#brian kan reaction | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

vexedtonightmares · 5 years

Text

La Fin Des Temps Chapter 12 (Elu Hogwarts AU)

Samedi 13:34 - “You guys are not very subtle”

Mercredi - 1:07

srodulv: hey boyfriend

srodulv: (choupi)

lucallemant: Hey boyfriend :)

srodulv: why aren’t you sleeping?

lucallemant: You’re the one who messaged me, sir

lucallemant: Not that I’m complaining

srodulv: i wish you were here with me right now

lucallemant: I wish I was too

lucallemant: The room of requirement is looking really good right now…

srodulv: don’t tempt me

lucallemant: Why not?

srodulv: are you serious?

lucallemant: We just can’t get caught out of bed

srodulv: you’re serious

lucallemant: ;)

srodulv: i’ll meet you there choupi

lucallemant: See you soon raton laveur <3

Jeudi - 9:51

srodulv: you look tired ;)

lucallemant: Yeah, some heathen kept me up until nearly 4

srodulv: how rude of them…

lucallemant: Then I had to sneak back into my dormitory before everyone else woke up

srodulv: poor baby… it wasn’t your idea or anything ;)

lucallemant: Stop staring at me like that

srodulv: 0_0

lucallemant: Ha ha

lucallemant: Eliott I’m serious

lucallemant: Eliott we’re in the middle of class

lucallemant: Eliott I’m going to get a boner knock it off

lucallemant: Fuck

srodulv: why’d you rush off? bathroom break?

lucallemant: Ha ha

srodulv: need help with anything?

lucallemant: I’ll write the out of order sign this time

srodulv: on my way

Jeudi - 20:12

srodulv: putain

lucallemant: Um, hi?

srodulv: i can’t stop thinking about that thing you did in the bathroom earlier

srodulv: can’t concentrate. i have homework to do. and a boner.

lucallemant: Oh how the turn tables

srodulv: ??

lucallemant: Nevermind

srodulv: room of requirement later…?

lucallemant: I can’t tonight :/

srodulv: everything good?

lucallemant: Yeah, no worries

srodulv: …?

lucallemant: It’s nothing

srodulv: you can tell me anything, you know

lucallemant: I do know that, right back at you

srodulv: :)

srodulv: so?

lucallemant: You’ll laugh

srodulv: me? laugh? as if.

lucallemant: Fine, I’m having a sleepover with Manon and the girls.

lucallemant: Eliott?

lucallemant: You’re laughing aren’t you

srodulv: no*

srodulv: *yes

lucallemant: -_-

srodulv: only because i’m jealous! why wasn’t i invited?

lucallemant: None of the guys were, i’m only going because Imane is mad at me for skipping potions

lucallemant: She’s probably going to make me stay up all night and do her homework for her

srodulv: at least you don’t have to sleep with one eye open hoping harriet doesn’t suffocate you with your pillow 0_-

lucallemant: Set Brian on her

srodulv: why does everyone think brian is going to attack them?

lucallemant: Snakes are terrifying

lucallemant: Shit, sorry I have to go, message you later?

srodulv: <3 i’ll be here

lucallemant: <3

Vendredi - 00:22

lucallemant: Room of requirement

lucallemant: Even for just an hour

srodulv: for real?

lucallemant: Girls are all asleep, if they ask I can say I went to the bathroom

srodulv: running

Vendredi - 15:13

lucallemant: Ugh I’m so bored

lucallemant: Save me

srodulv: de quoi?

lucallemant: Responsabilité

srodulv: choupisson

lucallemant: Yes?

srodulv: ah, je vois que tu as répondu au choupisson comme si c'était ton nom

lucallemant: Am I losing my French or does that not make sense

srodulv: je ne sais pas de quoi vous parlez monsieur. mon français est tellement génial et vous êtes un hérisson jaloux

lucallemant: Why do you sound like you’re using google translate

srodulv: google traduction? jamais entendu parler

lucallemant: Eliott are you using google translate for a language that you already know

srodulv: définitivement pas

lucallemant: I can’t stand you

lucallemant: Why am I dating you again?

srodulv: parce que les hérissons et les ratons laveurs sont censés être ensemble

lucallemant: Speaking of… your little drawings are still going strong, they won’t let me wash them off

srodulv: tant que je suis dans ton cœur, ils le seront aussi

lucallemant: Even in google translate French…

srodulv: ;)

lucallemant: Goodbye, Eliott

srodulv: pourquoi? non ne pars pas !!

lucallemant: Je t'enverrai un message plus tard, Yann commence à avoir des soupçons

lucallemant: See, I can use google translate too

srodulv: aha! et tu?

lucallemant: That’s not even French

srodulv: jeg kan snakke alle språk

lucallemant: I hate you

srodulv: Лукас Лаллемант - величайший человек в мире

lucallemant: I’m not translating that

srodulv: うーんあなたはその時逃している

lucallemant: Du bist so ein verdammter Trottel

srodulv: yo sé

srodulv: adiós mi amor

lucallemant: Mi amor, huh?

srodulv: don’t get cocky, it’s google translate’s fault

Vendredi - 19:49

lucallemant: I think I’m going to talk to my friends tomorrow

srodulv: you don’t have to if you’re not ready

srodulv: sneaking around with you is fun ;)

lucallemant: No, I’m done hiding who I am

lucallemant: And I want everyone to know that, for some reason, you chose me ;)

srodulv: i have a hedgehog fetish

lucallemant: DUDE

lucallemant: WE ARE NOT INTRODUCING OURSELVES AS THE FURRY COUPLE

srodulv: we’re not furries

srodulv: …yet

lucallemant: ELIOTT

srodulv: i’m kidding, i’m kidding

srodulv: do you want me there when you tell them?

lucallemant: I think I want to talk to Yann first alone, maybe all the boys, but then yeah, I’d love that :)

srodulv: i’ll be there when you need me

srodulv: manon won’t give me the shovel talk, right?

srodulv: i’m a bit scared of her

lucallemant: Nah, you’ll be fine, it’s Yann you have to worry about

srodulv: but i’m already friends with yann

lucallemant: For now

srodulv: what the fuck lucas?

lucallemant: Hey, I’m kidding

lucallemant: Don’t worry about it, seriously

srodulv: ok…

srodulv: see you tomorrow, then?

lucallemant: See you tomorrow <3

srodulv: <3

Lucas and the boys were sitting up in Lucas and Yann’s dormitory under the pretense of doing homework, but really just messing around, as per usual. His heart was fluttering a bit, he didn’t quite know how to bring up the subject he was trying to discuss. Should he pull Yann aside and tell him first? He felt like he owed it to Yann, his best friend. Not that he owed anything to anyone…

Maybe he should just tell Eliott he got cold feet. He was fine with sneaking around, it was kind of hot actually. He looked back at the last messages he had exchanged with Eliott, eyes locking in on the heart Eliott had sent as his last message. Lucas took a breath. He could do this.

Arthur and Basile were throwing Bertie Bott’s every flavor beans into each other’s mouths from across the room, but Yann was just sitting, shaking his head at them. Lucas walked over to sit next to Yann on his bed, nudging his best friend’s side gently.

“Can you come with me to let Ouba out?” he asked, not knowing what excuse he would use until it came out of his mouth. As if on cue, Ouba ran over and put her paws up on Yann’s leg.

“And leave these hooligans unattended?” Yann nodded at their other friends, now attempting to throw the candy with their eyes closed.

Lucas tried to convey his feelings with his eyes, hoping Yann would catch on without him having to say anything. “Please?”

Yann’s face softened. “Yeah, ok. Who could say no to that face?” His last words were directed to Ouba, but he ruffled Lucas’ hair like he was the dog.

“We’ll be right back, we’re going to go let Ouba out,” Lucas told Basile and Arthur as he attached Ouba’s leash. Both of them merely shot a thumbs up in his direction, clearly far too engrossed in their game to care about much of anything else. Yes, it was probably best that he told Yann first.

Once they were outside they walked side by side, Ouba a few feet in front of them, jumping around in circles whenever she got excited. Lucas breathed in and out, noting the way his breath was visible in the air when he did do. When had it gotten so cold out? He wished he’d brought Eliott’s scarf outside with him, he still hadn’t given it back and wasn’t planning on doing so anytime soon.

“So, why did we need to come out here?” Yann asked, squinting down at Lucas in the sun.

“I wanted to talk to you about something. About why I’ve been a little all over the place lately,” Lucas began a bit hesitantly. Yann nodded for him to continue, thankfully not saying anything. Lucas wasn’t sure if he would be able to continue if given the chance to pause. “It’s… it’s because of someone I like. Really, really like.”

Yann smiled. “Yeah? That’s great, then! I kind of had a feeling it was something like that.”

Lucas snapped his head up. “Really?”

“I mean, you blush all the time, space out for no reason, and have disappeared to god knows where at all hours of the day and night. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out,” Yann laughed. “The Lucas I know doesn’t blush or space out, so it must be someone special.”

“It is.” Lucas couldn’t help his smile, knowing he was probably blushing as well.

“And?” Yann prompted. Lucas looked to him in confusion. “Are you going to tell me who it is or do I have to figure everything out myself?”

Oh, right. There was still that part of it. Lucas swallowed, throat bobbing. “Have a guess.”

Yann blew out a breath, considering for a moment while Lucas became very interested in watching the grass as they walked. He was afraid his face would give away too much if he looked at Yann. “It’s not Daphné, is it? I mean, I get why you’d want to hide it from Basile, but--”

“Oh Jesus, no, definitely not Daphné!” Lucas cut in before Yann could get too far ahead of himself. Yann snorted at Lucas’ reaction. “Dude, I’m shit at guessing,” he complained.

Lucas pursed his lips. “I can give you a hint?”

“Ok.”

He could do this. Just get the words out, Lucas. “It’s… it’s not a girl.”

There was silence in the air, but Lucas was too scared to look up at Yann to gauge his reaction. The only sound for a moment was the jingling of Ouba’s collar as she ran around.

“It’s not me?” Yann clarified and Lucas let out a relieved laugh.

“No, definitely not you,” Lucas confirmed, finally allowing himself to look at Yann. To his surprise, Yann looked thoughtful, but he was also smiling. Something sparked in Yann’s eyes and Lucas knew he had figured it out.

“Eliott.” It wasn’t a question, but Lucas answered with a small nod regardless. Yann grinned even wider. “Dude! I’m so happy for you! He’s hot.”

Lucas nearly choked. “What?”

Yann shrugged. “I don’t know, I’m just saying. If I were into dudes, I’d go there.”

“Oh my god…”

“Wait a minute.” Yann stopped walking. “The other day, with the Ravenclaw tie…”

Lucas nodded sheepishly in confirmation. Yann let out a loud whoop and patted Lucas’ chest. “Atta boy Lucas! Are you guys officially, I don’t know, dating? Together?”

“Yes.” It felt so good to say out loud. Yann did a small victory dance around him that would have made him cringe if it wasn’t such a relief. He’d never really thought Yann would have a negative reaction, but there was always that possibility. “Eliott is my boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend,” Yann repeated, drawing another conclusion, “You-- that’s what the whole Instagram thing was about? You guys are not very subtle.”

“And yet,” Lucas laughed, causing Yann to shove him gently.

“Do you want to tell the others?” Yann asked. Lucas nodded his head. Now that the initial weight had been lifted off his chest he felt ready to shout from the top of the astronomy tower. A small part of him was still nervous about how they would be received, but he had faith in his friends.

Ouba had stopped playing in the grass and was looking up at Lucas expectantly, almost as if she were aware of their conversation. Clearly, she wanted him to tell his other friends too.

Yann asked more questions as they walked back up to Gryffindor tower, growing more and more exasperated with each hint he had missed about their relationship. Lucas himself was surprised at how completely oblivious Yann had been to the whole thing. Maybe obliviousness ran in Gryffindors, or maybe he and Yann were just struggling to share the same single brain cell.

“You guys were gone for a while,” Arthur observed as they walked back into the dormitory, head hanging off Lucas’ bed. Basile was distracted by trying to make bubbles with his wand, grimacing in frustration when they popped before they could reach his target, Arthur.

“Ouba had to take a shit,” Yann laughed, winking at Lucas. Lucas snorted, noting Ouba’s turned up nose as she huffed and disappeared from the dormitory, likely going to bother Manon.

Arthur sat up and faced Lucas with a wide grin. “Sounds like someone else we know,” he teased. This wasn’t quite the segway he had been hoping for, but it was dancing close to the topic at hand, so he’d take what he could get.

“About that…” he began nervously, confidence from moments before slipping just out of grasp. Pull it together, they’re your best friends. He coughed before continuing. “I wasn’t actually sick, or whatever, the other day. Or studying over the weekend.”

A spark lit in Arthur’s eyes and Basile ceased his bubble making to give Lucas his full attention. “No?” he asked.

Lucas shook his head. “No. I was with someone I really like.” He felt a blush warm his cheeks and watched as his friends put together a few pieces.

“I don’t believe it! Our little Lulu has a heart after all!” Arthur exclaimed, smiling wider than ever.

Lucas rolled his eyes. “Ha, so funny. Anyway, it’s not exactly who you’d think… he’s--”

“He?” Basile cut in with wide eyes. Oh, fuck, had it just slipped out? Apparently so. He’d been so worried about telling them that it was Eliott, he’d nearly forgotten that it was also a boy.

“Yes. He.” Lucas looked down at his feet, not daring to move or take a breath.

“I fucking called it!” Arthur shot his fist into the air, causing Lucas to look up at him sharply. “It was about time, too. Glad he finally mustered up the balls to make a move.”

Basile, as usual, was a few steps behind the conversation. “Wait, who?”

“Eliott,” Arthur answered, as if it should have been obvious. How did Arthur know?

“Eliott… our Eliott?” Basile clarified, looking confused as ever. “What about the mystery potions girl?”

“Lucas is the mystery potions girl.”

“Lucas isn’t a girl.”

Arthur buried his face into his hands. “Sometimes, Baz, your mind amazes even me. Lucas isn’t a girl. I swear.” He turned back to Lucas in anticipation. “So what is he then, your boyfriend?”

Lucas was still reeling a bit from all that Arthur either knew, or had accurately guessed at. “Uh, yeah, yeah he is,” Lucas said after a moment, allowing himself a small smile.

Despite his earlier confusion, Basile let out a loud yell of excitement while Arthur stood up on Lucas’ bed and started jumping up and down.

“Hey. Hey!” Lucas called, trying to get Arthur’s attention. “How did you know who it was?”

Arthur stopped jumping and shrugged. “Dude, he talks about you all the goddamn time. I think I even told you about it… Granted, at the time I didn’t know it was you, but I put it together the other day when you both skipped potions. I think Imane did too, she looked really pissed off when you didn’t show up but relaxed once she realized Eliott was gone too.”

“You-- she-- what--” Lucas began, trying to pull his thoughts together. Not only did Imane and Arthur already figure it out, but they hadn’t said a word to him about it, something he was actually quite grateful about. He was saved from forming a coherent thought by his phone vibrating in his pocket. When he pulled it out he saw that there was a message from Eliott.

srodulv: ran into the girls in the courtyard, do you want to come talk to them here? or have you not talked to the boys yet?

srodulv: sorry that probably sounded like i was rushing you! take your time!

“Is that him? Is it Eliott?” Yann asked excitedly. Arthur hopped off the bed and put an arm on Yann’s shoulder.

“Of course it is, look how he’s blushing,” he said matter-of-factly. Lucas took a moment to glare at both of them before responding.

lucallemant: No, I can come down there, just told the boys

lucallemant: Basile screamed, Arthur jumped up and down on the bed, and Yann was the best, as he always is

srodulv: i’m glad :) see you in a minute?

lucallemant: Yup, we’ll be right down

srodulv: bring my scarf with ? my neck is cold out here without it ;)

Lucas laughed to himself, there was no way he was giving that scarf back. However, there was an alternate solution. He threw his coat back on and addressed the boys, “Want to come down to the courtyard? Eliott and the girls are there.”

The boys all exchanged glances and smiles with one another, causing Lucas to roll his eyes once more, but he wasn’t actually annoyed. There was no way for him to feel anything but elation. Grabbing his own Gryffindor scarf out of one of his drawers before he left, Lucas followed his best friends out the door and down to the courtyard.

The four of them joked around like usual on their way down, which comforted Lucas. It wasn’t as though he had been expecting things to be different now, but there was a relief in knowing that some things would stay the same while others changed for the better.

As if he was Lucas’ homing beacon, Eliott was the first thing Lucas saw when he stepped out into the courtyard. Eliott’s back was turned to him, in conversation with the girls. God, he looked good in his leather jacket and black pants. Lucas had never seen him wear this jacket before and he didn’t think he wanted to see him wear any other jacket ever again.

Without allowing himself to think about what he was doing, Lucas snuck up behind Eliott, wrapping the scarf around his neck, causing Eliott to startle a bit before he turned around to see Lucas. Overcome by the way Eliott’s greeting smile made him feel, Lucas couldn’t stop himself from using his scarf to pull Eliott down into a deep kiss. Eliott’s eyes flashed in surprise before their lips met, but the moment they did he brought his hands up to cup Lucas’ face. They broke apart after a moment, resting their foreheads together, gazing into each other’s eyes, smiling like no one was watching them.

“Um, what the hell just happened,” Emma cut in from behind Eliott. Eliott straightened back up and turned around to face the girls, slinging an arm around Lucas’ shoulders.

“I don’t know what you’re referring to?” Eliott asked with faux confusion, accepting fist bumps from Yann, Arthur, and Basile as they sat to join the girls. Lucas looked down at the ground bashfully, trying carefully not to meet Manon’s eyes. She would chew him out later for not telling her first.

“Lucas, you’re gay?” Daphné asked in surprise. Lucas looked up just as Alexia hit her shoulder, shaking her head in bewilderment.

He glanced at Eliott out of the corner of his eye, letting his own arm slip around Eliott’s waist. “Well, yeah.”

Daphné jumped up immediately to give him a hug, tearing him from Eliott’s grasp. “That’s so awesome!”

“Thanks?”

She moved on to Eliott, giving him an equally lung crushing hug. Eliott merely blinked down at her, likely not expecting this sort of reaction from her. “It kind of sucks for us, though,” she lamented. When met with blank stares she continued, “You know, us girls. Now all the hottest guys in the school are taken, gay, or both.”

“I’m actually pan,” Eliott clarified.

Alexia leaned forward for a high five. “Bi/Pan solidarity!” Eliott laughed, obliging her.

Lucas addressed Daphné, narrowing his eyes. “I’ll take that as a compliment?”

“You know,” Basile cut in with a small cough, “I am both single and heterosexual. Just in case you forgot, or something.”

“I didn’t forget,” Daphné said with a bright smile. Lucas saw Yann pretend to cough into his arm, hiding a laugh. The small amount of pity Lucas felt for Basile was overshadowed by the fact that Basile really needed to move on. It had been nearly four years, if she wasn’t interested by now, she never would be.

“Hey Daphné,” Eliott drew her attention away from Basile, “Would you be so kind as to take a picture of me and my boyfriend?”

Lucas scrunched his face up at Eliott. They weren’t going to be that couple, were they. Eliott raised his eyebrows back as if to say, Yes we are. Got a problem with it? Somehow, Lucas found he didn’t.

All ten of them hung out together in the courtyard a while after that, messing around and being stupid, two things they did best. Sometimes Lucas thought that Imane and Manon were the only ones who had any sense at all and felt bad for the fact they had to deal with the rest of them all the time. Arthur could have sense when he wanted to, but it mostly went out the window when they were all together.

Lucas couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed so hard, lightness in his chest that hadn’t been there for quite a while. He’d taken off his jacket at some point, down to one of his many gray hoodies, and was now looking for where it must have been lying discarded somewhere. “Have you seen my jacket?” he asked Eliott, pulling him along by the hand as he looked.

“I can give you mine if you’re cold,” Eliott offered with a smile.

“No, I just wanted to find it so we could go inside,” he muttered, still looking around.

“Inside?”

“Oh. Yeah,” Lucas blushed, “As fun as this is…” He didn’t finish but he could tell Eliott understood.

Eliott grinned wider. “Someone else can find your jacket, I think.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

They paused a moment, looking in each other’s eyes, blocking out everything but one another. “Room of Requirement?” Eliott inquired softly.

Lucas ran his thumb in circles on Eliott’s palm. “Actually, I was thinking we could go back to one of our common rooms. If you want.”

Eliott leaned down to give Lucas a small kiss. “Of course I do.” Lucas leaned his head into Eliott’s chest, face buried in the scarf that Lucas was probably never going to get back, just the way he had hoped. “That doesn’t mean we can’t make a few stops on the way. Perhaps an out of order bathroom…?”

“I like the way you think, Demaury,” Lucas grinned before they both bolted off hand in hand, ignoring the calls of their friends behind them. There was nothing and no one in the world other than Lucas Lallemant and Eliott Demaury. The way it was always meant to be, Lucas thought.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11

AO3

Weekly Instagram Roundup: Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4

#skam france #elu hogwarts au #elu fic #elu #skamfr #lucas lallemant #eliott demaury #ignore the fact lucas isn't wearing the same pants lmaoooo #instagram au #la fin des temps

58 notes · View notes

daleisgreat · 5 years

Text

Fast & Furious 6

Thanks for joining me once again as I march through the Fast and Furious films in anticipation of the next release in the franchise, Hobbes & Shaw. We are not here to talk about that film coming August 9th of this year, instead we are here to revisit 2013’s Fast & Furious 6 (trailer. I vividly remember seeing this in the theater with friends and taking in yet another ridiculously over-the-top action installment of the series that Fast Five steered the direction of the brand in. I will never forget friends instantly dismissing the outrageous nature of the stunts in disbelief coming out of the theater, but upon re-watching it this week I only learned to embrace its style of unbelievable. FF6 kicks off a few months after Fast Five where Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) gets back home in Spain just in time for Mia (Jordana Brewster) to deliver their first child. Not all is sunshine and rainbows however as they soon receive a visit from Dom (Vin Diesel) who informs them of the news he just got from special forces agent Hobbes (The Rock) that Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is still alive and now running with the equivalent of a doppelganger car heist crew that left a tornado of chaos in their dust in Russia. Hobbes wants Dom to reassemble their team to take them down. Why not bring in the feds one may ask? Because Hobbes wants ‘the best’ to take down this new car gang heist and the feds simply do not stack up to the Dom’s crew! Dom is more than willing to reunite his team in the spirit of FF clichés such as ‘family’ and ‘ride or die.’ A great scene then transpires where the rest of the crew is tracked down and brought back together with Roman (Tyrese), Gisele (Gal Gadot), Han (Sung Kan) and Tej (Ludacris) all more just as eager to suit up again with Dom & Brian.

Oh yeah, since Han is still riding with the crew, that means FF6 is set before the events of 2006’s Tokyo Drift. I will give director Justin Lin credit for doing his best to avoid all shots of smartphones since they were not around in 2006. I cannot vouch for any of the luxurious cars in the film not matching with the timeline since I am not a gearhead by any means. Although the villain car gang does make use of a car hacking device that seems several years ahead of its time and more fitting in a futuristic Watchdogs-esque setting, but who am I to know. Speaking of the villain gang, FF6 does a worthy job of establishing them as formidable foes for Dom’s crew. Other than each of the lesser goons getting a quick standout action scene or two (with an awesome one being Joe Taslim showing off his The Raid chops in a killer fight with Roman & Han), there is not a lot of time devoted to establish the entire antagonist gang. The exception to this is their leader Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) who FF6 clearly gets across is constantly one step ahead of Dom’s gang. One of my favorite scenes is when Dom & Owen have a calm before the storm face-to-face ala Heat before the final act of nonstop action gets underway and after their war of words I could not wait for them to tear each other’s gang apart in a way only this franchise is capable of. As mentioned in the previous entry, by this point in the franchise it is all about a big heist and explosive action and no longer focusing on street races. There is one nice little street race between Dom & Letty that culminates in the two having their own Lethal Weapon 3 moment, but the final hour’s worth of action is what I will mostly remember FF6 for. The final hour has two huge action scenes with a brief breather in-between them. The first scene is Dom’s gang trying their best to prevent Shaw’s crew in heisting a military convoy that leads to YEAH RIGHT RIDICULOUS STUNTS transpiring on a civilian highway with countless cars getting taken out amidst the glorious mayhem the dueling crews unleash on each other. Re-watching them again six years later still lit me up and if you are on board with the craziness of the Fast and Furious brand at this point you will likely have a similar ‘hell yeah, keep it coming’ reaction, or if you are opposed to their over-the-top style brand of stunts you will shake your head in disbelief like some friends of mine at the theater did. I completely understand both sides of the fence on this one, but as you can tell I am in the former camp and absolutely love this. The second half features the infamous ‘infinite airline runway of doom’ where the two camps wage war on a mammoth Russian Fuselage with even more ridiculous stunts and fights. On the fuselage everyone makes their last stand including a surprisingly capable pasty goon and a four person brawl between the four biggest meatheads of the series that culminates in the best headbutt in cinematic history since The Garbage Picking, Field Goal Kicking, Philadelphia Phenomenon!

If you have been keeping up with the rest of my Fast and Furious entries so far, you will know I watched this with the commentary track from the staff of giantbomb.com. Like their previous commentaries, their staff consists of a FF newbie seeing the films for the first time, a diehard fan of the franchise, and an inbetween casual fan. They all combine for memorable reactions to the outrageous stunts, surprise cameos, the aforementioned four person meathead brawl that only enhanced my re-watch of the film. The commentary highlight is one Alex Navarro’s real time mile countdown of how long the runway is in the film. After I finished my Giant Bomb commentary track viewing, I re-watched the second half of FF6 with the BluRay’s commentary from director Justin Lin. Aside from a hair too many noticeable lulls, Lin provides his usual keen insight with some key takeaways for me being Lin addressing his ambitious stunts and fearing how they ‘jumped the shark’ with Dom’s leap stunt but having validation for it in test screenings and Lin breaking down the direction they went with the eye-opening post-credits scene. Aside from the commentary there is additionally an hour and a half of bonus features. Most of them are well done and worth taking the time for. If I had to single out a few of the many features, Take Control is a nice over-arching 20 minute look on the film from most of the primary cast and crew. The Making of FF6 is a little more thorough near half hour take diving into the plot more and how they reunited the cast again. If you are into the stunts I highly recommend checking out the quick six minute Highway Heist feature where they reveal how the crew got exclusive first dibs to a newly finished highway in the Canary Islands before it was open to the public to film the highway action scene. Finally, Hand-to-Hand Fury is an in-depth nine minute take on the excellent fight choreography featured throughout.

I recall in the weeks succeeding the release of Fast and Furious 6 that a fair amount of fans and critics proclaimed the cast and crew somehow achieved the impossible and topped their efforts in the beloved Fast Five. For the longest time I would not hear it, as I still love Fast Five a ton (as you can tell by my entry right here), but upon revisiting Fast & Furious 6 all these years later I think I have to do a 180 and give the ever-so-tiny of a nudge in favor of the sixth film as my favorite in the series. It has more exhilarating stunts and action, the best overall cast, and higher-highs with some exclamation points that feel a smidge more punctuated than the fifth film. It all comes together as a terrific ending for director Justin Lin’s fourth and final film in the series as he ties it all together with a touching callback ending to the original film’s closing. I will close with if you have not seen FF6 yet, make sure to stay past the credits for the tag as it features a bonus scene that finally brings the franchise back to the present timeline with a killer surprise twist. Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed Deck the Halls Die Hard Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Dirty Work Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hercules: Reborn Hitman Indiana Jones 1-4 Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Man of Steel Man on the Moon Marine 3-6 Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Take Me Home Tonight TMNT The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past

#Fast and Furious #fast & furious 6 #random movie #vin diesel #Paul Walker #Justin Lin #michelle rodriguez #tyrese #ludacris #Gal Gadot #Sung Kang #lucas evans #jordana brewster #the rock

0 notes

the-end-of-art · 5 years

Text

To have a discussion over dinner

Silicon Valley Came to Kansas Schools. That Started a Rebellion by Nellie Bowles for The New York Times

WELLINGTON, Kan. — The seed of rebellion was planted in classrooms. It grew in kitchens and living rooms, in conversations between students and their parents.

It culminated when Collin Winter, 14, an eighth grader in McPherson, Kan., joined a classroom walkout in January. In the nearby town of Wellington, high schoolers staged a sit-in. Their parents organized in living rooms, at churches and in the back of machine repair shops. They showed up en masse to school board meetings. In neighborhoods with no political yard signs, homemade signs with dark red slash marks suddenly popped up.

Silicon Valley had come to small-town Kansas schools — and it was not going well.

“I want to just take my Chromebook back and tell them I’m not doing it anymore,” said Kallee Forslund, 16, a 10th grader in Wellington.

Eight months earlier, public schools near Wichita had rolled out a web-based platform and curriculum from Summit Learning. The Silicon Valley-based program promotes an educational approach called “personalized learning,” which uses online tools to customize education. The platform that Summit provides was developed by Facebook engineers. It is funded by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, and his wife, Priscilla Chan, a pediatrician.

Many families in the Kansas towns, which have grappled with underfunded public schools and deteriorating test scores, initially embraced the change. Under Summit’s program, students spend much of the day on their laptops and go online for lesson plans and quizzes, which they complete at their own pace. Teachers assist students with the work, hold mentoring sessions and lead special projects. The system is free to schools. The laptops are typically bought separately.

Then, students started coming home with headaches and hand cramps. Some said they felt more anxious. One child began having a recurrence of seizures. Another asked to bring her dad’s hunting earmuffs to class to block out classmates because work was now done largely alone.

“We’re allowing the computers to teach and the kids all looked like zombies,” said Tyson Koenig, a factory supervisor in McPherson, who visited his son’s fourth-grade class. In October, he pulled the 10-year-old out of the school.

Tom Henning, a Wellington resident, pulled his son Toby out of the public high school because of concerns about the Summit Learning program.

In a school district survey of McPherson middle school parents released this month, 77 percent of respondents said they preferred their child not be in a classroom that uses Summit. More than 80 percent said their children had expressed concerns about the platform.

“Change rarely comes without some bumps in the road,” said Gordon Mohn, McPherson’s superintendent of schools. He added, “Students are becoming self-directed learners and are demonstrating greater ownership of their learning activities.”

John Buckendorf, Wellington High School’s principal, said the “vast majority of our parents are happy with the program.”

The resistance in Kansas is part of mounting nationwide opposition to Summit, which began trials of its system in public schools four years ago and is now in around 380 schools and used by 74,000 students. In Brooklyn, high school students walked out in November after their school started using Summit’s platform. In Indiana, Pa., after a survey by Indiana University of Pennsylvania found 70 percent of students wanted Summit dropped or made optional, the school board scaled it back and then voted this month to terminate it. And in Cheshire, Conn., the program was cut after protests in 2017.

“When there are frustrating situations, generally kids get over them, parents get over them, and they all move on,” said Mary Burnham, who has two grandchildren in Cheshire’s school district and started a petition to end Summit’s use. “Nobody got over this.”

Silicon Valley has tried to remake American education in its own image for years, even as many in tech eschew gadgets and software at home and flood into tech-free schools. Summit has been part of the leading edge of the movement, but the rebellion raises questions about a heavy reliance on tech in public schools.

For years, education experts have debated the merits of self-directed, online learning versus traditional teacher-led classrooms. Proponents argue that programs like Summit provide children, especially those in underserved towns, access to high-quality curriculums and teachers. Skeptics worry about screen time and argue that students miss out on important interpersonal lessons.

In neighborhoods with no political yard signs, homemade signs about Summit Learning suddenly popped up.

John Pane, a senior scientist at the RAND Corporation who has studied programs that use digital tools to customize learning, said the field remains in its infancy. “There has not been enough research,” he said.

Diane Tavenner, a former teacher and Summit’s chief executive, founded a series of public charter schools starting in 2003 called Summit Public Schools and began developing software to use in the classrooms so that students could “unlock the power within themselves.” The resulting program, Summit Learning, is spinning out into a new nonprofit called T.L.P. Education. Ms. Tavenner said the Kansas protests were largely about nostalgia.

“There’s people who don’t want change. They like the schools the way they are,” she said. “The same people who don’t like Summit have been the sort of vocal opposition to change throughout the process.”

Summit chose not to be part of a study after paying the Harvard Center for Education Policy Research to design one in 2016. Tom Kane, the Harvard professor preparing that assessment, said he was wary of speaking out against Summit because many education projects receive funding from Mr. Zuckerberg and Dr. Chan’s philanthropic organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Mr. Zuckerberg backed Summit in 2014 and assigned five Facebook engineers to develop the software. In 2015, he wrote that Summit’s program would help “meet the student’s individual needs and interests” and that technology “frees up time for teachers to do what they do best — mentor students.” Since 2016, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has committed $99.1 million in grants to Summit.

In a statement, Abby Lunardini, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s chief communications officer, said, “We take the issues raised very seriously, and Summit has been working with school leaders and parents on the ground to address them.” She added that many schools that used Summit “love and support the program.”

Few places better illustrate the reaction to Summit than the central Kansas towns of Wellington (population 8,000) and McPherson (population 13,000). The towns are surrounded by wheat fields and factories. Residents work in farming, at a nearby oil refinery or at aircraft parts manufacturing plants.

Amy Jackson with her daughters, from left, Megan and Jordyn, and their friend Kallee Forslund, right. Megan, who has epilepsy, has had multiple seizures a day since her school started using Summit’s program.

In 2015, Kansas announced that it would support education “moon shots” like “personalized learning.” Two years later, it picked school district “astronauts,” including McPherson and Wellington. When parents received brochures promising “personalized learning,” many were thrilled. The school districts’ leaders selected Summit.

“We wanted to get every kid on an even playing field,” said Brian Kynaston, a dentist in McPherson and school board member, adding that it helped that Summit was free.

He said he liked Summit’s program. His daughter, Kelcie, 14, said she felt self-directed. “Everyone is judging it too quickly,” he said.

Mr. Koenig, the factory supervisor, said: “You want your kids to be innovators. You want them to be on the cutting edge of what’s next.”

[If you are a parent, teacher or administrator who has experience with the Summit learning platform and want to discuss it, reach us confidentially here.]

When this school year started, children got laptops to use Summit software and curriculums. In class, they sat at the computers working through subjects from math to English to history. Teachers told students that their role was now to be a mentor.

Parents of special-needs students noticed problems immediately. Amy Jackson, a night-shift nurse in Wellington, has a daughter, Megan, 12, who has epilepsy and whose neurologist recommended she limit screen time to 30 minutes a day to reduce seizures. Since the school started using Summit, Megan has had seizures multiple times a day.

In Wellington’s town square, residents wrote their opposition to Summit on storefront windows.

In September, some students stumbled onto questionable content while working in the Summit platform, which often directs them to click on links to the open web.

In one class covering Paleolithic history, Summit included a link to an article in The Daily Mail, the British newspaper, that showed racy ads with bikini-clad women. For a list of the Ten Commandments, two parents said their children were directed to a Christian conversion site.

Ms. Tavenner said building a curriculum from the open internet meant that a Daily Mail article was fair game for lesson plans. “The Daily Mail is written at a very low reading level,” she said, later adding that it was a bad link to include. She added that as far as she was aware, Summit’s curriculum did not send students to a Christian conversion site.

Around the country, teachers said they were split on Summit. Some said it freed them from making lesson plans and grading quizzes so they had more time for individual students. Others said it left them as bystanders. Some parents said they worried about their children’s data privacy.

“Summit demands an extraordinary amount of personal information about each student and plans to track them through college and beyond,” said Leonie Haimson, co-chairwoman of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, a national organization.

Summit says it complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

By winter, many McPherson and Wellington students were fed up. While Summit’s program asks schools to commit to having students meet weekly in person with teachers for at least 10 minutes, some children said the sessions lasted around two minutes or did not happen.

Myriland French, 16, a student at Wellington’s high school, said she had developed eye strain and missed talking to teachers and students in class. “Everyone is more stressed now,” she said.

“Everyone is more stressed now,” said Myriland French, 16. She developed eye strain while using Summit’s program, she said, and misses talking to teachers and students in class.

Collin Winter, the eighth grader in McPherson, said he had joined the January class walkout with about 50 other students. “I was scared a little bit,” he said of participating. “But I still felt good to be doing something.”

One recent evening in Wellington, a dozen parents and students held an organizing meeting in the back of a machine workshop owned by Tom Henning, a local parent. Chris Smalley, a machinist with two children, ages 13 and 16, attended. Mr. Smalley had put up bigger and bigger yard signs in front of his house, even though he knew Mr. Zuckerberg was unlikely to drive by and see them. They were red, with a slash across the word “Summit.”

“It sounded great, what they sold us,” Mr. Smalley said. “It was the worst lemon car that we’ve ever bought.”

Deanna Garver, a church secretary whose sons are in second and eighth grades, had also made a yard sign. It read: “Don’t Plummet With Summit.”

After the fall semester last year, about a dozen parents in Wellington pulled their children out of public school, said Kevin Dodds, a city councilman. In McPherson, Mr. Koenig and his wife, Meggan, enrolled their two children in a Catholic school, using money saved for a kitchen remodel and vacation.

“We’re not Catholic,” Mrs. Koenig said. “But we just felt like it would be a lot easier to have a discussion over dinner about something that they might have heard in a religion class than Summit.”

Nearly 40 more families plan on taking their children out of public school by this summer, Mr. Dodds said.

“We’re out in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “So we’re the guinea pigs.”

(https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/technology/silicon-valley-kansas-schools.html?emc=edit_NN_p_20190422&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=72340436ion%3DlongRead§ion=longRead&te=1)

#education

0 notes