#also if you keep tweaking the blending absolute MAGIC happens | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

carriagelamp · 4 years

Text

Book Review - Summer Summary 2020

I didn’t get around to doing an individual post for the books I read in June/July/August, so I decided to choose a dozen that I read over the summer... I’d separate the wheat from the chaff for you so to speak. Though like you’re about to find out, that doesn’t necessarily mean they were all good by any means...

Crave

My girlfriend got this for me to “tide me over until Midnight Sun”. Between you and me, I think she was taking the piss. Anyway, Crave is very... standard fare paranormal YA school romance with the added flare of being written by an adult erotica writer, meaning the rhythm and tone of this novel is fucking bonkers. If you want to read the novel without reading the novel, just take Twilight and the entire Vampire Academy series, shove them in a blend, and force down the sludge you get from that. Normal Average Girl Goes To Secret School In Alaska For Vampire, Werewolves and Dragons. That’s this book. It is so big and so so so bad. I finished it out of spite, please don’t do that to yourself. Unless you are really craving (hurr hurr) some top tier trashy paranormal romance, in which case... no judgment.

The Last Firehawk

The Last Firehawk is a Scholastic “Branches” series, written for beginning readers (grade 1-3ish, depending on the child’s reading level). It has short stories, big text, and awesome pictures on every page. Guys. I unironically am adoring this series. It’s simple and is introducing children to a number of classic elements in the fantasy quest genre, but it is so charming. Friends Tag and Skyla discover a firehawk egg, and species that is supposed to have disappeared long ago. When Blaze hatches from it, the three are tasked with going out and finding the magical ember stone which was hidden long ago by the firehawks and which could be used to defeat the evil vulture Thorn and his dark magic... I read the first two books to second graders who ate it up and read the next four books because I personally wanted to continue the series. If you have young readers in your life (or just want a fun kid adventure) then please try these they’re the literary equivalent of nibbling on a chocolate chip cookie.

Lupin III: World’s Most Wanted #3

All the kind people that still follow my tumblr and haven’t tried to murder me because of my Lupin obsession are not going to be surprised by this one. I finally read one of the manga for this series and honestly I’m delighted. Somehow even hornier than the show, but hilariously funny. I felt like I was reading a more adult version of Spy Vs Spy. It’s a bunch of short, individual bits/adventures with lots of visual gags and an artstyle that is really different and delightful.

River of Teeth / Taste of Marrow (American Hippo series)

I’ve talked about River of Teeth before, but I finally finished the American Hippo duology and need to sing its praise. This is an alternate history series composed of two novellas that explore the question What would have happened if the States had decided to import hippos as livestock...? Anyways, my pitch for you: queer hippo cowboys. That’s all it took for me to read it. You have a gay gunslinger who loves his hippo to death, a nonbinary explosives-expert / poisoner who is the main love interest, a fat con artist who spoils her hippo and is the only voice of reason in this entire series, and a latina mother-to-be who is the scariest assassin in the entire series and is obviously scheming. The four of them are brought together on a job to deal with the Mississippi’s feral hippo problem.

IT’S A QUEER HIPPO COWBOY HEIST NOVEL GUYS I DON’T KNOW WHY I’M STILL TALKING AND YOU HAVEN’T JUST GONE TO READ THIS YET.

Petals to the Metal (The Adventure Zone series)

The graphic novel adaptation to the McElroy family’s DND podcast The Adventure Zone. Most of you are probably aware of this? It’s a great adaptation, it hits all the important beats, shows off the characters really well, and still gets lots of good gags in even while condensing entire arcs into single book stories. This one is probably my favourite so far just because Petals to the Metal was one of my favourite arcs in the show... but you can also see how the art has improved and the chaos of the race is fun to see drawn out.

If you like The Adventure Zone but haven’t tried the graphic novels yet -- would recommend! If you’ve always wanted to listen to The Adventure Zone but don’t have time for such a long series or struggle to focus on podcasts then pick up the first book of this series (Here There Be Gerblins) and try reading it! It really is an enjoyable adaptation.

Pony to the Rescue (Pony Pals series)

I continued my April/May theme of reading old-school chapter book series to combat Covid Brain Fry, so I picked up a few Pony Pals books. I read these as a kid and always enjoy them -- there’s just something so appealing to a child about having a horse. It gives your child characters a level of independence and ability to explore that you wouldn’t get otherwise. These books definitely read young, but they were nostalgic to revisit.

Small Spaces

A really cool middle grade horror novel I picked up. Maybe it’s because I live around a lot of corn fields, but farm/scarecrow themed horror absolutely does it for me. One evening, after seeing a woman try to destroy a strange, old book, eleven year old Ollie doesn’t stop to think, instead stealing the book and running. That’s how she becomes wrapped up in the strange, sinister story of a cursed family and creature called the Smiling Man that seems to live out in the foggy fields. While unsettling, Ollie tries to remind herself that it’s just a story... but this becomes more challenging when her school bus breaks down one day out their own set of fields, and a fog is rolling in...

“Avoid large spaces. Stick to small.”

Snot Girl #1 - #2

A Canadian graphic novel series by the creator of the Scott Pilgrim series! I love his work so I decided to give Snotgirl a try, even though it’s not generally my genre. I’m glad I did! First book took a while for me to get into, but by the time I hit the second I was really wrapped up in the mystery and character development. Snotgirl is about Lottie, a self-consumed fashion blogger whose biggest struggles are dealing with her allergies, frustration with her fellow-blogger friends, and how entirely her self-esteem is tied to her “beauty” and how people view her. But everything shifts in strange and horrifying ways when Lottie starts taking a new allergy medication, meets a new friend... and then witnesses that girl’s death. Or does she?

Seriously, or does she? I have no idea, I need to read the third book. This book is full of intrigue, complicated relationships, murder (or not?), and a healthy dose of magical realism to keep you guessing. If you like slice-of-life, crime, and abstract reality then this series is world a try. Plus the art is gorgeous.

Summer Wars #1 - #2

I recently rewatched Summer Wars (still one of my favourite movies) and decided to read the two-book manga adaptation. It was a really neat little adaptation. The creator of the movie gave the writer free range to tweak things to fit better in a manga format, which means some movie elements were allowed to fade into the background, whereas other aspects were fulled into the forefront and fleshed out to a greater degree. It was very cool, it kept the same story but gave you new things to think about which I wasn’t expecting. Reading this as a stand alone works just fine, but honestly if you’ve never watched the movie Summer Wars you should give it a try! It’s a great mix of slice-of-life, sprawling family dynamics that I relate to a little too well, cyber adventures, and fantasy. Super feel good.

This One Summer

Okay, last graphic novel, I swear. This One Summer was... weird and intense. It’s a coming-of-age Canadian graphic novel that follows a pair of pre-teens who meet up like they do every year at their family’s summer cottages. You see them both in the awkward phases between childhood and growing up to become teenagers, as they’re confronted with things like maturity, friendship, self-esteem, family problems, and sexuality. A beautiful read, but probably the heaviest out of all the books on my list.

Wild Thornberrys Novelization

I rewatched The Wild Thornberrys movie with my girlfriend earlier this year, and decided I wanted to hunt down the chapter book novelization because I’m kind of a sucker for novelizations. Honestly, this was about what you would expect from the era. 90s/00s novelizations, especially young novelizations, are generally just a transcript of the movie without much thought or effort put into them to make them anything but. That’s what this was. It was fine, and it really let me revisualize the entire movie, but honestly you’re probably better off just rewatching the movie unless you also really deeply love The Wild Thornberrys.

The Willoughbys

I saw that Netflix had done a funky looking adaptation of The Willoughbys and I decided I needed to read the book first before watching the movie. This was a little bizarre, I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Over all, I think it was a net-positive experience. It’s an obvious satire on classic children’s novels, especially the likes of Mary Poppins (real Mary Poppins, not the Disney version) and while a little heavy-handed, it does a Series of Unfortunate Events vibe that redeems it. The story is about a group of horrible children (The Ruthless Willoughbys) who decide they are sick of their parents and would rather become Worth Orphans... and to do that, they’re going to have to dispose of their inconvenient parents, obviously. Conveniently their parents are also sick of having children and decide to do away with them as well. The Willoughbys sets up three (or four?) different subplots that are gradually woven together through a series of schemes and exploits. It’s definitely more ruthless (hurr hurr) than the Netflix version, which tried to make the children more sympathetic, and in some ways I think that’s a definite point in the novel’s favour. I’m not sure I would go out of my way to recommend it, but it was a fun romp if you want something short and off the wall (and a lot more fleshed out than the Netflix version).

50 notes · View notes

sims4ccpurgatory-blog · 5 years

Text

A Complete Beginner’s Guide to Masking in Photoshop

Several years ago a friend of mine asked me to teach him how masks work in Photoshop. This is my incredibly late response.

We’ll go over the basics of what masks are, what they’re used for and how wielding them properly will take your Photoshop skills to an entirely new level.

What Is a Mask?

Layers are probably the single most important addition to Photoshop since the original version, but layer masks are a close second. I would posit that until you thoroughly understand how and why to use masks, you simply don’t understand the power of Photoshop.

The term “mask” isn’t immediately understandable to someone outside the realm of graphic design. At its simplest definition a mask is a way to apply something to a very specific portion of an image.

There are two primary types of masks: clipping masks and layer masks. These two tools are closely related in concept, but very different in application. Let’s start by discussing layers masks, which are generally what people are referring to when you hear them discuss Photoshop masking.

Layer Masks

A layer mask is something that you apply to a given layer to control the transparency of that layer. Where layer opacity controls the transparency of the entire layer at once, a mask gives you more precise controls over very specific areas. If you want the entire layer to be at 30%, you would lower the opacity, if you want just the left side of a layer to be at 30%, you would use a mask.

When you add a mask to a layer, it covers the entire thing with an invisible grayscale canvas. There are ways to see it that we’ll check out later but just know that as a general rule, applying a mask to a layer won’t cause any immediate visual differences unless you have an active selection at the time.

On this invisible canvas, you can paint white, black or any level of gray in-between. The color that you paint tells Photoshop how opaque to make the pixels at that point. White means 100% opacity and black means 0% opacity.

With this in mind, try to imagine what the mask below would do to a layer:

As you can see, if our mask was all white with the three circles shown above, we would have a completely visible layer where in all the white areas, and spots of transparency in the circles. If we apply this mask to a layer, this is the result:

Clipping Masks

Clipping masks are very similar to layer masks only they use one layer to determine the transparency of another. In this scenario, you stack two layers on top of each other with the bottom being the determining factor of the transparency of the top.

Instead of using black and white values though, clipping masks simply borrow transparency from the layers used to make them, namely the bottom layer. If the bottom layer has some areas that are opaque and some areas that are transparent, a clipping mask will apply these values to the top layer.

This one is hard to explain without an example, but becomes crystal clear when you see it in action. Let’s use the two layers shown below and say that our goal here is to cut or “clip” the wood layer to be in the shape of the letters. Notice that, at this point, the wood is the bottom layer and the text is the top layer.

To achieve the effect that we want, simply swap the position of the layers so that the wood is on the top, then go to the Layers menu at the top of your screen and select “Create Clipping Mask” (Command-Option-G). Voila, we now have the effect we were going for. Where the text layer was opaque, the wood layer is now opaque and where the text layer was transparent, the wood layer is now transparent.

There’s some really interesting functionality here. You can still position and make changes to each of the two layers independently. By dragging around the wood layer, you move the position of the texture inside the bounds of the letters while the letters themselves stay stationary.

Also, you can apply layer effects to the compilation via the bottom layer. For instance, here’s what happens if we select the text layer and add an Inner Shadow.

Clipping masks fun, functional and underrated, but the truth is that layer masks are far more common in every day use. The information above should be enough to get you off and running with clipping masks so from here on out we’ll focus purely on layer mask functionality.

How Do I Make a Layer Mask?

Now that we have a strong grasp of exactly what masks are and how the two different types of masks differ, let’s see how to create and work with a layer mask.

The first thing we need is two layers. I grabbed the two images below from photographers Adrian Durlea and Erik Soderstrom. The shack image is on the bottom and the fire is on the top.

The general idea here is to take some, not all, of the fire and apply it to the shack. The first step is to stack the two images as we see above and set the fire layer’s blending mode to Screen. This will make all of the black pixels transparent, which blends the two images together nicely.

With that one change, this is already a pretty decent image! Let’s say though that we want to only have fire near the door of the shack. To accomplish this, we’ll need to add a mask to the fire layer. Select the fire layer and click the mask icon shown in the image below.

Now, with the mask selected in the layers palette, we grab a soft, black brush and paint out the portions of the fire that we don’t want to see. As we do this, the fire begins to disappear. To bring it back, we simply paint white.

As you can see in the image below, with just a little painting, our fire is now much more centralized to the portion of the image that’s already lit up and therefore looks decently natural.

To see the actual mask, Option-Click (Alt-Click on a PC) on the little mask preview in the layers palette (Shift-click to hide the mask completely). After painting out some of our fire, this brings up the following:

Notice that we’re not just constrained to hard edges. The beauty of masks is that you can do anything you want with them as long as you can pull it off in values of gray. This means you can paint, clone, create and fill selections, copy and paste, and all kinds of other actions you perform on the main canvas.

Why Not Just Erase?

Upon first learning how to use masks, most rookies think the same thing: “I can already do all of this with the eraser tool.” Wrong! In fact, as far as I’m concerned, once you learn to mask, you should literally never pick up the eraser tool again because it tends to be so destructive.

What do I mean by destructive? Think about what happens when you use the eraser tool: it erases pixels. Mind you, it doesn’t hide them for a while until you want them back, it “destroys” the pixels. The changes that you make by deleting portions of a layer are permanent and can’t exactly be tweaked later.

This is simply a horrible way to work. With every new iteration of Photoshop, Adobe gives us more and more ways to make non-destructive edits, meaning those that don’t truly alter the original pixel data. For instance, Filters used to be a permanent and destructive change, if you blurred a layer, it was stuck that way! Now, with Smart Filters, you can always go back and adjust or even delete the blur.

This same concept gave birth to masks many years ago. With a mask, you not only have the ability to make remarkably detailed decisions about the transparency of a layer or group of layers, even better, you have the freedom to go back and refine or scrap those changes at any time. If I had erased my fire in the example above, it would be gone forever and bringing it back would involve importing the layer all over again. However, because I used a mask, all I have to do is fill that mask with white and immediately all of my fire detail returns.

To use the metaphor of an actual mask, imagine that you want to change your appearance for Halloween. You have two options: the first is to undergo plastic surgery to permanently change your face to look like that of a scary creature and the second is to wear a mask. In this scenario, the eraser tool is plastic surgery. It’s simply a bad choice when you’re not sure that you want the changes to be permanent. Go with the mask instead.

Advanced Masking Techniques

The information above is an absolute beginner’s guide to masks. Odds are, if you’ve been using Photoshop for a while, not a single piece of this was news to you. In fact, you may be thinking that masks are so incredibly simple that they barely merit conversation.

However, masking techniques go from simple to wickedly complex really fast. It’s easy enough to paint some broad strokes to erase large portions of an image, but what if you want to do something more complex? For instance, let’s say we want to take the cat below off of its white background.

Furry animals make particularly difficult masking subjects. All of that fine hair detail means making an accurate selection will be time consuming. The Magic Wand or even the Pen Tool are of no use to us here. So how do the pros start with the image above and create a mask like the one below?

If you’re ready to find out, keep reading as we undertake this feat!

Change the Channel

The good news about the cat image is that there is plenty of contrast to work with. The key to making a good mask is finding contrast and knowing how to pull it out. Here we have a fairly dark cat on a bright white background, which means all we have to do is figure out how to leverage our good fortune and convert the contrast already present into a suitable mask.

The first step in a project like this is to jump over to the Channels Palette and look for the channel with the most contrast. So in our case, we want the channel with the darkest cat and the brightest background, which turns out to be the blue channel.

Make a copy of the blue channel, select it and hit Command-L to bring up a Levels Adjustment. Darken the shadows and the midtones so that there is a crazy amount of contrast like in the image below. Be careful to no go too far with this adjustment. You’ll want to zoom in and watch the hair detail on the fringes of the fur to make sure you’re not clipping too much. It doesn’t have to be perfectly black and white at this point, some dark grays are acceptable.

At this point you encounter one of the trickiest steps of the entire process. The goal is to get as much of the cat as closest to black as you can. This is easy for the face potions and other random spots near the center, just grab a black brush and fill them in. But what about the edge of the hair?

It turns out one of the best ways to handle this task is to use a couple of unlikely candidates: the Dodge and Burn Tools. The reason these work so well is that they can accurately target certain ranges of gray extremely accurately. I set the Dodge Tool to target the highlights and the Burn Tool to target the shadows, grab a medium size soft brush and make my way around the edges of the image, burning shadows and dodging highlights until I like the level of detail that I’m seeing.

This may sound like a time-intensive task, and it can be for some images, but in truth the Dodge and Burn Tools feel like magic when you’re using them and take much of the work out. I was able to come up with a great looking silhouette in only a minute or two.

Once you’re done here, hit Command-Shift-I to inverse the channel so that the cat is white and the background is black like in the image below. Remember that, in masking, white is opaque and black is transparent.

Converting the Channel to a Mask

Now that we have a channel that accurately represents what we want from a mask, how do we convert it? There are a few ways to do this but the easiest is just to Command-click on the channel to load a selection. With a selection loaded, return to your cat layer and click the New Mask button. That’s all there is to it!

Defringing the Mask

As you can see, despite a super detailed mask, we still have some white fringing occurring around the edges. Getting rid of this can literally take hours of tedious work if you don’t know what you’re doing. For starters, we can use the fantastic new Masks Palette in conjunction with Refine Edge to make some live adjustments to our mask.

Utilizing these tools properly takes practice. I won’t cover them closely now because it would take so much time but I encourage you to dig in and play with all of the controls to get a feel for what they do. Often, you can patch up a rough edge in seconds with these sliders, but with our cat project I wasn’t really getting any results that I liked so I cancelled out this operation altogether.

Instead, I went to the Layer menu at the top of the screen and selected Matting>Color Decontaminate. This is an almost hidden command that has the ability to yield some amazing results. As you can see in the image below, it went a long way toward reducing our halo. Note that this command is actually destructive so you should always duplicate your layer before using it.

From here, the last trick I use is to look for problematic areas and actually run the clone brush over the fringes. The mask keeps everything looking nice and cloning replaces unnatural colors with those from the actual fur of the cat in other places. Compare the back and head of the cat in the image below to that above to see the improvement.

Finishing Up

From here it becomes a factor of how much time you want to spend refining your result. With complicated masks like these there is always room for improvement but you’ll find that the point of diminishing returns on your time spent becomes easier and easier to spot as your skill level improves.

The technique we just discussed is just to give you a taste of how advanced masking can become. There are a ton of different types of images to mask and therefore a million different tricks and techniques to figure out along the way which can be mixed and matched on a per-project basis. Practice makes perfect, just be bold and never become intimidated by a masking job that seems too complex. Think through the process one step at a time and find ways to pull out the detail you need.

Conclusion

To sum up, there are two primary types of masks in Photoshop: layer masks and clipping masks. Layer masks use values of gray to assign levels of transparency to specific portions of a layer or group of layers while clipping masks use the transparency of one layer to define that of a different layer or group of layers.

Also, while masking in simple in concept, the actual art takes considerable time, education and practice to master. Leave a comment below and let us know if you learned anything from the information above. Also be sure to share any unique masking techniques or tricks you might have!

Photo Credits: Adrian Durlea, Erik Soderstrom, and Sergiu Bacioiu.

#designshack #photoshop #masking

4 notes · View notes

littlemessyjessi · 6 years

Text

Lotions and Potions: Glamour Magick/ Beauty Magic: Bringing Magic Into Your Daily Beauty Routines : Witchy Weirdness Series

Hello, smoochies!

Welcome to my witchy weirdness!

Now, disclaimer here: I do not claim to know everything or anything. I don't claim that my way is the right way or the wrong. This is just my way that works for me and I thought I'd share it with you. Feel free to tweak it to your own needs but lord, here we go.

If you'd like to read more of the Witchy Weirdness series, you can find the masterlist HERE :)

Hello, loves!!

Today's installment, as I'm sure you can tell by the title, is all about Glamour Magick....or basically....Beauty Magic.

Magic isn't all potions kept up inside a cottage in the middle of the woods surrounded by a misty fog.

Very little of it actually has to do with that.

Of course, I say that and I'm writing this this morning before work....in a home with a cottage style to it....in the middle of the woods (because I'm a country witch) ...and it happens to foggy this morning.

But that's not the point!!!

Lol.

Anyway, most of magic is about you.

It's rituals, guys.

Your rituals, your way.

We have rituals.

A certain way we do our coffee.

Our little routine when we get into a vehicle.

How we take care of ourselves.

It's all a series of events and with a few little changes....you can totally infuse your magic into things you do every day.

So here's just a few things that I do that I thought I'd share with you.

Now, since I'm up way early in the morning, the first thing I do is take a shower.

So we'll start there.

Baths and showers are wonderful activities just loaded with potential to be infused with magic.

There are all kinds of spiritual baths out there as we know and man, do I love me a good soak.

However, in the mornings...I'm really more into showers.

This is a particularly good thing if you are wanting to get rid of any residual negative energy maybe clinging to you from the night before or the day before.

Note: I can do a post of nightmares, how to beat them and tips and tricks if you'd like.

Anyway, so I love a good shower to get that gunk away.

A super easy fix is to literally just put fresh herbs in your shower, perhaps with a few drops of essential oils on them if you'd like.

The steam heats them up and they do their job.

Also, make a scrub (Or buy one) and infuse it with your intent to scrub away any bad things and literally wash them right off you and down the drain.

You can also do this with your body wash, soap and cleansers to cleanse yourself of any negativity.

Alright, moving on- the first thing I do when I get out of the shower is....well to be honest I wrapped my crazy hair up because it GETS EVERYWHERE!!!

Depending on what day it is and whether or not it's wash day, it varies.

However, I will say that if it's wash day, my shampoo is enchanted the same way my body wash and cleansing products are.

My conditioners however are charmed to lock in happiness, positive thoughts and nourishing feelings.

But the next thing I do is moisturize that a date with Jensen Ackles depends on it.

A great little trick to really utilize here is drawing signs and symbols on your body with your lotion.

It dries clear and no one knows they're there but you...but it works fabulous!

You can also do with with perfume oils or rollerball perfumes!

I also like to put those on after a shower, by the way.

Use you lotions and oils as a sort of charger for you, so to speak.

Put your intent in these because you are taking care of your body, your vessel, nourishing yourself.

So practice 'charging' your body with this and renewing yourself with this little potion every day.

Not all potions are eye of newt, guys.

A lot of mine are literally lotions and oils, lol.

Anyway, naturally I'll put on deoderant next which you can also enchant to keep other's 'funk' from attaching to you. In the same way that deoderant battles BO you can enchant yours to combat other's AO (aura odor).

Now, like I said, it all depends on the day with my hair but I do usually add some sort of moisterizer to it every day anyway- be it oil or cream or some type of gel like product.

It all just depends.

However, same thing applies as the above conditioner for locking in good.

If I'm using heat tools (which I'll be honest) isn't very much- they're enchanted to keep away anything damaging to me (such as gossip and other's bad vibes).

I also do this to my sunblock.

However, that's a little different because it's worked in a way that it keeps out other's drama but let's in the warm postive things that make me glow from the inside.

I love my sunscreen now for that reason and put it on every day without fail.

Ok, so moving on. I usually brush my teeth and all that jazz and you can fine tune all that as well but we're kinda focused on beauty here.

So now, I'll usually do whatever makeup I'm doing for the day.

Obviously, I've moisterized and then I go for a primer.

I personally place a spell on mine of protection so that it serves as a barrier between myself and others and gives me a protective layer.

You can enchant all of your makeup if you'd like but here are just a few of mine.

Foundation, Concealer, Powder: Help me to keep a cloak of 'invisibility' up. Not to be dishonest of who I am but to allow others to see what I wish them to see.

Highlighter: To bring my best qualities to the light

Eyeshadow: Enhance my vision and make me see what needs to be seen.

Eyeliner: Help me focus on what needs attention.

Mascara: Looking ahead and furthering my vision beyond what's right in front of me.

Lip Liner: Lock It Down charm- Keep my stuttering at bay

Lip Balm: Make words magical

Now, I'm a little bit of a lip product junkie so this is a tad much but I thought I'd share.

Enchanting lipsticks because....color magic for the win!!!

Red: power, confidence, courage Also, love, lust, love spells

Pink: Friendship, sweetness, playfulness

Peachy and Coral tones: Self love, confidence, love yourself spells

Purples: Magic, babes. Magical. Astral. Intelligence. Also, wear when you want to weed out others who are small minded. They will undoubtedbly make a comment about your fabulous lips in some sort of dim witted fashion. You can easily weed them out.

Black: Protection on FLEEK

Nudes: Blending in. Going unnoticed. Slipping beneath the radar.

Lastly, is something I don't do everyday but about once a week or so but that's nails.

I usually paint mine myself because I work with my hands a lot and so my nails need to be short and manageable.

A great trick is to get a green or gold shade that you really love and enchant the absolute fuck of it with a charm to keep money at your finger tips.

This one is actually one of my favorites because I actually got one of those pretty much clear glitter nail polishes with some gold glitter on the inside and worked with with for a long time. I put this on my nails all the time and even wear it under coats.

It's no biggie because it's basically clear but there's that little bit there.

It's easy to cover or you can use it as a top coat but ya'll...it works like a damn charm.

Literally.

So anyway, those are just few of my Glamour Magick/ Beauty Spells!

I hope that they work well for you and remember you can tweak everything to fit YOU!!!

Do you, baby. Do you.

I hope ya'll liked it and I'd love to hear from ya! If you've got a suggestion for any upcoming posts, please be sure to let me know!

Love and light and rainbow dust!

)0( Kennysaurus )0(

Permanent Tag List:

@frankie2902 @pleasantdreamqueen @becrazy--beyou

@jimmys-afterlife-love @the-great-irene @fanfictionandjunk @angelus320

@alanlizzingtonshore @buriednurbckyrd @disneymarina @tubbypeachwriting

@sullybot @blackirisposts @georgiagrl1990 @whenallsaidanddone

@littledeadrottinghood @blackirisposts @therealmrshale @woodworthti666

#magical #magic #magick #moonchild #moon #witchyweirdness #witchyweirdnessseries #kennysaurus #littlemessyjessi #spells #beauty #glamour #witch #witchcraft #pagan #earth child #wildling

66 notes · View notes

roxashighwind · 6 years

Text

What I’m Worth | Clint Barton/Bucky Barnes

Relationship: James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton

Characters: Clint Barton ; James "Bucky" Barnes ; Wade Wilson ; Jessica Jones

Additional Tags: Pre-Relationship ; Assassins & Hitmen ; Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers ; Rated for assassination and swears

Words: 4723

Summary:

He flips the three deadbolts and slides the chain along its little track before turning moving away from the door. “I will never understand how you get around so fast.” Clint lets his bag slide from his shoulder. He leaves it next to the arm of the couch for a moment. He grabs two slices of pizza from the box - thankfully pepperoni and not the Hawaiian that he knows Wade likes to get sometimes - and stacks them together.

“Shortcuts,” Wade replies with a shrug.

Clint drags his bag to the table in the near the kitchen and drops into the pulled out chair. “Magic shortcuts,” he grumbles, and shoves half a slice of pizza in his mouth. He chews, grateful for the food, and hefts the bag onto the table. “You make the call during your magic shortcuts?”

“Sent the pictures and everything. Money’s already where it belongs.” --

Clint and Wade are guns for hire. They work pretty well together, most of the time. James Barnes throws a bit of a wrench in their latest hit.

Notes:

Fifth prompt fill for the 2018 MCU Bingo! Ship: Clint Barton/Bucky Barnes ; Prompt: Assassins or Spies

All of my fills (this first card and future cards) will be in a series, though they will not be related; each fill will stand on its own!

This completes my first bingo!!

This fic is some odd amalgamation of all the versions of Clint and Bucky and Wade and Jessica that I know, thrown into a world where there's no powers but Stark Industries is still quite powerful/advanced.

{also on ao3}

Clint hates this roof. He hates all roofs like this, even though they’re good for knowing when someone is sneaking up on you. Which, sure, has its advantages, but there’s gravel pressing into the bare skin of Clint’s forearms, and the sensitive skin below his navel where his shirt has ridden up. He’s been spread out on this roof for several hours, waiting (impatiently) for his target to arrive. He knows they will, it’s just an annoying waiting game when small bits of rock are trying to get a bit too friendly with him.

He groans (mentally, he’s not going to give away his position by making actual noise) and shifts minutely to the right. He shoves away the pain he feels - it’s not the time to focus on that right now. A glint in the window he’s been focusing on draws his attention away from the gravel trying to gouge its way under his skin. Finally.

There’s a kind of peace that comes over him as he chokes up on his rifle. It’s nothing like the calm he feels when he’s got his bow in his hands, but when he’d taken this job it was with the caveat that he use bullets instead of arrows. That kind of bums him out; he’s got a signature for a reason, but he can’t complain too much because there’s already a quarter of a million sitting in one of his account for this.

He breathes, lines up the shot, and waits for the right moment.

Three…

Two…

The window shatters.

Clint hadn’t pulled the trigger.

“Fuck. Fuck .” He doesn’t scramble up, though it’s a near thing. The trajectory was wrong - the shot that shattered the window of his target’s office had come from Clint’s right. He quickly disassembles his rifle, stuffing it into the case with practiced motions. He shoves the carrier into his bag, slings the bag over his shoulder, and bolts for the door that will take him back into the building.

“ You took too long .”

He winces at the crackle in the comm, right in his ear. “You got trigger happy. Again,” he huffs in return, booking it down the spiralling stairwell. He debates dropping himself a few floors through the center of the stairway, but discards the thought. “Confirm kill?”

“ Doing it. Get to the rendezvous .”

“On my way.” Clint slows when he gets closer to ground level; can’t be out of breath if he runs into anyone or it will look suspicious. He hopes that Wade doesn’t get caught checking on the mark, and for the time being he just has to trust the guy. He knows that Wade can take care of himself, that he’ll more likely than not make it to the rendezvous, but there’s a small part of him that worries that Wade’s a little too… Well. Wade’s a ‘little too’ a lot of things, and he sighs as he finally hits the first floor.

No one notices him as he slips out of the stairwell. He’s just another college student, making his way out of the building with the change of classes. He blends into the crowd and across campus. No one seems alarmed, and Clint hopes it stays that way for a long enough to get away.

He makes it to the apartment building without incident. He takes the stairs, not wanting to get trapped in the elevator (a thing he worries about more than he cares to admit) and lets himself in to the apartment they’ve been using for the last three weeks.

Wade’s waiting for him, sprawled on the ratty couch, a pizza box open on his stomach. “Hey. Took you long enough.”

“Shortcuts,” Wade replies with a shrug.

“Sent the pictures and everything. Money’s already where it belongs.”

“Good.” He unzips the bag to pull out his gun case one handed, the other still occupied by pizza. “You suck, by the way.”

Wade shrugs again, Clint sees it out of the corner of his eye. “Mark was in position for two full minutes before I did anything. You were taking forever and I wanted to get back to watch the new episode of My Little Pony.”

Clint rolls his eyes and finishes off one slice of pizza. “Whatever. Just. Give me a bit more credit next time.”

“Whatever.”

“Did you clean your gun?”

“What are you, my mom?”

He chuckles. “No, thank god.” He lets the ‘conversation’ lull as he finishes his pizza. With the pizza done, Clint rubs his hands off on his jeans and gets to work cleaning his rifle even though he never fired it. For good measure, he grabs Wade’s as well and cleans it, too.

James Barnes is frustrated. He’s got three deadlines fast approaching and personal security that’s breathing down his neck, ‘protecting’ him because of threats to his life. He wants to punch something, but that’s more paperwork that he’s willing to deal with at the moment. Instead, he kicks his feet up on his desk, leans back in his chair. He folds his hands behind his head and stares at the ceiling.

“Jamie, you gotta do your fuckin’ work.”

“Can’t tell me what to do, Jess.” He lets his head loll to the side, gives a little smirk. “Yer not my boss.”

“I can break your thumbs without blinking.”

“Yeah? You wanna try?”

She rolls her eyes and folds her arms over her chest. “Not worth my time.” She blows her fringe out of her face, the motion barely detracting from her ‘I can kill you’ aura.

“Well that’s just rude.” James sighs and sits up, feet back on the floor. He turns toward his computer, an expansive array of monitors. “I can lock you out of the building.”

She laughs, a short huff of breath. “We’re circling back to me breaking your thumbs.” Jessica leans against the wall, arms still crossed. “Get your work done, Jamie, or I’m gonna call your sister.”

They stare at each other around the edge of one of James’ monitors. Unfortunately, he knows that Jessica isn’t bluffing. “Fuck. Fine.” He grabs the stylus and pulls the left monitor forward on its adjustable arm, carefully angling it so he can use it comfortably. He keeps eye contact, glaring, until he absolutely has to look down at what he’s attempting to do.

James hears Jessica’s pleased chuckle and chooses to be the better man and ignore it. The deadline for the design on his screen is just a few days away and he is determined not to submit it late. The design is for a new, aesthetically pleasing prosthetic attachment point cover that should help kids with prosthetics feel a little bit better during those times they have to do things without their mechanical limbs.

He loses himself to the process, tweaking the design until he’s happy with it. He hums as he works and is pleased when Jessica joins in every now and then.

“-nch.”

James looks up after saving his files three times and sending the schematics and documentation to his lead. “What?”

“You almost missed lunch. Are you done?”

He stretches, back, neck, and shoulders stiff from how he’d been working over the touch screen. “Oh.” There are satisfying pops along his spine, and the plates covering his left shoulder shift in a way that makes his whole side go a bit tingly before relaxing. “Got it done though.”

“Sure, whatever. Get up, I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry.”

“So are you.”

They leave James' office, walking in line with each other, and pick up guards as they go until they're flanked front and back. "Y'know... I can handle myself."

"Your fancy arm isn't gonna save you every time someone tries to kill you, Jamie."

"Stark built my arm with all the bells and whistles. I think it'll do the trick."

"You're an idiot."

"Smarter 'n you," he returns easily.

They're halfway across the skywalk when it happens, and isn't that just the most cliche thing? Glass sprays around them, and his heart rate skyrockets.

“Get down!” Jessica shouts. She shoves him to the floor, and the other four close in on them. There’s a splintering hole in the left side of the skywalk windows (relative to where they were headed), and she’s got one of Stark’s fancy shields up in front of her. She stands her ground, eyes raking over the buildings across from the skywalk.

“Don’t get shot, Jess,” he gasps, winded from being forced to the floor. James is surprised that the hit missed him.

“Mister Barnes. We’re going to move you. Get ready to run on three,” one of the security officers - James thinks his name is Salvini - tells him.

Jessica chances a glance backward at him as another bullet smashes through the skywalk glass. “Go with them. They’ll get you to a secure room.”

James nods, and gets ready for the security guy’s signal. “Don’t die, Jess. I’m gonna be so pissed if you let yourself get killed.” He watches as the security guy on his right signals the one who spoke first, and he braces to run.

“One… two…” Salvini pauses, waits for the gunshots to stop. “Three. Book it, Mister Barnes.” He and the other three security officers create a tight unit around James and they corral him across the skywalk.

He bolts, surrounded by the guards and the sound of gunfire. He doesn’t like that he has to leave Jessica there in the open, hates it actually, but he also doesn’t want to get shot. James throws himself forward, running like his life depends on it (it does), herded to the far stairwell by the guards. The door opens, and they almost tumble through onto the landing.

“No stopping now, Mister Barnes. We need to get you to a secure location.” Salvini calls out orders to the others, and the tight circle urges James down the stairs.

There are guns in the hands of the two to James’ left and right, and it looks like Salvini has a knife, or maybe… maybe it’s a sword? What the hell? That’s all the warning he gets before he’s shoved unceremoniously through the stairwell entry point for the basement. The guards crowd him, cutting off his escape.

Two gunshots ring out and the guards on his left and right crumple. James stares, horrified, at the gun in the rear guard’s hand. Costello? Was that the name he’d been introduced with? What a thing to focus on as the gun is aimed squarely at his own forehead. “Inside job, huh?” he asks because he’s bad at keeping his mouth shut. Jess would tell him not to antagonize the guys that want to kill him, but since when has he ever really listened to her advice?

"You're not that smart, are you?" Salvini asks.

"Excuse you?" James is starting to think that maybe Salvini and Costello are fake names and that he's in far more trouble than he thought. He takes a swing at Salvini, aiming with his state of the art, high tech, extremely sturdy metal prosthetic arm straight at Salvini's head. Salvini dodges, and then grapples him; he's a lot stronger than he looks.

"Aww, bro." Costello groans. "Mistake."

Those are the last words James hears before there's a sharp pain in his neck and everything goes dark.

“Dude. We weren’t supposed to capture him. We’re supposed to kill him.”

“ I’m supposed to kill him.”

James keeps his eyes closed and tries to control his breathing. He’s been kidnapped before, and all the training Jess gave him for keeping himself alive in this kind of situation is running on a loop in his head.

“You really wanna bring that up now? Right now?”

“Don’t make a fight out of this. You’re the one who didn’t want to actually get out of the building before popping him. You made me leave bodies in the basement, which is in the top three worst places to leave bodies.”

“Oh do tell, smartass.”

The hired guns seem to be fighting between themselves. He thinks he knows which is which; Salvini is a lot more sarcastic sounding, so the other is Costello. He wonders what their real names are, though now isn’t exactly the time to ask.

“He’s awake.”

“He is not.”

“Salvini, you unobservant fuck…”

Something sharp drags along the edge of James’ jaw. He slowly opens his eyes, since he’s been found out anyway, and finds Costello a lot closer to him that he’d expected.

“Told you,” he adds, not looking away from James. “Hey there, Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes of the One-Oh-Seventh.”

It takes more than he’d care to admit not to jerk backward. He shouldn’t be so surprised that his kidnappers know who he is, he just hasn’t been addressed by his rank and full name in a while. The soft tone Costello uses when he says his name is… weird. “If you’re wanting my number you’re not getting it.”

Salvini barks a laugh. “You could cut this really weird tension with a spoon.” His tone changes to something far more menacing. “Though I’ll settle for a katana.” As he speaks, he moves to stand next to Costello and aims a sword at James’ chest.

“Salvini…”

“Y’know I’m starting to think you want to fuck him more than you wanna get paid for killing him, Cos.”

Costello throws a glare in his direction before quickly looking back at James. “Put the sword down. You use the sword and this whole thing is gonna find its way back to you.”

Salvini grumbles and flips the katana up to shove it into the sheath on his back. “Hate you,” he mutters at Costello, and pulls a gun from the back of his pants. “Fine.” And he aims at James.

James looks at Costello. The sharp thing that had brushed against his jaw is an arrow, he can see it still hanging loosely from Costello’s fingers. “You’re not going to kill me.”

“You wanna bet?”

“Salvini,” Costello says sharply as his partner takes a step closer. “You need to back off.”

“How much am I worth?” James asks, eyes on Costello’s face. “It’s a lot, isn’t it? Decorated soldier, designer in Stark Industries research and development. Public face of several charities aimed at helping disabled kids and assisting immigrants and refugees coming into this and other countries because of war.” He nods contemplatively, gripping the armrests of the chair he’s strapped to in an attempt to quell his slight tremble. It doesn’t matter how many times he’s faced enemy combatants, doesn’t matter the training he’s gotten from the military and from Jess and her friends: a gun in his face is still a bit nerve wracking.

“Who contracted you guys anyway? Was it Justin Hammer? He’s been after my designs for years, and he’s hated me since I turned him down last fall.”

Salvini looks between James and Costello. “Turned him down…” He trails off and it hits him what James hadn’t explicitly stated. “Holy fuck, Hammer wanted to go to Bone Town and you told him no?”

James shrugs as much as his bonds let him. “He’s not my type.” He thinks for a moment, watching his captors as closely but casually as he can. “Or maybe it was Aldrich Killian? He’s been a pain in the ass of SI for years.”

Costello almost keeps himself from glancing at Salvini, but doesn’t quite manage.

He flexes his fingers on the arms of the chair, and it hits him that he’s got advantages now over the last time he was tied to a chair with a gun in his face. He does his best not to draw attention to his prosthetic arm. “I’ll take the silence to mean I’m right?” James asks, finally feeling a little confidence fighting back the worry.

“It wasn’t that AIM fuck,” Salvini replies, a little too hasty.

“Shut the fuck up, Salvini.” Costello kicks him in the shin.

It’s the distraction that James needs. He grits his teeth, balls his metal hand into a fist, and yanks. The restraints don’t break but the arm of the wooden chair does, and he forces himself to stand. The front legs break, and really they should have strapped him to a metal chair. He swings the chair around, still attached to his arms, and knocks Salvini’s gun arm down; the chair stays mostly intact. He’s pretty sure he’s not going to get far, but he’s at least going to make a problem of himself.

Salvini shouts as the gun clatters to the floor. “You fucker!” He pulls the katana from his back, not caring about the gun for the moment.

Costello groans. “Aww, chair. Should have found a metal one.” He grabs something from behind himself as James runs backward at the far wall, attempting to break the chair off of himself. “Barnes, if you could just sit down, we can make this relatively painless.”

James throws himself against the wall. The chair shatters and falls to pieces behind him. The cord and zip ties around his arms and chest go loose and he rolls his shoulders. “I’ll take the hard way, if it’s all the same.” His hands are loose at his sides, stance wide.

Salvini gives the katana a little spin, light glinting off the blade. “You fucking hit me. Made me drop my gun. Who does that?”

Costello levels his bow, arrow nocked and half drawn. “We’re getting paid four million for you,” he says, answering James’ earlier question.

“Is that all?” He rolls his shoulders again. Being tied to that chair and having been drugged and transported to where ever they are had left him feeling stiff. “Each, or all together?”

That draws Salvini up short. “...Together.”

“I’m actually sort of offended.”

Costello doesn’t lower his bow. “What?”

“Do you know how much Stark Industries has me insured for?” He raises his brows. “Well?”

“Uh…”

“A couple billion,” murmurs Salvini.

James laughs, a short and almost mean sound. “That’s fucking right. A couple billion. So you guys getting offered a measly four million to kill me? That’s ridiculous. I’ll give you four million each to not kill me.”

Salvini’s katana lowers. He turns to Costello. “Holy shit,” he stage whispers.

“Holy shit,” he echoes and finally lowers his bow. “Uh, give us a second?”

James nods and gives them their time. If they don’t want the money, they’re giving him a lot of time to come up with a plan to escape. If he wanted, he could go for the gun still on the ground, get it, and shoot the both of them before they could do much to him.

“Okay we talked it over,” starts Salvini.

“We need confirmation that you’re not gonna short us. Transfer the money now.”

James holds out a hand. “Gimme a phone and I’ll do it.”

Costello adjusts his grip on his bow, the arrow still nocked, and fishes his phone from his pocket. He tosses it over.

“Don’t get any ideas about fucking us over,” Salvini says, raising the katana in a clear threat. “We can still kill you.”

He rolls his eyes. “You should really not threaten the person who’s paying you each a lot of money.” He swipes his thumb across the screen and takes a second to appreciate the adorable one-eyed golden retriever on the screen. “Cute dog,” he says softly as he opens the browser and begins the process of getting into his bank account.

“That’s uh… That’s my dog, Lucky,” Costello says, scuffing a foot along the bare concrete floor. “His depth perception is shit but-”

Salvini punches his arm. “Shut up. Just ‘cause you wanna get in his pants doesn’t mean you start sharing personal shit with the mark.”

“The mark wouldn’t be opposed to Costello getting in his pants,” James replies. “Gimme an account number to put this in?”

Costello rattles off the number, pleasantly rhythmic and just slow enough for James to tap it in without fumbling. “Uhhh… No hard feelings, right?” He shifts his weight and adjusts his grip on his bow. “You wanna get coffee sometime?”

“Jesus tits,” mumble-groans Salvini.

James looks up from the phone, eyebrows raised. “I… Yeah. Yeah actually I could go for coffee.”

“Name’s not actually Costello,” he starts.

“I figured as much,” James returns.

“Fucking gag me. Can we not do this here?”

Costello persists, despite his partner’s fake gagging. “It’s Clint.”

James chuckles, and admits, “Clint suits you a lot better than Costello.”

Salvini groans, louder and longer than before. “Since we’re doing sharing and bonding, I’m Wade and I find the two of you disgusting but also very adorable. This was a kidnapping and attempted assassination . You’re not supposed to get a date out of an attempted assassination.” He turns to Clint. “That’s what you told me last time I tried.”

Clint shrugs. “Things change.”

James watches them, and laughs. He steps forward and holds the phone out to Clint. “All done. You can check your accounts before letting me go.” He lowers his voice just a touch, smiling in that soft way that Jessica’s confirmed makes most people all warm inside. “I went ahead and added my number. Get ahold of me when you want to get that coffee.”

“As much as we appreciate the payout, we can’t just let you walk out of here.” Wade turns to Clint. “Just ‘cause you’re getting a date out of this, we can’t give away the location.”

Sighing, Clint takes his phone back. “He’s not wrong. Do you mind if we drug you again? We’ll take you back to Stark Industries.”

“Pinkie promise, if it’ll make you feel better.”

He looks at Wade’s hand, pinkie extended, and laughs. James laughs so hard that he has to take a minute to catch his breath. “Sorry. That was just… ridiculous.” He shifts forward and hooks his pinkie with Wade’s. “Don’t break a pinkie promise, man.”

He looks deadly serious as he replies, “Pinkie promises are sacred . I would never break one.” He releases James’ pinkie and nods to Clint. “Do it.”

Clint rolls his eyes. While James had been laughing, he’d readied another dose of what they’d used to knock James out back in Stark Industries. “Sorry about this,” he says as he approaches James. “Seriously, no hard feelings and a coffee date?”

James eyes the syringe for a second but raises his chin to give easy access to his neck. “No hard feelings. Like I said, I’m a bit offended that Killian would only pay four million for me.” He smiles, small but soft and genuine as Clint gets even further into his space. “And you really are my type.”

Clint’s cheeks heat up as he puts one hand on James’ shoulder. “Actually, the pain in your neck was a distraction for shooting you in the hip. Hip’s a lot better for sedatives.” He taps the side of the injector gun against James’ hip. He ignores Wade gagging behind him. “You’re gonna feel it more this time though.”

Wade gives another annoyed groan. “He’s complying, Clint. Just get him in a vein and make it work faster.” He’s sheathed the katana and is cleaning up the evidence that they’ve used the room, shoving things into a duffle bag. He stops with one fist against his hip, the other hand pointing emphatically at the broken pieces of wood on the floor. “This chair is an absolute gonner. I’m glad it wasn’t an antique, you brute.”

James offers his arm to Clint. “Sorry about the chair. I don’t like being tied up without consent.”

Clint chokes on his own saliva, pushing James’ sleeve up as he does. “You can’t say stuff like that when I’m about to knock you out.” He rubs his fingers along James’ forearm and up to his elbow, carefully checking for a vein he can stick.

He shrugs. “Just tellin’ it like it is.” He waits until Clint looks at him. “Don’t leave me hanging about that coffee, okay?”

Clint nods and readies the injection gun. “Deep breath,” he says, more to himself than James.

James looks away as the needle nears his skin, and it doesn’t take long for the sedative to kick in.

“Shut up, Wade.”

“I can’t believe your dick got us paid twice as much.”

“It wasn’t my dick. It was Killian being a cheap ass.”

Wade laughs and pulls into a parking space in the garage attached to the main Stark Industries building. “Totally your dick. Don’t forget to text him.”

“Help me get him out of the trunk.”

James wakes up with Jessica nearby. He can hear her yelling at someone, and he’s really glad he’s not on the receiving end of it: she sounds pissed.

“Jess,” he groans. “You’re loud.”

Her yelling cuts off in the middle of a tirade of swears. “Oh fuck you, Barnes.” She makes her way over to him, and she looks better than he expected. “I can’t believe you got yourself kidnapped and were so annoying they gave you back.”

“Can’t believe that you didn’t get shot.”

“Shooting stopped as soon as they got you off the skywalk.”

James thinks about it and nods. “That makes sense.”

“Glad you didn’t die,” she adds, though it looks like it physically pains her to say something that could come across so sentimental.

“Me, too.”

She pulls her phone out of her back pocket. “Wanna see how we found you?” She holds the phone out to him.

Taking it, James is greeted by his own unconscious face with a piece of paper pinned to his chest. He swipes to the next picture. The note takes up the whole screen. “‘Sorry. Blame AIM. X-O-X-O, Guns for Hire,’” he reads outloud. He laughs, and hands the phone back to her. “Wow.”

“We’re already going after Killian for this.”

“Figured as much.”

“Your phone’s been blowing up since we got you back. I think most of them are your sisters, but…” She shrugs.

James nods and realizes for the first time that he’s in his office, propped on his couch. “Thanks. Go do what you gotta do.” He waves her off and gets up to grab his phone from his desk. It takes him a minute get across the room, legs feeling a little like jelly with the remnants of the sedative in his system. When he has his phone in hand, he sifts through the messages from his three sisters and finds a couple in there from a number he doesn’t recognize.

Glad you’re safe.

Coffee at Zabka in Bed-Stuy sometime Saturday?

He grins, because he can’t help himself. He’s always been told that he makes bad decisions (usually by Jess and his parents and his youngest sister Becca), but he likes this one and wants to give Clint a chance until things blow up on him. He taps out a quick time after checking his desk calendar and sends it. He settles into his desk chair, smiling like an idiot.

To: Aldrich Killian, CEO of Advance Idea Mechanics From: James Barnes, R&D Lead of Stark Industries

Recent events have shown me that you are not only a jealous man, but a terrible judge of a person’s worth. The fact that you not only hired hit men to assassinate me because I refused to sell you my designs or any of the designs of my team, but also grossly underpaid them is eye opening.

I hope that you get everything you deserve in this life.

James B Barnes

{thank you so much for reading!! ♥ if you liked the fic, i offer short fics in exchange for coffees! please consider throwing a coffee my way.}

#marvel #clint barton #bucky barnes #clintbucky #winterhawk #wade wilson #jessica jones #my fanfictions

4 notes · View notes

dreamalittledreamoc · 6 years

Note

7, 8, 15, 16, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 36, 38, 42, 49 for Saoirse!

Oh goodness. You asked for it!

7. Did they have lots of friends as a child? Did they keep any of their childhood friends into adulthood?

Growing up in a small village, Saoirse was keenly aware that she was different. The children of nearby families seemed almost afraid of her house. Which confused her to no end. Her parents were hard working and kind. Her Da loved doing tricks and giving presents to kids. But rather than delighting them, his magic made them think twice about even approaching him and the people he called family. Saoirse’s childhood was a bit lonelier than most. She did not play with her peers- when she tried it would usually end in the other kids making an excuse as to why they had to leave. On more than one occasion, a game of hide and seek turned into hours of waiting for a seeker who would never come. As time went by she became more adept at entertaining herself, and tried to save herself the embarrassment of rejection whenever she could. She engrossed herself in books and listened to her Da’s stories about the places he’d traveled. She learned more practical skills from her mother- though she found she had little patience for spinning. If she was to be put to work, she preferred to be sent out with the flock. She named every sheep and could recognize them by minute differences that were imperceptible to most. There was one occasion though, when she managed to make a friend. She must have been around 11 or 12 at the time. A group of travelers had made their way into the area, setting up camp near the edge of town. They brought stories, music, and wondrous trinkets from other lands to show off and trade. One evening, Saoirse snuck off and crept through the woods to the edge of the firelight at the camp’s center. She did her best to be stealthy. All she wanted was to listen to the music she had heard filtering across the fields. But with her shock of silver-white hair and vaguely elven features, she stuck out like a sore thumb. A roguish looking centaur boy was the first to notice her. He leapt across the log she hid behind, laughing as she startled and sprawled backwards across the forest floor. But after seeing the stricken look on her face at once again being unwelcome and the butt of a joke, he abashedly reached out a hand to help her get up. The colt’s name was Nikolai. His family was just one of many that comprised the travelers’ caravan. Centaurs, half elves, half orcs- any race that might have been considered a “half breed” seemed to be represented here. These were races that were either predisposed to wander, or that didn’t have a definitive racial home. The sense of kinship that Saoirse felt with them was immediate. She and Nikolai became fast friends over the course of that summer. Nikolai had plenty of stories to share, and Saoirse was the most enthusiastic audience he’d ever had. Her Da was a bit worried for her safety, but Mum understood. This was exactly what Saoirse needed. Unfortunately, summer passed quickly, and soon it was time for Nikolai’s caravan to move on. They promised to find a way to stay in touch, without much success. But every few years, the caravan would come back to town, and Saoirse would be reunited with her friend. The last time she saw him, he had gone from a ruffled ragamuffin of a gray-dapple colt to a tall and able centaur, who stood proudly in spite of how the more close-minded townspeople would whisper. That was several years ago, just before she left home to begin her own adventure. She is unsure if their paths will cross again, but she is very hopeful that they will.

8. Did they have pets as a child? Do they have pets as an adult? Do they like animals?

Saoirse LOVES animals! She always enjoyed caring for the sheep, naming them and considering them like family. The first time a lamb didn’t make it through the winter, she was completely inconsolable. Her family had three herding dogs who helped protect the flocks. Ronan, Murphy, and Duff could always be found either out in the fields or at young Saoirse’s heels.

15. Are they good at cooking? Do they enjoy it? What do others think of their cooking?

Mum always lamented that Saoirse lacked the attention span for refined cooking. She does a fair job of preparing the standard comestibles, but she usually keeps it very simple. It’s a rare, inspired occasion that would make her go above and beyond. It usually only happens when she tries something so good that she becomes determined to re-create it to satisfy her curiosity.

16. Do they collect anything? What do they do with it? Where do they keep it?

Crystals, or even just shiny rocks, delight her. She keeps a small collection in one of the pouches at her waist.

25. What do they find funny? Do they have a good sense of humour? Are they funny themselves?

With her generally light hearted demeanor, Saoirse enjoys innocent jokes, bad puns, or things that are funny because they’re absurd. A chicken in a jumper? She’ll be in stitches. However, she does not take well to jokes that are made at other people’s expense.

26. How do they act when they’re happy? Do they sing? Dance? Hum? Or do they hide their emotions?

Saoirse is pretty much an open book. When she’s happy, she smiles broadly and will sometimes dance from toe to toe or spin if she’s especially excited.

27. What makes them sad? Do they cry regularly? Do they cry openly or hide it? What are they like they are sad?

Saoirse is deeply empathetic, and what saddens her the most is the suffering of others. She does her best to conceal when she’s hurt, recalling her mother wiping away her tears as a child. “Don’t let them win,” she’d say. “When they try to break you down, you stand taller. You show them that you aren’t afraid. You smile. Because bullies will always be bullies, but someone who’s humble, hard working, and kind will go farther than they could ever dream.”

28. What is their biggest fear? What in general scares them? How do they act when they’re scared?

Though she grew up an outsider in her own village, she was insulated from the worst of their potential reactions because her father never revealed his true form- except to his common law wife and to his daughter, once she started manifesting the abilities of her ancestors. Half elves may not be completely welcomed everywhere, but they’re certainly more understood and common than the progeny of a dragon. Saoirse’s Da stressed the importance of concealing her true heritage for her own safety. There was no telling who or what would come after her if they knew the nature of the magic that hummed in her blood. Saoirse wants to know what will happen to her as she ages. Why does she look the way she does, when others of dragon ancestry- like the entire dragonborn race- bear their forms in the open? But she is afraid of losing what little chance she has of fitting in. She has only just started making close friends. If they knew what she really was, would they hate her for it? Would they be afraid? Internally, she agonizes over the dual duties she has to protect her new companions and to protect herself. Externally, she puts on a brave face and tries to deflect any probing questions that might reveal the reason for her anxiety.

29. What do they do when they find out someone else’s fear? Do they tease them? Or get very over protective?

If someone else is afraid, especially if they’re someone she cares about, she doesn’t pry into the source of fear. She just does what she can to validate, insulate, and support the person to help them overcome it.

31. Do they drink? What are they like drunk? What are they like hungover? How do they act when other people are drunk or hungover? Kind or teasing?

Saoirse is happy when everyone else is happy, so a bustling tavern with good ale is one of her favorite places to be. When she’s drunk, her amiable personality is amplified. She becomes more physically affectionate, which has caused problems a few times. Her friendliness has been misinterpreted on more than one occasion. Surprisingly, she had never actually had a hangover, so she gets a little confused when she sees other people struggling to get through the day after drinking.

36. What are they good at? What hobbies do they like? Can they sing?

Magic, music, and storytelling. As a child, these were the things that Saoirse immersed herself in. They gave color and a sense of connection to her often isolated upbringing, and were also what gave her such a strong relationship with her Da. Her singing voice comes from her Mum, though. Sometimes party members might hear her humming old shepherd’s tunes passed down through her mother’s line.

38. What do they admire in others? What talents do they wish they had?

Saoirse is outgoing, but she struggles with imposter syndrome, for obvious reasons. She wishes that she could be more comfortable in her own skin, and that she knew who she wanted to be. She’s a bit of a social chameleon, tweaking her mannerisms to fit the group she’s a part of. She admires people who are unashamedly themselves. There is also a small part of her that thinks it’d be really fun to learn how to use a heavy weapon. She’s strong enough to lift them- she’s tried before- but she has always been too embarrassed to ask for a lesson in how to use one.

42. What are their goals? What would they sacrifice anything for? What is their secret ambition?

More than anything, Saoirse wants to find out what will become of her, and to find a place where she belongs.

49. What is their most valued object? Are they sentimental? Is there something they have to take everywhere with them?

Her opal ring is her most visible connection to her family. She never takes it off, and would be absolutely beside herself if anything happened to it. Her robes were made by her mother,- a blend of the area’s traditional designs and the more exotic raiment that Lian sports- so she takes good care of them. Other than that, she doesn’t have many sentimental trinkets. Memories are more important to her than objects.

#Saoirse Halloran #ask meme #OC asks #character development #backstory

1 note · View note

pictureofsoph1sticatedgrace · 7 years

Text

Frozen the Musical - My Act One Thoughts

Hi friends! So... here we go! I saw Frozen twice while I was in Denver - once on August 18th and once on August 19th. A few things you should probably know before we delve into all my thoughts: 1. I’ve been a musical theatre nerd for most of my life. I went to a performing arts high school for musical theatre, and majored in theatre arts administration in college. 2. I am also a Disney nerd - always have been and always will be. I did the DCP in Walt Disney World and absolutely adored it. 3. Frozen has been my absolute favorite movie in the entire world since I first saw it back in 2013. I’ve made very good friends with Anna at all kinds of local parties and gatherings, run Frozen camps, and more. So... we can imagine how COMPLETELY ELATED I was when they announced they were creating Frozen on Broadway. Which leads me to point 4... Caissie Levy. I saw Caissie in Ghost back in 2012 and was ASTOUNDED by the sheer talent I was witnessing. Caissie has without a doubt become my absolute favorite performer, but more than that, she’s become an incredible mentor. So when I found out she was going to be LEADING this show, I MIGHT have lost my shit just a little bit (read: a lot).

With all that said... I hope that makes it clear that I know my way around good theatre, but I also have some implicit bias. I will try my best to stay as objective as I possibly can (which will probably be not at all tbh) while also fangirling my heart out.

Now. Let’s talk Frozen the Musical! Prepare for a novel.

- Preshow. They have some really cool sound effects and a projection of the Northern Lights that move around. It’s really pretty, and helps to put you in that mystical setting.

- The show opens with the newly introduced Hidden Folk. Let’s talk about them for a hot second. I get why they moved away from the trolls - having seen the stage show at the Hyperion out in Disneyland, the trolls would have been too campy and weird for what they’re trying to do with this show. I love the concept - the traditional Norwegian Huldufolk are the perfect fill in. The execution, IMO, needs some work. Crystal necklaces that light up just like in the movie? Super cool. Glowing eyes in the pitch black? REALLY cool. Long, swingy tails that make them look like non-blue Na’vi from Avatar? Not so much.

- Hearing Vuelie in person with that incredible ensemble was enough on its own to basically send me into a coma.

- THE YOUNGINS. Oh my LORD. They are so ridiculously good - especially the Young Annas, Audrey and Mattea. Their comedic timing is so good... you really can’t help but laugh every time they speak (”like run naked in the breeze!” I died).

- “Anna and Elsa” is adorable and just introduces us to the sisters. They also worked in a chunk of the cut song from the movie “We Know Better”, which was perfect and made me extraordinarily happy.

- “A Little Bit of You” is so stinking cute. And then Elsa hits Anna and your heart hurts. So thanks for that, Lopez crew (I’ll be saying that a lot tbh).

- The scene where the Queen summons the hidden folk is one that I would not be surprised to be tweaked. She started chanting and people started giggling (because tbh it is a little strange - it sounds incredibly dramatic), which is definitely not what you want happening there.

- Elsa asks Pabbie to remove her magic altogether because she’s afraid of what she’ll do, which just hurts my heart. He asks her to close her eyes and tell him what she sees, and it’s basically a premonition of the coronation - she sees a monster. Tears.

- Elsa is also the one who basically says “keep Anna away from me while I figure this magic thing out,” which is also devastating because that adds another layer of her guilt to what we knew from the movie.

- Another change from the movie - the girls are still their young selves when their parents die at sea. OUCH. I think it’s more effective, honestly.

- Caissie got entrance applause and that was the first time I cried. #proudmama

- Let’s take a moment to talk about PATTI FREAKING MURIN. I’m not going to lie to you - I was really worried about what they were doing with her in all the promotional stuff we saw, but I had no reason to be. Patti is the perfect Anna. She is adorkable, silly, fun loving, and tender and vulnerable when she needs to be. Anna is undoubtedly my favorite princess... Patti lives up to it.

- There are a few lyric tweaks in “For The First Time In Forever” to go with the action on stage - i.e. there are not 8,000 salad plates, so it wouldn’t make sense to sing about them.

- The scepter and orb glow at Elsa’s touch and it’s REALLY cool.

- The moment when they opened the gates and the whole ensemble spilled in... the second time I cried. It was so epic and just a beautiful, beautiful moment. All those voices harmonizing... it was overwhelming.

- Sven got entrance applause. I’m still trying to figure out how he’s maneuvered?! Literally the most lifelike reindeer puppet you could imagine.

- Obviously we have no horses on stage, so Anna and Hans bump into each other and fall into Kristoff’s ice cart, which is a nice touch.

- Anna makes an heir and spare joke - another reference to a cut song from the movie (my favorite one, so I was thrilled).

- John Riddle as Hans... he’s SPECTACULAR. He’s not a ginger, but I guess I’ll forgive him because he is incredibly good looking and SO charming. And that voice! He makes you fall in love with him. Which makes you hate him even more later on.

- Queen Anointed is GORGEOUS in every sense. There’s a little section of choreography as the church bells ring that was very, very cool - the ensemble moves in and out of line with each chime. Hard to explain, but visually gorgeous.

- As the ensemble is singing, Elsa is basically silhouetted upstage while the priest puts on her cape and they walk the orb and scepter in. The lighting here just made me melt.

- Dangerous to Dream. There’s already been some pretty good discussion about this (see @frozenartscapes and @not-rotting for that fun), but oh MAN. After the first verse, Anna runs in and kneels downstage with her hands over her heart and Elsa sings directly at her. UGH. After she’s crowned, she observes the festivities and sings the rest of the song as Anna is shown enjoying it - dancing, being lifted up on a chair, etc. All while Elsa just looks on longingly. My heart.

- Robert Creighton as the Duke is the wonderful blend of funny, creepy (”Let me tame you with my tango” and “you’ll be looking for a king, no doubt” ugh), and dastardly that the role demands.

- The camaraderie between the sisters as Anna disses the Duke is perfection.

- Love is an Open Door. WHERE DO I START. Take the movie and ramp it up by about 800%. Sexual tension is not off limits here. Anna runs her hands over Hans’s chest, Hans grabs Anna’s butt, there’s some panting, there’s a very cute dance break where he has her leg up by her face in a split and she’s like “ow ow ow ow ow” and then she somehow ends up on the ground beneath him... and then as the song ends, he buries his face in her chest and then they proceed to make out for at LEAST 30 seconds as all the coronation-goers filter in. It is hilarious, and on the second night recording, you can literally hear me go “I thought this was a family show!” lmao.

- Elsa freezing the ballroom - the spikes shoot out of the wall and I was legitimately concerned someone was going to be impaled on stage. It’s so organic and realistic!

- After Elsa runs out of the ballroom, you see the various townspeople as they run to safety... then Elsa stumbles forward, catches herself on the proscenium of the stage, and then the proscenium freezes in what was my first “WTF IS HAPPENING” moment of the show. The projections there... omg. Otherworldly.

- Ah, and now I get to talk about Jelani as Kristoff. GUYS. He’s SO GOOD. His voice is divine. He is SO PERFECTLY SASSY, but like Patti, when he’s a softie, he just melts your heart. He and Patti play so well off of each other - their witty banter is everything you’d hope and more. Kristanna shippers, rest assured, your hearts will flutter.

- I mentioned in a previous post that right before “What Do You Know About Love”, Kristoff literally rips off Anna’s dress before she changes into Kristoff’s clothes and that was the moment I died. My shipper heart.

- Speaking of... “What Do You Know About Love”. WE FINALLY HAVE A KRISTANNA DUET, Y’ALL. And it was worth the wait. It’s 5 minutes of stellar witty banter. God bless. The music is also CATCHY AF.

- The bridge! It’s very, very cool. One of my favorite scenic elements in the show.

- “You’ve got some guts.” “You’ve got some... brains.” I’ll leave it at that.

- When Olaf makes his grand entrance, you hear his voice all around the theater. Which caused absolutely everyone to collectively lose their shit while turning around in their seats. Hilarity.

- The Olaf puppet, for anyone who hasn’t seen yet, is done very similarly to Timon from The Lion King. Anytime Greg moves his feet, Olaf moves. Same with the hands.

- Greg as Olaf. There were moments I had to remind myself that Greg did NOT, in fact, voice Olaf in the movie. He’s that spot-on, but of course with his own flair. 12/10 casting.

- “In Summer”. It’s just as ridiculous as you might imagine, though not as campy as it is in DCA with the random backup dancers in flippers and scuba gear. There’s just random birds flying in on a stick instead.

- “If there’s one thing Arendelle can handle, it’s snow.” - Anna, cut immediately to “I CAN’T HANDLE ALL OF THIS SNOW!” - The Duke.

- “Hans of the Southern Isles (Reprise)” - aka the “I’m Hans and I’m gonna manipulate the entire town into believing I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread but HEY I’m humble no big deal” song.

- The moment you’ve all been waiting for (along with literally everyone in the theatre who audibly squealed at the first notes)... “Let It Go”. Aka the moment I officially LOST. MY. SHIT. I waited to talk about Caissie until this moment because this is the first time we get to see her in all her belty, sparkly glory. She. Is. Perfection. She looks the part, she acts the part, she sings the SHIT out of it.

- I will say - the song is back in its intended key, which means it’s a half step lower than we hear in the movie (cut to a clip of Idina being like “but what if I sing it a half step up just this once?” and then hating her life as every child on the planet began to sing the song). But that makes it no less belty and beautiful. Rather than just letting that last note kind of fade like you hear on the soundtrack, Caissie takes it up to the high heavens and the sky opens up and you melt into a puddle on the floor. Wait... that was me. Definitely me.

- Scenically, I wanted a little bit more. The projections are cool, and the massive wall of Swarovski crystals that dropped from the ceiling was sparkly enough to blind me. But other than that, the stage felt a bit empty. The rumor is that they have another plan for Broadway - which makes sense since they’re in a temporary home and it wouldn’t make sense to build any really massive set pieces until they’re in a place where they can do that. They know they could pretty much put Caissie in a trash bag, throw her on stage to sing this song, and the crowd would still lose their minds. Save the magic for the big guns. At least, I hope that’s what’s going to happen!

- The dress change. There was a clip floating around from the show Friday night, and the timing of the flash was off, so it’s unfortunate that’s the one that got passed around (even though it’s still freaking incredible!) because you can kind of see the magic. Saturday night, you couldn’t see a thing and LORDY BE. It is truly magical. And the dress! It’s STUNNING. I sobbed both nights. Like... ugly crying, heavy sobbing.

And with that... I went into the lobby going “I’M GONNA PASS OUT MOM, I SWEAR. I’M GONNA PASS OUT MY FACE IS TINGLY I’M GONNA PASS OUT” because I was so overwhelmed and it was intermission.

Thanks for tuning in for Act 1... Act 2 to come later!

#frozen the musical #frozen #musical #musical theater #ramblings

102 notes · View notes

alinkbetweenportraits · 7 years

Text

Taste of Hyrule 1: The Cooking Pot

I know what you’re all thinking.

“Wow okay you just said you’d explore other Zelda games too in your intro why focus on Breath of the Wild only this time?”

Well, since Breath of the Wild is a game that emphasizes travel and culture, it could be interesting to look at how the food comes into play. Also I can be an inconsistent fuck sometimes.

With that being said, the cooking pot does hold significant value in Hylian culture and can translate into other games as well. The pot is where travelers of all kinds come to gather, rest, and most of all, cook after a tiresome day. Villages even have outdoor pots for the public to use, making them the most readily available culinary tool in at your disposal. It seems only natural that cultures and ingredients will blend in a single pot.

Let’s start by taking a look at the design. This one was a model taken from E3 2016, which I feel gives a better detail than in game screenshots I can find.

So what we have is a heavy “pot” with steep edges and generously sized handles. It’s suspended over an open fire by a steel rack, leaving your hands free from doing any more than the bare minimum. Chances are, you’re making the same assumption I made at first.

“You’re over analyzing it. It’s just a normal wok, simple as that!”

And well... Yes. You’re absolutely right. It’s a wok. And why wouldn’t it be a wok? It’s by far one of, if not the most, versatile cookware in the culinary world. These are some of my favorite tools to work with for multiple reasons. First, all you really need to actually make food is a wok, the highest heat you can get (like an open campfire by the stable perhaps?) and something to mix it all with. The high heat however is the critical element to proper stir frying. Typically, woks are cooked at up to 25 times higher degrees than the usual american stove tops and can easily hit temperatures of up to 3600F. This is referred to as the wok hei, or “breath of the wok” (ha it’s fitting get it???). Next, it uses relatively little oil compared to western pans. Because the base surface area is small, a little can go a long way, and combine that with the high heat and you’ve got some hella browning that boosts the flavor profile of anything you’re cooking. This isn’t just good for dieters, but also in an environment where oil simply isn’t openly available, such as out in an open field or on top of a snowy mountain. Woks aren’t just used for stir frying, either. They can be used to deep fry, steam, boil, simmer, stew, poach, you name it! I personally used to flip it over an open fire and bake pita bread on these babies. There’s multiple reasons why people believe woks have been so popular for centuries. Some believe that the wok allows for variety of flavors when food is short, using the different levels of heat, water, and fat to provide different results in the same pan. Some also believe that limited fuel sources meant that woks had to use readily available sources in order to function, and while high heat is preferable you can easily cook over dying coals. Others also believe the wok became popular because of its simplicity, making it easy to adapt to any kitchen around the world. I believe all three hold true, especially for a land such as Hyrule. Whether you cook for a crowd or just for one, the wok is a traveler’s best friend and has been for thousands of years in our world.

However, there is one major problem with the carbon steel wok we all know and love that keeps it from being readily available in campsites.

Rice.

It is worth noting that just about every village you run into provides rice in their grocery stores. It is also one of the most readily available crops when cutting tall grass in the game. A majority of recipes (fried rice, rice balls, beef bowls, ect) involve cooking rice to tender, meaning that low and steady heat is required and must be distributed evenly because, to put it simply, starch loves to burn. While a wok can be used, carbon steel woks are usually very thin, meaning it can be extremely difficult to maintain a steady heat over a fire without outright charring what you have. And during times of survival, it is absolutely critical that you not waste what you have. Anyone who has cooked rice over a stove top knows that you have to do it right or else it will either be crunchy, mushy, or ash. Unfortunately, a steel wok simply isn’t a good cooking tool for such a readily available ingredient. Add to the fact that carbon steel is usually more expensive and you’ve got a disaster waiting to happen.

This is where the magic of stone comes into play! Truthfully, I had considered the possibility that cast iron was being used instead of stone. Of course, the closest I could find to a stone wok in our world was the Korean Dolsot. I imagine it would work in similar ways to a wok. Plus, I’ll let suspension of disbelief be a thing for this part. And hey, it has a matching lid to boot!

The stone pots are thick, meaning that it takes longer to heat and distributes heat far more evenly than the steel counterpart. It’s perfect for not only cooking rice, but often times there’s a seared layer that is recooked and eaten again for a snack or even dessert in some countries. Despite the time it takes to heat up to the same levels as a carbon steel wok, when seasoned correctly and handled with care, it can still provide that sear that’s so prized in the culinary world. It’s also worth noting that the most commonly available meats are typically those of highly active animals. High active muscles are things such as the legs or shoulders of animals, and as opposed to being marbled with fat, they instead have a marbling of collagen. Unlike fat, which melts quickly at high heat, collagen curls up on itself and hardens. It needs a low and steady heat in order to melt and break down. This is why if you tried to grill beef stew chunks you usually end up with the equivalent of a rubber shoe. The low and slow cooking is perfect for travelers who are looking to take a rest by the fireplace before heading out to the field. Consider the fact that there’s plenty of stony terrain and that Gorons are expert craftsmen with rocks and it’d make sense that stone cookware was far more widely available and popular around the country of Hyrule.

So now for the big question everyone is waiting for! What does that translate into the food when you put it in your mouth?

Here’s the catch: stone is porous. And usually grease is liberally applied to stone before its first use in order to season it. It’s highly advised that you never wash a stone pot with soap since it will absorb into the stone. Some people argue that there is a distinct charred flavor in older and more well used stone or cast iron surfaces after multiple uses and is the appeal in these utensils. However, I personally find these flavors neutralize over time so I find it to be a load of crap. However, stone also tends to reach extremely high surface temperature and can retain its heat longer than steel. This means that unlike thin carbon steel, you can drop in cold ingredients and still keep the heat of the pan relatively the same, giving your food a better sear, caramelization, and maillard reaction. What you’ll be left with is smokiness, a more crispy exterior, and a satisfying roasty toasty flavor that can only be compared to a warm hug in the mouth, a welcoming comfort after spending all day on your feet. But that’s only if you decide to go with a basic stir fry. With a wide variety of ingredients to collect and a unique cast of travelers with their own recipes to share, the possibilities are endless!

Thank you so much for reading my observations on the cooking pot in Breath of the Wild. I did the best that I could, but please feel free to contact me if you feel I’ve made any mistakes. I am glad to listen and tweak what I can from this post. If you have any requests for the next part, feel free to let me know in the comments and I’ll be certain to at least consider it. Until then, see you all in part 2. Take care!

Introduction

#legend of zelda #headcanon #taste of hyrule #ooc #I know I ramble a lot but I at least hope it's entertaining enough

43 notes · View notes

thevulernablepreacher · 5 years

Text

Thanksgiving

I just had a thought..and I don’t know, well whatever. I just went to look at myself in the bathroom mirror. I can’t use the full length as that part of the room is plasticized off at the moment. Bathroom wall was taken down to extend bathroom by three inches so I can have a bathtub to soak in that I actually fit in.

Not having a mirror is a big fucking relief and weird.

But it just occurred to me. As I know my outfit is one that blends well and makes me look put together in a cool/fashionable way.

I am going to my mom’s in a little bit. 2 hours there and 2 back.

I strained my right foot 2 days ago. Silly step on a piece of wood in my path from construction work in process. It wouldn’t have been an issue had I not been home during the work hours and had I been thinking about my steps.

I hadn’t though. I think about them almost always as being completely unable to walk is not such a distance in the past.

I thank my blessings daily for being able to put on two shoes and walk comfortably particularly as its cold.

I thought I was out of the woods; but a misguided attempt to “clear heavy metals” stirred up my Mycoplasma and sent the pain in my body back into action. My feet are the favorite area of this crazy virus. So it may not be surprising that I tweaked my ankle.

It must sound so bizarre but I’m sooo grateful it’s my right and not my left foot. My left foot has suffered too many sprains..i don’t even like to say the word let alone write about this or talk about it b/c im so afraid of so much with this this.

I have had no pain for 3 months and been so active in my life. It’s been heaven on earth. And I just like to live without thinking about living.

So, I am going to my mom’s today. And it hit me that she will be pleased with how I look. It will make her feel proud in front of her friends and the whole Kendal community. Very important for her.

A few months ago I would have raged against this. Finally putting my foot down. Fuck you. Not doing it anymore.

And then everything shifted for me. Such a trip how our evolution happens. I wondered as I had the shifted thought if it was me in denial or doing myself a disservice. But I don’t’ think it is.

I thought that if this is the gift I can give her..my thought wasn’t this articulate; it was more of a feeling with some words around it. I thought; then good. I don’t know how many Thanksgivings I have left with her. 10? I think probably 10. She’s 84 and despite a lot of stuff she’s incredibly healthy. And the gene pool on her side lives long.

And if it’s 10 times more that I can make her swell with pride; no matter how narcissistic or ridiculously misplaced the power of this pride is; it’s so easy for me to give to her.

And then I thought, am I doing myself a disservice? Am I making myself small?

I don’t think so. I know who I am deep inside. And, I actually really like my outfit. It’s not party disheveled, which I usually like but it’s; I don’t know; New England casual/fashionable. Very 52ish fashion.

NO doubt I’ll get really irritated today. I’m dining with 9 people in their mid 80’s to mid 90’s. Walking will be slow (fine, as I’m using a cane for support right now). Sitting may be long. Conversation may be unbearably boring. I’ll be a focus for a bit; everyone so excited to have youth with them. Food will be..not sure; edible.

Drive will be long.

My ankle will be sore. I can ice it when I’m there and castor oil wrap it later this evening.

And it will heal. It will heal. It’s okay.

I will heal again. The mycoplasma will get pushed back by the energy healer I’m working with who has helped me enormously; more swiftly than any other treatment I have had or pursued thus far.. We’re on it. It may suck for a few more days; at least I hope that’s as long as it takes. Feet burning off; general pain and weakness. Knee and thigh pain gone; that is HUGE!

I am in love love love with my work and grateful beyond grateful for my clients.

I am in love with my home and amazed that I have the profound blessings of being able to put in a new bathroom! What?!!!! Incredible. This is my mother who has done this for me.

She is a trip. I am a trip. Her companion of the last 5 years is dying. He may not be here much past the new year. She is acutely dealing with the pain of this loss already. The simple fact of him being back in his apt with home care and not with her at any given second is very stark and apparent and painful.

So I want to be there today. Because in 10 years or tomorrow or 20 years when she goes. These are the memories I will hold and be proud of and comforted by.

I threw out a can of paint at Wegman’s yesterday; from a client. I was sick of having it in my car. A really beautiful black woman made no bones about giving me a very clear eyeball; she knew exactly how wrong I was behaving and spoke volumes with that look; dressed my ass down.

I did it, and my gut knew it was wrong. I thought about retrieving it on my way out; took a quick glance to see if it was there and may have made up a story that the trash had been changed and I couldn’t retrieve it. Really I was embarrassed and ashamed and didn’t want to be seen retrieving it or bothered doing so.

I wondered as I tossed it what the karma would be..this is the karma. I couldn’t believe I was contributing to the massive shit hole of garbage in the world in this way. And also there’s a part of me; that lazy ego part that just should never be listened to. The harder more pain in the ass way that leaves my conscience free to breathe easy is obviously always the way to go.

Sometimes my ego is way too strong; way too fucking strong.

I was trying to control and move quickly. I wanted my car free of excess. I freak out when there’s too much shit anywhere.

My house in disarray and its very hard for me..so I think emptying my car was my way of managing and controlling what I could.

This is all identical twin shit with my mother.

I’m nervous about the $$ I am spending. I had a great week at work and simply pray that money keeps coming. More and more issues arise. Bills come out of nowhere as things need to be fixed.

I have this deep need to have everything perfect. I am soo like my mother it is absolutely stunning. I am different but we are so alike.

I am repeating Suzie Orman’s mantra 2 times a day. Last time it reaped magic and then I forgot and then I got scared that I’d forgotten and what that might mean or bear as a result. The universe needs to hear what I have in my life and it will mirror it. I believe this.

So: “I have more money than I will ever need.” 25x out loud, 2x day. Once silently 25 times while looking in the mirror.

Jesus..

Okay, off to Hanover listening to Michele Obama’s book. It is wonderful; so so thoughtful and wonderful.

0 notes

ankhrah · 7 years

Text

Make these 10 small changes to your day – here’s what happens to belly fat

People like to overcomplicate weight loss. They think they need some magical exercise program that involves triple clap pushups, reverse planche or one-legged burpees. Others believe they need to hire a personal trainer who looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his best days or count their macro nutrients gram by gram. This is not true. Many people think they need to change absolutely everything in their life and completely transform their daily routine if they want to achieve weight loss, better health, and more energy. But in reality, small tweaks to your diet and lifestyle can make a huge difference.

10 Small Daily Tweaks For Big Weight Loss Results

Try some of these painless little fixes and see how a few small changes can create a big result for you!

1. Replace Sugar with Stevia

This important step will help you avoid blood sugar crashes that lead to tiredness and cravings for unhealthy foods. Some people opt for stevia instead of sugar because of the lower calorie count. But it’s not about the calories! One teaspoon of sugar contains only about 16 calories. The reason it should be avoided is that concentrated sugar spikes your blood sugar levels, followed by a sugar low later. This robs you of energy, makes you crave unhealthy foods and not feel your best. Stevia is a natural sweetener that contains an abundance of nutrients, including vitamin C, beta-carotene, niacin, magnesium, phosphorus, selenium and iron. I’d like to note that stevia has a distinct flavor that not everyone might love at first. When I first started using it, I wasn’t too crazy about it, but I must say the taste grows on you. You’ll get used to it, and later if you try anything with regular sugar in it, you’ll feel the flavor is too acidic and unpleasant. Some studies have shown that stevia may help improve insulin sensitivity and, therefore, is suitable for people who have type 2 diabetes and anyone who want to balance their blood sugar levels. Use stevia instead of sugar in your tea, coffee or other sweetened drinks. Use a combination of stevia and sweet fruit, like fresh dates or ripe bananas, to sweeten your desserts. Fruit contains fiber and other nutrients that slow down sugar absorption into the bloodstream, so it doesn’t spike blood sugar levels as concentrated sweeteners do.

2. Include Tabata Training

Have you ever said you don’t have time for exercise? Yes, you might not be able to spend two hours in the gym five days per week, but I can almost guarantee that you can spare 12 minutes per week for working out! Yes, only 12 minutes. This means three Tabata sessions per week. Tabata is a type of high-intensity interval training that takes only 4 minutes per session. Intervals are quick, 20-second bouts of heavy exertion (to the point where your breathing is very labored), followed by 10 seconds of rest – repeating the cycle a total of 8 times. Whether you jump rope, ride your bike or do other cardio, studies have shown that the Tabata protocol seems to help your body continue to burn calories long after you finish your workout.

3. Start Your Morning with Fiber and Nutrient-Rich Green Drink

youtube

More than two-thirds of adults are either overweight or obese in the US, yet many are not getting enough nutrients with their food. Eating overly processed, nutrient-poor food might satisfy the body’s calorific needs. However, the body needs to get enough vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber and other nutrients that only whole natural foods can provide. If your body lacks nutrients, it might make you hungry forcing you to overeat. Therefore, it’s important to include fiber and nutrient rich foods in your diet. One of the best ways to do it is to start your day with super nourishing and filling green smoothie. To make a simple green smoothie, add some sweet fruit like bananas, some berries or raw cacao, dark leafy greens like kale or spinach, water or almond milk to your blender and blend well. You can add some additional superfoods like spirulina, chlorella, turmeric, maca or wheatgrass powder to boost the nutrient value of your morning drink. Leafy greens and fruit are high in fiber and nutrients, thus will keep you full and nourished. If you get hungry quickly after having your smoothie, it means you’re not drinking enough! Add more bananas and other ingredients to your smoothie.

4. Get Up and Move Every 30 Minutes

Metabolism slows down¹ if you stay in a fixed position for 30 minutes. Set the alarm on your Outlook or your phone to remind you to get up and away from your desk every half an hour. Do some stretching, walk around the office, roll your shoulders back and forth, or simply stand up and move while talking on the phone. The movement also helps balance blood sugar levels, improves the circulation and gets your oxygen flowing.

5. Sauté Vegetables in Water

Just as avoiding refined sugar is important, so is avoiding unhealthy trans fats found in fried and processed foods, margarine and shortening and anything with “partially hydrogenated” fats. You should also avoid saturated animal fats. Although there has been a lot of controversy about them lately, the evidence² suggest that they might not be safe for your health. Canola, vegetable, soybean and corn oils are marketed as “heart healthy” oil choices for cooking and baking. However, they mainly contain PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids), which oxidize when heated and become rancid. Rancid oils are toxic³ and cause inflammation in the body. According to the Department of Health and Human Services and American Heart Association, chronic inflammation might cause diseases such as atherosclerosis, arthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, food intolerances, diabetes, fibromyalgia, heart disease and in some cases even cancer. It also accelerates the aging process. Simply sauté your veggies with water! You can also steam them or bake in the oven using a little bit of water instead of oil. Once your food is cooked, you can then add healthy fats to your meal in the form of avocado, raw nuts, and seeds or a little drizzle of cold-pressed unrefined oil, e.g. coconut, olive or avocado oil.

6. Replace Bread and Other Baked Goods with Vegetables

Refined flour found in bread and other baked goods gets converted into sugar in your bloodstream pretty rapidly. Just as refined sugar, it causes blood sugar highs and lows, which in the long term might lead to excess weight gain, insulin resistance and even type 2 diabetes. There’s something about bread that keeps a lot of people addicted, whether it’s gluten, bread’s crispy texture or the sugar rush effect it has on the body. Many people find it difficult to have a small piece of bread. Therefore it’s best to avoid it altogether and replace it with healthier options. Another reason why you might consider avoiding bread and other flour products is that a diet of refined foods leaves your body malnourished, constipated, enervated and vulnerable to chronic illness. Simply replace your bread, pasta or other baked goods to veggies like pumpkin, sweet potato, broccoli, beets, carrots, zucchini, etc. You can bake, steam, sauté or boil them. When prepared well, veggies are absolutely delicious and will leave you nourished and satisfied.

7. Go For a Walk Immediately After a Meal

Walking immediately after a meal will help you balance blood sugar levels. As you already know, stable blood sugar levels are vital for maintaining a healthy weight, feeling energized and avoiding cravings. After you finish your lunch or dinner, go for a brisk, 30-minute walk. Because walking is a low impact form of exercise, it shouldn’t cause any digestive distress. Studies show that even low impact exercise might prevent metabolic syndrome and its drawbacks on your health. Another great way to improve your health and burn extra calories is to “force” yourself to walk by parking your car a block away or getting off the bus or train a stop earlier. Also, don’t forget an opportunity to take the stairs instead of an elevator! This might not seem like much, but all extra movement adds up and makes you healthier and slimmer!

8. Replace Dairy or Store-Bought Plant Milk to Homemade Plant Milk

The dangers of dairy to one’s health are pretty widely known nowadays, and many people are turning to plant-based milk. However, store-bought plant-based milk is often very processed and contain many additives like refined sugar, oils, carrageenan, flavorings, and preservatives. It’s very easy to make your own plant-based milk! You can find a simple step by step recipe here.

9. Have Vegetable Soup For Dinner

Consuming soup can enhance satiety and reduce energy intake. Due to their high water content, liquid foods, like soup, make you feel fuller and satiated. In a study when the soup was consumed, participants reduced meal energy intake by 20%. Moreover, vegetable soup is full of minerals, vitamins, and fiber, which keep your body nourished and functioning well.

10. Practice Sensual, Distraction-Free Eating

When you eat while watching TV or a YouTube video, scrolling Facebook or checking your phone, you’re not fully present. We’re sensual beings and eat with all our senses: taste, sight, smell, touch and even hearing (think crunchy food)! When you’re distracted during your meal, you might fill your belly and get all the calories you need, but your brain does not register the full eating experience. Thus even if you’re full, you’re not completely satisfied and might find yourself marching to a fridge or cupboard for snacks after dinner. When we’re distracted, we’re unaware of the food decisions we make. Practicing mindful eating might help you make healthier choices, eat the appropriate portions for your body size and feel more satisfied with your meals. Make your meal a beautiful ritual and experience: serve your food in beautiful plates, light up some candles (at least for dinner), switch off your gadgets, eat slowly and savor every single bite! Mindful eating can result in significant changes in weight and eating behavior.

Image Source:

http://ift.tt/1WO9FFy Click Here For More Articles (function(){var s=document.createElement("script"); s.type="text/javascript"; s.async=true; s.src="http://ift.tt/1TkN5DL"; var t=document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t);})(); via Blogger http://ift.tt/2jnlPs8

#Blogger

0 notes