#osp Sergio

[osp-originals]

The Ocean at Night

TW: drowning, emeto, 911 (emergency services) called

Thanks to @bubble-up for helping me write this!

———

“So you just go out there, and I’ll wave when I’m ready for you to start,” Sergio instructed Min. “Then I’ll wave again when you can come back.”

“Okay,” Min said warily.

“I know it’s scary, but this is the last shot. You’ve been doing great so far. You got this.”

“Thanks,” she said with a slight smile.

“Alright, go ahead.”

Min paddled the surfboard further out into the dark waters.

The setting was perfect for this scene in Sergio’s horror short film. The waves were relatively calm, but still there to provide some visual interest and drama. The only light came from the full moon and the one light Penelope and Tomas set up on the shore.

Sergio was just far enough out that he couldn’t stand. He had to be that far out in order to avoid getting any buildings or docks in the background of the shot. Through the camera, it truly looked like Min was out in the middle of the ocean.

This is going to turn out so good!

He waved at Min, signaling that he started recording.

His legs were already tired from treading water for so long, but he was too focused on keeping the camera steady to care.

From the shore, Penelope and Tomas couldn’t see Sergio at all. His black hair basically camouflaged him with the water since he was facing away from them. The surfboard Min was riding was more visible with its bright white and orange coloring.

Technically, they weren’t even supposed to be there. The beach officially closed hours ago, and there were no lifeguards on duty. They had to jump a fence to get in.

Suddenly, pain shot up through his left leg, then his right. They seized up and he couldn’t move them at all.

He started to panic.

He tried to use his arms to keep his head above water, but it wasn’t enough. The small waves that once seemed calm now crashed over his head. He accidentally swallowed several mouthfuls of seawater as he tried to breathe in between waves, and he may have breathed some in.

“Sergio?” Min called out.

She couldn’t see him anywhere.

Surely he got the shot by now. But where is he?

“Sergio!?” she called again, starting to paddle over to where he was supposed to be.

It had been maybe fifteen seconds since he went underwater. He heard Min calling his name faintly from above the surface. His legs still wouldn’t move.

Holy shit, I’m drowning.

As the realization sank in, all panic and pain disappeared, and his mind became clearer than it had ever been before.

With his eyes still squeezed shut to keep out the salty water, he felt around on the camera for the flash button. He didn’t know this camera as well as his regular non-waterproof ones, but he managed to find the button anyway. He pressed it and held the camera up towards the water’s surface. Now all he could do was hope Min would see it.

Penelope was already getting concerned watching Min paddle around seemingly aimlessly on the surfboard. Her worries were confirmed when she heard Min scream out her and Tom’s names.

She threw off her shoes and ran towards the water right away.

“Tom, you stay here and be ready to call 911 just in case,” she told him.

The water was colder than she expected. She pushed through it and swam as fast as she could.

“What’s wrong?” she yelled to Min.

“I can’t find Sergio!”

They both looked around for him.

His lungs ached with the urge to breathe in. He tried as hard as he could to resist it.

The sounds of the ocean faded. His arms became weaker. All he could do was hold onto that camera for dear life, hoping the light would guide someone to him.

Penelope spotted a small light under the water a few feet away.

“What’s that light?” she asked Min.

“What light?”

Min couldn’t see it since she didn’t have her glasses. Penelope swam over to it.

She could see the outline of Sergio’s motionless body in the dark, murky water.

“It’s Sergio!” Penelope yelled.

Min paddled the surfboard over to them.

Penelope dove under the water. She kept her eyes open even though it stung. She wrapped her arms around his chest and pushed off the bottom, getting them both to the surface.

He laid limp in her arms as she struggled to keep his head out of the water.

“Oh my- is he dead?” Min panicked.

He started coughing.

“Oh thank God he’s alive,” Min breathed.

“Get him up there,” Penelope told her, trying to hoist him onto the surfboard.

Min helped pull his body halfway into the board, but it wasn’t working very well. He was on his back and his legs were hanging off the board.

“Put him on his side,” Penelope instructed Min.

She rolled him onto his side. He was still coughing, and now each cough brought up frothing water.

“Let’s just get him to the shore,” Min said urgently.

She and Penelope started paddling and pushing the surfboard toward the beach.

“Call 911!” Penelope shouted to Tomas.

Tomas pressed a button on his phone and held it up to his ear.

They reached a part shallow enough that they couldn’t paddle the surfboard anymore.

“Let’s pick up the surfboard,” Penelope said.

Min got off the board and went to the front. Penelope put Sergio’s legs on the board, then and picked up the back and Min picked up the front. They carried the board to dry land where Tomas was talking on the phone.

“…on the beach. They just brought him out of the water,” they heard Tomas explaining to the 911 operator.

Penelope pulled Sergio’s hair back out of his face and patted his back firmly, trying to help him get the water out.

“Yes, he’s breathing. Well, he’s coughing up… foam or something.”

Tomas put the operator on speaker phone.

“Is he vomiting?” the operator asked.

“No, just coughing, I think,” Tomas answered.

“Okay. Is his pulse okay?”

“I don’t know.”

Tomas tried to feel Sergio’s pulse on his wrist, but he didn’t know what he was doing. Min took over and did it correctly.

“It seems okay,” she said into the phone. “If a bit weak.”

“See if he is responsive by asking him to squeeze your hand.”

Min grabbed Sergio’s hand.

“Sergio, if you can hear me, squeeze my hand,” she told him.

She felt a slight pressure which she was sure was a response.

“He did it,” she said, a hint of hope and relief in her voice.

Sergio’s stomach spasmed, sending a mouthful of seawater out onto the sand.

“He responded, but now he’s vomiting, too,” Tomas explained.

“Okay, an ambulance is on the way. Make sure to maintain his airway.”

He was finally coming to full consciousness, and now was not a great time for that. His head was spinning wildly and throbbing in pain. He was hacking up water, which burned his throat and lungs like hell.

At least he understood someone saying an ambulance was coming.

That’s good. I’ll be fine. God, this hurts.

His stomach convulsed and he threw up some water. It was disgustingly salty and dirty.

The awful feeling and taste made him puke again, bringing up more water. He had no idea he swallowed that much.

He vomited again, this time bringing up some of his dinner mixed with the salty water. Once he was done puking, he kept coughing up frothing seawater.

Jesus, how much water could I have breathed in?

As time passed, he heard Tom, Min and Pen talking to someone, who he figured out was a 911 operator, over the phone. He didn’t listen too closely to what they were saying. He trusted that they would help him.

He finally stopped coughing after several minutes.

“Sergio? Can you hear me?” Pen asked.

“Yeah,” he responded weakly.

She let out a small sigh of relief.

“How do you feel?” Tomas asked, as directed by the 911 operator.

“Tired,” Sergio breathed. “And dizzy.”

He heard sirens approaching.

Okay, everything’s going to be fine… oh, I hope I can pay for this.

“Hold on, has that been recording this whole time?” Penelope asked.

Sergio looked down at his hand which was somehow still gripping the camera. Sure enough, the little red light was still blinking.

[thesportssoundoff]

“Do I need to even?” UFC 229 Preview

Joey

September 30th

Oh boy oh boy. We've somehow someway made it here and I feel like we deserve some credit here. If you've survived 90% of 2018 then you've earned this one. If you survived UFC 228, UFC 224, the messy FS1 cards ravaged by injury and waking up early for Asian FP cards? You've earned this one. We've got a very solid card with matching lightweight fights of the highest quality. The co-main event pits Anthony Pettis vs the returning Tony Ferguson in one of the best LW fights you could put together for action quality while the main event is the best fight. Period. Conor McGregor is truly underrated at this point in his career; a dominant fighter who has one blemish on his record which he avenged. He is a genuine two weight class champion (lack of defenses be damned) with wins over the likes of Chad Mendes, Jose Aldo, Max Holloway, Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier. Khabib Nurmagomedov's resume speaks for itself; undefeated in the UFC expanding beyond six years now with wins over some really good competition in Michael Johnson, Al Iaquinta and Edson Barboza. It's the striker vs grappler match up and the man with the one hitter quitter vs an endless torrent of takedowns and ground and pound. There's very few fights ever I'm as excited about as this one.  Those two fights on their own? Pretty good. The rest of the card? Pretty decent actually! The UFC absolutely took perhaps a step too many in loading up this show. Being honest, the sixth best fight on this card (Michelle Waterson vs Felice Herrig) could've headlined the Moncton FS1 show. Let's just have a damn good time here and enjoy THIS one for once.

Debuts:  Jalin Turner

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 0

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 13 (Conor McGregor, Tony Ferguson, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Anthony Pettis, Felice Herrig, Michelle Waterson, Ovince St. Preux, Alexander Volkov, Gray Maynard, Derrick Lewis,  Sergio Pettis, Yana Kunitskaya, Ryan LaFlare)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC:

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: (Conor McGregor, Tony Ferguson, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Derrick Lewis, Sean O'Malley, Alexander Volkov, Vicente Luque, Jussier Formiga, Jose Quinonez, Scott Holtzman, Alan Patrick)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2016 (in the UFC):  37-13

Conor McGregor- 2-1 Khabib Nurmagomedov- 4-0 Tony Ferguson- 3-0 Anthony Pettis- 3-4 Ovince St. Preux- 5-4 Dominick Reyes- 3-0 Derrick Lewis- 7-1 (!) Alexander Volkov- 4-0 Michelle Waterson- 2-2 Felice Herrig- 4-1

Divisional Breakdown:

Lightweight- 4 Women's bantamweight- 2 Welterweight- 2 Bantamweight- 1 (?) Women's strawweight- 1 Flyweight- 1 Heavyweight-1 Light Heavyweight- 1

Too Low- Vicente Luque vs Jalin Turner

Most of this card is honestly fine and I get why Michelle Waterson is on the main card. Having said that, I think that fight is a bit too....blegh (on paper) for a show like this. I'd use Waterson vs Herrig to try and draw some eyeballs to this FS1 slate and instead push a guaranteed burner in Turner vs Luque. Vicente Luque has finished every one of his wins and he's taken decision losses vs stalling wrestler types. At the same time, Jalin Turner had some of the freakiest striking chops on the second DWTCS run. This should be a superb striking battle.

Too High Up- Aspen Ladd vs Tanya Evinger

Ehhh......I don't know if this is going to be a fight worthy of having on FS1. Ladd still seems really raw and we haven't seen Evinger in over a year in a lopsided loss vs Cyborg. This is Fight Pass quality. Waterson vs Herrig on the PPV isn't great shakes BUT both have fan bases that will probably-ish tune in. Probably. Not that this card should NEED any of that.

Stat Monitor for 2018:

Debuting Fighters (Current number: 27-32-1):  Jalin Turner

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 26-19):  

Second Fight (Current number: 34-27): Aspen Ladd, Tonya Evinger, Yanit Kunitskaya

Cage Corrosion (Current number: 19-28):  Conor McGregor, Gray Maynard, Tonya Evinger (If this show happens a day later, Tony Ferguson)

Undefeated Fighters (Current number: 26-21-1): Khabib Nurmagomedov Aspen Ladd, Dominick Reyes

Keeping An Eye On But Not Really:

The UFC Win Check Test The records of fighters who have 4 or more UFC fights (or three full calendar years in the organization) but 0 wins against people still in the UFC:  

Twenty Precarious Ponderings

(We're doing TWENTY for a show like this, y'all. In truth, I just wanted to talk more and more about Khabib and Conor)

1- I just don't have enough time or energy to detail ALL of the intricacies of this lightweight title fight. The simplistic view is "wrestler vs striker" but that belittles the things both guys do so so so so well that in turn makes them special. Has Khabib Nurmagomedov ever faced a guy with Conor's length and timing? Even if we acknowledge that Conor McGregor is basically a one armed fighter (Conor's left hand is the best singular weapon in MMA), he has not just insane timing on it but the ability to throw it whenever he wants. One of the concepts of baseball is that "He throws hard!" eventually isn't enough and you need something off-speed to shake it off. Conor's different in that he can probably throw his left from any angle with any sort of heat and any sort of pacing offset by his kicks and his jab. Conversely Khabib "as a wrestler" is just a really unfair attempt to simplify a very good all around fighter. His control is A+, he threatens with submissions enough to keep fighters honest on the ground and he has a tremendous understanding of chaining attempts together with different techniques. How often do you see Khabib Nurmagomedov get stuck (look at Eryk Anders vs Thiago Santos) or forced to make a bad shot (look at some of Josh Koscheck's prime for desperation TDs)? On the feet, Khabib doesn't have a wealth of weaponry but he has a good jab and dude just seems to hit hard.

2- One of the things AntiCool speaks of so much that I truly believe in is fighters being unwilling to concede a single measure in fights where they need to pull off the upset. He uses Alexander Gustafsson vs Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier as good examples of a fighter who doesn't give up any avenue of the fight where they felt they couldn't win. The reason I bring this up is because I genuinely believe Conor McGregor is ballsy enough to believe he can absolutely if he has to compete with Khabib on the ground. I bet he believes that even if it's not the gameplan.

3- Jose Aldo and Khabib have some similarities in their dominance. Both were so neutralizing that they completely shut down fighters at the base of their respective games and forced them to adapt, often times doing that while basically sleepwalking through fights. That said, they also are similar in their relative levels of inactivity heading into the Conor fights. Conor McGregor and Khabib fought on the same card in 2016 and since that point? Khabib's fought just twice. Not exactly blazing a track of activity probably compounded by Khabib taking time off for Ramadan. Also both Aldo and Khabib were known as cold calculated fighters who were surgical but never emotional. That changed vs McGregor for Aldo----soooo is Khabib going to come out emotional?

4- What are the odds of a double retirement after this fight?

5- Does this PPV find a way to crack the 2 million buy mark?

6- One of the weirder thing is how assured we are of Khabib's dominance while also acknowledging how so-so his resume is overall. We've seen Conor's resume at 145 lbs and while his resume at 155 lbs is thin, it IS worth noting that he dominated Eddie Alvarez in his one foray there. Conversely Khabib's resume is really just two guys unless you take a ton out of the Al Iaquinta fight (it didn't show me anything about him from a skills POV but it showed me everything I need to know about his mental toughness as an athlete). There's a lot more we need to know about Khabib than there is to figure out about Conor.

7- Tony Ferguson is one of my favorite fighters and in a lot of ways, the El Cucuy stuff writes itself. Tony Ferguson (like Yoel Romero and the Diaz Brothers) has this unique borderline inhuman ability to outweird the world's weirdest spot. He lives the weirdest life, chases the weirdest thrills and could only exist in a sport like this one. Ferguson's 2017 was a mess; a complete collapse of a fight with Khabib, an eventual interim title win vs Kevin Lee leading to a 2018 where a blown out knee seemed set to rob him of his 2018. Because he's Tony Ferguson, he's out here fighting Anthony Pettis in October. Whether Ferguson can still do the things that made him special (be funky, awkward, outhustle dudes in key positions, challenge with submissions from any situation, throw a variety of kicks from any situation) after a bad knee injury and another year on the wrong side of 30 remains to be seen. I'm left to hope so since a winning Tony Ferguson is a fun Tony Ferguson.

8- Anthony Pettis has been pretty bad for the majority of the last three years but perhaps things are going to turn around now. Pettis' second round win over Michael Chiesa felt like a combination of some of the best of Anthony Pettis (quick counter striking, aggressive and opportunistic grappling) with some of his worst of Anthony Pettis. The road has been rough for Showtime but we're talking about a Tony Ferguson who is coming off a knee surgery and pushing 35. If there was EVER a chance for Anthony Pettis to figure this out, THIS is the guy to do it against.

9- Could Pettis beating Ferguson jump him over the winner of Nate/Poirier?

10- I know some of my fellas on here might disagree with the idea of OSP vs Dominick Reyes but at this point, I'm with it. There's not a long list of guys at 205 lbs who can act as the buffer between "proven to be good" and "ready to be great" so it falls on OSP. Reyes is arguably the most unique prospect at 205 lbs and this is without question an aggressive step up. It is worth pointing out that OSP was losing before he won vs Tyson Pedro and so they might be gambling on a decline. For me, I'm mostly concerned that Reyes is going to be shellshocked by the difference in strength between he and OSP.

11- Speaking of too soon, allow me to present to you Aspen Ladd vs Tonya Evinger!

12- I feel as though a big problem with Michelle Waterson is her inability to handle strength at the POA vs bigger fighters, a natural issue since everyone at 115 lbs is bigger tha her. Not sure why the idea of her vs Felice Herrig seemed appealing to the UFC. I could not think of a WORSE match up for her.

13- Dude let's talk right quick about Anthony Pettis' last ten fights including T-Ferg:

Tony Ferguson Michael Chiesa Dustin Poirier Jim Miller Max Holloway Charles Oliveira Edson Barboza Eddie Alvarez Rafael Dos Anjos Gilbert Melendez

I mean the WORST fighter in that grouping is who? Gil Melendez? I think we could argue Gil is at least average right? Oliveira and Chiesa are solid fighters and Barboza is a great kickboxer at least. Jim Miller?

14- Kudos to Gray Maynard still out here being relevant after being written off as cooked back in 2013. Your fav could never.

15- Even if it's just an exciting throw together brawl? Vicente Luque vs Jalin Turner is going to be exceptionally violent.

16- Is Aspen Ladd our best chance at finding a relevant exciting new 135 lber?

17- Very few divisions ever truly need an interim title---but this Volkov vs Lewis fight COULD have been an interim title fight. Put it this way, DC vs Brock is scheduled tentatively for post February 2019, right? What's the likelihood that the winner of that fight fights again? Brock probably dips out, DC probably retires and so then you're left with....anybody? This card doesn't need a second card BUT if the UFC title picture is in a messy state of being in 2019, we could just go and look back at this fight.

18- Sergio Pettis vs Jussier Formiga was a title contender fight then Cejudo went and ruined everything for them. It's still a fantastic fight at a division that's got some juice in it and I for one am excited to see if Pettis can put together what he did well against a prolific spoiler in Formiga.

19- You can't tell me this is the first time Nik Lentz and Gray Maynard have fought one another. I refuse to buy into such a lie.

20- It's been a long time since we've had a fight like THIS. Not since July of 2017 if you wanna stretch it that far with DC vs Jones II. Enjoy this. These are special moments.

[sinapsinews]

Osp Monaldi, presentato il docu-film "Da Maria a Chiara".Tratto da una storia vera/VIDEO SERVIZIO Servizio di Sergio Angrisano, montaggio Massimo Pacilio

[osp-originals]

Character intro

Ciano

(he/him but also fine with they/them, and she/her when referring to his drag persona)

He’s a music major, likes singing & music production, does drag performances on the side. He has epilepsy. He is Sergio’s boyfriend in their Senior year and they met in their Freshman year. (I’ll probably be writing a story about how they met, and maybe one about how they started dating.)

Keep reading for him in drag

Not quite accurate skin tone bc limited options but whatever

And just a bonus, here’s Sergio again with the Picrew I used to make the first picture, with some face piercings added by me