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dbs-scans · 24 days

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April Fools’ 2024

This is our translated version of the event held on AidaIro’s twitter account for April Fools’ Day 2024. We hope you enjoy!

(Read it on twitter.)

You're a member of a certain occult forum. Among the various spooky stories posted every day, you find one a bit stranger then usual... Almost as if it were a cry for help—

――Hello, is anybody there?

POLL:

There is ✅

There isn't

Thank God, somebody replied!

I know this is out of the blue, but will you hear my story?

POLL:

Sure ✅

No thanks

When I woke up, I was sitting in an unfamiliar train. Instead of what I usually carry, there was an old cellphone in my pocket along with a piece of paper that said "Use when you're in a bind." There's no service, so I can't call anyone or anything like that, but for some reason I can access this website.

I heard about this once from Teru-nii... But this is THAT website, isn't it!? The anonymous forum for talented freelance exorcists!? I mean, everyone's name here is "Anonymous Exorcist", after all!

POLL:

That’s right ✅

We’re regular people

Sweeeeet! In that case, I'll tell ya what's been happening over on my end, and you exorcism experts can tell me what to do! Thanks for the help!

First off, it looks like I'm inside of a train. I don't take the train to school, so I don't know what line I'm on or anything... About 30 minutes have gone by, but it hasn't stopped at any stations yet. It's hard to explain, but something’s off...I get the feeling this is no ordinary train.

POLL:

You should take a good look around the train car ✅

You shouldn't move around unprepared

Got it! I'll take a look around the other cars, then.

... I've explored around 2 to 3 cars by now, but it's about the same everywhere. Like me, a number of other people are riding the train, but they all seem to be asleep.......Ahh!!

Excuse me for the outburst, I just recognized one of the other passengers. I'll try waking him.

Rise and shine, bud. Now, how'd you wind up in a place like this...? "I just woke up here"...? Guess I have no choice but to take you with me, then.

Oh, looks like the train's stopped. I'll see if we can get off now.

Looks like this station's been deserted. Nobody's here, and it's weirdly quiet, too...gives me the creeps. Now how do we get home...?

There's a signboard with the station's name on it, but it's so worn out that I can't make out what it says... It's made up of 4 hiragana characters, though. Do you have any ideas, my expert exorcists!?

POLL:

Ki 1️⃣

Sa 3️⃣

Ra 2️⃣

Gi 4️⃣

Ah, so this is Kirasagi Station! Yeah, now that you've said it, I remember thinking it was that... You guys are insanely in the know...but who would expect less from a group of exorcism experts!

By the way, while I was waiting on your replies, I took a look around the station and found a telephone box. I only have a single 10 yen coin on me, but...I'm thinking I should try calling someone. Who's my best bet?

POLL:

You should call a family member

If you have one, maybe a dependable upperclassman? ✅

An upperclassman...? Got it. I'll give them a call. I can't talk long, since it's only a 10 yen coin, but...hopefully I learn something useful!

――Brrrring brrring... click! ???: "Hello? Who's this...?"

Nene: "Kou-kun!? Why are you calling from a suspicious number!?" "You're lost in a mysterious train station...? O-oh nooo!" "Hanako-kun, what do we do!?"

Hanako-kun: "Hey, kid. You in trouble again?" "I have two pieces of advice for you:" "First, if you want to go home, then you should follow the train tracks." "Second..."

Hanako-kun: "The signal's weak inside the tunnel, so be careful, okay?" Click! Beeep, beeep, beeep...

It disconnected. I hope I didn’t worry senpai... Anyway, for now I'll just do what Hanako said and follow the train tracks. He may go out of line at times, but despite being an evil spirit, I don't think he's all bad...but uh, that's a story for another time!

Come on, Mitsuba, let's go! ...I'm a can't-function-without-instructions earring?? Look who's talking! Now shut up and follow me.

... ..... ...Hm?

There's someone on the tracks just ahead. A forest surrounds us on both sides, so the only way through is forward...

I feel like they're trying to tell me something... ...Do you guys know?

POLL:

It's someone you don't know

It's someone you know ✅

Someone I know...? You mean someone in trouble like we are? ...No?

???: "---eyyyy. Heyyyy!"

Huh!? That's...hey, that's Hanako! But I just talked to you on the phone...and now you're lost? In that case, you can come with us and...

???: "It's dangerous to walk on the train tracks." "It's dangerous to walk on the train tracks." "It's dangerous to walk on the train tracks."

W-what!? You're not Hanako!!! L... Let's get outta here, Mitsuba!!!

???: "It's dangerous to walk on the train tracks." "It's dangerous to...."

Th-that was close... Looks like he isn't...chasing after us... I never would've expected a fake Hanako to show up! We've gotta proceed more carefully next time... Sh-shut up, Mitsuba. I wasn't scared!!

We've been walking for a while now, yet we haven't come across a single station... Hm? Is that-- ...A tunnel?

We can't see what's up ahead, but me and my buddy here are gonna go ahead and check it out anyway. I'll update you guys after we've gotten inside!

POLL:

Just don't let go of their hand, alright? ✅

Who is that beside you?

The road splits into two from here. I can’t see the end of either path… Right or left, which should we choose……? Let’s ask the experts!

Huh? I can’t post anything anymore. Maybe there’s no signal here... Hm? What is it, Mitsuba?

You can hear festival music coming from the left path? Flutes and drums? “It sounds lively and fun”? But I don’t hear anything...

…You want me to come with you?

...No. I'm not going left with you. You know what...

💻

POLL:

Kvu'a sla nv vm opz ohuk. (Don’t let go of his hand.) ✅

Sla nv vm opz ohuk. (Let go of his hand.)

You...

You're coming with me!

I see light! The exit's near! Just a little fur--

--THER!?

???: "I can't follow you any further. So long, Minamoto-kun." "Take care of yourself, alright?"

......

...Huh? I'm at...the neighborhood tunnel? What was I doing all the way out here? I feel like I was just with someone, too, but I can't remember who... Hm? There's something in my pocket...

It's a broken cellphone. Maybe someone lost it. It ain't mine, that's for sure... --Oh, crap! It's gotten really dark outside. I better hurry home...

Thanks for all the help, guys! ...? Uhh, who am I thanking exactly...? Eh, who cares.

I'm hooome!

🚃 The End 🚃

#tbhk #jshk #jibaku shounen hanako kun #toilet bound hanako kun #aidairo #twitter #jibaku shonen hanako kun

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donutz · 3 months

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Catnap & Dogday being silly with reader

Request from Wattpad—! Here you go Zeki aph☆

—☆You are a smiling critter in this, if u want to know which one(but don't know what animal or insect to pick) you could start out as a sheep!

It’s early in the morning, and the kids have woken up(some of them, those are the early birds).

You and PickyPiggy help out with the breakfast, surprisingly you two never get tired of it.

PickyPiggy is very familiar with food so of course she won't get bored, but you? It can be confusing on why you never get tired.. Of cooking and baking for the kids.

Both of you cook everyday, at least for breakfast. Cooking over 500 pancakes, bacon(sometimes), and eggs isn't thattt bad!!

That's what PickyPiggy and you say.

So while you were cooking pancakes, you were by yourself. PickyPiggy already took care of the bacon. Seems.. Weird. Because y'know, bacon is pork. But she doesn't know that so let's keep it a secret.

You had 400 already done, just 100 left. Then you and Picky have to work together to set the table and place down the plates of food.

You finished pouring out the batter for a few pancakes then sat down somewhere on the couch.

You're cooking for all the kids, but the little ones come first. The little ones are 1-6, the youth is 7-10, then the older ones are 11-17. Why do the little ones wake up earlier? You're not sure.

Since there isn’t anything to watch except Smiling Critter videos. You decide to watch that. While it was playing, you kind of— zoned out..

‘Why don’t I have hands instead of hooves’?

Then Dogday and Catnap came out of nowhere.

“Sheepy”!

“...”

Dogday jumped on you while Catnap crawled on the couch and sat next to you.

“What’cha doin?!” Dogday asked, he was always so interested in what you do in your everyday life. It’s just a routine, sometimes it doesn’t always stick to that but it’s okay.

“Waiting for the pancakes to cook—” While you were speaking, apparently PickyPiggy woke up and wanted to check on the cooking.

“Oh that’s great! Your pancakes are amazing! As always!” Dogday always compliments you on your cooking.

“What’s the ingredients for em? Again..?” And for some reason he couldn’t remember the ingredients every single time you told him. But you don’t mind.

(This is a real recipe by the way you can actually make this, it’s how I make pancakes!) While making eye contact with Picky, you were stating the ingredients.

“So I first use 1 cup of pancake flour”(You can use any, I think, I’m not sure since I’ve been using the same one every time I make pancakes)

“Then a ⅔ cup of water(If the flour looks like it needs more water you can do a full cup!)” You were hand motioning to Picky to flip over the pancakes since they should be done by now. She did it so you don’t have to worry too much, now.

She’s taking care of the pancakes now that you’re explaining the ingredients to a very interested puppy, and a very much listening kitty.

“Then three slices of butter, after getting the pieces I put it in the microwave, for 30 seconds or 1 minute, depending on how big the slices were”

“And to add some yummy flavor to it I use cinnamon, as much as you want really, also if you want to make it really sweet, you can use milk”!

“After putting the ingredients together, you mix 'em up! And now you pour the batter on the griddle, as much as you want”.

“Also if it’s too dry you could add more liquids(any of them, the melted butter, the water, the milk) or if it’s too liquidy you could add more flour”.

“... Wow! Sheepy you’re so cool when it comes to cooking and stuff!” The puppy was wagging his tail at how amazing you were with your knowledge about making food.

Then he gave you a big hug, he was on your left side so you put your left arm around his back.

“Thanks—”

Then Catnap rubbed his head against yours while purring.

Even if Picky is still in the area, she’s too sleepy to process Catnap’s affection.

You didn’t want to sleep here on the couch so you suggested to the polar opposites that, “We should move to our critter bedroom or something”.

While you three were walking to the critter room, remember how I said that some kids were early birds? Yeah, and someee of those kids were out of their bedrooms. So you and Catnap had to deal with having them go back into their rooms, since Dogday isn’t too good at that stuff.

He sometimes gets.. Manipulated by the kids.. They reason with him and tell him that it’s okay to stay out of the rooms. Then he goes, “Okay!” It’s not annoying, but it is annoying that the kids were taking advantage of Dogday’s kindness.

After that frenzy, you guys were actually heading back to the critters’ room.

Luckily, the workers thankfully had sympathy for the critters so you all actually have a place to rest. Even if you don’t need to sleep.

All the critters, except Picky, were playing around in the room. Then your trio came in and walked in on a party. Like a teenage birthday party, it was actually crazy. And somehow Craftycorn was drawing during all of this??

Catnap, Dogday and you were going towards your bed, just sitting on it, watching the madness. There was so much laughing, the room could be mistaken for a bunch of 3 year olds.

Then, KickinChicken threw a pillow and it hit Catnap’s face..

The room went silent, though, Craftycorn was still drawing.

“Oh! Sorry Catnap! I’ll try not to hit you again”!

He slowly turned his head towards the chicken, looking scary as ever.

But then you scratched the underside of his chin with your wrist(since you’re a sheep and have wool) or if your critter actually has hands then you scratched under his chin with your hand.

“Sorry about him, continue.” And then the playing started again.

And yes, Catnap started purring.

#poppy playtime #dogday #dogday x reader #gender neutral #gender neutral reader #gn reader #poppy platime fanfic #poppy playtime x reader #poppy playtime 3 #catnap #catnap x reader #smiling critters #kickinchicken #pickypiggy #craftycorn

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nutty1005 · 3 months

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3 Xiao Zhan.

Original Article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/7YZimnoaGOkx-vTeiPyckg Original Author: 智族GQ Translator’s note: The article will be published in the February 2024 Issue of GQ

Xiao Zhan: Clear goals, accepting results

01 Relaxation

The studio was by the Huangpu River in Shanghai, Xiao Zhan was wrapped in a black down jacket, he had took off his shoes, and sat cross-legged on the corner of the sofa, looking very relaxed. The filming came to an end for the time being. Although he had been working continuously for more than 7 hours, there was no trace of fatigue on his face.

This is a face that attracts attention all the time. A few months ago, the studio released a Xiao Zhan’s birthday photoshoot, and keen-eyed netizens immediately noticed that his face had “became rounder”. In order to play the character of Guo Jing in the movie “The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero”, which was directed by Tsui Hark, Xiao Zhan gained weight before joining the group, his cheeks were no longer so thin and his figure was obviously more buff. In the photographs, he had a stubble and the vicissitudes of life were slightly visible on him.

Strictly speaking, “The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero” was Xiao Zhan’s second movie. There were many previous classic versions of Guo Jing’s character, and the pressure on him was obviously visible.

On the day of the cover shoot for “GQ”, Xiao Zhan got up very early to go for a run. He could not help but think, my God, I am going to lose muscle mass again after sweating so much. He debated whether to continue, and finally decided to run for 30 minutes. When the time came, he remembered that body fat would start burning after 30 minutes, so he ran for an additional 10 minutes.

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All of these is for work. “Actually, I don’t want to run. Running will lose muscles mass, but I have to run to reduce swelling.” After the filming, he planned to do weights training no matter how late it was. An actor’s self-discipline is to be always ready to shape his image for the character, but he must also strictly control his diet and manage his body shape. Xiao Zhan regards both as professional standards and expects himself to do so

Before meeting, I thought Xiao Zhan would be very cautious about interviews. To my surprise, Xiao Zhan had a rare sense of relaxation, answered all questions, and was even humorous. When mentioning that actors should observe characters in life, he commented on the sitting postures of several people present; when asked what things he did not expect after joining the industry, his answer was that he could not eat whatever he wanted like his high school classmates.

The interview lasted for almost two hours, I became curious about what kind of experience it had been for Xiao Zhan, who had been under immense attention in the past few years. Xiao Zhan said instead that he had forgotten this matter frequently and it did not cause him a lot of trouble in life, the most “cruel” thing might have been “being unable eat as much as you want”.

“I will still sneak out to ride my bike, take a walk, and do a City Walk. There was only one time when I was recognized after walking in a alley for 5 minutes. I also mingled into the cinema and watched a movie. No one will care about you, really. After leaving the Internet, many things will be solved easily. Sometimes it seems like what is before our eyes is the world, this is a misunderstanding, but yet we cannot avoid this misunderstanding, so there is no way around it.”

There were so many things he especially wanted to do, such as taking the subway and going shopping. “I will really squeeze onto the subway, perhaps tomorrow, it’s so normal, I used to take the subway every day.” For Xiao Zhan, this was the life he really wanted. The voices of social media no longer bothered him, “After all these years, can I still live if I’m still bothered? (laughs) It’s really just fine.”

At this stage, Xiao Zhan is very satisfied with his living situation. “I have a job, a life of my own, and an audience that likes me. I have nothing to be dissatisfied with.”

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02 Becoming an Actor

To a certain extent, Xiao Zhan’s sense of relaxation stems from his increasingly clear goals. The voices from the external world no longer bothered him, he is clear about what he wants and what he do not want. Now, he is doing more subtraction for himself. In the past two years, he had rarely appeared in variety shows, taking the career of actor as his most important goal at this moment.

In 2023, 3 television dramas starring Xiao Zhan broadcasted, and each character was a challenge for Xiao Zhan. During the interview, Xiao Zhan said many times that he was “under a lot of pressure”, and he said this almost every time when reviewing every stage. But his tone was light, without the heaviness of complaints, more like a post analysis and summary, the reasons were often specific and objective: the first time he came into contact with performing without props, the first time he took on the leading role alone, the first time he acted in an modern drama…

“Where Dreams Begin / The Youth Memories” was a script that Xiao Zhan particularly liked. He liked stories about that generation very much, as a child he watched some television dramas such as “Once Upon a Time in Beijing” and “Happiness as Flowers”. When he mentioned the 1970s and 1980s, he felt that it was sunny and bright, it was colorful. Many people said that Xiao Chunsheng was a perfect character, but to Xiao Zhan that happened to be his greatest flaw, he thought this character was very interesting and wanted to give it a try. Xiao Chunsheng was a young man from Beijing, hence how to express the character’s imposing manner and speak authentic Beijing dialect was a big challenge for Xiao Zhan, who had lived in Chongqing since childhood.

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The Shi Ying character in “The Longest Promise” was aloof, because he did not want to let down everyone’s expectations for his ancient costume appearance, Xiao Zhan tried his best to lose weight before joining the group. “‘The Longest Promise’ was a script I got in 2020. It had the most complete character and most delicate emotions from the scripts I could choose from, it was also very logical and self-consistent, it was my best choice.”

“Sunshine By My Side” was a script that Xiao Zhan has been exposed to for the longest time, starting from the end of 2019. Although Sheng Yang in “Sunshine By My Side” closely overlapped with Xiao Zhan’s pre-debut career, but for him to move his life as a designer to the screen and act in a natural and convincing manner, he did not have confidence. “Modern dramas and life dramas are really unfamiliar fields.” Initially, he was too eager to finish his lines and memorized them completely, but when he said them, it made people think that no one in real life would speak like this, later on he discovered where to break the lines and which words to emphasize in modern dramas, and the logic was actually very strong.

In the past few years, he had acted as a soldier, a doctor, a designer, and a Beijing youth. There were no special considerations, and they all happened naturally. He rarely acted in recurring roles. But when choosing a script, Xiao Zhan would not deliberately avoid themes that he had acted in before, instead he will just put himself in the audience’s perspective to feel whether he could be moved by it.

In 2021, Xiao Zhan starred in the theater play “A Dream Like a Dream”, playing the role of Patient No. 5. On the day of the premiere, many topics related to theater appeared on Weibo hot searches, becoming a phenomenon-level event in the theater circle.

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On acting in “A Dream Like A Dream”, Xiao Zhan hesitated for a long time. There are many reasons for his hesitation: he was from Chongqing, he was not from a professional background, there is no NG in theater plays, it would last for 8 hours, “Dream Like a Dream” was also very famous, and there had been many classic versions of Patient No. 5 prior. But after reading the script, Xiao Zhan felt that he must perform in it.

Theater play is a very pure thing. Dozens or even hundreds of people gather in a space to tell a story, this is an experience that film and television cannot bring, hence Xiao Zhan yearns for it. He began to maniacally memorize his lines, and enclosed himself in Tangshan to rehearse intensively with the entire group for more than a month, grinding out one scene after another.

“I was very nervous for the first performance. I am still nervous now when I think about it. When Gu Xianglan rang the bell, I shuddered.” The instant the light hit him, Xiao Zhan felt that everything had stopped, he could not see the expressions of the audience under the stage and there was only white left in front of him.

Xiao Zhan adjusted his breathing and began to speak his lines. The director said that the actors in the opening scene controlled the rhythm of the entire story, so every time he said that line, Xiao Zhan was most nervous. As he spoke, he would gradually forget about his nervousness, and after he was done speaking, he would let out a long sigh of relief, and think, ah, it has finally ended.

Once, towards the end of the first half of the performance, Patient No. 5 went on stage to find Gu Xianglan with a painting and an address, and had a long monologue. Walking to the middle of the stage, Xiao Zhan’s mind suddenly stumbled. He could not remember the beginning of the next line. After hesitating for about 1.5 seconds, he chose to skip that word and continued. The audience should not be able to tell the difference, he thought. He could not remember that word even until the end of the performance.

“I couldn’t remember it even when I got to the lounge, so I flipped over the script to take a look, so it was this word.”

“Which word?”

“A very common word, for example, pure drinking water, I was thinking what kind of drinking water? Distilled water? Tap water? Boiled water? I just couldn’t remember it.” Xiao Zhan replied.

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Acting is a domain with very profound knowledge. Xiao Zhan said: “I have only scratched the surface so far.” When filming “Sunshine By My Side”, the co-actors were all experienced actors, and in terms of acting skills, Xiao Zhan was still very immature, tended to be over forceful and left traces of performance marks. He told himself to “be less pretentious”, feel everything the other party throws at him with his heart, and respond honestly.

Xiao Zhan once expressed that he had difficulty understanding many characters due to his limited life experience. He had discussed this issue with his seniors, “Everyone has two opinions. Some people will say that of course you have to go through it, without experience, you don’t have a image, how can you portray it? All that you act is fake. Also, there is a voice saying that everything can be resolved by technique.”

Xiao Zhan’s own answer is, “Act more and be exposed to all types of genres” and “cooperate with more good teams, actors and directors.”

“To be honest, what I can do now is to act what my thoughts can reach, it is really difficult for me to act something that I have no concept of at all. Maybe in the future, through a work or cooperation with more good directors and actors, my confusion can be solved. I look forward to this day coming soon.“

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03 Decluttering

Relaxation is a side of Xiao Zhan, he can balance some of the pressure, but there is a part of it that is difficult for him to resolve. Xiao Zhan does not sleep well. “It’s very difficult for me to fall asleep, and I sleep very lightly, there will be situations where I don’t feel rested after sleeping, which affects my state the next day.” This would happen especially when he just joined the drama group and would be in a state of high nervousness, he would often dream about filming on set, but the filming did not go well.

When he would go to different cities, Xiao Zhan would bring the same type of pillows and quilts. “I will bring anything that can help me sleep well.” He had also tried aromatherapy lamps, lavender essential oil, various products that could make him fall asleep when applied on his body, medicinal spray on the pillow that could make people fall asleep, melatonin and meditation music. In the end, he found that the best things that made him sleep well were sleep masks, earplugs, and not looking at his phone, “because I know that once I look at it, I won’t sleep, then I might as well get up.”

Not long ago, Xiao Zhan found an old book “Decluttering” at home. That was recommended to him by his ex-company boss when he was working as a designer. The concept of organizing life described in the book made Xiao Zhan start to rethink what he wanted and what he should give up.

Xiao Zhan has a particularly obstinate side to his character, “If it’s something I insist on and I think that is right, it will be difficult to convince me.” For example, when he decided to be an actor, he did not want to do anything outside of being an actor, “You come and force me, then let’s debate. No one is right or wrong, the team is also doing this for your own good, since isn’t it a good thing to have a lot of work? But for me, I have to subtract because some things are really not what I want.”

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Xiao Zhan’s acting experience began with a story about “an older commoner chasing dreams in the entertainment industry”. He participated in the talent show at the age of 24, learned dance from scratch, debuted as a boy band, acted in online dramas, played supporting roles in theater movies, until 2019 when he became popular, Xiao Zhan also became a star that attracted attention.

When you decide to do something, you must try your best to do it well. This was what Xiao Zhan has been taught since childhood, when he was in junior high school, his family bought him a mobile phone. When he first started texting, he often used spaces to replace punctuation marks, his father then said to him sternly, “What about the punctuation marks? Why is there no period at the end of the sentence?” From that time on, Xiao Zhan was very concerned about punctuation marks.

Xiao Zhan had been competitive since he was a child, and he was not willing to miss any opportunity when it came to things he could control. When he was taking the bus to school, he would worry about the person on the bus who was asleep and would missed the stop.

For things that he could not control, he would remind himself not to force them and learn to accept them. Until then, do what he could.

When asked which drama Xiao Zhan obtained with his own hard work, Xiao Zhan’s answer was surprising. He said: “Every one.” Before becoming famous, he auditioned for many dramas, and also experienced being replaced after entering the final round of auditions and even trialed the drama in costume. Now, of course, scripts would be handed over, but Xiao Zhan would always tell himself that people only had intentions and could hand them over to many people at the same time. If he found one he really liked, he would take the initiative to meet with the director to explain his understanding of the character.

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Xiao Zhan believes that it is important to have a correct attitude

Xiao Zhan’s growing up environment was no different from that of many born in the 1990s. Mother and father would go to work, grandmother would cook at home, and he would go to and from school every day. If he did not do well in the exam, he would be beaten. After dinner at 6:30 every night, the children would ask him downstairs to play hide-and-seek, wooden figurines, and throw sandbags, as he talked about these, he was very happy. These ordinary little things seemed so precious now. Xiao Zhan said that he was very grateful for the first 23 years of his life before his dream adventure in the entertainment industry. “I cherish it very much, I think it is good.”

He thought that if he had not entered the entertainment industry, he would have lived a life like his classmates and friends, accompanying clients for meals every day, going home and staying up late to catch up on designs.

“Being seen” is a happy thing. No matter how busy he was at work, Xiao Zhan never complained, “If you have a job, then work hard.” “While filming “The Oath of Love”, he was also recording the variety show “Our Song”. During the intervals while waiting for scenes, he would hum softly with his earphones on. The other actors would come over curiously, and Xiao Zhan would smiled sheepishly, explaining that he was practicing the song he was going to sing in the evening. “I don’t have time, I really don’t have time.” At that time, work occupied almost all of his life.

Xiao Zhan rarely takes the initiative to give himself a holiday. “It’s not realistic,” he said flatly. When he was most tired, he could fall asleep just sitting on the set.

This year, Xiao Zhan had a sense of urgency regarding “acting inexperience”, “compared with some seniors, they have already acted in many works in their thirties.” Xiao Zhan knows very clearly that his acting could not improve in leaps and bounds just from one drama, “this might be hard for it to happen to me.”

He once thought about whether to be an actor with a personal style or an actor that the audience would like after watching it. His answer was the latter, “everyone may not be your fan, or even not particularly interested in you, but when you know that he has a drama on and you might want to watch it because his dramas are pretty good. I want to do that, that’s my current goal. Whether or not I can become the level of the actors I like is a long way to go, take it slowly.”

“Making more dramas and cooperating with more good teams, this is just the one goal at the moment, I won’t consider other things for the time being.” Xiao Zhan said.

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Q&A About Acting

GQ: When did it become clear that you wanted to be an actor? Xiao Zhan: When the public started paying more and more attention to me, I wanted to say, why can’t I do it? I think I can. Sometimes I waver and feel it’s so difficult. Why can’t I do it? For example, when it comes to lines, why are they just not good? Why can’t I speak as well as the others? Is it because I’m from the South? I don’t think so. Then I think, so how can I speak well? I can do it, give it a try.

GQ: In your opinion, what are the professional standards for actors? Xiao Zhan: First of all, having excellent professional skills is an unavoidable topic. You can have a non-professional background, but you must have excellent professional skills. This is what I want to do and what I’m currently doing. I feel like I’m not enough, too far behind. After having excellent professional skills, attitude is very important and whether you love it or not is also very important. If you only view it as a job, you may not be able to go very far. But if you really love it, you will cry for it and laugh for it. This may be the motivation for you to persist. Also having a strong body (laughs), I used to not feel tired when I was in my twenties, but now I will feel very tired after staying up late. This is a terrible thing, it is important to have a strong body, this is your foundation.

GQ: When acting in which character or drama did you feel recognition for? Xiao Zhan: At the beginning, when I was working on “The Wolf”, I was under a lot of pressure, the acting teacher would give me a lot of advice and guidance, and I would constantly subvert my acting method every day, it was a period of confusion. After you got over it, you would find that you have grown, and when you started acting again later, you would gradually find a little bit of feeling, and then you would get over it step by step, this was a cumulative process. I feel that I have too little acting experience. Compared with some of the seniors, who have accumulated many works in their thirties, my current works are still too few and I have not accumulated enough.

Black printed shirt Egonlab Black jumpsuit Zickness

GQ: Do you feel worried? Xiao Zhan: Yes. Because I think (improving acting skills) is a cumulative process. You can’t take a big step with just one movie. This is hard for that to happen to me, so I have to keep filming, and to keep filming good dramas, don’t waste yourself

GQ: The 3 dramas broadcasted in 2023 stretched from ancient costume to era dramas and urban dramas, what were the considerations? Xiao Zhan: Actually, there were no considerations, it just happened naturally, there were no deliberate avoidance of themes I had acted in before, it’s just (selection) by reading the script. When the scripts were handed to me at that time, I felt attracted to a certain script at the moment, so I chose it, it just happened to be a theme that I had never acted in before.

GQ: Do you feel tired from acting in ancient costume dramas all the time? Xiao Zhan: There are many types of ancient costume dramas, don’t have to separate them into ancient costume dramas and modern dramas, it’s nothing more than sticking on a wig and changing clothes, actually the core is the same, but the outer shell is different.

GQ: Once the drama you filmed airs, will you follow it? Xiao Zhan: I won’t follow them, but I will watch them, I will choose the big scenes that I care about and watch them, counts as me looking for problems for myself.

GQ: Will you watch with the scrolling comments? Xiao Zhan: I used to do it really, and I felt very entertained, laughing and joking with everyone, but now I won’t do it.

White backless suit with fringe Jacquemus

GQ: What kind of character do you want to play now? Xiao Zhan: If I could choose, the best would be the ones I haven’t tried before. I need freshness. If I ask you to do the same thing every day, you will be bored.

GQ: What kind of actor do you want to be? Xiao Zhan: I want to be an actor that the audience can like.

GQ: Have you not already done this to make people like you? Xiao Zhan: No, no, I think it’s far from enough. I once thought about whether to be an actor with a personal style or to be an actor that the audience likes just by looking at you. Currently I want to be an actor who makes the audience feel good. Everyone may not be your fan, or even not particularly interested in you, but when you know that he has a drama on and you might want to watch it because his dramas are pretty good. I want to do that, that’s my current goal. Whether or not I can become the level of the actors I like is a long way to go, take it slowly.

GQ: Who are your favorite actors? Xiao Zhan: Many, for example Zhou Xun has always been my favorite actress. I recently watched her movie (“Across the Furious Sea”) and it was really great.

GQ: What are your career plans in 2024? Xiao Zhan: Making more dramas and cooperating with more good teams, this is just the one goal at the moment, I won’t consider other things for the time being.

White backless suit with fringe Jacquemus

Q&A About Life

GQ: Do voices on social media bother you? Xiao Zhan: It doesn’t bother me. After all these years, can I still live if I’m still bothered? (laughs) It’s really just fine. It’s fine as long as I am clear about what I am doing. Every time you make a choice, you must clearly know what you are doing, what you have to give up, and what you have to do. So, it’s fine, maybe the team has more troubles.

GQ: Is your personal life unaffected? Xiao Zhan: Very normal! I can go out for a bike ride and a stroll. When you’re walking down the street, no one really cares about you. It’s really not what everyone imagines. Then I walked around freely.

GQ: Are those escape moments for you? Xiao Zhan: Moments of relaxation. Why do I need to escape? I am also in the third dimension, where should I escape to, this is my life, I am the same as everyone. There are many things I particularly want to do, such as squeezing onto the subway and shopping in shopping malls, which are very similar to when I was in school, and maybe I will do them in the future.

GQ: Do you miss the ordinary life very much? Xiao Zhan: It’s not that I miss it, it’s that I think I should do it, this is living. I will really take squeeze into the subway, perhaps tomorrow, it’s so normal, I used to take the subway every day. To me, there’s nothing I can’t do, so what if you discover me? Say hello and leave. It’s just that I don’t want to cause confusion, trouble, or bad reactions to everyone.

White backless suit with fringe Jacquemus

Q&A About Personality

GQ: You haven’t appeared on variety shows in recent years. Is this a conscious choice? Xiao Zhan: Because it’s not suitable, with my personality, being in a variety show is too tiring, I would want to take care of everyone’s feelings, which would make myself very tired. Since I know that it would be this result, then I might as well don’t do it.

GQ: What was your original intention in entering the entertainment industry? Xiao Zhan: I really broke in mysteriously with confusion. The talent shows I used to watch would interview the top contestants, how did you get to this point? The contestant would say that I accompanied my friend to participate in the selection, but my friend failed and I was selected. When I was a child, I thought these things were far away from me, but when it came to myself, it’s really like this, and I think it’s amazing. I entered the idol competition, then I got here and that’s it. Very amazing, life is very interesting.

GQ: What things have you not thought of before after joining the industry? Xiao Zhan: It is a very cruel thing to not be able to to eat freely. When I see my former high school classmates who already have children and have put on some weight, I will sigh, I also want to eat freely like this. Their living status makes me feel that if I had not chosen this path at that time, maybe we would all be the same, we have to socialize and stay up late to catch up on designs, you don’t know how tiring it is to do design, but life is like this and there is no other way.

Dark red blazer Gucci

GQ: How has choosing this path changed you? Xiao Zhan: Maybe I lack a lot of life experiences, in this regard, my classmates and friends are far better than me. They have experienced real things. There are no cameras facing you, no lights, you are living your own real life.

GQ: Are you an emotionally stable person? Xiao Zhan: Comparatively, more, stable. But once it hits some points, I will become very unstable.

GQ: For example? Xiao Zhan: Just… some things that cannot be said, haha. Maybe when something incredulous happens, you will think, what are you doing, or, when something happens that normal people would not do, I will become very angry. Maybe it’s some privacy issue, if this point is breached, I will go “berserk”. Everyone has their own boundaries, and some people have no sense of proportion, I will just stay away from these kind of people. But when the boundaries are broken again and again and the bottom line is touched, I will get very angry.

Dark red suit jacket and trousers both Gucci

GQ: You once said that you have a particularly tenacious side to your personality. What do you mean specifically? Xiao Zhan: Principles, I am a very obstinate person, if it’s something I insist on and I think that is right, it will be difficult to convince me. For example, if I want to be an actor and I don’t want to do anything other than being an actor, if you come and force me, then let’s debate. No one is right or wrong, the team is also doing this for your own good, since isn’t it a good thing to have a lot of work? But for me, I have to subtract because some things are really not what I want.

GQ: Do you have a perfectionist side? Xiao Zhan: I just want to do it well, and do my best in the current moment. Maybe the result is not good, but what can I do, this is all I can do.

GQ: Can you accept failure? Xiao Zhan: I can accept. I might not have been able to accept it a few years ago, but 32-year-old Xiao Zhan has learned to accept this (laughs).

White backless suit with fringe, white leather loafers, both Jacquemus Black suit trousers Bianca Saunders

#xiao zhan #xiaozhan #肖战 #sean xiao

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lunatiqez · 9 months

Text

“PICNIC DATES” — Texas McCormick

PAIRING: Texas McCormick x GN!Reader

GENRE: Romance

SUMMARY: Texas decides that your first date should be a picnic date.

WORDCOUNT: 1.8k

A/N: I LOVE TEXAS MCCORMICK!!!! I will say though,, don’t rlly like this fic tbh. Anywho!! Requested by @mictodii and proofread by @lu-vin-it !!

YOU AND TEX HAD BEEN DATING FOR A month. And, this being Tex’s first relationship, he didn’t want to screw anything up. He wanted everything to go perfectly, especially dates.

“Mace, me and Y/N been dating for a month! Can you believe that? One whole month!” Texas exclaims to his brother, his crooked smile showing how proud he was. Mason doesn’t pay much attention, instead he continues on reading the newspaper.

“Yeah? You take ‘em on a date?” He asks.

“A date? Of—“ Tex thinks for a second. “Of course I took them on a date already, c'mon man!”

In reality? Texas McCormick had never taken you on a date, not yet at least. It hadn’t even crossed his mind until then.

“You ain’t a very good liar, Tex.” Mason looks up at his younger brother, a smirk plasterer across his face.

“What’re you talkin’ about? I’ve taken Y/N on a date! Why don’t you believe me?” He pouts slightly.

“Well first off, if you did already you didn’t tell me, and I know you woulda told by now. You’re head over heels for Y/N, so if anything, you’d be braggin’ about it.”

Tex looks away, embarrassed. Mace goes back to reading nonchalantly.

“Well, well just watch! I’ll take them on a date!” Texas says as he stomps off to his room.

The next day, Tex walked up to you in the hallways at school and started a conversation, as always.

“Say, Y/N.” He says after you move on from your most recent topic.

“Yeah? Everything okay?” You ask him.

“How ‘bout we go on a date tonight, huh? For our one month?” He suggests. You smile widely.

“Of course we can! Whatdya wanna do?”

“Uhh,” he thinks for a moment, nervously rubbing his hands on his jeans. “Let’s go on a picnic! Down at that meadow, a little ways away from my house.” You nod and set a specific time— tonight at 8PM.

“Am I bringing the food, or are you?” You ask.

“I could, but—“

“I’ll bring it.” You interrupt him, already knowing that he's going to make up an excuse as to why he can’t bring the food.

“Wha- no, I will! I can do it!” You chuckle in response.

“Alright, but I’m bringing at least somethin’” you say. It was mostly so you don’t feel bad that Tex had to provide everything.

After you finished your painfully boring day at school, you went home. By then, it was about 3:30PM; you had 4 hours and 30 minutes.

Your mom came out of her room, so you decided to ask her now before it was too late.

“Hey, mom!” You said, catching her attention. She looked at you, wondering what was the matter. “Can I go out with Tex tonight? Like, at 8? He wants to take me to a picnic.” She placed her hands on her hips and sighed.

“We won’t be back late, I promise! ‘N dad won’t have to take care of Banjo at all this week, I’ll do it all myself!” You said, trying to convince your mother to let you go.

“You’re supposed to be doin’ that already. She’s your horse.” You shrunk slightly.

There was an awkward silence until your mom broke it by sighing once more.

“Go ahead, but if you ain’t in this house by 10 I’m havin’ your father lock you out, you’ll sleep on the porch.” She rolled her eyes. You chuckled at her remark.

You let a few hours pass, and by now it was 6:30. You decided that you would get ready now, because you wanted to look and feel your best for your first date with your boyfriend. Suddenly, you got an idea to make cookies for Tex.

Cookies were his all time favorite food. Sometimes, you think he loved them more than he loved you. He would always go on about how much he craved cookies, and how his favorite cookies were chocolate chip. So that’s what you made.

You got all of your ingredients in order and began to make the dough. After that was done, you rolled them into small balls and placed them on a sheet. By now, it was getting close to 7, so you popped the cookies in the oven, set the timer for 20 minutes, and went to go get ready.

You hopped in the shower, making sure you used your best smelling body wash. After about 10 minutes, you got out and went to get dressed.

You took a while deciding on what to wear, but ultimately decided on your nicest pair of riding jeans, a navy blue button up, and Tex’s denim jacket that you stole from him a while back.

After you were done, you went to the kitchen and, right on time, the kitchen timer dinged— indicating that the cookies were done baking.

You grabbed an oven mitt and put it on, pulling the cookie sheet out.

The cookies looked delicious. They were a perfect golden brown, and not too hard, but also not too mushy. You smiled proudly and set them on the counter to cool off.

You threw the mitt on the counter next to the cookies and turned the oven off.

Then, you found a wicker basket. After another 10 minutes, the cookies were cooled off and ready to be eaten. So, you took a spatula and after getting them off the cookie sheet, you placed them delicately on a plate from your cupboard and then put the plate in the basket, leaving it on the counter and going to get Banjo ready.

You rushed out to the stable, excited to see your horse.

“Hey, Banjo!” You greeted the animal. She neighed in response.

After giving her some praise, you began to get her ready. You placed her saddle on her and tightened it around her stomach.

“Ready to go see your boyfriend, huh?” You asked her, chuckling at your joke. “Yeah, me too.”

After getting your horse saddled up, you went back inside to grab the basket. Before heading out the door, you grabbed a handful of carrots from your fridge and tossed them in your basket as well.

You went to the stables again, basket in hand, and balanced the food carefully on a thick fence, jumping up onto Banjo. You had her walk to the fence where the food was sitting and grabbed it, holding onto it carefully.

It was getting pretty close to 8, so you had Banjo hurry to Tex’s house, it only being a little ways from your house— since you both had horses, you both had to live out of town, making you essentially faraway neighbors.

Banjo trotted to Tex’s house, making it annoying to hold the basket still.

“You’re so stubborn, Banjo, can’t you just hold still?” You asked her as if she knew what you were saying.

Before you knew it, it was 7:58 and you were entering Tex’s yard. Mace was on the porch talking with Lem, Banjo walked up past the cars and you stopped her.

“Hey, Mace!” You said to him. He stopped his conversation with Lem and stood up to talk to you.

“Hey, Y/N, been a while huh?” He asked you.

“Mhm! Is Tex here?”

“Oooh shit!” Lem said. “Tex got someone? Huh?” You giggled.

“Uh huh,” you said as you subconsciously pet your horse.

“I don’t think we ever met,” Lem says as he walks over to you. “I’m Lem— one of Tex and Mace’s buddies. Bet you already figured that though, huh?” You smiled and nodded.

“I’m Y/N! Y/N Y/L/N.” You introduced yourself. Mason then informed you that Tex was getting Rowdy ready to go right now.

You went out to the back and shouted for your boyfriend.

He then came out of the dark stable on Rowdy, a basket in hand just like you.

“Hey, babe.” He said, his smile widening. “Was gettin’ scared, I didn’t think you’d show up.” You scoffed.

“You really think that low of me, Texas McCormmick?” You asked

“Well, no, I just— Y’know, it was getting near 8! I just thought you forgot or somethin’.” Tex rambled off, making you laugh.

“Let’s go, you got a blanket?” You asked him.”

“Uh huh.”

With that, you said your goodbyes to Lem and Mace and went off to a nearby meadow. On your ride there, Tex took notice of your basket.

“What’s in there?” He asked you, pointing to it.

“Surprise.” You smirked at him. He scoffed.

When you reached your destination, it was nice and quiet, the only sounds being a stream of water and crickets chirping.

The two of you hopped off your horses and Tex laid the quilt out on the ground, making sure it was perfect. To your surprise, he also pulled out 2 candles and a lighter. You giggled when you saw them.

“What??” He asked innocently. “It’s gonna get dark out, we need them!”

When he lit the candles, you sat down with him.

“Did you bring food?” You asked him.

“Course I did, see?” Tex showed you the food he brought.

Grapes, potato chips, and sliced apples. You laughed aloud at the assortment of food. Tex furrowed his eyebrows.

“What’s so funny??” He asked you, confused.

“Nothin, nothin.” You said as you stopped laughing and pulled your basket near you.

“I made us cookies!” Tex’s face lit up and he smiled wider than ever.

“Hell yea! I love cookies!” He cheered as he dug through the basket, throwing the carrots aside.

“Oh yeah, those are for Rowdy and Banjo.”

Tex immediately dug into the cookies, taking about 3 at a time.

“Hey, hey!” You shouted at him. “Geez, save some for me!” He laughed as he bit into his first sweet.

“These are real good, Y/N. Thanks for bringin ‘em.” He thanked you as he laid on his side, propping himself up on his elbow. You mirrored him so that you were facing each other.

“Tex, what made you think of a picnic, out of all things?” You asked out of genuine curiosity.

“I dunno.” He shrugged. “I just thought it would be somethin’ you liked. And of course we had to bring Rowdy and Banjo along.” Texas motioned to the horses as they grazed next to the two of you.

“I see.” You then changed your position so you were laying flat on your back and looking at the stars. Tex followed your eyes and that brought him to the sky, aswell.

“Stars are nice and bright out, huh? No clouds.” He commented. You nodded in silence.

Tex then brought himself to lay with you, placing his head gently on your stomach. You instinctively grabbed his hair and began playing with it. It was nice and silky, his hair was one of your many favorite things about him.

There was a moment of silence before Texas asked you, “How’s this for a first date? Did we do good?”

“I love it, Tex.” You responded softly. “You did good. I love you.” Texas chuckled.

“A lot of people do.” You flicked the side of his head.

“Ow! Cut that out!”

#tex 1982 #tex movie #tex #Texas McCormick #Texas McCormick 1982 #Texas McCormick x reader #Texas McCormick x you #Texas McCormick x y/n #Matt Dillon #Matt Dillon 1982 #Matt Dillon tex #Matt Dillon x reader #Matt Dillon x you #Matt Dillon x y/n #📝 — liv’s requests ★.#📂 — liv’s writings ★.

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fangirltothefullest · 1 year

Text

It's time to fix Logan's Scheduling Problems(TM)

@ironwoman359 had a really good post and it inspired this one because I could not stop breaking down Logan's priorities chart. I have boarded the hyperfixation express and taken it all the way down to the dreaded mathville just to think about graphs and charts. Oh dear. This is so unlike me. But the chart is so funny and they actually took a decent amount of time to think through the amounts of time spent on each task, allowing us to break down the original schedule before it was "fixed" to adjust for Roman.

So buckle up because I have double checked the math but I am very adhd and often quite a bit stupid from stress related brainfog so who fuckin knows if this is accurate.

LET'S GOOOOOOO

This is Logan's original proposed schedule which I borrowed from @ironwoman359's post:

We can see it's a nice chart, lovely and hand made which I greatly enjoy. And luckily we have numbers to work with so we can figure out exactly how much time is alotted to what based on the percentages in a 24 hour day.

And oh guess what! They're ridiculous numbers designed specifiily to allow that 0.5% for Dreams but I'll get to that in a moment.

If you're anything like me, (quite a but math stupid) those percentages don't really give enough info on how long they're actually taking for each just by looking at it. So here's the breakdown in hours because finding out how many hours each thing accounts for should give us an idea of Logan's priorities.

40% - Work (9.6 hours - oof)

33% ‐ Sleep (7.92 hours)

12.5% - Eat (3 hours)

8% - Exercize (1.92 hours)

4% ‐ General Hygene (57.6 minutes)

2% - Dental Hygene (28.8 minutes - mega oof)

0.5% - Dreams (7.2 minutes - fuckin ouch)

As we can see, Logan's chart is heavily skewed to work, sleep and eating. But these numbers are still potentially hard to understand. "Why does it say 57.6 minutes?" You might be asking. So we will round those numbers to a more understandable range because ideally we are trying to add up to 24 hours:

Work: 10

Sleep: 8 hours

Eat: 3 hours

Exercize: 2 hours

Gen. Hygene: 1 hour

Dental Hygene: 30 minutes (seriously, oof)

At this point when we round, that is 24.5 hours which already goes over so we are obligated to round one down instead of up for the sake of the 24 hours- we will round work to 9 hours 30 minutes instead of ten hours and this still leaves no room for dreams or recreation of any kind at all. We can assume this was the ORIGINAL proposed schedule before the changes. That's why he's got such weirdly specific numbers. He's alotted time specifically for dreams by taking minutes from everything except eating and work, leaving only 7-ish minutes.

Which is bullshit so let's break this down in each one to validate each choice's logic:

Work: 9 and a half hours

This is way too much. Therefore, we will snag an hour and put it aside for later and snag that other 30 minutes for breaks.

Conckusion- 8 hours for work and 30 minutes for breaks.

Number of time saved: 1 hour

Sleep: 8 hours

The recommended amount of time, we will not touch this number.

Number of time saved: N/A

Eat: 3 hours

1 hour per meal and since c!Thomas canonically rarely cooks, it is an ample amount of time to heat up something quick and enjoy the meal. We can count this number as untouchable as well.

Number of time saved: N/A

Exercise: 2 hours

This is our second potentially flexible number. It's recommended 30 minutes every day to be healthy, not two full hours so there is a potential hour and a half that could be taken here for something else. This is important.

Number of time saved: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Gen. Hygene: 1 hour

This accounts for shower time and presentability time, IE hair brushing and clothes. This is a decent amount of time and could leave room for flexibility as not everyone needs an hour, however we will leave this time to itself.

Number of time saved: N/A

Dental hygene: 30 minutes

Oh boy what the actual fuck Logan. The American Dental Association says the recommended amount of time for brushing yoir teeth is 2 minutes 2 times a day. That's 4 minutes, not 30. Then it's plus 1 minute for wetting the toothbrush and applying toothpaste, and another 2 minutes of wiggle room for a once a day flossing. Plus another minute or whatever for mouthwash or something else.

Conclusion- We will generously round this number to 10 minutes for dental hygene.

Number of time saved: 20 minutes.

That brings us to a total of 2 hours and 50 minutes for literally everything else and this is a good number. Thats almost 3 hours worth of time we can be slotting to dreams and leisure acrivities and also socializing!

So now we have it folks, we have a better understanding of why the schedule is fucked and how we can fix it to satisfy much more with this improved breakdown:

Work: 8 hours (fixed)

Sleep: 8 hours (fixed)

Breaks: 30 minutes (fixed)

Eating: 3 hours (fixed)

Exercise: 30 minutes (fixed)

General hygene: 1 hour (fixed)

Dental hygene: 10 minutes (fixed)

Dreams: 50 minutes (flexible)

Liesure: 1 hour (flexible)

Social: 1 hour (flexible)

Logan hire me to fix your schedule sir

#sanders sides

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kuwajima · 5 months

Note

Can I ask how you made the lil kny chocolate bombs? they’re SO CUTE

Yes of course! I bought a KNY chocolate making kit (from Bandai) from Amazon JP. But it’s not actually intended for hot cocoa bombs, so I had to improvise a little.

The molds are intended to be filled completely with chocolate and pressed together while the chocolate is warm to make one solid piece, but that doesn’t work when you need to have them filled with cocoa powder. So after a few tries, I figured out how to make it work!

If you want to make them too, I have steps listed below! It’s not that difficult once you get the hang of things!

The little picture of chocolate Inosuke with a pink nose inspired me to try out the molds in full color! Fun fact, you can buy some things off Amazon JP if you’re in the US. You do need to pay for somewhat expensive shipping, but it was cheaper to buy this from Japan than second-hand via eBay for me!

You will obviously need chocolate for this. Theoretically anything could work, but I used colored candy melts from the craft store and some almond bark stuff from Walmart. Melt it per package instructions, which is usually the microwave. The cup they give you in the kit is actually awesome, it kept the melted chocolate SO warm. But I was using so many colors for the set that I actually filled a Pyrex dish with boiling water and kept my tiny heat-safe glasses of colored chocolate in the water to keep them liquid enough to work with. If you’re going to use a lot of colors, it’s good to be strategic with the order of melting colors. If you’re doing just one of two colors you won’t need the dish of water.

For the fully colored ones I did small layers of colored candy melts and let each layer cool completely before adding the next one. This is why it took 2 hours lmao. When I made them with just plain chocolate it took significantly less time (maybe 30 min total with cool times for all 6?)

So for Inosuke I had to do the little white dot on his eyes, let it cool, add the blue, let it cool, then add MORE white! You’ll do this until the entire mold is coated with chocolate, but you want the layers to be pretty thin so you can add as much cocoa mix as possible. I was using toothpicks for small details and chopsticks for larger portions like the clothes.

HOWEVER if you just want to make solid colors or way less detailed bombs, you can just coat the entire mold in a thin layer of chocolate. Either way you want the cavity of the mold to be pretty big because that’s where the cocoa mix goes.

It’s hard to see, but one side of the mold doesn’t have chocolate up to the rim of the mold. There’s like a fraction of a cm of space. Let them cool completely.

Once cool, you’ll fill ONE side with cocoa mix. This is just a pre-made mix, but you can do anything you want. Cocoa mix is basically just cocoa powder and sugar lol. I also tried this with flavored milk tea powder! Since the other side is hollow, you can make a tiny mountain of the mix instead of just filling it to the top of the cavity.

Because the chocolate is cool, the two sides will not fit together on their own. This is why I left a tiny bit of space on the other mold.

Cover just the rim of the character on the opposite mold with hot melted chocolate. You can be a little messy here because the extra stuff will get smooshed to the side, away from the character. Match the notches when the chocolate is HOT (if it’s only kinda warm it won’t attach as well) and smoosh. You see the super thin layer of chocolate outside the character area? That will break off when you open the mold. Make sure the chocolate is totally surrounding the entire rim of the character because if there are any gaps, the mix will leak out when it is taken out of the mold.

Let it cool completely in your fridge (or at room temp, I guess?) for like 10 minutes and it should pop right out of the mold! If it doesn’t, you can also carefully press one side of the mold to take the character out.

And boom! You’re done! Now you can drown your faves in the hot milk or beverage of your choice! Go forth and eat your blorbos!

Giyu and Shinobu about to be sent to their doom:

#kny #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer #hopefully this is easy to understand!!#if you end up making some I’d love to see them!!#battleshipart

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accirax · 6 months

Note

I know you said that you were going to post all of the Halloween DRDT trick or treat doodles/drawings in one post as well as I'm pretty late, but I was just curious if you made one for David's speaker persona as well, if you don't mind me asking?

P.S. I really like your art style! And (yet again, if you don't mind me asking this as well) how long did it take you to make each doodle/drawing?

okay, so i didn't, but then this image popped into my mind and i immediately had to draw it

(it helps that i already had whoppers as a backup candy in mind for david before i realized how funny the reference to lemons would be)

i don't mind the questions at all! i should probably write somewhere that the ask box is always open for whatever, as long as it's not, like... bullying? which this is clearly the opposite of. instead, you've just given me an excuse to ramble >:) turn back now, before it's too late...!

i'm glad you like my art style! i was trying to track how long each drawing took me as i was doing it (because i was curious), and i would say each one took me 15-30 minutes...? characters with less complicated costumes (like J) or costumes based on a preexisting character design (like Hu) took me less time-- in the second case, because i didn't have to make anything up myself, just copy a design that already exists. more complicated costumes that i had to invent from scratch (like Rose or Arei) took me longer. and, i feel like Veronika always takes me a while to draw no matter what i do. it's all that dang hair :P

anyways, i noticed that i seemed to be completing about three drawings every hour, so 20 minutes on average. although, that was after i had already written out what costume and candy i was going to give everyone beforehand. if you want to include the time it took me to figure out what to assign everyone, you can tack on another 5-10 minutes to the process.

#he is just a little guy...#i will probably not put this in the compilation post so enjoy tiny david to your heart's content here #accirax halloween

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smaptain-smerica · 1 year

Text

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female Reader

Summary: {Y/n} Was at the top of her class at the Red Room Academy. Sought after for her expertise in the field by Dr. Zola, who purchased the widow for his Hydra Program. {y/n} Excelled quickly, and began teaching the new recruits using her previously taught skills. All was well until a James Barnes entered the program. His presence turned the entirety of the Hydra program on its head. Rules, hearts and trust broken time and time again.

Maturity: This book is rated mature for graphic descriptions of violence, foul language, and sexual content that may be sensitive to readers under the age of 18.

a/n: This story was originally posted on wattpad and will be updated there first. Follow there for quicker updates! https://www.wattpad.com/user/smaptin-smerica

Master List

Chapter 30

The trip to Sam's house was a short one. The main difference I noticed in the world was the style of house change. But other than that, the small town looked simple. I was grateful there wasn't a huge sensory overload with it.

It was nearing 1 am when we quietly slipped in the door of the house. Sam made sure to open and close the door with dramatic quiet. Unfortunately, it was pointless because a living room lamp flipped on and a black woman in a nightgown and bonnet was sitting in an arm chair. "Do you know what time it is?" She demanded.

I shifted to my toes to whisper into Bucky's ear; "sister?"

"Yep." He responded curtly, not taking his eyes off of Sam.

"Sarah, I told you we wouldn't be back until later." Sam tried to reason with his sibling. Unfortunately, her momma bear instincts kicked in.

"The police said someone attacked you!"

"Not me, Bucky!" Sam quickly flipped the script and pointed a thumb back at us. Bucky pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"And you bring a weapon covered stranger into my home? Is this who attacked you?" Sarah gestured her hand towards me and threw me a look. I felt the heat rise to my face in embarrassment. I looked down at the floor, wanting my eyes to be anywhere but on Sarah or Sam.

Bucky's hand traveled to the small of my back for comfort. He gave me a gentle scratch while Sam and Sarah excused themselves from the room to go talk. My feet moved on their own it seemed, turning on heel and exiting out the front door with Bucky calling after me.

"Y/n, please wait."

"I shouldn't be here." I shouted back, continuing to walk into the yard near a tree with a tire swing.

"Y/n, it's okay. Sarah is just tired. It's only for a night."

I stopped, turning around to face him completely. I couldn't help the tears forming in my eyes as the weight of my situation crashed down on me. The small front yard was illuminated by the full moon overhead, casting a white glow across Bucky's face.

"No I mean I shouldn't be here at all! I spent all those years killing innocent people and now 60 years later I somehow get a second chance? I am the least deserving person of that. 60 fucking years and it feels like I took a 10 minute nap! Zola should have put that bullet through my head instead-"

"Y/n!" Bucky was closer to me than I thought. My vision was blurred by my emotions that I didn't notice him right in front of me. His hands grabbed my wrists to stop them from frantically flailing. I met his blue eyes that now looked grey in the moonlight. Tears brimmed the bottoms of them as he looked at me with a passionate intensity.

"I'm sorry." He whispered. His hands moved from my hands to either side of my face which forced me to look at him. I could read every raw and real emotion that he was feeling. "I'm sorry this happened to you. And I wish I could change it."

His voice was hardly above a whisper, broken and full of emotions. I felt a quiver in my lip begin as the emotions finally became too much to hold in. I let my head fall onto his chest as waterfalls of tears silently slid down my cheeks. The steady rhythm of his heartbeat echoed in my head and helped calm me. Bucky simply hugged me back, stroking one hand comfortingly over the back of my head.

"Hey buck!" Sam called into the yard from the front door. Thankfully we were far enough away that he most likely couldn't see that the both of us had been crying. "You guys are good, come on." He encouraged.

Bucky and I looked at each other. He gave me a gentle smile before bringing his hands up to my face and wiping the tears away with his thumbs. I gave him a pitiful attempt at a smile before taking his hand and heading back into the house.

"Unfortunately, I only have the couches to give you. But, tomorrow is Saturday so Sarah is making waffles for breakfast so we can talk more about our next course of action then." Sam talked a little nervously, his eyes darting between both Bucky and I.

"Sounds good. Thanks Sam." Bucky thanked his friend with a smile and then looked over at me. I looked between the two men and then back down at myself. I was still wearing a black tactical suit.

"You don't have a T-shirt I could borrow, do you?" I asked before looking back up at Sam. His mouth spread into a wide, crooked grin before he nodded.

"Yeah, I'll get you some shorts too." He offered before quickly making his way down the hallway.

Once I received my clothes for the night, I settled into the uncomfortable couch, staring blankly at the ceiling. I laid as still as a board, my fingers gently tapping together as an anxious tick. I couldn't sleep. How could I sleep? I was just asleep for nearly 60 years. Do people know about me? What I did? Is there any record of me anywhere? They said Hydra and the red room were disbanded, was I in those files they recovered?

"Y/n?" Bucky's gentle voice brought me out of my mental trance. I looked over at him and he was looking at me from where he laid on the couch. "Are you going to sleep?" He asked.

I adverted my eyes, returning them to the ceiling and simply replying. "No."

I heard him shift his weight around and the blanket over him rustle. I looked over at Bucky to see him rotating to the side. He pulled the blanket up and patted the empty space he created. "Come here."

I listened to him. For me it felt like a short amount of time had passed. He had been through and seen so much since I last saw him. I wondered if those feelings were still there for him or if they had fizzled out. Him offering to lay next to me gave me a little hope. I got up from my spot and slithered into the covers. It was a small fit, but the feeling of his arm slipping around my waist and up my shirt gave me goosebumps. His warm hand gently scratched the bare skin on my lower back and he looked down at me with a gentle smile.

My eyes traveled around his face. The new age lines, the short hair, he looked exactly the same yet so different. I furrowed my eyebrows together once I saw the scratch mark on his cheek. I brought my hand up to his face, gently brushing my thumb underneath it. "Did I do that?"

Bucky nodded in response. "Matches the one you gave me on my forehead."

I let out a chuckle, thinking about the fond memory. My eyes self consciously went to that side of his forehead where there wasn't even a scar. My eyes returned to his blue ones and confusion washed over me. "How do you remember that?"

Bucky smiled a little bit at my realization. "I remember everything."

Shock fell over me. I couldn't find the words to say quite yet. How? When?

"Some things are a little fuzzy still," Bucky continued, taking everything I was thinking and answering. "But everything with you, I remember clearly."

I felt a relief wash over me. I was so happy for him. He was able to remember everything. His friends, his life before, he was able to remember who he was. I remembered him being so distraught about it before. "That's incredible." I smiled widely and genuinely.

Bucky smiled down at me. His hand traveled further up my side and his fingers skipped over the indent in my skin from the metal rod. He quickly retracted his hand, bringing it now against my back and pulled me closer to him. "I also remember falling in love with that beautiful smile. Twice."

I could feel the heat press up my face and into a wide smile as I looked at him in the dimly lit space. My heart dropped as I remembered the moments before I got put into cryostasis. My mouth turned down in memory of my red haired friend. "Do you remember Caroline?" I asked quietly, the words barley escaping my lips.

Bucky's face dropped as he looked between both of my eyes for a point of focus. He nodded grimly. "I do." He finally answered with equal quiet.

"Why?" It was a question I was wondering the moment before I was frozen in time. I knew it wasn't the real him I knew, but I at least thought he would have fought it.

"I was brainwashed and programmed with trigger words to completely take over my free will." He explained to me. Bucky brought his hand up to my face and gently stroked his fingers through my hair, securely tucking strands behind my ear. "Whoever spoke those words had me firmly under their command. I couldn't do anything to stop it."

I frowned. I still vividly remembered everything he had gone through in the time I knew him yet he continued to go through so much worse when I left. "Bucky..."

"But," he stopped me from continuing my thought. "The place we're going, Wakanda, they helped me. Rehabilitated me and made me better. Now, the words don't work. Nobody can control me." He smiled at me fondly for a moment before continuing.

"You're going to love it there. I thought about that often while I was there. You would've loved it there. It's beautiful, from the people to the landscape and the technology. All of it is amazing."

I smiled at the way he explained it to me. Even after all this time he still thought about me. I was surprised he even remembered me. "Well, I'm here now." I whispered.

"You're here now." Bucky whispered in astonishment. "And I cannot believe it." His hand gripped my face now and I couldn't take my eyes off of him. This all felt like a dream, a fantastic dream that I was terrified of waking up from. I hoped that if I didn't go to sleep that I would continue to live in this moment. I was terrified to face what the world has become. I was also terrified that I might relive the past if I closed my eyes. Then I would wake up back in the hydra encampment.

Bucky pulled me into his chest and the steady sound of his heartbeat entered my mind. It echoed on the empty corners and lulled my eyes closed. I felt his breathing change, the intermittent twitches of his muscles letting me know he had fallen asleep.

I slowly went to sleep too. Hoping and praying that I woke up exactly where I was.

~~~

My mind was slowly being drawn from sleep by muffled voices in my ears. I expected myself to wake up and be in a lab, but the warmth next to me was confusing. I opened my eyes and looked up at the ceiling, only to see two wide eyed boys looking down at me.

"Hi." I croaked out.

"Hi." The older boy said with a slight crack in his voice.

"AJ, Cass, leave them alone!" Sarah snapped from the kitchen. The two boys hurried quietly out the front door and shut it behind them. The door shut rather loudly, waking Bucky with a start.

With wide eyes he scanned the area for a moment, before finally resting upon me. "Good morning." His rough voice left his throat.

"Good morning." I replied, shifting to sit up on the couch. I stretched my aching joints up into the air, a few cracks escaping.

"Breakfast is ready." Sarah called into the house, taking off her apron and walking towards the door with a smile at the two of us.

"Did you sleep?" Bucky's question drew my focus to where he was, shifting his weight around to sit next to me.

"For a little while, yes."

"Good." While rubbing his eyes, I noticed a necklace around his neck that I hadn't seen before. Maybe it got untucked sometime in the night. I reached over to grab one of the dog tags.

"James Buchanan Barnes." I said aloud, running my fingers along the raised metal on the tag.

Bucky chuckled while never taking his eyes off me. "Careful, or you'll start to sound like my mother." He joked.

I hummed a laugh in response, finally letting go of the tags. "From when you were in the army?" I asked.

Bucky nodded as an answer.

Through the front door burst two flashes of children, laughing wildly and sprinting for the kitchen. They nearly collided with Sam who had just exited the hallway. "Woah watch it!" Sam scolded them.

Sarah came through the door after them, nearly doubling over and out of breath. "I'll get you two... later..." she said in between breaths.

I finally rose to my feet, Bucky following suit after me. We made our way to the kitchen and fixed ourselves plates of food. Well, Bucky made mine for me, making sure I got every topping I wanted.

AJ and Cass, who I learned were Sarah children, had already finished and went outside to play. That left the adults inside to talk. Sarah kept herself busy by washing the dishes, but I could tell she wanted to know what was going on.

"So, I got in contact with Agent Ross, he is getting clearance from T'challa and Shuri for an aircraft to pick us up. But, we'd have to go to New York first."

"Perfect. We can stay at my place until we leave." Bucky offered.

"Sounds great." Sam added.

It wasn't until I listened to the two of them talk that I actually had no idea where I was. I assumed America, but which state? Where at in the state? Somewhere south, obviously close to the water.

"What are you thinking about?" Bucky asked, nudging me so I escaped my thoughts.

"Yeah, sorry. I just don't know where we are." I admitted, looking between the two of them.

"Oh, Louisiana." Sam confirmed.

"Okay," I nodded. "And where is New York?"

"Um, north east. About a days travel by car. Unless we take a plane." Bucky explained.

"Can your arm make it through a metal detector to get on the plane?" Sam asked.

Bucky opened his mouth to argue, but then closed it, seeming to think about it for a moment.

"Regardless," I drew the conversation back on topic. "I say we leave right away. I don't want to waste any time to figure out what's wrong with me."

Bucky put a hand on my knee and gave me a gentle squeeze. "Alright, we leave right away then." Bucky then turned his attention back to Sam with a serious tone. "Don't feel obligated to come. If you have other things going on-"

"Are you kidding?" Sam interrupted. "We're going back to Wakanda, my calendar is clear."

Next Chapter

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tourmalinatedquartz · 2 years

Text

Make This House A Home

Fandom: Redacted ASMR

Genre: fluff, tiny hints of angst

Pairing: Sam/Darlin’ (GN reader)

TW/CW: non detailed reference to toxic family members. That should be it.

A/N: you know the drill. Written on mobile and not edited. Why am I only good at writing when I’m at work? As always let me know if I gendered Darlin’ on accident!

Darlin’ had inherited their childhood home. It sat about 30 minutes outside of town on 10 acres of unused land. The house itself had sat abandoned since the passing of their parents. The structure was filled with rather unpleasant memories that the shifter preferred to leave in the past.

So why were they stood on the porch, key in hand, on a perfectly good August night when they could be spending it with their mate? Well it’s because of Sam himself. He’d made a comment earlier in the summer that as much as he liked and appreciated his current place and the generosity of William, he’d always had an idea of the ideal home. One that was out of the way, where he could hear frogs in the pond, crickets chirping, owls hooting from the evergreens, morning doves greeting him before bed, coyotes howling in the distance, and relax knowing that he had the privacy to really relax.

The only problem was that most places like that were too far away or not part of clan territory. Except, for some houses William owned outside of Dahlia. Houses that were all on lots of land, but taken. Just at the edge of those houses was where Darlin’ could be found. Staring at a door they hadn’t opened in over 10 years.

Their childhood home was now bordering land owned by William Solaire himself. Darlin’ was surprised when Sam had driven them past it and pointed the house out.

“That’s the one.” His hand crossed in front of their face to the deteriorating building. “Someone else owns it but that’s the one I’d want.”

Darlin’ was at a loss for words for a while but finally managed to ask, “why that one?”

“Well, there’s lotsa reasons. It’s right next to some of William’s homes so I wouldn’t have to worry about being too far away from the clan. It’s not too close to town, so I wouldn’t feel so trapped by all the city life. Plus it’s beautiful.”

They took a minute to take in everything he’d said, staring at the rear view long after the house disappeared in the darkness. They didn’t know the rest of the area belonged to William. Sure they’d gotten multiple offers on it years ago but they turned them all down without looking at any of the information. They hadn’t been ready to let go of it.

“Sam, you’re not exactly in the city right now either.” His current home was removed enough for vampires and shifters alike to feel comfortable and not risk breaking covert in their own lawn.

“Well I know that but this is just…a bit more. I dunno know why but somethin’ about that place just drew me in the second I saw it.”

They gave an almost irritated sigh once they pushed open the door. “Damn it Sam. Why’d it have to be this one?”

Grimacing at the state of it, they did a walk through of the familiar layout and took note of all the obvious issues. If they did this, it would take a lot of work.

———

Same squinted at them from the other end of their couch.

“What is it Darlin’? You’ve been anxious all night.”

He fully expected them to brush him off, or admit they’d gotten themself into trouble again somehow. But instead they seem to Steele themselves for something and say,

“How confident are you in your handyman abilities?”

“My what?” That definitely had not been what he expected.

“Ya know, how easy would it be for you to…” they were too scared to say ‘fix up a house with me’. He waited, patiently, for them to find the right words. “I have a project. Wondered if you’d be able to help.”

He was elated at the fact that his Darlin’ was coming to him to ask for help with something. He was also intrigued at this vague ‘project’.

“I see. And what kinda project, prey tell, is this?”

“Just some demo and remodeling.” They paused to gauge his reaction.

“Like…in a house?” His face remained neutral. They couldn’t spot any judgement or disinterest in his expression, which did ease a little of their anxiety.

“Yea. A house.” Sam wanted to question them. He wanted to know more but it was obvious to him that they were having a hard time opening up about whatever spurred on this project.

“Well, I’m not too shabby at that kinda thing, if I do say so myself.” He offered Darlin’ a small, crooked smile. “When do we start?”

“Do you want to take a look at it tonight? It’s pretty run down, so I wouldn’t want you to commit to it without knowing how much work it’ll take.” They wanted to give him as many chances to back out as possible. Even though they knew he wanted the house, knew he wanted the land, and knew he’d have a blast making it his own, they couldn’t help but doubt that he’d want to do it with them.

“Tonight? Sure, why not.”

———

Darlin’ could see the look of recognition on his face when they neared the property. Every second brought more and more anxiety.

“The drive is on the left, right there.” They pointed although they were sure it wasn’t necessary.

“Darlin’…this is…did William buy this? Are we fixin’ it up for him?” They could see him trying to figure out how the hell he was standing on the land of the home he said he’s wanting for years being asked to fix it up.

“No.” He whipped his head around to face them. “It’s mine…this-this is my childhood home.” They nodded at it with their head, hands shoved nervously in their pockets. “I inherited it when my parents passed. I never thought I’d be back. But selling it never felt right either. I never knew why but…maybe this is why.”

Sam turned towards them fully and placed a gentle hand on their cheek. “Darlin’ I love you so much. You know that? It’s incredible that this house has been yours this whole time. And if you want it, then I’m right here with you. But if you don’t, then I’m fine right where I am. I told you before, you are home to me. As long as I have you then I don’t care what house I’m living in.”

Darlin’ sniffed, cleared their throat, then nodded. A habit they had when trying not to cry. “Yea I know. I came by the other night to…” they shrugged, dropping their gaze to the ground. “I guess figure out if I could see myself living here again.”

Sam waited, patient as always.

“I think I’d like to try. With you. By the time we get done it’ll look so different and…it’ll feel different.” They didn’t have to say it but Sam knew they meant that with Sam there instead of their parents, and with it looking like their own home, it would finally feel safe.

“If that’s what you want, then that’s what you’ll get. Are you ready to go inside?”

“Yea, I’m ready.” So they did and Sam held Darlin’s hand the entire time.

#redacted asmr #redactedverse #redacted sam #redacted darlin'#william solaire #I’ve discovered that I enjoy writing Sam #his dialog comes natural to me #redacted fanfic

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an--artistic--autistic · 7 months

Text

i am unreasonably proud and excited about this

#disability #chronic pain #mobility aid #i am officially running a thing to make my university accessible #i am so ready to fight people over it and I've recruited a bunch of people #we may or may not end up in our local news too #im done with this shit #literally on Friday had to walk around the building bc the elevator broke again and i couldn't do stairs #should take 30 seconds instead took like 10 minutes

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fieldofsecretss · 2 years

Text

Dray? Do you remember when…-D.M pt.1

FLUFF!

year 6

*mentions of sex*

Pairing: Draco x fem!reader

Warnings: blood, mentions of sex, crying. But it’s not as serious as it sounds

Summary: y/n reminds Draco about some of her favorite memories from first to fifth year. And so do Draco.

——————————————————————

It was a late Saturday night, you and your loving boyfriend Draco was in the slytherin common room. Everyone was asleep...yeah almost everyone. you was seated next to Draco with your legs on his lap, you both watched the hot flames of the fire while sipping on tea.

“Dray?” You started. He turned his sight from the fireplace to you instead.

“Yes, love?” He answered. You took a moment to consider if the question was worth it.

“Do you remember in our third year, when we had a sleepover at my dorm. we had just gotten together. we were 13 years old and our hormones were all over the place!” You said while Draco chuckled at the memory.

“I do in fact remember that day. It was the scariest thing for the 13 year old little Draco to witness!” he answered. You laughed at the seriousness of his voice.

~Flashback~

You and Draco stood next to each other while brushing your teeth. You wore white shorts and a baby blue shirt that matched the shirts in a beautiful way. Draco had gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt. While brushing your teeth your breasts bounced a little, caused by the movement of your hand while you brushed. Draco couldn’t resist to let his eyes shift to take a liiiittle look...13 is the age when you starts to wonder, experiment and experience a lot, so no wonder he was curious!

But he was a gentleman after all, so he only looked two times! When you were done you were walking to bed you laid down next to each other.

“Tomorrow, can we please go to Hagrids hutch? I miss the magical creatures and not to speak of fang!” You said sweetly facing the blonde haired boy.

Draco sighed. You knew he didn’t like to go there after buckbeaks “attack”.

“Fine, we can go there but 30 minutes TOPS!” He said smiling a little at the excitement on your face that you tried to hide.

“Tha-ow!” You were going to thank him when a brutal pain in your lower stomach appeared and interrupted you.

“Sorry what was that, darling?” Draco asked you, confused written all over his face.

“My stomach hurts, it’s been like that the whole day. It comes and it goes” you groaned.

“Weird, we should go to sleep now. It’ll probably be gone in the morning” he said.

“Good night, dray”

“Good night, love” and with that you fell asleep tangled up in each other.

Draco woke up by the sound of crying that morning. He opened his eyes and saw you sitting up in bed with pearls of tear rolling down your flushed cheeks.

He sat up too.

“What’s wrong, y/n? Why are you crying?” He asked confused and concerned. You didn’t answer, instead you lifted your shared blanket and he was horrified of what he saw. You sitting in a HUGE puddle of crimson blood that stained the cream colored sheets of your bed. Your legs had blood on them too. It was like a horror movie.

“What happened?! Are you hurt?!” He screamed.

“N-no dray-“ you were cut off.

“Oh, Merlin! We need to get you to the hospital wing! Where does all that blood even come from?!” Draco panicked.

“I just got my period…” you said, you had calmed down from your crying state and you were just anxious now.

“What? Does all that blood come from…your you know what…?!” He asked, he blushed like a schoolboy who just gotten his first kiss.

“Well, yeah I guess. I’ve never had it before…what am I supposed to do dray?”

He calmed down due to the fact that you were not hurt. He thought for a second to come up with a plan.

“Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do. First I’m going to help you take off the blood from your legs, then I’m gonna let you take a shower while I change your bed sheets. Okay?”

“Okay..”

He did like he said, he helped you to wipe the blood of your legs *even if he gagged like 10 times while doing so* whilst you were showering he ran to the only girl he knew, Pansy. She gave him a package of pads and he ran back to you again.

~Now~

“Ugh…! You have absolutely no idea how awkward that conversation with Pansy was!” Draco laughed at the memory that you unlocked again.

“I can imagine! I’ll never forget about your little panic attack you had when you saw the blood!” You wheezed in laughter.

“I don’t even know why you helped me to clean my legs when I were going to take a shower anyways” you teased.

———————————————————————

A/n: pt:1! I’ll do like a mini series of “dray, do you remember...”

Lmk if you liked it <3

#draco lucius malfoy #draco malfoy #draco malfoy imagine #fanfic #imagines #drabbles #draco smut #fluff #draco x reader #hp smut #draco fluff #draco malfoy smut #draco angst #draco imagine

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 10 months

Text

Had a conversation with someone today about browsers, and it made me decide to write a post about a thing many people have written posts about before, and I saw those posts for a long time and largely ignored them, but then one day I decided to follow their advice, and it was so much quicker and easier than I’d expected. It turns out everyone’s right: it really is a good idea! Really! So here is my post to be that person telling everyone to: switch to Firefox!

Most of the posts I’d seen about it before focused on the way it’s the only browser that doesn’t mine and sell your data, which is of course important. Dating mining by giant corporations is evil for many reasons, I understand that as a broader issue. But to be really honest, on an individual level, I don’t care all that much whether Google knows what I’m doing on the internet. For quite some time, I never cared enough to bother switching browsers.

But then I did, and learned there are a lot of advantages besides the data privacy. Mainly, Firefox is so much faster. All else equal, on the same machine with the same capabilities, Firefox will open things quicker and more cleanly and easily than Chrome. “Cleanly” is the best word I can think of for the interface – it doesn’t bombard you with ads and widgets the way Chrome does. It’s not constantly pushing stuff at you.

In terms of extensions and stuff, it can do everything Chrome can do and some things Chrome can’t. It can import your bookmarks, browsing history, and saved passwords so quickly and easily. I’d seen before that it could do that, but had assumed it would be a whole process, hadn’t realized it would take literally thirty seconds.

So that is my PSA to say don’t stick with inferior browsers for too long like I did, just due to being used to it. You can import all your stuff into Firefox and it’ll be just like what you’re used to but better. While I’m at it, here are some other applications on my laptop that I recommend:

For the video and audio player: MPC-BE. It’s open source (open source means “free, but in a really good way of community and collaboration”, so you get the free stuff and don’t even have to feel bad for benefiting from the labour of the people who created it without compensating them, though it’s nice to donate if you can), and it’s so, so much better than the default Windows video player. You can customize everything in it to work with your keyboard. I have it set up so I can play/pause, go in or out of fullscreen, go to the previous or next file, and go forward or back by 5, 10, or 30 seconds with one key each. You can set it up to not have the bar at the bottom appear on the screen when you pause it, which makes taking screenshots so much easier.

It can open almost any video or audio file type, including plenty that the default player won’t play. It’s good to have VLC downloaded as a backup, because I’ve come across a couple of file types that MPC won’t play, and I had to use VLC to play those ones, VLC will play anything at all.

Also, you can have more than one video/audio file open at a time. The default Windows player doesn’t even let you do that, which is absolutely ridiculous. Download MPC-BE and change your default video and audio players to that, it’ll make your life better.

Audio editing: Audacity, obviously. Well, it should be obvious, though I actually didn’t start using that until somewhat recently. I found it a bit difficult to work out the controls in it, so instead of taking ten minutes to learn it, I was cutting up audio in my video player. Last year I finally took the time to learn to work Audacity, and it was so worth it. It’s not complicated, it only took about ten minutes to figure out. And now that I’m comfortable with it, it’s so much easier than anything else.

Video editing: NCH VideoPad. This the only software on my computer that I’ve paid for (besides Microsoft Office, I guess), and usually I try to find open source versions of stuff I want. But I’ve tried a bunch of different video editors, and just haven’t found any free ones that work nearly as well as VideoPad. I found myself editing a video in one program, exporting it, then importing it into a different program that has features the first program didn’t have, so I could use those too. VideoPad eliminated the need for that, it’s one program that does everything I want it to.

VideoPad isn’t expensive, and what I really like is it’s a one-time fee. Fuck the software subscription system, if I’m going to pay for something like that, I want to actually own it and get to keep it forever. I think VideoPad does have a subscription system, but it also has an option to pay a one-time fee to buy it outright, and that’s what I did. I paid for it once quite a few years ago now, and that was a very good purchase, I’ve gotten great use out of it.

For downloading: Jdownloader is an excellent way to get video and audio files off the internet. Doesn’t work every single time, but it works for a lot. I have used it so much in the last few years. The “allow right click” browser extension can be pretty useful too.

For screen recording: ShareX. Lightweight, fast and simple program that does everything I need it to, for free. Sometimes, if Jdownloader fails me so I try a whole bunch of other options and still can’t work out how to download a file, I find it can be easier to just play the whole thing while recording my screen.

For conversions: Media Mobile Converter. There are plenty of internet programs that do this, but I found it was really worth downloading a program that will let me do this right from my computer, so I can convert multiple files at a time. I use it most often to convert video files to mp3, like if I download a song off YouTube and just want the audio. But it’s also nice for taking video or audio files that are in weird formats, and converting them all to mp3 or mp4. Occasionally I’ll get an mp3 that’s too old for Audacity to read, so I use this convert it to wav and then it works no problem. It’s a useful tool to have on hand, and again, open source.

This has been a PSA about the pieces of software that make my life better.

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chaletnz · 5 months

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Lima: Central City Walking Tour

On my walk to PukuPuku cafe I passed through Parque Kennedy and saw all the cat residents snoozing on pieces of cardboard laid on the grass for them. I heard crying above me, there was a tiny kitten up the tree but I couldn't do anything to try and get it down. My coffee was just as good as the one in their Arequipa branch, I sat outside to enjoy it as some businessmen came in for espressos on their way to the office - it reminded me a bit of Italy as they drank them standing there for a few minutes then left. I then went for a pancake breakfast at Piñeiros thinking I had plenty of time but then it took more than 30 minutes to get my food so I had to shovel it down quickly and run around the corner to meet up with the walking tour guide Jorge. Once everyone had joined (around 15 people) Jorge helped us all take the bus network to the central city, we'd all brought exact change as requested. The bus network was actually fantastic. Jorge scared us by saying there's a lot of crime and petty theft on the public transit so watch our belongings closely as we are targets. A large group of tourists though, we drew attention to ourselves and probably even the most hardened criminals didn't want to chance it. The bus had its own central lane in the middle of the highway, with concrete blockades on either side so it wasn't going out into traffic and traffic couldn't enter the bus lane. Because of this layout it was incredibly efficient and faster than all the traffic on the road even with all the stops along the way. I would love to see something like this implemented from Denver to Frisco and Copper Mountain as it would make public transit flow freely despite the frequent highway standstills. Jorge showed us how to use the ticket machine to buy a ticket back and then led us over to La Merced Church in central Lima which would be our starting point. We met up with some more tourists there and began our tour at this Baroque church that was constructed under the Spanish empire, followed by Casa O'Higgins which memorialises Bernardo O'Higgins who played a key role in the independence of Chile from the Spanish empire. We then visited Fotografia Central an old photo studio, and then an old mansion which had unfortunately succumb to humidity and had not been looked after by immigrants who took it over. We stopped in a shady spot where Jorge told us there are 43 districts in Lima home to over 10 million people, the 4th largest city in South America after Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro. He also explained that the main sport in Peru after football is eating and we should not ignore "chifa" which is the Peruvian Chinese food and is very unique cuisine. We then visited the municipal theatre, and St Dominic Church where Jorge explained a few historical terms criollo (meaning born in Latin America) and peninsulares (born in Spain). The criollos were second class citizens during Spanish rule. The origin of the city name Lima came from the Quechua indigenous people calling it "rimac" meaning "noisy river" in their native language but the Spanish hearing "Lima" instead. The last part of the tour was Plaza de Armas, and Jorge pointed out the house of the president because of course he lives in the main square! We took a group photo and gave our tips to Jorge before splitting up. I'd been chatting with a British guy Tom, and British girl Ellie who both happened to be from the same area there was also a guy I can only describe as "Berliner" because he had such an unwashed Berlin resident vibe although I think he was actually Dutch or Danish or something... Ellie was into it so Tom and I took a couple photos of each other in the main square and then I gave him 10 soles for his bus ticket back as he hadn't brought enough money with him. I stayed to explore more on my own though, I love breaking away from the group!

#Peru #Lima

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silveragelovechild · 5 months

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THE KILLER (spoilers galore)

I watched “The Killer” on Netflix. It’s directed by David Fincher and stars Michael Fassbender in the title role.

It was good seen Fassbender again. He’s an actor I enjoy. His last movie credit was in 2019 for “Dark Phoenix”. I believe he took time off to focus on his private life (marrying actress Alicia Vikander and having a child with her.) He also participated in race car driving.

But back to “The Killer”. The first 20 minutes focused on Fassbender as his unnamed assassin prepares to kill someone who will be staying in a hotel room across the street. As he he assembles his weapons, naps, and does yoga, Fassbender narrates his mantra, and the precise method of his kills. He also explains his indifference about why he does what he does. We’re led to believe he is an expert assassin who never misses… until minute 21 - when he missed his intended target, and shoots a dominatrix instead. (WTF - so much for building our expectations then blowing them!)

Rather take another shot to kill his true target, he bails, collecting his paraphernalia and wiping up his finger prints, then leaves.

For the next 10 minutes or so, we follow Fassbender as he makes his way from Paris to the Dominican Republic (flying through the UK & US). Several times he stops to wash and shave, wiping down the sinks and spraying them (I assume to defeat possible DNA tests).

In one scene, an airline agents comments on how many frequent flyer miles he has accumulated. (HUH? He is so fastidious about not leaving a trail yet he doesn’t want to miss out on frequent flyer miles?!?)

When he finally arrives at his secret compound in the Dominican Republic he notices something suspicious and realizes someone cased the place to kill him. You see, this second assassin left distinct footprints and a bunch of cigarette butts at the gate. (If you’re going to hire an assassin to kill another assassin, he should be as good or better than the intended victim!)

Fassbender learns his girlfriend has been tortured and rushes to the hospital to see her. If I was an assassin hired to kill another assassin I’d stake out the hospital to see if the target shows up… nope! Instead Fassbender has touching reunion with his girlfriend and plots his own revenge. (BTW, why did the second assassins let the girlfriend live? It would have been much more clean to kill her.)

Fassbender discovers the thugs who tortured his girlfriend arrived at the compound by taxi. He decides to get revenge on the taxi driver. The poor driver had delivered the thugs to the compound and had to wait while they entered the house, 30 minute later, he drove them back to the airport. Technically this taxi drive was a witness - why did the thugs let him live. But they didn’t have to worry, because Fassbender kills the poor guy!

Next Fassbender heads to New Orleans to see his handler, to learn who were the thugs who tortured his girlfriend. The handler refuses so Fassbender kills him with a nail gun. He about to kill Dolores, the secretary, but she makes a bargain. She will tell him the names of the thugs, if he will make her death look like an accident (she has children and wants them to have closure). They both honor their ends of the bargain. (Kerry O'Malley who plays Dolores is very good in a small role.)

Next he heads to Florida to kill one of the hired thugs. But Fassbender isn’t as stealthy as he thinks he is. The thug is ready for him and the two have a knock down drag out fight. Thank Gawd Fassbender has experience in superhero movies because even tho the thug out weigh him by 100 pounds, Fassbender survives dozens of punches and at least a half dozen body blows. (In addition to magnetic powers he must be invulnerable.)

For those of you interested in this kind of thing, Fassbender has a full body nude scene at minute 81. Unfortunately it’s obscured by a steamed up shower glass.

Next Fassbender heads to New York to to kill the second assassin responsible for torturing his girlfriend. This second hired killer is played by Tilda Swinton (who is only refereed to as Q-Tip because of her white hair). Apparently she’s not as good at her job because even tho Fassbender is pretty obvious following her in a car, she doesn’t notice.

Fassbender confronts Swinton in a posh restaurant. She seems to accept her fate and delivers an interesting speech… one assassin to another. Except she included an anal sex joke - weird.

BTW - what was the Handler’s purpose of sending the second killer and the thug to Fassbender’s secret compound? They tried to get the girlfriend to reveal a secret, but according to her, she didn’t talk. Then they returned to their respective homes in Florida and New York having failed. Apparently this Handler has a very incompetent team of hired assasins.

I think the Killer’s kill-count is now 6 which would have been unnecessary if he hadn’t missed his target at the beginning.

If you’re curious, Fassbender took 8 flights to kill 6 people, so he earned approximately 11,090 more frequently flyer miles.

Next stop Chicago. Fassbender tracks down the billionaire who paid for the original kill job (you know, the one that Fassbender missed). The billionaire doesn’t know who Fassbender is, and says he didn’t ask that Fassbender is punished (killed) for missing his target. And in the biggest WTF of the movie - Fassbender believes him and lets him live, then leaves.

So in the fucked up Topsy-Turvy world of The Killer - the billionaire gets to live while the innocent poor taxi driver is killed. That’s a big fuck-you to the little guy.

In the end, Fassbender returns to his girlfriend back in the Dominican Republic, where they relax in the sun. (Remember how easy was the first time the thugs found his girlfriend?!?)

The Killer is based on a French graphic novel series with 14 volumes, so undoubtably there will be sequels.

VICTIMS:

ALIASES:

Throughout the movie Fassbender’s unnamed assassin has access to dozens of passports and credit cards, each with a different alias. We learn nine of them… all characters from old sitcoms from the 1960s to early 1990s. Were these in-jokes by Fincher and Andrew Kevin Walker, the screenwriter (both children of the 1970s).

Felix Unger - on his flight to Miami

Archie Bunker - on his flight to the Dominican Republic

Oscar Madison - was when he ships a package via FedEx

Howard Cunningham - on his flight to New Orleans

Reuben Kincard - car rental in Florida

Lou Grant - flight to New York

Sam Malone - car rental in New York

George Jefferson - at bank

Robert Hartley - gym membership

#netflix #the killer #David fin her #SPOILERS #WTF #sitcoms #failing to meet expectations #dark Phoenix #invulnerable #earning frequent flyer miles #a big fuck-you to the little guy

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