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wiypt-writes · 3 years

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Too Loose And You’ll Lose It

Ch9: Lebanon, Lebagone

Co-written with @icanfeelastormbrewing

Summary: A few months post their reconciliation, Jake and Stella run a mission with the rest of the team…

Pairing: Jake Jensen x OFC Stella Stevenson

Warnings: Bad language, Smut (NSFW, 18+)

Word Count: 8k ish.

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. We do not own any characters in this series bar Stella Stevenson and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

A/N: So the mission detailed here was highly inspired by the second book in the Grey Man series. Locations and a few major details are changed, and the names are completely made up. The Terrorist/Political party- The Lebanese Freedom Party, does not to our knowledge actually exist.

Too Loose And You’ll Lose It Masterlist // Main Masterlist

Chapter 8

“Alright, let’s get in position before daylight hits.” Clay looked around as they walked down the narrow alleyway.

“Roger that.” Stella nodded as Cougar replied with a tip of his hat to show he had heard, Pooch also inclining his head.

The four of them stopped by a door to their right, Stella pulling the tool from her utility belt which was fastened around the waistband of her camo pants. She picked the lock in under thirty seconds, a simple job that required a little bit of jiggling, twisting and a good jerk with the torque wrench Cougar was holding to defeat.

“Not particularly high security considering this was a bank.” She mumbled as behind her Cougar chuckled.

Inside it was pitch black, dust rose in clouds, shimmering in the moonlight, which was streaking through the dirty arched windows. Both of them flipped out their flashlights, quickly scanning the room for any sign that someone had been here recently, but there was none.

They crossed quietly and quickly through the main atrium of the old building, taking care to keep to the shadows. The old bank was completely deserted bar a few desks and old telephones which sported thick layers of dust as they moved through, heading for the spiral staircase at the far side.

“We’re clear.” Pooch said as he looked up to the top of the staircase. “This place hasn’t been accessed for years.”

“Lima Six, anything to report?” Clay spoke into his radio and a moment later Jensen replied.

“Nothing on the comms, they’re talking about moving Kilo One out at the time we suspected but it could be a rouse to make sure…but Lima Two knows the code-word should they decide to go early.”

“Okay, as soon as you get movement let me know.”

“Ten-four, One.”

“Okay, let’s get set up.” Clay instructed and the team nodded in agreement as they all set about, placing various pieces of equipment around the place exactly where it needed to be for when their target and his security detail, in which Roque had embedded himself undercover, came storming into the pre-designated building, seeking refuge from an attack outside.

It took them roughly an hour to set up completely, things having to be precisely as Pooch directed. Eventually, when he was happy, they climbed the staircase at the back of the room. Four sets of eyes swept the square below. It was deserted, as was to be expected at such an early hour in the morning.

Stella scanned the buildings, nevertheless, her eyes sharp, looking for any sign of movement around the whitewashed and pebble-dashed sandstone that they had grown accustomed to seeing over the last three weeks or so they’d been in Nabatieh, Lebanon.

“So Khalil should be coming from there.” Pooch raised his arm and pointed to a small road to the right. “The plan is we lay down some fire by his bodyguards as he approaches the podium, and force them to take shelter in the bank, as led nicely by Roque.”

“Why do we want this guy alive so badly, anyway?” Stella mumbled to herself. “If he’s such a bastard, why don’t we just kill him? He’s a terrorist leader.”

“The Lebanese Freedom Party ain’t deemed terrorists all over the world.” Pooch grinned and Stella snorted. “Russia views them as a legitimate socio-political force.”

“Russia basically executes people for being gay” She scoffed. “Forgive me for not taking their viewpoint here as the one to set my moral compass against.” She sighed. “Cougs could take one shot, straight in the head. Boom. Job done.”

Cougar chuckled as he unloaded his rifle and stand, looking up at Clay. “She’s not wrong, Boss.”

“Whilst wiping that particular shit stain off the face of the earth might be appealing, they ain’t our orders. We apprehend alive.” Clay spoke, matter of factly and Stella rolled her eyes.

“Whatever helps us sleep at night, huh?”

****

Stella had to hand it to their Intel department. The start of the hit went like clockwork. At bang on the designated time, Jensen radioed in to say that they were moving out and sure enough, twenty minutes or so later he accounted the SUVs and jeeps had left the compound. He joined the rest of the team little over half an hour later, leaving the dirty van he had been driving hidden down a dark alleyway at the back of the bank, behind the one the rest of the team had arrived in and headed into the dank building, wrinkling his nose at the musty air as he walked in.

“Hey.” He greeted Stella, his hand falling to her shoulder as she sat in the back, her attention focussed through the window, a pair of binoculars raised to her eyes.

“Hey.” She whispered back, her gaze flicking to him quickly, flashing him a smile as she turned back to her spotting.

“So I picked up on their coms that they think Khalil’s personal security have done a sweep of the area.” Jensen looked at them. “Roques done his job nicely. They should be entering the square from the South West corner.”

“ETA?” Clay turned to him.

“Less than five minutes.”

“Excellent.” Clay nodded. “So far so good.”

The next five minutes or so passed in silence, all five of the Officers in the room observing the roads leading to the square just in case. Even though their intel was solid, it was drilled into them that they should never rely on it completely.

“Boss,” Cougar spoke suddenly, his shoulders squaring back, “target approaching. Roughly two miles out.”

“Fuck, I got something coming too from the North East.” Pooch groaned.

“What?” Clay demanded.

“I dunno but it looks suspiciously like an ARV.”

“An ARV?” Clay frowned.

“Yup. They’ve stopped. Six hundred yards out.”

“What do you mean they’ve stopped?” Jensen demanded, snatching the binoculars off him.

“What the fuck do you think I mean?” Pooch replied. “They’re not moving.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Stella growled and Clay took the binoculars off Jensen. She watched as Clay took a look before he sighed heavily and dropped his head.

“It’s the Lebanese Special Service. I recognise one of them from a mission a while back.”

“What the hell are they doing here?”

“I should have seen this coming.” Clay bit his lip. “They’re going to hit him at the rally. The false trail we leaked to them means they think we’re moving on him as he makes his way out of town and up to Beirut. They’re going to get in first.”

“It’s a double cross.” Stella looked at Jake and Pooch as she spoke, the pair of them exchanging a look before all eyes bar Cougar’s, which remained firmly fixed on his target, turned to Clay. “Why?”

“Death to the West and all that.” Clay sniffed. “They’re gonna take him out and try and use USA involvement as cover.”

“Don’t they realise that won’t work?” Stella shook her head. “We’re Black Ops, the thick fuckers. As soon as there’s so much of a sniff that shit is going west, the CIA will leave us high and dry, denying they had anything to do with it.”

“So what’s Plan B?” Pooch turned to look Clay. “I’m hoping you got a Plan B, because Plan A is going to shit.”

“Kilo one still approaching.” Cougar stated.

“You got anything special in your arsenal?” Clay turned to Pooch. “As in blow up an ARV special?”

Pooch blinked. “Yeah, the RPG but…”

“Go get it.” Clay instructed.

Pooch didn’t hesitate, he shot off down the stairs and Stella watched him go before she turned her attention back to the large square, which was roughly the size of two football pitches, busy with people bustling about their everyday business.

“If we get this wrong, the whole square is gonna be caught up in a fucking gun fight,” Stella spoke, her eyes falling on a group of kids in the middle.

There was a pause before Clay spoke again. “Khalil is our main objective; we just need to keep collateral to a minimum.”

Collateral. Stella hated that fucking word. She swallowed and looked at Jensen who gave her a small smile, which she returned before she glanced back at the square.

“One mile out.” Cougar informed.

“Okay,” Clay spoke, clapping his hands together. “Pooch, as soon as the LSS move, you shoot that RPG straight at the fuckers.”

“Gladly.” He nodded, “But, chances are if they’ve got an ARV out there then they’ll already have agents on the ground.”

“It doesn’t matter, all we gotta do is get a shot off first. Once that initial gun crack is heard, Khalil’s security outfit are gonna herd him in here anyway. And hopefully, when the LSS get note their vehicle has gone bang it’ll draw them into blowing cover somehow.” Clay nodded. “At least then we’ll be able to spot where they are.” He took a deep breath. “Cougar, keep watch on Khalil. As soon as you get a viable opportunity to lay down the fire, take it.”

Cougs, who hadn’t taken his eye away from the target sight of his gun simply tipped the brim of his hat again with his finger to show he had understood and Clay turned to the other three of them as they waited instructions.

“What about Roque?” Stella asked. “He doesn’t know about the LSS.”

“He’ll roll with the punches.” Clay rubbed his hand over his chin. “Everyone clear?”

“Clear as, boss, it’s a shoot-out.” Jensen snorted, nodding his head as he gave a chuckle. “Good times.”

“If this is your idea of a good time then I’d hate to see a bad one.” Pooch grumbled and Stella gave a chuckle.

“Hey, Poochy, I just like to see the positive in all aspects of life.” Jensen grinned, holding his hands out to the side, palms up. “You’re just grumpy because Jolene’s finally managed to…ouch!” Jensen gave a yelp as Stella punched him hard on the arm. “What was that for, babe?”

Stella shot him a look which instantly shut him up. Pooch had confided in her, Cougar and Jensen no less than two days ago that Jolene was four months pregnant, but he didn’t want to tell Clay or Roque for reasons that he was keeping to himself, as per his prerogative, she supposed. It had made her and Jensen snort a little, as when Aubrey had found out she was pregnant roughly five months or so ago, the entire world had known pretty much before the pee was dry on the test stick. Jensen’s eyes widened as he realised exactly what he’d been about to say and he grimaced, before turning to Pooch, giving him an apologetic look.

“Kilo One is approaching the square.” Cougar spoke, and they all turned their attention to him, stepping forward to the window, Clay observing their surroundings with the binoculars.

“Okay, focus up Losers.” Clay hushed them all, gesturing to Pooch. “Get ready with that RPG”

Pooch shot Jensen one final filthy glare before he stepped forward, resting the grenade launcher on his shoulder.

“Arty, Jensen, in position.” Clay instructed. “Coms on, code names only.”

They both nodded, Stel picking up a device that had been in Pooch’s big bag of tricks, and made their way back to the spiral staircase.

And then, it all happened at once. Clay gave the order to fire and both Pooch and Cougar took their shots at the same time. The popping of guns, sounds of screaming and yelling and a rather large explosion followed by Pooch’s loud chuckles of glee hit their ears and Jensen looked at Stella as they waited at the top of the stairs.

“I really shouldn’t enjoy this as much as I should.” He grinned, and Stella snorted as suddenly the room below them was full of voices, once of which the recognised instantly as Roque. From their extensive planning, Sella knew that they would likely hustle into the room in a tight cordon, with Khalil in the middle and head to the most secure part of the building, the vault. They had no idea how many of the guard had made it into the building with Khalid, but essentially it didn’t matter. The Losers were one step ahead.

As soon as the group made their way towards the main part of the atrium, through the open double doors which led through the cashier area, Jensen grinned at Stella.

“Hit it, babe!”

Stella smirked as she pushed the button on the device she held in her hand. The large electromagnets that had been placed on the locks snapped into place, firing the four inch thick steel bolts into their slots, securing them tightly, ensuring no one could get out, and no one else could get in. Yells of warnings rang out about the place as the guards instantly wheeled round, their guns raised and Roque’s eyes flickered upwards to where they were hidden on the veranda above. Jensen raised his right hand, his index and middle finger extended and he waved them across his face, indicating that their next move was about to go down. Roque made no sign he’d seen them, bar a quick double-blink.

“I’m sorry, pal.” Jensen grimaced a little as he ducked down and lifted a heavy square box off the floor, flipping the plastic cover up, jamming his thumb onto the red button. “Lima Two is about to deploy, please return to your seats and cover your ears.” He spoke into his coms, giving the rest of the team a warning. As soon as the device beeped to say it was charged, Jensen launched it over the side of the railing where it fell onto the floor below. As soon as it left his hands, he and Stella ducked down, their fingers jammed in their ears, eyes scrunched shut as the device activated.

Referred to merely by Pooch as the S-Fud- ‘Sensory Fuck-Up Device’, the item had been developed by the boffins in the CIA lab to create complete optical and aural disorientation by using ultra violet and bright white lights and a loud, high pitched sound and sonic wave. Even with his eyes screwed shut, the flash of light still bounced off all the surfaces surrounding Jensen, and the hands which were clamped over his ears might have dimmed the majority of the loud wailing siren, which lasted no more than two seconds, but the combination was still enough to leave him feeling slightly woozy as he stood to his feet, blinking furiously, his eyes feeling like he’d stared straight at the sun, his eardrums ringing as if he’d spent hours in a nightclub with music thumping in his ears. Besides him, Stella staggered to her feet and shook her head, pressing the heel of her palm to the space between her eyes. But they had no time to waste. Jake gently shook her shoulder and she nodded to show him she was okay. Together they made their way down the stairs as quickly as they could.

The S-Fud had done its job, all the men were incapacitated to some extent. As Stella’s eyes glanced around she quickly counted six men in total. Three, one of whom was Khalil, were completely unconscious, face down on the floor. Two more, including Roque, were writhing in pain, hand clutched over their ears, and one was attempting to stagger to his feet. In a flash, Stella had nailed him with a kick to the face, and he fell backwards with a thud, his nose shattering as her heel smashed straight into the bridge.

“Did you see that?” Jensen turned to the other three men who had joined them, all looking around the room. “My girl, she’s a bad ass chick.”

“Can you concentrate on the mission in hand for once and not your dick?” Pooch shook his head as Cougar hit the moving guard with the butt of his rifle, knocking him out.

“Your momma concentrated on my dick last night.” Jensen shot back and Pooch groaned.

“Seriously? Momma jokes, now?”

“Shut up.” Stella nudged Jake harshly with her elbow as she walked past, following Clay as they stepped over the unconscious guards, heading towards Roque as he groaned and lay curled up in the foetal position. Clay knelt down and reached out, loosening his tie and the top button of his dress shirt before patting him on the shoulder, as Stella did the same to their target.

“Okay, lets move.” Clay looked up. “Jensen, Pooch, you take Roque. I’ll get Khalil. Cougs, Arty, give us cover to the vehicle.”

The team all nodded, Jensen and Pooch stepping forward, each seizing Roque under his arms. They managed to get him to his feet, each supporting him, their arms round his back as his arms slumped over their shoulders. His feet staggered on the floor as he made an attempt to talk.

“We got you, buddy.” Jensen said softly. “You’ll be alright, just feel like you’ve got one hell of a hangover for a few hours.”

Meanwhile Clay had managed to hoist Khalil to his feet with Cougar’s help, the man a complete dead weight, which he allowed to slump against his right shoulder. With an almighty heave he ducked and then stood, using his legs to rise up fully, Khalil slung over him in a fireman’s lift, his arms dangling freely down Clay’s back.

Without another word, the team moved as quickly as they could to the dead-bolted doors where Stella reached into her pocket with one hand, whipping her pistol out with the other. She clicked the device, which unlocked the glass doors and they made their way across the atrium, the chaotic noises from outside growing louder as they approached the back door to the bank they’d used to enter. Stella flattened herself against one side of the wall to the right of the door as Cougar took aim with his rifle. He looked at her and nodded, and in a flash she reached out and yanked it open, Cougar darting through, rifle held in front of him.

“Clear.” He spoke and Stella moved to allow the rest of the team to step out into the alleyway, taking up the rear.

She spotted the man hiding in a doorway two down before Cougs even had chance to shout a warning. In a flash she fired pistol twice. The first shot hit the guy in the arm, causing him to drop his gun, the second in the knee and he fell to the floor, screaming in agony. Then came another, and another. As Stella and Cougar continued, Jensen, Pooch and Clay heaved their charges to the side of the van, ducking as shots rained down on them. Pooch wrenched open the door, and Jensen hopped into the back, hoisting Roque in as gently as he could, a sharp contrast to the way Clay simply slung Khalil unceremoniously into the back. As Pooch ran to the front and hopped into the driver side, Stella and Cougar both sprinted towards the van, flinging themselves in as the engine started. With a sharp tug, Clay pulled he door shut as Pooch started the engine.

Seconds later, the van roared back off up the alley, the crackle of gunfire from the square growing quieter and quieter as they put more distance between them and the danger. Pooch drove them out onto the main road, towards the point, some six miles or so away, where they would ditch the van and hop into two separate SUVs and make their way to the agreed Ex-fil point at Saida Port roughly a half an hour or so drive away.

Stella closed her eyes, resting her head against the cool metal of the van, watching as Pooch and Jensen hoisted Khalil into a sitting position, securing his wrists with flexi-restraints behind his back. Cougar was busy offering Roque some water, Stella pleased to see their teammate was finally starting to come round. She smiled as Jensen flopped down next to her, his arm looping round her shoulders as he pulled her to him for a soft kiss.

“I love working with you,” he grinned and she snorted, shaking her head as she chuckled.

“Yeah, we’re a regular nine-to-five couple, aint we?”

****

“Stel?” Jake called through the door of the bathroom of their temporary lodgings before he opened it and to be greeted by Stella led back in the bath, eyes closed. She turned her head to look at him. “I was gonna ask if you wanted head out with the guys for a beer and food but you look pretty comfortable.”

She pulled a face. “I’m feeling anti-social.” Jake laughed at her frank answer and smiled as she gave a small shrug. “Sorry, not sorry, but we spent four weeks in a hell hole motel and I’m extremely grateful Clay’s managed to get us holed up in a nice place and not the Officers’ Quarters on base so I intend to make the most of it.”

“Babes, we were both in the army.” He snorted. “Rocks for pillows and all that.”

“Yeah, well it’s been a while since I did that. What can I say? I’ve grown used to the finer things again.”

“Fair enough, I’ll let Clay know you hate them all and don’t want to socialise.” He teased.

“Jakey, we’re gonna be here for by my guess a week at least, plenty of time to go out sampling the finest bars the UK has to offer.” She shrugged, not bothered in the slightest by his teasing. “If you wanna go meet them, feel free. I’ll grab a take out. There were some leaflets pinned to the board in the kitchen.”

“Or…” Jake smirked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, “I stay here, because frankly, that bed looks really comfy and I kinda wanna test it. See how grossed out we can make Pooch.”

“Jerk.” Stella snorted.

“Well, he’s done nothing but complain since we got here about how he has to share this house with us and can’t go in with the others, so I wanna give him something to really complain about.”

“You’re such a little shit.” She laughed and Jake groaned.

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what? Laugh?”

“Yeah, it’s making your boobs wobble under the water, and that’s making me horny.”

“You’re always horny.”

“Hornier than usual.”

“Well, I can solve that problem.” She grinned and Jake smirked.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, turn around and shut the door on your way out.”

“Ouch, Stells.” Jake slapped his hand over his heart. “That’s cold.”

“Hmmm,” She muttered, laying her head back and closing her eyes again. “If you’re getting in here you better hurry, or the water will be cold too.”

Jake grinned and in a flash, reached back to grab a fist full of his t-shirt behind the collar and pulled it over his head. As his hands flew to the button on his jeans Stella nodded to the door.

“You better lock that, I know you said you wanted to gross Pooch out but if he walks in on us he’ll be scared for life.”

“And?”

Stella merely arched her brow, “No locky, no fucky.”

With that Jake spun on his heel and flicked the lock, before he turned round and shoved his pants and boxers down in one full swoop and swung his leg over the side of the tub. Stella moved forward so he could settle behind her, his legs laying either side of hers. It was a tight squeeze, the tub in the two bedroomed terraced house wasn’t built to accommodate two but neither paid it any mind.

Stella took a deep breath, closed her eyes and leaned back, her head laying against Jake’s chest as his hands softly rubbed up and down her forearms, his lips pressing a kiss to her shoulder.

They were silent for a while, the pair of them simply contented to stay there for a moment, relishing the peace after a long and tedious mission and the chance to relax for an evening before the debriefs and analysis started the next day in the War Rooms of the RAF Base in Suffolk, England. Often, the aftermath of a mission was more hard-going than the action itself. They’d hash over the events, listen to the CIA operative justify some of the more morally ambiguous decisions made, no doubt the ramifications and political fall-outs, be informed about how the CIA were going to play it and then they’d have to submit written reports, which would be Classified at the highest levels and stored in the top secret vaults in Virginia.

It was part and parcel of being in a black-ops team. They knew the script, having read and played it many a times before. But it was draining and exhausting, one of the many reasons Stella was glad that the actual missions they ran, whilst they could last months at a time, were on the large few and far between.

“You okay?” Jake broke the silence and pressed his lips once more to the back of her shoulder and Stella nodded, tilting her head round so she could look at him.

“I spoke to Rey before.”

“Yeah, how is she?”

“She said she felt the baby move for the first time.” Stella beamed.

“Oh, that’s awesome.” Jake grinned back, “are they gonna find out what they’re having?”

Stella snorted, “dur. You know what she’s like. She’ll want to decorate and buy it blue or pink clothes, plus if it’s a boy she’s got time to mentally prepare seeing as all she wants is a little girl to treat like a doll.”

Jake laughed. “Is it wrong I kinda hope it is a boy?”

Stella grinned. “Nope, I was thinking the same. She’s asked me to be with her when it’s born.”

“I’m not surprised.” Jake wrinkled his nose. “Dick’s gonna be about as much use as a knife in a gun fight.”

“Knives can be very useful in a gun fight, if you know how to use them.”

“Oooh I love it when you talk dirty, babe.” Jensen smirked and dropped his head to kiss her softly. His right hand moved from its spot on her arm to stroking her hip, tracing a path down the outside of her thigh. His fingers softly traced shapes on her warm, wet skin just to the side of her knee before he moved his touch up her leg again then across to her abdomen. Stella sighed against his mouth, as her head lolled to the right. Jensen’s mouth moved, trailing a line down her neck, nipping at the hinge of her jaw.

He was growing hard against her, Stella could feel it, and the way his fingers were ghosting over her made her skin tingle and her body shiver. "Jake," she whimpered. "Yeah, baby?" His fingers found the tuft of curls and then her nub. "You gonna sing for me, Stells?" He encircled her clit with his fingertip and drew back up. "Let me play that pussy?" “Fuck...” she groaned, leaning further back into him, her body sagging into his. She loved his dirty talk, being so in control for most of the time, she enjoyed letting herself go when it came to this. “Feels good, Jakey.” "Yeah? You like it when I touch you, feel my fingers inside? Stretching you for my dick?" He dipped two fingers inside, his thumb able to press into her sensitive clit. "Jesus, fuck," Stella gasped as he moved into her. The thickness of his fingers felt like she was on fire and had her silently begging his foreplay wasn't long. "So fucking wet already, babe." Jake was enjoying the feel of her on his fingers. It'd been a long while since he'd felt all of her and he hid his desperation well behind dirty words and filthy ministrations. His mouth moved down her neck, teeth gently nipping at her skin as he went, lips curling into a smirk as he listened to her softly groaning. Her hips moving in time with his hand as his fingers curled inside her. Water began to just teeter over the tubs edge but neither paid any mind. Stella's breathy pants bounced off of Jake's cheek as he watched himself finger fuck her. "I love it when you fuck my fingers, baby." "Oh God," Stella squeaked, for she was going to hit that edge and fall right over. The time between, the angst of their mission and Jake's mouth were nearing too much. "Jakey, please," she moaned. "Cum on my fingers, Stells, then I'm gonna fuck you, really...really... good." With each 'really' Jake barely rutted against Stella, just enough to tease her at what he wanted to do to her. He wanted to slide in, slow and deep, her body seated on top his, while he feasted on her nipples and neck. He wanted to be buried into her to the hilt and paint her walls with his seed. Stella came undone as her body quaked against his chest. With a breathy squeak she went rigid and her hand flew from the side of the tub, wrapping around is wrist as she came, her walls clamping around his fingers "Fuck, Stella, turn around baby, sit on my lap." She was as languid as the water around them, her body drowning in ecstasy as Jake helped her turn in the small space. His fully erect and throbbing cock stood at attention, his head just above the water’s surface. He guided Stella just where he wanted her and slowly dipped inside her still trembling walls. The sensation was more than Stella had bargained for and she moaned out loudly as she sank into him. "That's it baby, let them hear you" Jake bucked a bit into her, closing the gap that Stella was slowly shortening, his cock fully inside her and he moaned himself. She felt so good, so tight. Like there was no one else made for him but her. The thought gave him a flutter deep in his belly. She was his, and would be forever, if she'd have him. Stella rolled her hips against his, grinding down the pressure on her sensitive clit while Jake's lips moved over her skin, nearing her pert nipples. His hands wove around her back, fingers pressing into her spine as he bobbed his hips up and down to meet with her rolls. It was a dirty grind, water sloshing out of the tub like waves licking the shore. When Jake found a nipple and rolled it between his lips, his tongue tasting her flesh and his teeth nipping at it, Stella tugged at the little bits of longer hair atop Jake's head as she squeaked out a pleasurable sound. One of Jake's large hands palmed down her back and over the curve of her ass, squeezing her cheek as she rocked all whilst he played with her breasts. The same hand soon found its way between their bodies and pressed hard into her clit before smoothing upward over her tummy and grasping her left breast, kneading it gently. The more he gave, the more she took and before long she was grinding down against him, her breathing ragged as he thrust up, hard, his hands dropping to her hips. “Come on baby,” he groaned as her head fell back, his lips nipping against her collar bone, “fuck, I love you.” “Love you.” She groaned as he thrust up, her hands curling over his shoulders, nails biting his skin. “Shit, Jakey, I’m gonna...” “Cum baby, come on.” His jaw clenched as her body trembled and her eyes fluttered closed, as she let out a broken, whispered groan. As she clenched around him, Jake gave a soft growl of his own, his hips moving slightly faster as he rutted up, pulling her down onto him. The coil in his abdomen that had been tightening and tightening snapped and his entire body surrendered, a surge of warmth spreading from his belly outwards and he stilled, his cock twitching as he came. A few sloppy thrusts later and he stilled with a satisfied him, his hands moving to smooth Stella’s damp hair back off her face as hers cupped his cheeks. She simply looked at him for a moment and he gave her a grin causing her to chuckle as she pressed a soft kiss to his mouth. “Jesus Christ, that was amazing.” Jensen mumbled and Stella grinned, her lips meeting his once more. They stayed still for a moment, soft kisses being shared until Stella shivered a little and Jake helped her move off him so he could get out of the tub and leave her to finish off. He grabbed a towel and his glasses from the basin unit before he dried off, gathered his discarded clothes and headed onto the small landing of the accommodation. Pooch, who was just emerging from the other bedroom shot him a look. “You better clean that damned bathroom before I use it.” He arched his eyebrow and Jensen grinned. “You’re like the best disgusting person I know.” Pooch continued with a snort before he nodded his head to the stairs. “Take it you’re two ain’t coming?” “Already came, Poochy.” Jensen grinned as he walked to their bedroom, laughing as the sounds of Pooch’s groans of disgust hit his ears.

****

Stella woke the next morning to a burning deep in her core and Jake’s face between her legs. Her orgasm roused her much better than any alarm or cup of coffee ever could and as Jake stuffed himself insider her, his mouth nipping softly at her neck, she smiled softly to herself as she realised he’d done this very thing the first morning they’d moved up to college together.

After pulling on her Army Uniform cargo pants, Stella tucked her khaki green tee into the waist and adjusted the belt before she sat down and laced up her heavy boots as Jake fiddled with the collar of his, complaining that it felt tight. When Stella pointed out he was slightly more built than he had been last time he wore it a good few months ago, he grinned and flexed his arms to give her the ‘gun show’ making her snort and shake her head.

They headed out of the house and walked the half a mile to the main gate of the base, flashing their ID and making their way to the Mess for breakfast where they met with the rest of the team, Pooch giving them another filthy look as their antics had continued beyond the bathroom and much later into the night. Once they’d finished eating, they each grabbed a coffee to go and headed down to the War Rooms - a network of conference rooms and IT facilities nestled in a bunker along the runway of the RAF Base - and settled down in the leather seats around the large, polished mahogany table ready for whoever it was from the CIA that would be arriving to give the debrief.

They’d been there for roughly half an hour or so and Jensen was already bored. He was messing around, twirling his pen in-between his fingers, the other tapping against the disposable coffee cup. After a pause, he took his pen and began to draw a face on the white plastic lid.

“What are you doing?” Stella looked at him, having caught his fiddling in the corner of her eye.

“I’m bored, Stelly,” his voice was a childish whine, “where is this guy anyway? We’ve been waiting here for like thirty minutes!”

“Just take the fucking pen off him, Arty.” Roque groaned. Stella reached over for it and snatched it away”

“Hey, that’s mine!”

“Jensen, shut up!” Roque shot back and Jensen turned to him.

“Why? It’s not like anyone is talking anyway.”

“You, you’re talking. As usual. Put a sock in it.” Roque turned to Stell as Clay stood up and walked to the door to see if anyone was coming. “How the fuck do you put up with this?”

“He has his mouth busy most of the time.” Stella quipped as she leaned back in the chair and Jensen gave her a dopey grin.

Both Roque and Pooch let out noises of disgust, Cougar’s chuckle just audible from the other side of the table where he lounged with his feet on the table and his hat pulled down over his eyes.

“Yeah, laugh all you want but next time it’s you sharing the digs with them.” Pooch looked at him. “I’m done.”

“Chill out.” Cougar replied and Pooch blinked.

“Did you just tell me to chill?”

Cougar smirked in response, tipping his hat up slightly to flash Pooch a wink.

“The Pooch is perfectly chilled.”

“The Pooch refers to himself in the third person,” Jensen shook his head, “that’s so not chill.”

“Oh…this just got even better.” Clay’s remark had them all turning towards him, the teasing banter dying off as Roque sat up.

“What?”

Clay simply walked into the room, rolling his eyes. Less than five seconds later, in walked a very familiar face.

“Oh great.” Jake mumbled as Stella blinked, coming face to face with her ex for the first time since he’d stormed out of her apartment all those months ago.

“Good Morning.” Evan greeted them all before he nodded to Stella, a little awkwardly. “Hey.”

“Evan, hi... what are you... what are you doing here?” She asked and Evan took a deep breath.

“It was my intel you guys were running down so I’m here for debrief.”

“That was your intel?” Pooch spoke and Evan nodded.

“Yeah, we’ve been tracking Khalil for a while and reached out to him a while ago to offer him a deal. He declined so we needed to bring him in.” Evan nodded. “His activities were giving us cause for concern, not to mention with the Russians behind him. We needed to make the grab before he got even more power behind his cause.”

Jake sensed Stella tensing slightly besides him and slid his hand over her thigh. Her fingers gently locked over his as she kept her gaze on Evan, who had spotted the subtle movement of Jake’s hand. He didn’t say anything, instead the man’s eyes flicked to Jake’s who simply stared back before Roque chipped in.

“So, we got the guy. Did he give you what you needed?”

“I can’t tell you that.” Evan replied, apologetically. “It’s classified, need to know basis.”

“In that case I don’t wanna know.” Pooch mumbled.

Stella’s mind was whirling. Truth be told, she’d started to think about exactly why they’d been dispatched to capture this particular guy alive, when his type were ten-a-penny all over the place. There was a lot more to it than the fact this guy’s ideologies didn’t fit with those of the Western World. And then, the final little piece dropped into place in her analytical brain and she turned her head to see Clay watching her.

“Did you know?” She asked.

Clay shook his head. “Suspected but…”

“Suspected what?” Jensen looked at Clay then Stella. “Babe?”

She took a deep breath. “There’s a reason why we were on a capture not kill mission. At first I assumed it was to do with not making him a martyr but then throwing him in prison would cause just as much unrest. But that unrest will die down when he’s released in a few months in exchange for his cooperation for details on his Russian backers and arms suppliers.”

The rest of the team looked at her, then to Evan who blinked, his face remaining stoic as Stella shook her head and continued.

“He then lets his supporters know that he and his friends in Russia had a disagreement and he was traded away. He retires to some island somewhere, under the careful watch of the UN and fades away into non-existence.”

There was silence and Evan took a deep breath, “it’s not quite as simple as that, Stel…Stevenson, but yeah, that’s pretty much the basics.”

“God, this is so fucking bent.” Stella shook her head. “It’s no wonder the entire world hates us.”

“You know, considering you technically work for the CIA and the Armed Forces, you kinda signed up for this.” Clay raised his eyebrow as Stella rolled her eyes.

“We tried to negotiate terms with him. He turned them down.” Evan replied, matter-of-factly. “So we sent you in to enforce them. The rest, as I stated a minute or so ago, you really don’t need to know.”

“Yeah, classified, we heard.” Clay replied, leaning back in his chair.

“Did you suspect the Lebanese Special Service would try a double cross?” Roque looked at Evan and the man shot him an apologetic look.

“It was always possible, yeah. But you know how it goes…”

Roque scoffed and Cougar shifted in his seat, Evan’s eyes flicking to him before he took a deep breath and shrugged.

“If it helps, think of the bigger picture. We remove their leader, cut off the Russian support, and suddenly the LFP is nothing more than an overhyped street gang...”

“Yeah, that doesn’t really help.” Jensen wrinkled his nose and Evan shrugged, not quite meeting his eyes.

“Well, that’s your opinion. Not ours.” He cleared his throat, “anyway, it’s done. The mission is over. For now, you guys need to lay low. We’ve cleared it with the RAF for you to stay in the area for a while until all the fuss about Khalil going missing has died down. We’ll be monitoring all the usual lines and channels of communication, making sure no one has your descriptions and doing what we can to keep your faces out of the public eye.” Evan paused. “But, I’m sure I don’t need to remind you what happens if we can’t.”

At that The Losers simply looked at one another. Evan was right, they didn’t need reminding. That was the whole point of the CIA running the number of Black-Ops teams it did. It gave them a way to do the slightly grey area dirty jobs and remain at arm’s length, denying all responsibility if required.

“Any idea on how long that’s gonna be?” Pooch asked.

“Probably be a week, maybe two. But once we’re confident we’re clear, we’ll send word and get you back to the US.” Evan replied.

“So what you’re saying is we got two weeks off?” Cougar spoke and Evan looked at him, giving a shrug.

Pooch grinned and fist bumped Cougar.

“Are you staying here too?” Jensen looked at Evan and he shook his head.

“Don’t worry, I’m flying back to Virginia tonight”

“I’m not really worried…” Jake shrugged. There was a moment where both men simply stared at each other until Clay coughed.

“Right, is there anything else?”

“Mission reports due as usual, next forty eight hours.” Evan turned his head away from Jensen and looked around the team. “I’ve arranged access into the Red Network from the hub on the base. Your liaison officer, Wing Commander Levinson, says he can set you guys up with time on the range or the phys- ops courses too, have you join their drills if you want. Might be an idea to keep yourselves sharp.”

Cougar, Pooch and Jake all groaned at the suggestion of the physical training whilst Roque and Stella looked at one another, nodding.

“Yeah, I can go for that.” Roque agreed.

“And that’s it, other than on behalf of the CIA I wanted to thank you, it was a slick operation. We’re really pleased with how this one turned out.”

The team exchanged looks and soft smiles, before Clay stood up.

“Okay, Losers. Let’s grab some more coffee and then we can regroup. Figure out what we do for the next two weeks.

Movement filled the room as they all stood to leave, and just as Stella had picked up her empty coffee cup, Evan cleared his throat.

“Stella, can I have a word?”

She hesitated and Jake turned to look at her. He opened his mouth to protest but she cut him off. “Jakey, it’s fine. Go, I’ll catch you up.”

He blinked, before he turned to Evan, the glare he gave him positively filthy before he turned and left the room. Evan and Stella stood still watching him go, before Stella turned to Evan, the man giving her a soft smile.

“You look well. Being happy suits you.” His tone carried no anger, and Stella found herself returning his smile before she sighed and shook her head.

“Listen Evan, I...”

“It’s okay Stella,” he spoke, holding his hand up, “I won’t keep you long. I just wanted to apologize. I was an asshole when you broke up with me.” Stella took a deep breath as he continued. “The way I acted and the things I said were horrible. My mother would be ashamed and I just ...” he shrugged. “I wanted to let you know I was sorry, that’s all.”

Slightly surprised at his outwardly contrite tone, Stella simply shook her head. “It’s okay. You were hurt. I hurt you.”

“Yeah you did but that doesn’t excuse the way I reacted. So, like I said, I’m sorry.” He smiled, gesturing with his hand to the door. “And I’m glad that you and Jake are, you know, making it work.”

As he spoke the final like, that tell-tale nerve in his jaw twitched a little and Stella knew that he wasn’t happy, at all. But, given that the rest of his apology had been genuine, she accepted the gesture for what it was.

“Thank you.” She gave a soft smile. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry too. I did like you Ev, it just…”

“It wasn’t meant to be.” He shrugged. “Yeah, I get that now. And hey, no hard feelings. If we hadn’t broken up I’d never have met Talia so…”

“Oh, you’re seeing someone?”

“Yeah.” Evan nodded. “It’s early days, we’ve had a few dates and been away for a weekend. She’s nice, I like her.”

“Good, well I hope it works out.” Stella smiled. There was a pause before she took a breath. “I better…” she jerked her hand towards the door and Evan nodded.

“Of course…”

“I’ll, erm, see you around, yeah?”

“Yeah, take care, Stella.”

“You too, Evan.”

With a final smile at one another, Stella left the room and headed back up the corridor. Jake was waiting outside for her, leaning against the wall of the building.

“All okay?” He asked and she nodded.

“Yeah.”

“What did he want?”

“To apologise for the way he acted when we broke up.” Stella shrugged. “That was it, oh, and he’s seeing someone else. Which is nice. I hope it works for him. He’s a good guy.”

Jensen made a non-committal noise in his throat and Stella looked at him. “Don’t start.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You don’t need to.” Stella rolled her eyes. “Stop.”

“Okay, okay, sorry. I just, well, I don’t know what it is but I still don’t trust him, never have. He’s shady.”

“He’s an intel officer for the CIA.” Stella scoffed, taking Jake’s hand. “We’re a Black-Ops team. Far more shady than he is.”

“Suppose.” Jensen sniffed, as the two of them walked down the side of the building. As they went, Jensen suddenly had a sense of unease. Almost as if they were being watched. He turned his head to glance over his shoulder, but found no one. Taking a deep breath, he shook his head, telling himself he was being ridiculous. They were on a secure Military Base, probably the safest place they could be given the circumstances.

“You okay?” Stella asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” he assured her, “so, the rest of The Losers are in the coffee shop. Pooch is already on his phone checking out local bars, fancy hitting a few tonight?”

“Why not?” Stell grinned up at him, leaning up to place a soft kiss to the underside of his jaw. Jake smiled, and pulled her closer as they headed off to join up with the rest of the team, casting a final glance over his shoulder, once more seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

**** Chapter 10

#too loose and you'll lose it #jake jensen #jake jensen x ofc #jake jensen x original female character #the losers #the losers fan fiction #jake jensen fanfiction #chris evans #chris evans characters

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unwhitewashthebadbatch · 3 years

Note

Hey there! Hope y’all are having the day you deserve. I was reading about your new discord server, and found your post so engaging! Some things that you may want to address;

1. Your mind blowing complete and utter hypocrisy.

You want people to be polite?! Ha! Maybe you ought to start with yourselves, and stop bullying other users before you can expect that courtesy. Unbelievable.

“If you would not say it to a 13 year old…”; These apps are 17+. Also, how many thirteen year olds have y’all messed up mentally this week because they like something different than what you deem appropriate? Also, you DO hopefully understand what the term “MILF” is?? Especially when we’re speaking in terms of nicknames. That’s some top notch double standards right there, y’all.

“These are real people in this server,” - are you kidding me? Since when do you have respect for real people?! Y’all are a joke. Go touch some grass and come back to the rest of us when you’re not behaving like a cult.

Before y’all start in with the “she’s a racist, get her!” shit, because I know you will, I am 100% for campaigning for un-whitewashing The Bad Batch. Just not with y’all. Think there might be crazy in your water.

Hello! Thank you for raising your concerns with us here at #UnwhitewashTBB.

Yes, politeness is expected in the server for #UnwhitewashTBB. Me making that a rule is us starting with ourselves. If you've seen or experienced any bullying, please report it to @staff--and if you're 1000% sure it was perpetuated by a member of the server, please let us know here and we can address the situation privately.

My rule about the no-NSFW in the server is to make sure that everyone is comfortable, safe, and that we do not get off topic at any point. It's equal parts safety and remaining focused on the goal of raising awareness about #UnwhitewashTBB. The Discord sever app itself being 17+ does not prevent people under 17 joining a server.

I'm confused about the second question and unsure of the relevance of the third. If you're talking about the fact that my username was at one point milfcaptainrex, what you're addressing is a difference in the goals of my personal Tumblr account and a server of more-or-less strangers in a more-or-less formal setting (aka me and friends my own age having fun versus myself and others brainstorming how to address racism, antisemitism, and ableism of various forms). So yes, in the server with mixed ages, there is a nickname rule. However, on my personal Tumblr where I mostly interact with other Tumblrs my own age, and where I have an age limit for following, you will encounter some URLs that have "milf" in them (do be aware, however, that there are no "milf" URLs in the server itself)

Our respect for real people is found in the movement goals. Please be careful not to misdefine us as a "cult", as cults are genuinely controlling and harmful groups with a central leader (often but not always with religious ends) that seeks to emotionally, physically, mentally, and financially ruin every member that joins, with the specific purpose of recruiting more people to further serve the central leader. For instance, here are 5 examples of cults (all American, but they exist in other countries as well).

Thank you for supporting our movement!

- Mod CH

#mod CH #long post #? might not be i can never tell with desktop #text #ask to tag #hope I was able to address any concerns

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thealluringsink · 4 years

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I fixed the bad batch

I was talking to @lilhawkeye3 about her bad batch post and how its kinda sad how many people are uncomfortable with their character designs-it reminded me of a bunch of good headcanons I came up with in sandwars that will hopefully make people happy. My main criticisms are 1) the whitewashing and 2) the ableism.

I say ableism because I see characters reduced to few traits while not showing how those differences in physical ability affect their lives outside combat effectiveness. My disability has also been compared to a superpower. The fact is that in order for me to participate in mainstream society, I have to constantly request accommodations and explain myself and use coping strategies that abled people do not, even though misophonia/hyperacusis is also the reason I am super good at marco polo. I’d rather see the bad batch address how their abilities affect their lives beyond “us and them” than have their differences only come up when convenient.

SO. Good content time.

-All of them have curly hair and brown skin. Being white is not a desirable mutation. Also their hairlines are less atrocious because I said so.

- Tech is the same size as most other clones and his mutation is not “being smart.” Many clones are canonically geniuses (Fives, Rex, Echo, the Nulls, ARCs in general) and guess what it does not affect their height.

- Hunter and Wrecker are some of the oldest clones. Hunter, who was “engineered to have heightened senses,” was among the earliest batches that experimented with more extreme genetic modifications and also resulted in the “uncommandable” Null-class ARCs. Wrecker, like 99, was of a non-standard batch created while the kaminoans were still perfecting accelerated growth.

- Wrecker knew 99 personally. They bonded over having to alter their uniforms and helped each other out where they could. Wrecker learned young that physical differences aren’t actually bad and his friendship with 99 is the reason he isn’t very self-conscious about his size or strength.

- Tech and Crosshair were among the 1.5% of standard clones who did not fit the kaminoan’s strict specifications. Crosshair is extremely farsighted, and Tech is hard of hearing. Both were originally going to be maintenance crew, but a certain CC-2224 recognized their talent for teamwork and requested to work with them.

-Crosshair’s ability to accurately hit a target from 10 kilometers away is much more than farsightedness: while he did find that his condition made him better at hitting faraway targets, perfecting his skill required understanding invisible physics like the properties of his weapon and local planetary conditions like gravity and atmosphere. Most of the time he doesn’t rely on sight as his primary sense: Crosshair is in fact so farsighted that he never learned to read. He can recognize Wrecker by his size and can differentiate between Tech and Hunter because of Hunter’s red bandana, but part of the reason he doesn’t like working with “regs” is because it’s so hard for him to tell them apart.

-Tech being hard of hearing is the reason he records everything. It’s also the reason he so avidly pursued skills that don’t require perfect hearing, such as computer interfacing, visual translation technologies, data analysis, strategy, and targeting computations. His aptitude for adaptive technologies means Echo gets some of the best prosthetics in the galaxy.

-Wrecker’s mutation affects the turnover rate of his cells. He would have been even larger if his long bone growth hadn’t been stopped by hormonal treatments that he’ll have to take for the rest of his life. His superhuman strength is in fact the result of his tissues repairing themselves as fast as they are damaged: he heals so quickly that the explosion that should have killed him only resulted in him losing an eye. His perception of how pain relates to actual tissue damage is incredibly skewed, meaning he will both intentionally take hits the others wouldn’t survive and occasionally put his hand directly on a hot stove and not notice.

-Hunter’s genetic engineering means he isn’t fully human. The electromagnetic sensitivity was sourced from a non-human species that evolved the ability naturally, and his body is fully equipped to handle it. That said, he does experience sensory overload at times: imagine if everywhere you went, there were tiny innocuous devices that were constantly screaming. His room is Faraday shielded, meaning when he’s in there he’s unreachable by comms. He and his brothers tend to talk to each other face to face because of this.

#the bad batch #clone force 99 #long post #whitewashing #ableism #headcanons #sw meta #tcw #star wars

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merlinemryspendragon · 5 years

Text

Gif Coloring Tutorial

Requested by anon. Sorry for taking so long to post this!

This tutorial goes over how I color gifs, including tips for coloring dark scenes and scenes that are heavily filtered with a certain color (i.e blue scenes, yellow scenes, etc.).

We’ll be going from this:

To this:

Warning: This post is gonna be really long! (if the read more breaks blacklist “long post” or “usermerlin gif tutorial”)

*I’m using Photoshop CS5

1. Gif Making Basics (Note this part won’t include images since the anon specified coloring and avoiding noise I’m gonna focus on that)

First I take screencaps using Potplayer.

In PS I import the frames by selecting File --> Scripts --> “Load Multiple DICOM Files”

Once the images have loaded I go to the drop down menu on the animation window and select “Make frames from layers”.

Then I crop my gif using the crop tool. I put all the layers into a group (select all the layers and press ctrl + g (cmd + g if you’re using a Mac)

Now I sharpen my gif. I’ve created an action to speed up this process using user thepunisher’s action tutorial. I didn’t include the grouping of my layers in the action so that’s why I always group them before starting my action so that it works properly. My sharpening is pretty standard from what I’ve seen. I use smart sharpen:

Now I can start coloring!

2. Basic Coloring

In this section, I’ll be going over a basic, but vibrant, coloring. When making adjustments you have to be careful not to increase brightness or vibrance too much or your gif will become grainier. Same goes with making changes to the colors. It’s better to have more layers with slight adjustments

I always start by brightening up my gif. Sometimes I use curves to both brighten and adjust colors. For this particular gif I didn’t, but I use this adjustment often. User villainelle has a tutorial for using curves to color adjust here and so does user thepunisher here. They have slightly different approaches and I use either depending on the scene. I’ll also be explaining this adjustment more in the next section but I learned how to use it from them.

Step 1:

For this gif, I just started with an Exposure adjustment layer. Exposure allows you to change the tones of your document. Gamma adjusts midtones, offset adjusts shadows, and exposure adjusts highlights. It’s really helpful with brightening up dark scenes or heavily shadowed scenes. I usually only adjust the midtones/gamma. Here are my settings:

I increased the Gamma to 1.12

Step 2:

I then use a Brightness/Contrast layer to adjust the highlights (you could also do this with Exposure but I find Brightness more manageable). At this point, I’m only increasing the brightness. I won’t increase or decrease the contrast bar. Here are my settings:

I increased the Brightness to 34

Step 3:

After adjusting the brightness, I want to bring back some depth (I’m probably using this word incorrectly tbh) to my gif by increasing the contrast before moving on to color correction and vibrancy.

To increase the contrast I use a black and white gradient map and set it to soft light. Then I lower the opacity between 10%-50%, depending on the scene.

You could also use Levels or Brightness/Contrast but I find the gradient map is easy to control while also making the gif more neutral. For this gif, I set the transparency to 10% but could go a little higher because the scene is naturally bright. All these adjustments are really about your personal preference.

Step 4:

Now I can move on to the colors. For basic coloring I usually start by increasing the saturation. I use a Hue/Saturation layer because this way I can increase the saturation of everything. I feel like the Vibrance layer tends to just make the gif warmer rather than making the colors pop- and I have less control over individual colors. For this gif, I increased the saturation for all colors (”Master”) to 27:

Step 5:

After adjusting the vibrancy I move on to color adjustment. This can really vary based on preferences. I tend to prefer to make my gifs cooler in tone. I use Selective Color and Color Balance to manipulate the colors.

I started by adding a Color Balance layer to adjust the colors on Aziraphale’s face:

I increased the Cyan to 4, the Magenta to 3, and the Blue to 1 to make the skin tones more neutral. I’m moving the bars toward the colors I want to add. So if my gif is too yellow I’d move it toward blue and if it’s too red I’d move it toward cyan. Also note that I only made changes to the midtones. If I wanted to make changes to the darker or lighter parts of this gif I’d alter the shadows or highlights but I usually only do that for rainbow gifsets. Typically, I prefer Selective Color to make more drastic color alterations so I have more control over the specific color I’m changing.

*Be careful when making these types of changes. You don’t want to make drastic changes to the natural undertones of a person’s skin. Same goes when you’re brightening your gif. You can easily whitewash if you’re not careful. User amorverus has a great tutorial on avoiding whitewashing in coloring here .*

I also wanted to brighten up the gif more after this so I added a curves layer :

Then I used Selective Color to decrease the yellow tones in the White background:

I decreased it by 26. I almost always do this for scenes with white backgrounds or large blocks of white.

Step 6:

After I make some color adjustments I adjust the brightness and contrast again. I always add another Curves layer to increase the brightness of the shadows by slightly lifting the line on the bottom left:

Then I use Levels to change the contrast of my tones. I usually increase the contrast by moving the left hand point slightly to the right:

After that I add another Curves layer, decreasing the shadow and increasing the highlights like this:

I feel like this adds some nice depth to my gif and brings out the colors more. The amount I decrease or increase the curve depends on the gif itself, so definitely play around with this.

Step 7:

Now I go back to make some last color changes. I added another Selective Color layer and increased the Black on Whites:

Finally, I added another Selective Color layer adjusting the Whites again. I decreased the Yellow again and also increased the Cyan and Magenta to make the blue in the sky pop a little more:

I used a layer mask to erase this layer on Aziraphale so the change is only apparent on the sky.

Now I’m done! Here’s the same method on two other scenes:

And I uploaded the .psds (dl here) so you can take a closer look at what I did in Photoshop. Keep in mind that I don’t always follow these steps in the exact same order. Psd #3 features the curves color adjustment method and has some more adjustments. It really depends on the scene itself and the mood I’m in. Practicing a lot will build your familiarity with the different adjustments and hopefully boost your confidence in making your own coloring!

3. Hard to Color Scenes

Blue/Yellow/Green/Red Scenes + Dark Scenes

These types of scenes can be hell to color but there are some techniques to help balance the colors so that you have something that’s easier to work with.

For general dark scenes, adjusting the Exposure can be really helpful. Unfortunately increasing the Gamma or Exposure too much can make the gif grainy so be careful when using it. Consider using it in combination with Brightness/Contrast and Curves to avoid making drastic changes.

Another helpful adjustment layer is the curves layer. As the tutorials linked above explain, using the midtone or highlight dropper tool can help adjust the presence of red, green, and blue in your gif. Photoshop will balance against the color you select.

Let’s take this scene for example:

This scene is really yellow. Using color balance or selective color to balance it out could help but given how yellow it is, you’d need to use a lot of these layers to gradually change the colors or you’d make your gif too grainy. Using Curves, we can adjust colors with less layers and hopefully introduce less grain (sometimes this type of adjustment can result in too drastic a change, so your gif becomes hella grainy so be careful). I used the midtone dropper around here:

And got this:

Here’s the Curves layer:

The shadows are a little more intense than they were to begin with but that’s easier to adjust. You could also keep messing around with the dropper so the scene doesn’t become darker. You could it make it slightly less yellow and then finish the rest with color balance and selective color. Either way, I’m satisfied with this so now I can continue coloring:

Here’s an example of a dark and blue scene:

Usually for darker scenes, I use the midtone dropper but that wasn’t resulting in a change I was happy with. I used the highlight dropper instead, clicking on the flecks of snow in the bottom right:

Here’s the Curves layer:

And here’s the final gif after coloring:

This method is great for making big changes to the lighting and colors of your gifs.

HQ GIF Tips:

Save Settings:

I save my gifs with Diffusion because I find that the dithering is usually less noticeable that way, so my gif looks smoother. Pattern can also look really nice though, depending on your coloring. Try out both and see which you prefer! Here are my settings:

Coloring:

Making drastic changes all at once can make your gifs grainier. Be careful not to change a color too much one one Selective Color or Color Balance layer. It’s better to make smaller changes over multiple layers. Same goes for increasing brightness and vibrance.

Source:

Use the highest quality video source you can. That’s an easy way to make HQ gifs. Blu Ray or DVD quality is better than Itunes for example and both of those will be better than clips from Youtube. If the file size is bigger that typically means there less compression so the quality will be better. If you can’t find larger sizes or you don’t have the space or time to save larger files, just make sure it’s at least 1080p. Keep in mind that now that gifs are converted to gifv, your gifs might look grainy or blurry when you post them even if they look fine when you save them. You can go back and mess with the coloring to see if this helps but otherwise there’s not much you can do about the conversion.

Those are all the tips I have for now! If anything doesn’t make sense or you have any questions please let me know.

#gif tutorial #coloring tutorial #photoshop help #long post #usermerlin gif tutorial #I hope this helps!!#sorry this got so long :(#please let me know if you still have any questions or if something doesn't make sense #I get all rambly #my current coloring is really a messy mix of all the tutorials I've ever seen #I'm gonna reblog this a couple of times to make sure it gets seen #I'm gonna go to sleep now lol

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the-desolated-quill · 5 years

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1000 Followers?!?! OMG!!!!!

Wow! I... I honestly don’t know what to say.

When I first started this blog way back in the ancient times of the 1st January 2015, I didn’t expect to become very popular. Back then I was an obscure nobody writing shitty reviews of Constantine episodes. And look at me now! Thanks to you guys, I’m now a slightly less obscure nobody writing substandard reviews about any old crap that’s out there XD

No, but seriously, thank you. Thank you to each and every one of you. for taking time out of your days to read, like, reblog and follow my blog for the past four years. It means more to me than you can possibly imagine. When the Desolated Quill first emerged, I was in an extremely dark place and needed an outlet for my jumbled up thoughts. Now, because of the support of you guys, both my blog and I have evolved into something more. I’m going to university now. Something no one could ever imagine me doing four years ago. I’m in the process of writing my first novel. I’m much more confident and assertive in my personal life. I’ve managed to stay sober for just over three years now. Things are going pretty well for me and it’s all thanks to you, dear reader. I fell into a dark hole and all one thousand of you helped to pull me back out into the light. I enjoy interacting and sharing my opinions with you very much and the friendships I’ve made on here is something I will treasure for the rest of my life. Without you guys, I wouldn’t be where I am today. So thank you. All of you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you :)

Now, enough with the soppy emotional stuff. I know you don’t care about that. You just want to know what my secret review is, don’t you? Well as I said, it’s something people have wanted me to do for a while now. I refused to watch it at the time due to moral and artistic reasons and because I didn’t want my money to go and support it. Unfortunately it became a box office success, so I guess it doesn’t matter now. People looked at this whitewashed, objectively racist piece of shit and went ‘yes! This is good! More of this please!’ So fuck it. Might as well review it. Due to my familiarity with the source material, I should be able to offer something more comprehensive than the so called ‘professional’ critics and I hope you guys feel it’s worth the wait.

I’ll be posting this review next week (hopefully. Fingers crossed). Until then, prepare yourselves. Because things are going to get...

...strange.

#personal #1000 followers #thank you so much #words cannot express how happy you've made me feel #upcoming review

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kosegruppaa · 6 years

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it just hit me sigrid that we might have a few months without the remakes tg! but then in the fall there might be six of them at the same time instead... lord help us all!

halla anon! yeah, that’s going to be nice isn’t it! and in the fall the spanish one starts and i’m excited for that cause i wanna try to use if for teaching purposes.

but tbh most of the remakes i don’t notice that much, cause i have them all blacklisted! which is recommended, hehe. right now i have way to much remake talk on here, and my inbox is full of it. and i know i’ve kinda invited this by answering asks and stuff, but i think i wanna try to just get all of these asks out of my inbox, so i’ll put the rest of remake related tags under the cut:

anon: what is it about marketing teams thinking it's better and gains viewers in going on hiatus without telling anyone when they'll be back? Austin seems to have done it aswell and the last episode have less than 500k after the weekend so this decline is jeeeeshh. I've almost seen everything but I honestly think it's boring, it doesn't have that spark, but I'm dying for bts budget knowledge. I also saw Italy changed a character trait so time for all the og shade again, Vilde has it the worst.

yeah, that seems very frustrating. if the hiatus of skam hadn’t had a definitive end, i wouldn’t have survived, especially not season 3. like i really thought i wouldn’t survive the night after the last ep5 five clip, and then the teaser dropped. counting down those days with everyone is what kept me sane lol. vilde hate based on the remakes makes me so sad though :(

anon: lmao I'm a horrible perosn! 😝 i just saw on the main tag that one of the usa actresses had posted a ig photo at a house that looks very expensive and she wasn't in noora character that's for sure but my first thought was "now I see why Jules hired this girl who can barely act" damn that house looks nice

ehh im not sure what your implying here, anon?? that the actress got hired because she is rich or lives in a nice house? why though? so julie can hang out at her place, or what?? i don’t understand lol

anon: i'm not surprised at the white casting of sana after all we've heard italiens say while defending the decision. skam is about showing and helping teenagers but they cast 20+ actors so they can show explicit sex with the male gaze and multiple times calls the muslim character sana bin laden for giggles. instead of stepping their foot down and say it's wrong they say nothing. but when they'll have that theme as focus they'll have a whitewashed nonmuslim play the part. they copied most y not sana?

i’m not sure i’ve heard many of those arguments? i’ve seen some discussions about “white muslims exist too” and yeah, that is true, but sana wasn’t. and the character in skam italy isn’t supposed to be either?? and sana was the only poc in the girl squad to begin with, so i also think it wouldn’t be good to replace her with a white character. and all of this is going to really make a s4 remake pretty .. questionable imo.

and Wow do they actually say that??? i mean, i don’t have anything against characters being offensive if it actually serves a purpose, so hopefully it leads somewhere! and lol i thought they just looked old, but they’re all over 20? i know the guy who plays martino is only like 20 (or 19?) but to me he looks way older.

anon: as a lesbian i'm happy julie is finally giving me a lesbian but i'm also angry the only way was to get a copied season of a gay guy and also that vilde didn't get a season as a lesbian. 💔

yeah, i do hope i’ll be able to enjoy a shay season if it happens, but i have no idea if i will be! but i’m very happy that she is writing a lesbian/wlw character though, it is needed! and yeah, forever sad about vilde :/

#i love you all anons #and i love that you send me your remake bitterness #cause i have it too hah #but i don't want my whole blog to be negative or kinda negative remakes posts #when i don't even actively watch any of them #so i want to collect them all here #please send me your thoughts in the future though!!!#anon #thanks for asking!

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sawyersscribbles · 7 years

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Eden’s Horizon (My WIP) Part 3

What’s up my new homies (honestly there have been like five new followers in the past couple of days thank you so much) So I thought to celebrate you and the start of NaNoWriMo (to those of you concerned I’m pretty sure I slept like seventeen minutes last night so I’m doing pretty great). I’ve made great progress since the last time I’ve updated, so I hope this new (and long omg) part is as good as I think it is :) Enjoy!

Lieutenant Patch was one of those no-nonsense get-stuff-done kind of lieutenants, but Cylo knew that those didn’t exist. He had worked with several generals over his two years of service, mostly because most of the people he worked with thought his skills would be better suited “in a less-disciplined area” or a “location where Mr. Maruzzo’s enthusiasm and rambunctious nature will be separated from our stealth informants.” Cylo didn’t get that feeling from Lieutenant Patch, even though the lieutenant stood with hands clasped behind the back and feet in a “V” position together at the heels, like everything he had seen before. Entering the bunker, it seemed more serious than any bases he had been in before, but that may have been from the silent soldiers in two even rows leading al the way down to the control room, he couldn’t know for sure. Although he had met the man by the door yesterday on his manhunt, the soldier with downcast eyes still asked for his ID. Cylo didn’t argue, only rolled his eyes and scoffed, pressing his hand into the pad held up by the soldier, idling an awkward moment before allowing him to enter the room. In any other place, Cylo may have made small talk with the soldiers outside, asking them how their day was or if any of them had seen Slice and Dice 7, the newest installment of his favorite franchise. “It takes place on the moon this time, even though everyone knows the Terazorgs like to use the earth to turn into their weapons in cities, but that’s okay, I liked it anyway.” Cylo explained when telling the receptionist of his second base about Slice and Dice 3: Antimatter, back when they were still naming them. The lady at the desk at least pretended to be interested in the adventures of Deka and her trusty animal sidekick Pico, but this soldier seemed more like the dead-eyed cashier from the megamarket than a soldier ready for duty. “Good morning, sir.” Cylo leaned in a bit and nodded once, tapping his foot to double the beat of the computers around the room which were thumping in rhythm together. The lieutenant didn’t turn around right away, waiting to acknowledge Cylo’s entry only after the lines on the screen had slowed enough that there were long pauses between memos. “Good morning, Major Maruzzo.” The Lieutenant turned around and faced Cylo and revealed that he wasn’t a “he” at all. Lieutenant Patch must have been a woman of at least five foot seven, only right below Cylo’s own height, but she wasn’t anything like the ladies that Cylo liked to sway on a night out. She had thick and powerful arms with thighs to match, and her jaw was hard set like stone, as if she’d been looking at people like that all her life. Cylo grinned and squirmed a bit excitedly. “I’m a major now?” He whispered excitedly, “So that means…” “…Level seven clearance.” “Level seven clearance!” Cylo couldn’t contain it any longer. It had been his dream when he joined the military to some day get above a level four. If he could do that, he would have made it. Being a first class private meant he had been sitting around level three for ages. He had finally made it. Lieutenant Patch didn’t yell at him or tell him to quiet down like the other generals Cylo had dealt with, but she did look at him coldly, like the silent treatment. After punching the air a few times and chanting “Yes!…Yes!…Yes!” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, he set his jaw just like the Lieutenant’s, only staying serious a moment before smiling again. “Major, I know this is all very exciting for you, but your reasons for being promoted so quickly are really very serious, and I’d like to ask you as your superior to take this position very seriously. Have I made myself clear?” Cylo looked at the ground like the man outside and shuffled his feet. “Yes, Lieutenant.” “Yes ma’am.” She corrected, “I earned this position after years of extra work to gain the authority of my male co-workers, and I am to be reminded every day.” The set of her jaw twitched only a little, just barely enough to be noticed, but Cylo noticed these things. It was the suppression of a smile. “Now, this underground structure was built in order to block incoming internet signals and viruses due to the mercury and radiation levels in the soil, so I suggest that any metallic body parts of yours should be treated carefully as such. “Well, I guess I’ve just got one, but I don’t think it’ll be a big deal.” Cylo lifted his pant leg to the metal skeleton taking the place of his foot coming up to halfway up his leg. “It’s not really a cool story, I just sliced open my foot with a rusty playground toy, and it would have gotten taken care of, but that playground was covered in radiation, so…I mean, I’ve got a robot foot now, so that’s fun.” Although the Lieutenant didn’t look amused, she didn’t look disinterested, either. “Well, hopefully an incident like that won’t happen in my base. I’ve heard from your past officers that you didn’t do well with field work, so this place will hopefully suit you better. If you look around you, this is the atrium of the facility. Meetings will be held here at 0700 hours each morning to inform you on the day’s activities and to brief you on new developments…” The Lieutenant didn’t finish her sentence, but kept walking anyway. The atrium reminded Cylo of a college hall, or what one would probably look like if he ever went. There was a table in the front with a large screen from behind, surrounded by maybe a hundred chairs all facing to the front. He had never had so many colleagues in his life. “So…am I going to get to meet all these people? Because I love meeting new people, everyone I’ve met says it.” He beamed. The Lieutenant didn’t look back until she was sure that Cylo was behind her following into the next room. The base was situated like a star or a snowflake, With the atrium in the center and several hallways protruding from it, with rooms attached from there. It felt almost like a video game, with so many different areas to explore. Lieutenant Patch carried herself as if she had seen every room a dozen times, and then a dozen times more. She glanced into the rooms periodically, but didn’t enter any but one at the far end of a particularly well lit hallway with the occasional art piece hanging on the otherwise white walls. It was clear that they had been whitewashed many times before, as brown stains were already starting to grow where the fresh coat was set. “Since you now have Level Seven clearance, I’ll situate you with the other majors. I’ll tell you now, woman-to-man, that these people need abright young kid like you to keep their spirits up. They may not seem like it at first, but I would trust none other than these people to solve a national crisis, which is…basically what’s happening now.” She mumbled to herself quietly and pushed open the door, allowing Cylo to enter first. There was not miles of cubicles like Cylo thought there would be. The majors were not hunched over some computers typing out documents without light in their souls. Instead, it was a group of people around his age, maybe a bit older, who were slingshotting eraser caps into each other’s mouths. “Ow! You hit my tooth!” One groaned and held his face. Another, shorter than the rest, laughed and set down her mechanism. “It’s because you suck at this game!” The Lieutenant’s posture became lax as she leaned against the frame of the door, watching these antics play out. She didn’t even seem upset by the lack of work, only amused at what was going on. Neither did she stop what was happening to introduce Cylo. She waited for the group to collectively stop what they were doing and listen on their own terms. “Majors, this is your newest comrade, Major Cylo Maruzzo. He’s been stationed here from the city of Vela and is very excited to be here, am I incorrect, Major?” She turned to Cylo, who was still surveying the group. He smiled softly and slowly nodded. “No, ma’am. Not at all.”

Zenith hadn’t ever been inside a church before and never expected to, but the glass above the altar looked so pretty that she felt she needed to at least look inside. The inside of the church looked like it hadn’t been too heavily cleaned in years, save for the occasional sweep. Although the polished wooden pews were sturdy, they weren’t without their scratches and markings that reminded Zenith more of a couch chewed by a dog than by a place of worship. The seats had cushions on them, but even some of those were scattered on the ground like leaves. The desk at the front was without papers or an open holy text, just sitting solemnly below the intimidating cross that seemed to watch over the room. It felt quiet. “Oh, hi there!” Zenith whispered excitedly to a girl who appeared to be staring blankly forward, and it was no longer silent as it had been before. The girl had orangish red hair, a peculiar color choice, if you asked Zenith’s stylist, who loved her vibrant royal purple. “I tell you, honey, science is stuff of the gods!” He cried and held the ends of her hair as if he were giving them up to the sky, which always made Zenith giggle. The girl didn’t stiffen right away, but after looking Zenith up-and-down twice, she froze into place. Her mouth was ajar in terror, and her breaths came out in puffs. Suddenly, the girl bolted up from her seat and made a break for the door, but Cylo had tried to snatch Zenith from the couch enough times to learn evasive maneuvers. The orange haired girl screamed as Zenith made a bee-line towards her and grabbed her by the shoulders, still shaking. She seemed as if she couldn’t see, her eyes were blank and searching for something to look at. At the same time, they were tearing up and overflowing onto her cheeks where they virtually disappeared against the light. “Hey!” Zenith barked, “What the heck, man? Is it something on my breath?” As much as the girl avoided eye contact, Zenith still struggled to maintain it. “You’re… oh my god.” Zenith mumbled the last part under her breath so quietly that the other girl, Paige Diamond, she realized, couldn’t hear it. She was the very girl from the picture, Zenith was confident. No one else had that heart shaped face paired with those non-enhanced blues in her eyes which had, quite frankly, gone out of fashion. Paige gave a sigh and let her shoulders wilt, but in that second of Zenith’s weakness, she broke free once more and backed away further into the church. Her eyes were not calm and interested like in the photograph, rather wide and afraid, and her hands were no longer loosely gripping her bag but trying to find something around her neck. After a few moments of stammering and mumbling, Paige held a smaller version of the cross that was hanging above the altar in the direction of Zenith. “Unclean spirits, I command you to come out and manifest in the name of Jesus!” She cried and slowly approached Zenith again, but this time keeping as much distance between her and the cross as possible. “Demons, I command you to come out of the mouth now and never come back in Jesus name!” When Zenith didn’t move and demons did not, in fact, come out of her mouth, she kept repeating the same phrases until she was incomprehensible. “Paige!” Zenith said in a voice as strong as hers, “Paige Diamond, right? I’m not here to curse you or something, and to be honest, I only kind of know what just happened there. But I need you to calm down, okay?” She held her arms out and tried to coax Paige down, but all she managed to do was get her to sit down. She still didn’t lessen her grip on the cross pendant, rather tighten it as Zenith sat down closer. Paige’s eyes stayed on Zenith as she sat down, feeling more like a hostage than someone following instructions. Slowly, her fingers inched closer to Zenith’s hand and jabbed at it quickly before Zenith could stop her. “Ow! The one that can’t feel is on the other side, you scrap! Jeez…look at what you did!” Zenith held her limp arm up to Paige’s face to see the red mark spreading slowly from the impact point. “Scrap? The hell is that supposed to mean?” Paige said over Zenith muttering about blood clots. “You know…like, ‘Oh, that person is such scrap!’? Like the insult? I was trying to be mean to you.” Zenith’s voice was flat and unamused, and when she looked back at Paige, it seemed that she was just as concerned as Zenith was about her poor bicep. “Since when have you used city slang? Is that where you were for the past three months, wasting away in…never mind.” Paige grew uncharacteristically calm and shut her eyes and breathed slowly three times. “I am calm, I am a steadfast stream…I’m good.” She exhaled the last words and met Zenith’s confused gaze one more time. “Who are you really?” Paige said quietly and faced forward so that Zenith couldn’t look at her face. She shuffled uncomfortably and turned the same way. “You’re real…I felt you. I think I may have bits of your skin, human skin, under my nails…” Her voice was drifty and flighty, but Zenith started muttering angrily again about how she broke the skin, which officially made it unfair. “But you’re not who abandoned us three months ago.” Zenith tried picking up the conversation after it had fallen down. “Zenith Maruzzo, I guess? You’re Paige Diamond. I know you. From…well duh...” Over the two years that Cylo had been in service, Zenith was at least smart enough to know that keeping that picture from the car quiet is probably the best for the both of them. But it was hard for her to lie to peoples’ faces, especially after Paige nearly smote her. She had to fidget and turn away during the delivery, a definite no-no if you were to ask her big brother. “Yeah, I know you know me from somewhere. We’re friends. Or at least I think we are…” Zenith didn’t flinch when Paige drew a cross next to her face with the cross around her neck. “Okay, I’m gonna tell it to you straight, I’ve never, in all my days, seen someone try to cast me out.” Zenith chuckled and folded her arms. “So…what is this place, exactly? It’s a church, right? I’ve got to say, though, after never setting foot in one, I think I like it.” Zenith nodded at the cathedral dome overhead coated with biblical art. Paige audibly took a deep breath. “Yeah, you never were religious, were you?” Paige mumbled and took out one of the thick books from behind the pew in front. She flipped to a random page and didn’t make a sound. “You know, I thought you were gone, Zenith.” Paige was trying to keep her voice steady, but it was clear she was still afraid. “You just ran into the woods and then…we didn’t see you again in weeks, you know that. You could have been dead. No, not could have been, you were dead, Zenith. So you come back to me, shiny new city-arm, and expect me not to do what my grandfather taught me? You must be on gator…” Gator was some weird combination of crushed sleeping pills and marijuana invented by Logan that you snorted. Made so poignantly clear by Ms. LeBlanc, “Gator is going to happen like fetch is going to happen. Don’t even ask, it’s not a movie from your generation. Get that SOB to my office so I can slap those drugs out of his hands.” If one were to use a direct quote, that is. Zenith wasn’t quite sure what Gator was, but tried to laugh along like she had been taught anyway. Paige lifted her head. “'The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.' That’s Psalm 34:18. I learned it about a month after you were gone. It was the first time I picked up a bible on my own terms.” Paige’s arm twitched like she was about to reach something, and her breath was coming out in short, white puffs. Before her fingers could dig into her coat pocket, she dropped her hand entirely and let it twitch loosely on the pews. She held her head back and kept her dull eyes entrapped on the colors of the cathedral above. The iris looked washed out, like a stain that had been on a tablecloth for many years. “What happened to you, Zenith?” She whispered to no one in particular, making eye contact with each of the angels one by one. For the first time in her life, Zenith was idle sitting in that pew, having nowhere to look and nothing to say. But it was quiet. One of those important quiets that end up meaning something profound later, she figured. That’s how, she reasoned, silences with Paige were supposed to be. “What are you guys, my parents picking me up from kindergarten? You’re late, turds!” Kinza had been standing outside the archway of the church for way-too-many-for-my-damn-liking minutes with her arms crossed. When Zenith and Paige finally looked up from the pews, Paige immediately began laughing, and her tears from before had since dried and been replaced by newer, happier ones. Some air that Zenith didn’t know she had in her lungs was let out, and her body returned to normal. “If you have some sort of highly specific memory you need to share, I’m always here to talk!” Paige called out to Kinza. Her foot tapping only quickened and motioned to Zenith to yank Paige out of her seat. Of course, not understanding the sarcasm, she did exactly that. “Hey, hey—whoa! Robot arms make you stronger, robot arms make you stronger! Oh my god, stop!” Paige began to laugh so hard that there wasn’t even noise coming out of her anymore, just long wheezes. Kinza looked entertained now and nearly reached to pull Paige along but stopped herself. “There’s a meeting, like, right now. Zenith, you especially have to come, but we gotta go.” By the time they left the chapel, Paige was finally able to breathe. “Meeting about what?” Zenith asked. “Hell if I know. I guess I would have if I wasn’t sent to fetch you like a handmaiden girl, yeah?” Kinza was still bitter and wouldn’t look Zenith in the eyes as she spoke. “Meetings are always held here, and the whole school attends them. Usually they’re about someone flushing their tampons down the toilets again or to give out Zika vaccines.” “Zika…is that a teacher or something? Why is everyone so mean to her…?” Zenith mumbled. Her homeschooling didn’t involve learning about things that didn’t matter, like curable diseases. If it couldn’t kill her, it didn’t matter. “Stop messing around Zenith,” Kinza jokingly hit her on the arm, right above where Paige had stabbed her just minutes before. Everything about Kinza’s demeanor was casual, the mood of the situation hadn’t changed before, but Paige’s step had faltered a big, lagging behind the two and holding her arms. Kinza looked back and when she was sure Paige was far enough behind, she widened her eyes just slightly and hit Zenith one more time. “What…what did I do—“ “In here!” Kinza blurted and swung open the door, to which hundreds of students drew their eyes to. Paige had stopped entirely, waiting outside the view of the door in horror. “Sorry…carry on, Miss LeBlanc…” Kinza stopped acting like herself when Miss LeBlanc was involved. She had some silent authority over the students that was strong as it was mysterious. In some ways, Zenith could feel herself obeying to it, too. From her podium next to the wall, Miss LeBlanc peered outside the doorway, and then looked back out to the crowd. “Paige, honey, are you in there?” She called without her booming voice so the students in the audience needed to struggle to hear. “Two minute break. Two!” She called and held up two fingers. The students remained quiet at first, but then resumed their conversations. Paige was crumpled against the wall with her hands over her ears, staring blankly at the open door. When Miss LeBlanc appeared through it, Paige sagged and removed her hands from her ears. “I’m sorry, it’s just that all the people were looking at me.” She half-expected Miss LeBlanc to cut her off, but she waited patiently for Paige to run out of things to say. “Humans are drawn to noise and sound, no matter what. It’s an instinctive reaction, just like knowing to give me a high five when I hold my hand up, am I right?” Paige laughed and sat up straighter. “The point is, I’ve got kids to inform in there, and you’re one of those kids. They’ll be talking, so no one will notice you sitting down. How does that sound?” Paige took a second to nod and followed Miss LeBlanc into the room. She was right, the students were chatting and didn’t even look, compared to when Kinza practically kicked open the door. Her boyfriend had stood up and waved his arms frantically. When he noticed that Paige’s eyes were on him, he switched from varying dance moves like the robot or the YMCA dance. She laughed as she jogged up to the very top row, which didn’t have many students. She sunk into her boyfriend’s arm and let him hold her hand from around her shoulder. “You did me a frighten,” Logan said as he knelt his head onto hers. “Okay, this is going to make it sound bad…but I was able to see you…” “Ugh, no—“ “…In the doorway, but I was so far up that I’m pretty sure it was only me.” Logan found his train of thought after Paige had interrupted him. “…But I was about to go after you, Paige. I get worried when you get scared, you know that…” His voice had gotten gentler, and he kissed the side of her head and held Paige closer. “Well I’m fine now… and thank you. You’re very sweet.” She declared and kissed his cheek. He grinned softly and sighed. “Excuse me, miss?” He tapped the shoulder of the girl in front of him, to Paige’s dismay. “Oh my god, don’t do the thing!” She moaned, but smiled wider than she had all day. The girl turned around, confused. “I just wanted to tell you that that’s my girlfriend over there, and I love her very much. She’s smart and pretty and funny, and I can’t believe she’s with a scrub like me…” That was when Paige managed to pull him away and explain to the girl, “I’m so sorry, he deals with affection in ways that I functionally cannot comprehend. He does a thing where he can’t say it to my face but says it to someone else’s…I’m sorry.” Luckily, this was one of those times where the third party involved found it as a joke, too, and soon they were both laughing. “Oh, don’t worry, I think it’s sweet! Love always finds a way, right?” Paige looked back to Logan, who shrugged. “Yeah…” she said absently, “I guess it does.” “And we’re back! Everyone find your seats!” Miss LeBlanc had made her way back to the podium, and in the minute and a half between when Paige had saw her last and now, she had touched up her eyeliner. “Alright, serious-Darla-time. It’s now September, which means a start to the new year and a fresh new batch of rookies, and to them I say, welcome to Eden Academy.” There was some cheering, but it was mostly focused around the rookies themselves rather than Zenith’s grade, who looked disinterested. Suddenly Paige’s phone buzzed. It was from her mother, probably asking how she was doing. As her thumb was about to press the decline button, Logan moved her finger over the answer command. “You should take this. You know how she gets.” He said quietly. Miss LeBlanc was eerily silent, looking up to the top bleachers to see Paige, still in the amphitheater. “I guess…but aren’t you supposed to say something later in the assembly? I don’t want to miss that.” Logan nodded and helped her out of the seat. “It’s just this student’s address thing, it’s really no big deal. I tell them the code of conduct of whatever because I break it so many times. Trust me, you’d get bored.” Paige chewed her bottom lip and ground her toe into the hardwood, but she left the audience anyway. In silence, all eyes watching her this time, including the principal’s, she exited the room. Miss LeBlanc sighed and turned back to the audience. “Alright, the important stuff. But first, a history lesson. In March of 2057, an AI program similar to the ones you will create this year dubbed “Mudskipper” was created. Its original purpose was to be a sort of therapy bot for its creator to tell her problems to. However, in June of that same year, Mudskipper pulled what they did in the movies and realized he didn’t have to be someone’s emotional crutch for the rest of time. So at the same time Mudskipper was learning how to manipulate human emotions, it was using that human personality to learn how and why it was coded in the first place. In January of 2058, Mudskipper managed to hop onto a public school’s mainframe using a flash drive taken from the source computer. Now there’s no telling where it is. A small, contained portion of Mudskipper is kept on school grounds, but the drill you experienced before was only a test. The purpose of this school is for you to learn how to best handle a cyberattack crisis, and the final project for senior year, which you will begin soon, will be to manufacture an anti-program to combat Mudskipper.” Some impressed murmuring came from the freshmen in the front, but all Miss LeBlanc could do was smirk and nod. “Mhm, you heard me right. We’re teaching you how to build cyberweapons here, welcome to high school.” As Miss LeBlanc laughed at her own joke, the students cheered, but while they were engaged, Miss LeBlanc made eye contact with Logan and motioned him down. “Ladies and gentlemen, you might be wondering what an anti-program is, so I have a volunteer who’s ready to show us his. Logan, take it away.” She motioned to him like a magician and exited the stage, where Logan was left alone in front of all those kids. “Uh, hi everybody. Like Darla said, welcome to Eden and all that, so…yeah.” There were cheers, but mostly from his grade. “My anti-program is called Horseman, and trust me, picking the name is the best part.” He said while signing into his account and pulling up his lines of coding. “I’m not gonna go into how to do all this because it’s lame and I want you to like me, so I’ll just let her run…” When Logan clicked the run button, the lines disappeared and the screen went black, leaving only one blinking line at the top. “Since I’m cooler than you, Horseman is so advanced that she responds to your voice. Yeah that’s right, gawk at me.” Logan chimed over the surprised newcomers. The voices in the audience grew louder, and just as Miss LeBlanc was about to step in to quiet them down, Logan pulled the microphone close to his face and said slowly, “I’m going to need complete silence. And a volunteer.” Instantly, all the frontmost hands shot up in 90 degree angles. Logan selected the closest student with the coolest t-shirt. “What’s your name, kiddo?” He called everyone kiddo despite being one of the youngest in his grade. “I’m Cassidy…” “Cassidy, wonderful name. Now stand right up here, yeah just like that. I want to introduce you to Horseman. Say hi, Horseman!” Instead of text, Horseman pulled up a gif of a human manipulating a cat’s arms to make it seem like it’s waving. The audience gasped, laughed, and clapped, in that order. Cassidy was surprised too, but she loosened up enough to allow her arms to hang limp by her sides instead of fiddling with her rings. “Go on, talk to her. She’ll only be mean if you talk about her weight.” Logan said on the side. “Hey, 517 kilobytes does not make me fat!” Horseman fired back. From the chatter of before, the students were not stunned into silence. “Oh…sorry, did I say too much? If anyone out there weighs 517 kilobytes, you’re beautiful and don’t let them tell you otherwise!” Nervous laughter from the audience led Logan to steer Cassidy towards his computer. “As you can tell, Horseman can probably handle anything you throw at her, and that includes untrained freshmen.” He set a hand on Cassidy’s shoulder. “Which is why I’m employing the help of my friend Cassidy here to show you how powerful Horseman really is. So Cassidy, I’m going to need you to try to rip apart Horseman. Delete entire lines of code if you have to, just get her to stop working, if you please.” Logan gestured elaborately to the keys, and Cassidy went pale. “No…no, I could never do that, she’s so wonderful…” Cassidy began to stammer when Logan moved her hands to the keys for her. “Trust me, no one is going to judge. Write random things in the lines, take out whatever you want, even try to put a picture in there. I promise it’ll be okay.” Slowly, Cassidy started deleting letters here and there, hesitant to break something so fragile. “Pretend like Horseman is about to remotely shut off your grandma’s life support. You can do this.” Cassidy inhaled and exhaled slowly and finally got to work. She cut and pasted whatever she pleased, wiping out several lines of code at a time only to replace them with random thoughts coming in and out of her head. But every time she made an edit…the program fixed itself. Each error Cassidy made was instantly corrected right after she made it, to precisely what it had been before. “You picked a good one, Logey, this must be what a workout would feel like if I was…well you know.” Horseman told the crowd, who were so dumbfounded that they hardly whispered to each other. “You could do this all day if you wanted, Cassidy, but let’s give Horseman some rest. And another hand for Cassidy, shall we?” Enormous applause followed Cassidy down the steps and back into the audience, where people immediately began asking her questions. Soon, some members of the audience rose to their feet. “Aw, you’re all the cutest!” Horseman squealed and pasted a “sending virtual hug” gif onto the big screen behind Logan, who was busy taking bows. It was a good thing Paige wasn’t here to see this.

#My writing #writing #nanowrimo #My NaNo #MY OCs #My characters #My WIP #amwriting #write #writer #writeblr #writeblogging #writing resources #writing skills #i am on the verge of collapse but having fun doing it #can't believe you're still reading the tags #just kidding you nosy loser :)

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dailyconradricamora · 7 years

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A Fil-Am actor’s life: Conrad Ricamora | August 9, 2017

Conrad Ricamora is having the best of both worlds. During the recent hiatus of ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder” (“HTGAWM”), where he plays Oliver Hampton, he reprised his Ninoy Aquino role in Seattle’s revival of the award-winning David Byrne/Fatboy Slim musical, “Here Lies Love” (“HLL”). Now, he’s back on the set of “HTGAWM” for Season 4.

“I don’t really think about my career as a journey,” said Conrad, who matter-of-factly described his enviable actor’s life of being able to switch between Broadway and Hollywood. “I just get up every day and do the work I need and want to do. The same way I’ve been doing it for over 10 years. I just happen to be doing it on a TV show and on Broadway.”

The son of Ron Ricamora, who was born in the Philippines, and Debbie Bolender, was promoted to a series regular in Season 3 of the legal drama that stars Viola Davis as Annalise Keating, “HTGAWM.”

The relationship of Jack Falahee’s Connor Walsh and Conrad’s Oliver in the show has become so popular that fans have coined a term for the couple: Coliver.

Raised in Niceville, Florida, Conrad made his splashy Broadway debut as Lun Tha in Lincoln Center’s Tony-winning revival of “The King and I.” The cast recording, in which Conrad is one of the principal soloists, scored a Grammy nomination for best musical theater album in 2016.

For his performance as Ninoy in the original off-Broadway production of “HLL” in 2013, Conrad won a Theatre World Award and earned a Lucille Lortel Awards nomination for best actor. This year, Conrad starred in the indie drama, “The Light of the Moon.”From left: Aja Naomi King, Ricamora and Matt McGorry

Excerpts from our interview:

How would you describe your journey as an actor so far?

I would describe it as a persistent and settled journey. In 2005, I made a decision to become a professional actor for the rest of my life. I knew that I would be in for a lot of highs and lows and a lot of rejection, but I knew that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. So, I dug in and started doing the work—working on my voice and audition monologues and reading plays.

How do you prepare for an audition? Any good luck rituals?

Before I start the material, I usually take a deep breath and get centered. I prepare as much as possible before the audition. Hopefully, I’ve had a few days with the script, but sometimes you only have less than 24 hours, so you just do the best you can. Afterward, I always buy myself a treat, like a bacon cheeseburger.

What is the most frustrating part of trying to land roles in Hollywood?

I don’t know. I only moved here a year ago, and I have a full-time job at “HTGAWM.” During the hiatus, I was doing “Here Lies Love.” So, I haven’t had any free time to audition.

How do you handle rejection?

I let myself be upset for a day or two, but I also don’t let it stop me. Even if I’m upset, I’ll make myself go to the gym, or read a play, or take a class. Something that metabolizes that rejection into forward motion.

Have there been times when you almost gave up?

No. I knew this was what I wanted to do, and I knew that there would be a lot of rejection. I just accepted it and kept going.

As an actor of color, do you feel that opportunities for minorities are improving or getting worse?

This question needs to be posed to white people now. I’m tired of even talking about it. I feel like it’s been oversaturated and talked about [a lot] in the media at this point. Things just have to change.

What’s your stand on whitewashing—or the casting practice in which white actors are cast in nonwhite character roles—in Hollywood?

People should have artistic freedom to create art in whatever way they want to express themselves. But the whole diversity conversation that’s been happening in the last few years is happening because audiences are hungry to see themselves in the art that they consume. They want to see people of color onscreen that are fully fleshed out human beings. It’s a collective consciousness shift that’s happening and a correcting of long-held discrimination in the entertainment industry.

Can you talk about landing the Oliver Hampton part in “HTGAWM”?

Originally, I went in for the role of Wes (Gibbins), but I guess it wasn’t a good fit. Then, about a month later, they asked me to audition for the role of Oliver that was a one-time role in the pilot. When we shot the pilot, Pete (Nowalk, creator) seemed really excited about the stuff I was doing and the way Jack (Falahee) and I worked together. He said he was going to look into bringing Oliver back for a few episodes.

What can we expect from your character in Season 4?

I’m not sure yet, but we ended Season 3 with a marriage proposal. Yikes. Maybe Oliver proposed a little hastily and out of fear, because of all of the intense things that happened last season. There are going to be big questions Oliver has to answer for himself, personally and professionally.

What was it like being back on “Here Lies Love” and playing Ninoy Aquino again in Seattle? Will you be in another staging in other cities?

I love being a part of it. The cast and creative team are my family forever. “HLL” is such an urgent show right now, given the state of the worldwide political climate. There’s talk of future productions of “HLL.” I’ll always be ready to go back to the disco.

To people who are planning to pursue acting, what should they prepare for?

They should prepare their voice. Develop a rich, nuanced, powerful, flexible voice. They should learn about their body in space, and increase their spatial awareness. They should learn how to harness their will, and attach it to the will of another human being. In other words, the ability to empathize. They should write their goals down and say them out loud. Then, they should go to every audition and be in front of an audience whenever they’re given the chance.

#conrad ricamora #htgawm cast #htgawm #oliver hampton #coliver #how to get away with murder #jack falahee #connor walsh #filipino american #here lies love #shondaland #interview #htgawm s4

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todokori-kun · 7 years

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WELCOME BACK!

<3 I really missed you, and it’s so great to hear you had fun! (and omg yes so ready to see all those beautiful pics)

Yaaayyyy join me in MCU feels hell. And oooh, you have a ship for the fandom now! Like, Stoki’s still my favorite Steve pairing but Stony’s really cool too…you know I ship almost everything XD (also am I the only person who sorta hated almost everyone by the end of CW? Like, of course they’re still my favs and there are still some cinnamon rolls, but, come on. Why couldn’t you all just get along ;-;)

Speaking of Illumi, do you know that Hisoka/Illumi is an incredibly popular ship in the HxH fandom? Probably because both of them are so horrible that they have like 0 friends other than each other. Nobody else wants to hang out with these losers. (Chrollo tolerates Hisoka and the adults in Illumi’s family seem to spend enough time with him to give him orders, but that’s about it.) It’s a trash ship with two trashy people and tbh I love it XD

So continuing with the eye jokes, imagine. Hisoillu version of Helpless. Hisoillu version of Satisfied.

“Look into his eyes and the sky’s the limit”

“Intelligent eyes in a hunger-pang frame”

(I know you did thise one before but still) “But when I fantasize at night, it’s Illumi’s eyes”

just, I’m imagining animatics for this with the ‘camera’ zooming in on Illumi’s dead fish eyes every time the lyrics mention them. It’s hilarious and also mildly terrifying

(though I guess if we’re actually making a Hamilton AU Hisoka’s way more likely to do something like Say No To This…)

idk if I’d want to be a parent either really LOL. Kids are adorable but I don’t think I’ll ever be responsible enough to raise one…

If Ishida makes a plot twist or something about it being someone else pretending to be Hide I'm actually gonna get mad. Dude. Not only would that bring the Hide feels right back it’d just make absolutely no sense omg

(also you read the new chapter, right? So, let’s talk about Juuzou and that huge death flag)

I’ve heard of Soul Eater and considered reading it but it’s not really the kind of thing I’m into…artwork’s cute, though, and Death the Kid seems like an interesting guy so maybe someday XD

AGH I’M ACTUALLY SORTA JEALOUS BECAUSE WOW I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA HOW TO WATCH THAT LEGALLY HERE IN KOREA. (unless I ask my dad for help but he doesn’t like manga/anime at all, so…) But yes, I’m really happy Lizzy finally got her moment this time! Now anime-only fans can’t complain about her being a ‘shallow’ character so hopefully there’ll be less fighting over Lizzy in the Kuro fandom :D

FINALLY. Fellow Death Note fan <3333 Who’s your fav? Do you have any ships? Are you done with the anime??? :D (also do you know…you picked a really interesting time to join the DN fandom. The American live-action movie just came out and it sucks so freaking bad, like I haven’t even watched it yet and just from the reviews/clips, here’s what I got:

-They turned Misa into this Harley Quinn-type character. Only without any depth.

-Light/Misa is an actual canon ship, like, it’s not abusive or one-sided like it is in the anime/manga, it’s just…a thing. Light loves Misa. Misa loves Light. It’s like every cringey high school romance movie ever, only with more murder

-They freaking bent the Death Note rules just so Light could get away with all sorts of ridiculous stuff

-L cries, L rants, L is overly emotional

-Light tells L where he hid a page from his Death Note. Light doesn’t deny being Kira. Light shows Misa his Death Note when they like barely know each other and she’s still a complete stranger to him. Light acts like an idiot.

-Oh sure, he’s Kira, God of the New World, but he still cares about going to prom with his girlfriend and making stupid faces as they pose for pictures

-So much unnecessary gore. Heart attacks are Kira’s thing, Light isn’t that emotional about his kills, he doesn’t care as long as the 'villains’ are dead, so why???

-Apparently Rem does not exist. Sayu doesn't exist either. Light’s mom is dead (probably so he can angst over her)

-Light Turner. Light TURNER. Out of all the surnames they could have chosen…

-And now, for the most unforgivable sin:

How dare they not include the Potato Chip scene)

And then random things: JJ and Light have the same voice actor. Yurio and Mello (imo…have you met Mello yet?) could be long-lost twins.

Also:

I’ve fallen into Steven Universe hell and now I’m imagining so. Many. Gem AUs. Have you ever heard of SU?

(look:

1- don’t stress about the messages, and come on, I’d never get mad at you over something like this! You’re way too awesome.

2- I don’t really know what to say 'cause I’m bad at comforting people, but ugh, it sucks to hear that school’s tiring you out! Queen Luna’s gonna get through this, though. I mean, you’re great at so many things and you’re freaking smart and…this is awkward but maybe you understand Evans Language by now? XD Guess I’m just trying to say that I’m sure you’ll do great, and if you ever need someone to talk to I’m (almost) always free *hugs*

3- Um. So, other than tumblr, I think the only way I can talk with you right now is if we email each other? The email address I used this time is my real one (or rather, my dad’s, since I don’t have one of my own yet…) so maybe we can talk about this more through email and find a better way to contact each other? If that’s ok with you can you send me a message there?)

P.S:

I’ve started college and have no idea what I’m doing

*slams head against keyboard* guess who managed to get sick. It’s only been a week since school started. Whatever, I’m still going to school, but I woke up breathing like a fish on land, bc asthma. Yay.

I’m definitely gonna upload the pics today!!

Okay, but one thing I’m wondering about, is How? Not in a malicious way or anything, I’m genuinely curious to why you ship Stoki (and where it began). Was it that redemption fic you told me about or did you ship it before?

Tbh, I didn’t hate the characters in CW, I hated the situation. Because there’s so so much pointless conflict that could easily be solved if everyone sat down and talked like normal people. But nooo we have to go around attacking each other. ((ALSO CAP’S LETTER TO TONY, I AM DEAD))

I’ve already learned (and experienced) that shipping is a very weird and unusual thing, so I’ll be honest and say I’m not even surprised that ship exists. At least it has some basis XD

I’m actually tempted to go through the lyrics of the whole musical and find every single eye line there is, only to replace it w Illumi’s eyes.

Not only zooming in on the eyes, the word itself is louder than the rest XD man if only I could draw…

Tbh I’d say I’m responsible enough (HA, that’s more or less a lie), but I’m honestly way too irritated with the little ones to be able to have one of my own. My cousin recently celebrated her 3rd bday and I was stuck looking after her during the party, bc all the adults were talking among themselves and I swear to god, I haven’t moved that much since I had to run 2km for PE. Where do they get their energy. Not to mention the adults thought it would be a good idea to leave me w her, because I’d already drunk 3 glasses of wine (i was bored and not allowed to do anything other than stare at emptiness or look after a 3yo). Turns out my tolerance isn’t that bad after all.

Lol let’s be honest, Ishida would totally do that. He knows the fandom would riot and that’s the whole point.

All the death flags. Tbh I don’t know how I feel about it. It’s obvious that either Touka or Juuzou are probably gonna die and I wan’t neither (If I have to choose tho, I’d rather Juuzou survives.) Also Naki. HNNNNNNGH

I think you’d actually like the manga? It takes a pretty dark turn compared to the anime and deals with lots of mental issues (the whole theme of the later volumes is Madness). Also, lots of death XD Well, the artwork changes drastically, so which one are you talking about XD

The girl in the coat (left first pic, middle 2nd) is the same person for reference. Death the Kid was one of my first anime crushes. The guy has OCD and is a total badass.

MUHAHAHAHA I think someone uploaded the Lizzy fight to youtube so you can probably find it there, but I am in love. The animation is beautiful, so that’s also a huge plus. All in all, it was handled really well.

Death Note

So last I’ve watched is ep 25, aka the one WHERE L DIES. And i am not okay. I am nowhere near okay. Nope. Not at all.

Oh i’ve heard all about the adaptation. Tbh I find the whitewashing hilarious. Setting the movie in America removes so much of the series’s logic, so why? L being the way he is is probably my favourite mistake. They took the best character and ruined him completely. POTATO CHIP SCENE NOOOO But my question is: did everything go just according to the keikaku?

Have fun w SU! I’ve watched it for a while, but gave up at some point. I might pick it up again if I have the time ^^ Word of advice, watch out for the fandom, they’re among the most toxic ones I’ve ever encountered. One time, they almost drove an artist to suicide because she didn’t draw Rose ‘thick enough’. So yeah.

What did I do to deserve you as my friend TT^TT Thank you so so much, those words mean more than you can imagine.

Um. Looks like we’ll be staying here, because I never, ever check my mail, despite getting school assignments there, so yeah. If we used mail, you’d probably get a response every leap year.

How does the education system work in Korea? Like, at what age do you start going to which school?

Also, I’ve told you about Mystic Messenger? I think you’d like the newest update, because damn, it’s creeping me out. Also, it’s in Korean, so + ((My thoughts during the prologue of the new route: Nani the fuck))

#evans #submission

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Where to Watch Chadwick Boseman Movies

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The late Chadwick Boseman made just 15 films before his shocking, devastating death last week from colon cancer. But many of those 15 movies (one, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, is coming soon from Netflix) had already left an undeniable and in some cases massive impact on cinema, even before becoming the permanent legacy of an incredible actor taken from us far too soon.

Not only did his portrayal of King T’Challa in Marvel’s Black Panther and three other Marvel Cinematic Universe entries change film history itself, but he brought some of the most important figures in both Black and American culture to the screen. Jackie Robinson and Thurgood Marshall were American heroes of gigantic stature, and Boseman managed to introduce them to new generations of viewers through his sensitive, complex portrayals.

By all accounts, Chadwick Boseman wanted each of his roles to mean something. He wanted to tell the story of Black history and push that story forward every time he stepped in front of a camera. While so much of his filmography achieved that, there was clearly much more than this gifted artist was going to give us had he lived. You can see his power, his decency, his dignity and his charisma in every frame of the work we have, and fortunately it’s almost all available to us. Sadly, it will have to be enough.

Universal Pictures

The Express: The Ernie Davis Story (2008)

Chadwick Boseman had appeared on a handful of TV programs before landing his first role in a theatrical feature. While his role as a young version of real life Pro Football Hall of Famer Floyd Little was relatively minor, it did presage Boseman’s star turns in later sports movies like 42 and the fictional Draft Day. As for The Express itself, the story of Ernie Davis — the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy — was sadly a box office disappointment despite good reviews, but might be rediscovered now.

Available on Amazon

101 Films

The Kill Hole (2012)

It was four years before Boseman showed up on the big screen again, in a military thriller with Peter Greene and Billy Zane. It’s significant because it’s Boseman’s first lead role in a film: he plays Lt. Samuel Drake, an ex-Marine suffering from PTSD who is tasked by intelligence operatives to track down and kill another Iraq vet who’s gone off the deep end. The low-budget entry only holds a 25% score on Rotten Tomatoes, but completists may want to see what Boseman was doing before he landed his breakout gig.

Available on Amazon

Brooklyn Dodgers first baseman Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) acknowledges the crowd in 42.

42 (2013)

The film that first got Boseman the attention he deserved as a major upcoming talent is only the second theatrical feature (after 1950’s The Jackie Robinson Story, which starred Robinson himself) to tell the historic story of the first African-American baseball player to make it to the major leagues.

Boseman is full of strength, presence and grace, and he plays beautifully off Harrison Ford as Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey in one of that actor’s best latter-day performances. An inspirational, moving film.

Available on Amazon

Summit Entertainment

Draft Day (2014)

Boseman followed up 42 with another sports drama, this time a fictional tale of how Cleveland Browns general manager Sonny Weaver (Kevin Costner) makes an unexpected first draft pick in linebacker Vontae Mack (Boseman) and must deal with the aftermath of that. Boseman’s role is a supporting one here and he’s fine in it, while the film itself may be enjoyable for NFL fans but a bit confusing for general viewers. There was better to come in 2014 from the actor.

Available on Amazon

Universal Pictures

Get on Up (2014)

Boseman lights up the screen in this biopic of the legendary James Brown, doing all his own dancing and even some singing as the Godfather of Soul. The movie itself, directed by Tate Taylor (The Help) is not perfect, playing with different narrative structures and omitting a number of incidents from Brown’s life. But the main attraction is once again Boseman, who doesn’t so much imitate Brown as inhabit his wild, untamed, often troubled spirit.

Available on HBO Max

Lionsgate

Gods of Egypt (2016)

This half-baked fantasy saga set in ancient Egypt is probably among the low points of Boseman’s career, not the least because of the whitewashing controversy surrounding some of the casting. Boseman himself took the role of Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom, to make sure there was a person of African descent in the mix, but even his usual dignity can’t save this CG-addled mess.

Available on Amazon

Disney

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

When Marvel revealed Boseman as the man who would play T’Challa/Black Panther at a 2014 fan event, it seemed like the most natural pick in the world. And it proved to be right off the bat: Boseman’s introduction in the role in Civil War was electrifying, with the actor showing off not only his action chops but the regality and force of personality necessary to play the young king of the Afro-futuristic nation of Wakanda. His turn in Civil War only whetted the fans’ appetites for what was to come.

Available on Disney+

Netflix

Message from the King (2016)

Jacob King (Boseman) travels from Cape Town, South Africa to Los Angeles to find out what happened to his sister, ultimately embarking on a mission to avenge her death against a seedy backdrop of gangs, politics and depraved Hollywood producers. Boseman was also an executive producer on the project, which was directed by Belgian filmmaker Fabrice Du Welz, who made the brutal Calvaire in 2004.

Available on Netflix

Open Road Films

Marshall (2017)

Boseman’s last portrayal of a major Black figure in American history was underseen at the time of its release and will hopefully get some revived attention now (albeit under terrible circumstances). Director Reginald Hudlin and writers Jacob and Michael Koskoff focus on the early years of the first African-American to sit on the Supreme Court, and while that unfortunately leaves out some of his titanic later accomplishments, the movie is still a gripping courtroom drama that shows a giant in the making.

Available on: Amazon

Disney

Black Panther (2018)

What can be said about Black Panther that hasn’t already been said? Thrilling, game-changing, and historic, the first superhero film not just led by a person of color but steeped wholly in African culture was a magnificent achievement in nearly every way. You can feel the passion from director Ryan Coogler in every frame, and a dazzling cast is led powerfully by its King, who embodies T’Challa in such a wholly formed way that he will always be associated with the character.

Available on Disney+

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

With so many characters to juggle in Marvel’s all-in clash against Thanos, it was inevitable that some got less to do than others. T’Challa plays a key role in corralling Wakanda’s armies to stand against the Mad Titan in the latter half of the film, and Boseman again brings a formidable presence even with less to do. Yet it’s no accident that some of the loudest gasps in the audience came when T’Challa was dusted at the end of the film — only hammering home just what an impact he had already made on the MCU.

Available on Disney+

Disney

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

With most of the Avengers and their allies dematerialized until the closing sequences of the movie, T’Challa is not much of a factor in the events of Endgame. But as with the audience reaction to his dusting in Infinity War, the response when he, Shuri (Letitia Wright) and Okoye (Danai Gurira) are the first to emerge from a portal to join the final fight remains a high point of seeing Endgame with an audience. It is beyond sad that we’ll never get to see Boseman in the role again.

Available on Disney+

Matt Kennedy/STX Films

21 Bridges (2019)

A good cast and interesting premise — Boseman plays a detective who shuts down all 21 bridges on and off the island of Manhattan to catch two cop-killers — can’t save this film from being just average. Boseman is unfortunately given little to work with in terms of his character. The movie boasts a handful of striking action and chase sequences, but ultimately ends up as a rather generic thriller.

Available on Amazon (coming to Showtime Sept. 5)

Netflix

Da 5 Bloods (2020)

Boseman’s Norman Earl “Stormin’ Norm” Holloway is only seen leading his squadron in Viet Nam during flashbacks in Spike Lee’s messy but often brilliant war drama. But his presence is the linchpin on which this powerful, poignant story rests, as the surviving members of that squad head back to the country decades later to find Holloway’s remains (and a buried stash of gold). This searing commentary on war through the filter of the Black experience is likely to be a major Oscar contender.

Available on Netflix

The post Where to Watch Chadwick Boseman Movies appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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bountyofbeads · 5 years

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Jeffrey Epstein: how US media – with one star exception – whitewashed the story

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/13/jeffrey-epstein-alex-acosta-miami-herald-media?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Post_to_Tumblr

Jeffrey Epstein: how US media – with one star exception – whitewashed the story

The Miami Herald exposed a vast criminal network and a government cover-up – but why the silence elsewhere?

By Ed Pilkington | Published:01:00 Sat July 13, 2019 | The Guardian | Posted July 13, 2019 |

When Julie K Brown of the Miami Herald approached a former police chief of Palm Beach, Florida, in 2017, hoping to get him to open up about his investigation of the child sex crimes for which the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein had been fleetingly jailed a decade earlier, she was surprised by how unresponsive he was

Michael Reiter told Brown he had been down this road many times and was sick of it. As Brown recalled in a WNYC interview last month, Reiter said he had talked to many reporters and told them precisely where to find damning evidence against Epstein. But nothing ever came of it.

“He was convinced that a lot of media had squashed the story and he was fed up,” she said.

Reiter warned Brown what would happen were she to continue digging: “Somebody’s going to call your publisher and the next thing you know you are going to be assigned to the obituaries department.”

Brown did not heed his warning. She flung herself at the investigation and eventually persuaded Reiter to go on record. Her resulting, award-winning three-part series last November exposed a vast operation in which 80 potential victims were identified, some as young as 13 and 14 at the time of the alleged abuse. She persuaded eight to tell their stories.

"Somebody’s going to call your publisher and the next thing you know you are going to be assigned to obituaries" Michael Reiter

Brown also exposed a government cover-up in which Epstein got away with an exceptionally light sentence that saw him serve only 13 months in jail. She discovered that a “non-prosecution agreement” had been negotiated secretly in 2008 by the then top federal prosecutor in Miami, Alexander Acosta, that gave Epstein and his co-conspirators immunity from federal prosecution.

In 2017, Acosta was appointed by Donald Trump as labor secretary, a post that ironically is responsible for combating sex trafficking.

The media’s handling – or mishandling – of the Epstein affair is a story of extremes.

It is a heartwarming success story, of how one intrepid reporter pierced the veil of secrecy and found the truth. Brown’s coverage has had consequences: Epstein was arrested last Saturday and indicted on new sex trafficking charges by New York prosecutors who praised her work. In the fallout, Acosta was forced to resign.

But there is also a less cheerful narrative. Why did the police chief’s appeals to the media fall on deaf ears? Why would so many years pass before the shocking extent of Epstein’s crimes and Acosta’s sweetheart deal were revealed by a local newspaper with severely limited resources?

In fact, the two extremes of the story are directly linked: Brown told WNYC one of the reasons she began looking into Epstein was that she was puzzled about the public silence surrounding him.

“There really was nobody pursuing this at all,” she said. “That was one of the things that intrigued me about this case. Why isn’t anyone standing up and screaming?”

‘I believe him … I’m Canadian’

That silence stretches all the way back to 2003, when Vicky Ward wrote a profile of Epstein for Vanity Fair. During her reporting, she was introduced to a mother and her two daughters from Phoenix, Arizona who alleged Epstein assaulted the girls, one of whom was 16 at the time.

Ward told the Guardian she spent a lot of time with the family discussing whether they should go public.

“They were frightened,” she said. “The mother told me that every night when she walked the dog she looked over her shoulder.”

"I asked the women what they were going to do and they said they would lick their wounds and retreat" Vicky Ward

Eventually, the women agreed to go on the record, Ward said, and when Epstein was told about their accounts he went “berserk”. Epstein had already threatened to get a witch doctor to put a curse on Ward’s unborn children – she was pregnant with twins at the time – and now he campaigned to stop Vanity Fair publishing the allegations, even turning up unannounced at the office of the then editor, Graydon Carter.

Publication was delayed, then Ward was told the paragraphs on the abuse of the women had been deleted.

“I was extraordinarily upset,” she said. “I asked the women what they were going to do and they said they would lick their wounds and retreat, as this was exactly what they feared would happen.”

Ward believes Carter caved under Epstein’s pressure. She recalls confronting the editor about the excised paragraphs, and said she has a note in her archives that has Carter saying: “I believe him … I’m Canadian.”

Carter remembers events very differently. In his account there were legal issues around the women’s stories that prevented publication, most significantly that the women themselves were unwilling to go on the record.

In a statement to the Guardian, Carter said: “I respected the work Vicky Ward did at Vanity Fair but unfortunately her recounting of the facts around the Epstein article is inaccurate. There were not three sources on the record and therefore this aspect of the story did not meet our legal and editorial standards.”

Ward says she has documentary evidence that shows the women were emphatically prepared to go public, including fact-checkers’ and legal emails to Epstein from Vanity Fair asking for his response to the allegations made by both sisters.

The Guardian spoke to the mother of the girls, Janice Farmer. She said all three did speak to Ward in 2003 and told her on the record what Epstein had done, including allegations he had invited her youngest daughter, then 16, to his New Mexico ranch and molested her.

“I was hesitant to go public because I was worried about the safety of my daughters – by that point I didn’t trust Jeffrey at all,” Farmer said. “But I did want him to be exposed.”

She said she recalls vividly agreeing with Ward along with her daughters for their stories to be told in her Vanity Fair profile. She also said she recalls vividly her reaction when she learnt that part of the piece was not to be published.

“I felt angry,” she said. “I felt like Jeffrey’s money, power, connections – whatever – had been put into play.”

"My journalism benefited from #MeToo as we [started] giving these cases much more scrutiny" Julie K Brown

There is another complicating element to the story. In 2011, after Epstein had gone to jail, Ward wrote a blogpost for Vanity Fair. In it she used language that was strikingly uncritical of Epstein, referring to him as “not without humor” and praising him for being highly knowledgable.

She referenced Epstein’s sex crimes as “sexual peccadilloes” and referred to her 2003 Vanity Fair profile of him, saying it had alluded to his sexual relationships with young women but “didn’t really go there, focusing instead on … how Jeffrey made his money”.

The piece went on: “This is not to say I didn’t hear stories about the girls. I did. But, not knowing quite whom to believe, I concentrated on the intriguing financial mystery instead.”

The Guardian put this blogpost to Ward and she said she regretted writing it. At that point, she said, the victims she had interviewed were not willing to talk. But nonetheless, “this blog did not need to be written – here I am toeing the Vanity Fair party line”.

‘My journalism benefited from #MeToo’

Fast forward to 2007, when Acosta reached his bizarrely lenient plea deal with Epstein. By then, investigators had identified 35 potential victims who said they had been lured into Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion and sexually assaulted.

Yet records obtained by the Miami Herald showed prosecutors led by Acosta actively worked with Epstein’s attorneys to minimize media coverage.

One of Acosta’s prosecutors wrote in an email to Jay Lefkowitz, an Epstein lawyer: “On an ‘avoid the press’ note … I can file the charge in district court in Miami which will hopefully cut the press coverage significantly. Do you want to check that out?”

That Acosta felt that he had to resign on Friday was an indication that the collective failure of US media to grapple with a story of serial sex trafficking and abuse that had been hiding in plain sight for years no longer holds true. In the wake of Brown’s exemplary reporting, the rest of the American media has fallen in line. Acosta paid the price.

That may in part be thanks to the #MeToo movement that had not erupted when Brown began her investigation but did draw attention to her work when it was published. As she told MSNBC after Epstein’s arrest last weekend: “My journalism benefited from #MeToo as we [started] giving these cases much more scrutiny.”

Mary Angela Bock, associate professor in the University of Texas at Austin’s school of journalism, said #MeToo had dented the prevailing patriarchy that has existed in newsrooms for decades and that had led to sexual crimes being overlooked as merely “the way of the world”.

“#MeToo has led to greater awareness among journalists that this is not OK,” she said. “This is not ‘boys being boys’. This is rape and sexual exploitation of children.”

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sh-lan · 7 years

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OMFG LAST QUARTER EVER + some spring break stuff???

Took a weekend off of life Retail therapy at its finest today Even though new jeans were overdue

It’s crazy how it still came I guess it’s a force of nature But omg it’s gonna be here on the concert T^T

This nerd would have mitsuha’s theme on his playlist smh #nochu

April 2nd, 2017 BTS Wings Tour I still can’t believe it happened I’ve been awake since 8am lol and it’s like 1:54am and i’m still trying to process and remember everything that happened today It felt like a dream! I can’t believe I saw them in real life. ohmygod Hands down, easily one of the best day of this week - if not this entire year so far holy shit will continue this tomorrow as i reminisce ok but one thing i noticed is that jungkook’s thighs are actually so real like wtf? shookt EDIT: lol i never finished this but oh well

oop i just bought more rings goodbye money

my charger broke gg time to get another one

I have a newfound appreciation for the color pink or more like my appreciation for pink is coming back

When you get anxious because bts hasnt posted on twitter for 3 days but then you also know they’re resting and that they deserve this break

SPRING QUARTER LEGGO tu/th schedule let’s hope this all works well keke

week 1 recap tuesday - sees everybody in freaking AB LOL sees harry after walking out of my tdpw sees alana and dylan outside my global health class which alana is also taking, and becca and tanya lOL goes to cogs 122 to find chen screaming my name - also vania and stella <3 last class is normal - with nobody in management BUT LOL LEIGHTON ADDED THE CLASS ON THURSDAY HAHA there’s also this girl in my tdpw class who looks like lindsay lohan and her name is also lindsey but with an e cause i saw it on the email lol not a stalker

Decided to gel nails it out friday of week 1 whut whut

First attempt at 양념치킨~

been using the soundtrack of your name this past week to get over pcd it’s been a week and i still haven’t recovered T^T

went to kbbq with harry! lol week 1 sunday started at manna….having an adventure in between at manna keke “started here and ending it here?” LOL

currently craving anything strawberry

don’t understand why i need to have my email as a send&receive in order to sms to work on my laptop bb why are you being stubborn when you’ve been working fine all this time

under yuri’s recommendation, i microwaved my coffee because it was lukewarm and she called me extra LOL

i’m getting nervous about a presentation when i shouldn’t be because ?? my AB service leader self is like completely gone i wanna crawl into a hole

i just finished season 2 and 3 of htgawm in less than a week… how they gonna do season 4 i wonder

Week 2 thursday I was actually really looking forward to class today Also my rings came! Though were they worth the $50….not so sure Were they cute? Yes But not as cute as the other one T^T So i mustnt give in to temptations nowww

I found out what matcha powder mom uses to make their matcha latte Cappuccine frappe mix But it’s sadly not on amazon ):

This new tumblr function is really inconvenient cause i cant tell how many thing i have on queue brcause i have to keep switching blogs -_-

Han came to visit! Friday Papa johns Saturday Snooze brunch Infinitea Abeh hangout In n out Sunday Aquarium! Koon thai Ramen yamadaya Boba bar and then i drove him to irvine where we got coco curry! and then i drove back and he bought me milk tea with pudding

Had an epiphany It’s not anenome It’s anemone

Omg but like why dont people call spoiler alerts “spoilerts”

Started 13 reasons why with Han Finished it, tuesday week 3 Hmmm How to feel

finished strong woman park hyung sik is so…adorable? IT’S SO WEIRD. HIS AEGYO LEVEL IS INSANE

When you realize that 둘! 셋! is probably the title of the fan song because that’s what BTS always say when they introduce themselves And that BTS + ARMY forever ㅠㅠㅠㅠ I’m not crying r u crying ;___;

어떻게

Omg when you wake up for reorientation and jungkook does lives <3

highkey need to crawl into a hole tbh

You know what i want to do? Go to an olive garden Even though i know it’ll taste bad lol

Not really sure what i want… But i dont want my 4 years to be a waste ):

i….skipped out on an interview today was it the right choice i may never know

most recent ep of snk got me fucked up SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT YMIR AND CHRISTA’S RELATIONSHIP IS WHO IS CHRISTA

Lol i hella bombed my quiz GOODBYE GONNA P/NP HAHA

Week 4 weekend Fuck me in the ass i twisted my ankle and i am in irvine had to pop an advil and cruise control all the way back thank god there weren’t many cars lol 0/10 do not recommend

Slept on the couch the past two days to elevate my ankle Glad to be back in bed But i think i might be a little…sick? Fuck Need to grocery shop

Dammit i got called for jury duty

Ok but i twisted my ankle and two recruiters emailed me back the next day so was it really a loss

Week 5 i’m sick…

just watched 5 centimeters per second a little sadder than i was an hour ago

fuck i forgot that my jeans are new and i washed it and my pink shirt is ruined fml triggered

thursday after rolling over ma ankle i can finally see that it is a lil swollen and there is bruising LOL also saw an owl at school today and a bunny while leaving to go to meeting

week 5 tuesday saw two bunnies on my way out to school

I just saw two hummingbirds! 😍

I cant believe yuri and i finished twenty SMH

ABCD today Some qualitee photos were taken Im tired now

Really debating the 4th term

third day of back pain flexibility dying wow what is happening???

…..army 4th term is $75 cries EDIT: it’s $66 because i forgot exchange rate but still cri EDIT EDIT: it’s $45 if i ship it to taiwan - seriously really highkey considering that now oh dear

bro i think i just experienced katawaredoki whut

i keep thinking that my ankle is ok but i always end up doing something that ends up hurting it like hella im

Week 6 thursday last leadership meeting one of my favorite meetings because whoa INFORMATION!? it was nice wanted to discuss and add in my two cents but i honestly just wasn’t able to wrap my head around everything loool then…we decided to go to PB LOL chen, jeong, yuri, justin and his friends (including nicole, nicole, sandy) and then more people. we also met leslie, brett, dexter, allison, kenny, peter, abby, ben…and more? at pb lolol and also we saw miguel and anthony - it was like a freshman year flashback tbh lOL went to vallartas after and then came home to shower and finally sleep at 3:30am wot is life NEXT DAY ADVENTURES - leighton and i finally pulled out the weeds and now we’re tired

salty that i wasnt invited to the birthday celebration, not that i would really make the trip per say but wtf gurl

I just had this really sad thought that i’m probably never gonna ever get to know bts like friends y i do dis to meself

Wait so like i got sick while at clew’s and it didnt happen until week 5 and so i was sick from week 5 through week 6 and at this one point i couldnt taste my food it was terribad

May 12th I bought the membership LOL Hopefully it mails it correctly back to Taiwan ☺️

im dumb i didn’t save the color i wanted for my hair

omg the song vania recommended to me a few days ago was recommended by jungkook like a year or so ago on twitter lOOOOL

Just tryna level up here :<

Struggles when places are in the east coast and phone calls are early in the fckin morning

Note to self: Ridge cut potato chips with sea salt is good for stuff with dip Ridge cut salt and pepper is good for regular eating, but gets salty at the bottom LOL EDIT: per vania’s suggestion, i salted and peppered my chips

watching jungkook’s vlive AND HE JUST HARMONIZED WITH HIMSELF IM DED

Just woke up from a dream where someone hurt my brother/nade him fall and i was so angry? Was about to go ape shit on that person im ded lol who is rhis angry me

Rewatched and finished reply 1997 Wow what is life when yoon jae is life But also what is life when your idols are life Daily reminder to not be as obsessed as shiwon LOLOL

i can’t go to giraffage and elephante anymore im on the otherhand i get to go to virginia???

lol but like i haven’t been writing drafts because i often write in my notebook now but here are some updates - my nails are constantly chipping - forgot about grad photos that clashed with the weekend han is coming - im ded because i probs won’t have a weekend to myself until week 10 - struggles to figure out graduation things - paid my $54 to walk #mostexpensivewalkever

LAST LEADERSHIP MEETING (turnover) what am i going to do with my thursday nights now? it’s been a good run

Jealous of the staff that holds and records the camera during vlives? LOL who am i

When you forget that jeon jungkook did taekwondo before Hnnnngh

i just reaffirmed? or discovered? that i don’t like fruity pebbles o_o

Trying to think of a thing to put on my grad cap Tis hard Let’s make a list: 花樣年華 Strong power thank you You never walk alone Ireumeun deborah LOL Lol omg but why is yoongi’s “cheater never win but i just graduated” quote so appropriate for grad EXTRA + ORDINARY* Lost my way/found my way* Click clack to the bang Smile with me, cry with me, fly with me (you make me begin, you made me again) Ctrl+c, ctrl+v do you know “____” (hci? annyeonghasaeyo) To lose your path, Is the way to find that path* 꽃길만 걷자* Let’s fly with our beautiful wings in 2017 EDIT: i’m too lazy, i didn’t do anything to my cap lOL

Im shookt cause namjoon doesnt say 이제 feelin the vibe. HE SAYS IF YOU FEELIN THE VIBE. I feel…betrayed

Non whitewashed bangtan gives me life

May 21st My first haircut since… Since i got it cut over the summer?????

Bought me stole and tassel today Smh that i cant grab my muir tickets?? Cause i ordered all commencwment tickets SMH

Lowkey afraid of not passing mgt LOL

Omfg i knew we were going to have a pop quiz. It really happened

nicole and evelyn commented that they liked my hair and audrey and malia agreed i gotta say i’m so glad people remember me in my tdpw class LOOL

Cant get the seventeen song outta my head Shookt by the choreography

Y'all im so fckin shookt First the chainsmokers post on twitter like “see you in the summer” Then they win the BBMAs like a boss Then you see them on halsey + steve aoki’s snapchat Next things you know steve aoki is postin shit like “BTS x AOKI COMING SOON” Im SCREAMING

Yo my lyft driver dropped some knowledge again and told me his life story lmao he was a police officer in chicago and he was forced to retired and then ?? after chasing down a rapist and getting into a fight, he was seriously injured. but his dad (a judge or someone powerful idk) forced him out of retirement by telling everyone to not give him his benefits and shit and i was like. whoa bro. slow down? “embrace the unknown”

I finally tried the coconut black tie at peet’s 10/10 a mistake

Okay but can we talk about how on point everybody looked in the comeback Esp wonwoo and dk But also vernon 👌🏼

First time in virginia/ being so close to washington dc! Whoa Also gonna pass by texas too :O Knocking some states off my list

I WITNESSED MY FIRST CIRCLE RAINBOW THINGY ON THE PLANE FROM VIRGINIA TO DALLAS TODAY HOLY IT WAS V COOL

i don’t know why i never realized this about myself before but i need to be/live by a body of water at all times or i won’t feel comfortable this is weird

i told han i joined the fanclub and he like died for like 2 seconds lOL

ok but like i bought a carton of eggs and 6 or 7 of them were double yolks and i have 2 more eggs left im starting to think i’m eating some weird hybrid chickens EDIT: those last two eggs were both double yolks. this was a wild adventure

omg i knew that the TA MOST LIKELY RYAN WOULDNT UNDERSTAND OUR IDEA JUST LIKE HOW HE ALWAYS MISINTERPRETS THEM??? like what kind of constructive feedback is that if he doesn’t understand what we’re trying to do im… sigh

Already excited about the festa But like omfg they released the schedule today And just WE DONT TALK ANYMORE PT 2?? SO FAR AWAY FEATURING JIN AND JUNGKOOK? Im IM SCREAMING also sad but the radio show is right before my finals gotta prioritize, no bts fo me ;__;

after waiting two weeks, my application to get leveled up was rejected *cries* time to try again! *^*

okay but really feeling seventeen’s song as well as suran’s song like hIGHKEY

i finally got my commencement tickets the third time that i went to the bookstore third time’s the charm right? also whytf is the parking pass for all campus commencement so huge -_-

hnngh omg that feel when you have hella shit to do TPDW1 final play due week 9 friday because we won’t have class at all on week 10 then there’s the presentation (elevator pitch) that happened today week 9 thursday but also just hauling ass on things for A5 tbh what is this what is everything wot is the meaning of life when vania and i stay up till 3:30am lol… and then there’s me. tired af but didn’t sleep til 4:30 anyways cause i’m a dumbass l e l let’s not be a potato this last week k?

burger king in pc has its own free wifi called WhopperWifi and it’s so much faster than school wifi this is revolutionary

week 9 weekend to irvine irritated on the way over irritated on the way back lol wot is life i should’ve just turned around to go back home

NO TDPW1 WEEK 10 WOOT wow that means i won’t have class until 2pm whoa

“why are you reading math formulas” - yuri i was actually reading bts profiles lOLOL she just dissed their handwritings

Just spent the past hour or so looking at kakao friends merchandise And discovering that apeach is a genetically modified peach lol

that moment when you ask for a png file but get a jpg

dyed my hurr twice today for a darker shade still not what i was going for but this will do for now

Omfg i slept through my alarm until 1pm Goodbye study time?? Also omg i like it pt 2 video SHIT SHIT SHIT THEY KNOW WE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS. HAD IT SINCE BAEPSAE DAYS. BUT DIDNT RELEASE IT. Freakin bighit

My request to level up on the fancafe has once again been rejected ); EDIT: oMFG IT’S BECAUSE I DIDN’T CHANGE THE SETTING TO SOMETHING im screaming, what a first world problem THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM AMIRITE

Doesnt feel like it… But thursday was my last time going to class…pretty much like ever unless i go to more school Holy shit

Oh man I didnt think i’d have THAT much shit. But…i think i have A LOT of shit….

saw bts MBIT and i was like omfg! knew that i was INFJ but took the test again yesterday and ended up INFP….but just barely P so i think i’ll stick with INFJ lol EDIT: i took the test again today because vania and yuri were talking about it again and i am still INFP…and more P this time. SO LOST. WHO AM I

put my things up for sale i forgot that i might need my light el oh el crying on the inside cause i want to keep my desk but then i’m selling it off because i don’t think i’ll have space for it and i just CRYING ON THE INSIDE BECAUSE IT’S BEEN WITH ME FOR SO LONG T^T

ON ANOTHER NOTE. THIRD TIME IS THE CHARM LEVELED UP ON JUNE 12TH AT ONE SOMETHING AM

JUNE 12TH FINISHED MY FIRST AND LAST FINAL I AM OFFICIALLY DONE WITH MY UNDERGRADUATE CAREER??? also lmao i spent 45 min on the final wot

i dyed my hair darker but now it’s become lighter? wait wtf wait no go back EDIT: wait no it went back to being dark? is this a thing? when i get exposed to the sun it gets lighter and when i sleep it gets darker??? smh at light for fckin with me

so i set an alarm to watch the bts home party last night for like 3:57am and i didn’t hear it but i guess i kinda did cause i woke up at 4:05am and was like ??? i decided to watch a bit of it but ended up streaming the whole thing until 5:45am looooool also watched the numbers grow from the 500,000 all the way to 2,000,000 and then 3,000,000? it was nuts

omfg all these years of rereading chapters and only now do i realize that i could save bookmarks on mangahere *slaps forehead*

Moment of silence cause i sold my desk that’s accompanied me for almost 10 years It even has battlescars (aka X marks by Jacky, 3 of them) LOL memories ;___; Oh and i guess my chair too

lol was gonna sell that yamaha guitar for $45 but it’s going for like $190 on ebay?? so ima just bring it home

finals week hangout list: tuesday: fud with kimberly, peyton, harry wednesday: more fud with stephanie and ellius thursday: KBBQ FOR LUNCH with jeong, justin, yuri, harry LOOOOL

and so...that’s the end of the quarter. my last quarter of school ever (unless i decide to go to more school...which seems unlikely as of right now) it feels weird.................................. but! onto graduation~ looking forward to being reunited with family and whatever’s gonna hit me in the face LOL

and with that goodbye undergrad, hello world ㅇㅅㅇ

#mumble mumble #last #spring quarter mumbles #debs in college #homg #it is over

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