#the tour of fuck it we ball

[pixelatedquarter]

I Am My Own Muse / 27 (Double 8 ball)

So Much For (Tour)dust Forest Hills Stadium NY (August 1st '23). From mandieboox3 on instagram (x)

[kingofthecotas]

ivy

post-aragón, vale & pecco & the ever-present spectre of marc | ~900 words

hi hello i write things sometimes

———

Valentino doesn’t call until Monday, when the heat of anger has faded and the dust has been washed from his hair, seven hours behind and six hours spent on track—one of Marc’s tracks, irony of ironies.

(Sometimes he wonders if he can ever extricate himself from this, from them, from the noxious tendrils that have wound themselves into the sport’s neurones and synapses, an incurable infection of the central nervous system.)

Pecco almost hesitates to answer—still afraid of disappointing him, even after all this time—but his shoulder throbs when he reaches out to pick up his phone and he suddenly wants the sound of Valentino’s voice, even if it carries judgment.

“Hello?” he says, cautious.

“Are you okay?”

“Sore. Will bruise, but fine. I’ll be okay for Misano.”

Valentino hums. “Good.”

Pecco searches for something, anything, that doesn’t remind him of gravel crunching, his head snapping forwards as one hundred and fifty kilos of aluminium and rubber collided with the back of his helmet. “Sorry about your race. It was going well.”

“It was. It was fun.” He can almost see Vale waving his hand. “I have already complained to Maro. I want to make sure you are okay.”

“Fine.”

There’s a pause, silence loaded with something Pecco can’t quite identify. “And Álex?”

Ah. “Fine as well. We both got checked over.” Pecco swallows. “I, ah, spoke to him. Or—he asked to speak to me, in private, so we did. I—I am still pissed off, but it was not deliberate. I know that now.”

Valentino hums again. “But you said it.”

So this is what he really called to talk about.

“I was pissed off. Martín—”

“I know,” Valentino says, and there’s something there, not quite the disappointment Pecco feared but something like it. “Be—just be careful, Pecco, yes? If you are going to start this, be ready for where it might take you.”

“I am not starting anything.”

Again, it’s, “I know.” Then, “I know it is hard when you are hurt and angry, and there are points slipping through your fingers. But think about what you are saying.”

“Yeah.” Pecco would be more annoyed if this wasn’t coming from experience.

“Ah, maybe you do not need my advice anymore—”

“Of course I do,” Pecco interrupts, chest fluttering at the mere idea of Valentino ever becoming superfluous to him.

“Get into it with Marc all you want. He is expecting this. The team are expecting this. He will give it back to you, and somehow, he will be ready to forgive.” Valentino pauses. “Do not make his brother part of it. That—that is where there was no coming back for us, truly.”

Pecco’s breath catches, because Vale sounds—unsettled. Sad, even. “I—”

“Do you understand?”

He does. “Fucking—the week before Misano, as well. It will be messy.”

“Not too messy. Not yet.” Still fixable, is what Vale doesn’t say, but they both know anyway. “But—you can handle it. You will do better than I did.”

Quietly, Pecco thinks there couldn’t have been many worse ways to handle it all. There are certainly better ones. He can’t remember when that thought first came to him: maybe when he’d won, that first time, Aragón of all places, the king of Marc’s castle, and Marc had been—disappointed, yes, but still there with a smile and a congratulatory word. Not what Pecco had been expecting, from everything Vale had said. Maybe Vale had been wrong.

Marc has done many things to Pecco since then, but that first doubt, the first fallacy of his god, was the most earth-shattering.

“I should speak to Marc—”

“Don’t make it about him.”

“I already have.” It’s like pulling a barbed thread out through his throat, admitting that, reminding himself what he said to the cameras and microphones when he was aching and exhausted and too hot with it all to think about the consequences. “They already have, because if it is me and Álex then it is you and him.”

The silence is long this time, presses in, a storm cloud rolling over before the heavens open and lightning shatters the sky. Pecco almost stutters out an apology, except Valentino must know, because he was the one who wanted to talk about it in the first place.

When Valentino sighs, it hisses in Pecco’s ear. “It will always be about us somehow, Pecco. You will have to hold it.”

And here is what Vale did not tell them when they vowed to carry his legacy, unmistakable yellow in their young faithful hands: it would always be entwined with the ivy-choke of Marc.

Us, Valentino still says, not me and him. If he has still not managed to free himself, what hope does Pecco have?

(He knows the answer. He never will. But he can hold it, can hold the vine-twisted history alongside the bright yellow heritage.)

There’s a lot he could say. He swallows it down, sits on it all. “Are you coming on Wednesday?”

“Of course.”

“See you then. Put the weekend behind us.”

“Get ready for Misano,” Vale agrees. “One of your favourites, and you have raced there already this year. Maybe you do not even need to train, hm?” A laugh, so Pecco knows he’s only joking. So Pecco knows Valentino believes in him. “Ah, they are calling for the plane. I will speak to you soon.”

Pecco doesn’t say so you still think he is forgiving. You still think he can forgive you. He doesn’t say he’ll be in a good mood today, if you called. He closes his eyes, says, “Safe flight. See you on Wednesday.”

[top10statuesthatcriedblood]

i give up. unless they decided to straight up lie there isnt any other clear choice. this is the worst outcome for me

[noodlearg]

guys.

i’m seeing found heaven on tour tomorrow.

[thekidsarentalright]

honestly kinda glad theyre changing all the stage production seemingly for festivals only bc idk if i could handle this multiple days in a row for a tour it’s too much

[autistme]

you will look at him

[xgothiec]

folie girlie and infinity girlie walk into the fob concert. magic 8 ball plays west coast smoker and ginasfs

[hercarisntyours]

red velvet my ride or fucking die

[notthecity]

so I'm going to Tourdust in Berlin with a friend next month. she's been a fan of FOB longer than even me (for reference she's a millennial, got into them pre-hiatus and even saw them back in '08, her friend got a drumstick??). she has no FOB-related social media, so she has zero idea what this tour is all about, and she's asked me for no spoilers, so I can't tell her.

anyway, we were talking about tour expectations with our non-fobbie friends and she goes "oh I hope they play old songs. like sugar we're going down! :)"

y'all. guys. she has No Idea. Zero Idea. Good God

[realnielsbohr]

PATRICK SAYING THIS IS THE BEST TOUR THEYVE EVER DONEEEE

[apollo3-1-5]

THEY PLAYED BANG THE DOLDRUMS AND GINASFS LIVE AT BOSTON

[pixelatedquarter]

Piano medley What A Yesterday / Stereo Hearts Cupid's Chokehold with Travie

So Much For (Tour)dust Forest Hills Stadium NY (August 1st '23). From mandieboox3 on instagram (x)

[bisexual-horror-fan]

So I'm rewatching Bones and guess who shows up?! As the creepy highschool janitor who may or may not be a killer with a room full of very sharp objects?!

*bangs pots and pans* Come get your slutty old man Bex😘

GOD! I knew he was in Bones but I hadn't SEEN him in it you know?

I figure this is as good a time as any to make this official. Since Tina and I got divorced, the podcast we always talked about, A Tour Through Englund, where we were going to watch and talk about everything Robert has ever been in, is obviously, cancelled and never happening. I would feel weird doing it solo since it was a project her and I came up with together plus I dunno if I could support doing a whole podcast of that size and scope on my own. SO! Sucks but that dream is dead and buried.

This means however that my excuse to watch everything he has ever been in is gone and it's back all on me to do that shit when I can. Maybe I should watch this one random Bones episode tomorrow?

[downtherabbitholewithlucy]

They ain't STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON.

THEY STRAIGHT OUTTA DUUUVALLLL!!!!!

[corpseofsuturedseams]

DEMI LOVATO IS HERE WITH ROYAL AND THE SERPENT?????

[pocket-elf]

DOUBLE MAGIC EIGHT BALLS?

and the choices!