Chapter Text
It starts on a Sunday morning.
A boring weekend is the precedent to it, a Saturday which started and ended with bleary eyes and a piano whos ivory seemed to bleed into the Monegasque’s soul as the notes that echoed through cut through the all the things he tried to avoid, and then Sunday- when the song first arrived.
Its a clip that he posts first, on a burner account that says Perceval with a blurred video of piano keys and a melody written on scribbled pages and a voice that maybe- bled through more than he had tried to let on. The shirt he wears is an old one, still wet from droplets of rain and hands scraped as if they had just punched through a wall. There is no face, no more than a cut to the back of his head in a snap of a photo on his mantelpiece and then dark.
It is art he shares, not anything else. For sharing the cause of it would be the end of it all.
Then come the comments, small in numbers at first- then in hoards. The account getting spammed with every passing day and suddenly Charles finds himself far too deep into this persona to leave it the way he had meant it to be- an opening, the smallest of escape before shutdown. Now it was a part of him.
They called him the new Heartbreaker of song-writing- and it makes Charles laugh. How could he be the heartbreaker? When it was him who got it broken?
They call him the rising star, the mysterious singer with a voice that screamed of despair, they ask for another piece, they ask to see his face. Then after a few days its his voice- what could have prompted him to sing as such?
Perceval doesn’t reply at first, thumbs across the comments and thinks of it to be a fifteen minutes of fame but suddenly it isn’t. Because the people stay, and they wait.
It is two weeks later that he follows his earlier snippet with a longer part. The time passing in a meagre blink of his eyes and the pages he writes in now overflowing because it is pain that is a fuel. Pain of what had happened. Pain of what he had to leave behind. Pain of what had been taken from him. Anger- at who had cost him all of it.
It will be two months later that Perceval signs with Mars Ent. They areet him with genuine corporate smiles- talk eagerly to him about the image he projects and whether he has any works he plans to release soon. And Charles can only stare and wonder through it all. The windows of the office are striking blue, the table he signs the paper on a rusted brown and the ink is red- Shake hands numbly as he watches them capitalise off of what he had thought had been the end of him and yet it sells faster than anything else he had put his love into.
But it is fine- for when his first single hits the world- Bleed- it greets him with an entrance to the Billboard top 100. The Champagne he drinks quenches the dull ache that had settled in his soul. Its two drinks in when an over-eager intern asks for who could possible be his muse, and Charles freezes. The conversations around him seem to die down, eyes focusing fast onto his slightly trembling form because ofcourse they are curious. It is difficult to make one speak through piano and drums, it is far too close to be the one to inspire it.
“My-“ It takes one more drink to make it possible to say the slightest part of what it had been. The lights of the room now seem far too bright for his eyes, there are many words that still come to his mind and yet-now-there was only one that he could use and it was the one he had never imagined he would have to.
It takes him flashbacks to striking blue eyes, to a stoic face cracking into the loudest laugh across a kitchen counter and the smell of freshly made pasta and gelato in non-descripant restaurants, to blonde hair that tickled his nose when he woke up to arms wrapped round his waist and then- to the cruel words uttered in a hotel room across the continent and a flight back to his apartment with bleary eyes and doors snapped shut.
“Yes?” Its the interns voice again that snaps him back again.
He swallows. “My ex”
They wait. The intern-Dino was it?- blinks expectantly as if waiting for more, and it makes something rise up in Charles chest. What backstory would he give? One of hidden kisses and giddy rides round the streets of Monaco when no one else was around, to trips round the world and watching the blur of a track before being shoved right out.
He had never imagined a life in music, hell he hadn’t imagined a life of being famous at all. But here was now, with hands that no longer held onto Karts and touched race tracks with reverence before winning on them, here he was with people who had never seen the other side of him- the one which had greeted the paddock like an old friend, and had found himself staring at the cars and wondering how It had taken three seconds to take it all away from him.
Someone coughs.
Charles can only blink back.
♩ ♩
The studio that they give him is tucked away a fifteen minutes rive away from Monaco.
It has a view of the ocean, the walls are lined with guitars and album covers but there is an empty space right in the middle which waits for his Piano to settle into its wooden floor and ceiling. It had taken him one trip back before he decided- To take the couch from his apartment, lock the door to the now spare bedroom-hands lingering on the handle longer than he would wanted- only to then decides he doesn’t want to come back here again.
The team follows him a week later. There are too many introductions, too many handshakes and then there is silence. It is easier to write now, Charles finds it calming.
There is ofcourse- a deadline. Two months. He finishes six of them in the first month and then presses record for the first time. And it is right before he begins to enter the studio, the hoodie wrapped snug round his shoulders and voice cracking as he opens it for the first time that day in noon-he thumbs down the contacts on his phone, flashes past the dozens of unread texts and spam on the internet straight to the chat with the last message standing next to one tick.
Enjoy your championship amour
Delivered: 2:01am
“I want to release it early” The meeting with the board directors goes just as well as he had expected it to. They sigh, they ask questions- but in the end they agree.
“You will need to start working on your media presence immediately Charles” Is the first statement.
“We can begin promoting the release immediately- have you decided the title of the album? What are the songs going to sound like?”
It is three days later that the news drops.
♩ ♩
Perceval @Perceval_ 3/03/25
Loop , ten songs of ten parts of my life is yours on 16 March.
With love, Perceval
Preorder now : https://perceval.link/Loop
114 reposts 4.3K likes 5.1K bookmarks
Lia @melon_cholyhill 3.03.25
SOMEONE SEDATE ME
22 likes
Ari @cryngover13 3.03.25
Its been less than two month since Bleed and we have ten songs coming out? Perceval who are you?
2 reposts 432 likes
Klin @perce_fallsover 3.03.25
Ok so whos ready to ball their eyes out again?
52 reposts. 321 likes
Leia @forzaferrari 4.03.25
New album on the same day as the Aus GP … where do I pay more attention?
45 reposts 541 likes
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Ani @st4rcrossed 4.03.25
My exact thoughts but at the same time- is this a hint towards who Perceval is 👀
12 likes
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Mark @MarkJ
Me when its time to be delusional
Coast @beachtimescraze 4.03.25
No but Perceval coming back after two months of radio silence is just insane. He dropped a song which charted on the billboards, said nothing after- no posts to celebrate, NOTHING ON HIS INSTAGRAM ACC!! and now this? I for one am excited
134 likes
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Coast @beachtimescraze 4.03.25
This man just appeared on TikTok one day five months ago, sang in the most heartbroken voice ever then disappeared. Reappeared two months later to drop a single then disappeared. Is now reappearing after another month to drop an album- praying he doesn’t dissapear but I think that’s the pattern here
456 likes
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Edward @eds33ver 4.03.25
Crazy how whoever this is hasn’t showed his face once but already has such a fanbase
1.6k reposts 1M likes
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Ani @st4rcrossed 4.03.25
The voice is enough to imagine
671 likes
F1 @f1 5.03.25
Less than two weeks for the start of the 2025 Season at the Australian Grand Prix!
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Oli @madm5x 5.03.25
Already know its going to be a Verstappen masterclass
6.7k reposts 4.5k likes
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Lis @honeybad3er
I can taste the sixth WDC
231 reposts 4.3k likes
Fleaur @perc4_val 5.03.25
HELLO? Am I the only one seeing the ‘liked by Perceval’?
3 likes
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Skye @monacolights 6.03.25
I mean his earlier song has had quite a few car references so its not that much of a shock? A man can have interests
5 likes
Perceval @Perceval_ 14.03.25
Track list to Loop - yours in two days
01. Looped
02. An ego thing
03. Traffic lights
04. The season
05. Monaco nights
06. Overdrive
07. Car crash
08. When its just us
09. Doomsday
10. What I said
4.5K reposts 1M likes 9.7K bookmarks
♩♩
Mia @mia_always 14.03.25
Not one to analyse an album by the tracklist but holy shit I know im getting my heart broken 😭 😭
QRT of the Perceval track list
13 reposts 452 likes
Syri @offthetrack 14.03.25
When its just us is going to be the end of me
#so will doomsday #ego things will be the starter #or its just everything
21 likes
Paris @itshammertime 14.03.25
01. Looped - the start of it all
02. An ego thing - im scared
03. Traffic lights - 2 am vibes
04. The season - absolute heartbreaker with piano maybe?
05. Monaco nights - sadness on electro beats?
06. Overdrive - it sounds romantic help
07. Car crash - along the lines of bleed maybe?
08. When its just us - revisit the past
09. Doomsday - the day it all ended?
10. What I said - a essay on regret
No idea how right im gonna be but my thoughts on the list
23 reposts 321 likes 43 bookmarks
♩ ♩
16 March came faster than expected and suddenly Charles found himself pressing the ‘release album’ button on his laptop far faster than he had expected. The date wasn’t a coincidence, it wasn’t funny intentional either. The champagne he drinks is sweet and yet as his phone buzzes with messages as the first song hits the ears of all those who listened- he knows they will talk, because this time the lyrics are far more intertwined with his own world- with his past.
He knows the exact minute the race begins, at 1 am in the morning in Monaco because his phone buzzes with the update and its against everything in him that hes opening his television just as the lights go off. The call with his mother had been well, his brother had told him to visit and his younger brother- now crossed across turn 13 in a bright red car with navy in front of him far across the country.
He will message his brother. Congratulate him for his podium and then watch with a small smile as they spray champagne on the top step because he did not know- no one knew what had happened except for the two who had been the ones to do it. It is his fate, he had resigned himself to it and yet- he had not expected this ending.
♩♩
Carmen🏎 @allin4
ARTHUR LISTENS THE PERCEVAL?
[clip from post race interview. Arthur sits to the left of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton]
“So Arthur- congratulations on P2 at the first race of the season. Fantastic weekend for you and Ferrari- so what’s the course ahead?”
“Yes, I mean it was a good race- the car had pace and we expected to be where we were. Ofcourse Max drove very well so can’t argue with that, now I guess I’m just planning on relaxing with the team and one of my favourite singers album dropped today so there’s that as well- so yeah, good weekend. Ofcourse were looking to improve, slight things to change and-yeah”
[Clip end]
4.6M reposts 6.7M likes 2.3 bookmarks
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Bear @bear81
Two worlds colliding?
34 likes
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wry @poisonivy 16.03.25
Is it just me or did Max Verstappen flinch at the album talk?
2 likes
Arthur 🏎
You didn’t have to
Read 1:12 am
I loved all the songs
Almost cried by the end
maman wants to talk again about who it was I was just as clueless but now I think I have an idea
Read 2:12am
Do I want to know?
Read 3:12 am
I will run him off track next week
Read 4:08 am
You know you won’t
Read 4:13am
Do I 🙂
Read 4:15am
♩ ♩
Alli @Allin4 16.03.25
ITS OUT I REPEAT ITS OUT !
24 reposts 34 likes
Lia @melon_cholyhill
PERCEVAL WAS EMOTIONAL PAIN THE GOAL? TELL ME? WAS IT 22 likes
Fleaur @perc4_val
Car crash- im officially deceased. Do attend the funeral
4 likes
Greyson @biclerc
Monaco nights... how is it possible to to show heartbreak with THAT type a beat?
1 repost 5 likes
Perceval archives🧡 @perceval_looped 16.03.25
Ok guys so I finished listening to the album rn and … I have many thoughts bear with me.
An in-depth commentary on every track on looped.
Track 01: Looped
Not loops — looped. As in, stuck. The title alone tells you what this album is: repetition. Like a song you can’t stop replaying, or a conversation that never really ended.
“Every road I take finds its way back to you.” The loop isn’t about destiny — it’s about denial. The melody circles itself, not really resolving, like a song that refuses to end because he can’t.
Track 02: An ego thing
Hear me out- this is his “Ego Thing.” like, it’s literally the same emotional temperature, polite devastation but it hurts more. Its the moment when you realize that love didn’t end because it died, it ended because someone had to win. You can hear the strain in his voice, the way he keeps his tone measured while the lyrics get cruel-and then silence. not a fade, not a note — just gone.
Track 03: Traffic lights
this is THE insomnia song. low synths, restless, red-yellow-green light energy. There’s a subtle ticking sound in the back, like a turn signal- as if trying to stall but still knowing what’s coming is inevitable.
Track 04: The Season
COLD.He doesn’t call it winter, it just says ‘the season.’ it’s vague on purpose. We know which one it means, but there’s a certain denial in not naming it. It gives of the vibe of half-packed suitcases and a temporary type of homecoming which never meant to last.
Track 05: Monaco Nights
This one’s deceptive. it starts glittery(just like the place)— strong bass, synths, rhythm that makes you think it’s a “move on” song. but it isn’t. it’s heartbreak with good lighting. it’s sadness dressed up for a party it doesn’t want to be at. You can feel how deliberate it is — the way the beat keeps everything moving so you don’t notice how heavy the lyrics are. it’s like he’s trying to convince himself that motion equals healing.
Track 06: Overdrive
Adrenaline disguised as intimacy. All I can describe it as. You can almost hear the echo of ‘car crash; at the end. The song is the moment before impact. everything about it feels inevitable.
“you called it overdrive, i called it us.”
Track 07: Car crash
this one hurts in a way that’s hard to describe. it’s not dramatic — it’s hollow. it sounds like aftermath. "you had somewhere to be, i had nowhere else.” Somehow reminds me of someone who got left behind because the other wanted to continue with something they couldn’t follow.
Track 08: When its just us
The PRESENT TENSE. Its not them anymore but its still in present tense. Still happening. The song itself sounds like a confession, of moments that were tied together and now even though its not them anymore the moments are still there.
Track 09: Doomsday
the lyrics never say it’s over. They don’t have to. Because hes watching it happen. that’s the whole song. “you smiled like nothing was ending, i smiled like i didn’t know.”
Track 10: What I didn’t say
This is it. The final confession. The piano is what makes it even worse. A single note and lyrics which feels like the kind of song that doesn’t want forgiveness, just understanding. like he’s finally admitting that being right didn’t matter, and that maybe, if they’d both stopped defending themselves long enough, it wouldn’t have ended like this.
Final thoughts:
This album is the sound of someone realizing love didn’t end all at once — it unraveled, quietly, while they were both looking the other way.
-Until next time,
Perceval archives
8M reposts 9M likes 5M bookmarks
Fluffylix 🧸reblogged Percevalarchives
“The album is the sound of someone realizing love didn’t end all at once — it unraveled, quietly, while they were both looking the other way.” Hello. Hello. Someone pick me up off of the highway.
431 likes
Coast @beachtimescraze
me being 0.01 seconds into looped and im already on the floor
23 likes
Maxximumpower reblogged Percevalarchives
not to be the person to speculate over another person but the amount of racing references I caught while listening make me think the person behind this whole heartbreak has to be someone in the field, or our mystery singer is one himself
12 reposts 321 likes
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passengerprincess reblogged Maxximumpower
Nah I get you. “you were always chasing seconds, I was just trying to make time stop” it’s too specific to be coincidence. like, who else literally chases hundredths of seconds for a living? drivers do. No normal person writes like that unless they’ve loved someone who lives on a stopwatch.
31 reposts 246 likes
♩ ♩
Charlie ❤️
Your voice sounds the same. still beautiful.
Delivered 9:03am
Read ??