#I have too many crops and caps of this scene

[shellbilee]

Hey There Darlin' - Chapter 4

A Glen Powell RPF Series

Comment if you'd like to be tagged! x

Glen feels like he's buzzing.

Like the kind of buzzing you feel when you've had one too many cups of coffee, or a hit of pre workout just before a big gym session.

Except this time, he knows it has nothing to do with caffeine.

It's Billie.

He’s known her for less than twenty-four hours, but already he feels like he can’t get enough of her. Of her voice, her eyes, her lips, of her smile. Her fucking gorgeous smile.

Glen looks over when he sees a black Ford pick up pulling up a few spaces away, his eyes widening in surprise when he sees Billie step out of the car. He sucks in a breath as he looks her over, feeling his muscles clench as his eyes run over her body. Her thick legs, her round ass, her toned abdomen peeking out from beneath the cropped shirt she’s wearing. It’s enough to send him spinning.

Fuck.

He looks back at his reflection in his rearview mirror, running his fingers through his hair and putting his cap back on. He bares his teeth, checking for any missed pieces of food, before letting out a heavy breath and getting out of his car.

“Billie!”

Glen sees her look up at his call, a happy smile parting her lips when she sees him. He jogs the short distance over to her, watching as she puts her phone away and reaches up to shield her face from the afternoon sun. 

“Nice wheels” he says, gesturing to her pick up behind her, Billie’s smile widening.

“Thanks. I like yours too”.

Glen grins, glancing back over at his own Chevy Silverado, his big silver truck standing out like a shining beacon in the Ikea parking lot.

“Can I ask you a question?” Billie asks as they start walking towards the entrance, Glen watching the way her long ponytail bobs as she walks. 

The colour reminds him of roasted espresso beans, with ribbons of warm chocolate rippling through.

“Shoot”.

“It must be really hard for you to just, go out shopping? I mean everywhere you go, you kind of risk being stampeded by fans” Billie says, looking at the building entrance and back at Glen, “It didn’t even occur to me what this might be like for you, and now I feel a bit stupid that I asked you to come along. To Ikea of all places”.

Glen laughs and shakes his head. “Billie, I’d have said yes to anything you said if it meant that I got to spend more time with you”.

Glen loves the way her smile grows then, the soft blush that creeps into her golden skin from his words.

She has no idea how fucking gorgeous she is.

“But to answer your question, yes, it can be hard. It’s not something I really thought about though, at least until Top Gun. That kind of changed everything”.

Billie laughs, and Glen immediately decides that her laugh is one of his new favourite sounds.

“I mean, not to go all fan girl on you, but I can see why that happened. You were pretty memorable in that movie” Billie says, offering a soft, sheepish smile and pulling her ponytail forward so that it tumbles down her shoulder.

“Yeah, as the asshole character” Glen replies, teasing another chuckle from Billie that makes his stomach flip.

“Well you did sort of save the day at the end, so perhaps that’s more the reason?” Billie reasons, her shoulders lifting in an adorable shrug, “Or you know, there’s the whole beach scene too, you were kind of gorg---, I mean, hard to forget in that”.

Glen turns to Billie with a raised eyebrow, willing her to continue talking. Instead he sees her mash her lips together, her eyes squeezing shut and her brow furrowing for a moment. She looks up at Glen a second later, her eyes big and beautiful, flashing with what Glen can only describe as embarrassment. 

“I’m going to shut up now, because I’ve said too much and I’m making an idiot of myself”.

Glen drops his head back and laughs, clapping his hands together.

“You know, I’d be quite happy to recreate that scene for you if you really wanted to see it again. Private screening, just for you”

Billie laughs and shoves him playfully. 

“You’re trouble, you know that?”

Glen doesn’t answer, instead flashing Billie his most charming grin.

“Alright so tell me, what kind of couch are we looking for?” Glen asks when they reach the entrance, cold, air-conditioned air blasting them as they walk through, “How many seats? Fold out? Material? Where is it going in your house?”

Billie bites her bottom lip again, and Glen has to put his hands on his hips to stop himself from grabbing her face and kissing her.

“I can’t answer any of those questions except that it’s going in my living room” Billie says, lifting her hands up in an I-don't-know-gesture’, the two walking through to the first of the showrooms.

“Okay so do you have any ideas of what you’re after then?” he asks, pausing when Billie leans over to run her hand over a navy throw blanket.

“A colour that Nugget’s fur won’t be so noticeable on. That’s about it so far”.

Glen laughs. 

“Okay so no dark colours then” he says as they browse the concept bedroom, the theme an earthy mix of whites, browns and deep greens. 

They move onto the next room - another bedroom, this one decorated in an urban, industrial theme. It’s all exposed brick walls and black fixtures, the bed linen a tangle of moody greys and dark navy. It reminds Glen of his own style at home, making him think of the dark charcoal sheets that are currently on his bed.

Sheets, he thinks, that would look great under Billie’s naked body.

Fuck.

His mind wanders for the tenth time since he’s been here, looking over to find Billie bending over to pick up and inspect a large terracotta coloured cushion. All of a sudden, his eyes are glued to her ass, her round, peachy ass in her bright blue, skin tight shorts. 

He imagines it in just a pair of panties and nothing else, a deep wine colour, a tiny, lace and silk number that covers next to nothing. He imagines her bent over in front of him, a cheek in each of his hands, her skin soft and buttery smooth as he kneads her supple flesh.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. 

Glen exhales deeply, squeezing his eyes shut and forcing himself to get his thoughts in check. He looks up a moment later to see Billie taking a photo of the tag on the cushion she's holding, before dropping it back onto the bed and making her way into the next room.

“Maybe suede?” Billie asks, running her hand over the back of a grey suede loveseat she's just stopped in front of, Glen following close behind. 

“Probably not the best for fur though” Glen counters, Billie nodding in agreement and leaning her hip against the couch as she looks around the new room.

Glen hears laughter up ahead and he turns to see a group of girls walking towards the room they're in. There's four of them, all eighteen or so, laughing and chatting away at each other as they walk. 

He exhales heavily through his nose. Young girls were always tough to deal with when he was out - they made the most noise. They also posted everything on social media. 

The last thing he wants is fan attention when he's out with Billie, or worse, paparazzi following him in Ikea of all places. He knows from past experience it’s one of the quickest ways to freak out a girl he likes, particularly one that isn’t in the spotlight like Billie. 

He has a split second to make a decision. 

And so, he does.

“I think I like grey or ta--”

Billie’s words are abruptly cut short when Glen grabs her hand, pulling her into a nearby alcove behind the bedroom's wardrobe.

“Are we hiding?” Billie whispers after a moment, confusion evident on her face as she looks up at Glen in front of her.

He nods.

For a second he can’t think of anything except Billie, about how fucking gorgeous she is, about how right at this current moment she’s pressed up against him against a wardrobe, her fingers still wrapped in his.

Billie frowns, an amused, but confused expression on her face, Glen watching as she leans back to poke her head out of the alcove.

Glen sees her face transform with understanding when she sees what Glen is hiding from, the sound of the girls laughing and talking now evident inside the room. She leans back in towards Glen, a soft smile on her face, and it takes everything Glen has not to lean in and kiss her right there and then.

They both still when they hear the voices come closer, Glen's grip on Billie's hand tightening. He feels a momentary sting of alarm, all manner of potential scenarios now playing out in his head.

His chest tightens as he sucks in a deep breath, panic suddenly taking over his brain.

Fuck. Here we go.

He hears footsteps walk into the alcove and Glen isn't sure what to do, his thoughts immediately silenced when Billie reaches for his jaw and pulls his mouth to hers.

Oh, Billie.

In an instant every part of him relaxes, concerns from just a moment ago seemingly forgotten. Her lips are soft against his, moving against his in a tender kiss, her free hand cupping his jaw and holding his face to hers. He releases her other hand and searches for her waist, his fingers finding the bare skin beneath her short shirt and gripping at her warm flesh.

She's everywhere, all at once, the sweet taste of her mouth, the softness of her lips, the intoxicating scent of her skin, every single one of his senses suddenly drowning in her. Glen's heart races in his chest, his brain unable to think of anything else except Billie.

He hears the awkward stammering of the intruding girl, but it's barely audible above his heart beat in his ears. Just when Glen thinks he could die right here and now, Billie breaks away and turns her head, her hand still holding his face to her neck. He realises she’s shielding him, hiding his face from the unknown girl, his chest all but heaving as his mouth hangs less than an inch from her neck.

“Oh um, sorry” Billie says with a mischievous exaggerated giggle, the other girl muttering her own apology.

Glen barely listens as the girl backs away out of the alcove, unable to concentrate on anything except Billie's neck. He breathes in her scent, delicious and warm, forcing himself to stay still. It takes everything he has not to close that one inch gap and press his lips to Billie’s throat, every single fibre in his body screaming at him to drag his tongue along her skin.

Some part of him hears the girl return to her friends, the group giggling and quickly scurrying out of the showroom moments later. Reluctantly he pulls away when Billie releases his face, a heavy breath leaving his mouth as he does. Billie looks back at him with bright, wide eyes, Glen hyper aware that her chest is still pressed to his and his fingers are still gripping the warm skin of her waist. His thoughts are all but blank, except for how much he wants to do that all over again. 

He's buzzing again, stronger now, the feel of Billie's lips against his seemingly burnt into his brain. He drops his head back against the wall behind him and looks down at her with an incredulous smile, words struggling to form in his mind.

“Th---that was---”.

“Some quick thinking?” Billie interrupts, finishing his sentence for him and flashing a gentle grin.

He opens his mouth to speak but no words come out, Billie laughing and grabbing his hand from her waist. He says nothing as she wraps her fingers in his and steps away from him, pulling on his hand so that his body peels away from the wall and follows her back out into the bedroom.

“C'mon you, we've gotta find me a couch”.

---

Billie

“Are you sure you’re okay with those? I can carry one if you need”.

Glen looks down at her and shakes his head, two furniture flat packs nestled firmly under each of his arms. Billie forces herself to keep her eyes trained on his face, fighting the urge to stare at his thick biceps.

“No need darlin’, I got this”.

Billie exhales silently. 

How is his voice so damn attractive?

How does he make that ONE WORD sound so damn attractive?

How is ALL of him so damn attractive?

She swallows thickly.

She still can’t believe how bold she’d been earlier, still not quite believing that she’d kissed Glen. It was a split second idea that needed a split second decision. And she’d done it without a second thought.

She’d kissed Glen Powell.

The look on his face when she’d pulled away had made it all worth it though, and it had taken everything she had not to lean back in and kiss him up against the wall of the Ikea wardrobe. 

God.

To say she was attracted to him was an understatement, now even more so if that was even possible. To his gorgeous green eyes, his devastatingly sexy smile, his broad, muscled chest. If she were a cartoon, she was pretty certain she’d be drawn with permanent heart shaped eyes every time she looked at him. 

Billie pulls out her keys when they reach her car, unlocking the tailgate and stepping back to allow Glen to unload the flat packs into her tray. 

After much searching she’d ended up finding a couch she liked - an ‘L’ shaped three seater with a chaise extension, in a rich caramel coloured leather. There hadn’t been any left in stock though, so she’d instead ordered it, with delivery expected early next week.

She’d also found a new wooden end table and a small oak bookshelf that she loved, both of which Glen was currently hauling into her car.

Billie opens the front door of her pick up and throws the bag of assorted cream and grey cushions she'd also bought onto the passenger seat, closing the door and turning around in time to see Glen shutting her tailgate. He reaches up to readjust his hat, his sandy blonde hair peaking out from beneath it, an effortlessly handsome smile on his chiselled face. 

Billie wonders idly if he has any idea of the effect he has on her. Or on women in general for that matter.

“So I know we’ve spent the better part of the afternoon together, and at the risk of sounding needy, can I ask what you’re doing for dinner?”.

Billie can’t help the smile that tugs at her lips then, her face falling a second later when she remembers she actually does have plans.

“I've actually got a dinner to go to, a house-warming barbecue up in the hills”.

She feels her heart fall when his face drops, and in an instant she wishes she hadn't RSVP'd to her Saturday night plans.

“My boss just bought a new place” Billie explains looking down at her hands and then back up at Glen again, “but---, I’m free all day tomorrow?”.

His face instantly lights up at her words and suddenly her heart is soaring again, his gorgeous grin returning.

“It’s a date”.

Billie laughs and tilts her head, raising an eyebrow. “Does that mean today counts as our first date then?”.

Glen shrugs adorably. “That depends”.

“On?”

“Whether or not you liked it. If you didn’t, then no, it doesn’t count and tomorrow can be our real first date”.

Billie laughs out loud, shaking her head so that her ponytail swishes along her shoulder.

“I like unconventional dates” she says lifting up her hands in a shrug, “There isn’t so much pressure”.

Glen nods in agreement.

“Unconventional” he says repeating her word as if he’s thinking of ideas, his grin suddenly growing even wider.

Billie laughs again, but she can't help the frown that suddenly bends her brow.

“All of a sudden I’m scared to ask about what you’ve now got planned for tomorrow”.

Glen winks conspiratorially. 

“I’ll message you with the time”.

“Can I at least have a hint?”

Glen shakes his head.  

“Nope” he says, making the ‘p’ sound pop, “You said you like surprises”.

Bille laughs and rolls her eyes, immediately cursing herself for telling him that earlier.

“So I’ll see you tomorrow?” Glen says, pushing himself off her car and stepping towards her.

Billie only nods, a school-girl smile threatening to split her face.

She sucks in a breath when he leans in towards her, his lips grazing her cheek with a gentle kiss. She closes her eyes momentarily, opening them back up when he steps away, seeing him look down at her with a smile that makes her knees weak.

“Have a good night Billie”

Billie lets out a shaky, silent breath and smiles.

“You too Glen”.

He winks at her and suddenly Billie seriously considers cancelling her dinner plans, watching as he walks off towards his truck. He turns to look back at her when he reaches his car, that same damn gorgeous smile etched on his face as he waves at her. She stays frozen by her car, her mind reeling as she mentally goes over the afternoon she's just had, reaching up to wave back at him.

Moments later he's in his truck and driving away, leaving Billie standing alone in the Ikea parking lot with nothing but a stomach full of nerves and a mind full of excitement for tomorrow.

---

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[xxfaggatronxx]

Inspired by @yakowo ‘s drawing

Daddy Dom Price x Baby Gay Gaz

Part 2: Gaz

Gaz never thought he was gay. Or bisexual. Or whatever it was called. Sure, he had taken a few peeks in the communal showers on base, but who hadn’t? And as a kid his mom had let him try her makeup, but she was always sweet and kind. The one thing that changed everything was his Captain, John Price.

Maybe it was the way he was so kind and fatherly, a presence Gaz had missed in his life when his father passed at the age of eight. Or it could have been the time Price had given him praise, was patient when he had adjusted to the task force. But, it was probably the time he saved his life.

A mission going sideways, Price flinging himself on top of Gaz to keep him covered from enemy fire, the feeling of the warm weight pressing on his body, the thick thighs straddling his hips, so similar to…. Other experiences his hands had flown up with muscle memory, resting on his Captain’s hips while Prince yelled for backup.

Needless to say, Gaz left that mission with every excuse to keep his lap covered.

But going to a gay bar? That felt like a monumental step. One he felt like should be taken with a couple shots and… maybe a few more for good measure. ‘Liquid Courage’, as Soap called it anyways.

Stepping into the bar…. It felt like any other bar. Gaz hadn’t known what he was expecting; maybe a strip club with skinny, pale men shaking their asses on poles with lots of makeup? Because that certainly wasn’t it. The lights were dim, colors flashing with the smell of sweat, booze, and too many body sprays. Just like the barracks.

He was greeted with the sight of most people… simply relaxing. Some were dancing, sure, but some were curled up on each other’s laps, odd dog-like masks obscured some people’s faces, and there was even a small group of people in dresses, and he had to do a double take when he saw a man with a beard and belly in a skintight dress.

He saw a man with his back towards him, and an odd green cloth in his left pocket. Lots of people had little bandanas in their pockets, actually. He approached the man, and saw people touching him, so it was probably okay, he figured. Gaz hesitantly laid his palm on the man’s lower back, tracing down until he reached their ass, giving it a firm squeeze before stuffing a ten into the back pocket. “…Care for a dance?”

The guy even leaned back into the touch, humming deeply until Gaz felt the leather of his jacket tickle his nose slightly, the rough feel of a beard rubbing against his jaw as the man backed up, pressing his round ass against Gaz’s crotch. Good god, this was *fun*, why hadn’t he done this before?

His hands rested on the strangers hips, pulling him back to grind on him slowly, resting his chin over the man’s shoulder with a soft, shaky sigh. He ran his hands over the man’s front, thumbs dipping between their belt and hips as he heard a familiar chuckle, and a husky, low voice whisper in his ear. “You’re new to the scene, aren’t you?”

Gaz froze, swallowing thickly. “….Captain?” By the way his ‘dance’ partner froze, he realized that he had been recognized too. Price stepped off to the side, eyes wide as he stared at Gaz, as if shocked to be seen like that: leather jacket, leather cap, tight gray jeans and with money stuffed into his pants like… like a stripper.

His boss… his captain was frozen in front of him, and took another step back. Gaz took a step towards Price, reaching out to place a hand on his waist, pulling him closer until their hips were pressed flush. “Wait…. I… can I have my dance still… sir?” Something moved in the corner of his eye, and he felt rough leather under his chin, lifting slightly as he gasped.

That damn crop. Price leaned in, his beard scratching Gaz’s neck, making the younger shudder and his eyes flutter closed. “Please… Sir,” Price returned a smile, pressing a kiss to his neck, and Gaz’s hands slipped to his boss’s waist, holding him with shaky hands. Price chuckled, smelling like leather, tabbaco, and rum. “…You asked so nicely, Kyle… I think you deserve a reward…”

[jackietaylorsghost]

would you be willing to share some tips on gif making? your gifs are always so pretty i feel inspired to start making my own, but i dont even know what program to use 🥲 please master yoda, teach me your ways 🙏🙏🙏

ahhh thank you so much, that’s so kind of you to say. i can share some tips sure yeah! first of all i use photoshop, their most recent edition, I think it’s 2020. i pay for it cus i keep meaning to find a download and not doing so but you can find them sometimes in the tumblr tags but it might be an older version!

in terms of tips, the main one is to always use high quality clips when you screencap! you should be aiming for 1080 but if the scene is well lit then you can get away with 720. my top trick here is to use Firefox because you can actually record directly from proper streaming sites without it being blacked out eg netflix apple prime etc etc. On a PC you can hit the windows button + g and it brings up a control panel which allows you to screen record. I’m not sure how you do this on a Mac but I’m sure there’s a way. I never torrent episodes to gif, I always do it like this and the quality is extremely good. But if you’re able to torrent, that’s another option too.

mostly really it’s just about playing around in photoshop until you get comfy with how it all works. the more you play about in it, the more each adjustment you can use makes sense instead of being overwhelming. my way of making gifs is just using adjustments to increase/decrease brightness/contrast/colours until i like the way it looks and that’s really the most important thing, finding your style and what you like! i can honestly pick certain gif makers out without seeing a url by seeing how the gif is coloured and sharpened. for me, i really like strong a strong contrast when im colouring, so i play around a lot the brightness/contrast and levels adjustment layer to get the contrasts where I want them to be. the adjustment layers i tend to use the most are the aforementioned ones and then colour balance/selective colour/vibrance. really, just play around and it soon becomes less overwhelming and starts to make more sense. also if you’re ever stuck tumblr has a wealth of tutorials! I usually just google what I’m specifically looking for and so many come up.

in terms of how i make my gifs, i always load my caps (cap using potplayer and again you can find so many tutorials on how to do this and what settings to have but if you want I can share my settings when im on my computer next - just shoot me another ask and then load them in using ‘load files into stack’ in the windows menu in photoshop) and then crop, colour, sharpen. some ppl sharpen first and then colour - again it just depends on what you wind up preferring! for cropping, don’t use the change image size, always change the canvas size to what size you want your gifs to be being mindful of tumblr sizes (if you Google tumblr gif sizes a lot of templates will come up showing you what sizes to stick to but in general one gif should be 540 in width and if you want 2 side by side it should be 268). from there you can hit the shift + t button and then adjust your gif to how you want it to look without messing up the proportions.

always always sharpen your gifs! you can do this in so many ways and again it’s about finding how you like it to look in terms of what sharpening settings you use. again there are so many tutorials out there explaining how to do this and the different settings you can use so really it’s just again playing around until it makes sense and you find the way you like it to look! i actually use a sharpening action i found on tumblr that i use twice on all my gifs but i can’t find the original place i found it now but you can search ‘tumblr sharpening action photoshop’ and they will come up.

im sooo bad at explaining things which is why ive suggested googling for tutorials because there are so many people who have such useful and well written tutorials that helped me so much when i was trying to learn things on photoshop. i found it SO overwhelming at first but the more you use it, the easier it becomes like anything else, so my main advice would be don’t be intimidated and just play around and have fun. the more you play and click around with things, the more sense it will start to make and you will find your style and way of doing things!! if you have any other questions, feel free to shoot me another ask and i will try to help 🩵

[bakerstreetbabble]

Granada TV Series Review: "The Speckled Band" (S01, E06)

"The Adventure of the Speckled Band" seems to be a favorite with many readers, despite its many obvious plot holes (snakes don't drink milk or climb ropes, for example). Holmes's cool head in the face of the belligerent Grimesby Roylott's threats and the middle-of-the-night stakeout waiting for "the speckled band" to arrive are fairly dramatic and entertaining scenes, and the gothic horror of Mr. Roylott's messy end is rather gripping.

The Granada adaptation is quite well done, and it adheres very closely to the outline of its source material. There are a few changes that the viewer will notice in comparison to the original story. A few examples:

The sisters are no longer twins. Julia is 5 years older than Helen.

The cheetah on the grounds of Grimesby Roylott's estate has been replaced by a leopard.

Holmes wears the "traditional" deerstalker cap, rather than the bowler shown in Mr. Paget's illustrations. (To be fair, there is no indication in the text as to Holmes's choice of headwear.)

Other than those (very minor) changes, the episode proceeds in much the same way as the Doyle narrative.

As I mentioned above, the nasty confrontation with Mr. Roylott at the Baker Street flat is one of the more enjoyable scenes in the original story, and the adaptation in the TV episode does not disappoint! The little twitchy half-grins that Jeremy Brett flashes, as the angry Grimesby delivers his monologue, are absolutely priceless. Brett's gleeful laugh in the face of the verbal onslaught is the cherry on top of the sundae. And, of course, the lovely moment when Holmes bends the poker back into shape is delightful as well.

“Ha! You put me off, do you?” said our new visitor, taking a step forward and shaking his hunting-crop. “I know you, you scoundrel! I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler.” My friend smiled. “Holmes, the busybody!” His smile broadened. “Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!” Holmes chuckled heartily. “Your conversation is most entertaining,” said he. “When you go out close the door, for there is a decided draught.”

Just a bit later in the episode, when Holmes and Watson meet up with Helen Stoner again, the writers add a funny little moment in which Watson, clearly still very impressed with his friend's handling of Mr. Roylott's bullying manners, tells Miss Stoner that "Holmes sent him off with a flea in his ear!" I'm not 100% sure what that phrase actually means, but it made me chuckle. David Burke's excellent portrayal of the faithful sidekick never ceases to impress me.

​Before Holmes and Watson encounter the deadly snake face-to-face, there is an intense monologue from Jeremy Brett that is very effective in setting up the scene to come, as he meditates aloud on the dangerous nature of the evil Grimesby Roylott, a doctor gone wrong. The monologue is very nearly word-for-word from Doyle's orginal:

When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. This man strikes even deeper...

My only real quibble with this particular adaptation is the scene that comes after Mr. Roylott meets his demise. After the horror of the snake, Holmes's brief explanation of how he put together the last few details seems just a bit anti-climactic. His somewhat emotionless statement that the death of Grimesby Roylott does not weigh heavily on his conscience, followed by the whistle of the train, is a bit too abrupt an ending for the episode.  Overall, though, I found the episode a very engaging one, and quite a bit more interesting than the previous episode, "The Naval Treaty." A faithful adaptation and well worth my time.

[fourseasonsfigs]

Fig Fashion Week: Fendi Wolf Tail Zhe

This blog's Fig Fashion Week is all about the figs that celebrate our two favorites in their designer best. And who better to round out this week's series of posts than one of my favorites in this style!

This fig was part of the original 6-set Junzhe Fashion Show fig series I posted about back in October/ November of last year (wow, that seems like forever ago), but I didn't post about it then because I didn't have it. Like all of those figs, I missed this the first time it was on sale. Unlike those figs, this one was not easily available for a decent price by resellers on Xianyu, which was a huge bummer because it was my favorite one of the series! I finally found him for a slightly less unreasonable price bundled with some other items, so I snapped him up. Totally worth it! No surprise he was hard / expensive to find - I think a lot of people love this fig too.

And no wonder, when the inspiration for this fig is so fantastic.

(ooh these shoes!)

Do I love everything about this outfit on him? Yes. Did I save up every single picture of this outfit I could find? Yes! Can I stop posting pics? No!!

Well actually I am forced to stop now since I'm out of pics, which just means I need to switch over to video...

He looks fantastic. I'm not even sure I'd like this outfit on anyone else (well, aside from Gong Jun), but wow does he pull it off. It's just something with the very fitted pants through the hips that emphasizes his trim waist, while the softness of the sweater offsets the structured lines of the cropped jacket. This is my favorite type of look on Zhehan, where he looks out-of-this-world incredible and also very huggable. Strong yet soft!

The fig is so cute! No wonder he was so popular.All the little details plus the sweetest little smile!

Cats in the eyes are always a fan favorite in the Figthusiast household! I like having little pictures in the eyes. I have a whole series of dolls with intricate scenes in the eyes, which sounds a bit odd (and probably is!) but I think it is clever and adds so much interest. This particular look here is super cute.

He's holding the Fendi bag here that you can barely see in one of the pictures, of course upgraded with his own initials!

I'm going to have to find a better shot of the bag he's modeling. For the blog!

The fig maker did a great job with this entire fig, but I really like how they rendered his hair all the way around. The front is so cute with the silver-wrapped pieces, and same in the back.

He does stand up ok, enough to take pictures without a standee, anyway. He's another one of those figs that can stand but is not super stable, and if you accidentally bonked the end of a table he was on, he would definitely fall over.

He stands tall and handsome though, even with the big ol' cap, so this is some quality fig engineering for sure.

Fantastic job on the face and the soft little rose in the cheeks. I like the shininess of his shoes too, and the little shoe lace details.

The fig maker rendered the whole soft-yet-structured nature of this look beautifully. Fig Zhehan also pulls off this very elegant, soft slouchy style very well! And of course, his hair looks fantastic!

I'd love to have fig makers make more figs of this outfit! I'm really, really happy with this one.

This is a good shot to see how the hair comes off the neck and back in back.

And of course, his fancy ballcap, rocking his very own initials!

You might recognize the other 5 of the Junzhe Fashion Show in the series there! The box card didn't make it to me in my Xianyu purchase, which is a bit of a bummer but what can you do. It's not easy to buy from overseas, so I've learned to let many things go! Having the fig is what is most important.

Material: PVC

Fig Count: 335

Scene Count: 24

Rating: No big bad wolf here!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[tylrgalpins]

awesome thanks!! i’d love to request a doctor who icon/header pack if that’s ok.

for the header, any shot of the tardis flying away where the tardis is somewhat small. for reference, i like the ending scene in eve of the daleks (13x07). doesn’t have to be that specific one if the pictures don’t work out, but something around that size. anything from the intro could work too. if you are able, i’d love for it to be a gif, but if not then just a regular header is lovely!

for the icon, any picture of the tenth doctor and jack harkness together. it may be hard to find a good picture to use, since there aren’t a lot of them super close together. if that’s the case, then any picture of just jack!

i’d love for the colors of the header & icon to match too! if you use the eve of the daleks scene for the header i love the colors of the sky in it, so if you could just make them more vibrant that would be great, and the same pink for the icon. if you use a different scene, then anything purple and/or pink.

lmk if there’s anything else you need and/or if you need anymore info/clarification! thanks again!!💕

hello, although I do watch doctor who. it's not a show i'm really invested in and i don't really know set episodes, when characters are in them etc. And because there is so many episodes I don't have the time to comb through screencaps searching for the right pictures, it would just be too time consuming and I don't have much spare time as it is. If you would still like the icons, please can you use this website to find your own screen caps and then submit them to me and I can turn them into the header and icons, please just make sure there is enough room around the characters so I can remove the background and that there is not heads cropped etc. I can't make a gif header as I don't have doctor who downloads, and I also don't take requests for gif headers

[lemondropsonice]

"You gotta get out of this dark place." - SN: 13x12

[lightsonparkave]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LIGHTS ON PARK AVE! WE’RE OFFICIALLY A THREE-YEAR-OLD TODDLER TODAY. Join the celebrations by submitting a work! There’s a little less than a week and a half left until Round 36 closes on August 31, and you have 161 prompts to choose from. There are no minimum work requirements or limit to how many works you can submit.

Not sure you can finish your work in time? Little messages are great presents too. What has the past year of Lights on Park Ave been like for you? Do you have a favorite prompt or round? A favorite LoPA work? Want to make a rec list of your favorites or wax poetic and show some love for a specific work and/or creator? Go for it. Let the Steve/Tony community know! The LoPA askbox is open or if you want to make your own Tumblr post or tweet, you can mention @lightsonparkave​ or tag #lightsonparkave. Whatever method you choose, I’ll make sure to share your message/post on here and Twitter.

Or maybe you’re not up to making anything this time. In that case, let’s take a walk down memory lane. Here are all 35 Lights on Park Ave works for previous rounds.

ART

Any 

Steve in a crop top and Tony in an open shirt dancing in a nightclub with their middle fingers up - @soraempty​

A WIP of old Steve and Tony, with Tony wearing a shirt with Cap’s shield on it - @soraempty​

The boys cuddling on a camping trip - @venomous-soliloquy (WIP)​​

AU 

“A Monster Rendezvous” - @jetblackfeeling​ it’s capwolf’s rut season and tony has a gift

Portraits of vampire husbands - Kota RiverRoad (@unstable-river) Anthonio was originally born as an aristocrat in Italy. Centuries later finds his future husband Stephen as a soldier on the battlefield of Waterloo, saving him from certain death. Tony being an inventor in the thriving renaissance and Steve fighting in a major historical battle. Tony got changed by a kind doctore due to his poor health and heart problems. Living a double life since then. How could their life look like nowadays?

“hot toasts and cold showers” - @jetblackfeeling​ (also on Tumblr) steve wants to get in the pants of the new tavern keeper in lowtown (pirate AU)​

MCU 

J. C. Leyendecker-inspired art of old Steve and Tony in formalwear at a gala - @pineapplebread “Will you be able to put up with me for another 56 more years?” “I am looking forward to it.”

EDIT

MCU

Two scenes from Civil War where Steve and Tony knowing each other - @meidui

FIC

616 & AU

“august in the heat” - @starvels​ A collection of ficlets for the Lights On Park Avenue round 24 prompts: featuring hurt/comfort, canon divergence and lots of pain. :)

AU

“Even If It Hurts” - @ralsbecket​​ While on a holiday vacation in Thailand, Stephanie and Tony's family are faced with the impossible.

“Our Corner of the Universe” - @mildlyholmes It's senior year, and Tony hates it here. He's still licking his wounds from his recent break-up with Pepper and would much rather hide up on the roof with a drink than join the party that's going on in his house. He doesn't expect Steve Rogers, beloved football captain and school heartthrob, to show up with just as heavy a heart. Late night talks turn into a tentative friendship that blossoms into a summer fling that is doomed to fail when they eventually go off to different colleges. Then, ten years later, they meet again at a friend's wedding for the first time since their tumultuous break-up. --- Including: rooftop conversations, a post-graduation summer fling, and learning from past mistakes as the years go by.

“for the love of renegades” - @meidui​ (also on Tumblr) Tony is a lonely millionaire with a drinking problem. Steve is a lonely personal trainer with anger issues. They sneak back and forth from LA to New York and somehow make it work.

“angels who sin” - @meidui​ (also on Tumblr) Summer air is thick and sweet, like Tony's voice pouring honey into Steve's throat, telling Steve more than he needs to know. He's here with his parents for the summer, he just finished his first year at college, he doesn't believe in God but his parents make him come to church. "They said you can help me find faith," Tony says, as mischievous as he is innocent, and Steve is as good as gone.

“Star-Crossed” - illogicalkat Tony watches the ocean. He watches the waves rolling in, cresting and crashing to the shore. He watches the surface, how it bends and curves out in the distance, how the sharks and the whales cut through it like it’s nothing while the surfers and swimmers are pummeled. He thinks about wading out into the water, he thinks about pushing deeper until his feet no longer touch the floor and just floating, letting the current take him out to sea. He thinks about how long he might float before he is returned to shore.

An excerpt from a soccer AU where Tony and Steve dislike each other instantly when Tony joins Steve’s team but eventually fall in love - @nostalgicatsea “It’ll be a fresh start,” Pepper had told him, tapping the signature line with her “special occasions only” Montblanc—as if downgrading to the U.S. from Spain was a momentous event that deserved to be celebrated—and the best and worst part of it was that she had sincerely believed it.

“all the world is only you and me” - illogicalkat Steve has trouble breathing, when the air gets this thick.

“Bonfire Promises” - Infinitywrites/@infinitywriters-blog​ As the age-old tradition goes, desired Alpha and Omega are bonded during the new moon night in a bonfire. And a Bonding in a Midsummer New moon night is considered very auspicious by the elders. The elders say the bond would last the seven lives the Alpha and Omega will have if they are soulmates. Though Steve scoffs at the story from his elders, secretly he loved the magic of being bound to one’s soulmate for all of eternity. (Or)Bonfires, Bonding and Soulmates

“Kings of Summer” - @gonetoarcadia A bonfire. The last night of summer. Confessions in the dark. Tony did always want to dance after the sun went down, and Steve wanted everything, even if it hurt.

AU/MCU

Excerpt from a post-Endgame soulmate AU where Steve wrestles with his emotions about his soul bond to Tony - @nostalgicatsea “What do you think would have happened to us after the battle if we hadn’t bonded?” You’d be dead, Steve thought. But Tony didn’t know that. Wasn’t talking about that.

This is an excerpt from a fic where Steve and Tony reunite ten years after a bad breakup and are keeping secrets from each other - @nostalgicatsea​ “You want me too, don’t you? I don’t think I was…I don’t think I’m misreading things.” Tony’s grip on Steve’s shirt was surprisingly strong as Steve finished tucking him in, preventing Steve from standing up properly.

Avengers Assemble

“Surprise Fairies” - Neverever (@captainneverever) “We’re fairies, Tony,” Steve said resignedly. Tony and Steve's Halloween takes an unexpected turn.

MCU

“Running Up That Hill” - illogicalkat Following the events of Civil War, Tony returns to New York while his husband, Steve, goes on the run.

“Tell me about despair, yours” - @ayapandagirl/Fluffypanda The dock creaks as Steve lowers himself, pulling off his socks and shoes to dip his feet in the water. It’s cold, something Steve probably should have expected in late October. 

A ficlet where Tony looks for Steve and finds out he turned into a werewolf - @ayapandagirl/Fluffypanda “Steve?” Tony asked the cold night air. “Please tell me you’re out here.” Wind whistled through the trees, bringing with it the smell of frost and decay. Tony shivered and turned his makeshift light to the animal path ahead of him. It was the only way forward.

“the rest we know” - @meidui (also on Tumblr)​ Tony's been chasing peace at his lakehouse for five years, but he knows it's over for him the moment Steve steps out of the car in that black leather jacket.

“he hung the moon” - @meidui​ (also on Tumblr) Steve lives on the moon now.

“i intend to end up here.” - @meidui​ (also on Tumblr) It’s 1945 and Steve has been assigned a K9, a German shepherd that he handpicked out of the litter.

“every card in the deck” - @meidui​ (also on Tumblr) Angsty things Steve and Tony have said to each other in the MCU, said again years later but happy this time.

“eyes closed forever to find you” - @meidui​ (also on Tumblr) It can’t all be pain, but so what if it was? The hurt always felt a little like love anyway, when it came from Steve.

“What He Didn’t Know Before” - @ayapandagirl/Fluffypanda (also on Tumblr) Steve falls in love

“your eyes look like coming home” - @arabellamonkey​/ArabellaAM (also on Tumblr) To this day, Steve still remembers his first thought —the first thing he yearned for— when he woke up in the 21st Century. He still hadn’t found out he was in the future; he hadn’t processed that what had once been his present was now the past. He hadn’t even started grappling with the alien concept that what he had never expected to live to see had become his present. Even before any of those thoughts appeared on his mind, a more simple, instinctive one had shone brightly. He just wanted to return home.

“even in my worst lies (you saw the truth in me)” - @arabellamonkey/ArabellaAM (also on Tumblr) When Tony has an accident in the middle of a battle, his teammates find out the secret he's been keeping for almost a year: he's Iron Man. The Avengers take it surprisingly well. Except for Steve, that is.

“i cannot be known (better than you know me)” - @meidui (also on Tumblr) Steve isn't as good as they say, Tony decides. He's a million and one times better.

“you cannot be known (better than i know you)” - @meidui (also on Tumblr) Steve learns a lot about Tony before he ever meets him.

MCU/TRN634 (CIVIL WARRIOR) CROSSOVER

“love and war” - @meidui​ (also on Tumblr) “Who the hell are you?” Tony demands as Steve stands up and instinctively gets between them, taking him in: Tony’s armour, but in his colours. His shield, but with Tony’s arc reactor in place of his star. “I’m from Earth-TRN634,” he says. “I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to stop your Civil War.”​

[princess-of-purple-prose]

sends you an ask again . like in my gaara ask, this time please tell me about iruka!!!! he is my babygirl . quite possibly my favorite character besides The Boy himself (those two also mean literally so much to me). but anyway feel free to tell me about any favorite/recent scenes you've read with him in them!!! :}

My sincere apologies for taking so long to respond, I promise I was mulling this over with great excitement :))) This is going to be. Long. First off I have to shake hands with you because he is ALSO my babygirl and probable second-favorite!!! (I think the tiers are: naruto, iruka-sasuke, everyone else) :) Second off, you sent this with UNCANNY timing, because I had just reached chapter... 532? When I got this? Nope, I checked, it was 534. And our boy literally showed up at the end of the chapter!!!

You said I could talk about anything, but I also don't wanna hand out too many possible spoilers to you, so the short of it is that naruto is training with this dude killer bee with the dual purpose of keeping the two of them out of the way from a larger conflict that concerns them, right? And naruto is explicitly being kept in the dark about why he’s actually being kept essentially confined in the space, though he’s rapidly growing suspicious. The reasons for keeping naruto ignorant are... well. They’re not wrong (naruto WOULD immediately jump into the fray if he knew what was going on, which could have potentially catastrophic consequences), but it feels intensely demeaning all the same

And I'd been stalling on going further out of sheer stress at how the issue might be handled, which only increased when iruka showed up because I was terrified iruka, who was sent to prevent naruto from escaping (even the government knows how close they are 😭😭 I’m normal), might also disrespect naruto’s autonomy :(

I wasn’t super excited to continue even to the chapter titled iruka’s impact (!!!) because iruka did in fact start off by lying. But!! In the ensuing conflict of naruto’s escape attempt, he does THIS!

[ID: A Naruto mangacap of Iruka and Shino’s father, Gen. Gen shouts, “Iruka, no!!!” but Iruka says, “Mister Gen, the lying stops now. Naruto can handle it. He needs to know the truth.” End ID]

Look at that!! He a) acknowledged people had been lying to naruto, b) affirmed naruto’s competence, and c) asserted he has a right to know what the fuck is going on!!!!! I love him so much oh my god!!!! Iruka indeed proceeds to explain what’s happening, naruto shouts that he isn’t going back, and THEN.

[ID: A Naruto mangacap. Iruka yells, “Enough! Do you know what you are to me?!” He and Naruto look at each other, breathing heavily. End ID]

(Screenreaders skip this line to avoid a caps lock scream) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. OH MY GOD. FUCK.

Well. You know what. I shan’t say more because you deserve to experience it on your own (unless you want me to skdjf idk), but I'll be honest! I was blinking a little quickly! My breathing was a little sniffly! I’ll permit myself to say that it is EXPLICITLY STATED that they both think of each other as family (plain text: explicitly stated that they both think of each other as family) and I just. I could ramble on for hours, but I’ll spare you and instead leave you with a final, poorly-cropped mangacap which basically sums up how I’m feeling rn

[ID: Iruka looks like he’s repressing tears with tight lips and creased eyebrows and making little “urk” sounds. He bows to someone in a cut-off panel. End ID]

[steve0discusses]

S5 Ep 29 Part 1: This Episode is Unbelievably Long

Dear lord this episode is long

Like so much happens in this freaking episode and I thought “wow it’s gonna take me so long to put this together.”

And, as it turned out,

showed up and cancelled everyone’s plans (like I was supposed to house-sit three pets this week for someone else to go on a nice vacation and lolololol) so now I actually have the time to like...make 3 parts out of this episode. Yes. 3 parts. There is over 60 caps that I’m gonna have to like edit at some point.

So we start off with our cursed card friends landing in an airport, where Tea gets immediately distracted by the shopping. She just dumped thousands of dollars on plane tickets, but she is a girl character, so she must be constantly spending money.

Enjoy this solid gold airport, PS. The rare 7th millennium item (11th? I forget how many there were)

Also, lets address that elephant in the room, well, two elephants. The first is the beetle jewelry that is super detailed, has no shadow, and clearly photoshopped on top of this image, which made me think that it must be what Tea purchased (it’s not, but don’t worry, we’ll see overly-detailed-beetle resurface where you least expect it later) and the second elephant is Teas outfit:

Like I guess the show makers were so focused on getting the history of Egypt somewhat right that they uhhhhhhhh forgot about the present. A buddy of mine went to see the pyramids about 2007-8 (right before the time it shut down for a while to tourists) and while it’s legally OK for tourists to wear whatever they want, the rest of the country covers up. Like she can do what she wants but this outfit is kind of awkward.

In fact, the line in the show was Tristan saying like “Man, now everyone thinks we’re a tourist” and it’s like yeah, dude, she’s wearing a crop top. The snowglobe was the last tell.

Also I do appreciate the “everyone thinks we’re a tourist” joke while standing next to a Pharaoh of Egypt, a said Pharaoh who could not be more of a tourist if he tried.

(read more under the cut)

So anyway, lets meet their guides (one of which is also in a crop top, but youknow, he spent a majority of his life under the freakin ground and I think wants to be as awkward as possible):

I laughed out loud when I saw these fools on screen.

Like yes, it makes sense, but wow you don’t expect to see Marik ever again after S3 ended. His voice sounds funny now, too, it might be a different actor? Or maybe I just never heard him not chewing up scenery in all the other scenes he’s been in.

(and like I lost he Marik font action at some point in the past two years, so yes, this is the font for Miho)

And, if you were hoping we’d actually get to talk to Marik and get a sip of his tea, well, we don’t. Would have loved to find out more about Marik and his Boat Time, but instead we have to do the...plot or whatever. We will never find out what the hell Marik was doing while everyone else died because of the Great Leviathan.

Probably nothing. Probably discovered MMO’s and has been drowning his anxiety in (tries to think of a different MMO than World of Warcraft now that it’s cancelled) Runescape? I think that’s an MMO? Does Second Life still exist? He’d play Second Life.

Marik informs us of the proper use of these cards, which, I guess he could have told us the whole time. Funny how it seemed like a problem that Pharaoh couldn’t read the backtatt scriptures, turns out it never mattered since the Ishtar family can...read...

So, if you remember, the tomb entrance of Marik’s fam was a plank on the ground, they have upscaled it somewhat. It uh...has a roof now?

This is a vibe. Not sure if this is Egyptian at all? Pretty sure it’s a spaceship, actually.

I’ll have you know, Bro looked at this and said “too bad Isis destroyed all the star wars stuff in the desert” and I was like “...Ishizu’s past self????” and he was like “no like literal ISIS. I was talking about reality.” And I looked that factoid up and what the actual hell.

Raise your hand if you also thought Marik was originally HELLA fired back in S2. Hell, he’s been fired ever since he killed his Dad (apparently removed his Dad’s backtatt with a knife and stuck it on his brother as a symbolic gross gesture). But apparently, he never got that pink slip and this guy just been living off of the undead payroll like the staples guy from Office Space.

Oh by the way, speaking of secretly living off the undead payroll despite not Doing Anything For So Freakin Long, Bakura’s here.

Please go back to the image of 2 jeeps in the desert.

Where the hell was Bakura?

This is a secret tomb that only Marik’s family could find so like...Bakura shouldn’t know where it is. Unless his memories from 5000 years ago can follow the change of topography that happens in 5000 years. I dunno, maybe? Maybe that magic ring could find it? But then again they’d be on the same highway, right?

Makes you think that he either tied himself to the roof, or just dove right into the trunk of the car, and I like both of those options.

Anyway it’s a kid’s show don’t think about it.

TBH this is each and every human being and their memories of middle school which they very much packed into a metaphorical vault and threw out the key. Like if you knew that certain memories were forgotten--and probably for a very good reason, would you lift up 3 God Cards to get Middle School back?

Pharaoh would.

While Pharaoh was told he had to go in alone, the rest of the kids follow as well because Yugi is actually made up of 5 people, not 2.

This was cute actually, I enjoyed this little snippet. We rarely get Yugi/Tea in the anime proper (unless it’s a filler arc made by a different team that didn’t air in Japan)

And so the necklace goblin finds another necklace.

You may be like “oh wow these poor animators that is 3 damn necklaces” but get ready for this 3rd necklace to not even remotely matter by the end of this episode.

So, A succession of events happen when Pharaoh holds up the 3 God Cards, I didn’t want to have to pull literally every single keyframe from this episode, so I’ll walk through these steps best I can. First off: the part of Bakura that’s been chilling in this necklace wakes up and actually gets off his ass.

Incredible. Fully thought they’d ignore that this S2 thing ever freakin happened.

So apparently all that fuss about the piece of the necklace and all that jazz was that Bakura wanted was to hitch a ride?

Can we talk about this?

How none of this would have happened without this guy:

If Bandit Keith had not pulled out a gun on Pegasus, he would not have been tossed into the ocean, picked up by Marik Isthar, mind controlled to steal Yugi Muto’s necklace, and then after busting out of mind control, decide to destroy said necklace, right when Bakura would show up to stick his soul inside of it.

Somehow Bandit Keith...BANDIT FREAKIN KEITH...is this vitally important to this final plot of Yugioh. And that is so wild to me how it’s all connecting back here.

This freakin guy. This is the destroyer of worlds. This is the guy who did it. Who managed to tip forth the domino that would end up with everyone’s ass roasted. Ironically, in a town called Domino.

Kind of incredible.

Also according to Dartz he might be dead. Maybe. It was kinda hard to tell what was happening in the Caltrain Station to Hell in California.

And during this bright beam of light, Pharaoh detaches himself from Yugi, which...it is a soul separate from a body, which is my definition of death in this show but like...

I uh...I mean he’s already dead. I don’t know. I don’t know if this qualifies as a death? Because unlike before when Yugi went to the Hell Desert of Los Altos, Pharaoh is still in the necklace technically? (which we’ll get to later) I get somewhat confused by where the hell Pharaoh is going, which again, we’ll get to later in this episode.

I may have to count this as a death eventually I just don’t know.

Ass first into the afterlife. That’s how he’d do it, and that’s how he should do it, it is not a bad ass, lest we forget.

Anyway, that was Part 1 of this long ass episode, next recap we’ll go over Part 2, where we talk about-----------What the hell is going on?

And if you just got here, behold the link, to read these in chrono order in case you, too find yourself with a lot of time on your hands because you had to cancel all your plans:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

and stay safe y’all!

[gr-ogu]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LOADING YOUR FRAMES

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

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

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

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

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

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

CROPPING

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

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

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

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

Next, go to image > image size:

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

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

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

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

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

SHARPENING

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

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

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

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

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

COLOURING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SAVING YOUR GIF

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

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

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

Until it looks like this!

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

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

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

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

Lastly, these are my save settings:

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

[perryabbott]

hello! i absolutely adore your gifsets and you've honestly inspired me to start gifmaking. may i ask for any tips you may for gifmaking or what programs to use for a beginner gifmaker?

ty so much that’s so sweet 😭 but honestly i'm just winging it skjfnkj i open photoshop and simply hope for the best! there's a few good tutorials floating around tumblr (this one has some good basic information, including how to sharpen, etc)

(if you have no experience with photoshop at all i would highly recommend going to youtube and watching a couple of videos covering the basics/explaining what every tool in order to familiarize yourself! it can be overwhelming (or it was for me, at least) in the beginning, and until you find your rhythm, it will really help to have a reference.)

my personal process is using potplayer to get screencaps to make gifs. this is how i first learned and i started doing it again at the end of last year because my other method (cutting clips from videos then importing into photoshop that way) always felt a little dull/fuzzy and personally i think screencaps provide a clearer image! but! you can work with straight video if you're patient + good at ps. i am neither

my steps:

open potplayer (download here)

get to the part of the video you want to cap. pause it, then hit control + g on your keyboard to bring up the screencapture menu. i have a folder just called "potplayer" where my caps go. my settings:

("10,000" is just so i make sure i get all the caps i want. i hit stop once it's moved past what i want to gif on screen.)

open photoshop

file > scripts > load files into stack. this can take a while depending on how many frames you're loading in at once. when it's done, go to window > timeline > create frame animation. in the corner of the timeline box will be four horizontal bars; click on it, and use make frames from layers, then hit reverse.

this is where i start editing. first, i crop; make sure you're cropping to tumblr dimensions, i.e. 540px for a single column, 268px for two. (i never put three gifs side by side, and i can’t seem to find an up-to-date post that confirms the size for it, but i think it’s 178px, if you’re curious). my most common ratios are 540x540, 540x500, 540x338, 540x304. depends on the scene, what i'm giffing, if there's dialogue, etc. for a lot of my dialogue sets, like here, i use 540x338; for these john-117 gifs, i used 540x540. it’s all about what looks best to you, what you want to achieve, etc. i never use 540x540 for dialogue, i reserve it for movie sets or just “x as y” sets.

next comes coloring, which is the most painful part of the process. most of the time i really just spam color balance because i’m a mess, but it’s what works for me since i prefer vibrancy for gifs. it can help you change colors and create nice sets like these when used alongside selective color; you can either enhance what’s already there, or change the colors entirely. take, for example, this john set: there were some nice colors to work with already:

i didn’t have to add too many adjustment layers to make it vibrant!

the purple john set required a little more work (and the purple adjustment layer was gifted to me by @aldensutton because i suck at making purple in ps, it always turns pink)

it really just comes down to practice and finding what works for you/what you’re giffing. here and here are two tutorials you can use as starting places from people who seem to know a lot more than me. googling “giffing coloring tutorials for photoshop tumblr” will bring up more. you can also find premade psds across various photoshop blogs on tumblr; i make all of mine myself these days, but i used to use a lot from this creator as bases. searching any kind of “free psd” “gif psd” should yield some good results in the tumblr search - just remember you will need to manipulate them regardless for what you’re giffing. no two shows are alike. no two scenes from a single show are alike. this is where it can become really frustrating.

once you’re satisfied with your coloring, though, it’s time to sharpen. the first tutorial i linked goes a little bit into the basics of how to sharpen, but it’s not my method, which is inconsistent and different for every gif. i don’t know about other people, but i just sharpen the frames, not the adjustment layers, which is probably dumb but <3 to sharpen, you go to the same menu you used when creating frames from layers. choose “convert to video timeline”, then select all the frames of the gif, group them using ctrl+g, then convert to smart object, then go to filter > sharpen > smart sharpen. my base sharpening is always 500 for amount, 0.3 for radius, and 0 for reduce noise. sometimes i double up on 500, sometimes i sharpen again at just 200 or 150, depending on what looks best. there’s also this method that i like for certain gifs. sharpening is very important for giffing.

for some gifs i will add noise, but that depends on my personal preference and isn’t something i’ll get into since it’s not standard/is just a personal aesthetic i enjoy.

i suppose i should mention that for dialogue, you select text tool then click in the left-hand corner, then drag to create a box that your text will show up in. it’s the easiest way to center/ensure text aligns on all frames. all you have to do is lower it to the bottom half of the gif. my font preference is arial rounded mt bold; font size depends on the size of the gif. 

once everything is cropped, colored, and sharpen, you save by going to file > export > save for web. my export settings change somewhat from from gif to gif:

and that’s pretty much it! at least for what i can offer. i learned just by doing, trying things out, getting frustrated, etc... sknfkj i also get a LOT of help from @aldensutton as i mentioned before, she provides a lot of insight and opinions for me, and has really helped me to where i am now <3 it just takes a lot of trial and error to find what works best for you. it took me a while to get to where i am now; i feel like the gifs i was making just a year ago are so terrible, honestly. i can try to help further if you need it, there’s undoubtedly some things i missed, and there’s tons of blogs on tumblr that provide photoshop help, run by people far more knowledgeable than me! once again ty so much for the compliment <33 i hope you have fun gifmaking! it really is fun for me

[nicolebonnet]

🌻 a gif tutorial by: me! 🌻

i know there are so so many WONDERFUL tutorials out there, but i can’t say no to a very kind anon so!!!  here we go.  hopefully this is helpful for someone out there!  if anyone doesn’t do well with picture tutorials and would find it more helpful for me to do a video, i would also be happy to try that too!!

this is definitely not the fastest way to do it, i’m sure, just the way i’ve always done it and i’m bad at learning new things so ldkjfoiw also i’m using photoshop cc 2021 (tho this method should work for any version of photoshop i think) and i use video frames to layers to gif just as an fyi

step 1: get whatever media you’re giffing!  i use torrents and direct downloads.  that’s how i’ve always giffed, i’ve never tried capping so i can’t help with that.  sorry!

step 2: make clips of the scenes your fc is in!  i have a folder dedicated to the character the fc is playing and keep all my clips in there.  when i do movies, i typically only do about 12 clips at a time because it just feels less overwhelming for me.  when i do a show, i only clip one episode at a time for the same reason.  i use quicktime to clip, but i know some people use VLC and i’m sure there are other options out there to try, too!  again, this is just what i’ve always used so i’m comfortable with it and know how it works.

when i clip, i try to start the clip a few seconds before the scene my subject is in and a few seconds after just to make sure i’m getting every single frame.

step 3: import video frames to layers!  so once you have photoshop open, go to file > import > import video frames to layers

then go to your folder where you have all your clips saved and choose the one you want.  i took this one out of my trash because the rest of the gifs i have to do in this episode are in the dark and that was gonna be too annoying to me lkdjfkslofw so i’m just re-making one i already did a few days ago.  i’m giffing sofia carson and you can see that my clip starts on someone else’s face so i can make sure i have every frame of hers!

step 4: select the range for your gif!  just like with clipping, i try to get a few frames before and a few frames after of the fc i’m working on so that i don’t miss anything.  if you aren’t interested in giffing them in every single second (which is totally fine, i know a lot of people prefer not to!) then you don’t need to be as concerned with it

because i’m using a direct download, i’m not going to limit my frames to every 2.  it’ll be really fast and choppy.  if you screen recorded, i would suggest limited to every 2 frames and then going through and deleting each duplicate frame (when i giffed via screen recording, i found that every 6 frames or so was a duplicate).  this will make sure your gif is smooth and exactly the same as one made from a direct download.  it IS time consuming though, so i recommend doing a direct download/torrent if possible!  if you ever need help finding downloads or need something torrented and converted for you, please feel free to message me and i’ll be happy to help!!

step 5: delete the frames you don’t need!  this is the time to delete any extra frames at the beginning, end, and any duplicates

step 6: set your speed!  you can do this later if you want, but i like to do it as soon as all my extra frames are deleted.  my personal preference is typically .06 seconds for most of my gifs.  if they’re on the shorter side (under 35 frames), i’ll do .07-.09.  i know some people have very strong feelings on gif speed lskdfjpwe i do not.  it’s all about what feels best for you!  .06 is where i feel my gifs feel the best, but there are plenty of beautiful gifs that are slower or faster!

step 7: crop it!  as you can see above, i set my W x H ratio to 268px x 170px.  this is a size i really like, but you can make yours smaller or larger.  i do suggest using the W x H ratio setting to set it to your specific pixel measurements because it cuts out having to resize after cropping.

also, i have a few hundred frames in this one particular gif that i’m going to cut down in the next step.  however, i know that she remains pretty much in the same place throughout the frames which is why i’m cropping them all at once.  if it’s a gif where you get a few hundred frames that you’re going to turn into multiple gifs and the person moves around a lot, definitely only crop one gif at a time!

step 8: delete the frames you aren’t using!  everyone has a different way of deciding how many frames their gifs are.  for me, if they’re talking, i actually go and watch the segment i’m giffing to see what they’re saying, read their lips as i go through each frame, and crop it there.  it’s a little more time consuming i guess but i feel like it gives me the best results.  totally optional, though!  if the person is NOT talking, then i typically just try to make it between 60-80ish frames and base it on facial expressions or body language.  sometimes it’s more, sometimes it’s less!  again just comes down to what your preference is.

step 9: convert to timeline!  basically just press that lil highlighted button down there next to the “forever” and convert to timeline.  pretty self explanatory

step 10: sharpening!  this is where i use my sharpening action which is linked right here.  i’ve been using it for a while now and i really love it!  i’ve tried other sharpening actions since i made it and they just don’t make me as happy as this one lol

hit play on your action:

for my action, i get this popup twice and just hit “continue” and it keeps going through the steps with no problem

step 11: COLORING!!!  get your psd and slap it on!  i have different one base psd that i use for almost everything and will edit it to fit whatever scene/show/movie i’m working on.  i’ll also save different versions of it based on the media i’m giffing.  for example, the lighting on liv & maddie is SUUUUUPER different from the writing on pll: the perfectionists.  so i have a “liv” psd and a “loralie” (name of my char that i use sofia for, idk why i named the first psd after liv and not my char but whatever ldkfjsoi) psd.  same base, same layers, just different levels.  i also will often combine psds!  i’ll put my base down and then add layers from other psds or create new ones to fit whatever scene i have going!

step 12: save your gif!  go to file > export > save for web (legacy)...

people use different settings for saving their gifs, too.  these are my personal settings.  i really like them and feel they work for my gifs.  feel free to copy them or play around with your own settings!  just make sure it’s always on the 256 colors

step 13 (optional): preview!  i like to hit the preview button just to make sure i like my gif before i save it.  if i don’t like it (coloring looks off, too fast/too slow, feels like it cuts off in a weird place) i’ll hit cancel and undo everything until i’m back to wherever i need to fix it.

step 14: save your gif, yay!!  YOU DID IT!!!!  save that beautiful gif and feel so proud of yourself!!

step 15 (optional): if you’re making multiple gifs from the segment you imported, go back and cntrl/cmmnd + z everything until you’re back to having allllll the frames again.  delete the frames of the gif you just made (in this case, it would be 52) and start again from step 8!

i hope this made sense and was helpful for anyone!  please let me know if there’s anything you need clarification on!!

[anna-kendrick]

REQUESTED GIF TUTORIAL:

I was requested to make a gif tutorial, by @thatgirljazz​​: “Hiii. This is random but would you ever consider making a big gif tutorial? They’re so amazinggggg. Thanks. Stay safe.”

So here it is!! (All done on Photoshop)

There are multiple ways to gif, let me start off with that. I used to use the ‘video frames to layers’ option, however I’ve found that it’s a bit more difficult to get my gifs to their full quality potential, as I find using ‘video frames to layers’ make my gifs slightly more laggy/choppy. In any case, there are tons of other tutorials on tumblr which uses that process to get your frames.

In short, I use the screen capping method. First, I’ll go ahead and gather all the screenshots of the scene I want, before I start to gif.

(I currently use MPV to screenshot, but MPlayer is what i’ve used in the past and it works fine for the most part. I use 2160p files as much as I can, and this aids in my gifs being higher quality—I will say that if you plan to gif in 2160p, MPV is the better choice. MPlayer works fine for 1080p files, but 2160p files are too large and it will run extremely laggy.

Once your files have been screenshotted, open Photoshop and follow these steps: File > Scripts > Load Files Into Stack

This is where your screenshots will show up, before importing them fully into Photoshop. Click browse, select your screenshots, then click “OK.”

Next, make sure that your “Timeline” is open. 

Window > Timeline, then click "Create Frame Animation."

Next, click the three little lines on the top right of your Timeline tab. It should bring up a list of options. (Pictured below)

First, select "Make Frames From Layers," next, you'll have to reopen the tab, select "Select All Frames," and once more, open the tab and select "Reverse Frames" **It's really important to reverse them, or your gif will be backwards**

Making sure all frames are selected, click the number on the bottom of any frame, and change the number to whatever speed you choose. (I use 0.06, but if you'd like it a bit slower than the speed of my gifs, I recommend using 0.08. depending on the video, you may have to play around with it.)

Next, click the button on the bottom left of the timeline to convert it into a video timeline. (The one that looks like three horizontal lines, with a vertical line through it.)

Making sure all frames are selected, go to Filter > Convert for Smart Filters.

The steps following are where you get to be more creative, and choose your own settings.

I use the Crop Tool (C) to crop my gifs. For big gifs, I use 540px for the width, because that's Tumblr’s recommendation. (Ratios are included in the next picture.)

After cropping, it’s time to add sharpening. I use Smart Sharpen, and Gaussian Blur, there are many different sharpening tutorials posted around Tumblr.

And then, I add my colouring. I’ve already posted a colouring tutorial, click here to read.

Once you have your gif how you’d like it, it’s time to save. Click File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)... 

Make sure your gif is under 10MB if you’re going to post on tumblr. 10MB is the maximum it will allow you to post.

Below I have my settings pictured:

Lastly, save your gif, and you’re done!

Finished result:

(Feel free to DM me if you have any questions.)

[vidavalor]

Bucky and Isaiah headcanon

This thought is killing me so I'm bringing you all into the darkness with me, muahahahaha...

I'm probably not the first person to think of this but I had this thought about Bucky and Isaiah during the Korean War that gave me pause. So, we know that the U.S. was aware of The Winter Soldier and had sent people after him for years (which is already horrible because it means that Bucky killed fellow American soldiers as The Winter Soldier). We know that Winter killed all of them, prompting the U.S. government to eventually send their supersoldier Isaiah, right? But now think about the fact that Bucky and Isaiah are *both still alive* in the present. What happened in this fight to make that be the end result?

We know that Isaiah took part of Bucky's then-arm in the fight but this also would have been a hell of a fight for The Winter Soldier, who wasn't used to finding another supersoldier in the field. Yet, his mission would have been to survive. He would have been *programmed* to survive. The Winter Soldier is unyielding. He's a machine. He just keeps going. Isaiah is absolutely no slouch either and especially wouldn't have been back then. An entire crop of Avengers couldn't collectively do to The Winter Soldier the damage we heard Isaiah inflicted back when they met... which made me realize that there is absolutely no way that they are both still alive without The Winter Soldier's programming having been disrupted during the fight-- which is entirely possible, considering how elite a fighter Isaiah was.

There probably was no one more capable of surprising The Winter Soldier enough to get close enough to him to land the right type of hit. We know that Isaiah got the drop on Winter enough to take half his arm-- I'm willing to bet that, in the course of the fight, The Winter Soldier got his bell rung and Bucky Barnes showed up.

Consider that Bucky and Isaiah met in 1951, which was only a few years after Bucky was captured by Hydra and turned into The Winter Soldier. Bucky was disoriented and somewhat amnesiac in more recent years when his programming was disrupted but that was after having been The Winter Soldier for *seventy years* and having been subjected to that mind-erasing electroshock countless times. Bucky is badass and I can completely see him fighting like hell to preserve a sense of himself as much as he could every time he was zapped with those things in the early days. In other words: if The Winter Soldier's programming was disrupted by getting hit in the head in 1951, it's entirely possible that the man who would show up wouldn't be so much the disoriented split self of later years but just Bucky Barnes.

Now, imagine what would have happened if, suddenly, in the midst of the fight, The Winter Soldier that was trying to kill Isaiah gets hit in the head and suddenly surrenders. He puts his hands up, he isn't fighting anymore. His eyes and demeanor change. It's not the *same guy*. The shock of that would give Isaiah pause and Isaiah's not John Walker-- he wouldn't just kill a surrendering man, even one considered an enemy. He'd stop fighting. That's how I think they both survived this fight.

Now, imagine what would have happened when Bucky found his voice and spoke and Isaiah heard that The Kremlin's killing machine was *American*.

I am convinced that the reason why Bucky told Isaiah's grandson in the present to tell Isaiah at the door was "the man from the bar in Goyang" wasn't because the fight happened at a bar so much as the aftermath of it did. Isaiah would have been horrified to learn what happened to Bucky and want to help him. He would have told Bucky he'd take him home and meant it. They had a drink at the bar. They talked for awhile. Bucky would have asked about Steve and learned he crashed into the ice six years earlier and felt grief and guilt over that, even as he would also be happy to learn that there was now a Black Captain America and then horrified again when he learned that Isaiah was too much like Bucky himself-- experimented upon against his will, being used in ways he didn't always approve of by people he couldn't trust.

I think these guys tried to save one another and they both failed.

Bucky tried to escape back to America with Isaiah but Hydra found them and there were too many of them. Isaiah and Bucky were overwhelmed-- worse, Winter's controller at the time could have read the trigger words and turned Bucky back into The Winter Soldier and made him fight Isaiah again, forcing Isaiah to leave Bucky behind to escape back to his men as even he wasn't a match for Winter plus a Hydra strike team.

Isaiah would have told the U.S. government in his mission report that The Winter Soldier was the presumed deceased Sgt. James Buchanan Barnes and what happened after that?

It wasn't long after that that Isaiah pulled the same move as Steve did in The First Avenger and rescued his men and wound up in prison for thirty years. I can't help but wonder if one of the reasons why they sought to shut Isaiah up so much was to keep him from exposing that the Russians' secret weapon was a brainwashed American soldier they failed to properly recover.

I also would not be surprised if The Winter Soldier never wore that signature muzzle until after 1951, when the Russians realized that the Americans now had supersoldiers, too, and the odds of The Winter Soldier losing his programming in the field and Bucky trying to escape would have increased.

Bucky couldn't save Isaiah and Isaiah couldn't save Bucky.

When Bucky came back from being The Winter Soldier, he found Isaiah and we know he knew where he lived but he didn't talk to him before he brought Sam to meet him. He clearly didn't want to harm him. He doesn't blame him for being left behind again-- quite the opposite, he reveres him for trying to help him. He sought out what had happened to him and I think it's because Bucky wanted to make sure that this good man who had tried to help him was okay. He had found out in his research what had happened to Isaiah and realized that it had ended up so much worse for this man who had been kind to him than Bucky could have imagined. Isaiah had wound up with a life of pain to rival Bucky's own and that was heartbreaking. He just kept watch from a distance a bit but didn't really know how to talk to him or if he should. He's forced into making a decision about it when the plot means that he needs to go to Isaiah to ask questions that could save lives and Isaiah making the decision to let Bucky in the house, especially with his grandson present, means that he had to have some fundamental sense that Bucky wasn't a danger to them. Bucky also never says his name in front of Isaiah. He doesn't have to do the whole "my name is James Bucky Barnes and I used to be The Winter Soldier but I'm not anymore" explanation... likely because Isaiah already knows what his name is.

Isaiah says he wanted to see if Bucky had come to kill him or whatever but it's fairly clear that he wasn't all that afraid of him, especially when Bucky had shown up with another man and was in possession of his own mind. Isaiah was curious about what had become of Bucky in the same way that Bucky was curious about him. The questions for sure (and understandably) triggered Isaiah's trauma and Sam and Bucky ended up having to leave but it's not out of the question that in the future, since Sam has now formed a bond with Isaiah, that Isaiah and Bucky could have more scenes together as well. I hope their story is something like this headcanon. I think it'd be interesting if they explored these two helping one another through the pain of what they've both been through and getting to have the friendship they didn't think they'd have.*

*It also would be really funny if Sam was a little jealous of Bucky's crush on Sam's adopted dad. Bucky is a total menace about it. He's gone so far as to casually mention how attractive Isaiah was back in the day and-- the real blow-- how well he wore that Cap suit, prompting Sam to tell him that he's sleeping on the couch for the rest of their damn lives.

[roo-bastmoon]

Hi love❤ this was your first memories no? So how did you liked it? Any favourite part? Were you surprised about anything? My love for Jimin and the guys only grew. Jimin is an angel..for real

Dear For Real:

While of course I have seen compilations of Jikookery from other Memories before, this was my first time as an Army getting Memories content in real time. I am really exited!

I have a lot of medical bills from surgeries this year, so I can't afford extras right now. Meaning, I couldn't buy a copy (yet). I'm relying on online Armys like Peaches to share the cool stuff. So I haven't seen it all.

YET I MUST SAY I AM LOVING IT SO FAR.

Particularly what strikes me most is that I'd known of the birthday Live, the LA Live, and Rose Bowl in 2021, but I really had no clue what the day-to-day or behind-the-scenes vibe was between them.

I'd seen other Jikookers say they were drifting apart since the pandemic in 2020, and that seemed like it could be a valid take, given the content (or lack thereof) in very early 2022. Relationships change in tone and chemistry over time. It's no crime to wonder if that happened to Jikook.

But now there's MORE content and oh boy was Jikookery off the charts all last year. There is just far, far too much to ever be considered mere fan service. There was exclusive intimacy and closeness that happened organically and I am rolling around it in like a cat in nip.

Jikookery was happening in boring old quiet times in between hair and makeup. It was happening in both loud and subtle ways during rehearsals. It was happening in the background between takes when the camera wasn't supposed to be on them. It was happening on stage when the lights were down or the show was over.

The delight Jimin and Jungkook take in each other is obvious to anyone with half a brain cell left.

The Jeon Parks were Jeon Parking everywhere, with flirtatious tones and cuddles on the couch and so many lifts and hugs and hand holding and hand licking and neck scenting and handcuffs and tickling and staring and teasing and intense smiles and waiting for each other and neck massages and back rubs and knowledge about drum lessons and CARRESSING BARE WAISTS UNDER CROP TOPS (my favorite, if you can't tell by the screaming all-caps). It's been just lovely to see.

And while I expected some folks to have a problem with all that... what also surprised me is how HARD some folks are working to try and debunk everything we just saw with our own eyes. The meltdowns. The hate speech. The hashtags trending right now, my sweet baby Jesus. Ugh. Q-Anon should hire these people.

The saddest part is that there were some really lovely moments among other members with dancing, giggles, back-lifts, and hair-caressing that should have been celebrated, but haters are too focused on hating Jikook to enjoy anything. As if two multi-millionaire global superstars need to lie about their feelings for each other year after year after year just to sell DVDs. In particular, Jimin gets the worst of it, and as you say he really does have his angelic traits.

But rather than let that negative craziness get me upset, I'm just going to keep reveling in and celebrating all the Jikookery we got from last year. Obviously I don't know what's up with them right at this exact moment in 2022, but I'm far more inclined to sit tight and wait to see a fuller picture, now that I've experienced my first Memories. There was so much I never knew I never knew. ❤

Yours,

Roo