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violetrainbow412-blog · 2 years

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Queen [E. M]

Eddie Munson x fem!reader

word count: 1.7k

summary: Eddie hates the sudden crush you're having for a celebrity and when you find out why it turns out to be the cutest thing in the world

A/N: okay I have to confess that this one shot it's pure self-indulgence because I have been so obsessed with Queen lately

I liked them a lot when I was a teenager and I think this love had only been dormant in me, lmao

Anyways this is short but I hope you like it!

Eddie walked around the cafeteria, looking around at you. When he found you, you were holding a magazine in your hands and as he walked towards you, he swore he heard a sigh of love.

"Hey, girl," he exclaimed as he plopped down next to you, watching you jump startled.

“Hi,” you said excitedly, as you closed the magazine and put it aside. Eddie took the opportunity to glance sideways and he couldn't contain an annoyed groan when he saw the cover. It had Queen, the group you've been obsessed with lately.

"Seeing that band again?"

"Yes!" you replied, not noticing the annoyed tone your friend had used "I found this magazine at Mitch's stand near my house, can you believe it?" you exclaimed, as you opened it to a certain page. Eddie rolled his eyes when he saw the photograph on it.

"That blond again?"

Roger Taylor.

Eddie vaguely knew the group, he had seen them on television and he didn't dislike them, he could even say that he liked some songs. But now it was different, because your fascination was directly proportional to the hatred he had for them. He didn't even have a valid reason, he just felt extremely angry that you liked them so much. It was difficult to understand and much more difficult to explain. But of all, the one he hated the most was Roger.

“He's not just a blonde, he's the most handsome man on earth. Just look at it!” you screeched, showing him the photo. "I'm in something like a fan club and they just sent me these pictures of them in Brazil, look at them," you continued, handing him three small polaroids. There were two groups and one with just the bassist and drummer “He looks so handsome in white. And he just looks at her hair and her smile and her eyes…”

"Isn't this guy like 40 years old?"

“36!” you corrected him, completely offended.

"Which means he could be your father."

"And what does that matter?" you insisted “If he were here right now, I would let him do with me what he wanted”

“Y/N!” Eddie exclaimed, suddenly modest, but you giggled.

“I could literally melt from how hot he is, have you seen him as a young man? With that long hair that looks so soft. I swear I could…”

"Hello!" Dustin greeted, arriving just in time to prevent you from saying another obscenity out loud. Eddie felt completely ashamed of your thoughts. Sure he knew what sex was and he had a couple of dirty magazines in his bedroom, but it felt so weird to hear you saying those things.

The matter faded as lunch progressed, but he still felt strange looking at the magazine and photos lying next to you, a feeling he tried to ignore.

The days passed, then the weeks, and Eddie felt calmer when you hardly even talked about the rock band. Only an occasional mention or when you took off your headphones and because of the volume so high he managed to hear a little of one of their songs.

Until one day he was waiting for you outside your house to go for a walk and you approached with the biggest smile you've ever had. Eddie thought you were excited to see him until he saw a cassette in your hand and he was oddly disappointed.

"Check out what I just bought!" you exclaimed euphorically, without even greeting him, while you showed him the little plastic box that had The Works written on it accompanied by an image of four men "I'm going to put it on your stereo"

“Hello to you too, how are you? I'm fine, thanks for asking,” he said wryly, but you just laughed softly. The first song started playing when Eddie was already driving down the street; It was something disco.

"Oh, this song was written by Roger," you told him excitedly. It was catchy and good, but Eddie wasn't going to admit it and decided to say something impolite instead.

"Didn't he also write a super weird fuck-a-car song?"

"What? Nope!" you laughed "It's called I'm in love with my car and it's like, huh, a metaphor"

"I repeat, it's weird and that guy is weird too," he snorted, but you didn't register his angry tone because you were too busy nodding your head to the beat of the music.

You had decided that you would go for ice cream and so you did. For most of the afternoon you were talking and talking, while Eddie just ate his ice cream and answered in monosyllables. You thought it was just a passing thing but he kept silent even on the way to your house, which if he was out of the ordinary.

"Why are you so quiet, Ed?" you asked, genuinely interested.

“It's nothing” he lied, even though you knew it wasn't. He reached for you and you thought he would hug you, but instead he opened the glove compartment and pulled out a cassette which he reluctantly tossed into your lap. “I recorded that song for you. I hope you still want to hear that kind of stuff now that you're a Queen fan,” he muttered without much encouragement. But you smiled when you realized what was happening.

“Is this why you are mad? Is it because I like Queen now?”

"I'm not mad," he defended himself, but his crossed arms and the pout on his lips said something else.

When you looked more closely at the cassette you realized that it was covered in purple foil and had both your name and his written in that boy's ragged handwriting.

So in a second everything seemed to click and you understood why Eddie was upset every time you listened to the band or talked about your crush. He wasn't angry, he was jealous.

"God, it can't be, are you worried that I'll stop listening to your music because I like Queen?" you said, trying not to sound mocking, but with a smile you couldn't hide.

"Again I don't know what you're talking about, please go now, it's late and your parents are going to be angry"

"Ed, you can't be serious," you insisted. The whole thing was so silly "Or is it that you're mad because I like Roger?"

“I already told you it's nothing! OK?" he muttered. He really looked upset and you felt bad for a moment, until you heard him speak again “I don't even understand what you see in that guy. He just plays drums and he's white, it's not a big deal” he said grumbling “And lately you just talk and talk about him and how handsome he is and all that shit and he's like 20 years older than you!”

If it had been someone else, you probably would have laughed and told him to go to hell. But it turns out that the one who was sick with jealousy at your crush on a rockstar was your best friend, the same guy who was trying to be a rockstar himself and didn't want to share the job with anyone else. That's why you found the whole thing totally cute.

“Eddie, what the hell are you talking about? I like him, yes, but it's not like he's my next-door neighbor to run away with. He's thousands of miles away from here because he's a fucking Brit who has a huge bunch of fans just like me. And besides, he's married and has kids,” you laughed, punctuating this last part.

And suddenly Eddie felt so dumb. He was being an idiot being jealous of someone you didn't even know and wouldn't know anytime soon and all because he had a bit of a crush on you and hated it when someone else stole your attention. He wanted you at band rehearsals, hearing and complimenting their songs, but that need for attention had gone too far. So he continued to fold his arms and fled from your gaze, but this time out of sheer embarrassment.

"Eddie, could you at least look at me?" said. You were very persistent and he knew it, so he had no choice but to turn to see you. You weren't the least bit upset, on the contrary, you looked the most amused "Does that calm your jealousy a bit?"

"I'm not jealous" he spat, as if you had just done him the worst offense in the world, but you kept talking with that smile on your face.

“Well, in case you were jealous, I have to tell you that you have nothing to worry about. I prefer guitarists, before drummers”

"Really?" he asked, oddly hopeful, but still feeling like an idiot.

"Of course! There is one in particular with very nice curls and brown eyes” you exclaimed. Eddie let go of that angry frown and smiled at this, almost blushing, “His name is Brian May, do you know him? He is part of the band Queen”

"Okay, now get out of the car and go home," he said suddenly, returning to that frown that made you laugh out loud.

"I'm kidding! Obviously I mean you” you exclaimed, approaching him and putting one of your hands on his arm to ease the tension “Corroded coffin will always be my favorite band and I'll be at every concert. And you will always be my favorite musician, I promise you,” you said sweetly, as you closed the distance further and hugged him. That's when he relented and wrapped both hands around you as he breathed in the scent of your hair. Even though it was already clear that it was nonsense, he felt calmer now “What do you say we listen to that song together, huh? I want to know what my pretty boy wrote,” you continued. Eddie wanted to die because you had called him yours and pretty in the same sentence.

Without waiting for an answer you took the cassette and placed it delicately in the player, still with your body leaning against his to assure him that you were serious.

TAG LIST: @sweetdayme4427 @smol-book-nerd @ilikewomendealwithit @harringt8ns @katsukis1wife @ilovereadingfanfics @tvserie-s-world

It wasn't metal, it was just Eddie playing the acoustic guitar from his room as he sang in a soft, husky voice. The song spoke of friendship, love, and joy. From a person who was lucky to have another and didn't want to lose them. As the words echoed through the car, your head rested on the boy's chest, and your arm wrapped around his body, a tender smile spread across your face. And so you stayed for a long time, just enjoying the warmth and affection that Eddie emanated.

#eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x female reader #stranger things 4 #joseph quinn #queen #roger taylor #freddie mercury #john deacon #brian may

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andnowanowl · 4 months

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Since "Palestine Speaks: Narratives of Life Under Occupation" is suspiciously not available in the US in the form of an e-book, I purchased a physical copy and wanted to share it here for anyone else also unable to get access.

EBTIHAJ BE'ERAT

Homemaker, 52

Born in Kafr Malek, West Bank

Interviewed in Kafr Malek, West Bank

We first visit Ebtihaj Be'erat at her house in the hilltop village of Kafr Malek in 2010. Her house is easy to find: a giant banner in honor of her son, Abdal Aziz, hangs against a whitewashed wall above red geraniums. Two years before our visit, just up the road from the house, Abdal Aziz was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers. Inside the house, there is a room devoted to him, with pictures and plaques on the walls and more pictures piled on the floor.

Ebtihaj is a warm woman with oval frame glasses, a gold heart necklace, and deep dimples that appear when she smiles. Her name, in fact, means "joy." Yet, the death of her son is clearly still part of her everyday life. As we ask her about her childhood in Kafr Malek, her experiences during the First Intifada, and her family tree, her answers circle back again and again to the loss of her son and the day he was shot. Still, evidence of her five other children also covers the walls, including photos of them dancing in a well-known dance troupe, framed university degrees, and various awards. Throughout our interview, her house is bustling with family members and neighbors coming and going. And although she downplays her skill as a host, she offers us an impressive spread of food, including homemade bread, jam, pickles, as well as local eggs and herbs.

When we come back to the house two years later, the banner honoring Abdal Aziz has been moved further up the street to the place where he died. Ebtihaj is now able to tell the story of his death without being completely overcome with grief, and she's more willing to talk about the life that continues in his absence. Besides telling us of her son, Ebtihaj shares stories about the changes she remembers in her home village since the Six-Day War in 1967, a conflict that led to Israel's occupation of the West Bank. Though Ebtihaj and her family had the opportunity to join the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who emigrated from the West Bank following the Six-Day War, she decided to stay in Kafr Malek and raise her children in a Palestinian community.

OUR WEDDING PARTIES ARE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL

My name is Ebtihaj, and I'm from Kafr Malek, which is a very social village where everyone knows everyone else.¹ I was born in the spring of 1962.

All my family is from the village. My grandfather and my great-grandfather were born here. The people of this village have always been known for their hospitality, and anyone who comes to Kafr Malek loves it here. It's beautiful. We receive visitors with hospitality, male or female. We're more moderate than some nearby villages. We're more civilized. We're not like the other villages where a man can't enter a woman's house when she's alone. Our wedding parties are the most beautiful in the area because all of us wear traditional dresses, even the small girls. Also, many people in our village have lived in the United States or Latin America,

they can speak English or Spanish. I don't know the exact numbers, but approximately 20 to 40 percent of the people born in this village are living abroad at the moment, mostly in the U.S., but also in Colombia and Brazil. A number of families emigrated during the First Intifada, but they come back for visits.²

I was the sixth of seven children. I have four sisters and two brothers. My father worked for the post office in the village. It was his job to go to Ramallah and pick up the mail, and then to deliver it to everyone in Kafr Malek. He also had a second job as a butcher in the market. When I was a young child, Kafr Malek was surrounded by farms. Many villagers had farms on top of Al-Asur Hill behind the village, and many farmers grew grapes.

Then in 1967, Israeli soldiers invaded the village.³ I remember fleeing with all the other villagers to a grove of almond trees. Some villagers fled to their fields. My family lived under almond trees for two weeks while the war was going on, and I remember we each had just enough food and water rations to last two weeks.

Later that year, the Israeli military moved in and built a base on top of the hill. They cleared a lot of the farms on the hill and demolished the homes of some farmers as well. We got used to seeing soldiers in the village. There weren't any Jordanian policeman anymore, just Israeli soldiers. We got used to hearing about homes being raided as well. Soldiers would take men and boys in the middle of the night, from young children to the oldest men.

I met my husband when I was very young, when I was fifteen years old and he was twenty. He fell in love with me. He's my cousin, a relative from my mother's side.⁴ We were engaged that same year we met, and we married when I was seventeen. Nowadays, it doesn't happen like that. Mostly now, women wait until they finish university and then they get married. I was sad because I wanted to finish my studies. But my father told me, "No, you have to get married." I didn't even finish high school.

I moved into my in-laws' home right after our marriage in 1979. Before the war in 1967, my husband's family had farmed at the top of Al-Asur Hill. After the war, soldiers ordered his family out of their home and blew it up, so they moved to another house in the village. When I married my husband, he was still a farmer and also worked as a stone cutter.

In 1980 we had our first child, my daughter Maysa, when I was eighteen. By then I'd settled into my husband's home as a housewife. I did the housework along with my mother- and sisters-in-law, I cooked, and if any visitors came, I welcomed them. Over the next few years I had two more daughters and a son—Haifa, Rafa, and Fadi. Every day I would cook lunch for my children and for my husband. I'd buy my own groceries. And I'd tend the garden—we planted wheat and olives. During Eid, I'd make cookies, you know, ma'amoul.⁵ Everyone would ask for them.

During this time, in the early eighties, many villagers were leaving to live abroad. I had two older brothers and an older sister get visas to work in the United States, and my brothers encouraged our family to fill out the paperwork to do the same. There was more opportunity to work there, and more freedom. In the U.S. we wouldn't have to worry about soldiers coming to our house. So we filled out the paperwork and applied,and when we didn't get a visa the first year, we kept reapplying every year.

Finally, in 1986, my family was granted visas to live in the United States. But by this time, I had three daughters, and I wasn't sure I wanted to raise them in America. My sister had brought two daughters to the U.S., and they had ended up marrying foreigners. I wanted my daughters to grow up and marry Palestinians—hopefully, young men from the village. So we reconsidered it and decided to stay. My husband found work as a taxi driver in Ramallah, so he was able to support our family.

THE SOLDIERS FORBADE US TO LIGHT CANDLES

I gave birth to my middle son, Abdal Aziz, on December 5, 1987, in Ramallah, when the First Intifada had just broken out.⁶ He was born nine pounds, blond, and with green eyes. The nurse who was on shift, she held him and said to everyone, "Come and see the child from Kafr Malek. He is so beautiful." I named him Abdal Aziz after his grandfather—his father's father.

When I got out of the hospital, Israeli soldiers were closing the shops because they said that the Intifada was moving from Gaza to the West Bank. I couldn't even find a pharmacy to buy vitamins or a bottle, the basic things we needed with a new baby in the house. The soldiers imposed a curfew, and it was forbidden for anyone to be outside, even in our own yards, for over a month. We had to stay inside our houses, and we couldn't open a window to look outside. The soldiers even forbade us to light candles. If they saw the light of a candle in a house,they would come and break the windows. During this time we ate mostly bread, olive oil, and za'atar.⁷ When we were able to find other kinds of food, my mother-in-law would have to hide it well in the house, because if soldiers searched our home, they would know we had broken curfew if we had fresh food.

Sometimes they'd arrest someone every month or two, sometimes it seemed like every night. Checkpoints were set up, so we couldn't travel to the top of the hill anymore, where the base was, and there was only one entrance into and out of the village. Sometimes, depending on what was happening during the Intifada, they would set up a checkpoint at the main entrance of the village, and they wouldn't allow anyone to enter or leave except to go to neighboring villages. Even when someone was sick, or even if a pregnant woman was having a baby, they'd go to Taybeh, the next village, instead of to the hospital in Ramallah because when the soldiers set up the checkpoint, they wouldn't allow anyone to leave.⁸

All the men in the village had left their houses, because if the soldiers came in and saw a man in the house, they would sometimes beat him so badly. So all the men stayed in the fields, and they would go to Ramallah to look for food. During the night, they'd sneak home with food and basic supplies like sugar, and then go back to the fields.

My house is in the center of the city, so the soldiers would come often. Once, when my Abdal Aziz was two months old, I was sitting outside with him because I was cleaning the bread oven. My mother-in-law was at a neighbor's house and my husband was in the fields. A few soldiers saw me from the street, and they chased me into my house. I ran into the kitchen where the rest of my children were at the time—I was holding Abdal Aziz in my arms. The soldiers had these batons, and one soldier tried to hit me with one. I moved my head just in time to avoid the blow, and he struck the refrigerator instead. But he was aiming for my head. All my kids were screaming and crying, including Abdal Aziz in my arms. I think that made the soldiers back off. My children protected me.

Then the soldiers closed the kitchen door on me and locked me inside with my kids. They left the key on the outside of the door, and we were locked in the kitchen for around two hours until my mother-in-law came back. At that time, there weren't any mobile phones like today, not even house phones. If my mother-in-law hadn't been at the neighbor's house, she would have been with me inside, and who knows how long it would have been before someone unlocked the door. When she returned and let me out of the kitchen, I just collapsed. I was so scared, I fainted. She didn't know what to do, and there wasn't any way to call a doctor or nurse. So she got the idea of throwing open all the windows and turning on a lamp in the window. It attracted the attention of the soldiers, and when more came to see what was going on, she begged them to get me a nurse or doctor. That was the only way she had to get me medical attention.

I believe Abdal Aziz always remembered that day. He had an image of it burned in his mind. At two months, he was too young to form memories. But the memory was like an inspiration from God, at least that's what I think.

WHAT HE FELT THROUGH THE STONE

As a child, Abdal Aziz was unique. There wasn't anyone like him. He was kind and beautiful. Abdal Aziz had a lot of friends, and he was a leader among them from a young age. Part of it was that he was just so affectionate and generous. I remember he us to come up to me when was washing dishes or something and give me a big hug. He was the same way with his friends. If one of his friends mentioned that he saw a shirt in the market that he wanted, Abdal Aziz would save his money until he could buy the shirt for his friend. I had another child, Muhammed, in 1990, and Muhammed always looked up to Abdal Aziz. Abdal Aziz was thirteen at the start of the Second Intifada in 2000.

During the Second Intifada, the Israeli military closed the village for a month, and we couldn't leave our homes. They even cut the electricity and water for a month. When the soldiers came, we'd close everything, all the windows, and we'd stay inside. I can remember two occasions when we forgot to close a window, and teargas got inside the home. We felt like we were suffocating.

Abdal Aziz was born when the First Intifada started, so it was in his blood to be active.⁹ But Abdal Aziz wasn't affiliated with any political party. He wore one bracelet that said "Fatah," another one that said "PFLP," and another one that said "Hamas," all together on one hand.¹⁰ I used to ask him, "Which one are you?" He'd say, "I'm Palestinian." That's another reason why everyone loved him.

Ever since he was a kid, he always talked about how much he wanted to throw stones at the jeeps and tanks when they passed our house, to drive them away. The kids don't have any weapons to defend their country, they only have stones—a stone versus a tank. I knew my son loved to throw stones at soldiers when they came at night, and I knew that he was in danger. The soldiers arrested so many teenagers and they injured others. My cousin is now spending twenty-five years in jail for throwing stones, and another one was put in jail for fifteen years. One of my neighbors has been in jail for eighteen years now, just for throwing stones at the soldiers.

The soldiers usually come into the village at two or three a.m. That is their normal time. Every time they enter the village, the youth have an agreement to start whistling to let everyone know. It's a signal for others when they are on the streets to go back home so the soldiers don't catch them and beat them. I'm always so afraid whenever I start to hear whistling.

There were many nights when I would hear whistling, wake up, and put on my clothes to go out and search for Abdal Aziz. I would go to his friends and ask them where he was. When Abdal Aziz came home in the early morning, I'd go hug him as soon as I saw him on the stairs outside of the house and tell him, "Thank God, you're okay and nothing has happened to you." I would make him sit and talk to me because he wouldn't listen. I used to tell him, "When the soldiers come, they have armor, they have weapons, and they are much stronger than us." I asked him if throwing stones would make them leave the village. He always said, "This is our village. Why did they come to our village?" I would ask him, "Can you forbid the soldiers or the tanks from coming into the village?" I would tell him that if they killed him, I would go crazy. He would say that if a patrol came into the village and he didn't throw a stone at it, it would hurt his conscience. He wanted to protect his country. He wanted to express what he felt through the stone, that this is our country and not theirs. I was angry with him because I knew that something bad would happen to him.

Once, I left the house and all my neighbors were asking me, "Where are you going? The patrol is near." And I told them, "Let them shoot me. I want to go find Abdal Aziz." He was at the neighbor's house. I stood in the street and called to him, and I told him, "If you don't come to the house now, I will go to the patrol and make them shoot me." If they saw anyone at night in the village, there was a chance they would shoot.

It didn't matter whether it was a woman or a man. He told me, "I'm coming, I'm coming," and he came back with me. We snuck home safely. He came back with me, but when I went to sleep, he snuck out again.

WHY DO YOU THINK EVERYONE WANTS PALESTINE?

It was difficult living in Kafr Malek during the Second Intifada. I was so worried about my children. But still, I wasn't tempted to move.

In the summer of 2002, I visited my older brothers, who were still in the United States. They'd been there since the early 1980s and were living in Chicago, I loved America, I loved the people there. I liked how organized everything was in the city. In general, the people were welcoming to me. My brothers' neighbors were very nice. And people are free there. You don't have soldiers coming into your house at two a.m. and ordering you out into the streets.

But Palestine is so beautiful—why do you think everyone wants Palestine? When I was in Chicago, I remember telling my brother, "I like America, but I haven't seen anything in the U.S. that I like as much as sitting on the front steps of my own home when there's a breeze, or being able to go into the yard and pick fresh grapes and figs." So my brother went out and bought me some grapes and figs, all the things I had named. But they didn't taste the same to me. I didn't like the grapes at all! Everything was imported, nothing fresh. I was supposed to stay in Chicago for four months, but I could only make it for a month and a half. I was homesick. Also, it was so hot!

A few years later, in 2006, my husband ended up going to the States to work with some family and neighbors who had a store in Miami. My husband would ask a lot about Abdal Aziz when he called home. He didn't ask about the other sons as much as he asked about Abdal Aziz.He was worried. When he talked to Abdal Aziz on the phone, my husband would preach to him, "Calm down, don't throw stones."

It was hard to be alone with my children, but by that time my sons were all grown-ups and they were working. Only Abdal Aziz and Muhammed, the youngest, were still at school. My three daughters were already married. Abdal Aziz finished high school in 2007, did the tawjihi exams,¹¹ and wanted to apply for Al-Quds Open University,¹² He didn't like school so much, but he liked everything else: soccer, dabka,¹³ and all his other after-school activities. After the tawjihi, he spent one year not studying, but he wanted to eventually study business I have a cousin who runs a supermarket, and Abdal Aziz spent a lot of afternoons helping him out there, learning about how to run a small business.

I FELT I WOULD LOSE HIM SOMEDAY

Abdal Aziz was a soccer player, and he was the goalkeeper for the Al-Bireh Institute team in Ramallah. He was also a coach in Kafr Malek for younger boys. In early October 2008, he was twenty years old and getting his passport ready, because his team had an opportunity to go play in Europe.

During that time, Abdal Aziz was still going out every night to be with his friends. On the night of October 16, I went to sleep at around eleven-thirty. Abdal Aziz called at one a.m. He had a habit of asking me when I answered the phone, "How are you, Ma?"

I told him, "I'm going to sleep now. Do you need anything?" He told me, "I'm coming with friends, so please make us some dinner to eat?" I told him, "I don't sleep very well because of you, and you want me to prepare dinner for you now?" So he asked me to speak with Muhammed, and he told his younger brother to prepare dinner for him, all his favorite things. My room is just beside the kitchen, so when Abdal Aziz came back with his friends, he'd close the door so they wouldn't bother me, and they'd sit outside to eat dinner.

Still, that night I heard him come in with his friends, so I got up and put on my dress. I looked at him through the door eating dinner with his friends outside. I looked at my watch, and it was around three a.m. I thought, It's late. Abdal Aziz won't go out again. His friends will leave, and he'll go to sleep in his room. And because I was comfortable that Abdal Aziz was at home, I went back to bed.

Not long afterward, I woke up again and opened the window. Although it was October, it was still hot. When I opened the window, I realized my son Muhammed was outside, crying and calling for a car. He told me that there had been a shooting. I went to Abdal Aziz's room and saw that he wasn't there. I put on my clothes and started screaming that Abdal Aziz had died. I knew then. I felt it immediately that he was dead. My heart dropped.

I went to our neighbors' house. I told Abu Adel, our neighbor, that Abdal Aziz died. He told me no, but I insisted that he was the one that had been shot. I told my neighbor's son to take me to the hospital because he had a car, but he reassured me that it wasn't Abdal Aziz who was injured. But I insisted. I wanted to be with my son. That was that. My son Fadi showed up at the house, and he and Muhammed tried to comfort me and told me it wasn't Abdal Aziz. I told them, "No, it is your brother. It is Abdal Aziz." They told me that Abdal Aziz was with his friends, and I told them that if that was so, to bring him to me. Then some of Abdal Aziz's friends came and told me that he'd run away with some of the others. I asked if there were any more soldiers in the village, and they told me there was a patrol nearby. And so I asked them, "Why did Abdal Aziz run away? Abdal Aziz doesn't run away if there's a soldier in the village, so I don't believe you."

When my three daughters heard that someone had been killed, they came running to my house with their husbands, asking, "Where is he?" They too felt that it was Abdal Aziz who had been killed. The women from our neighborhood came to my house for an hour and tried to calm me down, to tell me that it wasn't Abdal Aziz, or that he was just injured. I told them, "No, it Abdal Aziz. I know that he is dead." Then finally someone else from the village came to the house and told me, "The thing that you've suspected is true." She had witnessed the scene.

In a few moments, a huge crowd showed up at the house, and they were all crying because they loved Abdal Aziz, and he was not there anymore. No one would take me to see him at the hospital because they felt would be a shock for me. Finally, at around ten a.m., the Red Crescent ambulance brought his body back to the house.¹⁴

I learned the story from Abdal Aziz's friends who had been with him that night. They said that after I went to sleep, Abdal Aziz got a phone call from a friend who told him that a patrol of soldiers was coming. Abdal Aziz used to stand on a particular roof and throw stones from there, so that's where they both went to wait for the soldiers. But on this night, the soldiers were down below in the garden hiding between the trees, waiting for him. He was with his friend on the roof, and when they threw the first stone, the soldiers opened fire on them. His friend was shot in the shoulder, and Abdal Aziz was shot in the leg.

Abdal Aziz's friend told him, "We're being ambushed! Let's hand ourselves over to the soldiers." Abdal Aziz's reply was, "I would rather die than hand myself over." Because Abdal Aziz was injured in his leg, he couldn't run, but his friend was able to run away. He wanted to help Abdal Aziz, but he couldn't. According to my son's friends, when the soldiers came up to the roof and saw that it was Abdal Aziz, they kept him there. The bullet had entered the back of his left leg and come out the front. They left him to bleed, and they wouldn't allow a doctor to see him. They surrounded the area, and only after he died did they let the Red Crescent ambulance come and take him. The neighbors all came outside to check on him, to help him, but the soldiers told them, "If you come near us, we will shoot you, too."

He didn't die among his family or his friends. That's what hurts me the most. That's the most painful thing. The soldiers handed him over to the ambulance with the cuffs on his hands.

The day after Abdal Aziz died, my husband was in a café in Miami, playing cards. A relative had gone there to tell him the news, but before he even said anything, my husband saw the look in his eyes and told him, "Stop. I know Abdal Aziz just died." He came back to Palestine as soon as he could—he was home within two weeks. For two days after he returned, I couldn't speak to my husband. He did all the talking. And then he decided to stay in Kafr Malek.

The boy who was with Abdal Aziz survived. He's married now, his wife is pregnant. That night he ran away, he was treated for his injury, and he was arrested and put in jail for two years. Many of my son's other friends have been arrested since. They were brought to trial on so made-up charges and all sentenced to five and a half years. I wish they some had arrested Abdal Aziz and not killed him.

It was what God wanted. I always advised my son to stay at home, not to endanger himself. I would tell him that I felt I would lose him someday. Two weeks before his death, Abdal Aziz was with his friends in a car and he was hanging out the window. It was the night of Eid.¹⁵ And the guys told him, "Come inside, you don't want to get killed on a holy night." He told them, "I won't be killed. I won't die like this. I will die a martyr." He knew.

I'VE DECIDED TO LIVE

If you ask anyone in the village, they can tell you about Abdal Aziz. The day he died, seven satellite channels came to the village here to document what was going on. When they brought him in the hearse, there were hundreds of cars following behind. His funeral was so big. I didn't expect so many people.

After a death, we have three days for people to come and pay their respects, but for Abdal Aziz it took three weeks. His friends from all over came to the house and called me to go outside. We have a tradition where you kiss a person's hand and hold it to your own forehead as a sign of respect. One by one, they all kissed my hand, held it to their foreheads, and told me they were my sons now instead of Abdal Aziz. Even now, they always come visit me, and I go visit them. There was also a bus of girls who were friends of Abdal Aziz from the dabka team, and they came crying and searching for Abdal Aziz's mother.

They even put a tent near the hall in the village center, and thousands of people came. The student senate at Birzeit University suspended classes because of Abdal Aziz's death.¹⁶ Usually they don't suspend classes if someone dies, not even a student at the university. Even though he wasn't a student, everyone knew Abdal Aziz, even the teachers, and they put upposters with his photo inside the university. One year after his death, one of his friends had to present his graduation thesis, and he invited me to come. I went to the university and everyone, all the students were saying, "That's Abdal Aziz's mother. That's Abdal Aziz's mother." I didn't know what to do—to cry, or to feel proud, or to smile.

When someone loses a son, what do you expect? I raised him for twenty-one years, and I used to look at him when he went out and think to myself, Is it possible that this is my son? And I lost him overnight. And he was so beautiful, my son. He is now with his God in heaven. Whenever I go outside now, there's a banner with his photo on it hanging in the place where he died. Whenever I see it, I feel guilty because I couldn't hold him and hug him during the last minutes before he died.

After he died, life was complicated. For one whole year, I didn't sleep at night. I drove everyone crazy after his death, especially at two or three a.m. It's the time when Abdal Aziz died, and I would always be awake then. I'd wake up and feel like I needed to leave the house. I either went to one of my daughters' houses or even my cousins. I was so tired, and my daughters were so worried about me.

I went to the doctor, and he found my blood pressure to be at very dangerous levels. He told me, "You will have a heart attack if you continue living like this." It was so scary. For three whole years, they gave me sedative shots, sometimes every day and sometimes twice a week.

Since Abdal Aziz died, I stopped doing embroidery. I used to make traditional dresses, but now I've stopped. I don't see 100 percent, and I need good vision to embroider. I used to sell the dresses to help my husband, as our financial situation now is very hard. My younger son, Mohammad, studies journalism at Birzeit University. He wants to continue and get his master's, and Birzeit University is more expensive than the other universities. My husband only works as a taxi driver. Even the taxi that he drives belongs to someone else. He only covers the university tuition and Muhammed's daily expenses. I can't ask my other son for help because he wants to build his future. My oldest son is a teacher. Now he should start building a new house, but there are no good jobs. He wants to get married, but it all depends on the money.

My second daughter once came and told me that Abdal Aziz is alive. In Islam, in our religion, we consider martyrs to be alive in heaven. She told me, "You are crying every day for Abdal Aziz, and he's only one person, and he's alive with God." She told me that there are fifteen people in our family, including the cousins and the grandchildren. She asked, "Do you want to die and leave us all too?" Since then, I've decided to live my life for my daughters and sons who are still alive, and my grief is only in my heart now.

Sometimes one of my daughters comes and sees my eyes are red and asks me if I was crying, and I deny it and say, "No, why would I cry?" I do it to make them feel stronger because they were affected by the death of their brother also. It's been four years now, and I feel every day that it was like yesterday, and I always see him and always remember him. In Palestine, we often say that problems that start so heavy begin to disappear with time. But this weight stays. It's not fading. I am honored that my son is a hero who defended his land. He defended his country and his village. But I don't want my other sons to get killed. Abdal Aziz is enough.

---

Footnotes

¹ Kafr Malek is a village of about 3,000 people located nine miles northeast of Ramallah.

² The First Intifada was an uprising throughout the West Bank and Gaza against Israeli military occupation. It began in December 1987 and lasted until 1993. Intifada in Arabic means "to shake off."

³ 1967 was the year of the Six-Day War that culminated in Israel occupying the West Bank.

⁴ Marriage between cousins was once considered an ideal match in Palestine and throughout the Middle East, especially in rural areas.

⁵ Ma'amoul are shortbread pastries filled with dates or nuts and pressed in a wooden mold with an intricate design, and are commonly made during Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha, the major Muslim holidays. Palestinian Christians also make them for Easter.

⁶ The protests, clashes with Israeli military, boycotts, and other acts of civil disobedience that marked the beginning of the First Intifada started in December 1987. Most of the organized action began on December 9, two days after Abdal Aziz's birth.

⁷ Za'atar is the name of both a spice similar to thyme that grows wild in Palestine and a blend of spices. Za'atar is a staple of local cooking in Palestine and much of the Middle East.

⁸ Taybeh is a neighboring Christian village of 1,500 people about one mile away from Kafr Malek. It's locally famous for a brewery that makes Palestine's only beer.

⁹ In Palestine, saying someone is "active" is shorthand for saying the person is involved in protests, to throwing stones, to more militant activity.

¹⁰ Farah, PFLP, and Hamas are political parties within Palestine.

¹¹ An exit exam for high school.

¹² Al-Quds Open University is a mixed on-site and distance-learning university system with campuses in the West Bank, Gaza, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. There is also a separate university system in the West Bank called Al-Quds University, which isn't affiliated with Al-Quds Open University.

¹³ Dabka is a traditional Palestinian dance.

¹⁴ From the glossary -

International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement: A group of international humanitarian organizations founded in 1863 with the purpose of assisting victims of disasters and providing developmental aid to strengthen communities in crisis. The movement is made up of three distinct organizations: the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which safeguards human rights in conflict zones; the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) which coordinates relief assistance missions around the globe; and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which address humanitarian needs and are organized on the national level. The Palestine Red Crescent Society is one of the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. It was formed in 1968 and has over 4,000 employees and 20,000 volunteers. Because the Palestinian Authority administers only a patchwork of territory within the West Bank, the Palestine Red Crescent Society provides some essential services to Palestinian citizens, including ambulance service and some medical care.

¹⁵ Eid Al-Fitr is a major feast that marks the end of the month of Ramadan.

¹⁶ Birzeit University is one of the most prestigious universities in Palestine. It's located just outside Ramallah, not far from Kafr Malek.

#palestine speaks #palestinian voices #book exerpt #palestine #strike for palestine #part 7 of 16 #i couldn't find a picture of ebtihaj or abdal aziz

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rad-roche · 1 year

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do you have any noir book reps,. ive seen you read them and id like to get more into the genre

(being fucking normal) a couple!

i lied to you anon. i lied to you under the read more. i'm not normal about this at all

anything by dashiel hammet, dorothy b. hughes, lot of staples in there. if you come across a noir from the 40s/50s chances are it's based on a book and chances are that book is pretty fuckin good. i've got my friends into reading those books and the ones that've made them go 'oh i get it now' have been anything by raymond chandler, and i'm including myself in that group. the first two i read were for research, the other five i tore through because i had to see them. i'm on the last one, playback, and i can't bring myself to finish it because then it will be over. i will, i'll get there eventually, but i'll be very sad because it means my first time reading them will be done. i've read books where i've gone wow, what a turn of phrase, i've very rarely read books where every page has like, seven. me and the girls were posting excerpts in the gc going 'can you fucking believe this'. of his books, the big sleep, the little sister and the long goodbye are considered the best, but if you want my opinion i'd start off with lady in the lake. not that they're hard reads at all, i just think it's the easiest to vibe with if you're only just getting into them. it's a good barometer to see how you feel about the whole thing

“I don't like your manner," Kingsley said in a voice you could have crack a Brazil nut on. "That's all right," I said. "I'm not selling it.”

i mean jesus christ. fuck

if you're looking at something contemporary, i'll have to admit to a slight gap in my knowledge, i'm mostly into the stuff written from, say, mid 20s to 50s. don't take that as a mark of quality, 'it was only good back then!' or something, more of a taste thing on my part. neo-noir is a cool (if a little nebulous and hard to categorize sometimes) take on the questions noir raises, but there's something interesting to me about seeing the first stabs at it. saying that, akashic books has a collection arranged by location, city, country, so that might be something you're interested in

what's happening in your city? probably some terrible events that leave lives in shambles! that's like, the most interesting kind!!

#text post #the only other book that's made me go JESUS CHRIST every other line was my very very favourite: perfume #which is very different stylistically but jesus fuck. i reread it once a year #don't take me as like An Authority on noir at all i'm just some random. passionate yet deeply unqualified. cool for books! bad for surgeons #also if anybody reading this needs to source an old ass miserable movie or book or whatever and doesn't know how: I Will Do It For You

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anothersebastianblog · 7 months

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I hear lots of people talking about the drama with Ellie and something about Brazil?? Can someone fill me in please :) I wasn’t part of the fandom back then x/

Ellie is one of the best friends of Allisa (Will's wife, will is -was?- one of Sebastian's besties), they knew each other from much before they dated (obviously because she and Seb were constantly in the same palaces/events because of their respective friends, there's even a photo of Seb ad margarita in 2014 and she's there 🤣) the thing is that in June 2018 we found out they were dating, I mean we weren't sure but they traveled in couples to north Carolina, then the next month in July 4th they celebrated together at Will's apartment and then she and Seb were together at will and allisa wedding that same month and days after someone caught them in a restaurant kissing. Seb traveled to Greece to shoot Monday in August, just days before his birthday, then he'd comeback to LA in Sep/Oct(?) to shoot "endings, Beginnings", after he filmed his part, he went to NYC and he was papped with Ellie in NYC in mid October, now, I don't know in which moment it happened but it was definitely before Brazil when some "fans" "discovered" (sorry, but 5 days later I'm still questioning how real those screen shots were😬) that she had said some questionable stuff years before dating Seb, for example calling a kid ugly (which lol, everyone has done that sorry) and supposedly writing the n word. now, the weird thing is that some "fans" talked with a friend of Ellie 😬 (those were the only very clear screenshots so I believe those were real) and she told them that Ellie would go to Brazil with Seb because they were going on vacation after the comic con he had to attend. personally I didn't believe it at first but then Ellie showed up in Brazil 😐, this friend of Ellie sent them a screenshot of a conversation with Ellie and the friend had asked Ellie of she was going to Australia for Christmas and she answered no because she'd be with Seb in Brazil or something like that and then shit exploded. while Seb and Ellie were in Brazil, someone took the Tumblr shit to Twitter (the n word thing) and it became something big, Sebs tag was full of people calling him out (surprise!!! calling him out for something he didn't do 🥱) and at the end, he ended up leaving Brazil after the comic con was over but he left the country alone, not Ellie in sight. I must say, Ellie denied what she was being accused of, she even said she'd take legal action against the people who started that but then she went private and eliminate all of us who were following her, she's been private since then. that same year, she went to Australia alongside will and allisa, I always thought Seb was meant to be in that trip but nope, he was photographed in Soho NYC December 24 🤭

now, I must say, the friend who supposedly passed the conversation to the "fans" is still her friend so I've always thought that those "fans" might have hacked the friend maybe, I don't know, it was weird.

i don't know if you wanted the whole story, sorry.

also, Seb said nothing he just moved on like he always does 😂

But he definitely got the confirmation his fans are freaks and i bet he started getting angry

First signal: during his rs with margo

Confirmation: this thing during his rs with Ellie

He had enough: during his rs with Ale

Decided he lives better sharing ZERO and that this also protect his partner: at 40 yo during his current rs

Character development, i am proud despite missing him

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lolexjpg · 3 months

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dts s5 e9-10: THE FINAL POST

e9: -have not been looking forward to the christian horner episode i must say -GOD listening to everyone talk abt how dominant of a year this was for max knowing whats to come 🙃🙃🙃🙃 -this whole "well we didnt do it on purpose so its not cheating" is SO SILLY like imagine if i went to the irs like sowwy i didnt pay my taxes correctly i didnt know 🥺🥺 doesnt matter ur still getting fined lol -i have always felt that christian's whining here is Extra Obnoxious like he didnt spend YEARS going after every lil thing mercedes might've stepped wrong on. if there was a rumor that mercedes went even $100 over cost cap you KNOW he wouldn't shut up about it but when the tables turned he's such a victim -max is going to be deaf by 40 istg. insert huh cat meme that is him always. (affecionate) -"these people talk shit through the media but'll never say it to my face" have u considered its not bc theyre scared to say it to you but bc you're a rancid person they'd like to avoid interacting with. food for thought -"maybe you feel guilty, i dunno" binotto ate with that one i mean IF THE SHOE FITS -I THINK. as it was in 2020 w/ the pink mercedes. (and in 2007 with mclaren!) the penalty for the cost cap breach should've been a dock in constructors championship points. it wouldn't affect the final standings of 2021 (mercedes beat them anyway, there was a big gap to ferrari in 3rd). it would be a great way to set a strict precedent that would easily motivate teams to be very careful with the budget cap WITHOUT changing any results. FIA hire me -say what u like abt will buxton they will never make me hate you will buxton. the way he is with words explaining drama he is the caesar flickerman of f1 and if you cant appreciate it thats a you issue -showing the singapore grand prix and all i can think abt is iconic post race dando interview. yeah i'm sure the race was cool too i guess -I FUCKING FORGOT HE PULLED THE MENTAL HEALTH CARD bro is seriously like dont talk about the cheating we did think of our poor mental health 🥺🥺🥺 anyway i'm gonna go fire nyck devries midseason brb -WOMP WOMP -once again if the roles were reversed christian would be spearheading a campaign to get a mercedes title stripped be so fucking forreal -more max/gp fics. their dynamic is immaculate chefs kiss -god if lewis won this race it wouldve been so iconic. sad

e10: -ad22 top 10 daniel outfits ever. btw -um lando norris neurodivergent agenda the way he's talking about food here? something going on in that brain. when he ordered 13 spring rolls as a meal in that iconic nortrell stream? that is not a way a neurotypical person eats i swear on god -them asking charles how his season was then immediately cutting to the france crash is so mean. good narrative storytelling, but mean nonetheless -how cathartic it must be for nando to benefit from ferrari blunders lol -pre this season coming out, i remember hoping they'd have a proper focus on carlos' austria dnf. it did get a lil moment but it was, for me, the most shocking mechanical dnf of the season and i was looking forward to seeing more of the inner details of it all. oh well -cinematic parallels between merc & ferrari fighting for 2nd in 2022 AND 2023 -brazil must have some typa rule abt not having netflix there bc they always miss out on the most bangers of races. sad. i love u brazil 22 :') -"they told me i can do whatever i want. when i see carlos, put him in the wall" max i am. i am kissing u. on the mouth. mwah mwah mwah -i DO wish. the focused more on the charles v checo battle. that was simply more important. but i guess that didnt work well with the happy ending they gave checo in e7 so -"omtar might get the last laugh this time around" :)))))) for the last time babey hell yeah -FUCK hate how awkward this dando moment they chose to feature is. they're so much more than that. dts only watchers they're in love and doing the nasty on the reg i PROMISE -this daniel comp is so goofy silly now that hes coming back lmao. i do love him he is so important for the reach of f1 and drive to survive and he deserves all the love he gets -HI LOGAN SO EXCITED TO SEE MORE OF U IN THE NEW SEASON MWAH

#dtsrewatch #IM DONE I DID IT #YAYYYYYYYYYYYY #she speaks #whoevers read all of these ily #thank u all for being with me on this journey MWAH

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the-firebird69 · 3 months

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And he says it it's the 28th and that is Tampa this is a little bit better the other one is the week Wednesday after it's too late we think we're not sure they have equipment for the big ones they come out pretty quick and they want to kidnap him and all the stuff it's not going to be dangerous but they think it is and they think they'll be trying to grab him and they're just leaving him in a dangerous spot because they're idiots and we're going to kill them all in case we have to move him we're going to have protection here too and we're going to kill them with that. And these people are for certain zombie rating as a whole and it's around 1.7 and that's bad it means they're stupid and they're dumber than they were and they were already dumb and it just gets worse so that's what they're up to they're morons.

It will drop and then they were trying to do the river and the harbor and they won't be able to and they'll kill themselves off and they'll fight each other to the death trying to kidnap him and we'll use this cover and they're morons okay and we also know that the mining will begin of the diamonds in the Gulf old enough before the rivers it was really have to oddly enough it will be better if it goes this way but they're going to start pulling diamonds out of the gulf because they're huge but those tunnels are gigantic their ships in them it's not that many the tunnels are 20 miles 30 miles 40 miles 50 miles 60 miles all the way up to 100 MI across and there's only a few of each starting at 10:00 and going down to two or three and the biggest is 150 total of about 40 holes believe it or not it's not that many maybe 50 okay the 70s they're fast these ships come out quick and they don't even make that much moisture because they come out and it's over for example there's a tunnel and there's several twenties before 450 mi no they're in about 380 MI and in between there's only a few holes we'll see they didn't have Roots there but a 20 has ships that go underground and they come out closer to shore no and it's kind of weird they come out somewhere else so you have to pull diamonds from both sides for them to come out they don't come out on land that's wrong he says it should be like Okeechobee and that's where it is a lot of it and some is in Brazil some of it is in the south of America and some would be on this big lake north of Georgia and those are the twenties really huge ones come out of the hole and you have to unplug the hole or you don't get it out you go up to about 40 miles and they stopped coming to shore but for real there's only about 10 20 miles holes off the west of Florida and those have about 80 20 mile ships each and afternoon and it's then all of those will be empty if they did it right and probably take a couple days you can empty half of it no because the half is near the plug but you can get half of them out and move the others but it wouldn't be safe cuz they're not held there so really the getting ready to take them out and right now tons of people are going down and doing it inside getting a new car I guess so they're moving out. so with that in mind it's pretty quick there but the 30s or the same 40s but then they have 50s you pull open that top and they come out and it doesn't really flow that much and those come out fast The tunnels like a thousand miles but there's only like 15 ships or less and takes about 20 minutes so once they get out there it's going to go faster and we're talking about the huge golf of Mexico That's good going to come next and that schedule will be very crucial but we're talking days so this will drop within a couple weeks and it should be safe but he wants to move and we'll have him move and easier way hopefully he says it's easy and easier way hopefully and we know what to do. But the gulf will probably take some time to get it going because there's those crabs and we think that the South will start a war with them because we're not going to allow these people to they're dumb we think that they go out there and try and clear them and the crabs will follow the ships for hitting them and it will start that and it'll devastate the idiots

Thor Freya

Olympus

Zues Hera

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kristenbrady · 5 months

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Make Over $1000 a Week Working These Grocery Apps

In times when food delivery can run slow, especially during the summer months, it’s nice to know you can always count on grocery shopping/deliveries to pick up the slack. People gotta always get food and toiletries from the grocery store, right? (As a matter of fact, usually, every summer I experience what’s referred to as a “summer slow down.” But this year, now that most apps have added grocery delivery, I didn’t experience a slow down this year. In fact, I made more money this summer than I normally do in the fall or winter).

These apps discussed below have always gotten me through when things are slow in food delivery. Without further ado, let’s jump right in on how you too, can make over $1000 a week working the following grocery apps:

Uber

At the time of this writing, Uber had acquired Cornershop. Cornershop was an on-demand grocery delivery application online that operated across the United States, Canada, Columbia, Brazil, and Peru. They delivered pharmaceuticals, fresh vegetables, pet supplies, beauty products and home use products from over 3,000 stores, which included supermarkets such as Soriana, Costco, City Market, HEB, and Chedraui. (Currently, Cornershop just merged with Uber and it’s all in the Uber platform now).

At that point, not only were drivers able to do food delivery with Uber Eats, but they could now shop for customers at various grocery stores like Randalls and Costco.

Doordash

With Shop & Deliver, patrons may order from retail, convenience, or grocery stores, and have it delivered directly to their doorstep. For Dashers, this means you shop for the patron’s list of items inside the store, pay using your Red Card during checkout, and deliver their order. The orders provide many benefits for Doordash drivers:

Be paid more for orders, as compared with restaurant delivery orders

Make money during off-peak times so you do not need to schedule the day around the dinner or lunch rush

Do not wait for an order when you perform the shopping

youtube

Video courtesy: Pedro DoorDash Santiago YouTube Channel

Doordash recently added a new perk that if you complete 13 shopping orders with at least 95 percent fill rate they will allow you to “Dash Anytime.” That means you don’t have to schedule yourself to dash or wait for your zone to turn red… a great incentive!

I Expanded My Gig Work Repertoire with This Catering App

This company claims drivers can earn from $24 — $42 an hour

medium.com

Favor

If you happen to live in Texas, Favor is a must! This platform is the easiest way to get any store or restaurant in Texas delivered quickly. I use Favor to shop at Walmart and pick up orders curbside from HEB grocery stores. At the time of this writing, drivers weren’t able to know how much the customers were tipping upfront as with other apps, but in my experience, customers on this platform are always very generous. (Currently, they started adding upfront information).

Spark

Recently, Walmart acquired Spark. On the Spark Driver app, it’s possible to deliver or shop for patrons of Walmart and other types of businesses. All that’s needed to get up and running is a smartphone and a car. Basically, when you pick up an order through the Spark app you head to the requested Walmart location, park in the curbside pick up area, pop the trunk, wait for an associate to load your trunk with groceries, and deliver them to the customer. Easy as pie!

Shipt

What: Shipt pays shoppers to shop for and then deliver groceries

Expected rate of pay: $7 to $20/delivery

Commissions and fees: N/A

Available: Nationwide

What are their requirements: Shoppers must be 18 and up; have a valid United States driver’s license, car insurance, a reliable car; capability of lifting 40 lbs.; smart phone (Android or iPhone); shopping experience and insulated cooler bags.

Instacart

This platform partners with the most sought-after regional and national retailers like ALDI, Albertsons, CVS, Costco, Loblaw, Kroger, Sam’s Club, Publix, Wegmans, Sprouts, etc. Their marketplace offers over 900 trusted local grocers and retailers customers love.

Instacart shoppers can expect to be paid between $5 and $10/ delivery, for an average of $17/hour including tips.

Ready to Start Your Own Grocery Delivery Business? Get Started With Dumpling

Dumpling helps shoppers launch their own grocery delivery businesses, providing payment processing, marketing, and various support services for a charge.

Expected rate of pay: set by personal shopper

Commissions and fees: $19.99 + 3.9 percent credit card processing charge on every order. (Also, customers pay a 5 percent processing fee)

Available: Nationwide

Shopper requirements: 21 and up

The website works similarly to Instacart in that you’ll receive a credit card to be used to purchase groceries and it’ll help to book clients.

But, where your availability of jobs and pay is up to the website when working for Instacart, with this platform, it is all up to you. With Dumpling, personal shoppers work for themselves. The app is just a tool to purchase to launch and run your own grocery delivery business.

With this platform, you choose how much you want to charge to shop; what grocery stores you are willing to shop at; and when you are available.

Dumpling charges personal shoppers $19.99 to set up their account. For this, you receive business cards, a credit card, business coaching, a listing on their website, and accessibility to the website’s search engine and app to communicate with and book customers.

Also, there are continuing transaction charges of 3.9 percent on every order. If you make grocery shopping a FT job, you might be better off with their “pro” plan that charges a $29 fee per month, yet slashes the transaction charge to 2.7 percent.

They also charge a 5 percent fee to customers to pay for their service.

They also provide business coaching from other successful Dumpling shoppers, who are able to provide advice on methods of marketing your services, pricing your services, and creating a fantastic profile on both Dumpling’s website, as well as your own.

How it works: Once you receive a shopping gig, the platform advances enough funds to purchase groceries to the Dumpling credit card. Once the shop is done, it’ll charge the client’s credit card for the actual amount spent, and the fees. If the client’s card does not have enough funds to pay, you are responsible for reimbursing Dumpling. But that rarely happens, and, thus far, they have reimbursed personal shoppers when it does. But they aren’t contractually obligated to do that. They claim that customer fraud losses are actually the responsibility of the personal shopper.

With that said, you’re building personal relationships with your clients; therefore, fraud losses are rare. One shopper on Dumpling claims that in over 400 transactions, she has only had one in which the client was slow to pay. Eventually, that client did pay, yet she had to ask repeatedly for her to do so. Obviously, she did not take any more orders from the scofflaw customer.

Just remember, it can take quite a while to build up a client base on Dumpling. Therefore, you may want to use the other apps mentioned above until you are able to get your business off the ground.

Kristen is a contributor on Medium. Sign up here to catch every story when she publishes.

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Originally posted on Medium

#Youtube

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iloveabunchofgames · 1 year

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Don't worry about my de-listing the game - I had wanted to do this for a while, and finding your review in the main tag of the bigger game I actually care about just pushed me to finally do it.

Obviously I understand if you don't feel inclined to spend money on anything I make, especially after this bad first impression; However, I can recommend that you check out "There Swings A Skull", which is a free ~40 minutes long jam game I made with two extremely competent collaborators.

Also, since you seem to have bought a lot of bundles: The full and actual game "An Outcry" was part of the "Worthy of Better, Stronger Together" bundle for reprodctive rights. If you own that bundle, you own that game! And, furthermore, THAT "An Outcry" is currently nominated for the IGF Nuovo Award of 2023! So yeehaw!

Wowwie! I still hate that I had a part in a game getting disappeared, but seeing someone admit mistakes and take pride in successes is a heartwarming consolation. There Swings a Skull is getting reviewed as soon as I find time for it—and don't expect me to go easy on you just because I have a little affection you now. I only have two Itch bundles. I keep finding out about new ones just after they end. You know who has a hard time with large-scale self-promotion? Indie game developers. It's ridiculous how many great games I've discovered through my Itch reviews; games I've owned for years and never knew about because it's such an impossible challenge to rise above the noise. I got an Honorable Mention from IGF in 2012 (crud, has it really been that long?), and I wish I would have known the value of that recognition. I'd been following the IGF Awards for years. I understood how many people entered, that it was a huge deal to even come close to an award, but I didn't know what actions I was supposed to take. I was living with my mom and working for a pathetic wage at Best Buy. I couldn't afford to fly to GDC, not understanding that if I'd been there, people would have wanted to talk to a promising recent graduate. I could have gotten a job doing work I cared about, and then I could have paid back whatever money I needed to borrow for a plane ticket. At the very least, I might have met up with some other aspiring game developer weirdos who weren't cut out for corporate jobs, but who might happily starve together in the pursuit of art. I gave some online interviews, but I didn't even know where some of them were going, which means I couldn't do any work on my own to promote them and build up my name. My little game was shown in a museum instillation in Brazil, and I was selling digital cameras in the Houston suburbs. It was all happening outside of my life. Sorry, this is turning into me me me. My point is, be a little cocky. Tell people you're worth their time. Chase down the idiots like me, and tell us, "An Outcry exists, I'm proud of it, people like it, and you can buy it right now—30% off!" How else is anyone supposed to know?

#An Outcry #IGF #GDC #Indie Games #Game development #Indie dev #Be Good

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bimbinis · 1 year

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I watched this video once by a dude called Timbah on Toast about his experiences with dubstep music and how formative it was in his life to be part of a community of people all united by their shared love for a music genre and it made me really sad bc I never had that and moreover I feel like I could have had that.

When I was 11 I discovered indie music through, I am not kidding, the SpongeBob Movie soundtrack. I owned (still own) the CD which has a track not actually featured in the movie (worst kind of soundtrack track) called They'll Soon Discover by The Shins, which I liked so much I started looking for more music by The Shins. They quickly became my favorite band.

This was also around the time I got a secondhand mp3 player as a gift from a family friend, which was the first music listening device I had just for me. Prior to that, most of the music I listened to was shit my siblings already/also liked (like Disney star acts), also due to them having received mp4 players from my parents but not me. Now for the first time in my life, I had a favorite music artist that was something that belonged to just me.

Through The Shins I found out about a bunch of related bands. There was this website that was like, a pseudo radio thing that random songs within a genre or a range of similarity and that's how I discovered Arcade Fire and The Decemberists. There were a few others like Band of Horses and Death Cab For Cutie but they never really did it for me. It was mostly the first two and occasionally the 3rd one. Through my brother I also discovered Of Monsters and Men and The Naked and Famous, which didn't count as "belonging to me" like the other ones, but they did add to my indie repertoire.

At that point I was ripe for joining some sort of indiehead community. The problem is, there wasn't any I could join. At the time I didn't have a good grasp of English to join gringo discussions about it and when I tell you indie was completely unheard of in Brazil (at the very least among my 11-14 yo peers and old geezer teachers) I mean it. Arcade Fire at least from what I know played at Lollapalooza a few times but The Shins literally never ever had any success here. As I mentioned earlier, I had to get their CD imported from the US, and it was my least favorite album too. Unfortunately it was also the cheapest so it was the one I went with.

It doesn't help that my only reference for how to discuss your favorite band was my sister who fangirled hard for Paramore at the time. And like, her favorite band was a former garage band comprised of goofy, pretty 20 somethings who started it as friends in highschool. My favorite band was comprised of seasoned industry professionals with no personal ties to each other hired by a 40 year old father of one with a receding hairline. I'm pretty sure most of their fans have always been other white dads whose vinyl collections were started at the time vinyl was the norm rather than vintage. So you may understand how I felt a little lost with the lack of fandomizing discussion around them.

By the time indie had a breakthrough in Brazil, I had already more or less given up and moved on to other things. The Shins hadn't put out an album in 3 years and they wouldn't until after 2 more. Same thing for Arcade Fire, not helped by the fact I was never a fan of Reflektor. Of Monsters and Men, which did actually make it kind of big in Brazil, came out with an album in 2015 that left me underwhelmed. It's hard to maintain enthusiasm all by yourself like that in such a dire context.

I think most of the things I continued to listen to (thanks to 8tracks) were still described as indie, but they were clearly very different from my original faves. And regardless, I didn't like any of the things that did make it big. I always thought Arctic Monkeys was overrated and I refuse to accept that people call fucking Coldplay and Imagine Dragons indie. I know indie eventually became the tv commercial genre anyway but everything those fucking "bands" have ever put out has been basically ready made car commercial jingles.

At the time my favorite band had now become twenty one pilots, and when they had a big break in Brazil I got really excited at the prospect of finally having a local community of people who liked the same music I liked, but then I got so ruthlessly mocked for liking them that I subsequently grew to despise them. After that my favorite band was Mother Mother, but by then I had lost interest in finding a community of people with similar taste in music to me. I just resigned myself to being a loner in my corner with my music taste I wasn't sharing with anyone anymore bc I didn't wanna be mocked again.

Then for the next 6 years I proceeded to avoid discussions of musical preferences and just started saying I listen to a little bit of everything until that turned out to be considered cringe too and I just started saying I just listen to basic bitch shit so people can't accuse me of that first. Now at almost 22 I'm desperately trying to figure out what my taste in music is, both feeling self conscious that I don't even understand enough about music to give a straight answer about what I like when my taste is too basic to be this undecided while also being self conscious that I care about this at all.

I kinda wish I'd stuck to my guns at 11. Sometimes I feel like that was the age I peaked at. I did everything with such earnestness and enthusiasm, with such a lack of pretension that I can't find in me today. I listened to music I liked bc I liked it, be it the SpongeBob Best Day Ever album (which I also owned) that I was considered too old to like by my peers, be it my favorite band whose other fans were all middle aged white Americans. I read any books I wanted without worrying that they were either too childish or too pretentious to be reading and without worrying that I didn't have enough time on this earth to read everything I "should" read. I drew the things I wanted to and was often proud of the results and whenever I wasn't I just drew them again and again until I was.

There's a lot of reasons why I'm glad I'm an adult. I'm really not asking to go back to 11 when I had just gotten enrolled into military school and the 4 years ahead of me in there seemed like they were gonna last an eternity. But sitting down here now in front of this hospital smoking alone worrying about everything I have to take care of in my life, and how after those things there'll be more things to take care of, I kinda wish I could feel like I did when I listened to The Shins back then. Like when I listened to Gone For Good under the pouring rain and the girl I would find out I was in love with tried to get me to come inside the school building so I wouldn't catch a cold. Like when I listened to Those to Come while watching the sunrise after a night of insomnia. Like when I sang Australia with my cousin playing the guitar to it. Like when I listened to They'll Soon Discover on the way home from school in the bright sunlight and thought "today is my day".

Also I burned my thumb with my lighter just now and it hurts like a motherfucker

#personal #idk why I wrote this Im reaaaally goin thru it lol

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f1 · 2 years

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In hindsight its always easier Wolff defends Mercedes Mexico strategy as wait for 2022 win goes on

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has defended his team’s strategy during the Mexico City Grand Prix, while admitting that Red Bull’s pace on the medium tyre in the closing stages of the race “came as a surprise”. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell managed to split the Red Bull cars during qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, raising hopes that they could push pole-sitter Max Verstappen for victory. However, alternate tyre strategies between the two teams played out in Red Bull’s favour, with Verstappen executing his race on a more aggressive soft-medium approach, while the Mercedes pair used mediums and hards. READ MORE: ‘We know where we need to improve’ says Hamilton after P2 in Mexico With Mercedes lacking pace over the second stint, Verstappen ultimately cruised to a record 14th win of the season, ahead of Hamilton, Sergio Perez and Russell, meaning the Silver Arrows’ wait for victory in 2022 moves on to the penultimate round in Brazil. Asked if Mercedes should have been "braver" with their strategy on race day in Mexico, Wolff pushed back, saying: “No. In hindsight it’s always easier to judge, but I think the one-stop, medium to hard, looked like the right strategy. ‘The car has really taken a step forward’ – Hamilton pleased with P2 in Mexico as Mercedes close in on Red Bull “That the medium at the end held on for so long came as a surprise, but hindsight is a thing. If we were to restart the race, maybe we would choose a different tyre. “It could have been [an option to] just lose more time on the medium and hang it out there for another five, six laps, and try to do 30 laps on the soft. But also that was not a given – with Daniel [Ricciardo’s charge] you could see that it was possible.” Given that Hamilton has finished second to Verstappen in the last two races, Wolff discussed the progress Mercedes have made over the course of the season, and the impact of their latest car upgrades. READ MORE: Russell takes positives from Mercedes’ performance despite ‘frustrating’ P4 finish at Mexico City GP “The thing is, we are racers, and the moment we can kind of see [a victory] in front of us, we just want to grab it and, therefore, there is always a sense of frustration [at missing out],” he continued. “But we have come from such a long way and here we are, racing for a win, racing for both cars on the podium, and the Ferraris are behind us, so you need to stay humble [about] what we achieved – but still reaching for the stars.” Russell says losing out to Hamilton at the start cost him two positions at the flag in Mexico Mercedes’ P2 and P4 finish in Mexico City moved the team to within 40 points of Ferrari in the battle for second place in the constructors’ standings, but Wolff admitted that he would prefer to bag a race win this season rather than secure the runner-up spot. “The [race] win would be proof that our car is back to fight for wins. P2 [in the standings] could also be because the others dropped the ball and you're just scoring more points,” he commented. F1 NATION: A record-breaking 14th win of the season for Max Verstappen – it’s our Mexico City GP review “It would definitely be some consolation [finishing] second, because Ferrari had the quickest car at the beginning of the season, and finishing ahead of them would be great. But again, it's not our main priority. Our main priority is to understand the car and have a quick automobile on the track.” via Formula 1 News https://www.formula1.com

#F1 #‘In hindsight it’s always easier’ – Wolff defends Mercedes’ Mexico strategy as wait for 2022 win goes on #Formula 1

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deadcactuswalking · 2 years

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 03/09/2022 (Elton John/Britney Spears, David Guetta/Bebe Rexha, DJ Khaled’s ‘GOD DID’)

Welp, finally, “Afraid to Feel” has been knocked off the top by Eliza Rosa and Interplanetary Criminal, who grab their first #1 on the UK Singles Chart with “B.O.T.A. (Baddest of Them All)”, the 1400th #1 overall. The excitement this week doesn’t stop there either, so welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

Rundown

I’m not sure if this counts as a “busy” week but there’s definitely a tad bit more going on than usual, and as always, we start with the notable dropouts. It turns out that all of the dropouts from the UK Top 75 – which is what I cover – were notable, exiting after either five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40, so it’s a hefty list, including “Getting Started” by Sam Fender, “Massive” by Drake, “Brazil” by Declan McKenna, “Glimpse of Us” by Joji, “Vegas” by Doja Cat, “I Like You (A Happier Song)” by Post Malone and Doja Cat, “Hold My Hand” by Lady Gaga, “WAIT FOR U” by Future featuring Drake and Tems, “2step” by Ed Sheeran, bolstered by remixes including the biggest featuring Lil Baby, and finally, “Make Me Feels Good” by Belters Only and Jazzy. A lot of these are pretty longstanding hits so I do wonder what exactly is going to fill in the place of these songs.

Well, there are no returning entries to speak of, but in terms of notable gains, we have “2 Be Loved (Am I Ready)” by Lizzo at #58, “Another Love” by Tom Odell at #56, “KU LO SA – A COLORS SHOW” by Oxlade at #36, “Turn on the Lights again..” by Swedish House Mafia and Fred again.. featuring Future at #34, “Mary on a Cross” by Ghost at #33 and finally, our first song of three to newly enter the top 10 this week: “Big City Life” by Luude and Mattafix at #10. It’s Luude’s second and the first for Mattafix, even if the band seemingly broke up in 2010.

The top five on this week’s UK Singles Chart consists of “Green Green Grass” by George Ezra at #5, “I Ain’t Worried” by OneRepublic at #4, “Hold Me Closer” by Elton John and Britney Spears at #3 (hold on, we’ll get to it) and of course, “Afraid to Feel” by LF SYSTEM and “B.O.T.A.” as the top two. Now for some releases that did not impact the charts...

Off the Charts

Killer in Neverland – 4s4ki

I’ll keep it simple: we have just four pretty good to great projects to cover. This first one is 4s4ki’s most realised full-length album, with a mix of droned-out hyperpop bliss alongside more confrontational, nearly metallic textures that has defined her work to this point: I still think she leaves the killer tracks for her EPs, but this is a pretty exciting project, despite the filler. My favourite track is “sweet dream”.

LOUIE – Kenny Beats

This is technically Kenny’s first solo album, and for what is mostly a beat tape it sounds really developed and realised. Naturally, for an album that’s mostly different instrumentals not always seamlessly sequenced into each other, some of the beats just aren’t as good or don’t fit thematically but the sheer attention to detail into crafting some of these songs is pretty impeccable. It definitely sounds like its writing credits: a lot of people in one room bouncing off ideas, and then Kenny organically mixes everything together in post. My favourite track is “Hold My Head”.

The Forever Story – JID

Whilst I always liked JID as a rapper, this is the first full-length album he’s put out that has properly won me over, telling the rags-to-riches story in a way that doesn’t attempt to hide his past but rather embrace the elements of it that had bolstered his success, and celebrating that whilst never steering clear of the distance it creates as a result of fame. It’s less paranoid than a Drake, but it’s also a lot less gutless and squandering than his label head, J. Cole, it feels nuanced. Whilst as full songs, much like Kendrick Lamar who undoubtedly will be pulled into comparisons to this record, the song structure isn’t entirely there, meaning that some verses do not have half the impact they should, and the sequencing can end up a tad wonky or dull, but with production this dynamic and rapping this effectively eclectic yet still grounded, it takes a real nitpick to find much to complain about outside the one or two duds. My favourite track is “Kody Blu 31”.

Ultra Pool – salute

I mean... it’s a speed garage EP, with blissful tropical house undertones that feel like a dazed sunset, but always locked behind these more rigid grooves that don’t really let up for the soundscape more often, which is largely to its benefit. These four tracks are all hypnotising, and whilst you could complain about there being less complexity or personality to the loops used, why would you want that in what is largely a chill-out EP? Given the transcendence of the first three tracks, and the more locked-in groove of the title track, getting seasick on the evening cruise of the rest of the EP, I’m tempted to treat this as an ambient release, where the textures and how they resonate will largely differ between listeners, but if they work for you, they’ll just click into place. My favourite track is “Heaven”, but it’s a 10/10 project: I recommend it. Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...

NEW ARRIVALS

#67 – “BEAUTIFUL” – DJ Khaled featuring Future and SZA

Produced by DJ Khaled, TM88 and KXVI

Is it really worth wasting any time on that DJ Khaled album? GOD DID debuted at #4 on the UK Albums Chart and as always with Khaled, there’s very little to it other than some expensive features that provide leftovers on beats that are on an impressive level of bad in terms of mixing. Some of the features will go hard, most won’t. Some of the beats will be cool, most won’t. You know what rarely ever works with Khaled, or at least hasn’t since “Wild Thoughts”? The pop-R&B crossover tracks. I’m actually glad this one charted because it might be one of the most pathetic failures on the album, despite having a decent base with its chipmunk soul sample and piano lead that both sound barely implemented once the beat gets going. The drums are decently mixed and actually not trap-adjacent for once for Future, and this kind of sell-out pop-R&B track is nothing new for either artist so it shouldn’t sound so... foreign and alien, but it ends up somehow doing so. I can blame a lot of that on Future’s weird delivery on a clearly unfinished verse where he mumbles ad-libs and parts of the verses he hadn’t figured out yet, with some extra editing to fill up space when there is an awkward blank because he clearly hasn’t finished the verse. The plastic electric guitars that barely pop in during the first verse sound ugly, sure, but it’s not an inherently awful production. It’s the refrain and the chorus where the songwriting just makes no sense to me. Part of what was clearly a verse from Future is chopped from the verses and used as a refrain, but the problem is that it actually wraps around the first chorus from SZA, so after the break in the chorus it just returns to the same refrain instead of a second verse, but not as a pre-chorus because it goes straight back to a half-assed second verse, so it just sounds like Future is repeating himself for no reason. The vocal mixing on SZA’s chorus is really awkward and lacking in harmonies that should have clearly been recorded, instead going for these filtered ad-libs and pitch-shifted backing vocals that have no reason being there over a filtered, bass-heavy production that has no cover for how badly both artists were recorded here – you can hear the beat coming from Future’s recording. Then, after the beat starts to build up in Future’s second verse, which kind of acts as a bridge, with the piano swell coming back in... it breaks instead again, for a copy-pasted SZA chorus that clearly should have had more swell to it. There was a build up and it would make a lot of sense to introduce the chorus and then have a more melodramatic repetition later on in the song: that’s how choruses work! I have no reason to believe Khaled wasn’t going for a pop sell-out in the first place, so he rids the song of the one cliché it could have accurately and effectively done, before meandering to obnoxious vocal riffing from him and Future. Just, why does this song exist? It’s not fundamentally broken but all of the elements seem to collapse onto each other. Since I listened to the album, this and “FAM GOOD, WE GOOD” with Gunna and Roddy Ricch have just pre-occupied weird spaces in my mind where I can’t exactly tell what went wrong but it was clearly catastrophic. The best song from the album, barring the Jadakiss interlude that goes harder than anything else, also debuted so if there are any DJ Khaled stans out there, that should be some reassurance.

#66 – “complex (demo)” – Katie Gregson-MacLeod

Produced by Katie Gregson-MacLeod

Okay, first of all: this is not a demo. Gregson-MacLeod is a newcomer singer-songwriter from Scotland who got a pretty disproportionate industry recognition for this TikTok “demo” from all kinds of singers paid to—I mean, happening to comment on her page. She’s already the face of Spotify playlists. If not a studio recording, it’s still a well-produced track and far from the bedroom demo that it could connote. The whole song acts as basically a Phoebe Bridgers reference, but more widely is about wasting your youth, specifically in the chorus by giving a lot more in the relationship than she’s getting back, which sounds pretty exhausting and unsatisfying. Her whispery delivery is full of the uncertainty you’d get from this kind of situation, but compositionally, it does feel a bit basic, which I guess is the demo aspect: there clearly should have been some more elevation given the second pre-chorus depicting her wanting to kill this guy, but the final chorus doesn’t really change in tone or lyrically. I get that the faux routine and dependency is very much part of this relationship, but it really could have done with some more melodrama or at least some kind of resolution in sight: she dismisses killing him pretty quickly, so I guess much like a demo – and the song’s content – it’s unsatisfying and I can’t find more catharsis here. It’s definitely listenable, but runs way too long and doesn’t really go anywhere either for excusing laziness or not wishing to sacrifice the “demo” marketing tactic... or probably both.

#63 – “Calm Down” – Rema

Produced by Andrevibez and London

Rema is a Nigerian singer who has had a pretty large fanbase in his home country called the “Ravers” for years but this seems to be his biggest western breakthrough yet, with a pretty simple love song, and I REALLY like this. The slightly glitchier Afrobeats percussion adds a really punctuated rhythm to this cute, mellow acoustic guitar not too dissimilar to an emo-pop ballad, and Rema is similarly relaxed in his lovey-dovey platitudes, before he starts stuttering for the post-chorus breakdown with all the chirping beeps and harder but not overwhelming bass. Some of the percussion fills give this really soaring feel to the song which just makes it feel really sincere, not that other songs in this vein aren’t and there is still a lot of focus on the body even if he does paint a narrative, but the genuine profession of love seems to mean a lot from Rema. This is especially true when the strings come in for the post-chorus and Rema just blends in perfectly, swimming in an ocean of slightly tempered happiness and naive excitement. The Selena Gomez remix that probably gave it the needed boost to debut this week is also pretty good, but it doesn’t really provide the missing detail or second perspective it should, and she has nowhere near the amount of personality of Rema does, so I think prefer the original here. Either way, I’m glad this is a hit and I hope to see it continue scaling the chart.

#50 – “GOD DID” – DJ Khaled featuring Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, JAY-Z, John Legend and Fridayy

Produced by DJ Khaled, STREETRUNNER, Tarik Azzouz and Fridayy

Let’s be clear: This song has one reason to exist, and it is JAY-Z, so let’s get him out of the way first. His verse is impeccable, with his recently breathless delivery only serving into the noxious, gauzy melodrama of the album through some pretty hyper-capitalist BS that serves as a hard flex in this context (and really, this context alone – Saul Williams said it better than I ever could, so do check his response to JAY-Z sometime). Regardless of the socio-political context, the wordplay is tight and at some times pretty impressive, with a lot of little details popping up relating to the biblical themes – really, the only attempt from anyone outside of Vory to relate GOD DID to its titular character, even if JAY gets borderline blasphemous with it – as well as an ability to just astonish the person listening at sheer length. Just as you think he’s ran out of bars, he stops rambling on about another topic yet never rejecting the lineage between each narrative, as they really all pull back into one: “JAY-Z has so much money and is awesome”. I mean, he does have more money than probably half the people charting this week combined, so he’s not entirely wrong. With that said, that verse is four minutes of an otherwise eight-minute song, and the rest of it is far from great. Khaled is ridiculous as he hams it up before Fridayy’s oddly solemnly-delivered hook in his lower register that I think actually sounds pretty great once the harmonies and the strings hit. Sadly, it’s practically copy-pasted every time, but the other verses aren’t bad either. Rick Ross has a pretty guttural yelp as always, but his verse is kind of abrupt and covered in sound effects that distract from it, including the production which is just overly busy. Lil Wayne has some pretty funny lines and a confident delivery as always, but the flow is slightly awkward and the Auto-Tune sounds really cheap. John Legend is just there on the outro for John Legend’s sake, but really, when the song is this full of ugly levels of rap opulence, it’s easy to just focus on the incredible JAY-Z verse and treat everything else as a decoration because, really, that’s how both JAY and Khaled are thinking, and I still do recommend it if you have the patience.

#45 – “Energy” – Bugzy Malone and MIST

Produced by WhYJay, Rymez and LiTek

I feel like this is a mixed episode genre-wise, but if there’s something that sticks out, it is the amount of hip hop here, and this is the first of two British rap duos we’ll be hearing from today. I’ve never been a big fan of Birmingham’s MIST or especially Manchester’s Bugzy Malone, but at least it’s not a trap or drill track that could have been increasingly frustrating given these two and their... questionable approaches to flow. Instead, this is a fun enough grime-esque garage beat with some blasting, noxious synth brass in the pre-chorus and a decently catchy groove in the hook. The verses are okay, with both Bugzy and MIST being pretty non-descript with their signature flows, and I like how they trade bars but neither have anything interesting or even funny to say, so the song lives and dies on its beat, which is just okay. This really isn’t that far a step away from Bad Boy Chiller Crew, but I’m not sure who’s ready to admit that yet.

#41 – “Beat the Odds” – Lil Tjay

Produced by KXVI, Desirez beats and KBeaZy

On 22 June, Lil Tjay and a friend were shot in New Jersey, and whilst his friend was in good condition, Tjay was still hospitalised at least as late as July and has been recovering slowly but considerably since. Police think they have a suspect and have charged him but for now, Tjay still plans on releasing music, with this newest song apparently being recorded in hospital. You can tell this shooting – if not having effected him lyrically that much – has lent extra pathos to his gang violence and paranoia, with the references to death sounding particularly distraught and closer than ever when compared to the more distant threats from some of his other work. The beat, really, is your typical Lil Tjay fare with a vocal drenched in echo and a solemn piano melody backed by finger snaps and a trap-esque beat that sounds particularly despondent with the thin snares and somewhat overwhelming bass. In his verses, he justifies his gun ownership with his paranoia which stems from a genuine fear of death in the streets, as well as being generally grateful for his success considering that he could be dead without it, but acknowledging that it could all be gone really quickly and ultimately would his death more tragic. There are some gripes I have, like with the abrupt ending and the beat not being all that interesting, and I’m not sure the reckless move of ending his verse by referencing his deceased “opps” is going to make much sense in the long run, but overall, I can’t complain that much. It’s solid, and I hope Lil Tjay recovers as well as he can and is back up and running in no time.

#40 – “Man in the Mirror” – D-Block Europe

Produced by R14 Beats and Eight8

This feels misleading in so many ways. First of all, this is not a song by D-Block Europe: it’s just Young Adz, with no Dirtbike LB in sight. Secondly, it doesn’t sample the Michael Jackson classic at all, and whilst that wasn’t guaranteed, you’d think in the era of sample drill, they’d at least try. II don’t really like the beat at all here, and the main piano lead in the intro reminded me in terms of progression of a... particular song that we might be revisiting in the top 10, with the typically weird percussion and bass mixing that comes from DBE. Whilst there’s a slightly more conscious tinge to some of Adz’s one verse here, with some flashbacks to his father and his history in the drug trade that gives extra credence to what Adz has been rapping about his whole career, and it does touch on some systemic issues but is covered in a lot of flexing and vague threats that just don’t interest me at all. I know this was a short section but I fail to see much that stands out here, even if it’s far from outright bad.

#38 – “There’d Better be a Mirrorball” – Arctic Monkeys

Produced by James Ford

The Sheffield boys are back and even though they’ve been somewhat inconsistent – really, I can only endorse their debut and the latest album in full – I do still get excited when they release because at least the singles are usually quality and really, they’re one of the few rock bands nowadays that are able to easily get this high on the charts, and just with a few days of tracking even. How’s the new lead single for The Car sounding in that case? Well, I like it, building off of what Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino had started doing with a higher emphasis on piano and strings that really emphasises and further alienates Alex Turner’s drunken poetry style of vocal delivery nowadays. The drums sound dusty, the synths sound primitive and the strings are just as punchy as they can be waivering and free-flowing to parallel the warp of the keys, which fits the content, or at least my interpretation of what’s going on. I could see this being framed in two situations: a post-one night stand willingness to still get romantic with this girl that he thinks shouldn’t mean as much as she does to him, or the events after a fight in a more established relationship, and both seem to fit the phrasing used by Turner to varying extents, especially since the main through-line for most of the song is to put the rose tint on the events and pretend that everything is just as romantic as it is in song. The airiness and wistfulness drags his partner’s “cynicism” – which is probably just a realistic view of events – and reeks of a desperacy that really shows in Turner’s falsetto and the rising strings. It’s a great composition, an interesting lyrical display – even if it can feel like a slight fragment, and an immaculately-produced track that leaves no sonic stone unturned. I almost wish the Monkeys could have gotten this into the top 10 with a full tracking week, but instead...

#7 – “I’m Good (Blue)” – David Guetta and Bebe Rexha

Produced by David Guetta and Timofey Reznikov

Are you kidding me? Are we really at the point where we’re sampling novelty Eurodance hits on the modern-day equivalent to a novelty Eurodance hit, using vocals from someone whose career pretty much equates to a glorified session vocalist to try and reinterpret the original song into being a party anthem, which... completely misses the point of the original? Well, we were actually at that point in 2017 but because of the ongoing Hellscape we live in, the snippet of them playing it live at festival went viral so they “finished” the song and shipped it out to success I did not really expect to be this immediate. Okay, first of all, have you ever gone back to that original song, or realistically, the famous Gabry Ponte mix? “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” by Eiffel 65 was made fun of at the time, even during its three-week run at #1 in the UK, but was a genuine worldwide semi-phenomenon with its uniquely uncanny CGI video and the nonsensical lyrics that make it charming, I guess, but it’s a flubbery, gross song that despite having the meme factor has not aged well. The mix clips through the rote hardcore kicks and the spacey synths that are way stiffer and more awkward than you remember. The drop doesn’t really hit at all, and sure, there are some iconic wacky line delivers that save it, but that’s all that the song really has going for it in my opinion. So what happens when you replay the main lead in a stock-sounding piano preset and replace the nonsense in the egregious vocal lead with an actually good singer singing actual words? A normal song, that’s what, and that seems like a complete misstep. The song is goofy as Hell, and Bebe Rexha can play into that – she did it on “I’m a Mess” and “Hey Mama”, she is very much willing to not take herself too seriously, but the song just does nothing. Sure, the drop hits harder than the original, but it’s largely because of this grating, fuzzy synth bass that doesn’t sound too far away from the brostep era. There’s only one actual verse apart from the bridge that has somehow taken the detail of “clipping mix” from the original and implemented that too, and no, I’m not even going to recognise the existence of an “extended” version... which is still only three minutes. This isn’t the worst thing ever, but I feel like a classic happy hardcore or Eurodance track could have easily been made from this, but there’s not enough of that cartoony Aqua-esque bubblegum fun to make this any different from the rest of its house competition, which is a shame because the ingredients were literally staring Guetta in the face.

#3 – “Hold Me Closer” – Elton John and Britney Spears

Produced by watt and Cirkut

This song doesn’t exist to be a song. It exists to be a stat pad much like the chart itself, and just like “Cold Heart”, we have a mash-up of at least two different Elton John songs in a little gift box topped off with a guest feature that lends her signature voice only to be melted into something intentionally anonymous. The disco groove is bizarrely ugly here, and even if I didn’t like PNAU’s production on “Cold Heart”, at least that stiff rhythm was actually a rhythm, and kind of awkwardly fit “Rocket Man” – this version of “Tiny Dancer” is just placed onto a robotic remake of the track that spits in the face of the original, especially with both Elton and Britney sounding tired of it all, and having zero chemistry. I hope that you can tell from these two songs debuting in the top 10 that nothing is ever sacred in the world of pop music, not even “Tiny Dancer” and not even “Blue (Da Ba Dee)”. I’m still deciding whether the fact that Elton actively contributed and wrote off on this garbage makes it better or worse. At least when Junkie XL was remixing Elvis Presley in the early 2000s, he was calling them remixes and not trying to pass them off as anything else. If Elton really is using these songs to be stat pads, I won’t even cover the chart success of the two songs mashed together, and Hell, let’s see if you can recognise the song that isn’t “Tiny Dancer” without looking it up, because he’s really digging deep into his worst material to find some speck he can reuse and recycle for another shameless plug.

Conclusion

“Hold Me Closer” by Elton John and Britney Spears gets the Worst of the Week, sadly ending the episode on a downer, and really, for once, it had some competition, given that the Dishonourable Mention is going to “BEAUTIFUL” by DJ Khaled featuring Future and SZA. There were a couple candidates for the best also, to be fair, with the Honourable Mention going to... the Arctic Monkeys for “There’d Better be a Mirrorball” because, of all people, Rema is getting the Best of the Week for “Calm Down”. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I do, but I hope it sticks around. We’ll see what happens in the near future, but for now, thank you for reading and I’ll see you next week!

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crescentsteel · 3 years

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When in Brazil - Sunshine

pairing: Hinata x f!reader genre: SMUT wc: 6.6k warnings: fingering, oral, body worship, praise kink, hinata with big dik

[a/n]

I said to myself, lets make this quick and short. lol yea sure

No beta. This is Spartaaaaa

My brain went bzzt bzzt after this.

Let me know if you want to be part of the taglist for this mini series

Beach || masterlist

“Are there any more deliveries for me, y/n?” The ginger asks while beaming at you like he hasn’t been delivering orders under the heat of the sun across Rio the whole afternoon.

“We’re all good, Shoyo.” You smile back. He’s such an earnest part-timer that your mood just lifts up whenever you see him. You rarely find anyone like him. Even though he’s just delivering orders for the diner, he’s so dedicated to it. He’s not like one of your previous delivery guys who grumbles before and after work as if they’re not getting paid. Shoyo is different. His eyes are full of life, full of purpose.

You like seeing him around because his sincerity and politeness makes you feel like you’re not just some dumb waitress in some small diner. Aside from pleasing to talk to, he’s also pleasing to look at. He’s like a cute boy-next-door kind of guy.

“I’ll be going ahead then!”

“Wait!” He turns around with an inquisitive look on his face. You want to keep him around longer for tonight. It’s been a rough day for you and you could use some sunshine. “Actually, I’d appreciate some help closing up. I’ll serve you something for dinner in return.” His face brightens up at your request. There it is. Mr. Sunshine, indeed.

“Sure, y/n! Just tell me what to do.”

He’s an efficient help to have. What you usually do in 40 minutes or so was done in just 20.

“Wow, I should ask you to help out more often,” you say jokingly. “No problem, y/n! I can help out after deliveries.”

You wave your hand frantically. “Oh no no no. I was just kidding, Shoyo. I can’t always give you dinner. The owner would notice when we do inventory.” You laugh apprehensively.

“You don’t have to! I don’t mind staying for a few minutes to help out after deliveries.”

You stare at him with an appreciative smile on your face. Bless his pure heart. Boys in Brazil could learn from him. “Alright. I’ll be in the kitchen to prepare your food real quick.”

He seats himself in one of the vacant lounges, grinning at you as you enter the kitchen. Since it was just him, you get it done in ten minutes or less. When you get out of the tiny room, he’s like a puppy salivating at the tray you’re holding.

“Here you go, sir.” You jokingly say.

He doesn’t respond as his eyes twinkle at the food you laid out in front of him. Poor Shoyo. He must have been starving or maybe he’s just glad for the free food.

You decide to clean up the kitchen and the counter while you wait for him to finish, but he ate so fast that he’s done before you are.

When he sees you still occupied, he takes it upon himself to get his used cutleries and wash it. He easily finds where to put them and he even wipes the table he sat on. If ever he asks you for another job, you’d instantly recommend him to the owner to replace one of the staff who’s basically a sloth.

You two almost finish at the same time.

“Thank you so much for the dinner, y/n.” He bows. You’re thrown off at first, but you remember that he’s from Japan.

“Thank you, Shoyo. Seriously. The help is nothing compared to the food.” You get out of the cashier and get your bag. You remove your apron and shove it there before leading him out of the diner as you lock it up.

“I’ll walk you home, y/n.”

You wave your hand dismissively. He’s done so much already. “No, it’s fine. You must be tired.”

He shakes his head in disagreement. “Not really! I wanna walk a bit too, but if you’re uncomfortable with it, I-”

“It’s okay!” You interrupt him. You do appreciate it if he’d accompany you home. You just thought he’s doing it to be kind and polite. “It’d be nice to chat with someone on the way home.” You tell him. He keeps his bicycle at his right while you’re at his left.

Even as the night is fully settled in, Shoyo’s energy is still soaring as he narrates why he’s here in Rio. No wonder his eyes are always gleaming vividly. He wants to accomplish something badly that he traveled halfway across the world in a foreign country. And as you get sucked in his story, you don’t notice you’re at your apartment already.

“I live right here. Do you wanna come in for tea or beer or whatever?” You invite him, wanting to hear more of his Volleyball journey. He seems glad from your invitation. Maybe he wanted someone to talk about it too.

“I’m okay with just water.”

You open your door and hold it out open for him. “You sure?”

He nods sprightly which makes you smile at the pure innocence he exudes. He eyes your whole place when he gets inside. “Wow. You live all alone, y/n?”

“Uh huh. I don’t like having roommates.”

“I think I’d get more homesick if I lived all alone,” he remarks.

From being awed, you begin to feel bad for him. It must be really tough to be so far away. “Well, you can always come here if you feel like talking or stuff,” you offer earnestly. You don’t mind him visiting every now and then. He’s such a positive energy amongst the dread of your everyday routine that’s constantly draining you. Also, You can’t imagine him being one of those guys who just hang out to get a slice of action.

Since then, he frequently came over.

On the days when he had deliveries for your diner, he’d help you close up. Instead of getting him dinner from the small diner, you two would get something on the way to your apartment or you’d fix him a quick meal when you get there.

He’s a comfortable company. Because he’s quite the talker, he never runs out of things to say. He not only talks about his life in Japan, but also here in Rio. You practically know all his friends here just from his stories.

“Didn’t they say anything when you wanted to leave?” You prod when he opened up missing his family. “They did, but they still pushed me to do it. They know what’s it for, and they know I’ll be back.”

“What about your girlfriend?”

A soft blush surfaces on his cheeks as he chuckles nervously. “I don’t have one.”

“Oh? Who’s the cute girl in your wallpaper then?” You’ve seen it several times when he looks at the time with his phone.

“She’s our Volleyball manager and a really good friend,” he explains as he gets his phone to show you something. “She’s been with the team since I was a first year.” He shows you a photo of him, a black-haired guy who’s probably Kageyama, and the cute blonde girl.

Your attention all goes to him, his innocent beam at the camera while his arms are sprawled in the air. “Oh my God,” you exclaim while staring at the photo.

“You were so skinny!”

You look back and forth from the screen of his phone to him, comparing how he looked like then and how he looks like now. You pull your chair closer to him so you can scrutinize him more. He looked so young and pure back then. Literally, just a kid.

“Wow.”

You gape at him, marveling at how his features have changed so much. Even if he still has that baby face, his face has definitely gained structure. And the scrawny boy in the photo? You can’t find that anymore with the Shoyo in front of you right now. He even has a nice tan going on that suits him so well.

Without thinking, your hands fly to his shoulders to grasp the muscle he’s built after high school, squeezing them firmly before trailing down to his well-defined chest. Damn, he really put some nice work to achieve this. You drag your hands down to see how his abs are and holy crap, he’s fucking lean.

Your gaze drops further just below where your hands are and see a faint outline of what he’s hiding beneath his shorts.

“Ah!”

You immediately remove your hands off of him and raise your palms in mid air. “I’m so sorry! That was so perv- I mean rude of me to do that all of a sudden.” You apologize in a panicked tone, hoping that he didn’t think you were being handsy, even if you really were.

“I was just amazed because you looked so different from the photo and uh..” you laugh to make up for the missing excuses you were supposed to say.

He laughs with you, a timid smile gracing his face.

“It’s okay, y/n. You can continue touching me if you want.”

You squirm as you put your hands to your lap, clutching your shorts from the sudden thick air that engulfs the room. He sounded harmless. Even his face is his usual good-natured facade. But those words meant something else to you, an invitation to touch him more.

You let out a tense tither before turning to him. “No no! Haha. I’m fine. It was just on impulse.”

In an attempt to hide the awkwardness, you gather his used dishes and cutleries. “Let me get these washed up.” You stand up and hurriedly get to the sink.

What was that weird sexual tension? That over there in your dining table is just your nice delivery boy, Shoyo. You’re nothing but co-workers who are just friendly to each other.

You let the cold water run on your fingers and wrists while you wash the dishes. You need to get back to him composed and cooled off. You want your relationship as it is now. You don’t want to feel awkward and bothered.

So what if you just realized that he’s hot and nice and completely alone with you?

“Do you need help with anything, y/n?

You yelp at the sound of his voice so close behind you. You can feel his warm breath fanning your neck and his body hovering at your back. He’s barely pressing against your back but you can already feel the ends of your hairs prickling your skin.

“Wah! Why are you having goosebumps, y/n? Are you cold??”

“Yeah. It is a bit windy tonight.” You lie with a tense chuckle as you hasten your task so you could escape the situation. To worsen things for you, he places both hands on your bare shoulders and caresses them up and down to create heat.

“I hope this is warm enough,” he says concernedly.

It’s more than just warm. He’s supposed to create friction by rubbing your shoulders, but he’s skimming so gently on your skin that it’s fueling a different kind of heat stemming from your core from the supposed friendly gesture he’s doing to you. You fight off the urge to clench your thighs together for he might notice it since he’s just a hair away behind you.

You saw him as a nice guy but his hands are making you feel otherwise. You had to bite your lower lip to suppress a whimper that was at the tip of your tongue. You can pass it off as a groan of relief, but with your current state, it might sound sexual. Since when were you this sensitive?

“Do you want me to prepare your green tea?” he kindly offers.

“Yes, please,” you answer weakly.

He takes his hands off you and gets you your green tea as he suggested to. You breathe a sigh of relief when he leaves. You feel like you’re about to break from how heavy his sexual pull is on you. Is he even aware?

You dry your hands and saunter back to your dining table to take a seat and give your legs a break. Shoyo places the cup of tea in front of you and sits beside you.

“Why do you always drink that, y/n? It doesn’t taste good.”

“It’s to help me lose weight.” You draw the cup to your lips and take a sip.

“Ehh? But you already look hot as you are.”

You almost choked on your tea from what he just said. You weren’t expecting such an adjective from him. With trembling fingers, you return the cup to the table. “You okay, y/n?” He asks worriedly.

You clear your throat. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

He can’t help but notice that you’ve been on the edge since you felt him up. He believes that you did it with no malicious intent, so he really didn’t mind. He knows that all you think of him is a good help to the diner. That’s why you comfortably invited him to your home, but he can see right now that he’s made you uncomfortable for some reason.

Maybe you’re really embarrassed with what just happened even if he did say it was fine. He really was okay with you touching him, even if it was something more than just touching. But it’s not like you see him like that.

He likes you a lot, so he should just go so he doesn’t make you any more uneasy. “It’s getting late, so I’ll go now, y/n.”

When he stands up, you immediately follow. “Oh? Already?” You ask with a hint of disappointment in your voice, which makes him a bit confused. Did you not want him to?

“Do you want me to stay for a bit longer?”

You look at him hesitantly before shaking your head. He smiles amicably at you for the usual hospitality you’ve given him. “Thanks for the dinner, y/n.” He looks at the time and heads for the door.

“Shoyo!”

He shifts his body to your direction while he waits for what you’re going to say “I- uhhh. Sorry about a while ago.”

He strides back to where you are and grabs your hand, slowly leading it to his chest with a faint grin playing on the corners of his lips. “It really is okay, y/n.” When your palm lands on his pecs, you just let it stay in one spot as you look at him differently than usual. You regard him with doe eyes gleaming with baffled curiosity.

With his grip still on your wrist, he does the work for you and guides your hand down to where you touched him just a while ago. Your line of sight follows your hand while his is completely focused on you, anticipating your reaction if you’re satisfied with just this.

He lets go of your wrist, allowing you to do as you please. You raise your gaze to meet his, your eyes asking him for permission.

“I really don’t mind, y/n.”

Your other hand goes to his bicep, firmly grasping it before you take one step closer to him. Both

your hands travel to his midsection, the feel of your delicate caress making his thoughts not as friendly as it used to be. Especially with how impressed you look with your hands all over him.

“Can I touch you too?” He blurts out without thinking.

He instantly regrets it when he sees the surprised look on your face as you pull your hands away.

“No! I didn’t mean t-“

You silence him instantly by putting a hand over his mouth. “I didn’t say anything,” you mutter as you usher his one hand to your waist.

You remove your hand from his mouth and use it to lead his other hand on your neck. You don’t know what you’re doing. You keep your eyes on his neck while he languidly roams his left hand on the small of your back until his arm is wrapped around you. He doesn’t move his right hand away from your neck. He only strokes it tenderly with his thumb.

“Y/n.”

You swallow the lump in your throat as you raise your gaze to him. “Can we do more than just touching?”

Instead of answering him, you yield to the heavy sensual pull that you’ve been trying to ignore earlier. You slowly reach for his lips, wanting to gradually settle yourself in the present situation.

But when your lips touched his, he didn’t share the same idea you had as he wastes no time exploring your mouth with his. All the hesitation he had is gone with his hand dropping down to your ass to give it a firm squeeze which draws you even closer to him, letting you feel his erection against your core.

He doesn’t take his mouth off of yours as he leads you to the dining table, taking both of your ass cheeks in his hands and carrying your weight as he guides you to sit at the edge of the table.

When you’re comfortably seated, he tugs the flank of your shirt and hurriedly takes it off you. You want to look at him to see what he looks like when he’s not being the nice Shoyo you used to see him as. But he gets back to your mouth in just a second, sticking his tongue out to let it wander inside your warm cavern.

His hands immediately find the clasp of your bra and unhooks it with ease. That’s when he pulled away. His eyes are glued to your body as he removes the undergarment slowly, as if he’s unwrapping his gift with the slow reveal of your breasts.

His eyes glimmer with delight when he completely slides the clothing off your arms. It kinda makes you conscious with the way he’s staring at you, like his eyes are burning through your skin. You use one arm to cover your boobs, but he instantly sees through your plan.

As soon as you lift your arm, soft panic sets off in his eyes. He immediately grips your wrist and slams your hand against the table.

“Don’t!”

“But you were staring too much.”

His gaze drops down again to your unclad breasts with reverence. “Cause you’re pretty.” He leans down on you again, his plush lips just within an easy reach from yours. “So pretty that I can’t stop staring.”

You expect him to kiss you again, but his mouth latches on your jaw instead, nipping the sensitive skin beneath it. A soft sigh comes out of your already parted lips while his palms trace the length of both your arms up to your shoulders. He kisses his way down to your collar bones, savoring any skin that his lips graze upon until he reaches one soft mound.

His hands follow the trails of his lips, one finding its way on the curve of your hip while the other stops on your breast where his mouth isn’t latched onto.

He delivers sloppy kisses, sucking on your perk nipple and swirling his tongue on it like it was a treat. The other bud isn’t left out as he plays with it, tweaking it between his thumb and index finger.

Your breathing starts to become shallow from the surge of desire spreading throughout your body.

He cups both sides of your boobs and pushes them together before he continues on, letting his tongue toy with your nipples almost simultaneously. He’s so into it that his teeth accidentally scrape one bud.

“Ah!”

He immediately stops and looks at you apologetically, misunderstanding the moan that came from you.

“Sorry...”

“No. It felt good,” you feebly tell him.

His eyes brighten up and gets back to what he’s doing. He takes the hard bud in between his teeth, tugging it lightly as he looks up to you, his orbs eager for your approval. It spurs you on even more. You give him one nod as you feel your cunt throbbing from how your arousal is heightening by the minute.

“Shoyo,” you call him weakly which he didn’t seem to hear.

He lets go of your breasts and licks his way down right on top of your shorts, leaving a trail of saliva on your skin. He unbuttons your shorts, the sound of your zipper being rolled down letting you know what he’s planning.

“Shoyo.” You call out louder this time, causing his hand to rest on your groin. “Let’s go to my room already.” You expect him to be glad, but he frowns. “But I want to taste you already. Please, y/n? I want to eat you out here.”

Your legs quiver from how much he wants you, his eagerness affecting you as you yourself get impatient and wonder how his tongue would feel on your pussy.

“Do it.” He smiles at your approval as you lift your ass off the table to help him get your shorts off. You aren’t surprised that he tugs your underwear together with it as he peels it off you. You’re starting to get an idea how he is at bed - impatient, excitable, and eager to please.

A subtly smirk tugs up your lips when you realize you’re in for a fun night.

He doesn’t notice it though. He takes a step back to relish the vision that you are. His eyes are completely focused on your bare body with keen hunger as he traces every curve in sight. You indulge him a bit by spreading your legs apart for him to see.

“Wow.”

His eyes don’t leave your cunt while he drags the chair he’s previously sitting on. He spreads your legs even further as he sits down. He places his thumbs on your inner thighs, gently caressing them before he stripes one thumb on your slit.

“You’re so wet, y/n,” he says right before dipping down and tracing his tongue where his thumb just did earlier. He continues doing so, licking up and down the length of your opening as you lean your head back to enjoy what he’s giving you. He eagerly slurps on your juices, lapping on your slit with his hot tongue.

He uses his thumbs to spread your folds that surround your clit, exposing the swollen bud for him to taste. When he gives it a delicate, languid lick, your one hand frantically grips his hair. He takes it up a notch and inserts his middle finger inside .

“Haaa,” you moan out loud which urges him on even more. He pumps his finger inside you, gradually picking up the pace when you start squirming within his hold.

“Another,” you tell him breathlessly.

“Another what?” He asks cluelessly while his mouth continues ravaging your clit. “Add another finger,” you answer to which he complies immediately. He stretches you even more with the addition of one thick, calloused finger inside.

He looks up at you, parting his mouth away from your pussy to show you his two digits that are half inside you. “Like this?”

You nod. “Yeah. Like,” He suddenly shoves the two fingers knuckles deep into you. “thathnnnnggg.” You clutch his hair tighter while your mouth gapes at the instant fullness you feel down in your center. His eyes don't leave your face anymore as he latches his mouth back on your hardened clit.

You’re whining while grinding on his face, getting wetter even as he relentlessly drinks your lewd essence. He loves the look on your face, blissed out and completely lost in the moment. He loves how you keep trying to close your legs together even with his arm not allowing you to do so. He loves the desire glimmering clearly in your eyes as you meet his gaze while he feasts on your pussy.

He already got aroused the first time you touched him. Seeing you unravel before him gets his cock throbbing painfully within his shorts. He’s so tempted to remove his arm and let you crush him between your thighs so he can palm his cock.

He doesn’t even know if you’d let him go any further than this. What if after you cum you change your mind and ask him to go home? There wouldn’t be anything wrong with that. He’ll just replay the scene before him as he jacks off in his own room.

His one hand goes inside his shorts and takes out his cock, causing your thigh to waver without his support. He grasps the base of his dick, squeezing it firmly, easily distracting himself with his own pleasure as he moans in your cunt.

You immediately notice. You see him firmly gripping his member, pumping it steadily up and down with eyes closed as he slows down his ministrations with you. You cup his face, forcing him to open his eyes and look at you again. “Stop fucking yourself. I’ll do it with my mouth after you make me cum.”

He stops like you asked him to. “Really?” His eyes pleading with lust to uphold your erotic promise. “Yeah. So make cum already,” you brazenly order him. He tucks his cock back in his shorts right away, using his arm once again to spread you wide. His mouth, lips, and fingers pick up the pace, thrusting swiftly in and out of your while flicking and sucking at your clit.

“Ooohhh fuck.” You claw on your wooden table from the rapid build up of pleasure. You can feel the heat in your groin, spreading quickly through your body. “Yes, yesss. Don’t stop,” you mindlessly whine. Everything he’s doing is pushing you further to your release - the friction and fullness provided by his fingers and the wild strokes of his tongue on your clit. He suddenly curves his fingers, hitting just the right spot that blurred your vision from how good it feels.

“Cumming... am cumming, Shoyo!!” You trash helplessly on his face as the pleasure floods your senses, but he doesn’t stop. He only slows down, matching your post-orgasm state as you come down from your high.

You tug his hair up while panting to catch your breath. “Come here.” He stands up and you reach for the back of his head to cover his mouth with yours, tasting your own fluids in his lips. “Help me get down,” you whisper to him.

He effortlessly grabs the back of your thighs to get you to stand again. Once your feet reach the floor, you release his lips and drag him to your room.

Once inside, you lock lips with him again as you scurry towards your bed. You get him to lie down as you straddle him, your wetness rubbing on the bulge of his shorts. You hurriedly remove his clothes, itching to see the delicious muscles you touched only with his shirt on. He helps you as he tugs down his shorts and underwear, his last piece of clothing thrown somewhere on the floor.

You bite your lower lip as your eyes roam on his body. He should thank beach volleyball for the tan and the jaw-dropping build. Your gaze falls on his naked bulge that you saw a glimpse of earlier. Damn. You weren’t seeing things earlier. He really is packing down there.

“Is something wrong?” He asks with a worried look, returning your gaze back at him. “Nothing’s wrong. Everything’s,” Your eyes get distracted with how he gulps, your gaze lingering down again on his gorgeous chest. “..fine.”

You return the favor, starting on his neck. You plant your arms on his shoulder as you move your hips up, resting your cunt on his toned abs. You deliver soft kisses on the delicate skin of his neck, letting your tongue sneak a few licks as you go down on him until his cock is within the reach of your mouth.

You position yourself in between his legs as you grip his shaft. His hips lift up from the contact. You watch his reactions as you start to drag your palm around his member up and down. He’s already heaving with lips parted as he takes the pleasure you’re giving him with eyes closed. You find it cute - how he’s this sensitive when you’re barely done anything yet.

You gather your spit and let it drool at his cock, the translucent liquid glazing the tip down to the base. You trace his length with your index finger, from the tiny slit of his tip down to his balls. You go back up to the head of his cock, but you do it with your tongue instead of your finger.

You peek at him again. He’s semi sitting up with his elbows on the cushion as he glues his eyes on your tongue on his dick. You grip him again, tighter this time before pressing one digit firmly on his tip. He throws his head back from the pressure and you use that chance to take his thick girth in your mouth

His thighs tremble as he lets out a euphoric moan while you sink lower and lower on his dick. “Your mouth -aahhh so gooood.”

He really likes you and thinks you’re fun to talk to, but sometimes he’d catch himself fantasizing about you when he gets home and ends up masturbating at the thought of you sucking him off. But his right hand doesn’t even compare to the actual warmth of your lips wrapped around his dick at present.

He keeps his eyes on you, which is a bad idea for him since it’s only quickening the pleasure that was boiling at the pit of his stomach. But he can’t help but stare at you. You look so good, so pretty, with your ass up as you suck him even faster.

He can feel his cum threatening to explode already. He feels so lame, but your mouth just feels so magnificent that he can’t hold it in any further. “Stop, y/n. Please~ aah ahhh gonna cum already.” He doesn’t want you to be disappointed with him, but it’s as if you didn’t hear him. You even go deeper while quickening your pace.

He gives in to it, gripping your hair as the peak of his pleasure takes over. He expects you to pull away, but you continue sucking, letting him shoot his load at the back of your throat.

You take all of it, swallowing every drop he let out in your mouth. You did hear him say stop, but the lascivious delight on his face contradicted his words. You had to let him finish even if that meant you won’t get to feel how his cock feels inside your already sopping pussy.

You sit up as you wipe your mouth with the back of your hand. As for Shoyo, he covers his eyes with his forearm while he pants. You start to get up and head for your drawers when you feel him grab your wrist before you can even leave the bed

“Where are you going?” He asks.

“To get dressed.”

“But we’re not done yet?”

You appreciate the thought. He really is such a generous guy, but.. “It’s fine, Shoyo. You don’t have to force it. You’re already soft??” Your statement becomes a question when you see his arousal still erect.

You don’t know whether to be amused or amazed at that, so you end up staring dumbfounded at him who’s still lying on his back.

He grins at you as he sits up straight and goes for your lips. It wasn’t soft and gentle like you expect from someone who just came. He seems even hungrier, more eager for you.

He guides your hand to his shaft, confirming that he’s hard and ready to continue with what you have in mind. You smile into the kiss, curious and excited as to how he feels inside your pussy. Horny as you are, you throw yourself at him which causes him to lie back down again with you on top of him.

As your tongues clash against one another, you rub your moist slit against his erection, teasing both yourself and him while doing so. He’s groaning in your mouth while he keeps one hand on the back of your head and the other firmly gripping your waist. “Y/n, can I put in already?” He asks with hazy eyes even though his hand on your waist goes down to his cock and aligns it on your folds.

“Mmm, wait.” You lift yourself off of him and reach for your purse that was hanging on one of the metal bed frames. You quickly get a condom and throw your purse somewhere. You tear the packet and remove his hand from his shaft to unroll the rubber on it while he watches. You take over his previous attempt and position the tip on your entrance. You place a palm on his stomach to anchor yourself as you lower yourself on him.

He stares at you mesmerized while you wince from how his cock is spreading you open. You ball your fist that was still on his abdomen, trying to get used to the discomfort even if he’s still not fully inside you. He recovers first and glances back on how you’re doing.

“Shoyo, you’re-ughhh-big,” you tell him with a pained expression. “I- I am?” He asks with pink streak surfacing on his cheeks, flattered from what you said. You nod while sinking lower until you finally cover the last inch, taking him entirely inside you.

He whips his head back on to the pillow with his cock completely sheathed inside the tight warmth of your pussy. He thought your mouth was already marvelous, but the way your walls deliciously envelop his cock is way beyond his wet dreams.

Your hand joins the other, supporting yourself as you slowly lift your hips up and descend back down with the same agonizing tempo. While you adjust to his size, he keeps his eyes on his cock disappearing each bob of your hip.

From your pussy, he rakes his eyes up to your naked body glimmering with sweat. You look so beautiful with your eyes shut, gaping lips, and tits bouncing altogether as you speed up. “You look so fucking pretty, y/n.” Your eyes flutter open from the unexpected vulgarity he uttered. It wasn’t like him, but it wasn’t forced either. He regards you with lust swimming in his orbs, the courteous friendship you two have totally erased as of this moment.

You still for a second before you remove your hands off him and place them on his thighs as you lean back. You spread your thighs and plant the soles of your feet on your bed. You see his eyes widen because of the view. Rather bouncing up and down, you gyrate on his cock. It’s supposed to be a show for him, but with his size, you feel his cock gloriously scrape your insides with the circular movement of your hips.

“Shit!” You curse before you close your eyes again as you start grinding on him. You don’t start slow this time. You impatiently roll your hips against his, driving his cock deep inside you each plunge. You didn’t think it would get any better than this until you feel his thumb on your neglected cit.

“Oh ffffuuuck.” You can’t even open your eyes anymore while his two fingers replace his thumb and rub the sensitive bud frantically. You could feel the pleasure escalating faster and faster with every salacious thrust of your hip and his every flick of your clit..

“Are you gonna cum, y/n?” You hear him ask.

“Yesss. Am gonna cuuuuuummmm.” You clutched his legs tighter when your orgasm hits, your vision blurry when you open your eyes as you ride it out. He pulls your panting self to his chest and tenderly caresses your back.

He sweeps your hair behind your ear and whispers. “Did that feel nice?”

You nod weakly. “Did you cum?” You ask in return. You were so occupied in your own pleasure that you lost awareness of his. He chuckles lowly. “No.”

“Oh..” You lift yourself up a bit to meet his gaze and apologize.

“Why are you saying sorry? We aren’t done yet.”

What he said as a question earlier became a statement. Something changed in his eyes, a spark of determination that isn’t there earlier.

“Let’s just continue next time, Shoyo. I’m kind of tired,” you explain.

“There’s a next time?!” His eyes shine with enthusiasm which makes you laugh softly.

“Sure. Why not?” You lift your hips up but his hands quickly go down your ass and crash you back down, shoving his dick back in you hard and deep.

“Gaah!”

“Thanks, y/n. But don’t worry about being tired. I’ll move instead,” he hums on your ear as he spreads your ass cheeks and pummels his cock wildly into your sensitive pussy.

You moan on his neck at the savage pace he starts with. “Shoyo, pleaseee. Sloweer mmmmm.”

“But why?” He whines. You can’t answer with how ferociously he’s rutting against you, his dick consistent with its swift thrusts. “Shit, your pussy feels amazing. So good, fuck.” His crude words of praise fan your pleasure that was rapidly filling your senses again.

He rams your hips down to meet one sharp thrust. You gasp from how deep his cock went inside you. “Aaah!”

“Do I make you feel good, y/n?”

You nod weakly as you grind slowly on his cock, desperate to chase your pleasure but too tired from your earlier stunt.

“Please, move,” you whisper with exhaustion.

“Tell me first. I want to hear it,” he demands.

“Too good, Shoyo. Your cock feels too good. So please, fuck me again already,” you shamelessly beg as his cock throbs inside you.

Instead of granting your plea, he takes his cock out and pulls you to lie underneath him. He parts your legs apart for him and jams his dick right back inside. That’s when he indulges you, thrusting his size in and out of you at an unforgiving pace.

He leans down on you, intertwining his fingers with yours as he pins both your hands on the bed. “Do you like this, y/n?”

“I love it. Please please pleaaaaseee. Don’t stop mmmmmm,” you babble messily as your impending orgasm overwhelms you.

He clumsily kisses you, his teeth grazing your lips as slips his tongue in before covering his mouth with yours. He’s groaning relentlessly on your mouth while drilling his dick in your cunt. “You gonna cum?”

“Yeaass haaa.” Your moans become louder and louder each thrust. “Gonna cum like this? With-ugh-my cock inside you?”

His obscene words make you writhe beneath him. You arch your back from the intense pleasure. He dips down on one nipple and fervidly sucks it. “Gonna c-aahhhhhhh.” You thrash violently beneath him as your hands clench his to ground yourself from the explosive orgasm that he caused.

“Fuck, yes. Cum on my cock, uhhh. Like that. Shit.”

His thrusts become erratic as he goes after his own orgasm while he milks yours. You hazily open your eyes and watch him chase his high with eyes shut and parted lips, animalistic pleasure taking over his features. He delivers one swift thrust and stays completely still, his dick twitching inside you as he cums.

You both pant heavily with him on top of you.

—

You open the door for him and bid him goodnight. Your legs feel like crap but you don’t want to just drive him away on his own.

“Thanks for tonight, Shoyo.”

You’re not sure what you’re thanking him for, the company or the sex. Maybe both.

“Um, y/n?”

“Yeah?”

“Will there really be a next time?” He asks apprehensively, totally different from his demeanor from your last moments in bed. It’s kinda amusing. You didn’t think he had that in him.

“You’ll still help me close up the diner, right?” You ask meaningfully.

He beams at you. “Of course.”

Beach || masterlist

taglist (those crossed out can’t be tagged)

@ameliaxo @suikrem @akaashisslavee @tsumurai @celestialarchiveshq @loving-unicorns106 @flairlust @crescenttooru @yashuaaa @liberhoe

#hinata x reader #hinata smut #hinata shoyo smut #haikyuu smut #haikyuu!! smut #hinata shoyo x reader

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princessofmerc · 2 years

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You're talking a whole lot of shit like Red Bull wasn't the slower car as of Silverstone and as if Max didn't lose the lead he had up to then in crashes he was mostly blameless for. Ultimately the reason Lewis lost is because he and his team failed to capitalize over and over. Monaco, Baku, France, Austria 2, Hungary, Spa, Monza, Turkey - all races they scored less than they should've for reasons in their control. Max has 1 more podium than Lewis despite having 2 more DNFs and a race in a Williams, and they both had podium-worthy cars at every race. Even if Max didn't have the better car he finished second, while Lewis made disastrous strategy calls and erred into brake magic. The last 4 races only prove Max deserved the title - he got second place every time against a rocket ship.

Okay so. Essay upcoming.

Which is why im putting a read more but this is ridiculous.

Also calling a rocket shiop? Hellmut this you? Did you take ur meds? Are you less fixated on blond young men now to write me this half essay?

The Red Bull was stronger than the Mercedes in most races. Up until the point of Brazil. Mercedes (and Aston Martin) were penalised heavily in aero by the new downforce regulations coming into play in the beginning of last year, more or less designed to "bring the pack closer together" (aka make Mercedes slow down). And for the first time in years they succeeded. The Red Bull was also a car built for the 2021 regulations while the Mercedes was a barely updated 2020 car up until Brazil. The only difference was the new downforce thing to which they had to resort to making their rake higher which is what i meant when I wrote they were penalised. Their car wasn't built for a high rake set up.

Which is why they were struggling so much. Of course there were strategic deicisons called by the team that came out to be the wrong one but were heavily influenced by the second driver in the team not doing his job (honestly what was Bottas doing in France destroying his tyres in a fight against Lewis when Max was charging up the field after pitting). Lewis made a mistake with the magic button I'm not trying to say that wasn't true. And I do agree, as you can see if you actually read most of my posts, up until Brazil Max had a better season.

And yeah Max was driving a car comparable to a Williams in Hungary, but I can't remember him being a match to either Williams driver in that race. I was confused about the Williams comment because I don't remember him swapping places with George or Nicky and either of them getting a podium in the best car of the grid.

The Mercedes wasn't podium worthy in Baku and Monaco. That's what they were saying both weeks, if you listened to them. In one race Lewis was stuck (which resulted from a strategic miscalculation and also because it was Monaco and overtaking there isn't really a thing). In the other, well his teammate got washed out of the Top 10 pretty quick and only a Williams PU issue and Nicky's race engineer being an idiot saved Bottas from the embarassement of having to lose against two hungry Williams drivers.

Silverstone was a crash resulting from a racing incident where the blame was 60-40 towards Lewis. Meaning, while it is unfortunate that Max crashed out, he played his own part in that situation that Max and Red Bull fans love to forget. There are two instances where Lewis fought back as aggressively against Max as Max fights for every corner. Silverstone and Monza and if Lewis has more blame for Silverstone, Max for Monza only difference: Max kicked both of them out in Monza after parking his car on Lewis' head.

When did Lewis make a bad strategy call? Yeah he made an error in Baku, but honestly everyone makes mistakes. I mean Max did touch Lewis' car in Brazil.

Yes Max had two DNFs more, it could have been more from the way he was driving in Brazil, Jeddah (!!!) and Abu Dhabi he can be lucky it wasn't more. Or well not. Because he had nothing to lose. If they crashed he would automatically win. And so he provoked crashes wherever he went without getting properly penalised for it.

My point is: Max may have deserved that WDC up until Brazil because he had great races in a good car. Even if his moves were already questionable back then.

In my eyes he doesn't deserve it after not because he still finished second but because he drove worse than Dicktum and Mazepin combined. He forced Lewis off the track repeatedly (and then complained about Lewis going off track in Abu Dhabi as if it hadn't been the only way for Lewis to go with him forcing him off). He pushed Lewis into Esteban in Jeddah. He braketested him. And got no penalty for any of that.

In comparison: Lewis got a penalty because of a technical defect on his car (well he had the dsq because they had to change the rear wing? well then why could RBR change rear wings in pac fermé conditions as much as they wanted).

Michael Schumacher, the man who most people nowadays hold as the Greatest of All Times, although he's not any longer, got disqualified for the whole season for a move comparative to Max' braketesting. While Max got off with a penalty that wasn't a penalty not even a flick on the wrist (that he still complained about).

And also get your facts straight: Mercedes didn't use the quicker PU in Quatar. That was the non-spicy one with the right set ups and Max destroying his own chance at a win by being a complete twat in Qualifying.

And we're not even talking about the act that he's an arrogant, entitled, racist, ableist and sexist asshole off the track.

#f1 #not putting ant* vers*appen because then u might miss this #also really bold hiding behind anon

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maxwell-grant · 3 years

Text

Captain Fray: The Trash Superman

Look up in the sky! Is it a bird? A plane? No, it’s... an ugly, homeless bald man cackling evily while raining trash on the city with an army of sludge monsters, shortly before getting beaten up by a group of meddling kids. It’s just dumb old Captain Fray again getting foiled by Monica’s Gang, nevermind him. He does that every Tuesday.

Monica’s Gang are arguably the most iconic of all Brazilian comic book characters, having maintained popularity for 60 years and with unmatched worldwide recognition. They’ve had cartoons, a cinematic universe of films both cartoon and live-action, plays, a long-running manga spin-off that turned them into teenagers, crossovers everywhere ranging from The Big Two’s superheroes to Osamu Tezuka’s properties (as Monica’s creator Mauricio and Tezuka were acquaintances), at least one theme park, and much, much more. Even past Brazil’s borders, where they are a cultural institution on a scale matched only by Disney, these are some of the world’s most popular characters, starring in just about any kind of adventure imaginable and then some.

However, if you go into the world of Monica’s Gang, and look for a flying man with a chest logo, a cape and impossible superpowers, you’ll instead find their greatest arch-enemy: Captain Fray (actual name Capitão Feio, which translates to Captain Ugly), real name Feioso Araújo. Who will be happy to remind you time and time again of what a rotten, no-good scoundrel he is, even if he has to pick a fight with the Big Blue himself to prove it.

So let’s talk about perhaps the most iconic “caped superhero” of Brazilian comic books, even if he’s ultimately a long, long shot from being one.

Despite the long, worldwide spanning history of the superhero, the idea of the superhero as a cape-wearing uniformed superpowered do-gooder has remained a largely American concept, as different regions have their own unique icons. The titular 4 members of Monica’s Gang have on many occasions taken the role of superheroes, and they’ve built up a massive Rogues Gallery over decades, despite not looking like the usual idea of a superhero. Monica, Jimmy Five, Smudge and Maggy, for the most part, look and act like kids, with odd quirks.

To briefly describe the 4: Monica is the pudgy, bucktoothed ruler of the group as well as the neighborhood, being super strong and more than willing to hit people who mock her with her stuffed rabbit “Samson”. Jimmy Five has a speech impediment, and he constantly schemes to take Monica’s role as leader, best described at times as a junior Lex Luthor to Monica’s Superman. Maggy is Monica’s friend with an uncontrollable appetite, and the witty and perpetually dirty Smudge is Jimmy Five’s friend and accomplice in schemes. Smudge is defined by his complete and total refusal to take a bath or even come into contact with water under any circumstances, and some stories play up Smudge’s dirtyness to the point of superpower.

It’s Smudge in particular who’s gonna be relevant to this post, because the first time Captain Fray was introduced, he was introduced as Smudge’s good-natured and humorous uncle, a comic book addict surrounded by piles of dusty comics, particularly those of Smudge’s favorite superhero, Captain Pitoco, a sort of Superman/Buzz Lightyear analogue. Eventually, Smudge’s uncle is surrounded by dust, and out of it, he transforms “back” into a former alter-ego, Captain Fray, a megalomaniac supervillain horrified at just how clean the world is, and who decides to sully it as much as possible, flying around the city spreading dirt rays and even transforming the population into pollution-fanatics. Eventually he’s defeated and transformed back into normal, only thinking he had a weird dream.

Upon subsequent appearences, Fray would acquire things like sludge minions, underground lairs and ever increasing powers (like in the above sequence where he somehow destroys a rainbow and darkens the sky with a single gesture), although he would eventually gain a Kryptonite-esque weakness to water. Captain Fray would go on to become the most reocurring villain of Monica��s Gang for the next 40 years, as the former concept of him being Smudge’s uncle was dropped and he became instead the ruler of an underground race of sludge monsters created by him, who’d occasionally come on to the surface in order to engage in supervillain plots to take over the world and spread dirt and pollution everywhere, sometimes in stories with an environmental angle, and often when the story calls for superhero antics.

Fray’s got a very standard Grinch/Captain Hook cartoon villain personality, all cackles and snarls and shaking fists at the meddling kids who ruin his plans everytime, proud of being evil and rotten, but never too rotten to the point he betrays the kid-friendly nature of the stories he’s in, nor too rotten that he can’t do something nice for a change like allow his monsters to celebrate Christmas even if it ruins his bad guy image, or begrudingly do a nice thing for Smudge.

Although for the most part, the “mainline” comics have dropped the angle of Fray being Smudge’s uncle, the two having a particular dynamic has stayed consistent still. Sometimes, Smudge is portrayed as the only member of the Gang who’s got little to no problem with Fray, even welcoming the change of scenery he brings, although he will stick with his friends, as often he’s the only one who’s got no problem being hit by Fray’s dirt rays. While sometimes Fray singles out destroying Smudge so his claim as the dirtiest being in the universe can never be challenged, he is more often depicted as having a soft spot for Smudge, sometimes considering him a pupil or potential successor to inherit his powers, and plenty of times, Smudge has done just that, although inevitably it never sticks, partially because Fray gets jealous or misses his former life, and partially because Smudge gets bored of supervillainy and just wants to go play with his friends again.

The dynamic between Smudge and Fray has led to a lot of adventures between the two, and it’s something that’s been played up in the aforementioned manga spin-off, Monica Adventures. In it, the cast’s all been aged up to teenagers, and the adventures they get into respectively have taken much more of a shonen manga edge, much darker and weirder than anything the original kid comics could get away with, although not necessarily to it’s benefit, because I could not begin to describe just how much grimdark nonsense is in those, let’s just call it the Monica’s Gang equivalent of Jorge Joestar in terms of lunacy and leave it at that (although, to be clear, even the original “mainline” comics could get very, very weird themselves). Captain Fray has been a mainstay of said manga from the start, going through a series of redesigns, including one where he turns into a bootleg Sephiroth, and one where he tries rebranding himself into a suit-wearing gangster named “Black Dust”, which nobody really takes seriously.

It’s also granted Fray a backstory: As a kid, when he’d gone to the basement to read comics, his house was buried in a landslide. Afraid of death, he was met with a milipede claiming to serve “The Serpent” (the in-universe stand in for the devil, maybe, just bear with me here), claiming it would protec him so long as it returned the favor someday. He was afterwards transferred to an orphanage, teased by kids over his lack of hygiene and liking for superheroes and nicknamed “Captain Ugly” (again, his name, Fray is just the English translation), with rumors that his touch granted disease. After the orphanage closes, he’s adopted by a nurse and gains a step-brother in Smudge’s dad.

Years down the line, and Feioso’s managed to acquire a house and make a decent living. He spends a lot of time with his nephew Smudge, teaching him how to build toys out of garbage (a habit of Smudge in the strips) and fly kites and so on. Until one day, in an update of his original story, he’s cleaning his house packed with dusty comics, and a shelf falls atop of him. The millipede from his childhood appears to recollect the debt:

"Your mission is to pollude the Earth...rot it's soil...change it's atmosphere...darken the skies with smoke...so that the sun's rays may never again hit the surface of this planet!

"No! No, please! I-I don't want to hurt anyone!"

"You think you can refuse? You think you have a choice? Do you think you can escape your destiny? Evil does not tolerate weak servants. If you don't fill your end of the bargain, if you don't pay your debt...it will be transferred to the person you love most."

"Smudge? NO!! H-How do you know about my nephew?"

"We know of all that happens. Our eyes...are everywhere."

"Smudge has nothing to do with this. Leave him alone, please...I-I'll do anything you guys want!"

"So be it...Filthy powers will corrode your soul...This is the day of your rebirth! How would you like to be rebaptized?

"The nickname I was given at the orphanage...it's perfect! Captain Ugly strikes again!"

How “canon” the events of Monica Adventures are is a question best left unspoken, since it ultimately doesn’t change anything about the original strips. But regardless of what made Fray who he is, he would spend the following decades in many, many attempts to complete his mission and defeat Monica’s Gang, to be foiled and stopped time and time again by his nephew and his friends, little more than a dumb, cartoon villain there to be smacked again and again, too dumb to quit and too mean to stop. So he was, and so he will always be.

But something interesting’s happened recently with him. As part of the Graphic MSP initiative that’s allowed creators to reinvent the many, many characters of Monica’s Gang for stand-alone graphic novels, Captain Fray’s received one in the form of Capitão Feio: Identidade, which isn’t so much an origin story as it tells the story of a homeless man with no knowledge of his past or where he acquired the superpowers that force him to be on the constant run from society, and it tells the story of how said man eventually became the infamous supervillain, despite his many attempts to be a superhero.

The comic and it’s sequel, Tormenta, acted more of a proof of concept to test whether or not a serious reimagining of Captain Fray can work, and considering their reception and the newfound love that the Captain seems to have attained in recent years, I’d say they succedeed pretty damn well. He’s ostracized for his appearence, poverty, smell and bad manners, and there’s hardly anything he can do about it because his powers make him a toxic abomination by default. He spends portions of the book trying to create living beings with his powers, and once he succeeds in creating a Godzilla-esque monster to protect him from the authorities, he ends up having to put the monster down, before getting fed up with constant rejection and promptly announcing that, if he’s just gonna be known as an ugly monster by the people, even after he saves them, he’s gonna make it a point to be Captain Ugly Monster, the most rotten supervillain they’ve ever seen.

The comic constantly grants upon Frey iconography of several of the biggest icons of comic books, from Batman and Superman to AKIRA, playing up not just Frey’s association with comic books but also the fact that he's been mired in that aesthetic from day one. He wanted to be a hero, he wanted to be like Captain Pitoco, and regardless of continuity, all that he ends up as is becoming a gross caricature of a superhero. And still, Frey owns it. He owns his grossness, his rage, his bitterness at everything that he understands to be the opposite of himself, everything clean and good and decent, and he tries time and time again to tear it down, even if he ultimately can never get far enough to accomplish his goals, or lose all of his humanity in the process.

I’ve remarked once that, to many in some regions of South America, the “traditional” superhero does not hold much appeal, and most of the more popular protagonists and icons tend to be outlaws far away from caped antics. Which is why it’s particularly interesting that, not only is the most famous caped superman of Brazilian comic books a villain, but also that, perhaps unintentionally, Fray has undergone the kind of development that most reocurring cartoon villains never get, and one that seems almost poised to last. In a current zeitgest of villain protagonists, it’s successes and failures, I could very easily see Captain Fray becoming the star of a popular film or series, one that takes a look not just at his personality and role, but also at Brazilian culture’s relationship with superheroes and supervillains. Maybe Fray as an anti-hero, trying to make the best of the horrendous powers he’s burdened with, could work.

So long as it’s not revealed that he likes dirt because his mom got pushed off a cliff by cleaning products, I could see it working very well.

#character profiles #comic books #captain fray #capitão feio #turma da monica #mauricio de souza #brazilian superheroes #brazilian supervillains #superman #monica's gang

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