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honestsycrets · 11 months

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enfócate | tutor!miguel o'hara x reader

❛ pairing | tutor!miguel x student!reader, fake boyfriend!peter x reader

❛ type | explicit

❛ summary | jess is clear: miguel o'hara is a terrible boyfriend. he'll inevitably hurt you-- but peter has other ideas. or, you blow miguel in a library.

❛ tags | spanish tutor!miguel, bratty reader, a kiss with Peter, Miguel's jealousy, bjs, fake boyfriend!peter, slight obsessive qualities, fuck buddies, undefined relationships, fuck boy Miguel.

❛ reqs fulfilled | see here.

❛ sy's notes | the pov on this piece bothers me, it jumps between reader and Miguel. however, i did write two separate pieces for this request (a combined 25 pages vs my usual 11/12). so, i decided to meld them together to create this piece. anywho, if it bothers you, i understand! ❤️ I yoinked a lot of the Spanish from my Spanish learners textbook, hopefully, it's acceptable.

He knew he wanted you from the first day he saw you in the tea cafe.

Jess and he rarely visited the tea shop. It was settled on the edge of campus. Close to the social sciences and arts, but far from the work he did in the Genetics department. As a Ph.D. student, however, not all the work was done in the lab. Jess liked to see the different types of people that came to this tea cafe, where the chair cushions were fluffy emerald pillows and plants hovered overhead.

“Miguel? What's---”

You stood apart from the other students with their sloppy, half-cropped, or frumpy appearances, there was a particular care you took to dressing. It was the embroidered bow in your hair that drew his attention. When you left to fetch a refill of chai, he noticed the soft, frilled socks in tiny ankle boots. He just knew you would taste sweet, leering as he watched you at the drink bar. Jess glanced in your direction, the way you adorably bowed your head after the tea artist gave you your drink, and just knew. Jess looked over her shoulder.

“Not her.”

Jess’s voice was a drawn-out sigh of your name, punctuated by her fist beating the table. Miguel perked at the mention of your name. Oh, so she knew you. She was probably sick of his shit. Good, he was also sick of being used as a vibe check for the lesbians she wanted to pick up.

“Don’t you have enough side pieces?”

Miguel didn’t respond.

“She probably has a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend. Look who she's with.”

That finally got a response.

“You don’t know that,” he kept his eyes straight ahead. You caught him staring, wiggling your little fingers in a hello as you sat at a table. "I want her."

You sat with an incredibly frumpy, annoying photography student who once took his picture for the lab website. Could he be… his attention wavered when you pulled out a book: Español para el siglo. His lips quivered into a wildly sardonic grin. Oh no, no no. It was too easy.

“You’ll ruin her. She’s too innocent.”

He leaned in.

“Are you going to help me or not?”

“Buenas tardes,”

Two chairs and a thin desk. The small study room was more of a glorified broom closet for its students. You were lucky that there was a large window that looked out over the student union, flowers blooming up its brick siding. Bits of lush dark green ivy poked into the window’s view from the library’s tall wall. As the sun set on campus, rich orange and pink settled over the sunset on that warm Friday afternoon. At least the sight was pretty for how overwhelmingly small the space was.

It wasn’t the space that bothered you. It was your tutor.

He was big-- big big. Not just a little big, but really big. The kind of big that was on bodybuilding competitions. It made his long, blue-grey muscle shirt and grey sweats look tiny, sucked to his well-pumped muscle. The room felt a lot smaller as you looked at him, his long brown hair whipped back over his neck. His eyebrows raised on his dark forehead, arms turning one over another, a bundle of muscle.

“Ah... you're him? The man from the tea shop.”

He pulled free his sunglasses and set them down. His warm chocolate eyes glanced from the edge of your now too-short skirt to the glint of a dagger necklace that beat between your breasts. He’s staring. Why is he staring-- you finger the dagger between your thumb and index fingers, soothing yourself with the manipulation.

“Miguel.” He warmed, pulling the seat out beside him. His voice was buttery and smooth, almost like rich caramel. The lilt in his voice lightened, inviting you to take a seat by him. You should. You thought. Sit down. “Siéntate."

You stared.

"I said sit down.”

That was a bad idea. You paused, slipping the bag down from under your shoulder and onto the beige tile by the door. Miguel watched every slight movement. That’s fine. It’s natural to do that. You tugged the bottom of your skirt and took a seat beside him. Miguel pushed the chair back in, pushing your chest to the edge of the desk space. Oh-- oh boy, he was strong. Of course, he was, he was built like a--

“Bueno. Now you're settled. How can I help you?”

Do that again.

“Me? Oh! I... Jess said you could help me need to pass a test,” you murmured. The four semesters of Spanish seemed relatively easy compared to being stuffed next to this Adonis in this tiny study room. Your legs settled over your skirt, hands working over one another to will down the pulse of your wily excitement. What was wrong with you? “To pass my language requirement.”

You should have been able to do that alone but-- let’s say you weren’t the most applied to the language in your childhood. A tutor was a great alternative to embarrassment and thousands of dollars in classes. If only he didn’t look like… this. His large hand left the pasty back of your chair.

“Hm,” he paused. “¿Puedes hablar español?”

“Sí,” you murmured. “My mami was-- well, I should have listened to her.”

Hm.

You want to know what Hm means. Your leg tremored on its own accord. He swept a leather bag by his side up and pulled out a thick folder, running across several tabs. Lab notes, diet plans, pruebas.

“It happens,” he notes, sliding a page free. “Let’s see how much you know, princesa.”

You’d be lying if you said you didn’t want to know more, to hear the hum of Spanish bouncing off his lips. It was a world apart from your mother’s shrill screams on Saturday mornings to clean an already clean house. It held its own beauty and mystery when he spoke it. You took the page from him, setting it down on the bland tablespace by your phone, lighting up with a notification.

Jess When you meet Miguel, don’t do it.

"¿Princesa?" you asked.

"You dress like one. Don’t worry if you fail,” you plucked out a pink mechanical pencil, complete with little animated characters tightened around the wrapping. You perked at his words, choking a small smile. “I expect you to.”

Why was he like this? You took another unfortunate look at him, his large forearm plastered over the desk, making the book he had to look like peanuts in comparison. God, he was hot-- you felt comparatively hideous, drooling over a man that was out of your league. Maybe he could be your piece of eye candy this year. Your phone buzzed along the table again. Miguel’s eyes shot to it, a frown pulling at his lips.

Jess Don’t fuck him. He can’t keep his dick to himself.

He reaches over, flipping your phone down with an overworked smile sundering his expression. It’s almost fake.

“Are you…” you turned your eyes to the questions on the page. “A student?”

“Grad student,” Miguel answered. So, older than you then. “I graduated with a BA in Spanish and a BS in Genetics.”

“Oh! A dual degree?” The man couldn’t be normal. He had to do both. “Did it… take a while?”

“No, it was accelerated.”

He was unreal. There was no way this man was ordinary. It was physically impossible for the man to be that hot and successful. You scribbled across the page, nipping the back of your pencil at particularly hard questions.

“So you just do this for… a living?” you asked him.

“I teach and train clients, yes.”

“Train?”

“Gym,” Miguel set his cheek on his fist.

“I do cardio with Jess. No strength training for me.” Jess-- who suggested Miguel to you. You had some shit to bitch at her about the next time you saw her. Namely, why she didn’t warn you about Miguel. He was a boon for chaos in your life.

“I’d waste your time. I’m all marshmallow,” you pat your soft belly. “All pan dulce and burros.”

He chuckled.

“You have a beautiful body.”

And that was that. You set the pencil down on a page half full of answers, glancing toward his full lips. They were quirked into an arrogant smirk. He knew the effect he had on women. He glanced to the page, then to you, his lips growing into a smile laden with arrogance.

“Your hips--” he glanced down, “My girls couldn’t pay to get them.”

He noticed. You supposed that the miniskirt wasn’t the best choice for meeting a new man.

“Do you talk to everyone like this?”

“No. Only the ones that look at me like you did."

Oh.

If it were a game of whom ate whom up first, you had to be honest-- it may have been you. You couldn’t shoot anything back at that, angling your head down at the page guiltily. A sigh fell from his chest. His large hand came to the back of your head, cupping the thick bow on the back of your head. His fingers ran across the silk, teasing it between his fingers.

“Calm down, you’re not the first one to do it. You won't be the last,” he turned your head to look at him, large fingers combing through the strands of your hair. He chased the panic in your wide eyes, doe eyes blown wide. Your heartbeat soared into your chest, choking you there, looking for an outlet from your shame.

“Breathe for me,” he leaned in, his warm breath tingling your ear. His cologne was clean, like the lapse of the waves on the shore back home where the tropical heat was a second skin. You listened, taking a weary, deep breath in, then out again. Again.

“Go on.” His knuckles rapped on the sheet. Miguel’s hand fell away. You found yourself longing for it again.

“He’s gorgeous.”

“I told you not to fuck him," your superior, Jess said, her feet bouncing off the stairstepper effortlessly.

“I didn't-- I just, he called me beautiful.”

“He would call anyone beautiful if it meant fucking them. Don’t fall for it.”

You knew Jess wouldn’t say it unless she were serious. She always knew what you needed help with, where to locate a good solution, and had the right words to calm you down.

“How?” you said, louder than you intended. You were suddenly thankful for the pounding music that beat down on your ears in your school’s gym and the rush of people that came and went. “Jess, you’re a lesbian. You don’t understand-- he’s thick. Like, he’s luchador status big. Big, big.”

“I’ve dated some thick women.”

“And he likes me,” you said pointedly, rushing to the topmost step, remembering his words. The way he calmed you down from your embarrassment, seeming without concern for his own body. It was… sweet. “Men usually don’t like me, Jess. I’m too… soft.”

“Okay, girl, whatever,” you were pretty sure she rolled her eyes. “Unless you’re going to be another one of his fuck toys, just ignore him.”

“How?”

Her stare trained on the floors lapsed. Thirty and she was still going. “If you don’t want him, just fire him. What’s going to do? Come find you?”

You stopped for the entirety of five… or ten seconds. Enough to consider her words. Enough to quite literally get plop off the stair stepper and onto the cold floor. Jess exhaled a stale breath, reaching over to jam the STOP button on your machine. Ow.

“Good job.”

Miguel likes to tutor you. Not because you’re good at Spanish, no, for a girl that grew up with a Spanish mother, your skills are quite poor. But he likes the opportunity to have you in a room all by yourself, late at night. Wednesdays are great days for that.

Your soft buttercup yellow dress is short today, exposing your thick thighs that take up so much of the chair. He pretends that he’s listening as you go over a list of irregular verbs, your lip pouting in response to the irregular verbs. Some were simple in their familiarity like poder with endings such as pudiste; but the plurals and other irregular verbs, you pouted at. It was cute.

“Miggy, it’s not funny, ” Oh, nicknames now. Miguel throws a glance at your glossy lips, undoubtedly sticky but oh so soft looking.

“I never said it was.”

“You’re smirking.”

“Then don’t whine,” he said. “It’s cute.”

“Oh--” As to be expected, you shifted your hands between your legs, drawing your skirt in between your legs. He faltered and took a glance, coasting his eye over its edges and memorizing the way it fell over your skin. You’ll ruin her, he remembers Jess saying. She wasn’t wrong, he sensed the bit of it now, how close you sat--

“Take a break, princesa. Vocabulary-- ascendencia.”

Rather than take a break, you turned and caught the corner of his lips in what was a terrible, cherry-red kiss that would stain his skin. But the connection of your lips, puckered in a pouting kiss on his skin, caught him off guard.

“Descent,” you took his red pen out of his loose grip, scribbling descent by the word. Fuck. Miguel took a sip of now cold coffee. A smile kept pulling at his cheeks, looking out of the window and catching the slight reflection of your lipstick smeared across his lip and cheek, he bobs his head into a nod.

“Correcto.”

You’re with Peter the first time you see Miguel with another woman.

It’s at lunch. Tuesdays and Thursdays are regularly spent running to the College of Arts, waiting for Peter to get out, and a picnic. Today, you forgot to bring lunch, running off to the union hand wrapped around his elbow as he talked to you about a bright new camera lens filter.

“These new pictures are going to come out perfect! Thanks for lending me the money,” he beamed. You loved the way he talked about his art-- stopping to show you his newest pictures of the camera that hung around his neck. Peter was always good with a camera, catching you in all the prettiest angles in your trade of photos for… sponsoring a lens or whatever. Or, at least, bringing down the cost. “Look at this one. Look how pretty you look in that dress, kinda like a pin-up! We should do some’a those next.”

Feet thumping over the pavement, you failed to sense Miguel's presence until you smelled his peppery cologne carried on the air. There, on a bench, he sat next to a girl. She was pretty, with long dark hair and soft skin. Her hand was on his thigh and his arm around her shoulder, eating the last bit of a flaky empanada-- your eyes burned, the closeness of her head on his shoulder, clearly done and finished, waiting for whatever next plan he had. You don’t want to know what that could be.

“Huh? Oh. hi Miguel!” Peter waved to your dismay. You held onto him a little tighter, wringing circles around his sleeve. Miguel spares you two a glance, his eyebrows pushing together. But he waves, lazy and short. You stifle the hot prick of tears at the corner of your eyes and yank Peter away. “Wha-- I’m coming, I’m coming!"

Days later, Peter has a plan.

“I’ve got it-- the solution to your tea guy problem! You should have told me sooner that it was Miguel.”

Peter was very excited. Why, you weren’t sure. He liked to feel helpful. That’s why he was a photographer. Photography lets others feel beautiful and seen. He picked at your lunch, his head flopped on your thigh as he worked through his camera.

“I’ll be your boyfriend!”

“You want to be my boyfriend?” you offered him a grape. He opened his mouth with an adorable ‘ah’ of his his lips. You slipped the grape between his lips. He chewed appreciatively. “I don’t know, Peter. Isn’t it lying?”

“C’mon, I know Miguel. He’s macho. The kind of guy you have to make jealous. And I can do it! I’m boyfriend material. Aren’t I?”

“Sí. But I don’t think I can make him jealous.”

It was a sunshiney day, sprawled out at lunch on a cool picnic blanket, tracing the clouds when you heard his voice. Soft, smooth, inviting. Your head spun around, this time with a lean blonde-haired girl-- her legs were long, tummy nice and flat, blue eyes shining like little sapphires set in her pale face. She swooned on his arm. The perfect sorority princess. What if he called her princesa, too?

“--close lab with me--”

“I can do it myself.”

Miguel’s eyes caught yours, raising his hand lazily to greet you as he walked down the sidewalk, undoubtedly back to his genetics lab on the other side of campus. Over where brilliant boys and girls and theys were, rushing through accelerated scientific programs while you figured out how to fix broken artifacts. He lived in another impossible world. A realm far away from Peter and you: photography and the maintenance of culture and art.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Peter's eyes were glossy with concern. “It’s okay. We don’t have to-- did I say something wrong?”

You shook your head. Peter sat up, his eyes bounced up-- from Miguel over his shoulder to your sudden sad eyes. Peter set his hand on your cheek, the fibers of his soft pink cardigan tickling your jaw. Your eyes tore from Miguel, whose pace became sluggish as if steps along took immense effort. Peter’s nose bumped against yours, clumsy and oh so Peterish-- his hand on the middle of your back, his warm but cracked lips swallowing the gasp that tumbled from your lips. He tasted of sweet fruit, the sloppy lunch you shared, and a silly comfort.

He watching? Peter murmured against your lips.

You nearly forgot to return the kiss, captured in the way Miguel stared-- something in his warm brown eyes was almost wounded. Peter shoved you onto the picnic blanket, a soft sorry murmured under his breath as his thin frame fell between your legs. Miguel stomped away, his bumbling blonde rushing to keep up.

“Oh yeah,” Peter rolled over onto his back, crossing his legs one over another. You watched Miguel stomp past the tall hedges, out of your line of sight. “He’s gonna be mad at you.”

“Peter!”

Miguel was still in a bad mood hours later.

“¡Qué surpresa!” he murmured, offering you your paper blotted with red circles. “You did remarkably shit on this test. Do you focus on anything? Or just Peter?”

“Perdona me.” Your focus was shot with his consistent presence in your life. Not that he could appreciate that.

“How long are you going to keep wasting my time?”

“Are you talking about the Spanish or--”

Miguel set the red pen down, a sharp slam snapping the pen under his force. The fragile plastic snapped into shards of plastic. He flicked it away, paper and pen both, his large hand flexing in and out of a closed fist. You traced the tracks of his veins along his forearm.

“Are you mad that I kissed you?”

“Stop.”

“Or are you angry that Peter did?”

“Don’t touch me.”

Though he said that, you didn’t listen. You slid out of the chair and in between his spread legs, your hands trailing his handsome jawline. He jerked back when your lips caught his, the legs of his chair hitting the wall. Though he said no, his mouth opened to your kiss, and his palms flushed against your soft cheeks. You pinned him between your body and the wall-- and though you were sure he’d quickly whirl you off if he really wanted to, he didn’t. His tongue pushed into your mouth, owning yours. His hands skimmed your back, trailing lower and lower down your deep red dress until he connected with your ass.

“You need to stop.” Miguel broke from his kiss. Though he said that, he brought you onto his lap. You felt little in his large arms, his hands guiding your hips over his crotch. “Before I do something you’ll regret.”

You listened to the sounds of the library’s floor. The scrunch of take out into the trash, the sing of a door opening and closing. It was dinner time. Most everyone had gone to get their snacks— and here you were, looking down at Miguel with rapt eyes.

“Peter is just a friend.”

“A friend who happens to jam his tongue down your throat,” he turned the word over on his tongue and found offense in it. “Now why do I doubt that?”

“He only wanted to help.”

“By kissing you?”

Your fingers trailed his jaw, dipping back down for another kiss if only to say you could. That Miguel couldn’t tell you what to do. A sound of frustration ripped up his throat. You felt him, his dick twitching to life behind those sweatpants. He felt big. You bit your lower lip— a movement that didn’t escape his attentive eyes.

“By making you as jealous,” You slid off his lap and onto the dirty floor. But as you lifted a hand, cupping his dick through the heavy fabric, he couldn’t bear to stop you.

His lips pulled in a wicked grin, your soft palm stroking along his length. He hooked his thumbs into his sweats, yanking them down over his knees and onto the floor. His cock kissed his belly, straining with droplets of moisture at the tip. Miguel set his hand on your shoulder and forced you to heel on the floor. His temperament evened out. “You were jealous.”

“Yes--” you murmured. “Are.. those girls, are they special?”

“Special? No, none of them are.”

“I want to be.”

“That so?” Your soft hands trailed along the dark hair on his calves, up his thighs, settling your nose where his muscular hand tightened around the root. He wrenched his swarthy hand along his length, drawing along his veiny cock shamelessly. "Let's see how much you do, princesa."

“Please.”

“Aquí se habla español.” Miguel teased. Your fingers dipped down, small tickles of your fingertips as his heavy balls. He watched you massage them with half-lidded eyes, his lips pursing in a pleased hum.

“Por favor.”

“Abre,” you did, sliding your soft mouth open, a well of saliva on your tongue. Miguel slid himself into your warm mouth, a ruptured groan fizzing in his chest. You didn’t want to be too loud— someone might look into the small window on the door, and see you on your knees between Miguel’s thick legs, sucking his cock down when you should be going over that test you just failed.

You caught the salty beads at Miguel’s top on your tongue, sliding sloppily around his thick head, and lapping at his slit for more. Your soft hands stroked along his length, clumsy and shy. He hummed in approval, a sound you were more than thankful to elicit. Miguel took a fist full of your hair and drove himself into your mouth, your tongue stroking the underside of his length.

“Pero mira esto,” Miguel wrenched his head in your hair, grabbing handfuls of it in his palm. “You can focus on something. Sucking my dick.”

Even if you wanted to look up, Miguel drove your head down onto his dick, the dark, trimmed tuft of his pubic hair tickling your nose. He drew his hips back. You nearly pulled off him, if not for his hand assuring that you wouldn’t move off of it. Drool coursed down from your lips, soaking your chin and neck, connecting to his cock as if it were a spiderweb. Your cheeks flushed with blood— you must have looked a mess.

“Coño," Miguel tutted with his tongue, grasping his phone. Your lips pursed around his tip, eyes flickering up to catch the lens of his phone camera on your ruined face. A picture or a video, you weren’t entirely sure. Only that it sent thumps of pleasure down your core to know he wanted to record it, keep it close. You suckled along his sensitive head, working his moans free. He set his phone aside.

Miguel stood and dragged your head along with him to pin you between the ledge of the desk space and his wonderful hips. His hands slipped behind your head, keeping you still and steady, driving himself deep into your mouth. Past your tongue, down your throat, it felt like he hit parts of you that you could only dream of. You struggled with his size, choking the urge to swallow him when he forced you to hold him there. As if your throat was just a hole for his pleasure. Your sad attempt to suckle him down was tempered by the rocking of his hips, his needy face fucking. Your eyes screwed shut, bits of color dancing behind your eyes, the easiest way to deal with this was to focus— on the way he tasted, the scent of his fresh body wash, the light judder of his hips as he came close.

"Hah-- ay, qué rico," his nails scraped the back of your neck, sloppy and undefined thrusts filling your throat. He spurts thick ropes of his cum down your throat and mouth, withdrawing to jerk the last bursts of his cum over your lips. Miguel’s breath fell from his lips in heavy gulps, meeting yours down on your aching knees. Strings of coughed-up cum connected your sodden lips to his cock, globs of his seed slipping between your breasts. You ached.

“Tate quieta.”

You don’t know where you’d go, your palms catching yourself on the floor. He snapped another photo, humming appreciatively. Miguel reached into his gym bag, pulling a sweaty shirt free. Your fingers dipped into his warm cum that spattered across your warm chest, drawing it to your lips. He tasted salty, tangy, and just right.

"You look so-- so beautiful, princesa, just perfect," Miguel bent down, wiping the rest of his mess from your chest and face, gently stroking away all evidence of your face fucking before cleaning his cock and tucking himself away into his sweatpants. He chucked the t-shirt back into his bag, glazing his eyes over your hazy, exhausted eyes. He crouched down.

“Rule one, I never share my women,” he settled his knuckle under your chin, urging you to look him in the eyes. Something told him you wouldn't be as easy as the others, but for some reason, he shrugged the thought aside. “As long as I'm fucking you, you date no one but me. If I find out you are, we're done. Am I clear?”

He was a walking red flag. But for once, in your good girl life, you wanted that. You wanted to fuck in the library-- against the genetics building late at night-- to kiss him during a sunny picnic. More than you wanted a lot of things. His eyes went soft with your answer.

“Claro que sí, Miggy.”

He loves it when he gets what he wants.

#miguel o'hara x you #miguel ohara x reader #miguel o'hara oneshot #miguel x reader #miguel o'hara x reader #miguel o'hara/reader #atsv imagines #atsv imagine #atsv miguel imagine #atsv x reader #atsv x you #miguel o'hara smut #spiderman smut #spider 2099 x reader #spiderman imagine #spiderman imagines

2K notes · View notes

anikaluv · 10 months

Text

I'LL BE THERE —

❤︎︎ pairing: Miles (e!42) × fem!reader

❤︎︎ genre: fluff

❤︎︎ cw: stalking , Miles being a barbie kinnie, reader realizing there’s no escape lmao

❤︎︎ summary: Miles was your ex from a year ago, and you had completely moved on, blooming in your new life. So, why was he just now popping up everywhere?

❤︎︎ w/c: 800

❤︎︎ a/n: Was thinking about how Barbie has a million different jobs and went like, “What if that was Miles?”

E!42 MILES getting so frustrated in an argument you two were having; looked you dead in the eyes and spat, "If you don't like that shit, you can get up and leave."

E!42 MILES being genuinely shocked when that is precisely what you did, thinking this was just gonna be another one of the little squabbles you two were used to having

E!42 MILES realizing in the next following months that you could live perfectly without him and move on, while he, on the other hand, was going through the worst turmoil of his life

E!42 MILES deciding that whether or not you wanted him in your life, he needed you in his. So he was going to get you back no matter what

E!42 MILES turning around to greet you with a cheeky grin on his face at the cafe you’ve been a regular for the past 6 years as the barista going, “Hello precious, ¿Qué será para ti hoy? (What will it be for you today?)”

E!42 MILES ignoring your look of surprise as he jots down your usual order that he already has memorized and then has the audacity to look back into your eyes and ask, “Can I get a name for the order, please?”

E!42 MILES a few days later watching as you pull in your cart full of groceries to checkout and couldn't help but laugh mischievously when your jaw dropped when seeing that he was the cashier. (He made sure to scan your items very slowly)

E!42 MILES becoming the bus driver of the bus you took every day to work. Pulling up to your bus stop, opening the doors, tipping his hat, and greeting you with a playful smile. "Mornin', mi vida (my life), pretty day, ain't it?", ignoring your eye roll as you stepped onto the bus.

E!42 MILES who “coincidently” ditches the home gym he’s been using since he started being the prowler and starts going to the exact same gym as you, sucking in his breath when he sees you squat in those tight seamless shorts

E!42 MILES who’s happy to treat you and your niece to some ice-cream at the park inside of the ice cream truck he now works at, playfully chuckling at you as you arrogantly shoved the money into his chest.

E!42 MILES sitting comfortably in a salon chair at your normal nail salon as a nail tech, ready to paint whatever design you desire on your delicate fingers

E!42 MILES who types into his computer at your local bank as your bank teller, prepared to enter in your weekly / monthly checks when you walk in. Taking your check out of your hand to observe it, acting shocked like it’s not its about the same amount every time. “Woah, cariño (darlin’) , did’nt know my girl worked this hard.” (He was proud of you, he knew his girl could achieve anything she wanted on her own )

E!42 MILES who welcomes you openly to his salon chair at your favorite hair salon when your usual stylist “happens” to be out of town going, “Hey mami, you want the usual?”

E!42 MILES at your library organizing books loudly while you’re studying for a important exam, holding his finger at your lips when you’re about to explode and scream and whispers, “Baby, this is a quiet environment, quiet your lips f’me aight?”

E!42 MILES clocking in as your yoga instructor at your yoga studio only on the one day of the week you go, wearing a purple headband with a tight tank top and yoga pants that showed the ass you didn’t know he had. You groaning as he does doggy style shouts, “Thats it ladies! You want to really arch your back like this!” while smirking. (Kelly Clarkson’s “What doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger” is playing in the back)

E!42 MILES who works at your local mall at Nike on one knee in front of you happily assisting you put on one of the pairs of shoes, locking eyes with you the whole time wearing that smug grin he always got. (When he was finished you kicked him in the face before he got up, but lets be honest, he probably fell in love more)

E!42 MILES being on the plane you were taking to move and get away from him. Wearing his flight attendant uniform and slowly making his way down the aisles. Finally getting to you and turning to you as that cute scowl appears on your face while nonchalantly saying, “Would you like some pretzels, ma? They gluten-free.”

E!42 MILES chuckling loudly when you downright ask him why was he following you everywhere like a stalking creep, amused that you haven’t gotten the message yet

E!42 MILES picking up your chin to make you give him all of your attention, leaning down to where your lips brushed against each other, and spoke in a quiet tone no one else heard,

“Doesn’t matter where you go or what you do conejita (bunny), I’ll be there."

ENDING A/N: Is this really extra and extremely unrealistic, damn right. But its funny.

TAGLIST: @janaeby @bellstwd @nmgstuff @axeoverblade @zaddyskye69 @agstuffsworld @spidrstar @laylasbunbunny @missusmorales @popeheywardssecretgf @lumineliax @fukingsad @wisteriaflowersss @crxss01 @joliety @fiannee @sylisan

TAGS:

#anika❤︎︎writes #miles morales x reader #earth 42 miles morales x black!reader #earth 42 miles x reader #earth 42 miles x you #across the spiderverse #earth 42 miles fluff #prowler miles #atsv miles #earth 42 miles morales x reader

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embrosegraves · 4 months

Text

𝔽𝕒𝕞𝕚𝕝𝕪 ℝ𝕒𝕔𝕖 𝔻𝕒𝕪

(request) Fernando Alonso x Reader Fernando helps the reader’s daughter to be brave. “Booping noses” and “Hand kisses”

Warnings: Google translated Spanish (i'm trying to learn the language but for now, Google.)

Race day for most people would mean complete chaos, it was no different for the Alonsos.

Even before you had met Fernando all those years ago, your whole life had been chaos incarnate. From working your ass off, to dating a Formula One driver, and even introducing said driver to your family (which included introducing him to your young daughter, Marta). It was safe to say that you were very familiar with chaos.

Which is why you were so surprised to find that Marta, at a very grown up 7 years old, was being so calm. This wasn’t her first time at a race, but it was her first time not going berserk at everything around her. Usually she would be running this way and that, trying to get the attention of every driver that passed you both. Some of them tried to talk with her, but they usually struggled as no matter how much English you taught her, Marta always forgot that not everyone spoke Spanish.

But that wasn’t the case today. Not one bit. You would have been more worried about it if not for the strong grip she had on your hand. Walking over to the Aston Martin hospitality building, you gently guided her to a table near the back. You knew that children often got embarrassed when asked particular questions, so you did your best to find a table that had a bit of privacy.

“¿Qué pasa Pequeña? Do you feel okay?” You squeezed her hand gently, trying to give her a bit of comfort and encouragement. [What’s wrong Little One?]

“Estoy nerviosa para más tarde.” She whispered. Giving her a good look over, you could see on her face and in her eyes that she was a little anxious. A part of your heart broke because you hadn’t noticed sooner. [I’m nervous for later.]

“¿Se trata de estar en el garaje?” You were almost certain it was. Marta had never watched a race from inside the garage before, usually you would watch from the hospitality. Marta nodded, the charms on her pigtails jingling as they went. [Is this about being in the garage?]

“We can stay here for a bit if you want, but do you think it might help if we talk to Fernando? He might be able to help you be brave.” It was almost a sure fire way to get her to do anything. As soon as Fernando’s name was mentioned in any conversation, Marta would latch on and engage in whatever was being spoken about for hours.

“Mamá, ¿crees que Fernando alguna vez se asusta?” It broke your heart to hear her voice tremble. Normally, if you asked a question in English, you would encourage her to answer in English as well, but given the situation, you didn’t try to correct her. [Mummy, do you think Fernando ever gets scared?]

“I know he gets scared sometimes. Even Mamá gets scared. But you know what helps?” she shook her head. “Hugs from your favourite person. Getting a hug can help you feel brave enough to do the things you're scared about.”

“¿Puedo abrazar a Fernando?” [Can I hug Fernando?]

“Of course you can Mija. Should we go find him?”

Marta nodded and got up from her chair, still holding your hand tightly. You quickly made the short walk over to the garage, showing your passes to the security standing outside. Once inside, you made your way to Fernando’s side to see him sitting down with a book in his hands. You weren’t expecting him to notice you over all the noise of the garage, but as soon as you started walking towards him, he looked up and right at you both. He started smiling before seeing just how scared Marta looked to be in the garage.

Fernando didn’t even mark his page before he put the book down. He stood up and gave you a sweet kiss before crouching down to be the same height as Marta, who was now clutching tightly to your leg.

“What’s the matter, Mija?” Fernando had spoken the question to Marta but he was looking at you.

“She’s just a bit scared to be watching from the garage today.”

“Ah.” Fernando gently unlatched Marta’s hands from your leg and held them both in his. Now that she was facing him, he tugged her a little bit closer to him. “Do you know what helps me feel less scared?”

“Mamá said a hug helps.” You almost couldn’t hear her over the noise from the mechanics.

“Your Mamá is a very smart woman, Marta.” You couldn’t help a small smile from appearing. “Can I give you a hug?”

Marta didn’t answer. She just wrapped her arms around Fernando tightly and buried her face into his neck. Fernando wrapped his arms around her just as tight. He made sure he had a firm grip on her before he stood up. He started swaying and whispering to Marta in Spanish. You were forever thankful that you had met Fernando when you did. You had no idea how you would’ve raised Marta by yourself.

Fernando didn’t let go of Marta until he was told that he needed to start getting ready to be in the car. He gently nudged her and asked if she wanted to help him. Marta was feeling a lot better, if the way she enthusiastically nodded her head indicated anything. Fernando gently put Marta back on the ground and led her over to where his things were. She helped him put his gloves and balaclava on, quickly getting another hug before he put on his helmet.

“Do you think you can be brave enough to look after your Mamá?” Fernando asked her, his visor still up. Marta had a serious look on her face.

“I can do it.” Her serious look was gone the moment Fernando booped her nose. Right before Fernando moved to get in the car, Marta reached up and flicked down his visor and then booped the helmet where his nose would be. Fernando gave her a fist bump and then finally got into the car for the race.

Fernando had ended up finishing in P4, only just missing out on the podium. You were originally going to wait in the garage for him to come back after the race, but Marta had decided that it would be easier to look after you if you were in the hospitality. You had texted Fernando to go there after the debrief so he wouldn’t spend ages trying to find you. Soon enough, Fernando was walking towards you, no longer in his racing suit. Before he could even greet you, Marta had started barrelling towards him. Fernando had crouched down in his spot so that she could hug him easier.

“I did it! I did it! I was being brave like you and I took care of Mamá, just like you said!”

“You did an amazing job, Mija. I’m so proud of you!” Fernando’s arms were wrapped around her tightly.

Getting up from your seat, your heart swelled with love at your boyfriend and daughter. Walking over to them, you held your hand out for Fernando to take.

“You did so well, Mi Amor. You drove brilliantly.”

Fernando brought your hand to his lips and kissed it. That one kiss telling you everything you needed to know. That he loved you and your daughter. That no matter what happened he would always be there to help you with anything you needed.

He kissed your hand again before standing up. Settling Marta on his back, he began leading you to the car that would take you all to the hotel to finally rest after the busy day.

So to be completely honest, I had this basically all finished, but then some shit happened (non F1 related) and it may have taken me a while, but i finally got it done

Also, I'm sure you noticed that I took a bit of inspiration from KMag and his daughter. The clip of her helping her dad get ready for a race is just so cute!

I hope you enjoyed!

As usual likes, replies and reblogs are always appreciated

#formula 1 x you #f1 x reader #f1 fluff #formula one #fernando alonso x y/n #fernando alonso x reader #fernando alonso #formula 1 #fernando alonso fluff #fernando alonso imagine #fernando alonso fic #f1 blurb #fa14

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shadowlali · 2 months

Note

could i ask for alejandro v with a plus size latina…🙏🙏

or keegan…

paraíso

COD - Alejandro Vargas x latina!reader

[18+] wc: ~1.8k summary: Alejandro wakes you from a nap. masterlist | AO3

warnings: NSFW, some proofreading, pre-established relationship, alejandro and reader own a ranch/hacienda, oral (f! receiving), unprotected sex, no physical descriptions of reader besides them being plus-sized

a/n: the latina in this speaks spanish however all latinas are welcome! there are so many different languages spoken by our people ♡ ♡ ♡

It’s probably the closest thing there is to paradise. And of course, Alejandro wouldn't have it any other way.

He built this ranch mostly for you, for his wife to have the house she always dreamed of. Acres upon acres of rolling hills, orchids filled with avocados and oranges, pastures full of sheep, chickens, horses–a testament of his love for you.

Most of the time, the rancho is busy with people tending to its daily tasks. But today, on a Sunday, it's empty. Alejandro is downtown picking up feed for the horses and you’re home alone, having finished the chores inside the house.

With a towel and book in hand, you walk towards a cluster of trees. You lay on the soft towel and let the slight breeze pass over your skin. The weather is perfect and the enormous trees provide you with shade from the warm sun.

It’s no surprise that you end up falling asleep. You’re not sure how long it's been since you’ve dozed off, but familiar hands begin to caress your sides.

“Princesa,” Alejandro coos, “I couldn’t find you inside the house. I thought you were hiding from me.” [Princess]

You let out a slow hi papi, still in that headspace of not quite awake but not quite asleep. Alejandro makes room for himself between your thighs, pushing them open to accommodate his broad hips. He rocks into you slowly, pressing himself right on your warm cunt. [daddy]

You keep your eyes closed, still too sleepy to pay attention to him.

“Where’d you get this from?” Alejandro asks, tugging on the string of your bikini.

It’s tiny, not doing much to cover you. It leaves all of your plush skin out on display, and Alejandro takes full advantage. He leans over you and bites the apples of your cheeks in little nips that slowly rouse you from sleep.

He presses a kiss on your mouth, teasing his tongue on your lips until you let out a soft moan, giving him the opportunity to slip his tongue inside your warm mouth.

He licks inside of you, using his hand to cup your jaw and keep you still. Before you can sink your fingers in his hair, Alejandro moves down. He pulls the triangles of your bikini to the side and sucks your nipple into his mouth. The heat of his mouth and the scratchiness of his beard have you grinding on the bulge of his jeans.

With a soft pop, he lets your nipple go and moves to the other one to do the same. Alejandro keeps going down, sinking his teeth into the skin on your ribs and belly, loving how plump it is, enough for him to bite down.

“Que delicia.” [How delicious]

“Papi–”

“Shh, mi amor,” he murmurs, undoing the string of your bottoms, “papi te dará lo que necesites.” [Daddy will give you what you need]

Your pussy begins to pulse with heat, already knowing what’s going to happen. Alejandro quickly yanks your bikini off and throws both pieces to the side. He moves over you again, kissing your lips then trailing down until he reaches your lower belly.

“Just lay there and relax for me. Okay?” he murmurs.

You nod, happy to be with your husband and willing to take whatever pleasure he gives you. Alejandro positions himself between your thighs, raising goosebumps with each kiss he presses to your skin.

“Hermosa,” he whispers, blowing cool air on your slick pussy, “all this, sólo para mí.” [Beautiful, just for me]

With a rough stroke, he gathers your sweet slick on his tongue. You cry out and sink your fingers in the towel to anchor yourself. Alejandro flicks his tongue over the sensitive swell of your clit, drawing little swirls and what you think is his name.

He bites your inner thighs and rubs his beard on your skin. It stings in such sweet pleasure that all you can do is pull at the towel and grass. His tongue dips into your tight cunt and you both moan at the same time; him from the taste and you from the sensitivity.

Alejandro’s fingers have sunk into your thighs and lower belly to keep you in place. He moves one hand down to slowly press his middle finger into you.

“You like that, princesa?” he teases as he hears you cry out.

“More, more,” you chant.

He presses his ring finger inside and moves faster, curling his fingers into your g-spot and making you see spots of white in your vision. Alejandro’s tongue goes back to drawing circles on your clit.

You bring a hand up to twist your swollen nipples, knowing that Alejandro likes to watch you play with your tits while he eats at your pussy. He works his fingers faster, using your slick to stretch you open for his cock. The hot twinge in your core spreads up to your swollen tits and down to the tips of your toes as you come on his face.

“Ale–papi” you stutter, unable to finish your sentence.

Alejandro quickly switches, using his thumb to rub fast circles on your clit while he buries his face in the gush of your pussy. You scream his name over and over, feeling his tongue dip into you and through your folds. You rub your cunt on his face and over the roughness of his beard.

He sinks both hands into your thighs and keeps you pressed tight to his face. You try to push away when the sensitivity becomes too much but he growls out a harsh no and buries his face to your cunt, lapping at your clit until you're unraveling all over again.

Your hands are useless. You’re far too weak at this point to push Alejandro away. Beautiful numbness has spread through every centimeter of your body, leaving you in a sweaty heap on the towel. Alejandro presses a soft kiss on your mound, slowly trailing up until he can slip his tongue into your mouth. He makes you taste yourself, fucks his tongue into your mouth with the same intensity he used on your cunt.

“Open,” he murmurs.

With your jaw in his hand, you open your mouth slightly and watch through half-lidded eyes as he spits. It lands right on your tongue and before you can even swallow, Alejandro is licking into your mouth once more. He presses his hard bulge right onto your swollen cunt and rubs the rough material over your skin.

With one more kiss, he pushes back on his knees and unzips his pants. There is a slight wet patch from where he grinded against you. Alejandro doesn’t bother taking off his clothes. He’s far too gone to shake off his flannel and jeans. He also prefers moments like these, when you’re completely naked underneath him and all he has to do is pull out his hard cock from his pants.

“Spread your legs, princesa,” he orders. “Wider–there we go.”

With his cock in his hand, he lightly drags the large tip from your drippy hole to your clit. The numbness you felt from your orgasm slowly turns back into heat as Alejandro pushes inside of you. You mewl from the stretch of his cock, sounding like a needy kitten writhing on the ground.

“Enough,” he scolds, “you can take it.”

Your mouth opens in a perfect o-shape as you throw your head back onto the ground the moment he reaches the end of you. His hands travel all over your body, touching and massaging your skin. Alejandro grinds into you, allowing you to accommodate to the stretch.

“Will you be good for me, princesa?” Alejandro murmurs in a low voice that makes your pussy squeeze around his cock. “Fuck–will, will you let me fuck you?”

You reach for his hand that rests on your lower belly and link your fingers with his. “Por favor, papi,” you whisper. [Please daddy]

Alejandro wastes no time, immediately pulling out then plunging back into you. He keeps your hand linked in his as he uses his strong body to thrust into your tight cunt. The roughness of his jeans rub on your sensitive skin, heightening every nerve ending on your body.

“Princesa perfecta, hermosa,” he praises from above. “Made just f–just for me.” [Perfect princess, beautiful]

You hear high pitched whimpers and it’s not until you focus, do you realize that they’re coming from you. “All y–yours,” you stutter.

A thin layer of sweat covers your body despite the breeze in the air. Alejandro’s large hands slip beneath your hips, angling you up so he can go even deeper. The new angle is perfect, each thrust rubbing against the soft spot inside of you.

“Touch your tits for me,” Alejandro pleads. “Quiero ver.” [I want to see]

You quickly move your fingers to squeeze your breasts. It sends shocks straight down to your pussy with each pinch to your nipples. Alejandro groans at the sight and increases the speed of his thrusts. The front of his jeans are soaked at this point, but he keeps fucking into you.

He praises you, rains down pretty words that come directly from his heart. Toda mía, mi princesa, te amo he repeats over and over again. His eyes hold yours, full of so much devotion. Alejandro’s brow pinches and his jaw clenches. You can tell that he’s close. [All mine, my princess, I love you]

“Need to come,” he grunts, “te necesito ahí conmigo.” [I need you there with me]

One of his hands moves to swipe through the slick of your joined bodies and rub your clit. Both of your hands reach for the ground and pull at the grass as warmth washes over your body in waves. It starts off slow, building with each swipe of his thumb. Pleasure once again burns your body, igniting you to your core.

Alejandro whimpers slightly, feeling the tight flutter and gush of your pussy. His movements become harsh and sloppy. You can see tiny rivulets of sweat travel down the tendons of his neck. His eyes become darker and his hands only sink more into your skin until he’s finishing inside of you. Loud groans escape his mouth with each thrust of his hips. His cum paints your tight walls and you squeeze, draining every drop from him.

“Dios mi—fuck,” he groans, throwing his head.

He grinds into you, making sure you’re filled and stuffed full of him. Little shivers shake his body but he keeps upright, breathing slowly. He looks down at you and smiles, loving how sweaty and thoroughly fucked you look.

“Qué hermoso domingo, ¿no?” he asks. [What a beautiful Sunday, no?]

You give him a silly smile and nod. “Hermosísimo.” [So beautiful]

#alejandro vargas x reader #alejandro vargas x female reader #alejandro vargas x latina reader #alejandro vargas smut #cod x reader #cod mw2 x female reader #alejandro vargas #cod mw2 smut #shadowlali

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crumblinggothicarchitecture · 9 days

Note

“And the relative simplicity of her music works with people who just want something mindlessly play in the background. It's also really easy for average people- who have no musical background- to sing along with. The lines are simple rhymes, and she never really uses any specialized vocal techniques like Vibrato. Basically, it's music for bland people who think salt is a spice.”

Some of your takes are valid and it’s healthy to critique anything that amasses such a large following in pop culture. However I would argue there is a way to do this without coming across as a pretentious undergraduate who read a few required and recommended readings from the syllabus and now sips their tea with a pinkie protruding. Let’s remember that tumblr is not inherently full of academics and defining anyone who hasn’t got a certain level of education as average or bland is such an Americanised, my way or the highway way of thinking.

It is possible to have differing opinions to others without insulting their intelligence or falsely presenting them in a certain way. Average people as a term in general, is quite elitist and classist. For example, I have a PHD in literature and am a classical musician. I work in publishing and academia.

That said, I still enjoy pop music, sometimes something can just be enjoyable and it’s not that deep.

Criticising Taylor Swift is low hanging fruit for a lit major who claims to be allied with as many causes as yourself. Or, if you do decide to continue with it, I hope you do it in a more articulated manner that focuses more on the quality of your arguments, and not just an assumption that those who oppose you are stupid or “bland” when I suspect the truth is much more complex than that, as it always is.

Best of luck with further studies. I hope to see more diverse content from you in the future, maybe some literary analysis of contemporary texts, or other artists who you deem intellectual enough to enjoy, or some recommendations.

Honestly- I do not know with which tone I should address this anon. I cannot tell if you are being hostile- but I certainly feel that you are being condescending.

Thanks for at least direct quoting my words with which you draw issue. I appreciate it- some people send me critiques but fail to outline which of my posts is the problem.

I can capitulate to exactly one of your points- and admit it is a good point- that I am overly sassy on occasion. The post you are angry about is just me chitchatting with someone about Swift’s live shows- it wasn’t a literary analysis. I cannot do an academic analysis of her live shows- but that does not mean I don’t have an opinion of them.

Again- it was opinion not argument or analysis. Not a serious post. This is not a blog where I am going to speak like an academic all of the time. I’m here to have a little fun- and try to remind myself why I actually do love what I do for a living.

Generally speaking- I will try to make a more obvious, clear difference between what is just an opinion and what is a researched, literary argument on Taylor Swift in my future posting. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

There are some other things about your ask that I want to address, because it struck me as a bit unnecessary.

You say that I’m “coming across as a pretentious undergraduate who read a few required and recommended readings from the syllabus and now sips their tea with a pinkie protruding” (para. 1). This is condescending. No, I did not simply “read a few required and recommended readings” to complete my education. You say you’ve got a PHd in the same discipline- and yet you want to tell me all I did for my degree was read a couple of books? You should know the kind of intellectual work that goes into real literary study. I am trying to show people with this blog, at least in some small way, that while literary study is not so straightforwardly quantifiably valuable like, for instance, physics- it is still a real discipline. With real requirements on argumentation and logic. It takes intellectual skill to wrestle with concepts in literary theory – but more so to apply them in synthesis and interpretation of textual evidence.

SO, why are you essentially patting my head and saying “aw-cute she read some books and now thinks she’s smart?”

To be clear- I am not in undergrad. I have finished two different degrees and am currently working on my third.

Why would you accuse me of classism and elitism predicated solely on a bad joke in a post wherein I am not even doing any real literary analysis? What prompted that? I made no effort to even pretend the post in question was little more than opinion- my real posts however, about literary analysis, I take great pains to research and edit those together with care.

Also, “Americanized” what? Are you American? Because people ‘round here don’t care about what level of education you’ve got? The access to education varies remarkably state to state- and down into Latin American too- and we all know it. So, there is very much a culture of “help each other out when struggling” and not a culture of thinking that everyone of Earth needs to go through American University in order to matter. What are you talking about? Do you think American’s hold the monopoly on having Dogmatic views or “my way or the highway” thinking? That’s obviously not true- so what are you trying to say here?

Did you miss the part of my Bio where I talk about being a teacher? I am a teacher in one of the poorest- most unfunded places in the country. My friend- I am repulsed by the idea of classism- I take my position in my community very seriously. Knowledge is not a stick with which I attempt to beat others down- Please understand that.

Next, you say it is possible to critique without insulting people’s intelligence (para. 2). um, I did not insult anyone’s intelligence? I said their taste in music was bland, which does not correlate to an assumption on their intelligence. Um- I have also said many times that I like simple pop- music. Am I calling myself stupid because I’ve been listening to “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter on repeat? NOpe. It’s just a silly little song- and dancing to it makes me feel cute, young and free- but it’s still a bland song with no literary or moral value. What exactly is the problem here?

Okay, within this same point you draw issue with my use of the word average, saying that “average people, as a term...is quite elitist and classist” (para.3). Okay, you misinterpreted my use of the word “average” here- as I was not referring to people as “average” because they have no education, or a different education compared to my own. I was only using the term in the most colloquial sense- meaning “in general” or “on average” as in the median percentage of people have no musical background- therefore they find simplistic pop music the easiest to digest and the simplest thing to play in the background or sing to on car trips. It’s pleasing to the ear because we don’t have too much “work” into understanding it- that's what I mean when I say it’s bland.

If oatmeal was a type of music- it would be pop music. bland filler- but you know it can still be good.

Okay, let’s talk about your final point “Taylor Swift is Low Hanging Fruit” (para. Whatever I can’t be bothered to count). Ummm? A billionaire musician who has massive worldwide acclaim and social impact is “low-hanging” to you? I mean yeah- she's clearly not worth study through the lens of poetical semiotics, or God forbid- Linguistic Morphology; however, there are several different ways a good analysis of her work could function- through feminist, Marxists, Post-colonialist, or anything under the umbrella of cultural studies. I also intend to do a rhetorical analysis on her use of “lower class” aesthetics and how that attracts the audience she wants. And, I’ve done a couple of syntactical analyses. However, I had to prop those up with a dichotomization of her work to someone with more impressive literary value, like Kendrick Lamar, because her work alone is not strong enough for that type of analysis.

Apologies if I have written a return, you did not expect or want- perhaps, I should be less sensitive on the internet. I do often brush off people's condescension, especially when I notice that they are extremely young or just do not know anything at all about my field of study. Because why worry about uninformed opinions? I wanted to speak with you, however, because you do care. It is obvious, and I am glad that people do care. I admire you for caring about the integrity of the discipline- but I really wasn’t doing what you thought I was doing.

I admire anyone who also studies Literature, and you say you’re a classical musician, I think that’s so impressive! I love classical music! Rachmaninoff makes me feel insane! I love it! You know that one O’Hara poem? The one that is an ode to Rachmaninoff’s birthday that ends “you’ll never be mentally sober” because I feel that line in my bones. And don’t even get me started on Tchaikovsky- Truly, you might never hear the end of it. (CAnnoNS!!!!??? what a guy)

I just wanted to clear up anything that you found offensive- but I also defended myself because you do know what I’m talking about when it comes to literary study- and so the conversation took priority over the other meaningless “hate” messages I get. And- boy howdy- I've been getting hate messages pretty much daily.

Promise to no longer be condescending to me and I think we ought to be friends and not fight- let me start- what did you concentrate on for your PHd?

I, myself, focus on post-colonialism, feminist theory, and post-modernist thought in American Literature. I work mainly within US Multi-ethnic literature, though, outside of school, I have an intense fascination with medieval or ancient Literature- primarily, these days, classical Sanskrit poetry. Last year it was an obsession with old Norse literature- lol I like to switch things up. Have you ever read the Heliand? It’s about Viking Jesus- so cool and written in old Saxon! But, anyway, I think the unique prosody of Sanskrit is so neat-o. My other obsession is this one old french poem called "le roman de silence" what a crazy little gender-bending 13th century thing that is (haha). And this doesn't even get into my philosophical preoccupations- though I believe I will discuss those on my blog, too, at some point.

Anyway- perhaps I will talk about my more niche interests on this blog- all good things in time. I have no interest in solely focusing on Taylor Swift forever- but I do want to finish saying all the things I’ve been holding back for years. I think it’s important- because Swift holds such a massive influence over people. It’s healthy, as you said, to critique people like that.

Okay- Sorry I talked soo long. Peace Out :)

#anti taylor swift #ex swiftie #linguistics #literary criticism #literary theory #literary analysis #academia #english lit student

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stolen-wolfbread · 1 year

Text

(Free) Brazilian Portuguese Beginner Resource Masterlist

I've seen a lot of posts for European Portuguese, but none for Brazilian, so here we are! All resources are available for free (or at least have free trials.)

The items highlighted in yellow are what I, personally, use and recommend.

The items with asterisks are closer to intermediate level.

I will continue to update with new resources as I discover them. If you have any suggestions, comment or reblog!

Text

Textbooks

101 Brazillian Portuguese Expressions

Brazilian Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese Grammar

FSI Brazilian Portuguese Fast 1 | 2 (+audio)

ClicaBrazil*

Learn Brazilian Portuguese - Word Power 101

Complete Brazilian Portuguese

IE Languages

Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar

Português para principiantes

( +more in the Mega Folder from @salvadorbonaparte)

Handouts

List of Irregular Verbs

Top 100 Portuguese Phrases to Learn

Verbs in Brazilian Portuguese

Blogs

Uncle Brazil

Video

Channels

Brazilian Talk

Fernando - FWBP

Lennon Brito

Plain Portuguese

Portugués con Philipe Brazuca (For Spanish-speakers)

Speaking Brazilian Language School

Street Smart Brazil

Playlists

Brazilian Films with English Subtitles

Easy Brazilian Portuguese: Basic Phrases

Easy Brazilian Portuguese: Learning From the Streets

Portuguese From Brazil

Super Easy Brazilian Portuguese

Audio

Podcasts

Brazilian Portuguese Podcast

Brazilian Talk

Brazilianing

Carioca Connection

Fala Gringo*

Língua da Gente

LinguaBoost

Papo Vai

Read Books in Brazilian Portuguese With Me*

Speaking Brazilian Podcast

Tá Falado! (Compares Spanish and Portuguese languages)

Spotify Playlists

Brazilian Boogie

Brazilian Pop Mix

Brasilidades

RADAR Brasil

Raízes Brasileiras

Top 50 - Brazil

Top Songs - Brazil

Web Apps/ Mobile Apps

Flashcards

Anki | Speaking Brazilian | 55 Sounds

Linguno

Memrise | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Dictionaries

Forvo (Pronunciation dictionary)

Priberam (Cites differences between European and Brazilian)*

Word Reference

Courses

Duolingo | Old Duolingo for Web | Old Duolingo APKs For Android

Language Drops

Keyboards

Lexilogos

Type.it

Communities/Forums

HiNative

r/brazilianmusic

r/language_exchange

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aspoonofsugar · 10 months

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Oshi No Ko - A Family Of Stars

I caught up with Oshi No Ko, so here are some opinions and meta thoughts.

AN INVERSION OF NAOKI URASAWA'S MONSTER

Oshi No Ko and Monster are 2 very different stories, but some plot elements and conflicts are similar:

Monster is the story of a surgeon, who must track down a serial killer whose life he has saved. This monster is one of 2 twins and the story deals with the brother and sister uncovering their past

Oshi No Ko is the story of a doctor, who is murdered and reborn as his favourite idol's child. Together with him there is a twin sister and they must track down the killer of their mother. The series leads the twins to find closure with their previous selves, so they can embrace a new life

In short, in both series there is a pair of twins and a murderer. It is just that in Monster the twins have no memories nor sense of selves, while in Oshi No Ko they have too many memories and baggage.

Finally, in Monster the characters must uncover the truth behind Johan, while in Oshi No Ko they must find out who Ai really is. The former is about understanding a monster, whereas the latter is about empathizing with a goddess.

(A)IDOL

The invincible smile that tears up the media Wanna know her secret, so mysterious Even the things she lacks end up in her area Such a perfect liar, you are: [Miss] ingenious, godly idol (You're my savior, you're my saving grace)

In religion an idol is:

An object which represents a deity, so it can become a manifestation of the god itself

A fake god, at least in monotheistic religions, like Judaism, Christianity and Islam

So, idols are gods. And yet, they are fake gods. In particular, monotheistic religions refuse idols because they are over-simplified representations of the divine.

Similarly, people worship celebrities, but only aknowledge their simplistic personas. Actors and idols are put on a pedestal, but also objectified:

So, what'd you eat today? What's your favorite book? And if you wanna go to play, where are you gonna go? I haven't eaten at all That's a secret No matter what you ask She's elusive, evasive Yet still shining bright; Her secret: out of sight, as if visible, has the taste of honey

They aren't seen as people with complex emotions, but as blank slates fans project their feelings onto.

This is why Ai Hoshino is the ultimate idol:

Drawing everyone's eyes You are the perfect, ultimate idol Never to appear again A reincarnation of Venus With that smile, with that "I love you" You captivate everyone Even if those eyes, those words, are false They make up a perfect love (Ai)

Ai's whole self is a lie. Not because she is malicious, but rather because she lacks a sense of self:

She is not sure of her own emotions and can't tell truth from lies. Everything is mixed and unclear. What does it even mean to love? What does Ai even want?

Ai is supposed to embody love. After all, she is associated to the Morning Star, which is called Venus, also known as the Goddess of Love. And yet, Ai's true eyes are dark:

Similarly, the word "ai" means love, but our idol's name is written with no kanji, which makes it the Japanese transcription of the English word for eye.

Ai's name is the sound of love, but with no kanjis (no meaning) attached. Ai is an empty love with empty eyes. This is the pun she is built on.

Still, why is that so? Well, Ai's parents don't put kanjis in her name, just like they don't love her:

So, Ai's character is defined by these 2 ideas:

I have never been loved by anyone Nor have I loved anyone else

On the one hand she was never loved. On the other hand she has never loved. Because of this, she thinks of herself as a fake.

AI (PURPLE) = AQUA (BLUE) + RUBY (RED)

Ai has stars in both her purple eyes. Aqua and Ruby instead have only 1 star each. Moreover, Aqua has blue eyes, while Ruby has red eyes. The idea is very simple. They are Ai's 2 sides:

Aqua is blue, right, mind and an actor

Ruby is red, left, heart and an idol

Together they make Ai, down to her 2 parallel careers (as an actress and as an idol). That said, the twins' foiling with their mother gets deeper:

As Miyako highlights, both Aqua and Ruby are liars. It is just that they lie about opposite things. On the one hand Aqua hides his most positive and vulnerable side. On the other hand Ruby hides her negative feelings. Aqua always sulks, while Ruby always smiles.

Aqua suppresses his wish to love others and to be happy with them

Ruby suppresses her fear to be unloved and abandoned by those around her

In short, each twin explores one of Ai's complexes (to love and to be loved). They really are the 2 faces of Ai (love).

AQUA - THE UNLOVING ACTOR

Aqua's story starts with Gorou Amamiya:

Gorou is a person strongly defined by guilt, which is at the root of his backstory. His mother was a young girl, who died by giving birth to him. As a result, Gorou feels he lives at her expenses and does all he can to rectify this mistake. For example, he becomes an obstetrician, even if he really wants to be a surgeon. Not only that, but he ends up developing a saviour complex. He feels it is his failure that Sarina dies, even if her illness can't be cured and has nothing to do with Gorou's area of expertise.

So, it is really no surprise that once Ai arrives, he projects on her the 2 people he could not save:

Ai is Sarina's favourite idol and a young girl like her

Ai is a teenage mother and is desperate to give birth in secret, just like Gorou's own mother

Ai represents Gorou's chance of redemption and catharsis. He could not save neither his mom nor Sarina, but he can help Ai. She needs the kind of doctor he is and this time he can make things right. However, Gorou is negated this closure and gets killed and reborn as Ai's own son. A son, who is destined to witness his mother's death. This time again, Aqua is powerless and can't save Ai. So, the story repeats and Aqua is left broken:

Aqua's real wish is to save people, but he keeps failing, so he chooses the path of revenge. He becomes his own antithesis.

He feels he doesn't deserve to live happily with others, but his wish to connect is too strong and he ends up forging some of the deepest bonds in the series:

He insists he is only focused on revenge, but ends up warming up to Kana and Akane to the point he goes out of his way to support them multiple times. Even when it doesn't help his avenge quest.

This is made clear in recent chapters, as well. Aqua has decided to give up on all his bonds. He cuts ties with Akane, decides to manipulate Kana and betrays Ruby's trust. He insists he is ready to go to hell alone. And yet, even after he takes such a dark turn, he can't help, but to save Ruby:

As Crow Girl says, this is a bad move on Aqua's side. His revenge would be easier if Ruby hated him, but he lets his true feelings out. He tries to repress his love and care for others. And yet, it keeps manifesting through the cracks of his vengeful persona. Aqua decides not to love, but he still does.

RUBY - THE UNLOVED IDOL

Ruby's story starts with Sarina Tendouji:

Sarina's life is doomed by her illness, which results in her parents abandoning her. Not only does she suffer physically, but she feels unloved. Despite that, she refuses to give up and laces on 2 people, who become her personal lights (stars):

Ai is the girl Sarina wishes to be. A person who is showered with love, as she shines brightly and moves freely on a stage.

Gorou is a parental substitude, as he is the only adult, who supports Sarina throughout her illness. He is even the person who stays with her, while she dies.

So, Ai and Gorou are around when Sarina's parents aren't, which is why she ends up idolizing them. Ai becomes some kind of ideal self, while Gorou becomes her first crush. The truth, though, is that they are the 2 pillars of Sarina's life.

Ironically, Sarina's make believe family becomes Ruby's real one. In particular, Ai becomes a mother, who loves her children with all her heart. This is healing for Ruby, who projects her wish for love on Ai:

It is Ai's strong emotions, which make it possible for Ruby to recover from the loss of her mother:

Ruby pursues the career of idol earnestly to become a star who never lies. And yet, she keeps lying to herself, as she refuses to confront Sarina's past. This negation is why her reaction to Gorou's death is so strong. This discovery becomes a catalyst for all of Ruby's negative feelings:

Ruby becomes her own antithesis and starts to climb up high through manipulation and lies. It is implied she weakens her relationships and later on she enters a violent fight with Aqua, which breaks their bond.

And yet, when Ruby hits rock bottom and confronts the painful truth that her parents have abandoned Sarina, it is Aqua who comes to her rescue:

Even if Ruby breaks their relationship and is prepared to live without trusting anyone anymore, she is still loved. The girl who fears rejection and abandonement is loved even in her darkest moment.

IDOL + FANS = MOTHER + CHILDREN

Aqua and Ruby are opposites. Aqua is scared to be loved and can't let go of Gorou. Ruby is scared to be unloved and can't face Sarina. And yet, they are also the same. Both project their deeper issues on both each other and Ai.

Gorou's feelings over his mother are projected on Sarina. Similarly, he projects his feelings for Sarina on Ai

Sarina's feelings over her mother are projected on Gorou. Later on, she decides to become like Ai because of her promise to Gorou

In short, Gorou wants to protect Ai because of Sarina and Sarina wants to become like Ai because of Gorou. As a result, Ai ends up as the object of their fantasies and wishes. A real godly idol.

Obviously, Gorou and Sarina's feelings towards Ai grow deeper and more complex as they are reborn as her twins. Slowly, their relationship goes from that of idol and fans to that of mother and children.

So, Aqua and Ruby's story is about overcoming the idealization of Ai. Both as fans towards their favourite idol and as children towards their mother. After all, isn't a mother their child's idol?

SUSANOO, AMATERASU AND MARIA

Among other things, the theme of idolisation is conveyed through the religious motif of the Hoshino Family.

Even the flowing sweats are beautiful Aqua These eyelids that hid the Ruby within

The lyrics reference the legend of Susanoo and Amaterasu:

According to tradition, the 3 god siblings Susanoo, Tsukuyomi and Amterasu are born from the creator god Izanagi. as he washes his face in a river. Tsukuyomi (Moon Goddess) is born from Izanagi's right eye, Amaterasu (Sun Goddess) from his left eye and Susanoo (Sea God) from his nose. In short:

Aqua is a composite version of Tsukuyomi and Susanoo. He has inherited Ai's right eye, like Tsukuyomi. However, the opening associates him to his mother's sweat, like Susanoo is born from Izanagi blowing his nose. Finally, his name links him to the sea

Ruby alludes to Amaterasu. She has inherited Ai's left eye, the opening links her to her mother's eyes and she herself mentions the goddess

This reference loosely comments Aqua and especially Ruby's arcs.

Amaterasu and Susanoo enter a fight, which leaves the Goddess crying and depressed. She hides in a cave and without the light of the sun, the world is left in darkness. The other Gods come up with a plan to lure Amaterasu out of her prison. In particular, the God of Enterteinment Ame-no-Uzume organizes a celebration for a new bright Goddess. Amaterasu gets curious and eventually comes out from the cave, so the world gets sunlight back.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Ame-no-Uzume is mentioned multiple times together with Amaterasu. Moreover, the characters visit the Goddess of Enterteinment's temple and they metaphorically enter Amaterasu's cave:

What the story does is clear, right? Ruby's arc is loosely an inversion of Amaterasu's story.

The Sun Goddess enters a fight with her brother and hides in a cave, only to be rescued by the Goddess of Enterteinment. Ruby is guided by Crow Girl (who could be a composite character between Yagatarasu and Ame-no-Uzume herself) and enters a cave, where she finds Gorou's body. This leads to Ruby going through her eclipse phase, where her eyes go dark. Eventually, she is helped by her brother and she finds her inner light again.

It is possible that Aqua's story will mirror Susanoo's in a similar way. After all, the God of the Sea is famous for killing a monstrous serpent to protect a Princess and for finding a Magical Sword within the beast. This may reference Aqua's quest for revenge, who leads him to find a princess (Akane-Princess Saya) and a blade (Kana-Tsurugi). That said, it is too soon to say.

As a final note, Ruby and Aqua's fight ties into the mythological motif. After all, Amaterasu enters into conflicts with both Susanoo and Tsukuyomi. In Amaterasu and Susanoo's case, they go through a divination ritual, so that Susanoo can prove his good intentions. Susanoo passes the trial, but the aftermath leads to the siblings fighting. When it comes to Ruby and Aqua, Ruby gets angry at Aqua for betraying Ai. As a result, Aqua has to mend his bond with Ruby by revealing his past self. To do so, he proves his identity through the Ai-keychan (a divine sign). He passes the trial.

What's most interesting about these references is Ame-no-Uzume's role. The Goddess of Enterteinment is an ally of Amaterasu, but Crow Girl leads the characters towards darkness. Thematically, she may embody the darkest part of the enterteinment world, which finds fun in people suffering.

So, what about Ai? What is her religious symbolism? Let's turn to Christianity:

Sing, dance, flutter, I am Maria — Right, lying is the most exquisite form of love

Mary is famous for having Jesus, while still a virgin. She is so perfect that God chooses her to bear his child. Similarly, Ai is an idol and is requested to be pure, so for her to have a sexual partner is out of question.

Still, Aqua and Ruby's reaction to the idea of a father is interesting. It speaks of their idealization of Ai both as her children and as her 2 biggest fans. At the same time, it betrays a wish to repress everything related to the final member of the Hoshino family.

MEPHISTO

As @hamliet explains in her meta, Hikaru Kamiki's name means God of Light, which is a reference to Lucifer, the fallen angel turned king of hell. It is a fitting imagery for Ai's enemy. Ai is Aqua and Ruby's goddess, so her killer can only be the devil. Similarly, Lucifer betrays God and Hikaru betrays Ai.

So, what is known about Hikaru Kamiki? Only 2 things:

He was raped and forced to have a son when he was 11

He is a serial killer, who targets famous celebrities

In particular, it is probable Hikaru idolises Ai, just like his children do. As a child, he is raped by a woman, then he meets Ai and has a relationship with her. However, his unsolved trauma almost surely ends up compromising his story with the idol and he eventually kills her. Later on, he projects his feelings over Ai on women similar to her, whom he targets in a neverending cycle.

This psychological mechanism makes him the embodyment of the most twisted love possible:

He was loved wrong (he was raped)

He loves wrong (he kills women he is attracted to)

Given this premise, he is clearly going to be defeated and he will probably die in the end. Still, the way he goes down will be important for Aqua and Ruby, as it will decide their future, as well.

In general, Hikaru is probably meant to be a negative foil (a jungian shadow) to the twins, as he represents their darkest parts. In particular, it is gonna be interesting if he foils them not only on the main theme of love, but also on the theme of lies and truth.

Aqua explores the idea of lies. He hides things from others and manipulates them. At the same time, he also experiences how good beautiful lies can be (his happy life when he thinks his father died). Most of all, though, he embodies the idea that a lie can become truth and vice versa. For example, his most effective manipulation technique is to mix his true feelings with his lies. He tells Kana she is cute because he thinks so. He tells Akane he is interested in her as an actress because it is true. He manipulates both girls, but his feelings are genuine.

Ruby explores the idea of truth. She hates liars and doesn't want to lie even if it would help her become an idol faster. Still, she experiences how painful truth can be (her discovery of Gorou's body). This leads her to lie to both herself and others. In the end, though, an even more painful truth comes out (her parents do not love her). No matter how much Ruby tries to hide her feelings, truth will come out. And yet, despite how agonizing it is, truth also leads to happiness. She is devastated after seeing Sarina's mother again, but this lets Ruby and Aqua find each other as Sarina and Gorou. As a result, Ruby is now happier and stronger.

So, in which way may Hikaru foil his children here? There might already be hints:

Just like Aqua, Hikaru is a master at manipulating others with truth. After all, it is implied he manipulated his rapist's husband to kill her by revealing her infidelity. Similarly, he orchestrates Ai's death by telling an unstable fan about her pregnancy. Even when it comes to Yura Katayose, he openly tells the actress to watch her step. An open threath masked as advice.

Just like Ruby, it is possible Hikaru values truth and hates liars. This could easily tie in his backstory and explain why his relationship with Ai degenerates:

I shall lie today as well (Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!) Hoping that one day, these words will become true (Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!) And yet, still, (Hey! Hey!) I have been unable to tell you, and you, alone (Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!)

Ai sees herself as a liar unable to love. This is obviously the real lie, as her heart is full of love. Still, it wouldn't be surprising if Ai's own issues exasperated Hikaru's fear to be used again. From what we know, it is probable Ai and Hikaru have feelings for each other, at a certain point. Then things go bad. What if Ai's inability to express her love and Hikaru's inability to understand lead to their breakout and eventual tragedy?

Obviously, this is all a theory, but one thing is sure. Ai and Hikaru's relationship is key for understanding their characters and their legacy to the twins. Still, Ai is already dead and Hikaru will die in the end. How can their story find a closure, then?

A WORK OF FICTION TO SHOW THE TRUTH

The climax of the series is building up towards the movie, which is gonna represent Hikaru and Ai's story.

Interestingly, Aqua is playing Hikaru, while Ruby is playing Ai. It is obvious a lot of emotional payoff rides on this. On the one hand it is gonna be a chance for Aqua and Ruby to sort out their feelings towards each other. On the other hand Kana and Akane will probably do the same, which will solve their love triangle with Aqua. (spoiler - KanaXAqua is probably endgame).

What is really interesting, though, is that the movie is set up to reveal who Ai really is. After all, the godly idol asks the director to film the real her and this request should be satisfied. Not only that, but Ai leaves her children 2 tapes whose contents are still to be shown. So, whatever Ai's legacy is, it will be made clear. This is true also for her bond with Hikaru:

So, does Ai forgive Hikaru or not? Her children seem to believe in the latter. However, the former is probably true.

First of all, it is probable Ai realizes Hikaru is behind her murder. The stalker arrives with a bouquet of white roses, which are associated to Hikaru. Moreover, Hikaru is the only person, who knows both about the twins and the new address. Secondly, Ai shows no rage nor fear for the fan who murders her. The man is clearly a stand-in for Hikaru in the scene. Despite his actions, Ai does not lose time hating him, but spends her final moments affirming her love for her and Hikaru's children. In short, Ai possibly knows of Hikaru's involvement, but doesn't regret their kids.

Still, will Aqua and Ruby portray this in their movie? And does Aqua's revenge ride on Ai's forgiveness or hate towards Hikaru? Will the twins understand their mother?

Whatever the result, it is probable Aqua and Ruby will eventually run into their father. In particular, Hikaru is set up as a threath to the 3 main girls:

He sends Akane white roses and she is determined to stop Aqua's revenge, which may put her in harm's way

He is the thematically opposite of Kana. He embodies twisted love and twisted truth. She embodies healthy love and genuine feelings

Finally, there is several build up towards him trying to eventually kill Ruby:

He comments that Ruby is growing up beautiful

He kills Yura, who is the original first choice for Ai's role

Ruby ends up playing Ai in the movie

If this third scenario becomes true, it could give closure to all the character arcs. Ruby may empathize with Ai and forgive her father. Aqua may be given the chance to save Ruby (symbolically both Ai and Sarina) this time. Finally, the outcome may offer catharsis to Hikaru before he dies. In short, I think Hikaru is gonna die, but that the twins are not killing him. Rather, they are gonna understand their mother's feelings and survive their parents' tragedy.

A SECOND CHANCE

Hikaru and Ai's story is a sad one, but Aqua and Ruby's is gonna have a happy outcome. After all, the whole series is about overcoming death and getting second chances.

Gorou and Sarina both go past their deaths and are given brand new lives

The new B Komachi is a second chance for all its members. It is a second chance to live for Ruby, a second chance for Kana's career, a second chance to fulfill Mem-cho's idol dream. Finally, it is the second chance of Ichigo and Miyako's wish to come true

Miyako and Ichigo's love story will also be given a second chance

The movie is the director's second chance to realize Ai's wish to film her real self

In short, this theme is everywhere and it is possible the series ends with B Komachi performing in a dome, exactly as it starts. This time, though, things will go well.

Still, doesn't something feel odd? After all, if the series is about second chances, why isn't Ai given one?

THE REAL AI (TRUE LOVE)

I think there are 2 reasons Ai isn't reborn:

1- Aqua and Ruby are Ai's second chance

The twins are Ai's legacies and will fulfill her dream for her:

Someday, surely, I will have it all in hand I am such a greedy idol Because I wish to love everybody properly in a life-sized way

Ai's wish is to reconcile her family with her idol career. She wants to love both her children and her fans. She wants it all. Well, Aqua and Ruby come to embody these 2 different forms of love:

Aqua is given a lot of focus when it comes to personal relationships. An important part of his arc is his feelings for Akane and Kana and he is not that much interested in the enterteinment business per se. In the end, he may also choose to fulfill his dream to become a surgeon

Ruby's dream is to become an idol, who shines even more brightly than Ai. Moreover, Ruby's wish is pure in how she doesn't want to lie nor to manipulate others to get there. She is right now also stepping into the role of actress, so by the end Ruby may catch up and surpass Ai in both her careers (idol and actress)

In other words, Aqua may live the love of a happy relationship and family, while Ruby may live the love of openly loving the world and people in general. Whatever the case, Aqua and Ruby will fulfill Ai's main wish which is for them to grow up healthy and happy.

2- Ai doesn't need reincarnation because she in fact does fulfill her dream

Ai wants to love both her family and her fans, which is what she does at the very end.

She remembers the stalker's name and his present. She proves to him she never took her fans for granted

She is able to tell her children she loves them and realizes she is not lying

Ah, I've said it now at last This is definitely not a lie; I love you

Ai's wish is to love and to be loved and she gets it through her twins. Aqua and Ruby feel they owe their mother something and that it is cruel they get to live a second life, while Ai doesn't. Still, they are wrong. If Gorou and Sarina were not reborn, Ai would have had a stillbirth, which would have broken her. Just by existing, they fulfill Ai's dream. They give Ai the love she so desperately craves.

By the end, Hoshino Ai becomes the embodyment of true love. True love isn't perfect. It is complicated, as people struggle and make mistakes. Still, if the wish is genuine enough, it shines incredibly bright. So does Ai, not as an idol, but as a real person (the true Ai).

#oshi no ko #oshi no ko meta #oshi no ko theory #ai hoshino #aqua hoshino #ruby hoshino #hikaru kamiki #my meta

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nanuk-dain · 4 months

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Generation Kill Research Results

We all know that there's really specific stuff in GK that only those who were there would know, much of which we get in the books Generation Kill (Evan Wright) and One Bullet Away (Nate Fick).

I needed some more intel for my fics, so I went hunting for all the things RL Ray said about GK relevant topics on reddit. The result is a list of all his comments, from radio frequencies to how exactly he got burnt by Rudy's stove to the MRE components and the truth about the Zeus attack and what colour the PT shorts of Recon guys were.

The list has been vetted by @bookishdea to make sure that there's no personal info about the RL guys in there.

It's sorted by topic: weapons/equipment, radios/comms, beanies/uniforms, officers in Recon, Humvees, MREs, Humvee arrangement/Reporter, Zeus attack, explosion of Rudy's stove, Captain America's name, invasion, Recon training/conditions of OIF, Ripped Fuel, First Recon, Afghanistan/Ray's Marine Corps career, characters/people career background, paddles, GK production, float tapes.

I hope you find interesting stuff in there. I originally made it for myself, but since the effort went in already anyway, I figured I could share it with those who don't want to risk coming across RL Marines infos, but who might still profit from the GK-specific infos.

- all intel are responses of RL Ray (plasmata) on reddit in various subreddits, collected 23. Nov. 2023

- Q = question asked on reddit, A = Ray's answer. There's not always a question supplied, just where it's necessary to understand his answer

weapons/equipment

- At the time most of the Marine Corps was still using the M16s and M249 (SAW). Recon units were one of the first ones to get M4's and Para-SAWs (carbine versions of the M249). So, folks like officers and regular support folks were still carrying their standard M16, while 0321 Recon Marines were carrying M4s.

- Q: I was rewatching GK (again) and I think it was episode 2 when Rudy and Pappy took out the RPG team. I don’t know what the sniper rifle caliber is called I would think it’s a .338 laupa because that was standard sniper rifle of the Marine Corps.

A: No. It was an M40 A3 which shoots a 7.62x51mm NATO round. It is essentially the same thing as a .308 They are based on a Remington 700 and modified by USMC armorers. Anyone that went to sniper school would shoot that rifle. Recon marines go to sniper school. Those who didnt would still crosstrain on range so they werent totally ignorant to the weapon.

- Q: Why do some of the men in the 1st Recon Battalion have no attachments on their M4 ie Q-Tip, Christenson, and Ray, while others like Brad, Fick, Fruity Rudy had optics and grips?

A: Because some people think that having that shit on your weapon makes you look cooler. It is all personal preference.

- Q: I've always wondered if the real Brad rocked that PVS-17 the whole time like his character did.

A: He sure did. It is an easy way to always have NV handy without having to have something strapped to your fucking head all the time (PVS-7's).

radios/comms

-Q: In ep 2, right after the ambush scene when there is a radio check, whatdo the "up" numbers mean? (up 120 and up, up 700 and up, up 200 and up..etc)

A: It is a short way to indicate status. "Up" means we are all good and no one is injured or dead. IIRC the number indicates rounds of ammo left.

- Q: In the ep 2 episode intro somebody says: "All Hitman Victors, be advised, we are rolling freaks to TAC 1-1-9 at 1400 Zulu. How copy?" I understand everything expect "rolling freaks". Any ideas?

A: It does mean "rolling freqs" which is shorthand for "Changing radio Frequencies."

As you have seen in the series, the military communicates using radio's. As a security measure, everyone changes to a different radio frequency at the same time at set intervals. Lets say that the enemy was able to steal/capture a US radio. Then they would be able to listen in on all our radio conversations...this is bad. So, just in case that happens we all change frequencies (along with crypto fills and other things) so that radio only has value for a very limited time.

This is definitely also combined with crystallographic signature changes as well as something known as frequency hopping (SINGARS) for additional security.

- Q: So how would the teams be able to keep up with the new radio frequencies? Are they passed by runner or is a CYZ used?

A: They are typically pre-planned in a "comm plan" (communications plan). If a radio were to come up missing then they would change the comm plan and distribute however they could.

If you look at the HMMWV windshield next to Brad Colbert in the series you will see a clear acetate with something printed on it. That is a cheat sheet of the comm plan.

- Different types of radios are capable of different radio bands. Most of what you hear in GK is all VHF (ground plane) band radio traffic. The vehicle radios and the handheld ones do VHF. Different groups have different "freqs" (pronounced like freaks) or frequencies that they use. Just like the FM radio in your car, you can tune into different radio stations by changing the frequency. Bravo 1 is on 95.7 Hot Country....and Bravo 2 is on 103.3 Smooth Jazz. You are always switching between the different freqs to talk to who you are supposed to be talking to. So, my personal radio may be set to be on Bravo 1's channel, but the vehicle may be set to Bravo 3 and then another guy may have his set to the Alpha channel. Just like setting the presets in your car, you can do that on these radios as well...so you can quickly switch between them.

The reason you also hear pilots in some of them is that some radios are UHF (line of sight) band to talk to pilots. The small handheld radios were both VHF and UHF radios so we could do things like call for fire missions and give the pilots our 9 lines.

Com plans utilize multiple channels across different spectrums (HF, VHF, UHF, Satellite) and many types of radios that have different spectrum capabilities.

Dude, have you never played with walkie-talkies as a kid...hahaha. You know someone is talking on your freq because you hear them. Only one person can talk at a time on any radio channel. You can only be "tuned" to a single frequency at a time. There is a very rigid etiquette when using radios to keep things clear and efficient.

We switched from the 77's to the AN/PRC-135 in 2002 (1st Recon Bn).

The 135's would do HF freq hopping, auto antenna tuning, and directly take crypto fills. But, the best part was they had a detachable face with an extension cord; so you could seal up the radio in your ruck (waterproofing and all). Then you would have the radio face in your front deuce gear to control the radio if you needed to switch freqs or something.

Edit: I just realized that I was talking about the 104's not the 77's. Yeah, late 90's the 77's were replaced by 119's.

beanies/uniforms

- Part of it is real (the black beanie's) and the rest is done by David Simon. The real part is that we all wore black beanies. It wasn't breaking any rules as they were allowed, but most other units frowned on wearing them unless in private. We did all wear them everywhere and it kind of became a “thing” that the recon guys are the ones in beanies.

The David Simon/ Ed Burns part is the rest of the scene. I think they were trying to explain to the audience who Recon Marines were and used Trombley/Espera to do that. It was a wise choice as neither Trombley nor Espera were Recon Marines at that point…which he mentions in that scene.

It followed the PT uniforms we wore also. The Marine Corps wears “green on green” shirt/shorts. Recon’s official PT uniform is “black on black”…so if you see guys PTing in black you know they are Recon Bubbas.

officers in Recon

- A little late to the party, but there is no such thing as a recon officer. The "Reconnaissance Man" MOS is 0321 and is only for enlisted marines. Godfather was not a recon marine...no officers are.

1st Recon is comprised of many that are not recon marines; support personnel like motor T, communications, navy corpsmen, intel, etc. Officers that are platoon/ company/ battalion commanders are typically Intelligence or Infantry officers.

- Q: Not trying to correct you as you were there, I definitely wasn't... but Fick mentioned he went through BRC in his book. I guess maybe some officers go thru BRC but retain their MOS whether infantry/intel/whatever?

A: Rarely, some officers do go through BRC/ARS; but even if they do they still never are recon marines and are never in a recon team.

- Platoon commanders for Recon are kind of in the rear with the gear...they don't go out with teams. They typically command a ROC (Recon Operation Center) and provide support and are a liaison between the team and higher-ups. They feed the teams direction (via radio comms) and take intel and generate reports (again via radio comms)...but they aren't with the teams.

Humvees

- Q: If I may ask...were you guys ever told why you weren't given closed-top humvees (except of course the lead vehicle).

A: Because we didnt' have them. The HMMWV's we got were Army surplus ones we scavenged.

- You don't go to war with what you want, you go with what you have. Everything has to be adapted on the fly...which is what happened. Everything in war is a calculated risk with a margin for "acceptable losses". Were we lucky? Sure.

MREs

- Q: In ep 5, when Ray is making MRE cookies, would that actually work? If so, how good could those actually be?

A: Yes it actually works. The sugar will melt and crystalize in the creamer which makes it solid and like a cookie. When you haven't eaten anything other than MREs for months straight they are good.

PS2: Ray seems like a good guy to have drinks with in a bar.

I agree...but I am a little biased.

- Point of clarification: These aren't really MRE's, they are just components of an MRE that can come in different MREs.

Personally my favorite MRE was the Beef Stew. It came with a pouch of Beef Stew, Jalapeno Cheese, pack of two crackers, and something like Skittles. It also came with a little packet with things like Folgers Crystals Coffee packets, creamer, salt/pepper, wet wipe, etc.

There were 24 different MREs in a 12 pack "A" or "B" case. Each had a different main meal and then accessory packets that included things like Peanut Butter, Regular Cheese, Jalapeno Cheese, Crackers, "Bread Slice", Charms, Skittles, Lorna Doone Cookies, M&M Cookies ("Cookies with Pan Coated Chocolate Disks"), Nature Valley Granola Bar, Strawberry Milkshake, Pound cake, Hot Cocoa Mix, etc, etc, etc.

The GK time generation of MREs were fairly new at the time and included new meals like "Bean Burrito", "Cheese Burger", etc. There were quite a few that were in the previous generation like "Beef Stew" and "Minestrone Soup". Probably the absolute worst one was "Pork Slice in Jamaican Style Sauce".

- It was a common tradition in Brad and my old platoon to stash fun things to share amongst the team at fun times. Like when your team is all wet and cold and hasnt really slept for weeks then you bust something fun out to share…it is a great pick-me-up. My favorite thing to do were king size snickers bars.

Humvee arrangement / Reporter

- Q: Who sat in the passenger side rear seat before the reporter came along?

A: No one. We determined who was in what vehicle right before the invasion..so we knew we had to fit Evan in somewhere. He really wanted to be with Brad and me...so there he went.

- Q: Why?

A: Because we're awesome. Honestly it was because he was told we would be the go-to team (because of Brad and me) for any special fun missions and he didn't want to miss out on those. That and I think he liked our dynamic as "characters".

- Short answer is because that is where he chose to be. For this war the US did something interesting in allowing for journalists to be embedded with the military units for the invasion. There were a ton of journalists that came and got a briefing on different unit types so the journalists could pick where they wanted to be. There were three journalists that after hearing what Recon was and that we would be a combat unit (so you may get shot at if you go with them) picked to be embedded with 1st Recon.

The three journalists then came to where we were staged in Kuwait and met with the BN Commander (Godfather) and were then briefed more specifically on who we were and what our role would be during the invasion. After that briefing two of the three journalists decided they didn't want to kick it with us...pussies. I do remember one of them was some guy with Men's Journal.

Evan then started hanging around us and learned that our team would likely see the most action and be at the front the most...so that is where he wanted to be. After a few nights in the tents hanging out with us he decided that he wanted to be in our vehicle as he liked our "characters" for his story.

Evan, in retrospect, would frequently say he's not sure whether he was more brave or stupid/naive to embed with us for the invasion. After each firefight/ambush he would say that he was going to leave...then we would tell him to stop being a huge pussy...so he kept going.

Zeus attack

- Q: Was Trombley actually just sitting there observing like he did in the film? [note: about Zeus attack]

A: Yes and no. Lots of people were kind of looking. I was the one that jumped up and observed the gun firing to find its location. I then called Walt up to the MK-19 to walk him in on target while calling in CAS via rotary wing at the same time. I got a Navy Achievement Metal with Combat V for that action. Interesting the series got it wrong on that.

explosion of Rudy's stove

- I didn't set my face on fire, Rudy set my face on fire…hahaha. That was all healed in just a few weeks like it never happened…I heal fast. It is a common joke amongst my friends that i am Wolverine because of my rapid healing.

- Rudy was heating water for coffee. It didn't explode. To use diesel fuel in those stoves we would preheat the fuel tube with a hexamite tab. Hexamite tabs turn to gel when they burn. Rudy was carrying the stove outside and some diesel on the outside of the stove caught fire in his hands. He then dropped it and the hexamite splattered off it all over my face. Burning gel all over my face

Captain America's name

- Yeah. A little into the invasion he went running into these mud huts with a fixed bayonet. I was sitting in my HMMWV with my team watching him run in and made the comment “This guy thinks he is Captain America!” We all started calling him that afterwards. To not embarrass the guy publicly they used it in the book and film instead of his real name.

invasion

- Q: Given the might of US military and Nato forces, could the invasion have been planned better? Maybe take more time to get there instead of the confusion and rush?

A: There was a plan and it worked pretty well. Our unit was only one small part of a much larger machine so you don't get to see the overarching thinking behind the entire invasion, you just see a tiny tiny part of it. Two quips that sum it up nicely are "Speed is far more effective than a plan" and "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face"

- Q: Why weren't tanks and armor part of your group specially when entering hostile town?

A: Because they were needed elsewhere and we were essentially probing the battlefield so the commanders would know where best to direct the invading force...including armored units.

Recon training/conditions of OIF

-Q: How do you cope with the constant dangers and lack of sleep, food and hygiene. Most people would operate at lower levels under these circumstances and make mistakes. Was there something you guys did that made things better?

A: You fight how you train. We were used to little sleep, food, and hygiene because that is how we always trained. So, when it came to war we were already very comfortable and used to operating in that condition. Same shit, different day.

- All Recon Marines have the same MOS...0321. There are team roles such as Pointman, Navigator, Slackman, RTO, Assistant RTO, Assistant Team Leader, and Team Leader. Every Recon Marine is expected to have held each role to be well rounded. You may be the RTO in one team and then a Navigator in another.

All Marines (not just Recon Marines) are marksman and have to qualify just the same. This is independent of their MOS. Every Marine is a Rifleman.

Nearly all Recon Marines have gone through Sniper School...this is nothing super special.

- Q: Though I did do underwater football with a few of the Recon guys for PT a few times. That was a pretty brutal game. Put a plastic chair in either side of the deep end of the pool (12'+ at Flores) and put an underwater weight between the chairs in the middle of the pool. Line up 5 guys on either side. Dive in on the mark and try to get the weight into the seat of the chair opposite of your side. Tap if you need air, usually you get released pretty quickly... After a second or two. And that was about the only rule. Underwater everything was game. Grabbing, choking, ripping off masks...and it was a brutal workout. You'd be sucking wind after a few goals.

A: When I was in we played a lot of "Underwater Soccer" which is basically the same thing just without the chairs. Two team on either side of the pool and a weight (either a 25lb bar weight or dumbbell) in the middle on the bottom. Your team gets a point when you touch the opposing teams wall with the weight in hand.

The other game I used to love was the "Whistle Game." In this game a metal whistle was thrown into the middle of the pool. It was every man for himself. You had to grab the whistle from the bottom of the pool and rise to the surface and successfully blow it. If you did then you got to get out of the pool. Everyone else keeps going. It was one of the "Pays to be a winner" games.

- Another fun side note: We used to play a game called "Tap-Out Pass-Out" in which we would ground fight (think Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) and the only rules were no eye gouging. The game was only over when someone would pass out or tap out. While Rudy is/was an amazing standing fighter, he wasn't great on the ground. I am very good on the ground and would always beat him, much to Rudy's chagrin. Because of that Rudy began to diligently practice and improve his ground fighting, so I don't know if you should mess with him on the ground now.

Ripped Fuel

- Q: Ray, how much Ripped Fuel have you had?

A: Believe it or not I only had 2 the entire time. Two were issued to each marine as part of a med kit. The rest was just swallowing Folgers Coffee Crystals that came in the MREs.

First Recon

- Former B Co, 1st Recon Bn 0321 (1999-2003) checking in. 1st Recon was a Battalion in 1990? It was a Company when I first got there (I was in 2nd Platoon - 1st Recon Co)...then it changed into a Battalion a year or two later.

Afghanistan / Ray's Marine Corps career

- Question: Were you on this float? What did you do before joining 1st recon? Did you go to Afghanistan?

Answer: Yes. I was a pipeliner, so I was always always at 1st. I did go to Afghanistan. I was in 1st Recon Company, 2nd platoon on this float. It is the same platoon as Brad Colbert but I was in a different team.

- You can petition to "try out" for recon. If you pass a screening (run by Recon Marines) then you typically go to a "RIP" platoon (Recon Indoctrination Platoon or something like that) to be weeded out if you aren't able to hang. From there you go to a Recon MOS producing school (ARS or BRC) and if you pass that course then you become a "Roper" until you pass the unit Indoc. It isn't just jump right in.

- Q: I guess that means you went fleet grunt first then tested into recon yeah?

I enlisted 03XX then got 0311 out of SOI, then was picked up by recon at the graduation of SOI.

A: I am a fellow pipeliner. When i went in, 0321 was a secondary MOS (circa 2000)…so I was an 0311 with the secondary of 0321.

- Q: What year did you graduate boot camp? Company? Platoon?

A: January 2000, San Diego, Mike Co., Plt 3014

- Q: The 9/11 attacks solidified my choice in enlisting. At the time, I was a Sophomore in HS. 3rd period Geometry. Where were you?

A: Sitting in a pub in Darwin Australia (it was night time there) on libo. Shore Patrol comes running into the pub screaming for everyone to get back to ship (15th MEU on the USS Dubuque). Get back to ship just in time to see the second tower fall on tv. Go to drunken sleep as we set sail for Pakistan (Bravo Platoon, 1st Recon Company).

- He [note: Ray talking about himself] picked up Sgt. before he got out through. Fellow B Co 1st Recon alum. Yut Yut.

characters/people career background

- First Recon Bn is not just Recon Marines...it includes all the support personnel that are needed for a unit as well; like Armorers, Motor T, Intel, Supply, Communications, Admin, etc.

Jeff wasn't a Recon Marine; his MOS was Motor T. He was a Motor T Marine assigned to First Recon. We loved Jeff because he was super pessimistic and hateful. When Darnold was shot and medevac'd out, Jeff filled the vacancy in Kocher's team.

- Capt. Eric Dill was our Recon Platoon Commander during Afghanistan and can be seen in Part-8 @ 11:42. His/my platoon is the one that he handed over to Fick after we got back stateside.

- One thing to note is that Fick wasn't with Recon during Afghanistan...he was an Infantry Platoon commander. Afghanistan is where Fick became buddies with our current Recon Platoon commander, Eric Dill. Dill convinced Fick to come over to 1st Recon after getting back from Afghanistan. This is also where we "found" Garza, Leon, etc and convinced them to come over from the infantry to become Recon Marines.

- The first casualty was Darnold in Eric Kocher's team. He was shot in the forearm when we drove through an ambush. This is the scene where Walt was possibly tangled in the electrical wires and I believe it shows a HMMWV monster-trucking a car. Dirty Earl (Jeff Carizalez) then took over for Darnold in Eric's team.

paddles

- Paddles aren't just a Recon thing...they are generally a boat team thing...which Recon guys are amongst. Honestly, it varies as to who would get one. Some think that only other Recon Marines should get them...others think that support guys should too.

Typically the size of the paddle matters. The bigger the paddle the more senior/experience/loved the guy was. When I was in the small novelty paddles were for thank-you's to folks. Regular 4 foot paddles were for solid Recon Marines that were liked. Large 6 foot paddles were reserved for guys that had been there a while and were exceptional.

GK production

- David Simon (the guy that did Gen Kill) was really the instrumental piece to making it what it was. Early on HBO was going to have someone else do it...and it was straight up fucking Michael Bay style. David wanted real Marines to be able to watch the series and see not a single thing wrong with it; from the dialog, equipment/uniforms, actor body types, mannerisms, etc. He gave us a hell of a ton of leeway to just "be ourselves" so he could have that in the series.

I got involved early on when they were working on the scripts to make sure the slang and jargon added was Marine Corps specific and current. Even the radio chatter in all scenes was written by real Marines...all the pilot sides of radio chatter (like when calling CAS) was recorded by a real FAC.

All the actors were put through a two week "How to be a Marine" course. From how to wear their uniforms, how to carry their weapons, hazing motivational physical exercises, etc. One of the biggest problems was all the actors wanting to do exactly what Rudy Reyes did on set; and Rudy lives in a comic book so it wasn't all exactly accurate.

In one of the episodes, the Oscar Award winning Director (different episodes had different directors) was going to have guys flying when shot like you see in the typical movies. After the Marines on set (Eric Kocher and Jeff Carizalez) told her that was not real and she did it anyways; Eric and Jeff started just making comments like "This episode is going to fail fucking miserably", "Wow, this episode is going to suck balls", "This is the worst fucking thing I have ever seen"...as you already noticed, those scenes were redone.

float tapes

- About the Float Tapes: OMG!...these videos are gold. Watching through them now. I have already seen Gabe Garza (Part-3 @ 1:04 far right) Tony Espera (Part-3 @ 7:50) as they were both with that infantry unit at the time.

- I had never seen these so it is fun to relive this float. In Part 4 when they are doing the "Steel Beach Party" he has a part where he films guys playing hacky-sack with "Black Shirts = Cool AF" on screen. The black shirts are Recon guys (everyone else has to wear green). In that shot are Eric Kocher (in the green flight suit) and Larry Shawn Patrick (tall guy with sunglasses on) along with some other brothers. There were 22 Recon guys total on that float in 4 teams. I haven't seen me or anyone from my team in the videos yet.

- Part 36 @ 3:17 is Rudy Reyes, a guy i forgot his name right now in the SERE shirt, the blond guy to his right (James Klepel /was on my team), and the guy that walks in behind Espera (Luke Meister / also on my team).

Real Evan Wright intel (twitter) about GK

camera

- Reporter's camera was a Leica m6 50mm, analogue (film, not digital)

Manimal

- Anthony "Manimal" Jacks usually wore his teeth and was a serious person who spoke to me a lot about his family & his concerns about doing right, if we crossed the border. Being "Manimal" was sort of a character he played to amuse people

MRE crates

- As is clear in this photo, Holsey, too, could scarcely contain his joy that I was taking his picture. Note: he's seated on an MRE crate. Those are like general propose chairs and tables in the field, like "apple boxes" in the film industry.

#generation kill #ray person #research #information

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anathemafiction · 1 year

Note

Hello! I just want to say that i fell in love with your writing! Is so poetic, light and fresh! Thank you for writing! And your book made me want to learn how to write. Do your have some pointers to where i should start? (oh, and im from Brazil! So english is quite hard for me, but your english is incredible!). Thank for your time!

Hello! Thank you so much for your words. E abraços de Lisboa para o Brasil. ♡♡

So, I've gotten a few requests for writing advice, specifically, IF writing advice. And while I understand why people may want to hear from me, I really feel the need to state that I am very much still an amateur, wannabe author.

This isn't me trying to be fake humble or gain sympathy points, it's simply the cold truth. I'm not comfortable giving advice because I'm still learning every day. I've made a lot — and I mean, a lot — of mistakes with Book One. There's so much that, looking back, I did wrong and would change if I could go back in time, but alas, that's impossible, so I must do what all humans do: take it in, learn from it, and do better next time.

Next time is Book Two, and I'm sure that, once I'm done with that, there'll be new errors and new ways I'll find that I could have done better. The important thing is, of course, never to repeat the same mistake twice.

The only advice I'll give regarding writing, in general, is this: read. Read as much and as diversely as you can. Read other Interactive Fiction games, but mostly, read books. Read the classics, read the ones that were banned, read horror and sci-fi and romance and fantasy and historical and philosophical and poetry and dystopian and everything you can get your hands on. Read books from your country and language, but please, read other cultures too. Read books people swear are amazing and read books badly rated. Read what you like and what you think you dislike. And, most of all, never stop reading. Read every day.

Slowly, gradually, you'll start to find your style. You'll find what you like and how you like it. You'll find out whether you describe a scene better using the senses - the weather, the light, the smells, the background noise - or if you prefer to pay as little detail to the surroundings as possible. You'll find whether you like an active narrator, different POVs, tales written like dialogues, or as ethereal as if watched from the eyes of a God.

For interactive fiction in general? I'll say, write a good outline. I didn't have one for Book One, and now that I do for Book Two, it's a completely different ballpark.

My method is to write a first draft of a chapter on paper and pencil where I do one "path" until I reach the end of the chapter. Then, go on Word and fill out all the choices and paths, basically completing the chapter — that's draft two. Draft three is after I put it all in code and do a deep edit. But I'm very much aware my method won't work with everyone (it most likely won't work with the majority of people).

For coding, let me redirect you to this old ask: Here.

There are a lot of more experienced IF writers on Tumblr who have made amazing posts about writing IFs, coding, and storytelling in general. I can direct you to Hannah, a veteran COG and game writer — @hpowellsmith. But there are others!

#I'm sorry if it feels like I'm singling you out #this is meant for every other ask I've gotten about writing advice as well!#Thank you all so much but I really can't offer more than this #I'm no expert and I would hate to lead people in error #personal

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night-error · 1 day

Text

MAP CALL!!!! 4/21

I've been working on this for AGES (ever since Ep 2 of tpc s2 came out)

Parts!!

Intro-

Pt1- Thewolferclan087 (yt)

Pt2- Thewolferclan087 (yt)

Pt3- me- (I rlly wanna help with the map even tho im the host)

Pt4-

Pt5-

Pt6-

Pt7-

Pt8-

Pt9-

Pt10-

Pt11-

Pt12- astronic-fr

Pt13-

Pt14-

Pt15-

Pt16-

Pt17-

Pt18-

Pt19-

Outro-

Rule 1- When posting your part here do not use a watermark or greenscreen, but if you're posting it on your social media then you are allowed

Rule 2- just for safety please make your parts 3-5 frames larger than it is incase it is accidentally make just too short.

Rule 3- You are allowed to collab with someone just tell me who it is so you both get credited!

Rule 4- the length of the part must be 1920×1080. If you mess up with the size then it's absolutely fine just try to make it around that size! ^^ (I actually broke this rule myself while making the reference/Storyboard)

Rule 5- Dont judge others parts, we are all at different levels of skill. You will get 3 warnings before your part and role will get taken away

Rule 6- do not be afraid to ask for anything!

Rule 7- try to make the characters look as cannon as possible!

Rule 8- don't rush the you'll have 2 months to complete this map so please use it. If you are still working on it past the 2 months and have provided with a wip and another wip to show your process so far you'll have an extension of about 3-4.

Rule 9- You can use any type of animating, although I'd like to keep it 2D and Gacha will not be allowed.

Rule 10- do not trace others work. I also would discourage tracing the storyboard but if you are very struggling use it to help you!

Rule 11- Have fun, it can be stressful at times to create a map part up to your own expectations but do not stress yourself on it.

Rules may be added on if I haven't made things clear enough! The map may seem strict but I assure you im trying not to make it strict!

Script!

Heads up-

WITHIN THE FIRST HALF CIRCUSIC IS NOT TO LOOK BACK AT IRIS WITH ANY SORT OF SADDNESS OR REGRET. IRIS IS ALLOWED TO DO THAT BUT NOT TOO STRONG OF EMOTIONS

Intro- The intro will have 'Evelyn Evelyn' on it for a good few seconds before it fades. The closed boom beside the text is the picture book from 'iris's discovery'. It opens slowly revealing 3 pictures, 1 of the right and 2 on the left (is optional for what you put in the ones on the left, but keeping it iris and circusic themed is good). there should be a few second pause before the camera zooms into a picture of past iris and circubit. Making it full screened.

Part 1: young iris and cirusic are standing within a forest. Circusic doesn't seem sure about where they are and is of course nervous. Iris lightens the mood by pulling a funny face which they both laugh at. After the laughing brings a slight tear of joy to cirusics eye which he wipes will iris moves forward. Their chestplates glow when iris's hand reaches forward, trying to take circubits. Circubit also steps(/skates) forward but the screen will turn white just when they are about to touch.

Pt.2- iris and circubit walk (/skate) in different directions from eachother, stopping when they are satisfied with the distance. Iris looks down at the floor while this actors.

Pt.3- the camera focuses on Circusic who doesn't seem impressed. Circusic calls iris a parasite but the camera switches to Iris after the sound 'Para-' is said. After that iris is supposedly hurt by that and a tear forms in his eye. It is quickly replaced with rage as iris turns his head around yelling.

Pt.4- iris does a full body turn, facing circusics back. He stomps his foot with rage of what circusic thinks of him. This annoys circubit.

Pt.5.- The camera faces cirusics back. As he slowly gets more and more annoyed as he speaks. Eventually yelling and moving his hand before regaining his composure slightly.

Pt.6- there's a side view of iris, his eyes are closed and his hand is at his chest. He then opens his eyes and ever so slowly and gently reaching his hand out to grab circusics shoulder. The camera slowly turns somwe can see out off iris's POV. Before iris can touch circusic the screen turns white.

Pt.7- the scene starts with a flash. Showing a much more brighter time with many flowers blooming. The ghosty past circusic slowly turns around to iris, who pulls his hand back a little. Iris then hesitantly reaches forward, wanting to touch his chestplate since the memory he is experiencing feels real. The screen turns white again.

Pt.8- the white fads and circusic has a harsh grip on iris's hand, his face is filled with rage. He then forcefully shoves iris's hand away, using great force.

Pt.9- the camera focuses on a side angle of circubit. Cirusics head slowly faces down as his eys glare at iris. The camera slowly moves over to iris as he pulls his hand back to his side. Annoyed of what circusic just did.

Pt.10- iris raises his head slightly when talking to circubit to make him seem more bigger. he then closes his eyes tightly.

Pt.11- the camera is quite a bit away from iris as he talks, his eyes are still closed and his hands are behind his back. The more iris talks the more the dark side of him covers his face. Eventually half of his face is covered when that happens a red flash appears and iris opens his eyes. The red silhouette of the King appears in front of him, slowly fading.

Pt.12- Circusic starts to walk backwards but tries to keep up a brave face to iris.

Iris is still walking forward, he swings his arm in a one side motion to show his anger.

Pt.13- Circusic is still moving backwards although not as fast as he previously was as he does hands gestures to iris showing him both rage and confusion. Iris, also slows down at his face, angrly pointing at circusic.

Pt.14: circusic is frustrated and brings his arms up to his shoulders, he then clenching his face and glares at the camera (aka iris). Iris has folded his arms as he stops walking. He gets frustrated and he tenses his arms up.

Pt.15- another flashback occurs of iris and circusic having a laugh. The camera zooms out and it shows the scene of iris and circusic appearing in iris eye. The pupil of it softening up remembering it. The scene cuts to iris chest, where he reaches to his chest place and grabs the clothing surrounding it.

Pt.16- the screen spilts, having iris on the right and circusic on the left. Iris pulls his hand away from his chest closes his eyes small tears can be seen forming. Circusic pulls his hands from behind his back to his sides. Moving his head downwards in a glare. The background around them gets darker and duller as they also seem to get a bit darker. Their chestplates light up with a black glow

(The camera slowly zooms in the entire scene)

Pt.17- both their chestplates are glowing, although unlike when they were kids they glow back. The camera continues to zoom until it slows down. Iris opens his eyes and leans forward, tears dripping down his face. Circusics eyes go smaller and tears are forming but nothing comes out. They both stop yelling and glare at eachother with tears. Before the screen turns to black.

Pt. 18- the screen is still quite dark. But the shilluette of past iris and circusic can be seen sitting on grass. The reaper can be seen for a few seconds, before it tuns back to iris and circusic.

Pt:19: the reaper flashes in once again raising its scythe. This time, iris and circusic look back with fear in their eyes. The reaper flashes in again, this time its scythe is fully raised and it can be seen swinging down just for a second.

Outro- The carma goes back to iris and circusic except they aren't there. In their place are 2 flowers. The one is circusics place is drying and has pink at the top of it. The other flowers petals slowly fall to the floor, leaving it with just the pollen. The camera switches and shows the book from 'iris's discovery' laying down, its closed and is in a dark area.

Please reply to the blog so I am be to tell you if a part is free or not!!!

Discord if you are thinking of getting a part!!!

https://discord.com/invite/nak553wg

The map should be completed by 8th August!!

Goodluck for those who are participating!

#maps #the pink corruption #digital art #sketch #tpc iris #tpc circusic #map call #animation #animatic

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darkestprompts · 11 months

Text

Fergus and friends

One dog's take on the many denizens of the Hamlet

Houndmaster: Her dad is the BEST human ever!!! He pets her and feeds her and takes care of her since she was a pup!! Love love love!! Will maul anyone who hurts him.

Abomination: Fergus figured out that somehow the Big Guy comes out of the Skinny Man but is hazy on the details. Sometimes she will bark confusedly at him to see if he changes. Bigby is very distressed at first, but William explains she doesn't mean to be aggressive. She's just a confused pup.

Plague Doctor: Paracelsus makes her go ballistic. Why does the bird lady smell so WEIRD? And it's always a different type of weird!! Every time Fergus sees her, she makes a beeline for Para and enters extreme sniffing mode.

Leper: Fergus always approaches Baldwin with a few careful inquisitive sniffs. She lightly wags her tail, sits and tilts her head as if concerned. William taught her to be gentle with sick friends.

Arbalest: They initially had some conflict over Fergus's fascination with the Super Stick Thrower, but eventually she accepts that bolts are not for games. Missandei fixed her dad many times, so she's definitely a Friend.

Hellion: WRESTLING FRIEND! Boudica likes roughhousing and doesn't care if she gets some scrapes out of it! Always carries raw meat! Very fun, quality human.

Crusader: Reynauld bribed her with bones and cookies because he can't risk being rejected by a dog. For shame, Reynauld.

Highwayman: Dismas is nervous around dogs, especially a huge ass hound like Fergus. Fergus knows this, and sometimes uses this knowledge to push him around. Yes, Dismas can get bullied by animals.

Jester: Sarmenti is also nervous around dogs, but Fergus can't resist all the jingling! She wants to play with the funny man! If only he'd stop yelling...

Bounty Hunter: Quiet human, but works well with Dad and she has learned that he's the source of her special treats, so he's good in her book.

Occultist: Their first encounters were tense, with Fergus growling and Alhazred anticipating an attack. William kept her under control and she grew to tolerate his presence. But she still doesn't like him very much.

Vestal: Fixes the other friends and gives good pets. Doesn't like when Fergus is slobbery and messy, but that's okay. Nobody is perfect (except her dad).

Man-at-Arms: Another wrestling mate! Although she can't play as hard as she can with Boudica, lest Barristan hurt his back...

Flagellant: Makes Fergus mad because she can't make him not hit himself. She has tried to bark at him, sit on him, steal his flail, pull his clothes. This man is very weird and disobedient. The other humans should keep him in the kennel until he gets better.

Shieldbreaker: Strange one. Smells of hurt but also something else in her body, a little like Bigby? Requires more investigation, but seems nice.

Antiquarian: Smells wrong and makes her nervous. Fergus has growled at her, much like she did at Alhazred, and had to learn to accept her as a team member.

Grave Robber: Carrier of many suspicious things... But secretly provides plenty of chicken. She's okay... For now.

Runaway: Fergus is very protective of Bonnie. She will often assume her guard stance, make circles and even stand between her and anyone she deems sus.

#darkest dungeon #dd lists #dd ensemble #dd fergus

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blubberquark · 5 months

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2023 Game Of The Year: Storyteller (plus DLC)

I played Storyteller after the DLC came out, and Storyteller (with the DLC) became my game of the year.

Unfortunately, I can't really explain why without spoiling some puzzles. I will not try not to spoil any solutions in the screenshots (except one), but I will have to spoil the game mechanics.

What is Storyteller

Storyteller is a game where you arrange comic book panels and characters to tell a story based on a prompt. It doesn't require any dexterity, only deduction. You drag and drop comic book panels into slots, drag and drop character into panels to arrange them, or drag populated panels and characters around.

The challenge is to understand how the characters and panels work, what the prompt wants you to do, and how to do that. Early on, the game is mostly about figuring out the rules governing the characters and panels. It slowly shifts towards more "thinky" problems, where the challenge lies not in understanding how the game works, or what the goal is, but how to fit the required story beats into a limited number of panels.

Depending on the outcome of a panel, you may see little icons, speech bubbles, or thought bubbles that describe whether an action failed or succeeded, and how the characters think or feel about that. Sometimes the outcome of a panel is communicated in a much more direct way, and acted out by the characters.

Screenshot from second chapter puzzle "A Heartbreak is Healed"

Screenshot from first chapter puzzle "Heartbreak with a Happy Ending": At this point you are still learning the game mechanics like placing panels and characters

Screenshot from "Everyone Rejects Edgar": More thinky puzzle than recreation of a storytelling cliché, and an opportunity to apply what you know. The characters except for Edgar are interchangeable. You can have them fall in love with any other, or reject Edgar in any order.

Screenshot from later puzzle "Everyone Sits on the Throne": A thinky puzzle in the same vein as "Everyone Rejects Edgar". This time, there are important differences between the initial states of characters. You cannot make them sit on the throne in any order.

The panels can be thought of as story beats, sometimes as scenes/places, as in "A and B meet in the kitchen", and sometimes as actions/verbs, as in "A and B kiss". They aren't verbs in the sense that you can just put Alice and Bob in the kissing panel and they always kiss. They only kiss if they love each other, or at least if they don't hate each other. All you can do with the characters as the player is to put them in situations. You can drag the "horse" character into the "watering hole" panel, but you can't make it drink. I mean, probably you could, you might, but would be the puzzle.

Screenshot from "Hatey Murders Father and Marries Mother": It's obviously an Oedipus reference. You see that Hatey doesn't want to murder his father or marry his mother in this constellation.

The game keeps track of the relationships between characters, beliefs of characters, and states of objects. That means (I made this example up in order to not spoil any puzzles) if Alice has been in the kitchen with the cookies, Alice believes there are cookies in the kitchen. If the Cookie Monster has been in the kitchen, there are no more cookies in the kitchen. Now Alice could tell Bob that there are cookies in the kitchen, and Bob could ge hungry and blame Alice for lying, or he could catch the Cookie Monster eating the last cookie. The possibilities for drama are there.

Characters have different initial states and motivations. For instance, the King and the Queen are initially married, and they both have the crown.

Screenshot from "Three Heads Roll": Only the Baron wants to kidnap the king.

If you're into that kind of thing, you can imagine Storyteller as a STRIPS-like planning system with a known or at least discoverable initial state, multiple goals (not just one goal state), panels as actions that take characters as parameters, and a lot of state that can be observed and deduced, but not directly manipulated.

If you're not, you can just play Storyteller as a game about telling stories based on a prompt.

Progression

After you start a new save file, the whole game is open to you. Puzzles or stories are grouped into chapters of four of five stories. Each chapter has a common theme, and a set of common characters and panels. Later chapters mix it up a bit, and introduce characters into different environments or combine characters from multiple stories or mythologies, whereas earlier chapters mostly introduce panels and characters so you can learn how they operate.

Like I said, the whole game is open to you from the start, so you are free to skip a puzzle if you are stuck, to revisit an older chapter, or to skip to the last chapter. It doesn't really matter, because you have to solve every puzzle in the game in order to get to the end.

The first chapter teaches the mechanics of dragging and dropping panels, dragging and dropping characters into panels, and dragging populated panels around to swap them. Then the next couple of chapters introduce different characters and settings. Usually the first story of a chapter only has a few new characters and panels with a rather obvious prompt, the second introduces more content and a slight variation, and the third and fourth have a slight twist.

The later chapters are more focused on actual puzzles.

Some puzzles have multiple solutions, and after solving it one way, you see two additional prompts. For example, the princess could kiss the frog and then the frog turns into a prince, or the princess could kiss the frog but the frog turns into another princess.

I skipped many of those variations on my first playthrough, and this way I blazed through about 40 puzzles without ever stopping and thinking or feeling overly challenged. I learned how most of the characters and panels work, and then I went back to solve all the variant prompts. Somebody I know played every level in order and solved the variant prompts right away. That makes for a more thinky experience earlier on. Either way works, and both are clearly intentionally permitted by the game design.

In the final chapters, Storyteller actually becomes thinky and difficult. This seems like a flaw in pacing, but it works out to the first 70% of the puzzles taking 30% of the time playing it, and the last 30% taking 70% of the time. Instead of treating Storyteller like a storytelling game, you must finally treat it like a puzzle game.

When you beat the base game, the DLC content is added. Levels in the previous chapters get an additional variant prompt, and a new character is introduced. This character acts completely different from all the previous characters, so you have to at first understand how it interacts with the panels from the base game. The variant prompts are harder than anything in the base game. For puzzle game aficionados, this is where it gets challenging for the first time. Here's a "metagaming" tip: None of the DLC variant prompts is solvable with the characters from the base game. Therefore your solution must incorporate the DLC, and it would be impossible to reproduce with base game content.

Screenshot from "Eve Dies Heartbroken Devil makes everyone miserable": You have to experiemnt to figure out how the devil interacts with the panels and characters.

Why It Works So Well

Storyteller is a bit on the easy side. So why does it work so well?

If you are an expert at puzzle games such as The Golem or Stephen's Sausage Roll, then maybe it won't work for you. But if you are looking for a puzzle game that is different, if you liked Splice or Cogs, then Storyteller could be the game for you. It's not a puzzle platformer, not a first person puzzle adventure like Obduction or Sensorium or Quern.

Storyteller is not a storytelling game in the vein of Facade, but it uses themes and literary allusion to keep you interested early on. The music sometimes feels more like a fun Easter egg, but never annoying.

Early prompts in the vein of "boy meets girl" soon turn into more complicated prompts, requiring some minimal lateral thinking to figure out what you need to do. Some of the prompts are literary or mythological allusions and references. That keeps levels interesting and varied even when the actual puzzle part is simple.

Screenshot from "Butler Gets Fired" and "Friedrich Takes Revenge": The puzzle part is quite easy, and there is little lateral thinking involved. The fun is mostly in re-enacting pop culture tropes.

Screenshot from the level selection: Every puzzle in every chapter is open from the start, but it's probably best to do them in order.

Many bad puzzle games get this wrong. You can never really solve a puzzle, because there is only one thing to do. You pick up a key, you open a lock, you see a button, you press it to open a door, you just do the next thing you can do over and over. Instead of puzzling, you just push every button and see what changes to know where to go next. It's fine if the puzzle mechanics are just an excuse to get the player to traverse a temple/dungeon back and forth, if you see the lock and the key and the puzzle mechanics are just there for flavour and motivation. It's no okay if your game is not an action adventure or a puzzle platformer, but an actual puzzle game.

Monument Valley is such a game that doesn't have any actual puzzles in it, you just walk from one place to the next. The game is carried by the interesting visuals and the novelty of the perspective mechanic. (If you are looking for something like Monument Valley but challenging, I could perhaps recommend Naya's Quest or Selene's Labyrinth.)

Early on, Storyteller has this flow of simple and easy puzzles (like Monument Valley), one solved after the other, and it gradually gets more difficult. The references to books and storytelling clichés aren't particularly deep or laugh-out-loud funny, but they make for the occasional chuckle. Sometimes part of the solution process is to realise that "boy meets girl" was last time, and this time you have to use "girl meets girl" to make the story fit the prompt with the characters you have at your disposal.

The variant prompts manage to side-step a problem I that stood out to me on my playthrough of Baba is You, and a problem I encountered designing my own puzzles. Sometimes there are two levels in a row, where one level has an "unintended" solution, and the next has the "intended" solution removed, so you have to find the second solution for the first level. If you manage to find the "unintended" solution the first time, the next level will be very confusing. Just this solution again? Wait, what was the other solution? Did the last level try to teach me something I missed? Should I go back again to find the other solution?

It was confusing to me anyway, a couple of times when I played Baba is You. The same idea is implemented in Storyteller in a much better way. Instead of having a modified copy of the same level right afterwards, Storyteller categorises solutions into "basic solution", "variant A" and "variant B". Even if you manage to find one variant with your first solution attempt, you immediately see both variant prompts, and there is always one more variant to try next. You never have to construct the same solution twice in a row. Sadly this elegant system cannot be applied to Baba is You.

Screenshot from "Tiny gets a kiss": Sorry for spoiling the solution. Even if you manage to have the prince save Tiny the first time around, you would still have to find a solution where Snowy is ungrateful, and Tiny gets a kiss.

Pre-History

I can't really talk about Storyteller without explaining why I was drawn to this game in the first place. I first heard about it in 2008, when it won the IGF. Back then it was more of a story sandbox in the vein of "Tale-Spin". That's the old story generation AI that produced the sentence "gravity drowned", if that means anything to you.

Screenshot: Storyteller prototype with old pixel art

About a hundred flash portals mirrored the initial Storyteller Flash prototype that won the IGF. The original is still here on Kongregate.

Back then, I wondered how a sand box such as storyteller could be turned into an actual game. It was a prototype and some mechanics, but not really a game. It looks like the developer wondered, too.

In the mean time, FRAMED had came out. Now FRAMED looks clearly inspired by Storyteller, because it also has a mechanic where you rearrange panels, but it's nothing like it. FRAMED is more like the Limbo to Storyteller's Braid. Ironically, FRAMED is "a game that tells you a story". Storyteller is an actual puzzle game.

It has been in development longer than Duke Nukem Forever, but even after all these years, Storyteller doesn't feel dated or superfluous. They finally found a winning formula.

Storyteller was developed by Daniel Benmergui and published by Annapurna Interactive. Get it on Steam here, or if you have a Netflix subscription and an iOS or Android device, the price of the mobile app is included in your monthly Netflix fee. Storyteller is also available for the Nintendo Switch. I would recommend playing it on a PC or tablet.

#storyteller #game of the year #puzzle games #game review

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