pile of shit all season. Qualifying earlier had been horrific, again, and a starting position of 17th was just plain awful.

The wind and salty air bites at his skin and Daniels tugs his jacket tighter around him. Waves crash against the shoreline and for a while that's all Daniel can hear - no cars, no people, not even a seagull. He just needs to get away for a moment.

"What are you doing?"

Daniel hears a voice and snaps to look behind him, but nobody is there. Maybe he's actually gone crazy, all the pressure and stress has made his brain break.

"In the ocean."

Daniel directs his gaze to where the sand disappears into vast water and sees blonde hair, blue eyes and a strong torso in the shallow water of the coastline. His head is propped up in his hands as his elbows rest in the sand, water lapping around them. This is all fairly normal except for the blue tail flicking behind him. It shimmers a little in the moonlight and the two fins at the end of it splash in the waves, flicking water over his raised upper half.

He's curious, head tilted and not at all afraid of Daniel. "Why are you here, kicking the sand like it offended you?"

Daniel knows what this half-person is, or well could be. Best case scenario, he's a merman. They're harmless to humans but very antisocial, so nobody ever sees them. Worst case is that he's a siren. Sirens feed off of flesh, specifically human flesh, so Daniel really hopes that he's not looking at one.

Daniel, against his better judgement, shuffles as close to the water as he can without getting his shoes wet. "Shit day, needed to get out my frustrations."

"Do you race Formula One? And have a bad quali?" The sea-man asks, watching Daniel closely.

"How did you know anything about that?" Daniel gapes.

"I can hear the commentators," he admits slowly, "I'm a siren."

Well fuck, Daniel backtracks, immediately walking back up the beach while keeping an eye on the siren. He is not about to be killed today, thank you. He need's to be out of earshot before that thing starts singing.

"Wait no! Please, I won't hurt you, I promise," the siren begs, one of his hands reaching out. "I can't sing!"

Daniel halts, staring to find any trace of a lie. The siren looks hurt, as if saying that he can't sing is something to be greatly ashamed of. Daniel supposes it is, if that's how they catch their prey.

"I'm a siren. My name is Max. I can hear for miles, smell any traces of blood in the water, see perfectly in the dark and can swim faster than most creatures, but I can't sing. My, um, songbox is permanently damaged." Max's tail flops into the water with a sad splash and he looks down. "I don't want to hurt you. I wouldn't even if I could sing."

"How can I trust you?" Daniel calls out, still not moving.

Max opens his mouth and makes the most gargled, broken noise Daniel's ever heard. Max gives him a sad smile, "see?"

Daniel nods and makes his way back over, sitting down near where the tide rises up. "I still don't fully trust you but at least you can't lure me to my grave."

Max grins, happy that Daniel has come back over. "What's your name, Mr. Formula One Driver?"

"Daniel," he says before quickly adding a forgotten "Ricciardo."

"Oh, yeah, you had a rough day today. Is it usually like that?" Max questions, smile falling from his face a little.

"Recently? Yeah..." It's painful to admit but it's true. Daniel thinks that his win in Monza last year was a complete and utter fluke and that he should've never have left Red Bull, or even Renault.

"I'm sorry." Max shifts forward a bit so he can gently place a hand on Daniel's shoe without reaching out like crazy. "I know I can't do anything to help but if tomorrow is equally shitty you can find me here again."

Daniel stares at Max's hand. There's thin webs between his fingers and claw-like nails on the ends of them that could easily dig into Daniel. However, Max is being soft, and kind, not pushing too far and always letting Daniel have room to leave. He's close to Daniel, the top half of his body almost completely dry from being exposed to the night's crisp air.

He can see the gills on the side of his neck flutter when the breeze hits, closing up so they're nothing more than raised lines. Daniel can also see the points of his ears, the broadness of his shoulders and the slightest hint of fangs in his mouth, sharp canine teeth that are slightly longer than the rest.

"Won't you be listening anyway? You'll know if I do poorly again." Daniel turns his head away, looking back the way he came and seeing his footprints in the sand.

"Yeah, but I'm not a human. There's no way anything you say to me can get to anyone else. It might be nice to have someone you can talk to," Max offers, retracting his hand so he can lay his forearms in the wet sand and hold himself up properly.

"Okay, I will call out for you tomorrow."

Max's tail flicks water right into Daniel's face as he smiles. "Oops," Max giggles.

Daniel cleans the seawater off with the sleeve of his jacket, chuckling as well. Max tilts his head up as he laughs, and Daniel spies a harsh red mark where his jaw meets his neck and Daniel leans forward over his knees to touch it, curious. Max gasps and freezes. Daniel knows he should stop, knows he should apologise but in that moment his entire body is rock solid, only his fingertips move, grazing, caressing the mark.

"That's where my songbox is," Max speaks softly, "father crushed it. I don't think he meant to go that far but it was done." Daniel's heart breaks a little at how unsure Max sounds, like he's trying to convince himself that it was an accident.

"Sorry." Daniel finally pulls his hand away, "did I hurt you?"

"No, don't worry. It felt nice."

Daniel's fingers tingle, remembering how smooth Max's skin felt and how warm it was. "I'm glad."

They stay chatting on the beach for a while. Max tells Daniel about how fish are disgusting and he has to spend most days diving out of the water to catch birds and then complains about the painstaking task that is pulling all the feathers out. Daniel asks how high Max can jump and Max swims out and shoots himself about 2 or 3 meters into the air before diving back in gracefully. Daniel wishes it was day so he could see Max's tail properly. He thinks it must be beautiful, much like how the rest of him probably is.

In turn Daniel tells Max everything he can about his life and humankind. Max asks about Perth and if it's warmer than the Netherlands and when Daniel confirms it, Max says he wants to swim over there one day, so he can see all the fish and feel the warmer sun. Daniel also tells Max about human food and promises to bring some for Max tomorrow.

Eventually, it gets too cold for Daniel and he has to say goodbye. He picks himself up and dusts the sand off of his body, looking down at Max as he promises to see him tomorrow.

Max understands, "I will see you then. Just call my name and I will come swimming over."

"Thank you, Max. Good night."

"Good night, Daniel," Max waves before pushing himself back into the ocean.

Daniel stays for a moment, just looking out into the sea when he sees a familiar figure jump out of the water, arms spread and giggling, before he splashes back in. Daniel smiles to himself, and heads back to his hotel, feeling better than he did before.

Now with a part 2

[simonestudyabroad]

6/2/2017

Our last week of classes - finally.

Monday started early as Brian, Daniel and I headed to the boat shed once again for sunrise. It was a frigid morning and we arrived to an empty boat shed. It was still fairly dark out so we patiently waited for the sun to come up. The sun rise was insane. The clouds were perfect and soon the sky was filled with pinks and purples. It was definitely worth the cold air and the no sleep. We headed back to campus and I fell back asleep. I woke up again around noon and tried using my computer but it wasn't working. It'd been broken for the past few days. Brian came over to work on Bio but my computer hindered how much we could do. After wiping the computer and restoring it from a back up, it's working again for the time being.

On Tuesday, Daniel joined us as we went to King's Park to fly the drone. The weather was gorgeous and we hadn't been to the park since our first week here. We had a few onlookers as we flew the drone and were able to get some nice shots of the Perth skyline. Daniel freaked me out and told me people were looking for me after I flew the drone. No one was. We then headed down to the Elizabeth Quey waterfront and flew it again over the iconic bridge in front of the skyline. Isabel and Daniel tried hiding from my camera but don't worry, I got pictures of them. We went back to campus and Brian and I worked on bio for a bit until it was time for dinner. The gang came over and we went to Northbridge to eat at Comet Pizza. It was definitely the best pizza I've had since being abroad. We enjoyed desert and then all went back to my room where Brian and Daniel learned new songs on their ukuleles and the rest of us tried to sing along. They stayed until about midnight and then we kicked them out.

Wednesday started in crisis mode because I couldn't find the SD card to my camera. I tore apart the room with no luck. Isabel and I headed to class and played games throughout the lecture. During the break, he told us not to 'run away' but half the class walked out, so of course we joined. And we never have to see him again! That would be the last class Isabel and I will ever be in together. I headed to the library to finish some work and met Brian there. He came over to finish up bio (finally) and as I sat in my rolling chair, I heard a crack. Upon further inspection, I found my SD card wedged in a crack in the wheel of my chair. It was bent but seems to work! We attended a village meeting about checking out and departure dates and after sitting through a long half an hour, we were fed hot dogs (and veggie burgers). We retired to our rooms and now I can enjoy the new season of House of Cards!!

Thursday was my last day class! It was an easy day filled with studying, grocery shopping and House of Cards. It ended with getting some free ice cream from the pool deck.

On Friday Isabel was dealing with some bad allergies. She stayed back as Daniel, Tim, Fabian and I set out to explore an old, abandoned power station in Fremantle. I was by myself with three Germans. They constantly went back and forth between German and English and I was so lost half the time. We took the bus into Fremantle and walked through the markets, trying the free food as we waited for our next bus. We hopped on and got off at the power station. The place was surrounded by barb wired fence with a security guard near the west end of the building. The structure was massive and absolutely covered in graffiti. I took out my drone and started flying it. There was a huge opening so we flew it into the building and almost crashed it into a pole. We immediately flew it out. It was insane how lucky we got since it got so close to the pole without crashing. We flew it around the building a few times and heard police sirens. We knew they probably weren’t for us but we were too paranoid so we packed up our stuff and walked away towards the beach. We found an old concrete bridge and entertained ourselves here until sunset by riding the longboard and making Tim sing Slim Shady and 50 Cent. 

At sunset, we put the drone back in the air and I made the boys run along the beach as I chased them with the drone. Tim gave us a little dance at the end and showed us all how to Gangnem style perfectly. The sun was gone and we headed back to the bus stop. It was hell trying to find the correct stop and we ended up walking about 2km to catch the bus back to campus. We were all hungry and went straight to this free pizza event on the very edge of campus. The place was a bit weird and we ended up having to make our own pizzas and cooking it ourselves. Daniel downed six red bulls in 30 minutes just because they were free. They had no effect on him. We walked back to the village and got ready to head to the tavern (the bar on campus) to hear some music. Elise and her roommate, Samantha, joined us as we headed to the tavern. 

The DJ was still playing music as we got there and we sat down at a nearby picnic table to play some card games. Our group can’t go anywhere without playing a round of Asshole. There weren’t too many people at the tavern but we encountered the creepiest ones there that night. We were first blessed with a friend of Samantha’s who told us his black-out drunk friend was going to ask her out and he wanted her to reject him. The guy eventually stumbled over but kept walking and didn’t say a word. As our card games progressed, another guy came over and stood in between Samantha and I. He said nothing. We tried to ignore him and keep playing. He then started saying a few things in gibberish and we continued to ignore him. He then pulled out a bowling sized chunk of ice from inside his sweatshirt pocket and said, “I’m hot.” It was the strangest thing. Tim stood up and asked if we wanted drinks and the guy screamed GERMAN after hearing Tim speak. Tim rolled his eyes and left with Elisa and Samantha. The creepy guy sat next to me and Daniel told him to leave. He immediately started apologizing and after a few more exchanges, left. Tim then saw his professor who was actually with the ice guy. He promised to bring it up to the professor at his final exam. 

About 20 minutes later, another guy stood at the edge of our table and asked if he could chat with us. No one answered him so he stayed and stared at us as we continued to play a game. After ten minutes, we got bored and left. The tavern closed at 11:30pm and we were all ready to escape the creepy guys. We went back to our rooms and poor Tim missed the last bus and had to walk back to his house. Crazy day.