Fernando Alonso & His Relationship With Cards
I'm sure we're all familar with the cards on the back of Fernando's Vegas GP helmet by now, but did you know his relationship with cards goes a lot deeper?
I. Magic Tricks
You've probably seen or heard someone at least mention Fernando's propensity for card tricks. As far as I can tell he was doing them(publically) as far back as 2003 all the way to as recently as 2018. Even once performing a card trick, with a condom and a teddy bear(!??!?!??!!), in front of Valentino Rossi who said "How was that possible?"(x)
But how did this start? According to James Allen, "Fernando admits to having been heavily influenced by his grandfather, a mercurial figure, who taught him magic and card tricks, still one of his passions away from the race track."(x) And I'm not sure the validity of this one, because I couldn't find an actual source, but apparently he once said: "My parents are responsible for the two things I like doing most - driving and magic tricks. They bought me my first go-kart and a magician's kit."
In several interviews he described it as his hobby off track, and that he loved learning new tricks and surprising others in the garage with them! So clearly cards are pretty important to him both as a hobby but also to who he is as a person since they've been with him just as long as racing has.
II. Card Symbolism in His Helmets
This is the reason I originally made this post, but I thought I should also explain the origins of his card fascination first. As I said, we probably all remember the cards on the back of his helmet in Vegas, but did you know that wasn't the first time he had cards on the back of his helmet?
From 2008-2013, he used to have a pair of cards on the back of his helmets. The symbolisms of the cards themselves as well as the evolution of their design is really fascinating to me! Even more so with the recent development of the card choice in 2023.
Fernando said he wanted to reference his two titles in some way on the back of his helmet and after his friend sent him several ideas, he decided on having two cards(an ace of clubs and an ace of hearts, sometimes pictured with 05 and 06 on them as well), saying: "I picked the cloverleaf [the ace of clubs - Ed] to give me luck, but the only pity is that it doesn't have four leaves!"(X)
2008.
Here's the very first appearance of the cards! They're displayed flat, with the 05 and 06 clearly visible
2009.
Very similar to 2008, but with a slightly different design, and they're maybe a bit more straight with less shadow?
2010.
This is the first major change! I was sad they didn't have the years on them anymore, but then I realized they're sparkly to match with his signature lightning bolts on the top of the helmet!!
2011.
Honestly I'm still somewhat unsure if this is the actual 2011 helmet? It's pretty difficult to find clear photos of the back of helmets from older seasons. It's easiest to find them on replica sites or auction sites so I'm not 100%? But anyways, I like that this has the championship years on the underside of the cards
2012.
This is when I started getting weirdly emotional about the helmets. Do you see how they've progressed from being a centerpoint to being curled up and sad at the bottom of the helmet? Not listing the year anymore??
2013.
Same thoughts as 2012. And after this season, they cease to exist (just like his ferrari chair in the garage, WOAH CALLBACK), until cards make a reeappearance in his Vegas helmet, albeit in a different form
2013 Monaco(Honorable Mention):
For some reason 2013 helmets were easier to find proper pictures of, so I happened to witness this absolute beauty. The creativity of this helmet genuinely blows me away??? Wanting to keep the card motif, but making sure to incorporate it into the rest of the puzzle piece design?? Mwah! There was another special 2013 helmet but they didn't change the cards at all so I really applaud this one
2023 Las Vegas(The Return of The King):
The magnificent return! But look! The cards are different cards! Instead of being two aces, it's now an ace of hearts, a four of hearts(his driver number of course!) and, the, now iconic, representation of himself as a Joker. I literally could not believe my eyes when this helmet was released and I saw the Joker card, what a fucking silly old man....I really wonder if he felt nostalgic having cards on his helmet again or if he didn't think about it all and was just like, "ah cards because Vegas!!!"
III. Why Does This Matter?
*The rest of the post was factual, this is moreso my personal thoughts on the symbolism of the cards/designs
This post spawned from me recently watching the 2010 Bahrain gp and noticing "hey wait a minute...are those CARDS ON THE BACK OF HIS HELMET!?" It's a really tiny detail that's unfortunately covered up by the HANS device pretty much whenever he's wearing the helmet, so it's really difficult to spot! But I became fascinated with the fact that he had cards on his helmet before that recent helmet, and now here we are!
There's something to me about how the design of the cards evolves over the course of six seasons from the cards being front and center to being smaller, more folded up and closer to the bottom of the helmet. As I said, the 2012-2013 ones genuinely made me depressed because it feels, symbolically, like his hopes for getting another Ace are becoming more and more unlikely and falling away until they eventually fall falt and fade away entirely after 2013 and disappear for basically a decade.
But when they return? They're not the same cards! Instead of representing Fernando's championships, they now represent him as a person, displaying his driver number and his persona of being a Joker!! Though I do think it's interesting he happened to keep the Ace of Hearts, even though he talked more about the Ace of Clubs before. I'm not sure it's actually this deep in reality, but I like to think that it's him not letting his championships(and the lack thereof) define him, but rather letting who he is as a person shine and be the centerpoint instead! But on a sadder note, as @suzuki-ecstar said to me, maybe the Aces aren't there anymore because he's lost all hope for a chance at a third Ace entirely :(
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How Surge got her phone privileges taken away
(Text convo incorrect quote)
Starline : Text me to say you're home safely.
Surge : I'm home dangerously.
Starline : Stop it.
Surge : I'm home lethally.
Starline : Surge.
Kit, texting through Surge's phone : We are home in an extremely lackadaisical and downright reckless fashion.
Starline : Text me when you two are at home and not in a wheelie bin.
Surge : My journey home is violating so many health and safety regulations. I've killed three people.
Starline : ...
Surge : I actually got murdered as soon as I left your field of vision.
Starline : Surge, this is not funny.
Surge : And then I got up and was immediately murdered again by a different dude.
Starline : I have an experiment to conduct. So, I will be unable to respond to your witticisms.
Surge : Who knows how many more times I'll have been murdered by the time you're done with your nerd stuff.
Surge, finally getting off her phone and turning to Kit : Welp. I think I'm funny! And that's all that matters!
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[TJoL+] A Summary of Events,
I realize that I skip around a lot when I'm posting legacy gameplay - the truth is, my ADHD and limited play-time constantly mixes into impatience when it comes to certain stages of my gameplay! When y'all last saw Ivory, she had just gone on a date with Eva Capricciosa, so it's a little jarring that the next time we see our heir is her living with Eva and Cassandra Goth in an established relationship, right?
The reality is, I took plenty of pictures following the events of the past few days in-game - I just didn't like any of them. Figures that I got to hodge-podge them together in Photoshop to run a quick summary... only to end up loving the way they all came out. 😑
I thought I might summarize the last few days so that we can pick up with where I'm currently at in my gameplay. I'm planning on updating y'all with a more official post about the KMiK/TJoL+ posting schedule (KMiK during the week, TJoL on the weekends) while my work schedule settles in!
So, we pick up where we left off... with Ivory (after randomly pulling a "Flirty Introduction" in the middle of gameplay) having just completed a very successful all-nighter date with the lovely Eva Capricciosa. 💅⛓️
The morning after her date with Eva, Ivory had a hot daydream (left, courtesy of WickedWhims) about her ex-girlfriend, Cassandra Goth, while taking a shower. Ivory and Cassandra used to date in high school, but broke up amicably before they went to University.
Not two hours after that daydream did Ivory get a call from Eva (right). It went down a little differently in-game (Ivory and Eva didn't officially start dating until after this all went down) but it was the main inspiration for this edit.
At this point I guffawed out loud - I was already sold on Eva and Ivory as a couple, but Cass and Ivory were something I was trying to get Ivory back to (spoilers djkfhd but Cassandra is a Food Critic and was eventually going to be one of the reviewers for Ivory's restaurant - my Kruegers are establishing a habit of autonomously shortening their timelines dfkjsdf)
It was only natural, then, that Ivory invited Cassandra out to breakfast - the literal morning after hooking up with Eva. 😮💨
Ivory just takes gorgeous women out as an excuse to get pictures of Experimental Dishes and do research for work - she just earned the Workaholic lifestyle and it makes so much sense.
(She Dip Kissed Cass with a drink in her hand and it was just so... her.)
It seemed as though Cassandra missed Ivory just as much as she missed her, because she was instantly receptive to all of Ivory's questions about her relationship status, her thoughts on open relationships and her goals, etc. etc. etc. When Ivory asked Cass her opinion on Eva, Cass was all smiles - and the literal minute I clicked "Go Home" and the event ended, Ivory got this text message:
And that just sealed it, to be honest!
From there, it was as simple as setting up a Dynamic for the three of them in my WickedWhims settings to disable Jealousy (I didn't have the time to deal with OpenLoveLife's poly settings omg) and let Ivory and Eva take the reins from there! If I had a Youtube channel I'd have been talking you all through this as it played, so bear with my nerdy ass as I describe how it happened story-wise dkfjhsd ~
The three of them ended up "gOiNg OuT tO pArTy" in Windenburg the same night (as I said... I'm impatient) and right off the bat, Eva made good use of that "no Jealousy" rule. She and Ivory circled a very confused Cassandra, who was still processing the fact that the two women who had very boldly asked her out back-to-back
one.) knew each other and two.) were both looking at her with "I'm going to Ruin You in the Best Way Possible" eyes 👀
Eva produced a single rose, and Cassandra looked at Ivory like "... is this for real?"
And when I tell you Ivory looked at her like this.
... hell, I want her to top me. Can I say that? Is that legal?
What progressed was them literally autonomously making out and flirting with each other all night ~*~* in tha club *~*~ and when I tell you I'm so genuinely upset that I couldn't make these shots work as an individual post at all, but I think they look SO GOOD HERE?
Like, have you ever seen a Sim more down for this than Eva??? She's become one of my favorite townies and I have never touched her with a thousand foot pole... solely because I never play in Windenburg dfksdhj. I have been missing out and so are you all omg
From that night, I literally just started decorating their apartment as you see it here. (MDNI with that post just because it has the minutest of Cassandra side nip but still) because, say it with me now... I'm impatient.
With limited playtime and "I look at this too long"itis affecting Ivory's small Fashion District apartment, I moved these three in the night after they started dating djhsfh
Below are some highlights of gameplay that I once again could not make work in a post by themselves... and now love what I've done with them and think they look great in the body of this post tf :/
(I didn't realize I took so little pictures of Cassandra... especially when I'm admittedly so obsessed with the make-over I gave her dskjdf)
Throughout this time, Ivory began filming herself cooking and uploading the videos to SimTube - it gained her a good bit of fame, and after advancing to Level 9 in the Chef career, she reached Level 2 Celebrity status within a week! (It took an exhausting amount of replying to comments and dealing with laggy cooking livestreams, omg)
Throughout this process, all three of them were constantly popping diaper thought bubbles - Ivory for sure had baby fever, because the minute she would come home from work and interact with her partners, she'd start thinking about lil nooboos!
I didn't know, however, that both Ivory and Eva had really low fertility - 20% and 30% respectively! (In my games, couples can have biological children regardless with a system of random rolls I developed before the Science Baby update: Eva rolled as Can Become Pregnant whereas Ivory and Cassandra rolled Can Get Others Pregnant. Which yes means that if Ivory and Cassandra wanted to have a genetic child they'd need to have a Science Baby, no it makes no sense, I know)
Eva had the Would Be Happy to Have A Child trait, and it absolutely wrecked her every time she failed to conceive. I was trying to track her fertility, get them goin' on the right days, and none of it was working. (This was before I figured out their fertility rate.)
So I -- can you believe this -- got impatient and cheated their fertility rates to 80% and 75% respectively, had them use the straight-up Try for Baby interaction instead of relying on them to abuse WickedWhims, and sent Ivory off to work with my fingers crossed.
Ivory came back from work with a promotion to Level 10, Celebrity Chef, and some fantastic news from her girlfriend. 🥹
(whom she proceeded to autonomously massage & snuggle tf out of 🥹🥹🥹)
The cats totally sensed that Eva was pregnant, okay, it was adorable. Dolce (her Yorkie) followed her around even more, and throughout the days as Ivory climbed the ranks of stardom (she's so close to getting her restaurant and that Third Rank!) and Cassandra made more and more breakthroughs...
Well...
We pick up after that bassinet there has already been sold, friends! 😉 If you made it this far, bless you for puttin' up with me absolutely rambling about my silly little gameplay - I really enjoyed revisiting this side of their story, and I was so frustrated that I just couldn't figure out how to work it into that ~ Tumblr Gameplay Styling ~ that I prefer for my posts hrrrr
Hopefully this helps to streamline the Kruegers gameplay, and gives us more context for following the story of our Gen 3 Heir! 🥹 I'm hoping to do a more posed/gameplay story-based feel for his chapter, and I'm so excited to introduce you guys to him. :') I am genuinely going to try and be as linear with his ass as possible... at least, when he gets to Young Adult sdkfjdsf
Have a cookie, baby, you've earned it! 🍪🍪🍪
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