#the only way to get it to not blur was to practically crop it square

[drowxiv]

I suspect the drop rate on this isn't that bad given the low (for first day content) MB price and that I got it on my 2nd spin.

But I also wasn't willing to tempt fate and I don't //need// 8m so here's my new super big mount.

[gr-ogu]

Hello! As requested, here is a tutorial on how I make my gifs. I would like to preface this by saying there are many ways to make gifs, and there’s no right or wrong answer imo. This is just how I personally go about doing so!

I will be using PS CC 2017, but as long as you have the video timeline option, it shouldn’t matter too much; on any version of PS, you should be able to adapt anything I mention here! You will also need some kind of screen recording software. I’ll talk a little more about that under the cut.

To start, you need the source material you will be making the gifs from! I get mine from snahp(.)it (avoiding links so tumblr hopefully doesn’t banish this from the tags lmao) and I always opt for either 1080p or 2160p. Not all laptops will support 2160p as it’s 4K, but either works great! You just want your gifs to be the best quality possible.

Next is where the screen recording comes in. I don’t use the screencapping method to make my gifs (where you use a program to cap a clip and then load those caps into a stack in PS). This isn’t for any particular reason… it’s just how my friends, (who very kindly taught me to gif), had always done it, so it’s now how I do it too. Personally, I find the quality to be just as good as the screencapping method, and have never noticed a difference between the two.

As I have a PC, I use the software built into it for screen-recording. If you go here: theverge(.)com/2020/4/21/21222533/record-screen-pc-windows-laptop-xbox-game-bar-how-to – you can see how to use the XBOX screenrecorder to record from files you have d*wnloaded. This also works on some streaming sites, but I think it depends on what browser you use. Personally, I recommend Firefox, as that seems to bypass a lot of the blocking and ads that occur when trying to do this sort of thing.

For MAC users, I have been told handbrake works well, as it converts MKV files to MP4, which can then be used to make gifs. You only need to convert part of the file to MP4 depending on how much you want to gif, and this also bypasses the screenrecording stage, as you can edit MP4 clips on Quicktime. I am told you can split them into smaller clips by going to edit > trim and it saves the new clip!

I have also used anyvideoconverter for small clips, but I can’t say what it does to the quality of your video, or how big of a file it lets you put in! With the XBOX screenrecorder, it doesn’t matter what type of video files you get, as the recording will save to MP4 anyway.

LOADING YOUR FRAMES

Now, go ahead and record whatever clips you want to gif. Make sure you have the video timeline open, by going to window > timeline. Then, go to file > import > video frames to layers.

Next, select and open your clip from where it has saved (with the XBOX recorder, it saves in video > captures). You should see a little window pop up, where you can move the sliders back and forth to clip your recording to whichever part(s) you specifically want to gif. I recommend trying not to load a lot of frames into photoshop at once, but I would be a hypocrite to say that, since I do it a lot lmao. Just be patient if you do!

Once you have chosen the length, click okay. Never, EVER, I repeat NEVER click the button that says “limit to every __ frames”. This really ruins the flow and quality of your gif—it’s better to have shorter, but smoother gifs, I promise. And with tumblr’s new 10 MB limit, it shouldn’t be a problem anyway!

Then, your frames should open up. What we want to do is make them into a smart object, so we can edit all the layers at the same time. To do this, click the small button in the left-hand corner. ALWAYS click this first. If you don’t, it will only convert the first frame to a smart object and the gif won’t work.

Give it a second to sort itself out, then, on the right-hand side, select all your frames at once using the shift key.

Then, go to filter > convert for smart filters. This might take a minute. Don’t click anything else in case PS gets angry lmao, just leave it for a second and it’ll do its thing. The more frames you have, the longer it takes! Now we have our gif, but it needs to be cropped, sharpened and coloured!

CROPPING

You want to start by selecting the rectangular marquee tool on the left-hand side, then drag it across by clicking and highlighting the area you would like to crop your gif to, like so:

What I tend to do is select everything inside the black lines you sometimes get around your gif (this depends on what file you d*wnload), and also the tiniest bit inside the sides. This is because I’ve found if you crop it right up to the edge, you get a tiny bit of transparency on the sides of your gifs, which I’d rather avoid.

Once you have your desired selection, go to image > crop. Now, the dimensions for tumblr are 540px width, so all your gifs have to be that width. However, the length is up to you. I really like big gifs, so sometimes I even make a full square, or even longer. It’s entirely up to you, and what kind of set you want to make.

For the purposes of this gif, I will stick to what I usually go for, 540px by 350 px. This will mean you’ll have to crop some width off, but that’s okay, since Marisa isn’t central anyway. The cropping is always trial and error for me, as sometimes people move out of the frame within in the gif. The best thing to do is just try it, and then move the slider in the timeline window at the bottom to see if the person stays inside the gif, and if not, adjust accordingly.

Next, go to image > image size:

In this box, if I put the width as 540, the gif is a smaller height than I want, as it keeps to the dimensions of the gif when you load it into PS. That’s okay, just put the height you want instead, and we’ll crop off the excess.

Then click OK. Using the rectangular marquee tool again, we need to remove the excess width. Part of the reason I like this version of PS is that it tells you the width of your selection as you do it, but you can always use the ruler as a guide, and check the size of your image by going to image > image size again.

Again, use image > crop, and your gif should now be the correct size!

You can also use the crop tool in the timeline window to crop the length of your gif:

However, I tend to wait until later on to do this (which will be explained further down!)

SHARPENING

Next you want to go to filter > sharpen > smart sharpen.

These are my settings. However, 0.4px is very sharp, too much so, but that’s easily fixed.

Go to filter > blur > Gaussian blur and then set it to 1.0.

Now on the right-hand side, we need to reduce the blur, so double click the little adjustment button, and change the opacity of the blur. I usually go for 20-30%!

Then click OK, and that’s your sharpening done!

COLOURING

I picked this scene on purpose as it’s dark, so good for showing how to colour a gif. I have a base psd which consists of some very basic adjustments, but it mostly exists so I don’t forget what adjustment layers I like to use. I adjust them every time I make a gif, essentially colouring each gif from scratch.

In this case, the psd actually makes it darker. So, what I will do is turn each layer off, and adjust as I go. A lot of people say using lots of adjustment layers ruins the quality of your gif… I have never found this to be true, as long as you are gentle with them. If you whack the brightness right up to the top, it’s going to ruin your gif no matter if you use 1 adjustment layer or 100. I would just say use your common sense, and adjust a little at a time!

I start with a simple black to white gradient map set to soft light, because I think it helps you see depth once you add some brightness to it. I usually do this on about 10%, or more if needed. It’s probably unnecessary, I just like how it looks!

Then, I move onto using curves and levels. This is where things can diverge depending on who you’re colouring. If this person is white, it doesn’t matter too much. If they’re not white, you don’t want to white wash them. My best advice is to play around with it. By adding vibrance and other (usually the red) selective colour settings later, you can ensure you don’t change the person’s skin tone from what it originally was. You can also use layer masks at varying opacities (various shades of grey), on your curves and levels, to remove some brightening so that you’re not changing anyone’s skin colour. Just brighten slowly and check in with yourself honestly about how your gif looks.

Some people don’t like using levels, or curves. It’s completely up to you. I tend to use both because levels are good for bringing depth, even if not brightening (though I like to use them for that as well). 

One thing you can do is use the white point of the gif to make PS adjust the curves itself, however I like to drag the sliders myself and see what it looks like. Just make sure it’s not too bright, as we will be using further layers to brighten more, after.

Next is levels. The slider on the left controls the black point, the one in the middle controls the midtones, and the one on the right controls the white points. The black brings depth, the midtones adjust the overall brightness, and the white points produce stronger highlights. Again, you’ll get a feel for how this works as you practice. Just don’t use the white point excessively, especially if your characters are not white.

Then I add vibrance (+20!), because we’ve removed a lot of it when lightening the gif. Next is exposure, which I find brings out the highlight and shadow areas more effectively:

Then colour balance! This helps with scenes that might be a certain colour, i.e. too blue, too green, too red, etc. Moving the sliders in the opposite direction of the colour your gif is will counteract it. The best thing to do when accounting for different colours, is to make a new layer every time you change colour, so that you don’t get confused. I always add a new layer for colour balance and selective colour if I want to change more than one thing. So one for red, one for yellow, one for pink, etc. 

A layer of brightness just to make the gif pop, and because the scene is extra dark, I added a very gentle extra curves layer:

SAVING YOUR GIF

Time to save the gif. You can go ahead and file > export > save for web (legacy) now, but then you’ll have to reopen the gif to reset the frame rate from 0.07, to 0.05. Instead of doing that, I use a modified action. The original was made by the very talented @elenafisher! So I do not take credit for that at all. You can find the original here: elenafisher(.)tumblr(.)com/post/190817437374/gif-sharpening-action-2-preview-download and in my resources tag. Please reblog it if you’re going to use this!

To use an action, first make sure you have actions turned on in window > actions. To load in your action, go to the little lines circled, and then load the action from your downloads:

Obviously if you don’t want to sharpen your gifs yourself, you can use the action as it is, and it will give you a beautiful glowing effect. If you’d just like to use it to flatten your gif into frames like I do, make sure to take out all the items I have highlighted:

Until it looks like this!

Make sure you have the layer under the file name highlighted, and then click the play button at the bottom! (If you get a screen saying select all frames cannot be found, don’t worry, just click continue!) You can delete the layer that does that if you want, I just keep it in case I realise I’ve forgotten to do something, because you can click cancel and edit your gif before you flatten it. Of course you can undo the steps to get back to the smart object version of your gif, it just takes longer!

And now your gif is in frames and set to 0.05 already, so you don’t have to change the speed! All you need to do now before saving is change the gif cycle to “forever” in the bottom left-hand corner:

Then to save the gif go to file > export > save for web (legacy). Sometimes, the gif is bigger than the tumblr 10MB limit. You’ll be able to see this in the bottom left-hand corner of the gif save settings. If this is the case, I like to preview the gif, to see whether it would be best to cut frames off of the beginning or the end, or both. When you’ve decided, you can select the frames at the bottom, and in the right-hand side panel, and delete them both using the little bins/trash icons.

I keep checking and deleting frames until I get the gif under 10 MB! Just don’t delete frames from the middle, as then you’ll have the same issue as if you selected “every other frame” when making the gif: it won’t flow!

Lastly, these are my save settings:

So that’s it! That’s how I make all my gifs. Blending I do when the gifs are in the grouped, smart filter stage, whereas text I add on during the framing section above! Really hope this is helpful, please feel free to ask any questions you may have! 💖

[anonthenullifier]

In a follow up to Billy coming out to Tommy, how would Tommy come out to Billy? Would he even say anything or would he just appear with a boyfriend one day and cackle as Billy’s brain recalibrated?

Thank you so much for the ask! In case anyone wants to read Billy coming out to Tommy here it is. Below this is Tommy coming out to Billy...and Wanda and Vision because I figured the whole family should find out. I hope this meets your expectations of how Tommy would do it!

———

It was supposed to be an escape room. One of the ones where intellect wins and the biggest challenge would have been dealing with a bored and grumpy Tommy. “He is never planning,” Billy twirls around, arms engulfed by pulsating electric blue, and slices a chainsaw wielding robot in half, “again.”

Teddy’s glorious smile tempers his annoyance...marginally. “We are trying to escape,” he crushes a tentacled, monstrous vacuum-like robot between his hands, “and it’s a room.”

If Teddy wasn’t so stunning in situations like these, Billy would seethe for longer, but the sheer elation on his boyfriend’s face as another onslaught falls under their combined might is enough to make it seem a less horrible idea. Until his annoyance at his brother’s idiocy surges back. “This would be Tommy’s idea of a chill evening.”

Expertly Teddy deflects. “Where are they?”

It’s not something Billy had thought about in the ten minutes of endless fighting, but now that Teddy points it out, both Tommy and the newest recruit, David, are not visible. “He’s um,” Billy reaches out mentally, quickly finding the frenzied mind of his brother, the pattern of his thoughts like watching a pot of boiling water right before it bubbles up and over the rim. With practiced ease he latches on, keeping his own mind detached enough to not be dragged into the whirlpool of chaos, “they’re on the other side of that tower.”

“Race you?”

Billy grins, hanging back a second to appreciate the view, and then his hands alight and he rises into the air, body leaning with the current and wrists rotating forwards and backwards as he clears all obstacles from his path. If he allows his eyes to stray down to watch Teddy’s path of destruction, no one’s the wiser, neither Sam nor Carol here to scold him.

Five feet before Teddy reaches the base of the tower, Billy opens a portal, diving headfirst into it and then pops out of a second portal past the makeshift finish line, just in time to paint on his best faux innocent grin. “What took you so long?”

The dry “Congrats,” is made more genuine by the loving kiss that follows.

Tommy’s frantic “David!” ruins their moment.

“Shit.” Billy follows his boyfriend’s eyes up to a little walkway on the tower where David stands, hands gripping a rickety railing and glasses reflecting the menacing lights of the encroaching robot battalion.

Blue energy crawls out from between Billy’s fingers, his body gearing up to fly up and help their teammate, until Tommy sprints over. “I got this,” and then becomes a blur, zigzagging up the ramps and stairs, bowling through the last of the mechanical foes until they all crash down from the tower.

“He’s such a show—“ Billy freezes, head tilting to the side as Tommy scoops up David bridal style and executes a perfect Maximoff rescue, their lips meeting in fevered presses, David’s arms wrapping around Tommy’s neck, and their attention focused solely on passionately celebrating. “Um…”

“I told you David had a small crush on me, right?”

Billy’s brain slogs through recent memories, vaguely recalling this information. “Um...yeah?”

“Guess he moved on.”

“Guess so…” The mind isn’t a computer. Billy knows this, has sat through dad’s lectures on the tired and not empirically backed metaphor, and yet right now he feels like a computer that’s missing a vital update, his thoughts desperately trying to recalibrate and refresh itself to process the awkwardly long make out session in front of him. And then they stop, Tommy placing David back on his feet, though their arms remain around each other, and that’s when his twin starts cackling.

“Look at your face!” If this is some cruel joke, Billy doesn’t appreciate it nor does he appreciate the fact that Teddy is chuckling along with Tommy’s riotous glee. “Look at it.” Now David is snickering as well, the mood apparently contagious to everyone but Billy, who’s inoculated to Tommy’s shit by now.

Tommy hoists David back into arms and runs them down until they’re standing in an awkward sort of square-oval formation. “Oh don’t look like that.”

“I’m not looking like anything.” Real convincing.

“It’s not a joke,” his brother hesitates and then clarifies, “okay, depends on how you define a joke, but the message is real.”

What message was he sending? That he’s learned mom and dad’s celebration tactic? That he likes to catch Billy off guard and embarrass him or that...that he and David are still holding hands and that Tommy’s usual confidence is starting to crack and a spur of fear that never, ever exists in his brother’s mind has cropped up the longer Billy stays silent. All at once Billy’s chagrin disappears, replaced by emphatic happiness, one that manifests with a chuckle at the ridiculousness of his brother.

“Finally connect the dots?”

“Yeah,” Billy pulls his brother into a hug, ignoring the grunt of disapproval at such shows of affection, “thanks for telling me.”

“Of course,” Tommy pulls back wearing the sunniest smile Billy’s ever seen on his face, “had to make sure you knew first.”

A brush of his brother’s mind reveals an evening out of stress and concern, both things Tommy didn’t need to have, but Billy knows firsthand how terrifying coming out can be. “I appreciate it.” Billy steps back, eagerly accepting Teddy’s arm around his shoulders, “You going this elaborate for mom and dad?”

The glance between Tommy and David not only answers his question perfectly, but helps him see the genuine connection they already share and the future trouble of dealing with a mutually devious couple. “I have a few ideas, if you’re willing to help.”

———

Everything is set. There’s a conspicuous rope ladder hanging out his window, the banner is strung up over the table with his cake and party hats, he’s got a box of party poppers under the comforter, and, most vital to it all, David is laying next to him.

“You nervous?”

Insanely. “Nope,” he’s a pretty gifted liar but the little quirk of David’s eyebrow lets him know he isn’t fooling anyone. “Fine, a bit.”

He has, for a long time, made fun of Billy and Teddy’s little reassuring kisses, but now that David tenderly brushes his lips to Tommy’s forehead, he’ll have to admit it’s a little calming. “Me too. This is going to be my first time meeting your parents outside of uniform.”

Oh shit, he hadn’t even thought about that or how awkward this all might be for David. Other than the crushing fear that their acceptance and love can only extend to one child (something he knows is not true but still can’t shake), Tommy has no qualms with the method of coming out they’ve gone with. He thinks back to all the talks (the many many many talks) dad has had with him on respect and consent. Things he has considered and put into practice but it feels way more important now. “If you aren’t comfortable with this…”

“I’m fine, just nervous,” another kiss, but this one on the mouth and exciting instead of soothing, “and really looking forward to the cake.”

It’s a three tiered cake, each layer a different color of the flag, all wrapped in white buttercream, and in the fanciest writing Billy could muster it says: I’m bisexual . They argued over whether to add an exclamation mark, but Tommy himself would like to insert the enthusiasm instead of the frosting doing it. “Me too.”

There is the tell-tale chime of vibranium phasing through a wall and the less easy to spot sound of wind going through his dad’s intangible body. Good thing Tommy has snuck around enough to recognize it. “Come here,” he pulls David closer, deciding if they’re going to have to incur suspicion, might as well have some fun with it. It’s successful, the chiming moving from outside to inside the master bedroom and then footfalls let them know his parents are outside the door. Tommy steals one more kiss, “You ready?”

Except David can’t let him win and sneaks one more. “Are you?”

“Yep.” He is. He has never been more ready in his life which is why it’s aggravating that there hasn’t been a knock and the door hasn’t clicked open. “Be nice if they moved faster.”

From outside there is a muffled conversation, one that sounds like it involves a lot of gesticulating and disagreement. Then he can hear Billy, his guardian angel, chime in, “You can’t let him get away with it. That’s not fair.” What a sly and loving asshole.

Dad sighs, and it’s a deep one, one that means he’s exhausted from his mission and just wants to relax but now there are shenanigans he has to deal with. That’s when the knock comes, followed by, “Thomas?”

David giggles and Tommy does his best to shush him, only that just encourages it further and now Tommy’s sniggering as quietly as he can. “Thomas?” A more forceful knock and more barely subdued laughter. “Thomas, I am opening the door.”

His fingers grip the party poppers as he waits for the light to switch on and then Tommy leaps up with a “Surprise!” The first party popper bursts to life, confetti flying all over his comforter. “I’m bi!” The second popper erupts with even more force.

It’s through the settling confetti that he sees the confusion on mom and dad’s faces and suddenly it all feels too much, too elaborate, too close to a joke. Even Billy’s double thumbs up from the hallway doesn’t allay the dread circling in amongst the swirling shreds of paper. He tracks every movement of his parents’ eyes as they take in the cake and the banner and the streamers and oh...yeah this is awkward, “Um and this,” Tommy helps David out of the bed, “is my boyfriend, David.”

Mom and dad look at each other, some unspoken thing passing between them and then dad walks over to the table, grabs two of the pink, lavender, and blue striped party hats, hands one to mom and then delicately slides the elastic band of his under his chin. “It’s nice to meet you David,” they shake hands and then dad, without asking permission of any kind, wraps Tommy in a tight hug. “I love you.”

This is usually when he squirms away, utilizing his super speed to avoid such displays of affection, but this time he allows it, reciprocating the hug and smiling as mom joins in to make a Tommy sandwich. “We love you so much.”

“Thanks.”

After about a minute it’s a bit much though, something his brother senses, exuberantly declaring, “Anyone want cake?” David, bless his heart, takes on the role of cake slicer and disher, passing out the plates and making sure Tommy gets the corner with the most frosting.

It’s all a bit surreal, a bit too wholesome for his tastes and yet it’s also perfect, mom’s hat askew while dad grimaces at the overly sweet frosting she offers him, Billy chatting happily with David over some punch, all under the handcrafted banner of Guess Who’s Bi?

Tommy smiles, digs his fork into the cake, and joins them, feeling more like himself than ever before.

[allofmylovelove]

@beomgyutie​ was asking me about giffing with topaz and i couldn’t find a tutorial that was similar to how i gif and me being me i decided to be Extra and just make a whole tutorial for it!  tutorial under the cut

things you will need:

photoshop (i’m using photoshop cc 2018, but i’ve used this same/similar process on cs6)

topaz plug ins clean and denoise downloaded and installed

downloaded video to gif in the highest quality you can find

side note:  i’ve seen people say “don’t bother giffing something if it isn’t at least 720p”, but like that isn’t always practical or possible.  so just find the video in the highest quality you can

.ts files are the way to go for giffing live stages!  you can find a really great guide for how to find .ts files here.

one of the main things that determines gif quality is the video quality of what you’re giffing, so it’s important to use the highest definition you can!

if you’re interested in seeing my vapoursynth process you can see it here!  the tutorial i used to learn how to use vapoursynth has been deleted, so if you would like a more detailed explanation let me know!

also i did not include how to add text or how to blur out part of a gif, so send me an ask if you’d like help with it!

all right so here we go:

1.  figure out which part(s) of the video you’d like to gif!  people do this in lots of ways; i usually watch the video through then make notes of what time stamps i want to gif.

2.  open up photoshop and go to file -> import... -> video frames to layers

3.  this window will pop up with your video!  use the little slider things i’ve circled in red to select where you want your gif to start and end.  don’t worry about it being too exact; we’ll narrow it down further in a minute.  make sure that the limit to every x frames box is NOT checked!

4.  it will create a frame animation from the clip you’ve selected.  now you can trim the gif down even further and get the exact moment you’d like to gif by deleting frames from the beginning and/or end of the animation.  i usually aim to have between 60-80 frames in a gif.  keep in mind that bigger gifs mean bigger file sizes, so if you’re going for a big gif it might be best to go with fewer frames.  (ex. if you’re making a gif that’s 540px by 400px, aim for 60 frames to help keep the file size down)

5.  tbh it doesn’t matter when exactly you crop your gif in the process, but i usually crop and resize it at the beginning.  i ended up cropping this gif again at the end too, so it really, truly doesn’t matter when you crop it. 

you’ll also want to make sure your gif fits the current tumblr sizes for photosets which you can find by googling.  the main ones i keep in mind are 540px wide for one gif per row and 268px wide for two gifs per row.  for posting purposes, the height is not as important as the width, so don’t worry too much about the height.

you can crop the gif to whatever looks good to you then go to image -> image size and change it to the appropriate width.  make sure you’ve clicked the little chain/handcuff looking button so your height will also be adjusted to maintain the height to width ratio!

6.  next we’ll need to convert the frames into a smart object in order to sharpen and use topaz.  click on the three bars just above your frame animation to select all frames, and also select all of your layers by using shift + click on the first and last layers (you can see the layers in the bottom right corner of the second image).  you’ll want to make sure every single layer and frame is selected, otherwise part of the gif won’t be converted into a smart object.

7.  convert frame animation to timeline animation by clicking this button i’ve circled in the bottom left corner

you’ll want to make sure the blue play head button thing is at the very beginning of the gif before continuing

8.  click filter -> convert for smart filters and your smart object will be made!

9.  next we’ll use smart sharpen to sharpen the gif.  go to filter -> sharpen -> smart sharpen, and this window will pop up.  these are the settings i use for every gif, unless it is a lower quality video in which case i will turn down the amount percent

10.  now it’s time to use topaz!  i always start with topaz clean for whatever reason, but regardless you’ll go to filter -> topaz labs -> topaz clean.  there are two settings i choose from that i’ve saved as presets.  for this handong gif i chose the first settings.  you can compare the settings with the unedited version by clicking the original button at the top of the preview window.

11.  next up is topaz denoise!  same process as before:  filter -> topaz labs -> topaz denoise.  i always use these settings but adjust the overall strength.  i usually end up somewhere between 0.03 and 0.05.

12.  now we’ll click on the three bar menu again and select convert frames -> flatten frames into clips.  do NOT touch your computer while it’s processing!!  topaz is a finicky creature, and we cannot upset it while it’s working.  there’ll be a progress bar so you can have an idea of how far along it is in the process.  it does take a while, so be patient!

13.  the process of flattening frames back into clips creates an extra layer that we don’t need, so go ahead and delete the layer where you can see all the smart filters we’ve just applied listed.  it will be at the very bottom of the layers list, and also the only one labeled layer (you can see the rest are called frames now) as well as the only one that’s hidden (aka it doesn’t have the little eye icon to the left of its name)

14.  for the moment we’ll still be in timeline animation, so we’ll want to click on the three squares in the lower left corner to go back to frame animation

15.  you should only see one frame in the animation window for now.  click on the three bar menu again and select “make frames from layers” and we’ll have all of the frames we started with back except this time with sharpening and topaz-ing!

16.  using the three bar menu again, you can select all frames then adjust the delay between frames (aka the timing!).  once the frames are selected, click on the little arrow next to the number underneath one of the frames (doesn’t matter which one as long as they’re all selected).  then you can choose a preset time or enter your own.  my gifs are usually 0.04, 0.05, or 0.06.  for this handong gif, i went with 0.05.

17.  now you can add coloring!  i’m not really going to get into how to color, but you can either find psds (aka premade colorings) that creators have shared on tumblr as a starting point or just mess around with different editing layers (like levels, selective color, curves, etc) until you land on something you like.  when coloring while in frame animation make sure you drag the editing layer to the top of the layer list so the coloring is applied to all the frames!

18.  now we can export the gif!  i use save for web and these settings.  sometimes i will change the quality (circled in red) from bicubic smoother to bicubic sharper, but i usually leave it on bicubic smoother

19.  and now you can upload it to tumblr and you’re done!  here’s the final result without text

let me know if you have any questions!

[justkeeptrekkin]

Prompt: fluff, Basira & Daisy meeting at an arcade or theme park

F L U F F

***

Basira had never thought too hard about their relationship. There was never anything that needed to be explicitly stated. Nothing to be clarified. It had always been understood that they had each other’s backs, and that’s all that ever mattered. 

When two outsiders find each other amongst the mess of brutality and violence that comes with being a sectioned officer, there’s something that brings those people together; something unquestionably strong. Whatever that bond is, it had found Daisy and Basira. 

She had never wanted to call it trust. That’s not something she shares with anyone other than herself- not knowingly, anyway. 

Things have changed. The woman on the bench next to her isn’t the outsider she met when she was first brought into Section 31: delicate features hardened by the scar on her jawline and the ferocity in her eyes: hair cropped for practicality, shoulders squared through defiance. Now, that same Daisy leans forward in her seat beside Basira, growing hair falling into her closed eyes. Shoulders rounded, protective. 

Basira looks at the woman who has made herself small to survive. 

“Ever been to Brighton,” she asks. Her voice always makes questions sound flat. 

Daisy opens her eyes. She doesn’t respond immediately, instead, casting her gaze towards the grey horizon, ocean blurring into cloudy sky. The wind making her hair tickle her scars. 

“No,” she admits. A lot of what she says sounds like an admission, these days. “I haven’t.”

Basira lets the silence sit between them again. A gap between their bodies that was always there, but that she’s only just now noticing. It’s a breezy autumn day, and the only people on the promenade are joggers and dog walkers. Nobody pays them any attention: two killers finding solace in their sea-torn landscape. 

“When-” 

Daisy falters. Basira looks. 

“When I was a child. Before…” Her jaw clenches. And then she sits up, zips up her leather jacket and Basira sees some of that old steel return. “My father would take us to Anglesey. It’s an island just off the coast of Wales. Nothing much to do, but the beaches would go on forever. Rocky beaches that hurt your feet.”

That’s the end of that story, it seems. Basira nods slowly. She doesn’t know this woman. Her strength had always been being able to read people, understand them. But she doesn’t know Alice Daisy Tonner at all, she realises. 

She’d like to.

“Have you been here before?” Daisy suddenly asks. 

Basira nods again. “Yeah. Days out in Brighton were as much as my family could afford when it came to Summer holidays.”

The sea roars distantly. A brown dog runs into the ocean to fetch a stick. 

“There’s an arcade here,” she continues. “My brother and I used to go. We’d get bored sitting on the beach.”

That’s probably the most she’s ever shared about her personal life with anyone. Bringing Daisy here- was that what she was planning? Some part of her wanting to open up? It seems unlikely. And she doesn’t want to think about it, not when she needs to be spending all of her energy protecting Daisy rather than showing her a good time. But then, seeing how Daisy is looking at her now in her peripheral, she finds her motives murky. The definition of what they have, murky. 

Then, looking Daisy square in the eye: “Let’s go. You and me.”

A deep, long intake of breath. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Playing shooting games in an arcade is hardly the same as holding a real gun.”

“Could trigger something. Shark in an ocean. Catching a scent of blood.”

“Or, could be like a nicotine patch.”

Daisy blinks. She doesn’t smile, because Daisy doesn’t smile, but Basira does see the way the resolve falls away. And it’s then that she realises that maybe Daisy doesn’t need to be hard in order to be strong; there’s a strength in being flexible, too. Being flexible means being less brittle. 

“Alright, then.” She slaps her legs. “Show me the ropes, then.”

So that’s happening, apparently. Basira leads them to the arcade; a tacky ruin of flashing lights and cash jingles. The carpets are a splurge of 90s train-seat patterns, the machines talking to no one but themselves. A family with two small children, trying to win a Minion toy. 

They stand at the entrance, suddenly aware of how surreal this is: partners, walking into an arcade to win stuffed bears. Basira expects Daisy to back out, sort of hopes she will, but then she sees her heading for a claw machine, unzipping her leather jacket and rolling up the sleeves. She casts her grey eyes towards Basira, expectant and, apparently, mildly entertained. 

“Come on.”

This is the woman who likes listening to The Archers, Basira remembers. It makes sense that she’s cheesy when she wants to be. But why does she want to be, now? Who is that almost-smile for?  

Basira acquiesces. She stands formally beside Daisy, who pops in a pound coin and takes the handle of the claw machine. 

“The trick is not to try and get anything in particular,” Basira explains, remembering her older brother’s wise instruction. “You need to just go for it. Try too hard to get one toy and you won’t get anything at all.”

When she looks over, she finds that the look on Daisy’s face is wolfish. Perhaps that’s a little off-colour, but that’s the only word Basira can think of. 

It takes three tries. Daisy runs out of change after the second one, and Basira pays for the third go. The claw is maneuvered carefully and strategically - Daisy was always better at strategy than Basira, who never liked planning - and it dangles slowly, descending into the pit of stuffed animals. 

When it emerges, it produces a tiger cup with giant, sparkling eyes. 

The toy clatters into the bin. Daisy fishes her hand through the flap and removes the tiger. They both measure it, dumbfounded. 

“What do we do with it now,” Basira asks seriously. 

There’s a pause where they continue to stare. And then she finds the toy shoved in her direction, Daisy disappearing before Basira can get a hold of it. She bends down to fetch it, looks up to see her partner skulking further into the arcade with square shoulders and a confident thud to her boots. 

Basira smiles.

[squirrel-moose-winchester]

Sensitive

Title: Sensitive

Pairing: Dean x Reader

Square Filled: Sex

Word Count: 840

Summary: When it comes to Dean, you’re very sensitive.

Warnings: SMUT. Just all the smut. Rough Sex, Unprotected Sex, and Over Stimulation.

A/N: This is written for @spndeanbingo. This is my first bingo ever, so I’m pretty excited.

Disclaimer: Not my gif. Cropped by me.

Your back was curved, one of Dean’s hands clamped around your mouth to keep your screams at bay, while the other rested on your lower stomach just below your navel, where he could feel the swell of his cock bulging against his hand. Tears were streaming down your face while your eyes were rolled to the back of your head. You were in pure bliss with Dean’s massive cock plummeting into you at an astonishing pace from behind, not once faltering.

You let out a loud scream that managed to slipped through his hands just as he buried himself deep inside you until the blunt head of his cock was pushing on your cervix. It was a mix of pain and intense pleasure that had your legs quivering.

“Mmm, someone likes that,” Dean snickered, forcing the rest of his length inside of you. It felt like he was going to break through your cervix, and just the thought of it drove you mad, causing more tears of pleasure to stream down your flushed cheeks.

He plunged in and out of you mercilessly, allowing the electricity to heat up your entire body, not a finger or toe left out. The searing euphoria was all consuming, making you feel like you were on fire. You knew what was to come very, very, soon… a body shattering orgasm that would for sure last a while. Only Dean knew how to coax it out of you. Making you body tremble for minutes, everything too sensitive to the touch.

“You’re close aren’t you?” he whispered, slowing down his strokes but adding more power to each thrust.

God, he was going to break you. If not now, eventually he would.

His sweet love making was just as stimulating as the rough sex he’d occasionally give you, but when ever he did, it was like his goal was to ruin you. Ruin every man that ever tried to compete, but realistically, there was no other competition. Dean had ruined all men for you the moment you met. Charm, looks, strength, and not to mention… he was one hell of a hunter, and a good man. He was damn near perfect.

When he finally released his hand from your mouth, you gave out shrilling scream that echoed through the entire bunker, finally able to release some sort of tension. From then on, you couldn’t stop. You yelled with ever dive, and when his rough agile fingers found your sensitive clit, your screams turned to wails that could rival that of a banshee. It was all too good—overwhelming. The over stimulation crashed down on you as you fell silent, your screams probably at an octave that only dogs could hear.

Dean grunted shamelessly as your pussy gripped and milked his cock, pulling his own orgasm out of him. Even has he came deep inside you, he held your body tight and firm against his as you shook with elation. Every dramatic twitch matched the throb of your walls clenching around him.

For Dean it was like heaven on earth. No woman had ever made him feel this good, clamped around him so tight, nor made him feel so alive in moments like these. If he wasn’t a hunter, you’d be the girl he’d bring home to meet his parents. The woman he’d swear to marry and spend the rest of his life with.

“Fuck,” you managed to say between labored breaths. “Fuck,” you moaned again, body still tingling with the sensation.

“Always so fucking sensitive,” he growled, nibbling on your earlobe followed sucking on them.

You were never that sensitive. Sex before Dean was vanilla in comparison. Maybe not even vanilla, just plain ice. Sex before Dean was flavorless. But ever since you got a taste, your body reacted in ways you never knew were possible. It was almost as if he’d bewitched you somehow and some way. He was intoxicating.

“Only with you,” you admitted.

You were going to say something else when Dean let you drop to the mattress, falling onto your stomach. You let out a soft whimper when he pulled out. Dean watched you still trying to catch your breath, you back beaded with sweat. He bit his bottom lip, not wanting to wait any longer. He was needy and already painfully hard. Suddenly, the world was a blur and you found yourself laying on your back, legs spread open wide. Your eyes met dark forest orbs, and his glistening cock already up in attention.

Your lips parted in awe. How he managed to get hard so quickly was beyond you, but you were willing to take him on again, even if you knew your body wasn’t fully recovered. If he fucked you now, you were certain that you wouldn’t last long at all, most likely going to come within seconds, a minute maybe, if you had the strength to hold it back.

“Ready for more?” He questioned.

“Yes, please,” you practically begged.

And without wasting any more precious time, he back to business.

Liked it? Please Reblog/Share. Feedback is greatly appreciated! :)

Say Something Nice Here!

[planetsam]

Your writing is amazing! I was wondering if you could do something malex with a reunion of some kind? Reunions are probably my favorite trope in the world. Lots of angst please!

Isobel invites everyone to her wedding.

“Wedding/calling card,” she says when Michael repeats the triple digit number, “everyone will see what a great event planner I am.”

It makes her happy so it can’t be so bad. Michael lives by the philosophy that his life is not his own anymore. He’s got one hand and a chunk of scrap metal and a half thought of way off the planet. He’s got nothing. The only thing he can do is make Isobel happy. So he puts on the suits she gives him and tamps down on any and all sarcastic remarks he wants to make or jabs at Max. He even sits there while someone at a hair salon makes his hair presentable.

Isobel asks Max to make a speech.

He gets it, he’s on the periphery and it’d be weird. He doesn’t want to make speeches anyway. He’s got no talent for public speaking anymore. People look at his hand and the words get all tangled up. He shrugs off Isobel’s hand in his one misstep and immediately feels bad when her face falls. He assures her it’s fine, he doesn’t care and he doesn’t even drink that much at the rehearsal dinner so they all can look presentable. Even though he’s not part of the family. He knows he’s not part of the family, he also knows they are trying not to rub it in. But it grates on him all the same. He puts it aside. He knows he’s Isobel’s brother and he beams when she makes her way towards the altar and sticks her tongue out at him under her veil. He looks out at the crowd in an effort not to laugh and ruin the photos. Isobel invited everyone.

Isobel invited Alex.

Their eyes catch and everything goes silent. Isobel invited Alex and Michael loses the ability to breathe. That can’t be Alex. His hair is close cropped and his skin is tan. It makes the scar on his forehead stand out. He’s dressed identically to his father and they sit in the exact same way. It’s not Alex, his mind protests. Alex who sits like he doesn’t want to be noticed on anyone else’s terms. Alex who is such a contract to his father. This man can’t be Alex. But when their eyes lock, it is. No one else has eyes like that. Michael thought his greatest issue was going to be not laughing. Now he doesn’t know if he can stay upright. Alex’s mouth parts and his eyes go from hopeful to ashamed to hard and he looks away. Michael can’t. Not until the priest pronounces them married and Noah dips Isobel and he pulls the string that holds the lid on a box of actual doves that fly above them in a single picture perfect truly horrifying moment.

Isobel doesn’t know.

No-one knows, but Isobel especially doesn’t know. Michael wants nothing more to protect her but this is hard. Pictures go by in a blur and then it’s cocktail hour. He has to be with his family, or his not technically but still completely family—and yet the only thing he wants to do is find Alex. No, it’s not a want. Michael needs to find him. But every glance he has it’s two people in that uniform. His father and his brother or brothers. It doesn’t matter, Michael needs to get him alone. Alex seems determined not to let that happen. He’s never alone. He doesn’t even go to the bathroom as far as Michael can tell. He steadfastly ignores him except for a few times that Michael catches his eye and then Alex always looks away. It’s not until dinner, when Isobel’s father starts off the speeches that he sees Alex get up. Michael is determined not to ruin this, but he can’t help himself. He follows.

“Alex,” he says.

Alex stiffens at the sound of his name. Michael slips his hand behind his back as Alex turns around. He’s got more walls up than the last time Michael saw him. But then again why wouldn’t he? He’s in the Air Force now, his life depends on those walls. Michael wishes though that they didn’t apply to him as well. Alex squares his shoulders and jerks his head. Michael nods and Alex walks off. A moment later, Michael follows. He leaves enough distance that there’s a chance they won’t be associated with one another. It’s been years. Though Jesse Manes is back there so maybe it hasn’t been long enough. He follows Alex around several turns until they’re outside in the place where Noah and Isobel got married.

This close, Michael can see the facade’s cracks. Alex hides his misery really well, but it’s harder to hide with the glare of his father. Like he needs the heat of him to be strong. Michael’s heart seems to remember how to feel at that realization. Alex has never needed his father before. He looks at the altar and not at Michael. Michael can only see him in profile. He hasn’t heard Alex’s voice in years. He hasn’t been this close to him in years. Even with the cracks he sees in Alex and the questions he wants to ask about everything that’s happened, the most he wants to do is hear his voice.

“Alex,” he says his name again and Alex turns, finally focusing on him.

“Michael,” he says.

Something in Michael unravels at the sound of his voice and he crosses over to him immediately. Alex meets him part of the way and for the first time in years, Michael doesn’t need morphine to dull the pain. Alex smells different, cleaner somehow or maybe that’s just the kind of soap they use in the Air Force. Michael doesn’t care as he buries his face in Alex’s neck and holds onto him. Alex hangs on in return but he’s stiff for a moment, like he needs to be sure this is real. Michael lets him have it and just keeps holding him until Alex sags into him, all the tension bleeding out as his fingers grip the back of Michael’s suit. It feels so good. It feels like the past few years never happened. Like they could be at this wedding as each other’s dates instead of as strangers who the town forgot.

“God, Alex, I—“

Alex cuts him off by crushing their lips together. Michael is surprised, but only for a moment before he kisses him back. Kissing Alex tastes like home. It always has and Michael pushes into the kiss like he can swallow the feeling whole. Like maybe if they kiss for long enough, they’ll just be a part of one another and the world will have to deal with it. Alex has always been vocal and he’s unusually silent. Michael drags him closer and kisses him harder, but the noise that Alex makes isn’t a groan or a moan. He sobs. He sobs into the kiss and when Michael tries to pull back Alex holds him there and tries to kiss him even fiercer. Michael can’t keep doing it when the salt from Alex’s tears hits his lip and he pulls back, cupping Alex’s face in his hands.

“Alex?”

“I’m deploying,” Alex says, “I’m going to Baghdad.”

“What?” Michael stares at him in horror.

“I know, I know,” Alex says, his voice desperate, “I shouldn’t be but—“

“Fuck that,” Michael cuts him off, not caring what Alex should or shouldn’t be as he kisses him again. He doesn’t care about his tears stopping him either. Alex is flying into war. Alex came to say goodbye. Alex kisses him back and pulls him close, “when?”

“Tomorrow.”

“No,” Michael presses his forehead to Alex and shakes his head, “no.”

“Yes,” Alex says and covers his maimed hand with his own. It hurts like a brand, “I have to go.”

“You don’t,” Michael pleads, hating the sob laugh Alex gives. That’s his Alex, the one they aren’t allowed to have, “you don’t have to go.”

“I do,” Alex says.

Now it’s Michael’s turn to almost sob. They’re standing at the place where his sister got married and Alex is saying I do, but it’s to leaving not to him. They shouldn’t be standing here embracing like this. They should be happy, Alex should be happy. Instead he’s clinging to Michael and they’re powerless to do anything to stop this. He can’t even go in there and attack Jesse. He can’t save Alex from this. He pulls back enough to look at Alex’s heartbroken face. If Alex isn’t here to be saved then what is he here for? Michael presses his lips together, still wet with Alex’s tears and searches his face.

“Why are you here?” He asks, pleads almost and true pain crosses Alex’s face.

“I wanted—I had to see you,” he says, like it’s some pained secret to admit, “if this is the last time—“

“No,” Michael cuts in, refusing to believe that’s even a possibility though he pulls Alex back into his space, “don’t say that.”

“But it might be,” Alex, ever practical whispers, “even if I come back I won’t be the same.”

“We’re never the same,” Michael reminds him roughly, “that doesn’t mean how I feel’s changed. Did it change for you?” Alex shakes his head, “you come back and we’ll figure everything out.”

“I could meet you somewhere,” Alex says, his voice soft and pained and hopeful, “somewhere new.”

Michael forces back the sob.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he says.

Alex buries his face in his neck and Michael clings to him. He’s not, he’ll die in this place if he’s lucky. And if he’s very, very lucky then Alex won’t die halfway around the world. At the moment the only thing they can do is cling to each other and try to memorize this version of who they are. These people they are in this moment will also vanish. Lost to the same place that the kids they were are. But no matter who they become, Michael can’t imagine a world where he doesn’t feel Alex with every beat of his heart. Inside he can hear the faint notes of Isobel and Noah’s first dance. Pain laces through him and he pulls Alex back from the doors he knows they’re about to open and into the shadows of the trees that line the hotel.

He kisses him again, his lips and his cheeks, he kisses every part of him he can. Alex fists his hands in his lapels and ducks his head so he can capture his lips. Michael can hear people starting to come outside and he kisses Alex as hard as he possibly can. Like they can brand each other before he pulls back. They stare at each other in the moonlight and he pulls the handkerchief from his pocket and mops away Alex’s tears. He wishes he could heal like Michael so there would be no evidence, but he does the best he can. Alex closes his hand over the silk and holds his eyes for a long moment before kissing him one last time and pulling away. Michael stands there in horror, watching as Alex steps out and walks off.

The world has never seemed so cruel.

His hands shake as he gropes blindly for the flask and he pours the acetone down his throat. He brought several in case his hand acted up and he downs them all on an empty stomach with no chaser. Max finds him hours later passed out from acetone and Isobel spends years jabbing at him for almost ruining her wedding with his drug problem.

Most of the time, Michael’s just too high to care.

[mobianflame]

Top Canadian Finishers take a trip to China for Shanghai Endurance

Leading Canadian Finishers journey to China for Shanghai Marathon

After publishing excellent times at the 2019 BMO Vancouver Marathon, Canadians David Eikelboom (2:25:25) and Rozlyn Boutin (3:05:48) took a trip to China to take part in the occasion's sibling marathon-- the Shanghai Marathon.

Review their experiences listed below.

by Rozlyn Boutin

I never might have envisioned that my launching marathon would cause the awesome series of celebrations that followed nearly half a year later. When I to begin with acquired the surprise email coming from Lynn Kanuka herself inviting me to manage the 2019 Shanghai endurance on November 17th as a result of my attend the BMO Vancouver Endurance in Might as well as with lower than 2 months' notification, I couldn't think it. Even writing this a day after coming back to grad student life in Vancouver, it still seems like it could possess been actually an aspiration!

I hadn't been actually training given that the BMO Vancouver Endurance and had several medical meetings and also 9 tours planned between receiving the email coming from Lynn and also the day of the marathon, however it was actually an expertise I couldn't refuse so I concurred along with a flutter of enthusiasm in my belly that fueled my outrageous 2-month instruction routine to come back into endurance condition as finest I could. I understood it was visiting be a whirlwind trip of a life time and a world-class take in!

Just before I recognized it, I was fulfilling Shelley (our RUNVAN ® coach/representative), David (the various other professional athlete) and also his partner at the Vancouver airport terminal and also the outrageous journey began. I wasn't certain exactly how I will manage the 12-hour tour as well as 16-hour time adjustment, but dealt with to stay hydrated as well as get the most awful of the lifeless legs out on a little bit of shakeout run the day just before the competition. After the opening night it had actually penetrated I would certainly not be actually capable to change to the amount of time improvement as well as the cope jetlag would certainly be actually genuine, however I just wished the adrenaline on race-day morning would certainly aid me obtain with it.

Our team had an amazing volunteer from the neighborhood College of Sporting activity who satisfied us at the flight terminal and also happened almost everywhere with us. She aided us navigate the foreign language barrier and happened along with me and also Shelley to establish the Vancouver endurance booth at the expo the time after our experts acquired there. The expo was actually outrageous along with lots of people and also great deals happening but the atmosphere was actually contagious! I very soon knew to simply go along with the flow and took it all in. Our team likewise received to participate in a delegate dinner, interview, and also the pre-race technical meeting along with the other elite athletes-a fairly unique expertise! Our team even satisfied an exclusive Canadian endurance legend (Reid Coolsaet) that chose at the last moment to additionally come to Shanghai- going along with him after the specialized meeting to acquire our personal canteen for the race was actually an encounter I'll always remember. Afterwards, every thing started to experience real and also I began to enjoy only exactly how incredible auto racing in an IAAF Gold Label race was actually going to be.

Regardless of getting ready for the ethnicity, our experts likewise had the chance to observe some views and experience the area. Our accommodation corrected near the Bund where the ethnicity began, and there were actually a lot of runners and tai chi-practicers the whole time the stream every morning. The whole entire metropolitan area is remarkably tidy and the illuminations in the evening are incredible-every property possesses intricate transforming illuminations and colours. Our manual illustrated Shanghai to China as being what New York is actually to the USA-and it was actually a very correct summary!

Race-day morning was actually an additional disorderly blur of exhilaration. We got out of bed to an uncharacteristically warm time with 88% moisture and also made our method to the sea of distance runners, performing our ideal to navigate the foreign language barrier, move across through the wall of guards diligently blocking the start series, and also discover cream of the crop distance runner check-in. After a series of celebrations that I believed could possess simply been actually coming from a movie, I received my time chip with 5 mins to exempt before the beginning of the race, did a tiny 40-meter workout jog, as well as unexpectedly our team were actually off! The knowledge of starting a race with 35 000 other racers all trying individual utmosts on a flat training program that would take our company with all the significant internet sites of Shanghai was truly indescribable-although I was actually therefore concentrated I most likely couldn't actually tell you what some of the web sites appeared like! I had a fantastic first fifty percent of the race as well as got on rate to make my objective of running under 3 hrs, however at the 50 percent method factor the heat energy from the sunshine depressing on our team came to me and I had not been able to keep up my nutrition and also my speeds dropped way off. In the end, Shelley's motivational illustrations and keep in minds on my water bottles every 5K kept me going and also I was actually capable to dangle on to the PB yet disappointed my goal time. After figuring out that the leading 3 females were actually taken off in wheelchairs and also provided the adrenaline-charged early morning, jetlag/lack of rest, temperature, as well as moisture, I was actually still sensibly pleased along with the end result. Having actually raced in such a fantastic competition has left me starving to carry out it once more and also wish I will possess one more chance to competition globally again.

Once it was actually all over, our team possessed the opportunity to loosen up, delight in the post-race environment, attempt some brand new meals, as well as find some additional views. We went on an awesome watercraft cruise ship of the stream in the evening after the race and found out a little concerning the record of the area. Our experts additionally had the majority of the next day to purchase till our company dropped prior to moving to the flight terminal for our air travel home. Regardless of the short trip, our company came across some really wonderful individuals as well as I absolutely found out a great deal. I certainly never assumed I 'd visit China and now would certainly not hold back to explore once more if I had the option. In general, it was an astonishing life-changing take in as well as I am actually therefore happy to have possessed the opportunity to go! Thanks to every person at the Shanghai Endurance, RUNVAN ®, as well as the coordinators of the Sibling Metropolitan area relationship!

through David Eikelboom

I had actually been having a negative day-- I do not bear in mind precisely why, yet I remember it changing quite rapidly when an email coming from Lynn Kanuka at RUNVAN ® reached my inbox.

The subject line was actually "Travel to Shanghai" and the e-mail informed me that as a result of my outcome at the BMO Vancouver Endurance, I had actually been actually invited for an expenses-paid trip to run the Shanghai Marathon through a sister-city arrangement between both occasions. My time shifted fairly quickly.

As travel setups were made, my exhilaration expanded as I performed all the research I might right into the endurance in Shanghai. The pleasure continued upon our appearance in Shanghai, where our company obtained a cozy welcome. Our team were handled effectively by our lots-- aides were actually along with our team to assist equate and also navigate the urban area, which assisted me believe assured and also relaxed.

The routine was full; going to the expo, the welcome supper as well as the pre-race technological appointment were actually interfered along with some taking in the sights and shopping. Jet lag produced first blushes and very early nights. The power created in the direction of race time, which took factors up to a brand-new amount-- 38,000 joggers and also a great number of personnel, officials, and also volunteers packed the Bund for the beginning. It was absolutely the absolute most stimulating competition begin I have experienced! Along the race course people shouted "Jiayou"-- which virtually suggests "include oil!" as an expression of support. The course was actually lovely and standard, however a warm time produced challenging conditions. It was the 1st opportunity I possessed found delicious chocolate clubs, cucumbers, as well as cakes/muffins as competition food items, but ... when in Rome? Finishing in the Shanghai arena was electrifying as well as emotional-- my time had not gone as intended, yet I was figured out to finish.

After a stream cruise line on the Huangpu Stream and a vacation to People's Square, the trip related to its own final thought. I am exceptionally happy to RUNVAN ® for the option to have actually found Shanghai, took part in an unparalleled competition, and also experienced just a small item of global running society.

|||

This content was originally published here.

[kokoronopikuseru]

Review: Pixelogue

A little late to post this, but I intend to share details and reflect on the editing of Pixelogue, in hope that it will help editors and organizers who need advice. (If you’re not interested in editing info, just skip to the last section)

Details are in Chronological Order -

# Software:

I designed everything from scratch in AE, with all the stock plugins. I had to relearn everything I used to know about AE; I last used it extensively in Pixelophobia years ago and furthermore, I wasn’t really used to the new CC interface. I had to seek tutorials for every simple effect I wanted to execute. It sure was difficult for me. For english speaking editors, this is probably your main tool if you intend to do simple video animations and graphics.

# Planning: Song Choice

I had intended to use a Korean Indie Track as stated in the collab details page. Sadly, the music really didn’t fit the music. I spent about 3 days rearranging the clips in every permutation I knew. I didn't really manage to find an arrangement that suited the clips. The unfortunate reality for editors is that we are usually at the mercy of the submission clips. I finally chose something Tigres’ described as “Shawn Wasabi-like”. It was a major challenge for my editing since I wasn’t exactly used to creating work that is colourful or cheerful rhythm-wise. I had to have major re-planning if I wanted it to work out.

# Editing: Draft

My process for editing clips always starts from arranging the combos. I used Vegas for this since, well, it IS a video editor, and it is pretty fast in processing clips. For learning purposes, here is the link of my very first draft (https://youtu.be/kRDwXTnxXGw). I think it’s necessary to spend a longer time at this stage, so as to visualize how its gonna turn out. And of course, to ensure that this is the flow of the CV you really wanted. By this stage, you should also have planned out the fillers (as denoted by the empty instances in the draft) and roughly how long your intro and outro will be. 

# Editing: Intro

I didn’t really want to make something too kawaii. But yet, I can’t really escape the colourful imagery I imagined the intro to be. I compromised and made something that alternates between some modern TV visuals and old school TV visuals. 

Modern TV; I was greatly inspired by those colour wipes that vloggers used for their youtube channels. It was one of those common and simple transitions that AE users exploit regularly. I found ways to incorporate it in a radial and a rotating wipe. The font animations were all plugins in AE that I found. I wasn’t gonna edit every alphabet like the previous CVs I made.

Old School TV; I took most of my inspiration from the adjustment knobs on analog TV. I found that it goes well with the subtle static noise in the music track. Hence I employed selection circles, and drew an actual knob (not sure if you guys realised that was what it was supposed to be). I also warp bulge the static background as well as the words, to emulate the concave glass distortion present in analog TVs. 

And in the final burst of images, I made the clips alternate between 16:9 and 4:3, just to show the juxtaposition between modern and old school.

I really hope people notice all these small details. I didn't feel it was impactful enough, but I guess these are probably cool facts for those who are interested.

# Editing: Combos

I always render my CV in a 16:9 resolution, simply because it IS more pleasing to the eye now that computer monitors are no longer square. My preferences have yet to change. However, with regards to the clips, I have read enough indirect feedback that the cropping wasn’t something that most people liked. I took this criticism pretty seriously, and thought it was time for me to hop on the bandwagon, to try the new-age style of CV editing.

I had to put in much more effort to retain a 4:3 combo in a 16:9 visual space, with an additional need to create a secondary background layer. But because of this decision, it gives me more freedom to explore options of panning and perspective movements.

I create a blurred and expanded duplicate of every combo as a background. I thought it was great that I could retain the original colours and give the clips a “floaty field”. No one has done something like this before, so it was instantly cool and hip. It also gives more room and potential to play around with the transitions too. Eg, fading the background before the clip (transition from Tigres to popte). Interestingly, all the backgrounds all have different properties, namely position, scale and degree of gaussian blur. The reason was really because some clips were seizure inducing due to their extensive movements. I thought it would be nice to vary all of them, which adds a unique aesthetic touch to all the combos.

I am pretty new to editing in a 3Dimensional Space and camera tracking. I was intending to do something as simple and fluid like Talentica Neue. Well, I learnt it wasn’t as simple as I thought. I had about 5-6 Parameters of camera movements, and frankly till now, don’t really know what each one does. I highly suggest for editors who wanna try 3Dimensional camera tracking, watch more tutorials and try simple practice projects. Learning how to utilize it properly will extensively improve your editing game.

Oh yeah, remember to use the graph editor for EVERYTHING. Acceleration and Decelerations have too much aesthetic value to miss out on.

# Editing: Outro

Because I have spent so much time on all other parts of the CV, it’s only responsible for me to put in some effort on an outro which I am usually way too lazy to make. Yeah guys, it’s important to make outros too guys. I used the same warping and television static effect from the intro to retain a sense of continuity. It's simple and nice, I liked it.

# Combos; (Warning: Difficult to Stomach) 

I’m gonna be a little too frank about this- the quality of combos I received were lower than what I usually work with (I love my UPSB submissions tho). I guess this is the huge downside of organizing sign-up CVs to an international community that is slowly dying and regressing. It was even harder when most didn’t submit on time. I had only 7 clips by the deadline. I wanna admit that I had moments regretting that I was organizing Pixelogue as a majority-signup CV. Some of the filtered combos either didn’t fit the style of CV (really sorry padrace) or was just bad due to the lack of effort. Mostly bad.

But here’s the heart of the matter, this might really reflect the standard of the international community. 

I’m not sure if I am the only one who feels this way, but I feel that most of the current international CVs can be separated into two groups, the JEB invites, and the rest of us. Don’t get me wrong, I do acknowledge the high standards JEB spinners deliver. But I’m not comfortable with the fact that they don’t submit better materials since their combos are guaranteed to be featured, and mainly because the quality of an international CV is often a 50/50 hit or miss (could be lower). Who can blame them really. Even so, their names are usually enough to make the lineup look great. 

> Pixelation was an all JEB sign up CVs. Pixelarium, Pixelophobia, Pixelography, Pixeholic were invites-only CVs, a mix of international and JEB guys. <

Most of my CVs have a JEB last spinner or a JEB dominant lineup towards the end. (coffeelucky 6th is also guilty of this). Clearly, you can see how much we use japanese invites as a way to boost the “quality” and hype of our projects. Yeah, sucks to admit it, but I am sure these are common sentiments shared with many of us international CV editors for a pretty long time.

Well, its not something I’m really contented with. In fact, I don’t like the way this becomes the norm. 

More recently, around the time I released “Express 12.1.18”, I really wanted to believe in us - the international community veterans, the borderline pen spinning retirees, that we can perform. I didn’t wanna believe that the international community was any inferior. I finally felt ready to edit something solely from our pool of people. I can accept that I don’t have to rely on japanese invitations to superficially enhance the CV. We have enough to make something great ourselves. 

I fondly assert that the international community does NEED this kind of confidence. Otherwise, we will always be second rated. Seen as the lesser beings. Y’all JapEn tiering meme-lords know what I’m talking about. I personally  needed this to prove to myself that it will work out for us even when the scene looks pretty shitty now. And yes, I did feel better after this.

# Conclusion

It didn’t really garner much attention especially when there was a flood of CVs being released around the time it was released. But I do love it a lot. It’s made up of familiar spinners that I cherish, good combos that I’m thankful for, and finally, an editing that drained my whole summer holiday away. Yeah, I do love it a lot. Definitely one of my proudest work.

[mecharina]

A letter to Southern Grimvault

I guess this is my ‘Good-bye to WS’ post. 

After the initial announcement of the game’s shut down two weeks ago, I haven’t had any idea how to properly express my feelings about Wildstar being close down. Seeing other people’s posts here and lurking on the many groups in discord of the news, I just felt a giant wave of sadness come over me and I couldn’t properly express that.

But I guess I’ve gathered my thoughts enough to where I’m writing this, so. It’s mostly for me, just to come in terms with everything. So take it as you will if you do read it.

P.S. It’s Long. P.P.S I’m not good at writing, so pardon for any odd phrasing or grammar lol

I used to farm the area for heartichoke (and later bloodbriar when it became more profitable) late at night w/ my mechari (To my best son, Romulus). It was a very routine thing I did when I didn’t (at the time) have a guild to partake in activities with.

Passing through Conqueror Square, around 10-11 pm PST, when the only physical activity you could see in Illium was at best, 2-4 people, was a normal sight for me as I headed to the transporters. (Rapid transport? I’m stingy) It was the end of a day for most, but the beginning for me as it was my goal, through this repeated and really obsolete method at the time, to gain more plat.

When loaded in, I put my mini-map on maximum size so I would be able to discern which crops to farm and others to stay away. (I didn’t use a mod to pin point which was which. I never had felt the need to.)  Minimized all quests windows, locking them into place so I didn’t accidentally click on them when I was moving around. I ignored nchat for the most part, but did take the occasional peek when curious. 

All the while, I would be listening to the movie “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. Why that particular movie to this map? I really have no idea, to be frank. I don’t own a physical copy of the movie. And I’m more of a fan of Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox really. But this was the movie that always played in the background as I farmed. Eventually, the movie came synonymous with this map. It was just automatic for me to put it on-- late at night, with my earphones plugged in. Any extra noise in game, except the sfx for moving around in the world, would be the only thing I would be listening to for next 2-3 hours.

As the third party host site played the movie in the background, I farmed in S. Grimvault. I definitely do not have the lines memorized by heart for this movie despite me listening to it on repeat. But I’ve connected parts in the movie as to what areas in the map I would be located at the time. The first lines, “It is an extremely common mistake: people think the writer’s imagination is always at work...” would indicate myself being near Vigilant Incursion, just before the Strain Wall event on Dommie side. I’d run up the hill and make my way around the perimeter, closes to the wall as I looked over whether or not there was something I wanted to farm there. 

“Ten? Are you joking? That’s more than I’d pay an actual dealer -- and you wouldn’t know chiarascuro from chicken giblets,” line would usually be before or about around the Charlie Company Crash area, Exile side. To “Don’t flirt with her.” approximately around the entrance to Northern Grimvault between the two Exile and Dominion outposts. If the line was heard before I past the area, meant I made good time, or if a little after, meant I needed to pick up the pace. (Why it mattered whether I hurried along with farming had no real consequence, of course I didn’t want to spend the ENTIRE night there.)

The lines were sorta like markers for me, the starting point being at the Dominion drop in, all the way around through Exile side of S.Grimvault and through the perimeter of the Strain infested areas before coming back around to Vigilant Incursion. Given this was the path I always took when farming, I took to noticing and exploring things. Only natural for me. Since no one was ever really there, save the occasional leveling player or a bot attacking at monsters. (I swore the first time I saw a bot, I thought legitimately it was a real person... In the back of my mind I kinda did hope it was a real person. Goes to show how lonesome of a person I was then lol). 

I know I could have just searched google and typed up things like “Locations of Elite Bosses in S.Grimvault” or “What areas do Champion Bosses spawn in S. Grimvault” but my intention was never to fulfill the achievement quota when I was there. Finding and fighting bosses was a side quest I gave myself when farming. (The extra gold never hurt.) And they became part of the farming routine as I gathered and found more of these bosses and where they were located. (I only ever tackled fighting the rock and strain champion bosses, the charging rhino creature and the Eldan bot were some I couldn’t last long enough to win against.)

The entire routine itself, this farming in Southern Grimvault, was something I did look forward to in the late evenings. I would probably be done around 2-3 am, willing if I didn’t stay longer. Eventually, all the prior set up just became a blur, like, you’ve done it plenty of times, so much so it goes by like ‘that.’ At this point, as I farmed, I thought about things, stuff pertaining to WS in-game, lore, or character development.

One thought I repeatedly went back to in terms of WS was the economy, that if more people played, and how heartichoke and bloodbriar would soar as hot ticket items on the market. I imagined myself to be one of those stuck-up vets (at farming) who knew all the good spots and places to gather said items, being a little greedy and garnering enough plat through this practice to reach the milestone of 1000 plat. ( A personal goal <o/ ) 

Or story ideas for my characters, coincidentally most of them concerned Rom because I always played him during these times. How he’d go to the market the next day, after rigorously spending the day/night prior harvesting these crops, how he’d haggle with merchants and make a pretty plat. How he’d send Kalua to university in Cassus, or help fund/support his brother Remus’s endeavors with the Torine. Just little plot/character ideas that came into mind at the time. 

By the time I hear the credits roll in the background, I’m back near Vigilant Incursion. Upon arriving, I make a quick visit to the renown vendor, sell my extra loot and organize decor/items I’ve gotten and head back to Illium. Most times I’d head back into housing, but recent (recent as in months before when I still farm regularly) I’d just be in Illium and log off. I’d call it a night and that would be the end of it.

I suppose, why I’m writing PARTICULARLY about this personal routine rather than the times I’ve RP’d or done raiding, or gone through the story of WS, or even the drawings I’ve done for the game... is that-

That I thought I’d always be able to come back to it. 

When I felt sad, or down, or wanted to relax after a long day, late nights farming in Southern Grimvault always gave me a peace of mind. The map was vast enough that I could spend 2-3 hours, while listening to a movie, to farm, explore, and goof around. I’d be able to process myself through this simple action of swinging giant claws at a plant or garnering a couple gold from a boss.

But now that this is something that won’t happen anymore, it’s a bit sad to think that I won’t be able to enjoy that routine. Of course there will be other things, but specifically this and the things I’ve experienced through Wildstar, a whole lot of it...

I am going to miss it. I knew it was going to be gone at some point, but I wasn’t afraid to hope a little. Just a bit more, another day, another month, a year, even longer, for content that may have come to bring it back to its feet. But in the end it didn’t. And come Nov. 28th, the game will shut down and WS will be gone. It’s my first mmo, and I guess I’ll never really get over the deal that it is over...

But as everyone has said at this point, the memories of the game, making friends, enjoying the content, how long you’ve been playing either at the beginning or near the end. It’s something to keep despite all the sadness about the news. All of that, I’m really happy to have been through, being able to meet new people, doing things, having fun. 

So, I’ll close this off saying:

Thank you, Southern Grimvault. Thanks for being a map that let me feel like an explorer and enjoying the aesthetics you had to offer with your golden fields of towering exanite to your strain infested pulsating caves.

Thanks everyone, for all the content you create and your passion that kept the game alive through the years.

And to Wildstar for its crazy sciency magical space cow-boy world that I took great enjoyment in.

The giant 10 foot robot appreciates it. 

[formeest]

6 Vlogging Applications for Basic and Quick Content Creation!

Vlogging is as famous as ever and, even though maximum human beings nevertheless accomplice video manufacturing with sitting down at their computer, the electricity of current smartphones means that recording and modifying your vlog at the cross has in no way been so clean! Here I need to proportion with you the pinnacle video modifying and vlogging apps that you may use to get your message out on your audience!

I concentrate on a motive-pushed content material strategy. I paint with folks that need to boost up the effect in their paintings with true and true content material. In my opinion – not anything does this higher than getting your face and message out to the proper human beings!

The excuses preventing human beings from vlogging

When I paint with specialists there’s a massive variety of motives why they don’t need to or sense like they can’t produce video content material. It frequently comes right all the way down to one in all motives:

Imposter syndrome – feeling like they've not anything of fee to feature or that human beings will suppose they may be a fraud!

Technical capabilities – This is available in more than one flavor. The first being that human beings agree that they lack the abilities to edit their content material. The 2d is that they “don’t have the time” to edit content material.

The reality is that each of those troubles are without problems triumphing over after you align your motive together along with your content material strategy.

Creating content material to develop your motive is the nice killer of imposter syndrome. As your ideal manner is going from “why might all and sundry agree with me” to “it’s any other extra possibility to assist human beings”.

Here are the nice vlogging apps and the capabilities which can be critical for vlogging!

 InShot (Android and iOS)

InShot is a sincerely famous app for video modifying in your smartphone or android device. It has an extremely good four.eight-big name score out of over four million opinions – you understand that that is going to be good!

It has a tonne of capabilities that might be overwhelming for a primary time consumer if it wasn’t for its slick interface.

Features:

Video Trimmer & Video Cutter & Video Splitter

* Trim and reduce video. Pro video trimmer & cutter and video crop app.

* Split films into parts, Multi-break up films into numerous clips

* Crop video and Export it in HD quality. Easy-to-use loose film maker & vertical seasoned video editor for YouTube.

Video Merger & Video Joiner

Merge a couple of clips into one. It is a loose video maker for YouTube, Instagram,Musical.ly,Tik Tok etc. enables break up, trim & reduce video, integrate and compress video without dropping quality. No crop app for Instagram & Whatsapp.

Music, Sound outcomes & Recorder

* Add InShot featured loose tune, Vlog tune or your very own tune.

* Add your very own voice on your video, like a recorder.

* Adjust tune quantity and tune fade in/out choice.

* Video making utility with Vlog tune. Adding tunes to videos like Vinkle.

Video Filters and Video Effects

* Add film fashion video filters and complete outcomes inclusive of Glitch effect, forestall movement, Old TV, RGB, ect.

* Adjust video brightness, contrast, saturation, etc. Customized video filters and video outcomes.

Text & Sticker

* Add textual content on video, many fonts for the textual content modifying.

* Add lively stickers and emoji. 1000+ stickers!

* Add custom memes and pictures.

Video Speed Control

* Adjust video velocity with video filters and video outcomes. Fast/Slow movement complete display screen video maker and loose video trimmer and film maker app.

* Speed up films or upload sluggish movement.

Video Converter & Photo Slideshow Maker

* Easily convert video to MP4 format. Free video cutter app.

Photo slideshow maker, merge pics to create slideshow with tune.* Add your very own voice on your video, like a recorder.

* Adjust tune quantity and tune fade in/out choice.

* Video making utility with Vlog tune. Adding tunes to videos like Vinkle.

Video Filters and Video Effects

* Add film fashion video filters and complete outcomes inclusive of Glitch effect, forestall movement, Old TV, RGB, ect.

* Adjust video brightness, contrast, saturation, etc. Customized video filters and video outcomes.

Text & Sticker

* Add textual content on video, many fonts for the textual content modifying.

* Add lively stickers and emoji. 1000+ stickers!

* Add custom memes and pictures.

Video Speed Control

* Adjust video velocity with video filters and video outcomes. Fast/Slow movement complete display screen video maker and loose video trimmer and film maker app.

* Speed up films or upload sluggish movement.

Video Converter & Photo Slideshow Maker

* Easily convert video to MP4 format. Free video cutter app.

Photo slideshow maker, merge pics to create slideshow with tune.

* Mix pics with films, upload custom image cowl for video.

Video Cropper

* Crop video in any ratios. Powerful film maker and seasoned video editor for YouTube, Instagram, Musical.ly, Tik Tok etc. Best video crop app and video modifying app.

* Crop video to get rid of watermark or any undesirable part.

* Zoom in/out video.

Flip & Rotate Video

* Rotate video via means of ninety degrees.

* Flip video as much as down or left to proper.

* Fast rotate video equipment for video modifying.

Video Ratio & Video Background

* Fit your video in any Aspect Ratio. Easy-to-use instagram video editor and Tik Tok editor.

* Add one-of-a-kind borders and no crop. Background shadeation and video blur editor.

FilmoraGo (iOS + Android)

Vlogging apps - Filmora Go

FilmoraGo at the Play Store

I even have individually used this app for my movie modifying and observed it very clean to use. It has a four.2 score at the Google Play save.

There are massive sorts of alternatives and subject matters that you could practice on your video. Personally, I sense like they may be a piece cheesy and feature in no way used the subject matters.

If you're seeking out a powerhouse editor you’d be stupid now no longer to take into account FilmoraGo

Features

Mix PHOTO & VIDEO: Fully featured video studio proper for your pocket

Import image and videos

Preview clips in Real-time

Supports imports from social networking like Facebook and Instagram

ONE CLICK AMAZINGNESS: Awesome template and outcomes with a Touch

Choose from fashionable subject matters of FilmoraGo

MUSIC: Find The Perfect Soundtrack or begin lip syncing!

Add tune from FilmoraGo’s library of certified songs

Use tune out of your very own device

EXPORTED TO FIT POPULAR RATIOS

Square: maximum famous 1:1 for Instagram

Cinema: traditional 16:nine for Youtube

ALL-IN-ONE VIDEO EDITOR

Play in opposite: create opposite video that seems like a magic trick.

Slow down & Speed up: create Multiple Fast or Slow Motions withinside the Same Video!

Transitions: traditional transitions inclusive of Dissolve, Wipe, Split, Shutter and Zoom out to mix a couple of images and films seamlessly

Overlays & Filters: wonder your buddies with sensational film outcomes produced from your films and pics

Text & Titles: create stunning lively messages with the assist of our textual content & titles library,and you could personalize the shadeation, length and position

Elements: take your video to the following degree via ways of including dazzling Still and Motion Graphics.

All modifying operations may be immediately previewed in WYSIWYG way

PROFESSIONAL EDITING TOOLS

Reverse play, Trim via way of means of Duration, Slow/Fast movement editor, Duplicate, Mute, Rotate, Delete

MORE FREE MATERIALS TO DOWNLOAD

Including Themes, Transitions, Music, Filters, Overlays, Elements, Titles

SAVE AND SHARE

Export HD films on your gallery at any time

Share your works of artwork to Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, Vimeo, Tumblr and Email etc.

INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE SUPPORT

FilmoraGo gives aid in: English, German, Italian, Turkish, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Nederland, Arabic,and Chinese (Traditional and simplified)

Magisto (Android and iOS)

Magisto claims to be a clever video editor and is targeted on income and the enterprise world – probably product advertising and that form of stuff. It has a score of three.eight at the Play Store from approximately 1 million opinions. It looks like the app obtained a whole lot of reward early on however now struggles with terrible opinions.

However, it's far nevertheless really well worth noting that the clever thing of Magisto might also additionally nevertheless make this a higher choice for you. The inventory templates and belongings don’t appear as lame either!

Features

Grab interest on social media via means of remodeling your pics and clips into alluring movies: birthday, wedding ceremony, selfie, baby, puppy and extra …

Grow your enterprise (small / domestic office): actual estate, automotive, sports & fitness, travel, tune and extra …

With Magisto, you could growth logo awareness, lead technology and income

Become a Video ‘Superhero’ – Majisto's shrewd editor is powered via way of means of A.I. (synthetic intelligence) which makes it ‘clever’ and turns modifying semi-automatic. It transforms you right into a film making ‘superhero’. Designed as your 24/7 private film editor, Magisto combines clips, pics, tune, textual content, outcomes and filters that will help you inform your tale.

No videos in your smartphone? No problem. Magisto clever film maker will let you create a collage or slideshow with a tune that appears like a real film using the best pics.

Use Magisto Video Editor – Music Slideshow, Collage & Movie Maker to create splendid films in only three Easy Steps:

Choose a Smart Editing Style – select a fashion that suits your wishes and the tale you need to inform. Magisto could make an image slideshow with tune, video college and complete blown produced video. Styles also can assist Magisto recognize your use case from birthday or wedding ceremony to advertising on social media or maybe growing ads

Choose Video Clips & Photos – pick pics and clips out of your gallery or Google Drive™ garage for modifying

three. Choose Music – Magisto has a library of commercially certified songs from rock to cinematic.

Share your content material on social media in a faucet: without problems proportion your ‘superhero’, head turning films in a single faucet without delay from Magisto to one-of-a-kind social media webweb sites and apps, email, messaging, websites, & blogs.

Quik (Android and iOS)

Price: Free

vlogging apps - Quik

The Quik app is designed to paint properly with GoPro. That's ideal if this is the digital digicam you operate for vlogging at the cross!

This app has a four.7-big name score at the Play save from 1.2 million opinions. It appears to be properly-preferred via the means of its customers and has cornered a segment of the marketplace with its compatibility with GoPro cameras for vlogging.

Features

ADD YOUR PHOTOS + VIDEOS

+ Add as much as seventy five pics and videos out of your Gallery, Albums, Google Photos, Dropbox, GoPro Plus or GoPro Quik Key. Quik even works with Motion Photos.

+ Quik receives facts out of your GoPro pictures (smile [1], faces [2], voices, cheering, velocity, jumps, water, panoramic and constant pictures [3]) and analyzes your films to pick awesome moments. It detects faces and shades to border every image perfectly. Adjust the format or hobby factor manually.

+ Want to pick your very own moments? Use HiLights to tag the nice pictures.

CHOOSE YOUR THEME

+ Choose from 23 subject matters, every with transitions and pictures designed for any occasion.

+ Adjust the font, filters and pictures to suit your fashion.

CUSTOMIZE YOUR VIDEO

+ Easily reorder, trim and rotate pics and videos.

+ Personalize your tale with textual content overlays and name slides. You may even upload emojis 🙂

+ Let Quik do its magic with Smart Cuts or use complete videos.

+ Speed up pictures or play it in Slo-Mo.

+ Add GPS Stickers to reveal how speedy you had been going. [4]

+ Quik mechanically activates the audio whilst it detects voices.

+ Choose cinema, rectangular or portrait formatting for clean sharing on Instagram or Snapchat.

+ Set a period for pics and titles – Quik adjusts the cuts and transitions mechanically.

PICK THE PERFECT SOUNDTRACK

+ Choose from extra than one hundred loose songs or use a track out of your very own collection. Quik helps with MP3, M4A, MP4, MOV, AAC, FLAC, AIFF and WAV.

+ Start your soundtrack at any factor withinside the track.

+ Quik mechanically syncs transitions to the beat of the tune.

SAVE + SHARE YOUR VIDEO

+ Save films in appropriate HD 1080p or 720p—even in buttery-easy 60 fps.

+ Share to Instagram, Facebook and extra, or ship a personal Quik hyperlink through textual content or email.

+ With GoPro Plus, your shared films are stored as Shared Links for your Plus account. [5]

+ Need extra time to edit? Save initiatives as drafts and Quik will preserve them for 7 days.

VIDEOS MADE FOR YOU

+ Relive the day with Flashbacks 24H—ready-to-watch films of your adventures produced from your ultimate 24 hours of pictures.

QUIKSTORIES

+ Quik works with the GoPro App to deliver you QuikStories—terrific films made mechanically with media shot in the ultimate seventy two hours.

Vlogit (iOS and Android)

Price: Free with seasoned capabilities

vlogging apps - Vlogit

View on Play Store

This app is made via the means of the business enterprise that has introduced you to FilmoraGo. Except this app is particularly for vlogging! It has a four.1-big name assessment from the best 25,000 opinions so far.

It is a rather new participant withinside the app sport and so it nevertheless has some troubles that they may be looking to paintings out.

I love the truth that this app is refining capabilities particularly for vlogging and might be one to observe as vlogging turns into an increasing number of famous!

Features

COMBINE PHOTOS & VIDEOS

You can shoot new films with the app or import present films & pics

Trim clips without problems and spot an immediately preview of your video

Import films and pics out of your social media bills consisting of Facebook, Instagram and Google

CUSTOM OPENERS

Create an extremely good video intro the use of an lively template quick and without problems

SOCIAL STICKERS

Vlogit’s social stickers and emojis will assist you stand out and appeal to extra subscribers

EYE-CATCHING THUMBNAILS

Capture and edit snapshots to create custom YouTube thumbnails

Enrich your preferred photo with textual content, stickers and drawing equipment

ADD MUSIC, SOUND EFFECTS, & VOICE OVERS

Record yourself and upload voice overs on your movies

Create a soundtrack the use of Vlogit’s integrated tune library and songs out of your device

Spice up your video with amusing sound outcomes

PROFESSIONAL CLIP EDITING TOOLS

Easily trim, break up, merge, and replica pics and videos

Snapshot, crop, rotate, quantity manage, and Ken Burns equipment

VIDEO EFFECTS

Text: dynamic textual content outcomes. You can edit the shadeation, length, font, or even animation of your textual content

PIP: layer a couple of pictures and videos the use of the Picture in Picture track

Speed Controls: create sluggish movement or speedy movement time lapse clips

Transitions: practice a transition fashion and manage its velocity

Reverse: turn your clips and play them backwards

Filters: extrade the colours of your films the use of filters

Any modifications you're making may be previewed in actual time

Meest:

MEEST is an app that really fits the spirit of India. This app is a single core platform founded by Indians in India to meet all of your social media needs. Be it popular short films in India, interesting video sharing, free online chat, video calls, live broadcasts etc. or acquaintances and new friends. The application mostly leaves traces in Indian organizations, so that we can be independent of westernized and uncertain applications.

 MEEST has various features inbuilt for a user to enjoy every part of it. Following are some of them:

Live App: Use the exclusive one-click function.

Audio call: Chat with people using audio call.

Free video chat: You can make video calls with up to 8 people at a time.

Information exchange: communicate with your friends and family without restrictions.

Realize video by adding lip-sync video to various audio and music functions.

Fun Video App: Use various filters, effects and transitions to create interesting videos and share them with your friends and the rest of the world.

[gr-ogu]

Hey, may I ask how you make your icons (which are really cute btw)? I would love to give it a try myself but I dont really know where to start vor what size they woud need to be. Do you use a specific program? Thank you in advance ❤

Hi again my love!!! ❤

First of all, thankyou so much!! That’s so kind of you to say and I’m honoured that you’d come tome for advice!!! I’m going to put this under a read more because it might getvery long, I hope that’s okay! Also want to say I am by no means an expert - myicon making stems from a lot of trial and error, hahah!

There’s soooo manydifferent ways to make icons! I have seen and read a thousand tutorials, butthe first thing I have to say is it’s got to be what you’re comfortable with.Whatever works best for you is the best way! 

When I first started to make icons, I used paint.net, which is free todownload and such a good program! I still haveit because you can download free ‘plugins’ (like added extra features)that people make and they’re so handy!!!! I used to make coloured backgrounds using the gradient feature, and zoom in very closely and use the rubber tool toerase the background of the characters/people I wanted for the icon, whichworks great if you have a lot of time and patience! 

Now however, I use photoshop CS5, which I got from here (no idea if the link stillworks but I hope it does!!!) which I find a lot easier now that I know how touse it! For sizing, as long as the canvas is a perfect square you’re generallygood - I usually go for 150px x 150px, but I know a lot of people use 100px x100px or 200px x 200px! 

Here are some tutorials that you might find useful to start you off in explaining how to use PS if you’re not familiar with it!! (x) (x)

Once you’ve got that down, usually you want to cut the people/charactersout from the background. There are soooo many ways to do this but I prefer touse the pen tool to draw around them and then erase the background, a tutorialfor that that I like is this one!

For background, I make my own gradients. Generally, you want to pick acolour you like and then find the lighter version of it, so to do that I pick acolour (for example this is a good list of different colours I referto) and then I use the hex code of that specificcolour to find the lighter version of it - so when you click on it, or searchfor it, it gives you the lighter and darker codes for the colours, which youcan put into Photoshop and then use to make gradients! alternatively you cansearch on places like itsphotoshop and find them,which is coincidentally where I get my textures from that I sometimes put onthe background of icons.

The textures are downloaded, and then once you’ve got them, uploaded into PS and usually set to soft light or overlay (I prefer soft light, but it depends on the colours you’re using I think!) in the drop-down menu on the right side of PS, where there’s different tabs (this one is found directly underneath layers!). It looks like this and put it above my colours to get cool effects in the background :-)

For the shapes part, I actually only learnt this really recently (although I’m going to do a demo of how I did my latest icon further down) and this is the method I used to get the shape!!!! Although I didn’t apply it to the icon in the same way that they did, I found an easier way for me!! Haha.

Something a lot of people also do is change the colours of people’s clothes! This is a great tutorial for that and one that I’ve used for my edits, although still learning with icons!

Okay so I think the easiest way to try and tell you how I make icons is just to show you! So, first things first, you’ve got to get your cap - it’s nice if it’s good quality, but it’s not the end of the world if it’s not!

I decided to use this one from the ITV hub, haha:

Once you’ve got that, I usually crop it so there’s not as much of the background, but that’s just personal preference. Then, with my pen tool, I go around it and outline the bits of them I want for the icon! (I’ve circled the pen tool on the left just for clarity!)

You’ll also notice the boys look a bit brighter and more defined in the above screenshot - I’ve added a PSD to them, which I’ve made myself. I have an ‘emmerdale psd’ that works quite well forall the characters so I use that as a base and adjust it depending on thescene! But there’s plenty of places to download PSDs too!

Once I’ve got the outline, I join up the dots to the first dot to make a solid line around the boys. Then, right click on the picture and choose ‘make selection’. 

Then you get a pop up box saying if you’d like a little blurring around them - sometimes I do 1px, sometimes I have none, like in this case, depends on the quality of the photo (and sometimes how well you’ve cut out their hair hahah). Once you’re happy, click okay and you’ll get the solid line around them flashing now.

I’m not sure how to do this on a mac, so really sorry if you have one, but you’ve got to invert this line to select the background instead of them, by pressing Ctrl, shift and i at the same time. Once you’ve done that, you can then click the delete button and the background will disappear! Yay! You should get something that looks like this:

After this, you want to go to the menu at the top that says image and click image size, which will present you with a text box like this:

Change the pixel dimensions’ width and height to whatever your icon size is, so in this case 150px - don’t worry if the height isn’t equal to the width, it’s better that the icon is the full width if its not a person’s full body, as you don’t want the picture to take up the full height of the icon anyways! Like this:

And voila! They are to size. Now, since I’ve made icons before, I have backgrounds already made, so I would drag them onto them. I suggest you make the backgrounds in a separate window and save them for later use (using the gradients for example), meaning you can drag new people onto the backgrounds which will save you time! Once you’ve done that, you’ll get something like this:

Now, you could just leave it there! If you were to do that (I save them with multiple colours for variety!) You might want to go to filter > sharpen > smart sharpen and play around with it until they look more defined, but not overly so!

(Also please don’t judge me - it’s good practice to name your layers informational names but as you can see mine are pretty all over the place, oops.)

For the shape part of the icon, please refer to the link I added above to add a custom shape to your gallery. Once you’ve done that, this is how I added it to my icons!

For now, zoom into your icon and place the shape above the icon and use ctrl and t to make it the size you want, making sure to hold down shift when you’re dragging the sides so it’s in proportion. Once you’re happy with this, press enter to confirm it (its usually best to leave a few pixels between the shape and the edge for the ‘transparent effect’.)

Then, drag the layer down in the bar on the right so it’s underneath whatever colours you want to use for your icon. In this case, I’ve just done a few as an example:

You can see the sort of outline of the shape on them, as well as the background colour. Now, you want to move the boys into the position you want them for the icon, and use something called a ‘clipping mask’. 

Right click on the layers at the side and choose ‘create clipping mask’ - the background will then fill into the shape and so will the people once you click it. At this stage, you probably want to use the little eye symbol on each layer to make it visible or invisible, so you can see if this is working or not!

As you can see, there’s a blank bit at the bottom of the icon since I cropped the boys’ bodies there. Luckily as they’re wearing dark colours, I can just paint over this on their layer to fill it in, but you could also resize the original image down to 150px and use a clipping mask on it too! (You can also merge the layers to make sure they’re one layer, by right clicking and using ‘merge down’ which isn’t available in the above screenshot but usually would be!)

Then zoom out, and you should have something that looks like this! (I’ve gone back to the file I made the actual icons on for this screenshot.) Make sure you save the image as .png, not .jpg! Files saved as .jpg can’t read transparency and the edges around the icon will show up as black or white, rather than transparent! 

I hope this has been helpful, and that it makes sense, and gives you a good idea of what to do?? If you have anymore questions don’t hesitate to ask❤❤❤

[hyperphonic]

copacetic// ao3

The next few days practically fly past, lost in a blur of opening shifts at the café, and late nights at the wharf with Jess. By the time the first Saturday of October has dawned, cold and clear in the way only mid-autumn mornings are, Rey feels like she’s barely blinked since watching Ben’s broad shoulders step out of Rose’s front door. Instead, it’s been ten days and she’s down to one pair of clean underwear and no pants. When Jess meets her at the laundromat they favor, she’s got a bag of laundry over one shoulder and a wicked glint in her eyes that instantly sets Rey on edge.

 “Know what you’re wearing to the show tonight?”

 Rey rolls her eyes and holds the streaky glass door open for her friend, unamused. 

Jess seems to know this, and the two of them load their respective heaps of laundry in a happy silence. The laundromat is all windows, affording them endless sunbeams to lounge in and people to watch on the street outside. It’s an odd place for two twenty-somethings to hang out in, but hadn’t stopped the pair from taking a shine to it almost as soon as they’d moved into town. Jess gives a rattling sigh, practically glowing in the sun as she reclines against one polished silver washing machine.

 “I do have an outfit picked out, actually.” Rey admits about halfway through her second wash cycle. The woman cat napping across from her cracks one eye open and sits forward, sleep entirely abandoned in favor of scheming,

 “Oh? Do tell.”

 Rey dips into the basket of clean laundry at her side and pulls out a ripped up pair of black denim short shorts (that she’d stolen from Jess two summers ago), and a crop top that rode high on her ribcage to the point of near indecency. Jess’s lips pull into a feral kind of grin, and before she even draws breath to speak, Rey knows this is only going to go one way.

 “Add fishnets,” the dryer behind Rey dings, oddly ominous as her friend continues, “wear that one leather jacket I keep leaving at your place.” Rey can picture the jacket perfectly: a strappy black number her friend had bought three springs ago, only recently back in rotation after an unfortunate incident on St. Patrick’s day involving both gin and barf. Rey smiles, rubs the thin fabric of her top between two fingers and wonders if Ben’s throat would go dry when he saw her.

 By the time their laundry is done it’s almost five, and the afternoon sun has started to go red. Rose joins them fresh off her shift as they pack up, and together the three of them walk the short distance to Rey’s little loft.  

 “Base out of here tonight?” Rey suggests as they set down their basket (her), and bag (Jess). Her friends nod, and almost as if she’d been banking on this the whole night, Rose procures a wad of red fabric and a sleek metal package from her purse. Rey eyes the innocuous square suspiciously, fears confirmed when Rose announces:

 “I’m going to change out of work clothes, and then I’m going to do your makeup.” Entirely too lazy to fight Rose on this one, Rey nods, and goes to retrieve her own outfit from the clean laundry haphazardly strewn across her bed.

 The venue for tonight’s show was a shitty little dive bar about three blocks from Rey’s loft affectionately referred to as “the Cantina”. Despite its proximity to her home, Rey had actually never been, though both Rose and Jess spoke fondly of the establishment.

 “Bar shows,” Jess explains as she pours out shots for the three of them in Rey’s bathroom, “are a totally different beast than venue shows”. It’s nearly six, and the three of them have begun to pregame in earnest as they get ready, makeup and clothes (both recently cleaned and dirty) strewn across the cool bathroom floor.

 “Ones at the Cantina, especially,” Rose adds, setting down the brush she’d been using to blend dark shadow onto Rey’s eyelid to take a glass with a grin. “This is going to be a good night.” Rey glances between her two best friends and her own unusually sultry reflection before knocking her shot back.

 Fifteen minutes, two shots each and one Lipstick Emergency later, they’re out the door in a clatter of house keys and high heels against concrete. Rey can already feel the familiar bubble of anticipation low in her stomach, enhanced by liquor and the dark sweep of eyeshadow. Jess and Rose walk on either side of her, thrumming with different variations of the same energy (it’s nearly palpable in the air, not unlike the cloud of perfume that follows Rose). The walk takes long enough for goosebumps to begin to rise on the backs of Rey’s arms, but not so long that her nose begins to run before they’re flashing their IDs and stepping out of the street and into the damp heat of the bar.

 There’s still a half hour until the first set and it is already crowded to the point that Rey instantly wants to dart to the back porch and its hazy open air.  Rose, however, has other plans, and drags her two friends over to the bar, lips glossy in the low light when she tosses her hair and orders.

 “Three kamikazes, please.” Rey groans, and Jess rolls her eyes; That’s what kind of night it’s going to be. With a bright grin over Rose’s shoulder at Jess, the bartender flies into action, motions grandiose and well-rehearsed. He’s cute, in a conventional kind of way: all light hair and white teeth when he politely refuses their attempts to pay, and leans over the counter to slide them their drinks. They’re still lounging against the sticky counter when the stage door opens; Jess shamelessly flirting with the bartender, and Rey running one finger around the rim of her empty shot glass when the first band begins to load in.

 “First Order plays third,” Jess breaks away from the bartender to inform her, as intuitive as ever. “But I don’t think you’re going to have to wait that long for what you want.” Rey follows her friend’s gaze and, ironically, it’s her throat that goes dry when she spots the source of Jess’s catlike grin.

 Ben is shadowing the front door, eyes downcast and shoulders slightly tense as he pulls his wallet from the back pocket of his (fitted) jeans. Rey realizes that she isn’t breathing, probably hasn’t been since her eyes alighted on the long line of his nose, and takes a shuddering breath. There’s a moment, a beat where the air seems electrically charged; and Ben’s stare snaps up and across the room as if he’d felt her eyes on the hard line of his mouth. His upper lip puffs out (Rey feels her heart kick into overdrive), intent heavy in his eyes, and Rey is just a millisecond away from crossing the crowd to him when the band on stage launches into their set with an explosion of sound. Instantly Rose is at her elbow, eyes vodka bright, and strength seemingly amplified as she hauls Rey off and into the crowd.

 “Rose!” Rey cries, voice almost lost in the crush of bodies and the heavy bass of the band on stage. Her friend plays coy, raises her hands in a gesture of confusion, and were it not for the gleam in her eyes, Rey might have actually bought it. Jess shoulders her way through the still growing crowd, another round of drinks in hand, and Rey can’t help but look over her shoulder for dark hair and darker eyes.

 The band, “Order 66” Jess sagely nods as she sets her empty glass on a nearby table, is actually pretty fun; loud and raucous in a way that First Order is not. They hadn’t opened up a pit, though Rey had seen a few individuals beginning to two-step anyways. There was no doubt in her mind that as soon as Ben and co. took the stage the usual wild vortex would crop up. Rey heaves a sigh and finishes the end of her beer while Order 66’s vocalist thanks the crowd, suddenly feeling entirely out of place when Finn leans down to press what looks to be a kiss against Rose’s cheek. Jess, already out of the crowd and halfway to the door, catches Rey’s eyes and nods towards the back porch. Ben’s nowhere to be seen, and Rey has no intention of intruding on the delicate moment transpiring to her left, so she nods and sets off towards the door.

 Several things become startlingly clear to Rey as soon as she sets foot onto the smoking deck. One: Jess is either the best wingwoman in the entire world, or is completely evil. Two: her leather jacket might look hot, but it certainly isn’t doing her any favors against the biting October air. And three: her nose was absolutely right, Ben Solo does smoke camel blues. Said man leans against the thin wooden fencing that separates the porch from the alleyway, cigarette in one hand and phone in the other, brows knit ever so slightly (Rey’s struck again with how badly she wants to reach out and smooth the crease between them away).

 Grin lit up brighter than the neon signs within the bar, Jess crosses the deck to perch on the empty table to their right and hands her a red; glee dripping from every word when she purrs.

 “Well, looks like we’re getting two birds stoned at once here.”

 Rey fights back a nervous laugh and instead holds one hand out for the lucky lighter, shoulders relaxing ever so slightly as the familiar weight falls into her palm. It takes her two tries and some concentrated effort to get the cherry going, and in that time she feels, rather than sees Ben’s eyes on her. Lips wrapped tight around the filter, Rey turns, and almost wishes she had a wall to lean against when the full weight of his stare hits her. Pensively, Ben takes a drag of his camel, tongue darting out to lick his lips after he exhales (Unconsciously, Rey mirrors the action, imagines his tongue on the column of her throat). Jess snickers, and slips the half empty pack into Rey’s pocket before tossing her cig into an ash tray and ducking back inside to the tune of the next set starting.

 Aware more than ever of his eyes on her, Rey pulls out her own phone and scrolls through her messages (Ben’s sit staunchly in the middle, teasing her as they had all week). Over the course of the next song, the porch empties out around them until there’s only Rey, Ben, and their lit cigarettes. Rey’s chest feels tight, like there isn’t enough room for her wildly racing heart and the inexplicably rapid tide of her lungs; Ben licks his lips again, glances over her shoulder at the closed door, and beckons her closer.

 “Rey,” his voice is warm, rough at the edges with smoke, and Rey doesn’t think she’s ever heard anything sweeter.

 It takes three strides to cross the cramped porch, and their sudden proximity has her reeling back to Rose’s kitchen and the way his hair had tickled her neck as he slept. Ben’s free hand hangs loose at his side, the slight twitch of his fingers the only indication that maybe (just maybe) he’d like to be touching her as much as she’d like to be touching him.

 “I’m glad you’re here,” he states, unafraid of eye contact as he looks down at her, “I didn’t know if you were going to come.” Rey offers a soft smile that turns into something else entirely when she raises the cigarette to red lips and sees the hunger in his eyes.

 “I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” the truth, unfortunately.

 Ben ducks his head, presumably to hide a smile of his own, and Rey wants desperately to kiss him. The moment passes though, when he looks up with solemn eyes and drops his cigarette into the gap between porch and fence.

 “Thank you again,” her throat closes up, “I don’t-“ one hand runs through his already wild hair, mussing it further, “I didn’t deserve your kindness last week.”

 Rey scowls up at him and takes a step back, too angry at his self-depreciating words to notice the way he moved with her, keeping the distance (or lack thereof) between them constant.

 “Excuse me?” She shakes her head, stubs out the end of her cig with more force than was absolutely necessary. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever fucking heard.”

 Ben, to his credit, has the common sense to look taken aback. Rey folds her arms, heedless of how the action tugs her shirt up and reveals the waistband of her fishnets where it rests just beneath her bust. Judging by the way his eyes sweep over the soft swell of her breast, lingering particularly on where her nipples pebble beneath the thin synthetic fabric, before casting down to trace the line of skin above her nets and below her breasts, Ben is not. The man across from her swallows thickly, casts his eyes to the dirty planks beneath them and exhales sharply through his nose.  

 “I don’t believe it for a second,” a lazy breeze picks up through the slatted fencing, blows the bar door open just enough to leak some of the set through, “and neither should you.”

 Ben looks at her like maybe she’s pulled the moon down from the sky (Rey just shakes her head and tugs her shirt down against the cold). He’s hesitant, endearingly so as he takes a step towards her, comes just close enough to feel the heat radiating off of her tiny frame, and is promptly interrupted by Poe poking his head through the door.

 “Alright Solo, time to load in, you mopey bastard!”

 Rey thinks she’s never hated Poe more in her life.

[vandnana]

Loving You Is Easy

Part Eleven

The next month I had grown so used to life with Chanyeol and Halmeoni. The disconnection I used to feel was gone completely, and the memories of my old life became fractal in the back of my mind.

Chanyeol and I were almost always together, The relationship we had hardly resembled friendship in the eyes of onlookers, but that was all we were—friends. Slowly though, I noticed how blurred the line between friendship and lover was when we were together. The first few weeks, everything he had done with me and for me was completely foreign, and I merely accepted it as friendship. It was easy for me to dismiss the signs because there was nothing I could compare his actions to. Until I met Kai.

Kai, although a good friend, didn’t treat me the same way as Chanyeol did. We would never hug, never hold hands, only ever really touching when we would shove each other playfully. When we ate together, Kai would never serve my food for me, instead, usually stealing the food I had on my plate. Walking around in the streets, Kai would purposefully zigzag or run to irritate me, knowing that I enjoyed the simplicity of a nice stroll. When we would hang out, he never asked me where I wanted to go, always sticking to an agenda that he carefully planned out. 

The contrast between them both opened my mind to a truth that my heart already knew. I began to find meaning behind the blush in my cheeks, the butterflies in my stomach, and the smile I always seemed to have when he was around. I slowly started to realize how I felt, but confronting those feelings was never something I planned on doing. 

Halmeoni, of course, was always around but she was never a harsh presence. She would encourage me, tell me I was working too hard, and ask about my day. Some days, we would even sit in the living room, talking and joking or even watching a movie. My newfound love for shopping and the scarcity in my closet, excluding the outfit Kai had picked, prompted her to take me shopping. She only saw how little I had in my closet because she asked me to pile up my laundry one day. To say that she was appalled would be an understatement. While I held a small pile in my hands, Chanyeol kept his in the hamper, not able to hold the mountain of dirty clothes he accumulated

The next day, she closed the shop so the three of us could go to Herald Square, and once we got there, I booked it to Urban Outfitters.

This store was much bigger and much more overwhelming than the one near Bryant Park, but once I entered, I was drawn toward the men’s section, eager to find Chanyeol something.

“This sweater is really nice, and it’ll match those blue pants you have too. You’re tall, so you’ll look good.” I held up an oversized mock neck sweater over his body, and he grabbed it from me, inspecting it.

“I agree, but we’re supposed to be shopping for you, not me. Now let’s go to the woman’s section now.” He put the sweater back where I found it, then turned me around toward the racks and racks of women’s clothes on the other side of the store.

Halmeoni had many suggestions, piling up an obscene amount of options for me to choose from. She made me try on everything she picked out for me, but out of what seemed like a thousand items, I liked three: peach high-waisted tapered pants, a light blue oversized v-neck, and a gold silk cropped cowl neck top. I chose them, thinking they matched well with each other. But, I still felt unsure. I texted pictures to Kai, asking for his approval.

Kai:

You’re a regular fashionista. You can put a white turtleneck underneath the v-neck to add some flavor. And for the cowl neck, you should find a slitted skirt for a more formal look.

-Thanks. I’ll keep you updated.

Okay, also isn’t green like the worst color ever?

-No I really like green. Especially like an emerald green. Why are you hating on green?!

Okay yeah I was just joking. Green is great.

-Alright then weirdo. I’ll talk to you later.

I put my phone away, and walked out of the fitting room, still in the cowl neck top. Halmeoni and Chanyeol looked up at me, anticipating what I was going to say.

“I think I’ll get this top and the pants. And then, the blue v-neck.” I concluded, looking back at myself in the mirror. Chanyeol’s mouth hung open as he stared at me, and I saw his expression in the mirror, which made me laugh. I laughed even more when Halmeoni shut his mouth with her hands and covered his eyes.

“You’re embarrassing yourself.” She uttered, and he swatted her hands away.

“She looks pretty. I can’t not stare Halmeoni.” He whispered in a defensive tone.

Halmeoni rolled her eyes in response, then approached my side.

“You know, June, when I was your age, all the girls were jealous of me because I was the prettiest in my entire school.”

“I’m not surprised.” I replied, beaming at her.

“Yes, all the boys wanted to date me, but Chanyeol’s grandpa was the only one for me.”

“How’d you know you wanted to be with him? You know, out of the millions of boys who liked you.”

She laughed at my comment, before telling her story. “He didn’t compromise when it came to me. When I told him that I wanted to go to college in Seoul, he made a plan to follow me, even though he wanted to stay in our hometown. I told him that he didn’t have to do that, but he said that it was more painful to be away from me, and I understood because it was painful for me too. That was how I knew.”

I nodded understanding what she meant as I instinctively looking back at Chanyeol, who was looking at something on his phone. Halmeoni noticed, and a warm smile crept on her face.

“Come on, why don’t you look a little more? You can’t just buy three things.”

I searched around for another hour, finding a slitted skirt per Kai’s suggestion and a beige oversized t-shirt. Chanyeol insisted on carrying my items to the register, and we made our way over to wait in line.

My phone started to ring, and I pulled out my phone to see Kai’s name on the screen. I picked up.

“Kai!!! What’d you think of the skirt? It’s cute right?”

“Yeah, June. It’s super cute. Anyway, I’m at school right now, and you know that project I told you about?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I need a model for my clothes, and I was just wondering you wanted to do it. No pressure though.”

“Sure! I’ll be your model.” Chanyeol’s eyes raised as I said this. He still hadn’t met Kai, and still thought he was a girl.

“Really? Great! It’s going to be a while until you need to model for me. I still have to finish all of pieces, but when I need you to do it, I’ll let you know.”

“Okay, sounds good to me! Thanks for asking!”

“Noo thanks for doing it. Also, you can use my rewards points when you check out. I’ll talk to you later June.”

“Bye Kai! Thanks!”

I hung up, and put my phone back in my pocket.

“Oooo so you’re a model now?” Chanyeol teased, raising his eyebrows up and down.

“Yes I am. It’s for a school project.”

“That’s nice of her to ask you.” Chanyeol exclaimed.

I  furrowed my eyebrows at him, “No, Kai’s not a girl.”

But, Chanyeol apparently didn’t hear me as he led the way to the cash register. “Come on, we’re next.”  

“How are you guys doing?” The guy behind the counter asked, scanning my clothes.

“We’re good, how are you?” I replied. The man responded plainly, saying he was good too.

He neatly folded the clothes into a paper bag, then stated the total. “Alright, and do you have a rewards membership with us?”

I nodded, reciting Kai’s number, and the guy’s eyes lit up. “Looks like you get 40% off today. Your total comes out to $126.43. You can insert your card into the chip reader when you’re ready.”

I reached into my bag, and so did Halmeoni, but Chanyeol was ready before the both of us, sticking his chip in almost aggressively into the reader.

Halmeoni and I scowled at him, but he just laughed at us.

“Alright, now would you like a receipt?”

Chanyeol shook his head, and the cashier waved goodbye, handing the bag to me.

We exited the store, and once we got out, I slapped Chanyeol on the shoulder.

“I could have easily bought these. Why did you buy them for me?” I whined.

“June, I will literally buy you anything you want.” He stated plainly, putting his arm around my shoulder as we walked to the next store that Halmeoni was leading the way to.

“That’s not fair. I haven’t bought you anything. You don’t even want anything.” I pouted up at him.

“If I like something, I’ll let you know. I’d rather splurge on you anyway.”

We spent most of the day shopping, accumulating more bags than I thought possible. I set a limit for myself, but Chanyeol and Halmeoni insisted that I get more stuff. They almost fought each other at the cashiers, both wanting eagerly to spend money on me. When I tried to buy them stuff, they shot me down immediately, which was heartwarming and annoying at the same time.

During the course of the month, I started sculpting again too. I would sculpt at home in the living room, but it was hard because sculpting was a process. Halmeoni was worried that the clay would find its way onto her furniture and the carpet, so I had to cover every inch of the living room with plastic, and I couldn’t take the plastic off until whatever I was making had fully dried. For some figures, I would need to paint too, which also took hours. There were times when I spent the entire day in the living room, not talking to anyone, just listening to music and working.

I thought that Chanyeol would be impatient with me, as clingy as he was. But, he wasn’t. Usually, he would just sit in the living room with me, either watching me work or working on his music. Sometimes, he insisted that he be the music for the day, and he would sing or play the guitar for me. Rarely did I ever ask him to help, but when I did, he practically jumped for joy.

After a while, the clean up process got exhausting, and I voiced my complaints to Kai. He offered his own apartment, which had an empty alcove that never occupied anything. I asked if he was sure about letting me borrow his space, but he said that he didn’t mind at all, and that space wasn’t a problem because he didn’t have a lot of stuff in his apartment anyway.

I moved all of my stuff into Kai’s apartment, which was sleekly bare. The only characteristic part of it were the mannequins adorned in fabrics and a large desk with a sewing machine, along with other gadgets I knew nothing about.

Kai had given me a key, and told me that I could come anytime as long as I texted him I was there. When I felt eager to finish a project, I would come over while he was at school, but most of the time, I worked while he was home. I felt bad for the mess I would make, and I always tried my best to clean everything up. I had made countless little figurines in one week, and Kai took it upon himself to sell them to people. He reached out to everyone he knew, even displaying them in his parents’ restaurant. Halmeoni also displayed my figures in the shop, advertising them to everyone who walked in. To my surprise, they were actually selling.

Once the figurines, started selling, I stopped making them. My hands were warmed up from the long hours of molding little tiny heads and bodies, and they were ready for a more taxing project.

I decided to make a woman sitting on a crescent moon, holding up a single star. There was a lot of intricacy involved, the image itself already challenging to recreate in a three-dimensional medium. But, I felt determined and ready. Making that sculpture, I practically lived at Kai’s apartment, coming early in the morning and leaving before midnight. Chanyeol would send me millions of messages during those days, knowing that I wouldn’t respond until I had finished what I was doing that day. It never annoyed me as much as it would for any other person. For me, I felt reassured. Kai did his best to make me feel as welcome as possible, even offering his couch multiple times on the late nights. But, I always wanted to come home.

Chanyeol still was unaware that Kai wasn’t a girl, but it wasn’t like it was secret. We rarely ever talked about Kai, and even when we did, the subject of his gender never came up anymore, and to me, it didn’t matter. Every time I told him that I was with Kai or going to Kai’s, he would just tell me to have fun, and when I’d come back, we would talk about other things.

At the end of the month, I finished the piece, and returned to a normal schedule that fit more room working at the shop. Although, Halmeoni never pushed for me to work, still encouraging me to do whatever I wanted.

I left the piece at Kai’s, not knowing what to do with it. It was too heavy and too big to carry back to the apartment, so I told him he could have it as his first real decorative piece. I even made a fake art plaque for it.

At the end of the month, I was struck with intense bewilderment when Kai told me that he had submitted my sculpture to be displayed in an art exhibition based in uptown Manhattan. It wasn’t anything famous or fancy, more fitting for the underground art scene, but he reassured me that it was a real exhibition that people would dress up to go to.

I refused to believe him until we rode the train to see the exhibition location. It was just as Kai had said, very unassuming, but there was a charm to it. The building was small, sandwiched between a laundromat and a photography place. There were ivy vines snaked around the red brick exterior, and the steps leading up to an oddly Victorian door had a red carpet draped over them. When we walked in, everyone’s art was covered with red shrouds, and as we walked in further, Kai showed me mine. It was sat on a large pedestal, also covered in a shroud, but I knew that it was my piece. Its silhouette was enough confirmation for me, but Kai wasn’t satisfied. He lifted the shroud slightly to reveal a plaque that read:

June (b. 01.29)

The Moon Is Mine, The Stars Align

Oil-Based Clay

Made to marry terrestrial beings with the beings that bring us light.

The fake plaque I had made became real in front of me, and I covered my mouth. Dreams that I buried deeply started to unravel in mind, and I felt untouchable. I hugged Kai tightly because of what he had given me, and he had a cocky smile plastered on his face.

“I couldn’t just let your art sit in my apartment. As much as I love it, it looks way better here.” We were still hugging as he said this, and he rubbed my back reassuringly.

I pulled away to look at him, and somehow tears found their way down my cheeks. I wiped them hastily, looking away embarrassed.

“Sorry, these are happy tears, Kai. I never thought my art would be sitting in an exhibition. But because of you, it is. Thank you.” I said as best as I could through my teary eyes.

“You’re gonna be a rich and famous sculptor in no time. You just gotta start somewhere. You’re rising up right now.” He stated, confidence coloring his words.

I pushed him slightly, “You too. You’re already this amazing fashion designer, and you’re gonna make clothes for all the famous people one day.”

“I hope so. Hey, that reminds me. I’m finalizing the design for the last piece. I just need you to come over one day, so I can do a fitting. Then, after that I just need to take pictures and videos of you wearing the clothes, and you’ll be done.”

“Okay, sounds like a plan. Also, don’t you have a men’s wear project too?”

“Yeah, but that’s not due until next semester.”

“You should ask Chanyeol to model for you. He looks good in everything.”

He laughed lightly, a slight ache in his heart arising. He tried his best to bury his feelings, but sometimes they would find their way up to the surface.

“That’s not a bad idea. I’ll let you know when you can ask him. I like focusing on one project at a time.” He faked a smile to hide the pain in his heart.

As much as he understood that I only saw him as a friend, the butterflies in his stomach had a habit of taking over his mind’s rationality some days. There was a slight hope that he never entertained, but felt inside, a hope that I would change my mind and choose him.

[yourlifefun]

20 Best Secrets to Strip Fat Everywhere

Find out the way to melt fat from even the foremost stubborn trouble spots on your body.

Whether you're disgusted your beer gut or can't lose your cankles, we all have trouble spots we wish we could reduce. Unfortunately, you cannot specifically target fat loss in precise locations in your body. Its simple science: Everyone's body is different, and a few individuals are genetically predisposed to lose (and gain) weight in certain areas of their body compared to others.

But you'll reduce overall, and as you're doing so, your body will lose inches everywhere. You’ll also target specific muscle groups through exercise. This can not only tone and firm your body, but it'll also assist you to build leaner, fat-burning muscle.

  20. Eat three square meals every day

Although some diet experts swear by smaller, frequent meals throughout the day, sticking to the fundamentals might just be what's best for blasting away belly fat. A study published within the journal Hepatology found that eating in between meals increased abdominal fat. The researchers suggest three square meals every day would be better for your waistline.

  19. Ditch diet soda

Think a sugar-free and calorie-free beverage is additionally good for your waistline? Re-evaluate. Consistent with a study published within the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, drinking diet soda was linked to weight gain and a rise in waist sizes. One theory is that the synthetic sweeteners in diet drinks trick your metabolism into thinking its ingesting sugar and spiking insulin, which stores in your body as belly fat.

18. Stop stressing

If you're balancing your career, family, social life, which never-ending to-do list, stress is inevitable. But an excessive amount of stress can cause how bigger gut. When you're stressed, your body releases the strain hormone cortisol. Cortisol is critical to managing important bodily functions like sign and fluid balance. But if you have an excessive amount of it, studies have shown your body finishes up storing it in your midsection. Although stress is some things that are difficult to tackle head-on, confirm you evaluate the foremost stressors in your life and seek therapy if necessary.

  17. Try a HIIT workout

HIIT, which stands for high-intensity interval training, is that the recent new because of computing, consistent with fitness enthusiasts. And thus the benefits are worthwhile. Not only do I reap the advantages of high-intensity workouts during a brief er period of a short time, but it also can help blast belly fat. Greek researchers studied exercisers who performed intervals for 20 minutes and another group that ran for 20 minutes straight on the treadmill. After eight weeks, the group who did intervals ended up losing two inches of belly fat, while the treadmill group lost but one inch. Although strength training and cardio are both keys to a successful fitness plan, confirm you're incorporating intervals, too.

  16. Fill up on fiber

Fiber is slow to digest, so it helps keep you fuller, longer. Loading abreast of this important nutrient will help keep you feeling satiated and assist you to kick those food cravings to the curb. Fewer empty calories mean less back fat. Load on whole grains, beans, and nuts for a much-needed fiber boost.

  15. Work your lats

While you cannot magically get fat to reduce from your back through some exercise, you'll target the often-ignored latissimus dorsi muscles, or "lats," to assist you to lean out. Your lats are located around your middle back and fasten to your spinal column. Target them with lat pull-downs: once you sit at the pull-down machine, grab the wide bar overhead in conjunction alongside your palms facing forward, ensuring that your hands are placed at a wider distance than your shoulders. Stick your chest out, exhale, then pull the bar down until it reaches your upper chest. Hold briefly then raise the bar copy slowly. Confirm you're feeling your back muscles, and have enough resistance so it's tough but not impossible (if you are feeling it in your forearms quite your back, inform see your form).

  14. Lay off the sugar

One of the quickest ways to pile on fat, including on your back, is with sugar. Sugar is in everything and is detrimental to your health beyond the empty calories. Sugar causes weight gain quicker than other calories because it spikes your blood glucose and causes your insulin to extend, leading your body to store more fat. Abandoning sugar will cause quite a health benefits, less hunger, increased energy, and losing inches, especially in your back and belly.

  13. Do push-ups

Although people typically think push-ups are mostly for your chest, they also help strengthen back muscles and support your spine, helping torch back fat within the tactic. To undertake to an accurate push-up, lie on rock bottom face down in conjunction alongside your hands at your sides, just outside your shoulders, and your feet hip-width apart. Raise your hips, thighs, and chest off rock bottom so your weight is supported by your toes and palms. This is often the starting position. Exhale as you straighten your arms and push your body up until your arms are straight. Decide to keep your head, hips, and ankles aligned as if your body could even be a straight plank. After a quick pause at absolutely the simplest, inhale as you lower yourself down. Repeat for ten repetitions.

  12. Avoid booze

One way to spice up overall weight loss, which can reduce your face, is to urge off on the empty calories from booze. Jim White, RD, ACSM HFS, owner of Jim White Fitness and Nutrition Studios, recommends curtailing on alcohol if you're looking to reduce. Although he usually lets his clients have 150 calories of whatever they need a day, which might be a glass of wine or a light-weight beer, any longer is often a slippery slope to weight gain. Plus, alcohol is dehydrating, which causes your face to bloat and appearance puffy. Try sticking to only one alcohol at a time, and ensure you chase it with a glass of water.

  11. Eat more carrots

If you're affected by saggy face skin and an unsightly "turkey neck," load on carrots. The colorful orange veggie is chock-full of carotenoids, which prevent cell damage and premature skin aging by protecting the skin from free-radical damage. The less aging and wrinkles you've on your face, the thinner it'll look. Plus, carrots are crammed with vitamins and antioxidants, which may combat inflammation.

  10. Get more vitamin C

For a brighter, thinner complexion, load on vitamin C. Research published within the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that folks who have adequate vitamin C levels oxidize more fat during exercise than those with low vitamin C, meaning you will get more fat-burning effects out of your workouts. Vitamin C also brightens your skin tone and may help fade the looks of dark spots and other blemishes. Load on fruits and veggies like oranges, grapefruit, kiwi, spinach, kale, and bell peppers for this essential vitamin.

  9. Lay off the salt

If you're keen on dousing your meals in salt, it is time to place the shaker down. A Spanish study published within the journal Nutrition Hospitalaria found that sodium intake may promote weight gain. Plus, an excessive amount of salt can cause your body to retain water, leading to face bloat and puffy eyes. Albeit you're doing not use salt that always, sodium lurks in many processed food in large amounts, so inform read your labels.

  8. Do more upper body workouts

"Focus on hitting upper body workouts 3 times hebdomadally," White says. He recommends doing a mixture of hammer curls, preacher curls, dips, dumbbell kickbacks, and tricep press downs. "To tone, these areas stick with 12-20 reps per set," he says.

  7. Stop eating after dinner

Doing all the arm exercises within the planet isn't getting to help if there's still a layer of fat covering your upper body. "The more body fat you lose, the more muscular tonus will pop," White says. He recommends to chop down on eating after dinner the utmost amount as possible to spice up weight loss.

  6. Cut portion sizes

White also recommends curtailing on portion sizes to spice up weight loss. In one study of 329 overweight people, 40 percent of these who practiced portion control for 2 years lost 5 percent or more of their weight. Within the same study, folks that did not gain weight! Measuring out your food and sticking to proper servings will assist you crop on calories, and reduce overall, exposing those toned and fire arms.

  5. Get more vitamin D

If you tend to know the weight in your arms and have a troublesome time building muscle, you'll have a T-type somatotype, meaning your body doesn't produce enough of the hormone testosterone. The thanks to boosting testosterone production are with vitamin D. Take 1000 IUs of a vitamin D supplement or eat more vitamin D-rich fish like salmon or sardines.

  4. Hit the load room for HIIT

Toning your legs takes time, White says, and it's going to take a quick time to work out any real progress. But an honest place to start out is within the load room. "In the load room consider high-intensity training. Super-set a mixture of squats, lunges, leg extensions/curls, and leg press," White says. "Since legs are how bigger muscle, consider 8-12 reps per set."

  3. Up your veggie intake

"Oftentimes, the layer of fat covering the leg muscles can blur the definition," White says. And more veggies could help burn fat; a study published within the journal Nutrition Research found that overweight adults in Brazil lost more weight once they ate more fruits and veggies. White recommends eating more fruits and vegetables to spice up overall weight loss, which can boost your toned legs. He says to aim for a minimum of 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

  2. Take a spin class

Incorporating cycling into your workout routine are becoming to be a double-whammy for understanding your legs. The increased resistance and motion will work your leg muscles, and thus the moderate to the high intensity of the workout will help torch calories and boost weight-loss. Plus, many spinning classes contain intervals; a study published within the journal Obesity found that folks who performed high-intensity intermittent exercise experienced a rise in fat loss.

  1. Focus on lean protein

"The food you eat can positively or negatively affect the looks of your legs," White says. He recommends that consider lean protein, which may help build more fat-burning muscle. Protein has also been proven to assist people to feel full and reduce if you stick within the daily range (about 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight). Some good sources of protein include chicken, fish, Greek yogurt, and nuts.

[forteandfoible]

Chapter 3: Family Feuds

After a week of chasing Katie up and down frat row and athlete housing, Elle was reconsidering her life choices. She had Google alerts for Katie now, which she felt supremely uncomfortable setting up and even now made her cringe a little every time she got a notification. The same went for her Twitter and she was overall far too involved in social media for her taste. She just wanted to be the stereotypical art student, carrying her camera around for the perfect shot and occasionally smoking a blunt on the roof of the design building. This was completely out of her wheelhouse and to be honest, she didn’t think she wanted to do it anymore. She put her head in her hands as she heard her phone ping yet again, wondering if it was still the fallout of Katie’s decision to go mingle with the football team last week or if she’d gotten herself into a fresh pile of trouble this time.

Instead, it’s a text from Katie.

Keystone: hey. Team’s throwing a little thing tonight, thought you might be interested. You can meet the rest of them, could be cool.

Elle: where/when? Should I bring something?

Keystone: I’ll send the address, it’s the captain’s house off-campus. 10pm. Bring yourself and whatever ur drinking.

Elle smiled and tucked her phone away. She should pack her things up and head to the library if she was going to go to this – her paper on Ansel Adams’ technique wouldn’t finish itself and she’d never forgive herself if she let down her 20th century Photography professor yet again. As she descended the staircase, she caught a glance of Marie on the sofa. Normally she would have just kept walking, but the way that the sunlight glinted off of Marie’s bottle-blonde hair, making it shine like spun gold, caught her attention. Quietly, so as not to alarm her, she reached for the camera around her neck and focused in. The photograph was fuzzy around the edges, the morning sun creeping its way into the otherwise dimly-lit room. Marie had her face turned away, a thick tome spread across her lap as she was reading Ayn Rand or Plato or Socrates or whatever literature was deemed essential by the philosophy department. Her pencil dangled from between her fingers, precarious in its fight against gravity. Elle smiled at the screen of her camera for a moment, then clattered down the rest of the stairs, causing Marie to jump and startle.

She slid her feet into combat boots and gave a little wave to her housemate.

“I’m going to the library, need anything from campus?”

“Nah I’m all set. Studious streak, huh?”

“Oh, I’ve been called on to be social tonight. Gotta get some stuff done before then.”

One of Marie’s eyebrows jumped precariously close to her bangs.

“A party? Who’s hosting a party that’s exciting enough for your introverted ass to show up?”

Elle laughed, one hand on the door.

“Hey, I’m not that antisocial! I go out sometimes. And it’s the fencing team, Katie thought I should meet some of her teammates, so I stop hanging around her as much, I think. It’ll be pretty cool.”

With that, Elle turned away and headed out the door. Marie’s face flew through a wild array of emotions, before finally settling on something that seemed like a mixture of disgust and mild interest.

“Katie, huh?”

---

The windows of the house that Elle’s phone led her to seemed to be shaking when she approached the door. This had to be it, the eclectic mixture of pop and rock and folk blasting from inside matched what she heard at practices while simultaneously making her wary of the team getting a noise complaint. She texted Katie as she stood on the porch, unsure of the protocol for this scenario. What do you do when your coworker? Liability? Frenemy? Friend? Invites you to a party where you definitely will stand out like a sore thumb as the only person that doesn’t seem to be gargantuan and very interested in weaponry? Before she had time to ponder that quandary further, the door flew open and Katie was standing before her, grinning with a red solo cup in her hand and waving her in.

Katie was dressed up much nicer than Elle usually saw her, she realized. Instead of her baggy sweatshirts and old competition t-shirts, she was wearing a skintight pair of jeans and a halter top that was cropped just above her diaphragm, leaving her abs on full display. Horrifying. Elle quickly tore her eyes away from Katie’s midriff, blushing furiously and hoping that the younger hadn’t noticed.

If she did, she certainly didn’t say anything as Elle came inside. In the house, the floor seemed to shake with every bass note and many more people than she had expected milled about in various stages of intoxication. She accepted a can pushed into her hand without comment and let Katie lead her around by the elbow, clearly intent on introducing her to everyone in the house. She was much more tolerable, cute even, when she was drunk. Elle had to tamp down that thought too, this was not the path she wanted her thoughts to wander down. Instead, she focused on trying to match faces to names.

Some of the people she was introduced to were more familiar than others. Nightingale she remembered from her first practice. The freshman seemed as quiet and contemplative as before, sitting on the couch arm and watching with a muted smile the intense beer pong match going on across the living room. Next to her was a very tall guy who introduced himself as Jonas? Yonas? through a thick German accent and seemed intent on smiling at everyone that passed, complimenting them on their style or something that they’d done recently or just telling them that he appreciated them. He grinned at Elle and complimented her pink combat boots and she could tell she liked him already. Katie ruffled his hair as she passed on to the pong table, where a very serious woman that Elle vaguely recognized from a practice was squaring off against a much shorter man with some serious baby face. She glared at her opponent, then blew off the ball and sunk it cleanly into one of the four cups left.

“SUCK IT! RERACK, BITCH!” she crowed, as the man sighed and rearranged the three remaining cups.

Katie whispered to her that she was Svetlana, or Sveta, the women’s saber captain and undefeated pong champion. Also, she was apparently the kind of Russian fencer that made other fencers cry when they saw her at a tournament, whatever that meant. Watching her play was hilarious, as she made another three clean throws to decimate her opponent, a foilist named Bentley. He wiped his beer-damp hands on his pants, which Elle realized a second later were made out of velvet and sauntered over to Katie to introduce himself. A smug grin had situated itself on his face like that was its resting state and he stood on his tiptoes to pull a strand of Katie’s hair.

“Sup, I’m Bentley. Are you Katie’s new arm candy?”

From the way Katie’s hand twitched it looked like she was about to slap him. Instead, she just bopped him on the back of the head.

“Team publicist, Bentley. Don’t be weird.”

“That’s a pity, being weird is my best attribute,” he laughed as he disappeared back into the pulsating throng of people.

From there, the people seemed to blur together. Elle noted that most of them seemed to be upperclassmen, with the exception of Nightingale and Katie. When she asked, Katie said that they were the only two recruits that decided to join the team her year, but that there were a few sophomores out there… somewhere.

The can in Elle’s hand had warmed and she cracked it, slowly sipping as she fell into conversation with some of the other juniors who were standing by the kitchen. She lost track of Katie’s pink hair out on the dancefloor, instead commiserating with her two new friends (Emily? Mary?) about the sudden graduation requirements and how quickly college seemed to fly. Emily was just telling her about how she had planned to go abroad after her sophomore year and get rid of a bunch of requirements for her Spanish major when all of a sudden, she had qualified for a major tournament in July and had to completely rearrange her class schedule. Elle and Mary’s sympathetic coos were interrupted by a loud cheer as someone burst through the door, holding a bottle of tequila aloft.

“TEAM SHOTS!” he called and suddenly Mary was grabbing Elle’s wrist, pulling her flat to the wall to avoid the sudden thrum of motion as the entire team seemed to rearrange itself to fit in the kitchen.

The newcomer, whose name Elle had completely missed, was motioning to Sveta at the kitchen cabinet as she pulled out anything that someone could remotely drink out of. A red solo cup with a splash of tequila was pressed into Elle’s hands by someone she didn’t recognize and then the team was cheering, screaming, throwing back a shot.

Elle was observing what was going on, wishing that she had her camera on hand, when Katie came up to her. She grinned and plucked the untouched cup out of Elle’s hands, throwing it back with practiced ease before patting her on the back and leaving. At some point she had gotten glitter smeared across her cheekbones and she looked almost fey in the dim fairy lights, her hair wild and untamed around her shoulders and her green eyes glinting as she spun away. Emily followed Elle’s line of sight and then raised an eyebrow.

“Say, how do you know Katie?”

“Well, it’s kind of a weird story. Coach gave me an internship if I could… clean up her act? It’s honestly one of the stranger jobs I’ve worked but I get to hang out with all of you so it’s not that bad.”

Emily and Mary chuckled, and Elle took another long sip of her now thoroughly warmed beer.

“That’s funny. I had figured Katie would be pretty staunchly against whoever they got to babysit her, but she seems to like you pretty well. Most of the time she’s not nearly that friendly – hell, it took almost the entire summer training month before she’d even talk to me,” Mary noted, almost to herself.

Elle almost choked on the mouthful of beer. To her, she still felt sometimes that Katie was only friendly to her when she was well on her way to being blacked out. That either boded poorly for the amount of alcohol in her system or said something truly horrifying about Katie’s true feelings about her. She took another swig of beer, hoping to hide the blush that had quickly crossed her face. The girls either didn’t notice or pretended not to and Mary quickly launched into a story about how she had once tried to bring her boyfriend to one of these parties, only for him to get so weirded out by the team’s culture that it took him months before he would even show up to a stereotype. Something about seeing Kyle half-naked, she said. When Elle inquired, Mary pointed out the tequila-wielding man that had barged into the party fashionably late. He, apparently, was the captain of the Epee team. She made a mental note that she might be seeing a lot more of him if this internship kept working out the way it was.

Before long, Elle found herself lost in the cycling of the music. She hummed along to some songs, mostly listening to the chatter of the people around her. The hours seemed to slide past in a tipsy haze, until the jovial atmosphere was shattered by a sharp rap on the door. Quickly sobering eyes darted to each other, before another gargantuan woman who Elle remembered as Jenna, one of Katie’s squad mates, hushed everybody and stepped forward. She opened the door and slid through the crack outside, while the upperclassmen quickly found Katie and Nightingale and pushed them into the kitchen.

Katie noticed Elle’s quirked eyebrow and put a finger to her lips as Kyle pushed her out of direct sight of the door. He then went to stand with the juniors, smirking at the door.

“Figured it was about time for a visit from the fun police. How dare we enjoy ourselves.”

When he noticed Elle’s wild panic, he laughed openly.

“Don’t worry. Worst comes to worst they’ll just tell us all to leave. Not that I don’t trust Jenna or anything, but I don’t think she can sell the forty of us as being under fire code for this dump.”

Just as he spoke, Jenna came back in. She raised her voice to be heard over the panicked murmuring.

“Party’s over kids! Pick up your shit, clean up your act, and SCOOT!” She yelled into the living room, and immediately the assembled fencers devolved again into madness, piling trash into the overflowing trashcan and filling the sink and counters with abandoned cups and shot glasses.

Mary and Emily gave Elle a sympathetic smile as they started getting ready to leave.

“You might want to go take care of your charge,” Emily said, nodding towards the kitchen as she walked away.

Elle glanced quickly to see Katie leaning heavily against the kitchen counter. Well, that was new. Nightingale was next to her, patting her back and looking around. When she locked eyes with Elle, she frantically gestured until Elle put down her bag and came into the kitchen.

“She’s definitely too gone to walk back into Wilson Hall. I don’t want someone to spot her and blow her spot up, right?” Nightingale explains, still trying to get Katie to stand up. “Could you, maybe, take her instead? She can sleep it off till tomorrow and then she’ll go back. I’m sorry about this.”

Elle gently lifts Katie’s arm over her shoulder and wraps a steadying arm around her middle until she shifts her weight and is standing. How this had happened without her noticing was beyond her, they needed to have a chat about taking it a little easier.

With a cautious smile, she started walking towards the door.

“Sure thing, Nightingale. You go get some rest and I’ll make sure she’s all set.”

Getting Katie’s shoes and jacket was the easy part. Putting her in an Uber, still relatively fine. Once they were standing on the porch of Elle’s house, she started to realize that she might have bitten off more than she could chew. She didn’t want to leave Katie on the downstairs couch, but there was also no way she wanted Katie to wake up in her bed and not know what was going on.

As they carefully scaled the stairs, Elle made up her mind. She unlocked her bedroom door and shushed Katie as she helped her onto the bed.

“You sleep here tonight, I’ll go grab the spare bedroom. See you in the morning. And hey, text if you need anything, ok?”

Katie nods and smiles at Elle before turning over once and falling asleep, still fully clothed on top of the sheets. All of Elle is screaming to wake her up, make her more comfortable, stay there so she wouldn’t wake up with no memory of how she got into Elle’s bed. Instead, she indulges herself just enough to tuck a blanket over Katie’s fast-asleep form before retreating downstairs to the couch.

She just wouldn’t tell Katie that there was no guest room, if she remembered their conversation at all.

---

Elle barely slept. She woke every few hours on the couch, every truck and car passing by the house jolting her out of an uneasy sleep. All she could think about was the easy way that Katie had touched her when she was drunk, her weight on Elle’s shoulders as she sung along to the party soundtrack on their way out the door. Mary’s words kept cycling through her head.

“She’s not nearly that friendly.” Surely, she meant something else, because Katie was anything but friendly to her most of the time. Outside of this one interlude, most of their meetings were still focused solely on business, on Katie’s image and her classes and making sure Elle was doing enough that when she met with Coach he’d smile and praise her. Still, she couldn’t shake the fact that her brain, her stupid photography brain had catalogued every smile Katie had aimed at her and was now set on playing them one after the other, like a nightmare sequence haunting her with what could have been if things were different.

Eventually, as the dawn broke across the campus, Elle’s anxious thoughts were drowned out by sweet sleep and she manages a few more hours of rest.

Soon enough, she felt her phone buzz and realizes she has a text from Katie.

Keystone: hey just woke up.

Keystone: thanks for this

Elle jumped off the couch, then immediately chided herself for being overeager. Her body creaked angrily at the movement and she falls back against the couch before standing more slowly. She needed to get better sleep, because her bones didn’t like this one bit. Just as she stepped into the kitchen to brew a pot of coffee, she heard the creaking of the stairs. Katie appeared in the door, still dressed in her going-out clothing and rubbing sleep from the corners of her eyes. When Elle smiled, she gratefully and gracelessly collapsed into one of the kitchen stools and rested her chin on one hand.

“So, I think I browned out a little last night. Woke up to quite a few texts from Night and the gang, wondering if I’d been spotted or something. So, thanks for taking me in yesterday, I guess.”

Elle stays with her back turned to Katie, focusing all her energy on filling the coffee maker with water and pouring in the grinds. She doesn’t want to think of the implications of taking Katie in, she’d much rather just think about this next step in her morning.

“It’s nothing. What do you take your coffee with?”

They both knew that’s a futile question – the two of them had enough business meetings that Katie had started ordering for the both of them. She took her coffee with cream and sugar, so light it was almost dessert. Elle drank her coffee with a splash of almond milk or completely black. Like my soul, she joked the first time to Katie’s blank stare.

Still Elle was soothed when Katie didn’t mention it and instead answered the same as she always had. She wrapped her hands gratefully around the proffered caffeine a few minutes later, as Elle poured her own brew into a chipped and well-stained novelty mug reading “I went to Vegas and all I got was this ceremony.” Ezi had thought it was hilarious when he and Joshua had gotten engaged and it now lived in their cabinet forever.

They were quietly talking at the kitchen island when Elle felt the rest of the house start to wake up. At this point it felt instinctual, the little beeping of alarms up the three stories and the creaking of floorboards as its residents got out of bed. Marie was the first down the stairs, still blinking as she stepped into the kitchen and immediately startled.

“Oh, hi?” she intoned, shooting a puzzled look at Elle.

Elle only shrugged and introduced Katie, who waved and then kept sipping her sugary concoction. Marie stared for several seconds longer, her gaze oscillating between Elle and Katie. Elle didn’t want to know what fantastical tale she was spinning in her head, so she spoke up before Marie could say anything else.

“Katie decided to stay here instead of going back to her dorm last night. It was easier for me to let her sober up here than to have her deal with the freshman dorm security.”

Marie nodded, still taking in Katie’s clothing and demeanor as she seems to fold under the scrutiny, focusing even more intently on stirring the cream into her coffee and turning the whole cup into a barely-tan affair.

With a shrug, Elle’s housemate pushed past her to the fridge and pulled out a yogurt. She gave Elle a small, soft smile and then fled the kitchen. Katie glanced at her form before raising one eyebrow at Elle.

“Now, I know I just met her. But is she always like that? Because that felt weird. That was a weird amount of silence.”

Elle just laughed a little as the silence and the tension broke and she relaxed against her kitchen counter. She would deal with whatever had happened between her and Marie later. First, caffeine. Then, bringing Katie back to Wilson. After that, she was going to go fall asleep in her bed for the rest of the day.